Why Can't Native Speakers of English Learn Another Language? Read online

Wayne Parry is a speaker of several languages who devoted a whole year to rediscover the most effective ways to learn a language while travelling. His job in the language school industry took him to all the corners of the globe and this account of his most recent linguistic journey shows us that anything can happen when far from home. From hanging out with acclaimed music artists in Russia to escaping the political tensions of Syria, this is not just a travel adventure but a mental exercise that reminds us that we are more than just tourists when we travel. We are communicators who are often afraid to let go of our comfort zones. Join Wayne on a trip around the world that will expose twelve different aspects about learning twelve different languages – in twelve amazing locations. Who needs a phrasebook when you can have an adventure instead?

  A LEARNER’S GUIDE

  DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

  Wayne Parry

  Copyright 2012 Wayne Parry

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please download an additional copy for each recipient. For the full version of the ebook ‘Do You Speak English?’ please purchase this from the same site. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  WHY CAN’T NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH LEARN OTHER LANGUAGES?

  WAYNE PARRY

  Copyright 2012 Wayne Parry

  All rights reserved. Printed in Taiwan. No part of this book may be reproduced in any matter whatsoever without the author’s written consent. For further information, contact Wayne Parry at www.wdparry.com

  THIS IS A LEARNER GUIDE FROM THE “D.Y.S.E.” SERIES:

  DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

  AN INTRODUCTION OF THE BOOK “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?”

  A traveller’s tale. A narration of what it’s like to travel the world and have the world collide in front of you. On a mission for nothing more than learning another language and yet everything happens. Why is it that we sometimes attract what we don’t want? Why do we often find something when we’re not even looking? Is it just me or are we all a part of the great journey? A magnetic collision course where everything is thrown in front of you. Every possible situation and every possible emotion - and yet some people go through life searching so hard for something and it never happens.

  I’m going to put this collision course to the test. I’m throwing myself out into the world for the whole world to have a piece of me. For almost a decade I’ve been working in the language school industry, and a great deal of my work involved travelling the globe to promote Sydney’s sunny beaches and its ideal position as a language study destination. I worked for an eccentric old Japanese man who owned several schools and whose knowledge of the rest of the world was minimal. He would allow me to travel anywhere on a marketing trip, as long as English was not spoken in that country. He wanted to see a Noah’s Ark of language school students from Finland to Brazil, and it was my enviable job to go out there and find them.

  Of course, when you’re actively looking for something, it doesn’t come that easy. The first time I arrived in Mongolia I knew I’d carved out quite a challenge for myself. You see, it was my personal goal to ensure that wherever I set foot, I would bring back students - even if there was only one. Even my brief two hour stint in Liechtenstein meant that I had to have at least one Liechtensteiner enrolled in our school. Months after my Mongolian trip and still not a single Mongolian had enrolled. And then we struck gold. In this job, it was the act of intentionally pursuing something that made the trips an often uphill battle and yet everything else (from kidnappings to air disasters) – and trust me, I wasn’t actively pursuing those – seemed to come so easily.

  The irony of working in a language school was seeing so many students graduate with a level of English no better than when they first enrolled. And to think – all over the world, from London to Auckland, there would be similar newly arrived students who only months beforehand would have been sitting up in bed doing a mental check list of all that they’d hoped to achieve in their chosen language study destination. “I’m going to make an effort not to speak my own language”. “I’m going to get to know the locals”. “I’m going to learn about the local culture”. And come graduation time – a sea of flags. For that is what most of us are when we travel. A sea of flags. We wave them in others’ faces to say “this is where I’m from”. Our urge to display where we’re from far outweighs our urge to learn about others and our duty to carry our flags with us becomes our one thing, our one goal that we actively pursue which inhibits us from letting that great big magnetic collision course do its magic and thrust us into worlds that you can only read about it. This is my world of travel - taking a language by the horns. Letting it happen and abandoning all comfort zones. Strap yourself in. I’m going to take you on a ride through twelve of the world’s language destinations and show you that you can – and will – learn that language!