On Language Learning: Part 4 — Conditions that language masters have in common
What 7 points did language learners who have successfully reached some level of fluency in Japanese have in common? David Barker, in 2014, said this:
- All of them had found formal learning to be tremendously important.
- All of them were extremely goal oriented.
- All of them were very heavily influenced by their environment (i.e. necessity for work).
- All of them had roles models either competitive or inspiring (likely both).
- All of them clearly stated that there was no way around traditional memorization; you must memorize many things.
- All of them had one clear specialization such as excelling in speaking or writing.
- All of them had overcome numerous negative experiences on their language learning quests.
Basically, without most or all of the above, you’re gonna have an extra hard time.