If we want to learn a language easily, quickly and effectively, then it’s important to use some emotional and psychological states. Alternatively, allowing the literally hundreds of thousands of the vocabulary to overwhelm us.

On one end, we have a state that the author calls BrainSoaking. And, on the other end there is another state of focused attention, dealing with a small amount of information. There are other states as well.

What is BrainSoaking? David, a friend of the author who works as a consultant, was saying how he learned Mandarin Chinese just by sitting in on the meetings. Over time he found that his comprehension of the new language went from zero to a little, and from a little to a lot. Just by noticing the patterns. Today he is fluent. The main purpose of BrainSoaking is to filter the English sounds for us. We should get familiar with them and shouldn’t ignore them.Then we are able to hear them more clearly. The next is that we can store them in our mind. Ultimately, when we hear English audibols, we can match them to the meaning in our minds. No translating can make us understand others immediately, and will not get stuck. Thus we can communicate smoother.

I’ve forgotten what exactly it is, but I know that what I have been doing which is called BrainSoaking. Maybe I don’t fully understand it. What I can say is that I listen to a book The Third Ear everyday, and my English coach told me that I need to change my way of learning English. Don’t translate. At first, I heard the intonations and rhythm. Because it’s too fast for me, and I can’t stand it, hear clearly, and catch the meaning. Perhaps, it need listener to sense certain patterns which are repeated over and over again. However, up until now I still want to translate, and the first thing came to my mind when I listened to the book was the visual word. I know that I need to match the audibols to the meanings in my mind. But frequently when I heard a word, if I didn’t let the image of letters arise in my mind, I couldn’t find the meaning of it.My brain was being totally blank at that time. However, I still made some progress. One of my progress is that occasionally I can get myself into certain situation that I can see something printed in the book is happening, and there is no words appearing. I think I need to do more things to map the meanings to the audibols rather than words. And I need to be relax to listen to the book, even though my mind will be totally blank.

Another state is ‘Pay attention, do stuff’. At this point you may well be thinking, if exposing yourself to the language is all it takes, why are there so many adults who have been in a new land for 20 years or more and they still can’t speak the language?

Many years ago, when the author had just arrived in Hong Kong, he spent some time  teaching English in an evening school. At the time one young lady came to him, and together they were having an incredibly difficult time. She said to the author angrily ‘Why are you asking me to do things? You are supposed to be teaching me!’ Language is the thing to do, not the thing just to think or know about. When we only hear the language, our brain will recognize patterns automatically.Then we need to do stuff, to practice the patterns until they feel naturally to us. And languages are like  a muscle. If you use it you gain it, vice versa. At the same time, we can pick on small chunks to practice. When we are familiar with them, we can move to the next piece.

When I began to learn Kungfu English, I always paid attention to the pronunciation. After all, the most part of a language is about sounds. By now, it has been 9 months more or less since I started learning Kungfu English. Currently, I can speak English more and more like a native speaker.Even if I’m not fluent, I still feel my progress. What’s more I need to do is that I’m supposed to do things actively. Active involvement can make the learning process happier, which can give me more motivation and make the learning easier. My next goal is that to find 3 words that interest me in the book to practice everyday.

Suffice it to say, if you want to learn a foreign language with the greatest ease and most fun, then you need emotional and psychological approaches. BrainSoaking, paying attention actively, and doing stuff actively are good choices for you.