Learning a new language is really difficult – if you choose the wrong path. That matches my own experience of learning English as a second language for the past 20-plus years. Like many of my peers, I learned English with traditional ways which focus on memorizing words and grammar. We learned in the classroom with textbooks by reading and translating. We learned to pass the exams rather than communicating. We were taught to give the ‘right’ answers. Because of that, we were so scared of making mistakes that we just shut up and finally lost the ability to listen and talk. In that case, it’s not surprising that most of us become English ‘dumb’ and ‘deaf’.

But language is all about communication, isn’t it? Understanding and making yourself understood is all that matters. To give an example, when you point at a napkin and tell the waiter at the restaurant:”me want this”, I’m sure you’ll get your napkin. And that is the point. You don’t have to say something like “Please give me a napkin.” Meaning matters more. When you agree with this, you’ll think differently like I do. Instead of sitting in a classroom, listening to the teacher explaining grammar while struggling with sleepiness, I follow the advices and strategies given by the author of ‘The Third Ear’. I toss away all the traditional ways of learning a new language and do it just the opposite. I speak out loud at Day One to a real person. I listen several hours per day no matter I can or can’t understand the meaning. I ask questions in English. I try to think in English. Anyway, I immerse myself into English pretending I’m just a baby coming into this new world with no words or grammar. Then after a few weeks, something magical happens. I can hear the sounds more clearly and start to understand the meaning directly, without translation. I’m no longer afraid of speaking to another person. What’s more, I manage to convey my thoughts to my language parent during our little chats. I start to write in English and find out that I write more than I did in the past 20 years! I’m by no means fluent in English, but I’m well on the way to mastering the language. This happens to everyone with the appropriate language-learning methods. The experience of the author of The Third Ear along with many other successful language learners indicates that it could be really easy and fun to learn a new language – if you know how. And I myself benefit a lot from it and I certainly will continue doing so until I master English or maybe a third language.