I remember very well when I was in grade 10 (1995). I was 15 years old and the country was witnessing the first wave of English private channels rolling in to the air waves. I had a friend who was fluent in English and he used to sing songs, I ve never heard of. They sounded very hippy, and he was boasting about how artists have composed songs and went on to win grammy. I asked how he listens to those songs. He gave me 2 channels. One was TNL radio, and the other was i guess at that time- FM99.
I felt awkward. I could read and write well, but singing and talking english was not in my diet. The next vacation came, and i was glued to TNL radio from 6 AM!. I peeled off the top10 songs published in the Sunday Times, and listened intently until the DJ muttered the songs in the top 10 list. I was very pleased when I could follow the top 10. Then there was the lyrics page in the sunday papers. I cut and pasted them on a used note book. I sang with Michael Bolton, Guns'n Roses, Bryan Adams, Roxette and many more artists from the 90s. I guess this is the reason why I get a chill everytime I listen to a song from 90s.
By the time the vacation was over, I was fluent in Pop songs as Rick Dees.!! And I still remember the glare in the face of my friend when I enlightened him on the upcoming album of Michael Jackson.
I could remember album names, genre, artists-by heart, just because of the passion I had to speak and sing English !! The need converted to a passion and the passion still lives on.
Then I switched to movies -- English Movies with English subtitles ! I learnt the accents and felt comfortable in enjoying movies, than any one else. Because I was adding more words to my vocabulory.
The time flew to 1996. I did OL exams. And until AL classes I had some precious time left. Watch this blog when I come back with the part 2 of "How I learnt English"
14 comments:
isura i like this.b coz i read this my mind goes to our school time.i remember i ask english lessons from you also kasun..both of you teach me how to write the garmmer...
i think still my english is poor.
but i study japanies in that situation i study hardly not like my school period.when i was in train i leasten japanies conversetions,then i collet som words and write not book and search meaning.also listen japanies tv programes,news.
now i want be a fluent in english
Isura, great to read this and I can relate to this as well.
My English was also learnt informally but it was more through books and tv. I went through Tin Tin,Asterix, Secret Seven, Hardy Boys like crazy. Used to watch TV mostly in English.
Hi Harinda and Suchith !
Thanks for sharing your interesting methods of learning Japanese and English.
Infact learning Japanese is much more difficult than English. One of my goals for 2010 is to learn Tamil. I am going to use my old method. Songs and Movies !
Hi Isura aiya, first of all, I hope you remebre me, I am Kethy. Well this article is so interesting, and when reading it, I found out that it is very related to the way I learned English too. Though I never had a specific intention of learning English through listning to English songs and watching moveis, after reading your article, i think it has helped me a lot too, in improving my skills in English.
As you listened to TNL, i loved listening to EFM, that was one of my all time favourite channnels on radio!!
And, according to my opinion, I think the best way to learn any language whether it is English or something else is to practise, and that practice means engaging in the language. That is specially by speaking. No matter how hard you put your self into grammer (which is considered as the rules of any language)if you dont use the language, you will never feel confident & never be fluent in it!..This reminds me of an example, that you can never learn swimming untill you step in to the pool. I think learning a language is also something like that.
And you can nevre satisfy your self imagining that you have completely learned a language, because even languages keep on changing with time.
And i would also like to use this opportunity to proudly share something with all of you. One of my lecturers told me that (when i was studying agriculture in sl), that the word "Assvaddumization" has been included into English language as a new word, which means "Asswadduma" in sinhala.
Great, I think this should read our young learners coming from remote areas. From my personal experience, most of our uni. students geat barrier is English, I will send this link to them .... Isura thanks for your work .... expect more and more ......
Yours .....
Hi Kethy, Of course I remember you, and sorry for responding so late. I hope you are enjoying Canada!! Would love to listen to your experience. Nice to see that you have enjoyed the blog, and it is intersting to see how creative we are in learning a new language. The responses I got on comments and through emails are very encouraging.Thanks for sharing the origin of "Assvaddumization" !
Oh isura aiya, i am sorry..i think i have done a spelling mistake there..it should be "asvaddumization"..instaed of what i have written there..apologies for the mistake i made..and yes this blog is so interesting, and i will not forget to keep commenting and share my experiences too, during my leisure time.
hi BH, nice to connect after a long time. Hope your great work continues to your uni students. Let's catch up soon to discuss from where we have stopped at my office
Kethy, thanks for the encouraging words. Hope you have watched 3 idiots...you would be able to find a DVD atleast.I ve reviewed that movie in my latest post.
thanks 4 sharing your experiences with us isura sir.it's so valuable 4 the learners like us.
thanks for this blog post. i am valuble your learn english language. good luck
Or!isura sir,I think it's a Great.Almost Always I neet to Study English.so your blogs is helped me.Thank for about it sir.So I like this.Good luck!
we have already started an english club(cliov)..but these days it temporary stucked.
thanks for this valuable post and i think these ideas are very useful to improve my English knowledge very well.
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