“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” — E.E. Cummings

Increase your brain power and prevent potential brain diseases.

A psychologist at York University in Toronto, Ellen Bialystok, has found that students who study foreign languages tend to score better on standardized tests than their monolingual peers, particularly in the categories of math, reading, and vocabulary.

Additionally, a study conducted around a similar time by Researchers from University College London has shown that learning other languages altered grey matter – the area of the brain which processes information – in the same way exercise builds muscles.

Improving our health is something that should be a priority for every one of us, no matter how old we are. Most of us consider improving our health in a few major areas, like our physical appearance. But we tend to miss out on the most important part that runs our entire body — the brain.

We are nothing without the vital functions of our brain, and we need to prioritize its health like we would with any other vital organ in our body.

When it comes to the brain, learning a new language can prevent or delay Alzeihmer’s disease and dementia by 4.5 years. This is a far more powerful than the best drugs which only delays the symptoms by 6–12 months.

The American Academy of Neurology has performed studies showing that speaking more than one language increases the amount of neural pathways in the brain, allowing information to be processed through a greater variety of channels.

Get a new perspective about your own culture.

See bigger picture! You know your country and your culture, but to know it better, to value it you should have a look at it from very different, new point of view. Too many people live their entire lives never questioning the universal “truths” they take for granted in their own culture. But step outside this narrow scope, and it’s like stepping out of the Matrix; once your eyes are truly opened to that new perspective, you can never go back.

Improve your native language.

According to the Impact of the Second Language Education, studying a second language alone will significantly improve the grammar, reading, vocabulary, and speaking skills of your first language.

This makes sense because learning a new language allows you to understand the structures and breakdowns of a language, whereas this is something you intuitively picked up when you learned your native language.

Increase your creativity.

Language learning is one of the best ways to become more creative. It’s a lot like putting together the pieces of a new puzzle. And the usage of a foreign language is both: a skill and an art.

Open up new career opportunities.

We live in an increasingly globalized world and companies are constantly expanding overseas and dealing with clients from all over the world. Between two candidates with the exact same skill set and experience, the person who is bilingual is arguably much more likely to get the job. You also can grow significantly at your current job if you can speak a foreign language.

Meet new people and develop life-long friendships or deepen your relationships.

Meet new and interesting people! Speak to people in their language and you’ll understand their soul, you’ll be able to see the truth about their life and feelings, you’ll find out really exciting and amazing things from them. Develop life-long friendships or, who knows, even the love of your life!

Impress people around you.

People always admire those who have some specific skills, especially speaking a foreign language. This always considered to be the privilege of intelligent, well-educated and smart people, which can do something meaningful in their life.

Improve your decision making skills.

A study from the University of Chicago found that when people speak in a language other than their native tongue, it helps eliminate their tendency toward so-called loss aversion—that is, getting too caught up in the “here and now” to make choices that could profit us further down the road.

Bilinguals are more confident with their choices after thinking it over in the second language and seeing whether their initial conclusions still stand up. This means that if you learn a second language, this might well improve your ability to make wiser financial choices, for example. Who would’ve thought?

Enjoy works of art in their original language.

There are a lot of great masterpieces in literature (prose and poetry), folklore, songs all over the world. But we only can see their real beauty, know their real value, feel their depth and magic, if we get aquatinted with them in their original language. So, don’t miss such a great opportunity in your life and open the world of art from the different side.

Become more open-minded.

Learning a foreign language and getting soaked into an entirely new culture and world view is the surest way to become an open-minded, understanding individual, and that is really priceless. Seeing the world from a different perspective, and understanding where you and others come from, is a fantastic, eye-opening experience.

Discover You Can Do It!

So many people want to learn a foreign language, but very often they find too many reasons why they “can’t achieve it”. All of those aren’t real, believe me. Whatever doubts you have, you really can learn another language. Earlier you start – faster you’ll have the results! Don’t hesitate and don’t waste your time and your life, do something great for yourself – learn a foreign language!

• Wide range of practice (passive & active)

                 Practice is the essential part of learning. It is also a consisting and undividable part of the first principal – regularity and repeating. Use your skills as often as you can. Many people think the practice is only speaking, but it’s not completely right. Speaking is very important, you have to speak foreign language as much as you can, even if you don’t  have anyone to speak to,  just speak aloud looking in the mirror (it’s not a joke and it’s very useful). But listening, writing and reading is also a practice, as well as watching videos, analyzing, memorizing and retelling. We can call listening, reading, watching videos a passive practice, and speaking and writing is an active practice.  Use wide range of practice: speak, listen to various audios: songs, stories, podcasts, radio, lessons, lectures etc., read all the possible sources (handwritten and printed texts), watch films and programs – videos are extremely useful, analyze, memorize and retell or rewrite, write in the foreign language. By the way in Russian people don’t write using printed letters, for writing we always use handwritten letters, and believe me it’s also very useful and comfortable thing.

• Direct associations method.

                     Learn words in proper way, use the method of direct associations. It means don’t use any silly new “magic” ways which can complicate your learning. More about this method you can find in the article “How to learn foreign words”.

• Motivation & desire or self-discipline.

                      To get the best result you have to understand (fully) why actually you are doing this. What is your purpose and reasons? Why do you need or want to learn this? What will you get when you are done? Unfortunately, people rarely get pleasure from the process of learning (if you do, it’s really great!), so concentrate on the final goal. If your motivation is not so strong use strict self-discipline and control without any excuses. You’ll see, you’ll have to use it hard only in the beginning, then you’ll get used to it and it will be much easier. It works like that for any kind of learning and studying.

So don’t forget these principles and rules, use them, and you’ll get your best results in a very short time!

Good luck!:)

How to learn foreign words (effectively).

& Direct association method.

               Words are the most essential consisting part of any language. Words are those little bricks by which the speech is built. Words name the objects, characteristics, actions or phenomena, specific or abstract thoughts and ideas. They are names, sound (oral) and visual (writing) representations of all the things in our life. Using words to express our thoughts is very important and complicated mechanism of our mind, which has been developing during many thousands of years. We can say the language is a miracle in the human evolution!  No other creature on the Earth has the same highly developed skill. Oral language requires complicated speech organs and fixed, learnt way of using it to make the necessary sounds. Written language uses a set of signs (letters) and special skills, which allow to move the hand specifically, to create the needed sign, or sets of signs to express something in writing.

                 We start using the language as means of communication from our early years. Usually being children we learn our language fast and effective, because then we don’t learn the words, we learn actual phenomena and their names. Things change when we grow up. Many modern schools claim we can learn easily and naturally like babies, but unfortunately we can’t because:

1. We don’t have that blank brain any more, we already have names for most things in our life.

2. Usually we are not constantly in the language environment.

3. Our brain, emotions, memory work in different ways now.

                                In the childhood the process of learning is like that:

                We meet a new phenomenon, we name it (hear or read the name), then it goes through our conscious to our short term memory, then to our long term memory and finally the image of the phenomena stores in our subconscious.

Almost the same way back is used for the recalling the word after it is learnt.

                  It is the natural and the easiest way. But! Being adults, learning a foreign word, we usually already know the actual object or phenomenon and in fact we just have to learn a new name of it. And here we usually have problems because to learn a new foreign word we usually intentionally try to bind it to the word (name) we already know and often use. And this is not so natural way. Or even worse. Sometimes we use so popular now method of associations. Mostly, this is some book of foreign words and associations for them in your native language made by their sound or spelling or some other similarity. This is the worst way of learning you can choose because:

   a)    those associations have no natural binding or background

   b)   those are other person’s associations (and for sure they have no use in your brain).

              Of course, we usually have some associations for the words except its formal meaning, but we usually don’t learn the word by them. Even if they help us to remember the word they have to be our own associations, not the associations of other person, because in such case we have to learn the other person’s association and then learn the word, so this action make the learning of the word many times harder than it’s supposed to be, and leads the memorization of it on the unneeded long and crooked way.

                 Looking at this scheme, we can logically assume that going by that way a word is not only harder to learn but also is much harder to recall because it also has to go all this way backwards when we want to use it. Our subconscious has to find bound images of the words (which are stored together), then, in the memory, we recall the word-association, it brings the word we need with it, we divide them in our conscious, then it goes to the necessary brain centres and, finally, we can say or write it.

             Scientists say to learn a new word effectively (constantly) we have to meet it 37 times in different sources. I believe it is true. Though it seems to be not easy, in fact it isn’t so complicated. We also can help ourselves using those few practical advises. They are based on my 10 years teaching experience, teaching, learning and psychological knowledge and principals. To you learn a new word effectively:

• repeat aloud it not less than 5 times while imagining its actual meaning.* It has to be your own image, the first thing which comes into your mind when you hear this word in your language.

• write down a new word in two lines (you also can repeat it aloud or silently while writing)

• write down a new word to the vocabulary. I mean a word with the translation in your language.

• review your vocabulary at last 2-3 times a week.

• To have the best results try to use words. Make easy word combinations phrases or sentences.

• Always try to learn words in the particular topic. When some words are from one group, they have some connections, make good natural associations and are learnt much easier and faster.

                * Here you use the method of the direct associations, when the word is bound to its actual meaning, not to its name in your language (or to any other word or thing). Just repeat the word and imagine the phenomenon it means as brightly and real as you can. Try not to remember this word from your language at this moment, or at least don’t concentrate on it.  The mechanism which works when we use the method of direct associations is very similar to that one we used when we were children and this is the best, the easiest and the most natural way to learn the words.

            Some words mean something very abstract and they are really hard to imagine, especially if we don’t understand them completely. In this case you can learn them just mechanically repeating aloud the word and its translation 5-6 times (but this is an exception).

            So, to be always satisfied with your learning don’t invent any new magic methods, just use those natural mechanisms you already have!

                                                               Good luck and have great results!

Let’s have a look at a Slavic lady. Most Slavic women are not tall. The skin is usually very light, eye color varies but mostly it is light too. Usually, Slavic ladies are very kind and hardworking. They still believe in love and friendship. They can be really faithful, loyal and self – sacrificing taking care about their husbands and children. The greatest achievement, pride and joy in their life, usually is their family. They can believe and forgive a lot. Such woman will do everything to keep her husband and children warm, comfortable and happy.

              Nowadays, there are thousands of different dating services and agencies where you can meet a lady from one of the Slavic countries. The truth and the problem is – most ladies from post soviet countries don’t speak English and in 95% you only see a picture of a girl but communicate with the agent who works at an agency and all that information and details you get is only her (or his) imagination. When you come to see the girl, you still have to use an interpreter (from the same agency), so in fact for a long time you really don’t communicate with your fiancé, only when you start living together you’ll know the truth.

              Our ladies would like to learn English, believe me, but usually working hard to keep their bodies and souls together, they just don’t have time and also don’t have money for that (effective English courses are really expensive in these countries).

              Unfortunately, there are also many frauds, which get the money from foreign men. Many of my friends and students have been in such situation. They thought they had written to the girl and communicated for a long time. They sent money and presents but then when they came to see her, she was absolutely different or just disappeared before they had to meet. One of them told me that he found out that his “girlfriend” was married, other man told me that in fact there was no girl at all and all he saw was just a created thing by the fraud group of people. One of my students from America has been tricked for three times before he started to learn Russian. In a year after that he married a great girl (real one) from Belorussia and he is very happy now. Few of my students finally started to communicate with good (real) girls and are very glad of that. And I really have heard a lot of such stories (I even helped to open the truth in few of them). And the only way to make yourself secure, sure and confident looking for a Slavic lady is to learn at least a basic Russian. It will help you to avoid that great anger and disappointment that follow the lies on which you might be caught. Knowing Russian will allow you to know the real life of a girl, to see everything clearly, to understand her better, to find out her real character and give her a chance to know real you too, to make your relationships grow faster and be much more sincere.

                Learning Russian will open for you many great and unexpected things about Slavic women. It’s not so difficult and it definitely worth it. Especially with the proper teacherJ

                      Learn Russian and meet your real love and fate!