Udo, a German man and long-time Linguist member, has definitely earned the title of Linguist Learner of the Month. He works very hard on a regular basis to improve all his English skills.
Udo enjoys The Linguist for many reasons. First, he is responsible for his own success. Second, he makes his own curriculum. He does not have to go to school or study at a specific time. Third, Udo enjoys the wide range of topics available in our library. Finally, The Linguist has allowed him to build his own English-speaking environment. He believes this is important when you do not live in a society where English is spoken.
Udo learned English for six years at elementary school and high school and for one more year at university. For several years, he was required to watch a 30-minute episode of a specific television program four times a week. He believes that this repetitive exposure to the same program helped him learn a lot of vocabulary, and it was fun. Udo says, "It was a really easy and relaxing way to learn English. I did not need to learn many words from a wordlist." However, this created some problems for Udo later on when he had to start learning English the traditional way. Nevertheless, Udo believes he did learn English quite well during his school years and when he went to Budapest in grade twelve, a Turkish man asked him where he had learned to speak English so well.
Udo also spent six months taking an evening class, but there was no emphasis on input. The teachers did not think input was important. Therefore, Udo quit taking the class.Now, he listens to The Linguist content frequently as he knows this is a very effective way to improve. In fact, Udo's favorite Linguist activity is listening. He has listened to some content items 200-300 times! Udo goes on to say, "Listening is an easy task. I do it when I drive, when I go shopping and when I work around the house or in the garden. When I wake up in the morning, I take my PDA with me and I listen." The Linguist has made language learning an adventure for Udo. He has learned a lot about different countries, history and current events from the content in our library. Udo often discusses different issues he has learned about on The Linguist with his German friends.
When I asked Udo if anybody had noticed any improvement in his English skills, he replied: I am the one who knows I am much better than I was one year ago. When I write texts in English, I know that I do not have to look at a dictionary very often. Before I studied on The Linguist, I often used a translation device. Now, I do not need to use this. I can also understand TV programs and radio programs better.
Udo concluded by saying: "The most important thing you must understand is that you have to be in charge of what you are doing and you have to like it. Everything else will be easy then. Anybody who wants to learn a language can do so, and with the help of The Linguist, it will be easy. You have to put in the time, but it can be a very enjoyable time."
