Läderach Institute of Foreign language Education

Myth: This is one of the most common myths about foreign language education. While many organizations realize the need for foreign language education, there is a popular belief that language skills can be picked up in few days and weeks. Even when they do realize that this is a wrong belief, it is a classic example of the mind and the heart not agreeing with each other. The intention to learn a new language does not translate into acquiring one.

Fact: Language learning requires application, time and energy. It requires a concerted effort from the people involved. It can take anywhere between 2-6 months to get a sound understanding of the basic concepts in a language. Additional time of 1 1/2-2 years is required to gain advanced language skills to facilitate smooth communication. Even after this learning, unless a person lives in an area where the language is spoken and gets a linguistic ‘bath’, it would not be possible to attain the desired level of fluency in a particular language. However, it may be possible to reduce this gap in language knowledge by enabling a person with basic language skills and some amount of cultural understanding.