Learning a second language is somewhat opening yourself to face a lot of opportunities for you. Despite the effort and struggles, learning a foreign language could mean a lot and that’s including your bright future. There are many ways how to learn the foreign language or your second dialect aside from your original language. It can be learned if you have friends with you who have peculiar usage of language, you can learned it through the book you often read, from your school and most importantly from the foreign language school who cater exclusively a foreign language teaching.

It is no easy of learning a second language, focus and sincerity towards the subject is needed for you to become a successful foreign language student. If you don’t have enough time and easily get irritated or feel laziness you should not continue studying foreign language and you better quit from school. You are just wasting your time and effort when the outcomes are failed. Though at first, it is truly hard to learn a second language but eventually you will learn to appreciate and practice it to the best of your ability. Learning a second language doesn’t only focusing on how you utter the words itself but it also includes how to write the language with its proper grammar and order of words as well as uttering the words with its correct pronunciation. If you don’t have any idea about these then it would be hard for yourself how to practice the language properly.

Learning the foreign language could be a tool when going to other places. You can use it when negotiating some important figure. When venturing a business to other countries your second language could be useful. It is difficult for both parties if both of you could not understand each other. The presence of the second language is needed, either your own language or to the person you are talking with so that there would be a good interpersonal communication. Depending from your translator could be a good idea, but it could be risky too since you don’t even know maybe your translator tries to sell you with the person you are talking to. And hiring for a translator is just a waste of money and time, learning for yourself a second language is necessary especially if you are one of the prominent people around the world.

It could be better for those people who wanted to learn a second language to flee to another country to study foreign language. It could be a big privilege for them since they can have the opportunity of discovering another culture. It could be accessible for them to visit some significant places in the particular country within their reach and they can meet new friends living in that country. Studying a foreign language is also better because you can often practice the language you are learning in the country you are studying. Aside from that you can adopt their culture and get some tactics how to become an independent person. Learning a second language can help you mold who you are and let you explore the real beauty of the earth. You will be discovering a lot of challenges as well as opportune while you have with you your second language.

BEING a Filipino taking up a mandatory English course as a second language in Ontario is certainly quite a challenge. First, I was already a nursing freshman in college in the Philippines when I migrated here. But the education system in Ontario cannot credit my university studies back here in the Philippines and even though English is the second language of my country, that cannot be counted either.

Because of the peculiar education system in this province, I need to go back to two years in high school and take up English as a second language because I’m a foreigner. Canada’s education system is so decentralized that Ontario’s rules quite differ from the rest of the provinces. If you think of it 180 degrees around, there’s a lot of positivism to it. I excel in English than my other foreign classmates because I have already learned the language by heart even though I was yet in day care. (We used to speak English at home). I was like 3 then; I’m all over 18 now.

The other advantage is I get to meet certainly lots of friends, congenial girls and hot boys alike but all non-Canadians like me. There are Chinese, Singaporeans, Nigerians, South Koreans, Germans, Mexicans, Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, Russians, Czechs, Polish, Finnish and other nationalities in our class. Since we are a diverse group of only 15 persons or so in the special class, we tend to be so close towards each other and we talk of varied topics. We talk about the recent sweep of the Canadian team against the hockey team. We talk about the ongoing Rugby World Cup in France, Cardiff and Edinburgh. We talk about the Italian Grand Prix and the recent win by defending champion Fernando Alonso and the subsequent Belgian Grand Prix which will be held this September 16 in Spa, Belgium. Coincidentally enough, there is a Belgian in our group and she boasts to us how Spa has earned its name. There are lots of hot springs in that city and they are said to rejuvenate both body and soul. On one occasion, she even invited us to come visit her place in Belgium.

And since we are a diverse group, we often share with each other our respective first languages. In particular, I share my experiences as a Filipina way back home. I introduced them to some Filipino viands which my mom helped me cook and which I brought to class. They consisted of paksiw (marinated roasted pig) and rice. In return, I also learned several insights from them. I found out that European languages have some nomenclatures in common. I recognize that j in some Eastern European languages are pronounced as y like Reykjavik or Janus. I recognize that v is pronounced as f and w is pronounced as v in German like Volkswagen.

One French student shared to us that there is a domed city in their place which is 2 square kilometers wide. It is so huge that it looks like the set of the Jim Carrey-starrer The Truman Show. And dig this – every inhabitant of that campus is nude and it is called Cap d’Agde. See? There are lots of things that I’ve learned while immersing in this language program.