HOW TO LEARN a language for Europe

Years ago in Britain language learning was an academic activity left chiefly to those who showed some special ability in it. The first thing to be said to the businessman who left school with that impression and now finds the need to learn a language is that it is not academic at all. Language learning is the acquisition of a set of practical skills. We have all mastered those skills in one language and there is really no reason why, given adequate motivation and the right conditions, we should not do so in another. The adult will want to rationalise his experience. He will look for short cuts in the form of a more organised approach. But he will have the help of books, tapes and perhaps even a language laboratory. There is, too, a special advantage the businessman or industrialist will have. Because his needs are practical and defined, the amount of language he requires is fairly limited. The more advanced grammatical patterns, the more complex sentences of written language, and areas of vocabulary not required for his work, need not concern him. How then should he set about this practical task?