https://padlet.com/cet_professionalpathways/GE_C1_M1_W1_V1 en-us 2018-07-24 01:08:56 UTC 2025-10-02 07:24:20 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-uploads.storage.googleapis.com/269304987/e987daca38e40763048a18819515df3c/logo_device.png cet_professionalpathways https://padlet.com/cet_professionalpathways/GE_C1_M1_W1_V1/wish/270918833 INTERVIEWER - Let's hear now from Susanna Zaraysky. She speaks seven languages, and spent many years teaching English abroad and has even written a book called 'Language is Music'. Um ... Is th is er .. reluctance to learn foreign languages, um ... just a feature of Britain or, do you think, all Englishspeaking peoples?
SUSANNA - I think it's all over the English-speaking world and I think there are two main reasons: one, as I agree with your previous speaker that there's a lack of necessity. People don't see the necessity and, so, necessity breeds motivation, and for example we see that in Brazil there are English-language schools popping up everywhere because they need to learn English to be able to sell their products abroad.
The other reason is, is that English speakers have little to no exposure to the sounds of foreign languages because almost all of our media is in English, so people in other countries will start to listen to music in Engl ish, watch programmes er ... from the United States or from the UK or from other parts of the world in English. And so they get used to the sounds and prior er ... exposure to the sounds of a language make it much easier for a student to learn a language and it's much more fun, when you have music and ... and media.
INTERVIEWER - Is that what happened to you? I mean were you exposed to foreign languages from a young age?
SUSANNA - I was. I mean, I was born in the former Soviet Union and I came to the United States when I was three but I grew up in an area with a large Hispanic population and Vietnamese population, so I heard Spanish from a young age even though I didn't start formally studying it unti l I was 15 or 16. So I already knew a lot of songs in Spanish when I started learning. So, when I had to learn grammar and words, I ... I had a context in which to reference to what I was learning in school. And because I already knew songs, I already knew some words and it was
fun and I could pronounce things. So music is a huge aspect of language learning.
INTERVIEWER - So, you had a bit of a head start if you like, but um what would be your advice to other English speakers, perhaps averse to learning foreign languages?
SUSANNA - To find music that they like in the other language. Um ... to find television programmes that they like in the language ... To watch movies in the other language. Because your heart has to resonate with the language. You have to actually like it, because you live a language more than you study it. So you have to find something that you like about it. For example, if somebody likes watching soc ... uh . football, they can watch football programmes in another language, so they're at least getting used to what it sounds like. Um ... If they like a certain type
of a movie, whether it's animation, they could look for those type of animation programmes in other languages.
INTERVIEWER - And er it's worth it, you reckon?
SUSANNA - Of course, of course. Because, you know, people ... you get paid more money usually in government jobs if you speak another language. You have much more oppor ... You have many more opportunities to do trade if you speak another language. And, I mean, in the United States we have 20 per cent of our population speaks another language at home, so even for domestic marketing reasons it's important.
INTERVIEWER - Susanna Zaraysky, who speaks seven languages.]]> 2018-07-24 01:13:40 UTC https://padlet.com/cet_professionalpathways/GE_C1_M1_W1_V1/wish/270918833