Martin Dansky

I like getting students to think in the new language and learn things visually if they can as well as orally. Helping new students acquire a certain confidence when speaking and communicating in the new language is a great reward to me. Often, the student learns the language through cultural contexts, that is through comparisons of life in Montreal, Canada as opposed to elsewhere and this is rewarding too.

In 1977 I decided to help new immigrant students and adults in the Jewish community.I needed to support myself financially as a university student and this offered me a chance to branch out to schools and private teaching a year later.

Getting access to a job or a promotion is the most common reason but for a retired person it is usually the desire to communicate more effectively socially.

I think it is less difficult than learning a romance language due to fewer grammatical "rules and fewer verb tenses. It is also less difficult than the German language because of the lack of the different article cases like "die", "das" and "der" equivalent to our definite article "the". Unlike French, Italian and Spanish, it is common knowledge that English does not have masculine or feminine genders associated to certain nouns as those languages do. So English is 'easier' regarding that aspect. I do not know enough about other languages to make a serious comment on how English compares to them, I am afraid.

I teach a Mid Atlantic English which is the Queen's English with the use of American terms. I know that there is a Canadian variety just as there is an Australian one too and so on, but I will chalk that up as a difference of some words or particular expressions that are not necessarily mainstream, in my opinion. Besides I am sure there is regional speak also across Canada and one will hear a term that is of particular use in the Maritimes and not in Toronto for example.

They are interested in material gains usually, settling down and buying a new home in the future, raising a family and following a career in the new country while keeping in touch with their roots for the most part.

I do not find it hard to teach the language. What can be hard is learning it! Getting the person to be perfectly fluent is hard but doable if the person applies him or herself. Usually, students reach a certain comfort level and then slack off, learning more loses its attractiveness and most often they lose incentive. So when the teacher is faced with a student who has lost this incentive, this is when the learning becomes more than challenging!

Someone who starts off with a clean slate helps. The person needs to translate less from their language into English and vice versa and that is not easy for many people. The person has to take the time to practice what he learns and allow the new language to become predominant. Ideally he/she should continue reading, listening and writing in the new language to solidify his acquired speech.

If the person is constantly forgetful, disorganized with little incentive to learn and accepting the new language then that is the hardest part.

Then too it is sometimes hard for the individual to focus better on acquiring the new language and seek out opportunities in which he/she can continually practice and acquire new forms of speech and vocabulary along the way.The individual has to get out of his/her comfort zone and look for ways in which he can consolidate his learning.

Try to find a new approach and insist on learning. Maybe the person can change a study habit or create more time for himself. Quality is more important than quantity, I say to beginners who want to be understood but lack vocabulary and complicated tenses. So they have to be patient when acquiring new language skills!It is usually the beginner that struggles and the intermediate student who wants to become a more advanced speaker. That person has to think in the new language, so having access to other modes of language learning like watching more English language films is suggested.