The
Mother Tongue
It
amazes me that you can travel almost anywhere today and find English spoken to
a greater or lesser degree.
English
has become the Mother Tongue. I use that term because it was recently used by a
young Italian gentleman I spoke with on Skype. He said it was wonderful to chat
with someone who spoke the Mother Tongue, meaning a native English speaking person.
I met
Max on Facebook. He is a fan of my books on Kindle. I remember him messaging me
when I posted my first book in May last year. He said he was in bed, reading my
book. It thrilled me to imagine him laying in bed, in Italy – half way round
the world, reading my science fiction. It amazed me even more when I found out
much later, that he was using my books to teach himself English.
Max
belongs to a group on Facebook called Effortless English. They follow the
teachings of a man named AJ Hoge, on YouTube, who instructs them to throw away
their textbooks (no one talks like that) and read ‘authentic’ English material.
By authentic, he means what an English speaking child would read. He believes
you must learn English as a child would and you must have something that
interests you instead of routine memorization.
Max has
been reading English for 5-6 years. So, he is up to the reading level of about
a middle-school child. He plowed through my science fiction books which I wrote
with YA in mind. They are character driven and don’t contain any techno babble.
When he finished those six, he asked me about my fantasy books. I told him they
were for 9-13 year old. He loved them. It improved his English and the stories
were about dragons which he enjoyed. I have English speaking adult followers on
Twitter who enjoy them too.
After he
finished the fantasy series, I sent him my latest paranormal which is a YA book
with a more adult theme. He loved it.
It was
at this point he told me about the Effortless English group he belonged to and
how he would like me to meet them in a conference call. He thought it would be
beneficial for both me and the group. I might receive more sales. They would
learn of an author who wrote books an adult learning English could enjoy. They
would also get a chance to converse with someone who spoke the Mother Tongue.
I
recently put the first of the fantasy books in an audio form and was giving
that away free. I suggested he have a listen and perhaps his group’s members
could listen to the free audio while reading along with the eBook, available on
Kindle for 99 cents. (An inexpensive enough textbook.) That way they could hear
the correct way to pronounce the words as well as see them in written form.
Max put
me in touch with Noam, on of the group leaders. He sent
me the link to their group. He has an audio introduction on it. When I spoke
with him via Skype, I complimented him on his current English. I told him it
was better than the recording he sent me. He informed me the recording was done
a year ago. It is phenomenal the progress he has made in a year just by
reading.
Sunday
after a month of talking and publicizing the conference call, we all got on for
what we thought would be an hour conference. We talked for two and a half
hours. Their questions were exciting and thoughtful. Some of them dream of
becoming writers.
Prior to
being published I had no idea how foreigners learned our language. I think if
someone would have asked me to speculate, I would have said, ‘school,
television or the internet.’ I had no idea the adults were learning this way
and making a success of it!
These
folks inspire me. They excite me. Italian, Israeli, Chinese, Maltese, Japanese,
they all want to learn our language. I admire these dedicated people. If my
books and I can help them learn to read and speak English then I can say I have
accomplished a lot with my life. What could be a greater legacy to leave behind
than assisting people of different nationalities to communicate in the same
language.
Here is the link to the recording of our online conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZzDPxH6do
Here is the main website for AJ Hoge's Effortless English Program: http://effortlessenglishclub.com/
Here is the main website for AJ Hoge's Effortless English Program: http://effortlessenglishclub.com/
Here is their group on Facebook if you would like to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffortlessEnglishGroup/
