Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa persatuan internasional. Oleh karena itu, di zaman globalisasi ini setiap orang dipaksa untuk bisa berbahasa inggris. Belajar bahasa inggris tentu tidaklah mudah apalagi bagi orang yang baru pertama kali mendengar bahasa inggris. Tapi, belajar bahasa inggris bukanlah tidak mungkin. Belajar bahasa inggris kini justru diperlukan oleh setiap orang yang tak ingin ketinggalan di zaman globalisasi ini. Bisa dilihat dari kehidupan sehari-hari banyak kita temukan bahasa inggris. Mulai dari produk makanan dan minuman, petunjuk penggunaan barang-barang elektronik, lagu asing, hingga situs pertemanan sosial seperti facebook, twitter dapat terlihat penggunaan bahasa inggrisnya.
In English, grammar is not really important. The important one is when we know English and we can speak English.
Mungkin, pernah terlintas di pikiran Anda bahwa belajar bahasa inggris itu ribet, susah, buat pusing kepala. Apalagi kalau Anda sudah mulai memikirkan tentang grammar atau tata bahasa yang harus digunakan dalam bahasa inggris. Tetapi, sebenarnya semua itu tidaklah terlalu penting. Yang penting disini adalah Anda bisa memahami bahasa inggris dan berani untuk speak English, tanpa memerhatikan benar tidaknya grammar yang Anda katakan. Itu sudah menjadi poin plus. Seperti di Indonesia, saat kita berbicara sehari-hari kita tidak terlalu memerhatikan tata bahasa yang kita gunakan saat kita berbicara. Contohnya kalimat yang benar dengan subjek, predikat dan keterangan adalah adik pergi ke sekolah, tetapi kebanyakan orang sudah mengerti apabila kita hanya berbicara adik ke sekolah (dalam hal ini yang dihilangkan adalah predikat yaitu pergi). Oleh karena itu kita tidak boleh takut berbicara bahasa inggris apalagi hanya karena alasan takut grammar atau tata bahasanya salah. Dalam artikel ini diberikan “7 Secrets for English Learner” atau 7 Rahasia untuk Pembelajar Bahasa Inggris. Ketujuh rahasia dapat dilihat di bawah ini.
Secret #1 Learn about Word Stress
Word Stress is golden key number one for speaking and understanding
English. Word Stress is
“very important
”. You can try to learn about Word Stress. This is one of the
“best
” ways for you to understand spoken
English especially
English spoken fast.
What is Word Stress?
Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No! They sound different, because one syllable in each word is "stressed" (stronger than the others).
Example : PHOtograph – phoTOgrapher – photoGRAPHic
This happens in all words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera
The syllables that are not stressed are 'weak' or 'small' or 'quiet'. Native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension. Try to hear the stress in words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to hear and recognize it. After that, you can use it!
Secret #2 Learn about Sentence Stress
Sentence Stress is golden key number two for speaking and understanding
English. With Sentence Stress, some
“words
” in a sentence are "stressed" (loud) and other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:
We want to go.
Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No! We make the important words “big” and the unimportant words small. What are the important words in this
sentence? Yes, you're right: WANT and GO.
Senentence word = We WANT to GO.
Secret #3 Listen ! Listen ! Listen !
Students sometimes say: 'I don't listen to the BBC news on the radio because it's too fast for me and I can't understand it.' That's a pity! When it's too fast for you, when you can't understand it, that is exactly when you NEED to listen to it!!!
How can you improve if you don't listen and practice?
When you were a baby, did you understand your own language? When you were 3 weeks old, or 2 months, or 1 year, did you understand everything? Of course not! But you *learned* to understand by “listening”. Think about it. You learned to understand your own language by listening, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After that, you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then you learned to write. But listening came first!
In Secret #3 is LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN! Now in this secret is DON'T LISTEN! What do that mean?
Do you know the difference between the verbs TO LISTEN and TO HEAR? TO LISTEN is active. TO HEAR is passive. Sometimes you can LISTEN too hard. Sometimes you can TRY too hard. Sometimes it is better only to HEAR. Let the radio play. Let the cassette play. But DON'T listen. Just HEAR. Your subconscious will listen for you. And you will still learn. If you listen and try to understand, you may block on one word and get frustrated. Don't worry! Just HEAR! Believe me, you will still be learning. The important thing is to let the radio or cassette or television or record PLAY. Let it play. And you - you do nothing. Your brain will HEAR, your subconscious will LISTEN and you will LEARN!
Secret #5 Improve your vocabulary with 5 words a day
Vocabulary is easy! How many days in a year are there? 365, normally (on Earth).
If you learn only 5 new words a day, you will learn 5 x 365 = 1,825 new words in a year. ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE WORDS. That is a lot of new words. And we are not counting all the other words you will learn in other ways - reading, conversation etc. Buy a notebook and write in 5 new words EACH day, EVERY day. Learn them! You will soon have an excellent vocabulary.
Secret #6 130 minutes a day better than 3.5 hours a week
In fact, 30 minutes of English study once a day is better than 5 hours once a week! Study regularly. Study often.
LITTLE + OFTEN is better than LOT + SOMETIMES.
It's easier, too. You can easily find 30 minutes each day. How? You can get up 30 minutes earlier. Or have a shorter lunch break. Fix a particular time every day - and keep it!
Secret #7 Revise! Revise! Revise!
If you revise, you'll improve your learning by 100%.
What does "to revise" mean? It means "to look again". You should be systematic about this. When you learn something, you should note it. Then you should look at it again. Example for 3 times after 1 day, after 1 week, after 1 month.
Each time you revise, test yourself. Learn, revise, test. Revise, test. Revise, test.
Tujuh hal di atas adalah rahasia yang bisa Anda lakukan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa inggris Anda. Mulai sekarang, jangan pernah takut untuk berbahasa inggris. Dan satu hal yang perlu Anda ingat yaitu Mistake is a must. Kesalahan itu pasti terjadi . Berbicaralah sebisa Anda karena Anda sedang berada dalam proses belajar. Di mana dalam proses ini setiap manusia akan menemui kesalahan, tetapi akibat kesalahan itulah seseorang akan menjadi lebih baik. Jadi, jangan jadikan rasa takut salah Anda sebagai alasan Anda tidak ingin berbahasa inggris.
---You never have right time to start, but you will get right when you have started.
