{"id":6470,"date":"2020-01-08T15:34:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T15:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/?p=6470"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:00:48","slug":"learning-second-language-can-help-teach-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/learning-second-language-can-help-teach-english\/","title":{"rendered":"How Learning a Second Language Can Help You Teach English"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This guest post is the first in a series by Bridge partner, Jake Young, who spent ten years teaching in the Czech Republic<\/a> before dedicating himself to his ESL resource website for teachers, Fluentize.<\/a> Based on his own experience learning to speak Czech, Jake shares the many ways learning any new language can make you a better English teacher. <\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re new to teaching, you\u2019ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate<\/a>. You can explore our online TEFL courses<\/a> to get started!<\/em><\/p>\n

One valuable life experience which has helped me incredibly throughout my professional development as an ESL teacher is learning a second language. In my case, the second language I went through the (painful) process of learning was Czech. After giving it a lot of thought, I really feel that learning a second language helped me improve my English teaching skills in a number of ways.<\/p>\n

\"Jake

Jake, ESL teacher and creator of Fluentize<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Learning a Second Language Develops Your Empathy<\/span><\/h2>\n

From a teacher\u2019s perspective, I believe that it\u2019s valuable to understand the emotional struggles that come with learning a language. And one great way to do this is to actually put yourself in the shoes of a language learner. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in a language class from the perspective of a learner, you get to know the feeling of making mistakes, the challenge of expressing your ideas clearly, making sense of the grammar rules, pronouncing words the right way, getting embarrassed, and feeling nervous to speak. This experience can then help you improve your communication skills as a teacher with your own students and give you an idea how to respond to the difficulties they have. And most importantly, you\u2019ll have a better sense of how to help them overcome these struggles and challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t think that you necessarily have to learn a second language in order to have empathy as a language teacher, I do feel that being on the other side of the desk provides you with a humbling experience that can be of value for teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning a Language Provides Good Ideas for Your ESL Lesson Activities <\/span><\/h2>\n

When you take foreign language lessons, whether Spanish, Arabic, or, in my case, Czech, you get the opportunity to see first-hand what kinds of activities work \u2013 and don\u2019t work. Think about it as killing two birds with one stone \u2013 you\u2019re learning a new language but also learning new teaching techniques and activities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Try to be aware of and even take notes on what activities your teacher did with you that you thought were helpful, useful, interesting, engaging, or effective, as well the ones that were ineffective, boring, or too hard. Ask yourself \u2013 what helped you improve? What was effective for you? Then you can take these activities, put your own twist on them and\/or improve them for your own lessons. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve collected many ideas from my teachers during my Czech language education that I then flipped around to use with my own students. This helped me save lesson planning time and also gave me solid material that I knew worked well. <\/span><\/p>\n

I remember one great speaking activity my teacher made for me. <\/span><\/p>\n