Language map

If you want you can prepare to the discussion. In this case read this material. You can come also without any preparation. It is also OK. Just don't be afraid of all that stuff.

1) Do you use mental maps? What do your mental maps look like?
2) Describe your language-map. Language consists of…
3) Describe the position of the language-land in your life-map? Language consists in…
4) Do you really need these complicated mental maps?

Restaurant and kitchen (interface and implementation) are two different realms, two parallel worlds of the same kingdom. Do you know what interface and implementation are?

Interface (Restaurant)

That is about four plus one basic skills: (1) speaking, (2) reading, (3) listening, (4) writing, (5) thinking. There are also four additional things: (6) making friends, (7) translating, (8) teaching, (9) passing exams.

So, we have five basic questions for the restaurant:

1) How do you practice your speaking?
2) How do you practice your listening?
3) How do you practice your reading?
4) How do you practice your writing?
5) Do you think in English?

And we have four additional questions as well:

1) How do you find friends?
2) How do you improve your translation skills?
3) Do you know how to teach English?
4) Do you know how to pass exams?

Kitchen

We have three questions for the kitchen:

1) How do you work on your grammar?
2) How do you work on your vocabulary
3) How do you work on your pronunciation?

There are also different approaches
 
1) What approaches can you name?
2) What is your favorite approach?

Levels of understanding

The approach you choose depends on level of understanding, what foreign languages acquisition is. The approaches are about how you invest your energy.

What is your main attitude? What is your level of understanding?

1) Language as work. To learn language you have to make yourself work. That is truth, but if it is what you are dealing with all the time, you have problems. People of this level of understanding are people of the gutter of the language-kingdom society.
2) Language as knowledge. People of this level work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. They don’t need to think about how to make themselves work. They already know it. And they are more effective than people of the first level. But you can know a lot of words and a lot of grammatical rules and a lot of phonetics, but not able to use your language at the same time.
3) Language as sport. Bodybuilding vs sport games. Alone vs in companies. People of every next level of understanding are stronger than people of two previous levels of understanding.
4) As sex. How do you make love with your language? How do you get (sexual) pleasure from it?
5) As yoga, self-development. Is language a way to God?
6) As game, as war. Language is your weapon. What do you fight for? What is your cause?

We have to make a foreign language our second native language. But are we really good in our native languages? How good are your basic skills? How can you improve them?

Language is psychology. How do you cope with your affective filter (your subconscious unwillingness to leave in a new language)? Language is like immigration. New language is a new country. Do you really want to immigrate into this new country?