Many of us dream about the possibility of learning to speak a second language or even a third. But learning a new language is challenging, frustrating, and sometimes just downright difficult. Despite the difficulties, multi-language acquisition is rapidly growing in popularity around the world and bilinguality is becoming more of a highly-desired resume addition.
If you’re looking to expand your horizons by learning a new language, continue reading.
Start with short, simple dialogues
At the beginning, you need to use material that’s very simple. In the first few weeks, even if you just stick to reading the short simple dialogues that you might find in a beginner language learning textbook, you’ll still be exposed to the 100 or 200 or so words that make up 50% of a language.
Start by making your own simple dialogues.
Focus on comprehensible input
At every stage of your language learning journey, you’ll want to find material that is just above your level. Very quickly, you’ll start understanding more than you think and be ready to take on the next level.
By reading, you learn everything you need for comprehensible input. You get to study at your own speed while highlighting vocabulary you don’t know.
Study pronunciation very early on
With languages, you can always learn more grammar and more vocabulary, but one thing that you can’t fix later on is pronunciation. One of the first things you should do when learning a new language is really study pronunciation, because it’s more convenient to get it right at the beginning than try to fix it later on.
Gabriel Wyner writes in his book Fluent Forever, “I encountered three basic keys to language learning:
- Learn pronunciation first
- Don’t translate
- Use spaced repetition systems”
The best way to perfect your pronunciation is to learn with native speakers so you can hear how they pronounce things, and then imitate them by repeating the same sounds over and over until they begin to feel natural in your mouth.
Read wisely, not widely
As important as reading is for language learning, not all reading is created equally. Narrowing the focus of your reading materials have proven to be more valuable. Focus on choosing the right books, preferably some that are related to your hobbies and interests. The idea is to learn things you want to and have intrinsic motivation to understand
Start speaking early
There are endless opportunities to speak a new language even if you can’t travel to a country where that language is spoken.
You can opt for attending a language exchange, using a language exchange app with on-the-go speaking tools, or enroll in a program to consult a tutor.
Immerse yourself in the language
The idea is to speak to as many people as possible and get as much language input through reading and listening as you can. In order to create as much immersion as possible without traveling to a foreign country, you need to look for ways to input your target language into your life.
It can help enormously to learn around your own interests in order to keep yourself engaged and interested as you learn the language.
Learn one language at a time
Learning one language by itself is hard enough. There’s a direct relationship between focus and the amount you learn. The more focused your learning is, the more time you spend in a language, the faster you’re going to learn. Adding another language just divides your time and attention.
Avoid cheap hacks and focus on real concentrated study
Just like anything that requires hard work, there’s quite a number of myths and shortcuts floating around in the public discourse on learning a language quickly. What some people might not realize is that with language learning, you won’t get results by putting in the minimum amount of effort.
Turn off the subtitles when watching TV in a foreign language
Another common hack for learning languages is to watch TV and movies in that language.
If you are going to watch TV or a movie in a foreign language as a supplemental learning tool, you’d better turn off the subtitles. This is because when you turn the subtitles on, you’re not listening anymore, you’re reading. And if you’re reading a movie in a language you know, you won’t be learning much in a foreign language.
Have a strong tolerance for ambiguity
You have to be okay with the millions of things you don’t understand when learning a language. If you keep checking every single word in a text that you don’t understand, it’s simply too inefficient and takes too much time.
But if you have a high tolerance for ambiguity, as good language learners do, you can be comfortable being a bit lost. By tolerating ambiguity, you liberate yourself to keep to the fundamentals, while also being open and curious about the language to learn more.
The biggest mistake you can make in learning a new language is insisting on knowing everything.
Taking a foreign language class is another tried-and-true way of learning another language. At Finstock Evarsity College, we offer a number of language classes. Click on the links below to apply.
- Basics in English Language
- Basics in French Language
- Basics in Kiswahili Language
- Basics in Arabic Language
