Starting to learn a language is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you know where to start? What should you do to prepare? Here are the 7 must-know tips on how to learn a language that you don’t want to miss.
The idea of learning a language is exciting! Picturing yourself conversing with natives and hopping around the globe is easy to envision. Picturing the end result is a lot easier than picturing the beginning.
For my own personal language learning journey, I have found that there are a few things I can do to help prepare myself for what’s to come.
This blog post is all about the 7 must-know tips to learn a language.
Tip #1: It’s time to listen.
Before you do anything else, familiarize yourself with the sounds of the language. Listen to music and watch videos or movies. Listening is important in the beginning because you are training your ear. Even though you probably won’t understand much yet, this ear training will help you feel more comfortable with the language, and help with pronunciation and recognizing words during conversations. It’s also very enjoyable and will help motivate and excite you!
Tip #2: Learn the basics.
If you are not taking a physical class, it is a good idea to pick up a textbook of some kind. Learning very basic grammar will help you feel more confident and provide a resource to refer to when needed. This is not to say that you should master grammar before diving into conversations! Actually, the sooner you can start speaking the better. However learning, for example, if nouns have genders, what the present tense of verbs look like, and the basic sentence structure, will be crucial to your understanding and building of sentences.
Tip #3: It’s all about The 1,000 Most Common Words.
When we are children learning our first language, we don’t master grammar first. We also don’t learn every single word in our native language. Some words have a much higher usage rate than others depending on the type of word and the topic it relates to. Learning 1,000 of the most common words in a language will give you the best working vocabulary to start with. With this vocabulary you will be able to start constructing more sentences, and more confidently. Then as new situations arise you can begin to add more vocabulary words to your repertoire.
Tip #4: Make time for learning.
Part of the key to successfully learning a language is consistency. If you are truly passionate about learning this language it is going to take strong commitment and dedication to pull through the difficult times. When you feel frustrated, don’t give up! Take a short break and come back to it with a fresh mindset. Schedule appointments with yourself for language learning. Pretend you are scheduling an official appointment that you cannot miss, like say a doctor appointment. Physically write these appointments down in a planner so that you have the time blocked off and then do not break the appointment.
Tip #5: Actually converse.
Don’t wait for the perfect moment because it will never come. You will never feel “ready” because if you did you would already be fluent. Embrace the fact that you will make mistakes and you may sound silly, but it is all part of learning. If you never practice you will never improve. Places to find people to converse with might be Facebook groups, private lessons, virtual lessons like on the app iTalki, or casual conversations with native speakers on the free app called HelloTalk. HelloTalk has been one of the best live practice experiences for me!
Tip #6: Having structure can help with language learning.
If you don’t plan on taking a physical class, it can be difficult to attempt language learning without any structure in place. You could try to use a textbook to work through, but that can often grow tedious. One of the best resources that has helped me with my own personal language learning journey has been podcasts. In particular, the Coffee Break series by Radio Lingua. The French and Italian podcasts are fabulous. They are easy to understand, thorough, encouraging, engaging, and work through materials in manageable chunks. I highly recommend!
You can find a list of all of the languages offered by Coffee Break here!
Tip #7: Experience the culture.
One of the best ways to learn and retain everything you have learned is to make personal connections to the information and the people. We remember details a lot more clearly when we have some kind of emotional attachment to the situations where those details were relevant and important. Make connections and associations by immersing yourself and finding experiential learning opportunities. Find some way to interact with the material. The more engaged you are, the more active learning will be taking place.
I hope these tips and insights have helped you select, prepare, and plan out your language learning journey! Good luck!
