Follow your interests
Even if you’re totally excited about this new language learning journey you’ve embarked on, at some point or another chances are studying this new language is going to feel like a chore.
My best piece of advice is to find ways to incorporate your studies into things you’re already interested in.
For me, that’s reading. More specifically – and it’s totally fair if you make fun of me for this – I like to read blogs in other languages.
Movies are also a really good tool, especially if you can find subtitles in the language you’re learning as well.
Music is another way to start listening to things in your new language.
Games are of course also an excellent way of studying a new language! A lot of language learning computer programs include games.
Decide what you want to get out of the language
There are many different reasons to learn a language, and often the motivation behind learning it will help decide how best to study.
I studied Ancient Greek purely to be able to read old philosophy texts (lol, I know) so I focused on grammar and only studied vocab from Greek to English, not vice versa, and I didn’t bother with speaking.
On the flip side, when I’m studying a language because I’m planning a trip somewhere, then I try not to worry about grammar and instead learn useful phrases.
The beginning is the most exciting part
Seriously though, there’s nothing like starting a new language and learning how to actually say stuff! It’s such a rush and totally addicting, which I think has actually pushed me to begin a whole lot more languages than I know I’ll ever actually learn – I’m looking at you, Tibetan.
This also means that it’s totally worth spending a few weeks studying a language before a trip somewhere because even if you know you’ll never pursue the language when you come back home, the learning process is going to be fun and likely make your trip a lot more interesting as well.
Set concrete challenges
When the initial excitement of learning a new language begins to fade, it can be hard to stick with it. The hardest bit for me is definitely when I’m comfortable enough with a language to understand most things and make myself understood.
Basically when I start getting complacent it means it’s time to enroll in a new course or sign up for online lessons, or commit to some sort of challenge that will require me to level up my skills.
Think in the language you’re trying to speak
Obviously, this one is going to be hard if you only know like, 20 words in this new language, but get used to expressing everything you possibly can with those few words you do have. It’s really, really hard to translate directly between two languages, especially if they’re totally unrelated, and it can lead to really awkward and unnatural sentences.
I think this is also a big reason each new language becomes easier to learn – we get better and better at communicating with a very limited number of words and kind of just going with conversations where we only understand a portion of what’s being said.
Know your strengths – and then ignore them
It can be really tempting to only play to your strengths when studying a language. So if you’re good at memorizing vocabulary, then you might want to spend all day doing that, or if you’re really good with accents you’ll focus on mastering that before you even have any grammar down.
The thing is, the stuff you’re good at is going to improve quite naturally, so you don’t need to worry too much about it. And if you focus too much on one aspect of a language, then you might actually end up hurting your progress.
Be consistent
It’s amazing how much of a language you can learn in just a few days. It’s also amazing how much you can forget in just a few days.
Language learning is one of those things where it’s much better to do a little each day instead of a lot every once in a while. You’ll learn way more if you spend 30 minutes studying every day rather than say, 8 hours once a week.
Every language gets easier
There’s a reason people who have studied one or two foreign languages tend to then go on to study even more languages. I think it’s a really helpful thing to keep in mind because it means finally trying to learn a new language not only means opening up a new world in that particular language, but also a whole world of new languages to learn.
Let's talk: What other tips for learning a foreign language can you share?
In order to learn a new language you should:
1. Make realistic, specific goals: Language learning is best when broken down into manageable goals that are achievable over a few months. This is far more motivating and realistic.
2. Remind yourself why you are learning: Recognizing exactly why you want to learn a language is really important.
3. Read for pleasure: Reading is not only great for making progress, but one of the most rewarding aspects of the learning experience. It exposes you to all sorts of vocabulary that you won’t find in day-to-day life, and normalizes otherwise baffling and complicated grammatical structures.
4. Learn vocabulary in context: Memorizing lists of vocabulary can be challenging, not to mention potentially dull. A great way to build vocabulary is to make sure the lists you’re learning come from situations or texts that you have experienced yourself, so that the content is always relevant and connects to background experience.
5. Go to where the language is spoken: It may not be an option for everyone but if you are serious about learning the language and getting direct pleasure from what you have learned, you need to go to where that language is spoken. Travel and living abroad can complement learning in the classroom.
Learn a New Language by Reading the Daily News
The best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it. But when you don't have a speaking partner or aren't in the native country, then you have to come up with another idea.
There are many ways to learn a new language: taking a class, speaking with your friends from Madrid, hiring a Chinese tutor, or just watching old French movies with subtitles. But there's another method that will take your learning to the next level: reading!
Reading is one of the best ways to learn a language, even from very early on in your learning journey.
Reading in a foreign language helps us become more comfortable with the words and grammatical rules that enable us to express our own thoughts, just like reading in one’s native language. Seeing the text of new words and concepts visually helps to reinforce our memory of them, while having the ability to stop, think, or look up words in a dictionary allows for more individualized pace of mental absorption.
Reading at even a slow pace also exposes us to more sentences per minute than the average movie or TV show. (Just think of all the pauses, transitions, and action scenes where characters are not speaking.) This is exactly the reason why heavy readers of just English tend to speak more articulately than average English speakers, despite theoretically having had the same number of years of exposure to the language.
Being exposed to a larger “brain feed” of vocabulary and grammar simply trains you to use your language better in your own speech. So, without further ado, let's dive into the tips for for finding and using good foreign-language reading materials!