My Best Language Learning Tips

My Best Language Learning Tips

I have studied quite a few languages as a child, as a teen and as an adult and it’s something I really enjoy doing. Since I have a lot of experience with language learning, I thought I’d let you know what I do to help myself learn a new language more quickly. Read on for my best language learning tips!

• Choose a language that you love! I’m good at learning languages but I fail too if I’m not passionate about it. There have been a few times where I’ve tried to learn a language but couldn’t get into it for this reason.
• Accept that it will take some time but invest a little time each day and you’ll get there. Set aside some time each day and make a note in your diary. Stick to your schedule to make sure you’re practicing enough to make progress.
• Write your own notes about grammar and language rules and phrases that you might find useful. Colour code the papers and pens you use too. Find the best way of taking notes that works for you. Your own notes is what will make the most sense to you – more than any fancy books can do for you.
• Surround yourself with your chosen language! Read books (children’s books if it’s a new language) or short stories, watch TV-series and films (again, go for children’s ones if it’s a new language and gradually move onto more advanced things — use subtitles at first), listen to songs and audio lessons (there are loads of online language learning options) and stick your FlashSticks or homemade vocabulary notes all around your house to easily and effortlessly teach your brain some new vocabulary. These days it’s so easy to find material in different languages online. You can even have a language learning app on your mobile phone to access lessons anywhere or anytime you want. The advancement of technologies gives you various choices to learn based on your individual needs and preference.
• Live your new language! Try to translate as many of your thoughts as possible in your head and think about your vocabulary when you are doing ordinary things. For example, if you are doing your food shop go through all your food vocabulary in your head as you are seeing items in the shop. When you’re walking or commuting, think about all the things you could say in the language that you’re learning.
• Write a diary in the language you are learning. It will be very basic at first but just watch your progress as your skills advance. If you’re into creative writing, you could make up stories or a dialogue and write them in the new language instead.
• If you can, travel to a destination where they speak your chosen language and use what you have learnt! That can be a big motivation for making the effort to learn faster. Do things like order food and speak to the locals. They’ll appreciate your effort and help you if you make a mistake.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat! Repetition is the best way to learn anything and language learning is not an exception. One of my tricks is to go through all my phrases in my head as I’m trying to go to sleep. Eventually, I fall asleep and I’m sure it helps my brain remember phrases more quickly when I’ve exposed it to all the vocabulary right before going to sleep.

Do you have any language learning tricks? Please share in the comments section.

This article was first published on the 30th of April 2015 when I was part of the FlashSticks Blogger Team. It was rewritten and updated on the 12th of January 2023. Contains a sponsored link.