What helps students when they are learning a new language

How learning a new language can change your life

Do you have the thought about learning something new every day, for example a foreign language? Many people are thinking about the same but most of them have lack of time or motivation.

This makes it difficult to start and go ahead with the project “learning a foreign language” but I want to show you 9 reasons about how learning a new language can change your life.

1) You gain more self-confidence

When you start learning a new language, you will realize how fast the trust in yourself will grow. Especially, at the beginning of the learning process you will make efficient steps and they will keep you motivated. Learning a language is a lively process. Try to find a native speaker for a language exchange and practice the things you have learned. You will see how fast your skills will improve. On the one hand you will get compliments from people who dare to study a new language. On the other hand you will impress native speakers when you are able to speak some words or phrases in their language.

And don’t worry; nobody will demand you to apply the perfect grammar or expressions.

Try it out and you will see how many positive feedback you will receive when you start speaking a new language. This experience will also push you in other life and work projects of whom you might have been afraid.

2) You will make new friends

Learning a new language opens the door to a different culture. You will be capable to easily communicate with foreigners and it expands your personal horizon. But above all you will have the ability of bonding with international people.

When you join a language course you will get in touch with new people and you can quickly become friends with them. In addition I suggest practicing the learning matter in a language exchange, where you can get in touch with native speakers.

During a language travel you will meet even more international people and the chance to make new friends is much higher. Language students, who go abroad, are mostly looking forward to meeting new people and sharing experiences. These exposures create long lasting friendships and you will be able to visit them in their home country afterwards.

3) You keep your brain fit

This might seem paradox but learning a language is a sport and it trains your brain cells. Listening to new terminologies, studying new words and grammar as well as speaking the language stimulate your brain muscle and keeps you healthy and fit. According to the study of the University College London learning languages boosts the brain and the density of the grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex of the brain is greater in bilinguals than in those without a second language. Training in the gym or running stimulates your leg muscles and makes them grow. Scientists know that the brain has the same ability to change its structure through stimulation, known as plasticity. Learning a language trains your brain cells. This leads to the fact that parts in your brain, especially the cortex which is responsible for memories, grow and the risk of getting Alzheimer decreases significantly. The cortex is the part in the brain that is highly trained during school and university time. As soon as we leave education and we aren’t forced anymore to remember about things for exams, this part of the brain is less used and regresses. Learning a language helps you to keep in time and forces you to continue memorizing things. So train your brain and get smarter.

4) You have more fun while travelling

Learning a new language has a massive impact on the way you experience your trips. Instead of spending most of the time in assisted hotel complexes, you will have the courage to mingle with the locals. You will be capable to experience a country and its culture deeper and differently.

Locals will appreciate your effort to speak their language and they bring you to hidden treasures off the beaten track, where no trip advisor would have ever taken you. Speaking a new language is your key to collect unforgettable impressions of the holiday destination and experience your personal and fascinating adventure.

5) You will change the way you think

Each language is another personality and has its own distinctive way of expressing ideas. Varying grammar structures force the speaker to rethink how they emphasize certain ideas. Words can have different etymologies that, even if only on a subconscious level, affect the associations you have with them. As a result an important part of language learning is embracing these personality changes and being comfortable with them. That’s why people who are “fluent” in a language are generally those that don’t shy away from this. If they adopt the mannerism and mentality of a speaker of a different language, their delivery improves, along with their grammar, pronunciation and of course confidence.

The University of Stockholm found out that speaking two languages can have a cognitive impact on the behavior of a person. Especially on bilinguals, because the way they think differently depends on the linguistic environment in which they act. To emphasize the effect of speaking two languages I quote the study of the University of Stockholm: “The study examined English and German, which differ in how they express events: English has a progressive tense to zoom in on the unfolding of an event, whereas German does not have this option grammatically. When asked to match videoclips depicting everyday motion events, German speakers attached more importance to whether there was a visible goal of the motion, whereas English speakers were more focused on the action itself, paying less attention to the endpoints. German-English bilinguals, in contrast, matched events on the basis of either action or goal, depending on the language in which they received the instructions.

Moreover, when one of the languages of the bilinguals was kept busy through the repetition of number strings, the other language came to the fore, such that when they repeated numbers in German, the matching preferences were English-like, and vice-versa. Crucially, this behaviour was attested within one and the same participant, as the language of number repetition was switched half-way through the experiment.”

6) You become open-minded as well as more tolerant and making decisions becomes way easier

The study of the University of Chicago shows that there is a link between speaking a foreign language and the ability to make wiser financial choices. Psychologists from the university found that when people speak in a language other than their native tongue, it helps eliminate our tendency towards loss aversion and getting caught up in the ‘here and now’ to make choices that could profit us further down the road. That’s the reason why people, who speak a second language, have a higher self-confidence and reassess things in the other language, before they take a decision. Learning a new language helps to simplify small decisions in life as we become more open-minded and adventurous.

7) You get more attractive

8) You get more paid and successful

9) You climb the job ladder

Nowadays, it is nearly inevitable that you don’t have the ability of speaking minimum two languages, if you want to find a job with high responsibilities and opportunities for advancement. In a globalized working atmosphere applicants with a diversity of languages are in great demand. The companies are internationally orientated and expect from their employees to communicate with their clients in their native language. Learning a language is not only limited to studying grammar or vocabulary. You learn also about the culture, traditions and their way of thinking. You start questioning your actions and analyze what is wrong or right. Dealing with and understanding other cultures and their history helps to see things differently and makes more tolerant and open-minded. Due to these facts learning a foreign language is the key to go abroad and work in a different country. It enables it for you to become the responsible for specific international business relationships, where the specific language is mandatory and it turns you into a highly important employee.

Summing up, speaking a foreign language helps you to get smarter, to make new friends and to find undiscovered places on your personal adventure. In addition it increases your average salary and makes you more attractive. Adventure, money, success and love! What do you want more?

I hope I could provide you with enough reasons, why it is recommendable and helpful to learn new languages.

How to make your student a good language-learner

I’ve heard a lot about a rare breed of good language-learner who are always active, attentive, and engaged. It’s time to debunk this disturbing myth of picture-perfect students: everyone deserves to be called good. It’s just that this good differs.

Focus on the good habits

The first thing to know: the concept of a good language learner isn’t the brainchild of some grumpy teachers who were eager to label promising learners and “language losers”. It’s a whole area of academic studies that have existed since the 1970s.

Researchers aimed to design a checklist of efficient language-learning habits to support students who are less skilled in language acquisition.

According to the first collaborative checklist the researches made, good students:

After that, the process of expanding the list has started. It has been added that children would be willing to make mistakes, have above-average IQ, be confident, and learn from helpful patterns of their native language.

Now take a moment to think about all the learners you’ve had throughout your teaching career: how many students fit this description?

Teach and “rewire”

When I start working with new students, I experience the need “to rewire” them quite often. Then, after a few hours of classroom observation, I’m able to connect the dots and define what “good learner” skills the students have. It’s great if they have all, but usually, some or most are lacking.

The teacher’s mission is to decide if those missing elements of “a good language learner” can be enhanced during the learning/teaching process.

That’s exactly what I mean by “rewiring”. Teachers need to determine whether «bricks» such as no self-confidence and other impeding psychological features occur only in the classroom or outside of it as well. If something lies beyond your competence, don’t hesitate to discuss it with your student or their parents. You should assist your student to acquire language skills in the best possible way, but timely observation of what is in and out of your “teaching zone” is a must.

What could be enhanced?

Currently, there is a great deal of confusion on how to improve language learning habits and help our students become better language learners. Teaching as a profession now often includes coaching and psychological support. It is important to employ our critical thinking skills here to ensure we are not taking unnecessary risks on a professional or personal level. Here are some of the most important things that relate to language teaching. Let’s call it “the zone of our professional competence”.

Motivation

It can be internal, external, and integral. The possible challenge you may face is how to transform initially external motivation to internal, the one that proves to be a guarantee of speedy progress. Yet, students who start attending classes being extrinsically motivated are still the biggest group, especially among kids and teens. Their parents want them to have a good command of the language and, as a result, more career and life prospects. Some of them usually get used to the style of teaching that can hardly be called learner-friendly/centred.

You may transform the type of initial motivation through giving personalised praise and feedback. Paying attention to every little success of your students works miracles. According to one of my students, the attitude of her ups and downs in learning English motivated her to learn more and communicate in class using L2 only, not to say about broadening language goals far beyond exam preparation.

Articles about motivation:

Self-confidence and willingness to take risks

Learning a language implies taking risks: once learners are in the real world, there will be a need to communicate. Some will be ready, but some will not. Students who are risk-takers are willing to collaborate with teachers and co-learners, eager to receive feedback, and feel ok while making errors. It’s not a surprise that their attitude paves the way to success.

How to “rewire” those who think they’ll never achieve goals?

Here traditional pep talks need to have a supplement. Why? Without a good, rock-solid reason, students of this type have trouble believing in themselves. In terms of language learning, this reason lies in pinpointing the real success students have gained. When I was working with groups, I had a similar scenario where the self-confidence booster for my student was to help others pronounce words correctly and, when possible, assist them. Plus, she was a perfectionist, and this success meant a lot to her.

Good to know: language learners’ confidence may be enhanced, but some things are strictly cultural or need psychological guidance beyond teaching.

For example, when a highly conscious attitude prevents learners from making even a minor mistake. They are aware that taking risks is important but opt for intentional slow progress and are not ready to sacrifice the correctness itself.

Learning styles’ awareness

Test new students before starting to teach: typically, students may articulate what task formats are the hardest, hard but possible, and easy to deal with. It will, of course, provide you with an idea of what kind of learner they are, but students themselves might be still unaware of their learning style.

Test in English, with visuals to make the test easier for non-natives.

When knowing what suits them better, students will use good learning strategies based on their preferences in comprehension.

Learning styles are actually tightly intertwined with learning strategies.

For example, some meta-cognitive strategies correlate with kinesthetic perception. They include considering physical surroundings while learning: with no distractors, calm and comfortable atmosphere. Everything matters: from the chair they sit on to the way the pens are organised on the table.

Cognitive strategies correlate with a wider range of styles. Auditory learners and visuals, when dealing with vocabulary, will use different approaches. In my current teaching practice, I have a student who is virtually perfect at recognising information while listening. Knowing that, he, his mum, and me are always seeking ways to alter class and homework in a way that ensures auditory perception.

Now, let’s summarise everything into a brief checklist.

To promote students to become good language learners, we should:

I hope that all the above-mentioned will help us all to remember that a good language learner isn’t a mythical creature. When assisted to transform their motivation, taught that taking communicative risks is fine, and knowing their learning styles, each will have a surefire chance to become not just a good, but an excellent language learner!

More information on the topic

A video on the topic:

The Fastest, Most Direct Way to Learn a New Language in 8 Lightning-quick Steps

Want to put a rush on this whole “learning a new language” thing?

Maybe you need to learn a language so you can speak it on an upcoming trip.

Or so you can take on new job responsibilities.

Or so you can read your favorite novel in the language it was first written in.

Whatever your reason for learning a new language, you can probably agree it’d be ideal to learn it fast.

Yet the idea of learning a language, especially when you’re learning it from scratch, seems anything but fast: You’ll have to learn a new grammar, memorize vocabulary words, practice speaking…

But learning a new language doesn’t need to be a slow or tedious process. Although nothing can replace the hard work and effort it requires, you can absolutely learn a new foreign language fast if you follow the right strategy and dedicate yourself to the process.

Follow these eight steps, and you’ll be on your way to mastering that new language faster than you ever imagined!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Fastest Way to Learn a New Language in 8 Simple Steps

1. Set language-learning goals.

The first step to learning a new language fast is to set goals for what you want to achieve. When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. If you don’t set goals, how can you know what you want to achieve and measure whether you have achieved it?

When faced with the idea of learning a new language, most of us feel overwhelmed. There are so many words to learn and so many different ways to study. Setting goals narrows your focus so you can stop worrying about the details and get down to business.

Research shows that people who set the right kind of goals are more likely to achieve success.

Use these guidelines to get the most from your goals:

2. Learn the “right” words.

Languages are made up of a shocking number of words. English, for example, has between 600,000 and 1 million words.

Luckily, you don’t need to learn anywhere near that many words to be proficient in a language. Consider this: the top 100 words make up about 50 percent of English language texts, and the top 1,000 words make up about 90 percent!

Check out these lists of the top 1,000 words in these languages:

By focusing on learning these words first, you can eliminate wasted time and increase the amount of information you understand very quickly.

3. Study smart.

When learning your words, you’ll learn faster by using the very best study techniques.

For example, one of the best ways to learn vocabulary words is to use flashcards. Flashcards help you focus on individual words and allow you to test yourself, which helps you memorize new information.

When you learn with flashcards, follow these tips to learn fast:

To maximize your use of SRS programs and electronic flashcards, check out polyglot Olly Richards’ Conversations course, which is designed to help you set up workable, step-by-step systems for learning your target language. You can also get more targeted help with the Uncovered courses, which introduces the basics of specific languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian.

Practice makes perfect, but effective practice makes perfect even faster!

Some more great strategies for integrating new words alongside and beyond flashcards include:

4. Start using the language all day, every day.

As a beginner, it can seem overwhelming to try to use the language all day, but it’s not as difficult as it seems. There are many easy and even fun ways to make the language a part of your regular life.

First, make use of every moment you have to learn new words. Take flashcards with you, and study them during your train or bus commute (but not while driving, please!) or when you’re waiting to meet a friend.

When you start to feel tired, switch from active learning to passive learning by doing what you would normally do in your native language in your target language. Try watching a video or TV show, or streaming radio broadcasts in your target language.

There are many online resources to access entertaining audio and video clips. You can go to YouTube, search for radio stations and discover more native language content on the internet.

You may be asking, “How can I possibly watch a video or listen to the radio when I only know a handful of words?”

That’s where a program like FluentU comes in handy. With the FluentU program, you can watch content in your target language and understand everything thanks to accurate, interactive subtitles. This includes TV show clips, news segments, funny commercials and other native language media.

Besides having subtitles in English and your target language, the FluentU video player also lets you see the definition of any word at a click.

From this screen, you can check the grammar, pronunciation and example sentences of the word you clicked on. You can also see the word in use in other videos and add it as a flashcard.

Personalized exercises, interactive transcripts, vocabulary lists and other learning features round out this learning program. FluentU makes it possible to study with authentic videos in 10 different languages under one account.

So don’t neglect your listening skills, because listening to your target language can have many positive effects, including:

5. Seek out real-life practice.

Some of the best learning happens in real-life situations, particularly when you have no choice but to use a foreign language.

The easiest way to gain real-life practice is to travel or study abroad. Going abroad creates opportunities to be surrounded by people who speak the language you want to learn, many of whom don’t know your native language.

This is the favorite approach of organizations like the Peace Corps, which regularly places people with little or no knowledge of a language into full immersion situations. Although such situations can be uncomfortable, they provide enormous motivation to learn quickly.

But even without traveling abroad, you can immerse yourself in real-life situations that give you loads of language practice. Try these options:

6. Learn about the culture.

Understanding a language is about more than understanding words on a page. It’s important to learn about the culture and history associated with these words.

Knowing something about a country or culture’s history, current events, religious beliefs and common customs can help you understand a lot about what people say and do.

Researchers have found that children learn to read in a second language better when they understand the culture and context behind the pieces they read.

As you begin to study a new language, take some time to learn about the culture of the people who speak that language. Don’t feel this is a waste of time, even if it involves reading and watching videos in your native language. It will help you enormously and can even prevent you from making embarrassing and potentially offensive mistakes.

7. Test yourself.

Knowing that you plan to take a test is a great way to motivate yourself to learn faster.

Try to regularly test yourself in little ways. If you’re learning from a textbook, take practice tests or complete the exercises at the end of each chapter. You can also play online games or take online tests. Online practice tests can be found in almost any language, including French, Spanish, Japanese and German.

Planning to take a standardized test several months to a year after you begin learning a new language can also keep you motivated, and having the results can help you “prove” your language level to potential employers, schools or even just yourself.

The ACTFL OPI test is popular in many language-learning circles and widely respected. It tests oral proficiency and provides a score that ranks your level anywhere from “Novice Low” to “Superior.”

Some languages also have a standardized test specific to that language, such as the JLPT for Japanese or the HSK for Chinese. Ask teachers or professionals who know the language what tests they recommend.

8. Have fun!

We tend to learn best when we’re enjoying ourselves, so don’t forget to make language learning fun.

Playing games is a great way to have fun while learning. Games take advantage of our natural competitiveness and can help us practice language skills even when we feel tired.

You can also focus your learning on things that you find interesting, like a favorite hobby.

If you like to sew, for example, study words in your target language related to sewing, watch instructional sewing videos and talk with tailors who speak your target language.

If you’re learning French and fascinated by French politics, learn words used to describe political processes, and immerse yourself in articles about political issues, videos of political debates and talk shows about current events.

Finally, make friends who speak your target language or are interested in learning it. Languages aren’t meant to be learned in a vacuum! Real-life social events and conversations are what make language learning fun and worthwhile.

Make a point of talking to people and learning more about their lives and cultures.

You might be surprised at how excited they are to share information with you, and how quickly you make lasting friendships in the process.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Mark Manson

Life Advice That Doesn’t Suck

MM.net

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25 Tips to Learn a Foreign Language

Trying to learn a new foreign language can be daunting at first. Here are some tips to get you started.

W hen I arrived in Buenos Aires in the beginning of 2010, I could barely order food in a local restaurant. Two years later, I calmly explained the mechanics of Russian grammar to a Guatemalan friend… in her native Spanish.

Today, I’m conversationally fluent in both Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, and low conversational in Russian.

I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass and tell you it was easy or that there’s some shortcut or hack. I practiced my ass off. Honestly, I’ve seen the supposed “hacks” for learning a foreign language, and none of them worked for me. It took hours of study combined with stumbling through many, many conversations.

Here are 25 tips I’ve gathered over the past few years:

Conversation, Conversation, Conversation

If there’s a “secret” or “hack” to learning a foreign language, it’s this: hours and hours of awkward and strenuous conversation with people better than you in that language. 1 An hour of conversation (with corrections and a dictionary for reference) is as good as five hours in a classroom and 10 hours with a language course by yourself.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is motivation. 2 I don’t care how cool your study guide is, you’re going to be far more invested and motivated to communicate with a live person in front of you than a book or audio program on your computer.

The second reason is that language is something that needs to be processed, not memorized. I’m no linguistics professor, but in my experience, staring and memorizing a word in a book or with flashcards 100 times simply does not stick the same way as being forced to use a word in conversation a mere two or three times. 3

I believe the reason is that our minds place more priority on memories which involve actual human and social experiences, memories which have emotions tied to them.

So, for instance, if I look up the verb for “to complain” and use it in a sentence with a new friend, chances are I’m always going to associate that word with that specific interaction and conversation I was having with her. Whereas I can blow by that same word 20 times with flashcards, and even though I may get it right, I haven’t actually practiced implementing it. It means nothing to me, so it is less likely to stick with me.

Intensity of Study Trumps Length of Study

What I mean by this is that studying a language four hours a day for two weeks will be more beneficial for you than studying one hour a day for two months. This is one reason why so many people take language classes in school and never remember anything. It’s because they only study 3-4 hours per week and often the classes are separated by multiple days.

Language requires a lot of repetition, a lot of reference experiences, and a consistent commitment and investment. It’s better to allot a particular period of your life, even if it’s only 1-2 weeks, and really go at it 100%, than to half-ass it over the course of months or even years.

Classes Suck and Are an Inefficient Use of Time and Money

All things considered, you get a really poor return for your time and effort in group classes.

There are two problems. The first is that the class moves at the pace of its slowest student. The second is that learning a foreign language is a fairly personal process—everyone naturally learns some words or topics easier than others, therefore a class is not going to be able to address each student’s personal needs as well or in a timely fashion.

For instance, when I took Russian classes I found verb conjugations to be simple because I had already learned Spanish. But an English classmate struggled quite a bit with them. As a result, I spent a lot of my class time waiting around for him to catch up.

I also had a German classmate who had already been exposed to cases, whereas I had no clue what they were. I’m sure he ended up waiting around for me to figure it out as well. The larger the classroom, the less efficient it’s going to be. Anyone who had to take a foreign language in school and retained absolutely none of it can tell you this.

Know Your Motivation for Learning a New Language

It’s silly to even have to say this, but knowing why you’re learning a foreign language is key to mastering it.

Many people start learning a language with no idea of what they’ll use it for. And, sure enough, they fail. You can know all the tips and tricks there are to learning a language, but if you don’t know the why behind it all, how it’s going to enrich your life, chances are you’re going to lose motivation and the learning will fizzle out like an engine sputtering out of gas.

Are you looking to start a new life in a different country? Are you learning a foreign language because you’re fascinated by the culture and want to dive in at the deep end? Are you planning a trip to a foreign land and simply wanting to be able to order street food and tell the taxi driver where you’re going in the local language?

These are all good motivations to learn a foreign language.

And yes, there are bad ones too. If you want to learn Russian simply to impress that cute Russian you met at the bar, if you’re thinking of picking up French phrases to impress people and look smart, well, I have bad news for you.

Motivation is a tricky thing. You can will yourself to learn something difficult for a short period of time. But in the long run, you need to be reaping some practical benefit from your efforts. Without that, you’ll eventually burn out.

Set Learning Goals to Learn a Foreign Language

Language-learning goals are best if they are short, simple and easily measurable. Many of us embark on studying a language by saying, “I want to be fluent in Japanese in six months!”

The problem is, what is fluency? Fluent in what way? Casual conversation? Reading and writing? Discussing legal issues for your business?

Instead, it’s better to set clearly defined goals. Start with something like, “By the end of today, I will know how to greet someone and introduce myself. In two days, I will learn how to ask someone what they do for a living and explain to them what I do. By the end of the week, I will know how to procure food and avoid starvation.”

And to get you started, I’ll give you the goal of all goals, the milestone that will take you furthest on the path to fluency: “Master the 100 most common words in X weeks/months.”

Start With the 100 Most Common Words

Not all vocabulary is created equal. Some gives you a better return on investment than others. 4

For instance, when I lived in Buenos Aires, I met a guy who had been studying with Rosetta Stone for months (not recommended). I had been working on and off with a tutor for a few weeks, but I was surprised by how he could not follow even the most basic of conversations despite months of study and living there.

It turns out, much of the vocabulary he had been studying was for kitchen utensils, family members, clothing and rooms in a house. But if he wanted to ask someone which part of town they lived in, he had no idea what to say.

Start with the 100 most common words and then make sentences with them over and over again. Learn just enough grammar to be able to do this and do it until you feel pretty comfortable with all of them.

Carry a Pocket Dictionary

This made a much bigger difference than I expected.

I carry an English-Spanish dictionary app on my phone and I used it all the time when I lived in Spanish-speaking countries. My first two weeks in Brazil, I was lazy and kept forgetting to download an English-Portuguese application. I struggled in my conversations A LOT during those two weeks, despite knowing basic Portuguese.

Once I downloaded the dictionary, there was an immediate difference. Having it on your phone is great, because it takes two seconds to look something up in the middle of conversation. And because you’re using it in conversation, you’re that much more likely to recall it later.

Even something that simple affected my conversations and ability to interact with locals a great deal.

Keep Practicing the New Language in Your Head

The other use for your dictionary is that you can practice while going about your day and not talking to anyone.

Challenge yourself to think in the new language. We all have monologues running in our head, and typically they run in our native tongue. You can continue to practice and construct sentences and fake conversations in your head in a new language.

In fact, this sort of visualization leads to much easier conversations when you actually have them.

For instance, you can envision and practice a conversation about a topic you’re likely to have before you actually have it. You can begin to think about how you would describe your job and explain why you’re in the foreign country in the new language.

Inevitably, those questions will come up and you’ll be ready to answer them.

You’re Going to Say a Lot of Stupid Things. Accept It

When I was first learning Spanish, I once told a group of people that Americans put a lot of condoms in their food. Later, I told a girl that basketball makes me horny. Um, yeah… It’s going to happen. Trust me.

Figure Out Pronunciation Patterns

All Latin-based languages will have similar pronunciation patterns based on Latin words.

For instance, any word that ends in “-tion” in English will almost always end in “-ción” in Spanish and “-ção” in Portuguese.

English speakers are notorious for simply adding “-o” “-e” or “-a” to the end of English words to say Spanish words they don’t know. But stereotypes aside, it’s surprising how often it’s correct. “Destiny” is “destino,” “motive” is “motivo,” “part” is “parte” and so on.

In Russian, case endings always rhyme with one another, so if you are talking about a feminine noun (such as “Zhen-shee-na”), then you know that the adjectives and adverbs will usually rhyme with its ending (“krasee-vaya” as opposed to “krasee-vee”).

(For a language-learning method that focuses on pronunciation, check out The Mimic Method).

Use Audio and Online Courses for the First 100 Words and Basic Grammar

After that they should only be used for reference and nothing more.

There are a lot of study materials out there (I recommend Benny Lewis’ Language Hacking courses, but there are tons). These courses are great for getting you from absolutely no ability in a language to being able to speak basic sentences and phrases within a few days’ time. They’re also good for teaching the most fundamental vocabulary (words such as: the, I, you, eat, want, thanks, etc.).

I’ve already mentioned Rosetta Stone which I’m not a fan of (you can get better bang for your buck elsewhere—read on and find out). Other than this, there is no shortage of language apps for you to take your pick: Babbel, Memrise, and Duolingo being the most popular ones.

Each has its own shortcomings. None is a magic pill that gives you miraculous language abilities. But there is no doubt you can use them to complement your learning. If anything, the crowd-sourced sentences Duolingo uses to teach you grammar and vocabulary will provide great entertainment (and often a peek into what goes on in the minds of the people whose language you’re attempting to learn).

But remember, the greatest return on investment when learning a foreign language is forcing yourself to speak and communicate with others, and when you’re sitting in your bedroom with a book or a software program, you’re not being forced to formulate meaning and significance in the new language on the spot.

Instead, you’re encouraged to parrot and copy concepts and patterns you’ve observed elsewhere in the materials. As mentioned before, I feel that these are two different types of learning, and one is far more effective than the other. 5

After the First 100 Words, Focus on Becoming Conversational

Studies have shown that the most common 100 words in any language account for 50% of all spoken communication. The most common 1,000 words account for 80% of all spoken communication. The most common 3,000 words account for 99% of communication. 6

In other words, there are some serious diminishing returns from learning more vocabulary. 7 I probably only know 500-1,000 words in Spanish and in most conversations I never have to stop and look a word up in my phone.

The basic grammar should get you speaking fundamental sentences within a matter of days.

The first few hundred words will get you pretty far. Use them to get as comfortable as possible with grammar, idioms, slang and constructing thoughts, jokes, and ideas in the new language on the fly. Once you’re able to joke consistently in the new language, that’s a pretty good sign that it’s time to expand your vocabulary.

A lot of people attempt to expand their vocabulary too quickly and too soon. It’s a waste of time and effort because they’re still not comfortable with basic conversations about where they’re from, yet they’re studying vocabulary about economics or medicine. It makes no sense.

Aim for the Brain Melt

You know how when you do a lot of intellectually intensive work for hours and hours on end, at some point your brain just feels like a lump of gravy?

Shoot for that moment when learning foreign languages. Until you’ve reached brain-gravy stage, you probably aren’t maximizing your time or effort.

In the beginning, you’ll hit mind-melt within an hour or two. Later on, it may take an entire night of hanging out with locals before it happens. But when it happens, it’s a very good thing.

Use the New Language Daily

Unless you have superhuman abilities, you’re not going to become fluent in a language if you don’t use it often and consistently. And the best way to ensure you hit both marks is simply to use it daily.

Keep having those mental monologues. Go over those 100 words and conversational phrases you learned so they stick.

Better yet, immerse yourself in the new language. Changing the operating language on your browser or phone will leave you disoriented for a few days, but it will get you used to seeing the language in your daily life. Listen to podcasts or the radio in your target language on your commute.

Watch YouTube videos in the language you’re trying to learn. A lot of foreign-language videos will have English subtitles. And if you’re feeling bold, you can even watch them without the subtitles! The Internet is your friend. Let it help you melt your brain every day.

“How Do You Say X?” Is the Most Important Sentence You Can Possibly Learn

Learn it early and use it often.

One-on-One Tutoring Is the Best and Most Efficient Use of Time

It’s also usually the most expensive use of time, depending on the language and country.

But if you have the money, grabbing a solid tutor and sitting with him or her for a few hours every day is the fastest way to learn a foreign language that I’ve found.

A mere two hours a day for a few weeks with a tutor in Brazil got me to at least a respectable conversational level—i.e., I could go on a date with a girl who spoke no English and maintain conversation throughout the night without making too much of a fool of myself.

Speaking of which…

Date Someone Who Speaks the Target Language and Not Your Native Language

Talk about investment and motivation. You’ll be fluent in a month. And best of all, if you make them mad or do something wrong, you can claim that it was lost in translation.

If You Can’t Find Someone Cute Who Will Put Up With You, Find a Language Buddy Online

There is a number of websites of foreigners who want to learn English who would be willing to trade practice time in their native language for practice in yours.

Here is an overview of language exchange websites and apps. (The reviews are written by Bilingua, which is itself one of the apps reviewed, so take their bias into account.)

Facebook Chat + Google Translate = Winning

Seriously, technology is amazing.

When You Learn a New Word, Try to Use It a Few Times Right Away

When you stop and look up a new word in conversation, make a point to use it in the next two or three sentences you say.

Language learning studies show that you need to hit a certain amount of repetitions of saying a word within one minute of learning it, one hour of learning it, one day, etc. 8

Try to use it immediately a few times and then use it again later in the day. Chances are it’ll stick.

TV Shows, Movies, Newspapers and Magazines Are Good Supplements

But they should not be mistaken or replacements for legitimate practice.

When I was getting good at Spanish, I made a point to watch a couple movies each week and read an article on El País each day. It was helpful for keeping me fresh, but I don’t believe it was as helpful as my time spent in conversations.

Most People Are Helpful, Let Them Help

If you’re in a foreign country and making a complete ass out of yourself trying to buy something at the grocery store, ask random people for help. Point to something and ask how to say it. Ask them questions.

Most people are friendly and willing to help you out. Learning a foreign language is not for shy people.

There Will Be a Lot of Ambiguity and Miscommunication

Fact of the matter is that for many, many words, the translations are not direct.

“Gustar” may roughly mean “to like” in Spanish, but in usage, it’s more nuanced than that. It’s used for particular situations and contexts, whereas in English we use “like” as a blanket verb covering anything we enjoy or care about.

These subtle differences can add up, particularly in serious or emotional conversations. Intentions can be easily misconstrued. Nuanced conversations over important matters will likely require double the effort to nail down the exact meaning for each person than it would between two native speakers.

No matter how good you are in your new language, you’re not likely to have a complete grasp over the slight intuitive differences between each word, phrase or idiom that a native speaker does without living in the country for years.

These Are the Phases You Go Through to Learn a Foreign Language

First, you’re able to speak a little and understand nothing. Then you’re able to understand far more than you speak. Then you become conversational, but it requires quite a bit of mental effort. After that, you’re able to speak and understand without conscious mental effort (i.e., you don’t have to translate words into your native tongue in your mind).

Once you’re able to speak and listen without thinking about it, you’ll begin to actually think in the foreign language itself without effort. Once this happens, you’re really hitting a high level.

And the final level? Believe it or not, being able to follow a conversation between a large group of native speakers is the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place. Or at least it was for me.

Once that happens, and you’re able to interject, come in and out of the conversation at will, you’re pretty set. After that, there’s not really anywhere else to go without living in the country for at least a year or two and reaching complete fluency.

Finally, Find a Way to Make It Fun

As with anything, if you’re going to stick to it, you have to find a way to make it fun.

Find people you enjoy talking to. Go to events where you can practice while doing something fun. Don’t just sit in a classroom in front of a book, or you’re likely to burn out fairly quickly.

Talk about personal topics which you care about. Find out about the person you’re talking to. Make it personal, a life experience, or else you’re going to be in for a long, unenjoyable process which will likely end up in you forgetting everything you learned.

And those, my friends, are my 25 tips to learn a foreign language effectively. Now go and get learning.

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I love learning foreign languages. In fact, I love it so much that I like to learn a new language every two years, currently working on my eighth one. When people find that out about me, they always ask me, «How do you do that? What’s your secret?» And to be honest, for many years, my answer would be, «I don’t know. I simply love learning languages.» But people were never happy with that answer. They wanted to know why they are spending years trying to learn even one language, never achieving fluency, and here I come, learning one language after another. They wanted to know the secret of polyglots, people who speak a lot of languages. And that made me wonder, too, how do actually other polyglots do it? What do we have in common? And what is it that enables us to learn languages so much faster than other people? I decided to meet other people like me and find that out.

The best place to meet a lot of polyglots is an event where hundreds of language lovers meet in one place to practice their languages. There are several such polyglot events organized all around the world, and so I decided to go there and ask polyglots about the methods that they use.

And so I met Benny from Ireland, who told me that his method is to start speaking from day one. He learns a few phrases from a travel phrasebook and goes to meet native speakers and starts having conversations with them right away. He doesn’t mind making even 200 mistakes a day, because that’s how he learns, based on the feedback. And the best thing is, he doesn’t even need to travel a lot today, because you can easily have conversations with native speakers from the comfort of your living room, using websites.

I also met Lucas from Brazil who had a really interesting method to learn Russian. He simply added a hundred random Russian speakers on Skype as friends, and then he opened a chat window with one of them and wrote «Hi» in Russian. And the person replied, «Hi, how are you?» Lucas copied this and put it into a text window with another person, and the person replied, «I’m fine, thank you, and how are you?» Lucas copied this back to the first person, and in this way, he had two strangers have a conversation with each other without knowing about it.

And soon he would start typing himself, because he had so many of these conversations that he figured out how the Russian conversation usually starts. What an ingenious method, right?

And then I met polyglots who always start by imitating sounds of the language, and others who always learn the 500 most frequent words of the language, and yet others who always start by reading about the grammar. If I asked a hundred different polyglots, I heard a hundred different approaches to learning languages. Everybody seems to have a unique way they learn a language, and yet we all come to the same result of speaking several languages fluently.

And as I was listening to these polyglots telling me about their methods, it suddenly dawned on me: the one thing we all have in common is that we simply found ways to enjoy the language-learning process. All of these polyglots were talking about language learning as if it was great fun. You should have seen their faces when they were showing me their colorful grammar charts and their carefully handmade flash cards, and their statistics about learning vocabulary using apps, or even how they love to cook based on recipes in a foreign language. All of them use different methods, but they always make sure it’s something that they personally enjoy.

I realized that this is actually how I learn languages myself. When I was learning Spanish, I was bored with the text in the textbook. I mean, who wants to read about Jose asking about the directions to the train station. Right? I wanted to read «Harry Potter» instead, because that was my favorite book as a child, and I have read it many times. So I got the Spanish translation of «Harry Potter» and started reading, and sure enough, I didn’t understand almost anything at the beginning, but I kept on reading because I loved the book, and by the end of the book, I was able to follow it almost without any problems. And the same thing happened when I was learning German. I decided to watch «Friends,» my favorite sitcom, in German, and again, at the beginning it was all just gibberish. I didn’t know where one word finished and another one started, but I kept on watching every day because it’s «Friends.» I can watch it in any language. I love it so much. And after the second or third season, seriously, the dialogue started to make sense.

I only realized this after meeting other polyglots. We are no geniuses and we have no shortcut to learning languages. We simply found ways how to enjoy the process, how to turn language learning from a boring school subject into a pleasant activity which you don’t mind doing every day. If you don’t like writing words down on paper, you can always type them in an app. If you don’t like listening to boring textbook material, find interesting content on YouTube or in podcasts for any language. If you’re a more introverted person and you can’t imagine speaking to native speakers right away, you can apply the method of self-talk. You can talk to yourself in the comfort of your room, describing your plans for the weekend, how your day has been, or even take a random picture from your phone and describe the picture to your imaginary friend. This is how polyglots learn languages, and the best news is, it’s available to anyone who is willing to take the learning into their own hands.

So meeting other polyglots helped me realize that it is really crucial to find enjoyment in the process of learning languages, but also that joy in itself is not enough. If you want to achieve fluency in a foreign language, you’ll also need to apply three more principles.

First of all, you’ll need effective methods. If you try to memorize a list of words for a test tomorrow, the words will be stored in your short-term memory and you’ll forget them after a few days. If you, however, want to keep words long term, you need to revise them in the course of a few days repeatedly using the so-called space repetition. You can use apps which are based on this system such as Anki or Memrise, or you can write lists of word in a notebook using the Goldlist method, which is also very popular with many polyglots. If you’re not sure which methods are effective and what is available out there, just check out polyglots’ YouTube channels and websites and get inspiration from them. If it works for them, it will most probably work for you too.

The third principle to follow is to create a system in your learning. We’re all very busy and no one really has time to learn a language today. But we can create that time if we just plan a bit ahead. Can you wake up 15 minutes earlier than you normally do? That would be the perfect time to revise some vocabulary. Can you listen to a podcast on your way to work while driving? Well, that would be great to get some listening experience. There are so many things we can do without even planning that extra time, such as listening to podcasts on our way to work or doing our household chores. The important thing is to create a plan in the learning. «I will practice speaking every Tuesday and Thursday with a friend for 20 minutes. I will listen to a YouTube video while having breakfast.» If you create a system in your learning, you don’t need to find that extra time, because it will become a part of your everyday life.

And finally, if you want to learn a language fluently, you need also a bit of patience. It’s not possible to learn a language within two months, but it’s definitely possible to make a visible improvement in two months, if you learn in small chunks every day in a way that you enjoy. And there is nothing that motivates us more than our own success.

I vividly remember the moment when I understood the first joke in German when watching «Friends.» I was so happy and motivated that I just kept on watching that day two more episodes, and as I kept watching, I had more and more of those moments of understanding, these little victories, and step by step, I got to a level where I could use the language freely and fluently to express anything. This is a wonderful feeling. I can’t get enough of that feeling, and that’s why I learn a language every two years.

So this is the whole polyglot secret. Find effective methods which you can use systematically over the period of some time in a way which you enjoy, and this is how polyglots learn languages within months, not years.

Now, some of you may be thinking, «That’s all very nice to enjoy language learning, but isn’t the real secret that you polyglots are just super talented and most of us aren’t?»

Well, there’s one thing I haven’t told you about Benny and Lucas. Benny had 11 years of Irish Gaelic and five years of German at school. He couldn’t speak them at all when graduating. Up to the age of 21, he thought he didn’t have the language gene and he could not speak another language. Then he started to look for his way of learning languages, which was speaking to native speakers and getting feedback from them, and today Benny can easily have a conversation in 10 languages. Lucas tried to learn English at school for 10 years. He was one of the worst students in class. His friends even made fun of him and gave him a Russian textbook as a joke because they thought he would never learn that language, or any language. And then Lucas started to experiment with methods, looking for his own way to learn, for example, by having Skype chat conversations with strangers. And after just 10 years, Lucas is able to speak 11 languages fluently.

Does that sound like a miracle? Well, I see such miracles every single day. As a language mentor, I help people learn languages by themselves, and I see this every day. People struggle with language learning for five, 10, even 20 years, and then they suddenly take their learning into their own hands, start using materials which they enjoy, more effective methods, or they start tracking their learning so that they can appreciate their own progress, and that’s when suddenly they magically find the language talent that they were missing all their lives.

So if you’ve also tried to learn a language and you gave up, thinking it’s too difficult or you don’t have the language talent, give it another try. Maybe you’re also just one enjoyable method away from learning that language fluently. Maybe you’re just one method away from becoming a polyglot.

1. What is your favorite, most enjoyable way to learn English?

2. What’s your favorite language learning app or YouTube channel? Why do you like it? How often/when do you use it?

3. Can you think of any «new, enjoyable» ways to study English that you haven’t tried before?