Language Learning Tips

How to learn a new language? Here are some tips about how to learn languages.

Tip number one; talk to a partner. This could be a native speaker who you know, someone who is taking the class, but in a year or two above you. If you can't find an actual person in real life, you can use an app like hello talk. The basic premise of the app is to practice in a chat and you can also translate messages, send and receive corrections, and practice speaking with the speak option. There's also moments. Which is a mini social media where you share and see things in the language that you're learning.

Tip number two; journal & talk to yourself. You can't be talking to someone all the time, so you can also keep a journal in your target language or talk to yourself. Of course when you're doing this, you can't get corrections or ask for things you don't know but you can use a dictionary to find the words you're looking for.

Tip number three; make it relevant. Learn about things that are relevant to you. We tend to remember things better when they're important to us.

Tip number four; listen. To improve your pronunciation by listening to how words sound. You can listen to podcasts or watch TV or YouTube in the language that you're learning. There are a lot of digital resources to help you with this.

Tip number five; read. You can improve at reading and writing. And learn new vocabulary words and grammar structures by reading. Books, magazines, newspapers, or blogs in your target language. Again, there are a lot of digital resources that can help you out along with many library books.

Tip number six; figure out grammar patterns. Building on that previous tip, it's best to learn grammar by figuring out the patterns for yourself, NOT memorizing a bunch of rules. Because that's how we learn grammar in our native languages: By internalizing the patterns.

Tip number seven: flashcards. Use flashcards for learning vocabulary. You can use digital flashcards like Quizlet. Make physical flashcards, or use a spaced repetition system like Anki which give you words at specific intervals to help you maximize how much you remember. For these flashcards I recommend using either a photo or a definition of the word in your target language. That way you won't need to translate instead you'll associate the word with the concept.

Extra: Keep practicing in your head, and don't forget; conversation, conversation, conversation.