For many, learning a language can seem almost unobtainable- a skill that they just will never master. Every year, thousands of people make a new year’s resolution to learn a new language, yet often fall through on that promise.
This language learning guide will aim to give you clear instructions on how to learn a new language in 2020.
This is a tried and true method of learning a new language, and there are thousands of language learning resources, including dedicated blogs, to help you!
1. Write down your goal, make a plan
Seems simple enough eh? Good. So many people fail to learn a new language because they just don’t have a plan.
People say, “Oh, I want to learn X language as my New Year’s resolution.” But that is as far as they go.
You need to write down what language you want to learn, how you are going to learn it, where you are going to learn it, why you are going to learn it etc. Essentially this plan should cover the 5 w’s.
You might also want to write down where you are going to use the language, after you have learnt it. There is no point learning a language if you can’t use it!
2. Sign up for classes
We are in the 21st Century, so there are 21st Century resources to help you to learn another language.
Many would say that learning a language has never been easier! 20 years ago, you needed to learn a language by going to physical language classes, now this is not the case. Now, we can learn a language through an app on our phone! There are apps that you can download today, such as Babbel and Duolingo, that require only a few minutes of language learning each day!
Choosing the right style of classes is vital to your success. When writing your plan, you need to ask yourself “Am I an independent learner? A group learner? Or would I prefer one on one teaching?”
By asking yourself this, you enable yourself to become the best possible language learner.
Look through reviews of the classes you are looking to go to, and make sure that they are the best ones for you.
If you are unsure as to which language you wish to learn, or if it is even the right thing for you, use one of the free language learning resources. Once you are satisfied as to which language you want to learn, and that it is the best thing for you, you can then use one of the paid language learning resources.
I would probably recommend that everyone uses free language learning resources before paid ones, as it will save you a lot, if it is not for you!
Learning the vocabulary is obviously the most important part of this language learning guide, but is so often overlooked, with people saying “Oh, it’s fine! I’ll get to it when I get to it!” And then they never do!
3. Start learning
This too sounds easy enough, but it is by far the most important step of this language learning guide, and learning the language in general.
Learn the language how you want to. If you learn best by compiling incredibly detailed notes, and revising them every night- do so! If you learn best by compiling notes, listening and practicing for 30 minutes every night before going to bed- do so!
Try to tell your teacher about your learning style so that they can set tasks that best suit what you are trying to accomplish.
One major part that you may have neglected to research is dialects- that is, variations of the standard form of that language. This tends to happen with languages who are more widely spoken- English has American English and British English and Spanish has European Spanish and Latino Spanish (many variants).
Make sure that before you begin learning your chosen language, you are certain that the dialect you want to learn is the correct dialect you are learning! I will reiterate this throughout this language learning guide- this is one of the most important parts of this language learning guide!
4. Visual ques
So, you’ve started to learn the basics, or even the most advanced parts of your new language, but now you need to encode them into your brain, and prevent yourself from forgetting them!
When I was learning Catalan, I used post-it notes to label the vocabulary I had learned. For example, on my window, I placed the word “La finestra” (for reference, ‘la finestra’ means ‘window’ in Catalan).
I placed these all around my house, in order to memorise them! Every time you go to open up that item or touch it, you close your eyes, say the item’s name in the language you are learning, open your eyes, and look at what the answer is. Every time you do this, even if you get it wrong, your brain is remembering it, and storing it for later use.
Soon you’ll be remembering everything like never before!
This is a very simple step of this language learning guide, and only takes a few minutes to organise. But so many people just stop, and it is so infuriating!
5. Extra studies
You probably haven’t thought much about what happens after you come home from your ‘X language class’. Study after study shows that those who try to adapt the language they are using in their daily lives, have the highest rates of fluency when tested.
Whilst I’m not suggesting that you need to go home and read Voltaire in its original French just because you are learning French, anything can help.
If you are learning a language that is widely spoken, such as French, Polish, Russian, Arabic or Spanish, there will be a lot of material on the internet. If you are interested in aircraft, and you are learning Spanish, read an aviation blog in Spanish!
If you have Netflix, you can listen to you favourite shows in quite a few different languages! You have the audio in Polish, whilst you have the English subtitles on, or vice versa! Whichever one you find best, do it!
This is one of the most important steps in this language learning guide, yet so many people pass this up, because they are ‘too busy’. If you are on your way to work in a morning, on the bus, in the car, listen to something, or read something in the language you are learning!
6. Consistency
This is probably the second most important part of this language learning guide. Not staying true to your commitment is the number one reason why people fail on their New Year’s resolution!
Staying consistent isn’t just about turning up every week to your classes, or logging on to Duolingo every night before bed, it’s about time frame. If you spend the same amount of time each day/week, dedicated to learning your language, it will come second nature to you!
If you spend 10 minutes before bed, every night learning Swahili on Duolingo, without fail, soon it will become second nature to do so, without you needing a visual or verbal reminder to do!
Once you have kept the consistency, and you have followed everything else in this language learning guide, it should only take you a matter of months to learn your desired language!
7. Learning language-family clusters
This probably isn’t too important if you’re learning a language because you want to learn a specific language for school or work. But if, like me, you want to learn a language for fun, learning language-family clusters might come in handy!
If you are trying to learn Spanish, a tactic many people (including myself) use, is clustering. This tactic is essentially, picking one language as the primary one, and then learning other languages that are similar to it!
For example, if you were trying to learn Spanish, you might also try to learn Catalan, Portuguese, Asturians and Galician. This is so that your brain can memorise in detail the grammar rules, basic vocabulary and style of the language!
Believe it or not, clustering is one of the best ways to learn, not only your desired language, but also similar languages too!
Clustering is probably the least useful part of this language learning guide if your New Year’s resolution is to learn, say, Spanish and that’s it. But if you are trying to learn a language for fun, it could be one of the most useful parts of this language learning guide!