There are many benefits to learning a new language. From improving your health (both physical and mental), to increasing your cultural awareness, and giving you the opportunity for enhanced interaction with other people, learning a foreign language can be fun, stimulating and challenging.
If you’ve been thinking about learning a new language the following tips will help guide you through the process from setting achievable targets, to understanding why languages are fluid, and constantly changing.
1. Realistic, Achievable Goals
Most of us overestimate our ability to complete certain tasks within a given timeframe as we are naturally optimistic about our abilities, while seemingly oblivious to how quickly time can pass when we have a busy work schedule.
However, setting achievable and realistic goals are essential to your success in learning a new language.
Before starting out, consider how you plan to structure your learning, create a timetable for learning, revision and review, and then set small objectives that are attainable within a specific, realistic time frame.
This way, you will motivate yourself each time a target is reached, and you can track your improvement in your new language through your goals.
Setting targets such as, reading a foreign newspaper, writing a letter in another language, or having a conversation with a native speaker about the weather, will ensure you are putting your new language to good use, and should encourage you to persist with it, even when busy.
2. Motivation for Language Learning
It might be necessary to remind yourself why you have chosen to learn a foreign language every now and then, especially when you are struggling to find the time, or the inclination, to continue your endeavour.
Write a list of 10 reasons why you want to learn a new language and keep it somewhere visible, so you can check it frequently and remember why you doing it.
3. Language and Learning
We all learn in different ways, and what might be right for one person can often be completely wrong for another.
Understanding how you learn best will help you to tailor your language education, ensuring you make the most of your time and effort.
Ask yourself questions such as, do I prefer learning in a group setting? Should I go for an e-learning programme? Or, do I learn best from traditional methods such as, a text book?
Once you understand your preferred learning methods, you can target your methods to fit, thus increasing your chance of success, and improving the speed with which you learn.
4. Read in Another Language
We encourage children to read from a young age as this encourages them to learn new words, grammatical structures, sentence formats, tone, humour, and gives valuable context to learning.
Reading, in a foreign language, is an excellent way of promoting and supporting your learning. It also gives you valuable insight into the progress you’ve made, and any areas where your knowledge is lacking.
5. Context, Language and Memory
The ability to memorise long lists of foreign words, grammatical rules and so on, are improved when you can place your learning into context.
For example, if you are learning Arabic, consider taking a holiday to an Arabic country, reading Arabic literature, or conversing with Arab friends.
If the above isn’t possible, consider linking what you learn to your own life. In other words, use relevant content that connects your daily experience with your new language – if you work in a hospital, read a foreign medical journal, if you are a lawyer, read court transcripts in your new language.
6. Language and Age
There is a myth that suggests it is easier for children to learn a foreign language, than it is for adults.
While it is true that adults and children learn in different ways, it does not mean that adults are slower, or less adept at learning new skills, or languages.
Children are more inclined to learn in an organic, natural way, while adults frequently prefer a systematic approach to learning. Both of which fit languages well, as they are simultaneously organic, and methodical.
No-one is ‘too old’ to learn a new language, as it has frequently been suggested by medical studies that learning a foreign language can promote brain activity, encourage production of new neural pathways, and delay the onset of degenerative illness such as, Alzheimer’s disease.
7. Native Language Revision
Understanding, and comprehending, your native language can assist you with mastering a foreign language.
By grasping the complexities of your primary language, you can help to shape your concept of language, written words, spoken dialogue, and grammatical structures, all of which will boost your learning.
8. Translation Exercises Aid Learning
There is often a plateau that is reached when learning a foreign language, where you consider you have mastered the basics, can speak the language quite well, with a fair degree of accuracy, but you feel as though your learning has slowed, and you’re unsure of how to progress from there.
At this point, it is worth using translation exercises to improve your speed, knowledge, and ability.
Find a book you enjoy, and begin translating certain sections word by word. Try not to paraphrase, or skip sections, as this will build upon your knowledge base, propelling you onto the next level with your new language.
9. Fluency and Native Speakers.
Native speakers often cut language corners; use of colloquialisms, regional dialects, and so on, can sometimes appear to flout language rules, making fluency a difficult thing to grasp.
By its very nature, language is constantly evolving in a bid to fit with culturally accepted norms, new technology, and changing influences.
Striving for fluency might limit your ability to continue your learning, as you assume you have reached a final goal, and is perhaps best left to those translators, interpreters, and linguistic experts who require it for their trade.
10. Take a Holiday
It isn’t always possible to travel, or live, abroad for extended periods in order to master a new language, but it is by far the most effective method for improving your skills, and putting into practise what you have learnt.
If you are out and about on a foreign holiday, experiencing the language, culture, and traditions of another country, you can use your knowledge to interact with locals, order food, discuss the weather, and so on, which gives you a valuable insight into the language and people.
However, books, word lists, verb charts, and so on, all assist with learning the basics of a language, to really immerse yourself in the country, the people, and culture, will enable you to surpass these, exposing you to new experiences which can reinforce your knowledge.
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