How to learn a foreign language

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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.

HEY FUCKFACE, THIS EBOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE IN LIKE 12 SECONDS OR SOMETHING

I’ve written a 22-page ebook about three ideas that heavily influenced my life, and that I believe can influence your life too. Put your email in the form and I’ll send it to you.

You’ll also get my monthly newsletter, lovingly called Mindfuck Monthly. You can opt out at any time. See my privacy policy.

How to Learn a Foreign Language Quickly

by Amanda Johnson, Employee Motivation Consultant for ClickHelp.com — professional technical writing tool

N owadays, technical documentation is translated all over the world. And it’s useful for technical writers to know at least one foreign language. It raises their chances to take part in interesting projects. But how to learn a foreign language if we work so hard and get tired after office hours? I have some techniques and resources for you that will ease your learning.

Techniques

Use the Internet Wisely

Nowadays, there are a great number of opportunities to learn a foreign language thanks to the Internet. For example, you can find some relevant groups on Facebook. If you want to learn French, just type in Facebook search “learn French” and choose a group that you like. You’ll find there not only books but lists of useful phrases and jokes, audio files and vlogs that will make your learning more enjoyable.

We used to boring books that made learning so hateful. Moreover, books may contain old phrases that are not in use anymore because any language is a dynamic and ever-changing system because of the globalization. Nowadays, you can make your learning process more exciting — just open a website with foreign memes and translate them. It will help you get acquainted with the modern language and slang.

Watch and Listen

In order to immerse yourself in a language, do all activities that you normally do using your native tongue. Here is what I mean — watch videos and films, listen to music and podcasts, etc. For the first time, you can use subtitles, but the problem is you will get used to rely on them but there are no subtitles in the real life 😉

The best way to study the basics of a language is to watch cartoons — their vocabulary is easy to understand, and the visual content will help you learn new words faster.

Using different devices is a part of your daily routine. So, change language settings that you can pick up words you’ve already known in English but not in a new language.

Study a Language Every Day

To know a language well, you need to study every day because if you want to learn it in a short period of time, you have to repeat new vocabulary and grammar rules over and over again. For some people to have individual lessons with a tutor may be too expensive. So, study by yourself, you can do it anywhere — during your lunch or on the way home. Further you’ll find some apps where you can get information in a game format.

Resources

Anki is a program which makes remembering things easier. Because it’s a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.

Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless.

Duolingo

Everyone learns in different ways. For the first time in history, Duolingo team can analyze how millions of people learn at once to create the most effective educational system possible and tailor it to each student.

Their ultimate goal is to give everyone access to a private tutor experience through technology. It’s hard to stay motivated when learning online, so Duolingo team made it so fun that people would prefer picking up new skills over playing a game.

Memrise

Their recipe for effortless learning has 3 simple ingredients:

The first is science. They’re obsessed with using brain science to help you learn faster. And from day one they’ve built Memrise to embody the very best knowledge about how your brain works, and so help you learn as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

The second is fun. They want to make learning your favourite playtime activity.

The third is community. With their community they’re building a kind of multimedia wonderland of learning, where videos, audio, usage, mnemonics, etymologies and much more bring your learning to life.

Babbel

It’s founded in 2007, Babbel is the world’s first language learning app. Being a leader in the online language learning industry, Babbel is an international success with more than 1 million active subscribers and ranked as the world’s #1 innovative company in education. Their meticulously designed courses guarantee you language skills you can use right away. Babbel is the shortest path to real-life conversations; 73% of their users indicated that they’d be able to have a short, simple conversation in their new language within five hours of using Babbel.

Of course, to translate technical documentation to a foreign language requires great efforts — the very basics of a language will not be enough. However, the first step is the half of the journey. So, don’t be afraid and start learning a language right now!

What apps and techniques did you use to learn languages quickly? What was your motivator?

How to Learn a Foreign Language Fast

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored article. TPH and The Phonetic House did not receive financial or any form of compensation from the websites and brands mentioned in the article. None of the links in the article are affiliate links.

Have you ever wondered, whether you should join the ever-rising count of people, opting to learn foreign languages?

If not, maybe you should reconsider, since learning a foreign language does have quite a few benefits of its own. Researchers have discovered, that learning a foreign language enhances one’s memory and skills, not to mention the fact that it is incredibly essential in today’s economy as it promotes a more connected and integrated society. It is a huge benefit during foreign travel as well, since knowing a different language can prove to be a huge confidence booster and help to connect with the locals and have a better traveling experience altogether. Besides, it also provides a competitive edge over people who haven’t become multilingual yet.

The most spoken languages in the world include Mandarin (spoken mainly in China, Taiwan and surrounding countries), Spanish (spoken in South America and Spain) and English (spoken in North America, India and scattered parts of the world).

So, the next question which arises is, which are the languages that are, in fact, easier for English speaking learners, than others, to start with. Here’s a list to help with that:

Languages Which Are Easy to Learn for English Speakers

Spanish

Spanish only differs from English in morphology (word formation) and phonology (pronunciation). According to the FSI study, a native English speaker requires an average of 23–24 weeks and between 555 and 600 classroom hours to become proficient in Spanish.

Portuguese

Much like Spanish, Portuguese only varies from English in morphology and phonology. On average, a native English speaker needs between 23 and 24 weeks and 575–600 class hours to achieve language proficiency in French, according to the FSI study findings.

French

Whatever you may have heard about French’s gendered nouns, verbal forms, pronunciation, and all of those tricky silent letters, French is still one of the easiest Latin-derived languages for English speakers to learn. According to the FSI study, a native English speaker needs between 24 and 25 weeks and 600–675 class hours on average, to achieve language proficiency in French.

Like the easiest languages, there are, however, a few of them, which you might do well to avoid on your first go.

Mandarin

Despite being one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, as previously mentioned, it is also one of the most difficult to learn the language, which makes it really rewarding when you actually succeed in doing so.

Arabic

In Arabic, most letters are written in 4 different forms depending on where they’re placed in a word, and to complicate things, vowels are not included while writing. Also, to complicate things further, there are many different dialects that make translation a nightmare.

Japanese

What makes Japanese more complicated and difficult than your average character-based writing system is that thousands of characters have to be learned before being able to write in Japanese to any great extent (huge shoutout to the anime fans who’ve actually managed to learn a decent amount of the language by watching anime and reading manga).

Now for the most important question, “How do we even learn these foreign languages effectively?”

There are a large number of apps and videos which can help achieve fluency in these languages.

Apps to Help You Learn Foreign Languages

Memrise

Memrise is the place to go for fun language vocabulary learning. The fun of Memrise lies in two things: memes and gamification. The app follows a learning method that relies on creating funny or bizarre associations with the studied words. Courses are often coupled with memes designed to playfully help remember the vocabulary. It also has vocabulary lists like “Japanese naughty words” or words from the Japanese translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Duolingo

If you’re into foreign languages, you must be familiar with the green bird which teaches you any foreign language you might want to learn for free. Yep, that’s Duolingo for you.

Luis von Ahn successfully merged gamification and learning, addicting people to languages and producing an app with over 100 million users. The app has become a staple example of mobile language learning. It also teaches fictional languages like Klingon(go Star Trek) and High Valerian(GOT. ) for fandom enthusiasts(like myself). Also, language streaks are a lot of fun to maintain.

LinguaLift

Lingualift is a language app that is geared towards serious learners who are in need of a complete language program with the guidance of a tutor. They do have a good app, but it’s the extra help from the professional teachers, which makes the difference.

HelloTalk

HelloTalk is an app meant for speaking practice and eliminating the potential stress of real-time conversation. Learners can find native speakers and converse with them using a WhatsApp-like chat with voice and text messages. It is always awesome to come across a learner who wants to learn your native language while your target is to learn theirs!! Users can correct each other’s messages with an in-built correction tool, which transforms the language exchanges into tiny tutoring sessions, while also helping to convert words in your language into words of your target language, through a translator.

Mindsnacks

The languages Mindsnacks teach come with eight or nine tiny games that are designed to help you learn vocabulary, grammar, and help you practice your listening. There are short, simple lessons outlining concepts that are then practiced or tested in the games before they achieve the status of being mastered. Also, you just end up reviewing the concepts already taught when you go back to play your favourite games.

Few Sources of Language Learning Videos on the Internet

Open Culture

This site has a massive list of resources where you can learn 48 languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. While many are in audio formats, there are also video lessons that can assist you in lifelong language learning.

FluentU

FluentU’s sole purpose is to teach a new language through real-world videos. The videos range from newscasts, inspiring talks and commercials to movie trailers and even cartoon clips — there’s just a huge variety of content. Every word comes with an in-context definition, image, audio and multiple example sentences.

YouTube

YouTube has become the window to all sorts of learning from class subjects, funny videos, vlogs to anything you can think of including language videos. Many teachers and speakers have channels devoted to teaching various languages like “Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101”, “Terzo Segreto”, “Francais Authentique”, “Get Germanized”, “Hello Rusty” and others, for learning Spanish, Italian, French, German and Portuguese respectively. With this vast number of choices, you can actually have your pick of teachers and lessons, thereby finding the best option for yourself.

BBC Languages

BBC is far from just being a news company. It’s at the forefront of education and its language teaching site, BBC Languages, carries 40 different languages. The videos are well-paced, involving common everyday social situations and is ideal for beginners.

Omniglot

Omniglot describes itself as “the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages,” and mainly deals with language profiles and their written forms.

It has a special video section aimed at teaching the languages to beginners. The site also links to other useful languages learning videos from Easy Languages (learning languages from the streets of the world), Wikitongues (people from around the world speaking their native language) and videos from polyglot conferences from around the world.

All this sounds too hectic and feels like a lot of unnecessary pressure?

No worries, there is something easier for all of us sleepyheads out there.

Sleep learning also called Hypnopedia, first became popular in the early 20th century and really took off with Soviet studies of the field in the 1960s. A 1965 study suggested that it could be possible to learn during sleep and noted that language learning could be one potential application.

There are YouTube channels dedicated to sleep learning. There are many programs like Sleep Learning which offers purchasable sleep learning CDs and MP3 downloads. It makes the ambitious claim- that it can help you learn a new language in 30 days. To do this, the programs aim to teach you foreign language sounds and words until you can put them together into sentences. The goal of each program is to teach you the 850 most common words in your target language, equipping you with the most essential vocabulary.

Being multilingual has a lot of benefits. There are also various cognitive benefits of being multilingual. Multilingual people have a more efficient and better-developed executive control system in the brain, as they constantly switch between languages, without thinking about it. They have more rational decision-making skills and a more perceptive understanding of the world. Being multilingual changes the brain structure and improves memory, helps process information better and helps with multitasking skills. Additionally, multilingual people are better suited to jobs because of today’s diverse population.

«I understand you»: 5 effective ways to learn a foreign language

One of the most desired things for many people is to learn one or even several foreign languages at once. And we are talking not about travel lovers only, but also about people who cannot imagine their life without self-development. However, experienced students know how difficult it is to achieve good results.

Tutors, modern teaching methods and courses are just the technical side. But when studying foreign languages a psychological aspect is also important. Usually it is the wrong personal attitude that prevents you from acquiring new knowledge. Even people, who have already found the best way to learn a foreign language, are faced with “stagnation” and a lack of desire to learn over time. How to overcome psychological barriers and easily learn a new language? Let’s figure it out together.

What prevents us from studying a foreign language?

Money wasted, stress, self-flagellation and guilt are the negative consequences that lead to failure in trying to learn a new language. And it’s not the “wrong” textbooks or the inability to remember a lot of information that is to blame. Most often, subconscious beliefs prevent learning any foreign language.

We will help you overcome the language barrier

1. «Why do I need it?»

Someone who claims that “I do not need English / French / German” in most cases experiences fear and insecurity. Self-development and personal fulfillment are inhibited by negative feelings from childhood. It could be a belief that learning a foreign language is the prerogative of the successful and rich people only, while they’re not.

These emotions, as a rule, are not actually well-warranted. Money and success in other ventures do not automatically translate into success in learning foreign languages. And new knowledge can be useful not only in travels not everyone can afford. People like that are simply envious deep inside of those who have more courage to begin learning new things than they do.

2. «What if I fail at it?»

Excellent student syndrome is the enemy of any undertakings. This makes you feel aggrieved and despaired, which leads to hesitation to act. Many people assume that their whole life is a trial in the courtroom with strict jurors. Fear of making a mistake prevents you from focusing on what is important and enjoying yourself. Learning a foreign language is not an exception. To avoid stress and negative emotions, a person obsesses with the idea that it’s better not to start at all, even though he recently longed to enroll in English courses.

You need to get rid of the excellent student syndrome. It cultivates self-doubt and numerous fears towards socializing with people. Polyglots are not born, they are made.

3. «I’m too embarrassed to speak with native speakers »

Dialogue with native speakers is one of the main ways of productive learning. But not everyone succeeds in using the accumulated knowledge in practice, even if before that there were no problems with remembering foreign words and grammar rules. People like that have difficulties getting into a conversation and clearly expressing their thoughts. The main cause of this situation is the fear to look ridiculous. It is necessary to get rid of it; otherwise the feeling of stiffness and constraint when trying to communicate in another language will never go away.

There can be another reason for the mental block that person experiences when communicating with a native speaker. Active articulation (and you can’t do without it, trying to learn foreign dialect) can bring you pleasure. And if in the mind of a person this action is sexualized, they will most likely forbid themselves to feel positive emotions from relishing individual words and phrases in a foreign language. In the best case, this will make it difficult to obtain the ideal accent, and in the worst case, a person won’t be able to open their mouth when communicating with a foreigner entirely. A powerful block against receiving pleasant experiences related to articulation can prevent people from successfully learning a foreign language. [2]

4. «It’s difficult to study a foreign language»

In most cases, the alleged difficulty of learning foreign languages is an excuse for those who cannot motivate themselves to acquire new knowledge. Learning the grammar and syntax of a foreign language is difficult only for those who do not want to learn it. Of course, it takes time and effort, but there are no insurmountable obstacles. All you need is to read, listen and review.

And very soon you’ll experience first successes, followed by a sense of satisfaction, which will serve as motivation towards new achievements [3]

Overcoming psychological barriers: how to quickly master a foreign language

“I have been learning English for a year already. I need a foreign language for promotion at work. I have been offered a well-paid position in a good company. But everything I try is useless. I can generally understand English speech and texts, I can memorize whole sentences, but I can’t speak fluently. And this is the most important thing for me. I can’t even say an easy phrase, although I understand how I must construct it. I am engaged with a private tutor. But it feels like they just pump money out of me. There is no progress at all. I can’t find a better way to learn a foreign language. Maybe I don’t have the ability? ”

What is the most important thing in learning a foreign language? You cannot learn language without courses, dictionaries, watching foreign films, a teacher who presents the material in an interesting way. Everyone finds their own best way of learning a foreign language. But learning a foreign language is not just a mechanical memorization of words and sentences that will allow you to communicate with representatives of another country. A competently constructed learning process helps to improve memory, mathematical abilities, and develops analytical and critical thinking. And the continuous improvement of cognitive processes is a trait inherent in a psychologically mature person. [1]

The productivity of learning lies in overcoming of psychological barriers on the way to your goal. The following recommendations will help you:

1. Reachable goals

Making a goal and competently motivating yourself will help you in any endeavor. This also applies to the study of foreign languages. Many of those who begin training make a serious mistake – they set themselves an impossible goal. And then, if it is not achieved, their self-confidence collapses. This is a lot of stress, which leads to a complete reluctance to learn.

Do not get hung up on thoughts about how to quickly learn a foreign language. You should better arrange some small tasks as steps to a main goal. Do not let it be “learn everything at once”. Plans must be achievable. Study grammar first, then train communication skills in a foreign language, then learn professional vocabulary necessary for work. When learning another language is not connected to any impossible global goals and arranged as a passage of possible tasks, it proceeds smoothly, reducing the risk of you losing self-esteem.

2. Target fixation

The most common mistake among beginners in any field of activity is concentrating on the auxiliary tasks. You think that you are doing sports from the moment you buy sneakers, and dieting from the moment you start planning the menu. The brain “adds” secondary tasks, giving them extreme importance. But it’s actually a peculiar way to move away from the goal because of fear.

Learning foreign languages is no exception. A person spends an incredible amount of time searching for courses, tutors and useful tips on the Internet, buying multivolume dictionaries. And over time, the classes themselves fade into the background. Motivation and desire disappear.

The person who is looking for a way to quickly learn foreign language must immediately immerse themselves in learning, instead of delaying this moment doing auxiliary tasks. As soon as you set a goal, immediately start working towards it.

3. Away with perfectionism

There are a lot of people who have been studying language for many years but still cannot achieve their goal. All of them are perfectionists. Trying to do everything perfectly and painfully experiencing each mistake, they sooner or later lose their motivation and confidence in themselves.

The desire to be the best version of yourself is useful. But when it goes beyond the bounds of the rational, it only interferes with productive activities.

4. Room for mistake

Fear to make a mistake often originates from childhood. And many of us upon reaching adulthood continue to be afraid to do something wrong. Internal fears are destructive in the development of personality. They cultivate acute guilt, shyness and self-doubt.

It is important to understand that outstanding results are achieved only by those who are not afraid to take risks and who are willing to try something new. And the study of foreign languages is an area in which it is impossible not to make mistakes. It is important to find the strength to calmly experience failure. This is not a collapse of hopes and, even more so, not a reason to quit what was started, but an incentive to develop further.

5. Self-confidence

By constantly repeating the phrase “I won’t succeed” people pre-programs themselves for failure. Then any efforts will be in vain.

Learning a foreign language requires motivation. You must always think “I will succeed!” When a person really wants to achieve something, anything is within the scope of their abilities.

How to learn a foreign language as an adult? The key to success is overcoming psychological barriers. Even the most advertised language course will not be useful if you do not change the behavior model and your reaction to the stresses that are associated with learning. When working on oneself does not bring a positive result and it is impossible to solve all psychological problems on your own, it is important not to delay, but to seek help from a psychologist.

We will help you overcome the language barrier

One of the effective methods for changing a behavior model is the 7Spsy behavior modification technique. The program is based on the scientific theories of I. P. Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, A. A. Ukhtomsky and others. The course will help to form positive attitudes that will prove extremely useful in learning a foreign language. You will cease to perceive the mistakes made as a reason for surrender, learn how to motivate yourself to succeed and fight fears. A pathological model of behavior that hinders the productive study of a foreign language will go away. Classes will be an important addition to the foreign language courses you are currently attending.

The program is designed for 2-6 weeks. The course is remote, allowing you to communicate with a psychologist by phone and e-mail, in online chat rooms. The course is confidential. You are not obligated to tell your tutor or teacher at a language school that you are undergoing a behavior modification program.

The important thing is that changing behavior model will make learning foreign language easy and enjoyable.

How to learn a foreign language

Technology can connect people from the very opposite ends of the globe today in a matter of seconds. However, it is one thing to connect and another to communicate.

As native English speakers, some may think they can get by in their English-dominated world and brush this off as another statistic irrelevant to their personal lives. However, more than ever, U.S. companies, schools and governments are collaborating with international citizens in our homeground as well as theirs.

So really, anyone living, working and socializing in this globalized generation can and will at some time face difficulties because of a language barrier. Of course, not everyone needs to be a polyglot to survive, but here are some of many reasons why we might want to learn a foreign language.

1. For Career

Being a bilingual is no longer just an addition to our resumes, but essential in some industries. According to a recent report by New American Economy, in just five years from 2010 to 2015, job postings aimed at bilingual workers in the U.S. more than doubled. This means that many employers, with a choice between two candidates with generally similar skill sets other than language, will very likely hire a bilingual over a monolingual. Particularly, the report found that Chinese, Spanish and Arabic are the top three languages most demanded in job markets. And beyond simply getting a job, learning a language automatically helps with understanding culture, which will leave a much mindful impression on foreign business partners or fellow employees.

2. For Brain

3. For Travel

If you’re a frequent traveler, you would know that knowing even just a few simple phrases in the language of the land can make your travel cheaper and easier. This means saving time and money, while gaining more authentic experience. Rather than heading straight to a restaurant that a hotel concierge recommended, asking around and finding your way into a local cafe will make the experience more memorable and, most likely, give you access to tastier foods.

4. For Fun

People who can only think of heavy grammar rules when asked about learning a foreign language might laugh at this. But, I assure you, it can be — when you actually communicate with it. Bogged down by foreign grammar rules that never make sense or words that never sound like their meanings, many people give up all their hard work before tasting what it’s like to understand a song in a foreign language or talk with locals in a foreign country. When the things you learned in books are actually used in the wild, that’s when you can confidently say, “I can speak in such language.”

Now that you are aware of the wide spectrum of benefits of a foreign language, let’s go through the five easy steps you need to learn a foreign language.

1. Start Easy

Just as kids learn their native languages, start easy. Label physical objects in your house. Read a short children’s book every day. Whatever way it may be, remember to start with learning the most basic, yet useful words and phrases. You won’t be prepared for the next great debate or a page long essay yet, but you will feel confident having basic conversations. And being able to communicate is the most important and rewarding part of learning a foreign language.

2. Keep a Balance

Studies suggest that people master a foreign language not by heavy grammar study and memorization, but by comprehending what they hear and read in that language. Obviously, you won’t be able to comprehend anything without at least having some knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. However, don’t think you need to know every grammar rule before going into actual reading and talking.

3. Use Free/Cheap Resources

With so much resources available online for free, I dare say there really is no reason for beginners to spend money when trying out a language. Make use of different media platforms and build a studying routine that best fits you.

4. Develop Helpful Habits

5. Set a Goal that Motivates You

A goal that really motivates you. Think of a song, a book or a movie you would love to understand and enjoy without translations. Because you are already a fan, looking up a few foreign words in your favorite lyric or replaying a scene in your favorite movie to test listening skills will not feel like studying. And more importantly, unlike a random dialogue in a textbook, you’ll actually want to understand what is being said.

Takeaway

Learning a language should really be about communicating. Just like our native languages connect us with our families, friends and co-workers, foreign languages can do the same with more variety in perspectives and cultures. And with all the resources available on different media platforms, learning a language should be an immersive experience and not simply be about committing a fraction of your day to books and pens.