How can I speed up learning a new language?
By immersing yourself in as many language-learning activities as you can outside of formal study:
Internal
- Set actual time aside, regularly (daily, even), to use books, textbooks, workbooks, dictionaries, online lessons and courses, Rosetta Stone if available, alphabet, numbers, days of the week, learning the new script and start recognizing letters and words, researching words and etymologies, etc.
- Labeling ALL the things! Not to brag or anything, but I have about 9846583 post-its that are dying to be used. My house is covered in them until I know what everything is called without the training wheels.
- Daily tasks/errands. Normally before I do anything with my day/week, I make a list of to-dos. But instead of just writing them in English, why not learn the words for such daily tasks and write them in the new script. This will definitely take me longer to do everything, but no such thing as too immersed if you’re serious about your goal.
- Special Language Notebook. To be used to write down words and phrases I hear in the language, so I can look them up later. (and conjugate, if need be)
- Watch/Listen to anything I can find. YouTube, news, stand up, tv shows, educational videos, movies, kids’ shows (um, don’t hate, we all start somewhere), etc.
External (learning that happens when I’m not at home)
- Actual speaking practice. There’s no better way to learn than to actually practice, so I came up with some interactive solutions that I can do a few times a week. Instead of patronizing the regular grocery stores, I figured why not mix it up and get some legitimate practice speaking by going to smaller mom and pop establishments and chatting it up with the employees or other random people (that won’t mind a complete stranger coming up to them to absorb their language powers). But why stop at grocery stores? I could also get lunch at some local restaurants and practice. For that matter, anything I can outsource to smaller businesses whilst practicing is a good idea.
- Out and about and tempted to waste phone battery on mindless scrolling? Instead, play around on a language learning app or translation app to pass the time and learn simultaneously. All the small things count.
Online + Phone
(things I can adjust on my electronic devices so that even when I’m lollygagging on the internets, I’m still learning)
Follow websites or social media pages in the language so I can start getting the vernacular and slang.
- Use Google Translate and/or Microsoft Translate
Pretty self-explanatory.
2. Foreign Language Keyboard App
I prefer to use my phone’s stylus to write out what I need to communicate (in Google Translate) because looking for new letters on the keyboard can take forever. But this will be especially useful when you start engaging with people on aforementioned social media sites.
Computer
- Kypsis Language Immersion app from the Google Chrome store.
It translates a portion of most pages I visit online. All I have to do is set it to the language I want to learn and just like that, I have no excuse but to practice reading everyday.
2. Stickers
Stickers for your keyboard with the new script’s letters.
Passive
(so like, osmosis) you can get creative with how many slots of time you have, because you do have the time.
- Background Noise
You know how people turn on music or the tv when they’re alone so they don’t feel alone? Well, why not put something on in the background you’ll actually learn from?
List of things you could be listening to:
-Audio Books
-Radio
-Podcasts
-TV/Talk Shows
-Music (and later I can translate the lyrics)
While doing these activities:
-Working out
-Cleaning the house
-Driving
-Going on a walk
-Showering/Getting ready for the day
-Lying on the ground wondering what you should be doing with your day, and passing it off as meditation
-Sleeping (some people quantify listening in your sleep as pseudo-science, but explain to me why I’ve woken up at times with random words and phrases in a different language, and somehow understood it without any real recollection of reviewing them?)
