You Don’t Have To Study Your Target Language Like You’re In A Classroom

Source: academiacatavencu.com

If you’re learning a new language from scratch, you don’t have to treat it like you’re in a classroom. As we all know, learning a second language (mainly in the United States) in school is subpar. People actually get better results learning on their own.

Thanks to the world wide web aka “the Internet”, we don’t have to be stuck using outdated method to learn a language. Learning a language is something that has to be burned deep into your brain the way your mother tongue is. In order for this to happen, you need to treat the language like it’s a part of your life. This means you interact with your target language as you would your mother tongue.

“I don’t even know my alphbets in my target languge, how am I gonna do what I do in my mother tongue”

When you were a small child, did you not learn your alphabet at a very early age? In some cases, we’ve learned it through song before we even went to school. You need to familiarize yourself with the sound of the language on a regular basis… even if you don’t know what anything means. You will be like a fetus in the womb. It just hears sounds and doesn’t know what anything is. The only reference it has is the limitations of the womb. Unlike a fetus, you have a vast experience to this world and you just need to know what things mean (or their equivalent) in your target language.

Get a lot of passive listening in your target language. As you’re learning your alphabet/script and letter sounds, listen to the language while you’re at work. If you have a full time job, if you can throw on ear buds while you work, you can listen to audio from YouTube or audio book while you work. The goal is to allow the language to “wash over you” like water on the beach. Don’t try to understand what you hear. This will make you use too much brain power and is useless because everything is gonna sound blended together and you won’t know where a word ends and the other one begins. However, you brain needs to get used to hearing the language so it will sound normal.

Along with daily passive listening, get yourself a grammar book. Knowing basic grammar rules is gonna help you understand the language better. You can’t just string a bunch of words together and think that it will work the same way your native tongue. No, you have to learn from the perspective of a native speaker of your target language. You need verb tense, phrases, word syntax, etc. The grammar book should be used as a reference or a guide. Learn the basics and whenever something confuses you, keep referring back to your grammar book. Sometimes you may need to watch videos to get a better explanation.

Once you have an understanding of letter and character sounds, grammar, etc., you can start reading. Reading is the thing that will accelerate your language learning because, you get an insane amount of exposure to the language in a short period of time. You see words and phrases repeat on a daily basis. This repetition through reading is more effective and organic than trying to force-feed your brain through repetition through word list and flashcards.

When you read for pleasure, you are being entertained while you learn. When you try to memorize word lists and flash cards as if you’re studying for a test, you are learning words out of context and won’t really know how to use the language properly. However, when you read, you see the language being used in many different contexts and nuance.

If you don’t have anyone to talk to, I suggest reading out loud. This will train the muscles in your mouth to speak with more fluidity than getting tongue tied with certain word sound combinations. Keep in mind that your ears are more important than your mouth in the beginning because you want to first understand before being understood. When you know what people are saying at native speed you can have a flowing conversation. You don’t have to ask them to repeat themselves or speak slowly. This way, people will treat you like a peer when they speak to you instead of an immigrant or child who can’t speak the language. They will not speak to you in English to accomodate you.

Daily, consistent exposure is more important than force-feeding the language into your head. You will forget a lot during the process, but that’s part of the process. It will stick over time. If you start switching your devices in your target language, you will have daily exposure without even trying. Your apps and devices will give you daily language practice. You can still enjoy your regular content in your mother tongue, however, you can start finding content in your target language as well. Whatever interests you, there’s someone on a streaming site or social media platform doing it in your target language.

When you treat your target language like classwork, you may quit very early. When you treat your target language like another fun activity that’s part of your daily repertoire, you can do it for the rest of your life.