The Best Ways To Learn A New Language Quickly
Hoping to boost your skills by learning a new language? This article will help you get fluent faster…
Are you hoping to learn a new language and join the 43 percent of the world in being bilingual? If you do, you probably want to get to grips with it quickly so you can start making the most of your fantastic new skill!
In this article, we’re going to help you learn the best ways to learn a new language quickly. Before you know it, you’ll be conversing, reading and listening in your new language like a pro:
First Things First: Why Learn A New Language?
Before you embark on this learning journey, it helps to know why you are doing it. Moments where you may struggle and feel like giving up will naturally happen. In those times you can think of all the benefits to learning this new language to encourage you back on track. Here are some benefits to learning a new language:
- Being able to connect with another person in their native language
- Boosting your career prospects – many voiceover agencies actively recruit bilingual people
- Enhancing your cognitive skills
- Helping you connect to other cultures more
- Making travel easier and more rewarding
- Enjoying arts, entertainment and literature from other cultures
- Boosting your chance of being able to learn a third language with ease
- Enhancing your confidence with a sense of achievement
- Better appreciation of your own culture
These are just some of the many benefits to learning a new language. As you begin to understand your chosen language more, you will uncover many of your own personal positives to this learning journey, making it even more worthwhile for you long-term.
How To Learn A New Language Quickly
Now you know why you’re going to learn a new language, let’s take a look at how you can learn that new language in record time:
You Don’t Need To Know Every Word
You don’t need to know every single word of the English language to understand it. There are more than a million English words and yet only around 170,000 words are generally used and the individual only uses 20,000 to 30,000 of those on average. The same rules apply for any language, so if you can learn the right words correctly, you can become fluent in your new language quickly. Essentially – learn the most used words, not all the words.
Get The Cognates Under Your Belt Right Away
A cognate is a word in another language that means the same thing in your language and it is also recognisable. For example; helicopter in French is helicoptere. You can really easily get these words under your language belt without much effort at all. Just search for the cognates in the language you are learning to find those recognisable words.
Digitally Immerse Yourself In Your New Language
There are plenty of articles that will recommend that you ‘immerse’ yourself in a new language by going to the country of origin. Of course, that is a wonderful idea but it isn’t always possible. It is also highly beneficial to immerse yourself daily without having to essentially move abroad.
You can do this in multiple ways including:
- Watching trending videos on Youtube spoken in your chosen language without an English voice over
- Read news articles from the country where your new language is spoken
- Listen to songs in the language you are learning
- Watch cinema in the language you are learning without an English voice over or subtitles
- Utilise sites that enable you to listen to local radio shows in your country of choice
Chat With Somebody Who Speaks The Native Language
Ideally, you will know somebody who speaks the language you are learning. You can then (hopefully) persuade them to chat with you as you learn, boosting your conversational skills. They can also give you pointers on pronunciation.
If you don’t know anybody who speaks the language, consider looking on sites like People Per Hour, Upwork and FiveSquid for people offering chat sessions over video calls. You can get these at low cost despite them being such a valuable investment in your language learning.
Learn For Free
Paying for a course may be something you can do, but it may also hinder your learning if you’re struggling for money. You may not be able to pay for a lesson every week, and even if you can, that is still a slow learn. Instead, by using free resources you can put in as many hours as you want, all whilst having a ton of free tools at your disposal. Duolingo is a fun, free application you can use on a smartphone. You can also use BBC languages, various free Youtube tutorials and various free website articles, tutorials and courses.
Believe In Yourself
It can be so easy to struggle and lose heart in what you are doing. After all, this is a challenging task you have given yourself. However, it is important that you believe in yourself and know that you can learn this language. We repeatedly get told as adults that children are better at learning new things. Whilst this is great news for them, it doesn’t fill the adult learner with confidence.
It is important that you know that long as you want to learn new things and you’re willing to put in the effort, you can succeed in this journey. It just takes practise, and it certainly is never impossible.
Use Mnemonics For Tricky Words
If there are words that you struggle to memorise, try using mnemonics to help them stick. Mnemonics are processes you use to help you remember things.
It can be the process of telling a story with the letters of the target word, attaching a word to each letter. So a spelling mnemonic of hello could be: Horses Eat Lemon Lollies Outside.
It could be by using your imagination to attach the word to an image or feeling. An example would be the German word for cat is katze so you could imagine a cat with a top hat and suit on, or a ‘cat sir’ if you like. You can find out more about Mnemonics in this handy article.
“Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.” – Rumi
With the tips above, and your determination, you can learn your chosen language quickly. Soon enough you’ll be experiencing the world in an entirely different way, using your new skill to truly broaden your horizons.
