Helpful Tips for Learning a New Language
Learning a new language can be fun, different people can have different reasons why they want to learn a new language. You might want to learn because you want to add value yourself and increase the number of languages you know, or you are in an environment where you need to be able to communicate with people around you more freely. Knowing different languages can even serve as an edge when you are going for job interviews, being good at a foreign language can be an added advantage for you. For whatever reason why you want to learn a new language, it is good for you to be able to learn it in a way that you will easily get to know the language as much as you want to know in good time and be able to converse well with it. How can you go about learning a new language in a way that’s effective? The following are helpful tips on learning a new language.
1. Engage in conversations
The aim of learning a new language is to be able to converse with it, to communicate and talk freely with it, so it is better that you learn by conversation, that is one of the best ways to learn. One hour spent with someone who knows the language very well, conversing and the person is correcting your mistakes and you are learning more, maybe you are with a dictionary to check some words you do not know, such a time spent conversing is worth more than many hours just studying on your own.
The good thing about learning through conversation is that it is more practical it’s more like real life, not just a learning material before you, so you are learning just the way you will have to speak. When you make mistakes someone else can correct you and you get to correct yourself. You can use the language to ask some questions from people, make jokes with the language with the little you know, just use it in conversations with people.
2. Speak to yourself
In case you are not opportune to have a partner which you can practice the language with or you are not in an environment where you use the language very often, then it’s a good idea for you to practice talking to yourself using the new language you are learning, that can help you to also master the words. It may look somewhat strange, but you know what you’re trying to achieve by doing that, so practice and familiarize yourself with the language by talking to yourself.
3. Use a private tutor
Well, getting a private tutor might just be much better way to go about learning a new language. With a private teacher to help you with your new language then you know that it will be more personal and you can ask questions if you’re not clear on things and you can get answers the way you ought to, so that’s better.
4. Keep your ‘why’ in mind
Ensure that you keep the goal in mind, you know why you wanted to start learning a new language, you
should keep the goal in mind to help you keep going while you are in the process of learning. You might have some things that might come up to affect the goal, you need to remind yourself of why you are doing that as much as possible so as to keep going regardless of whatever comes up.
5. Carry a portable dictionary around
It is good for you to have a portable dictionary in your pocket somewhere around you wherever you are while trying to learn a new language. Get a dictionary of that language and checkup words when you need to. If you’re not clear about a word, you quickly want to know what the meaning of a word is, maybe you come across the word somewhere somehow you want to know what the word means, then you can easily bring out your dictionary and check. That way you can get to know more words.
6. Be ready to make mistakes
You should try to be should be like a child in a way, don’t be afraid of making mistakes don’t be ashamed that you are not getting it perfectly, be ready to make mistakes and learn and grow. Of course, it is a new language that you are learning so the possibility is very much there that you will miss some words and make some mistakes but that should not stop you from practicing or using the language in conversations. If you make mistake you will be corrected, and you will be better. Try to keep on using the language in as many opportunities as you have don’t be too shy to use it when you can.
7. Partner
If you have the opportunity to have someone around you who is also learning the language or interested in learning the language, get a partner and start practicing the language together. Getting a partner can also serve to motivate you, if it happens that your partner is doing better than you, you may be more motivated or pushed to learn more and if the other person sees you’re doing better, he or she too can be moved to learn more.
8. Get to know the most common 100 words
Try to learn the 100 most common words in the language. It has been shown through studies that the 100 most common words in a language account for about 50% of the words that are used in conversations. Use these words in conversations, sentences and ensure that you familiarize yourself with them. It is not too ok for you to be filling your head with vocabularies in the language when you cannot even make simple sentences with simple words in such language. It’s better to first learn the common words and try to use them in sentences and in conversation.
9. Don’t be inconsistent
Whether you’re taking a general class or it’s a private tutor that’s coaching you, it is important that you ensure you are consistent. Consistency is very important, it should not be that you attend class today and then after sometime, some things come up and you are unable to keep up with your goal of learning a new language you should try to have a feasible schedule and follow it as much as possible. Do all you can and try your best to be consistent, that is the way to reach your goal of learning any language in good time.
10. Take an online course
If you want to learn a new language and you’re not sure you can get a class around you or a tutor who can put you through. You can easily check online to see if there’s an online course for that language and you can go ahead and take the course. So, don’t be limited by your environment, take advantage of the way technology has made things easy and you can learn many languages as many as are available and that you are interested in learning.
You never can tell where your knowledge of a language, knowing how to speak a particular language will pay off, therefore try as much as possible to add to the number of languages you can speak. If you have some time on your hands and you are thinking of what to do with the time, this might be something good to consider. Add linguistic value.