FORM ONE
FORM TWO
FORM THREE
FORM FOUR
…
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HOW TO LEARN ANY LANGAUGE EASILY
1.
Watch short videos
When
you study a foreign language, one of the options is to watch movies with
subtitles in the target language. That is great. It comes with a but. You
don’t always have time to watch the whole movie. Try watching short videos
instead. There are endless possibilities when it comes to resources. You can
watch videos about topics you’re interested in. Watching videos has one big
advantage. You can always pause the video and consult the dictionary for new
vocabulary. This way you can learn a lot.
2.
Stop hanging out with your countrymen
Okay,
you don’t have to completely run away from them but if you spend time with
people who speak your native language chances are you’ll speak your native
language. I know this from both personal experience and observing other
students at Hult. One way you can actually take advantage of this is to find
a group of people from the country whose language you want to learn and hang
out with them. They’ll speak their native language, and you’ll be learning all
kinds of new slang, and probably words that don’t even translate to your native
language.
3.
Download podcasts in the language you want to learn and
listen to them frequently as background music or while you’re walking around.
At first you’ll understand nothing, and that’s okay. Gradually you will start
to notice some things and get more used to the sounds of the language. A lot of
language learning is unconscious, and your brain will go to work on it if you
give it some input.
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Learn any Language
When you start a new language, it always feels out of reach at first. I’ve felt that every time. The best thing you can do is just listen and read, even when you don’t understand much. Bit by bit, the sounds and words begin to mean something. Don’t rush it or worry about structure too soon — that part will come naturally once you’ve spent enough time with the language.
Learning a language from scratch can be a daunting task. Where do you start? How do you develop a language learning routine that works for you? Here is what I would do if I had to learn a language as an absolute beginner.
1) Find a Starter Book
Start out with a beginner-friendly resource. Let’s imagine that I decide to start a new language like Turkish or Arabic. I definitely intend on doing this in the future. My first step would be to buy a starter book. This could be Teach Yourself, Assimil, Colloquial—almost anything. The exact choice doesn’t matter. You’re just looking for a general overview of the language.
Starter books usually have a dozen or two chapters with dialogues, audio, and explanations. The priority is not to memorize all of the content in the starter book. As a beginner, you’re trying to “get your feet wet” and gain a basic sense of how the language works.
2) Dive into More Interesting Content
I recommend that you transition from the starter book to more interesting content as quickly as possible. How quickly can this be done? Well, this depends on the language. Regardless, I reiterate that my main goal is always the same: move past the beginner book and start tackling real material.
3) Read & Listen Simultaneously As Much As Possible
Reading allows you to take your time with the language. You can notice the language’s features and structures in their written form. Listening trains your ear. You develop a feel for the rhythm and pronunciation of the language.
As a beginner, you need both the sound and the written word. Reading and listening together provide a richer, more natural way to experience the language.
4) Work with Shorter Texts
In the first 1–3 months, I work with short texts (30–60 seconds long) that have transcripts. I read, listen, look up words, and review them using flashcards or quizzes. This is all done on LingQ. I often default to LingQ’s mini-stories because of their brevity, emphasis on everyday topics, and repetitive structure.
5) Incorporate Language Learning into Your Daily Routine
Make language learning a consistent part of your life. This is absolutely doable. I can do it anywhere—listening to my target language while driving, doing chores, or exercising. While doing other tasks, I start noticing key phrases and expressions, which become part of my active vocabulary.
I do prioritize finding time in the day to read. I’ll pull up LingQ on my tablet and try to dedicate at least half an hour to reading in the target language. Again, I don’t see this as a chore. I look forward to spending quality time with my target language, as I find the process relaxing and keep the material interesting.
Don’t Force Yourself to Speak
When should you start speaking? It depends. For a language very different from English, like Turkish, I might spend 3 months with beginner material, then another 3–5 months focusing on listening and reading before speaking.
Your ability to speak draws from the language that you acquire through listening and reading. I don’t prioritize speaking until I can comprehend the target language more confidently. Besides, communication breaks down immediately without adequate comprehension skills.
Speaking helps reveal what’s missing in your knowledge. Feedback from tutors can be imported into LingQ, making it easier to review and notice gaps. When you want to incorporate more speaking practice into your routine, once or twice a week with a tutor is enough to make progress. However, continue to consistently read and listen to your target language.
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Learning a Language
One of the first things I learnt to say in Dutch was ‘we beat them to death with sticks’. Not exactly standard fare for the first week of language classes, but then again this wasn’t an ordinary language class. As a historian working with 16th- and 17th-century documents, I was taking a specialised class to learn to read the Dutch of the period – so, instead of learning how to talk about hobbies or ask directions to the train station, we jumped straight into texts from the so-called Golden Age of the Netherlands.
As someone who had learnt a few languages before, this was a whole new experience for me. I was used to the kind of language learning that might be familiar from school: an orderly progression through the basics of grammar, the steady building-up of vocabulary, some basic dialogues on tape or practised with a classmate. But, with Dutch, I had to change my methods and find new learning aids that worked for this project. I use spreadsheets I fill with 17th-century terms of abuse, and historical dictionaries that help me zero in on what words used to mean. What I’ve learnt from the process is that while language learning is often presented as a task with a one-size-fits-all solution, what’s central to success in learning a new language is working out the goals and strategies that are specific to you.
What I want to do in this guide is to help you think about the how of language learning. Every language is different, and every language presents its own challenges, but these are some tools and techniques that can make every learner’s job easier. And while independent learning comes with its own challenges, these tools might also make the process more efficient and enjoyable, as well as easier to maintain over time.
What to do
The first thing to do when learning a language is to forget about fluency (whatever that means). It’s easy to get disheartened if your goal is something that’ll take years to achieve. Setting achievable, measurable goals is crucial to successful language learning. You wouldn’t go out on your first jog with the aim of running a marathon: so, when starting a new language, think about tangible, short-term goals that will give you a sense of achievement. Right at the beginning of your journey, this might be learning to read a new alphabet or a certain number of characters, or learning some basic phrases to introduce yourself. As you make progress and start to hit your goals, you can formulate new ones – maybe you’d like to be able to have a short, simple conversation with a native speaker, or read a news article. Your goals don’t need to be the goals of your textbook; it’s fine to skip learning colours or professions for now if what you need is a suite of basic verbs that you know you’re going to use every day, or a grasp of key linking words (so, then, but) that show up in every single conversation. As you work out your goals, you’ll also get better at analysing your own language needs at every stage and identifying exactly what you need to learn next.
Deciding on goals also means deciding on how to get there. People spend a lot of time thinking about which language to learn, but it’s easy to neglect the how of language learning. If you studied another language at school, you might not have had to think about process and technique very much – your teacher will have made most of the decisions about what you learnt and when. But as an independent learner, you need to think about how you’re going to get to where you want to be. So, think about what you actually want out of learning a new language. Do you want to chat with locals when you’re on holiday, or are you hoping to read untranslated novels? Clarity on your goals will help you to think strategically about the methods that are going to help you most. This isn’t a new insight – the field of ‘language for specific purposes’ has been around for years, helping learners who need a new language for work or their studies to focus on the material that’s most relevant to them. But its principles are applicable for ordinary language learners, too. Be specific in your goals and ask what you want to be able to do with your new language – at least to start with.
And methods really are crucial. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to language learning – what works for me might not work for you. But it’s worth remembering that if you hate sitting with a textbook working on written exercises, you don’t need to let that stand in your way. If you’re more comfortable with listening and speaking, an all-audio method like those pioneered by the Michel Thomas and Pimsleur courses (and offered for free in some languages by Mihalis Eleftheriou of Language Transfer) could be a lifesaver – and, while some are pricey, I’ve found that they’re often in stock at local libraries. I first encountered the dulcet tones and much-debated backstory of Michel Thomas when I started learning Italian. I walked 40 minutes to and from work each day one summer and couldn’t believe that there was a course that only required me to listen, think and speak, and that seemed to leave me with an understanding of Italian verbs and grammar that felt more natural and intuitive than I had any right to expect.
I’m talking here about more or less independent learning, but we shouldn’t dismiss the power of a language course taught by an expert teacher. The COVID-19 pandemic means that travelling to a language school or sitting in a classroom isn’t possible for many learners right now, but many language schools and educational organisations are offering online equivalents, which can even prove more affordable and easier to fit into a busy schedule. Over the summer, I studied basic Arabic online in one-on-one lessons with a teacher from Natakallam, a fantastic organisation which offers Arabic, French, Persian, Armenian, Kurdish and Spanish language-learning programmes delivered by refugees (for a similar organisation based in the United Kingdom, check out Chatterbox).
When it comes to finding a language tutor these days, the truly game-changing resource is Italki, a website that allows you to book online lessons with professional teachers and experienced conversation partners. Italki has a couple of strengths: you can try out different teachers to find someone who works well with you, and they’ll offer a pretty substantial discount on your first few taster sessions. This also means that you can ‘speed-date’ with teachers, with the option to settle down to a series of lessons with just one, or to work with a variety of tutors who help you hone different skills. Something I find invaluable about Italki is that it empowers the learner to set the agenda for lessons, meaning that you can focus on the goals you’ve set yourself and learn what you need to. Whether you want to practice your conversational German or nail down some tricky Japanese grammar, you can arrange what you want to focus on and benefit from one-on-one attention from your teacher, at a time that’s convenient to you. The benefit of Italki’s all-online nature is that it tends to be more competitively priced than a face-to-face lesson – but if you’re not in a position to pay for language tuition, you can also use the Italki website (or apps such as Tandem and HelloTalk) to find partners who will talk to you in your target language in exchange for some conversation in English or another language you speak. And Italki is diverse, too – their community of tutors can work with you on a variety of different global languages such as Spanish, Arabic and French.
And then there are the apps. Perhaps the biggest revolution in language learning in recent years has been the emergence of often-free and sometimes surprisingly sophisticated software aimed at language learners and accessible through a phone, tablet or laptop. You might already be familiar with Duolingo – of which more below – but that’s not the only one. It’s worth checking out other big hitters such as Memrise and Babbel, or vocabulary-building apps such as Drops, while hardcore polyglots often swear by Anki, an app that uses the ‘spaced repetition’ method to help you learn and retain information about many topics, including languages. You can access ‘decks’ of flashcards created by other users or create your own – for some tips on getting started, see here. Some languages have dedicated apps, such as the popular Chineasy for Mandarin Chinese, or Keefak for Lebanese Arabic. For a small but growing number of languages, including Arabic (both Modern Standard and dialects) as well as Spanish and Russian, I’ve been seriously impressed by the resources created by Lingualism, who work with native speakers to create materials that actually reflect language as it’s spoken by ordinary people, and teach relevant content for situations you might actually encounter.
We’re living in a golden age for free and easy-to-access language-learning content. Lexilogos is an essential website with links to courses, dictionaries and resources in more than 100 languages: there, you’ll find links to everything from the free MP3 course in modern Icelandic, designed by a colleague of mine at the University of Leeds, to materials on learning Gujarati from the University of Pennsylvania or this beginners’ Yoruba course made by the University of Georgia. My own Norwegian learning started with the professionally designed and totally free Norwegian on the Web course run by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. If this all seems a bit much and you could use more help structuring your learning and building good language-learning habits, the Open University offers a free course full of expert advice on how to learn a language, which is a perfect starting point for any new language learner.
Beyond more formal online language-learning materials, YouTube and podcasts can be a goldmine for goal-oriented learners. If you’re thinking strategically about your progress in language learning, and you can identify what you need to learn right now in order to improve, YouTube’s content creators will often have videos that fit your needs. If I’m struggling with a grammar rule in a language that I’m learning, these days I’m as likely to reach for the YouTube search bar as a reference grammar. Not all the videos you’ll find online are great, but many teachers and language schools have taken to creating video content that addresses learners’ questions and common problem areas. As I took my first steps in learning Arabic, I got help learning the script from short YouTube videos by ArabicPod101, and learnt basic vocabulary and conversational expressions from Maha, an Arabic teacher whose lessons in Modern Standard Arabic and Palestinian dialect have a devoted following.
Podcasts are fantastic learning resources for listeners at all levels – series such as News in Slow German (also available in other languages) can help build listening comprehension without the pressure of listening to the language at full speed, while more advanced learners can use podcasts and radio programmes in the target language to practise their listening skills. And if you can look past the petty rivalries and microspats that come with the content-creator territory, it can be worth dipping a toe into the world of language-learning podcasts and YouTube videos for advice and strategies from experienced polyglots (even if their claims sometimes need to be taken with a pinch of salt).
As you hit your goals and grow your knowledge of the language, it’s time to seek out content that will help you improve. Language-learning experts often talk about the importance of ‘comprehensible input’ to learners (see an interview with the originator of this theory here). Put simply, this is about consistently exposing yourself to language that’s just above your current level – close enough to what you already know that your brain can work to fill in the gaps and raise your language level. Services such as LingQ aim to offer graded reading so that you can find the kind of input you need for your level, but once you’ve mastered the basics of a language you’ll often be able to work with what you can find online, whether with simple news articles (in some languages, you’ll find sites such as the one run by Al Jazeera offering content aimed at learners) or, as you develop, books in the language you’re learning. I normally find it easier to learn from material where I have some pre-existing knowledge of the content – so I’ll pick up a popular history book or watch a documentary about a topic I’m interested in. The Penguin Parallel Text series means that you can read short stories in a variety of languages with a translation on the facing page, and the language YouTuber Olly Richards has created a series of simple short stories for beginners in languages including Turkish, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese.
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Best Way To Learn A New Language On Your Own?
Maybe you want to learn a language, but you don’t want to give up your social life by attending an evening class. Or you’d rather not spend an arm and a leg on a private tutor who’s determined to teach you according to his rules. So what’s the alternative? Is there a way for you to learn a language on your own time, learning topics that you want to learn? (Spoiler alert: Yes, there is.)
One of the best ways to learn is to take control of your language learning journey. Here are our best tips to make that happen — with the help of the Babbel App.
- Make Your Own Program
There are two ways to look at this: You can either groan because this means that yes, you really should have a strategy, or you can feel empowered that you have complete control over what you learn. We’re choosing the second option.
Every learner has different motivations, and it’s crucial to craft your strategy around your needs. If you want to brush up on your French for a trip, then you should concentrate first on the essential phrases. With Babbel, you can skip straight to our tailored holiday lessons. Alternatively, if you’re about to meet your German girlfriend’s parents, you should work on introducing yourself and mastering pleasantries. You can also head directly for our lessons on getting to know relatives (because we’ve got units on more subjects than you could shake a multilingual stick at).
- Work On Tasks That Match Your Skill Level
Maybe we’re preaching to the choir right now, but languages can be daunting. They’re amazing and wonderful, but there are also literally thousands of words in every language, and it can be difficult to know where to start.
Beginners should start with the basics: How to say “Hello!”, the most common verbs, the most important adjectives, and how to count. And yet — this might sound like blasphemy — you don’t have to start with the simple stuff if you don’t want to. With Babbel, you’re free to jump across the entire range of our lessons. You can even start tackling grammar, pronunciation and sentence structure if that’s how you learn best.
Babbel doesn’t have levels “locked” from the start because this is a language-learning app, not Super Mario Kart.
More advanced learners can benefit from the same mindset, but you have more freedom to study what and how you want. Maybe you want to start refreshing what you already learned in school (perhaps with one of Babbel’s refresher units?), but you can also dive right into reading an intermediate-level book. Or now that you understand some of the basic grammar, you might want to learn how to swear.
- Learn The Language As It’s Really Spoken
This is undoubtedly one of the hardest aspects of trying to learn a language on your own. Reading the words of a language is undeniably important, but then you don’t learn how speakers actually sound. That’s why you must supplement your learning by listening to native speakers and practicing the sounds yourself. Listening to podcasts is a great option for fitting more learning in. The same can be said for watching TV and movies (without English subtitles!).
But what about accurately practicing the sounds of the language? This one’s trickier. We made the Babbel app with speech recognition software so you can practice your pronunciation right after hearing a real native speaker say it. We’re an app that prides itself on teaching you a language that will actually come in handy when you talk to real people in real situations.
The Babbel app has speech recognition software so you can practice your pronunciation right after hearing a real native speaker say it.
- Don’t Overload Your Brain
It can be tempting when you get into the study flow to do several language lessons back to back. Or maybe you think you should study for 2 hours a day because that’s how you studied subjects at university. Unfortunately, this “binge learning” strategy isn’t very effective.
Slowing down your learning so you can properly commit vocabulary to your long-term memory is the key to success. Studying for 15 minutes per day actually is your best strategy for becoming conversational. Luckily, this is the strategy that Babbel uses when we design our lessons. All of our lessons are five to ten minutes long and fit perfectly into extra time you have in your day. Bored on public transportation? Dip into a lesson on Italian holiday essentials. Stuck in the world’s longest queue at the supermarket? Time for a burst of Spanish idioms. You choose where and when you want to learn, and you’ll remember it better this way.
- Actually Review What You’ve Learned
Yes, reviewing what you’ve learned can feel like a real chore when compared to learning new things. But if you actually want to learn a language, rather than just memorize some fancy sentences, you’ll need to review what you’ve done.
In the Babbel app, there’s a built-in vocab workout that ensures you don’t forget what you’ve learned by compiling a list of vocabulary you’ve encountered along the way. The best thing is that our app learns from your progress: Words that you consistently get right appear less frequently in your vocab workout lessons, while words that you have trouble remembering are thrown at you more often. That way, you only spend energy on the stuff that you really need to work on.
As you engage with Babbel’s lessons, our vocab workout feature quietly works in the background, compiling a list of vocabulary you’ve encountered.
- Get Immersed And Make It A Habit
In contrast to traditional classroom learning, learning a language on your own is a dizzying amount of freedom. This freedom can be a real blessing if you’re a nontraditional learner, but it can also lead to laziness. That’s why it’s important to immerse yourself in the language whenever possible and make it a habit.
We at Babbel also try to get you to form habits by sending you well-timed messages to remind you to keep up with your lessons. We promise not to nag, but this daily approach is what keeps things fresh in the mind. We won’t give you boring homework, but we will set you fun daily challenges, so you feel motivated to learn every day.
- Incorporate Resources And Social Media Into Your Learning
Not to brag but — because Babbel is staffed almost exclusively by dedicated language geeks, we do a decent job at churning out content that keeps learners entertained on their language-learning journeys. From our pop-quiz Instagram stories to our Magazine, we try to share our passion for learning with as many people as possible. Plus, we just added Toucan to the Babbel experience, which is a browser extension that helps you learn new vocabulary as you’re surfing the internet.
Even if you’re not (just) using our resources, it’s good to surround yourself with motivational media and like-minded learners. Learning a language on your own means you need to establish your own support network, but we know you can do it. So get out there and master that language!
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Learning a language by yourself
Self-study of language is gaining more and more popularity with the development of Internet communities and social networks. Even if you do not have the opportunity to go to language courses or study with a private teacher, this is not a reason to deny yourself the pleasure of learning a new language. In this article, we will look at 10 simple and interesting ways to learn a foreign language without the help of a teacher. Let’s go!
- Apps
Every year there are more and more applications for learning a foreign language. Most of them have free versions that still allow you to learn a language. Those apps that run on a subscription also have a trial period during which you can explore the functionality and see if you like the approach to learning. If you do decide to buy the paid version, ask your friends and acquaintances first if they use this application, and whether they have a referral code. Such a code will give both you and your friend good bonuses!
- Student literature
Most often, for self-study, it is advised to read fiction in a foreign language. At the initial levels, reading such texts can be frightening in their complexity, so we advise you to start with adapted texts. They repeat the plot of the original but adapt the text to a certain level of language proficiency. Reading the literature of your level helps to consolidate the learned vocabulary and learn new. You can buy such books in almost any book or online store.
- Videos
Many foreign language teachers run websites, blogs, and record free training videos on YouTube. It helps them not only attract new students but also share their knowledge with those who cannot yet afford private lessons. Sometimes, in addition to single videos, teachers record full video courses that can be bought on their website.
- Podcasts
There is a growing number of podcasts for language learners. They are recorded by both teachers, students, and native speakers. If your level is high enough, then it is no longer necessary to look for podcasts for learning, you can listen to any for pleasure or professional growth. You can find links to podcasts that are right for you in thematic groups, blogs, or websites.
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How to learn a new language
Choosing which language to learn is a personal decision, and your native language, interests, needs, and goals can help you narrow your options to learn one efficiently. If you enjoy studying Japanese history and culture, you may want to add Japanese to the list. Perhaps you’re planning to vacation in Brazil and decide to learn Portuguese before the trip. Maybe you live in an area with many Spanish speakers and believe being bilingual will increase your job opportunities.
Other factors to consider when choosing a language are its similarity to your native language and opportunities to practice it. Typically, you’ll find it easier to learn languages with vocabulary and grammar similar to your first language. For example, Arabic uses the Arabic alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet you use in English. You also read and write letters in Arabic from right to left. Since Croatian uses the Latin alphabet (like English), you will likely find it easier to learn Croatian.
- Immerse yourself in the language
Immersion—surrounding yourself with the language you want to acquire—is one of the top language learning methods recommended by researchers. You can do this by visiting or moving to a country where you can interact with native speakers, or try some of the following:
- Label items in your home with words from your desired language.
- Watch television shows and movies filmed or dubbed in the target language.
- Listen to music or podcasts recorded in the new language.
- Read books, websites, and newspapers from countries where that language is spoken.
- Change the settings on your device to reflect the language you are learning.
These immersion techniques mimic the way you originally learned to speak through regular, practical exposure to words, pronunciation, and syntax. You may find that immersion helps your retention, so you learn the language quickly.
- Build your vocabulary
Learning vocabulary in your new language is important because you need to know which words to use to express yourself and understand what you hear and see. According to the International Center for Language Studies, knowing between 4,000 and 10,000 words in a language typically makes you an advanced speaker, but you likely can communicate in everyday situations after mastering 1,000 to 3,000 words [1].
To master new words, you need to use them in different contexts and review them multiple times. Research in vocabulary acquisition has found that learners may need to interact with new words as many as 20 times before they can remember them [2]. You can use the following options to build your vocabulary:
- Use flashcards to practice: You can create physical flashcards by writing a word in the new language on one side and the word in your language on the other. Alternatively, you can use an app to create and practice with digital flashcards. To use them, read the target word in one language and try to remember its translation in the other language.
- Practice in language apps: You can find numerous language learning apps, including free options, to help you learn vocabulary. In fact, vocabulary practice tends to be a prominent feature of these apps, and many of them use flashcards and games to encourage practice.
- Look for cognates: Cognates are words that are similar in two languages, such as accidente in Spanish and accident in English. Some languages have many cognates, while others may have a few or none. If you’re a native English speaker, you’ll likely recognize many words in Dutch, German, and French that are similar to words you already know.
- Say words out loud when you learn them: When you say words aloud, you can practice pronouncing them properly, which is an important part of learning how to communicate in the new language. This can also help you memorize new words quickly.
- Keep a journal: A journal is a great way to monitor the words you’re learning. When you’re watching TV, reading an article, or listening to a song in your target language, write down words that sound interesting. You can also use the journal to practice writing with the new words and review your list regularly until you feel like you’ve mastered them.
