5 Best Tips For Learning A New Language
Deciding to learn a new language can feel like a daunting task. It can be made a lot simpler if you start off equipped with a few tips for learning a new language. With a little knowledge and guidance you can set yourself on a path that will get you speaking fluently.
How Difficult Is It To Learn A New Language?
One of the first questions people usually ask when attempting to speak a new language is: “How hard is it to learn”? The answer is going to depend on many factors. Learning as an adult is not as easy as when you are a child, and you are going to have to be prepared to put in the work. Promises of fluency with little effort or time are flashed before our eyes every day, but the truth is that effort and time is what gets you to fluency.
However, much like any educational endeavor, there are ways that you can make the process easier. You will still be working hard, but you will also be working smart. Remember, just because it is hard work, doesn’t mean it cannot be fun too. In this article we will be offering you 5 of the best tips for learning a new language, including some that will add some excitement to the process!
5 Language Learning Tips
Let’s take a look at 5 tips for language learning that will help to make it easier to reach the fluency you desire. These are just a few tips to get you started, and the ones that we think are the best. The more you dive into your educational efforts, you will encounter more. You may just come up with a few language learning tips of your own!
- Immerse Yourself
One of the most common tips for learning a new language is to take advantage of the power of immersion. Immersion is one of the best techniques for learning foreign languages. Not everyone can just pack up and move to a new country though. Thankfully, there are other ways to immerse yourself without getting on a plane.
One of the easiest ways to experience immersion doesn’t even require you to leave the couch. Thanks to all of the international content available on streaming services, you can watch TV shows and movies in the tongue you are studying, and have subtitles in your native tongue. Or, you can try it in reverse too! The more time you spend immersed, the faster you are going to attain fluency!
One of the other benefits of immersion is that it can help you learn the culture. By experiencing the day to day life, or even the art created by a culture such as films and music, you are experiencing and learning the culture. Culture is tied closely to language, and the more you understand one, the more you will understand the other.
- Set Goals For Yourself
When looking for tips on how to learn a new language, some of the best tips are universal to achieving any goal. The biggest one of those tips is to set goals. This doesn’t mean to just set vague overall goals like “Become fluent in Spanish”. Setting goals means to set both large and small goals, giving yourself landmarks in your learning to reach.
A great example of this would be to say: “I want to be fluent in Spanish in 8 months”, and then set monthly, weekly, and daily goals after that. Write it all down and keep track of your progress towards your goals. Keep them attainable. Don’t get discouraged if you miss one, just keep moving towards the end. Reward yourself when you achieve your weekly and monthly goals! Whatever you need to keep yourself motivated.
- Partner Up With A Friend
Partnering up with a friend is one of the tips to learn a new language that also helps make the experience fun! Together, you can enhance each other’s studies by practicing and testing each other. Classroom’s will often partner students together for these very reasons. You and your partner can help each other learn, while also holding each other accountable to your goals.
Partnering is also one of the best tips for learning a language due to how it mimics immersion. You and your partner can choose to only speak in the language you are learning, or learn a language using real world scenarios that you practice together.
Even if you don’t have a friend who can help, you can put this tip to use. Find a friend who is a native speaker of the language you are learning and ask them to help you out. There are also resources online where you can be matched with partners who are looking to learn like you, or native speakers offering their services! That makes this one of the most flexible language learning tips, as well as one of the most rewarding.
- Put In The Effort
This is one of the most important tips on learning a new language, and possibly the most ignored. As stated before, there are all sorts of advertisements promising fluency without hard work. The truth is, fluency only comes from hard work and practice. Studying for 15 minutes a day only three times a week sounds great. The results will not be though. Be prepared to put time into studying.
It can take 600-2,200 hours of study to achieve fluency, depending on the difficulty level. This is why immersion helps, it keeps you practicing and learning.
- Use The Encore!!! Language Learning App
Encore!!! is an app that helps you learn a language in a tested and proven way. Encore!!! uses the Listen – Speak – Repeat learning method used by language schools and governments around the world. While other language learning apps promise learning with short gamified lessons, Encore!!! lets you immerse yourself in learning during all of your free moments. You don’t need to even use your hands, just set up and playlist and go about your day while learning.
Encore!!! lets you take control of your educational experience. With the My Entries feature, you can create your own playlists and add lessons or vocabulary words based on subjects you want to learn. Did you hear dialogue in a movie, or lyrics to a song and want to learn them? Just add them to a playlist or create a lesson around them. You can even use the My Entries feature to use AI tools for learning a foreign language!
Conclusion
These are 5 tips for learning a new language that will get you started on a path to success. Immersion, goal setting, learning with a partner, and putting in time and effort can make for a great foundation for reaching fluency. When you combine those tips with a powerful tool such as Encore!!!, you have a powerful combination at your disposal.
Now that you have your start, get out there and find the best tips for learning a new language that work for you!
Frequently Asked Questions: Tips For Learning A New Language
What are the main tips for learning a new language fast?
Immersion is one of the fastest ways to learn a language. The more you are hearing and speaking, the quicker you learn. Close behind that would be to put in as much time per day as you can to learn, without burning out.
What are the best tips for adults learning a second language?
Engage with the language as often as possible. Watching media in the language you are learning, interacting with others who are learning or speak the language, or putting in time using an app such as Encore!!!
How long does it take to learn a new language?
How long it takes to learn a language depends on the difficulty of the language and how many hours you want to put in. Easier languages for English speakers can take 600-750 hours of study and practice, while the most difficult can take 2,200 to reach working proficiency
Are there any tips for learning two languages at the same time?
The best tip for learning two languages at a time is to learn two that are different from each other. This will help you to avoid confusion between the languages you are studying.
How much time should you spend learning a language each day?
Ideally, you should try to spend at least 1-2 hours per day learning a language as often as possible. If you have days where you cannot commit to that time, then you should plan on at least 30 minutes.
