Frequency and consistency of effort
are more important than throwing hours at learning your language. Are you doing
it often enough?
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Play
games to get fluent.
Playing games to improve your
language skills is both fun and effective. There are superb online games around,
for example try www.languagegames.org. “Play” embeds our learning as well
as making it more interesting. Becoming fluent has never been so much fun!
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“Puzzling”
translation.
Take an interesting dialogue with
juicy vocabulary. Translate it without a dictionary, simply by puzzling it out
(you need to be at least intermediate). Review it looking up words you didn’t
get. This gets you under the skin of a language.
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Seasonal surge.
Aim to learn vocabulary
related to the season. For example in summer you might explore themes like hot
weather, ways to stay cool, summer foods, summer destinations in the country etc. It’s
a logical way to learn stuff you can use right now.
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Specific
incentives.
Give yourself concrete and substantial
rewards for achieving your goals. For example: a holiday, a gadget, new clothes
or whatever motivates you most. Just link it to your language learning.
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Put it all on display.
When you visit the country, aim
to use the full range of expressions you know. Even if it’s not entirely
right, the only way to learn fast is to express yourself! Be a show-off and you’ll
definitely reap benefits.
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Listen while doing something else.
There are lots of untapped opportunities
if you’re an auditory learner. You may be able to listen to the language
while exercising, doing household chores, travelling or if you’re lucky and your job allows, even at work.
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Feel the power.
Imagine yourself in control of
your communication, saying just what you mean and being clearly understood. If
you can achieve it in your own language you can do it in any other. It just needs
hard work and dedication.
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Language of love.
Write a love letter or poem in
the language, you never know when it might come in handy!
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Does
it work for you?
This is the only question you
need to ask when choosing language learning resources, tools and methods. Don’t
worry too much about “why” or “how”. Don’t follow
what anyone else says…if it works for you, just do it more often!
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“False friends” day.
You’ll easily locate a list
of these words (like traps waiting to snare you). Dedicate a day to learning
them and you’ll never get “caught out” again.
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A productive rainy day.
Get a pile of language learning
materials together at home and save yourself from getting wet and cold!
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Fruit and veg. are good for your
brain!
Do you know the vocab. for the
main fruit and vegetables in your target tongue? There’s a tremendous variety
so it’s likely to be a useful stretch of your vocabulary. Plus it’ll
help you shop on your next in-country visit.
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Plan your trip.
Plan your next visit to the country
“in the language”, preferably with a travel pal/partner with the same objective.
Research and book all aspects of your trip while improving your fluency.
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Impersonate.
After listening to a native speaker try to mimic them on every level. Use their voice intonation, depth of speaking, volume and so on…all subtle triggers
to help your memory capture the precise authentic accent.
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Count on your language numeracy.
You may think you’ve mastered
the numbers in the language, but try to test yourself. Ask a friend to throw
random numbers at you and see how fast you can come back with a response. Numbers
test your mental agility and also represent useful day to day knowledge in any language.
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Linguistic research.
How many people worldwide speak
your language? Which countries? What
are its main dialects and variations? Such background knowledge can inspire,
inform and support your language learning.
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Go
back in time.
What were you learning a few months
back? Go back and review a past lesson.
Not only will you cement your learning deeper still, you’ll be pleasantly conscious of all the progress you’ve
made.
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Keep measuring.
What gets measured gets done. Keep on doing online and other tests to assess your level. You’ll identify and overcome problem areas allowing you to surge ahead. It’s very motivating to see your score improve.
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Who do you know?
It’s amazing how many multilingual
people are out there if we just open our eyes to meet them. Ask them for their
tips and experience. You’ll remind yourself how satisfying and achievable
language fluency is. Check out our Language Learner Bios for further inspiration.
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How much do you want to be fluent?
Test the depth of your motivation. What do you really have to gain from learning this language? What would you lose by not learning it? Be clear about what
you want to achieve and you’ll accelerate your progress.
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Change methods each day.
If on Monday you learn by reading texts then deliberately use your
listening skills on Tuesday and maybe watch a podcast on Wednesday. The more
you vary it the faster you’ll cement what you’ve learned.
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