Language learning tips you haven’t heard about

As a modern languages student, I think I should’ve written this post already, with hundreds of tips and videos about this topic it may get lost on the web but I hope my experience can be useful for other people, that’s why I made this list with different alternative study methods and tips to learn a foreign language, these are divided by habilities or topics.

Vocabulary

To learn a vocabulary list, the best choice is to write down a list in the language you are learning and search them on google images, in this way you link the word with the object, and that way its easier to remember what it means.

Next, I’ll explain to you a particular exercise that may be seen dumb and obvious and it is to start thinking in the languages you are learning you can take a walk and describe in your head what you’re seeing, if you don’t know a word, remember it and when you search it you can link the word with what you saw, this exercise can help you with vocabulary but also it gives you confidence with the different abilities in the language.

Grammar

Have a folder or notebook with an organization that works for you, that depends on the method of studying and the particularities of the language, currently, I’m learning French and Portuguese so I prefer to have the notebook divided into three parts, the first one to keep the grammar topics, the back of the

notebook to keep vocabulary and a third section in the middle for conjugation.

Obviously this is the case of languages that have a large variety and complexity of conjugations

This middle part could be used for another topic, the one that’s more complex in a language, for example, particles in Korean.

Reading

Start reading as you did in your native tongue, A1 a tale, A2 a short book ( approx 50 pages) B1 a 100 pages book and B2 finally, a novel, till b2 stay away from academic and scientific readings, those can be really frustrating. In french I recommend the classic The little prince for A2/B1

It is also important to read newspapers and magazines to get used to the vocabulary of current importance, for you to avoid forgetting its good idea to follow newspapers on different social media so the news will appear and you could read the one that catches your attention.

Listening

Listen to podcasts and news while you’re exercising or doing housework so your brain can turn on its mode to that language and you can realize how much you can understand without being focused.

Podcasts spanish:  Estúpido nerd, redio ambulante

Podcasts french: Luc ferry,https://frenchtogether.com/french-podcast/

Series and movies

You can watch a movie or an episode of a series in the language you are learning with subtitles in your language then you can change the subtitles to the original language and finally the challenge of watching it without subtitles.

My recommendations:

French: Je ne suis pas un homme facile, Los gustos y los colores (Películas), Osmosis, Marianne, Ladybug (series)

Portugues: 3% (Serie), Romeu y julliet

Japanese: Atelier (serie)

Korean: Black, Madame Antoine, It’s ok thats love (dramas)

Writting

Look for topics you’re interested in on the social networks in the language you’re learning, for this to happen automatically, change the language on your phone, you can interact in there if someone corrects you, you’ll learn from your mistakes, another option is the use of chatbots apps or apps to contact foreigners with who you can practice the language (see the end of the post).

To practice in real life, you can search for language cafes in your city, there you can find people from lots of places in the world with who you can interact in their language or your own.

Resources

Apps and websites:

https://es.lyricstraining.com (an app to learn with music while you complete the lyrics)

Arround the world in 20 songs

App replika

Interaction Apps:

Hellotalk

Tandem

I hope mi tips can be useful to you

Au revoir