General Tips For Speedy Language Learning
When your goal is to learn a foreign language without hard work, you’ll need to find ways to incorporate that language into your daily routine. Here are a list of ways that you can do this:
- Make Flash Cards. Flash cards are a great way to pick up a foreign language quickly! They will help you to learn vocabulary much faster than you would by studying a book or trying to memorize a list. Also, it helps to use pictures on the flash cards that represent whatever the flash card says! That way you will be able to relate the word to life easier.
Use flash cards to learn to speak the Spanish language quickly.
- Impromptu Translation. After you’ve been using the flash cards for awhile, try to incorporate the words into everyday life. For example, when you see a cat, try to think to yourself, “The cat in French is le chat.” This will help you later when you are conversing with another person in the foreign language. (Note: Drache noted that ideally, you should instinctively think ‘un chat’ when you see a cat; I entirely agree and this is the ultimate goal of this technique.)
- Foreign Language Forums. Visiting a forum dedicated to native speakers of a foreign language can greatly help your language abilities. While at first it may be very difficult to understand anything that is said, it will become easier with time.
- Audio Books or Television. Watching television in a foreign language is a great way to get used to hearing the correct sounds! Audio books can also be quite helpful too, as you will want to ensure that your pronunciation matches that of a native speaker. Learning to write a foreign language without learning to speak it correctly can be quite embarrassing!
By using these tricks frequently, you’ll never need to actually memorize a long list of verbs or nouns; you’ll find that you keep track of them just by looking at the flash cards regularly, or by listening to an audio book while you work.
Tags: tips
September 1st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I disagree with the “Inpromptu Translation” part…becoming accustomed to translating will stop you from being able to fluently use/understand the language. ie. “un chat” isn’t “a cat”, it’s “un chat”.
You also only mention the alphabet when discussing Slavic languages. Although that’s an issue for some of them, the real reason they aren’t recommended as a first foreign language is because they’re highly inflected.
This could use a lot more detail and specific info on how to get started, learning techniques, etc. As of now, it’s pretty much just obvious info, IMO. No offense intended either…just some problems I noticed.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for the comment.
The study I’ve done on Slavic languages (mostly Russian and Polish) hasn’t revealed that they were heavily inflected, so thanks for pointing that out to me.
I agree with you about the level of detail; this is a work in progress.