Note: These guidelines should be rigorously followed, even if you are taking a language course.
Learn a Foreign Language
1) Spend the time!
By far the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn. This means listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.
2) Listen and read every day!
Listen wherever you are on your MP3 player. Read what you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly understand, or even partly understand. If you keep listening and reading you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading is more effective than many hours of class time.
3) Focus on words and phrases!
Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need lots. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how accurately you speak until you have accumulated a plenty of words through listening and reading.
4) Take responsibility for your own learning!
If you do not want to learn the language, you won’t. If you do want to learn the language, take control. Choose content of interest, that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand your listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to become fluent, but you can learn to become fluent if you want to.
5) Relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So sit back and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success.
Steve Kaufmann is a former Canadian diplomat, who has had his own company in the international trade of forest products for over 20 years. Steve founded The Linguist Institute Ltd. in 2002 to develop a new approach to language learning using the web. The new LingQ system for learning multiple languages is now available in Beta. Steve speaks nine languages fluently and is currently learning Russian using LingQ. Steve maintains a blog on language learning.
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(15 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)
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I’ve started watching some of my favorite movies in foreign languages (which is made simple due to DVDs being multilingual), and this has a double effect of:
1) Introducing me to thousands of words I already know the meaning of
2) Doing it in conversations, yielding an authentic presentation of spoken word
Thanks for this article. I went and signed up and have started using the LingQ software. It’s great! Thanks
[…] Wesley presents The 5 Keys to Success in Foreign Language Learning posted at Pick the […]
[…] The 5 Keys to Success in Foreign Language Learning - [PickTheBrain] digg_url = ‘http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/5-keys-to-mastering-a-foreign-language.html’; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin==’string’?digg_skin:”; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds==’compact’) { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url==’string’?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL==’string’?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(”"); } )() Author: Craig Childs Posted: Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 7:00 am Tags: communication, languages Bookmark or Share this with a friend! […]
[…] Pickthebrain.com - “The 5 Keys to Success in Foreign Language Learning“ […]
Excellent article, I’m studying English, and I’ll use it to speed up my learning. I translated the text for Portuguese and I published in http://oskarcosta.blogspot.com/.
Thanks…
Thanks! I’m homeschooling a 9 year who wants to learn Greek and this is something I think I need to print out and stick on our fridge as a guide!
Wow, a 9-year-old interested in Greek. That’s remarkable!
There seem to be no shortage of sites offering online language courses, and the stiff competition has given students great new options in taking on the challenge of learning a new language.
I have found learning Mandarin to be quite convenient with the excellent podcasts available these days ( like www.chineselearnonline.com)
If you have an MP3 player, I would recommend giving it a try.
Not so remarkable.
She, like a lot of kids, loves Greek myths so when I suggested she try another language it was Greek that caught her imagination.
[…] list from Pick the Brain of the five most important considerations in learning a foreign […]
[…] How to Learn a Foreign Language (tags: howto lifehacks) […]
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[…] Wesley presents The 5 Keys to Success in Foreign Language Learning posted at Pick the […]
Y’know, I’ve followed advice like this in the past and it hasn’t worked. Dedication is one thing. Dedication + ability = success in language learning. There’s no escaping that. Let’s be honest here: knowing a few phrases and speaking a language fluently (or better) are very different things. Most people can do the former; not everyone can do the latter.
[…] Ways to Learn a Foreign Language […]
[…] found this really cool article about how to learn a foreign language. I think the steps that guy writes about not only helps you learn, but help you learn it faster […]
Great Post !!!
Learning english here
[…] PickTheBrain teaches you How to Learn a Foreign Language: 5 Keys to Success. […]
Great article!
[…] Learn a Foreign Language: 5 Keys to Success […]
Hi everyone!
I love the new way of learning a new language that the site www.lingofriends.com has to offer. -You find a guy/girl that you like and then you chat until you drop.
It’s pretty revolutionary.
Best, Fredrik
Steve,
Great post! I very much agree with all your points. I’ve been teaching Spanish for twenty years and whenever my students follow this type of advice, they really progress a lot faster. I’ve now got a free podcast called Spanish Podcasts for Beginners (http://www.spanish-bookworld.com/spanish-podcasts.html) where I’ve developed a method that resembles what you talk about here. Thanks for the article.
I like the part 4 when you say “take responsibility for your own learning!” … Some people tend to rely on a teacher/a guide/a method … all that are tools but success depends on oneself. They want to be fluent in a language but they don’t want to pay the price. We are responsible of our success and our failure and we can’t blame a method or a teacher. A language learner has do go beyond his classroom and seek a way to improve his fluency in his target language … he has to be able to use all the new technologies to reach his goal.
To improve his fluency in his target language, a language learner has to listen to it, read it, write it, and talk with natives … be completely immersed in the language.
I talk from experience … I blog my insights on: http://www.languageslovers.blogspot.com. English is my third language. Actually, I speak 7 languages.
Found this really cool article about how to learn a foreign language.
The best way to learn language is where it is spoken. Only by interacting with native speakers in their home country will you be able to adapt to and discover an entirely new culture. It’s also the best way to practice the language at the same time that you are learning it.
Studying abroad strengthens your self-confidence and sharpens your intellectual skills.
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Great ideals , for my 2008 new start,
Never to late to learn If there is a will,
Thank you
Tracy ho
wisdomgettingloaded
ye,i think you are totally right
[…] Pick the Brain blog published 5 keys to the success of how to learn a foreign language. They also mention the use of LingQ, an online learning system and The Rosetta Stone, my all time […]
My favorite language learning software is valodas at www.valodas.com because it’s free an easy to use. There are many dictionaries, now I’m learning French.
Great tips. I would like to add one more.
6) Use It!
Language learning programs work great at the beginning, but they can only prepare you so well for the real thing. It is absolutely vital to put what you are learning into practice in real life situations, ideally with a native speaker.
[…] 7, 2007 by sumardika Inspired by this article, I will put some notes on English learning collected from various […]
i am iranian .im 16 years old and im so happy that i find the best way to learn foreign language . thanks for this topics .
Well, first of all, thank you for the blog, because you have very much said the opposite of what the major money players in the foreign language market would have one believe…that they can learn from a book, of a $600 cd set that actually only has 500 words (i.e not even close to being enough)…and then when you are done, they claim you are now intermediate, but in truth you cannot even conduct a simple conversation.
But, now some criticism, you don’t really help a beginning student understand how to go from beginner to someone who can make any sense at all of an MP3 recording, or a book written (for example) in Russian.
And to the person who said you really have to have skill in it…not true. Sorry, but not true. Everyone learned their first language, and nearly everyone would learn a 2nd as well…if they had no choice.
But I digress. I spent several years watching Russian TV, and picked up nothing from it. Now I watch Russian TV and I can understand most of it. The breakthrough came when I realized that simple immersion, when its too far above your head, and when its tied to no references…doesn’t work.
Immersion, like drop me off in the middle of Russia, would work…but for a surprising reason…the people around me, would have no choice but to speak to me simple…in single word sentences at first, until my knowledge built up. TV doesn’t have to do that, neither does an MP3 recording…it has no knowledge or care if the listener understands anything.
I’m long winded…sorry, but I’ll make my point, you have to start simply…and TV probalby isn’t simple enough, and a regular book, not simple enough.
Start with the simplest of stories…before you watch a movie, rip the subtitles and translate all the words.
To get the first hooks into the language, you have to memorize at least 3 or 4 thousand words by brute force.
Then when you watch tv and understand about half of it, it can start to be a learning experience…especially if your ear is trained, and you can pick out new words and look them up in the dictionary.
[…] I strongly believe in something I found on a great site called PicktheBrain and that is you need to listen a lot to improve your language skills. So along with studying in a […]
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Pick the Breain is great. And right on target, need practice practice practice, and much immersion.. learning a language need not be so tough.
Great info.
What everyone should get out of this is to most of all just relax and let it come natural.
Dont always get nervous like i did when i first moved abroad! hehe
I owe my own career to learning a foreign language.
Like it or not, the globalization tend is here to stay. It doesn’t make sense to fight it. Everyone interested in reaping the benefits of global markets needs to find a way to learn a foreign language the fast and easy way to get ready for international opportunities for employment, trade and business.
[…] advice I gave him was similar to advice I found on PicktheBrain’s site about learning a foreign language . I knew he didn’t have the money to pay for a private tutor, nor to go to a school. So I […]
Comida = food
Com = come
i = eat
da = the
FOOD!
Tienda = store
ti = tie
en = in
da = the
STORE!
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Very interesting
In my blog http://kliktrans.com i try to follow your tips.
I agree with your post, it’s like a gem! I’m learning Chinese and Spanish now, while teaching Filipino.
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