My 20 Favorite Language Learning Tips
- Use small phrases when talking to pets/inanimate objects/ yourself etc
- Kid books!!! Especially ones you know like cat in the hat or something similar. These are amazing especially if you are a beginner. It helps build fluency, literacy, pattern (different languages have different speaking patterns and flow), etc. There's a reason they push the books on kids.
- Do translations! Take those books and mark them up. Find news articles, research papers, etc and translate them.
- Keep a diary in your target language
- Find people who are native speakers and tell them to talk to you in that language more than your native language
- WRITE. When I formally studied Spanish, one of my teachers made us write EVERY WORD 10 times with their meanings. If it was a phrase, we would still do it word by word. I HATED this so much but after 4 years of not speaking or hearing the language, those were the words I still knew.
- Change your phone language or an app language to your target language
- Watch shows in your language. Use subtitles. If you're trying to learn to read better, put subtitles in your target language. Trying to pick up words? Use your native language for subtitles and listen to the show in your target language.
- Describe your actions, feelings, etc to yourself in your target language
- Find signs in public that are multilingual and read them
- Play your favorite songs in your target language and sing along
- Play your favorite songs in your native language but sing along to them in your target language
- Follow comic artists (or other people) on social media. Comic artists are great because they tend to use slang, colloquial language, jokes, etc that build a more fluent speech. Makeup artists and influencers are good for this too
- Go to shops. Where I'm from we have mercados and taquieras everywhere so going to places like that can help a lot
- Reach out to people and learn with them! Find someone that studies the same language or someone who's trying to learn your language but speaks your target language. Talking with non native speakers can help you learn study and language tricks that helped them
- Flash cards!
- Apps that help you learn a new language are great! But only if you practice outside the app
- Find recipes written in your target language
- Rewrite class notes in the language!
- Say at least one word a day in your target language
