7 Steps Receipe to Learn Languages
After having spent time studying several different foreign languages, I feel that developing a discipline and method are truly the key to learn fast without losing vocabulary. I would like to share now what my years of struggle taught me and what I think should be done when starting to learn any language - in that order.
1) The alphabet
If the language has a different alphabet to yours, learn it first (before you do anything else). If the alphabet is unlimited like in Mandarin Chinese, just study the Hanzi in general and how they work. In the case of Japanese, learn Katakana and Hiragana and leave the Kanji for later. If you already know the alphabet, great, go to the 2).
2) Vocabulary first
When you learn any langaue, vocabulary is the key. Grammar follows. You will not remember grammar rules before knowing a few keywords to illustrate them anyway.
My advice: Get yourself a vocabulary note/vocabulary app. The sooner you realize it is absolutely necessary, the more time you will spare. Write the vocabulary you learnt in it, and review it everyday (try to switch from which language you translate). You should learn about 100 words before even thinking about grammar. Start by the simplest words:
- Cat, Dog, House, Egg, Fruit, Water, Man, Woman...
- Be, Have, Eat, Drink, Buy, Go, Like, Want, Must...
- Beautiful, Good, Black, White, Big, Small, Happy...
- I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They
- 1 to 10 numbers
- And other simple nouns, verbs and adjectives you can think of. Don't bother with "Bless you" and "Good night" kind of words at the beginning (those are great if you just want to communicate a bit during your trip, less if you are really serious with learning this new language).
3) Grammar time
Okay, it turns out I have nothing against grammar. You have learned your 100 simple words and you can now try to use them. Learn how to say "The house is big", "The kid wants candy", "I buy water", etc. By doing so, you will know the very basic structure of a sentence. Then you can try to look for more sophisticated but still simple grammar points:
- Not/ ot to be/have/etc
- The way questions are formed
- To go to a place
- The way adjectives work
- And other simple grammar rules.
4) Now you've got the basics. So go full vocabulary again.
Study a new grammar rule if you encounter it in a text or a video, but that's it. Now your language learning routine is starting.
5) Every single day
My personal favourite. Better study 10 minutes every day than 3 hours in the weekend. What is the use of working hard if you forget eveything by the next week session ? The brain needs to be reminded daily of the words it has learnt. This is a campaign. Think of building a sand castle: unless you are actively defending it against the rising sea, it will crumble little by little. If you forget it for two or three days, nothing will remain.
My advice: plan 30 minutes of your time every day to study the language of your choice before going to work/school. It should be a fixed timeframe (ex: between 7:30 and 8:00 am). Working on a foreign language in the morning is more effective as you are still fresh and focused.
6) Don't neglect any of the four expressions of language.
We talked about structure. Let's get a little deeper. What will you do during your thirty minutes? The only rule is to not neglect any of the four expressions (listening, reading, speaking, writing) of the language. Two of them are active (speaking and writing), while two of them are passive (listening and reading). The passive expressions should take the most of your time, especially at the beginning of your learning journey.
My advice:
I suggest you organize your thirty minutes that way:
- 10 minutes listening (your brain is not yet into the language and the faster way to wash it is by listening to words). Write down from time to time words you feel you heard often but don't know what they mean. Look for any video on Youtube and don't worry if you don't understand anything.
- 10 minutes reading. Write down from time to time words you feel you saw often but don't know what they mean. Look for any journal, children's story, or wikipedia article on the internet.
- 5 minutes speaking (alone, about what you will do today, what you see, what worries you, etc). You can also use words you learnt recently to create a sentence around them.
- 5 minutes vocabulary check (review every word that you learned the previous days)
7) Be totally immersed
You can get immersed in a language even if you are not in the country that speaks it. It is possible to get totally immersed albeit only for thirty minutes. Close your door and make your relatives understand that this time is important to you. Close social media and turn your phone in airplane mode. Now the only words you should see or hear in your own language will be for the sake of translation.
Remember that discipline is key. At the beginning, you will be excited because you will learn words used very often. You will feel that you progress very fast. After a few week however, you might "not feel like it" and just skip the lesson for that day. Don't give in to that feeling. Love the process. Work even if you are not fired up anymore. And soon enough, you will realize you actually speak [that language].
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