How to deal with grammar is a question we get a lot from language learners. Yes, classroom learning often focuses a lot on grammar. I also plead guilty to having used this approach with students during my college teaching years.
But I now know that it does not help your speaking abilities early on. Fortunately, if you're learning a new language independently, it's okay to put grammar on the back burner.
Still, not focusing on grammar doesn't mean you ignore it completely. A good approach is to start with "baby steps" to learn gradually how your new language works.
Grammar in any language is a huge subject. However, knowing a grammar book inside out doesn't mean you can communicate in the language. All it means is that you can remember a lot of abstract rules. And these don't automatically translate into fluent communication.
So, what are a few "baby steps" that self-learners can take? Here are the steps that work for me when I start out in a new language. (My examples are from the four languages on our site.)
Step #1: A Quick Glance At Grammar Basics
I do mean a "quick glance", and really just basic grammar. Do it in whatever way works for you - on the internet or in a basic grammar book.
You don't really want to know ALL the grammar rules right off. Especially not all the dozens of exceptions to those rules to boot.
What you want to know is how your new language works. How it is essentially different from your native language(s). Knowing these main differences will help you when starting out with conversations.
PRONOUNS In English, you always use pronouns. The same goes for German and French. Italian and Spanish usually drop the pronouns, unless they are needed for clarity or emphasis.
THE PRONOUN "YOU" English has just one word for "you", and it works for familiar and formal, for singular and plural.
French, German, Italian and Spanish have different pronouns for familiar and formal, and also for singular and plural. You need to sort out which pronoun and/or verb ending to use for each of those situations.
PRESENT TENSE VERB ENDINGS
English verb endings are pretty simple. Generally, you just have to watch out for the third person singular, which adds an "s". (I go, you go, he goes, we go, you go, they go.)
For Italian and Spanish the personal endings of verbs are important because of dropped pronouns. For German and French, the different verb endings depend on which personal pronouns you use.
ARTICLES AND GENDER
English has the definite article "the" and no gender for its nouns.
French, Spanish, and Italian have two noun genders, and German has three genders, plus various case-dependent forms of the definite article.
NEGATION
Each language has its own ways to express negation. English has "not", which is often attached to a helping verb and contracted: "don't, isn't, can't, won't, shouldn't". Generally speaking, negation is simple in Spanish and Italian. In Spanish you put "no" in front of the verb, and in Italian "non". French uses the double negative "ne ... pas", and German has "nicht" for negating verbs and "kein" for negating nouns.
BASIC WORD ORDER
Here you don't want to learn any rules. You only want to observe and understand that there are differences.
Once you've had a quick glance at basic grammar differences between your native language and your target language, forget what you've read. It will all come back bit by bit, once you start listening, repeating and reading - a lot - in your new language.
Step #2: Look for Patterns
We may not feel that we are "wired for grammar" (as Noam Chomsky once suggested), but we are certainly wired for recognizing and internalizing patterns.
SOUNDS
For children in their early years, language is primarily sound. Even as adults we hear spoken language all day - in conversations, on the radio, on TV, on the internet.
Sound remains an important part of communication. To engage with others, we produce the correct sounds to get the message across. When we write, we often silently pronounce what we're writing.
SENTENCES
Learning the meaning of foreign words is important. But hearing and seeing them in complete sentences is essential: That's where "Grammar" is happening!
When learning a new language be sure to include the sound of words, phrases and simple sentences. Listen and repeat as much as you can. It's important to get the sound of what you're learning into your ear.
As you listen, repeat and read, watch for patterns. Patterns of verb endings are basic, so listen and look for them. Watch out for the differences between questions and statements. Try to notice simple idiomatic ways of saying things.
STORIES
Easy stories are a good next step. They will put essential vocabulary in context and therefore give you a more precise meaning of words and phrases.
Stories also show how the language works. You'll hear and see questions, responses to questions, emphatic forms, the use of familiar or formal "you", negation, word order variations, etc.
READING & WRITING
Once you're reasonably happy with your pronunciation, begin to pay closer attention to the written text as you practice listening and repeating. It will help you to master the correlation between sound and written text in your new language. It's a good way to get into reading.
Reading is a fantastic tool for acquiring vocabulary and for internalizing typical patterns of a language.
Step #3 More In-depth Grammar
When you're happily into your new target language, when you continue to feel motivated and love the progress you're making, that's the time to tackle more grammar. But don't focus on rules. Focus on typical patterns. Below are two examples.
GENDER AND ARTICLES
Suppose you've been reading and listening to Italian and notice that the simple English article "the" has several Italian equivalents: "il, la, lo, l', i, le, gli". You've probably figured out the articles "il, la, i, and le". But you're curious enough to check when "lo" and "gli" are used. From then on, each time you see or hear "lo" and "gli" in context, you become more familiar with its use.
French and Spanish have two genders, feminine and masculine, and four articles that go with it. In French, there's "le, la, l', les". In Spanish, you have "el, la, los, las". Good to know, but pretty easy to figure out on your own as you're hearing and reading a story.
German, however, has three genders: "der, die, das" (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and the definite articles, including the plural forms, change depending on the case of the noun. So, it will take more effort to really learn the correct German forms. You'll want to study the various article/case combinations written out in front of you. Then, saying the forms often helps to make them automatic. Still, perfect mastery is elusive for most, and that's okay. (You're not alone: Mark Twain in his “A Tramp Abroad”, Appendix D, makes some very funny, but cogent observations.)
ASKING YES-NO QUESTIONS
There are often fundamental word order differences between languages. For example, it's not easy for foreigners to understand when to use "do" or "are" in a question in English.
For example, you say: "Do you know?", while the question, "Are you knowing?" doesn't make sense. On the other hand, you would tend to say "Are you going?" The question "Do you go?" needs more context, such as "Do you often go to the movies?"
French, too, has various ways to ask yes-no questions. But these are different from English. For one, you can put the question particle, "Est-ce que" at the beginning of a sentence and thus turn it into a question, "Est-ce que vous parlez anglais ?"
Then there's the inversion of subject and verb, as in "Parlez-vous anglais ?" Or, you can just add "n'est-ce pas ?" at the end of a statement: "Tu parles anglais, n'est-ce pas ?" Finally, in informal speech, you can just raise your voice at the end: "Tu parles anglais ?" Once you start paying attention to questions when hearing and reading French, these patterns will become familiar and you'll learn when to use which.
In Italian you can make a statement into a question by letting your voice go up at the end, and/or adding a tag: "È americano?" "É americano, vero?" "É americano, no?" It's as simple as that.
Similarly, in Spanish, you can change a statement to a yes-no question by using question intonation and sometimes adding a tag: "¿Hablas inglés?, ¿Hablas inglés, no? ¿Hablas inglés, verdad?" Or, in some cases, you can invert verb and pronoun: "¿Tiene Ud. sed?"
For yes-no questions in German, you normally invert subject and the personal verb: "Sind Sie Amerikaner?" Or, "Wollen Sie jetzt essen?"
Make Grammar a Treat not a Chore!
There are exceptions, but most language learners don't learn grammar to become fluent in grammar. They learn a language because they want to be able to speak with others.
It's more fun to figure things out than to memorize rules. So, try to figure out little by little how your new language works. Don't focus too much on the rules.
Becoming fluent in another language is a hugely satisfying achievement. It's great fun to step out of your native language and step into another way of communicating. It can be a wonderful life-long adventure!
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She's a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments right here below!
With summer just underway and your New Year's resolutions half a year behind you, it's time to recalibrate your language learning routine and give it a quick boost.
Routines are good because they automatically shortcut any procrastination. But, switching some of your routine around can do wonders for your motivation.m
Ever heard of "interleaving"? This technique is used in various disciplines, such as sports, technology, music, medicine, maths, etc. See, The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning (Scientific American)
Applied to learning a foreign language, interleaving means alternating between related skills, topics, methods, materials, etc. Though, the materials should always be on your level of understanding. Summer, with the warmer weather, longer days, stronger sunlight and its "school's over" feel is a perfect time for mixing things up a little.
EXERCISE MIXES WELL WITH LANGUAGE LEARNING
It's no secret, exercise is good for the brain, especially aerobic exercise. Simply stated in a Harvard Health Blog post: "Many studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory (the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex) have greater volume in people who exercise versus people who don't."
Even more interesting are these findings: "A new study reports that working out during language class amplifies people's ability to memorize, retain, and understand new vocabulary."
In the summer, it's wonderful to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Great favorites are walking, hiking and jogging, and these activities are perfect for listening to podcasts, audio books and audio courses.
Do you have a friend who's fluent in the language you're learning? Walking and chatting is great way to build your friendship while brushing up your language skills.
On rainy days, you can use the exercise bike, elliptical machine, or treadmill, etc. at your gym, or maybe you even have one at home. Yes, they can be boring. But your thirty minutes go by much faster if you're listening to a interesting podcast or audio book. Make it one in your target language.
MIX SOMETHING NEW INTO YOUR ROUTINE
Have You Tried Shadowing?
Done according to Alexander Arguelles' method, language "Shadowing" is a daunting discipline.
However spelled with a small "s", language "shadowing" works on many levels and in various situations. See our recent Blog post. The key is speaking a split-second behind the native speaker on the audio. It's not hard to do and can easily boost your pronunciation and intonation of a language.
Do you like music?
Find a song you like on YouTube and google the lyrics. Play the song until the tune and the words become automatic. Songs are an effective way to improve your pronunciation and intonation of another language.
Not only that, songs are a fun way to learn idiomatic phrases and grammatical patterns that are typical for the language. And, if you sing along (even silently), all the more power to you.
A sample of popular songs: • German: Revolverheld - Immer noch fühlen • French: Amir - On dirait • Spanish: Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias: El perdon • Italian: Laura Pausini - Non è detto
Do A Little Binge Watching
Take a break from memorizing vocabulary (if that's what you do). Find films, or even better, a series in your target language and get into the stories.
Watch without subtitles, if you can. If subtitles are an option, set them to your target language, or to English. In any case, the context of the story, the background music and the visual clues will all help you to get what's going on.
A sample of series or films that I enjoyed: • German: Babylon Berlin (Netflix; a period drama based on the novels of Volker Kutscher) • French: Les Aventures de Tintin (YouTube; beginners); Un gars une fille (YouTube; advanced) • Spanish: Destinos (Annenberg Learner; series created for Spanish learners) • Italian: Un posto al sole (Raiplay; soap set in Naples)
(What's offered may change, of course. You can also watch many foreign TV programs on the internet for free, especially if you use a VPN.)
SUMMER IS GREAT FOR SLOW TRAVEL
If you're heading out to discover new places abroad, try it the "slow way" - stay a few days, a week, or even longer.
Over the years we've done that in close to a dozen cities all over Europe: Amsterdam, Oslo (a few days); Stockholm, Copenhagen, London (a week); Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Seville (a month); Rome (5 months).
Staying for a time in one place takes some of the stress out of travel. Nowadays, it's easy to rent an apartment even for just a few days. (See our blog post: about short term stays). Also, it's a relief to not pack in five or more top sights per day.
One of the true pleasures of lingering in one place is that you can explore the city or neighborhood at your leisure. You also have a much better chance to meet some of the locals in your neighborhood shops, cafés, restaurants, at the open market, etc.
In each of the places we stayed, we immediately found a nearby bakery (to get fresh bread for breakfast), a kiosk (for the local newspaper), a couple of favorite bistros (for lunch or dinner), the local open market and shops (for fruit, cheese, olives, supplies, etc.)
Every occasion gave us the chance to use the local language, which we either spoke or had especially learned for the trip. The effort to use the local language whenever we could clearly made a difference, even though some of my Danish, for example, was a little shaky. In many cases, it broke the ice and people were doubly helpful.
Exploring a city or neighborhood by walking has its own charm. For many cities there are apps for self-guided tours (in English, or in your target language). But just walking the city with a couple of destinations a day is wonderful too.
Some cities offer walking tours organized by local guides. (In London, we took a Shakepeare tour; in Paris we enjoyed a walking tour through the Père Lachaise cemetery, it was called “Assassins et Assassinés”.) These tours are often quite entertaining and you learn some amazing things.
There are also easy bike rentals for those who want a change of pace from walking. And of course, short train and bus trips to nearby towns are always a fun adventure.
One last slow travel summer idea: canal boating. We did this several times in France and in the Netherlands.
Although you don't stay in one place, it's a delightful way to get to know a small part of the country. The good thing is that you take your accommodations with you as you move on. Usually bikes are on the boat so you can go off and explore as you like.
The summer is a perfect time to relax, to change gears and try out a few new things. Think outdoor cafés and long walks, bike rides, interesting audio books and films, listening to music. Sneak your language learning into things that you love to do, and have a great summer!
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
When I first came across the language learning technique called “Shadowing”, I was intrigued.
In crime novels "to shadow" someone means to follow closely behind the person, watch what they do, where they go. Generally speaking, the idea is to gather some kind of information about the person or activity.
I recently described my 6 Listening Practice Tips for my Seventh Language. However, with the technique of "Language Shadowing", as practiced by Alexander Argüelles, you gather information to better imitate what you hear. And that can take you to the next level of your target language.
Language Shadowing Explained
It was the linguist Alexander Argüelles who in the 1990s developed Shadowing as a systematic technique for learning and practicing a language. He first used it for German and Korean and then for a number of other languages.
Argüelles has made three videos demonstrating and explaining Shadowing. They can be viewed directly on YouTube, or via his LinkedIn profile.
Video Number 1 (2008)
This short video is just a minute long and shows Alexander Argüelles "Shadowing" Chinese while walking back and forth on a bridge. Here the three obvious features of his technique are: 1) listening and immediately repeating aloud 2) walking briskly outside at the same time 3) looking at the text intermittently
Video Number 2 (2009)
In this 13-minute video, Argüelles answers some questions viewers have asked about his first Language Shadowing video. For example:
• Does one need to walk back and forth and turn rapidly on a bridge? His answer is "no". You can do it on a treadmill, but it's more pleasant to walk outside on a trail. The basic idea is to combine exercise with learning.
• Are the speed and motion necessary? His answer: It works best for him. Moving about swiftly encourages you to say focused and maintain good posture. It's no mystery that correct posture and articulation are important for speaking well.
• Do you have to do Shadowing in public? His answer: It's actually not ideal to practice it in public because one may feel self-conscious about walking around speaking aloud. And, people do come up to ask what you're doing. Still, he suggests it's not a bad way to deal with self-consciousness.
• How is it possible to say the foreign language "at the same time" as the native speaker? His answer: You need to practice doing this. Repetition helps a lot and with time you'll get better. The goal is to listen and repeat a split second later as best as you can. (In the next video, Argüelles also calls this technique "echoing".)
Video Number 3 (2009)
In the third video, which is just under an hour long, Argüelles goes over his Shadowing technique step by step and in considerable detail. As a number of language teachers and learners have pointed out, the technique of "listening and repeating" to learn a language is not an innovation made recently.
Children do it naturally when they learn their first language.
As a technique, listening and repeating (also called "parroting") became part of language teaching decades ago, before the internet popularized it with easily accessible audio.
However, Alexander Argüelles shaped the technique of Shadowing into a formal method with specific steps that he used to achieve his language learning goals. Early in the video he explains:
"Listen to [the audio] very closely through ear phones and make the sounds that you hear as soon as you hear them. ... You have to talk on top of the voice as you hear it coming. ... This will give you feedback. ... [Shadowing] proved for me to be the best ... means of starting to learn a language, of taking a language that you don't know and planting it, literally planting it inside your brain so that it can grow there."
Below is a brief outline of the steps or stages he describes. However, to really understand his method, you should look at the video Argüelles made. To learn by using Shadowing, you need a set of recordings with no pauses and a book that is bilingual with the text on opposite pages. The lessons should be short. To prepare for any Shadowing exercise, think in the language as best as you can.
As I understand them, there are 8 Stages to learning a language with Shadowing: Stage 1: Blind Shadowing (15-20 min) of a lesson or lessons. This means repeating almost simultaneously even if you don't understand what's being said. Stage 2: Do Shadowing while looking at the text of the teaching language. Stage 3: Do Shadowing of the same text while looking back and forth between the teaching language and the target language to check the meaning. Stage 4: Do Shadowing of the text while looking at the target language only. Stage 5: Do Shadowing with brisk walking. Stage 6: Sit down, look at the lesson(s) without audio and compare the texts in the two languages. Read the text aloud. Write the text of the lesson(s) out by hand. Stage 7: Once you've finished the whole book, type out the entire text double-spaced. Read the text and fill in the meaning of words you don't know. You can do that several times. Add some grammar exercises. Stage 8: Take the audio for a walk and Shadow it from start to finish.
Argüelles is quick to say that Shadowing is not the only technique or method he uses for learning and practicing a language. He has used and uses other techniques: reading, regular listening, listening while running, grammar practice, translation.
I should add that Argüelles is not your "regular" language learner. Often, he'll study many hours a day. He says he knows around 50 languages, and is featured in Michael Erard's book: "Babel No More. The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners".
Experiences and Opinions
Looking for feed-back about Language Shadowing on the internet from other learners, I found a few voices and opinions (Several of them are in the answers to the question on Quora: "How effective is the shadowing technique to learn languages".)
Voices "For" Shadowing
• Richard deLong (on Quora) states that it helps intonation, pronunciation, and is good for "getting your mouth and brain back into the language." • Phil Crimmins (on Quora) claims that you learn to mimic the emotional content of what is being said. It's like going to the gym for training your mouth muscles. • Ivan Ottinger (on Quora) says it improves reaction speed for speaking. • Alexandra Edlinger (on Quora) suggests that you can use it effectively for preparing specific situations, such as job interviews. • A person with the name "clever clogs" (on LingQ Forum) finds that it helps to develop more natural rhythm and pace.
Voices "Against" Shadowing
• Steve Kaufmann (on LingQ Forum and YouTube video) clearly does not like the method. He says that it detracts from his enjoyment, that he doesn't like walking around briskly outside reciting what he's listening to, etc. • Judith Meyer (on Quora) doesn't use Shadowing. The technique may "burn certain words or sentence structures into your mind" but she finds it less efficient than Spaced Repetition. She even doubts that Shadowing helps at all with fluency.
My Opinion
To follow Argüelles' method exactly seems like lot of hard work and not everybody has the commitment and discipline that he has. He says himself that it takes weeks to get the method down correctly.
I have not used Language Shadowing as a daily formal technique, though I have been doing "shadowing" (lower case) to improve my fluency in French, Spanish, and Italian. Repeating what I hear almost simultaneously and at conversational speech helps me to speak more naturally.
Argüelles uses the analogy that Shadowing is similar to a "video game", where you repeat many steps many times before you get to the next level. In his words: "You listen and speak many times, and do this again and again". He also suggests that once you've got the method down, you can experiment with it, and use it in a way that it works for you.
For me, using bits and pieces of the technique is a productive way of adding variety to my language practice. It's also a way I can really push myself to speak fast and at length. I'd love to hear about your take on Language Shadowing!
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
The internet has made so many great things possible in our lives. One of them is the ease it has brought to the dissemination of useful information. Gone are those days when you had to travel to other parts of the world to discover things.
Yes, you can still use your local library to learn things. But even there, almost any form of knowledge will be at your fingertips as long as you can get access to the internet. And the internet also brought us electronic learning (or e-learning).
With it, you don’t need to move to San Francisco to get a degree at Stanford University. You can apply for courses online!
E-Learning is applicable to just about anything you need to learn. As long as there is a teacher and a learner, the internet is an able medium of communication.
E-Learning Saves Money and Time
E-Learning has many advantages over conventional methods of learning. To start with, it saves cost.
You can take courses that are being taught anywhere in the world without leaving your home. This saves you a lot of money on transportation and hotel/hostel bills.
In addition, you’re also not constrained by time as most online courses are asynchronous, which means that they are not ongoing in real time. You can access them whenever you want.But do note that there are also synchronous courses where the teacher and the student are at different devices at the same time.
As the world is fast becoming a global village, traditions are getting interwoven. More people are learning to speak more than one language.
E-Language Learning
And with e-Learning, you can learn a foreign language without even visiting the country. There are many online platforms that offer training on different languages and in a wide variety of formats.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer learning by talking with a native speaker or you would like to start with learning the alphabets and then sentence structure. Whichever your preference, you’ll find an e-Learning platform that caters to it.
Some language learning platforms take even more interesting approaches like building in interactive games and simulations in their training process. This method is referred to as gamification.
It is fast gaining in popularity because research shows that interactive games help learners retain information up to 10 times better.
The education site Udemy alone has well over 700 languages courses focused on different aspects of linguistics, and language acquisition using different models of learning.
E-Language Fluency
Another approach is using social media. In this case, a platform is created where people who speak languages fluently come together. Take for instance, a Japanese CEO who is trying to polish his spoken English. He registers on this platform as does a native US English speaker. The platform links them so they can make video calls at their convenience and interact in English.
This helps people communicate with native speakers in the language they are interested in learning, thereby helping them speed up their proficiency. E-Learning has made the acquisition of skill more affordable and accessible. It’s another feather in the cap for human ingenuity and has come to stay.
It will only grow bigger, better and more useful as you will see from the infographics below.
Bio:Tarun Reddy is Digital Marketing Manager at 16best.net, expert in Market Research, SEO, Inbound marketing, content marketing, and lead generation.
Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with 16best.net or Tarun Reddy other than publishing Tarun's article and infographics.
You're learning a new language. You've managed to get a good start, but now you notice that you're struggling to continue.
The learning is just not going smoothly. You start skipping a day here and there, then you miss a week or so. Sorting papers seems so much more important than learning and practicing 15 minutes or so in your new language.
Language Learner’s Block
Perhaps what you have is Language Learner’s Block. In many ways it resembles what we call Writer's Block. Borrowing and adapting a definition: Language Learner’s Block “is the condition whereby a language learner cannot summon up the will and energy to continue learning a foreign language.” (From Fiction Writers’ Mentor)
There are all kinds of reasons for feeling blocked. A major reason is lack of confidence in yourself as a language learner. Constant self criticism may be sapping your motivation.
Maybe it's also frustration with your slow learning progress. You wanted to become fluent - in how many days, weeks, or months?
Or you feel stressed because of too may other commitments. But even people with a busy schedule manage to add a daily item they really want to do. I'm sure you've heard people say: “If you want to get a job done, find a busy person to do it”. So, being busy is not a good reason to stop learning a language you really want to learn.
A language learner's block is not foreign to me. I've been there a few times. But I've also found ways to keep going nevertheless. Here are a few practical ideas to help you too overcome your Language Learner’s Block.
Pick the one(s) that could work for you NOW. Once you're back in your routine, your confidence and motivation will pick up again, and you can try out some others later. Except for #1 - which is worth looking at anyhow from time to time - the other 19 are in no particular order.
20 Practical Tips
1. Reassess. Before you tackle the obstacles that keep you from continuing with your language, as yourself a few questions. Why are you learning your new language? Are you planning a trip? Do you need it for your career or move to a new country? Are you learning your language as a longer-term hobby? Which of the four skills - reading, listening/comprehension, speaking, writing - will be most useful to you? Which one to practice more?
2. Limit your practice time. When Promise yourself that you'll do 5 minutes a day as a starter. When you've done your 5 minutes, stop. If you keep up this mini-routine even for a couple of weeks, you'll be on your way to creating a language learning habit. It's not how long you practice, it's doing it on a regular basis.
3. Set a daily reminder. Do this for whatever language task you've chosen. Most online programs have that option. Or, if you're like me, put the reminder on your short daily "to do" list and check it off when you're done. Doing something every day creates momentum.
4. Do small tasks. If you're using a program, do short lessons. If you're learning vocabulary, limit the number of words you memorize. If you're listening to a podcast, do the same one several times. Doing small tasks, but doing them every day really adds up to big results.
5. Set up your next task. When you're done for the day, write down a small task for the new material you'll want to tackle next. That'll make it easier for you to get right into it the next day.
6. Reward yourself. When you reach a small milestone - let's say 10 days in a row - treat yourself to something you enjoy. People have different ideas of a "reward", but for me a new ebook, listening to a song, a piece of chocolate, watching a TV show, all work well.
7. Write a journal. A sentence a day in your target language is great way to start a journal. Just write the way you would talk, and don't worry about making mistakes. No one's going to see it. With time, you'll become familiar with certain phrases and grammar patterns.
8. Try things out.Don't worry about making mistakes. Remember that your native language will interfere powerfully when you speak a foreign language. It takes time to become familiar with a new language. Focus on communicating rather than perfection.
9. Listen to songs. Add some fun to your language learning and treat it as a hobby. Songs are a great way to internalize sounds and vocabulary. First listen to a song by following the text, then listen again and again. Try not to translate as you listen. Just focus on the meaning. (Language Zen is a great option if you'd like to learn with Spanish songs!)
10. Watch movies. For your first movies, you'll probably want to see English subtitles. Then, when you're ready, start watching with subtitles in your target language. Again, try not to translate. You'll get many clues to the meaning just from the images themselves.
11. Read easy stories. A good start may be the "easy readers" which include vocabulary and translations of the language you want to learn. (We like Olly Richard's Short Stories, which you can also get with audios.)
12. Find new resources. Adding or switching resources can give you fresh ideas and new energy. Search the internet for materials available in the language you're learning. Join a language forum such as Polyglots, or My Polyglot, etc. to get recommendations from other members. Check out your library, listen to foreign books on Audible, try out a new language app, etc.
13. Add recall. It's better to spend a little time recalling what you've just learned than to cram in more new information. Also, keep in mind, recalling new information from time to time (spaced repetition) will put it into your long-term memory.
14. Memorize a short dialogue. Then, record yourself and play back the dialogue. This also works for practicing a telephone conversation in your target language. Tell yourself you'll just have to get used to hearing yourself speak in the language you're learning.
15. Practice pronunciation.Get a list and the audio of basic expressions and "listen and repeat" them many times. Record yourself and compare your pronunciation to that of the native speaker. Next time you converse in your target language, you'll be happy you did.
16. Work on Fluency. One way to improve your fluency is to listen regularly to podcasts in your target language. Or play streamed radio. Do this kind of listening practice whenever you're cooking, walking, exercising, etc. For real fluency, you need to internalize the intonation and rhythm of your new language, and this is a good way to do it.
17. Focus on practical phrases. Mastering greetings and basic conversational phrases is essential in any case. It's especially helpful for travels. If you're going to Paris for a week, it won't be that important to master the subjunctive.
18. Socialize. Language is a fantastic tool for socializing. Find a meetup group, or join an online community to start using your new language to communicate. Rattling off phrases you memorized is very different from the dynamic back-and-forth of a conversation. Believe me, it's really exciting to be able to hold your own in another language.
19. Tap into your inner actor. The well-known psycholinguist François Grosjean (author of the blog “Life as a Bilingual”) suggests that we don't really change personalities when we change languages. He states: "Different contexts and domains trigger different impressions, attitudes and behaviors. What is taken as a personality shift due to a change of language may have little, if anything, to do with language itself."
But, a different language will often put you into new and different situations, which in turn may change your attitudes and feelings. So, when speaking Italian, become Italian. Add Italian voice drama and characteristic gestures. Tap into your inner actor and explore new ways to express yourself.
20. Work on your attitude. It's easy to say: "Ah, I'll never get it. When I start talking with someone in my target language, my brain freezes up." Scratch those sentences from your inner vocabulary. Instead, tell yourself: "Every time I use my second language, I become more familiar with it, and my brain benefits."
Looking back at my own experience: I was born in Austria and my native language is German. But when I was nine, my family moved to the Netherlands. Since I attended a local school there, I had to learn Dutch pronto.
Two years later, we emigrated to Canada and this time I had to learn English fast. During high school and college, I added French. Much later, I started learning Italian and Spanish, and now I'm working on Danish, Swedish and Portuguese. Most recently, I've started dabbling in Finnish.
Each stage of my life and each language has confronted me with challenges that I've needed to deal with. I've used each of the above practical ideas at some point in my language learning life. I'd love to hear what works for you.
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
Stories play an important role in our lives. Much of our communication with others is through stories. By exchanging stories with others, we connect with them.
Stories interest us. They tell us about the struggles and achievements of others and help us create our own identity. They are a way of making sense of our lives.
Stories are also tools for processing and remembering information. Narratives help us structure and organize content and give meaning to facts.
In a story, words come up again and again, sometimes in various contexts. Having the context of a story, you can often guess the meaning of new words. Especially when words show up several times in different sentences and combinations, their meaning becomes more accessible.
Each time you see a particular word again, it becomes more solidly lodged in your memory. Guessing the meaning of words from the context of a situation is a useful skill. If we practice it, we become better at it - something that helps enormously when learning a language.
Yes, you can learn words in a list by repeating and recalling them often enough. But there's a "boring" factor attached to that. Its also frustrating to keep forgetting words repeatingbecause we don't connect them to a memorable context.
A list of words is pure memorization. The words stand in a vacuum. Besides, once you've memorized a word in your new language, you still have to understand and learn how to use it. That happens when you recognize that particular word in context. For that a story is perfect.
Can you learn new vocabulary you going through a series of unrelated sentences? Yes, that can be fun for a while. Each sentence gives you a limited context, which is helpful. But, it's a different kind of challenge for your brain from learning with a story.
The core of Duolingo courses is to translate sentences. For me, the random (often weird) sentences are like "language sudoku".But I don't use such sentences for communication. For example, I had to puzzle out the following sentence in Danish:Hun elsker at ve bjørnen lide. (She loves to see the bear suffer.)I'll never use this sentence in real life.
So, why do I prefer learning vocabulary with stories (rather than with word lists or series of sentences)? I just find that seeing and hearing words and phrases in the context of a narrative helps me remember them. I can picture a situation or an event and that will trigger my memory.
2. Stories Make Grammar Intuitive
Grammar is the glue that holds language together. But for most people grammar rules are not that memorable. I'm not at all opposed to learning grammar. I taught college German for a number of years and the textbooks I used had plenty of grammar.
But that's not what got my students excited. What they loved was to use German as much as possible and figure out patterns. When I learn a new language, I feel the same way. I look up a grammar issue only when I want to figure out how the language works.
When I started with Danish, I quickly understood that there are two noun genders (common and neutral) and that the definite article is normally attached to the end of the noun (rather than stand in front of it).
But understanding a grammar rule is quite different from really knowing how it works.
It took me some time to internalize that a Danish word like "katten" means "the cat" and not "cats" (whereas in German "die Katze" multiplies to "die Katzen").
As we become more and more familiar with a language, we get good at recognizing such "grammar elements". Not to forget, though, that seeing a grammar pattern is a different skill from hearing it.
When we communicate, we use a variety of sentences. Each is made up of various grammar elements. Depending on our message or narrative, we resort to simple statements, questions, requests, commands, and if necessary, different kinds of complex sentences. The sentences are, of course, not in a random sequence. They are connected in a meaningful way.
Conjunctions and other connecting words are important elements in a narrative. Beyond "and" and "but", there are other useful words and phrases that link actions, events, ideas, etc.To name but a few in English: "if, because, however, in case, in spite of, even, even though, neither nor".
Stories are a good tool for understanding the different ways actions and ideas connect. By paying attention to how a narrative unfolds, we train our mind to pick up and internalize such grammar clues.
Beyond gender, case, and connecting words, there are other grammar elements in a language that carry meaning. Just think of pronouns, including formal and familiar forms of address, prepositions, and negation.
Just as you can guess the meaning of words, you can also internalize grammar patterns from the context of a story. The more you read and listen to stories, the more you become aware of the characteristic patterns of the language.
3. Stories Teach You About Present, Past and Future
Drilling verb forms is always quite boring, and then you still have to learn how to apply them. In some languages this can get pretty complicated. When, for example, do you use the simple past versus the present perfect? Not to mention the conditional, or the subjunctive mood.
Yes there are rules. But they don't help much unless you've already internalized some verb patterns in a meaningful context.Stories help. They move back and forth easily between present, past and future actions and events.
Context provides you with various time markers and clues. As you follow a story, you remember earlier events or what was said previously and how this fits into the present situation, etc. You also notice how future events are anticipated and talked about.
Your brain is constantly figuring out what's going on, the causality of events, when something happened in the past, or what future possibilities are triggered by present actions.
That's what our brain does in everyday life: We remember thoughts and actions, we make decisions about what actions to take, and conjecture about the future. Why not practice doing this in the language we're learning?
4. Stories Help You to Stop Translating
People often ask me: How do you stop translating when you hear, read or speak another language? Yes, it's a dilemma. When you're beginner at your target language, you need to know what words and expressions mean in your native language. Pictures can help. But learning a language just with pictures doesn't get you very far.
So, in my mind it's okay to build one's basic vocabulary with translations as they are needed. But it's easy to get into the habit of translating everything. That's where stories come in. They can teach you to stop translating. Stories (even brief anecdotes) have a narrative sequence with meaning.
At first you may need some help with translation, but the meaning itself will stay in your mind. So, by listening to a story several times, you can train yourself to get the meaning without translation. By doing this often enough, you can create a new habit: understand what you see and hear without translating it.
I'm currently listening to Luca Lampariello's travel stories in Italian on LingQ to keep up my Italian. (You may be able to listen to his Viaggio in Russia if you register for free on LingQ).
Luca reads the stories himself and his natural speed is very fast. So fast, in fact, that there's no way I can do any translation at all. While my Italian is good enough that I don't have to look up many words, this is not the case with Danish.
Listening to Danish stories on LingQ, I do read through the text one time (after listening a couple of times) and click on any words I don't know. But then I listen to the story several more times and make a point of not translating. Each time I understand the story better just by hearing it. As with any skill, you have to practice, and with regular practice you get better.
5. Stories are a Creative Tool You Can Individualize
Stories give you a lot of material to work with as you're learning a new language. You can create your own stories in a target-language journal. Make up stories or write about thoughts, experiences, or encounters in your daily life.
Stories for language learning have become very popular. You can find stories for various levels and in many languages (on Amazon, on Pinterest, on LingQ, etc.).
Take a simple story and retell it from another point of view (first- or third-person), with other details (a different setting, place, people etc.), or change the time (from past to present). Tell the story aloud or write it out. Brave souls can make a video of themselves and post it in a social media language group.
I used stories a lot to teach our sons German. When they were very young, I recorded little stories I made up and played them when the boys were falling asleep at night.
When they were a little older, I read stories to them in English, with certain words and phrases repeated in German. Later, I read stories to them, and translated every sentence into German.
Finally, I just used German, or we played German stories in the car: Tim und Struppi (Tintin), Asterix und Obelix, or the popular stories of Enyd Blyton: Fünf Freunde (the "Famous Five" series).
For ourselves as adult learners, we had another idea. We love to travel, and especially like traveling in a country where we know the language. Because we were eager to spend time in Italy and Spain, we wanted to learn Italian and Spanish.
To get us started, one of our sons set up a site for us, which we called GamesforLanguage. Together with a team of native speakers, we created simple, gamified travel stories. These we then used to learn our two new languages.
It's been great to combine language learning with travel. Our Spanish course writer and speaker lives near Seville. We had found him online.
Once we had finished our Spanish story and we had used it for learning and practicing Spanish, we traveled to Barcelona and Seville. We stayed in both cities for a month. And we met our story writer in Seville in person, over a wonderful lunch of special local dishes.
We love to tell our story of why and how we created GamesforLanguage. It works in every language that we know. What is your story?
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
(Updated March 2021) We are sorry to tell you that Léa-Knows flashcards are no longer active.
Do you sometimes wish that Google would automatically create easy Flashcards for foreign words you look up on the internet?
Well, here's an app that does exactly that. It's called Léa-Knows and is now available in the iOS and Android app stores.
I was happy to hear that the Léa Knows app was upgraded in February 2018 to include support for translations by Linguee - an online editorial dictionary, and search engine that indexes international websites.
I've been using the app for several months now, at home when reading (in one of my 6 European languages) and when traveling abroad (lately to French Switzerland). When I write in a new word, the app automatically creates a Flashcard. I can then review words and phrases whenever I want to.
First, a quick look at the story behind the application in the words of its creator, Sébastien Marion, a French tech entrepreneur.
The Story Behind the App
"This app was really created as a result of frustration. When I arrived in Spain, I would constantly type things into Google Translate and then forget them a minute later. In this way, it becomes hard to improve. The alternative of copying words inside a flashcard is too impractical and time-consuming when in the middle of a real conversation.
So, Léa Knows is really ideal for these situations: it works just like Google Translate (even uses the GT API), but the kicker is that it creates flashcards out of every search and you can practice these flashcards with ease when you have some free time.
The app is named after my daughter Léa, now 20 months old who is growing up with a French father, a Taiwanese mum (speaks Chinese), parents that communicate between them in English, living in Barcelona where the official languages are Catalan and Spanish. I thought that it would be fitting to name it after her."
Translations
Léa Knows uses GoogleTranslate for numerous languages. Linguee seems to be more limited. But for the translations it has, Linguee gives you more information.
For Google, I counted over a hundred languages and it looks like Google cross-translates between all of them. And, the Google translation function seems to be improving. As the New York Times reported on December 14, 2016, Google Translate's machine-translation service had "suddenly and immeasurably improved" with Google's introduction of Neural Machine Translation (NMT).
Linguee supports translation between seven European languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Polish, and the list is growing. The advantage of Linguee is that you'll get more than just one translation, plus grammatical information (noun gender, adjective forms, etc.). For example, the English word "street" will give you for French: rue (f), route (f), ruelle (f).
You can easily switch back between Google and Linguee. To reset for both options, tap the yellow Tab after you've cleared the "Enter text" space. For a translation on Léa Knows, you pull down one Tab for the language to translate from, and another Tab for the target language.
On the Tabs of the app, you'll find English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese on top. The rest of the languages from Afrikaans to Zulu follow in alphabetic order. To see what one can do with Léa Knows, I tried out some translations for languages I know well and also for languages that I don't know well yet.
Words, phrases, as well as shorter sentences seem to work well with Google.
Examples
• Italian: pomeriggio - French: après-midi • German: nicken - English: nod • Dutch: levenslang - Spanish: durante todo la vida • French: trouver - Catalan: trobar • English: lunch - Danish: frokost • English: Hello, how are you? - French: Salut comment allez-vous? • Spanish: creo que no - French: je ne crois pas • French: le petit garçon - Italian: il ragazzino • Italian: la Pianura Padana - English: the Po Valley • German: ich möchte eine Tasse Tee - Swedish: Jag skulle vilja ha en kopp te
In some cases, you just have to say "Okay I get the meaning", even if the translation is a little off.
• Italian: sfortunato - English: bad lucky • German: Nachbesserungsbedarf - English: imperfections (but literally: the need to improve)
Linguee can sometimes be a "hit-or-miss affair". Of the above Google translations, only the first German-English one produced a translation on Linguee. However, it may be just a matter of time until Linguee's webcrawler finds the appropriate bilingual texts to add all of those to its database, and many more.
Easy Flashcards
The Flashcard function is cool! At this time, you get just the translation, no audio yet. (We understand from Sébastien that audio should be added soon.) So for now, you'll need to find other ways to hear how the languages sound.
Every word you look up automatically creates a Flashcard that is saved in the app. A quick tap on a Flashcard shows the translation. Slide the Flashcards to go through them.
You can easily customize how you want to see these Flashcards again. • Add a star to put the card into a group you can practice separately. • Add a color (there are 6) to sort by language, or to create your own recall system. • Archive the card to practice at a later date. • Trash the card.
You can review, relearn, and test yourself whenever you have a few minutes.
Using the App
Google Translate has become an automatic habit for many polyglots. Steve Kaufmann, who runs the LingQ language learning site and is learning his 17th language, agrees: "I think GoogleTranslate is a tremendous resource and not only for language learners."
With the added function of creating automatic Flashcards, the application Léa Knows makes Google Translate and Linguee convenient language learning tools. The app is great for learning words and phrases you encounter throughout the day.
Ways to Use the App
• While traveling, learn the meaning of new words you see or hear. • Check on the meaning of words in a foreign article or book. • Look up words as you're writing an email or text in a foreign language. • Create a list of words for items you want to learn. • As you're talking with someone, do a quick check for a word you forgot. • Type in unknown words you hear as you're watching a foreign film.
I bet you can think of more ways yourself. And, you can always choose what to keep and review, and what to discard. This app is definitely a step into the future. Have fun, and keep learning!
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
Learning a foreign language is for many a necessity - for others a way to expand their horizons, enhance their travel experiences and sharpen their communication skills.
But if you just WANT to learn a new language - even if you don't NEED to - here are six common-sense tips that will make you progress faster:
1. Find a fun entry into language learning
Learning a new language should be a fun adventure, not a tedious chore. It should also be affordable for you.
If you like games, we obviously recommend our games and courses as a fun (and completely free) way to get started - but there are lots of good materials on- and offline. For many, Duolingo or Lingohut are easy - and also free - ways to start a learning habit.
2. Practice frequently
As with any new skill that you're trying to learn, your best progress comes with regular and focused practice. A good daily routine is 15-20 minutes a day.
If you can build a habit by doing your practice always with your morning coffee or on the way home from work, all the more power to you. Your smart phone with earbuds is a great tool for listening to podcasts or even do a course lesson or two while waiting or commuting!
3. Repeat words and phrases often
Focus as much as you can on “real” language. The phrases and sentences you learn and practice should be useful and become part of your foreign-language conversational toolbox.
"Listen and repeat" is a tried and true technique for practicing pronunciation and trying out speaking. To record and play back your own voice, use the recording program "audacity." At first you may feel that you're way in over your head, but you'll be surprised how quickly you improve.
4. Listen to songs you like
As soon as you can, sing along. In her article "Language Learning Tip: Use Music to Learn a Foreign Language" Susanna Zaraysky explains:
“The neurological links between language and music are vast but the basic thing to remember is that music activates more parts of the brain than language does, on both the right and left sides of the brain. So if you remember something to a tune, you are more likely to recall the information than if you just read it or heard it spoken.”
With songs you not only learn and remember words and phrases, you also internalize intonation, language patterns, and specific grammar points (such as the right article, a specific case form, or a type of contraction).
(Language Zen, for example, lets you learn Spanish with music.)
5. Start reading things that interest you
Follow Facebook or Twitter posts in the language you're learning. Find online news texts or get news alerts from a foreign newspaper. Reading is a powerful way to boost your language learning. Often you can guess the meaning of new words from the context of a story or report. Because many words get repeated again and again, they become lodged in your memory.
(Google now has an instant translation service for any text. The translation may not always be be perfect, but you'll certainly get the gist of the meaning.)
If you can also listen to the audio as you read the text, you'll get a double benefit. LingQ, for example, has tons of materials to hone your listening and reading skills, and build your vocabulary.
6. Boost your learning with things you enjoy
Watch a movie from time to time, with or without subtitles. Find YouTube videos or Ted Talks on interesting subjects. Follow the news or listen to audio books in your new language.
Try out one of the many social networking sites and find a language-exchange partner. Conversations via Chat or Skype are a great way to stay motivated.
These tips are not just for beginners, but they work really well when you're a beginner with a realistic approach to learning a language.
Disclosure: Neither Ulrike Rettig nor GamesforLanguage have a business relationship with any of the sites mentioned.
Until recently, I did not focus much on deliberate listening practice for the languages I learned in the past.
I said “deliberate”, because I must certainly have listened when I learned my first language growing up in Austria. We now know that babies spend most of their first year just listening and then trying out some basic sounds.
And anybody who has watched babies knows that they pick up the meaning of gestures, names of objects, etc., long before they can even pronounce their own name.
When I learned my second language, Dutch, while attending school in the Netherlands, I must also have listened to the language around me. Within three months, I was fully participating in my 4th grade class.
The same was probably the case when I picked up English in Canada as a pre-teen.
French, my fourth language, I learned in high school and college. While I remember the required “language labs”, I did not enjoy them because they consisted mostly of grammar drills. I speak it quite fluently by now, only because I often have to speak French when we visit my husband Peter's family.
Italian and Spanish I started to learn as an adult, just a few years ago. And so, I'm discovering that focused listening practice with audios and videos can make a huge difference.
The Beginner's Dilemma
You may have been learning a language for several weeks or months. You feel good about your ability to understand most of what you read or hear in your course lessons.
Perhaps you feel confident that you'll be able to order a meal in a restaurant or make yourself understood buying this or that, and even negotiating a price. Then you travel to a place where the language is spoken and are eager to jump into conversations with locals.
It doesn't take long for you to realize: The other persons may understand what YOU say, but you don't understand them, unless they speak slowly and with simple sentences. It's hard to have a real conversation that way.
Active Listening Practice in Rome, Italy
During a five-month stay in Rome, Peter and I faced the “beginner's dilemma” certainly more than once. But we also noticed that our listening skills improved dramatically.
In the evening we often watched TV. Even though we had prepared ourselves with Pimsleur audio courses before our arrival, the fast Italian on TV just came at us like a stream of rapid-fire sounds.
After a couple of weeks of daily listening practice, the stream started to slow down. I started to recognize some words, and could hear when the words started and ended. After a while, I also began to understand phrases and short sentences.
I certainly knew then that practicing listening is essential for understanding conversations. So now I'm making a deliberate effort to practice listening with Danish, my seventh language. Below are the six techniques that I use and recommend.
6 Techniques for Listening Practice
1. Do a lot of "listen and repeat" with words containing sounds that are difficult for you.
Babies are born with the ability to hear all sounds and they start learning their first (or second) language by just listening.
By the time we're adults, we can hear mostly just the sounds of our own language or the languages that we hear in daily life. However with focused listening practice, adults can both learn to hear and to produce sounds that are not familiar.Sometimes it helps to understand how the sound is produced.
Although Danish is a Germanic language there are certain sounds that don't exist in German, Dutch or English.A good example for Danish is the soft "d" sound, as in the words "mad" (food), "flød" (cream), "rød (red). At first the final soft "d" sounded like an "l" to me.
But while we were in Denmark a woman explained that it's actually like a very soft "th". She showed me that you can make the sound by putting your tongue against your front teeth. Once I knew that, I even heard the sound better. (Go figure.)
Some time ago we wrote a post about "Mouth Mechanics", and for many languages learning HOW to produce certain sounds is essential.
2. Pick a Level of difficulty that challenges you, but not too much.
A good guideline is that you'll want to understand at least 80% of what is said. In order to make progress, start out at a level that's right for you. Then keep building on the vocabulary and grammar patterns that you know.
If an audio is too difficult and keeps sounding just like gibberish, it's easy to get discouraged and give up. Finding the right level is not always easy. It will take a little experimentation and trying out different sources.
For some beginning learners, Slow German, Slow Spanish, etc. is helpful. But you should listen to natural speech as soon as you can.
For German, French, Spanish, and Italian, GamesforLanguage has natural-speed audios of each lesson, and Podcasts of each level. We recommend that you listen to the audio AFTER each lesson or level you completed and challenge yourself by listening to the podcast of the NEXT level.
Also, Steve Kaufmann's LingQ has many excellent audios of different length and difficulty.
3. Start with short audios and build up to longer ones.
Practicing sounds and individual words, of course, is not enough. Speaking is a stream of sounds, and you need to practice by listening to words-in-a-stream.Start with (very) short audios. As you increase the difficulty and length of the clips, you'll also increase your vocabulary.
When you listen to full-length audio books, you'll hear the same vocabulary and grammar patterns come up again and again.
Each time they'll lodge a little deeper in your memory. A great source for foreign-language audio books is Audible.(And, yes, it's like putting money in your language bank...!)
4. Listen to topics that interest you.
Why would you want to listen to something that does not interest or concern you?You don't have to, once you have gone beyond the basics of a new language and have acquired enough vocabulary.
There are two important reasons why finding topics that interest you is important: When you choose topics you know and like, you'll be motivated to listen often.
The familiar context will make it easier for you to guess the meaning of unknown words. If you have many interests, your vocabulary and listening comprehension will grow exponentially.
5. Listen to audios more than once.
This works best, of course, with shorter audios or with passages from longer ones. I have found that every time I re-hear a clip, I understand more. Sometimes I "shadow" what is said, i.e. repeat what I heard just a second or so behind the speaker.
If there's an option, listen to a slow and a fast version of the audio. This is also a good practice technique. I like it because it makes me more keenly aware of the sounds, and how the isolated sounds (slow) become part of the natural sound stream (fast).
6. Listen to the audios WITH and WITHOUT reading the text.
When you listen without text, you're totally focused on sound and meaning. That's like being in a conversation where you can only hear what is being said.
When you see the text as well, you are also aware of the spelling of words and how they look. For me, hearing and seeing the text helps me to remember the words and phrases.
For languages that have phonetic spelling, seeing and hearing reinforce each other. I'm thinking of German, Spanish, Italian.
Danish, on the other hand, is phonetically quite challenging. So it takes extra effort to correlate sound to text.As English speakers, we often forget that the relationship between sound and spelling in English also has its challenges.
Understanding without Translating?
When I listen to a passage in French, or even Italian, I'm aware that I'm not translating at all. I just understand what is said. That's my goal also for Danish, but I'm not there yet.
I'm actually not sure whether that can be practiced or if you just automatically stop translating when the language becomes familiar enough. I'd be interested in the thoughts of anyone who has experienced the same.
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
It's certainly worth paying attention to your likes and dislikes. Being aware of HOW we learn makes learning so much more interesting and effective.
Language Learning: Left and Right Brain
Research on left brain (logical, verbal, auditory, sequential) and right brain functions
(creative, visual, spatial, emotional) has been ongoing for decades, and new imaging techniques have greatly enhanced our knowledge of how the brain works.
It's no mystery that learning a language involves many parts of the brain for everyone.
We don't learn a language just by listening (a left brain activity) and speaking, and kids don't do that either.
Small children don't yet know how to read and write. Still, they pick up a lot of visual and other clues from people (facial expressions, gestures), their surroundings (objects, movement), the context of a conversation (asking for something, looking for a toy), etc.
Once kids have learned to read and write, a mental “text image” may start to play along. Because we live in a text-based world, wanting to know how a word “looks” (is spelled) is part of language learning.
Since we wrote the section above, many more insights in our brain functions have been gained.
For example we now know that practicing a language BEFORE you fall asleep will improve the memory of the words and phrases you studied. (See our post: Foreign Language Learning while you sleep?)
Steve Kaufmann, a well-known polyglot and co-founder of LingQ.com, is working on his 17th language. In his talks and YouTube videos, he keeps reminding us that learning a language is gradual and involves constant forgetting and relearning.
Also, since memory is highly cue dependent, learning words and phrases in context (though listening and reading) is important for gaining fluency.
Pronunciation and Spelling
For adults in our society, the sounds of language are inevitably tied to how they are written. By the time we've finished school the sound-text correlation of our native language (or other languages we're fluent in) has become automatic.
For example, when I was learning Chinese strictly through listening, I found myself imagining how the word would be spelled with western letters.
Without thinking about it, I used the “regular” German sound-letter system for this. The pronunciation of almost every [German] word can be derived from its spelling.
When not too long ago, I was learning Italian by just listening, I spontaneously (and erroneously) used French spelling to imagine how the Italian words are written.
I've come to realize that I usually learn best when I both hear and see a word or phrase.
I say “usually”, because recently we had a different experience with Danish.
We started learning Danish (to prepare for a trip to Denmark) with Duolingo, Memrise, and a Pimsleur audio course.
We discovered that although Danish is a Germanic/Nordic language, its spelling is not phonetic, even for German speakers like us. (My fluency in Dutch helps me somewhat because Dutch has many similarities with Danish.)
We also realized quickly that as we started out, spelling the Memrise phrases we heard became an exercise in frustration, and we gave it up.
The Pimsleur audio lessons, however, which didn't require us to consider the spelling, let us focus fully on the listening and pronunciation.
Later on, after we had learned some of the Danish spelling rules, etc. Memrise became a valuable option again.
Language Learning: Pacing Yourself
There's a lot of talk these days about how you can accelerate your language learning, and lots of sites offer excellent language-learning hacks and tips.Still, it's good to remember that no one can learn a language for you, that you yourself have to do every bit of it. That means not getting your expectations too high.
It also means finding a way that you can stick with your language-learning plan for the long term.
Starting out, you'll want to focus on pronunciation and on learning some basic vocabulary in context. The next step will be creating simple sentences. (Those are the steps I worked on for Danish.)
Focusing on pronunciation and basic vocabulary is why we got into digital games. We have found that they are a fun way to help in the early stages of learning.
Digital games have auditory (spoken language, sounds) and visual features (text, colors, images, design), as well as kinesthetic elements (typing against the clock, clicking on moving images, etc). They involve lots of repetition, which beginners desperately need.
But as you're learning a language, what works will change over time. As you get more fluent, you'll be looking for new and different challenges: more and interesting listening material, books to read, podcasts, YouTube videos, films to watch, conversation partners, etc.
From Basics to Fluency
It's no secret that achieving fluency requires a lot of listening and speaking.
Yes, you have to learn vocabulary, gather as much “comprehensible input” as possible and there are many programs and apps on the market today to help you with that.
In the past, conversation partners were not always easy to find.
Today, the internet and new companies, which connect learners and tutors online, have also solved that problem. We've been using our partner site, iTalki, ourselves for several languages.
(Recently we became aware of a new site, Speakmates.com that works towards “Socializing Language Practice”.)
Online tutors and language exchange sites let you individualize your language practice, rather than follow a fixed class schedule.
Fluent Forever?
It's also reassuring to know that a Kickstarter by Gabriel Wyner, who published “Fluent Forever” in 2014, made Kickstarter history as its most funded app.
Even with Google Translate, the Google Pixel Buds for real time translation and continued progress in this area – there are still many who want to become fluent in another language.
While “spaced repetition” and “memorizing through associations” are not new techniques, they are hot topics.
It will be interesting to see how Wyner can incorporate these and other techniques into his app so learners can achieve real fluency.
With fluency being the goal of most language learners, you have so many more options today.
Yes, it will take a little research and some trial-and-error on your part until you find the best language learning book, program, website or app that works best for you.
Stay with those that allow you to learn at your own pace and keep you motivated.Language learning will be more fun that way!
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada and speaks German, English, Dutch, and French fluently. She intends to become as fluent in Italian, Spanish and Swedish. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Disclosure: Certain links above are to a partner's program with revenue-sharing, should you decide to purchase or subscribe.
How to deal with grammar is a question we get a lot from language learners. Yes, classroom learning often focuses a lot on grammar. I also plead guilty to having used this approach with students during my college teaching years. 
I do mean a "quick glance", and really just basic grammar. Do it in whatever way works for you - on the internet or in a basic grammar book. 
We may not feel that we are "wired for grammar" (as Noam Chomsky once suggested), but we are certainly wired for recognizing and internalizing patterns. 
When you're happily into your new target language, when you continue to feel motivated and love the progress you're making, that's the time to tackle more grammar. But don't focus on rules. Focus on typical patterns. Below are two examples.
and lots of sites offer excellent language-learning hacks and tips.