Over the past few years we've all had, lots of us took the unexpected time out to pick up new skills. For some of us, it was baking, for other we got rigorously into our exercise routines and then there were those who decided to learn – or re-learn – a language.
Duolingo became our best friend, we had a journal half-filled with scribbled vocab, we muttered our shopping list in our target language, sounding like a crazy person!
However, we'll be the first to admit that our Duolingo app has been gathering dust on our phone's home screen, and we're starting to forget all of the progress we'd made - but it doesn't have to be like this!
Let’s get back on track with these handy language-learning tips. Even incorporating two or three of these practices into your daily routine could level up your vocab and get your passion back on track!
Learn the first 100-300 most common words first
If you’re just starting off, this is a great place to build up the basics. Have that basis to work off of will make you more confident in starting to string together sentences when you have the grammar and structure of a sentence down. It will give you a feel for the language, the common sounds and structures so expanding your vocabulary from there will be easier.
Watch Disney movies in foreign languages
Once you have a relatively good grasp of the basics, this is such a fun and easy idea to try! It doesn’t have to be Disney movies – just movies with basic language that you already know well. If you know the storyline, you don’t have to concentrate as much to keep up and can instead pick up the accent, new vocab and the natural sounding sentence structures. Childhood favourites generally work well here.
Keep a daily diary
Even when it’s super basic at the beginning – I woke up, I ate breakfast, I went to work. Doing this little bit everyday means you’ll get the basics of your life routine down and anything you don’t know you can look up – leading to more vocabulary.
Envision using the language
When you’re feeling unmotivated and like this is a waste of time because you’ll never be as good as a native, envision yourself in a country that uses your target language, able to converse with the waiter at the restaurant, able to ask the local tour guide in-depth questions, able to meet your neighbours and forming a meaningful connection with them – how exciting would that be? Imagine how this language will open up the world to you and really immerse you in a local culture – you’ll be back at it in no time.
Use it day to day
Grocery shopping lists, counting, to do lists – wherever there is an opportunity, use it. Practice makes perfect so the more of it you incorporate into your daily life the more natural it will come to you. You could even try a few workouts in the target language just to see how much you can pick up!
Listen to songs in the language
Listen to the music, pick up the phrases -even the slang! You could try translating it line by line, or learning the song itself, understanding the words and what the lyrics are about! It’s a fun way to study without feeling like you’re just staring at vocab for hours on end.
Buy a favourite childhood book
Again, something as simple as Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, or even more basic – The Hungry Caterpillar, The Gruffalo – there’s so much to be learned form all of them. Again, you already know the story, so that’s easy to keep track of. Meanwhile, your brain can be translating, learning sentence structure and verb conjugation and tenses – all while being entertained with a story!
Look up a word immediately when you don’t know it
The faster you do, the more you’ll learn. The more you put it off, the more words will accumulate and you’ll find yourself swamped with unknown words and gaps in your knowledge. Looking it up solidifies it in your mind and you’ll start seeing it everywhere until it become a natural part of your vocab.
Follow Instagram pages and blogs in this language
Again, it’s all about immersion. What we see and hear in our day-today lives is what gets imprinted into our brains. It will also make it easier to switch between English and your target language, as you scroll through the app, meaning you’ll get faster at it each time! You can also pick up slang and colloquial language in this way, making your speech less formal and a little more relaxed.
