Four Tips to Make Learning a New Language a Little Less Scary
by As someone who has studied French for three years and is just beginning to learn Indonesian, I know that learning a language is difficult. However, there are some simple tips and tricks to make this big job a little easier, and when you’re trying to let loads of foreign vocabulary and grammar sink into your mind, you need all the help you can get!
Start Simple
With all the fervor that comes with a new endeavor, you’ll be itching to dive right in when you start learning a new language. However, think about it this way– when you first learned English (or whatever your native tongue is) in kindergarten, you didn’t begin with fancy words. Instead, you learned your letters, your numbers, and basic words like car or dog. In essence, you have returned to kindergarten when you decide to conquer a new tongue, so approach it like you did all those years ago and start with the simple, humble basics to build yourself a firm foundation.
Keep It Real
When you’re first starting to learn a language, it’s so tempting to jump right in and start looking up every word you can think of. However, using a sporadic approach like this will make vocabulary difficult to retain. Instead, focus on learning words you’ll actually use, like foods or common places.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Yet another temptation for the new language learner is the urge to cram as many new words as possible into one’s brain at one sitting. However, the more you try to do that, the greater the chance is of you getting tired and burned out early on. The more prudent way of studying is to limit yourself to five or ten words maximum to internalize per day, starting with the basics as mentioned earlier. Like the proverbial tortoise, a slow and steady approach is the best way for lasting success.
Immerse Yourself
The more you see something, the more it gets imbedded into your brain. This is true for many things like faces and locations– why not put this to work for learning your new language as well? Say you learned the word for chair. Put a sticky note with the word for chair on a prominent place on a chair you see often. If you label as many objects as you can like this, objects that you see every single day, just through simple repetition of reading that label and associating it mentally with the object that it’s attached to will help you retain words much better. This won’t work with things like abstract concepts, but for everyday objects, it’s a great trick.
Hopefully my simple tips will make the road to multilingualism easier for you, and I wish you well on your journey!
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