Have Fun Learning a Language
Trying to learn a language but you keep getting bogged down and bored with conjugations, tenses and verbal phrases? No more! Now you can use these simple ideas to making language learning the adventure it’s supposed to be!
Go to the country
What’s more fun than travelling around the world? If you have the time and resources, travelling to a country where your target language is spoken is by far the best way to learn a language. You learn it in its context, the way locals speak it, not from some book the way an academic says it ’should’ be spoken. Not only that, but you get to experience a new country, lifestyle, etc. and make loads of new friends and by speaking to each of these friends you’ll be practicing the language even more!
Go to a cultural event
Going to a foreign country is not possible for everyone, but an alternative option is to go to a culture evening if there’s one being organised in your area. This is like a mini-version of travelling to the country, you get to meet the people, try the food and experience the culture. Just make sure you practice the language and try to make as many friends as you can, a friend who you speak to in the language is worth 100 grammar books.
Get a Language exchange partner
You might notice my stressing ‘make friends’, well if you have a friend who you speak to in the language, you get constant practice, without having to spend hours in front of your grammar book. You can hang out, go to the cinema, just have fun, but all the while be practicing the language. Another excellent way to do this is to find a language exchange partner. You’ll find lists of interested people in your local university or library. The best one to get is someone who’s a native speaker of your target language, don’t worry, there should be loads of people interested in improving their English. The important thing is not to feel embarassed and just speak the language, after all, that’s what you’re there for.
Watch movies and TV or listen to music in the language
Who doesn’t like a good movie? Well, movies aren’t just made in English you know, get a few foreign-language DVDs online or at your local shop and put them on. Make sure to watch with subtitles, not dubbed. The best option is in the target language with subtitles in that language, second best is with English subtitles and if you’re able, try it with no subtitles at all, to see how good you really are. TV shows are good because if it’s a dramatic series, you’ll want to find out what happens each episode and you’ll want to translate those key words to find out if the main character is angry or delighted. Getting into target language music is good too, bopping along to the beats, you’ll eventually feel curious as to what they’re actually singing about, plus you’ll get an idea of how to use different speech registers often employed in song lyrics.
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