Nearly everyone dreams of being able to speak a foreign language or maybe several, but consider it a burdensome task, full of boring vocabulary lists and practice essays that takes the best part of several years before one can really call themselves ‘fluent’. Learning languages doesn’t have to be like this, it can be a full, enriching journey through the history and habits of a foreign culture, it should bring you to another location, introduce you to huge bodies of previously inaccessible people and most of all, bring you out of your shell into a whole world you never even knew was there. To do so, first you must drop those unfortunately common bad language learning mistakes that dog so many.

Don’t practice

The biggest one and hardest to overcome. Often lack of motivation kills us or we just don’t have the time. However, a language needs to be practiced and practiced often if you’re going to get good. Here are some ideas to help you practice regularly:

• Arrange a regular ‘language exchange’. Most libraries offer this service, you arrange with a person who speaks your target language and is learning yours to meet so the two of you can speak for a while in your language, then the other language, that way you both get to practice with a native speaker. Having a regular meeting time will obligate you to go and practice for a while.
• Get lessons. Though not necessary and sometimes even counter-productive, a regular lesson forces you to go every so often to practice the language. Having a precise time for the language often helps people focus and obligates them to work on the language for a while, especially those with busy schedules.
• Meet the people. If there is an ethnic part of your town where they speak your target language, go there and speak to the people, don’t worry about sounding bad, the important thing is that you’re practicing. if there’s no part of town like that, look around for cultural events celebrating that groups history and culture, you might get to practice it there. You could also put ads on the internet for penpals or language buddies.
• Go to the country. Obviously not the most practical, but by far the best way to learn a language, surround yourself with it and force yourself to use it as often as possible. Go out often, talk to people, make friends and in no time, you’ll be speaking like they do.
• Foreign-language TV and movies. Look for a foreign-language TV channel that you get, or look for one on the internet, find a show that you like and you’ll be interested in following it. Ones with subtitles in the original language or English are best. Also look for movies in the target language, even with subtitles in English, you often pick up common words. You can even try it without subtitles and see how you do.

Focus on grammar

Grammar is important, you need to have a basic level of grammar to be understood, however, it is not the be-all and end-all that some claim. Languages are about understanding, not about perfect diction, once the other person understands you, mixing up a conjugation or a noun-ending isn”t the end of the world. The important thing is that you’re speaking and the more you speak and listen, the better you get. Many complicated aspects of grammar that can be difficult for an English speaker to understand are sometimes only fully understood in context, after many hours of speaking and listening to native speakers. It’s the focus on boring aspects such as these that cause many learners to get disheartened and drop their studies after a few weeks.

Read too much

Apart from grammar, another thing people associate with languages is reading. They think that if they can read a twelve-page document on marketing, they can speak the language. Not so, as a matter of fact, it’s possible to be able to read fluently in a language but not understand nor be understood by a native speaker. The important thing to remember is that languages were spoken first and written later, indeed, even now, writing must adapt to new ways of speaking. For example, many new words that come into use are only later written down and even then, have various possible spellings. Reading books and books in and about a foreign language will leave you speaking with a heavy accent, in a slow, unnatural manner. The best way to learn is to speak and listen alot, then later see how it’s written and try to understand the rules. Doing this will give you a more natural, authentic and fluent way of speaking.

Focus on the unessential/abstract

It might be worthwhile remembering that native speakers too sometimes have problems with their own language. For instance, do you the rules regarding the subjuntive mood in English? Most would not, they learn it just by being in the environment and hearing it said constantly, so much so that hearing it differently sounds ‘wrong’ or ‘weird’. With second language learning it’s the same story, except we don’t learn a language for the same amount of time as a native speaker would, so we need the help of books and explanations. However, the point remains, you can spend years studying the ins and outs of every tense, rule and variety of a language but the important thing is whether or not you can have a conversation with a local and be understood.

Forget about it once fluent

Often neglected but nonetheless important, one can forget or become rusty at a language through lack of practice. It’s not uncommon that someone goes away for a year, becomes fluent at a language, then forgets about it once they get back, considering it ‘learnt’ or ‘finished’. However, some amount of practice is usually needed to avoid losing fluency. Speaking once a week with a friend or writing a journal in the foreign language are usually sufficient. Making friends who are native speakers of the target language while it is very useful, you can keep in contact with them when you go home or once you’ve become fluent to fight away any rust that may develop.

The most important thing to remember with a language is that it is a living thing, it is not accessed through books and rules, rather, through living is and speaking with the people. It should not be a boring, forced activity that you dread each week, instead it should be an amazing adventure of discovery into another culture and history. Languages are spoken by people, so go out and talk to someone.