Language Learning Tips From My Own Experience

2018. Technology at our fingertips. The technology we possess now is what I have dreamed about years ago back in high school to learn. What there is to offer, and yet to discover, is pretty amazing. I wish we had the things we have available all those years ago. You see, what is available now would have been even handier in my quest to learn multiple languages and become a polyglot.

Today, I want to share some of my tips on what I do presently to maintain, and dust off some of those language skills. Maybe it’s just one language you’re interested in, and perhaps you are already doing this, or something more effective. Please share what is that you do! We’re all learning here after all, myself included.

The internet is a valuable tool on how to learn a language. One of the key ways to learn is to listen. As you will probably here from others, this is one of the most important steps in learning a new language. Not only the words that are used, the inflections, and I would say the non-verbal communication tied with it.

One tip I would recommend is taking advantage of YouTube. There is a sea of videos ranging in various languages, and how to take in your information. There’s even videos on listening to a language in your sleep. How I use Youtube in this venture is like this: I watch videos broken down into shorter lessons. For example, one of the channels I like to watch is German with Jenny. Another channel I like to watch is Easy Languages. I really like this particular channel because they have various languages and they do street side interviews that you can tune in. In addition, they also include subtitles in the English + language being learned. I think even with some of the languages they’ll also include the phonetic spelling as well. I also will watch some of the news stations from Europe like DW Deutsch in German, France 24 in French, and HispanTV in Spanish. I’ll also follow along people or topics in different languages, like Ricetta.it – recipes in Italian. These are good to get your ears familiar with a language.

Another tool I use is Google translate. How I use it: I’ll read an article in a different language and then translate to see how much of it I’ll actually get right. I look at the sentence or paragraph, and if you take your mouse on the original language, it’ll give a definition, so it helps me retain the word. Another way I use is to try to think out sentences and then translate. It’s important, from my experience, to try to learn words, phrases, and idioms that are more natural and practical, and what better way than to write out what’s on your mind?

Social media is another good tool. Here’s how I use it. LinkedIn, I put into practice what I know. And granted, I’ll have help from time to time. With LinkedIn, it’s a great tool to see what is being used in practical and active sense from native speakers in a business environment. What I would recommend is to do a search under content on say a word in a different language and see what content pops up. I also use it in instragram. I like using in Instagram because if you do a search for a word in another language, you can follow the hashtag that comes up with it, and you can browse other hashtags associated with it and discover new words. For me, it gives me visual confirmation and association that helps me retain that word or phrase.

In the past, I use to use a site called Newstran before I started using google translate for reading. I would still recommend this site, but it looks like it no longer exists. This was a cool site. It would have news sites from around the world and you can translate it in various different ways, not just from English + language. If you happen to run across a similar site, please let me know! I found this to be a valuable tool to help with reading.

Throughout the years, I’ve also used a site called ielanguages. This is an incredible site that I highly recommend. I was so glad to come across this site years ago, before there was Youtube. It provides various lessons from a wide range of languages that is a great start in learning. I want to thank Dr. Jennifer Wagner for creating this wonderful resource!

Lastly, I came across an app a couple of weeks ago called Hello Talk. This is an interesting app that I am still getting used to, but it connects you with native speakers from one desired language. Right now I am set with German native speakers. I’ll do a follow up post on how it goes, but so far, I would recommend it.

Those are the various activities that I do for my language skills. What do you do? I would love to learn what other folks do. Are there any people you recommend following here on this platform for additional tips? Myself, I have watched the tips by Veronika Gonzalez and like what she has to share.

Thanks for stopping by! Until next post, take care. Cheers!