How To Successfully Learn a New Language

Let me explain my current situation first because why would you listen to anything that I, a 20-year-old student, would say? Well, I was born in Belgium. In Belgium, we have 3 official languages. Dutch, French, and German. Next to that, about 70% of the population speaks English and another 36% speaks a 3rd, 4th, or 5th language. I personally speak Dutch (which is my mother tongue), English, French, Spanish, and I'm currently learning Korean. I can also read and understand some German and Afrikaans because those languages are quite similar to Dutch. So you could say that I'm used to hearing different languages and I'm also used to learning them.

Like I said before, I'm currently learning Korean and for a Western-European girl, that's quite strange. The reason why I wanted to study this language in the first place was because I accidentally stumbled upon Korean music and I really liked the tone of that language. Somehow the melodies made perfect sense and I was intrigued by it. I started looking up the lyrics and translated them to English so I could understand what it all meant and before I realised, I started recognising patterns and I noticed that some words like "왜" (why) and "없어요" (isn't/haven't) were in almost every song that I happened to listen to. YouTube then showed me recommended videos of people teaching Korean to foreigners and I eventually subscribed to the channel "TalkToMeInKorean," which happened to be the most famous website to learn Korean.

This is where my first tip comes in:

TIP #1: Listen to music/watch TV in the language you want to learn.

You'd be surprised how quickly you start picking up words even if you have never heard the language before in your life. And even if that would not be the case, you'll still be able to hear which tone is used to speak the language which will be important once you acquire the skill of actually speaking the language.

TIP #2: Look for words that you already know.

You'll also notice that a lot of words in the new language you're trying to learn are similar to words you already know from your native or second language. For example in Korean, the word for "camera" is "카메라" which is romanised as "kamera." Every "modern" language has at least a few words that are taken from English because English has such a great impact on the world. Spanish vocabulary also becomes a lot easier if you already know French and English. You can always make links between languages, even if they seem nothing alike.

TIP #3: Practice the vocabulary that is relevant to you.

Don't study a language like they teach you at school. When you're at school, they give you ridiculously long lists of vocabulary that you will most likely never need in your life so don't bother studying those. Only learn what's relevant to your current situation and the rest will follow automatically. Are you a businessman moving to Brazil? Study some Portuguese business-related vocabulary. Are you going to travel across Italy for a month? Learn how to order food and ask for directions. Are you studying in Vietnam for a semester? Learn how to approach other students and chat with them in Vietnamese.

TIP #4: Talk to someone who knows the language.

Story time: When I was about 11 years old, I was trying to learn English. I had a bed full of stuffed animals and I used to love talking to them so I could pretend they were real. My mom and I decided that one stuffed animal only spoke English, so if I wanted to talk to that particular stuffed animal, I had to do it in English. My mom would help me out if I wanted to know how to say a certain thing and she would just let me talk to the stuffed animal. She wouldn't correct me, she would only help me out where needed and that's how I learned English. Not by practicing at school, not by memorising vocabulary lists, but by talking to a stuffed animal. And as crazy as it may sound, that's the fastest way to learn. Whether you just talk to the cashier at the grocery store or to your neighbour or to someone online to improve your written skills, the only important thing to remember is that you talk to someone who will be able to help you learn.

(Side note: Never correct someone when they're talking unless they ask for your feedback if you're trying to teach them a new language, let them figure it out on their own.)

TIP #5: Download a language app/follow an online course.

It doesn't hurt anyone to take an online course to improve your grammar or to download the Duolingo app (or any other equivalent app) to learn the most basic vocabulary in an interactive way. Don't depend on it though, but definitely use these tools as a back-up when you're learning a new language.

TIP #6: Be patient and take your time.

Learning a language takes time. You're not going to be fluent in a language within 2 months. You can, however, become fluent in a language in about 6 months. The important thing to remember, though, is to not rush things. Study at your own pace. If you have the freedom to learn a language outside of school, you also have full control over how fast or how slow you want to go over a certain subject. For me personally, I often like to take some extra time trying to learn the tenses and I go over the vocabulary pretty quickly. However, it can be the other way around for you and that's perfectly fine.

TIP #7: Write a journal.

Let's take a look back to that stuffed animal story of mine. Because of tip #4, I already knew how to speak English. Writing, however, I had never done before and I never really did until I was 13 and I had to start doing it at school. I was clearly struggling because I didn't know how to write a lot of words but then, Twitter came along. Twitter has a huge English-speaking community and that was exactly what I needed. If I wanted to communicate with those people, I needed to practice writing in English and so I did. I don't remember what my tweets looked like back then and I'm not sure if I want to know, but look at me now!

Unfortunately, Twitter isn't the best place for every language so that's why I suggest writing a journal in the language you want to learn. It doesn't really matter if you want to say "I went shopping today" and the only thing you can write down is "I went." It triggers your curiosity and before you know it, you'll be looking up the translation for "shopping" and "today" and by the next day, you'll be able to write down that full sentence.

TIP #8: Make a lot of mistakes.

There's this beautiful saying in Dutch that goes: "A donkey doesn't knock itself against the same stone twice" which basically means that you usually don't make the same mistake twice. That's exactly why you SHOULD make a lot of mistakes, because you learn from them a lot quicker than you would if you wouldn't make any mistakes at all. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when talking to native speakers either. They are here to help you out and they can't do that if you refuse to speak to them because you're afraid of making mistakes. Putting yourself out of that comfort zone will get you very far.

Those were my 8 tips on how to learn languages more quickly and efficiently. I hope this helps you get to your goal. Happy studying!