Benny Lewis's Blog, page 75

Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: 1 Month Update

This an update to Holly’s Portuguese in 3 Months mission.

How did I get on after one month of learning to speak Portuguese?

If you read my previous mission updates, you’ll remember that my mission is to reach a B1 level in Portuguese in three months. I aimed to do this by focusing on speaking and listening. I wanted to keep reading and writing to a minimum.

There were a couple of snags in my first month, including a week-long trip that slowed my progress. But I surprised myself by always getting right back to it. Having a goal and being kept accountable to it really do make a difference.

Let’s dig in and take a look at how I did over my first month.

“Forcing Functions” Made Sure I Got Speaking Practice

In my update about the first few days of my mission, I confessed that I didn’t practise any Portuguese with a native speaker in my first week. To avoid making this mistake again, at the beginning of my second week I bought a five-lesson package with Tatiana, my Portuguese teacher from italki.

Buying a package of lessons created what I call a “forcing function” - and it works really well for keeping motivated. For example, what’s the best way to make sure you’re motivated to clean your house? Invite friends over for dinner. Inviting friends is a “forcing function” for cleaning.

Likewise, buying a package of lessons was a forcing function to make sure I followed through on learning Portuguese. When you buy a package, you pay upfront for all lessons, so you have to follow through with the lessons or you lose your money.

If you’re struggling with motivation in your language learning, booking a package of lessons can quickly turn that around.

Portuguese Meetups Boosted my Confidence

After several lessons on Skype, I found a Portuguese Meetup group in my area. About three weeks in, I attended my first Meetup with the group at a local cafe. What a confidence booster! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. And they gave me all kinds of compliments on my language skills, even though I knew I still had a long way to go.

It felt amazing to sit in a group of people where they understood my caveman Portuguese and I could even understand a little of what they were saying!

I Ended Up Breaking my “No Reading or Writing” Rule. Here’s Why...

My original intention was to avoid reading and writing Portuguese except in a handful of circumstances (reading song lyrics, setting my phone to Portuguese, and using Duolingo). However, I discovered fairly quickly that purely verbal communication with my teacher on Skype was not going to be quite enough for me to learn the new words she was teaching me.

Sometimes I simply couldn’t hear the correct pronunciation, and I couldn’t tell if it was a bad connection, or just my ears. So for tough words, my teacher would type them out so I could get the correct pronunciation. Then I would try to remember the word by using it again in conversation with my teacher.

I learned that it’s okay to adjust your methods whenever you find that something isn’t working for you.

My “Un-Routine” Kept Me Motivated to Learn - Every Day

You might be surprised to hear that I didn’t actually have a real study routine for my Portuguese. I didn’t set aside a specific hour or two each day to study.

I knew that if I set aside study time, and something came up that cut into this, then I risked throwing away the entire study session because “what’s the point if I can’t follow through on my whole commitment?”

Instead, I sat down and studied (or put on some audio lessons or podcasts during a walk) whenever I wanted, for as long as I felt like it. Sometimes it was two hours, sometimes it was fifteen minutes. I didn’t stress over this too much. As long as I did something every day, I knew I was progressing, and it made me feel good.

Here are some snapshots of typical study days (I kept a journal of every study exercise I did for the whole three months):


Day 5: 60XP in Duolingo; two lessons from PortuguesePod101. This was a typical light study day.
Day 14: Five clips of Got Talent Portugal; one-hour lesson with my italki teacher; seven lessons from PortuguesePod101; memorized the song “Não Pare Pra Pensar” by Pato Fu, a Brazilian band. This was one of my most intensive study days of the month.
Day 18: Two-hour meeting with the Portuguese Meetup group at a local coffee shop - my first time practising Brazilian Portuguese; two lessons from PortuguesePod101.
Day 19: Three lessons from PortuguesePod101.
Day 28: One-hour lesson with my Portuguese teacher; one PortuguesePod101 lesson; one episode of the European Portuguese podcast Private Joke, which is all about movies - and I love movies. I actively listened, but it was still very difficult to understand.


I managed to blast through dozens of PortuguesePod101 lessons in my first month. This is because I go for a lot of long walks with my dog, so it’s a perfect opportunity to put on some audio lessons.

One top of that, while I usually read in bed at night, I swapped my ebooks for my iPad and watched Got Talent Portugal most nights before bed.

So, PortuguesePod101 and “Got Talent Portugal* became the two staples of my study routine. Once I’d discovered this, I didn’t have to alter my daily schedule very much at all. I love the idea of fitting studying into daily activities that I would do anyway.

My Portuguese Mission After One Month: Video Update

I made another update video at the end of the month to show my progress in the language. (Full disclosure: I actually made the video a little closer to the six-week mark, a) because I missed over a week of study during my first month while I was on vacation, and b) because I had to cancel and reschedule the Skype chat I had planned for earlier).

This chat is with my good friend Nancy, who’s originally from Thailand but moved to Canada in 2002 (where she learned French), then later moved to Brazil (where she learned Portuguese) and now lives in Australia!

Click below to watch my one-month(-ish) update video. You’ll need to turn the sound up for this one; I made the rookie mistake of pointing my uni-directional mic in the wrong direction (!) so the sound is quite low. Be sure to activate the English subtitles to see the translation:

httpvh://youtu.be/kgrzPTuir1w

Nancy speaks Brazilian Portuguese, so I tried to speak in that dialect too. However, I still spoke with some obvious Euro-Portuguese tendencies. For example, when I asked “What are you doing these days?” I said “O que você está a fazer?” before I corrected it to “O que você está fazendo?” The first way is how it’s said in Portugal. I find the Portugal phrasing easier since you can just use the infinitive!

Despite the differences in our dialects, Nancy and I had very little trouble understanding each other. If you’re considering studying Portuguese and aren’t sure which dialect to choose, I personally don’t think there’s any problem with doing a little of each. However, when you’re speaking the language, it’s best to pick one for the duration of that conversation. You’ll sound a little funny and unnatural if you use both in the same conversation - as you can see from my video :) .

Next up: Month Two

After a month of using nearly the same resources each day, I branched out a little more in month two and discovered many new interesting methods.

Check back soon to read about month two of my Portuguese mission, and to watch my two-month update video.

The post Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: 1 Month Update appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

No More Excuses! How to Stop Whining and Start Learning a Language

What holds you back from speaking another language?

Perhaps you tell yourself:


I’m not good at language learning. I flunked languages in school.
This language was okay when I started, but now it’s too difficult.
I don’t have enough money to travel the world and properly learn this language.
I’m too old to learn a language.
There’s no point learning a language because so many people speak English.


Do any of these sound familiar?

Let’s take a look at these excuses in depth, so you can break through the barriers that hold you back from language learning and actually get on with learning a language.

“I was no good at languages in school, so I’m not cut out to learn languages”

I hear this one a lot. You studied a language for years at school and never got good grades. Or maybe you did get straight A’s, but shocked yourself at how badly you did when it came to using the language in the real world. Either way, it convinced you that becoming fluent in a foreign language was never “meant to be”, and this made you feel better about your apparent defeat.

The exact same thing happened to me in school, and I told myself the same thing.

I managed to convince myself for years that I didn’t have what it takes to learn a foreign language. The truth is, all I needed was to look at language learning from a different perspective. Once I found the way that worked for me, I realized that my grades in school were in no way related to my ability to learn (and love!) other languages.

Regardless of the subject, you should never use your performance at school as a predictor of your future success or failure.

When Charles Darwin was at school, all he studied was Ancient Greek, Latin, as well as a little geography and history. Science didn’t enter the equation. And he didn’t even do well at school. In Darwin’s own words:

“When I left school … I believe that I was considered by all my masters and by my father as a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect.”

Imagine if Darwin said, “Well, I’d like to learn about the natural world, but I wasn’t smart at school, so...meh!”

The way languages are taught in school doesn’t suit everybody. As an adult, you can develop your own approach to language learning.

Languages are particularly well-suited to this. There are tons of ways to study languages! I use a variety of methods, and have refined them into a language learning system that works for me. My approach might work well for you, too, but if it doesn’t, don’t be afraid to experiment to find the ways that do work for you.

“The language I’m learning is too difficult”

Have you ever stalled in your language learning and felt that the language you’ve chosen is too difficult?

It happens to all of us.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that a language’s difficulty is purely in the eye of the beholder. If you’re ready to throw in the towel on one language, chances are, you’ll end up doing the same thing on the next one, even if it’s supposedly “easier”. This is because for every comparatively “easy” feature of a language, you can find another comparatively “difficult” feature. The level of difficulty ends up balancing out among languages. Therefore, your perception of your chosen language as “too difficult” really comes down more to attitude than to the actual difficulty of the language.

Try to focus on the easy aspects of your chosen language to boost your motivation. Are you finding Hungarian difficult? Well, at least you don’t have all those tones and characters like Mandarin! Are you studying Mandarin and finding it hard? Well at least you never have to deal with all those noun cases like Russian, which has seven!

I could go on, but the point is, any language can be “too hard” if you choose to look at it from that perspective. In my case, Spanish was my most difficult language to learn, because it was the first new language I learned as an adult. I lived in Spain for months without learning anything beyond the basics. Spanish was difficult because of the mental hang-ups I had about language learning - not because it’s a difficult language to learn.

“It takes years to learn a language”

This is a really common myth, because it’s partly true. Reaching mastery in a language does take years.

I firmly believe that anyone can start speaking a language as little as a week.

Think about why you want to speak another language. Most people want to learn another language to communicate. To connect with other people. This absolutely does not require mastery of the language.

Do you need to understand Shakespeare to have a chat in English about your city with your taxi driver or to order a rum and coke at a bar? Of course not! So why put these demands on yourself to do the same thing in your target language?

Drop this perfectionist mindset and focus on short-term goals instead of your endgame. If you truly do wish to master your foreign language to native-like proficiency someday, that’s a really admirable goal. If you’re determined, then you will get there eventually. But right now, focus on what you want to learn today, or this week.

Remember: every time you learn a new word or phrase in your target language, that’s something extra you can communicate to a native speaker. Fluency is nothing more than a series of small victories like this. And it can be achieved in much less time than you think.

“There’s never a good time to start”

So you’ve been meaning to sit down and start learning a new language, but every time you decide to do it, something gets in the way and postpones your plans.

Yes, life happens to all of us. But if life continuously gets in the way of your language learning, then you need to ask yourself: Am I really committed to language learning?

Suppose you’ve been planning a big birthday party for a friend, but on the day of the party, you find out that the custom cake order you had placed at the bakery got lost, and now there’s no cake! What do you do?

A) Cancel the entire party. Without that custom cake, what’s the point?
B) Postpone the party to another day when the custom cake is ready.
C) Head to your local supermarket or bakery and pick up a generic cake, and have the party today anyway even though it’s not exactly what you had planned.

I bet you picked option C. Sure, the conditions aren’t perfect, your funny birthday message wasn’t written on your friend’s cake and it’s not their favourite flavour, but I bet it still ends up a fun party!

Why, then, do so many people choose the equivalent of option A or B when it comes to language learning? Instead of treating their study plan like a birthday party that could easily go ahead despite a few hiccups, they treat it like a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral that could be a question of life or death if atmospheric conditions aren’t perfect!

Believing that “someday” the conditions will be perfect enough for you to start some task is as much a lie in language learning as it is in the rest of your life. You don’t ask your professor to postpone the final exam because you don’t feel ready for it. You just go in and do the best you can with the amount of studying you managed to squeeze in. You wouldn’t skip dinner because you don’t have enough time to cook that filet mignon you’re craving. You’d just cook something that takes less time. And you shouldn’t put off studying the language you’ve always dreamed of learning simply because the conditions aren’t perfect.

Allow me to let you in on a secret. You will never see the “perfect” conditions for studying your target language. Stuff might come up that eats into your study schedule. If you were planning to study for an hour today but can now only spare twenty minutes, don’t just skip your studying altogether. You’ll end up filling those twenty minutes with an episode of The Simpsons or something (unless it’s an episode dubbed in your target language, in which case, carry on!). Meanwhile, you could have spent that time learning two new sentences patterns in your target language, reviewing what you learned yesterday, or memorising ten new words of vocabulary.

Even if you can only spare five minutes today, don’t skip it. That’s five fewer minutes you’ll need to spend tomorrow. All those small chunks of studying will add up to some huge strides in your language skills.

Remember: “A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today” —Karen Lamb

“I’m too old to learn a new language”

More lies! If you’re alive, and alert enough to read this sentence, then you’re not too old to learn a language.

There’s a common myth out there that children are better at learning languages than adults, which is nonsense. Popular opinion is easily swayed based on one flawed, but highly publicised, research study when another one might come about with other data that contradicts it. Then everyone just takes the result for granted, and never questions its validity.

It can take years, even decades, for the damage from such studies to be reversed.

Wherever this old, worn-out myth about children and languages came from, we’re finally seeing modern, verifiable research that proves adults are actually better at learning languages than children.

Not that I really needed to see the research to know that it’s true. Adults of all ages, myself included, are constantly proving that they can be successful at language learning. And so can you!

Just look around you at all of the successful adult language learners out there, and take your inspiration from them.

“English is all I need anyway when I’m travelling”

It’s true that the tourism industry around the world largely operates in English. When you go on holiday in a foreign country, this can give you the impression that everyone in that country speaks English at an intermediate level. Stray from the main tourist areas, however, and you’ll likely get a big wake-up call about the English skills of the average citizen of that country.

If all you ever want from a vacation is to stick to the beaten path, and for all your interactions with foreigners to be completely dependent on their competence in English, then sure, I suppose English is all you need.

But what if you want more?

Many people want to experience the world differently. They want to speak with people that they never would have been able to otherwise, at a level beyond average, superficial daily interactions. They want to get deep inside a culture and see what it looks like from the perspective of someone who speaks the local language. If this describes you, then English is definitely not all you’ll ever need.

“I don’t have enough money to learn a language”

Do you have enough money to afford an internet connection? Then you have enough money to learn a language.

Language exchange sites like italki are free. Omniglot is a free site featuring a list of useful phrases for every language imaginable. Self-study apps like Duolingo are free. There are hundreds of free podcasts for practically any language you could want to learn. The internet is full of free web forums for language help and encouragement. You might have to do a bit of digging to find resources that work for you, but trust me, they’re out there.

It’s true that free language-learning resources can vary in quality and usefulness. If you have a little bit of money to put toward your language mission, there are also some highly affordable and cost-effective paid products and services out there that provide a huge return on investment.

For instance, you can pay a community tutor on italki for regular Skype lessons that fit your schedule and goals. They can be as frequent or as occasional as you like, and you and the tutor can work together to tailor the lessons to your needs and wishes. They’re also generally far more affordable than an in-person private tutor, or even a full-sized language class.

You can also spend a few dollars on joining a good community such as the Add1 Challenge. This allows you to get together with like-minded language learners to share language learning tips, work together toward a common goal, and keep one another accountable.

Things that you don’t have to spend big bucks on to effectively learn a language include expensive software with lofty promises, a plane ticket to the country where your target language is spoken, and local language school courses with a dozen other students whose goals are vastly different from yours.

Don’t be deceived by the notion that you need to spend, spend, spend to achieve your language goals. Far better to carefully target your dollars into effective language products.

What’s Your Excuse for Not Learning a Language?

Have you ever tricked yourself into believing a false reason for stalling in your language progress? I want to hear about it! What changed your mind? Head over to the comments and tell me your story.

The post No More Excuses! How to Stop Whining and Start Learning a Language appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How to Improve Your Basic Writing Skills: Hacks for Language Learners

Basic writing skills matter - there’s no denying that.

However, there’s a good reason writing skills aren’t central to the Speak From Day One method for language learning:

Languages are made to be spoken.

Real conversations with real people is what it’s all about. Connecting with people is what makes a language come to life.

That’s why at Fluent in 3 Months, of all the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), we focus on speaking. Speaking from day one is the smartest decision you’ll ever make as a language learner.

Even so, it’s a good idea to have some basic writing skills. Being able to send emails, write the occasional text and scribble down important phrases you’ve heard can really come in handy. Especially if you plan on relocating to a new country.

So, In this article I’m going to talk you through basic writing skills are, how they’ve helped me and how you can learn them.

What Are Basic Writing Skills (and Why Do You Need Them)?

Having basic writing skills means being able to get your message across.

Your writing won’t be grammatically perfect. You’ll make spelling mistakes. And, you’ll probably have to look at a dictionary every now and again. But you make sure you're understood by the person reading your writing.

Remember, you’re not trying to write a novel here, you’re just trying to communicate what you want or need through your words.

You don’t really need a great level of vocabulary to write - even in your native tongue. Think of the situations where you find yourself writing:


Confirming a hotel reservation
Responding to a delivery order
Leaving a note for someone
Writing an email for information
Texting your new friend to invite them for a drink


All of these situations can be handled with just a few simple phrases or words.


We’ll arrive around 4pm
Can you leave the parcel with the neighbour
“Buy milk!” - Love James
Can you tell me when you’ll have the shoes available?
Do you fancy a drink about 9pm?


All pretty basic, right? If you’ve learned the most common 100 words in the language, and you’ve got a dictionary to hand, you can easily make these sentences and get your point across.

I’ve recently moved from England to Germany, and I’ve found the ability to write short phrases and send emails really useful as I establish myself in a new country.

Let me explain...

How Writing Skills Have Helped Me

Back in England I was really into playing rugby, and it’s something I want to keep going in Germany. By playing ruby in Germany I can use the language more, see more of the country, and escape my girlfriend for a few hours on a Saturday.

I found a team but they didn’t have a phone number. The only options were to email or send a Facebook message. That left me with a decision to make: do I write to them in English, or do I try my best with my okay German. Well I decided to give it a go with my German.

Here’s how it went:



My grammar was all over the place, but they understood what I meant and I was able to get the information that I needed. And when my German improved over the next few weeks, I could check in with them again on Facebook:



As it stands, I was able to start playing rugby as soon as I moved to Germany. All from a few simple written messages.

Not too shabby, right?

Being able to do a little writing (and I mean a little) saved me a lot of time and effort in Peru, too. Normally a hostel will message you asking for confirmation of your stay - which I didn’t realise before I went to Peru - and I was able to make sure my reservation was saved:



My grammar really isn’t great there, but I got my point across. And having basic writing skills for these situations honestly makes a difference.

Okay, that’s some real-world examples of how it impacted me. Let’s look at how you can hone your writing skills, shall we?

How To Write In Your Target Language

“Write like you speak” was the best piece of advice I ever received from a writing mentor, who was helping me with my English writing skills. And, today, I’m going to urge you to do the same in your target language.

It’s normal when you look at a blank sheet of paper to feel overwhelmed about what to write. You wonder: Will my sentences sounds correct? Am I using the right tense for this verb? Will they even understand what I mean?

How can you avoid these worries?

Instead of thinking about what you should write, I recommend thinking about what you would say to someone, in person. Say it aloud, if you like. Then just copy that down exactly as you said it. It doesn’t matter if your target language has a written case or a structure, just write it how you'd say it.

Basic Writing Skills: My Example

I’ll give you an example we can do together and I’ll show you my (imperfect) result in German below.

Let’s say you’ve found a really nice pair of sneakers in a shop. But, they don’t have them in stock. The shop assistant has given you a product code, 0123456, and told you to send an email to their customer services and you can check if they have stock elsewhere.

Here’s my rusty attempt….

Hallo,

Wie geht es Ihnen? Ich habe in Ihrer Koeln laden eine schuh mit den nummer 0123456 gesehen. Konnen Sie wenn Sie diesen shcuhe in einen andere laden haben schaun? Vielleicht Düsseldorf?

Vielen dank!

James

All I did to create that was say it out loud and write it down word for word afterwards. There are probably grammar mistakes (I think the case may be wrong in my second sentence). But that’s not really important.

What is important is that the person who receives it understands what I’m looking for, where I looked for it last, and which shop I’d like them to check that is close to me. The rest they can figure out for themselves should they need to.

You could even do this with stripped back Tarzan German.

Hallo,

Ich bin James. Ich sehe die Schuche 0123456 in Koeln. Haben Sie mehr?

Danke,

James

All I said was, “I’m James. I see this shoe in Koeln. Have you more?”. The person at the other end still knows what I want, even with this truly basic German.

Now you give it a try - write a simple request in your target language. How did you get on with your attempt? Show me in the comments, I’d love to see.

The key here really isn’t to overthink it. You’d never think twice about writing an email in your own language - which probably isn’t that grammatically correct either - so don’t overthink it in your target language, either.

But, if you want to practice your written language, there are some great ways you can do that for free, too.

Tools To Help You Practice Basic Writing Skills

Writing is one of those wonderful skills you don’t really need a partner to practice with. You can easily pick up a task any time of the day - on the bus, waiting for a train, sat in front of the television - and start writing.

I do recommend writing so that people can respond to you and check your grammar or spelling so you can improve.

For that there really is no replacement for texting or emailing language exchange partners. Much like speaking to them in person, writing where you’ll get a response will push you to learn.

But if you don’t have the facility to text or write to people just yet, there are some other great ways you can get practice in for free. Here are some of the tools I’d recommend.

Duolingo

I first came across Duolingo through reading a review of it when I was learning Spanish. Now, for vocabulary building it’s the first place I turn.

You’re able to see simple sentences written down as well as type them for yourself.



If you want to give your writing skills a little extra push, you can also take part in the immersion activities that you’ll find in the bar along the top:



Here you can take part in written activities, such as creating Wikipedia pages about places (coincidentally Dublin today).



You can contribute a little, or a lot, depending on what you feel comfortable doing. Either way you’ll find yourself with a lot of opportunities to practice.

HelloTalk

If you want to practice your speaking and your writing, HelloTalk is a cool app where you can text people (without sharing your phone number) and have some basic written conversations in your target language.

Other users will be able to provide you with more grammatically correct sentences. You can even take part in challenges where you write a certain amount of words in your target language, and then the same amount in your native tongue.

You can read our complete review of HelloTalk right here.

Language Forums

The last place I’ll recommend for practising your basic writing skills is Language Forums. There are two types of forums you can join to practice your written language.

The first is a niche forum. This is a forum that relates to a topic that you like, such as a hobby. For example I’ve been able to find a rugby forum for German people. Here I can share my opinions and ask about the sport:



 

This could also be a Facebook Group if you find that the forums are a little quiet. And, there’s always the option of a language specific Reddit page, too:



Alternatively you can find yourself a language learning forum, like the Fi3M non-English forum, where you can try out your written language with natives and other learners.



If you’re a little more self-conscious over your writing skills, this may be a more ‘safe’ environment for you to practice.

How Do You Improve Your Writing Skills?

You don’t need to be an everyday Shakespeare to write in your new language. Simple sentences, grammar mistakes and getting your point across are all part of the process, just like speaking.

I’m interested to know how do you improve your writing skills. What methods have worked for you? Let me know in the comments.

The post How to Improve Your Basic Writing Skills: Hacks for Language Learners appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Your First Month Learning French: A Step-by-Step Guide

So you want to learn how to speak French? Très bien !

French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, being official in 29 countries. These include Canada and Haiti in North America, French Guiana in South America, more than a dozen African nations, five European countries, and Vanuatu and several French overseas territories in Oceania.

French is beautiful, popular, and very useful.

Yet, despite what some native French speakers would have you believe, there’s one thing that French definitely isn’t: difficile .

French might have a reputation for being incredibly difficult for non-natives, but I can tell you from experience, this isn’t true. I actually found Spanish to be more difficult. That was mainly because Spanish was my first foreign language - so I made lots of mistakes in how I learned Spanish. But the time I got to French, I’d discovered the best ways to learn a foreign language.

Approach French the right way, and avoid the mistakes that many first-time language learners make, and you’ll find that French isn’t nearly as difficult as you’ve been led to believe.

While you certainly won't master it in three months, especially if you can only put a few hours a week into it, if you want to have your initial plan of action here’s how I’d suggest you learn French.

Let’s take a look at what you should do in the first hour, first day, first week and first month of learning French. From here you'll have the start you need to keep your momentum going and keep learning!

How to Speak French: Equipment and Time

Before we begin, you will need the following:


Notepad
Pen
Computer or tablet with internet connection


Optional extras:


French phrasebook
$10 – $20 per week to spend on language teachers


To follow this guide, you’ll need to set aside around four hours each weekend (I recommend scheduling out Saturday mornings), plus around 45 minutes per day on weekdays.

I also suggest you start at the weekend to give yourself a “first day” boost.

Here’s where to start on that first day…

How to Speak French: The First Hour

Your first step in learning French is to create a personalised French phrasebook.

Why do this? In my approach to learning French, you’ll focus on learning French that’s relevant to you, your life, and your reasons for learning French.

Get a fresh notebook, and a pen, and write “My French Phrasebook” on the cover.

This notebook will contain the French phrases that you need to know, rather than the one-size-fits-all phrases found in most French courses and phrasebooks.

Let’s get that first page filled!

Go to the Omniglot.com French phrases page and search for the phrases you use when you meet someone for the first time. Here are the phrases I’d look up:


Hello
My name is…
What is your name?
Nice to meet you
Goodbye


Write down each word or phrase along with its English translation. Click on each phrase in Omniglot to hear its pronunciation by a French speaker, then speak out loud what you hear. Repeat this until you’re comfortable with creating French sounds in your mouth.

How to Speak French: The First Day

What should you do with the rest of your time on day one? Continue using Omniglot to collect French phrases and questions that you would use when talking with a native speaker for the first time. These will be the same phrases that you would use when meeting a speaker of your native language for the first time:


Where are you from?
I’m from [country or city of origin]
What do you do?
I’m a [job title]
What do you do in your free time?
In my free time, I like to…


If your job title and hobbies aren’t listed on Omniglot, use Google Translate to translate them.

The phrases you collect now don’t have to be grammatically perfect. The aim is to be able to say basic things about yourself, using what I call “Tarzan speak”. For example, I might learn how to say, “Je Benny. Je irlandais.” Sure, it’s far from perfect. But you get the point. And so will your first conversation partner.

Write down the phrases with their translations, then say them out loud.

Do your best to commit them to memory - but don’t spend too much time on this. You can always keep your notebook handy when you have your first conversation. Besides, you’ll be using these phrases almost every time you encounter a new person, so you’ll learn them by heart soon enough. Don’t be too fancy. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Just learn these few phrases and worry about elaborating later.

As you’ll have noticed by now, French pronunciation is very different from English. It will take time to master. You might feel silly trying to say the above phrases while trying to get the R just right, or figuring out which letters are silent. Don’t sweat it! It’s only your first day. Do your best, repeat after the recordings, and worry about the rest later.

How to Speak French: Week 1

Very early in your first week (even on your first day!) you should head over to italki and schedule your very first conversation with a native French speaker. Schedule it to be seven days from when you started learning French.

Speaking is by far the best way to learn a language.

There’s no feeling quite like the rush you get when you say something to a native speaker using your target language for the very first time, and the other person understands you. You’ll feel empowered to continue using your language, knowing that you can use it to connect with another person.

I recommend that you schedule your first conversation to be with a French teacher rather than a conversation partner. There are tons of French teachers on italki. Lessons do cost money, but the prices are generally very reasonable. Many teachers and tutors also offer free trial lessons.

And remember what I said about how global French is! If you restrict your search to only those in France or Europe, it may indeed be more than you can afford, but if you look all over the world, then you will definitely find someone who fits your personal requirements.

Why a teacher? Teachers will have experience of working with other language learners. When you’re a beginner, it’s important to have a teacher who’s supportive and patient. Teachers also know the best way to help you progress - pushing you hard enough to keep you learning, but not so hard that you feel overwhelmed.

You’ve scheduled your first conversation. The rest of your first week should be spent preparing for this conversation.

Review your conversation phrases from day one every day this week. If you can say them quickly and easily, then start adding some more phrases. These can be anything you want, but make sure you pick phrases that you’ll use often.

Considering that you’ll be chatting with a native speaker soon, phrases you’ll use a lot will be:


Please speak more slowly
Could you say that again?
Please write that down


These can all be found on Omniglot, and will help you keep your first conversation in French going for several minutes. Remember to listen to the Omniglot recordings so you know the correct pronunciation.

Nearing the end of your first week and are still too nervous to schedule a conversation with a French speaker? Then sign up for my free Speak in a Week course.

How to Speak French: Week 2

By now you’ll have had your first conversation with a native French speaker! (If you haven’t, go on italki right now and schedule it).

You probably won’t have to worry much about motivation this week after your first conversation. But any time you do feel yourself struggling to stay motivated from now on, book another conversation with a teacher, tutor or language partner. You’ll come out of it feeling refreshed and ready to keep going. I recommend having a minimum of three conversations a week.

Now you’ve got a conversation under your belt, this week is about making sure that the words and phrases you learn stick in your memory. For this, I recommend using virtual flashcards, which you can create with Anki.

Anki is available for iOS and Android, as well as for desktop computers.

Remember the list of personal phrases you started creating on your first day, and then added to throughout your first week? You can import it into Anki to make your very own flashcard deck to practise French with.

Now you can review these phrases anytime you want. Anki’s SRS algorithm will automatically have you spend more time practising the phrases you’re less familiar with, and less time on the ones you know well. Practise your flashcards for at least fifteen minutes per day. When you start to get really good at the phrases, add more. A French phrasebook is a good reference if you’re having trouble thinking of phrases you want to learn.

It’s a good idea this week to start learning to read in French, beyond the simple words and phrases you’ve learned so far. You’ll be well-aware by now that French reading isn’t quite as straightforward as other Romance languages you may have studied, or heard of. Until you get the hang of it, you can’t rely on the spelling of French words as an indicator of pronunciation. There are too many silent letters, and multiple spellings for a single sound. The sooner you master the basics of reading, the sooner you’ll be able to use French literature as a study tool.

To start reading French, check out Languageguide.org’s Beginning Readings page. Click on any link to view a short French excerpt. A recording will begin to play so that you can listen to a native speaker read the text as you follow along. Clicking pause will highlight the word where the recording stopped. Hover your mouse over the punctuation mark at the end of any sentence to see its English translation.

By the end of this week, make sure to have at least one more French conversation with a native speaker. You’ll be able to see your own progress in the language, and it will give you the push you need to move on to your third week.

How to Speak French: Week 3

Week three is a good time to evaluate what’s worked for you in learning French, and what hasn’t worked so well.

That is, if you’ve kept up your practice. Have you? Chances are you’ve had some days when you felt super motivated, and some days when life happened and you didn’t do any language learning.

If you feel like you’ve stalled, this week is the time to put things right.

Something I’ve learned over the years in my many language missions is that it’s far more effective to distribute your total weekly study time over every day of the week, than to do all of your studying in one or two days. Studying less often means you have to spend more time in each study session reviewing what you learned last time. You also risk falling out of your routine and giving up on your language mission. So keep up the daily studying! Even if you can only commit to a few minutes each time.

Your main task this week is to create a study schedule that works for you.

Aim to set aside time every day to study, even if it’s just ten minutes per day during the week, and longer on weekends.

Throughout this week, keep reading, keep scheduling conversations, and keep building your Anki deck. No matter what else might get in the way of your studying, you can always find a few spare moments to check in with your Anki deck.

Make sure to schedule at least two conversations with native speakers this week. If you’ve only spoken with teachers so far, consider chatting with a conversation exchange partner instead.

Chatting with a language exchange partner is a very different experience from chatting with a teacher. It’s more relaxed - a bit like hanging out with a friend, and the conversation can go anywhere. As an added bonus, it’s free!

How to Speak French: Week 4

This week is all about maintaining the healthy study habits you set up last week. Follow the schedule you set for yourself, and see how it works.

What if you find you’ve been too ambitious? Tweak your schedule so that it works for you. The important thing is that you study every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Set your sights too high, and you’ll overwhelm yourself and end up quitting.

Here’s what to focus on this week:


Keep adding to your French Anki deck
Listen to a French podcast or radio show (we’ve collected some of the Internet’s best French listening resources). Don’t stress about understanding what you hear, just treat it as an immersion experience.
Find a French song that you enjoy. Write out the lyrics then sing along.
Most important of all: aim for four conversations with native speakers this week.


Need more help finding native speakers? Depending where you live, there may be a French language Meetup group in your area. Take a look on Meetup.com for groups in your town.

Making friends in person with native speakers will let you combine language learning with social activities. This will give you a bigger purpose to your French learning - and a motivational boost.

How to Speak French: Month 2 and Beyond

So you’ve spent a month learning how to speak French? Great job! Now it’s time to look back and see how far you’ve come in just a few weeks. Even if you weren’t able to study as much as you wanted, as long as you studied consistently and didn’t give up, you’ll be amazed by your progress. You’ll find it hard to believe that at one time, you could barely pronounce Bonjour.

Throughout the past month, if you found that any part of your study routine didn’t work for you, then ditch it and find something else. How you study is far less important than studying often and consistently.

Keep learning every day, and keep using your French by speaking as often as possible, and fluency will come sooner than you think.

What approach do you take when you learn French? Tell me about it in the comments!

The post Your First Month Learning French: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Learn French in 3 Months: A Step-by-Step Guide

So you want to learn how to speak French? Très bien !

French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, being official in 29 countries. These include Canada and Haiti in North America, French Guiana in South America, more than a dozen African nations, five European countries, and Vanuatu and several French overseas territories in Oceania.

French is beautiful, popular, and very useful.

Yet, despite what some native French speakers would have you believe, there’s one thing that French definitely isn’t: difficile .

French might have a reputation for being incredibly difficult for non-natives, but I can tell you from experience, this isn’t true. I actually found Spanish to be more difficult. That was mainly because Spanish was my first foreign language - so I made lots of mistakes in how I learned Spanish. But the time I got to French, I’d discovered the best ways to learn a foreign language.

Approach French the right way, and avoid the mistakes that many first-time language learners make, and you’ll find that French isn’t nearly as difficult as you’ve been led to believe.

While you certainly won't master it in three months, especially if you can only put a few hours a week into it, if you want to have your initial plan of action here’s how I’d suggest you learn French.

Let’s take a look at what you should do in the first hour, first day, first week and first months of learning French. From here you'll have the start you need to keep your momentum going and keep learning!

How to Speak French: Equipment and Time

Before we begin, you will need the following:


Notepad
Pen
Computer or tablet with internet connection


Optional extras:


French phrasebook
$10 – $20 per week to spend on language teachers


To follow this guide, you’ll need to set aside around four hours each weekend (I recommend scheduling out Saturday mornings), plus around 45 minutes per day on weekdays.

I also suggest you start at the weekend to give yourself a “first day” boost.

Here’s where to start on that first day…

How to Speak French: The First Hour

Your first step in learning French is to create a personalised French phrasebook.

Why do this? In my approach to learning French, you’ll focus on learning French that’s relevant to you, your life, and your reasons for learning French.

Get a fresh notebook, and a pen, and write “My French Phrasebook” on the cover.

This notebook will contain the French phrases that you need to know, rather than the one-size-fits-all phrases found in most French courses and phrasebooks.

Let’s get that first page filled!

Go to the Omniglot.com French phrases page and search for the phrases you use when you meet someone for the first time. Here are the phrases I’d look up:


Hello
My name is…
What is your name?
Nice to meet you
Goodbye


Write down each word or phrase along with its English translation. Click on each phrase in Omniglot to hear its pronunciation by a French speaker, then speak out loud what you hear. Repeat this until you’re comfortable with creating French sounds in your mouth.

How to Speak French: The First Day

What should you do with the rest of your time on day one? Continue using Omniglot to collect French phrases and questions that you would use when talking with a native speaker for the first time. These will be the same phrases that you would use when meeting a speaker of your native language for the first time:


Where are you from?
I’m from [country or city of origin]
What do you do?
I’m a [job title]
What do you do in your free time?
In my free time, I like to…


If your job title and hobbies aren’t listed on Omniglot, use Google Translate to translate them.

The phrases you collect now don’t have to be grammatically perfect. The aim is to be able to say basic things about yourself, using what I call “Tarzan speak”. For example, I might learn how to say, “Je Benny. Je irlandais.” Sure, it’s far from perfect. But you get the point. And so will your first conversation partner.

Write down the phrases with their translations, then say them out loud.

Do your best to commit them to memory - but don’t spend too much time on this. You can always keep your notebook handy when you have your first conversation. Besides, you’ll be using these phrases almost every time you encounter a new person, so you’ll learn them by heart soon enough. Don’t be too fancy. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Just learn these few phrases and worry about elaborating later.

As you’ll have noticed by now, French pronunciation is very different from English. It will take time to master. You might feel silly trying to say the above phrases while trying to get the R just right, or figuring out which letters are silent. Don’t sweat it! It’s only your first day. Do your best, repeat after the recordings, and worry about the rest later.

How to Speak French: Week 1

Very early in your first week (even on your first day!) you should head over to italki and schedule your very first conversation with a native French speaker. Schedule it to be seven days from when you started learning French.

Speaking is by far the best way to learn a language.

There’s no feeling quite like the rush you get when you say something to a native speaker using your target language for the very first time, and the other person understands you. You’ll feel empowered to continue using your language, knowing that you can use it to connect with another person.

I recommend that you schedule your first conversation to be with a French teacher rather than a conversation partner. There are tons of French teachers on italki. Lessons do cost money, but the prices are generally very reasonable. Many teachers and tutors also offer free trial lessons.

And remember what I said about how global French is! If you restrict your search to only those in France or Europe, it may indeed be more than you can afford, but if you look all over the world, then you will definitely find someone who fits your personal requirements.

Why a teacher? Teachers will have experience of working with other language learners. When you’re a beginner, it’s important to have a teacher who’s supportive and patient. Teachers also know the best way to help you progress - pushing you hard enough to keep you learning, but not so hard that you feel overwhelmed.

You’ve scheduled your first conversation. The rest of your first week should be spent preparing for this conversation.

Review your conversation phrases from day one every day this week. If you can say them quickly and easily, then start adding some more phrases. These can be anything you want, but make sure you pick phrases that you’ll use often.

Considering that you’ll be chatting with a native speaker soon, phrases you’ll use a lot will be:


Please speak more slowly
Could you say that again?
Please write that down


These can all be found on Omniglot, and will help you keep your first conversation in French going for several minutes. Remember to listen to the Omniglot recordings so you know the correct pronunciation.

Nearing the end of your first week and are still too nervous to schedule a conversation with a French speaker? Then sign up for my free Speak in a Week course.

How to Speak French: Week 2

By now you’ll have had your first conversation with a native French speaker! (If you haven’t, go on italki right now and schedule it).

You probably won’t have to worry much about motivation this week after your first conversation. But any time you do feel yourself struggling to stay motivated from now on, book another conversation with a teacher, tutor or language partner. You’ll come out of it feeling refreshed and ready to keep going. I recommend having a minimum of three conversations a week.

Now you’ve got a conversation under your belt, this week is about making sure that the words and phrases you learn stick in your memory. For this, I recommend using virtual flashcards, which you can create with Anki.

Anki is available for iOS and Android, as well as for desktop computers.

Remember the list of personal phrases you started creating on your first day, and then added to throughout your first week? You can import it into Anki to make your very own flashcard deck to practise French with.

Now you can review these phrases anytime you want. Anki’s SRS algorithm will automatically have you spend more time practising the phrases you’re less familiar with, and less time on the ones you know well. Practise your flashcards for at least fifteen minutes per day. When you start to get really good at the phrases, add more. A French phrasebook is a good reference if you’re having trouble thinking of phrases you want to learn.

It’s a good idea this week to start learning to read in French, beyond the simple words and phrases you’ve learned so far. You’ll be well-aware by now that French reading isn’t quite as straightforward as other Romance languages you may have studied, or heard of. Until you get the hang of it, you can’t rely on the spelling of French words as an indicator of pronunciation. There are too many silent letters, and multiple spellings for a single sound. The sooner you master the basics of reading, the sooner you’ll be able to use French literature as a study tool.

To start reading French, check out Languageguide.org’s Beginning Readings page. Click on any link to view a short French excerpt. A recording will begin to play so that you can listen to a native speaker read the text as you follow along. Clicking pause will highlight the word where the recording stopped. Hover your mouse over the punctuation mark at the end of any sentence to see its English translation.

By the end of this week, make sure to have at least one more French conversation with a native speaker. You’ll be able to see your own progress in the language, and it will give you the push you need to move on to your third week.

How to Speak French: Week 3

Week three is a good time to evaluate what’s worked for you in learning French, and what hasn’t worked so well.

That is, if you’ve kept up your practice. Have you? Chances are you’ve had some days when you felt super motivated, and some days when life happened and you didn’t do any language learning.

If you feel like you’ve stalled, this week is the time to put things right.

Something I’ve learned over the years in my many language missions is that it’s far more effective to distribute your total weekly study time over every day of the week, than to do all of your studying in one or two days. Studying less often means you have to spend more time in each study session reviewing what you learned last time. You also risk falling out of your routine and giving up on your language mission. So keep up the daily studying! Even if you can only commit to a few minutes each time.

Your main task this week is to create a study schedule that works for you.

Aim to set aside time every day to study, even if it’s just ten minutes per day during the week, and longer on weekends.

Throughout this week, keep reading, keep scheduling conversations, and keep building your Anki deck. No matter what else might get in the way of your studying, you can always find a few spare moments to check in with your Anki deck.

Make sure to schedule at least two conversations with native speakers this week. If you’ve only spoken with teachers so far, consider chatting with a conversation exchange partner instead.

Chatting with a language exchange partner is a very different experience from chatting with a teacher. It’s more relaxed - a bit like hanging out with a friend, and the conversation can go anywhere. As an added bonus, it’s free!

How to Speak French: Week 4

This week is all about maintaining the healthy study habits you set up last week. Follow the schedule you set for yourself, and see how it works.

What if you find you’ve been too ambitious? Tweak your schedule so that it works for you. The important thing is that you study every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Set your sights too high, and you’ll overwhelm yourself and end up quitting.

Here’s what to focus on this week:


Keep adding to your French Anki deck
Listen to a French podcast or radio show (we’ve collected some of the Internet’s best French listening resources). Don’t stress about understanding what you hear, just treat it as an immersion experience.
Find a French song that you enjoy. Write out the lyrics then sing along.
Most important of all: aim for four conversations with native speakers this week.


Need more help finding native speakers? Depending where you live, there may be a French language Meetup group in your area. Take a look on Meetup.com for groups in your town.

Making friends in person with native speakers will let you combine language learning with social activities. This will give you a bigger purpose to your French learning - and a motivational boost.

How to Speak French: Month 2 and Beyond

So you’ve spent a month learning how to speak French? Great job! Now it’s time to look back and see how far you’ve come in just a few weeks. Even if you weren’t able to study as much as you wanted, as long as you studied consistently and didn’t give up, you’ll be amazed by your progress. You’ll find it hard to believe that at one time, you could barely pronounce Bonjour.

Throughout the past month, if you found that any part of your study routine didn’t work for you, then ditch it and find something else. How you study is far less important than studying often and consistently.

Keep learning every day, and keep using your French by speaking as often as possible, and fluency will come sooner than you think.

What approach do you take when you learn French? Tell me about it in the comments!

The post Learn French in 3 Months: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

The Best Way to Learn a Language: What the Science Says

“What’s the best way to learn a language?” “What’s the quickest way to learn new words?” “How can I sound like a native speaker?” “Do I really have to study grammar?”

Language hackers ask themselves these kinds of questions all the time.

We all want to use effective study methods so we can learn a language quickly and speak it well.

How can we know if we’re spending our time on the right things?

Everywhere you turn, language teachers are using different methods and giving conflicting advice. Some learn vocabulary by memorising word lists, others absorb it naturally by reading. Some concentrate on the sounds first, others prefer to improve their pronunciation as they go along. Some swear by grammar drills, others never open a textbook.

Fortunately, language learners aren’t the only ones who’ve been puzzling over these questions. Linguists, the people who study the science of language, have spent decades observing how people learn languages. And while they don’t have all the answers yet, they have discovered a lot of cool stuff about what works and what doesn’t.

So let’s take a look at some of the most common questions in language learning, what science has to say about them. We’ll also look at the strategies science provides that can help us become better language learners.

How Can You Sound More Like a Native Speaker?

Perhaps the first question to address is why you want to sound more like a native speaker.

Lots of language learners don’t worry much about pronunciation. They think that as long as people can get what they’re saying, that’s all that matters.

And there’s some truth in this: you don’t need a perfect accent to communicate well with native speakers.

But the more you sound like a native speaker, the easier it is for them to understand you. And the easier it is for people to understand you, the more they enjoy talking to you. Which comes in pretty handy, given that you need to talk to people in order to learn their language.

So why do we have accents in the first place? And what can we do about them?

Why do we Have Foreign Accents?

There are two main reasons language learners have foreign accents.

Firstly, it can be difficult to tell the difference between two sounds that don’t exist in our native language.

Secondly, other languages can have sounds that require us to use our mouth muscles in a new way.

Let’s take a look at both of these issues, why they happen, and how you can address them.

Sound Differences that don’t Exist in Our Own Language

When I started learning Italian, I spent a few months desperately trying to avoid the word anno (year), for fear of accidentally saying the word ano (ass). It felt as if Italians across the world were playing some kind of cruel joke on me because I just couldn’t hear the difference.

On the flip side, I’m a native English speaker, so the difference between the sheep and ship vowels seems pretty obvious. But lots of learners struggle with difference, which explains why everyone’s terrified of speaking English on holiday, with all those beaches and sheets and what not .

This happens because when we’re born, we have super little polyglot brains that can tell the difference between sounds in all of the world’s languages. As we grow older, our brain zooms in on acoustic differences between sounds that are important for our native language and filters out differences that are not important. This is good, as it helps us understand our own language better. But it causes problems for language learners, because they filter out sound differences that might be important in the language they’re learning.

How to Tell Sounds Apart

But it’s not all bad news. Linguists have been studying this phenomenon for years and they’ve found a way to help learners hear and pronounce the difference between these tricky sounds.

This method, known as minimal pair training, involves listening to a word that has the sound difference you want to learn (like ship or sheep), deciding which one you think it is, and getting immediate feedback about whether you were right or wrong. After a few sessions, you’ll hear the difference more easily and be able to pronounce them better.

You set up your own minimal pair training by using forvo to download sound files of the words you want to learn to tell apart. Then use Anki to put the sound file on the question side and the written word on the other. Listen to the word, try to guess which one it is, then flip the flashcard over to see if you were right.

New Mouth Positions

Some sounds are difficult because they involve completely new mouth positions, like the rolled “R” in Spanish or the “U” in French.

For these sounds, science has some good news: it turns out that with a little perseverance, it’s absolutely possible to train your mouth muscles to pronounce sounds more like native speakers.

How to Train Your Mouth Muscles for Correct Pronunciation

To do this, you need to learn a little about articulatory phonetics (which is basically just a fancy-pants way of saying mouth positions) to find out exactly where the tongue, teeth and lips should be in the sounds you want to learn. Then practice them regularly until your mouth naturally moves to that position.

That sounds great, but where do I learn about all these mouth positions, I hear you ask. Well, luckily a smart guy called Idahosa Ness is already teaching people about the mouth positions in lots of different languages, with his Mimic Method courses, available for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Portuguese.

Alternatively, try doing a quick search on YouTube. More and more language teachers are uploading pronunciation videos and you might just find one which explains the mouth positions in the language you’re learning.

What’s the Fastest Way to Learn New Words in Another Language?

There are as many ways to learn vocabulary as there are successful language learners.

Throw this question out to a room of polyglots and watch as they they initiate a battle royale style fight to the death, until the last survivor stretches out his weak arms in a victory celebration, clutching a pile of bloodstained flashcards.

The most important debate - as far as science is concerned - is about whether we should make a concerted effort to memorise words, for example using flashcards, or whether we should pick them up naturally through reading and listening.

As with most battles fought between two polar extremes, they’re both a bit right. Both techniques are useful for different reasons and if you can balance the two, you’ll be onto a winner.

The Science of Flashcards

Lots of learners use flashcard systems, which involve writing words or sentences in your target language on one side and a picture or translation on the other. To learn the words or sentences, you look at one side of the card, see if you can remember what’s on the other side, then turn it over to see if you’d remembered it correctly.

These days, most people use apps like Anki or memrise, which leave a specific time lapse between card reviews using a system called spaced repetition. This technique is based on research by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus which showed that people learn more when they space learning out rather than cramming it all together. This means that you’ll remember a word much better if you look at it once a day for five days, rather than five times in the same day.

Ebbinghaus also noticed that people tend to remember things better when they can link them to personal experiences. You can take advantage of this by using a memory technique called mnemonics, which involves linking words in the language you’re learning to words and images in your own language that sound similar. For example, to remember the Mandarin Chinese word for book, shu, you could imagine a book with a shoe on it, which helps you link the image of a bookto its Chinese translation.

Spaced repetition and mnemonics can boost your word power quickly and make your brain feel like an awesome vocabulary learning machine. But they’re not the be all and end all of word learning strategies. In fact, overuse of these techniques can actually harm your vocabulary, and here’s why.

Your N400 Signal: How to Learn Words the Natural Way

You may not know it, but your brain is already an awesome vocabulary learning machine. When you read or listen to something, your brain doesn’t take each word at face value: it’s constantly taking statistics about which words appear together regularly so that it can anticipate what’s coming next and process speech faster.

Neuroscientists have found a way to measure when your brain is doing this. Our brains constantly emit electrical signals, which change depending on what task your brain is dealing with. Scientists can read some of these, using a technique called electroencephalography, to study how your brain processes language (but don’t worry, they can’t read your mind... yet!).

One of these signals, called N400, changes depending on whether words make sense in context or not. The N400 is relatively small for expected word combinations, like coffee and cream, and increases in height for unexpected word combinations, like coffee and crap. This means that scientists can read the N400 height to analyse the kind of expectations you have about which words usually occur together. If your N400 doesn’t increase for coffee and crap, they might wonder how on earth you’ve been drinking your coffee.

In language learners, the N400 changes based on proficiency. The better people get at a language, the closer their N400 pattern is to a native speaker’s. This means that an important part of language proficiency is taking statistics and building up expectations about what kind of words usually appear together, just as native speakers do.

To get better at this, we need to flood our brains with bucket loads of natural content so we can build up a picture or which kinds of words usually appear together. Reading is a great way to do this and there’s lots of research that shows that reading works wonders for your vocabulary skills.

It’s important to choose resources that are right for the level, as if the percentage of unknown words is too high, it can be difficult to figure out what they mean from the context and it’s frustrating having to stop every two minutes to look up a word. Graded readers, which adapt books to make them easier to understand at lower levels, are perfect for this.

And if you’re a higher level but you’re not a big reader, how about watching shows with subtitles in the language you’re learning? It’s still reading, after all!

Do You Really Need to Study Grammar?

Grammarphobes often ask themselves whether it’s really necessary to learn all those grammar rules. Can’t we just pick it up with the natural method, that is, through reading, listening and talking?

Linguists struggle to answer this question because it’s very difficult to control and measure. Experiments usually compare one group who are taught grammar rules with another who sees/hears sentences with the same grammar but are not taught the rules. But how do we know each group has paid attention to the same grammar structure the same number of times? What if the ones who aren’t taught the rules are secretly trying to figure out the rules in their heads, or running off home and learning it on their own? How do you know if they’ve learned the grammar? Is it when they understand it, when they use it or when they don’t make any mistakes?

And what if experiments that find no positive effect of teaching grammar simply aren’t being published? “Hey, we did an experiment and nothing happened” isn’t exactly a bit hit with academic journals.

That’s why, after decades of research, the grammar question is still a very murky one. To clear it up, linguists have started doing meta-studies, which involve gathering all available research on learning grammar rules and seeing if there’s a tendency. The results emerging are that grammar rules do help people speak more accurately, but the results aren’t nearly as drastic as you might think, especially given all of the attention to grammar in the majority of language classes and textbooks.

These results fit in with my experience as a language learner. Knowing the grammar certainly helps, but spending the majority of my language learning time memorising complicated grammar rules doesn’t feel like the most effective way to learn.

What’s the Best Way to Stay Motivated in Language Learning?

This is probably the most important question of all: you can know all the best ways to learn pronunciation, words and grammar, but if you can’t be bothered, it’s never going to happen.

Luckily there’s loads of cool research on motivation that’ll help you get your language learning act together. Here are a couple of ways to get started:

Find a Friend or Language Partner to Study With

Studies show that people who feel like they’re working as a team (even if they’re not physically together) accomplish more. There are a few reasons for this:


Social: We’re social animals and sharing our experiences with others makes us feel more positive about them.
Accountability: Once your goals are out there for all to see, you’re more likely to work towards them.
Support: You get access to a lovely support network who can give you advice and encouragement.


Over the last few years the internet has exploded with online language learning communities which are helping people connect support each other in all kinds of awesome ways. One example is the Fluent in 3 Months community. Another is the Add1challenge.

Break Down Your Big Goals into Mini-Missions

Research shows that people who break down big tasks into little chunks get more done in the long run. In one study, people who were given six pages of maths problems per session over seven sessions completed the pages faster and more accurately than people who were given 42 pages from the start.

Breaking down the task is essential in something like language learning, where the outcome feels big and scary. Instead of trying to “speak German”, aim for something smaller and more concrete, like an hour of German a day, or however much time you can afford. By breaking it down this way, you’re much more likely to do it. And if you keep it up day by day, you’ll be speaking a language before you know it.

The Best Way to Learn a Language: Your Experience

Do these findings fit in with your experience as a language learner, or are they different? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Best Way to Learn a Language: What the Science Says appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How Adults Learn: 6 Important Things to Know

“I’ll never learn to run with the stamina of Paula Radcliffe, so why bother training for a marathon?”

“I’ll never win a Nobel Prize in maths, so what’s the point of studying it at all?”

“I’ll never play cello like Yo-Yo Mah, so I shouldn’t even start.”

How do these excuses sound to you? If, like me, you love to learn for the sake of learning, they probably sound quite lame.

Yet so many language learners let themselves be swayed by similar excuses:


“I don’t have the language gene.”
“I’ll never have a perfect French accent.”
“I’m too old to ever be fluent in a new language”
“I didn’t do it as a child, so why start now?”


The “I’m too old” excuse is one I hear a lot. I even said it to myself as a young adult, when I still only spoke one language fluently. Now, over a decade later, I’m fluent in seven languages.

Putting aside the fact that there’s no conclusive proof that children learn languages any better than adults, would it really matter if they did? Children are good at learning languages. They’re good at learning, full stop. But adults are absolutely not bad at learning. In fact, they’re extremely good at it. Just look around the web at all the people who have successfully reached fluency, even mastery, in another language well into adulthood with no previous foreign language experience.

With that in mind, I’ve investigated how adults learn - from a scientific point of view. You can use these insights to your advantage when hashing out a study plan for your target language.

1. The Ability to Learn Vocabulary is not Related to Age

Whatever advantages children may have in language acquisition, such as more easily learning to speak without an accent, they don’t have an advantage where it counts: learning the actual words required to speak a language.

Vocabulary is far more important to learning a language than accent. In fact, accent isn’t an indicator at all of your competence with a language, regardless of some people’s preconceived notions to the contrary.

What’s more, as an adult, you can use hacks for memorising vocabulary quickly, which I’d argue work even better as an adult. Adults have more life experience and can invent more memorable stories as mnemonics to make the new vocabulary stick.

If a native accent is one of your goals, go for it! A good accent can change people’s perception of you, even if you don’t speak the language any better than someone with a foreign accent. A native-sounding accent is not impossible, no matter how old you are. It just takes a bit more effort. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Adults are More Motivated to Learn than Children

If you’re an adult thinking about learning a second language, chances are, it’s not out of necessity (though obviously for a small percentage of people, it is). It’s morely likely that you want to learn a new language for some personal motivation. Perhaps to experience other cultures in a more authentic way, to appreciate the arts and literature of another country, or to keep your mind sharp.

On the other hand, how many kids do you know who like to do extra homework after school when they don’t have to? Not many, I’d guess! The only reason most kids go to school and do homework at all is because they’re sent there by their parents. When you reach adulthood, however, you realise the benefits of learning for the sheer pleasure of it. As a result, you’re more motivated. This extra motivation means learning more quickly and efficiently. Consequently, the learning process itself becomes more enjoyable.

Not only are adults more motivated to learn for learning’s sake, but also because of the immediate reward they get from learning something new, which children don’t get. And that is…

3. Adults Get to Immediately Apply What They’ve Learned

When you were a kid in school, I bet you wondered more than once why you had to multiply compound fractions, or learn verb conjugations for a language you wouldn’t be able to use outside of class for years and years, if ever. None of what you were learning was relevant to your day-to-day kid life, so you didn’t see the big picture about why it was useful. That’s understandable! It’s not easy for anyone, much less a child, to enthusiastically learn something that they won’t use for ten or twenty years!

You have a big advantage as an adult, however, in that you can get out there today and practise the things you learned yesterday. There are few places where this is more evident than in language learning. Unlike many other disciplines, you don’t have to wait until you’re ready before you go out and speak a language. Even if you only know ten words, you can go out on day one and use those ten words to successfully communicate with native speakers.

When you’re able to see such immediate success, you’re far more likely to continue studying. Compare this with children who have to sit in a classroom for years, memorising vocabulary like “stapler”, “moose”, and a host of other words that are irrelevant to daily life, for the sole purpose of passing a test. No wonder so many children drop their second language course at the first chance.

As an adult, you can forget about staplers and moose and just learn the vocabulary that’s relevant to you right now, giving you the ability to instantly go and have a conversation in your target language using that vocabulary. You can learn whatever and however you want, and still get the most out of your studying, because…

4. Adults Have Control Over Their Learning Environment

I love being an adult! I’m all grown up, settled down, and exceptionally mature for my age. Well, ok, I’m all grown up at least!

Grown-ups have something that children don’t: control over their daily lives. If you want cake for supper, you can eat as much cake as you like.

You also have control over your learning environment as an adult. When studying your target language, you get to experiment and find out how you learn best. Then you can go ahead and learn that way. No more relying exclusively on teachers with pre-determined lesson plans that offer no flexibility in what you learn, or how you learn it. I’m sure there are some people out there who learn languages best in a classroom, but if (like me) you’re not one of them, then you might have fooled yourself as a child into thinking that you were no good at languages.

Now that you’re an adult, you’ll see that there are nearly as many ways to effectively learn a language as there are language learners. All it takes is a bit of trial and error to find the combination of language hacks that works best for you.

And once you start studying a new language, you’ll quickly gain momentum in your learning. The reason for this is…

5. The More Adults Learn, The Easier Learning Becomes

One of the reasons adults supposedly learn more slowly is simply because they’re out of practice. The phrase “use it or lose it” couldn’t be more apt when it comes to your brain.

Every time you learn something new, you create new synapses and increase the plasticity of your brain. This makes it easier for you to retain the skills you’ve learned, improve on these skills, and continue learning new things. That’s why I can go for months without practising some of my languages, but can then spend just a few days polishing up the areas where I’m rusty, and get right back to the level I was at before.

If you don’t use a skill for a while, but you spend the meantime using your brain to learn other skills (such as another language, a musical instrument, or even juggling) then what you’re doing is improving your ability to learn . As a result, you can re-learn the old skill more quickly, as well as more easily learn entirely new skills. You’ll gain momentum. You’ll see results more quickly, and get hooked on learning. It will become a lifelong process.

When it comes to learning a language, however, just practising over and over again, like you would practise the piano, isn’t really effective. You’ll want to use your language in interactive ways in order to improve. Which brings me to my final point…

6. Adults Learn Languages Faster When They Get Feedback

This should be no surprise. However much you might consider yourself shy and introverted, best suited to studying alone at home, there’s simply no substitute for interactive feedback in your language learning. The easiest and most efficient way to get it is by talking with real people in your target language.

If you only practise by yourself at home for hours, without getting any real feedback about your progress, then don’t be surprised if you fail to meet your language goals and end up losing motivation. Don’t get me wrong: tools like Duolingo and spaced repetition software are an extremely useful supplement to your language learning. You can use them to study vocabulary and grammar. But if you want to be sure that you’re actually using the language correctly, talk with a native speaker who can provide feedback. Not only will you learn to use the language more effectively, you’ll get a better ear for it and start to pronounce it more closely to native speech.

How Adults Learn: Your Attitude is a far Better Predictor of Success than Your Age

You can learn a language at any age. Sixteen or sixty! If you want to learn a new language but have yet to begin, then the only thing holding you back is your mindset. Like the old saying goes: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right”.

Yes, your individual results might vary compared to other people’s, but guess what? No matter how good you are, there will always be someone better. You’re never going to be the very best in the world at anything - especially languages. But why worry about that?

Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop making excuses. Get out there and learn something!

The post How Adults Learn: 6 Important Things to Know appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

The Catalan Language: How to Learn Catalan Quickly

The Catalan language may have a small global footprint with approximately 10 million speakers. But when you learn this language, a whole new world opens up to you.

First, you’ll be introduced to some beautiful places. The majority of Catalan speakers are found in Catalunya (often referred to as “Catalonia” in English), in the northeastern corner of Spain, a place where you can both laze on idyllic beaches and climb dramatic mountains.

Catalan is also spoken in the Mediterranean paradises of the Balearic Islands and the city of Alghero in Sardinia, Italy. A variant is also spoken in Valencia, Spain, home of the world-famous paella. There are Catalan speakers in southern France along the border with Catalunya. Catalan is also the national language of Andorra, a tiny country tucked high into the breathtaking Pyrenees mountains.

[caption id="attachment_20121" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Winter hiking in the Catalan Pyrenees. Photo credit: Lisa Hoashi.[/caption]

When you learn the Catalan language you get greater access to the Pyrenees – full of climbing, trekking, paragliding and skiing routes – as well as to magnificent Mediterranean islands and beaches, lovely countryside, and vibrant cities. You’ll be able to fully appreciate many historic sites leftover from the Greeks, Romans, Moors, and the many other peoples who invaded these historically sought-after lands.

[caption id="attachment_20123" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Platja del Port Peregrí in Calella de Palafrugell on the Costa Brava. Photo credit: Andrea Ciambra[/caption]

You’ll meet some great people, get to know their rich cultural history, and desirable way of life. Famous Catalans include artists Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, cellist Pablo Casals, architect Antoni Gaudí, and chef Ferran Adrià.

[caption id="attachment_20124" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Game of Thrones, season six, filmed on these steps leading to the Cathedral of Girona,
Spain. Photo credit: Georges Jansoone[/caption]

The gorgeous, friendly and culturally vibrant seaside city of Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya. It has great architecture, fabulous restaurants and lively festivals, such as La Mercè, a city-wide, multi-day party every September featuring free cultural and music events.

Catalans are known for their delicious Mediterranean cuisine. (Many say that in Spain, their only rival in regional cuisine are the Basques). The recipes are simple; what makes them so outstanding are the tasty and fresh ingredients, including delectable olive oil, seafood, tomatoes, cheeses and charcuterie. The wine and cava (Catalan sparkling wine) also excellent – and very affordable. This is a place to savour your food and drink in the sunshine.

Finally, they have an awesome soccer team. Lionel Messi might be from Argentina but he plays for Barça!

[caption id="attachment_20125" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Lionel Messi of Barcelona against Osasuna. Photo credit: Jeroen Bennink.[/caption]

Learning the Catalan Language is (kind of) Revolutionary

If you’re going to learn Catalan, there is some important cultural and political background that you should know.

First, Catalunya is officially considered an “autonomous community” within Spain. It has its own government which includes, for example, its own president, parliament and police force. This democratic political set-up has been in place since 1978, three years after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died.

A couple of important notes about this:

First, the Catalan language was banned when Franco was in power. Franco enforced the use of Spanish in its place. During this 36-year period, Catalan went largely underground. School was conducted entirely in Spanish. Many Catalans continued speaking the language in the privacy and safety of their own homes but it disappeared from the public arena.

Today – in most parts of Catalunya outside Barcelona – you’ll find that most people speak exclusively Catalan. The older generations, those raised during Franco’s dictatorship, can produce a rusty Spanish if needed, but they generally prefer to speak Catalan. Some elderly also don’t know how to write Catalan very well since they never learned it in school.

After democracy and the autonomous Catalan government (known as the Generalitat de Catalunya) was restored in 1978, the Catalan language reemerged in the public arena once again, in full force. Seen as a key element of Catalunya’s national patrimony, Catalan is promoted by special funding and initiatives of the Generalitat de Catalunya (some of which especially benefit Catalan learners - see the resources section below).

Second, there is a strong independence movement in Catalunya. Most recently, the Catalan government announced a referendum in November of 2014 to see if the majority of the population wanted to split from Spain. When the Spanish government declared the referendum “unconstitutional,” Catalan president Artur Mas went forward with it anyway, even though the results would be “non-binding.” In that referendum, 81 percent voted for independence, though voter turnout was only 42 percent.

Depending where you visit, you will find some people highly opposed to breaking from Spain and others staunchly in favour. Where I live, a rural town in the centre of Catalunya, it seems like the majority of people are pro-independence. (Our mayor was recently arrested after she refused to take down the Catalan independence flag on City Hall during elections!). Speaking purely Catalan and participating in Catalan cultural activities – such as castells (building human towers) – are seen as pro-independence actions in places like these.

[caption id="attachment_20126" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Castells is the making of human towers, a purely Catalan phenomenon. Photo credit: Escuraxemeneies.[/caption]

Why Catalan is Easy and Fun to Learn

Catalan is not difficult to learn – especially if you already speak another Romance language.

Many people think Catalan is a dialect of Spanish and that’s not true at all. It’s as different from Spanish as is Portuguese or Italian. Like these languages, it did come originally from Latin. So there are many similarities. When it comes to vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, Catalan actually has more in common with French than Spanish.

That being said, however, many people – like me – come to Catalan by way of wanting to learn Spanish. I know I am not the first person to land on Barcelona’s sunny shores ignorantly expecting to practise my Spanish – only to learn that the dominant language here is Catalan. Like many people who visit Catalunya, I fell in love with the culture and lifestyle and end up staying. (In my case, I literally fell in love with a Catalan farmer, and married him!)

Spanish is my strongest second language. Japanese is the language of my father’s family, so I also grew up exposed to it. I’ve taken beginner courses in Japanese, French, and Arabic. I know, especially from trying to learn Arabic, that when picking up a new language it helps to link new vocabulary and grammar rules with what you already know. Arabic was very difficult because I felt like I had nothing to “hook” the words to in my brain – no similarities or associations to help me remember.

By contrast – thanks to having lots of Spanish and a little French, I had plenty of “hooks” for Catalan. It was very “sticky” – plus I really like the way Catalan sounds. It’s not as musically effusive as Spanish. It’s more emphatic like French.

There are plenty of examples of verbs that are the similar or the same in Spanish and Catalan, and in French and Catalan.

Here are a few for Spanish:


Acabar – to end, to finish
Cantar – to sing
Caminar – to walk
Estar – to be
Poder – to be able to
Saber – to know
Ser – to be


Yet the verb conjugations are quite different. See with example of the verb “acabar”:



And here are some of the similar verbs between French and Catalan:



See how many similarities you’ll find if you speak another Romance language? Easy!

How Catalan Pronunciation is Similar to Spanish

Before we dive into the unique letters and sounds found in Catalan, it’s worth mentioning a few that you’ll already know if you speak Spanish.

The Rolled “R”

Like the Spanish, the Catalans roll their r’s.

The Sounds of “V” and “B”

In Catalan, as in Spanish, the sound of the letters “V” and “B” are the same.

“Ñ” Becomes “YA”

Catalan doesn’t use the letter “ñ” – instead they spell out the sound phonetically as “nya”.

For example, Catalans would spell their home, “Catalunya” – whereas the Spanish would spell it as “Cataluña”.

Another example: The word “to accompany” in Spanish is acompañar, whereas in Catalan it’s acompanyar.

Unique Letters and Sounds in Catalan Pronunciation

Maybe because I’m a writer and avid reader, I enjoy learning how to spell words in a new language. I love how Catalan introduced me to some totally new combinations of letters and sounds.

Pronouncing “X” as “CH”

My favorite by far is the Catalan “x” which is pronounced as “ch”.

For example, the word for “lamb” – xai – is pronounced just like that spicy Indian tea drink: “chai”.

Bet you can guess what this is: xocolata. That’s right, it’s chocolate.

And here are two proper nouns: Xile and Xina. Have you figured them out? You got it: Chile and China.

“G” can also make a “CH” Sound

The “ch” sound is very common in Catalan. The “g” can also make this sound (or something very, very similar).

For example, you may have at some point run across this common Catalan surname: Puig. An English speaker might take a stab at this one as “Poog”. But to pronounce it correctly in Catalan it instead has a real bite: “poot-CH” with the “CH” extremely curt at the end.

Another common “g” word is vaig which means “I go.” The pronunciation is something like, “baa-CH”.

The Cedilla “Ç”

The “C” with the cedilla (the little tail underneath the “c”) is a Latin script letter that is pronounced in Catalan as a hissing “s” (as in “snake”).

For example, the verb “to begin” is començar, pronounced “comenssar.”

Or, take the word for “effort”, which is esforç. That’s pronounced “esforss.”

This letter doesn’t occur very often in Catalan.

“LL” - a Challenging Sound to Learn

The unique sound of the “ll” is very challenging to learn – and it’s common in Catalan!

First, do not assume this will make the same sound as in Spanish. It’s quite different. In Spanish, the “ll” basically makes a “ya” sound. Me llamo = “may yamo.” However, in Catalan, the “ll” makes more of a “yeuh” sound. For example, the word for “language” is llengua and is pronounced as “yeuhng-wa.”

To make the correct sound of the “ll,” you must learn a whole new way of using your mouth: You have to flatten the front of your tongue and push it against the back of your top teeth to produce it.

It’s really difficult! And the worst part is that Catalans often don’t understand what word you’re getting at unless you make this sound correctly.

If it makes you feel any better, some of my Catalan friends say that they had to practise making this sound over and over when they were kids. One even suggested sticking the tip of a pencil vertically inside my front teeth to properly train my tongue (Hey, that kind of works!).

“NY” - Another Challenging Sound

This is also a very common letter combination and quite difficult, especially maybe for visual learners (like me) who see “ny” at the end of a word and want to pronounce it “nee”.

The “ny” sound essentially is the same as a Spanish “ñ” – but without a vowel following. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, you’re not alone.

In Spanish, an ñ is always accompanied by a vowel afterward, such as in mañana (man-ya-na) or baño (ban-yo). Now try to say baño but without the “o” at the end. That’s how you say bany in Catalan, which also means “bath.”

Did that totally stump your brain? Yeah, me too. I’m still trying to figure out this sound.

The blank looks that I get when I say any (“year”) or lluny (“far” – which has the added fun of the LL too) assure me that I still have some more practising to do.

Catalan Resources: Free Online Courses for Learning Catalan

With the movement afoot to encourage more Catalan usage and speakers, you can benefit from some really great resources in learning the language – especially from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The best is Parla.Cat, which offers free online Catalan courses developed by the Generalitat de Catalunya. You can sign up to use this website from anywhere in the world (my mom signed up in Portland, Oregon) and choose to either have a self-guided course or a hire a tutor additionally for a nominal fee. The website’s design and functionality feels a little dated, but the materials and lesson plans are top-notch.

Catalan is also an option on Duolingo, although only if you have the website language set to Spanish. That means that if your native language is English – you get a double workout in the tutorials, translating Spanish to Catalan and vice versa.

Catalan Language Courses: Low-Cost Classes for Learning Catalan

If you are able to actually spend some time in Catalunya (Hello, Barcelona!), you can also take advantage of highly subsidized in-person classes offered by the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística.

Most medium-sized or larger towns in Catalunya offer these high-quality classes. In my town of approximately 20,000 people for example, I was able to take three levels of beginner courses. A course generally lasts three months, meets twice a week for two and a half hours, and costs under €15 for the entire semester. What a bargain!

These classes are an interesting sociological immersion as well, where you will meet fellow immigrants to Catalunya. In my classes there were people from other parts of Spain, China, Morocco, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Venezuela.

How to Practise Catalan with Native Speakers

Catalans are accustomed to foreigners speaking Spanish or English, so if you strike up a conversation in Catalan, they will likely be both surprised and pleased.

Many people in Catalunya are also eager to learn English, so you should have no problem finding partners for language exchanges in person, or through websites such as italki.

Begin Your Catalan Adventure

Are you learning Catalan? I’d love to know your reasons for doing so - and any challenges you’ve faced. Tell me more in the comments.

Continue your adventures into català, and you’re sure to meet many wonderful new friends along the way.

The post The Catalan Language: How to Learn Catalan Quickly appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Language Immersion: How to Create an Immersion Environment on Your Phone

Immersion is the best way to learn a language - and there’s no need to move overseas to do this.

Moving to another country is only one approach to creating an environment where the target language is a part of your everyday life. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll immerse yourself in the language.

A better approach is to create an immersion environment.

You can create an immersive experience no matter where you live.

An immersion environment is all about finding opportunities to bring the language into your current lifestyle and activities.

One of the most common lifestyle elements we all share is the use of a tablet or smartphone.

How can you turn your phone or tablet into a virtual immersion environment? And how can you use your device to connect with native speakers? These apps are the place the start.

1. Your Operating System

Okay, technically this isn’t an “app”, but it definitely deserves a mention! The biggest boost you can give your digital language immersion is to change the default language on your device’s operating system to your target language.

This has the added benefit of changing the language on many of your apps as well. For example, if you’re a die-hard player of the game Hearthstone, then you can now play it entirely in a new language.

Plus, for any apps that you already use, this will help you build new vocabulary and phrases. Let’s say you frequently “add new event” on your calendar app. When you switch the language on your device, you’ll quickly learn how to say “add new event” in your target language.

2. Streaming Video Apps

You may already know about installing the YouTube or Vimeo apps on your devices to watch language-related materials while you are out and about, but what about other video-streaming services?

If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime to watch movies and TV shows, you can put these shows on your playlist and watch them on your device to enjoy some language immersion on the go.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Try searching for the word “videos” in your target language in your device’s app store and you’ll find a variety of streaming services specific to your target language’s audience.

For example, the popular Chinese video service, Youku, also has an app that will let you watch Chinese language videos on your device. Find video-streaming services for your language and you’ll be able to watch videos, shows and movies in your target language wherever you are.

3. Yelp

You may recall my adventures with Moses McCormick (a.k.a. Laoshu) in Ohio . I joined Moses doing what he likes to call “Levelling Up”. It was really simple: we went to the local mall to find people to practise languages with.

You may be at a loss to know where you can find businesses where people speak the language you’re studying, so what can you do? Download the Yelp app, which connects you with businesses (including restaurants, markets and cafes) in your town. Do a search for a specific type of food (“Japanese” or “Mexican”, for example) and then read through the reviews to determine whether the owners and employees are from that country.

Save those places to your favourites list and the next time you want to go out to eat, you’ll have a list of restaurants and businesses where you can also practise your target language.

4. Voice Recording Apps

Many devices come with a voice recording app pre-installed. This can be used for more than just remembering the song you hear on the radio, or recording a lecture in class.

Here’s what you can do:


Record native speakers for later review. For example, if you’re watching a foreign language TV show, why not capture the audio so you can listen while on the road?
Record yourself in the language and analyse your accent and pronunciation. As painful as it can be to listen to yourself, listening back later is invaluable in improving your speaking skills. Better yet, send the recording to a native speaker to have them review it.
Record your sessions practising with a native speaker. During a one-on-one lesson, capture what is said and listen to it over and over to really ingrain what you learned.


5. Evernote

How many times have you been out and wanted to remember a word to look up later? Or how many times were you talking with a friend who shared a golden nugget of language learning information and you had to scrounge around for a paper and pen to take it down?

With Evernote, an online note-taking app that syncs between all of your devices, you are able to keep a living document of all you learn in your new language.

I recommend setting up dedicated notebooks within Evernote such as “useful phrases”, “words to memorise”, “things to look up” or “questions to ask my tutor”. Just creating these notebooks will inspire you to start taking notes. Set aside a weekly study session to work through the notes you’ve created.

6. Google Maps

As I said before, immersion doesn’t mean you have to visit another country. But even if you’re not going there, you can still become familiar with the lay of the land.

One of the coolest features of Google Maps is Google Street View, where you can virtually stand on a street in different countries around the world. You can look around at the shops, signs and surroundings in that neighbourhood.

Use this to practise asking directions, or use it to try and guess the meaning of street signs and billboards that you can see along the side of the road.

Take it to another level by sharing your screen with a native speaker and role play with them to find your way around. Studying French? See if you can get yourself from Charles De Gaulle airport to the Eiffel Tower, describing the directions you take and your surroundings as you go. Studying Chinese? How well can you navigate the streets of Shanghai? This provides an almost endless supply of study material and conversation topics.

7. Periscope

If you’re not familiar with Periscope, it’s a relatively new social networking system built by Twitter, where you can stream live video to and from your mobile device.

People all around the world use it, which means that there is probably someone out there using it who speaks your target language. Search using Periscope’s map tool for people who are broadcasting from a country where your target language is spoken, and check out what they’re up to.

You can comment and type a greeting in the language as well, so you can get in some writing practice to see how well the other person understands you.

Another way to use Periscope is to broadcast yourself speaking your target language. Scary? You bet! But a great way to take the plunge and get immediate feedback on your speaking skills.

8. Games

I love playing games on my phone. Did you know they can be educational too?

Many games are available in a variety of languages. Using your device’s app store, do a search for the type of game you like to play (“RPG”, “Board Game”, etc.) in the language you’re studying and see what comes up.

The best games for language learning are role playing or strategy games, since they tend to be text-heavy.

If you changed your operating system to the new language, odds are the game you’re already playing has already been switched to the new language!

9. TuneIn

TuneIn is my favourite app for listening to radio. But you don’t have to just listen to your local stations or music in your native language.

You can search TuneIn’s listings for radio stations all around the world. You’ll likely be surprised at how many hundreds or thousands of stations you can find! Talk radio, the latest hit songs, traffic reports and weather forecasts. You can get all these in any language.

Conclusion: Create an Immersion Environment on Your Smartphone

Now you know: immersion isn’t all about moving to a new country.

You can create an immersion environment wherever you are, with tools you already use daily. It just takes a creative eye to see beyond the obvious and create opportunities where they may not seem to exist.

Do you have any apps you love to use for language learning that are out of the ordinary? Share your ideas in the comments!

The post Language Immersion: How to Create an Immersion Environment on Your Phone appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: Day 0 Video

This an update to Holly’s Portuguese in 3 Months mission.

In my last article, I introduced my three-month Portuguese mission.

In this article, I’ll share the “Day Zero” video I made to kick off this project, as well as the first few days of my mission.

What Did I Do Before my “Day Zero” Video?

My “Day Zero” video was recorded for my review of Michel Thomas Total Portuguese, which is a seven-hour audio course (we’ll be publishing the review soon). It demonstrates the level of European Portuguese that one could reasonably expect to achieve after completing the seven hour course, plus two to three lessons with a teacher on Skype, to practise a bit with a real person.

I deliberately didn’t do much preparation for the “Day Zero” video. I wanted it to provide a realistic view of what the Michel Thomas course can help you achieve. All I did between completing the course and recording the video was take three Portuguese lessons on italki, and I filmed the video at the end of my third lesson.

How did I feel about making the video? Terrified!

Speaking a language badly is nerve-wracking enough... recording yourself doing so is even more of a challenge! I felt especially nervous as I have never deliberately recorded myself on video before, outside of school projects. This was all new territory for me! What’s more, I deliberately didn’t do any language-based preparation. I didn’t know what the subject of our conversation would be until our lesson began. I knew I would sound slow and stupid, and miss the majority of what my teacher said.

The only preparation I did was to watch Lauren’s Russian mission videos for an idea of what to do during the video, and to help calm my nerves.

So, let’s take a look!

Here’s the “Ground Zero” Video of Me Speaking Portuguese.

Warning: this is quite slow and painful to watch - as should be expected. Be sure to activate the English subtitles if you need them.

httpvh://youtu.be/YxAm-KTlonM

If you got all the way through it, congrats :) . As slow and painful as it looks on video, it was probably three times worse in real life. I did a lot of editing so it wouldn’t be thirty minutes long. But I still left in some of the awkward pauses and my struggles to understand and be understood, to give a realistic view of my Portuguese level.

What Happened After the Video?

After I made the video, I wrote up my thoughts for my Michel Thomas product review, and I stopped learning Portuguese. About three weeks later, I realised that I missed my daily Portuguese practice, and my lessons with Tatiana.

I went back and rewatched my video, and was proud of how well I had done with so little experience, and of how I never switched to English even when it got tough.

I surprised myself at how much vocabulary I had used in the video - vocabulary that I had forgotten by the time I watched the video a second time. With new languages (even those you’ve only been learning for a few hours), it really is use it or lose it!

I didn’t want to forget what I’d learned. But I was forgetting! I needed to do something about it.

Then I realised: Of course! I could do a three month Portuguese mission! It would keep up my motivation, and I could make videos to track my progress.

My aim was to be able to hold conversations in Portuguese at the end of my three month mission.

My previous article outlines all of my goals for this mission. In short, I wanted to reach B1 level using almost exclusively speaking and listening resources, with virtually no reading or writing. I did some research to find some promising-looking resources, and then I dove in.

The First Few Days of My “Portuguese in 3 Months” Mission

First stop on my mission: a subscription to PortuguesePod101 from Innovative Language.

PortuguesePod101 teaches Brazilian Portuguese, and up until this point, I had only ever studied European Portuguese. But I’ve successfully navigated a range of dialects and accents in English, French, and to a lesser extent, Thai, so this didn’t worry me. Besides, I was really interested in getting to know both major Portuguese dialects equally well. I didn’t see any harm in starting out by splitting my time between both.

I blasted through thirty lessons of PortuguesePod101 in my first week, listening to them on my daily walks. I started with some Absolute Beginner lessons, but was pleasantly surprised to find them a little bit on the easy side, so I moved on to Lower Beginner and Beginner lessons instead. They were perfect for my level, and enjoyable too.

On top of that, I listened to the following:


NHK World Radio Japão - A fifteen-minute daily news podcast in Portuguese covering stories from Japan and around the world. I listened very actively, but admit that I struggled to understand any of the headlines.
Got Talent Portugal - The classic British talent show whose format has been exported to dozens of countries around the world. I enjoyed the judges’ personalities and would return to this TV show again and again throughout my mission.
Agua de Mar , a telenovela from Portugal. I got through thirty minutes and had to call it quits because the cheesiness distracted me from active listening. I put this show in the throwaway pile.
Music: After some research, I found the Portuguese band Quinta do Bill (“Bill’s Farm”). They’re a Celtic-Alternative Rock band. I love Celtic-influenced music, so what could be better?


I didn’t manage to get on italki in my first week to practise Portuguese conversation. Not a very good start! But I did get onto Duolingo, and instead of typing the Portuguese translations, I switched my phone’s language to Portuguese and dictated the answers. It was a great way to practise my pronunciation; after all, if the computer could understand me, a teacher certainly would.

Despite not speaking with a real person, I was still fairly happy with my first week of Portuguese. I did a few exercises every day, and I feel that they really improved my listening comprehension. For speaking practice, I planned to (figuratively) kick myself in the ass the following week.

How did things go after that? Stay tuned for my one-month Portuguese mission update and video, coming soon!

Questions or comments on my Portuguese mission? Ask away! I’ll check the comments and reply regularly.

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