It’s your dream arrival at a University abroad. Or, you’re stuck in a strange land and fighting for survival. Either way, here’s an emergency guide to getting you started on learning a new language, so until you’ve laid down a foundation stable enough to launch off from to new heights of linguistic proficiency, you can cut the Herculean task down to size. Though it’ll surely be a while before you read any ancient classics, here are some tried and tested ways to learn to actually communicate. As you know, time is of the essence. So proceed with caution and good luck.
Immerse Yourself in the Language.
This sounds hopelessly cliched and like a revamped summary of every other ‘How to Learn a Language’ manual out there, but by this immersion, we mean everything and not just trying out cutesy phrases on local friends to receive a pat on the back. Read everything: from the back of a chocolate bar to the labels of cleaners in public toilets. Write everything: from your shopping list to your last will and testament in the goal language. But most importantly…..indulge your ears. Stuff your devices with music, podcasts, and radio dramas in said language. Listening to Greek death growls or Chinese rapping on your commute may not make you a scholar but you’re subconsciously imbibing the language’s grammatical structure, the pronunciation, hundreds of new words and native accents. This will come back to haunt you and give a boost up as you reach higher levels in your education.
Don’t skip online ads.
While those hideous 2 minute short films before YouTube videos do tempt you to rip your own eyes out in frustration, they’re useful insights into the psychology and consumer culture of a new place. Plus, you could always pick up a few new words!
Turn enjoyment into education
Literally anything can be turned into a dictation activity if you’re nerdy *cough* passionate enough. Write down the words in television shows or news reports that you manage to catch and look up their meaning. The same goes for your music: turn each song into a hardcore dictation test! (If you’re looking at this idea with interest, you’re probably in desperate straits).
Use Disney (re: Dubs) to your advantage
Listen to foreign language dubbed versions of your favorite childhood songs and the scenes you know by heart (they can be anything ranging from Disney to Anime) and then work out how the translation has been executed. Has the grammar structure changed? What kind of words have been deemed as appropriate substitutes? Do you see how particles come to life in the new language? Tones, pitches, speeds, styles….rather than watching a completely foreign movie, having a familiar base to compare and contrast your new information with will help you progress faster.
Learn frequently used essentials
This is seems like another painfully obvious fact but it’s shocking how much time is wasted by language students on outdated phrases and intermediate grammar rules. Learning to loudly say “This meal’s on me!” in a local language will make you far more popular wherever you go, over five pages of reading comprehension every morning before work to sound more professional.
Learning systematically works for native speakers or foreigns students who have the luxury of time and teachers to take them through a guided program. For the weathered and battered learner who can only afford to strike gold, word frequency lists are lifesaver. Usually uploaded online by statisticians or other data compilers, these lists of 100/300/1000/10,000 most frequently used words in a language will allow you to sneak into local conversations faster rather than following an artificially structured textbook. Word frequency lists allow you to learn phrases that locals use in their daily life. Matching the letter ‘A’ to ‘And’ and not ‘Apple’ already gives you an edge in carrying out a coherent conversation. How many times do you say ‘Apple’ through the course of your day? As opposed to ‘And’? Work your way up like an adult native: Learn ‘bathroom’, ‘credit card/cash’ , ‘data’, ‘explain’ and ‘forget’ before you encounter ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘dog’, ‘egg’ and ‘fat’.
Social Media
Welcome to the 21st century! With offers for online lessons in your inbox, wannabe teachers on YouTube, printable practice sheets, interpretive phone apps and Google translate just a touch away, it’s almost as if there’s no excuse these days to not be well versed in two, three, four or even five languages.
My personal recommendation is Lang8, a free website where you can type entries in the language you’re learning to have native speakers correct your work, while you earn points and win favour by correcting the linguistic masterpieces of members learning the language(s) you are fluent in. The entries you have corrected can be anything: diary excerpts, homework entries, scripts, personal statements, application essays, reviews or just daily rambles.
Give it a go!
With these resources and our suggestions, you’re set to go out into the world and design your own language course: one that caters to your personal situation, interests and most of all the need to save time. So wherever across the planet you are, grab your study materials and have a great day!