The mandatory Swedish course which is a part of my study program will start this month and I do not feel ready for it. The expected level of language skills for this course is B2 (CEFR) and after studying Swedish for 6 years, I was sure I could manage this. But the thing is, I have not revised Swedish after Sixth Form and when I tried to write simple sentences, I realized that I do not even remember the basics, such as spelling or conjugation rules. This made me think of ways to remember the languages we learn. Of course, regular repetition helps to keep things in mind, but is there a way to make revision of a language a daily routine?
Photo courtesy of Hiroaki Maeda, Flickr
I guess the best way to incorporate language learning in a daily life is to make it easy and fun. According to the Telegraph article our brain learns best when it is relaxed. In a relaxed state we can, for example, learn new words just by listening to them. This works pretty much the same way as learning the names of the characters of our favourite series. The names stick in our mind, because we watch series so many times. Naturally, it would be perfect to find interesting series in a foreign language and watch it daily, but sometimes (depending on the language) it is not that easy. Luckily there are other options as well:
- Add subtitles in the foreign language to your favourite programs, films and games
- Watch news / listen to interesting podcasts in the language you study
- Read translations of your favourite books
- Put sticky notes or signs bearing the word and pronunciation in the foreign language in your house (you can make learning more efficient if you add adjectives or verbs to the words, e.g. ‘white’ + ‘chair’ + ‘sit’)
- Switch the language on your phone or other device that you use daily into the language you study (this might be confusing at first, but rewarding). Before doing this, please make sure you know how to switch the language back.
- Think or write in the foreign language. Language lecturer Alison Fenner advices students to practice as much as possible – one of her tips is to record yourself as you practice speaking your target language.
I have tried to incorporate some of these activities into my daily routine and especially switching the language on my phone turned out to be helpful. One more thing which I recommend combining with any other learning activity: learn one new word in the foreign language each day. One word might not sound like much, but if you repeat this consistently every day, your vocabulary will improve significantly!