Today’s language learners have various opportunities for learning that aren’t limited to a conventional classroom environment. For those with full-time careers and busy lives, finding time to learn a foreign language outside of the home can be challenging. When you study a language at home, you can build an instruction schedule that works for you, and you can practice whenever it is most comfortable for you.
You can improve your listening skills, supercharge your brain’s language centers, and maybe even open yourself up to new career, travel opportunities or moving abroad while you master a new language, keep the following 10 tips in mind to help you create a learning dynamic at home that supports your learning style.
1. Hire a Tutor.
When learning a foreign language, you might eventually come across a stumbling block or a sequence of obstacles. Don’t give up! Consult local universities to hire a language teacher. This step is beneficial if you’ve never learned a foreign language before or want to keep on track and pick up pace as you progress from beginner to advanced levels of learning.
2. Take on an Online Course.
Individuals who wish to study in a more-or-less conventional setting should consider formal teaching. Try this tried-and-true learning path if you’re worried that independent research won’t suit your learning style. A standardized course includes highly organized lesson schedules, deadlines for assignments, and simulated contact with an instructor and classmates.
3. Immerse Yourself into the Culture
Learning a language can be tedious sometimes, especially if you’re having trouble with tenses or complicated sentence structures. Immerse yourself in the language’s culture and keep your drive to learn going. If you want to learn Spanish, take your best friend to a traditional Mexican restaurant that can help you practicing your language and maybe interacting with native Spanish speakers.
4. Using Flashcards
Flashcards succeed for kids and can continue to work for you. If you have children, enlist their assistance by having them quiz you on Russian verbs after you have quizzed them on multiplication information. There are flashcard apps available for about every language you choose to understand.
5. Find a Language Partner
Encourage your best friend, spouse, family, or partner to join you in learning a new language. When you study with a partner, you can keep each other focused and study at each other’s homes. Of course, you’ll want to meet someone as excited about studying Russian or Portuguese as you are, so choose your language study partner carefully.
6. Listen to It!
Many language students argue that classroom and smartphone models are too formal and not representative of the kind of language spoken on the streets of Brazil or Italy. Use your smartphone to locate native language speakers, such as by viewing and listening to YouTube videos. This step is instrumental if you want to visit the country where you’re learning the language, also by watching movies or tv series in the language you are trying to learn with subtitles, it’s a helpful way to listen to it, and get used to the pronunciation.
7. Use an Online Dictionary
It can be easier to remember aspects of a language by understanding words in context, but dictionaries include the grammatical specifics of the new expression. Yes, the context can provide meaning, but the dictionary provides the nitty-gritty details – is it feminine, is it a noun, may it be a verb, and so on. When learning in context, this is minimal but works when getting to know the correct use and meaning of the words you’ve been learning.
8. Learn from Music.
Since the lyrics of songs are usually composed of informal phrases and terms that we don’t usually acquire while learning a language, listening to music helps us properly assimilate the grammar and enrich our vocabulary. Memorization is aided when listening to songs. Scientists say that singing new words helps people recall them. Can you recall how you learned the alphabet when you were younger?
9. Work on Your Pronunciation.
It’s not only a matter of looking nice and impressing people when you speak a language with a good accent; it affects how you listen to the language and how people speak to you. Learning proper pronunciation early on also means you won’t waste years developing poor pronunciation patterns to attempt to unlearn them later – a difficult task when your tongue has wrongly pronouncing words hundreds of times.
10. Have Fun with It!
Far from being a distraction, incorporating fun into your language studies is an effective learning tool. You can relax and participate entirely in the learning process if you do activities you like. According to studies, having a calm and satisfied mind aids one in learning more efficiently. Fun activities can help you improve, and they encourage you to calm down and do the work in the first place. And perhaps the most significant element in language learning is an inspiration.
Learning a foreign language improves your life in many ways while still giving you a marketable talent. You’ll develop new communication skills, keep your brain agile, and even find new authors and artists to read and admire while you experience them in your studies as you learn a foreign language. You’ll be fluent in the language of your choice in no time, and who knows where you’ll end up.
Guest post by Tamara Segal, Content Marketing, Porch.com.