In a year, three months or even a week. This is what many online language learning programs promise you. Of course, those are just promises and in most cases, you will waste not only your money but also a lot of time that could be spent on more effective language learning. What do I mean? Let me show you how to learn languages the right way. And if you´ll follow my instructions you might really be able to master a foreign language in a single year!
Studies show that less than 3% of Americans can get by in the foreign language they studied at school. The majority of students from other countries also report that they can say only a few phrases after years of learning at school.
On the other hand, there are many polyglots, people who speak several languages, who are able to reach fluency in languages, often in less than two years. If you are skeptic, just search for Steve Kauffman, Luca Lampariello or Slovak polyglot Lýdia Machová, who share their progress online. So, the question is, are schools doing something wrong or do polyglots just have language learning superpowers? Do they use some different learning methods or did they simply sell their souls to the devil? Let´s find out.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink
The main reason why the school system of language learning doesn´t work is that students expect their teachers to effortlessly transfer the language into their brains. Teachers, on the other hand, don´t see languages as a skill that needs to be developed but as a bunch of grammatical rules and vocabulary lists that must be memorized.
It´s important to realize, for teachers as well as for students, that it´s much more effective for students to spend time with language on their own. Though conversations and writing in your target language are a great way to practice what you´ve learned, however, if you want to master a language you must realize that nobody else can do that for you, not teachers and certainly not grammar rules and exercises.
So what should I do?
Don´t worry, a better alternative to schools it´s going to come. The thing is, that for some time now, I´ve been closely examining the way how those strange polyglots learn languages, so I could now show you what I found out.
Are you finally prepared to discover the secret to language learning? Okay, here we go… The ultimate polyglots secret of language learning is… (Drum roll please…) Immersion! Wait… What do I mean by that? It´s really simple. Take children as an example. How do they learn their native tongue? Simply by immersing themselves in the language. They don´t learn any grammar rules (they absorb them naturally) nor do they memorize any word lists (they hear the most used words in various contexts all the time). They just spend a lot of time listening to the language, trying to reproduce it. Now, the popular belief that kids are much better at learning languages than adults is just a myth! Adults can learn languages at least as fast as kids. Follow me for clearer instructions.
Make language learning fun!
Before you start learning any language on your own, you must find your inner motivation. Learning a language to impress your friends or because you ´have to´ won´t work in the long run and your motivation will soon disappear. On the contrary, for example, if you want to live in the country where the language is spoken, you found a partner who only speaks the language which you don´t understand or your son has moved to foreign country and refuses to teach your grandchildren the only language you speak (lazy brat!), those are much stronger and longer-lasting sources of motivation.
Why do we need a foreign language? To do the same things we do in our native one! Speak with others, watch movies, listen to music, read books, memes, tweets or whatever. (For example, I learn French on my own, because I want to be able to understand French people, watch many great French movies, TV series and cartoons, listen to great musicians, read original French books, comics and so on.)
The problem is, that to get to this level, we must make little compromises. You can´t start with difficult texts or listenings, because the huge amount of unknown words will successfully discourage you forever. What I propose is to start with beginner comprehensible input. Start with short texts, ideally with audio, and translate them or find their translation. Listen to them a few times, then move forward and don´t worry that you don´t understand everything. Later listen to them again and you will remember much more.
Don´t worry about forgetting the vocabulary, you will see the same words in various contexts until you remember them. Also, don´t forget to increase the difficulty of your materials. The texts should ideally contain about 10% of unknown words. This way you will acquire the most common vocabulary, expressions, and grammar, the natural way without memorizing. Soon, you´ll be able to build upon it and move to more interesting content. Yay!
Here´s a little example of a common daily conversation:
Kevin: The burgers look really good.
Alice: They are! I had them the last time I was here.
Peter: What about the chicken?
Alice: It’s good, but I think the pizza is better. What would you recommend?
Waitperson: I’d recommend the pasta. It’s great!
Alice: That sounds good. I’ll have that.
You can notice that even in this very common dialogue you already have a past tense, present tense, condition, phrases and so on. Does it, therefore, make any sense to learn them all separately one after another as we do in school?! Ugh, you know what, forget it…
Don´t be afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still
Chinese proverb
By now, you might have realized that even in the proper way, language learning takes time. I repeat, language learning takes time! If you want to learn effectively, you must learn every single day. The more time you spend without the language the more you forget, obviously. ´Where am I suppose to find so much time´ you ask? Don´t worry, we all have plenty of time which we don´t use, the most important is to make a habit of language learning. For example, you can listen to audio recordings while making breakfast, read texts while commuting to school or you can also watch videos in a foreign language instead of stalking your ex on Instagram during lunch breaks. Just use the time which you would waste anyway.
To build a habit, start simple. For example, you can wake up a little bit earlier and devote some time to your language every morning. Or, in the evenings set a timer for 25 minutes during which you will only learn your language. The best way to keep your habit is to write down a particular place and time for learning and stick to it. In a while, it will happen automatically and then the time can be slowly increased. Nevertheless, just devote some time to the language every day or as often as possible. The worst thing you can do is to stop.
Okay, now you probably expect me to give you some specific numbers. So how long does it take to learn a language? That´s not so easy to tell… It depends on how similar the language you are learning is to your native one, what is the level you want to reach, your learning methods, etc. Most polyglots agree, that with effective learning methods and the right attitude you will need about 500 hours of learning to reach the conversational level (upper-intermediate) in languages similar to yours. Did this help? Imagine, if you find 2 hours for learning daily you will likely be able to reach a conversational level in less than 2 years. If you spend 10 hours a day learning a language you can do it in two months. Seems fair to me.
Make a choice
For better illustration and to summarize what we´ve already learned, let´s have a little ´real-life´ example. Imagine student A and student B
Student A: Whitney had been learning Spanish at school the wrong way for many years. She struggled with grammar and memorizing words, fortunately, they did not speak in classes very much so the teacher didn´t notice that she couldn´t say a word in Spanish. After school, she tried to learn French, but she used the same wrong language learning methods she was taught in school. Language learning just frustrated her, she didn´t enjoy it at all and she ended up thinking she had no talent for languages.
Student B: Britney never learned a foreign language at school, so after graduation, she decided to learn Spanish. She found some good methods for learning and also a great language tutor. She had lots of fun with Spanish! It did not take long to move from beginner materials to more interesting content. She read poems in Spanish, translated lyrics of her favorite songs and after a year she was able to read original books and watch TV-series in Spanish. Her tutor was very encouraging. They talked about various topics and he also recommended her many great learning resources. Britney learned Spanish fast, but most importantly she fell for language learning. Since then she has learned another three languages! Nowadays, she moves a lot because she likes traveling and she wants to visit many more countries. Even though she graduated with a degree in economics she works as an online language tutor and translator and she just loves it!
So, there you have it. You can be either Whitney or Britney. Just remember that neither your age nor talent decides about your language learning skills, but your methods, attitude, and persistence do.
Just to recap: Find your inner motivation, read and listen to comprehensible materials, move to more authentic content as soon as possible, don´t be frustrated by mistakes, use lots of variation, repetition, and novelty, create your language learning habits (use different time gaps during the day) and have fun! Those are the sacred truths of effective language learning, I hope they might be useful for you. That´s all from me. If you want to learn more about language learning you know what to do… Just google it!