Since the summer break is here, why not take the opportunity to learn a new language?

Learning a new language can bring us marvelous benefits. Picking up a new lingo can improve our memory, problem-solving ability, concentration, multitasking ability and listening skills. It can allow us to make new friends of other cultures and nationalities, as well as advance our education and career. In fact, just by picking up an additional language, you prime your brain to learn even more languages! Some studies have even shown that you make better decisions in a language other than your primary one.

Beginning to learn a language from scratch all over again sounds like a daunting task, especially since we’re likely imperfect in the languages we already know. But, you’re not aiming to ace a new language until perfection or become the best in the world. When studying a different tongue, your goal should be something achievable— being able to hold a 20-minute conversation is something you can strive for. How can you get there? Here are a few tips to get you started.

Be Consistent and Persevere

If you want to be good at something, you need to practice, practice, practice. Learning a language requires a large amount of effort on your part. Even if you are pressured by strict teachers or the Duolingo owl, nobody can push us to put in the work but ourselves. It’s best to practice a language every single day. Schedule a reminder on your phone. It doesn’t need to be a long study session; on busy days, you can just look over flashcards for five minutes to improve memory retention.

When picking up any new skill, you will undoubtedly face challenges, obstacles and distractions that may discourage you to give up on your journey. That’s life. It’s natural to face hopelessness or dejection when learning a language, but the important thing is to never quit at it. One way is to record milestones and track your progress. You can log the number of new words you learnt per week or record a video of you speaking in the language fortnightly. Look back on how much you have grown and improved in fluency and vocabulary. It would definitely give you a motivation boost!

Find Fun Ways To Learn

Reading textbooks is one way to learn languages, but have you considered better ways to help you achieve language mastery? The textbook pages may not equip you with the real-life conversational practice that you need. Think about it: if you’ve ever checked out an English textbook in a foreign country, would it really be useful in daily life?

You can start by listening to people speak the language you want to learn. Watch films in that language with English subtitles, before watching your favorite English shows with dubbing in the language. Viewing content made in another language also exposes you to new cultures. Read written articles with English translations. Listen to songs sung in that language and find podcasts that can help you learn new words. Gamify the process to make it competitive and engaging. Duolingo, which I enjoy using, is a popular example. I receive an email reminder to continue my practice streak at 7 am every morning, so that’s one of the first tasks that I complete every day. My streak has never been broken ever since I have started using it.

Make Real Connections

If you can’t actually understand a native speaker of the language you are trying to learn, all your efforts would be a waste. Hands-on experience is a great way to improve your language ability. Although during the pandemic travel might not be an option, technology allows us to connect with people across the globe. Finding study buddies who speak the language is easy with social media and chat apps. Sign up or volunteer for programs teaching language. Not only can you make new friends, but you can also expand your horizons and learn about someone else’s way of life.

For the nitty-gritty practice, you can rely on accountability partners to keep you motivated. These can be any friends who are also learning a new language or skill. You can use Duolingo to “compete” with your friends on the buddy leader-board or simply remind each other through text to finish our task for the day.

Good luck on your language learning journey!