containslanguage:

The secret is that there is no secret. Just putting in the time, and getting lots of exposure to your target language. That said, getting exposure might seem intimidating if you don’t know how. But don’t worry, it’s actually super easy! Here we go…

How to Learn a Language, from someone who has been submerged in language-learning theory for years, has heard straight from the mouths of the world’s most accomplished polyglots how they did it, and has absolutely zilch interest in any personal financial gain from sharing this knowledge:

1. DO NOT USE ROSETTA STONE.

2. Use Assimil, if you really want to spend some money. Bonus: it costs about a quarter as much as Rosetta Stone. But you don’t actually need to spend any money to successfully learn a language! Just keep reading…

3. Find musicians who sing in your target language. Download their songs and put them on your mp3 player of choice. Get obsessed with them. Sing along even (especially!) when you don’t know the words and are just making sounds that vaguely resemble what the singer is saying. This part is not a joke: I am 100% serious about this.

4. If you like TV, watch a show in your target language with no subtitles. No cheating allowed. Turn off those subtitles. Make it a game: watch an episode and then summarize what you think the story line was. Then go look up an episode recap online and see how much you got right.

5. Think of it as learning what a speaker of your target language would say in a certain situation, instead of learning how to translate what YOU would say in that situation. For instance, to ask how things are, an English-speaking person sometimes says “How are you?” whereas a French-speaking person says “How is it going?” or even “How are YOU going?” Don’t try to ignore this weirdness – embrace it! Laugh at it, savor it. Get used to saying new and different things in the same old situations, and memorization will suddenly become a LOT easier.

6. When you talk, imagine that you’re mocking somebody – not necessarily in a mean way, but just doing an impression of them, poking gentle fun at the way they talk. If the person you’re imitating is a native speaker of your target language, your accent will instantly become miles better.

7. Read texts from day one. Don’t worry about “difficulty levels”. Pick up the hardest novel ever written in your target language! Open it right up with no fear and play a game called “How many words on each page do I already understand, or can I guess the meaning of?” Give yourself a reward (chocolate, a drink, a mini dance party in your room) for every full page you can get through in this way, regardless of whether any of your guesses were actually right!

8. I was gonna try to make this a ten-item list, but honestly there’s not much else you need to know. It doesn’t really matter what core resource you use (Assimil, FSI, Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Living Language, Linguaphone…) as long as it’s not Rosetta Stone. What matters, much more than the core resource you use, is the amount of exposure you can get to your target language – the padding to fill in all the cracks in your day when you’re not doing worksheets or translation exercises or whatever. That’s what this post is sneakily all about.

The secret-that’s-not-a-secret is regularity: do a couple of the items on this list every day without fail, even if it’s only for ten minutes, and after six months you will be kicking butt. I promise you that.

Reblogging this to point out that I have now made item 1 into a link. If you were wondering about that particular piece of advice, check it out!

And remember: any method that works for YOU can be worth doing. We all learn in different ways. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that more money = more quality. That may be true for many things in life, but not for language-learning!

Tips from a language major:

•When learning new vocabulary write the meaning in your language once and the new word at least three times

•If you are learning a new writing style (I.e. Hanzi, kanji, Sanskrit, etc.) write the character at least three times, the meaning and the pronunciation once.
-do not write the pronunciation above the character, write it to the side, otherwise you won’t even try to read it.
-Learn! Stroke! Order!

•when reviewing vocab try to use the word in a sentence.

•do not pay attention to the technicalities of the grammar. Do not attempt to compare it to your own language. This will seriously mess you up for 80 years. Just pay attention to the sentence structure and make similar sentences.

•if you are learning a tonal language (I.e Chinese) or language that has sounds that don’t exist in your language watch videos of people pronouncing things and try to match their mouth movements.

•if all else fails on your tones just speak quickly.

•watch TV shows in that language and yes watch them with subtitles. But please be aware that may not be how people speak in real life (I’m looking at you, Japanese/Chinese/Korean learners)

•DO NOT BE AFRIAD TO MAKE MISTAKES of you mess up during a sentence just correct yourself and keep going.

•flash cards, flash cards, flash cards. Real and digital.

•spend at least an hour a day on it (OUTSIDE of class), if you’re trying to learn on your own you’re gonna need more time.

•talk to yourself in that language, take notes in it, set your phone to it. You probably look crazy but that is a-ok.

•listen to music in that language, while it probably won’t do much for your ability in the beginning it will help you distinguish sounds once you get pretty good.

•and lastly, don’t give up. It took you like ten years to grasp your own language it’s gonna take awhile to grasp another.

-How I learned 2 ½ languages at once.

language4life:

bonjourfrench:

pencilpacksandyummysnacks:

Learning a new language can be…difficult. Actually, at times, that’s an understatement. I’ve compiled a list of the best apps and websites I’ve found, including a few specifically for French.

• Duolingo

This is one of the most well know websites/apps for langauge learning. It’s great for basics and beginning grammar. It can also be fun because you can earn points to buy extra lessons like flirting!

◦ Busuu

Another well known vocabulary learning resource, Busuu is great because you can learn in order of A1, A2, B1, B2. I prefer Busuu over Duolingo mainly for that reason. Busuu has tons of super useful everyday vocabulary, and also phrases are taught, which can be a lot better than singular words.

• Fluentu

Fluentu is an app where you can view videos in your target language with subtitles. They are divided by level which makes it really easy!

◦ Memrise

Memrise is by far one of my favorite apps to use for language. It has many different decks of words/phrases, and each word/phrase comes up at certain times to make sure you remember them. My favorite is the conjugations! Conjugations has been the hardest thing for me with my french, and this app has helped make it so much easier for me.

• Podcasts (Apple app)

This is a basic app, and it’s not really specific to language learning, but listening to podcasts is so helpful when it comes to listening comprehension. My favorite for french is News in Slow French, One Thing In A French Day, and CoffeeBreak French.

◦ HelloTalk

I LOVE HelloTalk! It’s a really clean app that allows you to speak with people learning a language you know that, if you want, also knows your target language. It has so many helpful tools like in-app translation and you can also set up a language exchange where you text in the first language for a certain amount of words, then the other, you actually speak in the first language, and then the second. I’ve met so many awesome people from France to Belgium to Canada to Morocco!

• Linqapp

I use this app a little less, but I still like it. It’s mainly for asking questions about the language you need help with. You can make sure something you wrote is correct and native sounding, or have someone help you translate a phrase! People respond super quickly on here.

◦ Brainscape

This app isn’t specifically for language, and the company actually has some apps for specific languages, but it’s really great. It’s very similar to Memrise, except you can create as many decks as you want.

Websites and Apps Specifically for French

• Learn French- Verbs

This is actually one of the apps specifically for language that Brainscape has made. It’s just like brainscape but it has preloaded cards for each verb tense and key french verbs.

◦ Bescherelle

Bescherelle is a website, but I went onto Safari and added it onto my home screen so it was easily accessible. I love using this app for whenver I need to know the conjugation for a verb and I can’t remember! Usually translators suck when it comes to conjugation, so this is really helpful.

• Frenchcrazy.com and frenchtogether.com

Frenchcrazy and frenchtogether.com are sites that feauture great tips and immersion blog posts! They are typically pretty funny and get me in the mood to study my french.

That’s all I have for now! I hope these apps can help you with your language studies. -Hailey

Some great language learning apps and resources.

yES now I can do more than Duolingo

**people staring at me because i love languages too much**

Because, who doesn’t need this?