7 Steps to Learn a Language in No Time
TLDR: Find your why, use Duolingo, focus on your most used topics, make a spotify playlist in your target language, find friends in that language, attend a course (online/in person), live in the country.
Being multilingual is one of the most sought after skills for a lot of people in the world. It brings forth many benefits: being able to converse with more people in the world, more job opportunities, look cool compared to monolinguals ;-).
This is not an easy or quick endeavour compared to other skills. However, it doesn’t have to take you about 10 years like most people’s perception of language learning.
I would very much compare this skill to going to the gym/body building and achieving your dream body; it takes ages, you’re never ‘truly’ finished, highly rewarding once at a certain level. However, like body building — there are techniques that get you there quicker than the average gym goer.
Why should you take advice from me? — I was monolingual until the age of 19 when I decided to pursue the language of French from scratch. Fast forward 2 and a half years, and I’m in my first proper job interview all in French. I got the job and did my first professional project in Paris, France all in French. Also, I am currently starting my pursuit in learning Finnish, since I have decided recently to stay here longer than I intended.
In this blog, I am going to explain my techniques that got me from zero to working proficiency in a very quick time. I will also be following these steps again myself while I am learning Finnish.
#1 Find your why
Just like any other skill you intend to learn — you really need to find your motivation as to why you are doing this. This is crucial because without this step, the other steps will be useless.
You will have moments during your journey where things will get difficult, you won’t feel like you are progressing / feel like you’re going backwards, and you will want to give up. This ‘why’ should keep you on track like blinkers on a horse. You should refer to this every time you feel like times are getting hard.
Write this down — store it somewhere where you are reminded of your why everyday. Or at the very least make sure that this reason is imprinted in your mind.
For me, I had a few reasons:
- I always wanted to be multilingual. As a Brit, always take a bit of slack from our fellow Europeans that we only speak one language. I traveled quite a bit when I was young around Europe and always found the concept of switching languages pretty damn cool. The James Bond lifestyle, being able to speak languages across Europe is my ideal goal.
- I loved the French speaking Countries that I visited: France and Belgium. For me, my favourite city (even still to this day) is Lyon, France. So, this was a big motivator for me to learn French, if one day I live there in the future again.
- I have a very close friend from when I was in University who was Belge and spoke French. Being able to speak French in England was awesome — switching to French when we wanted to have a secret conversation in public. It is honestly such a cool feeling.
These were my reasons — these might not work for you. Other reasons from other people I have met: meeting a partner in that language, retiring in the Country, job reasons.
Regardless, find yours and make it strong.
#2 Use Duolingo
I honestly cannot believe how this tool exists and it is still free. For those that don’t know, Duolingo is an online application (mobile and browser), that teaches you phrases and vocabulary in your target language. There is a tree of topics that you work on by doing translation exercises to get to the next level. The goal is to finish the tree and ideally keep a daily streak as high as you can.
It only takes a minimum of 5 minutes a day to do (I usually do more) but it is a good way to keep your mind active on learning the language every day.
It is best to use the browser version on your computer to get the quickest results. Typing on a keyboard is much faster and I have found that there are no limits on the browser version in comparison to the mobile app version.
I used this for French and it got me really far in terms of vocabulary and grammar. I completed the tree from 0 to the end in about 2 to 3 weeks — this was back in University when I had so much time on my hands. But, I do recommend trying to complete the tree as fast as you can to get the most exposure to the language as possible.
#3 Focus on your most used topics
Every day, you most likely use a bank of about 150 common words. Start off by learning these following phrases by heart in your target language:
- Hey, how’s it going?
- I’m good thanks, and you?
- What you up to? What have you been up to?
- I went to…
- I did…
- I am going to…
- I like / I don’t like
- I think / I don’t think
- I don’t know
- See you / Bye
Obviously there are more common phrases that you need, but these that I have listed in this blog are by far the most used words in day to day life. This will get you far enough in a conversation with a friend that you brush by on the street and don’t have enough time to go into deep conversation.
But, this is enough to give you confidence that you speak the language good enough along with a foundation conversation to build on every day that you speak to someone in that language.
After this, learn the vocabulary that fits your lifestyle, hobbies, and work, along with past, present, future verbs. Then, just keep building on top of your most common used words every single day.
#4 Make a Spotify Playlist
Music is a great way to enhance your competence in the language. Not only do you get to listen to great music in that language, but you indirectly take in the intonations, dialect, and nuances of the language. It is much better (for me anyway), to listen to music rather than a boring audiobook teaching you the language.
Find particularly the genre you like and put all of this in a playlist in your Spotify account. When you find a song you really like in that language, go on a website called Genius to find the lyrics of that song. You can then translate it and listen to the song over and over again to learn the meaning.
I’ll put my playlists for the languages I have been learning below:
#5 Find friends in that language
This is the step where your proficiency in your language will climb to new heights. Having a friend who speaks that language will give you access to, not only a great friendship, but free trainings, cultural references, even more friends in that language.
I was lucky, I had a friend in University who was Belge and spoke French. I made him only speak to me in French and even though it was painful for the first 1 or 2 months, it really helped me out a lot.
For those that aren’t that lucky, there are other ways to find friends in that language. Here are my ways:
- Go to Facebook, and type in your nearest city and put the target language into the search bar and filter for groups.
- Download the app MeetUp and search for meetups for people from the Country of your target language.
- Search Google for Discord servers for learners in your target language.
#6 Attend a course (online / in person)
This is the first step in my list where it might cost you some money to do. Attending courses in your target language are pretty useful — especially the in person ones.
Check your nearest city for any courses and see how much they are. They are a great way to meet friends who are doing the same thing as you and you will have a teacher there that will be able to correct you and make you learn much quicker than doing it yourself most of the time.
If you are lucky enough to be in a position to afford to do so, do try to do a course abroad in a Country that speaks your target language. It is such a challenge, yet so much fun. You are forced to speak the language outside of class and in the class.
If you are not yet lucky enough to be able to go to the Country to study there, you can find online courses through places like Instagram and Youtube (Do make sure they are reputable though). A friend of mine recently set up an online community for Spanish speakers to learn French and it is super useful for those learning the language in the more youthful audience. Checkout Instagram for target language courses too for your specific audience.
#7 Live in the Country
My final piece of advice is by far the most difficult / most expensive — yet most effective. Immersion is by far the most effective technique when it comes to language learning. There is not a better way to get immersed in the target language than living in the country itself.
There are 2 main ways that you can live in the target country:
- Study: You can find intensive courses online through universities in the target Country. These are relatively expensive, but are definitely worth the money through the experiences you get and the knowledge from the courses.
- Work: You can find work here through hostels or other field jobs where they need foreigners to work there. If you have a niche skill like coding, this would be even easier for you.
I have done both of these in 3 different countries and by far, studying is the easier and quicker option to get the language pinned down, but more expensive. When you are working (especially if your work is in English), it is very exhausting to add language learning on top of your daily schedule, but financially you are much better off in the long run.
My Turn
These were my 7 steps that got me proficient in the French language — but years have passed since I achieved my goal of working in the target country.
Now, it is my turn to lead by example. I am now in Finland, and I am pursuing a new goal of learning the language Finnish. It is a much more difficult language than French (relatively for a Brit anyway), so I will put my techniques to the test.
If you feel like following my journey, I am going to make a vlog on YouTube to track my progress — something that I wish I did with my French — then check out my video below.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_4Vvd3U1EDzuD9swBa95Hh3ftiC0ej0R
I am going to keep them unlisted for now until I have the confidence to make them public.
But anyway, I hope that these tips help you out on your journey. I certainly hope they help future me out too in my quest for Finnish proficiency too!
