5 Steps To Learn Any Language From Zero To Fluency
Without any talent, I learned a new language. More than improving your language skills — improve your life.
“Terry and Sam was realy happened.”
“A palast is a home for the Quin.”
Three years ago, these were my English skills. Ouch. My mother tongue is German, and I had nearly given up the English language. I tried to learn it in school, but my teachers only gave me the worst grades (well-deserved). You probably learned a language in school as well. When you start learning now, please don’t use the school’s methods. In my free time, I discovered better ways than trying to memorize every single vocabulary and studying all the signal words for a tense.
While reading my post, you might recognize that my English isn’t as accurate as someone else’s. I still fail. That’s also your first lesson: You will make mistakes — and you will learn from them. And after failing and learning consistently, you will arrive at a point where you don’t have to think about the grammar anymore. The sentences will flow out of your mouth without thoughts.
The following steps will bring you to this point just like they brought me to step four. (Don’t expect magic tricks: Learning a new skill never happens overnight.)
1. The Basics
If you already started the learning process, jump to step two. If you want to learn a language from the beginning, start here.
With basics I mean:
- Vocabulary; Step one (I, my, be, do, …)
- Vocabulary; Step two (house, car, friend, age, …)
- How to build a sentence; Step one (subject-verb-object → My name is Lena Wells.)
Without this, reading an easy book or using the language creatively isn’t possible. Luckily, this step can be much more fun than crouching over a vocabulary list. I highly recommend learning with an app because they’re very comfortable to use. You can organize your learning time flexible, and many apps are great for further steps as well.
There are dozens of apps to choose from. A popular one is Babbel. Babbel teaches 14 languages like Dutch, German, and Indonesian, and has many different courses to offer. You have to pay for it, but it’s not too expensive.
A good, free app would be Duolingo. They offer more languages (35) from Latin American Spanish, to Japanese, over to Game of Thrones constructed language High Valyrian. I use Duolingo at the moment to learn the basics of France, and it’s honestly helpful.
Besides the app, daily practice is important. Repeat the basic words and take yourself at least ten minutes per day for training. It can also be helpful to write down what you learned in the session. If you struggle with motivating yourself, a fixed time is useful. For that, educational courses are a great opportunity and, on top of that, you might win new friends.
2. Understand Simple Sentences
More than 170.000 words are part of the current English language. As an English learner, it would be completely ineffective to start with “A” and end with all the “Z” words.
So, after learning the basics, set a focus. Pick one interest of yours, painting, for example, and learn vocabulary regarding this topic. Use Google to search for words around “painting,” collect them and build simple sentences with it like: “I love to paint my pictures with red color.”
At the same time, start watching short YouTube Videos or read little articles regarding your topic in the new language. “How to draw with a pencil,” would be a good video. Turn on the subtitles and watch it slower if you have to. After watching, leave a comment. You can ignore tenses. They aren’t relevant yet.
Repeat this process with two more topics of your choice.
With this method, you will learn the words that truly matter to you, improve the skill of building a sentence and get better in a craft of your interest. In addition, the app you used during step one can be useful to keep a routine in the learning process, but it’s no a must-have.
In step two you will learn:
- Vocabulary; Step three (specific interests of yours)
- How to build a sentence; Step two (understand and build more complex sentences)
- Pronunciation; Step one (for the basic words)
3. Feel It
The first two steps only exist to bring you to this point.
This is where the fun begins! At the same time, it’s the most significant step, and the one that school misses to teach. It decides whether you will become an eloquent speaker.
“Feel it” is comparable to a child learning his mother tongue. At first, the child listens and then copies. The kid understands the meaning of the words, connects them, and tries to use them. Listening and trying is also what a language learner should work on after studying the base.
Instead of translating the new language in your head constantly, you will understand it within an instant.
What I recommend is to switch the language of your thoughts — for an hour per day during showering or cooking, for example. This is the best and most flexible training. Also, when you are like me and talk to yourself sometimes, switch the language here too. This method is most valuable for everyone who misses a learning partner to communicate with in the new language. Speaking is fundamental, so talk to yourself. This doesn’t replace a conversation with a native. Look out for a chat platform, because only a “mentor” can rectify your mistakes.
Besides talking, focus on listening. Which movie did you watch five times and know by heart? Watch it in the new language! And after that movie, move on to another one which you don’t know as well. Turn on the subtitles and switch the language. Or maybe there is a lovely series in your language of choice. Watch it concentrated, and enjoy! This step was so entertaining to me, and on top of that, I learned more about the foreign culture.
Four additional ways to earn the feeling are:
- Read (Start slow with, e.g., block entries)
- Follow social media accounts in the other language
- Change your phone’s language
- Travel/language trip
Getting a feeling will take longer than step one and two. Give your brain time until you expect results.
In detail, you learn:
- Vocabulary; Step four (a basis for every topic)
- How to build a sentence; Step three (specific types of sentences; building them without further thinking)
- Pronunciation; Step two (learn difficulties and specialties)
- Tense; Step one (basic past, present and future tenses)
- Proverbs
→ Have a normal conversation
4. Improve
“Use the past perfect progressive” is what countless exercises in my English lesson requested. I still don’t know how to build it, but I do use it.
What seems like a contradiction is explained in two words: I talk.
Whether I talk in German or English, I simply speak the way it makes sense in my head. Using different tenses out of your previous earned feeling is what you will learn during this step.
At this very moment, I write, which is one of the best techniques to improve one’s language skills. By publishing my writing, I do it in a pretty drastic way with a high risk of failure. Step 4 doesn’t require publishing. Do you have a diary? Do you write to-do or shopping lists? Use the new language for it. This will offer you a new perspective when it comes to, for example, commas — or, maybe, you even need different characters?
Moreover, writing shows you your weaknesses. That’s great! Because these are the things you have to learn more about, and for that, Google is your friend. Ask Google for elegant synonyms, use the translater, read about grammar and so on. Also, when you move on to this step, don’t stop watching movies and reading books. It will still help you!
When you haven’t won any native speakers as friends yet, this is the point to go for it. I remember that when I talked to someone with my newly earned English skills, I was pretty shy. I had this fear: I start talking and suddenly receive this confused look from the other person, like “WTF, that’s not real English you’re using.” Sometimes, I still have to overcome this fear. It only leaves by stepping out of the comfort zone. Prove yourself. Prove to yourself that you can talk. Gain confidence. You learned a language, damn! That’s awesome!
Step four teaches you:
- How to build a sentence; Step four (Exceptions; Commas etc.)
- Tense; Step two (Complex tenses)
- Slang & accurate pronunciation
5. Enjoy - The Step That Stays For Your Entire Life
This step is the reason for pushing through the long process and the hard work. The joy and privilege of a new language. Communication is the key to a new culture and to individuals that are excited to meet you. With a language, new paths, and chances, wait to get discovered.
Congrats: You went from zero to fluency!
If I hadn’t started watching Netflix on English, I wouldn’t be able to write this right now. My life wouldn’t be the way it is — it wouldn’t be as good.
You don’t achieve step five overnight. It takes years of practice. I would classify myself as a step four English speaker, and even this took me a long time. Learning a new language is work, but it’s also one of the funniest crafts to learn. It’s filled with failures, but every failure is followed by the next success.
