4 Tips To Start Speaking a Foreign Language
How much time does it take to learn a language that is completely new for you? How much does it take to speak a foreign language if your vocabulary is rather weak?
These questions are tricky to answer for two reasons. First, it is sometimes slightly complicated to perform perfectly in your mother tongue, because speaking is not only about the information itself, but rather about the ability to deliver it to the listener. Second, the process of learning a foreign language (as well as anything else) is not linear, which means that following the course book will not make you know a language and, what is more, speak fluently.
But don’t trust me, trust professional polyglots!
So what does fluent mean by itself? The Oxford dictionary defines that the word fluent means “able to express oneself easily and articulately”. I would slightly transform it to the ability to deliver information to your listener with no misunderstandings or frustration. Some grammar mistakes are not the point as long as you are understandable. Thus, it is important to speak in your target language from the very first day of studies. But don’t trust me, trust professional polyglots! And here we are with a few tips and tricks from people who know more than 5 foreign languages, who teach languages as professional coaches, who know the fastest and most efficient ways to learn something new.
1. If you want to speak, you need to speak. Yes, simple as that.
- But I know too little! I will make a lot of mistakes! I will sound stupid!
There is a famous TEDx talk of an Irish polyglot and the founder of the Fluent in 3 Months coached course Benny Lewis. By the age of twenty-one, Benny was able to speak English only and he had already decided that he didn’t have that magical “language gene”. But the situation tremendously changed when Benny decided to rethink his approach to language learning. Today he is fluent in seven languages and can speak without struggling four more. And here’s his conclusion — if you want to speak, you need to speak.
Only when you speak, you can detect what grammar and vocabulary you are missing.
Yes, no special pill, unfortunately. This may seem obvious but in fact, many people are afraid to have conversations with native speakers because of the fear of rejection. They are afraid to look stupid when they make grammar mistakes or when they are missing vocabulary and so on. But the real thing is that native speakers don’t really care if you make mistakes when you speak. Most people will be delighted that you are eager to learn their language. This compliments people a lot! There are many sources for the language exchange in case you don’t have friends who speak your target language. Here is a great list of such sources. Furthermore, only when you speak, you can detect what grammar and vocabulary you are missing. And then you can practice this first! Here we come to the second point.
2. Learn important stuff first.
- But I have a course book to follow… How do I know what is important and what is not?
By this I mean to start with what you can apply in a real conversation. If you want to progress quickly, don’t mess your brain up with complicated grammar rules and all the exceptions at first. Start with the crucial basics so that you can speak from the beginning. A founder of The First 20 Hours systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition Josh Kaufman outlines 4 easy to apply tips on how to learn more in the least amount of time possible in his TEDx talk. So let’s take a look:
- Deconstruct the skill. Anything you learn is just a group of skills. Decide on your main goal and then start learning those things that will help you reach this goal fast.
- Learn enough to self-correct. Don’t let yourself sink in books and grammar rules. Learn something and then apply your knowledge in a conversation with a native speaker. Practice should go side by side with theoretical learning.
- Avoid all the distractions. Switch off everything that keeps you away from learning. Concentrate on your studies then.
- Practice at least 20 hours. Of course, this means 20 hours in total, not in one or two days. 30 min of practice every day is affordable for everyone, no matter how busy you are.
So you want to tell your friend about your plans for the weekend? Look at the principles of the future tense. Practice it. Go further. You want to ask about the price in a store? Look at the question sentence structure. Practice it. Go further.
The great thing about speaking is that it lets you recognize grammar and vocabulary blanks you have so that you can fill them later.
Regarding the vocabulary, I would highly recommend to find some lists of top 500–1000 common words by frequency and learn them first. Here is an example of such in German. There are lots of pronouns, linking words, adverbs there. It may not be that easy to remember them all, but at the end of the day, you’ll see how these words help you express your thought smoothly every time you speak.
3. Pronunciation does matter.
- But I’m not a native speaker. There are not even such sounds in my own language.
One more person I want to tell you about is Idahosa Ness, a guy who speaks fluently in five languages with no accent. Idahosa is the founder of a so-called The Mimic Method approach. He emphasizes that language is not only about a group of words and grammar rules, but also sound — Rhythm, Intonation, and Phonemes. Therefore, learning from the written word is a huge mistake of beginners.
Let’s take a look at the phrase “What are you doing?” A native speaker would understand it if a learner pronounces every word clearly. But the issue is that when we speak words turn into the group of syllables, not words. Thus, this very phrase may turn into “Whatcha doin’?” when the native speaker speaks. Here some struggling with understanding may show up.
To learn how the language sounds, Idahosa listens to the music in a slow motion. He tries to understand the real sound of the phrase, of the group of words, not of the separate ones. Then he recalls this sound by himself. I would highly recommend you to check his YouTube channel as well. Since I’m learning German currently, I can show you the example of his coaching on this video.
4. Stay motivated.
I was about to write only three steps first. Anyway, as a languages learning geek, I understand how complicated it is to stay on track. There’s always so much happening around and duties are likely to eat your free time as well as yourself. I would outline two important things that helped me stay motivated:
- First, make your progress be accountable. Set a very specific goal (e.g. to be able to speak with a native speaker in three months; to pass the language test by the end of the summer etc.) and then create a progress tracker to control your studies. I would also advise you to take free available online language tests once a month in order to see where you are in your learning.
- Second, share your progress with the bigger community. This does work, trust me! Here is an example of my personal experience. I decided to participate in the Add1Challenge, the community of people addicted to language learning. One of the tasks was to upload the video where I speak my target language once a month (Day 0, Day 30, Day 60 and Day 90). Here you can see my progress after the first month of learning.
Learning languages can be fun, but it is also about the strict discipline. So keep your fun and work life balanced and enjoy the process! Good luck!
