How to be fluent in any language!
Learning a second language as adults is a challenge we decided to take on board. It does not matter what the reason behind is the challenge is always there.
Speaking, listening and reading are the 3 pillars to keep you learning, practicing and improving your skills if you are at an advanced level. However, if you are still at the very early stages you still can put them into practice to start training your brain.
1. Get out of your comfort zone: if you are aiming to have those skills forever and become fluent you have to be constant, you have to keep practicing, you have to try to find different Meetups, Facebook groups, activities and/or local places where you can put yourself out of your comfort zone to put your skills into practice. After taking proper lessons — self-learning is a great way to ensure those skills do not disappear with time — however, if you are looking to speak like a native I recommend you to start looking for a way to constantly speak the language. Don’t be shy! You are trying to become fluent in a language and only practice can help you to do that.
2. Train your listening: if you are in your native speaking country — most likely you do not have many native speakers to practice with. So listening to 1 hr. of news and music per week is a fantastic way to start getting used to the language you are trying to learn. 30 minutes of news and 30 minutes of music per week is the perfect combination to keep you going. I can assure you within 3 to 6 months your brain will be quite comfortable listening to the language, will be recognising most of the words and understanding most of the context.
There are great applications out there such as Tune In radio where you can listen to a bunch of radio stations all across the globe and with Spotify you can listen to any type of music — all thanks to the Internet. So go on! Get them on your smartphone and start listening! Another fantastic way to practice your listening is by watching movies and/or TV shows in the language you are learning. Check out Netflix audio options when watching your favourite TV show or movie. You will be surprised by the variety of languages they provide.
3. Read, read, read: it might sound obvious but reading is the third pillar to help you improve and maintain your skills. Start with a children’s book, then move onto a book of a movie that you have already read or seen in your language, try to read something fun first otherwise you might find it too difficult to finish it or you will find yourself stopping every two pages to look for new vocabulary to be able to understand. It needs to be fun not frustrating! In Amazon you can find tones of books in different languages. Ask Google for fun children’s books in Spanish or your desire language — find the title in Spanish, then go and get it and happy reading!
Practice makes perfect!
