How to Learn a Foreign Language Quickly
by Amanda Johnson, Employee Motivation Consultant for ClickHelp.com — professional technical writing tool
Nowadays, technical documentation is translated all over the world. And it’s useful for technical writers to know at least one foreign language. It raises their chances to take part in interesting projects. But how to learn a foreign language if we work so hard and get tired after office hours? I have some techniques and resources for you that will ease your learning.
Techniques
Use the Internet Wisely
Nowadays, there are a great number of opportunities to learn a foreign language thanks to the Internet. For example, you can find some relevant groups on Facebook. If you want to learn French, just type in Facebook search “learn French” and choose a group that you like. You’ll find there not only books but lists of useful phrases and jokes, audio files and vlogs that will make your learning more enjoyable.
We used to boring books that made learning so hateful. Moreover, books may contain old phrases that are not in use anymore because any language is a dynamic and ever-changing system because of the globalization. Nowadays, you can make your learning process more exciting — just open a website with foreign memes and translate them. It will help you get acquainted with the modern language and slang.
Watch and Listen
In order to immerse yourself in a language, do all activities that you normally do using your native tongue. Here is what I mean — watch videos and films, listen to music and podcasts, etc. For the first time, you can use subtitles, but the problem is you will get used to rely on them but there are no subtitles in the real life ;)
The best way to study the basics of a language is to watch cartoons — their vocabulary is easy to understand, and the visual content will help you learn new words faster.
Using different devices is a part of your daily routine. So, change language settings that you can pick up words you’ve already known in English but not in a new language.
Study a Language Every Day
To know a language well, you need to study every day because if you want to learn it in a short period of time, you have to repeat new vocabulary and grammar rules over and over again. For some people to have individual lessons with a tutor may be too expensive. So, study by yourself, you can do it anywhere — during your lunch or on the way home. Further you’ll find some apps where you can get information in a game format.
Resources
Anki
Anki is a program which makes remembering things easier. Because it’s a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.
Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless.
Price:
- For laptop: it’s free for Window, Mac and Linux
- For mobile: it’s free for android and 25$ on IO. Use Ankiweb for free if you can not afford in IOS.
Duolingo
Everyone learns in different ways. For the first time in history, Duolingo team can analyze how millions of people learn at once to create the most effective educational system possible and tailor it to each student.
Their ultimate goal is to give everyone access to a private tutor experience through technology. It’s hard to stay motivated when learning online, so Duolingo team made it so fun that people would prefer picking up new skills over playing a game.
Price:
- For laptop: free
- For mobile: free
- But you can get Duolingo plus
Memrise
Their recipe for effortless learning has 3 simple ingredients:
The first is science. They’re obsessed with using brain science to help you learn faster. And from day one they’ve built Memrise to embody the very best knowledge about how your brain works, and so help you learn as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
The second is fun. They want to make learning your favourite playtime activity.
The third is community. With their community they’re building a kind of multimedia wonderland of learning, where videos, audio, usage, mnemonics, etymologies and much more bring your learning to life.
- For laptop: there are two packages — free and pro
- For mobile: free but there are also two packages
Babbel
It’s founded in 2007, Babbel is the world’s first language learning app. Being a leader in the online language learning industry, Babbel is an international success with more than 1 million active subscribers and ranked as the world’s #1 innovative company in education. Their meticulously designed courses guarantee you language skills you can use right away. Babbel is the shortest path to real-life conversations; 73% of their users indicated that they’d be able to have a short, simple conversation in their new language within five hours of using Babbel.
- For laptop: free
- For mobile: free
- You can upgrade your profile and get one of these packages that will suit every budget
Of course, to translate technical documentation to a foreign language requires great efforts — the very basics of a language will not be enough. However, the first step is the half of the journey. So, don’t be afraid and start learning a language right now!
What apps and techniques did you use to learn languages quickly? What was your motivator?
Amanda Johnson,
Employee Motivation Consultant for ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors
