4 steps to become fluent in a language

Step 4

Onto the final step (still needing to catch up on Step 3 then go here.)

Fluency, and all its benefits, are now in site. Enjoy them:

Bilingual employees earn more and have better job prospects.

With a little local knowledge holidays are 10 x times better. Truly experience the culture you are visiting. Be an insider!

A gateway to new experiences, discover the amazing world around you, both near and far.

Step 4

There are so many ways to learn that sometimes we focus too much on the ‘proven’ advice that we read.

Here are a few unconventional options that you don’t see everywhere but have really helped me and my inspiring polyglot friends.

Become an actor (in your head)

I’ve regularly been told that when I speak in French I ‘act’ and ‘sound’ differently.

This doesn’t greatly surprise me. When struggling with communicating in French I was often very self-conscious (specially in social situations with my new french housemates). I realised I found it quite useful to pretend I was someone else.

Literally with the ideology of “fake it till you make it”, I launched myself into my new ‘role.’ Pretend you are in a French/ Spanish/ Russian etc movie, mimic the mannerisms, the expressions, the colloquial phrases from the films you have watched, heard on the radio or from real live natives.

This will help you develop confidence in yourself which is key when communicating. Talking will start to feel more natural and therefore come more easily.

‘Change’ your mouth

An odd and bizarre subtitle but bear with me (I couldn’t think of a non technical or eloquent way of saying this.)

Our mouths must change shape to embrace the foreign language. We use different parts of our mouths, and therefore alternative muscles groups to those we use on a daily basis in our native tongue.

I recently read a piece of advice that is AMAZINGLY helpful, (advice I wish I had thought of when I was teaching!):

Don’t listen to how the native speakers pronounce their languages, listen to how they pronounce your language (especially if they have a typical foreign accent)… Then, do your best to imitate their accent by speaking (your native language) with the same part of the mouth or muscle group they use. Once you’re able to do that, switch to the foreign language you’re learning.

Give this a go!

An essential part of communicating is correctly prononouncing. With a mix of acting and accent imitation, you’ll be right on target.

Stop thinking

This may sound counterintuitive but try it. Over-thinking destroys conversation.

Don’t reflect on whether grammatically you are adding the right agreements/ endings/ pronunciation etc… YOU WILL STILL BE UNDERSTOOD.

Disjointed sentences are a heck of a lot better than silence, the more you talk the more you realise you know.

Enjoy your conversation and all the rules you have been diligently studying will eventually just naturally come out.

As will entire long phrases and much to your great surprise it will hit that you have spent an entire evening talking to natives in the local tongue.

Make mistakes, no-one cares!

A few random tips

Re-set the language on your phone (or GPS if you are feeling specifically ambitious.)

Invite the language into your daily routine making it a part of your daily life: use foreign recipes, score in the new language when playing sport, etc. Play with the other language, learning doesn’t have to be boring!

Make sure all goals are attainable. Set yourself up for success.

The End

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The world is at your fingertips, go out and get it! The sky is the limit. With the right mentality everything is achievable.

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