How to learn a new language

Happy July!

Due to the additional free time I’ve gained from the semester being over as well as from the COVID-19 pandemic hitting, I’ve had more time to work on my hobbies, one of which is language learning. In a previous blog post I talked about some resources you can use to learn Estonian, but not much about study methods, so I figured I’d give a more in-depth explanation of how I study foreign languages and incorporate them into my daily routine.

Set a goal

In my experience, it’s impossible to learn a foreign language without some sort of personal motivation. This can be something casual such as music or a TV show that you want to eventually understand or something more strict like a test date. Whatever your motivation is can help you determine how much time you spend studying your target language as well as what you study: for example, if you need to go from A1 to B1 level in three months, you should be studying for several hours a day and (preferably) using materials designed for whatever test you’re taking. If your need to improve is less urgent, however, you can study whenever you feel like it.

Even if you aren’t taking a test, I find it can be helpful to set small goals throughout the year (be able to hold a 5-minute conversation by X date, be able to write an essay by Y date) so you have something to keep working towards.

Comprehensible input and creating an immersion environment

Maybe you want to learn a language that’s spoken in a country you’ve never been to or you don’t have any friends who speak your target language. In this case, it can be hard to stay focused if you aren’t interacting with the language in your daily life. As I mentioned above, this is where motivation is important — even just making a playlist of songs you like in your target language that you can listen to throughout the day ensures that you’re at least getting some exposure.

While total immersion in the language may not be possible, it’s easy to create an artificial immersion environment from home. Some ways you can do this are by following accounts on social media that post in your target language or by changing the language settings on your phone, though I wouldn’t recommend doing the latter immediately until you at least understand some basics. A rule I try to follow as I go about my day is “if I want to do something, can I do it in the language I’m studying?” Let’s say I want to cook a meal from a recipe: while looking up and following a recipe in a foreign language might require more mental effort than if I did so in English, it’s also a way to feel more comfortable using that language if I don’t have the chance to practice it otherwise.

The video I’ve linked above was crucial to improving my language learning process — the main point to take away from it is that language is acquired rather than learned. You can acquire language through comprehensible input, which is basically any foreign language content that is slightly above your current level, while being understandable enough that you can figure out the meaning of unknown words based on context.

The key to making this work is to minimize your use of English or your native language when studying. Instead of watching a movie in a foreign language with subtitles in your native language, watch it with foreign language subtitles (or no subtitles). It’s okay to not understand what’s going on 100% — the exercise here is to listen for words that you do know or use context clues such as people’s actions to discern new words. You don’t have to only rely on context to learn new vocabulary and can still translate whatever doesn’t make sense to you, but hearing a word and being able to associate it with a specific scene, sentence or action will help the meaning stick in your head as opposed to simply seeing it written down and trying to memorize it.

Make your own study materials

If you’re self-studying and don’t have a structured course, deciding where to start can be confusing. For learning vocabulary, I recommend picking a set number of words to learn per day (however many you feel comfortable with) and starting with words you see around you frequently — days of the week, grocery products, types of clothing and so on. At the same time, try not to go overboard with these — if you want to learn clothing-related vocabulary, for example, you could learn the word for shoe, but you don’t need to go into detail right away about parts of the shoe (shoelace, tongue, sole, etc.) if these aren’t words you commonly use — instead, study these at a later date when you feel more comfortable with the language.

Websites like Lingvist, Memrise, and Quizlet offer either pre-made flashcard courses or (excluding Lingvist) allow you to create your own and use a system of spaced repetition to help you memorize words. You can improve your flashcards by adding audio as well — Forvo, an online database of native speakers pronouncing words in multiple languages, is the website I use most often for this. As you become more advanced, you can get creative with how you study — try writing a short text or recording a video about a specific topic, even if it’s only about what you bought at the grocery store.

Avoid burnout

While it’s exciting to see yourself making progress, or frustrating to not be progressing as much as you want to, you should also recognize when you’re overloading yourself with information and adjust your study habits accordingly. You don’t need to take a complete break, but setting aside a day or a few days every week where you just engage passively with your target language (by listening to music, putting on news in the background while you make breakfast, etc.) and don’t study anything new can keep you from feeling like you want to give up and stop studying entirely.

As a disclaimer, of course, this is only my personal method and the steps I take when approaching a new language, which may not necessarily be useful for everyone — you know which study methods work the best for you! — but analyzing the way other people learn helps me gain new perspectives on how to do things, so I hope you’ve been able to take something away from this as well. :)