Tips to Master a New Language
At Thinkific, our team members have joined us from around the world — from places like Brazil, Ukraine, Egypt, and Korea, just to name a few. Working in recruitment, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and speak with many incredible people looking for new career opportunities in Canada.
One of our core values is Learn and Grow, so one of the key questions we ask early on in our hiring process is what areas a candidate is looking to improve. I’ve asked this question to hundreds of candidates, and one of the top responses I hear from international applicants is that they want to improve their English. We’ve been fortunate to have many of these candidates join our team and as they grow with us, communication continues to be a self-appointed area of focus for them.
So, I decided to try and do something about it! I put it to my team members (both native and non-native English speakers) and asked throughout my social networks and Slack communities to find the best resources and tips for acquiring a new language. I also did my own research to bring you helpful recommendations to empower you and to help you feel more confident in your English communication.
Here is a list of resources that can help improve your written and verbal communication skills in English to feel more confident in the workplace:
- Read HBR’s article on How to Improve your Business English for best practices when acquiring a new language. Asking for feedback and creating habits are my personal favorites!
- Watch English movies using subtitles. While watching, you should make note of new words, phrases, idioms, and expressions in a notebook. Later on, search for their meanings and jot them down, too. This will help you understand the context for new words you’re learning and how to use them effectively. Not sure what movies to pick? Check out 9 Modern American Classics for Learning English with Movies.
Tip: Pause the movie at moments where you hear a pronunciation you’d like to learn and repeat after the actor until it gets close. It might sound silly, but practicing in your head is very different than saying it aloud. If it’s too difficult, jot it down for later.
- Try Lingo Live. Lingo Live is all about confidence building for team members learning English in the corporate world. Their iterative learning style and coach-learner matching process will help ensure you’re paired with someone who will help you focus on the skills you’re looking to sharpen.
- Use Duolingo. Take advantage of this free tool on your morning commute, while eating lunch, or before bed. You can use their placement test to find the right level for you or jump ahead by completing tests in-app as you grow your repertoire of words. I’m currently using Duolingo to learn French and love how they’ve gamified the experience to make it fun to learn!
- Regularly Read in English. Subscribe to a newsletter, RSS feed, Medium topic, or pick up a book that interests you. Make an effort to spend 10–15 minutes each day reading in English to improve your comprehension and expand your vocabulary. Write down words you don’t know or haven’t used before and look up their meaning and pronunciation later. A great place to start is to find a book in English that you’ve already read in your native language, so it’s easier to make word associations knowing the context.
- Host learning groups. Schedule recurring group sessions with peers where everyone shares a new word, phrase, idiom, or expression they’ve learned and their meaning. The group can then share where they would like to use (or already have used!) these terms. This helps to build in accountability and allows you to expand your vocabulary by learning from others. Share a list of movies, TV shows, or other audio to listen to before the next session. Like a good book club, it’s helpful to find common ground and discuss shared experiences while internalizing similar content.
Tip: Break into small groups of 2–3 to share difficult pronunciations and coach each other to improve. You’ll quickly realize the English language is quite complex, and having others to learn with makes it a lot easier.
- Listen to podcasts, music, and audiobooks in English. Whether it’s things you’ve read or listened to in your native language or something totally new, passive listening can help improve comprehension and understand stresses and tone for words. Try it out during your next commute or slip on headphones while working to listen along!
- Join a local Toastmasters club. Toastmasters is an international organization with local clubs to help you practice public speaking, improve your communication, and build leadership skills. It’s a safe space where you are encouraged and supported, with lots of opportunities to get helpful feedback so you can continuously improve. There are many different Toastmasters chapters, and oftentimes it’s about finding the right one for you!
- Take a course or work towards a certificate. Many universities offer stand-alone courses or the option to take a series of classes towards a certification.
Here are a few in-person options if you’re based out of Vancouver:
UBC Advanced English for Professionals
UBC Business Writing Essentials
UBC Public Speaking for International Professionals
ISS of BC has focused courses on writing, speaking, and pronunciation
Not interested in classroom learning or can’t attend in person? Check out these online course options:
UIC Online English for International Professionals
McGill Online Written English for Workplace Communication
- Join a meetup — or a few! Sync up with other like-minded individuals or native speakers to get comfortable networking, practice your public speaking, or write on a variety of topics. Meetup.com is a super helpful site that makes it easy to find local meetup groups near you based on your interests and connect with others.
- Use Google Sheets to easily translate words to and from English or to keep track of new words you’ve learned and their meanings. Keeping an inventory is a great way to see your vocabulary growing and makes it easy to translate words you’re already using in your native language to English. Using this trick, try to learn or use 1 new English word every day!
- Find a Speech Therapist. This style of coaching is often referred to as Accent Modification since it focuses primarily on pronunciation clarity and accuracy for any language you are looking to become fluent in. We all have different accents regardless of what language we speak, so these resources are intended to help those who feel like their accent is getting in the way of communicating clearly or effectively.
Tip: If you’re lucky enough to have benefits coverage through your company, check to see if Speech Therapists are covered as it’s a great opportunity for 1-on-1 training with a trained professional. If you’re local to Vancouver, look into West Coast Speech or Nexus Speech Therapy to see if it’s the right fit for you. Otherwise, online courses are available such as Change Your Accent Online.
- Use Grammarly. Download the Chrome extension or use the desktop app to get real-time edits to your grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I love this tool to help improve my writing — from emails to policies (and have even used it for this blog!). You can upgrade to their premium plan for additional features that can help with fluency, readability, sentence variety, and advanced vocabulary.
- Write a blog article. An easy way to get feedback on your writing is to create a blog post. The best way to learn and improve is by doing! Find a friend or two that can help you understand opportunities to improve your writing or take advantage of tools like Grammarly as you get comfortable creating content on topics you’re familiar with.
Joining a new company and moving to a new country are huge steps to take, and while learning and communicating in a new language can be a challenge, there is a lot of support out there for you! I’ve shared a list of helpful resources and tips here that have helped our team members as they work to achieve their personal and professional development goals.
At the end of the day, practice builds confidence, and confidence is what empowers you so I encourage you to put these tips to use. Invest time in yourself to work on improving your English if it’s important to you, and use some of these suggestions to build good habits, to keep you on track, and to stay accountable towards your learning goals.
