Now that we are in quarantine and have all the time in the world, we also have time to learn a new language. This is probably something that you have planned if “you just had more time”, well it’s the perfect opportunity because you have nothing but time. Here are some tricks that helped me learn a new language in little time.
I downloaded Duolingo
Duolingo is an app that helps people learn new languages for free. It uses images that associate with the words and also teaches you how to translate from your mother tongue language to the new language of your choice. By translating phrases and sentences from one language to another, it helps to learn the essential phrases faster.
Start learning easy essential words
The essential words help construct the essential phrases and sentences. For example learning how to say bathroom in a new language will help you ask where the bathroom is. If you are traveling where the language is spoken you will need to know how to say certain things to get around.
Listening to music in the language
Listening to music in the language will help you understand the speaking patterns and pronunciations of certain words. It will also teach you colloquial words that aren’t directly translated but once you understand the context, you understand the meaning of the word.
Watch subtitled movies of the language
This will also help you with the pronunciation and the colloquial language. Having the subtitles helps understand what is happening.
Speak with people you know to speak the language
This will help you keep up with the language, learn the slang and how people actually speak and sound like a normal person while speaking it. The conversation will help learn faster, and once you understand a few things, and keep up while listening, it gets easier from there. If you don’t know a word or phrase that was said, don’t be afraid to ask. If you don’t ask you’ll never know and it’ll be harder to learn.
Learn to make mistakes and learn from them
Learn to make mistakes. Mistakes are common when one is learning a new language. It’s hard to do everything perfectly the first time, but if you make mistakes and then learn from them you will slowly but surely get better. So, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The problem isn’t making mistakes, it’s not learning from them.
