'lovely lationos to practice Spanish with!'
Weekend getaways, summer holidays, gap year backpacking and taking the decision to live, study or work abroad are intensely gratifying experiences that are made ten times more interesting when we have the ability to communicate with locals in their native language. The thing is that real language learning requires time and patience.
Speaking Spanish when trekking across South America, ordering your croque monsieur in French whilst on a business trip in Paris, or speaking German when holidaying with a loved one in Berlin is always more fulfilling than bumbling through the experience with an idiot’s phrasebook of tourist’s phrases in tow.
Cocktails at night in Cuba taste better when you can respond to the people around you in Spanish. There is nothing that comes close to the job which can be had from taking a long bus ride and chatting away with the stranger that happens to have reserved the seat next to you about culture, political, social and religious differences.
It can be really frustrating when you cannot ask that all-important question. It can be lonely when living abroad and unable to communicate exactly what you want to say. It can be even more soul-destroying when after years and years of language learning, communicating with natives is still difficult.
The good news is that language learning does not have to take years and years. It certainly doesn’t have to be a painful experience. The thing is that most people go about their language learning in the wrong way. In four years, I have become highly proficient in French, German and Portuguese and I am a definite bilingual English/Spanish speaker.
How did I do it? The following five language learning tips hold the key to my success:
1. Buy grammar books and work at home
There is no point going to language classes when you have no understanding of the language at all, despite what other people tell you. It is incredibly frustrating when you want to say something and you simply don’t know the word. Grammar books at home give you the opportunity to at least teach yourself the present tense of the language that you are interested in and, along the way, the exercises will be giving you vocabulary that you can use to communicate. Naturally, studying with grammar books at home also requires dedication and willpower. You have to want to learn a language. If the desire is not there, you will never learn.
2. Read, read and read some more
Reading is probably the easiest of the four language skills to conquer as a beginner. Speaking requires confidence and lots of vocabulary, writing requires a real understanding of the grammar involved and listening can be hard when people speak with different dialects, when they speak fast or when you are listening to a group of natives all speaking together at once.
However, reading is something that you can conquer. It will give you confidence and the language tools that you need. You will hear people use the words that you have read and it will make you feel like you are getting somewhere with your language learning. What’s more, with language like Spanish, the word is spoken how it is written every single time (unlike English, where letters change their sounds regularly). Therefore, reading is also the gateway to speaking in some instances.
3. Travel for a long time
If you book yourself on a two week holiday and spend all your time by the hotel pool, you are never going to experience the joy of communicating with locals and you are never going to realise the potential of your language learning abilities.
Those people who choose to travel for a month (or for as long as possible with work holiday restrictions) and who stay in hostels or who organise homestays, are the people who learn their desired language quickest. Travel alone and this will help you to naturally spend more time with natives.
4. Intensive courses in language schools at home
There are lots of language schools in London, including the UIC London Language School that offer intensive courses in many languages. The German study programme that this school offers is particularly good, so check out this link for more information on the same. At this stage of your language learning, committing to a study programme is one of the best things you can do.
You will already have lots of experience to draw on and you will be able to use the opportunity to go through specific doubts and problems that you have been experiencing with the language. You will have more control over your language learning and the whole experience will be a much more positive one than if you launch into language learning from the very beginning.
It is also a really good idea to combine group language classes at this time with private tuition. Private tuition gives you more opportunities to refine your pronunciation and work on the fluidity of your speaking skills.
5 Fall in love with a native
Call it a cliché if you like, but falling in love with a native speaker and whispering sweet words to each other day in, day out, is the best way of perfecting foreign language skills. Naturally, it doesn’t work if you know very little of the language. Falling in love must feature later in your language study plan of events, but there is nobody better than an attentive lover to teach you particular nuances of the language you are learning.
Just like having friends to go out clubbing with, friends to have lunch with and friends to go to art galleries with, we need different sources of information to help us with our language skills. Foreign lovers are part of the grand scheme of things and they make language learning a lot of fun too!
Final thoughts
If you love travel, if you often think about working abroad, if you love the idea of being able to communicate in another language, destiny awaits.
Bio
Tracey Chandler travels the world as a freelance writer, learning languages and connecting with other cultures.