Tag Archive: language learning tips

March 4, 2020

Learn a language: My new language challenge!

As I mentioned last week, I plan to challenge myself and to start learning a new language (!). I’ll use the blog to update you on my improvements, what resources I use and how I plan my study.

Group or 1-1

As a working mama, my free time is limited: I run the school, spend time with my family and with friends, travel and have some me-time (very important!). You may remember our blog posts, where we discuss which method of teaching may suit you better: whether to choose individual tuition or group lessons. Due to my irregular availability, I decided to choose individual tuition. I had thought about online lessons, which are usually slightly cheaper and you don’t have to commute to your lesson, but my work commitments allow me to be in Clifton, Bristol, regularly, so I have my 1-1 lessons with our wonderful language tutor, Patricia (who BTW speaks Brazilian and European Portuguese!).

Brazilian or European Portuguese

That’s another question to answer, before you embark on learning Portuguese. Personally, I love the sound of Brazilian Portuguese which is so melodic, so I was very tempted to choose Brazilian, but practicality won; I travel much more often to Portugal, so I’d like to be able to converse and understand European Portuguese.

Learning methods

I have decided to have my individual lessons weekly or bi-weekly. Between my lessons, I’ll try to learn every day (even for as little as 5 minutes), either to say out loud the phrases from the previous lesson(s), re-write them (yes, the power of hand-writing!), read aloud or actively listen to a video in Portuguese. I’m still working on a weekly learning schedule, but once it’s ready, I’ll share it here.

Resources

To learn some basics, I use these graphic YouTube videos and some real-life Portuguese. But, I’m still looking for more online resources to learn Portuguese, so if you have any recommendations, do let me know in the comments below.

Kinga Macalla

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February 26, 2020

Learn a language: Can I learn Polish, Czech, French, Russian & Portuguese on YouTube?

Today, I’d like to see if we can improve our language skills via YouTube channels. I hope to inspire you to use some free resources that are available online. I’ll first focus on the languages that I’m familiar with (Polish, Czech, French and Russian) or plan to learn (Portuguese). Yes, I’m giving myself a new language challenge for the coming 8-12 months: to learn some basic Portuguese. I’ll write a new blog post on my progress soon! Today, I’ll focus on YouTube channels and will provide one or two online resources per language to inspire you to practise your language skills more:

Czech: Basic greetings & Americans speaking Czech

Polish: A smiling intro to Polish greetings and Japanese uni students learning & speaking Polish

French: To listen and learn more street French

Portuguese: Students tend to have a preference whether they wish to study European Portuguese (that one that’s spoken in Portugal) or Brazilian Portuguese (spoken in Brazil).

European Portuguese: Basic Portuguese from the Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese: To start from scratch & for the joy of listening to the melodic Brazilian Portuguese

Russian: A short & fun intro to basic Russian

These are my findings. What YT channels / podcasts / online resources do you use to improve your language skills in Polish, Czech, French, Portuguese or Russian? Let me know in the comments below.

Kinga Macalla

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November 28, 2018

How to maintain your language-learning momentum: 5 inspirational self-study tips

The end of the year is fast approaching and we have all got a lot on our plates, juggling work and preparations for family celebrations or New Year festivities. There will be a break at the end of this BLS term and we will all need to keep up our language practice without the help of lessons. How can you keep up the momentum when you are learning a language, even if you don’t have a teacher to remind you to do your homework or a group to practise with? How can you keep up your drive to learn for a few weeks flying solo? This blog post gives you a few tips on how to maintain your language learning momentum when you have to manage it yourself and when you have other commitments too.

Little and Often

This article says: “Language learning is best when broken down into manageable goals that are achievable over a few months.” We fully agree that it is best not to overload yourself and try to read a whole textbook in one sitting. Our brains learn best when not required to concentrate for long periods of time, and when the knowledge is topped up regularly. Doing a few minutes of language learning each day and revising things you learnt last week makes sure what you learnt sticks in your head. Breaking the learning down into manageable chunks means you stay interested and motivated and you don’t lose concentration. Set yourself small, achievable, short-term goals that you can meet. Have a routine so that you know how and when to fit in your language learning. This will make you feel motivated to achieve those goals and give you a sense of achievement when you meet them. It will also keep the learning to a manageable amount.

Remind Yourself Why You Are Learning

We all have a reason why we wanted to learn our chosen language in the first place – it might be because we have friends who speak that language, a holiday home in the country where that language is spoken or ambitions of moving abroad to find work. Whatever your motivation, remind yourself of it regularly so you are spurred on to carry on with your learning. The same article that was quoted above recommends writing down the reasons why you are learning a language and sticking the list to the front of your notebook or folder. Turn to this in moments of doubt! You have a goal and you can achieve it.

Remember It’s Fun

In a previous blog post about how to improve your reading skills in another language, we recommended that you read things you enjoy reading in your first language – novels, newspaper articles or recipe books, for example. This applies equally to your listening and speaking practice – listen and sing along to songs you like or watch films you enjoy and practise the dialogues. If you do things you enjoy, you will be much more likely to want to continue and the knowledge will stick in your mind. You don’t want your language learning to be a chore, you want it to be a pleasure!

Travel

If you are able, use your end-of-year holiday time to go to the country where your new language is spoken – what better way to learn enjoyably? Maybe you have friends you can visit there or perhaps there is a place you have always wanted to explore. Seize the opportunity and use your language skills while you are abroad. You will also be hearing the language as it is spoken in real-life situations – which makes it more exciting!

Look Back at Your Progress

You have come a long way and learnt a lot since you started learning your chosen language. Take a moment to appreciate how much you have achieved and to congratulate yourself on your progress. This will make you feel motivated to continue because you can see that it is possible!

Have a look at this blog post if you need more inspiration. And most of all – have fun!

Suzannah Young

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September 26, 2018

How to learn vocabulary by grouping words together

In this blog post, we look at a useful way to help us remember vocabulary – putting words into groups. We find out how to harness our brain’s natural tendency to understand the world through association (this object is green and has leaves – it must be a plant!) to help us create groups of related words that will help us learn and remember them. We can create groups based on different things: themes, verbs/nouns and adjectives, synonyms, prefixes – these are just a few that we explore here.

I know what you’re thinking, another post on learning vocabulary! But this technique is different from the visualisation technique or the recognising cognates technique we explored in other blog posts. And remember, everyone is different and so everyone learns a language differently – and once you have worked out which type of language learner you are and which techniques work for you, you will have a recipe for success!

Grouping By Theme/Context

You will have heard it before, context is key to language learning. Children learn that “hello” means “hello” because people say it to them when they see them for the first time and not when they are going away (that’s “bye bye”). They learn that “yummy” is an adjective to describe food but not, say books. We are no different from children in the way we learn. When we associate words with a context, we learn and remember them more quickly. I can assure you that you will remember that “cucchiaio” means “spoon” in Italian much more readily if you are using it to eat soup with than if you ask, “how do you say ‘spoon’?” in a car trip across the Alps and then try to remember it after a fun day’s skiing.

So, how do you group words by theme? Try drawing and labelling a picture. Draw a picture of the kitchen in your house and label all the things in there, draw a picture of the human body and label the parts, draw a picture of a car and label that. If you are learning words that go together or make up a whole, you will remember them more easily. Learn words about the weather together, learn how to say whether you are well/ill/have a headache/have a toothache together. Learn words you will use in the classroom together. Learn words and phrases you will need to use in a restaurant (“I’ll have a…”, “the bill, please!”). You will remember them better than if you are learning random clusters of words.

Making Nouns and Adjectives out of Verbs

I remember when I learnt this technique to learn three words for the price of one – I was literally excited because it opened my eyes to a new, efficient way of learning!

Think of a verb in the language you are learning. Let’s take “éclairer” (to brighten/become clear/clarify) in French. If we look in a dictionary near “éclairer”, we will see “éclaircie” – a clear patch in a cloudy sky (which metaphorically means an improvement in a difficult situation), and “éclaircissement”, clarification. We will also see the adjective “éclairé”, informed/enlightened. With this exercise, we have just learnt four words instead of just one. Try this with verbs you can think of. You can combine this grouping technique with tools such as tables and diagrams if this will help you.

Learning Synonyms

Another way to learn several words instead of just one word at a time is to learn synonyms. It is a good idea to use a thesaurus for this exercise. Think of the word “hungry” in English. How many synonyms can you think of? “Famished”? “Starving”? “Ravenous”? “Peckish”? Try looking up synonyms in the language you are learning and use them in conversation instead of the standard word. This will help you remember them because you are using them and may impress your friends!

Grouping Words by Prefix

It is likely that the language you are learning will use prefixes (beginnings of words) that have a specific meaning. Let’s look at Spanish. If we know that “des-“ means “un-“ or “not”, we can work out that “desconocido” (des-conocido) means “unknown” and “desbloquear” means “to unblock”. “Descubrir”, literally “to uncover”, means “to find out/discover” (it’s similar in English). This amazing word is similar in a lot of languages – “scoprire” in Italian is “to uncover” or “discover”, “ontdekken” in Dutch is the same and “odkrywać” in Polish is similar. These words all have prefixes (s-, ont-, od-) which also mean “un-”, “away” or “from” in the respective languages. If we identify these little parts of words, we can understand the gist if not the meaning of new words and remember them because of their theme (such as “un-“ meanings).

Can you think of other ways to group vocabulary together? Share them with us in the comments!

Suzannah Young

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August 29, 2018

Funny language mistakes

We’ve all been there. We are trying to speak a new language and sometimes we forget a word and try to make it up, or we misunderstand, or we just get a bit mixed up and say the wrong thing. Language mistakes can be embarrassing, but they can be funny, too! Usually the people you are speaking to don’t mind and they probably find it endearing!

What kinds of mistakes can you make? Sometimes it’s because a word is difficult to pronounce and you end up saying another word that is funny or even rude. I remember being told by a Brazilian friend to be careful when asking for coconut – “coco” – because if I pronounced it wrong I would end up saying “cocô” – what children say when they are learning to become potty trained!

Some words in other languages look like words in English but they do not always have the same meaning. It is easy to say the wrong thing by accident and it can sometimes be embarrassing. That word is a case in point, because if you tell someone you are “embarazada” in Spanish, hoping to tell them that you are embarrassed, what you have actually told them is that you are pregnant. If you ask people to come and assist you with organising an event in France, by saying “venez assister à mon evenement”, you will actually find that they don’t turn up until you have done it all and just watch – “assister à” in French means “to watch” or “to observe” (or even “to witness” – if you’re telling someone “j’ai assisté à un crime”, luckily it means you witnessed it rather than you committed it!). Still on the subject of crime, if you say something is a “delikt” in Polish, it doesn’t mean it is a delight, it means it is a tort or wrongdoing.

It’s not always about false friends, though. You might be tripped up by words that look or sound similar or are near homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings, like “knew” and “new”). Here is one to watch out for in French: imagine you wanted to meet someone at the hotel, “Je vais vous rencontrer à l’hôtel”, but you struggle with the closed “o” of “hôtel” and you actually say “Je vais vous rencontrer à l’autel” – “I’ll meet you at the altar” – instead! You might get a funny look, at least – or perhaps a very enthusiastic response! (From: https://www.qlanguage.com.hk/foreign-language-faux-pas/) Something similar happened to a friend of mine. My friend had rented a gîte in France and was having trouble getting the gas hob to work so she went to ask her neighbour for help. It turned out that the gas had been switched off so her neighbour rang the supplier to get it switched back on. My friend wanted to thank her neighbour by saying “merci, Monsieur, vous êtes très gentil” – “thank you, sir, you are very kind” – but she couldn’t quite remember the word and ended up saying “vous êtes très joli” – “you are very pretty” – instead. He just smiled.

You can also hear things wrong. I was once asked in Italian if I was “scoraggiata”, “discouraged” or “disheartened” but I thought I had been asked if I had done something else, “scorreggiato” (look it up!) – which I hotly denied, of course!

If you are lucky enough to speak a few languages you might get them mixed up, or try to guess what a word is based on your knowledge of another, similar language. A friend of mine was on holiday in Italy and wanted to compliment the chef on a cake she had eaten. She knew that “gâteau” meant “cake” in French and so tried to think of a similar word in Italian that she thought meant the same thing. She told him “il gatto è buonissimo”, which actually means “the cat is very tasty” (the correct word for “cake” in Italian is “torta”, which is actually like another French word, “tarte” (“tart” or “torte” in English). If only she’d chosen that one!

Here are the best funny language mistakes I’ve heard from what people have shared on the internet: French faux pas https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/learn-french/faux-pas-in-french/, a mixed bag http://www.rosettastone.co.uk/blog/6-most-funny-and-embarrassing-language-mistakes/ and some that users themselves have shared https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/10989895/Your-funniest-mistakes-in-language-learning

Have you made any funny language mistakes? Share them in the comments!

Suzannah Young

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January 25, 2017

Language Learning Tips: How to Use Your Language Skills Daily

What happens to a skill that you don’t use in a while? You will be familiar with the phrases, “I’m out of practice” or “I’m a bit rusty…”. It is a well-known fact that if you don’t keep up a skill you can forget it or it won’t come as naturally as it once did. Well, it’s the same with languages. Any linguist will tell you that it is very important to keep practising your languages, because you can lose fluency very quickly if you don’t. As they say, ‘use it or lose it’!

So how can you keep up your new language(s), especially if you don’t live in a country where it is/they are spoken? To keep your skills alive, you should try to use them as often as you can, even every day if possible. So how do you do that? Here are a few tips on how to use your new language every day – for the fun of it too, not just to make sure your skills stay intact.

Read

You could try to read the news in your chosen language when you start your day or when you have a break, or read a novel in that language before going to bed. Reading helps keep your vocabulary and grammar intact, and reading aloud helps you keep practising your pronunciation and helps your mouth stay used to making the sounds. Try and read a variety of different styles so you remember what their registers are like.

Speak

If you want to keep up your speaking, you could join a MeetUp group or a conversation club, or you could look for a language partner online. Otherwise, you can put up an advert asking for language exchange partners in your community centre or on one of the many Facebook groups for different language communities living in your city (in Bristol there are ‘Italiani a Bristol’, ‘Españoles en Bristol’, ‘Nederlanders in Bristol’, ‘Français à Bristol’, and the list goes on…).

This may sound strange, but another way to keep up your speaking skills is to talk to yourself. Of course this is not always easy but if you are in the car or in the kitchen, or somewhere else where it’s just you, you can go over what you have to do that day or describe what you can see out of the window (or other things!) out loud to yourself in your chosen language. You can easily fit this into your daily routine so you don’t need to make extra time to practise. See our previous post on studying every day for more tips on how to do this.

Listen

You can listen to your chosen language on the radio when you have things to do around the house. It is a good way to keep your mind occupied when you are doing things that don’t require language, like hanging the washing out or doing the ironing. You can also sit down and listen to radio documentaries or the news that require more attention. You can listen to music as well, which you can also do on your mp3 player whilst out for a jog, or in your car.

Watch

When you relax in the evening you can watch a film in your new language, or if you have a subscription, watch TV in that language. There are lots of news bulletins, documentaries and interviews to watch online as well. This is a good way to maintain your listening skills and keep up to date with the latest events in the country (countries) where the language you are learning is spoken.

Contact your friends

Do you have friends who speak your new language? These days it is very easy to stay in touch with them, by text message, on Facebook or on Skype. Just drop your friends a message or ring them on Skype to have a quick chat. If you prefer writing longer texts, you can always write them a letter, which will help you keep up your writing skills. You can ask your friends to correct you if you like. And of course, it’s important to stay in touch with your friends, whichever language they speak!

Written by Suzannah Young

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October 26, 2016

Language Learning Tips: Do I have time to learn a foreign language every day?

Do I have time to learn a foreign language every day? Of course, not! But, I think you may change your mind after reading this article, so let me explain.

Impossible possible?
First of all, I’m not talking about spending hours practising every day (although, that would be just perfect!), but about finding ways to include some language practice for as little as 5-10 minutes per day. Secondly, you do not actually need extra time to practise every day. You need to prepare yourself for learning and then follow your daily routine. Thirdly and most importantly, enjoy the whole process from the moment you decide to learn a foreign language to carrying out your everyday practice.

How does it work?

You can follow the 5 steps formula:

1. Find the time. Think about when you could potentially learn, e.g. while driving a car/commuting, cooking/cleaning/ironing, taking a bath/brushing your teeth, walking, waiting for a meeting/appointment/meal/train/bus, etc… Yes, there are endless possibilities!

2. Follow your interests. Research the topics that interest you, e.g. cooking (recipes), holiday phrases, music (singers), art (painters), (non-)fiction writing (writers), etc.

3. Get the resources. Prepare/order/borrow/download books, e-books, audio-books, podcasts, radio programmes, CDs, DVDs, magazines/newspapers, grammar books, flashcards, apps, etc.

4. Have a weekly plan. Plan what you’re going to do every day, (you can of course review it every week), e.g. on Monday it’s reading (from crime novels to news), Tuesday-listening (radio podcasts, audiobooks), Wednesday-grammar (some relevant exercises), Thursday-speaking (reading aloud or shadowing), Friday-writing (diary, emails), Saturday-watching films (with/without subtitles), Sunday-vocabulary drill (flash cards, dictionary).

5. Learn EVERY DAY!

If you’re new to language learning or are very busy, I would recommend starting with the simplest routine you can implement and then trying to add new skills. And don’t wait until you think you’re ready, start learning a foreign language now!

If you follow everyday learning or any other routine, let me know more about your methods in the comments below.

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October 19, 2016

How to Stay Motivated While Learning a Foreign Language

I am lucky enough to speak five languages and be learning a sixth. Part of the reason why I have learnt them is because I have lived in several different countries, but you could say the other part is because I am motivated to learn them. I enjoy the challenge and the voyage of discovery and I like to learn as much as I can about the place I am in, and that includes the language. What better way to get to know people than to learn their language? I feel that it is also a sign of respect to learn at least some words in the language of a place you are travelling to: hello, thank you, goodbye, that kind of thing.

People sometimes ask how it is possible to keep up a second (or third, or fourth…) language, especially when you do not live in a country where it is spoken. The key to doing this is wanting to maintain it – if it is important to you to maintain your skills in that language, then you are already half way there! I personally try to use my languages every day. I will read books and articles in my chosen languages and listen to the radio or watch films. I try to treat each language equally but it is not always easy, it requires a bit of discipline. But we all have favourites and I find that I spend a bit more time on my favourite language…

There are activities you can do to keep up your language competence, but maintaining your chosen language is also about a state of mind: remind yourself why you learnt it in the first place and why you love it, and you will want to keep on using it.

Here are a few activities you can do to maintain your new language, and tips on how regularly to do them.

Read
If you like to read novels, read novels in your second language. If you like to keep up to date with the news, read (online) newspapers in the language you have learnt. If you like cooking, read (online) cookbooks and regale yourself with the delicious goodies you make using your linguistic knowledge! If you pursue activities that you like, it will be easier to maintain your understanding and it will come more naturally.

Listen
Similarly, listen to the radio or listen to music you like in your chosen language. This way you will keep your ear tuned in to what people sound like, stay abreast of what is happening in the country of your adopted language and enjoy that great music genre you discovered when you delved deeper into the language you decided to learn and its accompanying cultural artefacts.

Watch
Remind yourself why you love the culture of the country/ies where your chosen language is spoken by watching its/their films and tv shows (these can be found relatively easily on the internet these days; foreign language films can be borrowed from most libraries or bought for a relatively reasonable price at good record stores).

Speak to People
Find a meet-up group near you where people get together to speak the language and, of course, make friends. Find an online platform where you can speak to language partners on Skype. Move to a country where they speak your new language… Keeping in contact with people is a sure-fire way of keeping your language skills alive!

Produce
With this in mind, it is important not just to maintain your passive skills but to maintain your active skills as well. To this end, you should try to speak the language and write in it as often as you can, to make sure you keep using it. Perhaps you can write a blog in your chosen language, keep a diary, or write to a pen pal (not as old-fashioned as you might think!). As the adage goes, use it or lose it!

Routine
If you are the kind of person who likes to stick to routines, and finds structure motivating, then you can decide to dedicate a specific amount of time to doing these activities, like an hour a day, or half an hour of each language each day if you have two new languages on the go. If not, you can do what you feel like doing and when you feel like doing it, and it won’t feel like a chore to keep up your language(s).

Enjoy
Most of all, keep enjoying your language learning and practising what you have learnt. That is the key to maintaining motivation and retaining your new-found skills.

See more tips here.

Written by Suzannah Young

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