My first post (about language learning) was a little bit too rant-y for my liking. Oops. Moving on.
“You can become fluent in two months with ____ program/book/method/etc.”
I kind of want to talk about what I have seen with “fluency,” and why using one *insert method here* to learn probably won’t deliver the results all us language learners crave.
I.M.O. fluency is very situational. You learn the language you use. I would obviously argue I am fluent in English, but I’m sure if you maxed the difficulty to some wild level or discussed topics with highly specific vocabulary without learning it first, it would start to become less intelligible. Enough of that, though, what about just a general fluency, that everyday language use, maybe take an exam to prove it type? With that, most agree that there are four aspects to it (the first two for input and the latter for output):
-Reading
-Listening/Understanding
-Speaking
-Writing
To be fluent like a native speaker, you’d theoretically need to master all four of those. What this means for you is you need to find ways to practice each of them.
When I see those claims of “fluent in 3 months” or “learn a new language QUICKLY with this program,” it doesn’t bode well with me since the chance of there being a singular program or method that flawlessly does all four of the above things is unlikely. This is not to say there aren’t programs that don’t do a good job of approaching these points, but really what you are being taught to do is complete the lessons/activities the book/program/etc. has to offer.
Does this mean I loathe language programs?? Is nothing worthy of our attention?? Is learning a language just a futile effort now??
Nah, I am just saying that the resources available to you are simply parts of a whole, supplements to your learning. Think of how you learned as a baby– you had a relationship with the language. Your family spoke it to you, it may have been part of your identity and culture, you heard music and watched TV, your education was in the language, the boxes at the store with the tasty stuff had it! In short, it was part of your life, and you learned how to use it to, well, be able to function in your society according to the standards you wanted/were expected of you. I realize this is sort of biased towards monolingual people, probably Americans, but you get the idea.
So now, you are using ShmuoShmingo or Shmabbel or Shmosetta Shmone, and you are learning a very select amount of vocabulary and grammar (that you may not even use!) in a very limited context. Usually these programs entertain very early beginners, so I know they can’t jump right in as one would hope, but it still gives off a false sense of security in one’s abilities and usually is not enough to fully teach a language as they claim. Plus, the meme is there for a reason– are we actually being consistent with the learning as the creepy green owl desires?
What should you do then? Answer: find ways to incorporate in your day, preferably ones that you enjoy or need. Do things you want to do in the target language. You really wish you could speak enough French to watch those artsy movies you love in an *authentic* way? Just watch the movie. Say you watch the movie and don’t understand. Congrats, now it is like you moved to France and turned on the tube and need to start figuring things out. Maybe put French subtitles on and be annoying and pause every few minutes and look up a bunch of words. Or put English subtitles on and listen for cognates or words you can figure out. Or heck, just try to guess from context, you’ll have to do that in a conversation with a real person anyways. Figure out how you want to approach things based on your skill level and what you enjoy. I spent more hours than I would like to admit watching Spanish dramas in highschool (yes, I watched every single episode of El Internado from start to end… yes, that is 71 episodes, with each being about 1.5 hours…yes, I enjoyed all of it thoroughly and do not regret it). For the first two seasons I used English subtitles, third-fifth seasons I used Spanish subtitles, and the rest until the end I tried to watch without any, either sacrificing little details to my pride or going back and rewatching with subtitles on. Granted, this was during a time in my life where I was taking classes for the language with school. My improvement benefited my grade and I had teachers ready to answer any questions.
So I mentioned TV, cool, what else? Like I said, start doing whatever is fun for you with the language. Be creative. Pretend you live in another country and start asking yourself how the language change would affect you. This applies to learners of any skill level, just tailor your activities in a way you feel comfortable. Below are some ideas for each category to inspire you. Not all of these work for me, and some things I do are very specific to my life and are not listed. Some things I do every day. (Which are which? I’ll never tell, XOXO Gossip Girl.)
Reading:
-Children’s books in target language
-A book in your target language that you’ve read in your native language
-News app/newspaper in your target language. There are many options out there, but BBC notably has a few. I know there are Spanish (BBC Mundo), Arabic (بي بي سي عربي), Welch (BBC Cymru Fyw), Russian (Новости Би-би-си), and English (both BBC News and BBC Learning English).
-Recipes in the target language
-Comics/manga/webtoons in the target langauge
-Wikipedia articles in the target language (language options are on the left sidebar, and more popular articles have more options)
-Set videogame language setting to a target language
-Set your phone to your target language
-Flashcards! Learn sightwords, especially if the language doesn’t use Latin characters. Anki and Quizlet are great online/tech options, otherwise use good old paper
-Go to Amazon or another website you know in the other language
-Find a blog from someone in another country
Listening/Understanding;
-YouTube. Whatever you normally watch, find people who do it in your target language. You may have to contact someone who is part of the culture for suggestions if the language is on the more obscure side. I guarantee it exists though. Some things you can watch are ASMR, travel vlogs, beauty videos, cooking videos, sports (either major leagure type stuff or hobby players), language learning/speaking practice videos, story times, comedy specials, gaming, and much more.
-Netflix has a lot of options. Lots of subtitle and audio options. Even just putting target language subtitles over a native language show can help.
-A play or musical in a target language
-MUSIC in another language
-Find a friend to listen to or phone your grandma who speaks it
-Put your GPS in that language (don’t get lost though!)
-Audiobooks, and better yet, read along
-Podcasts
-Find places in your town or nearby city that have native speakers
-Follow people on social media that speak the language. If you have SnapChat, open up maps and watch stories from places that speak the language.
Speaking:
-Skype a language buddy. There are also apps that can connect you with people.
-Learn the lyrics to songs and sing along
-Read outloud
-Talk to Siri in the target language (set it in your preferences)
-Find places in your town or nearby city that have native speakers
-Call Aunt-In-Law So-And-So for a chat in her native language
-If you are a student, look up office hours for a professor that speaks the language. You usually don’t have to be taking their class to go. This applies to language professors (Why not drop by the Polish 101 professor’s office and say hello? They also have resources.) and those who teach another class (although knowing them first may make it less weird with the latter. But, if your Organic Chemistry II professor is from Russia and that is the language you are learning, why not ask for a chat if they aren’t busy?)
Writing:
-Write down song lyrics
-Keep your calendar or planner in the target language
-Text a friend in that language
-Find a language buddy. Yes, there are apps for that.
-Make a journal– one sentence to describe your day, or a poetry, or whatever you want to write
-Add the keyboard for that language to your phone
-Comment on YouTube videos and social media posts (be positive though!)
-Copy things down. Or translate things.
-Pen pals, snail mail style
-Put sticky notes/labels with the word in the other language on objects (like the word for fridge in your target language stuck on your fridge, do the same for maybe your jar of peanut butter, or on your door or light switch, etc). This also helps with reading.
Hopefully some of these things help. There are so many other opportunities out there, but these are some ideas to get you started.
Happy reading,
-Beppa
*This is a republished post due to a domain change.*