My Approach To Language Learning
Why Learn Languages?
Learning a language unlocks a better way to travel. I’m learning French and can’t overstate how rewarding I find it to communicate and connect with local people. I'm not learning French for any exam or obligation, but purely out of a love for speaking the language.
I travel a lot, and always find that just attempting to speak the local language enhances my trip significantly. People become more accepting and eager to help, offering a richer experience of the local culture. I recommend learning a language for exactly this reason - for fun! Making the effort unlocks so many incredible opportunities and has undeniably enriched my travelling experiences.
My Background In Language
I don’t have a strong linguistic background. Much to my annoyance I wasn’t raised bilingual, although my parents did enrol me in French classes from the age of around 6 so I’ve been learning the language for a very long time. I also spent a large part of my upbringing visiting a French family who speak about as much English as I speak French, hence understanding each other could often be a challenge and while I never had particularly good language skills, I developed an ability to communicate and be understood. This was crucial to my language learning. The challenge of making myself understood, and the satisfaction when I was able to have a conversation was immense, and it allowed me to fall in love with learning French (and hopefully other languages in the future). I feel traditional education approaches languages in entirely the wrong way, there is too much focus on writing and grammar, while the central focus should be on understanding and communicating with each other.
My Approach
I’ve spent a lot of my life learning French, so I have a lot of experience in finding a language learning technique that sticks. My whole philosophy revolves around two aspects: consistency and immersion. It’s incredibly important to spend time every-single-day learning your target language. Your brain is a powerful tool for learning - but it will only store necessary information….. so make your target language necessary. Spending daily time learning the language will stimulate your brain to make the connections needed for language proficiency.
Now all that is well and good, but it is incredibly hard to stick to. I have spent years battling with my mind, losing motivation, and spending large chunks of time away from French. How do you build the sort of motivation to learn that only seems to exist in people online? I have one answer to this: MAKE IT EASY. If you can tailor your environment in a way that makes seeing your language fundamentally unavoidable you cannot fail.
The following techniques are what I use to immerse myself and are in order of how useful I find them:
Audiobooks - this is an easy one because all you have to do is lie in bed. I listened to Harry Potter in French, and since I’ve read the books about 100 times in English, I could follow the story fairly well, meaning I didn’t have to understand everything to know the general storyline.
TV - initially I added French subtitles to everything I watched. As I progressed, I switched to French speakers with English subtitles and finally all French. I found this to be an exemplary technique as it makes sitting on the sofa while watching Netflix a productive activity! Probably one of the biggest changes on this list, try to convert to your target language asap. One of my first steps was to rewatch shows in French so I could keep up with the story (similar to my audiobook point), massively beneficial as TV becomes incredibly boring if you don’t have a clue what’s going on.
Phone - we all scroll through Instagram for hours every day so why not make it productive by changing your phone to your target language. This is very easy to do but can make online banking a challenge……
Duolingo - fairly self-explanatory but having a streak is an addictive way to do 5 mins per day. Personally, I’m not convinced the app is very useful, but I spend 10 ish minutes every morning using Duolingo on my laptop. It’s my main vocab learning tool, so I invested in the paid plan for unlimited hearts - absolutely not necessary but spending £60 for my whole year of French education was worth it for me. I think it can be a great tool if used correctly - my number 1 tip is to skip as many levels as possibly (using google translate where you have to) to put yourself at a level that’s challenging. Before this I was moving through the lessons on autopilot and learning very little, whereas I needed it to become an active learning technique. Duolingo is my only active learning technique so it’s my main source of grammar and vocab. I think it can be useful but must be used in conjunction with other more immersive techniques on this list.
Podcasts - this one is tricky. I spent a lot of time listening to Coffee Break French and the Duolingo French Podcast which were really useful, but weren’t exactly easy solutions - it requires a lot of willpower to listen to a story that could’ve been written by a 5-year-old. The problem with podcasts for learning language is they all tend to be quite boring….. Now that I'm more advanced I much prefer listening to a French news channel as it’s something I would want to listen to in English. This one isn’t for everyone but if you have a lot of time to listen to podcasts it’s not a bad option.
Travel - might be stating the obvious here but visit a country that speaks the language you want to learn. Staying with a French family and realising how hard it can be to make yourself understood was crucial to my advancement and confidence in French, although the main reason I think this is so critical is it’s the whole point! The fun of a language is ACTUALLY speaking it so go make use of your skill. Being able to visit France and have a conversation is what keeps me motivated when in the UK. The only reason this isn’t at the top of the list is I’m assuming the average person can’t just up and move themselves to another country…. if you can, I’m jealous.
Books - this is a similar idea to audiobooks that just requires a higher language standard to attempt. I grew up reading Tintin comics so bought some in French, they have pictures, and the vocab isn’t too complicated so were a good starting point. For the moment I haven’t progressed beyond Tintin, but I do have French E.T. to read when I’m brave enough to attempt it.
Journal - if you’re someone who journals regularly this is a great method of incorporating written language into your routine. I’m not a massive journaler but I know people this has worked well for.
These are all just suggestions, but the key idea is: What do you already do that you could introduce another language to? For any of you who’ve read Atomic Habits by James Clear this technique is called Habit Stacking (where you introduce a new activity with a pre-existing habit) and it has been influential in my ability to stick to a French learning routine.
Once you build consistency, motivation and progress snowball from there. Build yourself a system that immerses you your language every day - the goal: make it impossible to fail.
Why This Approach is Best
It’s unlikely this strategy will make you fluent in a week (unless you’re doing multiple hours per day) but it will allow you to consistently improve around a busy schedule. I’ve tried to study French through textbooks and practice questions, and for me it completely defeats the point of learning a language - to communicate - not to mention it being incredibly boring and I never stick to any semblance of consistency. The whole philosophy of my approach is to surround myself with French so I can almost learn it through osmosis.
I believe Habit Stacking French make fluency attainable around a busy schedule, not to mention it being a much more fun learning process. I’ve learnt much more useful French this way, particularly my listening and speaking abilities (the only two that actually matter for having a conversation!), and hopefully this approach will simplify and enhance your language learning journey.
Jake
