3 STEPS TO LEARN A LANGUAGE BY YOURSELF

Learning languages is now essential for professionals and international marketers. As an individual who was self-taught 3 different languages, this article will include my recommendation which are based on my personal experiences. Now if you want to learn a foreign new language, I recommend that you test your level in that language before you engage in with a teacher.

Learning by yourself has many pros: you can decide what are your goals and you can track how are you progressing; you can create your own work schedule which fits your daily routine; and it’s a manner that forces you to put more efforts to finally see the results of your own learning process.

Now let’s jump into our topic which is the three easy steps for you to learn a language on your own!

Step 1: Online Language Site

Learning always begins with your passion to acquire that knowledge. Therefore, I highly recommend taking the initiative to learn by yourself using an online language application before asking others to help you. The first time I tried to learn Turkish via online, I used Duolingo and I loved it! That was in 2014 and today, Duolingo offers a wide range of other languages to be taught! Today, you can learn English, French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Indonesian, Dutch, Polish and even Russian!

I love their site because it is very interactive and makes learning more interesting! They don’t make you learn a lot of information at once. Instead, it breaks it down in chapters and introduces only a few vocabularies each time. Then, it tests your memory using multiple choice and fill-in-the blanks. Finally, it ends off with a listening comprehension, where you learn how the words are now used in context of a real conversation. It really is an all-in-one interactive package that makes learning fun!

Get started today and try to see if you like it!

Step 2: Find a Language Partner

Once you start to acquire some basic grammar and vocabulary, it is time for you to find someone to practice your learning outcomes with! This is really core for you because you need to practice what you have learned and to not forget it. I personally love this step of personal learning because I love to meet people from other cultures, and this step helps me kill two birds with one stone.

In my personal experience, I believe that language exchange is a great method to learn from native speakers. As an app which supports teaching someone your native tongue in exchange to practice theirs, I suggest HelloTalk which offers the opportunity to browse individuals who are keen to learn your language, and teach you their language in return. Moreover, it’s a win-win situation and you both learn something for free! For many years, I have used HelloTalk to help me find a language partner when I am in a new city. They have a ‘country’ option where you can scout for someone who is located where you currently reside in. However, if you prefer an online conversation, they can also do that too!

Tip: I suggest 20 minutes in one language and then switch to the other language for another 20 minutes.

Step 3: Practice makes Perfect!

Take some time to meet a few language partners before you decide who is going to work best for your learning style. Everyone learns differently, so it is important that you discuss what method will work for the both of you and how your exchanges are conducted. Don’t fret – it may take a while but you will find the perfect partner! And once you do, your progress will move very smoothly and quickly!

Remember, once you have a partner, you can practice both online (i.e. text messages or whatsapp) and offline (i.e. face-to-face meeting). One way that I like to practice is to try to create sentences on my own. For example, I like to (________) in my free time. Since I don’t know the word in my targeted language, I will be forced to look it up in the dictionary to complete my sentence and voila! I have learned a new word and in the context of a sentence. Therefore, I have a better memory association since I actively used it.

Your language partner will always be there for you to help you so don’t forget to send these sentences to them! They can correct you and explain to you complicated concepts. Keep doing this and overtime, I am sure you will be surprised how much you are improving!

Good luck and have fun language learning! Please let me know if these strategies worked out for you!

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