How To-5: How to Learn Any Language

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Learning a new language can be tough, and takes a lot of time and effort. However, learning a language can be dramatically simplified by following a few basic steps.

Steps

Study the pronunciation of the language first. Practice the most difficult sounds with repetitive drills daily until you are confident. Practice the most common words and short phrases. Check your pronunciation with an educated speaker.
Practice the native intonation, stess, and rhythm of common, short social sentences and social questions next (example: "Hi, How are you?" "Where is the restuarant?", etc). Try to imitate educated native speakers. Begin by listening carefully to a repeated phrase 5 to 10 times. Use audio and video to help you. Then, try saying the phrase correctly. If possible, ask educated native speakers to correct you and record correct phrases of pronunication. Repeat each of the phrases 50 times or more if needed. Many langauge students get into bad pronunciation habits that are difficult to break. Bad pronunciation will cause confusion and misunderstanding. Be patient and diligent with this early pronunciation drill as you will be rewarded with a near-native accent.
Get audio books in the language you wish to learn. Choose a popular audio book in a subject that interests you. This will help your listening skills.
Get a quality dictionary of the language you wish to learn. When you encounter a new word, highlight it in the dictionary. Then, copy the word, definition, and an example sentence using the word into a notebook. Then, study the notebook. This activity helps you think in the language.
Get a quality translation dictionary which translates from your native language to the one you wish to learn. Use this only as a back up in case you don't understand the definitions in the native language dictionary.
Getting a picture dictionary is helpful for learning common nouns.
Get several classic, well-known literary works in the language you wish to learn, such as plays, short stories, or novels. These works should be written by a native writer (not translated into that language). For example, if you wish to learn French, read works by Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, etc.
Get popular magazines or newspapers in the language you wish to learn. If magazines, get a topic in which you are interested. Magazines are a good way to learn common idioms in context.
Spend some time reviewing the grammar and essential parts of speech of your native language. This will help you jump-start your study of the language you wish to learn.
Get a book on idioms, proverbs, and expressions used in the language you wish to learn.
Get teacher's copies of gradeschool and highschool textbooks in the language you wish to learn (ensure they include answer keys).
Pay an educated native speaker to tutor you through one-on-one conversation practice. This is an immersion technique. This is best done after you've become more familiar with the language and at at least "low to intermediate" level. Conversation Tutoring should be done at 100% in the language you wish to learn. Ask the tutor to help you with pronunciation and conversational grammar. Record the sessions if possible and take notes.
Pay an educated native speaker to record readings of books or magazines in the language you wish to learn. Ask them to make one reading slowly, and the next reading at normal pace. This will help with listening practice.
Listen to news broadcasts in your target language. You can listen to live feeds free on many internet radio stations. Take notes of any words or expressions you don't understand. After the broadcast is complete, check the notes in the native language dictionary.
Enroll in a class, if possible. Classes are possibly the best way to learn a language because you are given activities to do, and you have a teacher to guide you. The teacher is also able to tell you what you are doing right and wrong. Check your local community college and see if they are offering lessons.
Visit your local library. Many libraries have an audio section with language books on tape. Check out the tape and make an effort to study 30-60 minutes a day.
Work on your vocabulary. Learn the most commonly used words first, including how the words can be used grammatically. Next learn words that will be helpful in conducting business or traveling. A simple dictionary or similar books from the local library might be helpful.
Attach labels to everything in your house/ at your desk/ etc in the language you are learning, picture/ word associations help best. Use mnemonics for vocabulary you have trouble with. You may wish to build a Memory Palace for your language.
Study the grammar. This is probably the most important part of the language besides the vocabulary. "Paul want Mary go store" is not at all correct English, and sounds very unintelligent. If you do not pay attention to grammar, you can sound equally incomprehensible in another language. Practicing verb conjugation is essential. Ensure you know how to express questions, affirmative and negative statements in the past, present and future using the 20 most common regular and irregular verbs.
Learn the orthography. The orthography is the written language. Countless other languages do not use the Latin script (which is what English uses), and you may need to study their writing in order to become literate. For example, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, Chinese uses various ideographs, and Thai uses its own script. Many of these scripts do not resemble our alphabet at all, and will require a lot of adjusting to. In languages that do use a Latin script, pay attention to accents, diacritics, and letters which are pronounced differently than their English counterparts. Leaving out a diacritic can amount to misspelling a word and in some cases, it may even change the meaning; also, pronouncing a word incorrectly will almost certainly confuse whoever you are talking with.
Educate yourself in the cultural aspect of the language. This is very important if you do not want to come across as rude to the other person. For example, in parts of Europe, it is customary to kiss the other person's cheek when greeting, while in America, this would be considered awkward. Often the cultural context will inform you of why certain language elements are used and will assist your learning process.
Start to find good channels to practice with. This is necessary to get good at the language. Watch a lot of movies in the language with or without subtitles, read a newspaper in the language, or listen to music in that language. Are there a lot of people in your community who speak the language you want to learn? If so, ask one of them to help you with learning their language. If not, get online and look for somebody. This will give you the great opportunity of being critiqued and taught by a native speaker, and you can often return the favor.
Practice! Do not hesitate to speak the language in public and with native speakers. It will be helpful in improving your mastery. Also, don't be ashamed to allow other people to correct you if you pronounce something wrong. No one knows everything. Welcome some constructive criticism. Test your knowledge at every social occasion you have. Good Luck!

Tips

Focus your time: During your first 50 class-hours studying a language, spend Approximately 50% of the time practicing pronunciation and intonation, 20% learning the 250 most common vocabulary words, 20% in listening practice, and 10% in grammar. After this, spend 40% in conversation practice, 20% studying written and conversational grammar, and 10% learning new idioms and vocabulary, 10% pronunication practice, 10% composing letters, emails and notes, and 10% listening to radio or watching television in your target language.
If possible travel to the country where the language is originated. For example, if you are interested in learning French, take a trip to France. By doing that, you put yourself in an uncomfortable environment where you have to survive for that few days. When you aren't able to use English, you must speak the language to get to where and what you want.
Quiz yourself from time to time. Don't continue to drill and study what you are confident in, move on to new things.
Associate with children who speak the language. Children tend not to be shy around people who do not speak their language and do not mind repeating themselves. Children also like to help you learn. If you are a child learning, get a pen pal and share your thoughts in the other language.
If you need help with your accent, try listening to music in the language you're learning. Those who learn languages with music tend to have much better accents than those who don't. Television shows are also helpful because sometimes music can be hard to understand and mimic. Choose a favorite actor and copy his or her speech style.
Ask someone you know who speaks the language to say common phrases or read you a passage or short story and send it to you as a .wav or .mp3 file, so that you can play it when you're doing things around the house. In this way, you can "absorb" key phrases and grammar structures effortlessly.
If you want to get better at speaking any language, force yourself to think in that language.
A conversation partner or pen-pal can be an indispensable guide to the culture as well as the language. Keep an open mind and a sense of humor, and be respectful of what you learn.
Another useful trick if you want to learn a language in the shortest possible time, is to learn the first 2500 most frequently used words of that language.
Learn to express yourself in the most direct, simple way first. Learn how to ask polite questions so you can satisfy your basic communication needs first.
Some language educators believe the truest test of fluency is to be able to be able to order a pizza by delivery in your target language, have a friendly exchange with the driver when it arrives at your door, and if your food isn't correct, be able to call back and rectify the situation. This test requires you to have good listening skils, learn local phone ettiquette, use idiomatic expressions, understand questions, ask questions, give directions, make a transaction, have polite conversation, and express disatisfaction. If you're confident that you can do this with few significant pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary errors, then you've probably achieved a decent level of fluency.
If you are under the age of 13, try using "Muzzy". It is extremely helpful.
While all the above tips and recommendations are accurate and well tested, a somewhat different approach is offered in this article on "Accent Addition" [1] (as opposed to "Accent Reduction"). This is for those who dare challenge the common myth that adult learners will by necessity end up with a sub-optimal version of the language they are learning. The author insists that it is indeed possible for adults to obtain a near-native-like accent. It's not another instant snake-oil commercial product, but a method that entails a lot of work and dedication on the part of the learner. But the principles are simple enough and can be practiced by anyone with a guaranteed better-than-expected result.

Warnings

You might be discouraged along the way but remember, nothing comes easy. Just remember what got you interested in learning the language.
When learning certain languages, such as Chinese or Vietnamese, you need to pay attention to tones. Be sure to use the right tone so that you don't unintentionally insult someone. Tonal languages are one of the most difficult for English-speakers to master.
Don't spend too much time with academic grammar and only learning from books. While those are valuable for perfection, many students find conversational, social communication extremely difficult.

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Sources and Citations

Conversation Exchange, a website that matches up conversation partners and pen pals.

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Thursday, May 29, 2008