Mutsumi no

How I Learn Languages

I've been learning languages by myself since I was a teenager and I've tried a variety of different approaches. I have an idea of what works for me but I also enjoy trying different activities, and some languages require different approaches.

Learning a language requires so many different skills to be a well-rounded user. If you use limited activities and approaches you'll end up with unbalanced results, e.g. great at understanding but unable to speak. A learning approach might also work for one person but not another. Someone who has learned multiple languages for several years might be comfortable with native materials straight away and figure out things without any instruction, but someone learning their first foreign language will need a slower approach and more instruction due to that lack of built-in experience. Basically, use your common sense and don't take anyone's word as gospel.

  1. Use a variety of learning materials
  2. Engage with native materials
  3. Use the language actively
  4. Keep motivated

Use a variety of learning materials

This is my first step when I start learning a language. I primarily use learning materials for a few weeks to a few months to give myself a good basis before adding native content. They really help make your journey easier. Rather than jumping in at the deep end, I take advantage of the expertise of professionals who've studied language teaching and can guide me through a curriculum focusing on the most important things for beginners to learn. Although there are some resources that are "one-stop shops" for everything, most of them are better for different areas, and for this reason I use multiple resources.

There are four different skills for using a language: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. As well as this, there are supplementary knowledge areas/skills that are also important: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, writing systems. I'll give a brief overview of how and what I use to improve these skills.

General resources

First off, get yourself a general language course book/textbook, or take classes. If you're unsure, these are the best starting points and will have a more general approach focusing on many different skills. Use them as your main learning resource, and supplement with other materials that target areas you feel you are lacking in.

Generally, although I've found classes helpful, I often struggle to attend them regularly. Personally, my favourite type of classes are intensive short courses, where I incorporate 2-3 hours of classes daily with a holiday abroad. This way I can learn at an accelerated rate, I have all the time, I can practise the language outside of class, and I can hang out with classmates who have similar interests.

I haven't used private tutors much due to the expense but they are incredibly useful.

Textbooks
Textbooks can be used for self-study. You can either use one written in your native language (some examples in English are 'Teach Yourself X', 'Routledge Colloquial X') or one written solely in the target language. A monolingual textbook is usually not appropriate for complete beginners, unless it's a language close to one you already speak, or you have resources like a native speaker/teacher to guide you.

When choosing a textbook read carefully through the reviews. Even textbooks from the same language company can vary a lot depending on the author. Watch out for AI written books. You want a book that has been carefully written by someone with experience and tested with students, not something that an amateur plugged into ChatGPT. Signs of AI are authors without bios or relevant experience, who have published many different books in multiple languages in a short period of time. Look instead for books from established publishers, books that are used in actual educational settings like classes, or books written by specialists who have many years of experience.

Take a look at textbook content and see if you like it. Does it feature lots of varied exercises? One type of exercise can get boring and will only improve particular skills. For instance, multiple choice questions will help your recognition of words, but it won't help you recall the word when you need it such as in conversation. Another thing to look for is supplementary materials such as videos, interactive exercises, flashcards etc, which can be helpful for revising and making things stick in your memory.

In terms of how to use a textbook, they often come with instructions and you can just work through page by page. Some other ways I like to use them are:

Reading

Reading is perhaps one of the easier language skills to pick up, excepting languages with orthographic writing systems like Chinese. You can read at your own pace and take your time, rereading and going back to previous words. There's usually no urgent need to understand right away which takes away the pressure. There's also less ambiguity, unless you're reading something handwritten. Reading is a passive skill and you will be able to understand things that you wouldn't be able to reproduce yourself if asked.

Graded readers are a great resource, especially for beginners who can't tackle native books yet. They have a limited vocabulary and basic grammar, and use repetition to great effect. Depending on the book they may also have vocabulary lists, line by line translation, exercises, and audio. The author needs not just to teach well, but also write well. A boring story can make it feel like a chore. Pick a story that is engaging and interesting enough that you will be able to read and listen to it multiple times.

When I use graded readers I treat it more like fun than serious study. I usually read through one time quickly without looking up words to get a general idea of the story, then I go back and read a little more closely, using the vocabulary lists or translation to help. Sometimes I'll look up words in a dictionary that reappear or that are really affecting my understanding. If there is audio I listen to it when I'm walking or in the shower, or I listen while reading along. Depending on how difficult the book is, I might read it just once, or multiple times.

Assimil is a series of textbooks from a French company, and although it's marketed as a general coursebook, I use it for improving my passive reading and listening skills. Unlike other textbooks it doesn't feature a lot of exercises. Instead it has 100 dialogues of graded difficulty, intended to be worked through one a day. Basically, it can be used as a graded reader that takes you from A1 to B2. I used these instructions to work through the book at around 30 mins per day, and the sheer repetition was really helpful for improving my listening and reading skills. The books slowly introduces more and more complex grammar, and has nice explanations, but due to the lack of exercises I found I was good at recognising and understanding grammar, but not necessarily at using it. The dialogues are also often quite funny and quirky, which made me look forward to doing the lessons, but this does vary depending on the authors so check reviews.

Listening

This is one of the harder skills for beginners. Native speakers will sound too fast to understand, and they will slur and join words together. Learning resources will be clearer and slower and will gradually step up in difficulty to train your ears.

Podcasts for learners are a great resource and easy to slot into your day. You can listen while commuting, going for a walk, in the shower, while doing chores etc. It varies depending on the podcast but they will usually be one of two types: Lessons, or simplified speech.

Some lesson podcasts structure themselves like a textbook, with a dialogue, translation, vocabulary and grammar explanations, or a private tutor coaching a student. Languagepod101 is a textbook type podcast, and one that I used extensively with Japanese. I found it useful and especially liked the difficulty progression between levels, e.g. the beginner podcasts used mostly English, the hosts in the intermediate podcasts would speak Japanese then translate the sentence afterwards, and the advanced podcasts used only Japanese to explain concepts. However, they weren't as well structured as a textbook and lessons wouldn't build upon previous lessons. It was best just the listen to lessons you were interested in and use it as listening practice rather than a resource for learning in a comprehensive way.

Other lesson podcasts are in the style of a private tutor. An example is the Coffee Break podcasts. A beginner student learns along with you as the host teaches and encourages you to repeat. It's really nice and non-intimidating, especially for inexperienced learners.

Simplified speech podcasts only use the target language. The hosts will read a monologue, conduct an interview, read a story, have a conversation etc. but speak slower, clearer, use simpler speech, and give explanations in order to help the listeners understand. Sometimes they will have transcripts or vocabulary lists. These podcasts are really good for students who are in that awkward intermediate stage where beginner audio feels too easy, but native audio is too difficult.

Assimil
I've already covered Assimil in the reading section but it is also really good for listening. The majority of the lessons are dialogues so are useful for speech. You can work through it as a textbook but these 100 lessons can also be used on their own to practice listening when you don't have time to sit down with the book. Revisiting lessons is really important to the Assimil approach, so you can use the audio by listening to previous lessons and checking your comprehension skills.

Listening specific workbooks, e.g. for exams
Many major languages have their own listening-specific workbooks, with lots of graded audio and exercises. Often these are designed for preparing for language exams and will contain exercises you will find in the exams. However, they are also really useful for improving your listening skills in general, as the content is often very practical and designed for immigrants needing language skills for daily life and work. You can also buy workbooks for your specific skill and work through the different levels. The best place to buy these workbooks is abroad in the country, from bookshop websites for that country, or from educational publishers that specialise in that language.

Lessons using native materials
Learner materials usually use content that is written for the learner, and as such, will be simpler than content made for native speakers. If you exclusively use learner materials you'll be unprepared for the real world. To help bridge that gap you can use lessons that teach using native materials. These lessons will present short clips or extracts that are taken from TV, the radio, newspaper etc, to teach relevant grammar and vocabulary for the learner. These are really good to supplement a coursebook, as you can get used to the fast, slurred, abbreviated way native speakers really communicate, and use learner tools like translations and transcripts to fully understand it. These resources are best for when you have a good base in the language and are ready to move on from beginner tools.

The app Lectia and the website NFLC Portal are both from the National Foreign Language Center of the University of Maryland and have hundreds of lessons for many languages. They are often used for US military personnel training to pass language exams. The US military has its own website with similar lessons - GLOSS DLI. These lessons can be difficult but you aren't meant to understand them first try. Listen/read multiple times, read the explanations, go through the exercises and then return to the audio/text to see how your comprehension has improved. Doing these type of lessons will help you understand real world content better.

Writing

Writing is something that is best done with a teacher, as you really need someone to correct your text. Private tutors can be employed just to correct texts you send them without doing scheduled lessons. Or you might have a language exchange partner or a friend who will correct your texts, however they may not have the teaching skills to give explanations of your errors.

You can use writing workbooks if available (these are often monolingual and designed for passing exams), work through the exercises and have your example texts corrected. If you don't have anyone to correct your texts you will still get value out of these workbooks, which often explain how to structure texts like letters or essays, and explain useful vocabulary.

Practising by yourself can also be useful for cementing things in your mind. You could try writing short diary entries in your target language, or just write sentences that use language points that you've recently learned.

Speaking

This is an skill that I always make sure to focus on when resources are available. It's an active skill that involves recall, and resources that purely test your recognition will not help (e.g. through exercises that involve picking the correct word out of 4 examples or rearranging words to form a sentence). A learner can do great understanding a dialogue about ordering at a restaurant and select all the right answers, but when the time comes to use the language in real life they can't remember what to say. They need to actually practise speaking out loud. Reading out loud helps a little bit but it doesn't test your recall. For that, you can use some specific courses, or practice with a teacher.

Pimsleur
Pimsleur is an audio-based course with 30 minute lessons. It introduces a little of the language each lesson, then tests you by asking you to translate a simple English sentence. There is a time limit of several seconds where you need to speak out loud, then you will hear the correct answer and can repeat. It's a very active method that needs the learner to pay attention and can be quite difficult. But the course is training you to be prepared in real life, to be able to communicate within the limited amount of time you have. If you get through at least 30 lessons you'll be able to make yourself understood when going on holiday in a foreign country, which is pretty impressive for only 15 hours.

As the lessons can be hard work and boring I like to listen to a Pimsleur lesson when I'm doing something else, such as a chore that doesn't require my brain like doing the dishes. Some people do a lesson while walking or driving. Pimsleur is quite pricy to purchase but it's also available through app subscription now, which works out to a reasonable price if you can get through one lesson a day.

Audio-Lingual method - FSI/DLI
The Audio-Lingual method is an older language learning approach from the 50s and was used extensively to train diplomats and military personnel in the US. It focuses on making your language use automatic, which it does through many audio exercises. The courses are very thorough but are very hard work, boring and often uses out-dated language. However, a major plus is that many of the courses are available for free at Yojik.

If you commit yourself to this course you will reach a very good level, especially in speaking. Some people who have completed these courses feel like they can speak without even needing to think. The courses focus on details that many other courses skip over, such as differences in very similar sounds or grammar points, and will test you over and over until you know it by heart. If you don't want to use it as your main course, you can selectively use it for things that you aren't confident in, and take advantage of the ample exercises to solidify your understanding.

The Michel Thomas/Paul Noble/Language Transfer courses are also good for speaking but I will cover them in more detail in the grammar section below.

Grammar

Grammar workbooks

Michel Thomas/Paul Noble/Language Transfer

Interactive grammar drills

Vocabulary

Flashcards

Hidden Object games

Pronunciation

Mouth positioning

Minimal pair exercises

FSI/DLI

Writing Systems

Mnemonics

Writing and reading activities

Engage with native materials

Intensive

Extensive

Use the language actively

Language exchange partners

Conversation groups

Keep a diary

Keep motivated

Keep a language journal

Set a deadline or schedule a reward. Sign up for a language test. Book a holiday months in advance.

Make goals for yourself and check in to see your progress.

Make the language part of your everyday life.