Tips for Learning a Foreign Language

• Learning a Foreign Language the Easy Way
  
• 7 Secrets to Learning a Foreign Language
  
• Learning a New Language is Child's Play!
  
• Related Links on Language Learning & Working in Foreign Cultures
  

When I was in High School, I took French for 4 years. Then I went to University and continued taking French for 3 more years. I got to the level of Advanced French Grammar, but failed it 3 times. I was unable to master the language at that point, no matter how much I studied or listened to tapes.

Why? Because I had never spent any time in a French environment, heard it spoken on a daily basis, or used it myself. A language cannot be learned as an academic exercise. So I didn't really know all those little exceptions to the rules, that you pick up when you hear a language spoken every day, and your ear becomes accustomed to the phrasing. That ended my aspirations to be a French teacher.

About 10 years later, still feeling a bit miffed by that experience, I was in a position to take a French Immersion course, and live in a French environment for 4 weeks. I decided to take the plunge.

Wow, it was such a treat, so enjoyable, because I was experiencing the joy of learning a language the way it should be learned, by hearing it spoken, and interacting with real people in real-life situations!

I discovered that I have an ear for accents, and I quickly picked up the accent of the French speakers around me. At the end of the program, we were taken on a Bus Trip, and I distinctly remember a French woman sitting next to me on the bus, who started arguing with me saying she couldn't understand why I was in the French Immersion program, since I obviously spoke perfect French. She actually didn't believe I was English, which I found hard to believe. I still wonder if she was kidding. But she said it all with a straight face, and acted disgusted when I didn't agree with her.

She didn't know English and so she didn't understand me, when I tried to prove I could speak English to her. It was a backhanded compliment, that brings a smile to my face now. It goes to show what a little time immersed in a foreign language can do.

All the formal language instruction, that I had acquired in school kicked in, as I heard the language being used all around me, and my ear quickly became attuned to the sound of the spoken language. La Voila! If only I had had access to a French immersion course when I was in university.

When you go overseas to a culture where another language is being used, you will be immersing yourself in that language. It will be spoken all around you, in the stores, on television. Wherever you go, you'll see signs and reading material in that language.

You may find yourself overloaded at times, but within 3 months you will begin to recognize phrases that make sense to you. Within a year, you will be able to get along in that language, to understand what they are saying, and to make yourself understood. I promise you, it won't take you anywhere near 7 years to start speaking that language fluently.

1. Begin Immediately
   As soon as you arrive, look for ways to learn the new language. Look at the billboards, the ads in the train stations, the signs every where you go.

   Be humble, don't let your fear take over. Use the language every chance you get. They will all find your efforts to learn their language delightful. When you are in a store, or in a group of people, try using the phrases you hear.

2. Give yourself permission to make mistakes
   You are learning a new language.

3. Immerse Yourself
   Focus on the social interactions you have with everyone around you. That's how kids pick up a new language - they start using it immediately.
   

   Use it in the marketplace, at social events. Talk to everyone you meet. If you try to say something, others will suggest words and you'll soon expand your vocabulary, because you'll remember the situations you heard it being used in.
   

   These repetitive situations, have visual cues, sound, emotions, and social impact. These associations all work to help you remember.

4. Listen carefully
   At first, you won't understand anything you hear, but don't tune out. Study the facial expressions and gestures and listen for familiar phrases. After a while, you'll begin to catch the general idea of what's being said.




5. Carry a notepad around with you
   Record words and phrases that you want to remember. Start with the commonest phrases and greetings and keep adding everyday




6. Label every item in your house in the new language.




7. Enroll in a language class. This will give you the basics? You'll find it very helpful. Taking a class while being immersed in the language, will make it so much easier to pick up the rules of grammar.

Once you know one language, learning another one doesn't seem to take so long. That's why so many people speak several languages.

You don't have to be brilliantly smart to learn a foreign language. You just need to relax, forget your fear of making mistakes and dive in, practicing it every chance you get. That's what kids do.

The easiest languages are those with the same alphabet and roots as your own. For example, English, Afrikaans, Dutch and German are very similar.

The Romance languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese have a Latin Base. Knowing one of these will make it easier to learn the others.