Useful Tips For Learning Languages

French and Spanish were my best subjects in school, so I thought I would share some tips on how to make learning languages a lot easier and fun!

Watch TV shows, Films, or YouTube videos in your chosen language

Most of the time I do use English subtitles so I know what’s going on, however, it’s good to challenge yourself sometimes. My favourite show for learning Spanish is Sin Senos Si Hay Paraiso. It is a series which follows Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso and they were both based off of the books by Gustavo Bolivar. It’s actually quite easy to follow and understand I haven’t read the books as they’re so hard to find online, and when I do find them, they’re very expensive. Another show I like which is actually mostly in English is Jane the Virgin, which like the previous show, can be found on Netflix. There are moments where the characters speak Spanish as the whole show is like a Telenovela. It may be a better starting place for beginners level, if you are learning Spanish that is.

Listen to music in the language

This is probably my favourite method because you can learn the words while listening to a catchy song! It helps me when I am practising the speed of native speakers, especially when it is a pop song. You’ll be surprised at how much you can pick up even when you’re just listening to it in the background.

Use language-learning apps

Duolingo is probably the most-used app and it also became a meme. I won’t go into it as it’s all over the internet already 🙂 I love Duolingo and it’s free to use the main features. It does give you sentences that are complete nonsense, but it’s important to have fun with your language too!

Join social media groups

There are a lot of pages that help you connect with other learners and even native speakers! I would recommend Bare Language on Facebook as it is very fun but people are genuinely serious about learning too. You can also join groupchats or Wattsapp groups.

Use textbooks even if you aren’t studying at school or university

Sometimes learning the old fashioned way is best. Working through something that isn’t on a screen may make you retain the information more, or at least that is what works well for me. You can find many of these for cheap prices on Amazon. I like to buy used books for university and I have never had a bad experience with them. Sometimes you might even find some useful annotations that the previous owner wrote!

Join a club

Yes, we might not need to join clubs in person nowadays as everything we need seems to be online. However, this is not the case when learning a language, you really need to speak to people in person. Instead of joining a club or taking a college course, you might know a native speaker of your chosen language or someone else who is learning who you could practice with.

Record yourself speaking in the language

Recording yourself and listening back to it can be very beneficial when trying to improve your accent, or even if you are taking a course and have to memorise a presentation. It’s almost like listening to a song over and over again until you know all the lyrics. This is what helped me throughout high school.

Don’t give up, even if you are finding it incredibly difficult

It can actually be nerve-racking sometimes when you have to speak out loud or have a conversation when you aren’t completely confident yet. In my university classes, we have to partner up a lot with people we don’t know. The most important thing to remember is that you are going to make a lot of mistakes, but so is the other person you are learning with. You need to make mistakes to learn, so don’t feel embarrassed if you get something wrong, it’s not supposed to be easy.

Thank you for reading! If you have any tips you’d like to share, feel free to comment down below. Tell me what your favourite language is? Mine has to be Spanish 🙂