Reyna’s tips on learning a language by yourself
Before we start, let me just say that all these things are tips and suggestions, NOT a sequential To-Do List. You can pick and choose what to do from here, but I STRONGLY recomend doing at least one thing from each category (reading, writing, speaking, listening). Some things might work for some people, some might not. I’ve tried to include as many tips I could think of, many of which have helped me. If you have some tips that I don’t have here, please reblog this post and add them!
(Here you go, @estudlante!)
talk to yourself, repeat words you have a hard time pronouncing (look up pronunciations on forvo.com)
talk with native speakers! ask around on tumblr, join chatgroups, find a pen pal–just talk to someone! ask them to kindly correct your mistakes. (NB: do NOT be ashamed of mistakes, okay? You and everyone else made a million while learning your first language. It’s only natural to make them in your TL. And mistakes are good! When you make a mistake, find out what happened and adjust your speech/writing/whatever to fix that mistake. That’s how you learn.)
find a study buddy–someone who can help motivate you and practice speaking with you
watch tv (w/ subtitles in your native language at first, then switch to your target language–TL– as soon as you’re able to read in it. later on, for listening practice, turn off all subtitles)
listen to music (look up the lyrics and sing along)
watch youtube videos (of something you’re interested in, of course. look up movie reviews if you like those, or drawing tutorials, etc)
listen to the audio of a book while you read it. That way, you can practice reading AND hear how the words are pronounced all in one go
read books out loud (children’s books are great for beginners. i highly recommend reading those)
change the language settings on electronic devices
when you come to a word you don’t know, you can either (a) circle it, keep reading and try to understand it through context, and look it up later and write the definition down, or (b) look unfamiliar words up as soon as you see them and write the definition down. Either one you choose, write.that.definition.down.
write (fanfic, journal, a movie review, a summary of each chapter of the book you’re reading [can be in your TL or not], your plans for the day)
if you like to draw, draw a picture of what each vocab word represents and write the word next to it in fancy lettering
write vocab words on Post-Its and put them on things around the house, saying the word when you see the note (eg: la lampada on a lamp, los zapatos on your shoes)
start a course on Duolingo, Memrise, Babbel, etc
get chatting apps (HelloTalk and HiNative are the best things ever)
basically, just live your TL. that’s how you learned your native one, and it only makes sense to learn your TL in the same way
learn conjugations, vocab, etc
write sentences using new vocab
get a book in your reading level in your TL and copy by hand some sentences. Doing that will take your focus off of what the sentence is saying and put it on how the sentence is structured. That’ll help you in prepping your brain for constructing sentences of your own in the future.
basically, you want to understand the skeleton of the language so that you know how it works. Once you know that and vocab, making your own sentences (instead of pre-set ones from phrasebooks) will come so much easier.
make a schedule. include times to just ‘relax’ in your TL and times to ‘study’ grammar
set goals (watching one movie in your TL a week, or reading three chapters a week, or writing five sentences a day. Pick something and stick with it.)
use a reward/point system. promise yourself a treat (food, an outing, an episode of your fav tv show) after you’ve reached a reasonable goal
push yourself. Learning a new language is challenging, but very rewarding. Remind yourself frequently of the reasons you’re learning this language to motivate yourself.
Above all, have fun and don’t get discouraged! There are so many langblrs out there willing to help if you have questions or just want to talk. Happy learning!
