The journey: Best methods to learn/maintain a language.
Most of us had a second language at school and...I don't know about you but as for me, I have some issues recalling 90% of what I learned in that language class. It wasn't because of my teacher or the school or any of that, I just haven't been using the language consistently after those lessons stopped. This post will give you some tips that we at MEND Education have found to be the best ways to maintain our language or even to learn new languages, skills or subjects.
Language learning:
It's very important that you decide what your learning goal is. Why have you decided to learn this language? How does it fit into your future plan? What function do you want it to have in your daily life? Will it help you with future employment and how/why? These are all questions that can help you figure out the real reason why you have started this language learning journey. Secondly, it's important to find the most used or the list of common basic words used in the language. The reason for this is so that your brain can start recognising some words or sounds in the language you aim to learn. Even if the language you want to learn uses the same basic letters the way they pronounce the sounds with the letters will be slightly different to what your ears are used to. Thirdly, its great to find interactive tools such as *Duolingo, Flashcard Languages App, +Babbel, Memrise, and Rosetta Stone, to mention only a few. Based on how you learn you might choose any one of these apps as your preference. Fourth it is important to use what you have learned an know daily. This can be done through the use of interactive apps where you can also chat to people, such as on HelloTalk. You can also try to keep a written or voice diary using your language so that you can use and find new words. Fifth is real life practice. This connects with number four where you try to jump on opportunities to use the language in real life situations. Try to make a friend who speaks the language you want to learn. If something at work or school comes up, try to take part. Sixth, try to find out more about the related culture where they use the language or where you want to visit. This will give you and idea of the people's way of thinking and give some insight into their way of using the language. Seventh, try to find ways to test yourself. You can either choose to enter for formal tests, such as IELTS, or you can choose the more informal route of app quizzes which can be shared to your social media accounts. Both of these methods are very motivational and can help you keep momentum if you prefer seeing your progress in a graded format. Last but not least, HAVE FUN! This is so important because everything in life is learned faster when having fun doing it. Try to laugh at your mistakes or find funny ways to express yourself which could help you remember challenging words.
Skill learning:
Here it is still very important to set your learning goal. So you can ask yourself: Why have I decided to learn this skill? How does it fit into my future plan? What function do I want it to have in my daily life? Will it help me with future employment and how/why? How much time can I spend on this new skill? Is this skill important enough for me to prioritise over other distractions and how? The second part to learning skills is then to learn the skill related vocabulary. This is an activity that happens as you progress through the learning progress so you will not necessarily start out with a word list, but it's useful to BUILD your own vocabulary list. Doing this from the start will help you to effectively market this new skill in your CV or social media posts later on. The flashcard tools will also be extremely useful. On the flashcards we suggest that you add a picture or description of how you understand the new skill concept on the one side and then the skill implementation on the other side so that you create situational links for the skill applications. Going through your flashcards and notes daily for 5-10minutes will also help your mind to draw parallels and conclusions between the new concepts of the skill and any existing knowledge you already have. This is like your brain making an idea baby or as others would call it "the lightbulb moment". With your new skill learning as you progress through the program make sure to implement every new section as soon as possible, SO WHAT if it's not perfect, that's all a part of the fun! This real life practice will actually help you speed up acquiring and mastering this new skill. Take it out of the theory and implement it as soon as possible! This will test your skill, show you any gaps that you might not yet understand and it will be fun to challenge yourself by trying to show daily improvement.
Learning subjects are therefore a combination between language learning tactics and skill learning tactics. When subjects are your focus your thinking will shift between the two methods for learning as discussed above. The importance is always setting and measuring your goal but the rest of the methods are fluid and interchangeable.
Find your best study method in the next MEND Education blog post so that you can reach for the stars and achieve your goals!
You've got this. You are smart enough. You have what it takes!
*none of the links in this blog are sponsored but suggested as per the research completed by MEND Education
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