And what you can do to change that
Learning languages is very intimidating for most people because it reminds us of a version of ourselves that tried something and failed. Tried year after year, and yet still can barely say ONE grammatically correct sentence in Spanish with a suave tongue. We blame the teacher we hated, or the lack of care we had to retain such unnecessary knowledge, or our fading memories. While all of these factors indeed play a role, I believe there is one major reason that most of us have not learned a second language: the curriculum was garbage.
Your Spanish teacher invites you into the classroom to sit down, you get out your #2 pencil and notebook ready to take on her challenges, ready to learn a list of vocab words. Here we go. “Today we will learn about a war in Spain that happened 500 years ago”. *Face Palm*
Or she assigns a 2 week long project where your brain power is focused on the history of a specific province. You get my point. This is not language learning. This might as well be a class thats secret goal is to subconsciously train you to do anything but “the work”. To procrastinate on solving real problems, because the supervisor demands your time and energy be focused on nonsense.
No wonder we only speak english. Why is it “easier” for everyone around the world to learn english? Maybe english is easy to learn, and all the others are hard. No, actually, english is one of the hardest languages to learn. What?! Then how? how could it be that so many people learn it?
Well the answer is simple – in the classroom they focus on communication. The class speaks the language in discussions, and they have reading and writing assignments. The point is, there is a true focus on the language itself, not the history of the people who speak that language.
This is also due to the necessity to learn english that many people around the world feel. So if you’re going to learn a language it’s crucial that you have a good reason to, and a deep interest. More on that later.
Additionally, it’s largely a waste of time to learn grammar. Think of a little girl you know that mixes up “he/him/her/she”. “Him is tired” she says. An elder corrects her, “We say HE is tired” but the little girl doesn’t really absorb that info and for the next few months continues to confuse these pronouns. But thats exactly why theres no need to correct her in the first place, she will learn it the right way eventually, through immersion. No adults make that sort of grammatical error, because being immersed in a language is the best way to learn grammar.
This might not be fun news for people out there who feel frustrated with their low level of a language, but fear not – theres things you can do about it.
- Move to a country for 3 months, and try to immerse yourself in the language. Avoid english speaking circles. Make friends with a native who speaks not so great english and is willing to bring you into their life, events, parties, sitting around a fire – with all other natives. The first month you might sit there and listen quietly, but by month two you will be laughing with them at the in-jokes they share. It’s an amazing feeling.
- Not ready to pull the plug and move to Spain? Utilize the internet to immerse yourself. italki.com is a platform that connects you to native speakers around the world. you’ll be pleasantly surprised to pay the mere 10$/hr to speak with somebody due to the currency exchange. (maybe more than 10$ for Spain, but you get my point)
- The last suggestion I have for immersing yourself in another language is to listen to the radio. TuneIn.com will bring live radio from anywhere in the world for FREE to your ears. And watch TV shows in another language with said languages’ subtitles. You’ll get the most out of this if you rewatch episodes again and again. pick a show you like.
Pro Tip
While physically in another country do your best to avoid speaking english. Many people will try to use YOU to help them better their english. Even if their english is good and they keep speaking english to you, it’s so important to only speak the language that you want to learn back to them. It’s easiest to control when the friends you make speak little english.
Ok so now that we understand that immersion is the most time and cost effective way to learn a language, I want to leave you with some inspiring, jaw dropping statistics, as well as one additional tip to get the ball rolling.
If you’ve gotten this far but it still feels like an uphill battle to learn all the words, grammar and slang of a new language, you’re not alone. But lets turn down the flame with this fact right here: Only 300 words make up 65% of all written text in most languages! Even better – 25 most common written words make up 1/3 of all printed material in english. These facts are more or less true for other languages as well.
How to start learning a new language
- Learn the cognates. ex:
- University (english)– Universidad (spanish)
- There are so many words in every language that you already know, start here to boost confidence and grow your vocabulary rapidly. It will improve your reading, writing, and spelling too.
- Consume media content of interest to you. My personal favorite is music. Often, the lyrics are available. When you stumble across words unknown you can copy paste into google translate. This helped me learn Hebrew rapidly due to the vocab repetition and grammatical conjugations (I am doing something, he will do something, we did something etc).
- Tv shows and radio are great ways to immerse but sometimes the speed can be frustrating. Thats why I like music. it can be paused, its content I enjoy, and it is short. so you can learn a lot in an hour with one song.
- Immerse yourself by finding a native speaker. This can be helpful for any level learner and creates a framework to study in with a set time, price, and accountability partner.
- Focus your vocabulary in a subject interest to you. Are you moving to Portugal for the surf? Italy for archeology? Argentina for the trekking? Brazil for the Jiu-Jitsu? Focus here.
Learning a language is not a game of memorizing as many words you possibly can and then hopefully stringing them together. Grammar is the core connector of the words. It is the foundation. Immersion is the key to success. The reason I have “learn the cognates” as rule number one is because it’s a very easy place to start and I don’t want you to give up from any initial resistance.
Play around with the cognates, then begin communicating with a native.
Good luck!
AL
ALooks Almanac 
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