In my free time, I enjoy learning languages and my goal is to speak 5 languages fluently (Portuguese, English, French, Spanish and Arabic).
So far I have an advanced level of English, an intermediate/high level of french (currently doing a course with Alliance Française Viseu), a basic level of Spanish and I know how to introduce myself in Arabic).
Below are my tips to learn a new language!
My 14 tips to learn a new language
1) Play games online (soup letters, crosswords, quizzes, etc)
2) Do karaoke (it’s super fun and you will learn new words and verb conjugation If you pay attention to the lyrics)
3) Watch, read and listen to the news (as time goes by you will notice that you will understand more and more when someone speaks the language that you are learning)
4) Listen to podcasts (Duolingo has easy-to-understand podcasts and you can also find lots of them on Spotify)
5) Follow youtube channels about subjects you like or follow teachers (you can watch 10-minute videos about grammar subjects for example)
6) Follow Instagram pages that teach the language you’re learning (we all scroll down on Instagram so why not do this?)
7) Learn a subject with Quizlet (this is a teaching platform that helps you revise a subject you’re studying)
8) Watch series, movies and cartoons with subtitles in the language you’re learning
9) Write down your day in a notebook and ask a native to correct it
10) Speak with natives at every opportunity you have and don’t be afraid to say wrong things (you can install an app called tandem, which gives you the possibility to speak with natives).
11) Read as much as you can (read the news, blogs, magazines, books, etc. It’s easier to read on a topic you like).
12) Do dictations to improve your writing
13) Live abroad (the best way to be fluent in a language is to live abroad since you will be in constant contact with the language; this is someone I still didn’t do)
14) Do an internship abroad in another country
Applications and platforms that I use:
- Duolingo (it is a great application to start learning a language, but when you start to reach a certain level it is not the best).
- Tandem (to speak with natives).
- Google translate
- DeepL Translate
- Drops (visual language learning – learn new words with images)
- Speak Social (I did a French conversational course and a basic Arabic course with Speak Social and I really enjoyed it)
- Conjugueur Le Figaro (for conjugation of french verbs)
- TV5Monde – Apprendre Le Français
Did you like my tips? Do you use any of them? Do you have more tips that work for you?