Throughout my decade of language teaching, delegates often ask me what they can do outside of our lessons to help them to learn quickly. The best answer might be to uproot their lives, move to the country where the target language is spoken, and adopt a host family, but this isn’t really feasible for most of our delegates. Instead, I put together this list of slightly more practical, everyday things you can do to level-up your language learning!
Listen to music
A truly passionate language teacher will surely share some of their favorite music with students from time to time. However, there’s no better way for a learner to engage in a little low-effort (yet high reward) extracurricular learning than to put on some music while you drive, exercise, clean your house, or relax.
If you’re learning English, this might be pretty easy, but it can be more difficult if you’re learning a more esoteric language. However, getting a catchy song stuck in your head, hearing a phrase you recognize from class, and asking your instructor about confusing or hard to understand lyrics is a sure-fire way to extend your skills!
Watch TV
Traditionally, this advice has always been to watch movies in the target language. However, with the proliferation of online streaming services, many of the newest and most critically-acclaimed stores are not on the silver screen, but on your computer or television! Additionally, TV has many advantages for language learning over films.
For one, TV shows can be taken in small bites. They only require 20 or 30 minutes a day (just before bed or on your lunch break at work). It’s not possible for most of my students to watch a feature length film everyday, but a short TV show is. Additionally, once you find a show you like, there’s likely to be many seasons (and even spinoffs) for you to get months and months of learning from! Compare that to films: even a perfect movie will only give you perhaps two hours of content.
Talk to yourself
When learning to speak Italian, one of my instructors was angry that I couldn’t yet roll my “r”s properly. She gave me some of the best advice I have ever received for language learning: she told me to go walk around my university campus repeating the difficult phoneme until I could pronounce it. A few hours later (and many strange looks) and I could finally say “That’s amore!”
I continue to do this to this day. As I walk to the store in Qatar, I ask myself how I could ask in Arabic which cabbage is the best for chicken soup. I have long monologues with myself in Georgian, practicing giving my host family updates on my life. It’s been a while since I’ve spoken to a Samoan speaker, but I keep current with the other half of my personality!
Make friends who speak the language
This tip, though intuitive, can be the hardest for people. Most of us can barely make friends in our native tongues as busy, hardworking adults!
However, there are plenty of people who speak your target language, perhaps even in your town or city, who would like to become friends and perhaps start a language exchange. Even if you’re not lucky enough to live in a large, international city, foreign language speaking friends can easily be found on the internet! Get creative! Use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter and you will be able to connect with people who are eager to share their language and culture with you.
Do something everyday
Learning a language is a labor of love, and it’s important to be disciplined and do something in the target language daily. If you can’t squeeze in another episode of your favorite Spanish soap opera, then at least re-hash that argument with your boss in the shower in Spanish. Listen to some Fado music as you wake up in the morning, or just send a catch-up voice message to your best Chinese friend! Any sort of language stimulation will help your long-term retention of the language.
Explore their cuisine
This is certainly my favorite tip. As the saying goes, the fastest way to people’s hearts is through their stomachs, and it also must follow that the best way to build your background knowledge of your target culture (and give you and your new foreign friends a common topic to discuss) is to explore the food! Learn the names of the dishes, the ingredients, and even the flavors and colors! If you’re especially brave, learn to cook the dishes!
