by Karen Lim Yu Xiu

Learning a new language can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. Whether it’s for traveling to a foreign country, enhancing your employment prospects, or simply understanding what your favourite foreign actor is saying in a popular international TV show, learning a new language serves as an excellent method to better your life. 

Here are some of the most effective ways you can learn a language:

This method involves fully surrounding yourself with the new language. You can achieve this by interacting with native speakers, consuming media in that language, or even challenging yourself by living abroad. Immersion accelerates language learning through daily speaking and listening practice, mimicking the natural process of learning a first language. This makes it an effective approach.

Connecting new words with ones you already know helps in learning a new language. For example, if you’re learning French and your native language is English, you can link the English words to their French counterparts. Here’s how it would look like:

English: Apple

French: Pomme

Bridge: Picture an apple sitting on the palm of your hand (pomme sounds like “palm”), which helps to associate the word

“pomme” with an apple.

This creates a bridge between the two languages, making it easier to remember them. This method improves recall and understanding of words and phrases, creating a cognitive map that makes learning more fluid and efficient.

Studying for 30 minutes daily is more effective than cramming for 4 hours in a week. Consistency enhances learning and improves retention significantly. The more regularly you practice, the quicker you’ll achieve fluency. Apps, websites, and online courses can help you stay consistent. For example, taking an online French course on Duolingo, which is free and entirely user friendly, allows you to learn something new every day, even if you only have ten minutes to spare.

The best way to learn a new language is through daily practice. Start with simple sentences and gradually move to more complex ones. Practice by speaking with native speakers and repetitively writing down words and sentences to remember them long-term.

Learning a new language takes time, but with the right approach and resources, it gets better. With determination and patience, you’re on the right track to adding another lingua to your list of spoken languages. Keep practicing, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and soon enough, you’ll be conversing like a native. Happy learning!

Source:

The Yale Ledger