Something that I’ve been (attempting) to do is to learn a new language.
While I wish that I was gifted with the ability to understand all the languages, I am not. I come from a bilingual family (my dad speaks Cantonese) but it wasn’t something that I managed to pick up. I went to Chinese school on the weekends, but in the end, it was something that I struggled with, we didn’t speak it at home, and being a kid I had absolutely no interest in.
Even during high school, languages was something that I couldn’t be bothered with. Learning French is mandatory from grade 4 to 9 here (age 10-15 roughly). But once you hit grade 10, it’s something that can be dropped. I took Spanish for a year, mainly because I knew that we watched movies every Friday.
But last year when I was in the Netherlands visiting family, I realised that there are many people in my family that I don’t talk to mainly because of a language barrier (on both sides, actually) and coming home I decided that I was going to learn Dutch. Learning a language is not easy when you’re an adult, and it doesn’t come easily to you. So what are some tips to help you learn?
Well, for one, you need to figure out how you learn best. I’m definitely an audio/visual learner; the more I listen, the better I pick it up. So for me, I love using audio books, and then just falling asleep to them. But that doesn’t really work overall without putting a bit more effort into it.
Tips for Learning a New Language
Take it on the go – I’m using an app called DuoLingo – and it’s fantastic. It doesn’t have a huge range of languages, but it’s got the major ones – French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, etc. It actually has a decent range of them, but it didn’t have Japanese (small tear). It’s a free app that takes you through the language in steps.
Find a Support Group – I actually fell of the bandwagon a bit. My brother is really into it right now, and he’s encouraging me to keep with it. He keeps telling me that he’ll send me sad/angry Snapchats if I don’t keep up with my daily record.
Use Tumblr – Now, this one might be a weird one… but hear me out. For those of you who might not be a complete Tumblr junkie, there’s a whole community on there called Studyblrs. And yup, you guessed it, they’re all about studying. They are a huge source of information on everything. A bunch that I follow are amazing. Find some masterposts like this one, and get ready for some ultimate learning. Their posts are usually really inspiring and so damn aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I still don’t know how they do it. But you can find out how on their masterposts.
Set Yourself Up to Win – This might seem obvious, but even I’m still getting on board with this one. The thing that I love about learning is always the prep. Getting the notebook, figuring out everything. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a terrible self-learner. I don’t have the drive or the motivation to keep me going, and I’ll always pick something else. I definitely do better in a structured class, but sometimes the money just isn’t there for a class. Or the class just doesn’t exist. So, you gotta make it work. If you need to write it out, get a notebook. Make sure that you MAKE THE TIME for it. I love the app because I do about 15 minutes during lunch, and I feel productive and it doesn’t feel like it’s taking away time from something else.
I’ve been meaning to set up a notebook to write down words and notes as I go through the Duolingo app, but I haven’t done that yet. I should, because spelling is NOT easy to remember. Just another thing to add to the to-do list. I should probably set a goal for myself to have the basics down, but I’m not really in any rush to learn. Any tips that you can share with me to help me learn a new language?
