Tips to Learning a New Language

 

I went back to the Spanish After Hours YouTube channel and watched what I think was her first video she posted. In it Laura discusses her tips on how to learn a new language. 

1. Listen - which I've heard before, but she suggests it's better to watch something that you're NOT familiar with so you are forced to listen actively. She also suggests picking one or two videos 5-20 minutes long that you watch over and over and over again until you understand them completely. And once you get to that point you can try shadowing, which I used to do as a kid with movies I had watched so many times I knew the dialogue. Her final tip is to choose videos of someone whose voice or speech you like because if you're listening as much as she suggests you'll end up picking up their speech patterns. So interesting!
2. Read - anything you can get your hands on. She read a lot of teen books that used a lot of the same common phrases that eventually she picked up the meaning.
3. Find - a Language Partner or Language Parent A partner came be someone learning your target language or is fluent in your target language and learning your native language. A parent is someone you can ask questions or get clarification from. She recommended HelloTalk for chatting and Conversation Exchange to match with a person. I suspect it's like Tandem where I found my Language Partner.
4. Be Consistent - Keep at it every day, because the likelihood of one skipped day become two, three or more is high. She made out a calendar where Mondays were reading days, Tuesdays were Language Partner etc
5. Think in Spanish - Translate your most common expressions and start using them when you talk to yourself. Change your phone setting to Spanish. But she warns to keep a screenshot of how to change it back in case you need to. Put sticky notes on objects around the house either of the spanish word for the object or common sayings.
6. Make Mistakes - It's the best way to improve. It's easy for me to make mistake while speaking, I get practice doing that with my Language Partner. I should though probably try to write more in Spanish.

That's my summary of the points she made that spoke to me. After this 90 day challenge I'm definitely going to have to figure out something to keep me consistent. I suppose all the Google Docs should still be available, I could just go back to Tarea 1 and start all over again!