To Learn a New Language

2024-08-31

language learningcomprehensible inputlanguage acquisition

Introduction

Learning a new language is an amazing experience that opens up a new world for you. It can lead to new job opportunities, make travel more enjoyable, and help you make new friends. These days, I am learning two languages: English and French. In this post, I want to share some methods that we can adopt to learn any new language. These methods serve as basic principles to speed up the language learning process.

Recently, I watched a video on YouTube about language learning and found some interesting points that I’d like to share with you.

How to learn a language?

Before we dive into the methods, I want to highlight some prerequisites that we need to consider before starting to learn a new language.

1. Motivation

The first and most important factor is motivation. Why do you want to learn a particular language? Whatever the reason, you need clear motivation to keep you going.

Let me give you an example. In my case, I have both short-term and long-term reasons to learn English and French.

I want to learn English because:

I’m a software engineer, and almost all documentation is written in English. While translations exist, they are often imperfect, so I need to understand the documentation in English to improve my skills.
I work in a company where the primary language is English, and I need to communicate with my colleagues in English.
I plan to start a startup that will sell products to the global market in the near future. English is the most common language in the world, so I need to learn English to communicate with my customers.

I want to learn French because:

Some of my colleagues are French, and I want to have daily conversations with them in French. I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn the language.
I enjoy learning new things, and French is a new language for me. I'm having a lot of fun while learning it.

These are the reasons why I want to learn English and French.

2. Willingness to make mistakes

Like many language learners, I used to be afraid of making mistakes. "Am I saying it right?" "Was my pronunciation correct?" "What if I say something wrong?" These thoughts are common, but it’s important to overcome this fear.

I was always afraid of making mistakes when I spoke English, but one Norwegian colleague inspired me. He had never learned Korean formally, yet he spoke it with confidence despite making many mistakes. I realized that even though he made mistakes, I could still understand and communicate with him. It’s not about perfect pronunciation or avoiding mistakes; it’s about effective communication. From that moment on, I started speaking English with less fear.

Principles

These tips are based on Chris Lonsdale's TED Talk, and you can watch it here. He highlights five principles and seven actions that can help us learn a new language.

1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you

The human brain memorizes things more quickly when they are related to our survival or personal goals. This is because our brain is designed to optimize our chances of survival and success. That’s how nature works. So, if the content is relevant to you, you’ll learn it much faster.

Chris Lonsdale provided an example of surviving in a forest. If you are in a forest, you need to pay attention to clues that help you survive. Ignoring these clues increases your chances of danger. For instance, if you see bear tracks, you should recognize that a bear is nearby. Ignoring this message and continuing to walk could put you in danger. In such situations, our brain quickly learns that recognizing bear tracks is crucial for survival.

2. Use your New Language as a Tool to Communicate From Day 1

This is related to the first principle. We learn how to use tools when we have important tasks to accomplish with them. Similarly, if you have a clear ‘why’, the language becomes not just something to learn, but a tool to achieve your goals.

Use language as a tool that helps you achieve your goals from day 1.

3. When you first understand the message, you will unconsciously acquire the language

There is a vast amount of research about language acquisition, and it’s well-documented. Stephen Krashen, a leading figure in this field, states that we acquire language when we understand the message, not when we learn the language. It’s all about understanding the message, not the individual words. This concept is known as comprehensible input.

Language is about acquisition, not learning. Don’t try to accumulate knowledge; focus on acquiring the language.

4. Physiological Training

He mentioned that there are 43 muscles in our face, and we need to train them to speak a new language. We also need to train our ears to recognize new sounds.

5. Psycho-Physiological State

If you’re in a state of fear, you’re going to learn more slowly. You need to be relaxed and enjoy the learning process. Try to make it fun and stay curious. Don’t worry about making mistakes.

Actions

1. Listen a lot

He calls it Brain Soaking. Listen to the language a lot, even if you don’t understand it. Just get used to the sounds, rhythms, and patterns of the language. Don’t think of this as the opposite of comprehensible input; it’s just a way to acclimate to the language. I listen to podcasts in English and French when I go to the gym or when I’m eating alone. It’s a great way to get used to the language. My little tip for this is to choose podcasts that align with your interests. It’s not homework. Make it fun.

2. Focus on getting the meaning first

Lots of people focus on words and grammar, but it’s not the key. The key is to understand the message. Human communication involves various elements like body language, tone of voice, etc. It’s not just about words. So, focus on getting the meaning first before the words.

3. Start mixing

Start mixing the language you know already with the new language. If you know 10 verbs, 10 nouns, and 10 adjectives, you can theoretically make 1,000 phrases. So, start mixing the words that you already know.

4. Focus on the core

In English, 1,000 words cover 85% of daily communication, and 3,000 words cover 98%. So, focus on the core words that you can use in daily communication. On the other hand, don’t worry about the words you don’t know. Even native speakers don’t know all the words in the language. It’s an unattainable and unnecessary goal.

So, to focus on the core, we have three steps.

Make your toolbox. Learn the core words to start communicating.
- What is this?
- How can I say this?
- I don't understand.
Learn Pronouns, Common Verbs, Adjectives
- I, you, he, she, it, we, they
- hot, cold, big, small
- that, this, here, there etc.
Learn Glue words.
- and, but, because, so, etc.

5. Get a language parent

When we are babies, our pronunciation is quite bad, and we make a lot of mistakes. But our parents and family members understand what we are saying and don’t blame us for making mistakes. This creates a safe environment for learning a language, and we need a safe environment to learn a new language as well. Find a language parent who can understand you and help you learn.

Parents should:

Works to understand what you are saying
Does not correct mistakes
Confirms understanding by using correct language
Uses words the learner knows

6. Copy the face

Remember that language learning is a kind of physiological training? We need to train our facial muscles by mimicking the faces of native speakers. If you have language parents, try to copy their facial expressions when they speak.

7. Direct connect to mental images

We often try to translate words into our mother tongue, but it’s not an efficient way to learn a new language. Besides, there may not be an exact translation from one language to another. Instead, try to connect words directly to mental images.

Conclusion

We can learn faster, more efficiently, and more enjoyably if we follow better methods. I like finding ways to improve my learning process, and I hope these tips help you too. In this post, I focused on Lonsdale’s principles and actions, but there are tons of other great methods that can help you learn languages. I’ll share some of them at the end of this post.

After watching a lot of videos about language learning, I started to consider my brain as a black box. I input something, and I output something. If we want a better output, we need better input. Both quantity and quality matter. The more quality input we get, the more quality output we produce. The same goes for quantity. Put in lots of meaningful input, especially comprehensible input.

Counterintuitively, no one is saying to try to memorize words but rather to acquire the language. Find methods that work for you, but base on the principles and actions I mentioned above. I hope you find this post helpful, and I hope you enjoy the process of learning a new language.