The Secret To Learning Another Language

Knowing another language or two is one of those things that, if you have the time and opportunity to do, is a fantastic way of expanding your horizons. This happens because when you learn a new language, you inevitably learn things about the culture and history of the country that uses that language.

Of course, the trick is, trying to set up circumstances for learning a new language as effectively and painlessly as possible, yet doing it in as short a time as you can get away with. Let's look at a few principles and techniques relating to learning a new language.


Learning a new language helps boost your knowledge of the world at large, and sometimes can really come in handy

Different Languages, Different Difficulty
The article "Why Are Some Languages Harder to Learn than Others?" points out that it's common for people to find that some languages are easier or harder to learn than others. It comes as no surprise, since foreign languages that share similarities with the student's native language are easier to pick up.

Also, many groups of languages have a common root, so if you know one of them, you stand a better chance of learning another one from that same group. The most classic examples of this are the Romance languages of French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian, which all share Latin as their common ancestor.

The same article advises folks who want an easy language to learn to go for Dutch, Afrikaans, Spanish, or Romanian. Call them the linguistic equivalent of low-hanging fruit.

Ways To Lea
Besides the idea of learning an easy language first, there are other things to bear in mind when trying to learn languages quickly.

Learn Key Words First. In order to successfully learn a language quickly, you don't need to know every single word. Get some flash cards of the most common words in your desired language and start memorizing them; such decks are easily available. This harkens back to the idea that any given language only commonly uses roughly a quarter of its actual vocabulary on a regular basis. Learning those common words first gives you a great start in eventual language mastery.

Immersion. If you live in a neighborhood where the desired language is spoken, then why not practice there? Most people as a rule are only too happy to teach others something that they themselves know, and that includes language. If you have cable or satellite dish, then odds are you have a huge selection of channels, and you can probably find one in the language you want to learn. Check it out!

If you have friends or roommates that speak the language you're learning, then have them try to converse with you. When I was in college, I had a roommate from Belgium who spoke French as his first language. Since my French was of the sad American high school variety, it took me a while before I could keep up, but by keeping at it, I began picking up his idioms and other usages, thereby decreasing the odds of me being looked down on if I order something at a cafe in Paris.

Carry A Dictionary. There are a lot of people out there who credit their large vocabularies to reading the dictionary as a child, learning one new word a day. Well, why not do that for the foreign language? Carry a pocket dictionary (or be really 21st century and use an app!) and look up various words and phrases as you go about your day.

Do It Every Day. In closing, a bit of common sense; the more time you consistently invest in an endeavor, the sooner you accomplish it. Make sure you study that language every day, even if it's for just a little while. If you skip days, you may start losing words and getting out of practice. Be conscientious and make it part of your daily routine.

There are more ideas that you can employ in your quest for quick language learning, but those should give you a good start.