Language advice
Stage I. Beginning a language
Time: A few weeks
The first thing you should do is research the structure and resources for the language itself, so you know exactly what you’re undertaking. For example, I often hear of people beginning Japanese without knowing its incredible difficulty, wanting to watch anime in the original; its often leads to them giving up on it after months of vain effort. To avoid this, I’d recommend looking at a Wikipedia page about the language’s grammar. You should also research what resources are available for your language — look at websites, YouTubers, and so on. Some languages (e.g. Ancient Greek) are very hard just because there are no resources.
If you’re serious about a language, I wouldn’t recommend Duolingo — at most, use it for the basics, and only use it for popular languages, as more obscure ones tend to have grammar errors. I heavily recommend a textbook — not buying one is probably people’s most common regret with languages. Pirate a few people recommend online, and buy whatever you like best.
The textbooks and online resources mainly help you with grammar, but also look for online lists of your language’s most common words and memorize them. I’d suggest making physical flashcard decks here — writing the words out helps you memorize them.
Two last things to keep in mind. If you already know a language from your target language’s family, it’ll be substantially easier; for example, if you’re a Pole learning Ukrainian or a Spaniard learning French. Also, this is the most frustrating stage of learning a language — it gets easier over time, so don’t be discouraged!
Stage II. Transitional
makes it more fun
Time: Many months, a year or two
Here, I work through textbooks on a regular schedule, memorizing tables of conjugations, declensions, and stress patterns. For writing practice, I often begin a journal in the language (see this page for writing prompts.) For reading and listening practice, I’d advise listening to music, or finding websites with stories for beginners.
When I get to this stage, you should consider Anki/Quizlet instead of physical flashcard decks — you’ll be learning a lot of words, and online stuff is more portable. I’d suggest looking at “100/1,000 most common words” decks that others have made.
Stage III. Reaching Fluency
Time: Infinite
This stage is the longest; you will have to learn massive swathes of vocabulary and idioms, but it’s easy since you’re used to the language. It’s also the most fun stage because you get to absorb the language through books, restaurants, movies, songs, and friends. With Russian, for example, I just watch Tarkovsky films, read history and classics, and talk to a Russian-speaking friend, and make Anki flashcards of any new words. I personally review dozens of words a day.
You shouldn’t try to befriend native speakers in earlier stages as you won’t know enough to hold an interesting conversation. Also, if it’s expensive to import books where you are, you can buy some off an immigrant on Facebook Marketplace, or look in a library’s foreign-language section.
Something that’s rarely discussed is how lonely it is to know another language. You’ll grow to know and love so much culture and history that nobody around you knows. You’ll listen to so many beautiful songs, watch amazing films, frequent so many foreign websites, observe so many holidays; but you can’t tell the people around you about them, because they won’t understand. I’m the only one who cares about Rome enough to celebrate Saturnalia here, and whenever I mention German to my family, they make jokes about the Nazis. You start to feel like a foreigner in your own country!
See my other page for reviews of specific languages.
Back
Page created March 2024.