How to learn a new language by yourself at your home: Part 1

Hello all, hope you’re all ok at this time. 

It has been a long time since I published a post here, but I was so busy during March, I wasn’t able to write.

But now with the current situations on, a lot of that pressure is released and now I’ve got some time to write more.

While we are all stuck in this quarantine state (and you better be staying at home as much as you can please:)), there is a great opportunity to do a lot of stuff, and one of the best things you can do is to learn something new.

Learning a new language more than being so interesting, enjoyable, and amazing is too so beneficial.

There will be more than one part of this topic (probably 3). 

This's part one where I’ll talk about some of the benefits of learning a new language, then I’ll give you general tips for learning a new language. 

In the next parts, there’ll be more details -read till the end of the post to know what's exactly going to be included in the coming parts (or maybe they already came out).

P.S. Don't pressure yourself to be so productive, because what truly matters at this period is to survive.

Benefits of learning a new language:

1. You get to know new people and understand what they are doing, saying and thinking, you will never get to get this opportunity if you didn’t learn their language.

2. Make you more open and wiser: as you will start to see life from a whole new point of view, and thus get to understand why some people in the past, did or thought a certain thing. And with time the habit of being rigid and only looking from the point of view you grow up with will diminish and you’ll become a more flexible and open human being.

3. Job opportunities: many jobs require you to be good at a certain language, especially if the language is widely used, like English and French for example. And you’ll be more preferred if you know other languages more than your tongue language.

4. Being unique and one step in front of many others: many people settle on the language which they grow up with and never bother themselves by trying to learn another one. Because TBH learning a new language isn’t easy at all and may even be so frustrating at the beginning, but after going through the beginner level, things will get easier, and with the right mindsets one can continue learning until he/she reaps the fruits of his/her labor and stand out as not a normal lazy being.

5. Good Changes and improvements to your brain: this is a good article that talks about how learning a second language amazingly changes the brain.https://unbabel.com/blog/brain-language-learning/

6. New friends: it’s so obvious that there are people you can’t communicate with using your language and unless you learn their language you don’t even know they exist. So languages open the doors for communication and so lead to form all other kinds of human connections which weren’t possible without learning that language.

7. Getting sources that no one can get: translation has done a great job in letting us discover precious contents made in languages that we don’t speak, but not everything is translated, and translation never happens in a second, some items take years to be translated -if translated at all. Also, let’s face it, sometimes translation will be so bad, sometimes it takes out from the beauty of the original content -so sad I know:(-, sometimes without you even realizing this, so if you learned the language, you’ll get the opportunity to discover and enjoy this beauty and get the grasp of the rare contents you can’t get by only knowing your mother language.

8. And of course enjoyment: the joy that comes to the person when he/she discovers a new thing will always be inherited and desired by humanity. And languages are filled with new things and thus promises heaps of joy. Every new word, every sound, every meaning (which lead me to note that translating isn’t the same as learning, as some words have no meaning in the corresponding language, and that what makes each language unique), and whole new things that can’t be told unless you dig into the language. All of these new things bring an immense deal of joy awaiting you to enjoy it.

General tips:

• Motivation: 

So maybe before we start this whole how-to topic out, we gotta point out how motivation is a key, and this is why I wrote above all these benefits -in a not benefit-post but a how-to one-.

You surely -I hope so- get loads of motivation after reading all these benefits, you may already know some or all of them, but being reminded by them gets you pumped and awakens the motivation within you- I know you can’t wait to start learning or be fluent, but hold with me.

As we were saying motivation is the key, you gotta know your own why.

These above are general ones, they are strong, yes, but yours are even more powerful.

So think about why do you want to learn a new language? 

Why do you want to learn your specific target language?

Keep your whys in a safe place, a bullet journal, a notebook, a note-taking app, or whatever. 

And if possible put it in a clear place so you can always get reminded and be motivated, this will keep you going when the thoughts of giving up arise into your head.

You can also make a Pinterest board or a real board and pin pictures that are related to your why, these may even be more inspiring.

• Language Aspects:

There are four aspects of the language -in any language-, you’ll need to focus on them all, not just one of them.

You can focus on one aspect at a time, you don’t have to give them an equal effort all the time. 

It also depends on your why behind learning a certain language.

These four aspects are: writing, speaking, reading, and listening.

Obviously if your why is to be able to watch movies in that language, your listening will be the one that needs most of the focus, but generally, just remember other aspects need your attention because these skills are interconnected and each one adds to the others.

But in the end, learning a language mustn't feel like an obligation, so if anything doesn’t resonate with you then throw it until it does -or maybe doesn’t!

In addition to these four aspects, there are vocabulary and grammar, which I will talk about each in the next parts in more detail.

•  Real Raw Materials: 

How many of us picked a language in school and thought they are good to go with what they learned and then got shocked by how they understand nothing from a native speaker of that language?

This is a common theme because generally in school, the real, raw materials are not the ones that are used for learning or teaching the language -unless the school puts an effort and got real raw materials.

The problem of the fake language -let’s call it this way- is that it's not used by the native speakers, so, you’ll not understand what they say, or let them understand what you say if you used it with them or even with those who speak the fluent real language.

So you need to make sure you use real materials, and as we want to learn from home, I can tell a few ones here: 

• Youtube is a great source and amazing tool, I can tell the biggest language improvement and breakthrough came from me watching YouTubers in the other language. People there speak so real -unless this is not their style, but most of them do.

• Songs are not just enjoyable to listen to, but really hold a huge amount of real language, plus many words get repeated among songs, so they add to their effectiveness in sticking the language in your mind.

• The news: I personally don’t watch the news and I lack a lot of vocabulary in that field, but the news is a great place to get more from the real standard language, (not as the daily language). One of my intentions is to get into it.

 P.S. The language of the news is so different from the language of the daily life conversations so if you wanna be able to read and understand the news, then you need to expose yourself to them and work with them more.

• Books from native speakers are so rich in vocabulary, the problem with the books that they may be so difficult, so the key is to read the ones that are close to your level and in the areas of your interests.

• Articles, blogs, social media, all these places are good sources for real language.

This is it for this part (part 1), in the next parts (parts 2 and 3) we will talk more about these sources -and more ones- concerning different language aspects and what is suitable for each aspect.