How to learn a language fast - Part I

Today I want to talk about speeding up your language learning so you’re not wasting years of your life in language lessons.

The truth is, you can learn a language in just a few months if you follow some simple rules. But be warned, these rules may go against what you believe in learning languages or other things.

First, you need to have the right material for what you want to learn. As we talked about earlier, your aim is very important in language learning. Most language course books will start off with things like “how to find the train” and “receiving directions.”

Now these may be incredibly useful if your going to be a tourist for a few weeks, but if you want to have a conversation they aren’t exactly going to help you.

So examine what words and phrases you use in English first, then translate them into your target language. For example, you might want to learn a lot of vocabulary around your job or hobbies you enjoy.

And when you’re looking for material to practice with, choose books, magazines, and movies you would actually use in English. You’ll find it’s a lot easier to keep up your motivation this way.

I had my friend asking me what “blueberry” was in Spanish the other day… what do I care? I don’t use blueberries much in my conversations and if I really want some from the supermarket I know what they look like.

Next is the common words you use in sentences. Verbs like eat, sleep, and go are a lot more important that fish, run, and jump… unless these are hobbies of yours. For this purpose I have a list of the most commonly used words in English that I’ll send you soon.

I hope this helps you get more out of your Japanese learning time and analyse just what you should be learning. I have a rant aboutwhy language classes may just be wasting your time coming soon