The process of learning a foreign language is stated to be the most productive activity for a human being, so far.
Learning a foreign language at any stage in life contributes to better brain development and enriches one’s life by offering opportunities for growth and personal development.
The best thing is, everyone has the ability to learn a foreign language and become fluent in a certain period of time.
Regardless of the reasons you’ve chosen to start or proceed to work on your foreign language skills, keep in mind that in a year from now you’ll be proud of your progress and thankful you’ve started now.
Therefore, it’s never too late to learn the language you’ve always wanted to.
To help you achieve your goals, we’ve put together several recommendations to get you thoroughly prepared for your learning journey, enhancing the chances of becoming fluent in the targeted language.
1. Ensure You Have Chosen the Right Learning Source
Today, it’s easier than ever to get access to a language learning source that is tailored to your specific learning needs and complies with your expectations.
Therefore, once you are ready to immerse yourself in the targeted language, make sure to choose the right learning source and study approach.
Before deciding, consider the following: what is your history with the language, what is your preferred approach to learning and what is your ultimate goal.
These factors will help you decide on the study approach and study-time frequency.
Additionally, if you are self-disciplined opt for free resources that provide immense written and video materials and study individually.
If you happen to have a busy lifestyle and you are always on the go, find an online tutor. One-on-one online tutoring offers a flexible schedule and access to learning sessions from anywhere and anytime and for most of the world’s languages.
Moreover, you can successfully learn even the most complicated languages, like Japanese on platforms that tailor the learning process to your specific needs and expectations which takes away the load of planning, thus promising excellent results.
2. Create a Timetable for Studying
Regardless of your lifestyle and daily activities, to succeed in becoming fluent in a foreign language, you should rely on a constant study timetable.
If you are too busy and especially if you have a lot of free time, sticking to a timetable will help you avoid procrastination or suffer from a lack of motivation during the learning process.
It’s advisable to create a monthly timetable, with days and time reserved for study and preferably with the goals and tasks scheduled for the specific day.
If you study with a tutor or attend online sessions, make sure to put aside additional slots each day, or several days a week to focus on repetitions.
3. Create a Suitable Study Space
Our brain perceives the living room as space for leisure and relaxation and the kitchen as the place to eat.
Therefore, if you try to concentrate on your studying while in an unappropriate space, it might be a bit difficult.
Many educationalists state that in order to be productive and have success when studying, you need to have a certain study space that you constantly use with no exceptions.
Once you sit at the specific desk or enter your working room your brain knows that it’s study time and it is less likely to wander around finding a rather more interesting activity
Even if you do not have a spare room to work and study in, explicitly, make sure to create a specific study space at a corner of any room and equip it properly to stay focused and engaged in the learning process.
4. Ensure You Are Properly Equipped
To enjoy a smooth learning experience, you need to make sure you are prepared and properly equipped before starting. If you lack some essential tools, you may use it as an excuse at the first learning hurdle.
To avoid demotivation and study interruptions, make sure to have all you need for the learning process.
If you decide to learn online, a good laptop computer and a solid internet connection is a must. Additionally, equip yourself with notebooks, pencils, markers and sticky notes. If you decide to learn from written materials, download and buy every book you’ll need beforehand.
Finally, purchase a planner to write down your schedule and progress.
5. Create a Playlist and Movies List
If you perceive the language learning process as a fun activity, which certainly is, chances are you’ll enjoy a more successful learning process. Much more than that, learning while having fun is stated to be very effective.
Therefore, everything that is entertaining, like listening to music and watching movies will help you enrich your vocabulary, “pick up” common phrases and make a comprehension of the language faster.
Making a playlist to play every day in your car, or movie list to watch on movie nights, gives you the opportunity to constantly hear the language which helps the learning process.
Moreover, you are immersing yourself in a particular culture which makes for a better understanding of the language and making it all the more fun and intriguing.
The power of unconscious learning is immense and gives better results than sitting at the dest forcing yourself to study.