Kate’s Top 10 Tips to learn a foreign

10. Keep your vocabulary close

Keep your vocabulary close
Keep a notebook to jot new words down
an address book works really nice to organize your vocabulary
Make an electronic version of your notebook to reorganize/print your vocabulary

9. Do the busywork

Do the busywork
Make flashcards. Study them. Study them again.
Write out stories and sentences. Write them out again.
Make charts and diagrams of grammar rules. Make them out again.
Translate poems, songs, short stories. Read and translate them again.
There is a reason that this busywork is often given as homework in language classes. You need to “wash, rinse, repeat” as many times as possible, until the words fall out of your mouth without any effort at all.

8. Find the time

Find the time
When?
Riding to work
Standing in line
Waiting for friends
Watching TV
Getting ready in the mornings
Your lunch break
What?
Carry a small dictionary
Carry flashcards
Listen to podcasts/youTube videos
Invent stories, note words that you don’t know to look up later
Listen to the news
Name every object around you
Translate your recent conversations

7. Focus on words and phrases

Focus on words and phrases
Focus on your vocabulary, more than on grammar
Use new words as often as you can
Focus on how words come together in phrases, and make your own phrases
Study regional expressions, conversational speech and interesting vocabulary

6. Record yourself

Record yourself
Take notes throughout the day of
Topics of conversation
Activities
Important words/phrases
Conversational language
Now, learn this vocabulary in your new language!

5. Become another person

Become another person
Study the culture, the ideas, the mentality, the traditions
Form a new persona, give yourself a new name, new hobbies, new values, a new accent
Think in a different way. See the world in a different way.

4. Take responsibility and find motivation

Take responsibility and find motivation
YOU are responsible for your language learning! If you don’t want to learn the language, you won’t.
Find motivation!
Make friends online through social networking sites.
Set a date with a friend to speak once a week
Discover the language like a child, listen to music, watch movies, play games!
Look FORWARD to using your language!

3. Teach others

Teach others
The best way to learn is to teach
Offer to tutor students at a lower level than you/younger siblings/friends
Make videos on youTube, explaining difficult grammatical concepts or confusing vocabulary

2. Use the language every day

Use the language every day
Keep a journal
Written journal
Video journal
Write letters/emails to friends
Watch a movie/youtube clips
Read the news/translate an article
Pick a new word, and try to use it as many times in as many ways as possible
Be diligent – it takes 21 days to form a habit. Even just 15 minutes every day can make a difference!

1. Make mistakes!