Faster Foreign Language Learning

A lot of people who’d like to learn another language, but haven’t decided which one, start by looking for the so-called “easy to learn languages.” The trouble is that which languages are easy depends on a few different factors. Below I’ve listed some of those easy to learn languages to give you a start, but [...]

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When people say the want to “learn a language fast,” their ideas on what “learn” means and what “fast” means range widely.
Some people mean they want to reach a translator’s or interpreter’s level of fluency in less than two years. On the other end of the spectrum, some people just want to get the basics [...]

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If you’ve ever taken a course with a language school, you’ve probably been faced with the decision between a teacher whose native language is the one you’re learning and a teacher who’s native language is the same as yours.
So, is one better than the other?
Really, this is another one of those questions like, “Which [...]

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If you study a language for any serious length of time, you’re bound to hit a plateau at some point. You gone through a few advance level course books, you know enough grammar to communicate everything you need to, and you already know most of the words you hear on a daily basis.

Language learning isn’t [...]

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Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to move to another country and just “pick up” the language. This method will work even if you rarely get the chance to hear or read the language you’re learning.

This is largely for developing the basic vocabulary you need to get by, but can help no [...]

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One of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to fluency is the continual interruptions. Interruptions do more than slow your progress than just take time away from your studies; they also erode the progress you’ve already made.
Just like kids forget what they’ve learned over the academic year while they’re on summer vacation, you [...]

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So many people truly do want to become fluent in their target language, yet study in fits with long breaks in between. This is how a lot of people end up “false beginners.” They know a little of a language and may even have the general idea some fairly advanced grammar rules, but can only [...]

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A very common roadblock in learning another language is the fear of speaking the language. We worry we’re going to sound stupid, say one thing when we meant another, or at the very least that people won’t understand us and we’ll sound like blithering idiots.

It’s normal, but some learners have a real dread of [...]

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If you’re getting ready to learn a second language, no doubt you’ve heard horror stories of sleep-inducing grammar drills and hours spent poring over vocabulary lists, repeating words aloud again and again. While you can learn this way, it’s not exactly fun. More importantly, though, it’s not the most efficient way if your goal is [...]

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Live interaction is essential if you want to be able to really communicate orally in your target language. You can learn a useful amount of a language just from tapes, books, software and the like, but that’s just the beginning. Unless you have real-time conversations, your speech will always be faltering, slow, and broken.

Unfortunately, one [...]

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