Needless to say, though, you don’t want to get stuck at that stage. Once you’re there, the next thing to go after is all those finer details you’ve been missing. If you’re interacting in the language a lot, listening skills tend to improve on their own, but with or without interaction, there are things you can to to speed up the process.

Try Shadow Reading

Shadow reading or listen reading is the technique of following along with a transcript as you’re listening. If you study primarily from written material, spoken words may not register in your mind as fast as written ones. Using both together helps build your mental connections between words’ written forms and their sounds.

For more common languages, you can find book/CD sets that provide recorded monologues and dialogues with accompanying transcripts. If you’re having trouble finding these, though, you can also print out the lyrics to songs in your target language. Movies with close captioning can help, too.

If you have a teacher or friend helping you, there are a few practice exercises they can create for you. One is to make a gap-fill exercise by delete select words in the transcript so you can fill in the blanks with the words you heard in the listening. To make it easier, the teacher can put the correct words (along with some extras, for a challenge) at the bottom of the page. That way, you have a pool of possible solutions to pick from.

They can also change some of the words in the transcript to similar sounding words. I sometimes did this with a few of my advanced students who bored easily because it really is challenging. What makes it hard is that the transcript puts the wrong word in your head and you have to override that in order to make out what was really said.

Listen Repeatedly

I’m not a fan of using slow-speed audio to learn. First of all, people don’t talk like that in real life. You’ll eventually have to get used to normal speed. Another problem is that native speakers may pronounce things a little differently when they slow down. In English, for example natural weak forms often change to strong forms, so the speaker will pronounce “a” and “the” as “ey” and “thee” instead of “uh” and “thuh.”

So, instead of looking for material thats slow enough to let you understand everything the first time, look for material spoken at a natural speed and listen to it repeatedly until you do understand. Granted, people don’t repeat themselves indefinitely, either, but at least you’re hearing natural pronunciation.

Start with short material so you don’t lose interest too quickly. Record 5 minutes or so of audio from a news report, movie dialogue, comedy skit or whatever else suits your needs. Music is good for this, too. Then just listen a few times. You might be surprised at how much you can understand after a few listenings.

I think part of the reason this works is because sometimes develop or own, foreign-accented ideas of how words “should be” pronounced and that makes it harder to immediately recognized the word even when we “know” them. Hearing words repeated a few times helps trigger the memory, though, as well as get you used to the correct pronunciation.

Keep Developing Your Vocabulary and Grammar Knowledge

Getting the general idea of a conversation really only requires an understanding some of the words and basic grammar. You hear some words and make sense of them as best you can. That’s while you’re liable to misunderstand even when you thought you understood perfectly. What you thought you understood made sense to you, but your “guess” wasn’t accurate.

Naturally, the more words you know, the more you can understand. Focus on common words, though. Try not to get distracted by vocabulary thats interesting or seemingly basic, but not something you’re likely to need often. (How many words for animals or pieces of furniture do you really, anyway?)

Grammar is also an issue, though. When you’re not very experienced with grammar, your brain needs a little more time to first understand the words and then make sense of the grammar in order to extract meaning from what was said. With fast or even normal-speed speech, though, you may not have time to work out each sentence before the next one comes. All you get is a group of words. Too many sentences like that and you’ll get the gist of the conversation, but miss the details.

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I’ve just come back to my “home base” after about two and a half years away and I was surprised at how hard it was to get back into the flow of the language. While away, I listened to the radio and wrote emails in the language, but except for the odd phone call, I hardly ever spoke.

I’m used to being able to express whatever I need to in this language without thinking much (which has its own hazards!), so it was a shock to find myself unable to say the simplest things sometimes. I could communicate fine, but not fluently. Most of it was that “tip of the tongue” feeling, but some was also strange grammatical errors that felt like somebody else talking. Meanwhile, I could understand with no trouble at all. Very frustrating.

It’s taken me almost two weeks to really get back up to speed again. Below, I’ve listed a few things that have helped me. If you have any suggestions for anyone trying wake up their hibernating language skills, please leave a comment, because I’d love to hear about them.

Here are a few tips I can pass on for reviving speaking skills…

Listen a Lot

Load up on auditory input. By “load up,” I mean get as much as possible and preferably all in your target language. You’re not trying to learn anything new, just bring up things that are already firmly planted in your memory. Reading helps, too, but listening lets you review more words faster. Chatty friends come in handy here. Ideally, talk with people who know you understand and used to speak better, so they aren’t tempted to slow down or simplify too much.

Adjust Your Thinking

Until you get your language skills back to where they were, try to think only in the language you’re re-activating. It’s probably impossible to do 100 percent of the time, but aim for as much as possible. This helps re-set your “first reaction” language so you’re ready to answer in the local language when someone speaks to you. I’d spent several months speaking a lot of Russian and based on the grammatical errors I was making in Hungarian, I realized I was trying to make Hungarian fit Russian grammar. That situation quickly improved once I stopped thinking in Russian so much.

Talk Anyway

If you mispronounce things and stumble over grammar, it’s only natural that multilingual people are going offer another language to try to help you (or themselves) out. I got this a couple times in the last few weeks and my tactic was to completely ignore the fact that they switched languages and continue in the local language. I wouldn’t try it with airport security, but talking to a cashier or taxi driver, you’re probably fine.

Of course, this works best when you’re fairly sure all you need is a few seconds to remember a word or arrange a sentence and then you can continue. If you’re having trouble saying anything at all, you might want to accept the offer of an easier language and save your practice for friends. It depends on your tolerance for trying other people’s patience.

If you feel uncomfortable because of your tongue-tied-ness and don’t have another language to use, try mentioning that you used to speak better, but haven’t had a chance to use the language in X-amount of time. It seems to reassure people that you can understand them and will manage to get your thoughts out if they give you a second.

Lean on Another Language

When you’re trying to learn a language, giving yourself time to remember a word or construct grammically correct sentences is good practice. Taking time to work things out for yourself helps you build mental connections so you’re more likely to remember the next time. When you already know, though, just asking will save you from a lot of frustration. If you’re talking to a friend you have another language in common with and you can’t remember a word or can’t remember how to phrase something, asking them to translate will get you back up to speed faster.

Ever been in this situation yourself? If so, what helped you recover your language skills?

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Yet we’ve all heard about or even met people who’ve lived in another country for years and still know only a few phrases in the local language. Part of what keeps some folks from getting the most language-wise from a stay abroad is a belief in a few widespread myths.

Myth #1: You’ll be Immersed

Traveling to a country where your target language is the official language gives you the opportunity for immersion, but nothing guarantees you’ll take that opportunity. If you’re spending all your time with same-language friends watching movies in a language you know well and avoid speaking because you’re “not ready,” you may as well have stayed home.

Solution: When you’re in a new environment, time goes fast and you can end up wasting a lot of it away from the local language before you know it. Instead of looking for ways to interact with the local language (those are everywhere), focus on avoiding any other language.

Myth #2: You’ll “Pick up” the Language

To some extent this is true, but only if you really pay attention to the language and use it on a regular basis. If you don’t make an effort to hold onto some of the language that surrounds you, it will just wash over you without your absorbing much.

Solution: Keep a notebook with you and jot down phrases you read or hear that contain new words or grammar structures you’re not yet adept at using. This includes phrases you don’t completely understand.

When you get the chance, look up the new words (or ask a native speaker about the meaning) and investigate any grammar that isn’t clear to you. Review them throughout the day.

Myth #3: You Won’t Learn Incorrect Grammar

First of all, we all know native speakers don’t always use correct grammar. That’s not really a big deal because as long as you’re learning from reasonably well educated people, a few “native-like errors” won’t hurt you.

The real problem is assuming that just hearing the language correctly spoken is enough for you to remember it that way and not use it any other way. Unfortunately, something known as linguistic interference (also called L1 interference or language transfer) throws a wrench into those works.

As babies we started with a “Zen mind” about language. We picked up our native languages based solely on what we heard because we had no prior assumptions. As adults, though, we make assumptions about how other languages should work based on what they already know about our own language. Those assumptions tend to override outside input.

Solution: If you have some good native speaking friends you talk to often, ask them to let you know when they hear you making a certain mistake repeatedly. Let them know important it is to you and how much you appreciate the help, so they don’t feel “rude” for correcting you. And when you’re not sure something you’ve just said is correct, ask.

Myth #4: You’ll have Lots of Chances to Speak

This depends a lot on the culture. In very sociable cultures, you may have more opportunities to speak the local language than you even want. If you find yourself in a more reserved culture where lots of people know other language, though, you’ll need to make a concerted effort to get in practice time.

Solution: seek out conversations. If you’re the reserved type yourself, check out these speaking practice tips for introverts.

Myth #5: Your Increase Your Knowledge by a Full Level

If your goal is to improve your speaking fluency or confidence, just getting out an using the language may be all you need. If, however, your goal is to move from beginner level to intermediate or intermediate to advanced, you may run into some trouble. As long as you use the language daily, without a doubt you’ll become more adept at using what you already know, but you may not actually learn anything new.

For instance, if you’re a beginner in German, you’ve probably studied plenty about the Simple Past and the Present Perfect tenses, but may not be able to use them correctly when you speak.
If you’ve never studied the subjunctive, though, you may not learn it just from “living” the language. So, stay alert for things you don’t understand and make an effort to investigate them further.

Solution: It’s really the same as for Myth #2 about “picking up” a language. Make a concerted effort to build your vocabulary and learn how to correctly use those grammar structures you only vaguely understand. When you notice something you don’t understand comes up frequently, take the initiative to learn more about it instead of waiting for it to “sink in.”

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These can all work great, but I confess my method of learning new letters is largely brute force. It’s not a barrel of laughs, but it works for me. I thought I’d share it because it might work for you better than all the association tricks.

By alphabet, I mean writing systems in which each sound has roughly one symbol to represent it. In other words, I’m counting Hebrew and Arabic, even though they’re abjads, and Japanese Kana, even though they’re syllabic. I’m not counting Chinese characters/kanji, which I don’t know any way.

Sounds First

I’m big on input. I’ve only once tried to learn an alphabet without first getting a fair amount of audio input in the language. In every other case, I’ve spent at least a week listening to music or news broadcasts (Thank you, Radio Free Europe) for an hour or two a day. This way when I read a written explanation of a sound, I already have an idea of what it really sounds like.

Thing is if you try to guess a letter’s sound based on a written description, chances are high that you’ll get it wrong. That incorrect sound will then stay stuck in your mind and cause you to mispronounce words. Lots of listening also helps prevents you from developing incorrect intonation habits from your slow reading.

You don’t have to recognize every single sound before you look at the written alphabet—especially if the language has a lot of sounds that seem similar to your ear—but the more you know the better.

Meaningful Transliterations

After some listening, I get a list of my target language’s letters and their English equivalents. Try to avoid using equivalents in another language—for example, Greek into Russian when you’re a native English speaker—or you’ll end up with a double accent. No, really. You will. It may not cause permanent damage, but it will be annoying. (Then again, Rusbrew was actually kinda fun.)

This list should come along with explanations of the differences between your new language’s sounds and your native language’s sounds. It should tell you, preferably with drawings of lip and tongue placement, exactly how to pronounce each sound for which there’s no equivalent in your language.

In any case, for me the equivalents in English are just rough guidelines to jog the memory. I want to match the letters to the sounds I’ve already heard in that language, not to English approximations. I’ll look over the list to see if any letter stands out as particularly memorable, but don’t spend much time trying to “memorize” each letter.

Jumping Right in

With the list handy, I’ll grab a text in the new alphabet and start reading…one letter at a time. Know the first letter? Nope. Look at the list, find the letter, check what sound it represents. Know the second letter? No again. Look at the list, find the letter, and so on. When I get to the end of the word, I read it again hopefully without stopping to look up any letter. See what I mean by brute force?

I’ll keep doing this for three or four days, about half an hour each session, or until I notice certain letters are giving me trouble. When I notice I keep confusing one letter with another, then I turn to mnemonics to keep them straight. More specifically, I make up a mnemonic to contrast the two or more letters I keep mixing up.

As an auditory learner, my favorite is sound association. So if I wanted to remember the Arabic letter gim*?, (a curved line opening on the right with a dot inside the curve) makes a sound like j (unless you’re Egyptian, etc.), I might remember the letter looks like a cover with a precious “gem” inside.

I wait so long to use any memory aids because I don’t see any sense wasting time inventing mnemonics for letters I can easily remember. I prefer to grab a list and start reading so I’m increasing my reading speed and getting more input instead of just memorizing shapes.

Like I say, it’s not the most entertaining method and it takes tenacity, but I find it to be the fastest for me. I’ve worked out this system on Cyrillic and Hebrew, then used it for Georgian, Armenian, and Arabic. But I can’t read fluently in all those alphabets. It’s hard to read fast when you don’t understand a blessed thing you’re reading.

Have any tricks for learning alphabets faster? If so, leave a comment to help out other FFLL readers.

*Sorry, still trying to get Wordpress to let me use different alphabets.

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Fact is, not everyone will be delighted with your attempts to learn their language. We all have bad days when dealing with a foreigner’s broken whateverese is not exactly appealing.

A blunt remark, tense sigh or frustrated grumble here and there may be unpleasant on the receiving end, but they’re understandable and forgivable.

Some people, however, are just plain rude and want to make you feel inferior. They may roll their eyes at your mispronunciations, frown and answer curtly in English when you speak to them in the local language, snicker and whisper to the person next to them, or mock your accent and gestures (and not in a “cute” way) while their friends laugh out loud. Yes, all these things have happened to me at one time or another. And I didn’t die…or even pass out.

If worry over how other people might treat you while you’re learning is holding you back, here are a few things you can do about it.

Get Some Backup

Make sure you’re not socially isolated, which is a real risk in a new country where you barely speak the language. Friends—people who like and respect you, that is—help you remember that in the grand scheme of things, some stranger’s rude remark doesn’t matter much. You vent, get sympathy or suggestions, and get over it so you can go back “out there” again.

If you’re trying to avoid speaking your own language, make friends with other well adjusted foreigners who speak the local language. But especially make friends with locals. When you vent to someone who understands the local culture, they can warn you if made a serious faux pas, tell you what you should have said instead, or reassure you that, yes, that chick who rolled her eyes was being rude and it wasn’t your fault.

Laughing at Versus Laughing with

Make sure you’re not taking things more personally than they’re meant. I first noticed the danger of this in a college French class conversation group lead by a native French speaker. It all started with the French word for nose, which is spelled nez, but pronounced “nay.”

One student pronounced it with a z several times. Finally the native speaker commented, almost as an aside, “And don’t say, ‘nezzz.’ It sounds ridiculous.” I thought of it as a little friendly teasing and I’d heard comments like that about my Russian, too.

After class, though, the mispronouncing student commented on how rude and hurtful the remark was. It’s anyone’s guess as to how the French guy meant that comment, but how it was interpreted could have made all the difference.

If you feel picked on, lighten the mood with your own retort. I can only imagine the class’s reaction if she’d said, “Well, sorry, but the French spell funny.” Whenever my young students teased me about not being able to roll my r’s well. I’d reply with, “Say, ‘this.’ Ththth.” Of course, they couldn’t. Stopped them in their tracks to realize maybe I’m not the only one who “talks funny.” In other words, if teased, tease back.

They’re Not Worth Your Time

As for people you’re fairly sure are trying to put you down, well, like Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” It can be a bit of a shock to run into someone who deliberately tries to make you feel bad, but keep one thing in mind: these people are being rude.

Their mothers would be ashamed. Decent, kind people don’t sneer at and mock others, now do they? As far as I’m concerned, insulting someone because of their native language (and the fact that it isn’t yours) is right up there with insulting someone because of their race, religion, or gender.

So there’s no reason you should let these other people’s low class behavior make you hesitant to continue speaking your new language. Their attitude does not reflect on you as a person or a language learner. Forget them and keep practicing.

If you’re generally not too confident speaking a foreign language anywhere or with anyone, here are some more tips on overcoming the fear of speaking a foreign language.

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