7 Pro Tips for Language Enthusiasts From an English and Lithuanian Tutor

Introduction

Good day, language enthusiasts!

As some of you might already know, previous to starting to write here on Medium, I had entered the world of storytelling and wordplay through another door —teaching. In my day job I teach Lithuanian and English languages and as a hobby I am learning Russian and Portuguese. In the future, I would also like to master Spanish, French, Chinese, and Arabic. One can dream, can’t he?

Thus, to encourage all of you to dream together with me, I’d like to share with you 7 language learning tips that I have gathered through my 5 years of experience as a certified language teacher, as well as a lifelong learner myself. As said by Geoffrey Willans:

“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”

So let’s begin with the first tip to get you on the way:

Be patient. The mist will clear, eventually.

Often on the phone with a new student, I hear a reoccurring question:

‘How much time will it take for me to learn English?’

After hearing the answer most of them get quite discouraged…

‘Few years?? What does this crazy person mean?? I was thinking about months, not years!’

But that’s the truth. Language learning takes time.

Becoming fluent is not something that happens over night. It is a slow, turmulous, and some times even irritating process which you should not rush. Pacing will not help your understanding, nor is it good for vocabulary or grammar retention. Be willing to take it slow — reviewing, rewriting, and revisiting old material when necessary. This attitude will help you to stay sane when everything appears as a dark mist. Be certain, it will clear. Taking it humbly one step a time is a sure way to make things stick long-term.

2. Listen. Write down. Read. Repeat.

Learning a new word, phrase, or grammar rule once will not help you to remember it properly. That is why during almost every lesson I ask my students to write things down and review them once the class has finished. I know, it’s boring, mechanic, and repetitive, yet if you want to learn the language you have to put in your time and effort reviewing the learnt material.

The great pianist Bernhard once said:

“It takes 7 repetitions for the human brain to learn anything. So, choose a passage and repeat it seven times. If after seven times you have not learnt it, it is because it is too large a chunk of information.”

The same applies to language acquisition. If you see the word once, that means nothing. If you see it twice — that’s better. If you see it three times, you’re on the way to remembering it. If you’ve seen it 5 times or more, there’s a great certainty that you’ll remember it even after some time passes.

Our brain is a system that filters out unimportant or unnecessary information, thus make the information which you are learning significant enough to retain it.

3. Context, context, context!

Another helpful way of learning a new word or phrase is to observe it from many different angles. For example, let’s take the word “convenient.” If it’s the first time that you’ve heard it, it won’t mean much, but if you put it in an appropriate context, the situation changes. For example:

Having a printer on the table is so convenient! I can’t imagine living without it.

Sorry, but we’ll have to reschedule our tomorrow’s meeting. I hope that’s not too inconvenient for you.

The house is situated in a convenient location for those who want to visit Edinburgh.

Now, the newly learnt word has some company! It’s lonely to be on paper all by yourself, thus situate the novel word within a sentence or even a couple of them! My way of doing this is:

Foreign word — native translation; “context”

For example…

Convenient — patogus; “The house is situated in a convenient location.”

Now that’s more like it! Even though this way of capturing words takes more time, be sure, it is worth the effort.

4. Carry a notebook with you at all times

As you might have already noticed, taking and revising notes is a very important part of a language journey. Thus, I’d recommend having three notebooks: a bigger one for vocabulary and grammar capture (A5, 96 pages); another one of similar size for exercises, and a smaller one (A7, 48 pages) for taking quick notes while outdoors.

This will ensure that you will never miss a chance to capture important information during the class or being outside of it. Also, having separate vocabulary/grammar, exercise, and on-the-go notebooks will keep your material tidy and organized.

Pro tip! If you forget to bring your pocket notebook while away from your house, make good use of your phone’s note-taking app in the meantime. Just don’t forget to rewrite the captured information into your main book once you return.

5. Take the learning process into your own hands

Contrary to what some might think while studying a language most of the learning happens outside the classroom and not within it. Even if you studied with your teacher daily, the majority of your practice time should be allocated to learning and reviewing the studied material independently after the classes have finished.

Of course, if you are an A1 or A2 learner, having a teacher will definitely speed up your learning process incrementally, but once your language abilities become more and more sophisticated (B1 and above) you’ll have to allocate more time for self-study without your teacher's guidance. This means that you’ll have to find a source of intriguing material, which leads to our 6th point:

6. Immerse yourself in the given language

If you want to truly learn a new language, you’ll have to put yourself in a situation where you’ll be surrounded by it. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting moving to live in another country, although that’d be also worthwhile if you have the courage and resources! Rather, it would be sufficient if you found a podcast, a tv series, a music band, a blog, a magazine, or a book that you really enjoy and are willing to put in some extra effort to understand.

Don’t underestimate the power of independent learning! Self-study is king. Even if the teacher is a great guide for studying a language, first and foremost you have to be willing to take the learning process into your own hands. The teacher might have the map, but you are the one who’ll have to navigate the troubled waters trusting your own capacity and intelligence.

7. Make language learning as fun as possible!

Last, but not least… make sure that you have fun while studying. If you don’t enjoy what you do – chances are that you will not remember much and will learn very slowly. Our brain remembers enjoyable material much better than that which it does not like. The same goes for people. For this reason, surround yourself with content that you enjoy and study only with people that you vibe with.

Even the best teachers might not be your type of people. Thus it is always better to study from those who you like and respect, rather than from those who you despise and are fearful of. Nonetheless, a teacher is not your friend 100% and you are accountable to do your best out of respect for the other. On the same note, your teacher has to be competent enough and eager to teach you what he or she can to his or her best ability.

To sum up…

Be patient (the mist will clear, eventually).
Take and review your notes as frequently as it is possible.
Put new words and phrases into a context.
Carry a notebook with you at all times.
Take the learning process into your own hands (self-study).
Immerse yourself in the given language (via podcasts, blogs, music, tv series, books, magazines, conversations, etc.)
Make language learning fun. You are more likely to remember something if you’re having a good time learning it.

Thanks for reading!

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