WordLayer

Congratulations! You’ve decided to learn another language and your full of good intentions and motivation but the weeks go by and verb conjugations keep coming and somehow some of that motivation seems to dwindle...

But fear not because I have a bunch of tips to make language learning fun, and as you know, when you enjoy doing something it becomes a lot easier!

Music 

When I first moved to Barcelona my friend made me a mix tape in Spanish and I made one for her in English. Not only did I get to practice my listening but I also got to know some really cool new music. 

Google some artists that sing in the native language your learning and get listening! Ok so you might not know what there saying and lyrics can be notoriously abstract but still, your exposing yourself to native accents and you will understand some of it. Also it’s a great way to get to know more about the culture and gives you some extra conversation topics for when your talking to native people from the country.

Watch TV

There are lots of internet sites that let you stream series in different languages, for example in Spanish there is www.seriesyonkis.com. It’s a good idea to watch episodes of your favorite shows that you have already seen, that way you can understand more from the context. 

Watch films with subtitles

But don’t put them in English! Well maybe to begin with, but at least from my experience, when I had subtitles in English I wasn’t really paying any attention to the spoken language in the film. I think it’s much more effective if you put the subtitles in the language your learning, that way your listening and reading at the same time. 

Label everything in the house!

When I arrived in Barcelona I rented a room in a flat with a spanish couple and the girl used a board marker to label absolutely everything in the kitchen in Spanish. It was great and really helped me remember vocabulary, it was a bit of a nightmare cleaning it when we moved out though so maybe post-it notes might be a better alternative!

Language exchanges

Everybody always says that they find speaking the most difficult part of learning a language so you need to get talking! Whether your learning a language while living abroad or learning a language while in your own country, there will be tons of people you can find that will be happy to let you practice with them in return for letting them practice your native language. I’ve done lots of language exchanges and have met some really cool people. Some come prepared with exercises to do, others prefer just to chat and grab a drink, it just depends on what you are looking for. It feels embarrassing for a little bit and you’ll feel nervous, but so what, they’re there to help and you wouldn’t laugh at someone if they made mistakes would you? I became such good friends with one of my language exchange partners that I now live with her! Websites like www.loquo.com (in Spain) and www.gumtree.co.uk (in the UK) are good places to find people to practice with. 

Reading 

A lot of sites suggest reading children’s books in the language your learning. While this is a good suggestion it’s not always the most practical, I’m not sure how much I want to be seen reading children’s books on the metro! I prefer to use graded readers, books that are specially written for people learning a language. They are short stories written for adults, that use relevant vocabulary and provides lots of exercises to complete as your reading. You can get them from the language section in most book shops and they come in different levels so you should be able to understand the majority of the story. Comics are great too as text tends to be quite simple and the pictures can help you understand the story. 

Get Visual!

When learning vocabulary view a picture of the object, along with the spelling and pronunciation. Whether you are a visual or auditory learner, this combination will be an amazing help - that’s where WordLayer comes in!