5 Steps to be more disciplined at learning languages
Do you know that feeling for being excited about learning any language but at the same time you don’t take the time to do it? This happens a lot not only to you but most of us. Do you know why? Well, it’s because a lot of work makes our brain to think that it’s more difficult than appears and we prefer to waste our time in another things.
But, is it difficult? Of course it is, to learn a complete language it’s so huge, even our own one is a monster that we never finish to learn. However, how about trying with some tools that help to do this more comfortable, funny and efficient? That sounds good, isn’t it?
In my years of learning new skills (not only languages but another ones) I’ve acquired new ways to work on it and become better and to achieve my idiom goals. Here they are:
- Define your objective:
Are you planning to learn Spanish, English, German or whatever? The whole language, really? Let me tell you something, not even native speakers learn that way, they start with simple phrases since they are kids and so on until they become fluent, write excellently and read with no problem. So what is your goal?
To speak fluently, to write articles, to read books in that language or just to be able to understand most of the topics natives speak about. I don’t know, it’s up to you, but you have to mark from where you are going to start. I recommend to focus firstly on speaking, because writing and reading get easier afterwards.
Your objective must be very specific, for example: To be able to understand and speak to natives about daily conversation and topics, in the next 5 months.
- Divide your goal in different parts:
As I told you before, to learn any skill gets a lot of work. But to acquire that talent we need to feel something called “progress”. And how do we feel progress? Pretty simple, achieving small goals. So it’s important to divide what you are going to learn in smaller parts.
For example: To speak Spanish fluently, your first goal should be to learn and speak the basic phrases that Spanish people use in conversation.
- See your schedule and be honest with yourself:
We all have a lot of things to do in life apart from learning languages, so be sure to set only enough and realistic time to study them. Don’t commit yourself to complete many hours you are not going to finish with. 30 minutes, 3 days per week is a very good time to learn. Please, just turn your phone off and find a quiet place to make this happen. Little time but maximum efficiency.
- Look for useful and funny material to study:
There are a lot of videos in internet which them you can learn while you have fun. What it works for me, after studying my phrases and vocabulary is to watch some Youtubers that speak in German (what I am learning now). And when I am working at something else I try to listen music in that language too.
This way, even if I don’t understand something or nothing at all (sometimes), I’ve been getting better at listening and learning new phrases, it’s amazing and I am not boring on my couch just studying theory.
- Update your goals and calendar:
The idea here is to achieve your dreams on whatever you are into. So it’s important to refresh your goals and renew your calendar at least once every six months. Remember you have to feel progress to not quit.
I don’t know if this sounds easier or helpful for you, but if you decide to follow it you’ll have to take sit and work on your plan for a couple of hours, so better do it sooner than later.
Let me know if this works for you or share to me some new ideas. That would be awesome!
See you soon and learn a lot!
1 Eylül 2017
