Studying languages on vacation?

It’s travel season, many people go on vacation.
Maybe you are on vacation too but what to do with your languages?

You don’t go on vacation to be studying there all day but maybe you are afraid to neglect your languages because you won’t have time to revise them?

Then this article is for you!

When you go on a vacation most of the time it’s to relax or to discover a place.
You won’t have much time to study there and maybe you won’t think about it at all.

But even without really ‘’studying’’ you can revise your languages every day.

Option 1

You can work with flashcards, digital flashcards are easy to use and you have them all the time with you.

Two excellent flashcard apps are Anki and Quizlet, both available on mobile and on your computer.

A few days before you leave for vacation make your flashcards (insert them into the app) and you are ready to go. Everyday 5 minutes of revision time is not a big deal and (toch) will benefit you.

Best times to do your revision are first thing in the morning or before sleep. I recommend you to revise in the morning because after a long day it may be possible that you either forget to do it or that you don’t feel like it anymore.

What should you put on the flashcards??

You don’t know what to put on your flashcards? Just take sentences and vocabulary from the recourses you normally use to study.

Option 2

You also can use an app like Duolingo or Memrise. The lessons are very short and don’t take much time. Same here like with the flashcards, do it in the morning or in the evening, it will just take you 5 to 10 minutes and it will benefit you.

Option 3

If you are in the country of the language you learn then it’s another story of course! Just talk with the locals and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. This is the best exercise you can do to practice.

Surround yourself with the language.

Option 4

Another thing you can do is READ.
Reading is very important when you are learning a language.
Take a book with you in your target language or find newspapers in that language (when you are in the country of the language itself)

When you don’t have books or newspapers or you can’t find any, the internet is full of content. (online newspapers, e-books,…)

Read a little every day, 5 mins a day, for instance one article a day.
An amazing tool to read on the internet is “readlang“ , with this you can easily look up the meaning of a word.
Maybe you can take a little notebook with you to write the new vocabulary in it.

So these were some options you have to study or revise your language(s) even when you are on vacation.
5 to 10 minutes a day is good, it’s better than doing nothing and in this way you will be able to keep track on your language(s).

 

Why do I enjoy learning languages?

Hey everyone

Todays article will be about me, why do I enjoy learning languages?

A lot of people asked me this question, some people don’t understand what is so enjoyable in learning languages.

First of all, it’s a kinda hobby of mine, I even could say a passion of mine.            I really do like it. Everyone has at least one hobby or passion or something they are really interested in. Yes that’s right, everyone is different and not everyone has the same interests as you.

That brings us to the second reason: it is stress relieving. Same here, like drawing – another hobby of mine – does for me, everyone has some kind of activity that helps them to relieve stress.

When I study my languages I am focused on it and don’t worry about other things. Some kind of meditation I guess? 😁

The third reason is because it gives me a lot of benefits. I can use all the languages I study. I can use them for work, in my personal life, to travel, to meet new people from all over the world…

It also gives me another look on the world and on other cultures. I think that you only learn a culture when you learn their language.

Studying languages (or any other subjects) surely has some other benefits , maybe I should write another article about that.

If you would like an article about that please let me know!

Hopefully you’ll understand a bit more now why I love learning languages. 😀

 

 

Don’t be afraid to speak a foreign language.

One of the most common difficulties people face when learning a language is being afraid to speak their target language with other people. (see article on 5 most common obstacles)

That’s very normal, I remember the first time I had to speak French for the first time (a long time ago) I was so nervous that I just forgot everything I learned.

But after time, I got used to speak French and other foreign languages to native people. The biggest fear of people is being judged or being laughed at but I have noticed that this does almost never happen. Most of the time the people that do laugh with you are monolingual people so they don’t know anything about languages!!!!
Don’t listen to these negative people.

Most of the time, people will appreciate it that you do the effort to speak their language, even if you make a ton of mistakes. They would be happy to correct them for you.

What should I do if people start speaking English to me instead?

Just keep on speaking your target language, hopefully they will switch again to their language too after a while.

Another thing you can do is just tell them that you don’t want to use English at all. That you really want to practice and improve your target language. Normally they will understand that.

If you are too afraid…

If you don’t feel ready yet to go and start speaking with a native, you can start to have little conversations with people you know already. For instance, your language teacher, another friend or student who learns the same language, a good friend of you who speaks the language… If you have the chance and opportunity to do that, I really recommend you do this.

Or you can speak to yourself, it can sound strange but it is really effective if you don’t have another way to practice. You can talk about topics like how your day was, what you are going to do the whole day or what you will eat,…

In this way you will slowly get used to speaking the language.

If you feel comfortable enough in the language, you can switch to native people. Don’t be afraid and just do it! The fear will eventually disappear!

Thank you for reading this article and I hope this helped you in some way.

 

 

5 most common language learning obstacles

In today’s article I want to talk about the 5 most common obstacles people face when learning a language. Maybe this will answer some questions for those of you who still are struggling to learn that new language you always wanted to speak

1 Finding the right materials

This is one of the most important things when you want to learn a new language. You have to find materials to start learning. Or  more specifically the right materials. There are thousands of different books, apps, video’s, that you can use but the trick is to choose the one’s that will help you the most. That can differ for everyone, everyone has a different method that suits best for them. Of course you can ask other people who also learnt the same language for advice but you always should be looking for the method that suits best for you.

In my opinion everyone is different and that’s the same in studying.

2 Not seeing results

At the beginning stage of learning a language, you will learn a lot of new things, everything is new so you are excited. But as soon as you have the B2 level, it will take a lot more time to reach a C1 level. It even will become a little boring, because you don’t feel like improving anymore.

Why is that?

When you are at stage B2, you can have fluent conversations with native speakers, you can express your ideas and opinions, you can give simple presentations… At this stage you are an independent speaker.

To go from stage B2 to C1 you will have to step out of your comfort zone, you will have to use new vocabulary and incorporate more difficult topics in your conversations.
At stage C1 and C2 you are a proficient speaker, you don’t have to think anymore before you say something, you can use more difficult terms, you can participate in a professional conversation etc.

The reason why you keep getting stuck at stage B2 is because you keep using the same vocabulary and expressions you already know. You actually have to ‘’upgrade’’ your vocabulary, that’s the only way you will achieve that C1 level.

A language is something that you can keep learning.
Even in your mother tongue you can keep learning new expressions and words.

3 Not having enough exposure to the language

Whether you are learning the language by yourself, at school, on a language camp, …
A frequently made mistake is, not having enough exposure to the language outside of the lessons or the time you study. Studying a language once or twice a week won’t do it for you! You should use the language as often as possible to get used to it. For Instance, you can listen to the radio, read the newspaper, watch tv, or set your phone in your target language instead of using your mother tongue. These little things will help you more than you think.
If you want to read more on this, you can read the article on how I learn languages.

4 Not finding (making) the time

Some people say that they don’t find the time to study the language because they have to work all day and do other stuff after work but I am sure that if you really want something, you’ll do everything to make time, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes. If you study 10 or 15 minutes a day, it will surely make a difference.

You can use a journal to make it easier to plan your daily ‘study’ time. And to make sure you won’t forget it!

5 Being afraid to speak

The most common difficulty people face is being afraid to speak. They are afraid that people will laugh or that they will make mistakes.
But making mistakes is part of the learning process. When you make mistakes and people correct them, you will learn from it.
Speaking is one of the most important stages in language learning.

I hope this article was useful for you.
Did you face other obstacles or did you recognize yourself in some of these barriers?
Let me know, I would love to hear your experiences.

How do I get motivation to learn languages?

How do I get motivation to learn languages?

I often hear people ask this question.

Often people lose their “motivation” after they try to learn a language but then fail and they give up very quickly. Most people give up because they don’t have the right “motivation”. They are not driven enough.

Mostly in the beginning of something new, you are driven and determined. The secret is how to stay driven.

So how do you get that motivation to learn a language?
Before you start learning a language you should ask yourself one question. “why do I want to learn this language?” it can be for your work, maybe you want to travel and speak with the people there, maybe you just love to learn languages like I do or maybe you do it for a girl or boy you really like. There can be a lot of reasons to learn a language, it’s not so important what that reason is but it’s just important to have one. So, on days when you don’t feel like studying that language, you should think about why you started in the first place.

Another good tip is to think of the advantages you will have when you speak this language. There will open new doors for you, you will get new opportunities, you will be able to speak to more people and get to know the culture of their country better. When you are in a country and you speak their language, you will learn a lot more about their culture than when you don’t speak their language.

If you only speak one language now, I can tell you; learning a new language changes your world, it changes your way of thinking and believe it or not; you even will learn more about your own mother tongue too.

Set little goals for yourself

When you set little goals for yourself, you will be more driven to learn. Because you know what you want to achieve. For instance, your first goal is to have a little 15-minute conversation in that language after 1 month of studying.

Make it fun

I often hear people say that learning a language is boring but they are wrong. Learning a language is not boring at all! You should make it fun yourself. Of course, studying grammar every single day is boring but it’s not like that you will learn to speak a language. You should have variation in your learning process. Next to studying the actual language, you also can watch movies in that language with or without subtitles (depends on your level) , listen music, listen to podcasts, read books (about topics you like), newspapers… It will help you to improve faster and you will also learn new vocabulary. You can also use apps to study the language. Apps like Duolingo or Memrise are a great way to study the language wherever you are.
For instance on your daily lunch break you can do a lesson or two on Duolingo.

Find someone to talk to

Having conversations with a native speaker can be very motivating and will help you a lot to learn that language because they can correct your mistakes. I know that sometimes it can be hard to practice the language if you don’t have anyone in your neighbourhood that speaks the language but there are a lot of sites and apps where you can find native speakers. Like : Hellotalk, tandem, Italki, or even Facebook or Instagram. Nowadays it’s very simple to connect with people from all over the world!

Thank you for reading, I hope this helped you.

If you know someone who would like this article, don’t forget to share it!