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. 😀

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

Is Duolingo good to learn a language?

As you can see in the title, I will speak about Duolingo in this article.
You probably already know this app, and for those who did not know this app yet, it’s an app where you can learn the basics of a language in a fun and easy way.
It’s available in a lot of languages and they still continue to make new courses.
You even can contribute to a new course when you speak the two languages of the course fluently.
You can use it on your Phone and your computer and it’s free.

I am using this app now for 4 years or so. I really like it, it’s helpful and interesting. I started using it when I was learning my third foreign language which is Italian. It was a good way for me to start learning the basics of Italian and after a few courses I started to learn intensely with other resources.

So, the question is: “Is Duolingo good to learn a language?”.
My answer is yes and no. Why yes? Because it teaches you a lot, it teaches you new vocabulary and expressions. By using Duolingo you can learn a lot but you won’t be able to speak a language fluently by only using that.

It’s a good way to compensate it with other resources.

So, what I want to explain to you is, that I really recommend you to use Duolingo because it’s a very good app and it will help you a lot. But you should know that it doesn’t really teach you how to speak and use a language. So beside using Duolingo, you also should use other sources to learn the language.

When learning a language, it is important to listen a lot so you can absorb the language and to speak ofcourse and with Duolingo you can’t really do that.

I really like this app and I use it daily before I sleep.
If you don’t use this app yet, I recommend you to try it. Duolingo
It makes language learning a little bit more fun 😀

Thank you for reading.

If this article was useful for you, don’t hesitate to share it with your friends!

Don't forget to visit my youtube Channel where I share videos in the languages I learn to show my progression or just to give some tips . Multilinguismo