“I don’t have the time to learn a language.”

” I don’t have the time” is the most used sentence I hear when I speak to people who are interested to learn a new language but they don’t do it because apparently they don’t have time…

I understand, most people who have a fulltime job (with or without kids), or fulltime moms, etc… don’t want to spend their only me-time of the day on studying…

But what if I say you don’t necessarily have to sit in front of a desk with a boring textbook to learn a language?

Believe it or not, I learned the most by doing daily activities.

Now I hear you say “What? by doing daily activities? what do you even mean?”

I will explain, but first I have a few questions for you.

● Do you often listen to music?

● Do you watch movies/series?

● Do you read books?

● Do you waste most of your time on socal media? (Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter…)

● Are you doing some type of exercise? (Running, walking, biking, gym)

Well then you can surely make time to use and practice languages.

Young man reading an article on his phone and listening to podcasts while traveling by train.

Listen to music in the language you are interested in, watch movies with subtitles (first subtitles in your mother tongue, when you are more advanced you use subtitles in the language itself and after a while maybe you won’t need any subtitles anymore…)

Read books, articles on topics you like…
You can start with very easy texts, like children’s books for example.
Or use bookbox.com , a platform where you can watch cartoons with subtitles and you also have the scripted text.

Write down every new word you learn, review it whenever you can.

Do you spend a lot of time on YouTube? use it to practice a language.
There are a lot of people who make videos to learn others their language (and it’s for free!!)

There are also lot of channels where you can watch children’s cartoons with subtitles
and another channel I recommend you to visit is “easy languages”

when you are more advanced watch vlogs in the language you’re interested in or watch the same type of videos you normally watch but in that language instead.

Watch things you’re interested in, so you don’t lose concentration…
and here again, try to write down as much as possible important words or expressions you hear…
You will hear a lot of the same words and expressions, after a while you’ll start to remember them and you’ll automatically start to understand more and more.

But you have to practice the things you learnt.

Flashcards

Did you ever heard of Anki or Quizlet?

Those are programs where you can study a subject or a language by using flashcards, and it has been proven by many students that this method of “studying’ is way more effective tan traditional study.

Spaced repetition is a very effective way to remember things. If you review your flashcards daily, you will see results for sure!

And the good thing is, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on it.
Do you take your phone with you everywhere you go? Even in the bathroom?

I bet you do!

So, every time you have 5 minutes (waiting for the train, waiting at the doctors office, waiting on a friend, sitting on the toilet,…) instead of scrolling on social media, use it to review your flashcards!!!

Every word, expression, sentence you learnt? put it in Anki make a flashcard of it and there you go, review it every day.

5 to 10 minutes a day seems nothing but if you do it every day, it WILL make a difference.

Comprehensible input (LingQ)

One of the most effective programs I know to practice a language is LingQ for sure.

It is a “reading” program with audio and a built in dictionary/translator
There are countless texts to choose from, so you can find texts that you are interested in to make the learning process more fun.

The main focus here is listening and reading (2 of the most important skills to learn a language)

A fun feature is that it keeps track of every word you know so you can actually see the number of words you already know f.e. 2350 words.

If you want to know more about LingQ you can visit the website or you can find man reviews on the internet or on Youtube by searching “Steve Kaufmann” the founder of this program.

If you find the time to use LingQ daily, even if its only for 10 minutes, you will make a lot of progress without a doubt.

Speaking to natives

to end this article I want to tell you one more thing. The only thing that will make you really fluent in a language is speaking to native people..

You can’t become fluent if you never speak the language.
So find people in your neighbourhood, on facebook, instagram, you name it… and talk, talk, talk!

It is 1000% more effective than studying out of a notebook and reciting boring sentences, and it is more fun!!

So read, speak, write, practice and repeat!
If you really want it, you will find the time.

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 you definitely need to use phrasebooks.

Hey fellow language learners, in this article I will tell you why you definitely should use phrasebooks when learning a new language.

To begin, there are several publishers who make phrasebooks, the most known is probably Lonely Planet, they have excellent phrasebooks, I really recommend them.

Well, why you should use them?

First of all, they are very useful, they contain a lot of practical information. With practical information I mean phrases that are used in daily life plus often they also provide possible answers to questions.
These little books are divided in different chapters like for example: practical information, shopping, traveling, at the doctor, in the supermarket etc.

 

The chapters are very easy to browse through.

Mostly the chapters are indicated with colours.

In this way you can look up a phrase in no time. This is handy when you are in a foreign country and want to ask something to a local but you don’t know how to ask it.

Another asset that these tiny books have is that they contain relevant information. Textbooks often have boring dialogues that are totally irrelevant. In phrasebooks you really have good examples of phrases that you surely will need. With dialogues in textbooks you actually have a lot of excess information.

Most phrasebooks also have a chapter where they explain some grammar of the language, they also have a chapter of basic information like numbers, days, months etc…

Many phrasebooks have some drawings with vocabulary on it like you see on this picture.

In all the ones that I have they show how to pronounce the language and all of them have a little dictionary in the back. Little and compact, perfect to take with you wherever you go. That’s another asset of these tiny books.

In the Lonely Planet phrasebooks, they give you some information about the culture of the country that speak that language, I think it’s very interesting and also important if you are planning to go to the country.

My conclusion is that they give you a good base of the language, some grammar points, basic information and phrases for daily life situations. You can bring it with you wherever you go and it’s not that expensive. So, that’s why I really recommend you to use phrasebooks.

Did you know?
They already used phrasebooks in the 15^th century. They were used in Mediaeval Europe by pilgrims to the Holy land.

 

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.

I started to learn Portuguese!

I started to learn Portuguese

Last week I finally decided to start learning Portuguese after a long time of thinking about it. I just wanted to make sure that my Italian was good enough before I started to learn another Romance language. So, I don’t mix them up.

Why Portuguese?
Well, first of all because I love to learn languages and I want to learn as much languages as possible! 😀 And the second reason is just because it is a beautiful language. I love the sound of it, it’s like music in my ears.
When I saw something in Portuguese for the first time, I was impressed with how much I understood. I understood like 70% of it.

That’s because I already speak Italian, French and some Spanish. Portuguese is very similar to those three languages and that makes it easy to understand so much.
So, I know that this language will be a lot easier to learn for me than Russian for example. I am learning Russian over a year now and I finally start to understand more and more. That’s because I did not know any language before that is similar to Russian.

Well, this was a short blog post just to tell you that I started to learn another language.
I can’t wait to speak Portuguese and maybe I will visit Portugal soon!

Never stop learning and keep practicing!

Thank you for reading and see you next time!

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 

 

Dutch and Indonesian Comparison

Dutch and Indonesian Comparison

The Netherlands and Indonesia certainly have a long historical relationship. Indonesia was ruled by the Dutch for over 3 and half centuries. During that time, there were many Dutch people born in Indonesia, and some Indonesian even studied at Dutch schools in Indonesia or in the Netherlands. This interaction has certainly influenced the way Indonesian people live day by day. The very significant influence by the Dutch can be seen in Indonesian language.

There are thousands of Dutch loanwords in Indonesian language. But, does it make Dutch an easy language to learn for Indonesian? Well, I have been learning Dutch for a several months, and I am going to tell you my experience in learning Dutch.

Word Order

Indonesian word order is straightforward–subject, verb, object (SVO). That’s all what you need to know as the basic, although if there are two sentences connected into one sentence, the word order is still the same. This is the opposite of that in Dutch language. Basic word order in Dutch is SVO, but depends on the connecting words, it can be either SVO or SOV. There is no certain rule about this, so memorization is a must.

Vocabulary

Like what I have mentioned earlier, there are Dutch loanwords in Indonesian. Guess the following words:

administrasi, asbak, kulkas, baskom, buku, besuk, kantor, bioskop, gaji, handuk

Check your answer now, they are: administration, ashtray, refrigerator, washbasin, book, visiting, office, cinema, wages, towel.

How is it? Surprised by the answer? The ending of -tie is equivalent of -si in Indonesian language.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation of both languages are similar. You write the way how you say it in Indonesian, so for instance, “politie” will be pronounced as “po-li-ti-e” in Indonesian. Indonesian speakers won’t have any problems with pronunciation. Both Indonesian and Dutch use the same alphabet.

Conclusion

Dutch is quite easy to learn, compared with other languages, such as Russian, Arabic, or Chinese. It is because Dutch uses the same alphabet with Indonesian and shares similar pronunciation. The grammar will be a bit of challenge in terms of the word order but no worries for that in the beginning. Are you also learning Dutch? Share your story here.

This post is written by Teddy Nee.

Teddy runs a language blog called Nee’s Language Blog ( www.neeslanguageblog.com ) with the purpose of educating people around the world about the importance of learning foreign languages. You can talk with him in Medan Hokkien, Indonesian, English, Chinese, Spanish or Esperanto.