By Staff Writer: Caitlin Daugherty
Over the pandemic, many people in lockdown attempted multiple hobbies to stave off boredom. Some chose breadmaking, others sewing. Some decided to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but one hobby was trendy among these, and that was language learning. Many individuals attempted to learn languages such as Spanish, Japanese, or German and quickly burnt out due to the heavy workload. If you’re a beginner at speaking a language, here are the steps you can take to start your journey to becoming fluent.
An excellent first step to learning a language is a structured educational source for you to take your baby steps. Apps like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, or Babbel are helpful at the beginning of your journey to becoming a polyglot. However, they can hold you back in the long run because of their limiting structures. Taking an online course or using a textbook can help in the beginning as well.
Using a language journal, whether it is an online journal or a handwritten one, is vital for memorizing grammar and how to make basic sentences. Doing language drills every day is crucial to improvement over time. You can also use journals to write life entries in your target language to get a handle on writing your thoughts in your language of choice.
Finally, you need to listen to and repeat what you hear in your target language. Listening to podcasts, YouTube videos, or audiobooks can help you to learn the language faster. Repeating words or phrases from people who are native speakers are how babies learn how to speak. Eventually, it would be best to talk with a native speaker to cement the language in your mind. Having an hour-long conversation in your target language might be highly challenging but rewarding in the long run.