How to learn a language FAST and never forget it
Have you ever spent a significant amount of time learning a language only to forget it completely later? It's a frustrating experience, but it's all too common. Despite the effort it takes to learn a language, forgetting it can happen effortlessly. Luckily, there are methods to prevent this from happening. Let's explore some of them together in this video.
One of the most important things you need to do to remember a language is to immerse yourself in it as much as possible. Your brain has a system to decide which information to hold and which to forget. The more you repeat a piece of information, the better it sticks to your memory. However, when it comes to foreign languages, exposure doesn't happen naturally if you're living in a country where that language isn't spoken. This is where voluntary exposure comes in.
Voluntary exposure requires a clear system and willpower, but it's key to reaching fluency in any language. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to listen to YouTube videos, films, TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts, in the language you're learning on your daily commute. The average American spends 55 minutes commuting to work, making it a perfect time to get exposure to your target language. By defining when and what you're going to listen to, you will be more likely to stay focused and get the results you want.
Once you listen to an episode or a chapter, summarize what you have learned in a couple of sentences. This is an effective way to reinforce your learning and improve your recall. Learning is all about inputting and outputting. By doing both, you will be able to remember more and more with each passing day. Don't waste your commute time on mindless activities, like scrolling, when you can use it to benefit yourself and learn a new language. With a little bit of effort and dedication, you can turn your daily commute into a valuable learning opportunity that will help you achieve fluency in your target language.
One of the quickest ways to improve your language proficiency is by incorporating speaking practice into your daily routine. The more you speak, the more you will be able to recall, and eventually, your fluency will return. It's important to speak with native speakers to avoid learning in card language and making the same mistakes as non-native speakers. If you are looking for a great way to practice with native speakers, consider taking Lingoda's language lessons and speaking with their tutors.
The classes are 16 minutes long, online, and also live. In those lessons, you and three to four classmates will focus on speaking and real-life conversations, as well as learning grammar structures. Your teacher will give you feedback after the lesson on what you can improve and let you know what you're already good at. It's important to focus on materials and use the vocabulary list provided by the tutor. You can also turn each mistake you make and every new word you learn into flashcards. This will help reinforce your learning and make it easier to recall words later.
The Sprints are two-month learning challenges where you take lessons intensively and see big progress quickly. There are two types of Sprints: you can either do a Sprint or a Super Sprint. Lingoda teaches four languages: group and private 1-on-1 English, German, French, and Spanish. The curriculum is intertwined with cultural context in real-life language, so you can learn the slang expressions and phrases that native speakers actually use. They can help you reach conversational level in just two months and connect with a community.
So if you're planning to travel somewhere else, it's the perfect option. After realizing how much German I've forgotten over the years, I took a class to refresh my knowledge. As a content creator, it's convenient to be able to choose the day and time that works best for me. I'm planning to take 15 lessons per month to get back on track with my German, and the lessons were so fun that it made me want to study German even more. You can follow the structured curriculum or choose your classes in your own way.
Additionally, if you complete the Spring Challenge and follow all the rules, you can earn a 50% cashback for the Sprint and 100% cashback for your Super Sprint. This is a great incentive to keep you accountable and motivated to continue. Click the link below for more information and use my code for 20 euros or 25% off your Sprint registration.
Another helpful tool is a frequency list. You can use this list as a conversation starter with your tutor. Find words you don't know or you're not familiar with and discuss them with your tutor. Make as many mistakes as you can, and ask your tutor to help you correct them. After discussing the words with your tutor, turn the vocabulary you would like to learn into Anki flashcards. If you're interested in learning how to create effective Anki flashcards, check out my free language course in the description below.
I have a lesson where I explain step by step how to create Anki flashcards effectively and help you improve your language learning. Learning new vocabulary or remembering them doesn't have to be daunting. In fact, most of us learn the vast majority of our native language words through reading, and we can do the same for foreign languages. Remember, we don't need to make ourselves read really hard books and look up lots of words in the dictionary. Instead, we can learn new words just by understanding how they are used in a sentence.
Often, we learn a new word about one of ten times we see it. We might get it right away, or we might understand it over time or with the context. Reading a lot and as fast as you can is the best way to learn more words. Every time you read a big book, like one from Tolstoy or Twilight, you will learn between 300 to 500 new words. You will also learn a lot about how sentences work. The cool thing is you don't have to start with hard books; you can start with anything you like to read.
The Harry Potter books, for example, are written in almost 70 languages, and you can find easy-to-read love stories or mystery books in every language. Pick something you will enjoy for your first book. Try to find a story you already know, like a book you read before or a movie you've seen. You can also listen to an audiobook while you read, which will help you read faster and understand how the language sounds. Audiobooks also let you focus on the story instead of trying to understand every single word.
You don't always need to know what every word means when you read books. You can ignore the words you don't know and just enjoy the story. As you read, you will learn a lot of new words, understand more about the language, and have fun too. If you want to practice reading with native speakers, you can find reading lessons on the Lingoda platform. You will be given a text with an experienced native-speaking tutor and three to four other participants. You will break down the text, reread it, discuss it, learn new vocabulary, and explore new topics.
The great thing is that your tutor will teach you how to effectively read a text and how not to focus on unnecessary vocabulary. If you're struggling to figure out which words are important and which are not, these lessons can help you out. Writing extensively in that language can help to reactivate long-dormant memories and neural pathways. You can write about whatever you want to learn. If you want to learn how to order food in Italy, then write about food. Self-directed writing is the ultimate personalized language class.
The moment you try to write about your future trip without the words "trip" or "future," you will learn precisely what bits of language you're missing. Writing also trains you to take the patterns you've already memorized and actually use them. This is where you learn to take raw information and turn it into language. You can't learn much from writing without the source of corrections; you need a native speaker to come in and tell you how to say whatever you want to say.
Fortunately, you can find these native speakers online, like on platforms like Lingoda. Your tutor will correct your writing and give you feedback. Once you have someone to fix your mistakes, your goal in writing is to make mistakes. You don't need to write a perfect essay, and in fact, you will learn more if you write fast and make a few mistakes. Try to say what you want to say, and if you don't have the word or grammar to say it, then use Google Translate or ChatGPT to help.
Once you get your corrections, you will figure out precisely where your problems are and learn how a native speaker would express the same ideas. This is the best kind of help you could ask for, and it's based on your own writing and thoughts, so it's easier to remember than anything you could find in a grammar book. Take every mistake you get fixed and turn it into your flashcards; that way, you will never forget a fix.
If you're not sure what to write, you can look at Lingoda lessons. There are a lot of topics you can choose from. You can schedule a class, and before the class, you will have access to the materials because Lingoda gives access to them. You can try to write as much as possible using the learning material. When you join the lesson, you already know a bit about the topic, and you're more likely to understand and remember what you have learned from the lesson.
By writing as much as possible in the language, you will be forcing your brain to recall grammar rules, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and more, which can be an excellent way to reinforce your understanding of the language. Ultimately, there is no better way to review and reinforce your knowledge of a language than by practicing writing in that language as much as possible. Hopefully, these tips help you out, and don't forget to check out the links in the description below. So, see you next time!