How To Learn Any Language Quickly And Efficiently In Six Months
Four years ago I wrote a few tips on learning the English language in an article on LinkedIn. I worked as an English teacher in Brazil and, since then, I drastically changed careers, moved to another country and kept my love for languages.
Last year, though, I came across a TED video that would completely change my mindset about learning any language. The speaker is Chris Lonsdale and he elaborates on 5 principles and 7 actions to learn any language in six months that I will describe below:
PRINCIPLES
“We master tools by using tools and we learn tools the fastest when they are relevant to us” — Chris Lonsdale
1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you
When students start learning a language under a traditional method they usually fall into the same boring, outdated and not interesting book contents. It is easy to unfocus if the content you are learning has no relevance on your personal life. Therefore, focus on the content that will help you achieve your personal goals and learning a language becomes much easier and faster.
2. Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day one
A language is nothing other than a tool used to communicate and we master tools by using tools. Use the language to communicate from the very first moment you start learning it, just as a kid does. Draw pictures, make movements with your hands, facial expressions and piece by piece you will understand more and more. Don’t be shy to commit mistakes, it’s part of the process of learning.
3. When you first understand the message you will unconsciously acquire the language
Instead of focusing in learning by grammar, learn by comprehensible input. Language learning is not about accumulating lots of knowledge. You probably know people who have spent yearts at traditional language schools focusing solely on grammar and can’t speak a single word when it comes to real life situations. Comprehension is key and it leads to our next principle:
4. Physiological training
Portuguese is my mother language and although I’ve been speaking Portuguese my entire life, when I moved to Portugal, I couldn’t understand 20% of what Portuguese people said. I knew the words but I just was not used to the different tone, frequency and accent. Our brain has filters that will filter in sounds we are familiar with and out sounds we are not. You can only understand a language if you can hear it and you can only hear it if you train your brain to do so by listening a lot to the language your learning.
And speaking takes muscle… we have 43 muscles in our face that we must learn to coordinate in order to make sounds that other people will understand. Again, there is only one way of doing so… By speaking a lot. If you have ever done a new sport for a couple of days, you know that your body hurts. It hurts because your using your muscles in new ways they were not used before. If your face hurts, you’re doing it right.
5. Psycho-physiological state matters
If you’re not relaxed and happy while learning, you are not going to learn anything. Don’t believe you have to understand 100% of the words people are saying to you, focus on getting the meaning and learn to tolerate ambiguity.
ACTIONS
1. Listen a lot
Put yourself in a context where you listen to tons of contents in the language you are learning. It doesn’t matter if you’re understanding it or not. You’re listening to rhythm, patterns and the things that stand out. As babies, we spend more than one year only listening before we are able to speak. Listening is a fundamental part of the process and you should make it part of your daily life. Listen to podcasts, videos, and other content you might be interested in everyday while commuting, working out and doing other activities that don’t require listening actively.
2. Focus on getting the meaning first (before the words)
70% of our communication is done by body language. From body language you can understand a lot of communication and therefore acquire the language through comprehensible input.
3. Start mixing
Language is a creative process! There is not only one way to say the samething, there are many. If you know 10 verbs, 10 nouns and 10 adjectives you can already say 1000 thousand different things. You might not know a specific word, but you might know a synonym or another way of saying the same thing! It doens’t have to be perfect, it just has to work!
Be creative and start mixing!
4. Focus on the core
In English, 1000 thousand words cover 85% of anything you’re ever going to say in daily communications. 3000 words cover 98% of anything you’re ever going to say in daily conversations. If you know 3000 words, you know the language, the rest is icing on the cake. Focus on learning the words you’re going to use the most to communicate.
5. Get a language parent
If you look at how parents and children interact, you will notice that they use very particular ways of communicating. When children speak, they use simple words, simple combinations, sometimes quite strange combinations, sometimes quite strange pronunciation that only their parents can understand. The parents give the kid a safe environment to learn and get confidence, communicate with body language and use simple language that they know their children will understand.
Just as a kid, get somebody who is interested in you as a person, who already can speak the language you are learning and will help you understand the message.
Your language parent should:
- Work hard to understand what you’re trying to say
- Not correct you
- Confirm understanding by giving you proper feedback
- Use words that you already know
6. Copy the face
You need to get your muscles coordinating correctly so you can sound in a way people will understand you. One exercise that I’m use to doing when I’m learning a new language is recording myself speaking short paragraphs and then listening to myself to see if I’m pronouncing the words correctly and if I’m speaking in a nice rhythm.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube where people show exactly how to pronounce specific words that you can watch and copy.
7. Direct connect to mental images
Don’t ever try to connect the words you learn to words you know in your mother language, this is extremely inefficient and you will probably forget most of them. Again, just as a kid does, connect the words to their actual image, smell and sound and you’re more likely to remember these words in the future.
After following these 5 principles and 7 actions, I was able to improve my Italian skills and start learning French in a more efficient way, and I know you can, too with any language you are motivated to learn.
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