Ave and I both live in countries that are far different from our homes. She left Estonia for love, I left Bolivia… well, partly for love (an unsuccessful one at that!) but mostly for better career opportunities.
It’s very challenging to be a new immigrant in a country with unfamiliar traditions, lifestyle, people and worst of all: THE LANGUAGE. It’s so difficult to pick up a new language and manage to integrate or assimilate into the new country. It’s stressful, it’s confusing, and it’s frustrating. There is no easy way to go about it, unless you’re naturally gifted at learning languages (which I, unfortunately, am not).
Neither I nor Ave speak our new home language fluently, but we speak it well enough to get by. Heck, I’m even considering taking a plunge by studying in university in a year or two.
I’m by no means an expert in this, but based on my own personal experience these past few years, there are a few key tips that can make language learning more successful:
Get over the shyness
This is my Achilles heel. I am SUCH a perfectionist that I have a hard time accepting my thick accent and my many mistakes. I hate the fact that I sound foreign and that it takes me an extra second to remember a word or conjugate properly. A lot of the problems I have with speaking Hebrew are based on shyness.
I’m aware that if I stopped feeling this and just let go, my spoken Hebrew would be greatly improved. I’m so self-conscious that I don’t allow myself the chance to practice and that in turn depreciates my ability to speak well. This is the case with a lot of new language learners and it’s time we changed our mentality! (Silly, silly us)
They say practice makes perfect, and it’s quite true. If you’re unwilling to practice, you won’t improve!
Practice scenarios in your head
Makeup conversations in the new language in your head or out loud on your own. Since no one is listening to you, there’s no stress of making mistakes. It’s a great way to go over the words and conjugations you learned and repeat them till they well engraved in your mind.
Plus, it prepares you for real conversations that will happen.
Watch children’s television shows
This is seriously one of the best strategies I could have done being new here. Children’s shows feature characters that speak slowly, and they use basic words and imagery so you can connect the images to words just as babies and toddlers do. Repeat after them. From the shows, you can learn the colors, numbers, animals, feminine/masculine nouns, and lots of basic words and conjugations. I also used to read children’s books. (You know the type: This is Tom. Hi, Tom! See Tom run. Run, Tom, run!)
As you advance in your learning, increase the level of the shows as well. I’ve reached the point now of trying to understand the news… I can understand about 70% right now, but I started off with baby shows!
Learning Hebrew with Sesame Street. It’s apparently a thing.
Patience!!!
Learning a new language can be exhausting. Often we want to get to the point of speaking well as fast as possible can but unfortunately, that’s just not how our brain works when it comes to learning a new language. Patience, repetition, time and practice are all key to genuinely learning the language.
When all else fails, take a step back and breath
We all mess up, we all get confused and forget words. It happens. Take a moment, breath and remember: you are learning a new language. No one, not even you, expects perfect fluency. People will be supportive of your learning process, especially as you get stronger in the language. Just remember to take it easy!
So..
These are awesome tips! I actually used the one about watching children’s shows myself. Also, I spent many years living in Japan as a child. I never got over the shyness about sounding funny trying to speak the language. Great post. 🙂
What a great post, Ronnie! I used to watch cartoons and news aswell. It helped a lot with my vocabulary. I should read more in Spanish, but really prefer English and Estonian. Would love to know what the last sentence means 😀
This is a great post. I want to learn a new language so I will definitely have to keep these tips in mind.
They are all really great ideas for people learning a new language.
Learning a new language is like many things, hard but worth the effort.
What an interesting idea – watching children’s shows in other languages….It makes sense that it would work.
These are fabulous tips! I really love the children’s shows idea. My husband is living abroad, as in a Dubliner now living in Canada. He didn’t have the language learning curve to endure of course… but he is super homesick.
great tips for anyone looking to learn a new language!
Absolutely love the idea of watching kids programming! That’s a super idea!
great post. i’ve always wanted to learn japanese and spanish but i’m kinda… slow in the learning department. unless i’m doing it hands on then it’s no problem.
Great advice. Learning a new language is hard!
Thanks for sharing your personal trials and these great tips. I love the idea of watching children’s shows.. that is great! Also working on becoming less self conscious is huge! My husband lived in another country for a few years as a small child and it definitely was a struggle adjusting when he went and when he returned!
I actually learned Tagalog over a three year period and I know that I could have advanced more if i could have gotten over my shyness. I’m now looking into learning Arabic
Great post! I took Spanish in junior high all the way through high school, up to Honors Spanish 4…and I couldn’t tell you a darn thing outside of the basic hello, how are you, and some other basic general information questions! lol
Wow, I can no imagine how hard it must be to learn all of the unfamiliar traditions and lifestyles but learning a new language has to be so so hard! You’ve shared some great tips though. I think watching kids tv shows is a great idea!
Great advice! My favorite is watching shows in another language. My kids only watch disney movies in Chinese and it has helped a lot.
I think learning a new language is always a great experience, specially if you use it for travel! I went to Barcelona last summer and I spend 3 months studying spanish in BCN Spanish Language. They gave me all the student accommodation in barcelona spain, so my only worry was about studying and learning. It was a fantastic experience!
Laura
Actually learning new language help ourselves to broaden our mind and make peculiar with their culture and understanding.
Helpful tips for everyone to start learning a new language, thank you for sharing. I am learning german these days, will you please suggest any good website where can i practice my skill . I search over internet but they are not too good.
Learning new languages is one of my favourite things. I am on my 5th right now. I’ve found that while living abroad, even if your language skills are almost nil, as long as you try the people give you such a confidence boost, that it really helps!