The No-Nonsense Guide to Language Learning

by Benny Lewis

  If you don’t know any native speakers in your area, then use the power of the internet to find a tutor on italki, local meetups, couchsurfing, or language apps such as HelloTalk (more on these in the Resources section at the end of the book). There are so many great ways to find native speakers online that you really have no excuse.

  The Only Approach That Doesn’t Work is the One You Give Up On

  As you can see, any approach can work, if given the right “language hacker’s” nudge. The biggest mistake I see language learners make isn’t a specific approach, but in not being flexible in their approach.

  Constantly evaluate your language-learning strategy and think outside the box to adapt them to your best advantage.

  Don’t like your language class? What can you do outside of that room to improve your chances?

  Studying linguistics isn’t helping you communicate? Supplement with time speaking the language.

  Finding movies, music or books ineffective? Break them down and narrow the focus of your study.

  Talking to the wrong people? Look for ways to find them on the Internet.

  Even if you’ve made all of the mistakes I’ve outlined, that’s a good thing! As I’ve previously said in this book, mistakes are the best way to learn a language. So don’t beat yourself up, but learn from your mistakes. You have the power to turn your approach around and gain fluency.

  Chapter 7: How to Practise a Foreign Language Without Travelling Overseas

  I love to travel and learn languages by visiting other countries. But sometimes it just isn’t desirable or possible right now.

  The truth is, there’s plenty you can do in your own town or even from home to get fluent in a language. In this chapter, I’m only going to discuss free practising methods, rather than paid ones.

  Don’t you need to be abroad to speak a foreign language?

  Of course not! Wherever you live in the world, it’s actually easier than you think to get in touch with people who speak your target language, either in person or over the Internet. Even if you can’t find native speakers who live near you, chances are that you’ll find advanced learners of your target language who are enthusiastic to help.

  Unless you live in a village up a mountain, if you try hard enough you can find opportunities to practise in person! If you live in a major city, you have no excuses.

  Several years ago, I decided that I wanted to speak Portuguese, but this was while I was living in Paris. Using the tips I share in this chapter, I was able to learn Portuguese before I ever set foot in Brazil. When I arrived in Brazil for the first time I was already able to communicate with and understand the locals pretty well!

  Thanks to the tips in this chapter, I have been able to regularly practise any language that I choose in almost any location.

  But there is nobody who speaks that language where I live!

  Actually, I take back what I said about the being in a village on the mountain being the exception to being able to practise a language. All you really need is just one person to converse with and even if all you have is a fellow villager also interested in that language, you are already on the right track! As long as you have both studied at least the basics, there is a chance to practise what you know.

  As I said before, practising with a native speaker at intermediate stages and up is ideal, but to reach the intermediate stage in a language that you are currently uncomfortable speaking, it can sometimes be better to speak with non-natives. Seriously.

  I learned most of my Spanish (my first foreign language) thanks to the French, German, and Italian Erasmus students I knew when I was living in Valencia. Of course, we were all in the country already, but you can motivate yourself to speak the language no matter where you are. It turns out that it is easier to speak with other learners!

  Spaniards tend to speak quickly, and as any native speakers, they use complicated words and turns of phrase that make any language rich and expressive. However, in the early stage, trying to understand all of that may be too much work, and very simply being able to communicate is a barrier that needs to be overcome first.

  My foreign friends spoke slower Spanish, and used more basic vocabulary that I was likely to know too, and most important of all, since they were at the same level as me, I didn’t feel embarrassed or intimidated when speaking with them. I could also relate to them much more as a fellow learner. Although you can only really improve your language skills very well with natives (as I mentioned in the last chapter), learners can help you with parts of the language they are more familiar with and you can return the favour.

  Some natives (although this happens very rarely) can occasionally be impatient with you if you are in the early stages of learning their language. If you practise with other learners, then you can reach the stage of speaking quite well without the same kind of pressure (which you get from total immersion and does indeed speed up your learning process). Thanks to my foreign friends, I reached the stage of being able to communicate well enough to start conversing with actual Spaniards after a short time. Communicating with native speakers should always be the end goal. Conversing with other learners is a bridge to reach that goal.

  How to find language meet-ups in your area

  It’s important to remember that the purpose of language is communication, and thus requires you to be social. If you’re an introvert, you should still try hard and there are many ways to get out there and meet new people.

  So, how do you meet natives or other learners? There are so many resources, that it’s impossible to list all of them as this depends on where you live. A little digging and you will find something. In the meantime, I can suggest a few websites and other resources that have been useful to me.

  Meetup.com. This website’s goal is to gather people with similar interests, to get unplugged from the Internet and to actually meet up in person to share and discuss that interest. It has thousands of groups based on a huge range of interests and is especially popular in English-speaking countries. One of those interests is of course languages and you may find that there is already a regular meeting for the language you wish to practise (usually meeting up in a bar or restaurant). If you don’t see a language meet-up group in your city, create your own!

  Couchsurfing.org. Couchsurfing can be used to learn languages, even without travelling. You can host native speakers of the language you’re learning in your home for a couple of days, or if you’d rather not, then you can still be a part of an amazing international community by attending the regular meetings, or suggesting one, in the groups and meetings page of the site. These meetings have an international crowd, which should have lots of people willing to speak your target language with you

  Facebook. Facebook can be used to find meet-ups that include particular languages. You can search for your city’s name and your target language to find relevant groups and events. What if you can’t find a group? Then take the initiative and create one!

  Classified Ads. You can put a free ad up on Craigslist or your country’s equivalent to find people interested in practising your target language with you.

  Get Offline. Of course there are ways to find other language learners that don’t require any use of the internet! Try asking your friends or coworkers if they know any language learners You’ll likely be surprised how easy it is to find people in your network of contacts share your interest in languages. Then you can arrange to meet up to chat and practise what you know.

  You can also put up advertisements, especially in universities.

  If you feel ready to talk with a native, you can of course get private lessons, or meet up with a native speaker for a language exchange over coffee.

  Meeting up with people in the real world to learn a language is great – but there’s plenty you can do over the Internet without leaving your home. That’s the topic of the next chapter.

  Chapter 8: Why Learning Languages Online can be Better than in Person

  One of the best tools available to
us nowadays to help us learn a language is the Internet. Thanks to Skype, Facebook and other online tools, it’s easier than ever to chat with native speakers.

  The pros are many. It doesn’t require travel. Through many sites it’s cheaper than in-person lessons, and it usually has way more options than you would find in your home town.

  In fact, online lessons can actually be better than face-to-face language learning. Let’s take a look at why that is.

  The advantages of using technology to learn a language

  There are some things that you can do better digitally than in the real world. For instance:

  Online, you can decide whether you’d like to see the teacher or not. If you’re having a bad hair day, or if you can’t stand the idea of someone seeing you struggling as a beginner, just don’t activate your webcam and make it audio only. Easy. This is especially useful for shy or introverted language learners!

  Your computer and your home are a familiar environment. This is absolutely key for people who are afraid of getting into language learning. It’s not just speaking another language, but sometimes the place where you’re speaking can create bad associations.

  It’s way easier to avoid excuses. If it’s raining, or if there is a public transport strike, or if your dog is just really cuddly that day and you can’t bear to part, then you may be tempted to skip your class, “just this once”. The only good excuse for missing an online class is if the Internet goes down!

  While you’re speaking online, you can have a tab (or several!) open on your computer to a dictionary or translator that will help you speak and keep the conversation flowing, and you can use it without distracting your teacher. This “cheating” is something I do the first first few times I speak a new language, but I do it in such a way that it’s less distracting than using paperback dictionaries would be in person.

  You can record your Skype lesson using software for personal use to review later, and the option is included by default in some software. Recording an in-person class is more cumbersome, and often requires special equipment. Plus your teacher may become extremely distracted by the camera in his/her face.

  And, you can use a host of cool digital tools that I’ll describe below…

  In recent years, I’ve learned new languages almost exclusively online. I’ve improved my technique and have found some cool ways to make the experience even more rewarding and useful for me as a student.

  Live correction with Google Docs

  In-person classes are indeed great for getting spoken practice, but they’re not so great for getting written practice. You are either writing in silence, or waiting for your teacher to read in silence. And I don’t know about you, but I’m more comfortable typing than I am writing. So if I’m practising in person, should I bring a laptop and then hand it to my teacher for correction? It’s sloppy.

  One alternative is to write in your free-time and then hand it to your teacher. But I’m personally terrible with homework, so I found a way to improve my writing skills, while getting correction and not wasting class time.

  I get live correction via Google Docs.

  The way this works is that you and your teacher both view the same document and can both make changes to it in real time. If you want to get your mistakes corrected immediately as you write, you can do this, but what some of my teachers do is let me type and they will have another document open, and they will type out corrections and explanations there in real time as they see my mistakes.

  Usually for this part, I turn off the audio/video feed and focus on writing, and then when I finish a section I get back on the call and my teacher guides me through his/her corrections without delay, since they were reading my words as I typed.

  My teachers also use Google Docs to type what I say as I say it, and leave comments.

  This sounds very simple, but the benefit is that they are still speaking to me naturally without interrupting for corrections. After the conversation, I get to see the corrections. I have found this to be a really effective way to get feedback without interrupting the flow of the conversation.

  Screenshare for joint reading

  Skype and other video calling software has an option to share your screen with your teacher and vice versa. This is a great simulation of reading a book together, and is very useful if they have the book or their personal notes scanned.

  Get out of the classroom – virtually

  Once, one of my teachers on Skype had a very unique idea and took his smartphone with him to a festival, found a good wifi signal and I got to see and hear people dancing and singing.

  These “day trips” are easier than you think, and just as effective as they would be in person. My teacher has also had me give a tour of my home in the target language, and at times if their friend pops in, instead of it being a nuisance, they’ve actually invited them to join in on the chat and give me practice with another native speaker!

  Online video/audio calls are evolving all the time. These kind of cool tricks like being able to move around with your smartphone and setting up group calls were impossible years ago when the likes of Skype were in their infancy.

  I’m excited to see developments that allow us to learn at a distance, bringing teachers and students together and bridging the gap so that language learning is open to everyone.

  In the next chapter, I’ll share some more ideas on how to use Skype for language exchanges.

  Chapter 9: How to Use Skype to Learn a Language

  Having real conversations with native speakers is one of the best ways to quickly improve your language skills.

  Yet I’m constantly surprised by the number of people who wait years before they take that step – or who never take it at all!

  Recently I was in a room with 20 language learners and asked them “How many of you have used Skype or other technology to practise your target language online?” Not a single person raised their hand.

  This needs to change. Seriously, if you haven’t done it yet, now’s the time to start.

  So many language learners know they should start practising with a native speaker sooner rather than later… and then just don’t. Hopefully this chapter will give you the extra nudge you need to make it happen!

  How to Find a Skype Language Exchange Partner

  Your first task is to find another person who speaks your target language and who is willing to chat with you over Skype. Here are a few tools you can use to do that. For links to these tools, check out the Resources section.

  Italki – My favourite language-learning resource

  I’ve already mentioned the excellent service italki plenty of times in this book.

  Italki is an online language learning hub that connects you with language teachers from around the world.

  When you’re filtering through the various tutors and teachers, pick a native speaker who lives in the country you’re focused on. This will give you a direct pipeline to the authentic and modern way to speak your target language.

  HelloTalk – Casually chat in your target language throughout the day

  If you’re on the shy side, you might try HelloTalk for a totally different experience. This app works on your smartphone, and connects you with other people learning your language who want to do a language exchange. The app lets you send voice messages or “text messages” to people who match up with your language, which is great if you don’t feel like being on video. When you get a text message on HelloTalk, the app will help you translate it, and it will auto-correct your replies to get rid of the mistakes.

  What I really love about HelloTalk is that whenever I suggest it to a reader, they usually get back to me with great news like “I’ve been chatting in Mandarin in all day!” And that’s always great to hear. The downside to HelloTalk is that you won’t find professional teachers on the site – just other language learners (but they can still teach you a lot).

  Join a language-learning community and find an exchange partner there!

 
Try something for me.

  Go into your Facebook account and search for “Esperanto”. Do you see that public group there with over 20,000 members? Now go to meetup.com, type in your target language and your city, and click “search.” I just randomly searched for “German” in Minneapolis, Minnesota and found several different local communities.

  In most cities all over the world, I promise you’ll be surprised by what you’ll find. There are communities of people everywhere who are searching for someone to practise their languages with. Why can’t that someone be you?

  All you really need to do to find a language exchange partner is to step outside your comfort zone.

  That’s the hardest part. Finding people is easy. Having the courage to talk to them is harder, but so worth it.

  What to Expect from Your Skype Language Exchange Partner

  There are basically two types of people you will practise speaking with on Skype: language exchange partners (free) or teachers/tutors (paid).

  With language exchange partners you should expect to spend some time helping the other person with your native language. You can suggest that each of you go back and forth, spending 10-15 minutes speaking in their native language, and then 10-15 minutes in yours. Set up the rules at the start of the call to keep things fair.

  But keep in mind that most language exchange partners are not professional teachers and may not have any experience teaching their language to others. This is a great way to practise speaking, but you shouldn’t expect too much in terms of structured lessons or in-depth explanations. And you may get the dreaded question, “What do you want to talk about?” So I recommend you arrive online with at least some idea of what you want to practise, so you’ll be prepared when you get that question.

  Paid teachers, on the other hand, focus entirely on helping you speak and understand your target language. While you do have to pay money, the costs are considerably less than you would pay for an in-person one-on-one teacher, or even a group class when you pay in your local currency. Plus, you get to do it from the comfort of your own desk or couch!