Language Learning Tip #1

Language Learning Tip #1: Keep talking to yourself.

We all know that it's hard to actually put the grammar and vocabulary that you've learnt to use, unless 1) You're in that country, 2) You have a personal tutor, and/or 3) You know someone who speaks that language.

But even if you have someone to talk to, you can't talk to them 24/7 right?

So this is what I do: I just talk to myself.

I know it sounds totally weird, but it really helps. Sometimes I say things out loud, and sometimes I just say it in my head. I usually make up a scenario, such as ordering food at restaurant, or talking to a friend about what I did on the weekend and then I just...talk to myself!

When you do that, I guess you don't really know whether you are correct or not...but hey, does that really matter? After many years of language learning I realised that people who aren't afraid to just say it out without having all the grammar and vocab correct are the people who end up being able to use the language faster, than those who wait until they get every single word and grammar point correct and then speak (this use to be me).

So back to "self-talking": as you talk to yourself, you will hit walls (such as words you don't know). What you should do is, first just use English or whatever language you know instead. Then, make sure you write it down and then look it up in the dictionary. This way, you will find it easier to remember, because you have a memory of trying to express the word, failing, and then looking it up in the dictionary for it.

For example, I was trying to recount an incident that had happened to me and I wanted to say "I pushed the button" in French. However, I realised...I had no idea what "to push" was in French. So, I just said to myself "J'ai push le bouton". Then I wrote "to push" down to look up later. Later on, I found out that "to push" was "appuyer". And so now, I will definitely remember what "to push" is in French because I have this memory to refer back to!

I found this method to be much better than just trying to memorise words from a list. Obviously if you're studying for an exam with like 100 words to learn, this method is not going to be the best for you. But, if you're like me, and just wanting to be able to use the language, I suggest you give it a try :)

Please feel free to leave me any comments or questions ^^

Céline xx