Learning a new language can be a challenging, but also very rewarding and life-altering experience. It can open up new opportunities for education, travel, and career advancement; however, it can also be difficult to know where to start. In this blog post, we'll share our top 5 tips for learning a new language.
- Set small, specific goals and track your progress: A lack of motivation or consistency in practicing is a common challenge in learning a new language. To overcome this, it's important to set small, specific, trackable goals. This will help you see how far you have come while giving you motivation to keep going.
- Tip: Use a language learning notebook or journal to list your goals and track your progress. You can find specific journals online or just use a blank notebook of any kind. The important thing is to get started!
- Start with basics: Before diving into grammar and sentence structure, it's important to build a strong foundation of vocabulary. Start with common words and phrases and gradually build up your vocabulary over time. This will make it easier to understand and speak the language in real-life situations.
- Practice speaking and listening as much as possible: One of the biggest challenges of learning a new language is understanding and speaking it in real-life situations. To overcome this, try to practice speaking and listening as much as possible. This can be done through conversation practice with native speakers, or by watching videos or listening to audio recordings in the target language.
- Tip: Find a language learning buddy to practice with. It's easier and more fun to learn with a friend. If you don't have anyone in mind, look for a like-minded community online. For European Portuguese, check out our chat community on Patreon.
- Immerse yourself in the language: One of the best ways to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it. This means reading books, watching movies, listening to music, and speaking with native speakers as much as possible. The more exposure you have to the language, the faster you will pick it up.
- Tip: Radio Televisão Portuguesa, RTP, Portugal's public broadcaster, has a great free app available (iOS, Android, and even for your Fire TVs) that allows you to watch live and recorded programming (with a VPN you can access even more, when you're "in" Portugal) that is exactly what the locals are watching. Even paying attention to commercials and ads between programs will help you make associations with common daily items and concepts, and hearing those words and phrases in an authentic way will help retain your learning. YouTube is also your friend (you can start with my channel 😉 ).
- Use language learning apps or software that use immersion techniques: language learning apps and software, such as Duolingo, Babbel, or Rosetta Stone use immersion techniques that immerse you in the target language and make you feel like you are in a real-life situation.
- Tip: Even the free Duolingo app will provide you with interesting ways to learn new vocabulary words. Apps make sneaking in a quick lesson super easy!
Ultimately, you need to make the language learning process interesting and enjoyable - plan a trip to Portugal or seek out a Portuguese-speaking community, there are lots of us spread out all over the world. Enjoying a meal and a bica and pastel for dessert would be a great reward for your hard work of learning a new language.