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How To Actually Learn a Language

After dedicating a large portion of my life to language acquisition, I have become quite opinionated on learning methodology. Fads, phone-apps and novel techniques have come and gone, but most people that I have met who use these methods have not actually acquired a second language. First I will dispel some of these ineffectual methods, then provide the path that I used to actually learn a language.

Degenerate Duo Lingo

Duo Lingo is probably the most popular app for language learning. I have never used Duo Lingo, but I have also never met anyone who has used the app and is confident in their second language. While I cannot provide a specific take down on the methods used in this app, a rational analysis of the nature of language learning apps will elucidate their apparent deceptive nature.

Duo Lingo is a company. Their main goal is to make money. The best way for an app to make money is through engagement and attention. The app needs to be fun and addictive to increase retention. The main goal for the user is to learn a language. What happens when the user achieves that goal? While I assume no one has achieved that goal solely with Duo Lingo, we can surmise that they would stop using the application, because they have already learned the language. This would be bad for Duo Lingo’s bottom line.

So are they actually interested in teaching you a language, or making money off of advertisement impressions, data farming, and subscriptions? You simply need to look at the success rate of Duo Lingo users to figure that out.

Gamification of language learning is also employed and users may assume that this is the benefit of the app. If it makes language learning fun, then you will be more likely to learn the language. This is a misconception. If you do not find the act of language learning fun by itself, you are not going to learn the language. Realistically speaking, it takes years to become truly proficient in a language. If you are not being paid for learning the language, or if it is not a part of another larger goal that truly motivates you, you will not learn the language if you do not find it inherently fun. If you only find it fun when you are using an app that makes it fun, then you find the app fun, not the act of learning.

Anki

Anki is a Spaced Repetition System which claims to improve long-term memory retention by scheduling flash cards based on an algorithm. This actually does work, albeit with one caveat: You must create the flash cards yourself. Anki has a community that provides an abundance of flash cards for a ton of languages. This seems great at first, but learning actually happens during the creation of flash cards. Looking at the flash cards is for review only.

Which brings us to the second issue, the flash cards are digital. You lose the physical to mental connection that occurs when creating your own flash cards on paper. You also miss out on the act of figuring out what should be on the flash cards. This issue becomes a lot more evident when you are learning a language with a different writing system. If you are creating kanji flash cards through Anki and not actually writing the kanji on paper, you are not learning how to write unless you are supplementing Anki with other practices. Which is fine, but at that point you may as well just be creating your own flash cards.

Classes (Online or In Person)

I have no issue with taking classes for language learning, but there are pros and cons. The obvious benefit of taking classes is that you have access to a native speaker who can correct your mistakes in real time. The syllabus is a benefit as well, but syllabi can be found online for free with a little bit of snooping on university websites. Classes also provide structure to your learning.

The structure is actually the main detriment. You are going to learn at a speed that is different from everyone else. If you are a fast learner, the best case scenario is that the class moves at the pace of the average learner. The worst case scenario is the teacher paces the class based on the slowest learners in the classroom. When it comes to the lower levels of language classes (101, 102), if you truly enjoy learning the language and you take time to learn on your own as well as in class, you are going to quickly outpace your classmates. You will essentially be paying for the slowest form of language acquisition.

Another weird occurrence you will encounter when learning a language that has become popular due to pop-culture (Korean, Japanese) is the fad learners. When I took Japanese 101 at a community college, the class was packed for the first few weeks. A full class of over 30 people shrunk to around 15 by the middle of the semester. There were around 12 people in 102. This just results in a bunch of wasted time for you as you will have a majority of classmates who just aren’t actually that interested, they just watch anime or listen to K-pop.

The paradox is: I actually recommend taking a 101 class. In a 101 level class, you are going to learn proper pronunciation and how to write a new alphabet (if applicable). Having a native speaker teach these fundamentals is important.

So with the pros and cons delineated, my verdict on classes is: Try to audit a 101 class at a community college for free. Yes, you can just sit in on classes without paying. It is a bit difficult to do for language classes, but if you can sweet talk the professor they may let you in. This will give you the fundamentals of the language to kick start you on your language journey.

How to Actually Learn a Language

1. The Most Important Step

Let’s get the most important step out of the way. You need to truly want to learn the language. This is true for anything you are trying to learn. If you are not excited about learning it and thinking about it all of the time, then you just wont succeed. I guess if your parents are forcing you to learn piano at six years old and they threaten to ground you if you do not practice, you may succeed. But this is not what we are talking about. You are making the decision to learn the language, and you need to be excited about it on a daily basis to actually make any real progress. There is no way around this.

2. Immersion

You should only be consuming entertainment in the target language. Music, Movies, Television, Books, EVERYTHING! No more English entertainment!! Subtitles are okay, but it would be best if you can find subtitles in the target language along with your own language.

3. Learn the Writing System

If your target language uses a different writing system from your first language you need to learn that writing system first. Don’t waste time with phrases or vocabulary yet. The difficulty of this step depends on the language and how different the writing system is. If your first language is English and you need to learn Cyrillic, you can probably do this in 30 minutes. A majority of the letters are the same. If you are learning something like Japanese, or an abjad alphabet like Arabic, Korean or Old Mongolian, it may take some more time.

The best way to learn an alphabet/writing system is as follows: a. Evaluate the alphabet or writing system you plan on learning. Just look at a chart of all of the letters/characters you need to learn (Okay, if you are learning Chinese it is going to be difficult to look at 5000 characters). Just get comfortable with everything that you need to learn. b. Watch a YouTube video of the proper pronunciation of each letter/character. If the writing system is very different from your first language, watch a video on how to write the letters/characters. It is extremely important, especially in East Asian languages, to write properly. c. Get a notebook, write each character 100 times. No questions asked. d. Divide a piece of paper in half. On the left side, write each letter or character on a new line. On the right side, write the corresponding pronunciation. Cover one side of the paper, preferably the left side, and on a second piece of paper, write the letter/character in the target language from memory. If you only get 5 or 10 correct, that is fine. Review your results, if you got one wrong, write the correct answer. Cut or fold the answer sheet so you can no longer see your answers. Take a 5 minute break. Test yourself again. Do this until you have absolutely memorized the alphabet/writing system. e. Find a website or book that only has your target language on it.. Wikipedia is fine, and try to read the new alphabet. You do not need to know what any of it means, just try to sound out the words.

Notes to Chinese and Japanese learners. Kanji can be learned the same exact way. Divide the paper in three columns though. First column has kanji, second has the pronunciation, third has the English meaning. If you are learning Japanese you do not need to learn Kanji yet. If you are learning Chinese, you need to start learning Kanji now.

I do want to make this clear though: if you are learning Japanese, you must learn the kanji for every vocabulary word you learn. A class will tell you not to do this until the end of the first year. This is a waste of time, you will need to take a years worth of vocabulary and relearn the kanji for them. Just do it right away and you will thank me.

And yes, you must write each Kanji at least 100 times until you get to the point where learning a new Kanji is not a big deal to you anymore. You will know when this time comes.

4. Find a Syllabus, Buy a Textbook

You can go online and search for “Japanese 101 Syllabus Rutgers” and you will find it example. You can do the same thing for any level and any language. Read the syllabus, buy (download) the textbooks, and start working through them. You will find that what a university takes 15 weeks to complete, you can probably complete in 5 weeks.

5. How to Self Study - Beginner

Once you have identified the text book that is used at the top universities, go through the textbook chapter by chapter. Make sure you learn every grammar point and vocabulary word. Keep multiple notebooks. One notebook can be for grammar points, one for answering workbook questions, one for creating vocabulary lists.

Vocabulary lists should be made and studied the same way you learned the writing system in step 3. The first column is the word in the target language, the second column is the meaning in English. If you need to add a phonetic reading to the word in the target language, put that in a middle column. Test yourself on new vocabulary every day. 10 words a day is a good start. Once you have totally memorized a set of words, come back to them and test yourself once in a while to make sure you retained the words. You can also begin converting the words to flash cards if you want, but I have never really done that.

Find media that you can consume that is easier to understand. Shows geared towards children are good. Begin trying to understand a word here or there without using subtitles. Say the words out loud. Think about sentence structures that you are hearing.

If you are doing self-study, speaking is going to be the hardest thing to practice. At the beginner level, because you still really do not know how to speak, the best thing would be reading the textbook out loud. Another thing that helps is changing your inner monologue to the target language. You should start trying to think and have conversations with yourself in the language. If you are counting something, count in the target language. When you are going to do something, try and say what you are doing in the language. I am going to eat a snack -> 僕はお菓子を食べます。(intentionally beginner-ified Japanese).

At this stage you are trying to take in the language in all forms, reading, writing, listening, speaking. You need to fully immerse yourself in the language

6. How to Self Study - Intermediate

Time to move on to better textbooks. The methodology here really remains the same: grammar, vocab, listening and speaking practice. There are a few things you can do to improve your regimen though.

The best improvement at this stage is finding a language partner. The best language partner is someone who can speak the target language but cannot speak any other language that you know. If they can speak another language you know, it is best if they speak it poorer than you speak the target language. If they speak English better than you can speak the target language, you will always end up reverting back to speaking English. There are sites online where you can find pen pals. Texting back and forth is great, but video calls or meeting in person would be better. Yes, you need to be personable and talk to people, that is what a language is for.

Start trying to read news articles or blogs. Now you can start actually using things you enjoy for immersion training. Maybe you can only read one paragraph of a blog post or news article in a week. That is great, take all the vocab and grammar points from that paragraph and add them to your study notebooks.

Most languages have proficiency tests. Start studying for these proficiency tests. You do not have to take the test (you can if you want, I never wanted to), but the material for the tests will be a great supplement for your textbooks.

Go out and order food in the target language. If you are learning Spanish, go to a Mexican restaurant or something and try to order your meal. You may find a language partner this way. Most people are excited to see that you are learning their language.

Have an extended stay in the country of the target language. If you are young and you can study abroad or have no responsibilities and can go to another country for a few months, you will rapidly improve. I know this is not a cheap endeavor, and is probably impossible for most, but there is absolutely no substitute for actually living in the country and not speaking English for extended periods of time. It is the ultimate immersion experience and you will quickly go from Intermediate to Advanced.

7. How to Self Study - Advanced

At this point, you should be running out of text books. It is time to start reading novels (look into graded readers), watching television/movies with no subtitles, and having full length conversations with people. The only way to break into the Advanced level is to truly be speaking with people naturally.

As an Advanced learner, it is up to you to determine your curriculum. What are you learning this language for? Do you want to play video games in this language? Do you want to read technical papers? Do you want to find a girlfriend? Well these are things you need to go do on your own. What was the whole point of all this in the first place? Don’t tell me you just want to sing K-Pop songs….. Well, Karaoke in the target language is a great idea.

Once you begin specializing in topics, from anime to arguing with a girlfriend in another language, you will quickly identify your short comings. Don’t stop working in your notebooks, there is always more vocabulary to learn and grammar points to master, you just need to go out and find them.

If you never live in the country, you most likely will never be truly fluent. I do not even know what fluent means. You should not worry about it. Can you do the things you want to do with the language? If so, then you have succeeded!

Final Thoughts

  • Once you learn one language, learning another language becomes easier. Especially if the languages are related. Learning Japanese makes it easier to learn Chinese as you already know Kanji. Learning Japanese and Chinese makes it easier to learn Korean because Korean has a bunch of loan words from Chinese, and similar grammar to Japanese.
  • Finding a girlfriend or boyfriend who only knows the target language is an insane cheat code. Obviously do not date them only for language learning, but it is an extreme study aid.
  • You have to like the culture to learn the language. If you are not into the cultural aspect of the target language, you will probably be disappointed.
  • Have a realistic goal. There may be languages you only want to read, so just learn how to read in the language. Maybe you just need to do simple tasks like ordering food and asking for directions, you do not need to be fluent for that. I know enough Lithuanian to talk smack to my friends and passively understand conversations they have with each other (and order food, buy stuff in a Hyper-Maxima convenience store). Why do I need more Lithuanian than that?
  • Keep going, never give up. Literally my advice for everything.
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How To Actually Learn a Language

After dedicating a large portion of my life to language acquisition, I have become quite opinionated on learning methodology. Fads, phone-apps and novel techniques have come and gone, but most people that I have met who use these methods have not actually acquired a second language. First I will dispel some of these ineffectual methods, then provide the path that I used to actually learn a language.

Degenerate Duo Lingo

Duo Lingo is probably the most popular app for language learning. I have never used Duo Lingo, but I have also never met anyone who has used the app and is confident in their second language. While I cannot provide a specific take down on the methods used in this app, a rational analysis of the nature of language learning apps will elucidate their apparent deceptive nature.

Duo Lingo is a company. Their main goal is to make money. The best way for an app to make money is through engagement and attention. The app needs to be fun and addictive to increase retention. The main goal for the user is to learn a language. What happens when the user achieves that goal? While I assume no one has achieved that goal solely with Duo Lingo, we can surmise that they would stop using the application, because they have already learned the language. This would be bad for Duo Lingo’s bottom line.

So are they actually interested in teaching you a language, or making money off of advertisement impressions, data farming, and subscriptions? You simply need to look at the success rate of Duo Lingo users to figure that out.

Gamification of language learning is also employed and users may assume that this is the benefit of the app. If it makes language learning fun, then you will be more likely to learn the language. This is a misconception. If you do not find the act of language learning fun by itself, you are not going to learn the language. Realistically speaking, it takes years to become truly proficient in a language. If you are not being paid for learning the language, or if it is not a part of another larger goal that truly motivates you, you will not learn the language if you do not find it inherently fun. If you only find it fun when you are using an app that makes it fun, then you find the app fun, not the act of learning.

Anki

Anki is a Spaced Repetition System which claims to improve long-term memory retention by scheduling flash cards based on an algorithm. This actually does work, albeit with one caveat: You must create the flash cards yourself. Anki has a community that provides an abundance of flash cards for a ton of languages. This seems great at first, but learning actually happens during the creation of flash cards. Looking at the flash cards is for review only.

Which brings us to the second issue, the flash cards are digital. You lose the physical to mental connection that occurs when creating your own flash cards on paper. You also miss out on the act of figuring out what should be on the flash cards. This issue becomes a lot more evident when you are learning a language with a different writing system. If you are creating kanji flash cards through Anki and not actually writing the kanji on paper, you are not learning how to write unless you are supplementing Anki with other practices. Which is fine, but at that point you may as well just be creating your own flash cards.

Classes (Online or In Person)

I have no issue with taking classes for language learning, but there are pros and cons. The obvious benefit of taking classes is that you have access to a native speaker who can correct your mistakes in real time. The syllabus is a benefit as well, but syllabi can be found online for free with a little bit of snooping on university websites. Classes also provide structure to your learning.

The structure is actually the main detriment. You are going to learn at a speed that is different from everyone else. If you are a fast learner, the best case scenario is that the class moves at the pace of the average learner. The worst case scenario is the teacher paces the class based on the slowest learners in the classroom. When it comes to the lower levels of language classes (101, 102), if you truly enjoy learning the language and you take time to learn on your own as well as in class, you are going to quickly outpace your classmates. You will essentially be paying for the slowest form of language acquisition.

Another weird occurrence you will encounter when learning a language that has become popular due to pop-culture (Korean, Japanese) is the fad learners. When I took Japanese 101 at a community college, the class was packed for the first few weeks. A full class of over 30 people shrunk to around 15 by the middle of the semester. There were around 12 people in 102. This just results in a bunch of wasted time for you as you will have a majority of classmates who just aren’t actually that interested, they just watch anime or listen to K-pop.

The paradox is: I actually recommend taking a 101 class. In a 101 level class, you are going to learn proper pronunciation and how to write a new alphabet (if applicable). Having a native speaker teach these fundamentals is important.

So with the pros and cons delineated, my verdict on classes is: Try to audit a 101 class at a community college for free. Yes, you can just sit in on classes without paying. It is a bit difficult to do for language classes, but if you can sweet talk the professor they may let you in. This will give you the fundamentals of the language to kick start you on your language journey.

How to Actually Learn a Language

1. The Most Important Step

Let’s get the most important step out of the way. You need to truly want to learn the language. This is true for anything you are trying to learn. If you are not excited about learning it and thinking about it all of the time, then you just wont succeed. I guess if your parents are forcing you to learn piano at six years old and they threaten to ground you if you do not practice, you may succeed. But this is not what we are talking about. You are making the decision to learn the language, and you need to be excited about it on a daily basis to actually make any real progress. There is no way around this.

2. Immersion

You should only be consuming entertainment in the target language. Music, Movies, Television, Books, EVERYTHING! No more English entertainment!! Subtitles are okay, but it would be best if you can find subtitles in the target language along with your own language.

3. Learn the Writing System

If your target language uses a different writing system from your first language you need to learn that writing system first. Don’t waste time with phrases or vocabulary yet. The difficulty of this step depends on the language and how different the writing system is. If your first language is English and you need to learn Cyrillic, you can probably do this in 30 minutes. A majority of the letters are the same. If you are learning something like Japanese, or an abjad alphabet like Arabic, Korean or Old Mongolian, it may take some more time.

The best way to learn an alphabet/writing system is as follows: a. Evaluate the alphabet or writing system you plan on learning. Just look at a chart of all of the letters/characters you need to learn (Okay, if you are learning Chinese it is going to be difficult to look at 5000 characters). Just get comfortable with everything that you need to learn. b. Watch a YouTube video of the proper pronunciation of each letter/character. If the writing system is very different from your first language, watch a video on how to write the letters/characters. It is extremely important, especially in East Asian languages, to write properly. c. Get a notebook, write each character 100 times. No questions asked. d. Divide a piece of paper in half. On the left side, write each letter or character on a new line. On the right side, write the corresponding pronunciation. Cover one side of the paper, preferably the left side, and on a second piece of paper, write the letter/character in the target language from memory. If you only get 5 or 10 correct, that is fine. Review your results, if you got one wrong, write the correct answer. Cut or fold the answer sheet so you can no longer see your answers. Take a 5 minute break. Test yourself again. Do this until you have absolutely memorized the alphabet/writing system. e. Find a website or book that only has your target language on it.. Wikipedia is fine, and try to read the new alphabet. You do not need to know what any of it means, just try to sound out the words.

Notes to Chinese and Japanese learners. Kanji can be learned the same exact way. Divide the paper in three columns though. First column has kanji, second has the pronunciation, third has the English meaning. If you are learning Japanese you do not need to learn Kanji yet. If you are learning Chinese, you need to start learning Kanji now.

I do want to make this clear though: if you are learning Japanese, you must learn the kanji for every vocabulary word you learn. A class will tell you not to do this until the end of the first year. This is a waste of time, you will need to take a years worth of vocabulary and relearn the kanji for them. Just do it right away and you will thank me.

And yes, you must write each Kanji at least 100 times until you get to the point where learning a new Kanji is not a big deal to you anymore. You will know when this time comes.

4. Find a Syllabus, Buy a Textbook

You can go online and search for “Japanese 101 Syllabus Rutgers” and you will find it example. You can do the same thing for any level and any language. Read the syllabus, buy (download) the textbooks, and start working through them. You will find that what a university takes 15 weeks to complete, you can probably complete in 5 weeks.

5. How to Self Study - Beginner

Once you have identified the text book that is used at the top universities, go through the textbook chapter by chapter. Make sure you learn every grammar point and vocabulary word. Keep multiple notebooks. One notebook can be for grammar points, one for answering workbook questions, one for creating vocabulary lists.

Vocabulary lists should be made and studied the same way you learned the writing system in step 3. The first column is the word in the target language, the second column is the meaning in English. If you need to add a phonetic reading to the word in the target language, put that in a middle column. Test yourself on new vocabulary every day. 10 words a day is a good start. Once you have totally memorized a set of words, come back to them and test yourself once in a while to make sure you retained the words. You can also begin converting the words to flash cards if you want, but I have never really done that.

Find media that you can consume that is easier to understand. Shows geared towards children are good. Begin trying to understand a word here or there without using subtitles. Say the words out loud. Think about sentence structures that you are hearing.

If you are doing self-study, speaking is going to be the hardest thing to practice. At the beginner level, because you still really do not know how to speak, the best thing would be reading the textbook out loud. Another thing that helps is changing your inner monologue to the target language. You should start trying to think and have conversations with yourself in the language. If you are counting something, count in the target language. When you are going to do something, try and say what you are doing in the language. I am going to eat a snack -> 僕はお菓子を食べます。(intentionally beginner-ified Japanese).

At this stage you are trying to take in the language in all forms, reading, writing, listening, speaking. You need to fully immerse yourself in the language

6. How to Self Study - Intermediate

Time to move on to better textbooks. The methodology here really remains the same: grammar, vocab, listening and speaking practice. There are a few things you can do to improve your regimen though.

The best improvement at this stage is finding a language partner. The best language partner is someone who can speak the target language but cannot speak any other language that you know. If they can speak another language you know, it is best if they speak it poorer than you speak the target language. If they speak English better than you can speak the target language, you will always end up reverting back to speaking English. There are sites online where you can find pen pals. Texting back and forth is great, but video calls or meeting in person would be better. Yes, you need to be personable and talk to people, that is what a language is for.

Start trying to read news articles or blogs. Now you can start actually using things you enjoy for immersion training. Maybe you can only read one paragraph of a blog post or news article in a week. That is great, take all the vocab and grammar points from that paragraph and add them to your study notebooks.

Most languages have proficiency tests. Start studying for these proficiency tests. You do not have to take the test (you can if you want, I never wanted to), but the material for the tests will be a great supplement for your textbooks.

Go out and order food in the target language. If you are learning Spanish, go to a Mexican restaurant or something and try to order your meal. You may find a language partner this way. Most people are excited to see that you are learning their language.

Have an extended stay in the country of the target language. If you are young and you can study abroad or have no responsibilities and can go to another country for a few months, you will rapidly improve. I know this is not a cheap endeavor, and is probably impossible for most, but there is absolutely no substitute for actually living in the country and not speaking English for extended periods of time. It is the ultimate immersion experience and you will quickly go from Intermediate to Advanced.

7. How to Self Study - Advanced

At this point, you should be running out of text books. It is time to start reading novels (look into graded readers), watching television/movies with no subtitles, and having full length conversations with people. The only way to break into the Advanced level is to truly be speaking with people naturally.

As an Advanced learner, it is up to you to determine your curriculum. What are you learning this language for? Do you want to play video games in this language? Do you want to read technical papers? Do you want to find a girlfriend? Well these are things you need to go do on your own. What was the whole point of all this in the first place? Don’t tell me you just want to sing K-Pop songs….. Well, Karaoke in the target language is a great idea.

Once you begin specializing in topics, from anime to arguing with a girlfriend in another language, you will quickly identify your short comings. Don’t stop working in your notebooks, there is always more vocabulary to learn and grammar points to master, you just need to go out and find them.

If you never live in the country, you most likely will never be truly fluent. I do not even know what fluent means. You should not worry about it. Can you do the things you want to do with the language? If so, then you have succeeded!

Final Thoughts

  • Once you learn one language, learning another language becomes easier. Especially if the languages are related. Learning Japanese makes it easier to learn Chinese as you already know Kanji. Learning Japanese and Chinese makes it easier to learn Korean because Korean has a bunch of loan words from Chinese, and similar grammar to Japanese.
  • Finding a girlfriend or boyfriend who only knows the target language is an insane cheat code. Obviously do not date them only for language learning, but it is an extreme study aid.
  • You have to like the culture to learn the language. If you are not into the cultural aspect of the target language, you will probably be disappointed.
  • Have a realistic goal. There may be languages you only want to read, so just learn how to read in the language. Maybe you just need to do simple tasks like ordering food and asking for directions, you do not need to be fluent for that. I know enough Lithuanian to talk smack to my friends and passively understand conversations they have with each other (and order food, buy stuff in a Hyper-Maxima convenience store). Why do I need more Lithuanian than that?
  • Keep going, never give up. Literally my advice for everything.
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