Tag Archives: tips for learning a language

5 Tips For Learning A Language

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Many people want to learn how to speak a new language, but this is almost never an easy task. Certain steps need to be taken and various tips must be taken into account in order to properly broach this venture. Here’s what you need to remember:

Spanish dictionary pages up into the air (cut out)

how to learn a new language – source

The Time Needed

You might want to learn a full language in just a few short months. Well, unless you’re moving to a foreign country and immersing yourself in the language, this goal of yours probably won’t happen. Instead, focus on goals that actually could come to fruition. For example, you might learn some basic Spanish vocabulary before your trip to Spain at the end of the year. Focus on basic conversation, travel topics and/or certain words relevant to your career.

Take a Class
Trying to teach yourself a language can be possible, but is quite challenging. You might be saying certain words incorrectly or not using the best learning strategies, and you may be entirely unaware that you’re doing that all the way into your fourth or fifth tense! Look for classes offered at local community colleges. Generally, the prices are fairly low, so affording it shouldn’t be a major burden. If you’re attending college now anyway, sign up for a class in your target language, and make sure that it’s offered at least four times a week.

Read Enjoyable Pieces
Reading material that you love is one of the best ways to learn a language. Let’s say that you really like to cook. Start reading articles, recipes and other written material in the target language about cooking. Since you enjoy the subject, you aren’t going to feel bored when you are reading through the material. Once you start to understand the language at a higher level, you can move onto more complex material. As a result, you’ll start to learn the language in a more natural fashion, and this is one of the best ways to learn.

Practice Daily
If you don’t utilize the skills of a language on a regular basis, you’re almost certain to forget them. Don’t just practice this language when you go to class, especially if it’s infrequent. Instead, buy some home-learning material to supplement the professional lessons. Study everyday – even if only for 15 minutes,.You could make it a goal to learn one new phrase or sentence in the target language every day. If friends or family are working on learning the language too, you can certainly make it a joint effort.

Hire a Tutor
Sometimes, the specific problems you’re having with a language can’t be addressed in class. Everyone has different struggles and issues when it comes to language acquisition, and you want to have your specific problems addressed. If you hire a tutor, the two of you can work together to craft a plan that makes sense for you. They can also help drill material that you’re unlikely to review on your own and make sure that you’re implementing best practices.

Don’t forget that in order for your language to be meaningful, it needs to have some relevancy to your interests. Give yourself some context – if you’re a business major, take a business class for the language you’re learning or a buy a book specially written for businessmen and women. Then, never forget that no one claims that learning a language is easy. However, it doesn’t have to be a terrible battle either! These tips will help you to develop your skills, regardless of the language chosen!

Martin Bundy writes all about multicultural education. His recent work is a piece on the best International Business Schools.

Common mistakes that new students do when learning Spanish in London.

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If you are learning Spanish as second language and if you are attending an evening course you should read this brief guide to avoid the most common mistakes that student do.

Missing classes.

This can be the main problem for many students. Someone a lot of enthusiasm and then it comes a time that it is not possible to attend the class. In this case the students feel that if they missed something important and  they will not be able to continue the course. This is not aways the case as the Spanish tutors at our school are very well prepared to deal with this sort of  situations. They will do whatever in their hands to help you to catch up with extra home work, email support.Our classes are always of a very manageable size so the teacher can customise the lesson to your needs. Our suggestion is that if you missed some classes you should contact your teacher immediatly and keep attending as much as you can, you will see that even if you missed one lessons but you keep up with the rest of classes you will soon catch up with the rest of the group.

Arriving late at your classes.

Time keeping is important for everyone, and arriving constantly  late to the lessons wil lead to frustration, yours and that of the other people in class. So it is well worth to make an effort and arrive on time. This will enable you to cacth th lessons from the beginning without missing anything important. We understand that everyone is London is very busy however with some planning you will see that lateness can be easily corrected.

First impact and shock.

Some students find hard to find themselves in class where they find hard to follow what it is being said in a foreign language. This happen if you never had any contact with the Spanish culture or Spanish language sound. Our classes are based on the communicative method and our aim it is to deliver them in the target language, of course the difficulty is gradual and the teacher is trained to give you instructions in Spanish and he or she  will make sure that you understand with drawings, mimes, and pictures. In short the student should not be afraid of letting the teacher know about any issue related to comprehension.

Spanish it is too different and many rules do not make sense.

Some students think the above and just stop learning as they see dealing with a different culture too difficult. Learning a language will require you to leave some concepts that you accept for granted behind, it is about being open to other cultures.  Spanish words will have feminine and masculine ending, and they will change if they singular or plural. It might take time to grasp these abstract concepts but it is not that difficult after all.

Lack of confidence.

Sometimes, we see students in the Spanish course who think that they are worse off than the other student in the class, If this is the case they will be shy and they will not try to speak in the class. However you should compare your achievement only with yourself. Only your progress matter, since everyone is learning at a different pace.

Language learning faqs for our students in London

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Why should I learn Spanish, Italian, French or German?

Learning a new language will enhance your career possibilities, you will have more chances to get a better job a and since our economy it global companies are looking for  individual who can speak more than language?

I live in London what is the best way to learn Spanish or Italian?

Here at the Language class we would tell you to start attending one of our evening courses for example. Our classes are a good step to get you started in learning one of these language. With our conversation  lessons you will develop the confidence that you need to speak the new language. Other ways to learn it is to participate to language exchange programmes, we are sure that in London it will not difficult to find someone who is willing to do it. If it is Italian that you want to learn we also recommend to get in touch with the Italian cultural institute in London as they organise plenty of events for anyone in love with Italy.

I have just started to learn French, how long before I am fluent?

It is a very common question that we get from our students all the time, and it is very difficult to answer. Learning a language is an ongoing process that it will take some time, even years, depending on what level you want to achieve. It also depends on how much time you want to dedicate to this task. The more you practice the faster your learning.
If you have French friends you can practice with them while taking some classes, you will see that you will be progressing much faster.

I have seen that you use the European Framework for language to describe your levels, what A1 and A2 mean?

A while ago people a the European community decided to give everyone a set of standard level for evaluating language students. In short the beginner level is called A1 for some one who has no knowledge of the language. It is then followed by A2 which we also call false beginner, someone with a very basic use of language. B1 and B2 are the intermediate levels and it is when the student starts to be independent. Finally we the have the advanced levels called C1 and C2. When you have reached these level so will not need your tutor any more!