Hidden Gem Series:
An Incomplete Guide to Atypical Language Learning Strategies
Some of my tips to speed up the process of learning a foreign language:
- Skim vocabulary quickly and repeatedly instead of intentionally memorizing them.
- Learn grammar in a fast and top-down way. Build the complete structure of the full grammar and then fill in details. Try to complete this part as early as possible.
- Listen a lot on random topics and from various speakers. No need to fully understand the content. Always listen to a new piece.
- Pick one favorite native speaker, and do short sessions of speech shadowing. Stay with the same piece of audio until being able to produce it in an identical way.
- Choose a very specific topic to read rather than read randomly and broadly.
- Spend some time on this new language every day without setting a time duration: five minutes or a few hours depending on how productive you feel today.
- For better photographic memory, handwrite a lot or picture this language frequently in your brain.
- No need to pay special attention to how to think in this new language. It comes naturally when you speak a lot in this language. If you are really eager to speed up this process and are already proficient in 2+ languages, try learning this new language in two other languages you already know.
- Master the new language as soon as possible. Ideally within a year to reach the level of professional working proficiency.
