I Can Communicate in a Foreign Language...and so can you!

Just give it about 4 months!

Ten months ago, I started studying Spanish. 
For 5 years in high school and college, I studied French.

And yet, I knew more Spanish after ONE month than I have ever known of French. And I even lived in French-speaking Belgium for a semester! So how? Why? WHAT?? I'm going to answer these questions for you today. But let me warn you - it isn't easy. It's not osmosis. It's not your university foundations class you took your freshman year that you could sleep through and still ace. (Sorry...)

Before I tell you about all my resources, there are a few key ingredients for you to plant, cultivate, pluck, and simmer a while before you can really move forward with learning a 2nd (or 3rd...or 4th...) language. 

1. MOTIVATION 

This is the key part of any language learning journey. You've got to really examine your reasoning for wanting to go through with this endeavor and keep that in the forefront of your mind or, I promise, you'll become a quitter much sooner than you'd hoped, and definitely much sooner than when you've reached fluency (which won't happen). I have often looked to this verse for motivation: 

"If I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me." ~ I Corinthians 14:11

Why do you want to know your target language? Usually, it's to be able to talk to people who speak that language and not your first language. This is a great way to broaden your view of and knowledge about the world around you. If you get frustrated and give up, these people will remain strangers to you all of your days! You can never truly get to know them. What a travesty! But imagine the day - oh yes! - when you will speak to them face to face and be understood! And when they will speak to you and get a thought-out response instead of blank stares! 

2. COMMITTMENT

This will come right along with your motivation. Don't be a quitter! Remember why you started this and if it's really important to you. When you're trying to learn the 500 forms of the verb "estar," don't despair! Okay, you can despair for a little while...I mean, it's just rough. But then get over it, give yourself a pep talk, and move on! It comes with time and practice, not all at once. That is why committing to your language learning long-term is so important. And when it comes to verb forms, memorizing all the forms at once won't do you much good anyway. You have to see them and use them in context and it will become more natural in time!  I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "If you don't use it, you lose it." If you study really hard for a week and then take 2 weeks off to get over the trauma, you're back at square one, buddy.

3. TIME AND CONSISTENCY

And rolling right off of that note, this whole language learning thing can't be "on again, off again" like your last bad relationship. In just the same way, it won't last! This is going to be a big time and effort eater, so be prepared for that at the onset. If you create a consistent time when you sit down to work on your target language, that will help a lot. Oh, I'm in the car going into town? Time to listen to my Spanish podcast! It's 9PM? Time to read one story out of my Spanish children's novel! 

Be consistent with your studies. Have a goal, and if it helps you to write it out or to mark off your study times on a calendar, then do that! You know yourself and your learning style and study habits better than anyone else does, so I can't tell you what will work for you to stick to it week after week and month after month. The most important thing is to surround yourself with the language and not do too much too soon. Take it one day at a time, one subject at a time. Avoid the "intensity trap" of studying 5 hours a day one week and then falling off the bandwagon completely the next week. I don't recommend either of those two paths. Start low and go slow.

4. IMPERFECTIONISM AND HUMILITY

This one may sound strange to you. You mean...you want me to be imperfect? To NOT be perfect? To not even strive for perfection?

Why YES, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you try to be perfect when you speak, read, or listen to your target language, your growth will be stunted because you'll never get real practice. You'll turn the radio back to English because, well, you weren't getting what the latin song was saying, and so what's the point? You'll revert back to where you're comfortable - your 1st language, your heart language. But to grow, we must be challenged beyond what we're currently able to do so that someday in the near future, we CAN understand that song!

You must be willing to make a fool of yourself, be uncomfortable, and be okay with that! Don't allow yourself to get discouraged when you don't know the right conjugation to use or you accidentally agree to go salsa dancing with someone tomorrow night...and then have to cancel later when you realize what you've done! It's all part of the learning, and you'll get some hilarious stories out of these language mishaps, too. Be nice to yourself.

RESOURCES: 

Many people have asked me what I've been doing to learn Spanish before I move off to Peru. Here is a list of the resources I have used that have been super helpful in my language learning. Lucky for you, I'm not interested in working my way through a textbook. That method might work for some people, but it's totally off my radar. I'm going for a more natural and conversational route.

• Duolingo app

This is a great anytime, anywhere resource that can test your knowledge. The lessons are arranged in categories and just take a few minutes each. You can set your goal to between 1 and 5 lessons a day, and it will remind you to do them on your phone. Sometimes there's matching, translating, listening exercises, etc. It's a helpful little FREE application.

• Coffee Break Spanish and Show Time Spanish podcasts (in that order - the second builds on the first)

These are completely FREE, and it's probably been my best resource! The episodes are about 15-20 minutes each, and it's designed for you to listen to the same one each day for a week and then move on to the next episode, though you certainly don't have to stick to that setup. You can also purchase extra resources from them if you'd like, but the podcasts alone have been sufficient for me. There are a teacher and a student on this podcast, so the student makes mistakes just like you will! You have a chance to speak and repeat back what you are learning, and your knowledge is tested at regular intervals. It's really a great system.

For android, you can get an app called "Learn Spanish" (the one with the orange circle, Spain flag, and headphones) to hear the podcasts without an Apple device, and there are several other Spanish podcasts on there, too. I listen to these in the car on the way to and from work quite often.

• Kids' movies and TV shows in Spanish (or your language of choice) 

I switched my Netflix language to Spanish. Some of my favorites to watch were Tarzan (all 3), The Emperor's New Groove, and All Hail King Julien (the show based from the Madagascar movies). You can watch with subtitles in English, then subtitles in Spanish, then no subtitles! See how you do! It helps if you've seen the movie before and kind of already know what's going on.

• Extra en Español 

This is a soap opera on Youtube that uses easy and slow Spanish, specifically made for learners. I've watched it through a few times just to track my improvement in understanding after a few more months of study. There's just one season of 14 episodes.

• Youtube language lessons and conversational videos

One of the best I've found is a channel called "Señor Jordan." It seems like he's got a video about any Spanish language topic/area you could want! And he's a great teacher. Here's an example:

• Write out Scriptures, quotes, or a journal entry in your target language

Typing is okay, but I really mean writing in the old-fashioned way - with a pen and paper. This will help you learn to spell things and feel with your own hand the setup of sentences in your grammatically correct target language. You can try journaling in your target language, which will help with the same things plus learning to express yourself in that language even if you don't have someone to speak out loud, too. Read your entry out loud back to yourself to help practice pronuncation and start to feel more natural hearing these sounds come from your very own mouth.

• Set your devices in your target language 

Phone, computer, GPS, radio, iPad, etc. - I put it all in Spanish! That way you kind of already know where everything is, and if not, you have to learn to get around! It's a sort of lazy, subconscious way to engrain things into your natural memory.

• Reading children's Bibles or other books in Spanish (or your target language)

Toward the beginning of my learning, I used this because it is simple and for very young children. It was really good for working on past tenses (which I hate). The pictures are cute, too:

When I started getting a little better at understanding, I moved on to this. It's for older children, so it is a bit more complex, simple but still challenging enough to learn a lot from and get used to the way sentences are set up and different conjugations. I also really loved that at the end of each story, there was a "conexión con Cristo," a connection to Christ section: 

I have a word document where I write out words I don't understand with their definition, a sample sentence, and a sentence I come up with using that word. Don't feel like you have to understand everything you're reading! Even if you're a little lost (or a lot lost), you're getting used to grammar and sentence structure in your target language and seeing words written down that you may have only heard before. I also sometimes like to read the stories out loud to work on pronunciation. It's now become less and less strange to hear myself speaking Spanish.

It is also helpful to pick up flyers, brochures, and advertisements in Spanish to practice with whenever you come across them. I have a guidebook to Petra from when I was in Jordan in October that I found in Spanish, along with maps and brochures. I also have copies of Divergent and Frankenstein en Español, but I'm not to that point in my language skills yet, so those are some to look forward to as I improve.

• Listen to music in Spanish as often as possible - pop is good, and cafe type music is good, especially Julieta Venegas; check out Spotify for their several playlists in the "Latin" section of the Browse Bar (I especially like the "Cafe Con Leche" and "Latin Pop Hits" playlists)

• Find someone to talk to!

To make language learning work, you actually have to use it in real situations and say the words out loud. Often we get stuck on listening and reading but don't get to speak our target language as much. Make a friend online that lives in a country that speaks your target language. Convince a friend to learn with you and practice together. If there's a group in your area that speaks your target language, get involved with them.

• SpanishDict app and spanishdict.com

This has been the most accurate translator I've found. It also gives example sentences and more of a dictionary definition instead of only a translation. There's a table for ever verb with every possible conjugation! They also have an online program called Fluencia that you can purchase for a monthly fee (which I did not do) if you're interested in that sort of thing. The app and website are both great!

• Take a trip to a country that speaks your target language 

Of course, this isn't always possible due to finances and other constraints. If you can make this work, wait until you've been studying at least a few months. This will help you gauge how your studies are truly going if you MUST use it to get around! If you're better than you thought, it will be very encouraging! If you are behind where you'd hoped you would be, it will be motivation to increase the effort you're putting into the language! But the best part - you'll get to practice in a real situation and hear/see the language everywhere around you, plus you'll have a fun traveling experience, too!

Do you have other suggestions of good resources for language learning or any words of encouragement for your fellow learners? Any questions? Share them in the comments below!

Disclaimer: I have no claim on any photos or videos posted and no personal or business ties with any products endorsed. I am not being reimbursed for any of my recommendations but simply think they are all wonderful by my own judgment.