“Learning a new language will soon become obsolete because of the advancement of simultaneous translators,” an unpoetic friend once told me. With such a translator, you would speak into a box and that box would translate everything–flawlessly and fluently. My friend dreams of such technology because he struggles with learning new languages. The progression of such technology is translated music to his ears. To me, such a notion is like saying in the future there will be no need to write music or poetry cause computers will do this for us.
Yes, the advancement of translation technology will continue to grow, but language lovers’ love for language will not wane. Learning a new language for us is discovering a previously unknown facet of our souls. Those who love learning about other cultures know the window into someone else’s reality is largest in the language room.
Ndiyo, oui, si: Learning a new language is challenging. But it is also extremely rewarding. When I was 20 years old, I declared that by the time I turned 25, I would speak 5 languages. When I turned 25, I could only speak 2.5. I was behind schedule, but did not plan to quit. With learning a new language, there is no such thing as failure, only varying degrees of success. For me, language learning is as part of my life’s routine as brushing my teeth and washing dirty underwear. If you’re onboard that boat with me, here are 5 tips for learning a new language I have found beneficial over the years.
1) Learning a New Language With Your iPhone’s Autocorrect
Type in the language you want to learn in the iPhone’s notepad. When I learned French in Spanish, it led to often speaking Frenchlish, a little known dialect that only I understood.
The best way I found to correct this was chatting with French speakers and typing in my iPhone’s notepad with the French language keyboard activated. Doing this flags the words you have misspelled and shows you the word you are intending to write. It is the best way I have found to master the spellings of a foreign language.
2) Learning a New Language With Music
Listen to songs in the language you are learning and read the lyrics. Lookup any vocabulary you do not know. Whenever you need any of these words in the real world, odds are you will be able to find them in the song you’ve embedded inside you.
3) Learning A New Language By Being A Weirdo With Post-it Notes All Over His House
2) Learning A New Language By Showering
Wash away your grammatical ineptitude by posting a new printout language lesson every few days at eye level in the shower. If you are like me, time in the shower is often filled with replaying yesterday’s soundtrack, thinking about what you should have said and done, but didn’t, falling into existential doubt about whether or not you are living the right life. So silence those little inner demons, look straight ahead, repeat after me, “Io sono il miglior pilota di elicottero nel mio villagio” Rinse, lather and repeat.
1) Date Someone Who Speaks That Language
You don’t have to. Try to actively avoid doing it if you are married. But there is a reason that “language” in Spanish also means, “tongue.” You can also just make friends with someone in another language. But really, nothing beats someone who is a native speaker of another language. If there is no one in your area, do it online. Couchsurfing has hordes of forums of people from one language who want to find a language exchange partner over Skype in the other.
