If you are looking for the perfect purpose to make 2019 the best year to date, you have come to the right place: learning a new language should be your goal for the new year. Why? Because it will give you superpowers: you will feel more secure, your memory will improve considerably, travel will be exponentially more fun and, last but not least, your employment opportunities will grow and you could even earn more money. Sounds a lot like the Grand Prize for New Year’s resolutions, right? So that everything goes well, here are some tips that will come in handy once you have chosen a language with enthusiasm.
1. Be realistic
I do not want to be a party pooper, but most likely you do not master a language in a week or a month, but you can learn to count to 100 in a week or memorize the conjugations of 10 irregular verbs in 10 days. The more realistic your objectives are, the easier it will be for you to achieve them, and the experience will be much more rewarding. If you divide your study objectives into small stages, they will become part of your daily routine in the blink of an eye and, after a few weeks, you can catch up with Chinese during your trip home or work, or while you exercise, almost without realizing it.
2. Be specific
Learning English is a great purpose, but it is more effective to have a more concrete goal: to be able to watch a film in English without subtitles after one year, to be able to read a book without using a dictionary, or to travel to London and Ask for fish and chips like the real British. Good (and rewarding) purposes give tangible results, so make sure that your plan to learn a language has a specific goal and can be broken down into small steps.
3. Choose your method
There are endless tools to learn languages; audio files, podcast, applications, travel to study abroad, learning in tandem and, of course, classroom and online If you do not like to learn on your own, the podcasts may not be suitable, maybe it’s better to look for a partner to learn in tandem or to sign up for a course. It will take you a while to find the ideal method or combination of methods, but that is part of the learning process and will help you reach your goal.
4. Has the bumps in the road
There will be days or even weeks without any fun and when you are very busy with studies or work, the last thing you will think about is the Italian grammar, it will not matter if you want to go to Rome and eat ice cream while admiring the Colosseum. If you do not have time or energy to worry about adjectives and adverbs for a week or two, nothing happens. Do not give yourself up for setbacks or give up your plan: recompose and start again where you left off. After all, Rome was not made in a day.
5. Control your progress
Although testing is not very fun, it is imperative that you keep track of your progress. Many applications and courses have exams that you have to pass before moving on, but there are also several free online tests that will help you evaluate your language level along the way. If you do not want to do any tests, but you still have the determination to watch a movie without subtitles, try to watch shorter videos (like movie trailers or cartoons,
6. Talk to people about your goals
If you study with a tandem partner or in a class, you automatically feel the pressure of the group to do your homework, but if you prefer to study on your own, you have to talk about your goals with your friends or family or tell it on the Internet to acquire So a commitment. And they can also control and monitor your progress. Having to give regular updates on your German vocabulary will be a great motivational tool and the push we sometimes need.
7. Reward yourself and have fun
If you divide your goals into small steps, it will be easier to see results and measure progress. Every time you reach a point of reference, reward yourself with a cake (or three) or a new shirt for your next holiday abroad. Of course, you can also celebrate that you have learned all those new phrases in Japanese by going to a sushi restaurant and putting them into practice in real life.
Well, there’s another reason why you should learn a new language in the new year: it’s one of the few purposes with methods that work.
8. Take the direct (and panoramic) road and go abroad
If you want to move faster and have all the superpowers mentioned almost immediately, studying the language abroad could be the perfect plan for the new year. Learning new words and grammar is more fun when you travel the world filling out your passport with new stamps. We are not objective, but let’s be honest, there are few New Year’s resolutions better than living abroad.
