Do a quick search on social media for how to learn a language and you’ll be inevitably bombarded with apparent polyglots boasting their ‘foolproof method of learning a language in 2 months’ ,often accompanied by a link to their paid course, ads of the Duolingo owl, and the same advice we’ve all heard hundreds of times. While I’m a strong believer that immersion is and will always be the most useful way to pick up a language, I also understand that implementing it isn’t easy on top of stressful everyday life. This rings especially more true if you’re like me and have not one, not two, but three foreign languages you want to maintain at once. This article will give you ideas of ways I try to keep up my language skills on a (semi) regular basis. These methods go beyond the classic textbook advice of ‘watch TV!’ or ‘listen to podcasts!’ because I know you don’t need to hear that again.
1. Switch my devices to my target language (TL)
I always get weird looks from friends when I hand them my phone and they’re instantly baffled by the fact it’s in French. Yes, it might be an inconvenience for anyone else using it, but I found that switching my phone to French is an easy way to pick up vocabulary. I’m on my phone enough that I remember where everything is anyway, so I now know the French words for all my apps, commands, and settings. It can get a bit frustrating when I need to use Maps and I have to follow French directions, but any immersion is good immersion!
2. Gaming in my TL
When I say that I switch my devices to my TL, I even decided to include my Nintendo Switch. This way, I can pick up French words whilst doing something I enjoy. The main games I play are Animal Crossing and Minecraft which are both surprisingly useful for language learning. Animal Crossing helps with colloquial phrases and words I wouldn’t normally come across in lessons, while Minecraft is greatfor learning names of objects. I also play Pokémon occasionally which I love because I get to work out the witticisms in the French versions of Pokémon names (like how Lampent is called Mélancolux). If you like to play online, this could even be a way to find language exchange partners, but as a solitary player, I still find plenty of value in it.
3. Journaling
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love journaling. I write in my journal every night with a few extra entries scattered throughout the week, so I figured – why not combine two of my hobbies into one? I write a page in my TL, usually about fairly mundane things, and then I use ChatGPT to correct what I’ve written. I highlight any grammar or vocab I got wrong and annotate it so I can read back and understand my errors. You could even take it further and write about deeper, more emotional topics, but I tend to stick to everyday stuff so I don’t get too disheartened by gaps in my vocabulary.
4. Studying song lyrics
Another classic language-learning tip is to listen to music in your TL. While I like to do this, I don’t believe that sticking a few French songs on will help you all that much, especially if you’re not actively listening to the lyrics. Instead, I read the lyrics as I’m listening to the song, write them down, and try to decipher their meaning. Then, I pull up the English translation to the song and highlight any unfamiliar words or grammatical structures. This is effective because it exposes you to real-world language use and slang. Small disclaimer for fellow French learners: Francophone singers will often change the emphasis or length of words to fit a song’s rhythm, so don’t take the pronunciation in songs as gospel!
5. Creating a social media account for my TL
A guilty pleasure for many of us is doomscrolling. What if I told you that there’s a way you can still do this and feel slightly less bad about it because it’s (sort of) in aid of your language learning goals? Well there is! All you have to do is make a new Instagram account and use it to exclusively look at posts in your TL. It doesn’t have to be Instagram, but that’s what I personally use because it’s one of the easiest apps for doomscrolling in my opinion. While you could follow TL content on your main account, chances are you’d end up reverting to English posts – so I find having a separate account makes it easier to stay immersed.
I do believe that the most common advice you hear in regards to learning languages is true, like doing flashcards and the vague concept of immersion, but these are my favourite ways to spice up my routine. Most of these strategies stem from me combining things I already enjoyed doing with my interest in languages, so my general advice would be to find a way to incorporate languages into your pre-existing hobbies. Do you like arts and crafts? Then look up tutorials in your TL. Do you enjoy puzzles? Find online ones in your TL. Do you read a lot? Start reading books in your TL. Chances are, whatever you enjoy doing, there’s a way to do it in your TL – and that’s the key to making language learning both fun and sustainable.
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