Home News Alphabets Phrases Search

Language learning tips

This section contains a collection of advice, suggestions, tips and techniques for
learning languages. Most are based on my own experiences, while some come
from other people.

Many of these tips, perhaps with some minor modifications, also apply to learning
others skills, such as music.
Why should I learn a language?
There are many reasons to learn a foreign language, from working in another
country to discovering your roots, through intellectual curiosity, romance, travel,
and secret communication.
More reasons for learning languages
Which language should I learn?
Once you have decided to learn a language, you may not be quite sure which
language to choose. To some extent, your choice depends on your reasons for
learning a language. For example, if you'd like to communicate with as many
people as possible, learning such languages as Mandarin Chinese, Spanish,
French, Russian or Arabic would enable you to do so.
More tips on which language to learn
What materials and tools do I need to study a language?
There's a wide range of materials and tools available to help you with your
language studies, including language courses, dictionaries, grammar books,
phrasebooks, online lessons, mp3 players and electronic translators.

More on language learning materials and tools

How can I find time to study a language?
Finding time to study a language can be quite a challenge. You may think that you
don't really have enough of it, but it's surprising how many spare moments you
have during a typical day, and how they can add up to a useful amount of study
time.

More on finding time for your studies

What's the best way to study?
After choosing a language, you can start thinking about how you're going to study
it. For popular languages like French and Spanish, there's a wealth of materials
available. For lesser-studied languages, the choice can be more limited. If courses
are available in your area, it might help you to attend them, or you may prefer to
study on your own, or to have individual lessons.

More advice on choosing a way to studyand some general tips

Motivation
Even if you have the best method, materials and teachers, unless you can maintain
your motivation to study languages, you are unlikely to suceed. There are various
ways to do this, such as finding learning activities that you enjoy, having
measurable and achievable goals, and having other people to study with.

More on motivation
Learning pronunciation
Learning the pronunciation of a language is a very important part of your studies. It
doesn't matter so much if you just want to read and/or write the language, but if you
want to speak a language well, as I'm sure you do, pay particular attention to the
pronunciation and review it regularly.
More on learning pronunciation and improving listening comprehension
Learning vocabulary
Building up your vocabulary in a foreign language can take many years. Learning
words in context from written and spoken material is probably the most effective
way to do this. You could also try learning words in a more systematic way -
perhaps a certain number of words every day.
More on learning vocabulary | Spaced repetition learning systems (SRS)
Learning grammar
Familiarity with the grammar of a language enables you to understand it, and also
to construct your own phrases and sentences. It's not essential to know all the
grammatical terminology or to understand why words change, as long as you're
able to apply to relevant changes when necessary.
More on learning grammar
Learning alphabets and other writing systems
If the language you're learning is written with a different alphabet or other type of
writing system, learning it is well worth the effort. Some alphabets, such as Cyrillic
and Greek, are relatively easy to learn as they are similar to the Latin alphabet.
Others, such as Devanagari and Thai, are a more challenging.

More on learning a new writing system

Learning Chinese characters (hànzi / kanji / hanja)
If you're learning one of the languages that uses Chinese characters, such as
Chinese, Japanese or Korean*, you're faced with quite a challenge. However, there
are some techniques you can use to help you learn them.

*Note: in modern Korean such characters (hanja) are rarely used, but they do
appear much more in older Korean texts.

More on learning to read and write Chinese Characters

Frequently asked questions about learning languages
On this page you can find answers to some of the questions I get asked most
frequently about languages, such as "Are some languages more difficult to learn
than others?" and "Which is harder to learn, Chinese or Japanese?".

FAQs page
Foreign phrases
This section contains an ever-growing collection of useful phrases in many different
languages, with audio files for many of them. The phrases are arranged by phrase
and by language.
Useful phrases in many languages
Careers using languages
What kind of jobs and careers are available to students of languages? This page
provides some information about interpreting, translating, teaching, and other
language-related jobs, and also links to sites with further information and
vacancies.
More on language-related careeers
My own experiences of learning languages
I've been interested in language and languages for as long as I can remember. I
am currently fluent in five languages, have a fairly good conversational ability in five
others, and a basic knowledge of ten more. I've experimented with a variety of
language learning techniques and courses, and continue to do so.

More about my language learning adventures

Note:
L1 = your native language(s) and any other language(s) you know
L2 = the language(s) you are learning
Books on how to learn languages |Language learning materials

Some useful phrases in many different languages

Links
Share your experiences of and advice on learning languages
http://tinyurl.com/694to63

How to learn any language

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com

How to Learn Any Language

http://language101.com/how-to-learn-any-language.html

Language Learning Advisor - A Guide to Language Learning Success

http://www.language-learning-advisor.com

Learn lots of Languages

http://learnlotsoflanguages.com

Language Learning Bookshelf

http://www.sil.org/LinguaLinks/LanguageLearning/LanguageLearning.htm
Ultimate Language Secrets
http://www.ultimatelanguagesecrets.com

Learn a Language Via Skype

Want to learn a new language? Learn new languages while playing games

Language Software offers great software for translation and language learning
purposes at decent prices.

Learn a language abroad - All you need to know when preparing a language study
stay abroad

If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboardcan

help. If enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or
Greek alphabets, and is free.

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation, or
by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

 IELTS | TOEIC
 Find Language Tutors in the USA
 Find a language tutor on iTalki
  Find Language Tutors Online with coLanguage
 Learn languages, and other things, with Varsity Tutors
 Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app
 Learn French with Comme une Française
 Learn languages with Mondly

 Home

 News

 Writing systems

 Con-scripts
 Languages

 Useful phrases

 Language learning

 Multilingual pages

 Events
 Articles

 Links

 Book store

 Gallery
 Puzzles
 FAQs

 About

 Search

 Contact

 Media
 Contribute

 Advertising
Copyright © 1998–2019 Simon Ager | Email: | Hosted by
Kualo
RBP