Hands up who is a language geek?! Clearly, here at Leemeta, the office is full of them. Between us all there is a plethora of languages. Some acquired bilingually, some learnt through the hard graft and dedication that is language learning.

So, we thought we’d share some tips with you. Tried and tested tips.

Read, Read, Read!

We cannot emphasise this enough! Read in the language you are trying to learn and EVERYTHING will get easier. It’s like magic! Read on a regular basis and your vocabulary, speech, writing and comprehension will all improve. And so will your confidence!

Speak, Speak, Speak!

It’s scary, you feel like a fool, you know you’ll make mistakes – we understand all that. But being able to read a language, write in a language, yet not being able to speak it is a dire shame.

Have you heard of the term ‘paralysis by analysis’? If you analyse every word and every sentence before you say it in an attempt to make it perfect, you’ll never become fluent.

Every language learner has cringeworthy stories. But, if you don’t speak, you won’t progress. 

One Problem at a Time

Learning a language is like learning anything else. Take swimming for example. You didn’t get in the pool and try to perfect every stroke at the same time. You took it one stroke at a time, working on your arms first, then your legs.

Attempting to tackle verbs, tenses, accent, conjunctions, sentence structure, etc., etc., etc., is not going to work. Find your ‘problem area’. This might be that you want to improve your accent. Or that you want to master the past perfect.

Whatever it is, work on getting it right and ignore everything else – even if it means you make more mistakes in other areas. Once you feel you’ve mastered it, repeat with a different problem area. Eventually, you will have conquered more and more and your language as a whole will improve.