How To Learn A New Language Fast (Complete Guide)

Do you want to learn a new language fast?

Best way to effectively learn a language is by studying before bedtime. Learn before you sleep helps you to retain information easier, lettings your subconscious mind work while you sleep, creating flashcards, using technology and employing post-it notes are great ways as well.

13 Best Ways to Learn a New Language Fast

Being fluent and master another language other than your native language is hard at all.

Now’s the time to stop relying on google translate and become fluent in the language you’re trying to learn.

1. Set Goals

Before attempting to take on any second language, you must first set some preliminary goals. Write down how quickly you want to learn the language but create accomplishment tiers. For instance:

Alphabet, basic vocabulary and simple sentence structure: 1 month

Comprehension of children’s books and movies: 2 months
Full conversational understanding: 3 months

When you sit down to determine your goals, be realistic with yourself and the kind of time you have to dedicate to it. Consider your responsibilities and obligations so that your language studies do not impede on those.

2. Accept Failures and Mistakes

The next thing you have to prepare yourself for is accepting failures and mistakes. This will be easier for some people than for others.

Don’t be afraid to mess things up, making mistakes is normal when you are learning something new.

Actually, you should embrace them as stepping-stones. After all, how will you know if you’re improving if you don’t make some mistakes?

So, this means that you must be willing to accept the ambiguity involved with learning a new language. There’s no shame in it and it doesn’t speak to your level of intelligence.

3. Study Every Day before Bedtime

Per the University of Notre Dame, studying before bedtime is the best way to retain and remember new information.

So, you should plan on studying anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour every day. Do this about an hour or two before going to sleep.

Make sure you keep to a single topic and review what you learned before hitting the hay.

4. Create Flashcards

Another thing to help you learn a new language fast is to create flashcards. Do this with new vocabulary words, verb conjugations, numbers, letters and all the rest. While there are some smart device apps and online websites to help with this, it’s better to hand write them yourself.

This is because writing things down helps you retain and remember information better. Plus, it gives you a visual.

What’s great about flashcards is that you can create a game and test yourself with them. You can even begin sorting them into piles: ones you know versus ones with which you struggle.

You can take these with you everywhere and they’re so versatile. For instance, you can pick a card every morning when you wake up. This will be your word for the day. Every time you have a chance to use it or apply it to something in your life, do so.

5. Use Technology to Your Advantage

While writing things down by hand is always good for helping you remember new material, you should combine manual learning with modern technology. There are so many online learning opportunities along with smart device apps to help you achieve your learning goals. Many of them are free as well.

There’s a whole world online that offers some of the best education for learning a new language.

Most effective ways to pick up learn new language skills and become a polyglot:

Mondly: A gamified online language learning app that helps you learn language in a fund and effective way. As an app, it gives you the option to learn new words and phases on the go which can be quite amazing if you have an long commute from one place to another. (Full Mondly Review)

LingoPie: Learn a new language while you are bench watching TV, with LingoPie you don’t learn a new language through normal classes, but instead you can learn a new language through watching TV making the learning process much more fun and enjoyable. (Full LingoPie Review)
Lingoda: Live lesson and real-time learning class with highly qualified instructors. Learning in small groups or 1-on-1 lesson, Lingoda offers flexible timing and is known to be very effective in learning a language in a short time. (Full Lingoda Review)
Duolingo: Great for vocabulary and basic sentence structure, Duolingo is the number one app for smart devices. With a game-like interface and digital interactivity, it makes a great accompaniment for studying a new language.

Memrise: As an additional aid to your flashcard studies, Memrise allows you to use the ones created by others and to cater them to your own studies. It even has a feature for establishing mnemonic devices via finding and composing images for your online flashcard stash.

Non-conventional ways to pick up new language:

Wikitravel Phrasebooks: One of the best ways to learn a new language quickly is by studying travel phrasebooks. The ones on Wikitravel are incredible and they provide guides for numbers, pronunciation, time, eating, shopping, transportation, problem-solving and basic phrases.

YouTube: You can teach yourself how to do anything with the right videos on YouTube. Simply search for your language and off you go!
Netflix: Netflix is a great online language learning resource. They have millions of movies and TV shows featuring just about any language you could think of. Not only will you be able to find formal educational videos but you can also locate actual media in that language to help enrich your understanding.
MIT Open Courseware: MIT is notorious for offering a quality education in foreign languages. So, their open courseware is good for getting a great cultural context of the language you’re studying. They have everything from beginner to advanced, so you can cater this according to your skills as they grow.

iTalki: For practice with native speakers, iTalki is ideal. You can find exchange partners, teachers and tutors via Skype or email.
Word2Word: Because Word2Word hopes to connect the world, they offer an insane array of free language learning resources. There are meet ups and chat rooms as well as learning how to type with other letters and characters.
Reddit: Even though Reddit is more like an online forum than a language-learning platform, you can find some threads to seek out likeminded individuals. Many subreddits feature foreign languages for nonnative speakers. For instance, there’s ones for Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and German.

6. Learn Pronunciation Early On

On the very first day you begin to learn a second language, understand precise pronunciation. Always make sure you say the words properly before moving onto new words.

Be sure to study how to employ proper inflection, what accents should indicate and how they use pauses in that culture. Reading and listening the language you want to learn help improve your fluency in the language.

For example, in English we stop speaking at the end of a sentence by way of a period. This signals to a listener/reader that the idea has finished and a new concept is beginning.

However, other languages aren’t so clear.

One sentence rolls into one another, especially during a conversation, and it’s only until they stop talking you know the sentence ends.

7. Use Post-It Notes

Once you start grasping and remembering key vocabulary words, begin to stick post-it notes all over everything in your house. Put them on your TV, kitchen cabinets, bathtub, shampoo bottles, refrigerator and items in your fridge.

Write the word for it in the foreign language, then its pronunciation (if you’re learning a character language like Chinese) and, finally, the English translation. Every time you pass by, say the word aloud.

8. Think and Speak the Language During the Day

When you wake up in the morning, immediately begin thinking and speaking in your new second language. Don’t study anything unless you forget how something is supposed to go. Being persistent in such a way will have you fully comprehending the language in no time.

So, to start training your brain, once you think of something in English, immediately try to think the same thing in the other language. Beginners will have more of a difficult time doing this when starting out.

So, commence this practice with simple words and gradually learning grammar and increasing the words in the language to expand into full sentences and ideas.

When you catch yourself automatically thinking in that language, you’ll know you’ve learned it.

9. Read Literature, Watch Movies and Listen to Music

Alongside your regular studies and practicing, you must immerse yourself into the new language. Part of this means reading literature, watching movies and listening to music and podcasts of the language you want to learn.

Start from the programs which is meant for small children and work your way up to things for adults. Every language is difficult at start, but as you progresses, it’ll become easier to learn, and eventually you’ll be able to speak the language.

Literature and Movies

When you read literature, it should include newspapers, magazines, books and other printed materials. Keep a translation dictionary handy. Write down any unknown words along with their English translation. Start with children’s books and bedtime stories and work your way up to feats of classic literature.

To illustrate, let’s say you’re learning French. Begin with Babar the Elephant. Once you have a greater handle on verb tense and sentence structure, then read things like “The Count of Monte Cristo” or “Les Miserables.”

Apply the same logic to watching movies. Put on English subtitles at first so you can see what they’re saying and what it means simultaneously. Your first viewing will be slow because you should pause it at specific areas to pronounce and repeat what you just heard. Rewind that section and listen to it again, making sure you got it right.

Music

Listening to music to help learn something is an age-old practice that comes to us from ancient Greece via the muses. These peregrines of the mind were initially three in number and they represented “mind,” “memory” and “song.” The idea was that music intrinsically links with the mind and, therefore, improves memory.

So, keep a translation of the lyrics nearby and sing along. You should begin with lullabies and nursery rhymes, working your way up to songs with more adult themes.

10. Learn about the Culture

An additional component to immersing yourself in a new language is to learn about the culture around it. Not only will it enrich your understanding of certain words but it will also give context for syntax, grammar and sentence structure.

Plus, it will give you a well-rounded idea about the history, current events, religious beliefs and other common customs. These will provide a frame of reference for further understanding why these people speak and act in the ways they do.

It will also draw your attention to formal and informal speech as well as how to address elders versus friends and people your age. For instance, the Korean language has a separate dialect for speaking to those of a higher status or who are older than you are. It is a sign of respect and an acknowledgment of hierarchy.

11. Get a Notebook and Create a Diary

It is important, if not crucial, to get a notebook and diary for your language studies. Use the notebook for writing down new vocabulary words, taking notes and creating sentences. You can also employ it for verb conjugation exercises and alphanumeric practice.

For the diary, this should be a separate notebook. While you will want to write in the new language as much as possible, write in English too. Anything that comes to your mind, jot it down there. This could be anything from your frustrating experiences with learning on your own to reevaluating your learning goals.

12. Find a Native Speaker

The only way you’re going to learn a language with any kind of speed is by speaking with a native speaker regularly. You can find many people online willing to do a free exchange or you can engage the help of a tutor. In fact, it’s best to have both if you can manage it.

This will provide plenty of comprehensible input while not keeping to a strict study regimen. Actively speaking with other people will give your brain a rest from memorization and learning but you’re still immersed in it.

Speaking with a native speaker can help you improve faster, because it give you real-life practice and show you which words you will use more than other ones.

13. Invest in Formal Courses

Last, but not least, is investing in traditional forms of learning your chosen language. This will provide you with in-person experience and live instructor interaction.

You will get immediate feedback on your progress, let you know how to learn the language together with the tips and tricks, furthermore, you’ll be able to ask any questions as they arise helping you to improve after each class.

If you are a serious language learner, this is the best way to grasping new languages fast.

The best language learning courses for picking up a new language.

How Fast Can You Learn A Language?

The speed you take to learn a language depends on many factors, it generally take between three-months to two years to learn how to speak, write, reach and communicate in a new language fluently.

The main factors that affect the speed on how fast you can learn a new language are:

Learning a language where the words and phrases sounds similar to yours.

Learning a language where the spoken language is commonly heard around you.
Learning a language where online resources are readily available.

Regardless of which languages you’re learning, learning a foreign language is easiest when the language is similar to your own and you are in the right learning environment.

For instance, as an English speaker, if your target language are Spanish and French, it will be a little easier than trying to learn Russian or Japanese.

If you want to learn a new language fast the best ways are:

Immerse yourself in the language by going on a language learning journey, an language exchange where you live in the place where the language is used.

Join an online language school, and attend their professionally taught language class which let you meet the people who speak the language.
Get language apps from app store that let you learn words and phases on the go.

While not everyone can go on a language learning journey, the best way to learn a language is to signup for an online language learning course, where the learning journey is structured to your current language level which keeps you motivated while you’re trying to learn new words and eventually talking to people fluently.

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How To Learn A New Language Fast (Complete Guide)