The Best Way To Learn A Language
So what’s the best way to learn a language, How can you learn a new language, how long does it take to learn a language, these are all very valid questions. And hopefully you’ll get all the answers you’re looking for in this article. Language is a very diverse and fun thing. No matter how much you learn you’ll always find something new, something surprising, something that will make you wonder about the vastness of human knowledge. Did you know there are over 6000 languages in the world? From languages that contain only whistles to languages that contain only clicking, from languages that have only 12 letters to languages that have over a thousand letters, there is no shortness of weirdness in the world. Although there are many many languages available in the world, most of the people speak about 20 of them.
Interesting Facts
Image: US Census Bureau More than 40% of the people of Earth speak more than one language fluently. People who speak 2 languages are called bilingual. About 13% of the people of Earth speak 3 languages fluently. People who speak 3 languages are called trilingual. Quadrilingual is the term used to describe a person who speaks 4 languages and only about 3% of the world’s population can speak 4 languages. And someone who can speak several languages, those great people, they are called polyglot, less than 1% of the world’s population are polyglot.
Image: thequadgroup
Top Languages of the World Here are the top 10 languages of the world
Mandarin Chinese English
Hindi Spanish Russian Arabic Bangla Portuguese Malay-Indonesian French
Importance of Learning a New Language Despite what you may think, English is not the most spoken language of this world!! Mandarin Chinese is actually the most spoken language with over 1.1 Billion speakers. English is the second most spoken language, with Hindi being the third. So it makes sense to learn another language. The benefits of learning a new language is huge. If you are a student who wants to study abroad, a business executive who wants to expand the business to other countries, a traveller who wants to visit other countries and explore new cultures, then learning a new language is the best thing you can do. Trust me, one language is not enough in this day and age. Yes technology has improved greatly and they have made communication so much simpler and easier but there is something in being self-sufficient, being able to rely solely on your skills is a great thing, it gives you a sense of pride and joy. Being able to communicate with a person who is from a completely different culture, being able to share your feelings and thoughts, it is a skill, an achievement that will keep paying you dividends throughout your life. Not only is it a great and handy skill to have but also it is very good for your brain. According to a new study, learning a new language can help improve your brain function.
Here Are a Few Benefits of Learning a New Language
Your brain gets Bigger!! Your memory gets better More earning potential Greater Decision making ability Keeps your mind healthy for longer
Your brain gets Bigger!! According to a study, learning a new language increases the size of your brain. And who doesn’t want a bigger brain?
Your memory gets better According to a study, people who know more than one language have better memory than people who don’t
More earning potential This one’s very obvious, the more languages you know the better chances you’ll have to earn more money. In this era of globalisation learning a new language will give your career a huge boost
Greater Decision making ability Learning a new language improves your decision making ability, as you learn a new language your brain learns new words and it gets efficient at making quick decisions. This works as a great exercise for your brain and improves your ability to make decisions quickly.
Keeps your mind healthy for longer
Learning a new language helps your brain stay healthy for longer according to a study These were just a few benefits of learning a new language. I know learning a new language feels very intimidating at first. But trust me, it’s not that hard. If you are really passionate about learning a new language then here are a few tips that will make it really easy for you to learn a new language
Related: British Sign language (BSL) Level 1 Online Course
Tips for learning a new language fast
Use the language whenever and wherever you can Nothing beats real experience Hardworking is good but smart-working is better Watch videos!! Visit the country if possible Accept the embarrassment Don’t forget to have fun
Use the language whenever and wherever you can Practice makes perfect. It’s a fact. If you want to get good at something then you have to practice it. It’s not like physical training that will exhaust you, just start practising it, try to put together a sentence and include it into a conversation. It could be any conversation when you’re talking to a friend perhaps, perhaps a colleague. Use every opportunity you get, for example, if you are learning french then try to order your food in french the next time you dine in a french restaurant.
Nothing beats real experience
There’s nothing like the real thing. Often times we think we know about something, we think we understand it, but it’s all in our heads, we don’t know what it’s actually like. So seek out real experience, in this case, try to find someone who actually speaks the language you’re trying to learn. You’ll see that after speaking to this person you’ll get a much better understanding of the language. Try to chat with this person, trust me a five-minute conversation with this person will teach you a week’s worth of knowledge. The best way to improve in life is through experience. The best way to learn a language is by experiencing it.
Click Here to Learn How to Improve Your Life Hard work is good but Smart work is better You don’t have to learn every single word of a language, just be smart about it. Did you know there are more than a million words in the English language, how many do you know? Exactly, you don’t have to know everything, just the basics and the most common words. As you get better then you can move on to the nitty-gritty, explore to your heart’s content, but make sure you have the basics down before moving onto the advanced stuff.
Watch videos!! Sounds weird right? But yeah, social media and binge-watching have become such an integral part of our lives now that we tend to spend hours every day just watching videos seemingly about nothing. You won’t believe how many times I have found myself watching a video that I have no idea about. So if you are going to be watching random videos anyways why not watch something that will help you grow. Tip- try to watch movies, cartoons, tv shows anything that you like in that language that you’re trying to learn. You will learn things a lot faster if you are having fun while learning it.
Visit the country if possible You will get a much better understanding of the culture if you visit the nation whose language you’re trying to learn. And understanding the culture of a country will greatly improve your speaking ability. People tend to understand things better and they find it easy if they know the history behind something. Here’s an example, have you ever wondered how easy it is for you to remember the entire plot of a tv show that you watched years ago, exactly, tv shows give you the history, the reason, the details everything about the plot is provided to hook to the show, to make you remember all the little details. Apart from getting to know a new and different culture, there are also several other benefits of travelling, the world is a lot bigger than you think it is. Travelling can really open your eyes and teach you a lot of things that you didn’t even know existed.
Enrich Your Life by Travelling Accept the embarrassment
It is a fact of life that there will always be people who will laugh at you when you make a mistake, they will say things like you’re trying too hard, you’re showing off, you’re making mistakes while speaking. Don’t pay any heed to these things. Remember they embarrass you today but they will be jealous of you tomorrow. You’re going to make mistakes, accept this. In order to learn walking, you had to fall down many many times, similarly, you will mispronounce a word, say it wrong, make grammatical mistakes. It’s all part of the process.
Don’t forget to have fun At the end of the day, you’re doing this to learn something, and you only get the first experience once, so don’t get self-conscious and get inside your own head. Have fun. Enjoy the process. Once you start to enjoy something you automatically start to get efficient in it. If you are not having fun, not enjoying the process then you’re doing it wrong. The best way to learn a language is by enjoying it. By having fun. So enjoy the experience and be happy.
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