Learning foreign language effectively

On march it is going to be 7 months since me and my friend have decided to learn new language. Yeah – we chose spanish. At first we visited short ‘introduction course’ to become more familiar with spanish itself (and to make sure it was a good decision).
Then we began with some serious studying when we started attending spanish courses for begginers at one of the Pragues language centers.

What a nightmare:

• Our teacher was completely incompetent – she literally botched our prenunciation.
• We were in a classroom with 7 other students and most of the time was the teacher speaking – when we finally came at turn to speak we usually had about 3 minutes.
• In the half of semester the teacher switched to another book! Most of what we have learned was worthless.

So at the end of the year we decided to change between language courses and a private spanish teacher. Well, I can tell you that now it’s a completely different story. If you want to learn a new language, here are some tips of what to do:

1. Find a good book – talk to your techer if you aren’t sure which one is best.
2. Find a good PRIVATE teacher, that has a good prenunciation and enough experience. I find it easier, that she speaks my mother tongue, so she can explain grammar issues. Learning with a frined will keep you motivated. Don’t hesitate to ask the teacher if you don’t know anything!
3. Buy a tabloid newspaper in foreign language (this is a common language you need to learn). Translate half an hour every day until you reach the end. Check your time – you are going to spend less and less time with translation of single page.  Isn’t tabloid your cup of tea? Buy a comics instead! ) Apply the same rules.
4. Do you go to work by train, bus, subway, tram? Buy some audio courses to listen in your headphones. Use your time effectively. I will write another article about courses, that I use.
5. Plan your holiday. Go to the country, where they speak the language. Work there (if possible), listen to how they speak, get acknowledged with grammar in use. Give it a month (at least). And don’t foreget – no contact with your mother tongue. This is EXTREMELY helpful. And most difficult task.

Typical spanish ham - jamon

That’s it. I know, it’s easy giving advices and not to apply it on myself. So I promise to do my best and I will wite some more information about my progress.

I hope you found this little tutorial useful. Does it work for you? Do you have a special trick to learn foreing language? Write a comment.