Getting bored with learning how to speak Spanish?

Variety is the spice of life. And if you’re getting bored with Spanish, variety is the key to smashing that boredom and keeping Spanish fresh.

Study Spanish with the same textbook (or podcast, or course) every day, and one of two things will happen:

You’ll get bored and give up.
You’ll get stuck in that method, and will struggle to use Spanish in real world situations.

Music, films, books, podcasts, and conversations with real people can all add variety to your Spanish learning, and keep things fresh.

But have you ever thought of TV commercials (anuncios in Spanish) as a study aid? Probably not! But they’re surprisingly effective.

Why Use TV Commercials to Study Spanish?

Sure, you probably get as annoyed by TV commercials as the next person. Commercials usually interrupt what you want to be doing.

When you choose to watch commercials, it’s a different experience.

Here’s why you should choose to watch Spanish TV commercials:

TV Commercials are Short (and Perfect for Beginners)

Movies can be an ideal study aid. But for beginner learners, feature length movies are just too long. You get bombarded with new material for an entire ninety minutes, and that can be really disheartening.

A TV commercial is a bite-sized movie. It’s precise, short and to the point. As a beginner, you can follow along and get to grips with everything that’s said. And you won’t feel overwhelmed.

TV Commercials are Simple to Follow

Unlike movies, TV commercials are deliberately accessible to everyone. They’re written to be easy to understand.

With movies, you risk getting lost in a convoluted plot while simultaneously trying to follow all the dialogue.

I barely understood Inception in English, much less a language I’m not yet fluent in!

TV commercials are designed to reach as many people as possible. This means keeping it simple and using everyday themes. In other words, commercials are the perfect way to improve your comprehension skills.

TV Commercials are Memorable

Most commercials are less than a minute long. This means that they need to stand out if they’re going to have an impact on consumers. Advertisers employ teams of full-time psychologists to give their ads the most bang for their buck.

Just like a catchy Spanish song, a well-made Spanish-language commercial can stick in your mind all day.

That’s exactly what you need to learn Spanish fast.

Like it or not, advertising is a part of our lives. Use this to your advantage by turning it into an opportunity to practice your Spanish skills.

Get started with the following Spanish TV commercials:

1. Verizon (English subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1X7abXCYYg

Yes, this commercial is politically incorrect. It also happens to be very memorable!

What’s more, it includes everyday vocabulary about family, work and marriage. These are all topics that you’ll very likely need to talk about early on as you learn Spanish, especially when meeting new people.

2. Spanish Christmas Lottery (Spanish subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lCvf3urdmc

The annual Christmas lottery is a national institution in Spain. It’s the second longest running lottery in the world, and the largest one in terms of total payout at over two billion euro!

Each year, the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (Spanish lottery commission) produces a TV commercial to promote the lottery, and I’ve shared the video from 2014. To make sense of what’s going on in the video, you’ll need a bit of background on how the lottery works.

Lottery tickets are usually sold in tenths (décimos), because an individual ticket is quite pricey. If a ticket wins, then everyone who bought a tenth of that ticket gets 10% of the prize money. In this commercial, the cafe owner offers to sell his friend un décimo, but the friend declines. The implication is that that money is tight for him right now. Unemployment in Spain is still at one of the highest levels in the EU.

I’ll let you see for yourself how the commercial ends.

3. Faceboom (English subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFQPMy86RfE

This is a hilarious ad about Faceboom, a Spanish-language book that provides an in-depth analysis of the profound impact that Facebook has had on the world.

The dialogue of this commercial provides you with tons of useful vocabulary about Facebook. You can help this vocabulary stick in your mind by changing your Facebook language preference to Spanish.

Feeling ambitious? You can order the book to get Spanish reading practice about a very relevant topic.

By the way… have you liked us on Facebook yet? ;-)

4. iPhone 6S (no subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDgZc4sb7-E

This commercial is about a topic that rarely features in Spanish textbooks: iPhones!

Even if you don’t own one yourself, I bet you know several people who do. iPhones are just as popular in Spain and Latin America as they are in the rest of the world. When you meet real Spanish speakers, you can practice the vocabulary from this commercial to have an interesting conversation about a topic that nearly everyone has an opinion on.

On that subject, why not switch your phone’s language to Spanish? That way, you’ll sneak in extra practice every time you use your phone.

5. Cruzcampo Beer (English subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CClhCA_MGc

Like most beer commercials, this ad isn’t really about beer. It’s a rousing, inspirational speech about what it means to be Andalusian.

Andalucía is the region of Spain that this beer brand comes from. I can’t vouch for the quality of the beer there, but I’ve visited Andalucía and it’s spectacular. It’s everything this commercial says and more.

A word of warning: the narrator in this ad speaks quickly. This is a good thing! He doesn’t speak any more quickly than the average Spanish speaker in everyday conversation. This is the speed you’ll need to get used to if you want to have real conversations in Spanish.

Want to practice at a slower rate before getting to grips with full speed Spanish? Use the settings button on YouTube to slow down the video (it’s the button that looks like a cog at the bottom right of the video).

6. Coca Cola (English subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl83cRKsV8Q

This is a really useful commercial for practising the Spanish future tense.

It’s an interesting take on how today’s statistics predict the future of human health. Try to ignore the counterintuitiveness of this being a Coke commercial, and just enjoy the content. There’s lots of useful Spanish vocabulary in there.

7. IKEA (English subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ3ePGr8Q7k

How about a Swedish-Spanish fusion?

With this ad, IKEA brings home a poignant message about what’s most important over Christmas. Hint: it’s not toys!

I like how this commercial features lots of different voices. You get to hear all sorts of people speaking Spanish, including children of all ages.

Why’s it so helpful to hear kids speaking? For one thing, you get a different kind of listening practice, since young children haven’t mastered their own language yet and don’t speak it like adults do. For another, they often speak more slowly, which is especially helpful in a lightning-fast language like Spanish!

8. Nocilla (no subtitles)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXq1Lx22hsw

Everyone’s heard of Nutella, right? But have you heard of Nocilla? It’s by far the most popular chocolate hazelnut spread in Spain and Portugal, vastly outselling Nutella.

Only a Spanish chocolate spread advert could focus on football. And football is likely to be a topic you’ll find yourself chatting about during a visit to any Spanish-speaking country. If you don’t want to be left out of these conversations, then you’d better brush up on your football vocabulary,

Just don’t be surprised after watching this commercial if you get a craving for some rich, creamy hazelnut spread while you’re reviewing the difference between a golero and a goleador.

More Spanish Commercials

These commercials are just a taste of what you can find online. Here are some other places you can find Spanish TV commercials.

• Youtube: Run a search for anuncio de televisión to find tonnes of Spanish TV commercials.
• Flipboard: This social media news sharing website has a nice collection of commercials scraped from around the web.
• ABC.es: A modest list of some of the best commercials from Spanish TV history.

Have you used TV commercials to help you learn Spanish? I’d like to hear about it! Drop me a line in the comments!

The post 8 Spanish TV Commercials (Great for Spanish Learners) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by everything that needs addressing in your life, day after day?

If your answer is a resounding YES, then let me tell you – I empathise!

Between work commitments, money managing, keeping your health in order and an ever-demanding social calendar, it can be difficult to achieve some sense of balance. Or prioritise the things you actually want to do with your time… such as learn a new language.

I often feel like technology is more of a hindrance than a help. For many months, I’d been growing more and more resentful of my mobile phone. Since I had moved overseas from my native country of Australia, I had become to rely on it more and more, as it provides instant access to almost everyone from back home. I disliked how much of my attention it took up.

So, instead of being a slave to tech, I decided to make tech my slave. No longer will I answer to my mobile phone (although, I will answer it if it rings - unless I know it’s a telemarketer on the other end!).

I took it upon myself to do some research and find some phone apps that would help me get myself more organised, and in turn, boost my productivity. Less time spent on frivolous tasks would mean more time for language learning. Yippee!

That First Step: Determine Which Areas of Your Life Need Attention

First things first - I took a (mental) step back and looked at the areas of my life that were causing me the most grief.

Scheduling

I was still relying on a paper diary, which I often forgot to bring with me. As a consequence, I was constantly forgetting start times for work, blanking on social events and having appointments skip my mind. As a result, I was a scatter-brained mess.

Prioritising Tasks

I wrote my to-do lists on scraps of paper that I’d then misplace, or tried to simply rely on my memory... ha! It wasn’t an effective method by any means.

Money Matters

My finances were a mess. I had been travelling a lot and spend, spend, spending as a consequence. I needed to devote more time to keeping tabs on my expenses and actually start paying attention to my ever-growing student debt.

General Health

“A healthy mind promotes a healthy body”, as the adage goes. It’s not wrong – all the disorganisation that was going on upstairs was wreaking havoc on my health. I wasn’t eating properly, hadn’t exercised in months and had issues sleeping through the night.

With all this in mind, I began my search.

Here are the final results - a list of productivity apps, how I used them to revolutionise my life, so that you in turn can do the same.

Before we jump in, a note - I have an iPhone, so all the apps I used were for iOS. Don’t worry, Android users, I haven’t forgotten about you. Most of the apps mentioned work on either platform and there is usually a substitute available, in any case.

Sleep – The Be All, End All of Productivity

I decided to start by addressing my woeful sleeping patterns. Lack of sleep can lead to multiple health problems, including memory loss and mood swings. These are definitely traits anyone wanting to pick up a new skill should look to avoid.

Being an extremely light sleeper, I’ve always been interested in the science of sleep. I wanted to get a better idea of my own sleeping patterns – the hours in which I was more prone to experience a deeper sleep, so I could arrange my bedtime accordingly.

After downloading Sleep Cycle, you place the iPhone on your bed before you nod off for the night. The app tracks your sleeping patterns via the movements you make as you dream. It knows when you’re sleeping lightly (because you move a lot), and when you’re in a deep sleep (as you tend to stay still). You can also set an alarm that will wake you up at the best possible time within your cycle, in order to leave you feeling refreshed and energised.

Sleep As Android does pretty much the same thing. It aims to wake you up at the best possible time in the morning and will warn you if you’re not meeting your sleep requirements.

As an iPhone user, I went with Sleep Cycle. I was shocked to find out how much I tossed and turned throughout the night. I began setting the alarm for the rough time I wished to be awake by morning. I found this process to be much less jarring than a standard alarm at 8AM. The app would gently rouse me from my slumber, leaving me feeling far better equipped to handle my day.

Boost Your Concentration Levels with Meditation

Meditation is one of those things in life that you know you should be doing - however, it’s easy enough to find any and every excuse under the sun to not devote any amount of your time to it.

Keep in mind that there are many reasons to spend even as little as ten minutes of your day meditating. It improves your concentration, helps with stress and enhances your creativity.

I started by downloading Headspace, which can be used on both iOS and Android. You can create an account and subscribe - but there is also a free ten day trial that you can keep using until the end of time, if you wish.

I didn’t want the paid service, so from there I moved on to using Insight Timer. It has a plethora of free meditation tracks, which are available in different languages (this is an app that could perhaps moonlight as a language learning tool!). You can also set a timer that will signify the end of your meditation.

It’s up to you, but personally – I believe meditation is something that you don’t need to pay for. These apps work as a wonderful introduction to the world of meditation and from there, there are plenty of guides available on the internet for those who want to go at it alone.

Over time, I dispensed with the apps entirely - although I still use my phone to meditate. I set a timer on it, sit back, close my mind and try my best to empty it.

It sounds easier than it is. Yet, like anything, meditation improves with practice. After only a few months, I can feel myself becoming a calmer, more collected person (and my sleep has improved dramatically). Rather than procrastinating all the time, I’m throwing myself at my work with enthusiasm. In short, I feel like I have a bit more command over my mind, something that I can anticipate will only improve over time.

The Knock-On Effect

After a few weeks of concentrating solely on the health of my mind, my body began to follow suit. I joined a gym for the first time in over a year, went back to yoga and started working towards refining my diet. Feeling refreshed and energised, I knew it was time to turn my attention to that which was next on my list…

Managing Finances – No More Money Woes

I was a bit sick of opening up my bank account a few days after pay day and wondering where on earth all my money had gone. I needed to find an app with which I could track my daily spending, to ensure I was keeping myself within my budget and subsequently had enough money to feed myself.

I decided to go with HomeBudget. I could divide my money into separate accounts – such as access, savings and money that was to be set aside for tax. From there, I could allocate how much money I was spending on things such as food and holidays and where that money was coming from (it did tell me what I already knew to some degree: that that was a lot!).

I’ve heard that Mint is also quite a good app for keeping across your expenditures. It’s said to be great for goal tracking in particular, such as saving up for an item or paying off your student debt.

HomeBudget turned out to be an invaluable addition. Once I got over the shock and horror of how much I’d been carelessly spending, I was able to turn my money to more worthwhile sources - such as my savings account.

Keeping on Schedule

No more running late to work every day, missing appointments and leaving friends hanging. It was time to lose my hard copy diary and… gulp! Go digital.

I started scheduling all my various tasks for the week ahead into my Google Calendar. I dug the fact that as a Gmail user, a lot of what I’d booked online (such as flights and accommodation for travel) showed up in my calendar of their own accord. I also liked how I could set reminders for myself, via email or pop-ups on my mobile phone screen.

On my iPhone itself, I use the Sunrise Calendar app. The interface is both user-friendly and straightforward. It’ll show you what’s coming up over the course of your day and, if you’re British, provide you with the local weather. It’s compatible with Google Calendar, includes Facebook birthdays and invites and allows you to add events vocally. It also gives you the option of incorporating various other calendars, such as the moon cycle and the national public holidays in your country of residence.

For Android users, SoCalendar wins the award of having the trendiest name on this list. It works in much the same manner, but also uses gestures to navigate, which sounds like a fairly fun feature. For example, swiping your fingers different ways across your touch screen will provide you with alternate views of your schedule.

It’s amazing the difference it made to have my calendar directly at my fingertips. I now knew where I was due to be and what I would be doing at any given time. Those unscheduled hours could now be put to good use - tackling my never-ending to-do list.

Searching for an App that Would Allow Me to Tackle my Never-Ending List of Chores

What I wanted was simple. A place to put items on my ‘To-Do’ list, with some sort of reminder that would encourage me to get them done. A reward-based system wouldn’t hurt either. We all like to be patted on the back when we get something hard or icky out of the way.

Fortunately, I stumbled across Carrot, which is the Jekyll and Hyde of the iOS world. As long as you keep on top of your list, Carrot will shower you in compliments and well-wishes. Abandon her and feel her wrath, like a more aggressive version of Siri.

Ticking tasks off the list gives you points, which will eventually allow you to “level up”. As you do so, you unlock more features, such as the ability to be reminded of chores on your home screen and being able to rename them on your list. Other fun features await, but I’m not going to spoil them for you!

Oh, Android users. I looked so hard for an abusive equivalent – alas there doesn’t seem to be one in existence. However, you can revel in the fact that Google’s version of a ‘To-Do’ List – Google Keep has been designed for you and you alone! It has time- and location-based reminders, which you can colour-code. Plus, the app on your phone will sync seamlessly with your Google account on the web.

I also really liked the look of HabitRPG (iPhone and Android), which turns your boring list of “To Dos” into a video game set in a fantasy world of wizards, unicorns and dragons. How delightfully nerdy! As you cross things off your list, you earn points that you can use to upgrade your character with items and pets. Fail to complete tasks, and your character’s health will suffer, plus you may lose points in the game.

When I think about Carrot, I often wonder where she’s been all my life. There’s something about having your “must-dos” there, staring you in the face, that encourages you to do your best to get them done. I’ve shocked myself by how productive I’ve been in ticking off all the icky tasks I’d normally leave forever. And all to keep a little AI program on my phone happy. Well. At least it’s working in my favour.

There was one area however, in which this kind of ‘to do’ list wasn’t doing much by way of assistance. There may be a small collection of activities you wish to fulfil daily, in the view of making them become a habit. From drinking two glasses of water over 24 hours, to ensuring you’re meditating every morning… or doing a spot of language study!

I knew Carrot wasn’t going to help so much in this regard. So, I looked elsewhere for other apps that were fit to do the job.

As we live in the digital age, with a couple of clicks of my mouse I found exactly the app I had been envisioning.

Making a Habit Stick

Habit List stepped in and saved the day. It’s superbly simple to use. You make a note of an activity that you wish to turn into a habit, select a frequency reminder (i.e. whether you want to be reminded every day or odd days and at what time), and that’s it. It’ll pop up at the time you’ve programmed it to, reminding you to fulfil the task. I’ve set it to remind me to do a little bit of language study every single day and feel endlessly irritated if I end up breaking my “streak” (my longest at the time of writing is 8 days!).

Rewire for Android works in much the same regard, although there were a couple of other features I liked the sound of. You can keep a mini-journal going in the app, to make notes on your progress and daily achievements. You can also introduce a little bit of flexibility into your schedule. For example, you may not want to go running every single day, instead aiming to visit the gym four days of the week. Rewire will reflect this in its scheduling.

We all have our own little rituals for making habits stick, and this one has certainly proved to be effective for me.

Putting It All Together

I was surprised by the overall difference I was seeing in both my level of productivity and general well-being, after only a few weeks of using these apps. I now waste less time and feel more in control of the direction my life is heading in. It’s quite empowering!

Best of all, I have time now to dedicate to the activities I actually want to be doing… like learning a language.

Is there a mobile phone app you use that helps you stay on task in some way? Or have you had a similar experience to what I went through? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

The post The Productive Language Learner: How I Transformed my Phone into a Productivity Diva appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

A big mistake new language learners make is sticking to one method of study. You may feel you need to go out and buy the most expensive textbook or online course and focus your attention only on that.

Restrict yourself to one learning method, and you run the risk of getting bored. This can lead you to hit a wall, become disheartened and possibly even throw in the towel.

At Fluent in 3 Months, we believe in learning a language by living the language. That means immersing yourself in the language by speaking it - and you can do that from the comfort of your own home.

Did you know that you can study German while cooking dinner? Or, that a game of Scrabble can be more effective than an hour’s worth of textbook study?

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to learn a language and it certainly doesn’t have to be boring.

Here are ten German games and exercises you can use to build your German language knowledge and have some fun along the way.

1. Watch Your Favourite TV shows With German Subtitles.

You’re stuck between feeling you should study and wanting to relax. Give yourself a break and put on a TV show you know and love… with German subtitles. Websites such as TVsubtitles.net allow you to download the subtitles for English speaking shows.

You can even go one step further and find dubbed versions. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything that is being said. Knowing the gist is enough for when you are first starting out.

If you really want to challenge yourself, ditch the English/American TV shows for German movies and television series. Watching German films will give you an insight into the informal language and culture of native speakers. This will help you pick up everyday slang that you are less likely to learn from textbooks.

Watching movies is a great way to learn a language - as long as you approach them the right way.

2. Put Post-its on Items Around the House

Write the German translations of words on Post-its and stick them on your belongings. Place them on clothing, appliances and the items in your cupboards and drawers. You can learn the German translations for the contents of your fridge, while contemplating what to have for dinner!

Don’t forget to write down the German articles along with the nouns (der, die and das in the normative form and ein or eine for ‘a’ or ‘an’). This will help to avoid gender confusion in the future.

There are plenty of opportunities to get creative when using this method. If you are struggling to remember the word for green, write “grün” on a Post-it and stick it on a pot plant.

When you are next trying to recall the German word for that colour, you will mentally link the word to the plant. The Post-it will act as a visual prompt and aid you in remembering it.

3. Cook Your Meals Using German Recipes

Why not impress your family and friends by learning how to make Sauerkraut or Strudel?

One of the most effective ways to become fluent in a foreign language is to live it. This is best achieved when you immerse as many aspects of your life into the culture of the language you are learning. What better way is there to experience a culture than through food?

Buy a German cookbook, or look up German recipes online. Follow the directions as well as you’re able, using your phrasebook or the Internet to decipher words you don’t know. You can translate your own recipes to further extend your knowledge base. For example, transcribe your recipe for pumpkin soup into German. Use this as a reference point the next time you’re craving something warm on a chilly winter’s evening!

This works as an excellent rewards-based system – you improve your knowledge of the language and culture, plus you get a meal at the end!

4. Use Music to Extend Your Vocabulary and Knowledge of German Culture

Listening to German songs is a great way to immerse yourself in German when you’re driving, cooking or doing DIY.

Ballads are a good place to start, as they’re slow and easy to follow. Look up Phillipp Poisel and Tim Bendzko, who sing ballads in German. If you’re a fan of rap or hip-hop, I would suggest Peter Foxx or Fettes Brott. They’re a little more upbeat and fun!

German radio stations can be streamed off the Internet, and are a good way to discover new songs that match your tastes.

Once you have amassed a compilation of songs, start to sing along to the songs that you like. Write down the words you know or recognise, as you listen to the music. Look up the lyrics and try to translate them. New words can be added to your vocab list. Language learning via music is an excellent way to commit new phrases to memory.

Over time, you may learn the lyrics well enough to add to your collection of tunes to sing in the shower!

5. Get in Touch With Your Inner Child

Picture books work well as a resource for memorising new words and phrases.

As you’re reading, sound out the words as a child would and use the pictures to take a guess at what the sentence translates to. Dual-language books are handy in that you don’t have to spend time translating the sentences – you can instead focus on committing the new phrases to memory.

You don’t have to stop at books. If you’re anything like me. chances are you grew up watching Disney movies. You will intrinsically know many aspects of the films - from the plot, to song lyrics, even down to individual lines, off by heart. Disney movies are a great resource in language learning, due to their familiarity and the quality of the films. As Disney is renowned worldwide, the dubbed versions are of the highest quality. Unlike a lot of animated movies, time has been taken to translate the dialogue and the lyrics of their most famous songs.

Relive your childhood and entertain yourself by singing along to the German versions of your favourite Disney tunes, such as “Unter dem Meer” or “Ich kann nicht warten bis ich einen König bin“.

6. Get Creative With Your German Phrases

Constantly referring to your phrasebook to learn how to ask directions or order food can become a real bore. Get a little creative and search the pages to find the most outrageous phrases your book contains.

This exercise is at its most amusing when the phrase does not translate word for word into English.

For example, did you know ‘mein Magen hängt in den Kniekehlen’ is the German equivalent for “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” and translates literally to “my stomach is hanging at my kneecaps”?

This serves as an interesting and amusing insight into German culture. Committing these phrases to memory might win you points with native speakers - and broadens your vocabulary.

7. Find New Uses For Your Old Board Games

Wipe the dust off your board games and start putting them to good use! Use the pieces from Scrabble to structure German words. Or coerce a friend into playing a round, after banning English from the game.

Cards Against Humanity is known as being “a party game for horrible people”. The aim of the game is to pair innocent questions with the most disgusting or horrendous answer available in your stack of cards.

This card game is fairly new, having been around for only the last four years. There are plenty of English speaking versions, from American to Australian. Unfortunately, the company is yet to release a German edition of the game. What you can do is create your own pack, via a PDF on their website. Alternatively, download a German version and follow the instructions to create your own copy of the game.

If you’ve gone for total immersion in your quest for fluency and live in a German speaking country, Cards Against Humanity would be a real hit at your next house party. If not, this is another way you can gain insight into words and phrases that would definitely be missing from your phrasebook.

8. Change All Your Electronic Devices to German Language

This is a simple hack to expand your vocabulary. Your computer, tablet or smartphone is a device you use everyday, so the interface should already be familiar. Changing your computer’s operating system to German is another way you can immerse yourself in the language, wherever you live.

What are Your Favourite German Games and Exercises?

These are just some of the ways in which you can shake up your language learning, to make it more entertaining. If you have any more suggestions or ideas, please share them in the comments.

The post German Games and Exercises: 8 Fun & Simple Ways to Practise Your German Skills appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

If you’re anything like me - incredibly shy - then I’d make a firm bet that most of the language learning advice you’ve read online sets off at least mild anxiety.

How many times have you heard this when you run a Google search for how to learn a language:

The best way to learn how to speak a language is to speak it.

I wish I earned a dollar every time I’ve read this. I’d be super rich!

But despite its popularity amongst language learners, it’s still advice that makes me want to run away and hide… and forget about language learning.

The only problem with that is I love languages. It’s an itch I’ve got to scratch. No matter how much I try, it won’t go away.

What to do about it?

What it Feels Like to Be a Shy Language Learner

I’ve struggled with shyness for as long as I can remember.

At parties and social gatherings, I’m a wallflower (if I’m there at all). I prefer my own company to a crowd. Books are my favourite companions. And big groups of people make me really nervous. Especially if they’re people I’ve never met before.

So, being told that in order to speak a new language I must strike up conversations with strangers was terrifying.

Simply reading the advice for language learners about “just getting out there and speaking” made me tense up. My natural impulse was to reject that advice and look for a different route.

I’d much rather stay home with a language textbook and labour through grammar drills than I would go out and speak. And there have been several occasions where that’s exactly what I’ve done. I punished myself with tedious and difficult exercises as a way to make up for not doing the work I should have been doing: speaking.

I Was My Own Worst Enemy

Like most people, I wanted language learning to be comfortable and easy. The problem? I veered between two extremes. I either stuck myself in the centre of my comfort zone (not speaking at all) or I stepped so far out of my comfort zone that I thought “I’m never doing that again”.

Over time, I became more and more afraid to test my limits and try things that challenged me. So instead, I allowed my shyness to hold me back from accomplishing a lot of the things that I would have loved to do.

In hindsight, after having tested the advice I am going to give you, I am the first to admit that I was getting in my own way.

I allowed myself to become the biggest obstacle to my own success and happiness.

When I took a look at where I was and what I wanted to achieve, I decided it wasn’t worth taking the comfortable road. There was so much more I knew I was capable of and I knew I couldn’t give my shyness any more power over my progress.

Eventually, I got tired of using my shyness as an excuse. I had to make changes.

Here’s what I did.

4 Steps to Overcome Shyness and Achieve Your Language Learning Goals

Step 1: Admit that You’re Shy

You’ve got to start by being honest with yourself. If you’re shy, admit it, and get comfortable with that fact.

This seems rather obvious, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to become used to ignoring shyness rather than recognizing and dealing with it.

So how do you know if you’re shy?

If you’re shy you may have a hard time doing things like:

• Meeting new people
• Being called on in meetings, gatherings or classes
• Being the focus of attention
• Speaking up when you have an opinion to share
• Initiating conversations
• Being watched while trying to do something
• Accepting compliments

All these things can be hard to do in our native languages, let alone when adding a new language into the mix!

Being shy is totally okay. In fact, it can even be an asset! But if you’re running from your shyness, you’ll never learn how to make the most of it.

Step 2: Ask for the Support That You Need

One of the hardest, but most important things you can do to start addressing your shyness is to get the support you need. Ask for help.

This can be friends, family, or professional advice and support.

Asking for help is rarely easy. Even more so when you’re shy. But the outside perspective and input can go a long way in providing you with ways to work through your shyness.

This could be asking your friends about how they deal with their own shyness (you'd be surprised at how many people see themselves as shy). Or it could be to have them help you get into new social situations. It could mean delving into your past and working out where your shyness comes from (perhaps with the help of a coach or therapist). Or it could mean investing in a course.

Step 3: Take Small Steps Outside of Your Comfort Zone

We are creatures of habit. Taking action beyond the border of your comfort zone feels scary. That’s why it’s called a comfort zone. Anywhere outside it is uncomfortable.

But when it comes down to it, you can only beat shyness by taking confident action - and to start with, that’s unlikely to feel comfortable.

This doesn’t mean that you need to push yourself too far, too fast. It’s not about leaving your comfort zone entirely, but it’s more about stretching where the boundaries lie and making that zone just a little bit bigger, one small step at a time. Take action - but make it gradual.

Step 4: Recognise That Language Learning Can Be a Huge Confidence Boost

If you’re shy, learning a new language can help you discover a "new you".

When you speak another language, you can be whoever you want to be. You can reinvent yourself. There’s no need to be held back by the expectations your friends and family have about you. Nor do you need to live your life trying to fit into labels that you feel define who you are.

We are so much more than labels. They may help describe certain aspects of who we are and what we do, but they are by no means all-encompassing. No one is shy in every part of their life, and so, you should never let the term hold you back from being who you really are and pursuing the things you’d love to do.

Learning a new language can give you a whole new way to express yourself and redefine how others see you. It can be a great outlet for trying new things - especially since the people you interact with will likely be in the same place as you. It’s often said that we develop different personalities for each language that we speak, so perhaps your persona in that new language will be a little more outgoing than the one in your native language!

Wanting to speak another language is an excellent reason to tackle your shyness and become more confident. Plus, you’ll get a boost in confidence by developing a new skill such as learning a language.

Beat Your Shyness by Learning a Language

You are not alone. Everyone is shy about something. According to a study by Stanford University professor emeritus Philip Zimbardo, approximately half the people in US alone claim that they are shy to some degree. But your shyness doesn’t have to prevent you from pursuing your dreams.

We often use “I am shy” as an excuse to avoid doing things we’d rather not. But the only way you’ll ever overcome any feelings of shyness you have is to get out there and experience different social situations so that your discomfort and nervousness dissipate.

Learning to comfortably navigate conversations can be hugely rewarding, especially when it means that you get to practice speaking your target language. And the greater effort you make to put yourself in social situations, the quicker you’ll grow comfortable in them, resulting in more opportunities to participate in interesting conversations and get to know great people.

There’s no magic answer to overcoming shyness. It takes hard work and a concerted effort, but it’s worth taking the required steps.

I hope you’ll join me in saying “goodbye” to shy today.

Want more? Check out the Fluent in 3 Months video course, Say Goodbye to Shy, which I co-authored with Benny Lewis. Find out more here.

The post How to Stop Being Shy (and Start Learning a Language) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Foreign language movies are a fantastic way to learn a language. They’re not just entertaining, but they expose you to authentic usage of your target language, help you with listening practice, and give you an inside view of another culture.

With that in mind, I asked the members of the Fluent in 3 Months Facebook community about the movies they love to watch in their target language. You told me about over ninety movies in twenty different languages!

So, whether you’re learning Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish or Visayan, we’ve got a movie for you.

This is also a great place to get started if you want to start digging into world cinema.

Finding language learning entertainment just became a whole lot easier.

Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) Movies

英雄 (“Hero”) (2002)
Director: Zhang Yi Mou
Starring: Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zhang Zi Yi, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
Genre: Action, Drama
IMDb Description: A defence officer, Nameless, is summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success terminating three warriors.

洗澡 (“Shower”) (1999)
Director: Zhang Yang
Starring: Jiayi Du, Bing He, Wu Jiang
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: Shenzhen businessman, Da Ming, goes home to Beijing when he thinks his father has died.

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
Director: Tsui Hark
Starring: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan,
Genre: Action, Adventure, Biography
IMDb Description: Set in late 19th century Canton, this martial arts film depicts the stance taken by the legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung against foreign forces' plundering of China.

Dutch Movies

'n Beetje Verliefd (“Happy Family”) (2006)
Director: Martin Koolhoven
Starring: Ad van Kempen, Geert de Jong, Yes-R
Genre: Comedy, Romance
IMDb Description: Thijs is a elderly Dutch tomato grower. His adult daughters plan to have him move to a skyscraper-flat, leaving home and professional life, but he takes his adolescent grandson Omar's advice to refuse and keep living.

English (US/American) Movies

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.

Back to the Future (1995)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd
Genre: Action, Adventure
IMDb Description: A young man is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-travelling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, and must make sure his high-school-aged parents unite in order to save his own existence.

Shooter (2007)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Michael Peña
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
IMDb Description: A marksman living in exile is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he goes on the run to find the real killer and the reason he was set up.

Seventh Son (2014)
Director: Sergey Bodrov
Starring: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
IMDb Description: When Mother Malkin, the queen of evil witches, escapes the pit she was imprisoned in by professional monster hunter Spook decades ago and kills his apprentice, Spook recruits young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, to help him.

English (Australian) Movies

Australia (2008)
Director: Baz Luhrman
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot.

English (UK/British) Movies

My Fair Lady (1964)
Director: George Cukor
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Genre: Drama, Family, Musical
IMDb Description: A misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

Love Actually (2003)
Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson
Genre: Romantic Comedy
IMDb Description: Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Esperanto Movies

Gerda Malaperis (“Gerda Disappeared”) (2006)
Director: Joe Bazilio Costa
Starring: Eliezer Emanuel, Vitor Leitão, Lorena Leos
Genre: Mystery
Description: Based on one of the most famous stories in Esperanto literature by Claude Piron of Switzerland, this mystery begins when three college students witness the strange disappearance of a woman who is an expert in cryptic languages.

Filipino Movies

Himala (“Miracle”) (1982)
Director: Ishmael Bernal
Starring: Nora Aunor, Veronica Palileo, Spanky Manikan
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: Elsa sees the Virgin Mary, who changes her life and causes hysteria in a poor, isolated village.

Magnifico (2003)
Director: Maryo J. De Los Reyes
Starring: Lorna Tolentino, Albert Martinez, Gloria Romero
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: Even though he is not good in school and belongs to a poor and unfortunate family, Magnifico still has a big heart and a large amount of optimism, which enables him to help not only his family but also the community.

Finnish Movies

Paha Maa (“Frozen Land”) (2005)
Director: Aku Louhimies
Starring: Jasper Pääkkönen, Mikko Leppilampi, Pamela Tola
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: When a schoolteacher is sacked, he projects his bad mood onto his troubled teen son. The son, in turn, buys a CD player from a pawnshop with counterfeit money. This causes a chain-reaction that wreaks havoc on many lives, as everyone transfers their problems to the next victim.

Rare Exports (2010)
Director: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Jorma Tommila, Peeter Jakobi, Onni Tommila
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
IMDb Description: In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

French (France) Movies

Amélie (2001)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus
Genre: Comedy Romance
IMDb Description: Amelie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love.

La Fille Sur Le Pont (“The Girl on the Bridge”) (1999)
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Vanessa Paradis, Daniel Auteuil, Frédéric Pfluger
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over the Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere, someone takes an interest in her.

La Mystérieuse Mademoiselle C (“The Mysterious Miss C”) (2002)
Director: Richard Ciupka
Starring: Marie-Chantal Perron, Gildor Roy, Ève Lemieux
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Description: An eccentric teacher causes children at her elementary school to change the way they look at themselves.

Populaire (2012)
Director: Régis Roinsard
Starring: Romain Duris, Féodor Atkine, Déborah François
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Sport
IMDb Description: It’s 1958. Rose is a terrible secretary but a demon typist. Her handsome boss resolves to turn her into the fastest typist in the world.

Le Magnifique (“The Man From Acapulco”) (1973)
Director: Philippe de Broca
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset
Genre: Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Description: An author of spy novels fantasizes about his neighbour being his lover in his latest book.

Une vieille maîtresse (“The Last Mistress”) (2007)
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Asia Argento, Fu'ad Aït Aattou, Roxane Mesquida
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: Secrets, rumours and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and a virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.

The Intouchables (2011)
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Starring: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.

De rouille et d'os (“Rust and Bone”) (2012)
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: Put in charge of his young son, Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain's bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.

Les Enfants du Paradis (“The Children of Paradise”) (1945)
Director: Marcel Carné
Starring: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan and the four men who love her.

Les Valseuses (“Going Places”) (1974)
Director: Bertrand Blier
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: Two whimsical, aimless thugs harass and assault women, steal, murder, and alternately charm, fight, or sprint their way out of trouble.

L'inconnu du lac (“Stranger by the Lake”) (2013)
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Starring: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao
Genre: Drama Thriller
IMDb Description: Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.

Le Chef (2012)
Director: Daniel Cohen
Starring: Jean Reno, Michaël Youn, Raphaëlle Agogué
Genre: Comedy
IMDb Description: A veteran chef faces off against his restaurant group's new CEO, who wants the establishment to lose a star from its rating in order to bring in a younger chef who specialises in molecular gastronomy.

French (Quebec) Movie

Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006)
Director: Erik Canuel
Starring: Michel Beaudry, Patrice Bélanger, Pierre Boudreau
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
IMDb Description: Two Canadian detectives, one from Ontario and the other from Quebec, must work together when a murder victim is found on the Ontario-Quebec border line.

German Movies

Lola Rennt (“Run Lola Run”) (1998)
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
Genre: Crime, Thriller
IMDb Description: After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.

Das Leben der Anderen (“The Lives of Others”) (2006)
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
Genre: Drama, Thriller
IMDb Description: In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Barfuss (“Barefoot”) (2005)
Director: Til Schweiger
Starring: Hans-Peter Abts, Gustav Adolph, Micha Breidenstein
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: Nick, a hedonistic bachelor, falls for an escaped mental patient.

Soul Kitchen (2009)
Director: Fatih Akin
Starring: Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Pheline Roggan
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.

Im Juli (“In July”) (2000)
Director: Fatih Akin
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christiane Paul, Mehmet Kurtulus
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Romance
IMDb Description: Can Daniel follow the sun from Hamburg to the Bosporus by Friday to meet his love?

Goodbye Lenin! (2003)
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Schlussmacher (2013)
Directors: Matthias Schweighöfer, Torsten Künstler
Starring: Sascha Alexander, Ariane Pochon, Martin Neuhaus
Genre: Comedy
IMDb Description: An employee at a professional separation agency, a business that helps couples break up, Paul tries to tackle the problems that come with Toto, the boyfriend of a customer, while he has his own thinking to do about love and relationships.

Lore (2012)
Directors: Cate Shortland
Starring: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs
Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller
IMDb Description: As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.

Das Boot (“The Boot”) (1981)
Directors: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
Genre: Adventure, Drama, War
IMDb Description: The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth, and sheer terror.

M (1931)
Directors: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
IMDb Description: When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

Hindi Movies

Veer Zaara (2004)
Director: Yash Chopra
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji
Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
IMDb Description: The story of the love between Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian, and Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Pakistani...a love so great it knows no boundaries…

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)
Director: Aditya Chopra
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Amrish Puri
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical
IMDb Description: A young man and woman - both of Indian descent but born and raised in Britain - fall in love during a trip to Switzerland. However, the girl's traditional father takes her back to India to fulfill a betrothal promise.

Delhi Belly (2011)
Directors: Abhinay Deo, Akshat Verma
Starring: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
IMDb Description: Three struggling roommates unknowingly become potential prey of a ruthless gangster.

Indonesian Movies

The Raid Redemption (2011)
Director: Gareth Huw Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy
Genre: Action, Thriller
IMDb Description: A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

Pesan Dari Surga (“Messages from Heaven”) (2006)
Director: Sekar Ayu Asmara
Starring: Luna Maya, Vino G. Bastian, Ario Bayu
Genre: Drama
Description: The plight of five young members of a band as they deal with various trial and tribulations

Italian Movies

Il Postino: The Postman (1994)
Director: Michael Radford
Starring: Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Maria Grazia Cucinotta
Genre: Biography, Drama, Comedy
IMDb Description: A simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theatre and formed a deep friendship with the theatre's projectionist.

La vita è bella (“Life is Beautiful”) (1997)
Director: Roberto Benigni
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humour and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.

Pane e tulipani (“Bread and Tulips”) (2000)
Director: Silvio Soldini
Starring: Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston
Genre: Comedy, Romance
IMDb Description: After being forgotten in a highway café during a bus trip, a housewife decides to start a new life by herself in Venice.

Japanese Movies

僕の彼女はサイボーグ (“My Girlfriend is a Cyborg” or “Cyborg Girl”) (2008)
Director: Jae-young Kwak
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Keisuke Koide, Risa Ai
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance
IMDb Description: Jiro is a lonely university student. One day he meets a beautiful and interesting woman who turns out to be a Cyborg lacking manners and emotions.

七人の侍 (“The Seven Samurai”) (1954)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima
Genre: Action, Drama
IMDb Description: A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.

るろうに剣心 (“Rurouni Kenshin”) (2012)
Director: Keishi Ohtomo
Starring: Takeru Satô, Yû Aoi, Emi Takei
Genre: Action
IMDb Description: In 1868, after the end of the Bakumatsu war, the former assassin Kenshin Himura promises to defend those in need without killing. Kenshin wanders through Japan with a reverse-edged sword

Korean Movies

쉬리 (“Shiri” or “Swiri”) (1999)
Director: Je-kyu Kang
Starring: Suk-kyu Han, Min-sik Choi, Yunjin Kim
Genre: Action, Thriller, Drama
IMDb Description: North and South Korean superspies battle and fall in love.

아라한 장풍 대작전 (“Arahan”) (2004)
Director: Seung-wan Ryoo
Starring: Seung-beom Ryu, So-yi Yoon, Sung-kee Ahn
Genre: Action, Comedy
Description: An earnest but inept rookie cop is injured in the line of work by a young martial arts student who studies under her father and the six Masters of Tao. They believe the cop has the makings of a great warrior.

엽기적인 그녀 (“My Sassy Girl”) (2001)
Director: Jae-young Kwak
Starring: Tae-hyun Cha, Ji-hyun Jun, In-mun Kim
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Description: A college student becomes involved with a self-centered young woman who humiliates him at every turn.

Latvian Movie

Sapņu Komanda 1935 (“Dream Team 1935”) (2012)
Director: Aigars Grauba
Starring: Janis Amanis, Inga Alsina, Vilis Daudzins
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
IMDb Description: A story about the Latvian basketball team, which won the first-ever European Championships in 1935, and its enthusiastic head coach Valdemars Baumanis.

Norwegian Movie

Varg Veum - Falne engler (“Fallen Angel”) (2008)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Trond Espen Seim, Per Kjerstad, Bjørn Floberg
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
IMDb Description: Murder and trouble hits Veum when he meets up with classmates in the rock-band Camp, when he resumes contact with a former flame Rebecca, now the wife of his buddy. A Varg Veum mystery based on the best-selling crime novel by Gunnar Staalesen.

Polish Movie

Potop (“The Deluge”) (1974)
Director: Jerzy Hoffman
Starring: Daniel Olbrychski, Malgorzata Braunek, Tadeusz Lomnicki
Genre: Adventure, History, Romance
IMDb Description: During the 1655 war between Protestant Sweden and Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, some Polish-Lithuanian nobles side with Swedish king Charles X Gustav while others side with the Polish king Jan Kazimierz.

Portuguese (Brazil) Movies

Cidade de Deus (“City of God”) (2012)
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele, Leandro Firmino
Genre: Crime, Drama
IMDb Description: Two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.

Tropa de Elite (“Elite Squad”) (2007)
Director: José Padilha
Starring: Wagner Moura, André Ramiro, Caio Junqueira
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
IMDb Description: Captain Nascimento has to find a substitute for his occupation while trying to take down drug dealers and criminals before the Pope comes to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Odeio o Dia dos Namorados (“I Hate Valentine’s Day”) (2013)
Director: Roberto Santucci
Starring: Heloísa Périssé, Marcelo Saback, Daniel Boaventura
Genre: Comedy, Romance
IMDb Description: After having a car accident, a cold businesswoman recounts the events of her life that led to that moment with the help of the ghost of her deceased best friend and work partner.

Entre Nós (2013)
Directors: Paulo Morelli, Pedro Morelli
Starring: Júlio Andrade, Caio Blat, Diogo da Silva
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: A group of literature-loving friends bury letters to be opened 10 years later when they will confront the dreams of their youth with what the future has held in store for them.

Portuguese (Portugal) Movies

Vale Abraão (“Abraham’s Valley”) (1993)
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Starring: Leonor Silveira, Cécile Sanz de Alba, Luís Miguel Cintra
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: Ema is a very attractive but innocent girl, so pretty that cars crash in her presence. Young Ema marries Dr. Carlo Paiva, who she is not attracted to, but is her father's friend.

O Pai Tirano (“The Tyrannical Father”) (1941)
Director: António Lopes Ribeiro
Starring: Vasco Santana, Francisco Ribeiro, Leonor Maia
Genre: Comedy
IMDb Description: While rehearsing for the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

Russian Movies

Метро (“Metro”) (2012)
Director: Anton Megerdichev
Starring: Sergey Puskepalis, Anatoliy Belyy, Svetlana Khodchenkova
Genre: Action, Thriller
IMDb Description: Terror strikes the underground train system in Moscow in the form of a flood from a collapsed tunnel.

ночной дозор (“Night Watch”) (2004)
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Konstantin Khabenskiy, Vladimir Menshov, Mariya Poroshina
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thriller
IMDb Description: A fantasy-thriller set in present-day Moscow where the respective forces that control daytime and nighttime do battle.

Возвращение (“The Return”) (2003)
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Starring: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
IMDb Description: In the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.

Brat (“Brother”) (1997)
Director: Aleksey Balabanov
Starring: Sergey Bodrov Jr., Viktor Sukhorukov, Svetlana Pismichenko
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: An ex-soldier with a personal honour code enters the family crime business in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Неадекватные люди (“Inadequate People”) (2010)
Director: Roman Karimov
Starring: Ilya Lyubimov, Ingrid Olerinskaya, Evgeniy Tsyganov
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: Adequacy is relative. Vitalik, the main character of the movie, seems to be pretty normal. With a respectable office job, a comfy little dwelling and a personal couch doctor, Vitalik looks as adequate as a human can possibly be.

Кухня в Париже (“Kitchen in Paris”) (2014)
Director: Dmitriy Dyachenko
Starring: Dmitriy Nazarov, Mark Bogatyrev, Elena Podkaminskaya
Genre: Comedy
Description: A restaurant in Moscow is closed after they mess up a presidential dinner. The chef and owner do not despair and move the business to Paris.

Spanish (Latin America) Movies

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: In Mexico, two teenaged boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

El infierno (“El Narco”) (2010)
Director: Luis Estrada
Starring: Damián Alcázar, Joaquín Cosío, Ernesto Gómez Cruz
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
IMDb Description: Benny gets involved in the narcotics business after he is deported from the United States, then discovers that a criminal life is not as lucrative as he expected.

La misma luna (“Under the Same Moon”) (2007)
Director: Patricia Riggen
Starring: Eugenio Derbez, Kate del Castillo, Adrian Alonso
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: A young Mexican boy travels to the U.S. to find his mother after his grandmother passes away.

Sin Nombre (2009)
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Starring: Paulina Gaitan, Marco Antonio Aguirre, Leonardo Alonso
Genre: Adventures, Crime Drama
IMDb Description: A young Honduran girl and a Mexican gangster are united in a journey across the American border.

Spanish (Spain) Movies

El laberinto del fauno (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) (2006)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, War
IMDb Description: In the falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

Tristana (1970)
Director: Luis Buñuel
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero
Genre: Drama
IMDb Description: When the young woman Tristana's mother dies, she is entrusted to the guardianship of the well-respected though old Don Lope.

Tres metros sobre el cielo (“Three Steps Above Heaven”) (2010)
Director: Fernando González Molina
Starring: Mario Casas, María Valverde, Álvaro Cervantes
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDb Description: The story of two young people who belong to different worlds. Babi (Maria Valverde) is a girl from upper-middle class that is educated in goodness and innocence. Hache (Mario Casas) is a rebellious, impulsive boy, with an appetite for risk and danger embodied in endless fights and illegal motorbike races.

Swedish Movie

Masjävlar (“Dalecarlians”) (2004)
Director: Maria Blom
Starring: Sofia Helin, Kajsa Ernst, Ann Petrén
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: Mia, who's living in Stockholm, comes home to her small childhood town to celebrate her father's birthday.

Turkish Movie

Benim Dünyam (“My World”) (2013)
Director: Ugur Yücel
Starring: Beren Saat, Ugur Yücel, Ayça Bingöl
Genre: Drama
Description: An unorthodox teacher changes the lives of a family when he educates a young woman who lost her sight and hearing at the age of two.

Visayan Movie

Matud nila (1991)
Director: Leroy Salvador
Starring: Gloria Sevilla, Suzette Ranillo, Mat Ranillo III
Genre: Drama
Description: A dramatic story of a family’s attempts to deal with deception and adultery.

Movies in Multiple Languages

These films are great if you’re learning a number of different languages.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Languages: English, German, French
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth
Genre: Adventure, Drama, War
IMDb Description: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.

Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Languages: English, Russian, Esperanto
Director: Clarence Brown
Starring: Clark Gable, Norma Shearer
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Drama
IMDb Description: A group of disparate travellers are caught are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Les femmes du 6e étage (“The Women on the 6th Floor”) (2010)
Languages: Spanish, French
Director: Philippe Le Guay
Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain, Natalia Verbeke
Genre: Comedy
IMDb Description: In 1960s Paris, a conservative couple's lives are turned upside down by two Spanish maids.

2009: Lost Memories (2002)
Languages: Korean, Japanese
Director: Si-myung Lee
Starring: Dong-gun Jang, Tôru Nakamura, Jin-ho Seo
Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
IMDb Description: A failed assassination attempt in Harbin, China in 1909 changes the course of history. Now, two Japanese Bureau of Investigation (JBI) agents must find the connection between it and an ancient Korean artifact.

Friendship! (2010)
Languages: German, English
Director: Markus Goller
Starring: Matthias Schweighöfer, Friedrich Mücke, Alicja Bachleda
Genre: Comedy
IMDb Description: A young man from East Germany travels to San Francisco to search for his father, who fled 12 years ago.

No se aceptan devoluciones (“Instructions Not Included”) (2013)
Languages: Spanish, English
Director: Eugenio Derbez
Starring: Eugenio Derbez, Karla Souza, Jessica Lindsey
Genre: Comedy, Drama
IMDb Description: A man who has made a new life for himself and the daughter left on his doorstep 6 years ago finds his family threatened when the birth mother resurfaces.

Maria Llena eres de Gracia (“Maria Full of Grace”) (2004)
Languages: Spanish, English
Director: Joshua Marston
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Guilied Lopez, Orlando Tobón
Genre: Crime, Drama
IMDb Description: A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.

English Movies Dubbed Into Other Languages

A lot of the Fluent in 3 Months community said they enjoyed watching movies which were originally produced in English, and then dubbed into another language. Disney movies made the top of this list with Frozen being a crowd favourite.

Here are a list of English-language movies that are worth checking out in dubbed versions:

• Frozen or anything animated from Disney (2013)
• Any of the Harry Potter films (2001 - 2011)
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 - 2003)
• Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Conclusion: When You’re Burned Out from Language Learning, Watch a Movie

Language learning can be draining. The trick to maintain your motivation with languages is to work smart, not hard, which means keeping some variety in your study routine to keep you from burning out.

If you’re finding your motivation lacking, or your mind begins to wander, watch a movie in your target language. It keeps you exposed to the language in a fun way.

Thanks to all the readers for these amazing film suggestions. Know of a film that should be on the list? Add your ideas to the list here.

The post 91 of the Best Movies and TV Shows from Around the World appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

In the summer of 2015, a Vietnamese production company asked me if I would be the main character on a new TV show. My own TV show? This was a dream come true!

The show’s name is “Funny English Class”, or “Lợp Tiếng Anh Vui Vẻ". It’s show aimed at children ages 4-8. Since accepting the gig, I’ve realised that teaching kids while being on screen is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

All we do is sing songs and play games. But the kids love it, and they also learn a ton.

It made me wonder…

Why can’t adults do the same?

See, language learning can be as boring or as fun as you want it to be. So, might as well make it fun right!?

Adults don't play games as often as we should (myself included!). Games are fun. They're helpful and we can learn from them too. What if we played more games in order to improve our language skills?

Add to that the fact that adults are better language learners than kids, and we can use games to make some hefty progress our target language!

If you’re learning Vietnamese, the list below will help you enormously at improving your Vietnamese skills. If you’re learning something else, use these as suggestions to get creative with your target language!

1. Play the Family Tree Game

In Vietnamese, you must address the person you are talking to according to their age, gender, and relationship to you. This is the main reason Vietnamese people are quick to ask you how old you are. It’s not because they’re being rude and in your face, it’s because they want to know the most polite way to address you.

When talking to an equal, you use bạn which means friend. When talking to an older man, you call him Anh (older brother) or Chú (uncle). Then, rather than saying “I” or “me”, you’d have to refer to yourself as the corresponding pronoun for the situation. If you call them uncle, then you refer to yourself as con (child). If you call them older brother, you refer to yourself as em (younger brother).

Basically, the words for you/me change a lot, and it’s not easy. But, one great exercise to learn all these words is to use your actual family members as a reference.

Make a family tree for yourself and include pictures of real people if you can. Pairing the words with real people in your life will help you to learn and remember the words faster. Once you’ve done this with your family members, make up sample dialogues with each of them and write down the pronoun you would use for “me” and “you”.

When you’ve mastered this, challenge yourself again by repeating the exercise from the perspective of someone else.

2. Move Your Body With the Tones

Ready to get moving?

As you probably already know, the Vietnamese language has six tones. If you’ve never learned a tonal language before, it’s going to take some time to familiarise yourself with these. A great way to have fun while learning them is to use your body. Match each tone with the following body gesture:

• Sắc: Rise up onto your tippy toes.
• Huyền: For the falling tone, take your right hand and slash down and diagonally across your body like you’re throwing a frisbee.
• Hỏi: Shrug your shoulders as this tone drops down and comes up.
• Ngã: Drop your chin down and then slowly bring it up.
• Nặng: Punch the air in front of you with your left hand like you’re the director of a 50 piece orchestra.
• Ngang: For the flat tone, open your eyes wide but don’t move any other part of your body!

“Are you serious? This is ridiculous!”

You bet I am! I told you we were going to have fun, didn’t I?!

Next, have a teacher or friend read flashcards out loud. For each word, do the action with the corresponding tone, and then repeat the word, and then repeat the tone. Using your body in a fun way will make it easier to remember. For example, if the word is biết, (to know), then you would rise up on your tippy toes because it has the rising tone, sắc.

Don’t have anyone to learn with? No problem, just do the move as you are going through flashcards. It’ll save you some embarrassment, but you’ll still enjoy it!

3. Circle the Tone or Accent

Unlike Thai, Cambodian, and Lao, Vietnamese has a Romanised alphabet. Great news, right? You don’t have to learn any new letters at all? Not quite...

Yes, the alphabet is very similar to English, but it still has many differences. For example, there are two letters that look like D (D and Đ) and they sound NOTHING alike. There are also three letters that look like A (A and Ă), but all are pronounced differently.

Before you get too confused, make sure you learn the alphabet, especially the vowels. You’ll notice that it’s hard to differentiate tones and accents at first.

A great way to practice this is to play a game called “circle the tone”. Take any piece of Vietnamese text and go through and….you guessed it! Circle the tone!

Then go back with a different coloured pen and play, “circle that accent!”

Here’s a tip: Every word in Vietnamese has only one tone, and the tone can also NEVER touch a letter. Use the following graphic of the alphabet to know if you circled an accent or a tone!

4. Sing Your Heart Out, Vietnamese Style!

Karaoke is a big part of Asian culture, and Vietnam does not fall short of that stereotype. What better way to practise pronunciation than singing along to some Vietnamese tunes?

If you don’t happen to live in Vietnam and can’t make it to Thursday night karaoke with your friends, don’t worry...you can order karaoke to your computer for free via YouTube.

Vietnamese people LOVE karaoke, so there are plenty of playlists on YouTube for you to try. Here’s one option and here’s another. Just promise not to wake the neighbours up!

Practise singing as much as you can, and feel free to dance while you’re at it. You may not realise it, but you’ll be exposing yourself to new words while also training the muscles in your mouth, enhancing your pronunciation.

For overachievers: Once you’ve sung the song a few times, write out the lyrics on a separate piece of paper. Translate as much as you can, and ask your teacher (if you have one) or a native speaker to translate the rest.

You may not become a famous singer, but you’ll definitely improve your speaking skills, learn some new vocabulary, and have fun some while you’re at it. Bonus points if you upload a video to YouTube!

5. Identify That Cognate

Though Vietnamese doesn’t have much in common with most Romance languages, it does have many borrowed words from English, French, and Chinese.

Try to guess the following English words given the Vietnamese spelling and pronunciation (answers at the bottom of this post).

If you have access to a teacher or a native speaker, have them read the list out loud to you and try to guess the words. You’ll both have sore abs from laughter by the end!

• in tơ nét
• tôi lét
• phây búc
• ta xi
• cu te
• wifi
• pát quột
• xi nách
• láp tóp
• ma lai xi a
• đo la
• me niu
• ghi ta
• trống
• cam pu chia
• ra đi ô
• u ét bê

6. Learn Vietnamese With Annie...Then Be The Teacher!

Learn Vietnamese With Annie is a brilliant YouTube channel.

Annie has videos about everything: tones, grammar, pronouns, vocabulary, and more. Plus, she does both the Northern and Southern Vietnamese accent.

The best way to learn something is by teaching it. Take notes while watching her videos. After each video is done, pretend that YOU’RE the teacher and you’re teaching it to someone else. Rewrite the content, do a little lesson planning, and then pretend like you are teaching someone. If you have a study buddy or a teacher, then teach them! If not, pretend you’re making your own tutorials!

If you’re looking for faster-paced videos of a foreigner teaching Vietnamese, check out this helpful playlist.

7. Play “I SPY” in Vietnamese

Waiting in line at the grocery store? On the bus home back from work? Simply look at the world around you and think about what you can see in Vietnamese. The bus? Xe buýt. The clouds? Mây! A hat? Mũ. Simply name as many items in sight as you can.

Then, for better practice, turn those into detail descriptions. A big blue bus: xe buýt tô và mấu xanh biển.

Make complete sentences if you can! A man buying some bread: Đan ông đang mua một cái bánh mì.

This is an easy exercise you can do whenever you want, and it trains your brain to think in Vietnamese. A double win!

8. Turn the Vietnamese Word of the Day into a Sentence

At Fluent in 3 Months we love Innovative Language podcasts, and their Vietnamese Pod 101 has heaps of activities and exercises. If you’re on a tight budget, they’ve got a daily email that sends you one new word a day. It’s amazing.

This is a great way to maintain progress no matter how busy you get. Instead of just reading the email, take each word and make a new sentence out of it. Jot down the sentence on a piece of paper. It doesn’t seem like much, but after a month, you’ll have 30 sentences to review!

Another great exercise is to take ten minutes every Friday (the day is arbitrary, just make sure you do it once a week) and try to write down all of the words you’ve learned in the last week. It’s good memory practice as you are forcing yourself to recall the words you’ve learned.

9. Take the 30 Second Writing Challenge

Pick four common letters, two vowels and two consonants. In thirty seconds, write out as many word combinations you can using all six tones. Then, using those words, create complete sentences around them and then practise reading them out loud.

Then, pick new vowels and consonants, and repeat until satisfied! Use this as a chance to expand your vocabulary as well, so feel free to look up new words while you’re at it!

10.Watch and Write

There is a right way and a wrong way to watch movies in your target language. With the videos below, watch them a few times through until you really understand what’s happening. The first time through, just watch and try to follow as best you can. The second or third time through, try to write down as many words as you can remember.

Then watch the video another time and review your words while also adding any words you missed.

For the overachiever: If you’re ready for a challenge, try to think of yourself as one of the characters and pause the movie and say their line for them. Then, press play and see if you were close. Write down the actual dialogue, and see if you can rephrase it yourself!

Here are your videos to watch:

Beginner Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP_1ijBCes4

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d87hycrx53k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1hAhbQUko

Intermediate Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiNWkheC08&index=3&list=PLzdu29UIUT2-Gu72fuoICtWtiehLyQcmZ

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LO1O7Bq6o&index=6&list=PLzdu29UIUT2-Gu72fuoICtWtiehLyQcmZ

Advanced Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NWu42xkJTw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94nFr4CWBRw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVNEF81w0Y

Make Learning Fun Again

Well, I sure hope that these games and exercises will help you on your way to learning Vietnamese faster than you ever imagined. Next time you find yourself getting tired of flashcards or boring lesson plans, use this list as a reminder of how make language learning fun.

Any games or exercises that I missed? I’d love to hear from you! Any exercises that you’ve made up? I’d love to hear more in the comments.

If you’re learning Vietnamese, here are some additional resources that will make your life a lot easier.

Additional Resources:

YouTube:

• Intermediate YouTube Playlist
• Learn Vietnamese with Annie
• Learn Vietnamese from a Foreigner
• Learn Vietnamese

General Resources:

• Survival Vietnamese Cheat Sheet
• More Vietnamese
• Vietnamese Pod 101
• Most Useful Phrases
• Watch Vietnamese TV
• Native Pronunciation

Communities:

• Language Lovers FB group
• Learn Vietnamese community on Reddit
• Fluent in 3 Months Facebook Page

Quiz Answers

• in tơ nét = Internet
• tôi lét = Toilet
• phây búc = Facebook
• ta xi = Taxi
• cu te = Cute
• wifi = Wifi
• pát quâđ = Password
• xi nác = Snack
• láp tóp = Laptop
• ma lai xi a =Malaysia
• đo la= Dollar
• me niu = Menu
• ghi ta = Guitar
• trống = Drum
• cam pu chia = Cambodia
• ra đi ô = Radio
• u es bê = USB

Image credits: 1.

The post 10 Simple Games and Exercises to Practise Your Vietnamese Skills appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

So, my new Language Hacking courses are on their way to bookstores around the world, and we've already had over a thousand pre-orders (if you want to make sure you get the best bonuses, pre-order the courses you want now).

While the courses are en route, I've got together a group of language learners who are trying out the courses ahead of time, sharing videos from the missions, and giving me their feedback.

We've got people from all around the world and of all ages in the group - from teenage language learners to people in their 80s.

Here's what they're telling us so far, having finished Unit 1 of the course.

Read on, and you'll pick up a few language hacks from the courses too.

"Nothing like studying at school"

There are thousands of dedicated language teachers in schools all around the world - and many, many of them do an amazing job.

Even so, perhaps because of the syllabus, or the course books, not everyone has a positive experience of learning languages at school.

Just finished Unit 1 Spanish. Hurra! This is not painful at all. Nothing like studying at school or evening classes. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to follow. I am going to enjoy this experience. - Julie Englefield

I studied German for five years at school, and even after that I still struggled with basic tasks such as ordering a meal in a restaurant. I know many other people who've had a similar experience.

This happens because school courses typically focus on reading and writing a language.

Language Hacking, by contrast, focuses on speaking your new language, so you can use it with real people, by interacting with them in real-world conversations, right away.

"Small tips that give big results early on"

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? It's also called the 80-20 rule.

The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto came up with the principle when he noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He then noticed that 20% of the pea-pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

It's quite refreshing to see a casual but practical course like this... I do like how it eases you into it, starting with short dialogues that are explained in an everyday way. And even though we are encouraged to make mistakes, I appreciate how you point out things like "Ich bin Lehrer" is natural vs. "Ich bin ein Lehrer." Small tips that give big results early on. - Daniel

You might have noticed the Pareto Principle in one of the following ways:

• 20% of the people at your office do 80% of the work
• 20% of the websites you visit take up 80% of your internet time
• 20% of the apps on your smartphone are the ones you use 80% of the time

When I created the Language Hacking courses, I asked myself: "What's the 20% of the work that language learners can do to get 80% of the results?"

I want language learners to get big results for a small amount of effort. Why? Because when you see yourself making fast progress, you're motivated to continue learning.

That's why I don't teach you everything about a language in the Language Hacking courses. Instead, I teach you what you need to know to start having real conversations, today.

"I like the focus on me-specific language"

Learning me-specific language is one of my favourite language hacks.

It involves learning the words and phrases that are relevant to you, right from day one. That way, you're ready to talk about yourself and dive into real-life conversations.

"I like the focus on me-specific language, as this really differentiates the course from other products. I feel pushed and hopeful that I will make progress fast. The little grammar snippets are not overwhelming... The presentation of how to guess cognates was particularly helpful." - Kevin Crisp

In the courses, I show language learners how to build me-specific scripts. I provide the foundation script (in Spanish, French, Italian or German), and you, the learner, build your own unique script on top of it.

Through the course, you build more and more me-specific scripts.

"I've been revisiting my Spanish via Duolingo and it's good but I'm not sure I'll need "los elefantes beben leche" (elephants drink milk) at my stepson's wedding in Colombia next year. I shall be armed with my own personal scripts!" - Julie Englefield

You can memorise these scripts as mini-monologues, and rely on them whenever you're asked questions. You'll be ready to manage all the most common situations you come across in your new language.

"Very practical and useful" (The Curtains Method)

One of the things we wanted to avoid with the course is making you learn unnecessary words and phrases.

So many courses have long vocabulary lists in every unit. And you feel like you have to learn them because they're part of the course, right? Even if you're asking yourself: "when will I ever use this word?"

"All these sentences from the course we will use very likely when we go to a foreign country. It's like a survival kit for talking with natives in a foreign country. Very practical and useful." - Vladamir Velickovic

That's why, when I created the Language Hacking courses, I followed The Curtains Method.

I learned The Curtains Method from Joseph, a member of the Fluent in 3 Months team. When he studied Mandarin, he focused on learning the words he knew he'd use a lot, and ignored those he was sure he'd rarely or never use. He felt particularly frustrated that the word "curtains" was taught early in the course. When would he ever need to say "curtains" in an everyday conversationas a beginner?

Rather than "never" learning them, words like that are best left for intermediate learners. It's simply a bad use of a beginner's time to learn such words when there are way more essential ones they should know.

"I really like the personalized approach: we can all add vocabulary that is relevant specifically to us instead of focusing on vocab we do not necessarily need in the beginning. I also like the way all content in a unit nicely builds up towards enabling students to complete the mission. It makes the material very coherent." - Magda Kasprzyk

That's how the The Curtains Method was born. In the Language Hacking courses, I only ask you to learn words and phrases that you'll actually use.

"TOTALLY embracing my inner Tarzan"

When you start learning a language, the most important thing is that you're able to communicate. That way, you can use the language in real conversations and make progress fast. Perfect grammar can wait for later.

That's why I advocate embracing your "inner Tarzan".

"TOTALLY embracing my inner Tarzan right now. For YEARS, being afraid to sound like that had been the reason why I didn't attempt to speak another language." - Stacy DiGregorio

After you embrace your inner Tarzan, you'll be willing to say things in your target language like 'I Benny. Me writer. I Ireland.’

Sure, it sounds funny. But when you don't take yourself too seriously, you learn much faster.

"Revolutionary"

I've been sharing my Language Hacking approach on Fluent in 3 Months for over five years.

Together with many other language bloggers who share similar ideas to me, I've been edging towards a language learning revolution.

I'm loving the material so far. It's interesting, fun and inspires confidence. I have complete faith that this method will be revolutionary and play a key role in achieving my goal of fluent Spanish. - Dave Gardner

With the launch of the Language Hacking courses, my approach to language learning is about to go mainstream - not just an ebook that I'd have on my site, or a viral YouTube video, but a real course with the most experienced educational publisher on earth.

That's why I'm so excited about the launch.

Even More Feedback on Language Hacking

That's not all! We've had even more great feedback on the Language Hacking courses in so many other ways:

"Encourages me to describe myself"

"I especially like that the book encourages me to describe myself, to find vocabulary useful to me, bicycling, hiking, being a librarian, living near mountains, etc." - Marcia Rodney

"I feel like I am making great progress"

"I love the course and how it is broken down into bite sized chunks. I feel like I am making great progress and not being overloaded. I love the fact that my script is me specific. The audio is very clear so I am able to follow along well." - Darren Robinson

"I love that the book requires you to be active"

"I love that the book requires you to be active all the time. You have to listen carefully, and then find things out yourself. It's really important to be active learners, and the book doesn't allow you to get by without it." - Omer

"Already I feel much more confident"

This course so far ticks the right boxes for getting started in chatting with someone. I'm looking forward to developing my skills. Already I feel much more confident about speaking German even if I make mistakes. Who cares? They know what I'm trying to say. - M. Simpson

Start Language Hacking, Today

Inspiring feedback, right? I for one am pleased to know my courses are helping all these people. And this was just with our test group before it's released to the world in September!

Are you inspired too? If you'd like to become a language hacker, then pre-order your language hacking course. Select the language you want to learn:

Spanish | French | German | Italian

And be sure to check out the pre-order bonuses and pre-order today . Many of the bonuses have limited availability and you can only pre-order for a week more in the UK (just slightly longer in North America), so get your pre-order in now!

The post What’s it Like to Be a Language Hacker? appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

I still remember my first gig as a Spanish language tutor. I loved learning languages, and was fluent in Spanish after having studied it for a few years in university the US and abroad living in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking country in the Caribbean. I was passionate about learning the language and invested all of my free time and quite a bit of money into it.

I decided my language skills needed to start paying back everything I’d invested in them, so I got up the courage to place a tutoring ad on Craigslist.

Two days later, my first client responded to the ad. I had a language teaching gig!

I showed up to the cafe to meet my first student. I felt excited, but also anxious and lacking in confidence. I guess it wasn’t so bad, because he agreed to do a handful of tutoring sessions with me. I wasn’t really sure of myself though, and wish I had had a guide, a mentor, someone to show me how to go from language learner to language tutor.

This small step turned out to be the beginning of an entrepreneurial language teaching journey. I eventually decided to help language learners with my native language, English, and to do it in a big way online, creating a six-figure business that supports me and allows me to live my dream lifestyle.

The shift from the role of student to the role of teacher is a big one - but it has lots of benefits. You’ll be making money. You’ll be more motivated to improve your own language skills. You’ll be challenged and inspired to stay ahead of your students and find answers to questions you never even thought of asking.

In short, becoming a foreign language tutor is a great way to get paid to do what you love and use your skills to help others.

For the purposes of this article, I’m assuming you speak your target language at an upper-intermediate level or higher. Otherwise, your first step is to work on your language skills.

Let’s take a look at what you need to take yourself from language learner to language tutor.

Step 1: Choose Which Language You’ll Teach

First, decide if you want to teach your native language or your foreign language.

I taught Spanish as a foreign language for several years, but then decided to teach English as a foreign language.

Many of my friends who are teachers also ended up teaching English (their second language) to speakers of their native language, because English is more in-demand and they can have a good career in their home countries teaching it. On the other hand, I also have friends from other countries who decided to stay in the US and teach their native language, for example Korean, to native English speakers.

Teaching a language other than your native language can actually make you a better teacher. You know what it’s like to learn the language, and you can retrace the steps you took when you’re showing your students how to learn.

Step 2: Find Your Purpose for Being a Language Tutor

As with starting any new venture, becoming a language tutor won’t always be a smooth ride. Knowing your purpose for tutoring keeps you motivated, so you’ll keep going even when things get tough.

What’s your reason for wanting to tutor? Do you want to earn money? Connect with other language learners? Become a teacher? Support your travels? Challenge yourself to continue to learn your foreign language?

I was motivated by all of those reasons! I wanted to be a language tutor and teacher so that I could get paid to do something I loved: -- speak another language and help others to do the same. After I started teaching online, I was able to travel to over 20 countries in one year.

Step 3: Create Your Own Language Tutor “Internship”by Offering Free Classes

The first time I tutored English as a second language was during a volunteer gig with an Argentinian woman in an adult education program. I used my Spanish skills a little as I helped her with her English fluency. Because it was not paid, I didn’t feel under pressure - so no nerves. It was super fun, and I made a new friend.

Start small by creating your own internship with volunteering gigs or with low-pressure gigs. You’ll build up your experience and skill set. I recommend asking your students to give you feedback on how you can improve.

Remember, you don’t have to be perfect, but you have to be able to help your students. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question as long as you follow up to answer it for them or refer them to a resource where they can find the answer.

Tutoring for free is also a great way to build your confidence.

Another way of boosting your confidence is to draw upon the teaching and leadership skills you already have. When I started tutoring, I had some teaching experience in other areas, including as a typing teacher, sailing instructor, and camp counselor. Having any teaching or leadership experience will help you, even if it is volunteer experience.

Once you’ve built up your confidence, you can start asking your students for referrals for paid work.

Step 4: Get Your First Students

How do you get those first students?

The biggest surprise I had when I started my own language teaching business was the amount of marketing work I needed to do! When you run your own tutoring business, 80% of your effort needs to go into marketing, and only 20% into teaching.

If “marketing” is like a foreign word to you, don’t worry. The best marketing is often simply having conversations with your target audience in person or online via social media, a YouTube channel, podcast, or blog. Find out what their goals and challenges are, offer your help, and see if they’re ready to accept!

Also, you should create appealing, informative descriptions of your tutoring services and identify the best places to advertise.

One of the most helpful things you can do when you start marketing is to identify your target market. Who do you want to work with (age, nationality, interests)? What other experience do you have (business, medical, test prep)? What’s your schedule? What’s your current level in the language you’ll be teaching? Keep your target audience in mind for your marketing materials.

In the beginning of my tutoring days, looking for students felt like searching for water in the desert. These days, I have hundreds of emails from potential students flooding my inbox every week and I don’t even advertise or provide a private tutoring service anymore.

Step 5: Get Organised and Build Lesson Plans

Once you have more than a couple students, you’ll feel lost if you don’t develop a system to organise your meetings and teaching materials. Use a simple spreadsheet and Google Calendar to keep track of materials or lessons covered.

You can use Google Drive or Dropbox to store lesson materials in the cloud and share links to resources with your students.

You’ll want to prepare learning goals and materials for your students. I’ve found that some learners like to listen and talk, while others prefer to read and write. Try providing learning opportunities using all four skills. To save time in the long-run, create materials that can be recycled from one student to another.

Even if your students want to practise free conversation and ask you questions, it’s still a good idea to prepare some lesson points. A little preparation will go a long way to make the lesson run more smoothly and impress your students.

Step 6: Branch Out and Diversify Your Income

As a language tutor, there are lots of different ways to earn money. You could offer local, face-to-face tutoring. You could offer online lessons through one of many established companies, such as italki. You could tutor online independently simply using Skype. You could even create your own multi-media courses. You could grow a following online and make money from ad revenue and work with sponsors. These are all income streams that I have built and help others to build.

Step 7: Get Help

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all of my experience is the importance of getting help. I would not have been able to build my own tutoring business if I hadn’t talked to other tutors. I would not have been able to build a successful business online if I hadn’t learned from people who had gone there before me. Don’t try to do everything yourself.

Now, Get Started!

Is your head spinning with all the possibilities? Then decide what you want to do, and go for it!

Even if you decide your goal is to do like I did and create a YouTube channel and produce online courses, I highly suggest starting as a tutor and building on that experience.

Want more tips on building a tutoring business? Feel free to reach out and connect with me.

The post How to Make Money as a Language Tutor appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

So, I asked on Facebook about which of the four essential language skills you most struggle with:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

And wow, did you answer!

The Fluent in 3 Months team were OVERWHELMED with the response we got - and so grateful for your openness and honesty.

Here are just a few of the responses you gave:

What are the essential language skills you struggle with most?

Overall, the results came out like this:

As you can see, listening and speaking came up as the biggest struggles - pretty much equally.

So, I decided to put together a collection of some of the best language hacking resources from Fluent in 3 Months that will help you improve these skills.

Let's get stuck in!

Get Speaking! Resources to Improve Your Speaking Skills

Since I discovered my language hacking method, I've advocated the Speak from Day One approach to language learning.

Speaking a new language - even as a beginner - is the most effective way I've found of learning a language.

For most language learners, their end goal is to speak, so it's really satisfying to be able to do this right from the start.

Here are the articles and resources I'd recommend to improve your speaking skills:

• The smartest decision you will ever make to achieve fluency. Read the story of how I discovered my Speak from Day One approach to language hacking.
• How to Use Skype to Learn Another Language. In this article you'll learn where to find a language exchange partner so you can practise your speaking skills, and what to do once you've found one.
• Speak! Or stop pretending you want to. Get clear on whether you really want to speak a new language, or whether another goal is more appropriate for you.
• How to convince natives to speak to you in their language. A big challenge when speaking a new language is that your conversation parter switches to English. Here's how to avoid that.
• The ONLY way to speak a language... is to speak it!
• How to Speak Spanish in 4 Days. Watch how Martyn prepared for a 10-minute conversation in Spanish after just four days of learning.
• What's it Like to Be a Language Hacker? Read stories of how other language learners have got on using my Speak from Day One method.
• italki Review. Discover my favourite tool for finding language exchange partners.

I'd also recommend that you check out my Speak in a Week email course. This free course introduces you to the principles of language hacking, and gets you speaking your target language in front of an audience in just seven days.

Now Listen Up! How to Improve Your Listening Skills

Listening is probably the hardest skill to master in a new language.

When I took the C2 exam for German (mastery level), listening was the only skill where I fell short. And it seems I'm not the only one who has found listening a struggle:

Here are the top articles on Fluent in 3 Months to help with your listening skills:

• Language Learning Podcasts: Can You Learn a Language by Listening to Podcasts? Podcasts are one of my favourite tools for improving my listening skills - in this post I share the podcasts that I think are the best for language learners.
• How to Improve Your Listening Skills in a New Language. This article by Andrew Barr gives a comprehensive overview of what it takes to improve your listening skills.
• Shocking truth about passive listening. Passive listening will rarely improve your language skills. Find out why in this article.
• How to download free native-spoken podcasts & MP3s in almost any language. The title says it all on this one.
• Is Watching Foreign Language Movies a Waste of Time? Find out whether you can improve your listening skills by watching world cinema.
• What if your listening comprehension really sucks? I was asked this question in the Fluent in 3 Months forum - so you'll see my answer, and the answers of the Fi3M community.

Read All About It! Improve Your Reading Skills with These Resources

Reading didn't feature as a major struggle in your Facebook comments. That's probably because most language courses start with reading (rather than speaking, as I'd recommend).

Here are the top Fluent in 3 Months articles on developing your reading skills:

• 5 Hacks to Learn Languages by Reading Literature. Are you a bookworm? Then you'll love this article by Igor Barca on being a literary language learner.
• Best method to read books in the target language. Discover reading hacks from the Fluent in 3 Months community in this Fi3M forum discussion.
• Books are dead – it’s time to ditch 15th century technology. Find out why I love my Kindle for reading practice.
• Pocket to Kindle: How to Instantly Transfer Web Articles to Your Kindle (in One Click). Want free reading materials? Here's how to transfer web articles straight to your Kindle.
• Language Learning Podcasts: Can You Learn a Language by Listening to Podcasts? What do podcasts have to do with reading? Well, the best podcasts include reading materials so you can follow along as you listen.

Write it Down! Resources to Improve Your Writing Skills

A few of you mentioned writing as a struggle, though it didn't come up nearly as much as speaking or listening. As with reading, my guess is that writing comes more easily because most language courses focus on writing.

Here are our resources for improving your writing skills in a new language:

• How to Learn a Song in a Language You Don’t Know. When does singing improve your writing skills? When you write out the lyrics! Plus you'll develop your speaking and listening skills at the same time.
• Writing a Novel in Another Language. Have you ever thought about writing stories in another language? What about writing a novel? Read about our amazing community members who are taking up this challenge in the Fluent in 3 Months forum.
• HelloTalk Review. HelloTalk helps you find language exchange partners to text chat with. It's perfect for improving your writing and reading skills in a real-world environment.
• Duolingo Review. Did you know that Duolingo makes money from getting community members to crowd-translate documents? So, it has a horse in the race when it comes to improving your writing skills. I'd recommend it for that purpose.

Essential Language Skills: Which is Your Biggest Struggle?

What skill do you most struggle with in your language learning? Reading, writing, speaking or listening? Let me know on this Facebook thread.

Also, what are your favourite articles on Fluent in 3 Months for helping you develop those skills? Please share them in the comments.

The post The 4 Essential Language Skills – and How to Improve Them appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Want to know how to improve your accent in a new language?

In 2010, eleven people blew the minds of their friends and neighbours. Their arrests by the United States government revealed that they weren’t simply “normal” Americans, living the suburban dream.

It turned out that they were intelligence agents, collecting information to send back to their native country of Russia.

Many of them had gone undetected for years. How on earth had they achieved this?

Put simply, they blended in. They looked, acted and sounded like any other American living in the United States. They mimicked the local culture.

These spies achieved something that many language learners struggle with – they mastered an accent to the point where they were indistinguishable from native speakers.

How Exactly Do Spies Hide Their Accents?

A intelligence agent who had lived undercover in the United States for over 20 years gave an interview describing his experience after he’d returned to Russia. In the interview, he was asked how he was able to fool those around him for such an extended period of time.

His answer was quite simple – he’d stopped speaking Russian and conversed entirely in English or French, no matter where he was at the time.

“ You cannot use your native tongue, even at home; you have to be a control freak. That said, after working for several years, it comes naturally to you. You even have dreams in other languages.” - Andrei Bezrukov

How do spies get to this point? This is information that countries such as the United States and Russia keep very close to their chests – but from general understanding, it’s due to hours upon hours of study in intensive training programmes. Intelligence agents are made to concentrate solely on their pursuit of mastering both the language and accent of the country they plan to infiltrate.

Spies-in-training spend up to eight hours a day in language classes, along with at least a couple of hours of homework per night. It’s a hard slog that pays off when in six months’ time you may not be able to single them out as anything other than native speakers.

Unfortunately, not all of us have the same amount of time on our hands.

So what do you do if you want to master the accent of a foreign country, but your resources aren’t exactly in the same ballpark as those of the Russian or US military?

I have a few ideas for how to improve your accent. Read on to find out more.

How to Improve Your Pronunciation and Accent (5 Steps)

Step 1: Find a Native Speaker of Your Target Language

Ideally, you’d want to find native speakers of your target language - then talk to them!

You’ll hear the inflections and tones of the language and your ear will start honing itself to these sounds. Also, it never hurts to have someone on hand to help you when you get stuck on a pronunciation or are having trouble rolling your ‘r’s.

However, sometimes this is easier said than done – particularly if you don’t live in a big city, or you’re learning a less common language.

What can you do if this is you?

One of my favourite resources for practising with native speakers is italki. italki helps you find language teachers to Skype with online.

It’s helped me out in several situations. I used italki to learn Mandarin Chinese when I was living in Taipei, because it turned out to be a much cheaper option than having lessons in person.

There have even been times where I learned a language before travelling, such as when I learned Egyptian Arabic while living in Brazil. I was fluent to the point where I could walk into the Egyptian Embassy in Brasília and apply for my visa – speaking entirely in Egyptian Arabic. Skype lessons were key in achieving this conversational fluency.

What if you’re learning a language that’s not spoken by many people? I’ve heard about people learning less common languages who have had issues trying to track down a native speaker.

Here’s an option: extend your search from native speakers to fellow learners who are at a more advanced level than you. You can use the language option on italki and untick “native speaker”.

Alternatively, meet up in person. Couchsurfing and Meetup are great for finding other language learners in your town or city.

Chatting with native speakers online isn’t the only thing you can do to improve your accent...

Step 2: Get Cultural Immersion with Radio and TV

Television is brilliant for language learning – if you approach it the right way. You can find many foreign shows (with subtitles!) online. Movies are handy too – as long as you remember there is a right and wrong way to use films to learn a language.

Watching the news is particularly valuable. News anchors and journalists enunciate clearly and use correct pronunciation. Pro-tip: watch news shows on YouTube, and slow the videos down using the video settings button. You can slow videos to quarter speed.

Similarly, radio is a helpful resource, particularly for learning on the go. The radio app TuneIn has radio stations in most major languages. Likewise, Spotify has an excellent selection of music from around the world.

Through the use of these resources, you’ll be tuning your ear to the inflections, tones and general pronunciations of your target language, which will in turn make it easier for you to master the accent.

REMEMBER: watching TV or listening to the radio is not an excuse to switch off your brain. Passive learning on its own does not work! You need to be actively studying what you are watching/listening to. Radio and TV should should be just one tool in your language learning toolbox – it’s difficult to maintain any progress if you rely on them alone.

Step 3: Stick Post-Its Around Your Home

A great way to improve your pronunciation of words is with forced repetition.

Try this: label some key items around the house with Post-Its. Don’t forget to add the articles before the words if you’re learning a language that uses them, such as un/une/des in French. This will help you avoid confusion in the future.

Beneath the name of the item, write how it’s pronounced.

Soon enough, you’ll be able to remember both the word and the pronunciation.

Step 4: Record Yourself Speaking

Recording yourself - and listening back to it - is one of the most powerful hacks I know for improving pronunciation.

Does the idea of it make you cringe? You’re not alone. Many people experience waves of revulsion whenever they hear an audio clip of themselves talking. Over time you’ll get used to it - especially once you’ve realised how powerful it is.

Use the voice recorder on your phone to record yourself saying phrases or words you’ve had difficulty pronouncing. Then, get ruthless! Listen to yourself as though you were listening to someone else. Start with being kind. Celebrate the small victories – such as mastering a word you have previously had issues with. Then, pick apart the mistakes. Identify which words need improvement and go to town on them!

What if you’re unsure if you’ve got the correct pronunciation? Find a native speaker, and ask them for feedback on your recording. You could even ask them to record a word that you’re having difficulty with, for reference.

Step 5: Check Out the Mimic Method

My friend and fellow polyglot Idahosa Ness has spent years developing a system that has helped thousands of people lose their strong “foreign” accent when speaking a new language.

Mimic Method takes you through the component sounds of a language: the rhythm, the beat, the musicality and individual sounds, and how they all tie together. And it shows you exactly what steps to take to develop a more authentic accent.

The Mimic Method offers accent training for:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese
• Mandarin
• German
• Italian
• Japanese

Click the language you want to learn to find out more about how to improve your accent and pronunciation when you’re speaking.

You Don’t Have to Be a Spy to Master An Accent

Don’t worry – you can breathe a sigh of relief! You don’t need to go through intensive spy training to master a foreign accent.

You just need to practise and tune your ear to the language you’re learning. Don’t be scared to seek assistance from those more advanced in the language than you.

Do you have any tips or tricks for pronunciation that you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments.

The post How Do Spies Hide Their Accent? appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Immersion is the best way to learn a language - and there’s no need to move overseas to do this.

Moving to another country is only one approach to creating an environment where the target language is a part of your everyday life. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll immerse yourself in the language.

A better approach is to create an immersion environment.

You can create an immersive experience no matter where you live.

An immersion environment is all about finding opportunities to bring the language into your current lifestyle and activities.

One of the most common lifestyle elements we all share is the use of a tablet or smartphone.

How can you turn your phone or tablet into a virtual immersion environment? And how can you use your device to connect with native speakers? These apps are the place the start.

1. Your Operating System

Okay, technically this isn’t an “app”, but it definitely deserves a mention! The biggest boost you can give your digital language immersion is to change the default language on your device’s operating system to your target language.

This has the added benefit of changing the language on many of your apps as well. For example, if you’re a die-hard player of the game Hearthstone, then you can now play it entirely in a new language.

Plus, for any apps that you already use, this will help you build new vocabulary and phrases. Let’s say you frequently “add new event” on your calendar app. When you switch the language on your device, you’ll quickly learn how to say “add new event” in your target language.

2. Streaming Video Apps

You may already know about installing the YouTube or Vimeo apps on your devices to watch language-related materials while you are out and about, but what about other video-streaming services?

If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime to watch movies and TV shows, you can put these shows on your playlist and watch them on your device to enjoy some language immersion on the go.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Try searching for the word “videos” in your target language in your device’s app store and you’ll find a variety of streaming services specific to your target language’s audience.

For example, the popular Chinese video service, Youku, also has an app that will let you watch Chinese language videos on your device. Find video-streaming services for your language and you’ll be able to watch videos, shows and movies in your target language wherever you are.

3. Yelp

You may recall my adventures with Moses McCormick (a.k.a. Laoshu) in Ohio . I joined Moses doing what he likes to call “Levelling Up”. It was really simple: we went to the local mall to find people to practise languages with.

You may be at a loss to know where you can find businesses where people speak the language you’re studying, so what can you do? Download the Yelp app, which connects you with businesses (including restaurants, markets and cafes) in your town. Do a search for a specific type of food (“Japanese” or “Mexican”, for example) and then read through the reviews to determine whether the owners and employees are from that country.

Save those places to your favourites list and the next time you want to go out to eat, you’ll have a list of restaurants and businesses where you can also practise your target language.

4. Voice Recording Apps

Many devices come with a voice recording app pre-installed. This can be used for more than just remembering the song you hear on the radio, or recording a lecture in class.

Here’s what you can do:

• Record native speakers for later review. For example, if you’re watching a foreign language TV show, why not capture the audio so you can listen while on the road?
• Record yourself in the language and analyse your accent and pronunciation. As painful as it can be to listen to yourself, listening back later is invaluable in improving your speaking skills. Better yet, send the recording to a native speaker to have them review it.
• Record your sessions practising with a native speaker. During a one-on-one lesson, capture what is said and listen to it over and over to really ingrain what you learned.

5. Evernote

How many times have you been out and wanted to remember a word to look up later? Or how many times were you talking with a friend who shared a golden nugget of language learning information and you had to scrounge around for a paper and pen to take it down?

With Evernote, an online note-taking app that syncs between all of your devices, you are able to keep a living document of all you learn in your new language.

I recommend setting up dedicated notebooks within Evernote such as “useful phrases”, “words to memorise”, “things to look up” or “questions to ask my tutor”. Just creating these notebooks will inspire you to start taking notes. Set aside a weekly study session to work through the notes you’ve created.

6. Google Maps

As I said before, immersion doesn’t mean you have to visit another country. But even if you’re not going there, you can still become familiar with the lay of the land.

One of the coolest features of Google Maps is Google Street View, where you can virtually stand on a street in different countries around the world. You can look around at the shops, signs and surroundings in that neighbourhood.

Use this to practise asking directions, or use it to try and guess the meaning of street signs and billboards that you can see along the side of the road.

Take it to another level by sharing your screen with a native speaker and role play with them to find your way around. Studying French? See if you can get yourself from Charles De Gaulle airport to the Eiffel Tower, describing the directions you take and your surroundings as you go. Studying Chinese? How well can you navigate the streets of Shanghai? This provides an almost endless supply of study material and conversation topics.

7. Periscope

If you’re not familiar with Periscope, it’s a relatively new social networking system built by Twitter, where you can stream live video to and from your mobile device.

People all around the world use it, which means that there is probably someone out there using it who speaks your target language. Search using Periscope’s map tool for people who are broadcasting from a country where your target language is spoken, and check out what they’re up to.

You can comment and type a greeting in the language as well, so you can get in some writing practice to see how well the other person understands you.

Another way to use Periscope is to broadcast yourself speaking your target language. Scary? You bet! But a great way to take the plunge and get immediate feedback on your speaking skills.

8. Games

I love playing games on my phone. Did you know they can be educational too?

Many games are available in a variety of languages. Using your device’s app store, do a search for the type of game you like to play (“RPG”, “Board Game”, etc.) in the language you’re studying and see what comes up.

The best games for language learning are role playing or strategy games, since they tend to be text-heavy.

If you changed your operating system to the new language, odds are the game you’re already playing has already been switched to the new language!

9. TuneIn

TuneIn is my favourite app for listening to radio. But you don’t have to just listen to your local stations or music in your native language.

You can search TuneIn’s listings for radio stations all around the world. You’ll likely be surprised at how many hundreds or thousands of stations you can find! Talk radio, the latest hit songs, traffic reports and weather forecasts. You can get all these in any language.

Conclusion: Create an Immersion Environment on Your Smartphone

Now you know: immersion isn’t all about moving to a new country.

You can create an immersion environment wherever you are, with tools you already use daily. It just takes a creative eye to see beyond the obvious and create opportunities where they may not seem to exist.

Do you have any apps you love to use for language learning that are out of the ordinary? Share your ideas in the comments!

The post Language Immersion: How to Create an Immersion Environment on Your Phone appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

“What’s the best way to learn a language?” “What’s the quickest way to learn new words?” “How can I sound like a native speaker?” “Do I really have to study grammar?”

Language hackers ask themselves these kinds of questions all the time.

We all want to use effective study methods so we can learn a language quickly and speak it well.

How can we know if we’re spending our time on the right things?

Everywhere you turn, language teachers are using different methods and giving conflicting advice. Some learn vocabulary by memorising word lists, others absorb it naturally by reading. Some concentrate on the sounds first, others prefer to improve their pronunciation as they go along. Some swear by grammar drills, others never open a textbook.

Fortunately, language learners aren’t the only ones who’ve been puzzling over these questions. Linguists, the people who study the science of language, have spent decades observing how people learn languages. And while they don’t have all the answers yet, they have discovered a lot of cool stuff about what works and what doesn’t.

So let’s take a look at some of the most common questions in language learning, what science has to say about them. We’ll also look at the strategies science provides that can help us become better language learners.

How Can You Sound More Like a Native Speaker?

Perhaps the first question to address is why you want to sound more like a native speaker.

Lots of language learners don’t worry much about pronunciation. They think that as long as people can get what they’re saying, that’s all that matters.

And there’s some truth in this: you don’t need a perfect accent to communicate well with native speakers.

But the more you sound like a native speaker, the easier it is for them to understand you. And the easier it is for people to understand you, the more they enjoy talking to you. Which comes in pretty handy, given that you need to talk to people in order to learn their language.

So why do we have accents in the first place? And what can we do about them?

Why do we Have Foreign Accents?

There are two main reasons language learners have foreign accents.

Firstly, it can be difficult to tell the difference between two sounds that don’t exist in our native language.

Secondly, other languages can have sounds that require us to use our mouth muscles in a new way.

Let’s take a look at both of these issues, why they happen, and how you can address them.

Sound Differences that don’t Exist in Our Own Language

When I started learning Italian, I spent a few months desperately trying to avoid the word anno (year), for fear of accidentally saying the word ano (ass). It felt as if Italians across the world were playing some kind of cruel joke on me because I just couldn’t hear the difference.

On the flip side, I’m a native English speaker, so the difference between the sheep and ship vowels seems pretty obvious. But lots of learners struggle with difference, which explains why everyone’s terrified of speaking English on holiday, with all those beaches and sheets and what not .

This happens because when we’re born, we have super little polyglot brains that can tell the difference between sounds in all of the world’s languages. As we grow older, our brain zooms in on acoustic differences between sounds that are important for our native language and filters out differences that are not important. This is good, as it helps us understand our own language better. But it causes problems for language learners, because they filter out sound differences that might be important in the language they’re learning.

How to Tell Sounds Apart

But it’s not all bad news. Linguists have been studying this phenomenon for years and they’ve found a way to help learners hear and pronounce the difference between these tricky sounds.

This method, known as minimal pair training, involves listening to a word that has the sound difference you want to learn (like ship or sheep), deciding which one you think it is, and getting immediate feedback about whether you were right or wrong. After a few sessions, you’ll hear the difference more easily and be able to pronounce them better.

You set up your own minimal pair training by using forvo to download sound files of the words you want to learn to tell apart. Then use Anki to put the sound file on the question side and the written word on the other. Listen to the word, try to guess which one it is, then flip the flashcard over to see if you were right.

New Mouth Positions

Some sounds are difficult because they involve completely new mouth positions, like the rolled “R” in Spanish or the “U” in French.

For these sounds, science has some good news: it turns out that with a little perseverance, it’s absolutely possible to train your mouth muscles to pronounce sounds more like native speakers.

How to Train Your Mouth Muscles for Correct Pronunciation

To do this, you need to learn a little about articulatory phonetics (which is basically just a fancy-pants way of saying mouth positions) to find out exactly where the tongue, teeth and lips should be in the sounds you want to learn. Then practice them regularly until your mouth naturally moves to that position.

That sounds great, but where do I learn about all these mouth positions, I hear you ask. Well, luckily a smart guy called Idahosa Ness is already teaching people about the mouth positions in lots of different languages, with his Mimic Method courses, available for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Portuguese.

Alternatively, try doing a quick search on YouTube. More and more language teachers are uploading pronunciation videos and you might just find one which explains the mouth positions in the language you’re learning.

What’s the Fastest Way to Learn New Words in Another Language?

There are as many ways to learn vocabulary as there are successful language learners.

Throw this question out to a room of polyglots and watch as they they initiate a battle royale style fight to the death, until the last survivor stretches out his weak arms in a victory celebration, clutching a pile of bloodstained flashcards.

The most important debate - as far as science is concerned - is about whether we should make a concerted effort to memorise words, for example using flashcards, or whether we should pick them up naturally through reading and listening.

As with most battles fought between two polar extremes, they’re both a bit right. Both techniques are useful for different reasons and if you can balance the two, you’ll be onto a winner.

The Science of Flashcards

Lots of learners use flashcard systems, which involve writing words or sentences in your target language on one side and a picture or translation on the other. To learn the words or sentences, you look at one side of the card, see if you can remember what’s on the other side, then turn it over to see if you’d remembered it correctly.

These days, most people use apps like Anki or memrise, which leave a specific time lapse between card reviews using a system called spaced repetition. This technique is based on research by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus which showed that people learn more when they space learning out rather than cramming it all together. This means that you’ll remember a word much better if you look at it once a day for five days, rather than five times in the same day.

Ebbinghaus also noticed that people tend to remember things better when they can link them to personal experiences. You can take advantage of this by using a memory technique called mnemonics, which involves linking words in the language you’re learning to words and images in your own language that sound similar. For example, to remember the Mandarin Chinese word for book, shu, you could imagine a book with a shoe on it, which helps you link the image of a bookto its Chinese translation.

Spaced repetition and mnemonics can boost your word power quickly and make your brain feel like an awesome vocabulary learning machine. But they’re not the be all and end all of word learning strategies. In fact, overuse of these techniques can actually harm your vocabulary, and here’s why.

Your N400 Signal: How to Learn Words the Natural Way

You may not know it, but your brain is already an awesome vocabulary learning machine. When you read or listen to something, your brain doesn’t take each word at face value: it’s constantly taking statistics about which words appear together regularly so that it can anticipate what’s coming next and process speech faster.

Neuroscientists have found a way to measure when your brain is doing this. Our brains constantly emit electrical signals, which change depending on what task your brain is dealing with. Scientists can read some of these, using a technique called electroencephalography, to study how your brain processes language (but don’t worry, they can’t read your mind... yet!).

One of these signals, called N400, changes depending on whether words make sense in context or not. The N400 is relatively small for expected word combinations, like coffee and cream, and increases in height for unexpected word combinations, like coffee and crap. This means that scientists can read the N400 height to analyse the kind of expectations you have about which words usually occur together. If your N400 doesn’t increase for coffee and crap, they might wonder how on earth you’ve been drinking your coffee.

In language learners, the N400 changes based on proficiency. The better people get at a language, the closer their N400 pattern is to a native speaker’s. This means that an important part of language proficiency is taking statistics and building up expectations about what kind of words usually appear together, just as native speakers do.

To get better at this, we need to flood our brains with bucket loads of natural content so we can build up a picture or which kinds of words usually appear together. Reading is a great way to do this and there’s lots of research that shows that reading works wonders for your vocabulary skills.

It’s important to choose resources that are right for the level, as if the percentage of unknown words is too high, it can be difficult to figure out what they mean from the context and it’s frustrating having to stop every two minutes to look up a word. Graded readers, which adapt books to make them easier to understand at lower levels, are perfect for this.

And if you’re a higher level but you’re not a big reader, how about watching shows with subtitles in the language you’re learning? It’s still reading, after all!

Do You Really Need to Study Grammar?

Grammarphobes often ask themselves whether it’s really necessary to learn all those grammar rules. Can’t we just pick it up with the natural method, that is, through reading, listening and talking?

Linguists struggle to answer this question because it’s very difficult to control and measure. Experiments usually compare one group who are taught grammar rules with another who sees/hears sentences with the same grammar but are not taught the rules. But how do we know each group has paid attention to the same grammar structure the same number of times? What if the ones who aren’t taught the rules are secretly trying to figure out the rules in their heads, or running off home and learning it on their own? How do you know if they’ve learned the grammar? Is it when they understand it, when they use it or when they don’t make any mistakes?

And what if experiments that find no positive effect of teaching grammar simply aren’t being published? “Hey, we did an experiment and nothing happened” isn’t exactly a bit hit with academic journals.

That’s why, after decades of research, the grammar question is still a very murky one. To clear it up, linguists have started doing meta-studies, which involve gathering all available research on learning grammar rules and seeing if there’s a tendency. The results emerging are that grammar rules do help people speak more accurately, but the results aren’t nearly as drastic as you might think, especially given all of the attention to grammar in the majority of language classes and textbooks.

These results fit in with my experience as a language learner. Knowing the grammar certainly helps, but spending the majority of my language learning time memorising complicated grammar rules doesn’t feel like the most effective way to learn.

What’s the Best Way to Stay Motivated in Language Learning?

This is probably the most important question of all: you can know all the best ways to learn pronunciation, words and grammar, but if you can’t be bothered, it’s never going to happen.

Luckily there’s loads of cool research on motivation that’ll help you get your language learning act together. Here are a couple of ways to get started:

Find a Friend or Language Partner to Study With

Studies show that people who feel like they’re working as a team (even if they’re not physically together) accomplish more. There are a few reasons for this:

1. Social: We’re social animals and sharing our experiences with others makes us feel more positive about them.
2. Accountability: Once your goals are out there for all to see, you’re more likely to work towards them.
3. Support: You get access to a lovely support network who can give you advice and encouragement.

Over the last few years the internet has exploded with online language learning communities which are helping people connect support each other in all kinds of awesome ways. One example is the Fluent in 3 Months community. Another is the Add1challenge.

Break Down Your Big Goals into Mini-Missions

Research shows that people who break down big tasks into little chunks get more done in the long run. In one study, people who were given six pages of maths problems per session over seven sessions completed the pages faster and more accurately than people who were given 42 pages from the start.

Breaking down the task is essential in something like language learning, where the outcome feels big and scary. Instead of trying to “speak German”, aim for something smaller and more concrete, like an hour of German a day, or however much time you can afford. By breaking it down this way, you’re much more likely to do it. And if you keep it up day by day, you’ll be speaking a language before you know it.

The Best Way to Learn a Language: Your Experience

Do these findings fit in with your experience as a language learner, or are they different? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Best Way to Learn a Language: What the Science Says appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

So you want to learn how to speak French? Très bien !

French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, being official in 29 countries. These include Canada and Haiti in North America, French Guiana in South America, more than a dozen African nations, five European countries, and Vanuatu and several French overseas territories in Oceania.

French is beautiful, popular, and very useful.

Yet, despite what some native French speakers would have you believe, there’s one thing that French definitely isn’t: difficile.

French might have a reputation for being incredibly difficult for non-natives, but I can tell you from experience, this isn’t true. I actually found Spanish to be more difficult. That was mainly because Spanish was my first foreign language - so I made lots of mistakes in how I learned Spanish. But the time I got to French, I’d discovered the best ways to learn a foreign language.

Approach French the right way, and avoid the mistakes that many first-time language learners make, and you’ll find that French isn’t nearly as difficult as you’ve been led to believe.

While you certainly won't master it in three months, especially if you can only put a few hours a week into it, if you want to have your initial plan of action here’s how I’d suggest you learn French.

Let’s take a look at what you should do in the first hour, first day, first week and first months of learning French. From here you'll have the start you need to keep your momentum going and keep learning!

How to Speak French: Equipment and Time

Before we begin, you will need the following:

• Notepad
• Pen
• Computer or tablet with internet connection

Optional extras:

• French phrasebook
• $10 – $20 per week to spend on language teachers

To follow this guide, you’ll need to set aside around four hours each weekend (I recommend scheduling out Saturday mornings), plus around 45 minutes per day on weekdays.

I also suggest you start at the weekend to give yourself a “first day” boost.

Here’s where to start on that first day…

How to Speak French: The First Hour

Your first step in learning French is to create a personalised French phrasebook.

Why do this? In my approach to learning French, you’ll focus on learning French that’s relevant to you, your life, and your reasons for learning French.

Get a fresh notebook, and a pen, and write “My French Phrasebook” on the cover.

This notebook will contain the French phrases that you need to know, rather than the one-size-fits-all phrases found in most French courses and phrasebooks.

Let’s get that first page filled!

Go to the Omniglot.com French phrases page and search for the phrases you use when you meet someone for the first time. Here are the phrases I’d look up:

• Hello
• My name is…
• What is your name?
• Nice to meet you
• Goodbye

Write down each word or phrase along with its English translation. Click on each phrase in Omniglot to hear its pronunciation by a French speaker, then speak out loud what you hear. Repeat this until you’re comfortable with creating French sounds in your mouth.

How to Speak French: The First Day

What should you do with the rest of your time on day one? Continue using Omniglot to collect French phrases and questions that you would use when talking with a native speaker for the first time. These will be the same phrases that you would use when meeting a speaker of your native language for the first time:

• Where are you from?
• I’m from [country or city of origin]
• What do you do?
• I’m a [job title]
• What do you do in your free time?
• In my free time, I like to…

If your job title and hobbies aren’t listed on Omniglot, use Google Translate to translate them.

The phrases you collect now don’t have to be grammatically perfect. The aim is to be able to say basic things about yourself, using what I call “Tarzan speak”. For example, I might learn how to say, “Je Benny. Je irlandais.” Sure, it’s far from perfect. But you get the point. And so will your first conversation partner.

Write down the phrases with their translations, then say them out loud.

Do your best to commit them to memory - but don’t spend too much time on this. You can always keep your notebook handy when you have your first conversation. Besides, you’ll be using these phrases almost every time you encounter a new person, so you’ll learn them by heart soon enough. Don’t be too fancy. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Just learn these few phrases and worry about elaborating later.

As you’ll have noticed by now, French pronunciation is very different from English. It will take time to master. You might feel silly trying to say the above phrases while trying to get the R just right, or figuring out which letters are silent. Don’t sweat it! It’s only your first day. Do your best, repeat after the recordings, and worry about the rest later.

How to Speak French: Week 1

Very early in your first week (even on your first day!) you should head over to italki and schedule your very first conversation with a native French speaker. Schedule it to be seven days from when you started learning French.

Speaking is by far the best way to learn a language.

There’s no feeling quite like the rush you get when you say something to a native speaker using your target language for the very first time, and the other person understands you. You’ll feel empowered to continue using your language, knowing that you can use it to connect with another person.

I recommend that you schedule your first conversation to be with a French teacher rather than a conversation partner. There are tons of French teachers on italki. Lessons do cost money, but the prices are generally very reasonable. Many teachers and tutors also offer free trial lessons.

And remember what I said about how global French is! If you restrict your search to only those in France or Europe, it may indeed be more than you can afford, but if you look all over the world, then you will definitely find someone who fits your personal requirements.

Why a teacher? Teachers will have experience of working with other language learners. When you’re a beginner, it’s important to have a teacher who’s supportive and patient. Teachers also know the best way to help you progress - pushing you hard enough to keep you learning, but not so hard that you feel overwhelmed.

You’ve scheduled your first conversation. The rest of your first week should be spent preparing for this conversation.

Review your conversation phrases from day one every day this week. If you can say them quickly and easily, then start adding some more phrases. These can be anything you want, but make sure you pick phrases that you’ll use often.

Considering that you’ll be chatting with a native speaker soon, phrases you’ll use a lot will be:

• Please speak more slowly
• Could you say that again?
• Please write that down

These can all be found on Omniglot, and will help you keep your first conversation in French going for several minutes. Remember to listen to the Omniglot recordings so you know the correct pronunciation.

Nearing the end of your first week and are still too nervous to schedule a conversation with a French speaker? Then sign up for my free Speak in a Week course.

How to Speak French: Week 2

By now you’ll have had your first conversation with a native French speaker! (If you haven’t, go on italki right now and schedule it).

You probably won’t have to worry much about motivation this week after your first conversation. But any time you do feel yourself struggling to stay motivated from now on, book another conversation with a teacher, tutor or language partner. You’ll come out of it feeling refreshed and ready to keep going. I recommend having a minimum of three conversations a week.

Now you’ve got a conversation under your belt, this week is about making sure that the words and phrases you learn stick in your memory. For this, I recommend using virtual flashcards, which you can create with Anki.

Anki is available for iOS and Android, as well as for desktop computers.

Remember the list of personal phrases you started creating on your first day, and then added to throughout your first week? You can import it into Anki to make your very own flashcard deck to practise French with.

Now you can review these phrases anytime you want. Anki’s SRS algorithm will automatically have you spend more time practising the phrases you’re less familiar with, and less time on the ones you know well. Practise your flashcards for at least fifteen minutes per day. When you start to get really good at the phrases, add more. A French phrasebook is a good reference if you’re having trouble thinking of phrases you want to learn.

It’s a good idea this week to start learning to read in French, beyond the simple words and phrases you’ve learned so far. You’ll be well-aware by now that French reading isn’t quite as straightforward as other Romance languages you may have studied, or heard of. Until you get the hang of it, you can’t rely on the spelling of French words as an indicator of pronunciation. There are too many silent letters, and multiple spellings for a single sound. The sooner you master the basics of reading, the sooner you’ll be able to use French literature as a study tool.

To start reading French, check out Languageguide.org’s Beginning Readings page. Click on any link to view a short French excerpt. A recording will begin to play so that you can listen to a native speaker read the text as you follow along. Clicking pause will highlight the word where the recording stopped. Hover your mouse over the punctuation mark at the end of any sentence to see its English translation.

By the end of this week, make sure to have at least one more French conversation with a native speaker. You’ll be able to see your own progress in the language, and it will give you the push you need to move on to your third week.

How to Speak French: Week 3

Week three is a good time to evaluate what’s worked for you in learning French, and what hasn’t worked so well.

That is, if you’ve kept up your practice. Have you? Chances are you’ve had some days when you felt super motivated, and some days when life happened and you didn’t do any language learning.

If you feel like you’ve stalled, this week is the time to put things right.

Something I’ve learned over the years in my many language missions is that it’s far more effective to distribute your total weekly study time over every day of the week, than to do all of your studying in one or two days. Studying less often means you have to spend more time in each study session reviewing what you learned last time. You also risk falling out of your routine and giving up on your language mission. So keep up the daily studying! Even if you can only commit to a few minutes each time.

Your main task this week is to create a study schedule that works for you.

Aim to set aside time every day to study, even if it’s just ten minutes per day during the week, and longer on weekends.

Throughout this week, keep reading, keep scheduling conversations, and keep building your Anki deck. No matter what else might get in the way of your studying, you can always find a few spare moments to check in with your Anki deck.

Make sure to schedule at least two conversations with native speakers this week. If you’ve only spoken with teachers so far, consider chatting with a conversation exchange partner instead.

Chatting with a language exchange partner is a very different experience from chatting with a teacher. It’s more relaxed - a bit like hanging out with a friend, and the conversation can go anywhere. As an added bonus, it’s free!

How to Speak French: Week 4

This week is all about maintaining the healthy study habits you set up last week. Follow the schedule you set for yourself, and see how it works.

What if you find you’ve been too ambitious? Tweak your schedule so that it works for you. The important thing is that you study every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Set your sights too high, and you’ll overwhelm yourself and end up quitting.

Here’s what to focus on this week:

• Keep adding to your French Anki deck
• Listen to a French podcast or radio show (we’ve collected some of the Internet’s best French listening resources). Don’t stress about understanding what you hear, just treat it as an immersion experience.
• Find a French song that you enjoy. Write out the lyrics then sing along.
• Most important of all: aim for four conversations with native speakers this week.

Need more help finding native speakers? Depending where you live, there may be a French language Meetup group in your area. Take a look on Meetup.com for groups in your town.

Making friends in person with native speakers will let you combine language learning with social activities. This will give you a bigger purpose to your French learning - and a motivational boost.

How to Speak French: Month 2 and Beyond

So you’ve spent a month learning how to speak French? Great job! Now it’s time to look back and see how far you’ve come in just a few weeks. Even if you weren’t able to study as much as you wanted, as long as you studied consistently and didn’t give up, you’ll be amazed by your progress. You’ll find it hard to believe that at one time, you could barely pronounce Bonjour.

Throughout the past month, if you found that any part of your study routine didn’t work for you, then ditch it and find something else. How you study is far less important than studying often and consistently.

Keep learning every day, and keep using your French by speaking as often as possible, and fluency will come sooner than you think.

What approach do you take when you learn French? Tell me about it in the comments!

The post Learn French in 3 Months: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Basic writing skills matter - there’s no denying that.

However, there’s a good reason writing skills aren’t central to the Speak From Day One method for language learning:

Languages are made to be spoken.

Real conversations with real people is what it’s all about. Connecting with people is what makes a language come to life.

That’s why at Fluent in 3 Months, of all the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), we focus on speaking. Speaking from day one is the smartest decision you’ll ever make as a language learner.

Even so, it’s a good idea to have some basic writing skills. Being able to send emails, write the occasional text and scribble down important phrases you’ve heard can really come in handy. Especially if you plan on relocating to a new country.

So, In this article I’m going to talk you through basic writing skills are, how they’ve helped me and how you can learn them.

What Are Basic Writing Skills (and Why Do You Need Them)?

Having basic writing skills means being able to get your message across.

Your writing won’t be grammatically perfect. You’ll make spelling mistakes. And, you’ll probably have to look at a dictionary every now and again. But you make sure you're understood by the person reading your writing.

Remember, you’re not trying to write a novel here, you’re just trying to communicate what you want or need through your words.

You don’t really need a great level of vocabulary to write - even in your native tongue. Think of the situations where you find yourself writing:

• Confirming a hotel reservation
• Responding to a delivery order
• Leaving a note for someone
• Writing an email for information
• Texting your new friend to invite them for a drink

All of these situations can be handled with just a few simple phrases or words.

• We’ll arrive around 4pm
• Can you leave the parcel with the neighbour
• “Buy milk!” - Love James
• Can you tell me when you’ll have the shoes available?
• Do you fancy a drink about 9pm?

All pretty basic, right? If you’ve learned the most common 100 words in the language, and you’ve got a dictionary to hand, you can easily make these sentences and get your point across.

I’ve recently moved from England to Germany, and I’ve found the ability to write short phrases and send emails really useful as I establish myself in a new country.

Let me explain...

How Writing Skills Have Helped Me

Back in England I was really into playing rugby, and it’s something I want to keep going in Germany. By playing ruby in Germany I can use the language more, see more of the country, and escape my girlfriend for a few hours on a Saturday.

I found a team but they didn’t have a phone number. The only options were to email or send a Facebook message. That left me with a decision to make: do I write to them in English, or do I try my best with my okay German. Well I decided to give it a go with my German.

Here’s how it went:

My grammar was all over the place, but they understood what I meant and I was able to get the information that I needed. And when my German improved over the next few weeks, I could check in with them again on Facebook:

As it stands, I was able to start playing rugby as soon as I moved to Germany. All from a few simple written messages.

Not too shabby, right?

Being able to do a little writing (and I mean a little) saved me a lot of time and effort in Peru, too. Normally a hostel will message you asking for confirmation of your stay - which I didn’t realise before I went to Peru - and I was able to make sure my reservation was saved:

My grammar really isn’t great there, but I got my point across. And having basic writing skills for these situations honestly makes a difference.

Okay, that’s some real-world examples of how it impacted me. Let’s look at how you can hone your writing skills, shall we?

How To Write In Your Target Language

“Write like you speak” was the best piece of advice I ever received from a writing mentor, who was helping me with my English writing skills. And, today, I’m going to urge you to do the same in your target language.

It’s normal when you look at a blank sheet of paper to feel overwhelmed about what to write. You wonder: Will my sentences sounds correct? Am I using the right tense for this verb? Will they even understand what I mean?

How can you avoid these worries?

Instead of thinking about what you should write, I recommend thinking about what you would say to someone, in person. Say it aloud, if you like. Then just copy that down exactly as you said it. It doesn’t matter if your target language has a written case or a structure, just write it how you'd say it.

Basic Writing Skills: My Example

I’ll give you an example we can do together and I’ll show you my (imperfect) result in German below.

Let’s say you’ve found a really nice pair of sneakers in a shop. But, they don’t have them in stock. The shop assistant has given you a product code, 0123456, and told you to send an email to their customer services and you can check if they have stock elsewhere.

Here’s my rusty attempt….

Hallo,

Wie geht es Ihnen? Ich habe in Ihrer Koeln laden eine schuh mit den nummer 0123456 gesehen. Konnen Sie wenn Sie diesen shcuhe in einen andere laden haben schaun? Vielleicht Düsseldorf?

Vielen dank!

James

All I did to create that was say it out loud and write it down word for word afterwards. There are probably grammar mistakes (I think the case may be wrong in my second sentence). But that’s not really important.

What is important is that the person who receives it understands what I’m looking for, where I looked for it last, and which shop I’d like them to check that is close to me. The rest they can figure out for themselves should they need to.

You could even do this with stripped back Tarzan German.

Hallo,

Ich bin James. Ich sehe die Schuche 0123456 in Koeln. Haben Sie mehr?

Danke,

James

All I said was, “I’m James. I see this shoe in Koeln. Have you more?”. The person at the other end still knows what I want, even with this truly basic German.

Now you give it a try - write a simple request in your target language. How did you get on with your attempt? Show me in the comments, I’d love to see.

The key here really isn’t to overthink it. You’d never think twice about writing an email in your own language - which probably isn’t that grammatically correct either - so don’t overthink it in your target language, either.

But, if you want to practice your written language, there are some great ways you can do that for free, too.

Tools To Help You Practice Basic Writing Skills

Writing is one of those wonderful skills you don’t really need a partner to practice with. You can easily pick up a task any time of the day - on the bus, waiting for a train, sat in front of the television - and start writing.

I do recommend writing so that people can respond to you and check your grammar or spelling so you can improve.

For that there really is no replacement for texting or emailing language exchange partners. Much like speaking to them in person, writing where you’ll get a response will push you to learn.

But if you don’t have the facility to text or write to people just yet, there are some other great ways you can get practice in for free. Here are some of the tools I’d recommend.

Duolingo

I first came across Duolingo through reading a review of it when I was learning Spanish. Now, for vocabulary building it’s the first place I turn.

You’re able to see simple sentences written down as well as type them for yourself.

If you want to give your writing skills a little extra push, you can also take part in the immersion activities that you’ll find in the bar along the top:

Here you can take part in written activities, such as creating Wikipedia pages about places (coincidentally Dublin today).

You can contribute a little, or a lot, depending on what you feel comfortable doing. Either way you’ll find yourself with a lot of opportunities to practice.

HelloTalk

If you want to practice your speaking and your writing, HelloTalk is a cool app where you can text people (without sharing your phone number) and have some basic written conversations in your target language.

Other users will be able to provide you with more grammatically correct sentences. You can even take part in challenges where you write a certain amount of words in your target language, and then the same amount in your native tongue.

You can read our complete review of HelloTalk right here.

Language Forums

The last place I’ll recommend for practising your basic writing skills is Language Forums. There are two types of forums you can join to practice your written language.

The first is a niche forum. This is a forum that relates to a topic that you like, such as a hobby. For example I’ve been able to find a rugby forum for German people. Here I can share my opinions and ask about the sport:

This could also be a Facebook Group if you find that the forums are a little quiet. And, there’s always the option of a language specific Reddit page, too:

Alternatively you can find yourself a language learning forum, like the Fi3M non-English forum, where you can try out your written language with natives and other learners.

If you’re a little more self-conscious over your writing skills, this may be a more ‘safe’ environment for you to practice.

How Do You Improve Your Writing Skills?

You don’t need to be an everyday Shakespeare to write in your new language. Simple sentences, grammar mistakes and getting your point across are all part of the process, just like speaking.

I’m interested to know how do you improve your writing skills. What methods have worked for you? Let me know in the comments.

The post How to Improve Your Basic Writing Skills: Hacks for Language Learners appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

In the summer of 2015, a Vietnamese production company asked me if I would be the main character on a new TV show. My own TV show? This was a dream come true!

The show’s name is “Funny English Class”, or “Lợp Tiếng Anh Vui Vẻ". It’s show aimed at children ages 4-8. Since accepting the gig, I’ve realised that teaching kids while being on screen is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

All we do is sing songs and play games. But the kids love it, and they also learn a ton.

It made me wonder…

Why can’t adults do the same?

See, language learning can be as boring or as fun as you want it to be. So, might as well make it fun right!?

Adults don't play games as often as we should (myself included!). Games are fun. They're helpful and we can learn from them too. What if we played more games in order to improve our language skills?

Add to that the fact that adults are better language learners than kids, and we can use games to make some hefty progress our target language!

If you’re learning Vietnamese, the list below will help you enormously at improving your Vietnamese skills. If you’re learning something else, use these as suggestions to get creative with your target language!

1. Play the Family Tree Game

In Vietnamese, you must address the person you are talking to according to their age, gender, and relationship to you. This is the main reason Vietnamese people are quick to ask you how old you are. It’s not because they’re being rude and in your face, it’s because they want to know the most polite way to address you.

When talking to an equal, you use bạn which means friend. When talking to an older man, you call him Anh (older brother) or Chú (uncle). Then, rather than saying “I” or “me”, you’d have to refer to yourself as the corresponding pronoun for the situation. If you call them uncle, then you refer to yourself as con (child). If you call them older brother, you refer to yourself as em (younger brother).

Basically, the words for you/me change a lot, and it’s not easy. But, one great exercise to learn all these words is to use your actual family members as a reference.

Make a family tree for yourself and include pictures of real people if you can. Pairing the words with real people in your life will help you to learn and remember the words faster. Once you’ve done this with your family members, make up sample dialogues with each of them and write down the pronoun you would use for “me” and “you”.

When you’ve mastered this, challenge yourself again by repeating the exercise from the perspective of someone else.

2. Move Your Body With the Tones

Ready to get moving?

As you probably already know, the Vietnamese language has six tones. If you’ve never learned a tonal language before, it’s going to take some time to familiarise yourself with these. A great way to have fun while learning them is to use your body. Match each tone with the following body gesture:

• Sắc: Rise up onto your tippy toes.
• Huyền: For the falling tone, take your right hand and slash down and diagonally across your body like you’re throwing a frisbee.
• Hỏi: Shrug your shoulders as this tone drops down and comes up.
• Ngã: Drop your chin down and then slowly bring it up.
• Nặng: Punch the air in front of you with your left hand like you’re the director of a 50 piece orchestra.
• Ngang: For the flat tone, open your eyes wide but don’t move any other part of your body!

“Are you serious? This is ridiculous!”

You bet I am! I told you we were going to have fun, didn’t I?!

Next, have a teacher or friend read flashcards out loud. For each word, do the action with the corresponding tone, and then repeat the word, and then repeat the tone. Using your body in a fun way will make it easier to remember. For example, if the word is biết, (to know), then you would rise up on your tippy toes because it has the rising tone, sắc.

Don’t have anyone to learn with? No problem, just do the move as you are going through flashcards. It’ll save you some embarrassment, but you’ll still enjoy it!

3. Circle the Tone or Accent

Unlike Thai, Cambodian, and Lao, Vietnamese has a Romanised alphabet. Great news, right? You don’t have to learn any new letters at all? Not quite...

Yes, the alphabet is very similar to English, but it still has many differences. For example, there are two letters that look like D (D and Đ) and they sound NOTHING alike. There are also three letters that look like A (A,  and Ă), but all are pronounced differently.

Before you get too confused, make sure you learn the alphabet, especially the vowels. You’ll notice that it’s hard to differentiate tones and accents at first.

A great way to practice this is to play a game called “circle the tone”. Take any piece of Vietnamese text and go through and….you guessed it! Circle the tone!

Then go back with a different coloured pen and play, “circle that accent!”

Here’s a tip: Every word in Vietnamese has only one tone, and the tone can also NEVER touch a letter.

4. Sing Your Heart Out, Vietnamese Style!

Karaoke is a big part of Asian culture, and Vietnam does not fall short of that stereotype. What better way to practise pronunciation than singing along to some Vietnamese tunes?

If you don’t happen to live in Vietnam and can’t make it to Thursday night karaoke with your friends, don’t worry...you can order karaoke to your computer for free via YouTube.

Vietnamese people LOVE karaoke, so there are plenty of playlists on YouTube for you to try. Here’s one option and here’s another. Just promise not to wake the neighbours up!

Practise singing as much as you can, and feel free to dance while you’re at it. You may not realise it, but you’ll be exposing yourself to new words while also training the muscles in your mouth, enhancing your pronunciation.

For overachievers: Once you’ve sung the song a few times, write out the lyrics on a separate piece of paper. Translate as much as you can, and ask your teacher (if you have one) or a native speaker to translate the rest.

You may not become a famous singer, but you’ll definitely improve your speaking skills, learn some new vocabulary, and have fun some while you’re at it. Bonus points if you upload a video to YouTube!

5. Identify That Cognate

Though Vietnamese doesn’t have much in common with most Romance languages, it does have many borrowed words from English, French, and Chinese.

Try to guess the following English words given the Vietnamese spelling and pronunciation (answers at the bottom of this post).

If you have access to a teacher or a native speaker, have them read the list out loud to you and try to guess the words. You’ll both have sore abs from laughter by the end!

• in tơ nét
• tôi lét
• phây búc
• ta xi
• cu te
• wifi
• pát quột
• xi nách
• láp tóp
• ma lai xi a
• đo la
• me niu
• ghi ta
• trống
• cam pu chia
• ra đi ô
• u ét bê

6. Learn Vietnamese With Annie...Then Be The Teacher!

Learn Vietnamese With Annie is a brilliant YouTube channel.

Annie has videos about everything: tones, grammar, pronouns, vocabulary, and more. Plus, she does both the Northern and Southern Vietnamese accent.

The best way to learn something is by teaching it. Take notes while watching her videos. After each video is done, pretend that YOU’RE the teacher and you’re teaching it to someone else. Rewrite the content, do a little lesson planning, and then pretend like you are teaching someone. If you have a study buddy or a teacher, then teach them! If not, pretend you’re making your own tutorials!

If you’re looking for faster-paced videos of a foreigner teaching Vietnamese, check out this helpful playlist.

7. Play “I SPY” in Vietnamese

Waiting in line at the grocery store? On the bus home back from work? Simply look at the world around you and think about what you can see in Vietnamese. The bus? Xe buýt. The clouds? Mây! A hat? Mũ. Simply name as many items in sight as you can.

Then, for better practice, turn those into detail descriptions. A big blue bus: xe buýt tô và mấu xanh biển.

Make complete sentences if you can! A man buying some bread: Đan ông đang mua một cái bánh mì.

This is an easy exercise you can do whenever you want, and it trains your brain to think in Vietnamese. A double win!

8. Turn the Vietnamese Word of the Day into a Sentence

At Fluent in 3 Months we love Innovative Language podcasts, and their Vietnamese Pod 101 has heaps of activities and exercises. If you’re on a tight budget, they’ve got a daily email that sends you one new word a day. It’s amazing.

This is a great way to maintain progress no matter how busy you get. Instead of just reading the email, take each word and make a new sentence out of it. Jot down the sentence on a piece of paper. It doesn’t seem like much, but after a month, you’ll have 30 sentences to review!

Another great exercise is to take ten minutes every Friday (the day is arbitrary, just make sure you do it once a week) and try to write down all of the words you’ve learned in the last week. It’s good memory practice as you are forcing yourself to recall the words you’ve learned.

9. Take the 30 Second Writing Challenge

Pick four common letters, two vowels and two consonants. In thirty seconds, write out as many word combinations you can using all six tones. Then, using those words, create complete sentences around them and then practise reading them out loud.

Then, pick new vowels and consonants, and repeat until satisfied! Use this as a chance to expand your vocabulary as well, so feel free to look up new words while you’re at it!

10.Watch and Write

There is a right way and a wrong way to watch movies in your target language. With the videos below, watch them a few times through until you really understand what’s happening. The first time through, just watch and try to follow as best you can. The second or third time through, try to write down as many words as you can remember.

Then watch the video another time and review your words while also adding any words you missed.

For the overachiever: If you’re ready for a challenge, try to think of yourself as one of the characters and pause the movie and say their line for them. Then, press play and see if you were close. Write down the actual dialogue, and see if you can rephrase it yourself!

Here are your videos to watch:

Beginner Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP_1ijBCes4

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d87hycrx53k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1hAhbQUko

Intermediate Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiNWkheC08&index=3&list=PLzdu29UIUT2-Gu72fuoICtWtiehLyQcmZ

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LO1O7Bq6o&index=6&list=PLzdu29UIUT2-Gu72fuoICtWtiehLyQcmZ

Advanced Vietnamese Videos

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NWu42xkJTw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94nFr4CWBRw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVNEF81w0Y

Make Learning Fun Again

Well, I sure hope that these games and exercises will help you on your way to learning Vietnamese faster than you ever imagined. Next time you find yourself getting tired of flashcards or boring lesson plans, use this list as a reminder of how make language learning fun.

Any games or exercises that I missed? I’d love to hear from you! Any exercises that you’ve made up? I’d love to hear more in the comments.

If you’re learning Vietnamese, here are some additional resources that will make your life a lot easier.

Additional Resources:

YouTube:

• Intermediate YouTube Playlist
• Learn Vietnamese with Annie
• Learn Vietnamese from a Foreigner
• Learn Vietnamese

General Resources:

• Survival Vietnamese Cheat Sheet
• More Vietnamese
• Vietnamese Pod 101
• Most Useful Phrases
• Watch Vietnamese TV
• Native Pronunciation

Communities:

• Language Lovers FB group
• Learn Vietnamese community on Reddit
• Fluent in 3 Months Facebook Page

Quiz Answers

• in tơ nét = Internet
• tôi lét = Toilet
• phây búc = Facebook
• ta xi = Taxi
• cu te = Cute
• wifi = Wifi
• pát quâđ = Password
• xi nác = Snack
• láp tóp = Laptop
• ma lai xi a =Malaysia
• đo la= Dollar
• me niu = Menu
• ghi ta = Guitar
• trống = Drum
• cam pu chia = Cambodia
• ra đi ô = Radio
• u es bê = USB

Image credits: 1.

The post 10 Simple Games and Exercises to Practise Your Vietnamese Skills appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

So, my new Language Hacking courses are on their way to bookstores around the world, and we've already had over a thousand pre-orders (if you want to make sure you get the best bonuses, pre-order the courses you want now).

While the courses are en route, I've got together a group of language learners who are trying out the courses ahead of time, sharing videos from the missions, and giving me their feedback.

We've got people from all around the world and of all ages in the group - from teenage language learners to people in their 80s.

Here's what they're telling us so far, having finished Unit 1 of the course.

Read on, and you'll pick up a few language hacks from the courses too.

"Nothing like studying at school"

There are thousands of dedicated language teachers in schools all around the world - and many, many of them do an amazing job.

Even so, perhaps because of the syllabus, or the course books, not everyone has a positive experience of learning languages at school.

Just finished Unit 1 Spanish. Hurra! This is not painful at all. Nothing like studying at school or evening classes. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to follow. I am going to enjoy this experience. - Julie Englefield

I studied German for five years at school, and even after that I still struggled with basic tasks such as ordering a meal in a restaurant. I know many other people who've had a similar experience.

This happens because school courses typically focus on reading and writing a language.

Language Hacking, by contrast, focuses on speaking your new language, so you can use it with real people, by interacting with them in real-world conversations, right away.

"Small tips that give big results early on"

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? It's also called the 80-20 rule.

The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto came up with the principle when he noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He then noticed that 20% of the pea-pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

It's quite refreshing to see a casual but practical course like this... I do like how it eases you into it, starting with short dialogues that are explained in an everyday way. And even though we are encouraged to make mistakes, I appreciate how you point out things like "Ich bin Lehrer" is natural vs. "Ich bin ein Lehrer." Small tips that give big results early on. - Daniel

You might have noticed the Pareto Principle in one of the following ways:

• 20% of the people at your office do 80% of the work
• 20% of the websites you visit take up 80% of your internet time
• 20% of the apps on your smartphone are the ones you use 80% of the time

When I created the Language Hacking courses, I asked myself: "What's the 20% of the work that language learners can do to get 80% of the results?"

I want language learners to get big results for a small amount of effort. Why? Because when you see yourself making fast progress, you're motivated to continue learning.

That's why I don't teach you everything about a language in the Language Hacking courses. Instead, I teach you what you need to know to start having real conversations, today.

"I like the focus on me-specific language"

Learning me-specific language is one of my favourite language hacks.

It involves learning the words and phrases that are relevant to you, right from day one. That way, you're ready to talk about yourself and dive into real-life conversations.

"I like the focus on me-specific language, as this really differentiates the course from other products. I feel pushed and hopeful that I will make progress fast. The little grammar snippets are not overwhelming... The presentation of how to guess cognates was particularly helpful." - Kevin Crisp

In the courses, I show language learners how to build me-specific scripts. I provide the foundation script (in Spanish, French, Italian or German), and you, the learner, build your own unique script on top of it.

Through the course, you build more and more me-specific scripts.

"I've been revisiting my Spanish via Duolingo and it's good but I'm not sure I'll need "los elefantes beben leche" (elephants drink milk) at my stepson's wedding in Colombia next year. I shall be armed with my own personal scripts!" - Julie Englefield

You can memorise these scripts as mini-monologues, and rely on them whenever you're asked questions. You'll be ready to manage all the most common situations you come across in your new language.

"Very practical and useful" (The Curtains Method)

One of the things we wanted to avoid with the course is making you learn unnecessary words and phrases.

So many courses have long vocabulary lists in every unit. And you feel like you have to learn them because they're part of the course, right? Even if you're asking yourself: "when will I ever use this word?"

"All these sentences from the course we will use very likely when we go to a foreign country. It's like a survival kit for talking with natives in a foreign country. Very practical and useful." - Vladamir Velickovic

That's why, when I created the Language Hacking courses, I followed The Curtains Method.

I learned The Curtains Method from Joseph, a member of the Fluent in 3 Months team. When he studied Mandarin, he focused on learning the words he knew he'd use a lot, and ignored those he was sure he'd rarely or never use. He felt particularly frustrated that the word "curtains" was taught early in the course. When would he ever need to say "curtains" in an everyday conversationas a beginner?

Rather than "never" learning them, words like that are best left for intermediate learners. It's simply a bad use of a beginner's time to learn such words when there are way more essential ones they should know.

"I really like the personalized approach: we can all add vocabulary that is relevant specifically to us instead of focusing on vocab we do not necessarily need in the beginning. I also like the way all content in a unit nicely builds up towards enabling students to complete the mission. It makes the material very coherent." - Magda Kasprzyk

That's how the The Curtains Method was born. In the Language Hacking courses, I only ask you to learn words and phrases that you'll actually use.

"TOTALLY embracing my inner Tarzan"

When you start learning a language, the most important thing is that you're able to communicate. That way, you can use the language in real conversations and make progress fast. Perfect grammar can wait for later.

That's why I advocate embracing your "inner Tarzan".

"TOTALLY embracing my inner Tarzan right now. For YEARS, being afraid to sound like that had been the reason why I didn't attempt to speak another language." - Stacy DiGregorio

After you embrace your inner Tarzan, you'll be willing to say things in your target language like 'I Benny. Me writer. I Ireland.’

Sure, it sounds funny. But when you don't take yourself too seriously, you learn much faster.

"Revolutionary"

I've been sharing my Language Hacking approach on Fluent in 3 Months for over five years.

Together with many other language bloggers who share similar ideas to me, I've been edging towards a language learning revolution.

I'm loving the material so far. It's interesting, fun and inspires confidence. I have complete faith that this method will be revolutionary and play a key role in achieving my goal of fluent Spanish. - Dave Gardner

With the launch of the Language Hacking courses, my approach to language learning is about to go mainstream - not just an ebook that I'd have on my site, or a viral YouTube video, but a real course with the most experienced educational publisher on earth.

That's why I'm so excited about the launch.

Even More Feedback on Language Hacking

That's not all! We've had even more great feedback on the Language Hacking courses in so many other ways:

"Encourages me to describe myself"

"I especially like that the book encourages me to describe myself, to find vocabulary useful to me, bicycling, hiking, being a librarian, living near mountains, etc." - Marcia Rodney

"I feel like I am making great progress"

"I love the course and how it is broken down into bite sized chunks. I feel like I am making great progress and not being overloaded. I love the fact that my script is me specific. The audio is very clear so I am able to follow along well." - Darren Robinson

"I love that the book requires you to be active"

"I love that the book requires you to be active all the time. You have to listen carefully, and then find things out yourself. It's really important to be active learners, and the book doesn't allow you to get by without it." - Omer

"Already I feel much more confident"

This course so far ticks the right boxes for getting started in chatting with someone. I'm looking forward to developing my skills. Already I feel much more confident about speaking German even if I make mistakes. Who cares? They know what I'm trying to say. - M. Simpson

Start Language Hacking, Today

Inspiring feedback, right? I for one am pleased to know my courses are helping all these people. And this was just with our test group before it's released to the world in September!

Are you inspired too? If you'd like to become a language hacker, then pre-order your language hacking course. Select the language you want to learn:

Spanish | French | German | Italian

And be sure to check out the pre-order bonuses and pre-order today . Many of the bonuses have limited availability and you can only pre-order for a week more in the UK (just slightly longer in North America), so get your pre-order in now!

The post What’s it Like to Be a Language Hacker? appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

I still remember my first gig as a Spanish language tutor. I loved learning languages, and was fluent in Spanish after having studied it for a few years in university the US and abroad living in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking country in the Caribbean. I was passionate about learning the language and invested all of my free time and quite a bit of money into it.

I decided my language skills needed to start paying back everything I’d invested in them, so I got up the courage to place a tutoring ad on Craigslist.

Two days later, my first client responded to the ad. I had a language teaching gig!

I showed up to the cafe to meet my first student. I felt excited, but also anxious and lacking in confidence. I guess it wasn’t so bad, because he agreed to do a handful of tutoring sessions with me. I wasn’t really sure of myself though, and wish I had had a guide, a mentor, someone to show me how to go from language learner to language tutor.

This small step turned out to be the beginning of an entrepreneurial language teaching journey. I eventually decided to help language learners with my native language, English, and to do it in a big way online, creating a six-figure business that supports me and allows me to live my dream lifestyle.

The shift from the role of student to the role of teacher is a big one - but it has lots of benefits. You’ll be making money. You’ll be more motivated to improve your own language skills. You’ll be challenged and inspired to stay ahead of your students and find answers to questions you never even thought of asking.

In short, becoming a foreign language tutor is a great way to get paid to do what you love and use your skills to help others.

For the purposes of this article, I’m assuming you speak your target language at an upper-intermediate level or higher. Otherwise, your first step is to work on your language skills.

Let’s take a look at what you need to take yourself from language learner to language tutor.

Step 1: Choose Which Language You’ll Teach

First, decide if you want to teach your native language or your foreign language.

I taught Spanish as a foreign language for several years, but then decided to teach English as a foreign language.

Many of my friends who are teachers also ended up teaching English (their second language) to speakers of their native language, because English is more in-demand and they can have a good career in their home countries teaching it. On the other hand, I also have friends from other countries who decided to stay in the US and teach their native language, for example Korean, to native English speakers.

Teaching a language other than your native language can actually make you a better teacher. You know what it’s like to learn the language, and you can retrace the steps you took when you’re showing your students how to learn.

Step 2: Find Your Purpose for Being a Language Tutor

As with starting any new venture, becoming a language tutor won’t always be a smooth ride. Knowing your purpose for tutoring keeps you motivated, so you’ll keep going even when things get tough.

What’s your reason for wanting to tutor? Do you want to earn money? Connect with other language learners? Become a teacher? Support your travels? Challenge yourself to continue to learn your foreign language?

I was motivated by all of those reasons! I wanted to be a language tutor and teacher so that I could get paid to do something I loved: -- speak another language and help others to do the same. After I started teaching online, I was able to travel to over 20 countries in one year.

Step 3: Create Your Own Language Tutor “Internship”by Offering Free Classes

The first time I tutored English as a second language was during a volunteer gig with an Argentinian woman in an adult education program. I used my Spanish skills a little as I helped her with her English fluency. Because it was not paid, I didn’t feel under pressure - so no nerves. It was super fun, and I made a new friend.

Start small by creating your own internship with volunteering gigs or with low-pressure gigs. You’ll build up your experience and skill set. I recommend asking your students to give you feedback on how you can improve.

Remember, you don’t have to be perfect, but you have to be able to help your students. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question as long as you follow up to answer it for them or refer them to a resource where they can find the answer.

Tutoring for free is also a great way to build your confidence.

Another way of boosting your confidence is to draw upon the teaching and leadership skills you already have. When I started tutoring, I had some teaching experience in other areas, including as a typing teacher, sailing instructor, and camp counselor. Having any teaching or leadership experience will help you, even if it is volunteer experience.

Once you’ve built up your confidence, you can start asking your students for referrals for paid work.

Step 4: Get Your First Students

How do you get those first students?

The biggest surprise I had when I started my own language teaching business was the amount of marketing work I needed to do! When you run your own tutoring business, 80% of your effort needs to go into marketing, and only 20% into teaching.

If “marketing” is like a foreign word to you, don’t worry. The best marketing is often simply having conversations with your target audience in person or online via social media, a YouTube channel, podcast, or blog. Find out what their goals and challenges are, offer your help, and see if they’re ready to accept!

Also, you should create appealing, informative descriptions of your tutoring services and identify the best places to advertise.

One of the most helpful things you can do when you start marketing is to identify your target market. Who do you want to work with (age, nationality, interests)? What other experience do you have (business, medical, test prep)? What’s your schedule? What’s your current level in the language you’ll be teaching? Keep your target audience in mind for your marketing materials.

In the beginning of my tutoring days, looking for students felt like searching for water in the desert. These days, I have hundreds of emails from potential students flooding my inbox every week and I don’t even advertise or provide a private tutoring service anymore.

Step 5: Get Organised and Build Lesson Plans

Once you have more than a couple students, you’ll feel lost if you don’t develop a system to organise your meetings and teaching materials. Use a simple spreadsheet and Google Calendar to keep track of materials or lessons covered.

You can use Google Drive or Dropbox to store lesson materials in the cloud and share links to resources with your students.

You’ll want to prepare learning goals and materials for your students. I’ve found that some learners like to listen and talk, while others prefer to read and write. Try providing learning opportunities using all four skills. To save time in the long-run, create materials that can be recycled from one student to another.

Even if your students want to practise free conversation and ask you questions, it’s still a good idea to prepare some lesson points. A little preparation will go a long way to make the lesson run more smoothly and impress your students.

Step 6: Branch Out and Diversify Your Income

As a language tutor, there are lots of different ways to earn money. You could offer local, face-to-face tutoring. You could offer online lessons through one of many established companies, such as italki. You could tutor online independently simply using Skype. You could even create your own multi-media courses. You could grow a following online and make money from ad revenue and work with sponsors. These are all income streams that I have built and help others to build.

Step 7: Get Help

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all of my experience is the importance of getting help. I would not have been able to build my own tutoring business if I hadn’t talked to other tutors. I would not have been able to build a successful business online if I hadn’t learned from people who had gone there before me. Don’t try to do everything yourself.

Now, Get Started!

Is your head spinning with all the possibilities? Then decide what you want to do, and go for it!

Even if you decide your goal is to do like I did and create a YouTube channel and produce online courses, I highly suggest starting as a tutor and building on that experience.

Want more tips on building a tutoring business? Feel free to reach out and connect with me.

The post How to Make Money as a Language Tutor appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

So, I asked on Facebook about which of the four essential language skills you most struggle with:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

And wow, did you answer!

The Fluent in 3 Months team were OVERWHELMED with the response we got - and so grateful for your openness and honesty.

Here are just a few of the responses you gave:

What are the essential language skills you struggle with most?

Overall, the results came out like this:

As you can see, listening and speaking came up as the biggest struggles - pretty much equally.

So, I decided to put together a collection of some of the best language hacking resources from Fluent in 3 Months that will help you improve these skills.

Let's get stuck in!

Get Speaking! Resources to Improve Your Speaking Skills

Since I discovered my language hacking method, I've advocated the Speak from Day One approach to language learning.

Speaking a new language - even as a beginner - is the most effective way I've found of learning a language.

For most language learners, their end goal is to speak, so it's really satisfying to be able to do this right from the start.

Here are the articles and resources I'd recommend to improve your speaking skills:

• The smartest decision you will ever make to achieve fluency. Read the story of how I discovered my Speak from Day One approach to language hacking.
• How to Use Skype to Learn Another Language. In this article you'll learn where to find a language exchange partner so you can practise your speaking skills, and what to do once you've found one.
• Speak! Or stop pretending you want to. Get clear on whether you really want to speak a new language, or whether another goal is more appropriate for you.
• How to convince natives to speak to you in their language. A big challenge when speaking a new language is that your conversation parter switches to English. Here's how to avoid that.
• The ONLY way to speak a language... is to speak it!
• How to Speak Spanish in 4 Days. Watch how Martyn prepared for a 10-minute conversation in Spanish after just four days of learning.
• What's it Like to Be a Language Hacker? Read stories of how other language learners have got on using my Speak from Day One method.
• italki Review. Discover my favourite tool for finding language exchange partners.

I'd also recommend that you check out my Speak in a Week email course. This free course introduces you to the principles of language hacking, and gets you speaking your target language in front of an audience in just seven days.

Now Listen Up! How to Improve Your Listening Skills

Listening is probably the hardest skill to master in a new language.

When I took the C2 exam for German (mastery level), listening was the only skill where I fell short. And it seems I'm not the only one who has found listening a struggle:

Here are the top articles on Fluent in 3 Months to help with your listening skills:

• Language Learning Podcasts: Can You Learn a Language by Listening to Podcasts? Podcasts are one of my favourite tools for improving my listening skills - in this post I share the podcasts that I think are the best for language learners.
• How to Improve Your Listening Skills in a New Language. This article by Andrew Barr gives a comprehensive overview of what it takes to improve your listening skills.
• Shocking truth about passive listening. Passive listening will rarely improve your language skills. Find out why in this article.
• How to download free native-spoken podcasts & MP3s in almost any language. The title says it all on this one.
• Is Watching Foreign Language Movies a Waste of Time? Find out whether you can improve your listening skills by watching world cinema.
• What if your listening comprehension really sucks? I was asked this question in the Fluent in 3 Months forum - so you'll see my answer, and the answers of the Fi3M community.

Read All About It! Improve Your Reading Skills with These Resources

Reading didn't feature as a major struggle in your Facebook comments. That's probably because most language courses start with reading (rather than speaking, as I'd recommend).

Here are the top Fluent in 3 Months articles on developing your reading skills:

• 5 Hacks to Learn Languages by Reading Literature. Are you a bookworm? Then you'll love this article by Igor Barca on being a literary language learner.
• Best method to read books in the target language. Discover reading hacks from the Fluent in 3 Months community in this Fi3M forum discussion.
• Books are dead – it’s time to ditch 15th century technology. Find out why I love my Kindle for reading practice.
• Pocket to Kindle: How to Instantly Transfer Web Articles to Your Kindle (in One Click). Want free reading materials? Here's how to transfer web articles straight to your Kindle.
• Language Learning Podcasts: Can You Learn a Language by Listening to Podcasts? What do podcasts have to do with reading? Well, the best podcasts include reading materials so you can follow along as you listen.

Write it Down! Resources to Improve Your Writing Skills

A few of you mentioned writing as a struggle, though it didn't come up nearly as much as speaking or listening. As with reading, my guess is that writing comes more easily because most language courses focus on writing.

Here are our resources for improving your writing skills in a new language:

• How to Learn a Song in a Language You Don’t Know. When does singing improve your writing skills? When you write out the lyrics! Plus you'll develop your speaking and listening skills at the same time.
• Writing a Novel in Another Language. Have you ever thought about writing stories in another language? What about writing a novel? Read about our amazing community members who are taking up this challenge in the Fluent in 3 Months forum.
• HelloTalk Review. HelloTalk helps you find language exchange partners to text chat with. It's perfect for improving your writing and reading skills in a real-world environment.
• Duolingo Review. Did you know that Duolingo makes money from getting community members to crowd-translate documents? So, it has a horse in the race when it comes to improving your writing skills. I'd recommend it for that purpose.

Essential Language Skills: Which is Your Biggest Struggle?

What skill do you most struggle with in your language learning? Reading, writing, speaking or listening? Let me know on this Facebook thread.

Also, what are your favourite articles on Fluent in 3 Months for helping you develop those skills? Please share them in the comments.

The post The 4 Essential Language Skills – and How to Improve Them appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Want to know how to improve your accent in a new language?

In 2010, eleven people blew the minds of their friends and neighbours. Their arrests by the United States government revealed that they weren’t simply “normal” Americans, living the suburban dream.

It turned out that they were intelligence agents, collecting information to send back to their native country of Russia.

Many of them had gone undetected for years. How on earth had they achieved this?

Put simply, they blended in. They looked, acted and sounded like any other American living in the United States. They mimicked the local culture.

These spies achieved something that many language learners struggle with – they mastered an accent to the point where they were indistinguishable from native speakers.

How Exactly Do Spies Hide Their Accents?

A intelligence agent who had lived undercover in the United States for over 20 years gave an interview describing his experience after he’d returned to Russia. In the interview, he was asked how he was able to fool those around him for such an extended period of time.

His answer was quite simple – he’d stopped speaking Russian and conversed entirely in English or French, no matter where he was at the time.

“ You cannot use your native tongue, even at home; you have to be a control freak. That said, after working for several years, it comes naturally to you. You even have dreams in other languages.” - Andrei Bezrukov

How do spies get to this point? This is information that countries such as the United States and Russia keep very close to their chests – but from general understanding, it’s due to hours upon hours of study in intensive training programmes. Intelligence agents are made to concentrate solely on their pursuit of mastering both the language and accent of the country they plan to infiltrate.

Spies-in-training spend up to eight hours a day in language classes, along with at least a couple of hours of homework per night. It’s a hard slog that pays off when in six months’ time you may not be able to single them out as anything other than native speakers.

Unfortunately, not all of us have the same amount of time on our hands.

So what do you do if you want to master the accent of a foreign country, but your resources aren’t exactly in the same ballpark as those of the Russian or US military?

I have a few ideas for how to improve your accent. Read on to find out more.

How to Improve Your Pronunciation and Accent (5 Steps)

Step 1: Find a Native Speaker of Your Target Language

Ideally, you’d want to find native speakers of your target language - then talk to them!

You’ll hear the inflections and tones of the language and your ear will start honing itself to these sounds. Also, it never hurts to have someone on hand to help you when you get stuck on a pronunciation or are having trouble rolling your ‘r’s.

However, sometimes this is easier said than done – particularly if you don’t live in a big city, or you’re learning a less common language.

What can you do if this is you?

One of my favourite resources for practising with native speakers is italki. italki helps you find language teachers to Skype with online.

It’s helped me out in several situations. I used italki to learn Mandarin Chinese when I was living in Taipei, because it turned out to be a much cheaper option than having lessons in person.

There have even been times where I learned a language before travelling, such as when I learned Egyptian Arabic while living in Brazil. I was fluent to the point where I could walk into the Egyptian Embassy in Brasília and apply for my visa – speaking entirely in Egyptian Arabic. Skype lessons were key in achieving this conversational fluency.

What if you’re learning a language that’s not spoken by many people? I’ve heard about people learning less common languages who have had issues trying to track down a native speaker.

Here’s an option: extend your search from native speakers to fellow learners who are at a more advanced level than you. You can use the language option on italki and untick “native speaker”.

Alternatively, meet up in person. Couchsurfing and Meetup are great for finding other language learners in your town or city.

Chatting with native speakers online isn’t the only thing you can do to improve your accent...

Step 2: Get Cultural Immersion with Radio and TV

Television is brilliant for language learning – if you approach it the right way. You can find many foreign shows (with subtitles!) online. Movies are handy too – as long as you remember there is a right and wrong way to use films to learn a language.

Watching the news is particularly valuable. News anchors and journalists enunciate clearly and use correct pronunciation. Pro-tip: watch news shows on YouTube, and slow the videos down using the video settings button. You can slow videos to quarter speed.

Similarly, radio is a helpful resource, particularly for learning on the go. The radio app TuneIn has radio stations in most major languages. Likewise, Spotify has an excellent selection of music from around the world.

Through the use of these resources, you’ll be tuning your ear to the inflections, tones and general pronunciations of your target language, which will in turn make it easier for you to master the accent.

REMEMBER: watching TV or listening to the radio is not an excuse to switch off your brain. Passive learning on its own does not work! You need to be actively studying what you are watching/listening to. Radio and TV should should be just one tool in your language learning toolbox – it’s difficult to maintain any progress if you rely on them alone.

Step 3: Stick Post-Its Around Your Home

A great way to improve your pronunciation of words is with forced repetition.

Try this: label some key items around the house with Post-Its. Don’t forget to add the articles before the words if you’re learning a language that uses them, such as un/une/des in French. This will help you avoid confusion in the future.

Beneath the name of the item, write how it’s pronounced.

Soon enough, you’ll be able to remember both the word and the pronunciation.

Step 4: Record Yourself Speaking

Recording yourself - and listening back to it - is one of the most powerful hacks I know for improving pronunciation.

Does the idea of it make you cringe? You’re not alone. Many people experience waves of revulsion whenever they hear an audio clip of themselves talking. Over time you’ll get used to it - especially once you’ve realised how powerful it is.

Use the voice recorder on your phone to record yourself saying phrases or words you’ve had difficulty pronouncing. Then, get ruthless! Listen to yourself as though you were listening to someone else. Start with being kind. Celebrate the small victories – such as mastering a word you have previously had issues with. Then, pick apart the mistakes. Identify which words need improvement and go to town on them!

What if you’re unsure if you’ve got the correct pronunciation? Find a native speaker, and ask them for feedback on your recording. You could even ask them to record a word that you’re having difficulty with, for reference.

Step 5: Check Out the Mimic Method

My friend and fellow polyglot Idahosa Ness has spent years developing a system that has helped thousands of people lose their strong “foreign” accent when speaking a new language.

Mimic Method takes you through the component sounds of a language: the rhythm, the beat, the musicality and individual sounds, and how they all tie together. And it shows you exactly what steps to take to develop a more authentic accent.

The Mimic Method offers accent training for:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese
• Mandarin
• German
• Italian
• Japanese

Click the language you want to learn to find out more about how to improve your accent and pronunciation when you’re speaking.

You Don’t Have to Be a Spy to Master An Accent

Don’t worry – you can breathe a sigh of relief! You don’t need to go through intensive spy training to master a foreign accent.

You just need to practise and tune your ear to the language you’re learning. Don’t be scared to seek assistance from those more advanced in the language than you.

Do you have any tips or tricks for pronunciation that you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments.

The post How Do Spies Hide Their Accent? appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Immersion is the best way to learn a language - and there’s no need to move overseas to do this.

Moving to another country is only one approach to creating an environment where the target language is a part of your everyday life. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll immerse yourself in the language.

A better approach is to create an immersion environment.

You can create an immersive experience no matter where you live.

An immersion environment is all about finding opportunities to bring the language into your current lifestyle and activities.

One of the most common lifestyle elements we all share is the use of a tablet or smartphone.

How can you turn your phone or tablet into a virtual immersion environment? And how can you use your device to connect with native speakers? These apps are the place the start.

1. Your Operating System

Okay, technically this isn’t an “app”, but it definitely deserves a mention! The biggest boost you can give your digital language immersion is to change the default language on your device’s operating system to your target language.

This has the added benefit of changing the language on many of your apps as well. For example, if you’re a die-hard player of the game Hearthstone, then you can now play it entirely in a new language.

Plus, for any apps that you already use, this will help you build new vocabulary and phrases. Let’s say you frequently “add new event” on your calendar app. When you switch the language on your device, you’ll quickly learn how to say “add new event” in your target language.

2. Streaming Video Apps

You may already know about installing the YouTube or Vimeo apps on your devices to watch language-related materials while you are out and about, but what about other video-streaming services?

If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime to watch movies and TV shows, you can put these shows on your playlist and watch them on your device to enjoy some language immersion on the go.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Try searching for the word “videos” in your target language in your device’s app store and you’ll find a variety of streaming services specific to your target language’s audience.

For example, the popular Chinese video service, Youku, also has an app that will let you watch Chinese language videos on your device. Find video-streaming services for your language and you’ll be able to watch videos, shows and movies in your target language wherever you are.

3. Yelp

You may recall my adventures with Moses McCormick (a.k.a. Laoshu) in Ohio . I joined Moses doing what he likes to call “Levelling Up”. It was really simple: we went to the local mall to find people to practise languages with.

You may be at a loss to know where you can find businesses where people speak the language you’re studying, so what can you do? Download the Yelp app, which connects you with businesses (including restaurants, markets and cafes) in your town. Do a search for a specific type of food (“Japanese” or “Mexican”, for example) and then read through the reviews to determine whether the owners and employees are from that country.

Save those places to your favourites list and the next time you want to go out to eat, you’ll have a list of restaurants and businesses where you can also practise your target language.

4. Voice Recording Apps

Many devices come with a voice recording app pre-installed. This can be used for more than just remembering the song you hear on the radio, or recording a lecture in class.

Here’s what you can do:

• Record native speakers for later review. For example, if you’re watching a foreign language TV show, why not capture the audio so you can listen while on the road?
• Record yourself in the language and analyse your accent and pronunciation. As painful as it can be to listen to yourself, listening back later is invaluable in improving your speaking skills. Better yet, send the recording to a native speaker to have them review it.
• Record your sessions practising with a native speaker. During a one-on-one lesson, capture what is said and listen to it over and over to really ingrain what you learned.

5. Evernote

How many times have you been out and wanted to remember a word to look up later? Or how many times were you talking with a friend who shared a golden nugget of language learning information and you had to scrounge around for a paper and pen to take it down?

With Evernote, an online note-taking app that syncs between all of your devices, you are able to keep a living document of all you learn in your new language.

I recommend setting up dedicated notebooks within Evernote such as “useful phrases”, “words to memorise”, “things to look up” or “questions to ask my tutor”. Just creating these notebooks will inspire you to start taking notes. Set aside a weekly study session to work through the notes you’ve created.

6. Google Maps

As I said before, immersion doesn’t mean you have to visit another country. But even if you’re not going there, you can still become familiar with the lay of the land.

One of the coolest features of Google Maps is Google Street View, where you can virtually stand on a street in different countries around the world. You can look around at the shops, signs and surroundings in that neighbourhood.

Use this to practise asking directions, or use it to try and guess the meaning of street signs and billboards that you can see along the side of the road.

Take it to another level by sharing your screen with a native speaker and role play with them to find your way around. Studying French? See if you can get yourself from Charles De Gaulle airport to the Eiffel Tower, describing the directions you take and your surroundings as you go. Studying Chinese? How well can you navigate the streets of Shanghai? This provides an almost endless supply of study material and conversation topics.

7. Periscope

If you’re not familiar with Periscope, it’s a relatively new social networking system built by Twitter, where you can stream live video to and from your mobile device.

People all around the world use it, which means that there is probably someone out there using it who speaks your target language. Search using Periscope’s map tool for people who are broadcasting from a country where your target language is spoken, and check out what they’re up to.

You can comment and type a greeting in the language as well, so you can get in some writing practice to see how well the other person understands you.

Another way to use Periscope is to broadcast yourself speaking your target language. Scary? You bet! But a great way to take the plunge and get immediate feedback on your speaking skills.

8. Games

I love playing games on my phone. Did you know they can be educational too?

Many games are available in a variety of languages. Using your device’s app store, do a search for the type of game you like to play (“RPG”, “Board Game”, etc.) in the language you’re studying and see what comes up.

The best games for language learning are role playing or strategy games, since they tend to be text-heavy.

If you changed your operating system to the new language, odds are the game you’re already playing has already been switched to the new language!

9. TuneIn

TuneIn is my favourite app for listening to radio. But you don’t have to just listen to your local stations or music in your native language.

You can search TuneIn’s listings for radio stations all around the world. You’ll likely be surprised at how many hundreds or thousands of stations you can find! Talk radio, the latest hit songs, traffic reports and weather forecasts. You can get all these in any language.

Conclusion: Create an Immersion Environment on Your Smartphone

Now you know: immersion isn’t all about moving to a new country.

You can create an immersion environment wherever you are, with tools you already use daily. It just takes a creative eye to see beyond the obvious and create opportunities where they may not seem to exist.

Do you have any apps you love to use for language learning that are out of the ordinary? Share your ideas in the comments!

The post Language Immersion: How to Create an Immersion Environment on Your Phone appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.