Learning a target language by sitting with your foreign language training software is a good start. It’s not enough, though. To really know a language, you must connect with it on a deeper level and you do that by learning about the culture that it came from.
Language ability is a great asset. However, if your facility is strictly a mastery of the words, you won’t much real-world application. You’ve probably heard people say that knowing a foreign language is an advantage in the job market. For the most part, that’s only true if you can adapt it to help act as a bridge between an organization and the people who use it as their native tongue.
How do you connect with a culture?
1. Keep up with current events by reading a foreign language news source. While you can get recaps from world news in English, the treatment is usually very different from how locals would handle the same news item.
2. Attend events in your area for the people whose language you’re learning. We live in a global community now. Everywhere you go, there’s a diverse range of ethnicities. Regardless of where the language you’re learning comes from, there’s likely a group of people from that country somewhere nearby.
3. Get a pen pal or a chat buddy. Meet people who speak the target language from online. There are always a lot of these opportunities. Craigslist is a good, free source, provided you take necessary precautions. Let’s face it, there are plenty of weirdos on that service.
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