Aside from the obvious (you’ll acquire a new language), training to learn a second language has taught me several things I wouldn’t have figured out otherwise. Here are five of them:
- Our mind naturally learns language. A foreign language isn’t some alien concept beyond your abilities. In fact, even the least effort can net you some, albeit marginal, improvements. Any language is learnable — our minds are naturally built for it.
- Anything worth pursuing is worth giving up your time for. Language learning requires a good amount of time investment, both for lessons and practice. Just like any skill worth developing, giving up some time to learn it is mandatory.
- An adviser (i.e. someone who knows the language that you can rely on for feedback) is a priceless resource. If you can get in touch with one, try to get them onboard. Regular meetings with your adviser (even once or twice a month) can do wonders for your language skills.
- Practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the better you get. Even if you feel silly and awkward using a language, push through it. Nothing helps ingrain lessons as good as regular practice does.
- Your ability to learn will depend, in part, of the quality of teaching you get. Not all language software are alike. That’s why it pays to do your research before settling on a product to use or a class to enroll in. Me? I went through one class and two software titles, before settling on a French language program that I actually found useful.
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