How I Make Language Learning Interesting
I am going to make the introduction short and get right to the point. I have been studying Spanish for two years and while I still have a long way to go to become fluent in it, I am pretty confident that if I was stuck in a place where people spoke nothing but Spanish, I would be able to communicate with them and go on with my life. If I see a text in Spanish, there is a very good chance that I can understand it.
Now that I gave you some background, let’s move to the part for which you are here: how can I make language learning interesting? Now, if you are a beginner, you may not need this as you might be full of motivation and energy to learn a new language. This article might be helpful for those people who have reached the language learning plateau. If that’s the case, I would like to tell you about the things that I do to make language learning (in my case, Spanish) interesting.
Change your phone’s language
This may turn out to be very inconvenient and annoying at first, but it won’t be long before you get used to seeing text in the language you want to learn. Since we all use our mobile phones on a daily basis, we will get familiar with new words and phrases related to it. Using Spanish language as a reference, these words can be me gusta(like), en línea(online), compartir(share), seguridad(security) etc. You will soon get familiar with these terms as you would be seeing them a lot!
Movies and TV shows
If you want to know how the natives speak, you should start watching movies and TV shows in the language that you are learning. Apart from increasing your vocabulary, you will also learn to say the text book phrases in a more colloquial way. Let’s be honest here, no language is static, it constantly evolves with people. You will get to hear a lot of slang and informal phrases. Movies and TV shows also help with your listening skills.
If you want to go for something simple, you can watch a cartoon show in your target language. Usually cartoons contain easy words and simple sentence structure which is easy for small kids (and in this case, you) to understand. Even if you don’t understand the complete sentence you can still guess its meaning from the context of the scene.
Instead of listening passively, I would recommend you to try active listening which involves jotting down words or phrases that you come across and searching for their meaning.
I also spend some time watching videos on YouTube in Spanish. I watch comedy sketches, TED Talks, news, videos titled ‘top 10 things…’ from any topic etc in Spanish. If I am really in the mood of learning, I use an app called Suby to pause and read the transcript of a YouTube video line by line and figure out the meaning of each line.
Listen to songs
A song can make things less monotonic. If you like listening to songs (who doesn’t ?) you must have noticed that there are a few sets of songs which are very dear to you. They speak your heart out and you may find a part of yourself in those lyrics. Or you don’t understand a word and just like how it sounds to your ears.
Whatever the case may be, you can listen to songs in your target language. It can be from any genre. Personally, I find old songs with slow beats easy to understand. I also prefer listening to my favourite English songs in Spanish. In this way, I can mentally perform a side by side comparison of the lyrics while enjoying the tune which is same in both the versions.
In addition, you can also learn to sing your childhood nursery rhymes in your foreign language. Learning the foreign version of popular songs like ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, ‘Wheels on the Bus’ or even ‘Happy Birthday’ can tremendously increase your vocabulary. Even to this day, I mumble ‘Cinco monitos’ while doing my work.
Reading and Writing
I wake up in the morning and read the news in Spanish. I read a few articles or a portion of an article from El Mundo, BBC Mundo, El País etc. It is not important that you understand each and every word especially if it’s your first attempt. And it is okay if you spent most of your time using google translate. It will get easier as you get used to it.
At night, if I have time, I read children’s stories especially the ones which I had read as a kid like ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’, ‘The hare and the tortoise’ etc in Spanish. I write down all the words whose meaning I don’t know and look for it’s meaning on my phone.
I don’t think there is a lack of material on internet to read. You can literally read about anything in your target language. A good website that can provide you with a plethora of reading materials is Wikipedia. I learned about this after watching a video of a polyglot, Tim Doner, in which he explains how he uses Wikipedia to read about his favourite topics in his target language.
For example, I can use Wikipedia to read about India. There will be a good amount of things which I already know about India, especially the ones which that have been taught to me in school. Now I can use this familiarity of the topic and read about it in a different language. I recommend you to read about things which you already know or is relevant to you.
For the writing part, you can maintain a daily diary or a journal to write down your thoughts and feelings or what all things you did on a regular basis. Start writing short essays or articles about popular topics like pollution, environment, your family etc.
Use social media to your advantage
Start following native people on your favourite social media platform like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat. I currently follow two or three Spanish people and every time they post something, I read the caption and try to understand its meaning. Apart from that, I follow a few Spanish meme pages too. Imagine seeing a popular meme in a different language. You already know what it is about and after seeing it, you know how it would sound like in a different language. Apart from that, a meme is short and is largely visual. So, it takes less effort and more enjoyable.
I also talk to native speakers online. For this, I use an app called Discord. I feel this step is very important if you are learning any language. You have to speak no matter what your current level is. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the grammar. Just speak with whatever vocabulary you have. The thing that I like about Discord is that you don’t have to show your name or face, so there is a very less scope for awkwardness. I usually join a group voice channel and listen to the natives talking and give my opinion or comment on something when required. Sometimes I perfectly understand what the natives are saying and they also understand whatever I say to them. This kind of speaking and listening activity has improved my ears to identify different Spanish accents. It also tells me what I need to improve. You can use any language exchange app or just download Discord and hop onto any language exchange server.
Additional: Video Games for Language Learning
This one is my favourite! Now if you generally don’t play video games then this might not be for you and you can skip it. But if you do then go ahead. I do not call myself a gamer. I don’t play much and when I do, it is usually for relaxation. A few reasons why I think video games can be really educational with respect to language learning are:
- You know the context and the words that you read on the screen are usually related to the theme. For example, if it is a survival game you will find lot of words related to survival like wood, fire, knife, house etc.
- You cannot complete the mission if you don’t know the objective. So you will be forced to translate it and in this way you will learn something new.
- A lot of video game characters (mostly NPCs) use the same set of dialogues as you progress through the game to the point that you actually remember them as you play.
I really don’t want to waste much time explaining this, so I will quickly go through the games which I play and most importantly, how I play them for language learning.
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
This is the best game I have ever played (but then again, I haven’t played a lot of games). Games like Witcher 3 and Skyrim (or any other RPG game) have a plethora of dialogues to go through and most of them require you to make your own decisions, all of which have consequences, be it good or bad. In case of Witcher 3, one single decision can have both short term and long term impact on the story. So I have to be very clear about the choices that I make in the story. Whenever I play this game, I have my phone next to me to translate whatever I find in it. Because of how detailed and rich the world is, there are lot of things you can find in this game. Whatever it may be, I write down everything and try to find their meaning.
GTA 5
I know that GTA 5 is not available in Spanish. But it offers a diverse world and has a modern setting to it. I usually roam in the open world and describe whatever I see in Spanish. For example, if I see a black car I would say something like this out loud ‘Puedo ver un carro negro, lo voy a robar’ (I can see a black car, I am going to steal it). I try to describe the things on the screen and whatever actions I do as much as I can. Apart from that there are a lot of Hispanics in this game. I usually bump into them and find them speaking Spanish. Otherwise, I hang out at the Vagos neighbourhood (GTA fans will know) and try to listen to their conversations in Spanish.
Conclusion
These are the things that I do to completely immerse myself in the language. Whatever I wrote in this article should be done in parallel to traditional learning like solving grammar exercises or learning different grammar rules. There may be few things that may not work for you and that is absolutely fine. Learn whatever you feel is relevant to you in a way that makes it less of a task and more of a fun activity. Personally, I feel this is the most important point in this article. When I am learning Spanish, I am not doing it to get marks or get a job. I am doing it because I really like the language for its rich diversity and simplicity.
