Studying A Language Isn’t Enough
I spent 4 years learning German on high school. I was pretty fluent and even did German final exam, which could be compared to a B2 certificate. Then I stopped using the language and, after a few years, no longer could speak it.
What happened? Well, little did I know back then that you don't just learn a language and remember it forever. If you don't actively use it, you lose it. That's exactly what happened with my German. Interestingly, I still have a feeling for the correct sentence structure and word forms, but I can no longer remember basic vocabulary that I knew before.
I think German is a beautiful language and it's a shame I can no longer enjoy speaking it, but at the moment I have no practical reason to relearn it. I believe that the forgotten vocabulary is still somewhere in the back of my head and I could get back up to speed quickly once I need it.
All that being said, I've learned the lesson and keep practicing my other languages — English and Spanish. I'm going to share what I find useful to maintain and improve a foreign language that you're already fluent in.
Tip: If you've just started learning a language, you might find useful my other article From Zero to Hero in Spanish where I describe how I became fluent in Spanish in less than one year. Long story short, I combined language classes with intensive self-study at home. I focused on learning what I personally found interesting and fun first. And as soon as I had some basics, I moved to Spain and fully immersed myself into its language and culture. You can't just learn a language, you have to live it.
Listening
- Watching movies or series in their original language trains understanding fast native speech and you might also pick up some new vocabulary. There're so many video streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Just choose the one with more content you like or keep alternating them. If you find movies difficult to understand, try a genre where the actors speak slower like documentaries or turn on subtitles. Although, the help of subtitles might make you focus on reading rather than listening so be careful. Another great video platform is YouTube — subscribe to some channels you find interesting and you might even learn something new.
- My favorite music streaming platform is Spotify. They probably offer every genre or author you can think of. You either pay a small monthly fee or use its free plan with ads. I mostly listen to Spanish music because I like its energy and creative metaphors. English rap is a great exercise to understand real language that you don't find in textbooks. Just pick whatever you like. When you don't get all the lyrics, you can use Musixmatch to read subtitles of played songs. Sing along your favorite songs, I do it in the shower and my neighbors love it 😆
- Podcasts are another great way to practice listening. Spotify offers most podcasts in any language and you can use its free plan if you like ads. Recently, I’ve been trying to resurrect my German with GermanPod. I’m curious how far I can get by just listening and repeating basic conversations, it looks promising though. I really like Blinkist with its 15 minute summaries of non-fiction books in English or German. This incredible well of wisdom lets me “read” a few books a week. I can feel growing wiser every day 😆
Speaking
- Absolutely best exercise for speaking a foreign language is expat life in a country where it's spoken. If you can't make such an arrangement, which is the case for most people, maybe you can instead make a longer trip to practice the language and experience its culture.
- In every major city there're language exchange meetings and other activities for expats or travelers. Get in touch with international communities in your city.
- Elsa Speaks is a very useful app where you can look up any English word and learn how to pronounce it almost like a native. It uses AI to analyze your pronunciation and give you detailed feedback.
Tip: Check out my articles Why Is English So Difficult and Digital Nomad in Central America.
Reading
- Reading articles or books is a great way to enrich vocabulary. However, if you don't combine it with listening and speaking, you might not learn how to pronounce words correctly. Speaking of pronunciation, I like to check how I pronounce new words with Elsa Speaks.
Writing
- Writing blog posts, statuses or chatting are all great activities to train use of words and expressions you learned when reading and listening.
- I often search for synonyms to make my writing better. Curiously, I usually know most results passively, but I just can't think of them when writing (or speaking). Once I use them myself though, they might stick in my active vocabulary.
- It's also been very helpful to me to get feedback from a native teacher on my writing. Things that sound correct to second language learners might be unnatural to native speaker's ear.
Alright, lovely people, that's it for today. How do you keep your languages alive? ❤️
