Are you getting to grips with learning a new language? Olivia Goodman reflects on her experience of learning Mandarin Chinese, and shares her top tips to keep the motivation going – useful whether you’re learning a new language yourself, or teaching others to.
What started it all off?
Studying languages was always something that I enjoyed at school, especially when I started learning Spanish. When it was time to choose what I wanted to study at university, I knew it was going to be Spanish and another language – just which one? One that was completely different. Mandarin Chinese is one of the top most spoken languages in the world, so I thought I’d challenge myself. I thought, how great would it be to say to people, “I can speak Chinese”; how great to say to myself, “I can speak Chinese”?
Overcoming cultural barriers
I studied both languages at Nottingham Trent University for 4 years. During my degree I had a year abroad which I split between living in Valencia, Spain and Kunming, China. My year abroad was probably the most terrifying yet exciting thing I’ve ever done, but also the most rewarding, particularly when I was living in China. It was such a rich experience, not only for learning the language but also for making new friends, exploring new places and overcoming cultural barriers in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to do before. I’d recommend it to anyone, no matter what language you’re studying.
It’s not until you have to practice the language for real, in real situations, that you know how much you understand. You can see yourself progress as you become more able to have a conversation with people, or gradually understand the locals. I remember on my final journey home from China, the first flight was delayed which meant that I’d miss my connecting flight to London. I had to talk to the air steward to arrange another flight and to sort out accommodation for the night – I did all of this in Chinese. I wouldn’t have been able to do this at the beginning of my stay in China, so it was a great way of acknowledging how much I’d learnt and how much more confident I’d become in using the language.
Learning a language: my top tips
Practice, practice, practice
Practice wherever, whenever and with whoever you can. If you wanted to become an Olympic champion, you’d expect to have to train every day: if you want to become fluent in a language, you have to expect to practice every day. This is one of the main reasons for living abroad, but if you can’t do that, there are more ways than ever before to connect with other people studying the language and with people who already know it.
Keep going
There were plenty of times when I wanted to give up, and even now as I’m still learning I often feel like I’m not progressing and question why I’m doing it. Remembering the reason why you’re learning the language will definitely help you stay on track and motivate you to carry on. Write down the reason why you are learning the language and put it somewhere where you can see it every day and read it when you feel like giving up, or when you’re struggling with something. Don’t forget to take breaks though – when something is hard, sometimes it helps to have a break from it. Your mind will be fresh and you may have a clearer perspective.
Talk to yourself
Try and translate things in your head throughout your day. I mastered the plural in Spanish by always asking myself, “where are my keys?”. I always used to ask myself this so I started saying it in Spanish “¿Dónde están mis llaves?”. For ages I was getting this wrong (without knowing), but then one day I realised. Figuring this out for myself was such a rewarding moment – and the rule still sticks in my mind today!
What phrases do you often say in a day? Perhaps try starting with ones you already know in the other language and gradually build up your list of phrases. If you find this helps you to practice, continue translating words and phrases on a daily basis and then check the grammar and vocabulary during your study time.
Create your own wordlists
This one depends on how you are learning the language and the structure of the course. When I was studying Chinese, vocabulary for certain topics was taught across different units – this meant that the vocabulary was taught in manageable chunks which helped me to remember them. However, I wanted to have all the words and phrases for particular topics in one place, so I decided to create my own wordlists. Together these became my own reference guide, which is still growing today.
Doing this gives you the freedom to personalise them to how you best learn. For example, you could include:
• only the word in the second language
• the translation or definition
• example sentences
• memorable images associated with the word or its pronunciation (the keyword method)
• your own description of how to pronounce it
I have just started doing this for grammar too. This is slightly more complicated, but it helps to have all the different uses of one particular element in one place. I hope you have found these useful, and even if these tips don’t work for you, I hope I’ve inspired you to think about the best ways that you learn and what you can do to improve further.
If you’ve enjoyed Olivia’s blog, why not read another of her articles, here on The World of Better Learning? You might like her piece on language research ambassadors!