How Do I Quickly and Efficiently Learn a New Language?

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How do I Quickly and Efficiently Learn a New Language?

The first step is to realize that most people do it wrong. Everybody knows that if you learn a language in school, you don’t actually learn it. And yet, when people want to learn a language later in life they remember how they “learned” languages in school and say to themselves, “Alright then, I still have my French grammar book, and oh look, my old vocabulary list. Here we go.” That’s all wrong.

Many people ask this question: How can I quickly and efficiently learn a new language? This happens to be a question that is also very important to me personally. I like learning languages, as you know; but I also like doing many other things. There are 24 hours in a day and thus a mere 168 hours in a week. I suggest we use that time wisely.

What’s Efficient Language Learning Then?

The thing is that many learning activities one can do are effective – few things, however, are efficient.

Humans all learn languages the same way – the data is clear. In my very, very long in-depth guide, I explain the basic method and some of the minutiae of language learning.

The question at hand specifically asks for a quick and an efficient way to learn a language. Alas, there is no quick way. It does take time. The good news is that the most efficient way is also the most pleasant way, however. What we need to do is to use – what the linguistic jargon refers to as – massive compelling comprehensible input. In practice that means: read and listen a lot, whenever possible at the same time.

This is because we learn to use a language actively once we understand it passively. Emerson said, “First we read, then we write.” In language learning we could say, “First we read and listen, then we speak”.

We need to understand messages. This we do by learning new words in context. This is how children do it too, of course. As adults we can do it much more quickly and efficiently by attentively reading and listening a lot.

Holy Trinity of Language Learning

According to Canadian polyglot Steve Kaufmann’s Holy Trinity of Language Learning (motivation, time spent with the language, and the ability and willingness to notice), we need to have motivation, that is, the right mind-set. If your teacher forces you to learn French, but you’ve never liked the bloody frogs, and you also don’t like wine, and you will never ever go to France; well, you’re not gonna learn.

Then we need to spend enough time with the language. I repeat this often, and to some it may seem redundant; nonetheless, it is vital to understand: Language learning is simple but not easy. It takes time. There are no shortcuts and hacks – thus the subtitle of my book. They’re just self-defeating distractions. Do it right. Do it for long enough, and you will learn; not in no time, but quickly enough.

The second part of the Language Learning Trinity, therefore, is time spent with the language. There are different estimates of how long it takes to learn a language; and I will deal with this question in detail in a future article. The rough estimate for the time being is: It takes a long time – even with the best of methods. Never mind exact numbers. Keep this major point in mind. It takes a long time.

Looked at another way that also means: If we choose to learn a language, it will take up a good deal of our life. Why am I doing it? Do I really want to do it? The thing is: Language learning is not for everyone. On the bright side it is also true that pretty much anyone can learn a language.

Another good thing about language learning is that – provided we use the right method – we see lots of progress even right from the beginning. The marathon of the middle, to use a writer’s metaphor, is where many people collapse. Don’t get discouraged. You will get over the hump. Just keep walking.

Then again, as opposed to, say, architecture, it is quite useful to learn just a bit of a language. Anyway, the main thing to keep in mind is this: It takes time, and it is quite achievable.

The third part of the Holy Trinity is paying attention and the ability to notice. Stephen Krashen, our great and venerable linguist language leader, is not persuaded that the third part of the trinity is really vital or even important. This also is a matter for another time. I certainly think it is safe to say that it doesn’t hurt to try and notice things when listening and reading. Subectively, I feel it helps. I might be wrong on this though.

Learning Languages is an Innate Ability

Finally, remember that learning languages comes naturally to people. Everybody usually manages to learn at least one language after all. Humans have learned languages for longer than they have lived in houses. Anybody can do it. You don’t need a special talent. You just need to commit, and do it right.

1) Do it every day at least for a few minutes. Build the habit.

2) Read and listen a lot.

3) Start with easy, artificial learner materials if necessary.

4) Bridge the comprehensibility gap with graded readers or LingQ.

5) Pick things that are interesting to you, if possible compelling.

6) Do it seriously for a few months, and you will actually learn the language. One day at a time. One text, one episode etc. at a time.

7) As soon as you have enough words, you will actually want to speak and, crucially, be able to do so.

Remember the Main Obstacle in Language Learning

What is the main obstacle when learning a language? Many people would probably say: Learning the rules. This is wrong. The rules and patterns are important and they are what enable us to speak clearly and elegantly, differentiate time and relationships etc. The main obstacle to speaking a language fluently, however, is the words. There are thousands and thousands of them and we need to understand many thousands of these passively and also use a smaller yet still considerable number of them actively, while expressing ourselves, in order to speak fluently on a wide range of topics.

Steve Kaufmann likes to compare the words to the metallic rabbit chased by dogs in hunting. Words are what we must constantly focus on and chase. While we observe the language in our listening and reading, while we focus on patterns, phrases, different tenses and whatnot, the real challenge is to pick up as many words as possible. Without them we can neither understand nor say anything. If we were to use bad grammar or even only talk in primitive infinitives and in the present tense, we would still be able to communicate basic meaning, if at the same time we knew the words.

More importantly, we can almost always understand the gist of what someone says to us, when we know the words they use, even if we are not familiar with all the finer shades of the tenses and grammatical relationships in a given sentence.

This does not work the other way around. If you were to learn the different tenses and rules without knowing thousands of words, you wouldn’t be able to understand what most people say most of the time, let alone speak yourself.

This is why learning with massive amounts of input, listening and reading a lot, is the most efficient technique. By reading interesting texts, listening to audio of stuff that you like, you are exposed to hundreds and even thousands of words in mere minutes. By seeing them over and over in context, you come to understand them. You acquire your target language, as the linguists say.

Remember that the words are the main obstacle. Focus on them, try and get them somehow. Gather them by the thousands. If President Clinton had wanted to learn a language, he should have put up a sign saying: It’s the words, stupid!

Soon you will find that you understand more and more, and most importantly: You will notice that your overwhelming urge to speak is finally met with an ability to do so.