Becoming an Independent Language Learner

The word indie has become almost synonymous with the word cool, conjuring up images of the rebel, the artist, the genius, and the adventurer. Whether it be indie films, indie authors, or indie musicians, the term can be added to almost any type of activity signaling something unexpected, uncommon, yet interesting and often exceptional.

It can refer to those who turn their backs on tradition to make their own way in the world or in their chosen field. This is often a choice of necessity rather than preference given that their voice may be so unique that a mainstream and conventional society is not yet ready to hear them, let alone take a chance on them. Thus, going indie is for those who are passionate about what they do, but also have the faith in themselves, in their ideas, and in their projects to go it alone. Romantic stuff, that.

But, what does it mean to go indie when it comes to language learning? Are we turning our backs on traditional learning methods or the extensive knowledge that has stemmed from thousands of years of language education?

Not exactly. When it comes to learning, going independent means taking ultimate responsibility and doing what you must to reach your goals. You do not expect that your instructor, your class, your material or your app is going to teach you that language. You understand that it all comes down to you and the effort you put in. This is also known as autonomy in education and if you do a quick online search, you’ll find thousands of articles and books praising the autonomous and independent learner as the successful learner.

It’s a change of attitude

Becoming an independent language learner is an attitude shift, it is a philosophy, it is a state of mind, and it will guide your approach. And most importantly, it is, IMHO, the most important thing to embrace if you ever plan on learning a language to fluency.

You may have seen polyglots online who can easily speak multiple languages. Their abilities are impressive and I, too, am often left in awe. Perhaps, you’ve watched their videos, bought their courses, read their tweets, and followed them on social media—all with the intent of becoming a good language learner yourself.

They all have their ideas on how best to learn based on what worked for them. But, for me, the most important takeaway from having watched these awesome people is that they are all independent learners. You will not see them promoting a specific type of material, class or instructor. Instead, they focus on what they did to achieve their success.

If you want to be an excellent language learner, then you must do the same.

What it looks like

Go Beyond

I see many people attend their class, complete their daily lesson, run through their exercises or do the prescribed 15 minutes on their language learning app and then call it a day. Don’t do that. Putting in the minimum effort will not lead you to fluency.

Instead, you must go above and beyond pushing yourself to do more. Practice on your own, take notes, create your own dialogs and role-plays to acquire material, listen to podcasts in your language jotting down words or phrases you recognize. Whatever you do is up to you, but do something.

Challenge Yourself

It is human nature to avoid a challenging situation, but in order to grow, we must look for and embrace the challenge. Through exercising our minds in this way, we are speeding up the language acquisition process, so make your training sessions intense.

For example:

Work on those hard-to-pronounce sounds and words. Treat them like tongue twisters, saying them quickly in order to get them down.
Try applying the grammatical constructions that confuse you the most. Build your own sentences, work them into conversations, drill yourself on them.
Listen to authentic material. Close your eyes and imagine what the conversations are about, listen for what you know, mimic the speakers and try to keep their quick pace.

Looking for the opportunity to push yourself is key to becoming an independent language learner. You are no longer waiting for someone to tell you what to do. You know what to do.

Gather Material

Do not rely solely on your learning material. Create your own by gathering examples of real-life language from authentic sources such as newspapers, blogs, podcasts, radio shows, television series, etc.

Fill up notebooks, folders, your laptop’s hard drive and use everything you find as learning material. Work with it, absorb it, drill it. This is what will push you beyond your textbook or app and into natural language.

Create Exercises

Create your own exercises to challenge yourself. You can do this during your dedicated learning time or simply on the fly as you commute to work, run errands, or work out at the gym.

Some examples may be:

Think of a sentence and then slowly swap out words to create new meanings.
Take ten words that you find difficult to remember and try working them into new sentences you create.
Imagine a situation and create a role-play in which you act out all of the parts.

Be Aware

Reflecting on your progress (or lack thereof) is crucial. You need to be constantly thinking about what is working, what isn’t, where you’re having problems, and why.

From there you can determine what you need to do in order to continue. Through reflection we become aware of ourselves as learners and that awareness is your best asset at helping you learn anything you’d like.

Become an Awesome Language Learner

By adopting an independent language learning approach, you are not only going to learn your desired language, you are going to become an excellent language learner all around.

And although it may seem like a lot of work and effort to get there, the journey is fun, exhilarating, and motivational. You’ll feel great about yourself. Seriously.

When you begin to see the progress and the awesome results of your efforts, your motivation will soar leading you to your ultimate goal—Fluency.

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