Learning a Language on Your Own: A Toolkit

You CAN learn a language on your own. To be honest, you SHOULD learn a language on your own. Controversial statement, but I stand by it.

People are mistaken in their belief that they must sign up for a class in order to learn. I truly believe that classes actually hold people back.

“Wait, what?” 

Yes, I can hear you glorious readers screaming in unison – many in disagreement or even scorn.

So why do I say it then? It certainly isn’t because of the teacher who is most likely busting their a** to provide good content and instruction. I love and respect people who have dedicated their careers to helping people acquire languages. I’ve actually taught languages myself.

No. The reason that classes can often be a detriment is because of the attitude of the students themselves. This can be in the form of faulty expectations, unrealistic time commitments, and the demand for artificial and mandatory motivation.

When someone signs up for a language class their expectation is most often that someone is going to teach them the language. Their attitude then is to show up, perform the classwork and wait for the magic to happen. They feel that they can’t do anything unless the teacher assigns it to them. 

Now it is my turn to say, “Wait, what?”

You mean a student couldn’t:

• Find the meaning of a word on their own?
• Look for examples of grammatical patterns and usage on their own?
• Create a role-play on their own?
• Pretend to ask for directions on their own?
• Fill in a few exercises in a book on their own?
• Use the lesson’s vocabulary in sentences on their own?
• Seek out language partners to converse with on your own?

The above are all examples of what someone might find in a class, but a student could perfectly do any of those by themselves.

To go a step further, they should be doing this by themselves outside of class anyway and dedicating a lot of time to it. 

So let’s talk about time.

You won’t learn a language by attending a 45-minute class twice a week.  You must put in much more effort and commit to at least an hour a day (preferably more) if you want to acquire a foreign language.

This is frustrating for many very busy people to hear, but think of it like this:  It isn’t a lifestyle change like a diet or new workout routine. It is a temporary commitment to learn something you really want to learn.

Finally, there is the question of motivation. As I mention above, classes often provide artificial and mandatory motivation. People regularly tell me that they must attend a class because they need a teacher to tell them what to do or else they won’t do it.

Hmm…think about that. If you truly need someone else to light a fire under your a**, then you’re not ready to put in the effort and actually do it. That says to me that you don’t truly want it. If that is the case, then you’re not going to learn the language.

That may sound harsh but it is a truism that not only applies to language learning, but to anything in life. You need to want it for yourself to the point that you push yourself to get it.

So, do you genuinely want to learn a foreign language?

If the answer is yes, then let’s go.

THE TOOLKIT (WHAT YOU’LL NEED)

Learning Material

Learning material comes in all shapes and sizes. There are the traditional textbooks, the books designed for self-instruction, the online eLearning courses, and of course, the apps such as Duolingo, Babbel, Busu and the like.

We often think of these materials as being designed to teach us the language. Don’t think about them like that. That is not their role. They are there to offer you content and guidance in the language and hold your hand, so to speak, so that you are able to acquire it on your own. The reason that some people succeed and some people fail, even when they are using the same material, is based on the understanding of this concept. Those who are successful know that all the material can actually do is exist. It is up to the learner to work on assimilating the content.

So what should we look for in good material then?

We do not want material that provides detailed grammatical explanation. Those materials are written by and for linguists and will not help a learner gain fluency. Instead they will only provide an academic and intellectual understanding of how the language works, but will not allow you to actually apply it, i.e., speak or understand the language naturally.

Instead, look for material that has tons of full sentences that actually demonstrate the language in action. Accompanying audio will also be crucial, obviously, so you can listen to and repeat the way native speakers actually use their language.

I personally love the Assimil courses due to the fact that they focus on real language right from the start. And this means complicated language, too. This is how language works in real life and we must stop trying to protect ourselves from anything seen as “advanced.”

The explanations of how the language works are kept to a minimum and are there to guide your attention to what you must focus on without getting you hung up on irrelevant details that will not be beneficial.

The only problem with Assimil is that their selection in English is limited, with most of their courses using French as the base language.  Now this makes sense since they are a French company, but I sincerely hope that one day they will be able to translate these excellent courses into English too. If you’re out there Assimil and are listening, please get in touch.  Let’s work on that 🙂

Authentic Material

Authentic material refers to material that is created for native speakers of the language. This can be in the form of online (or printed, of course) newspapers, magazines, blogs, podcasts, radio programs, television series, and even social media posts.

Many people mistakenly think that authentic content should only be used when you are an advanced learner, but that thinking is flawed.

You must get exposure to real language, in real context, from day one – and in massive amounts.

People often will say: “But I can’t understand anything!”

Of course you can’t. This language is new to you. But it is wrong to think that sticking to learner material for years will fully prepare you for real language. It won’t. You are essentially being protected from the real world when you do not move beyond your textbook or app. This will result in extreme frustration when, after years of studying using only these materials, you find that you still can’t participate in genuine conversations. The reason is that you haven’t trained for real language in an authentic setting.

What you seriously need to do is to use the two simultaneously–learning material and authentic material. These two together provide you with guidance while also training you for the real world. Nothing better than that.

Remember this: Authentic material IS learning material.  And it is actually the best kind you can get.

An Internet Connection

This is obvious.

To have access to authentic material and other online resources, you will need to be connected – either through your computer or your phone.

Nothing more to be said here.

A Good Online Dictionary

I LOVE Glosbe!

Glosbe not only gives you definitions but also very valuable examples of the vocabulary used in real-life contexts and these are golden.

They take these samples from various resources so you will find sentences as they  may be used in formal situations (such as a UN briefing) or in informal situations (such as a Netflix series).

This resource is truly a gem.

A Notebook

Good learners pay attention to what they are learning, where they are having problems, questions they may have, and what they need to do in order to proceed and better their ability.

Furthermore, you will need a place to brainstorm, take notes, complete your exercises, note down vocabulary you want to learn, practice your writing, or jot down examples you want to work with and acquire. You are in essence creating your own personalized material.

A notebook can be either physical (which is pretty cool and retro) or digital (any program on your laptop or your phone), but the most important thing is to create a system and keep your notes, material, questions, and thoughts all organized.

A Guide

The above will be all you need to actually learn a language on your own. But, I am going to add in a bit of self-promotion here too.

My book, Getting to Fluency, is written for the self-learner in mind. It will guide you through the understanding of the language acquisition process, introduce you to the necessary learning techniques to apply to any material you choose, and ultimately help you put together a personalized training plan. 

The book is the culmination of years of work with the ultimate goal of helping people become excellent independent language learners.

And a Final Inspirational Push

I want you to believe in yourself. You can learn any language you would like to learn, but do not fall into the thinking that it will be someone or something that is going to teach you.

Language is acquired by the learner and that means you.  It is about what you decide to do.

There are no excuses.  Go out and do it.

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