142: How to Learn Foreign Languages Faster & Better

9 Jan

How to Learn Foreign Languages Faster & BetterDoes foreign language learning seem awfully slow? Tune in as Megan and Gretchen reflect about 10+ ways to learn languages, including English, faster and more effectively.

Today’s episode is a response to a listener named Hassan, who lives in Iran and is studying electrical engineering. He wants to know how to learn English faster. This advice will be for students who want to go “above and beyond” the language learning they’re already doing in their classrooms.

Some of the suggestions Gretchen and Megan make include:

  • Daily practice of vocabulary and grammar
  • Sign up for a “word a day” SAT service, and practice incorporating that word in your daily life.
  • Speak with native speakers as much as possible. Finds ways to “immerse” yourself.
  • Listen to TV, radio, and podcasts. Talk about them with friends in the language you’re listening to them in.
  • Watch the “close captioning” so that you are seeing the language as well as hearing it
  • When there are words or phrases you really want to learn, put them up in your bedroom in visible ways, so you are surrounded by them
  • Practice writing  more in that language, and get someone to help you improve that writing by editing it for and with you
  • Get grammar support by googling “best online grammar practice.”
  • and more!