How To Learn A Language From Scratch – A Basic Guide To Get Started

Learning a language is a huge task and trying to do it on your own, from scratch can seem impossible.

However, with a bit of effort you can get started straight away and start learning the language you have always dreamed about.

It’s never too late to start and there is no reason why you cannot start today, so let’s look at how you should begin. 

Make Your Language Goals And Understand Your Motivations

Before you do anything you need to know what you are going to do and why. Language Goals are pretty easy to set, they can be as simple as just wanting to be fluent or they can be far more complex.

Just write down whatever you want to achieve with a language and make that your goal.

As for motivation, you need to ask yourself why you want to do this. Learning a language is a huge commitment, some people just want to do it just because they want to do it, which is fine.

However, if you can give yourself a solid reason, it will really help push you towards your goal, especially during difficult times.

Perhaps you want to move to a country that speaks the language, or you want to get a certain job. Maybe you just hate reading subtitles of your favourite film. Whatever the reason, write it down along with your goals.

It’s important to write these down as it will make it seem more real. (Which sounds stupid, but it’s actually true) you can also come back and re-read these goals and motivations if you are ever struggling or want to quit.

Choose Your Language Learning Tools

Finding the right tools can be difficult and over whelming as there is so much choice. There are so many language courses, textbooks, apps, tutors, videos and everything else in between.

You should stick to one thing and focus on it. Give it some time. If you want to use a certain Language app, use just that. Don’t download six different ones.  After a few months, or even weeks, you can re-evaluate you progress and change your learning technique or tool.

Learning a language takes time and consistency, so you do not need to rush to try every method immediately.

It is also not important what technique you try first. You can always re-learn things or at the very least recap things.

Recapping things you have already covered is not a waste of time in language learning; in fact it is the complete opposite and very beneficial.

(You can read more about – Beginner Language Learning Tools That Will Help You Learn By Yourself)

Learn Basic Words/Phrases In Your New Language

You should start by trying to learn the very basics, simple words and phrases are essential and you will use them daily for the rest of your life.

Learning these at the beginning is a great idea and really gives you a good head start in your language learning journey. 

They will give you a solid foundation to work with, as well as giving you the confidence to feel like you can understand simple conversations. 

Get Familiar With The Language

In the beginning you need to get familiar with the language. You need to read and listen to as much as you can. I know most of it will make no sense, but that is fine. This is often called immersion and it is extremely important.

You need to just get used to how the words look and sound and just get used to seeing and hearing it. You will get familiar with the language fairly quickly, but this is when the real work needs to start.

You need to carry on with your immersion and to really make it effective you need to be absorbing the language at a level you can understand. You need your immersion to be “comprehensible input”. This means you will be reading and listening to a lot of basic stuff, but this is perfect.

As you get more comfortable with the basics of the language you will be able to understand more and more until eventually you will be comfortable with understanding.

When you reach this level you will find speaking seems more attainable.

(You can read more about – What Is Comprehensible Input In Language Learning?)

Listen To More Of The Language

Listening seems like a very passive activity, but if you do it correctly it can really help with your active learning.

The more you listen to comprehensible input, the better you will become at the language. You will become faster at processing the words you hear and this will allow you to ultimately speak and write faster as well as have better pronunciation. You will not need to sit and think about what words to use. They will start to become automatic.

Listening lots is the key to language learning. You just need to do more of it.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand it all or it’s too fast at times, your brain will slowly absorb it and with time you will get better and better as you learn.

Just listen to as much as you can, it will help.

(You can read more about – How Important Is Listening In Language Learning?)

Practice Good Pronunciation

Most languages you try and learn are going to have a different set of sounds and pronunciations compared to your own language.

You should aim to get good at these, right from the day you start speaking. You will probably need to move your mouth and tongue in new and weird ways to get the correct sounds, but this is really important to try and master.

Trying to unlearn bad technique and correct mistakes is so much harder than trying to learn it the right way the first time round.

This step can be slow and annoying and you may want to skip over it. However, give it the attention it needs and you will thank yourself in the future.

(You can read more about – How To Improve Pronunciation When Learning A New Language)

Build Your Language Learning Into A Daily Habit

Learning a language takes a lot of time and effort. It can be a big change in your life to try and start studying on top of everything else and it can be very easy to give up.

To reach your goals you will need to stay consistent over a long period of time. The best way to do this is to make language learning a habit.

The stronger you can make this habit, the better you will do. It’s this habitual behaviour that is going to push you to learn every day and slowly get to your goal.

Habits are hard to form, so the sooner you can make language learning a habit, the better.   

(You can read more about – How To Build A Language Learning Habit)

Practice A Lot

This one sounds obvious; but it is sometimes over looked by beginners.

The more you practice your new language the faster you will become better at it. It doesn’t matter what you practice, just be doing something with your new language.

The more you practice the stronger your memory will become. This will allow you to make the language become automatic in your brain, which basically means you will start to become fluent.

This will take a while, but with enough practice it will happen. Just keep practicing and you will get there.  

Have Fun With Your Language

Most importantly have fun. You have probably set out to learn a language on your own, so you should enjoy it.

Have fun, learn what interests you, talk to natives about things you like, watch the TV show that you are interested in and just enjoy the journey. You are more likely going to want to study and stick to a learning habit if you find it enjoyable and rewarding.

I know you are going to have to learn grammar rules and maybe do some boring exercises from time to time. These are pretty essential. However, they shouldn’t be your full language learning experience.

You are in control of what you learn and how, so enjoy yourself. You will have much better results if you enjoy the experience, so just have some fun with it. 

Conclusion

You should now be able to see that starting a language from nothing is more than possible and with a bit of time and effort can be achieved.

Make your goals, put in the effort consistently and enjoy yourself. You will be speaking your new language in no time!

(You can read more about – Advice For Beginner Language Learners)