How To Speed Up Language Learning

Language learning takes a long time and a lot of dedication, there is no miracle way to speed it up, and it is always going to be slow.

However, you can try and be efficient about what you do, which will help speed things up.

I see a lot of people waste their time when they are learning a language and it ultimately leads them to having very poor results and quitting.

I will go through some things you should be considering to make sure you are speeding up your progress  

Have An Actionable Goal

Having an actionable goal allows you to make sure you have something to aim for. If you don’t know what you are aiming for, you are never going to get anywhere.

You will just go back and forth and all over the place and then you might hopefully get somewhere. If you have a goal, you have a very clear journey mapped out and all you have to do is follow it and you will get there.

When I say “actionable” I mean that you are able to actually do something and measure it. This is saying things like “ I want to learn 1000 words” … “I want to reach the B1 level and pass the test”.

These are things you can actually set out and do and more importantly measure that they have happened. Vague goals can be helpful at times, but really you want small, short targeted goals that you can quickly work towards. Saying “I want to learn the language” is too board, it doesn’t really give you anything to immediately focus on.

It doesn’t sounds like there is much difference, but there is and you will notice that you are making faster progress is you set goals like this.

(You can read more about – How To Set A Language Goal)

Have A Solid Reason For Why You Want To Learn This Language

Motivation is a huge part of language learning. You really need to know why you are doing this and the stronger that motivation is, the better.

You are going to be learning this language for a long time and there will be plenty of times when you want to give up. Having that solid reason for why you are doing this is going to make sure you keep going when you feel like you are making no progress.

I’ve seen too many people just sort of give up or “take a break” from their studies. If they had stronger motivation they wouldn’t be doing that, they would be saying “no, I need to keep going because of X”.

These people get the results faster as they just keep pushing for what they want!

(You can read more about – How to Keep Motivated When Learning A Language)

Focus On What You Need From The Language

A very easy way to speed things up is to just focus on what you actually need in the language.

We often get our priorities wrong when we are learning a language and try and learn anything and everything. We get caught up in learning random stuff we are never going to use in daily conversation, such as the names of zoo animals.

This is of course important for our overall journey if we want to be fluent, but in the beginning we should be more focused on things we will actually use.

I would rather learn how to order a coffee, rather than know how to say “elephant”, I am going to find how to ask for things more useful.

Just think about what you want to use your language for, what do you want to talk about, what kind of TV shows do you want to watch? This should give you some direction for what you should be focusing on first.    

Spend More Time Getting Comfortable With What You Already Know

One of the biggest things that slows peoples progress is not taking the time to get comfortable with what they already know.

It can see like there is a constant desire for new knowledge, which is great, but also not that effective. Very few of us can look at something once and be able to commit it to memory. This means we need to stop taking steps forward and actually focus on what we have already learned.  

I think a lot of courses and apps make this problem worse. They are always trying to get you to do the next lesson. If you want to actually help yourself, go back and repeat lessons. Go over vocabulary you learned last week, last month. Make sure it’s still something you know and understand.

I have far too often come across a word and had no idea what it was; only to find out I had learned it 6 months ago. If I had taken the time to get comfortable with this word over the last few months I would have known it and now not needed to relearn it.

This can feel like you are going slower, but you are building your foundation stronger, so in the long run you will get there faster as you do not need to keep relearning things.

Do Lots Of Immersion To Speed Up Your Language Learning

Immersion is really the secret to speeding up your progress. You should be aiming to read and listen to as much of the language as possible.

Both reading and listening are going to expose you to the language, so the more you do, the better.

You are going to be exposed to new areas of the language, so you will learn new words. However, the really amazing part is that you will also be exposed to the areas you already know.

Immersion is great as you are practicing what you already know and getting comfortable with it, which as I discussed above is needed. The fact that you can also learn new things at the same just makes it one of the most productive things you can do. You really are killing two birds with one stone    

(You can read more about – Learning A Language By Immersion)

Comprehensible Input

It is also important that you are immersing with comprehensible input. This simply means that you need to be able to understand what you are you reading or listening to.

It’s okay if you don’t understand everything, but you do need to be able to understand some of it. The parts you do not understand are the new words you are being exposed to, so it is import to still have these gray areas so you can grow.

If the material you are using is not comprehensible, you are wasting your time. It really is important that you can roughly understand what is going on. This is going to allow your subconscious brain to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and you will make faster progress this way.  

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

Don’t Worry About Grammar Too Much

Grammar is important, but it’s also boring and complex. We can’t get around it, we do need it, but you don’t actually have to focus on it as much as you think.

Many learners often get hung up in the beginning trying to master it, which slows them down.

There is some sort of fear that you can’t learn a language properly until you have a solid grip on the grammar, which isn’t true. While some grammar topics are pretty important in the beginning, a lot of it can be initially ignored.

You need to be exposed to the language through immersion before you can be told how it works, otherwise it has no real context. This is why grammar is so difficult at the start you are being told theory without seeing it action.

If you are reading and listening to a lot of the language, you will start to notice little things, even subconsciously, so when you do go back and look at the grammar rules, it will click a lot quicker.

You will make more progress focusing on the grammar later down the line, not on day one.

Try And Use The Language

Using the language means speaking and writing. This is often put off for a while and instead the focus is on input. This can be a good idea and what I would suggest. However, if you want to see faster results, then speaking will help with this.

When you use the language you are forced to recall it. This is difficult when you first start, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. You find that your progress is faster if you are forced to recall it.     

If you can recall something easily, then it means you are comfortable with it and as I’ve already discussed, the more comfortable you are with the language the better.

Speaking and writing are basically just practicing what you already know, which makes them a great way to solidify your knowledge and just generally speed up your progress.

(You can read more about – How To Practice Speaking A Foreign Language)

Use The Language Throughout The Day

Using the language throughout the day is going to be a great way to speed up your learning.

When you break your study down and spread it out across the day it has a couple of effects.

You are using the language more often, you are basically making it a part of your daily life and it will seem more like a language and not just something you study on the side. Using a language in this way will give you faster results.

You will also find that breaking your language up like this means you actually do more over a day. To sit for an hour and study can be quite draining, where as you can easily do 5 minutes here and there through the day and it will add up to well over an hour. You might think you are doing less, but really it’s more.

(You can read more about – How To Use Your New Language Throughout Your Day)

Find Creative Ways To Learn Your New Language

Sitting down and Learning can be kind of boring and it is a real struggle for some people. If you are able to make the experience more interesting it will change the game.

Learning while doings something interesting doesn’t feel like learning, it just feels like fun. It’s almost like you are cheating the learning system.

The way to do this is find ways to incorporate interesting things into your learning. Sitting down to read a text book about grammar is probably not going to get you to excited, but learning about grammar while studying the lyrics of a song you like, is probably going to put just enough interest into it to keep you engaged.   

The internet has given us so much more access to different materials and tools than ever before and we can totally use this to our advantage and start learning in more non-traditional ways that are far more engaging. This extra level of interest will really speed your learning up.

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

Don’t Take Language Classes. Create Your Own System

I will admit that creating your own language learning system is a bit difficult to do, especially if you are a brand new learner and this is your first language. You might actually benefit from a little structure of a language class.

However, if you feel up for the challenge, you should create your own learning system. It might take a little experimentation at first, but in the end you will end up with a very slick system that should be tailored to your own learning strengths.

When you join a class there is set hoops you need to jump through. This is normally fine, the whole point of the class is to help you and you will be asked to learn certain things in a certain way. However, this might not always be the most ideal method for you and how you like to learn.

Classes may teach a topic in a way that you do not relate to you, where as if you studied this topic on your own you would take a different approach and you would take the information in quicker.

Classes often lean towards tests and personally, I hate tests. I feel I store the information in my brain and try to spit it out during the test and then immediately forget it all when I leave the exam room. I also find testing can ask for really specific things that are pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Personally I like to make my own learning journey and have my own goals that I want to reach and I like to get there in a way I find most effective for how my brain works.

I find overall this method is quicker than being in a set class system.

Have A Significant Other Who Speaks Your Target Language

So this one isn’t exactly possible for everyone and you shouldn’t really go out of your way to make this happen …but if it does, you will have a very valuable addition to your relationship.

Wanting to learn a language to talk to a friend or even for work can be very motivating, but when you want to learn it to communicate with someone you love, you will find you put even more effort in.

There is also the fact that your partner should be happy to help you more than anyone else would be willing to and you are also going to be around them pretty often, so you are always going to find the time to talk.

So, if you ever do end up with someone who can speak a different language you may find you learn a lot quicker than you have done before.

Commit To Your Languages For A Longer Period Of Time

To get there faster, you need to go slower. This might sounds crazy but hear me out.

Most people decide to learn a language and say things like “I’m going to be fluent in 6 months” which is crazy, even if you said 1 year it would be a huge ask.

Learning a language to fluency is totally possible, but you just need to be realistic about the timescale. Instead of committing to 6 months, give it 3 years. You are very likely to actually get there in this time.

When you hit 6 months, you will still probably be in the beginner levels. If you thought you would be fluent by this point, guess what happens? You give up. Maybe you try again a few months later, maybe you never go back to it.

However, if you planned for this by committing to a longer timescale, still being a beginner at 6 months isn’t going to bother you, you will just keep going and you are more likely to get to your goal as you are aiming at the 3 years.

It’s a classic case of slow and steady wins the race!

Conclusion

Language learning is always going to be a slow process; you will never be able to do it quickly, but you can now hopefully see there are some ways to do things more efficiently and things you can do to make sure you are focusing on the right areas.

Really learning a language comes down to effort and commitment. If you can do that, you will see results.

(You can read more about – What Does Being Fluent In A Language Mean?)