#target lanuage spanish

[thottyoptimusprime]

Hey, I started a language learning club at my local library so that there is a space for language learners to practice, share resources and be with like minded people. Made an eventbrite program for it so that it will be easier to share it.

[wanderlustlanguages]

How to learn languages when you are REALLY busy

I realise that you’ve probably all thought of ALL these things before so just see it as a reminder to acutally do those things because trust me they work!! And remember even if you only invest 10 minutes a day that’s still something :)

1. try to kill procrastination

personally I love to do lists (as long as they are realistically doable in a day) I know that often we are like ‘oh but I don’t want to make my hobby a task’ which I used to think for the longest time as well but honestly when you have it on your do to list it makes you make the time to practise the language because you want to tick it off and it makes you feel good if you feel like your actually used your free time to do what you love instead of just...scrolling through social media and afterwards feeling like you wasted all your free time.

2. make sure you have things easily available once you find the time to practice your target lanuage

download podcasts/audiobooks/music on your phone (personally I love to listen to the news in my target languages because it is something that feels natural to do everyday and only takes 5-10mins) listen to them in the car, in the supermaket, on the bus, while cleaning...and don’t think that only actively listening helps (it is of course very effective but having it play in the background is still super helpful when it comes to the rhtym of the language etc. Podcasts I personally enjoy: RFI le journal en français facil: (also available on apple Podcast app) RFI Noticias de América: (also available on apple Podcast app) Notes in Spanish: (also availble on apple Podcast app) Note: there are different podcasts in this series for different levels personally I recommend the Gold one for a little more advanced learners Del Mundo al Plato: (also available on apple Podcast app) if you like food you’ll like this Learn Portuguese - BrazilianPodClass: available on apple Podcast app (couldn’t find it anywhere else online) (BTW I plan on making a more extensive posts about Podcasts soon so stay tuned for that) Spotify Playlists: Disney songs in french Disney songs in spanish French songs

Youtube videos are amazing because it’s seriously a relaxing activity and you still practise wihtout realizing that you do.. Spanish Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/kikilloVlogs (comedy) https://www.youtube.com/user/LibrosPorLeer (booktube) https://www.youtube.com/user/crisisbeauty (beauty) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZJ7m7EnCNodqnu5SAtg8eQ (comedy) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUh-JaqgVO1s29x6e49tHCw (documentaries) French Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyWqModMQlbIo8274Wh_ZsQ (Cyprien...idk...just watch it?) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEf0-WZoqYFzLZtx43KPvag (actually learning French) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCww2zZWg4Cf5xcRKG-ThmXQ (comedy I suppose?!) https://www.youtube.com/user/ptitenatou/videos (Idk...why are all French YT channels such a mess?) German Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/ItsColeslaw/videos (I haven’t watched her in a while but she’s really down to earth...) https://www.youtube.com/user/Barbieloveslipsticks (A bit more on the ‘girly side’ but like the nicest person ever) https://www.youtube.com/user/TopZehn (totally UNreliable facts but everyone who lives in a German speaking country knows this channel) Portuguese Youtube Channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/cabidecolorido (probably a video for everyone on this channel) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLPXpKv6WDc7mtapsbMyPHg (travelling) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYLD2XEuOg-WfeqG78GfwZw (about languages but also other stuff) MIXED/About language learning etc.: https://www.youtube.com/user/DamonAndJo (travelling & languages, I LOVE THESE 2 SM) https://www.youtube.com/user/OmAurella (lovely girl learning French) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pod+101 (3min language videos; check out all these channels...maybe there’s one in your target language)

Study Vocab whenever you get empty minutes for example on the bus, at the train station, waiting at the doctors’ etc. Use anki, memrise, quizlet whatever works for you

Read a book you wanted to read anyways on your target language (rereading your favourite book totally counts as well) or maybe you can even dabble in some famous literature how about Don Quijote in Spanish or Pinocchio in Italian

Read the news German news: http://derstandard.at/ http://diepresse.com/ - Buzzfeed news is available in many different languages

Make to do or shopping lists in your target language

change your phone to your target language or maybe even your laptop

Before going to bed take 5minutes to talk to yourself or write about your day. At the beginning you might only be able to form one sentence in 5 minutes but after a few months ten..

Follow accounts that post in your target language(s) on ALL your social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This account can be about whatever just make sure they are in your target language

Focus more on Vocabulary: a ratio of about 70% vocabulary to 30% grammar etc. should help. Learn basic sentence structure and then kick of with the vocab you’d be surprised how much you can say that way.

Subsribe to a ‘daily word’ mailing list, if you are someone who checks their email everyday that’s one word learnt easily

find blogs that post about grammar rules etc. you can read those on the go unlike a grammar book: example for Brazilian Portuguese: https://streetsmartbrazil.com/blog/

find websites in your target languages

find online exercises to practise the grammar, you can do those on the go and personally I find it easier to get myself to do those rather than sit in front of a grammar book

[high-liters-and-tea-blog]

Language Learning Tip!!

GREETINGS ALL! (I’m rly sorry my posts are always whole novels but like I say as much as I can to make sure you get the idea.) Idk if I’m the best person to be giving out language tips but like this is just something I personally have been doing and I found it actually helps a lot.

1. Find songs in that language or take your favourite songs and translate them to that language. I, personally, started small with like nursery rhymes and things like that because the vocabulary and syntax is at a beginner level, then I moved on until I got to my favourite songs. II’m now at a level of french where I can listen to fast, harder, heavier music (like rap/trap/real underground stuff) and I can understand and catch a lot of the idomatic expressions and play on words etc

2. Similar to the first, find movies, tv shows, or other short videos with your target language. This especially helped me for sign language since the whole thing is basically watching, body language and facial expressions make up a good chunk of it. For spoken languages, this really helps with pronounciation, common expressions, idioms, and all those other things that you dont get from just studying/reading. French is all about tone, if you don’t sound nasal and slightly exaggerated you can potentially change the meaning of the sentence and with Hausa intonation is a major key. Plus with the various dialects, it’s good to be exposed to different pronounciations of the same word. If you can I’d definitely suggest something like a talk show (think oprah or Dr. Phil, not Ellen) because there’s not so much scripting and it’s a lot more natural (?)

3. (This tip is something I’ve jsut started doing as my Hausa vocabulary is starteing to grow) Incorporate the target language into your everyday life! I’ve gone around my room labelling everyday items (phone, eggs, clock etc) and if I need to use them I repeat the word and try and construct a basic sentence. ALSO RLY HELPFUL EXAMPLE but I’ve started doing my BuJo spreads in Hausa as well. This has greatly improved some of the more common calendar-related vocabulary like days of the week, numbers, time, and that sort of thing. I still write down quotes and tasks and things in english but hopefully that will change soon

4. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN AND LISTEN. If you can find native speakers actually speaking pls befriend them and do the most to listen to them. Listening is so important because you will again get to learn so much that books and vocab lists can’t teach you (Refer to the first two points!!). If you can do some sort of exchange program, for the first little while, just sit and blend in, listen, and observe, only speak when you are spoken to!! If that’s not an option then for sure the internet is a great place, you should be able to find a radioshow or something like that to listen to. Find something that is fairly natural so you pick up on the way people actually speak (I hope youunderstaand what I mean). This was a huge issue with me for french because the french you learn in school is like incredibly formal, only a conversation between the Queen and your great-great-grandmother would sound like that, literally the interview I had was so informal I was confused. I’m fortunate enough that my parents (obviously) speak Hausa to eachother at home still and I rly take advantage of this.

5. The last (for now) and possibly one of the most important tips I have today is DON’T WORRY ABOUT GRAMMAR AND WRITING AND ALL THAT RUBBISH, speaking and pronounciation is far more important than understanding written things. The spelling and things might confuse you and impair your speaking or pronounciation. Think of learning to speak as a baby, your parents didnt sit you down with a notebook or dictionary and write things out then have you try and read them back, they spoke to you and the writing came YEARS later! (That’s why I believe lanuages are taught so backwards in school). A lot of people learning French for the firs time pronounce things the way they would in English, forgetting that there are a lot more soft consonnants and silent letters. When I as learning spanish I got stuck in the french mode and kept things silent that should have been pronounced. When I was learning Portuguese I got stuck in Spanish mode and even tho things are spelled similarly or the same, they are said completely differently. Don’t even get me started on Russsian, I’m taking my precious time to learn how to read/write that! With Hausa I made sure to learn from these mistakes. Plus, I already knew a lot of words so when I finally saw how they were written I was a bit surprsed but I had a better understanding of pronounciation so it was easier to learn new words.

Side note; If anoyone has any apps/websites to recomend for languages that aren’t as popular to learn (such as Hausa) PLS LEAVE THEM BELOW OR SEND A MESSAGE!!!!!

***Language-Related Backstory****** ***Don’t feel obliged to read but here are my (somewhat) qualifications***

So my first language WAS NOT English and I went to french schools for the majority of my life so I’ve kinda always hated and struggled with English in school and just in life. At home we spoke exclusively in Hausa, It wasn’t until I started school (age 4-6) that I we started speaking english at home (my mom sent me to school with a list of common words in Hausa so that my teachers could communicate with me, but thats a whole other story)

From preschool to second grade (age 4-7) I actually went to french immersion schools, so in the morning we did our lessons in english and in the afternoon we repeated them in french, or we learned the concepts in english but execution and any key vocab was all in french. From third to 5th grade I went to a French school, as in native french- speakers only, I was rly lost and so were my parents (literally ALL communication was in french). So by this time we only spoke English at home and I lost all my Hausa. From then on I went to english schools and just took a lot of french classes, even in uni.

But after 15 years of constantly taking french in schoool and my teachers saying im fluent and never getting less than 96% in all things french, I applied for a bilingual job position and COULD NOT communicate fluently in french with the interviewer. It was then that I realized that I had just been taking the same grammar course for 15 years and obviously what you learn in school is not representative of what you apply in real life but with languages its REALLY much so.

SO, I’m now continuing my french studies on my own, I’ve been trying to teach myelf Sign Language for years but I get frustrated a lot easier, I’m (quite sporadically, I’ll admit) self- teaching myself Russian and Portuguese, and I’m (re-)teaching myself Hausa. Ideally, I’d love to speak at least 5 Languages fluently before I die