G’day all!

I know I don’t ask this question often enough but…

How’s your own language learning going?

Hopefully you’re staying committed and putting in some serious hours to get the successful outcome you deserve!

I’ve now been here in Korea for over 7 months and I’ve gotta say I’m starting to get pretty worn out and in need of a real holiday.

I was considering taking time out of my insane schedule to head down to the Philippines for a 1-2 week Tagalog challenge but at this stage I reckon a few days break from any kind of learning and laying on a beach with a fishing rod might be what I really need!

This has been a really intense time and I’ve sacrificed a lot of luxuries to hit my fluency mark in Korean up to this point (as I alluded to in this video, spending time exclusively with natives for many months is tougher than you might think). I haven’t decided exactly when I’ll leave here yet and even though I’m on a 1 year contract with my current job, other tempting opportunities have recently been offered to me in the Mid East and elsewhere.

One thing is for sure though – I refuse to leave this place until I can say mission accomplished with Korean.

When I first got here, I bragged about how I was going to divide my time between Korean, preparing for an Arabic translation exam, and maintaining 3 other spoken languages.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that spreading myself thin like that with full-time work was ridiculous. A complete and utter waste of time.

I needed focus if my Korean challenge was going to be a success so I decided that all that extra stuff had to be put on hold so I could give 100% of my time and energy to really smashing Korean. That included cutting back on blogging (hence my inactivity lately).

I have to say it has made an unbelievably noticeable difference.

Today I want to ask you something:

In your mind, what does a hard language look like? Is there such a thing as an easy language? Or is this just a false dichotomy?

The few times I’ve relaxed to watch a French movie or read something in Irish after I’ve spent many months focused on Korean, I’ve been blown away at how different they are in terms of their difficulty levels.

Some languages really do feel like a walk in the park compared to others.

Let me point out the obvious here and say that it’s all very relative to your own native language however.

Easy vs. hard languages – it all depends on your mother tongue

“French is a fucking joke.”

That was the reaction I had recently when I decided to kick back with some French after spending hours racking my brain over Korean, speaking with natives all day and feeling mentally wasted.

It really feels like a piece of cake compared to Korean (and my French is not impressive).

What I found unsurprising too was that my Korean friends who are fluent in Japanese feel the same way about Japanese after studying English.

It just makes more sense to them.

Now, I’ve criticised the FSI categories in the past for what I think is an inaccurate classification of Arabic but there is a reason why these categories exist based on the approximate length of time it takes English speakers to learn certain languages.

The fact that at least half of the English language is made up of French or Latin vocabulary and another quarter or third is Germanic in origin, it makes perfect sense that you’ve got a serious head-start on any Romance or Germanic language as an English speaker.

And that’s without factoring in all the related grammar and syntax as well.

If your first foreign language is a Romance or Germanic language then it might seem like a mammoth task but it’s not until you experience a language that’s totally alien that you really start to realise how close European languages are to each other.

The adjustment period

There’s one important point I want to make here which is this:

Once you’re over the initial ‘strangeness’ of a new language, it really becomes just like any other language.

The easy/difficult dichotomy eventually disappears.

All the extra hours you’d be expected to spend on a ‘difficult’ language is really just adjustment time at the end of the day – time spent getting your head around a new writing system, new phonetics and a bizarre new structure.

One thing that I’ve noticed moving from my time last year learning Irish to this year learning Korean is that because of the totally different structure of Korean, you require a massive transformation in the way you think if you hope to communicate smoothly.

The word order alone makes this so important.

A sentence like I spoke to the man who I met yesterday at work is something like yesterday at work met man to I spoke in Korean to give you one example.

If you’re thinking with your English cap on and trying to say things like this it’s gonna be a mess!

This is why it takes so much time to adjust – it’s not just about learning vocab and rules but a complete change in the way we think.

Every language needs hard work but for some the adjustment time is definitely longer than others.
Have you found one language easier to learn than another?

This was written by Donovan Nagel.

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One of the most frequently asked questions in language learning discussions is whether or not Rosetta Stone is worth the investment.

Does it work or is it just a well-marketed waste of time?

There’s no doubt that it has dominated the language market for some time and lately it’s caused quite a bit of discussion and speculation over its recently-announced takeover of the popular Livemocha community as well.

A quick online search for “Rosetta Stone review” yields many pages of reviews, nearly all of which are either extremely negative (directing you to an alternative product) or deceitfully positive (trying to earn a hefty commission on an expensive product).

Because of this it can be a challenge for fence-sitters to find reliable feedback.

Today I’m going to offer you some balanced insight on the method and content of Rosetta Stone, and whether or not it can be regarded as an effective learning tool.

There are no Rosetta Stone commission links in this article and no links to my own product.

I should also add that I’m not particularly interested in the additional features of Version 4 TOTALe so I won’t be touching on them (games, mobile apps and the very inflexible, teacher-directed lessons). What really matters is whether or not the core product is effective or not.

As always, you’re welcome to share your thoughts and experience in the comment section below!

What gives Rosetta Stone a notorious reputation

A lot of the criticism of Rosetta Stone stems from its biblically-proportioned price tag but not enough is actually said about how the software is intended to work.

I’ll attempt to do that here.

I will state from the outset however that I agree with most that the program is indeed outrageously expensive. At the time of this writing, I’ve found the complete packages of the TOTALe version selling for as high as $550 USD through various vendors online (the Rosetta Stone Korean site is actually selling levels 1-5 of Spanish for over $700 USD!!!).

For the average home user that is unjustifiably expensive.

Now, I’m sure that the speech recognition technology, research and expensive marketing campaigns account for most of this cost but for the average home user looking for a foreign language solution that’s well and truly beyond their means.

Just to give you an idea, these are just a few other things $550 could get you:

• Approximately 40 to 50 personalised, student-directed, one-on-one lessons with a native speaker via italki (approx. $10-12 an hour).
• Roughly 20 in-person, private lessons with a language instructor in your own area (approx. $25-30 an hour)
• For those living in Europe, several return flights to another European destination on a low-budget airline and a week or two of accommodation in an inner-city hostel to practise the language with the locals.
• For those in the US or Australia, it’s a large chunk of the cost for a budget trip to Latin America or South East Asia to immerse yourself in the local language.
• Almost any book or audio course on the market which are usually priced anywhere between $30 to $100 (save the rest or combine it with italki lessons).

I mention italki a lot on this blog (check it out here if you haven’t already).

It’s true that some people have no problem affording Rosetta Stone and there is of course the option of buying version 3 or a second-hand copy which is a significantly cheaper option.

For those of you who do have RS or are planning to get it anyway despite the cost, keep reading!

“I don’t know what it means if it’s not explained!”

The next major criticism is that no explicit explanations or translations are given.

Rosetta Stone prides itself on being an immersion tool that never uses L1 translations or explanations, forcing the user to rely solely on their own intuition while gradually acquiring the language content necessary for the next level.

In order to do this successfully it’s expected that you move through the program in a linear progression, expanding on the initial one or two word building blocks at the beginning of level 1 to some long, grammatically complex sentences in the higher levels.

People who enjoy the convenience of looking up grammatical explanations and always having the answer at their fingertips simply won’t appreciate this approach however.

I recently wrote about how living in the Google era where information is so easy to obtain means we’re no longer training our problem solving skills the way we used to – we’re all becoming increasingly stupider as our technology addiction grows.

Why do I need to figure stuff out when I can just Google it?

People treat information the same way they treat food these days. If it can’t be cooked in the microwave or bought in a drive-thru then it’s too much effort!

There are plenty of Rosetta Stone reviews out there but I wanted to embed one video review here that was put up recently about the Arabic version as the no explanation issue was one of the main criticisms that the reviewer had (and also to share her other points for the sake of balance).

She explains how she drove across town to get a translation for something that she almost certainly would have inferred on her own with a little patience.

I understand this initial frustration because I’ve just sampled a review copy of Rosetta Stone Korean myself and there were times where the images and sentences didn’t make any sense but I just accepted that I didn’t know and moved forward anyway knowing that the answer would eventually come.

Just to give you an example, I can recall one lesson where vocabulary for death, birth and marriage were introduced along with sentence structures to describe how long ago a person was born, got married, died, etc.

I was pretty confused here when I was hearing for the first time sentences about a child being already born, the grandparents being married for x amount of years and the grandfather passing away in the 1900’s. The pictures gave a good enough indication of what was going on but there was quite a lot of unfamiliar content too.

However I just put impatience aside and kept moving forward with the lessons, and it didn’t take long for everything to start coming together.

Through repetition and the various images it almost always becomes clear as it’s intended to (I have to say almost because there have been a total of 2 times where I resorted to a dictionary for clarification).

I learned Arabic as a teenager living in an Egyptian village surrounded by people who didn’t speak my language and a lot of my learning came about from essentially the same kind of process – repetition, visual cues and my own intuition.

There was never the option of driving across town for a translation.

Critics call Rosetta Stone’s natural immersion approach unnatural but for a piece of computer software I have to say it does a pretty good job at imitating a lot of the natural acquisition process - if you allow it to.

Inappropriate or unnatural speech styles for some languages

I can’t speak for every language version of Rosetta Stone but for some of them there’s definitely one area where it performs badly:

Speech styles and honorifics.

Languages like Korean and Japanese use various levels of politeness and honorific vocabulary depending on who you are and who you’re talking to. A child speaking to or about their grandparents would use a respectful style of speech that they would never use to their friends in the playground for example.

The problem with Rosetta Stone Korean (and I suspect the same is true of Japanese) is that it does a poor job at demonstrating this.

It is there but it’s just not clear enough.

There are also images throughout the program of people using honorific styles in a way that simply wouldn’t be seen in reality and there’s no casual speech used in the dialogues at all (e.g. in one lesson there’s a picture of a mother using a polite honorific form to address her daughter which is a little strange).

The Arabic edition also teaches conversational MSA (the dialect used for formal and written occasions) rather than a spoken dialect which would be far more practical and realistic.

Rosetta Stone isn’t alone in doing this though as most of the resources out there are just as guilty.

It’s not to say that you can’t learn polite, formal forms now and pick up the casual stuff later on but in my opinion it should always be the other way round.

If you have experience with another language version, please share whether or not you found similar issues with formality and inappropriate styles of speech when you used it.

Culturally irrelevant images and content

Two other frequent concerns with Rosetta Stone are that the images are culturally irrelevant and that essential language content is introduced too late or not at all.

Now, I have to say that it is a bit annoying to see photos that are set in a North American context when you’re learning a language of East Asia but I don’t think it’s a major problem.

A man is a man and a woman is a woman after all, regardless of what clothes they’re wearing or what context they’re standing in.

What would be nice however is if each language contained units with food, etiquette, cash and cultural expressions that are unique to each specific language.

Korean 1 introduces a lot of food and money content that aren’t really relevant to South Korea. For example, South Korean currency is in the 10,000′s and it takes quite a bit of getting used to when counting cash amounts but I don’t think that Rosetta Stone adequately prepares learners for this.

I also believe that it’s essential to have an extra unit in each language package that deals specifically with local cuisine. Learning how to say words like carrot and juice won’t benefit me much where I’m currently living so a good section on the kinds of meals I’d find in a Korean restaurant would be very handy.

Despite the irrelevance of some of the content, I have to say that you’re still getting good exposure to a whole range of vital sentence structures, vocabulary and numbers so at the end of the day I don’t think it’s that big of an issue.

Speaking units and the speech recognition system

A computer program is never going to be a substitute for another human being.

I don’t doubt that an enormous amount of work has gone into developing the speech recognition technology behind the Rosetta Stone speaking component but it’s still miles away from complete accuracy.

Numerous times I’ve deliberately spoken incorrectly into the microphone and had the software tell me I’m right, and I’ve also been told I’m wrong when I know I’m speaking accurately.

This would have been a very expensive thing for the company to develop, ultimately driving the cost way up for the consumer and yet it still doesn’t always work the way it should.

However!

What I think is absolutely brilliant about the speaking component is the way in which it forces the user to attempt to accurately recall the language while under pressure.

Output is vital in successful language acquisition and yet many people shy away from it until they’re “ready” which I believe is disastrously neglectful.

The Rosetta Stone speaking component does a decent job at breaking people out of that habit.

While it certainly isn’t the same as talking to a native speaker, the way that it places you under pressure to quickly recall and reproduce accurate sentence structures and vocabulary makes an enormous difference to your ability to do it in a real conversation.

The speech recognition software is far from perfect but the role it plays in forcing you to recall dialogue is really beneficial.

It’s a lot easier to recognize and identify something when you see or hear it but actually reproducing it spontaneously with a time constraint requires lots of practise.

Rosetta Stone deserves credit as it’s still one of the few products on the market that provides a much-needed feature like this.

No explicit grammar!

This is one area where I believe Rosetta Stone is spot on the mark.

As I said above, sentence structures are introduced gradually by the program in a linear progression, beginning with very clear structures (e.g. copula expressions and basic phrases) and working up to complex patterns in the higher levels.

Occasionally the program will highlight the grammar point to make clear what the user should be focused on:

This is where intuition and a bit of common sense make the world of difference.

The pictures above for example introduce a conditional sentence structure or the equivalent of “I wish/hope” in Korean (if it is ____, it would be good / I hope it’s _____).

There are about 3 or 4 other sequences of images that follow this one with a similar scenario – a picture of a person looking expectant followed by them looking either delighted or disappointed. You might be completely baffled the first time round but if you consider for a moment what’s happening in each set of images, you can infer at the very least that the first picture is one of hopefulness or expectation.

As I’ve said many times in the past, research (and experience) prove that you don’t need to study grammar to learn to speak a foreign language.

It often does more harm than good.

The part highlighted in red in that picture (-으면 좋겠어요) is what I and other SLA researchers call a language chunk – it’s a set formula that you learn as a whole and there is no need whatsoever as a new learner to break it down and dissect its grammatical constituents.

Nearly all of the expressions we use every day in our mother tongues are completely unoriginal, recycled language patterns/chunks that we’ve been exposed to constantly since the day we were born – just like the one in that picture.

Rosetta Stone does a very good job at progressively introducing these patterns with images that clearly reflect their meaning.

The verdict: is it worth it the investment?

As I’ve already written above, the price for a brand new copy of the latest version of Rosetta Stone is unjustifiably expensive.

For nearly all of the languages that Rosetta Stone provides, there are excellent free and inexpensive alternative materials available online. I’ve also given you some ideas on what you could otherwise afford if you have that kind of money at your disposal.

However…

I would have no hesitation recommending an older or second-hand version to supplement a person’s learning.

The key word here though is supplement.

I always say that variety is key and you should never rely solely on any program or book. Even though Rosetta Stone is designed to work on its own, I suggest using it in conjunction with other listening and reading material, and most importantly regular practise with native speakers.

Despite its faults, it can be a very effective piece of software.

One thing that has caught my attention recently is the Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program which according to the website currently covers 6 Native American languages.

I know from my experience back home that the Australian aboriginal communities in particular would benefit from a project like this given the lack of resources available for most of them.

Sadly, as I mentioned a while back, the software still has its astronomical price tag even for the endangered language programs which is just going to create another deterrent for indigenous people wanting to help their own language. It’s a challenge getting newer generations of indigenous people to take an interest in keeping their languages alive and most of them would probably struggle to afford such an expensive piece of software.

It’d be great if there was some attempt to subsidise this in future!

I hope you’ve found this review useful.

Please share your thoughts and experience (positive or negative) about Rosetta Stone in the comment section below and don’t forget to support this site by sharing it around.

Thanks!

This was written by Donovan Nagel.

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Rest assured that while the media’s causing hysteria over North Korea at the moment, people here in South Korea don’t seem to be worried at all.

First of all, sorry for the lack of frequent updates lately.

Working full-time here in Korea has given me lots of fantastic exposure to the language and helped me make good, native speaker friends but it’s also been demanding enough to mean that I’ve had to carefully ration the free time that I get.

My language and fitness targets have been my absolute priority this year, and since the weather’s warmer now I’ve been intentionally spending less time at home and more time out speaking with the Korean locals every chance I get.

I’ve reached the 6 month mark with the Korean language and I’m definitely at a clear intermediate level now which means that spontaneous, fruitful encounters and new friendships have started to become a real regular occurrence, opening up lots of new doors that I previously didn’t have.

My experience with Koreans (particularly in the smaller town that I live in) has shown me that many people here tend to be quite shy about talking to foreigners which I think has a lot to do with them lacking confidence in their own English skills more than anything else. It’s also true that approaching strangers for friendship is rare in Korean culture.

Some East Asian countries can be a tough nut to crack in terms of meeting new people without introduction but it’s definitely doable and very rewarding in the end.

This has been challenging but being the stubborn social risk-taker that I am, it’s a hurdle that I haven’t backed down from.

I’m also well aware that it’s been 3 months since I uploaded a progress video so I’ll do that and put some recorded chats with friends on my YouTube channel as well for anyone curious in tracking where I’m at.

The snowball effect

The more you comprehend, the more your chances are of learning passively.

Elementary learners often experience the frustration of being around native speakers having a conversation and only being able to pick out a couple of words here and there.

Most of what they hear is meaningless babble.

You simply cannot learn from incomprehensible noise and this is why passive listening as a beginner is pointless. Even though it’s good to get familiar with the sounds of the language, it’s not an effective use of your time.

But what I’ve noticed time and time again – especially this time with Korean – is that when you reach an intermediate level, you really do begin to notice the details of everything that’s going on around you.

Every time you’re in a conversation or within earshot of one at this level, you continually spot patterns, words and expressions that you previously couldn’t notice.

Although this requires you to have good attention to detail, a lot of it also happens effortlessly and unintentionally.

Comprehensible input, whether through reading or listening, is key to learning quickly and effectively, and as an intermediate learner begins to understand much larger amounts of what’s going on around him or her, the input that was previously useless suddenly gains new value.

Stuff that was totally alien a short while ago becomes meaningful – almost as if it happens overnight.

I think of it as a snowball that’s picking up speed and getting larger the further along it gets.

In the last few weeks, my Korean friends have remarked on what they say is a sharp, rapid improvement in my own level which I put down to the growing momentum of this learning snowball – pushed by driving perfectionism.

The good and ugly kinds of perfectionism

There are two kinds of perfectionists.

On the one hand, you have the know-it-all, (usually) socially inept types who lambast anyone or anything that dares to step outside the box and challenge the norm.

These are the kinds of vocal grammar nazis you find who just can’t stomach someone else’s unconventional ideas or success.

The people who have this kind of attitude study for ages waiting for the non-existent perfection day to arrive when they’ll finally be ready to start communicating. They’re the kind of people who are hesitant to practice openly out of fear of making mistakes and losing face.

It’s a crippling, negative attitude to have.

On the other hand, you have the kind of perfectionism that drives an individual to succeed and to never be satisfied with they’re at.

I alluded to it here while talking about fossilization:

The key here is to let perfectionism drive you to be on a daily mission to improve – even with the most rudimentary things.

I’m constantly keeping my ears open to listen to the way native speakers greet each other, the way they ask simple questions, the slang/colloquial expressions they may use in place of standard expressions, accent variations and so on.

I think to myself, “I know how to say X but I’m sure there’s a better, more natural way to say it” so I seek it out, letting that perfectionist ambition drive me to get it right.

As long as you don’t allow perfectionism to stall your progress through fear of making mistakes then it’s a powerful thing to be driven by.

This was written by Donovan Nagel.

Do you use StumbleUpon, Reddit, Pinterest or Digg? A quick upvote, like, pin or digg will make my day! Thanks. 

Comments: If you’ve got something you’d like to add to this or some constructive criticism you can do that at the bottom of this page. Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.

Language learning is all about trial and error.

You try one approach. It gives you crappy results. You try something else.

Those of us who have already learned foreign languages tend to find it much easier to learn another one because we’ve learned a lot from our previous mistakes. We know what not to do the next time round.

While everyone takes their own approach to language learning as well as the plethora of “you should do’s” (some of which may benefit some but not others), for today’s post I’ve decided to share 19 “do not do’s” which I believe are hugely important for all language learners.

The most important thing before you do anything of course is to have a real purpose for learning and to be resolutely determined to succeed no matter what.

Whatever distractions get thrown at you, you’re going to see this through to the end.

If you don’t have that level of motivation then stop reading now and find another hobby.

But if you do then read on!

1. Don’t miss the importance of being able to paraphrase and describe

We all have a different understanding of what fluency means.

I talked about what I believe to be fluency a while back which can basically be summed up as this:

Being able to describe or ‘paraphrase’ unknown target language content using the target language itself without needing to translate using your own language.

For example, I might not know the word for ‘library’ in Russian say, but if I can describe a building that has many books which I can borrow, a quiet place, a good place to study, etc. using Russian then you could say I’m conversationally fluent.

Specific vocab can be acquired over time as required.

You’ll never ever know every word and every aspect of grammar (even in your own language) but if you can describe and elicit it then you’re already where you need to be.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in my opinion is that they spend too much time trying to learn specific vocabulary and not enough on the core fundamentals (e.g. focusing on terms like ‘library’ which is extremely limited in its use instead of learning how to actually describe the place and its function).

2. Don’t squander your time

Language learning takes time.

A lot of it.

While it’s definitely possible to achieve limited, semi-functional fluency in a few months, you need to understand that learning a language properly takes serious time and to achieve even basic conversational fluency in several months requires daily dedication.

One lesson a week or occasional study periods won’t cut it.

Remember too that there’s only so much we’re capable of learning in the hours we have. Excessive study over many hours at a time will also produce detrimental results.

What this means is that 8 hours in 1 day does not equal 1 hour a day for 8 days.

It’s not the same.

I’m confident that the latter would yield far better results.

You need spaced repetition and you need mental rest which is all part of the learning process.

3. Don’t work against your learning strengths

I told the story a while back of how I failed nearly everything in school and my first year of college.

I was hopeless at anything that involved study.

That was until I discovered that I’m a visual-spatial learner which enabled me to radically change my approach to suit my strengths and weaknesses.

We’re all very different so take some time to assess what works for you and if need be, do as I did and get advice from a professional who can help you identify the things that aren’t working for you.

4. Don’t speak English (or any other language)!

Don’t speak anything other than your target language unless absolutely necessary!

This is such an important point.

I’m currently working as an English teacher in Korea so my job requires me to speak English.

Outside of work and apart from times like this where I have to write a blog post in English or communicate with English speakers (rarely), I use Korean.

I saturate myself in Korean every day.

If you’re not living abroad then you need to allocate as much time as possible every day to do this.

For those of you living in a city where your target language community can be found, make a habit of spending your spare time in that area.

In my home town of Brisbane we had a very small Arabic-speaking community who all lived around one particular area of the city and I used to hang around that spot constantly just to get as much language action as I could.

5. Don’t use outdated, inefficient methods

Grammar-translation methods and tedious memorization of words and rules have been standard practice for centuries all over the world.

They’re outdated and totally ineffective.

I’ve worked in Georgia and Turkey for example where I’ve seen students who have been learning English for years – sometimes decades – and still can’t communicate ‘at all’. They can read and they know English grammar better than most of us do but they can’t respond to the most basic questions.

Whether you’re in a classroom or learning on your own, focusing on conversational, functional language use is crucial.

Learn in context through interaction with other people.

6. Don’t have a macro goal without setting micro goals

What do I mean by macro and micro goals?

A macro goal would be something like, “I want to learn French to pass a C1 test in 2 years”.

It’s a large, long-term goal that you’re ultimately aiming for but you need smaller goals along the way to help you keep moving.

The micro goals are the small outposts that you conquer which give you constant motivation and a way to measure your progress when you look back on what you’ve done.

For example, good micro goals for a fairly new learner would be something like “have 5 conversations every day each week”, “get a haircut”, “make a transaction at the bank”, “instead of using a basic word like ‘go’ which is too easy now, use a more natural-sounding, better alternative like ‘attend’, ‘travel’ or ‘visit’” and so on.

By constantly setting these new goals you’ll never allow yourself to get comfortable.

7. Don’t work hard on one skill and neglect the others

When I’m not learning languages or stuck at work, I’m probably training at the gym.

If I miss a gym day I can’t live with myself!

One of the things I’ve learned to be careful about is making sure not to miss a major muscle group during the week.

This is to avoid ending up like those blokes who have strong upper bodies and then an embarassing set of pencil-thin legs to go with it because they neglect it in their training.

I think of speaking, listening, reading and writing as muscles that need plenty of divided attention.

If conversational fluency is all that matters to you then you might place less emphasis on reading and writing but never underestimate the overall benefit that those skills will have on each other.

Often when I’m speaking I’ll recall words and phrases that I’ve read or written before so it’s all helping achieve the same goal.

Writing is the alternative for practicing output too when speaking is impossible.

8. Don’t use crap material

A lot of people just can’t tell the difference between good and bad material.

Antiquated or overly polite terminology and expressions that nobody in real life actually uses, irrelevant content, confusing or messy grammar explanations, use of a romanized text rather than the original script are common problems.

The issue with bad material is that people spend so much time just trying to make sense of it and find what they’re looking for before they actually get to learning anything.

It’s really important to seek out opinions from experienced learners.

Scan the forums (HTLAL is good for this), blogs and product reviews on sites like Amazon and Book Depository. Ask people who have had success already for advice.

A high price and a pretty cover do NOT necessarily mean high quality.

9. Don’t disregard the culture

As I said before, this is one of the things that separates people who have ordinary success from those with outstanding success.

Language is made up so many intricate expressions of culture and books and courses never adequately cover them.

I’m talking about the way in which the average, ordinary person interacts with other people in his or her community – gestures, intonation, slang, proximity, interjections and cuss words, fillers, etc.

These things take years to pick up even for the best learners but it’s important to realize that they’re part of the whole package.

You need to develop a very good eye for detail and most importantly, a desire and willingness to assimilate into the target language community.

10. Don’t spend too much time studying

Study in short, spaced sessions.

Sitting in front of a book or screen for hours on end going over rules, flashcards and so on isn’t going to make you learn faster.

If anything it’ll hinder you.

Have study periods of 15-30 minutes and spend the rest of your available time putting the language to use.

11. Don’t abuse your physical well-being

Common-sense advice really.

Most people should know that physical well-being directly affects the brain’s performance.

If you sit in front of a computer or TV for hours on end, eat shit food and don’t get enough proper cardio exercise, it’s going to wreck your ability to problem solve and retain information.

Stop poisoning yourself.

The best days I have learning foreign languages come after an awesome sleep and a good, early morning workout.

12. Don’t wait until you’re ready to speak

You’re never going to be “ready”.

People have this idea that if they acquire enough input over time then eventually they’ll be at the point where they can finally start conversing with other people.

While I do believe that input should take some precedence over output (especially in the early stages), to hold off from speaking entirely is to miss out on crucial skill development.

This is not to mention all the interaction and important relationships you’ll deny yourself as well.

13. Don’t focus on grammar study

Heavy grammar study kills conversational progress.

I wrote a contentious post on my position about this here.

You started studying grammar in school after you became a fluent speaker of your native language. Grammar study is for literacy skills at higher levels, not for conversational fluency in the early stages.

I’ve shown this with Arabic and Irish, and I’m about to do the same with Korean.

Focus on dialogues and actively using common language patterns (chunks as some call them) and save the grammar study for later on.

14. Don’t read and listen to stuff that’s way above your level

I made this point in a video I made a short while back.

It’s best to use material that you already understand most of.

Once you’ve moved through the elementary coursebook material and start to use other resources, don’t overwhelm yourself with advanced level content that you understand hardly anything of.

If that means you have to stick to children’s books for a while instead of politics or thick novels, so be it!

15. Don’t allow other people to give you unrealistic expectations or feelings of inadequacy

Don’t be discouraged by that guy or girl who speaks amazingly well.

They’ve probably been learning for many years and put in a lot of hard work to get to where they are now. Let it encourage you.

Just focus on what you’re doing.

16. Don’t procrastinate with activities that make you think you’re achieving something when you’re not

It’s very easy to spend an addictive few hours using popular programs like Anki, Memrise or Duolingo.

There comes a point however where these things become just another form of procrastination – and a deceptive one at that.

Think of them as supplements to your learning and limit your time using them. An hour spent just flicking through flashcards is wasteful.

There’s a world full of people out there.

17. Don’t let technology make you stupid

I have to say I do agree with some that the more technologically advanced we get, the stupider we become.

It’s so easy to jump on Google and immediately find an answer to something that we used to have to work hard to figure out.

While there are definitely huge benefits to having so much online material at our fingertips, it also means that we’re not training our problem solving skills enough anymore (this applies to many areas including foreign languages).

Do your brain a favor and spend some quality time away from the screen (this includes your phone!).

I force myself to have technology fasts where I shut off the computer and sit down with the old-fashioned pencil and paper, a coursebook and a real dictionary.

Try it sometime.

18. Don’t pay for low-quality teachers

There are some seriously shit teachers out there. Lots of ‘em.

You’re the paying student – you’re in charge!

If they don’t give you a top-quality, communicative lesson and clearly identify your needs, allow you plenty of time to speak, demonstrate patience and so on then find another one.

I’ve had horrible teachers in person and online who just don’t know (or don’t care) how to teach.

The great thing about my favorite language exchange site italki is that you can take trial lessons with teachers to see what they’re like.

19. Don’t rely too much on teachers

And as a follow-on from the previous point, when you do find a good teacher don’t rely on them for your success.

A teacher can’t make you learn.

It’s up to you, the learner, to put in the time and effort to make it happen. Some people blame their lack of progress on the teachers but the truth is a good student will make the most of any lesson – even if it’s bad.

Language teachers are meant to be facilitators and helpers but the rest is up to you. Remember that!

Do you have anything you’d like to add to this list? Share your thoughts below!

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This was written by Donovan Nagel.

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Comments: If you’ve got something you’d like to add to this or some constructive criticism you can do that at the bottom of this page. Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.

G’day all.

If you didn’t read the post I wrote on being a social risk-taker a while back then you should check it out because what I’m about to say will reinforce what I said.

This will be a short, simple point but hopefully a hard-hitting one.

I’m on a constant mission here in this country to never allow myself to get comfortable by always implementing new strategies that raise the bar on improving this language (having my deadline gives it more of a sense of urgency too).

Comfort is not a good thing.

Today I’ve been reflecting on the one non-negotiable, absolutely necessary exercise that you can’t skip if you hope to become a fluent speaker of a foreign language:

Talking.

Now before you brush this off as an obvious point, read on!

Put fear aside and talk constantly

Of course, talking isn’t really a method or a strategy.

We all have the same goal which is to be able to talk, understand what we hear and to a lesser extent be able to read and write. We all have different preferred ways to achieve this.

But the truth is no matter what avenue you take to get to the same destination, you eventually need to do a hell of a lot of actual conversation to get there – countless hours.

There’s no way around this so you might as well hit it hard now.

Talk to people frequently. Do it daily.

Use the hell out of that foreign language until it doesn’t feel foreign anymore (even if you only know a little).

Show yourself no mercy

I’m writing this short post in a cafe and it’s now 10:30pm in Korea.

I’d like to go home when this is done, kick back and watch a movie but I’m not allowed to – it’s out of the question because I haven’t talked enough in Korean today.

So when I finish this, I’m heading out to reach what I call my talk quota for the day, where I’ll deliberately and strategically use different parts of speech that I’ve learned during the week and my under-practised vocab.

I decided to make a challenging target of 10 quality conversations per day – that means putting my social risk-taking into serious action.

It entails going out of my way to either meet new people or practise unfamiliar content with people I already know.

Routine, familiar content doesn’t count.

But I’m not living in the country like you are

Where there’s a will, there’s almost always a way.

As well as the lessons I get here in Korea, I also take a few lessons a week via one of the most brilliant sites I’ve ever come across – italki.

The teachers I meet with each week through italki are phenomenal. I’ve learned so much from them in a short period of time and it’s almost criminal how cheap it is.

While there are so many other options for finding conversation partners as well, you can effortlessly organise time every day of the week with a community tutor or professional teacher on italki – many of them only charge a few bucks an hour.

This is only the best of many options (make an account here if you haven’t already).

Obviously if you have native speakers living in your community then there’s no excuse at all.

Stop avoiding the inevitable

Even if it’s broken, grammatically wrong and poorly pronounced – open your mouth and talk! Do it every day and remember that mistakes are necessary.

If you’re waiting to get everything right before you do talk, you’re going to be waiting for a long time.

This was written by Donovan Nagel.

Do you use StumbleUpon, Reddit, Pinterest or Digg? A quick upvote, like, pin or digg will make my day! Thanks. 

Comments: If you’ve got something you’d like to add to this or some constructive criticism you can do that at the bottom of this page. Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.