This is a topic I’ve always wanted to talk about here, not only because studying other languages is the passion of my life, but because I know I have a lot to help you with on this subject.
The hard part isn’t studying 4 languages, it’s studying 4 languages the right way with continuous progress.
I’ve reached the plateau several times while studying German, I have more than enough experience to talk about this, I overcame what was keeping me from evolving.
In fact, I only truly got out of the plateau when I used a memory palace, click here to use this system if you want to boost your studies.
I think everyone should learn another language, not to speak it per se, but to discover how many incredible things there are in this world that can change who we are.
Honestly, I don’t think any course will give you a better methodology for studying a language than what I’m about to tell you now.
The Standard Study Method
Well, when I started learning, I began like everyone else, with an online course, doing a few activities and applying the minimum effort possible.
It was exciting at first to tell myself that I was learning about a new world I had never known before, but time started fooling me.
The joy was big in the beginning, but as the months passed, I noticed my progress was getting slower and slower.
What’s going on? Wasn’t I supposed to be improving quickly, since I was following everything the teacher said?
If I could go back, I’d start the right way. There’s a problem in the methodology of every language teacher.
Whether you’re using Duolingo or any other app, there’s an inherent difficulty in it.
The Order:
This is a fact. Every course starts by teaching you the most basic words and then you move up, but once you finish that course, do you know how to keep studying?
The most common situation is that the student ends up lost, because they start consuming content in the other language but don’t have enough command of it to keep improving as a self-taught learner.
I’m not saying you should stop taking a course, but you need to be aware of this, especially because courses help a lot with languages that use different scripts, like Mandarin, Russian, or Arabic.
But in every language learning process, there’s an order that goes beyond just basic vocabulary.
You won’t learn everything in a random way, otherwise, you’ll barely make progress.
Frequent Words
To begin your learning, you need a list of frequent words. I recommend a list of the 1000 or 2000 most frequent words.
You can find it by searching on Google “Frequency Words [Language]”, like “List of the 1000 most frequent German words”.
The list will look something like this:
Now that you have the list, it’s time to move to the next part where we’ll use it in a practical and strategic way.
Organizing the Learning
Why do I use this type of list? I’ll tell you: as a beginner in a language, I don’t learn things I’ll forget in the next minute.
That means I could study a word that only appears in rare occasions early on, but that’s not very smart.
It’s not the most effective way because that word is rare, and since it won’t appear often, you’ll forget it quickly.
On the other hand, frequent words are very common. As a result, you consolidate what you’ve learned, and it gives you extra motivation.
🔺Studying in Practice
This is a special section for founding members because this content is extremely valuable. I haven’t seen anyone else study like this.
I’m not talking about frequent words, but what I’m about to show you now.
Anki
To begin studying a language, you need Anki, that’s non-negotiable. You can also use my Memory Palace Kit, but that’s for those who want to get out of the plateau and level up.
You’ll find plenty of tutorials on YouTube about how to do the initial setup, that’s the least of it. [It’s totally free.]
Creating Decks
After clicking the button to create a deck, you’ll reach a screen like this:
Here, you’ll insert the front card with the language you’re learning, and the back card with your native language along with the sentence translation.
[Search on YouTube how to install AwesomeTTS on Anki, that’ll be important.]
Using the list of frequent words
You’ll copy the words you want to learn for the day (I recommend 5 to 7 per day).
Once you know which words you’ll take for the day, copy the prompt below. It’s mine, I didn’t copy it from anywhere.