Tips & Resources for Learning a New Language

Learning a language is a daunting task. Especially for most Americans who often aren’t offered a foreign language in the public school system until high school. By this age, the ability to learn a language has already started slipping away from us.

All over the world people are speaking English, and pretty well at that. In many parts of Europe and Asia it’s not uncommon for a student to start learning English, or another foreign language, in elementary school.

It’s said that you lose the ability to be truly bilingual well before the age of ten, which means that as an adult learning a new language is a serious challenge that requires a lot of hard work. If you want to learn a new language for your job, to travel, or just for fun here are a few tips for revving up the learning center of that adult brain of yours.

My first recommendation is the Pimsleur audio program. Many people claim it’s your best bet for learning a new language, especially if you want to pick up some conversation skills quickly. It can be spendy though. It comes on audio tape and CD and nowadays you can find it in MP3 format, on DVD, and even as an audio book chip.

You can try to find it used, or if you’re learning a popular language, like French or Spanish, your community library might have a copy. The website of the publisher, Simon & Schuster, can help you learn more about the various programs and how many sets are offered in the language you want to learn. Follow this link for an index of the various Pimsleur language learning materials: http://www.simonsays.com/content/index.cfm?PID=523078&tab=13

After deciding what you want and looking at the scary prices, try doing a search online for the specific product you want and hopefully you can find it much cheaper.

Pimsleur is great for conversation, but if you also want to be able to read, write, and understand the grammar of the language, you’ll need an additional resource or two. I’m a personal fan of http://www.wordchamp.com which is great for learning new vocabulary and practicing conjugating verbs. They offer many languages and you can customize your own flashcards. Many of the words have an audio clip of a native speaker to go along with the text.

I find http://www.languageguide.org extremely useful for conjugating French verbs. I also found it fun for learning Arabic vocabulary. However, being able to already read in the language you’re studying will be helpful for navigating through some of the activities, otherwise you can click and miss a bit and gradually learn the meanings of various words and phrases. Not everything is translated. Instead, they often use simple drawings to illustrate meanings, which can be a great learning tool for beginners.

If you’re interested in meeting a native speaker of the language you are studying with online to chat with or exchange emails, http://www.polyglot-learn-language.com is full of people from all over the world looking for language exchange. Most of the people on the site are legitimately looking for someone to share language with. If you make a profile you are bound to get countless replies from people looking to make a language exchange with you, especially if you are a native English speaker.

Once you have even a basic reading knowledge of the language, try looking for children’s books or websites aimed at children of that language. You’ll learn quite a lot without the safety net of a translation next to each word. Learning to type in the language you’re learning and searching the internet in that language is another way to learn quickly.

Another fun way to learn is to try cooking in the language. Learn the word for “recipe