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Archives for September 2020

Language learning tips

5 Important Things to Remember When Talking to a Native Speaker

Before I start telling you about the 5 important things to remember when talking to a native speaker, you might be wondering – who IS a native speaker? Here’s my definition:

Native speaker – a divine creature living in the enchanted forest guarded by fairies who will only speak to you if you’re a certified mermaid

OK, I got a little carried away there. But seriously, I feel like everyone’s always scared of talking to native speakers. You shouldn’t be! I understand that talking to someone who speaks the language you’re trying to learn perfectly is a little intimidating, but don’t let that stop you. Use it to your advantage!

Here are the 5 important things to remember:

1) A native speaker is just a human being, like you.

Unless you’re an alien visiting the Earth, in which case, no worries, native speakers still won’t hurt you (hopefully)!😁

Jokes aside, native speakers also have a life to live, jobs, dreams, goals, fears… they’re not just standing in the crowd waiting for you to call their name. Which is both positive and negative.

On the one hand, not every native speaker is super friendly and wants to meet you just because you speak their language. Most of them don’t really care about that. I mean, who cares if you speak French if everyone speaks French in France. Yikes. That hurt.😢

On the other hand, they are not worried about your grammar or your vocabulary choice. As long as what you’re saying makes sense. Phew!

2) No need to be apologetic when talking to a native speaker.

I know you’ve said sorry more than once when speaking a foreign language!

”Sorry about my accent.”

”Sorry, I don’t speak French/English/Korean/etc. very well.”

Do NOT be sorry! Speaking, or trying to speak another language is nothing to be sorry about. If anything, native speakers should be sorry they don’t speak your language! 😉 Instead, you should say ”I’m talking in a language I don’t even think in – I’m, like, totally winning at life, okay?”

OK, don’t ACTUALLY say these words, just skip the whole sorry part and get to the point!

By the way, apologizing may even make people think less of you in general! Psychology’s not exactly my area of expertise, but you can read more about it here.

3) Native speakers are not constantly analyzing your language skills.

OK, let’s be real here – If something happened in the past, and you’re using a future tense, it’s confusing.

However, don’t worry about minor grammar mistakes, not choosing the best word to describe something, or your accent. Plus, most of the time, I bet you’re just paranoid about details. Even if you do make what’s considered to be a ”big” mistake, oh well – just laugh about it and carry on.

If you can’t remember a word – paraphrase!

Also, embrace your accent because that’s what makes you unique. 😊

4) Native speakers may not be language enthusiasts at all.

Just because a native speaker speaks their language perfectly doesn’t mean they know why something works the way it does. In fact, you may know more about their language more than they do… technically speaking. Unless somebody’s interested in linguistics or is trying to learn a language themselves, they won’t know what you consider to be basic terms such as ”prefix”, ”auxiliary”, ”comparative” etc.

That is to say, speaking a language comes naturally to them, so they may not know how to teach you something, unless that’s what they do for a living.

5) Native speakers are most likely impressed by you.

Even if you’ve just started learning a language, people will want to hear your story. Chances are that they’ve lived their whole lives in the country you’re visiting and more often than not, they’ll be curious to know about you.

Not only that, but learning another language requires effort, and it is something people always admire.

The point is, don’t be shy! Take the initiative and make first contact. Be yourself – truly and unapologetically! ✌

Language learning tips

4 Vocabulary In Context Exercises: Easy & Effective

Before we get into my favorite 4 super easy exercises to help you memorize vocabulary in context, you might be wondering – what is context anyway?

By definition, it is “the situation within which something happens“.

OK, that makes sense. So, how does context help me remember vocabulary?

Everything happens in some sort of situation or environment, and we use vocabulary to talk about that particular situation. So, it makes sense that connecting words to a situation will make it way easier for us to remember the word itself.

Context is also what allows us to understand the meaning of a sentence without necessarily understanding a particular word.

Let’s look at this sentence:

Although I always try to save _____, I cannot resist a sale.

I bet you figured out the missing word (money) right word. I’m also sure you guessed it right thanks to other words such as “sale” or “save” that usually goes with money. Both of these words created a situation, or context.

1) Decide on the word’s category

Is the new word a verb or noun? Or maybe an adjective? Etc. This information will help you know how to use the word.

 Usually, we use nouns to describe things or people, pronouns instead of nouns, verbs describe actions, adjectives are used to describe nouns and adverbs modify verbs or adjectives, prepositions show the relationship, conjunctions connect ideas or words and interjections express a strong emotion.

Guess the word category of the words in bold below:

Mike and Scott were anxious to go to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity. (cheerful eagerness)

Was Bruce too brusque when he rejected Jack’s request with a short “Not now!”? (abrupt in manner of speech, rudely abrupt)

This has been of the most difficult conundrums for the scientists. (difficult problem, riddle)

Peter, a gregarious bookstore owner, is a tall man. (sociable, outgoing)

2) Personalize the word

When you come across a word in a text or in a dictionary example, you know that the context must be right but you don’t know when to use it yourself. So, make a sentence that is very similar to the example sentence but true for you or someone you know. By making it personal, you’ll connect it to your own experience, therefore creating context!

Let’s work on some phrasal verbs:

Bring down – make unhappy – This sad music is bringing me down.

What’s bringing you down right now?

Call sth off – cancel – They have called off the wedding so we are free this weekend.

What has recently been called off?

Come across – find unexpectedly – I came across my old high school photos as I was cleaning.

Who/what did you come across?

Dress up – wear nice clothes – It’s a fancy restaurant so we have to dress up.

When do you usually dress up? 

3) Create context clues

Create context clues

What are context clues? They are hints that will help you remember or guess a word from the context.

There are different types of context clues, some of which are: direct definition, synonym, antonym and cause and effect context clues.

Let’s take the word ”loquacious” as an example.

Direct definition: Sarah is such a loquacious person. She always talks a lot.

Synonym: Sarah is such a loquacious person. She’s so talkative that she’ll talk the whole day without getting tired.

Antonym: Sarah is very loquacious, unlike John, who’s very quiet and barely says anything.

Cause and effect (so, since, therefore, thus): Since Sarah is very loquacious, I didn’t have to say much and just listened to her stories.

4) Connect words to create a story

Let’s say you have a list of words to study. You understand the meaning, but by studying them separately you are very, very likely to forget them because your brain cannot connect them to anything. Let’s think of some simple words: eat, sky, happy, talking, perfume, tennis, obvious.

What you can do is be creative and write a short story that will make sense to you. If it’s a verb, feel free to use any tense you like. Here I go:

The sky was blue and I was eating my lunch, when all of a sudden I heard someone calling my name. Obviosly, I thought: ”This is not a good time, I’m eating my lunch!”. I turned around and looked out my window – it was and lady with a tennis racket. She seemed happy. She introduced herself and I realized she was my high school friend! We spent the whole evening talking and her perfume smelled soooo nice!

I really hope you’ve realized how much context can help you memorize vocabulary more effectively! Now go study those words you’ve been meaning to for a long time and increase your range of vocabulary!

Baiiiii! ✌

Language learning tips

10 Awesome Benefits of Becoming Bilingual That You’ll Love

Before you start reading about the 10 awesome benefits of becoming bilingual that you’ll love, I’d just like to point out that you don’t have to be a child to become bilingual and good at a language. I started learning French when I was 20 and 5 years later I’m already fluent (not bragging – just want to make my point clear). I don’t consider it extraordinary and I KNOW everyone can do it if they try.

Don’t let anything stop you and don’t let it get to you if people get surprised that you’re learning a new language at 20/30/40/50 etc. It’s just their way of admiring you, believe me. You are awesome! And so are the benefits of being bilingual, so let’s check them out:

1) You can communicate with more people and make friends all over the globe

The more languages you speak, the easier it will be to communicate with others! I have to admit that I’m mostly fine with just English, though. However, people REALLY appreciate it if you speak their language. You can literally see their faces light up. It builds rapport instantly. I always try to make an effort and speak in Spanish with my Spanish students at least for a little while, and it makes such a difference.

Also, there are some places where nobody cares about English being lingua franca. When I was in Sicily (Italy), this was the case. You’re better off speaking French than English over there! I was in shock. Not so sure about France, either (since I always talk in French when I’m there), but I know they’re famous for being reluctant to speak English too.

2) You have more job opportunities

I’m gonna be honest with you and say that I’ve only come so far in my career because I speak both English and Spanish! My Spanish students have also been able to keep their jobs because they learned English and can now work in bilingual schools.

Even if you’re just looking to expand your business, you’ll be able to reach more people if you speak more than one language.

By the way, if you’re also learning Spanish, make sure to take a look at my list of most common expressions.

3) There’s more information to choose from

What do I mean by this? Well, I mean that if you speak another language you’ll have a variety of sources to get your information from. Not everything is true, but sometimes we don’t know it if we’re just listening to what our country/government wants us to listen to. There’s a lot of propaganda out there so if there’s something happening in the world and you speak more than one language, you’ll be able to compare different pieces of information and think critically.

Aside from politics (but I feel like this is so important, especially now), having a variety of information in a lot of languages really helped me when writing academic papers, for example.

4) You can watch movies and read books in their original language

This is my personal favorite!!!!!! I cannot STAND anything that’s dubbed or translated.

There’s nothing better than hearing George Clooney’s real voice instead of hearing the dubbed French version. I apologize to the voice actor but I don’t see how you can be into that kind of stuff. It is NOT the same – it just really sounds unnatural to me, and…funny.

As far as books are concerned, I just don’t trust those translators. Do you? There’s always something that’s ”lost in translation” and I WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING. What if there’s something really funny but cannot be translated so that it’s funny in the language it’s translated into so they just skip it or it sounds weird? I’m literally having a panic attack just thinking about it.

I mean, there are some really good translators but I believe it’s never the same, no matter what. And on the other hand, if something’s not translated well, like, if it’s obviously wrong, I just wanna rip my eyelashes out.

*takes a deep breath*

5) It makes travel easier and more fun

Just imagine being in a foreign city inside a foreign country surrounded by foreign people speaking a foreign language you don’t understand.

A n x i e t y m o d e O N

Now imagine all that but being able to understand everything and everyone! I know they say ignorance is bliss but in this case you’ll feel much more comfortable just being able to understand everything. Imagine you’re hungry but you can’t figure out what you’re eating because you can’t read the menu. Yeah, not the kind of ignorance I like anyway.

Another thing, I know I’ve mentioned I’m mostly fine with English everywhere I go, that’s true for airports and most ”famous” European destinations. However, don’t expect locals in a remote French village in Auvergne to speak English for you. You’ll be better off using your body language and speaking very loudly…because, you know, shouting makes someone more likely to understand you. Just joking, of course, please avoid shouting because it’s annoying as hell and doesn’t make sense.

6) You can learn new things

Sometimes, information about something you’re trying to learn is only available in one language. Even if there’s something about it in your native language as well, it’s always great to check out different approaches.

There are a lot of talented people who like to share what they do and teach you how to do it, and they do so through tutorials. So, if you’re trying to learn how to play the guitar, for example, you’ll be able to pick up some tricks you didn’t know of from a Portuguese guitar player if you speak Portuguese.

7) It’s good for the brain

Science backs me up on this one but I won’t get too technical, I just want to emphasize that you’re far less likely to get dementia if you learn a second language! It’ll also make your brain more creative, you’ll be able to get organized better, concentrate well, have better memory etc. Your brain loves learning new stuff and learning a new language will be such a treat to our dear organ of soft nervous tissue. Yikes! Sorry, brain, still love you though.

8) You’re more likely to learn a third language

The benefit of knowing two languages is that you can learn a third one – yes, you read that correctly! Because, why should it ever stop? Keep’em coming! But yeah, jokes aside, if you already speak Spanish, it makes it a lot easier for you to learn French, since they belong to the same group of languages -Romance. The major languages in this group are also Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

9) It can reveal new aspects of your personality

Have you ever heard about how your personality changes when you speak a different language? There have been many studies about it and the results have shown that your personality truly does differ when switching from one language to another! How amazing is that?! Of course, you’re still the same person, but being bilingual can definitely reveal new sides of your personality. Perhaps what happens is that while learning a language, you pick up its culture as well! I can definitely see how that makes sense. For example, it’s generally considered that people in the south are more open and just generally friendlier. So, if somebody from the south teaches you a language or you acquire it while living there, you’re more likely to come across as friendly, too.

10) You can teach your kids (and others) a new language

…and your dog, for that matter! No, seriously, my dog could understand commands in all four languages that I speak. I wrote a cool article on how to teach a language here.

I obviously love teaching but it doesn’t have to be just a job. How about giving your children a head start and teaching them another language from day 1? Bilingual children do so much better at school and generally in life. It is a MYTH that children will be confused if you teach them more than one language. Yes, they will mix up grammar rules from time to time but usually by age 4 they’ll learn how to separate the languages. Our brains are smarter than we think!

Share the knowledge because sharing is caring, guys.

That is IT for this blog post! If you’re not bilingual already, what are you waiting for?! 😁

Language learning tips

The Truth About Why You Don’t Need to Know Everything To Be Fluent

Before we get into the truth about why you don’t need to know everything to be fluent in a foreign language, I’d like to clarify what this article is not about. It’s definitely NOT about teaching you how to get by in life and pride yourself on being clueless.

Nobody in their right mind should aim for that.

Besides, isn’t the beauty of life precisely about constantly empowering your mind with knowledge? Not only will you change yourself for the better, but learning about new concepts will also facilitate your language learning journey.

The more you know about culture or new topics that arise when studying your target language, the faster you’ll acquire the language, and that’s a fact. However, not knowing everything does not stop you from being fluent in a foreign language. What’s more, you should be all the more confident and proud of yourself because you’ve achieved something so amazing as speaking a language you could not speak 5/10/15/etc. years ago.

As I’ve already mentioned in my language learning myths article, it is a myth that being fluent means knowing everything.

Why’s that?

You can always paraphrase when you can’t think of the word for something.

My students often think that if they can’t think of the perfect word for a certain type of thing, they should absolutely stop and not say anything until they find the most precise word. Well, bad news, the Earth won’t stop turning while you’re trying to think of the best thing to say. Even worse, the person you’re speaking to will be bored in the best case, if not annoyed.

Stop trying to look for the perfect word! Just say it – describe it or use a synonym.

Let’s say you don’t know how to say ”bad”, well you can always say ”not good”. Right? Will anyone know you couldn’t think of the ”right” word to say – NO! Nobody really cares and nobody’s judging you, what they want to understand is the message you’re trying to convey.

I’ll give you another example that’s simple, but it should give you a very clear idea of how you can paraphrase.

There’s so much language material and you don’t need to understand all of it to express yourself.

So, you think my US friends are able to comprehend 100% of what an Australian native speaker is saying? Absolutely not! Nor are the French from France able to fully understand a rap song in Canadian French, for that matter.

Of course, there’s a lot of slang that you’ll learn just by being in contact with other speakers, but you can’t possibly keep up with everything all the time.

Also, language changes over time. The English we speak today is completely different from what Shakespeare spoke (and wrote). To give you an idea – ”wherefore art thou Romeo?” used to mean ”why are you Romeo?”

Still, all these differences shouldn’t stop you from expressing your thoughts. The British may call cookies ”biscuits” but English is still English, so the rest of the phrase may give you a clue and you may be able to guess from the context.

You can’t expect yourself to be fluent if you know nothing about the topic anyway.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Well, this one is more about not setting such high expectations and judging yourself for not being able to talk about everything and contribute towards a conversation.

Actually, I feel a little silly writing this because it should be common sense. But to be honest, I’ve struggled with thinking I should absolutely be an expert on every topic, however silly and unrealistic that may sound!!!!!! 😱

That’s why I’d like to tell you that sometimes you should just SHUT UP AND LISTEN. As simple as that. It doesn’t mean you’re not fluent, it simply means you know nothing about the topic.

Let’s take a sport I know nothing about as an example – hockey. I can honestly tell you that I know next to nothing about this sport. In fact, I know more about Wonderland croquet than I do about hockey. You must be thinking like, what the hell is Wonderland croquet?! It’s a kind of croquet played with hedgehogs and flamingos as balls and mallets, respectively. I bet you didn’t know this!

The bottom line is – if you know nothing about something, it will be hard to discuss it and use the expressions associated with it. At the same time, you can always learn and do better next time!

I know what you’re thinking:

”Ooookay, you’re being way too kind to me, what does it mean to be fluent then if I don’t need to know everything?”

A million dollar question! Well, there’s a debate about this, but everyone generally agrees that it means being able to express yourself easily and accurately. Which in no way suggests that you should know everything said in the target language.

Language learning tips

6 Typical Spanish Expressions That You Need to Know

1. ¡Olé!

Translation: Well done!

OK, to me, there’s nothing more Spanish than Olé! The Spanish may not be too proud of me for choosing this as the first one on the list of Typical Spanish Expressions, since it is used in the bullfighting context (when the bullfighter performs well), and not all Spanish people are in favor of it. Nevertheless, this expression is very common in Spain, especially in the south (Andalucía). You can use it if you think someone deserves an applause, if someone sings well for example, at a sports match etc.

When my Spanish students pass an important exam, I always exclaim: ”Oléee!”

You may want to keep in mind that this expression can be used in an ironic way as well. For example, if someone wants to impress you by doing a cartwheel but falls, you can say ”¡Olé!”. Not that it ever happened to me *looks away*.

2. ¡Vale!

Translation: OK/ OK?

¿Vale? Vale, vale.

If you hear ”vale” being repeated multiple times, both as a question as an answer, FEAR NOT – all is well. Vale is the Spanish equivalent of okay or yeah.

-I’ll call you at 3.
-¡Vale!

Feel free to use it when you want to confirm something, in the same way as you’d use OK or All right.

It’s interesting that vale comes from ”valer”, grammatically speaking. Valer means to be worth, hence expressions such as: vale la pena/it’s worth it.

3. ¡Vaya!

Translation: Damn/Wow

Vaya is the Spanish equivalent of Damn/Wow/ Well well well. It can be used to express surprise or sadness/shock. Example:

¡Vaya! Y yo que pensé que eran mis amigos.
Damn! And I thought they were my friends

Another example is:

¡Vaya! Cuanto tiempo sin vernos.

Wow! We haven’t seen each other in so long.

4. ¡Qué Guay!

Translation: Awesome/Cool

¿Vamos a la playa? ¡Qué Guay!
We’re going to the beach! Awesome!

Guay can also be used as an adjective, for example:” Tu camiseta es muy guay!” (Your t-shirt is very cool)

5. Tío/tía

Translation: Guy/Girl

The literal translation would be aunt.

-Tía, escucha…
-Ummm I’m not your aunt!

However, in Spain, tía/tío also means ”girl/guy” and is used informally.

6.¡Anda ya!

Translation: Come on!/ I don’t believe you

This one is used to express disbelief and is the English equivalent of ”You’re kidding” or ”Come on”.

For example, your friend has just told you he’s won the lottery, you can tell him: ”¡Anda ya!”

By the way, don’t forget to study these words in the proper context, such as the one I provided in the example sentences. This is essential because you can’t just expect your brain to retain something that doesn’t make sense. Read more about why I don’t recommend learning a list of words by heart here.

If you’d like to see more examples, look the words up on Word Reference.

Hope you liked my list of 6 typical Spanish expressions, if so – ¡QUÉ GUAY!✌

Language learning tips

Having an Accent: 4 Reasons Why It’s Actually a Good Thing

No, I did not use to think having an accent when speaking a foreign language was totally OK. I used to think it was totally ridiculous and embarrassing. I’d cringe when I’d say things that would make my accent stand out.

First of all, let me make one thing clear – pronunciation and accent is not the same thing. The former is the ability to pronounce words so that others can understand you. You cannot read ”beautiful” as ”botiful’ and expect people to understand you. The latter (accent) is more about country, area or even social class.

Definitions taken from:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pronunciation https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/accent

Besides, it’s quite normal for a person from Quebec, for instance, to speak French in a Quebec accent. Or dialect, as we call it in linguistics.

Now that we know the difference between pronunciation and accent – let’s see why having an accent when speaking a foreign language is totally OK.

1.Your accent shows who you are.

If you’re American and you’re learning French, you’ll have an American accent when talking in French. Shocking!

Honestly, I bet you wouldn’t want to be mistaken for someone you’re not. You’ve probably lived your whole life in one country and the way you speak is influenced by that. WHO CARES if you don’t sound like a native speaker from France. That is not who you are. You are one bad ass human being who’s brave enough to share their thoughts in the language they don’t even think in. How amazing is that?

2.Impressing yourself matters more than impressing others.

Only YOU know how far you’ve come. Your language journey is unique. You remember how hard it was when you started and how many challenges you’ve faced.

The others will be impressed, but for a short while. You’ll get a compliment and get all happy, but nothing compares to the true feeling of happiness and being proud of yourself.

Besides:

3.Everyone has an accent.

It’s true!

For example, Americans would read ”herb” with a silent h, whereas the British would pronounce the h. Students often ask me which one is ”more correct”. Guess what, neither!

Take your own country as an example. I bet there are more than two accents/dialects. I also bet you traveled to a different part of your country at least once and thought: ”These people talk funny.” That is because their dialect is different!

There are also languages such as Spanish, English or French that are spoken in more than one country in the world. But, obviously, French in Quebec is different from French in France, due to physical isolation that took place and that allowed the two dialects to become distinct from each other.

A fun example (and more related to dialect than accent per se) would be that in Quebec French, ”terrain de stationnement” is still used (they’ve kept the old French word), whereas in French, it is called ”parking”! When I first heard Quebec French, I thought: ”Wow, their French sounds more French than French in France.” And that is precisely because of physical isolation! The French thought it was cool to start calling the place where you park your car a ”parking”, while in Quebec, this change could not take place.

The reason why I’m telling you all this is because I want to illustrate how much where you are physically influences the way you speak. You cannot fight it!

4.What matters is getting your idea across and being understood.

Unless you’re completely butchering words, which I don’t recommend at all, the only thing that matters is that you get your idea across. If your grammar and choice of words are great, you’re far better off than having ”the right accent” or getting the ”Wow, are you Frech? Your French is amazing!” compliment.

At the same time, I don’t want to discourage you from getting the accent you like. As a matter of fact, if you’re exposed to a certain accent, dialect or way of speaking, you’ll probably pick it up. Good for you. Just remember that having an accent when speaking a foreign language is totally OK. Embrace the difference!

I personally believe that making your accent perfect and conforming to some ridiculous standards is a language myth that should not be believed in.

Language myths can stop you from making progress, but FEAR NOT, I also made a list of the most common language learning myths: https://accentavocado.com/6-most-common-language-learning-myths-you-should-stop-believing/

Baiiii! 😁

Language learning tips

15 Quick And Easy Language Learning Activities For Busy People

If you’re wondering why I decided to come up with 15 quick language learning activities for busy people, let me tell you that it’s is because nobody has time for anything anymore! A 9 to 5 job, family, kids, commuting – all these things keep you super busy and you’d rather just lie on the couch watching a movie (in your native language, of course) and disconnect from everything.

I feel you. I’m writing this blog, have a full time job, I’m moving house in a month and I’m preparing a workshop that’ll take place in two months. Thankfully, I graduated two months ago, which makes it easier, but still.

That said, I’m pretty sure all of us have at least TEN MINUTES. The following activities will only take you that long, so let’s get started and do something productive for at least a short while. ⌛

1) Read two pages of a book

Yep, it will take you approximately 10 minutes to read two pages! Hey, that’s an entire book in about 3 months, which is super slow but think about this: If you started doing this 3 months ago, you’d already have read a book. I’m pretty sure it already took me longer than that to read a regular book in English because I wasn’t consistent.

2) Learn 5 new words (preferably around the same topic)

I definitely DON’T think you should choose just any topic. To make it more effective, try to go for something that’s similar to what you’re experiencing or something that you have on your mind. Look for meanings and example sentences for 5 minutes and then think of your own examples for the remaining time.

Random words will confuse you and won’t make much sense due to context. Here’s more about context: https://accentavocado.com/learning-vocabulary-by-heart-the-truth-about-it/

3) Record yourself talking about something

You can talk about ANYTHING (not like anyone’s going to hear it – unless you want to). Be your own audience and show host.

4) Listen to three songs while reading the lyrics

I’m sure you’re already doing this, but instead of just listening, look for a video with lyrics on YouTube and listen away while waiting for your bus.

5) Listen to a TedTalk

I LOVE TedTalk. In case you don’t know what it is – they’re short, powerful talks where speakers share their ideas about something. You can choose from a variety of topics.

6) Look up a recipe you recently tried, but in your target language this time

This way, you’re already familiar with it and it’ll be easier to connect the ideas. If you’re feeling super confident, you can also go ahead and look up a new recipe and make it for dinner! That’ll no longer be a quick and simple language learning activity, but it’ll sure be super fun. And delicious! Well, hopefully.

7) Read today’s news

No matter what language you’re learning, if you type ”today’s news” the search engine will find something for you. To learn a language you should also be up to date with what is going on in the country where that language is spoken.

8) Answer 10 random questions

You can find them on sites such as this one – https://allesl.com/esl-conversation-topics/

I love this one! Pretend you’re a celebrity and you get to answer the questions your fans have asked you.

9) Write about your day

How did you feel? What did you experience? Did you encounter any difficulties at work? Who did you see? You can write about anything that’s relevant to you and your day. Ideally, you’ll do this in the evening.

10) Choose a city you’d like to go to and find a travel vlog to watch

It’d be best to find a city where your target language is spoken, that way you gain an insight into its culture, which is something we sometimes forget about when learning a new language. Art, literature, the way people live is what allows you to truly immerse yourself in the foreign language, and that’s what culture is.

11) Listen to a debate or a discussion

Not only will it be interesting to watch, but you’ll learn some important expressions that’ll be useful when you want to discuss something with someone.

12) Find a How-to article to read

Two birds, one stone, right? You’ll learn how to do something AND practice your target language at the same time. Should’ve named this list ”quick and simple language learning activities that’ll make you a better person”, but let’s keep it modest. ✌

13) Pick up a book in your native language and translate

Take ANY book you like, seriously just turn around and take any book from your bookshelf. Randomly. And for ten minutes, you try to translate as much as you can. Do NOT get frustrated, just skip the parts you find hard to translate and keep it fun.

14) Listen to a podcast about a topic you know nothing about

You must be thinking – oh no, do I need to listen to something completely new AND it’s in a foreign language?

That is EXACTLY what I’m saying and you know you’ll be proud of yourself. too.

15) Look around and describe

How about stopping for a second and just being mindful about the world around you? Go out on your balcony, look out the window or simply stay where you are and describe what you see around you – is it sunny or cloudy? What color is the chair you’re sitting in? What are the people around you doing?

Hope you liked my list of quick and easy language learning activities! 🙂

Here’s a printable version:

Language learning tips

6 Language Learning Myths You Need to Stop Believing

When you’re learning a language, you’re vulnerable and naive, let’s face it! It’s easy to believe the myths people will come up with to either encourage or discourage you. That’s why I decided to share my list of 7 most common myths you hear when learning a language.

1) How do you not know what ”….” means? You don’t speak the … language well then.

Honestly guys, do you know and understand everything that is discussed in your native language? If you answered no – well of course you don’t, if you answered yes – stop lying to me right now.

The other day I had a class with a student who was judging herself for not knowing what ”sponging” meant when referring to dolphins (?). She immediately thought she didn’t understand the listening task, which made her forget everything else that was said in ”normal” language. She then asked me if we could listen to the task again, promising to nail it down this time.

Not only is this word useless to know in normal life (sorry, dolphin enthusiasts), but it was also coined in 1997. Which only goes to show that that new terms are born every day, folks…

The bottom line is, you are a language learner. Not a wanna-be-omniscient god of everything disguised as a language learner. Unless your goal really is to be all-knowing. Good luck with that!

Oh! Dolphin lovers, I owe you an article about sponging: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2008/12/15/sponging-dolphins-keep-it-in-the-family/

2) Learn … language in one week!

Oh really, what language is that – the one that has 100 words and one tense only? Let me know if there is a language like that and I’ll gladly take on the challenge. Learning a language takes time and your brain needs a loooot more time than just a week to make peace with all the new stuff you throw at it.

Here’s a fact: you’ll need approximately 200 hours to get from one level to another. There are 168 hours in a week (and that doesn’t even imply you’ll be fluent). So, even if you wanted to dedicate all your weekly hours (no sleep, sorry) to learning a language, it would be impossible. Plus, they would have to take you to the hospital due to extreme exhaustion.

This is one of the language learning myths that could end up being expensive as there are a lot of people selling the ”language in a week” idea.

3) No need to learn grammar rules, just learn key words and expressions and you’re good to go.

Woah woah woah hold up, go where? To the land of not making any sense whatsoever?

Sure, there are some phrases like: ”Water, please”. They don’t require grammar knowledge, I’ll give you that. However, your goal as a language learner shouldn’t be to just communicate your ideas, but to communicate them well. Otherwise, you’ll end up putting random words together, get confused looks and get frustrated. God forbid someone should ask you about an event in the past, or a wish (for which you’d need a conditional).

That being said, let’s check out another one of the language learning myths:

4) Grammar is the most important aspect when learning a language and you have to know the name of every tense.

Oh really? You think someone’s gonna come up to you over there in Paris by the Eiffel Tower and be like: ”Hey pal, I was wondering, how do we form le passé simple in French?” ? Spoiler: Nobody cares.

Grammar is super important, though, but not to the point where you need to know what every single grammatical thing is called. Leave that to language teachers!

5) The best way to learn a language is by going to a country where that language is spoken.

Yes…and no! I really have a hard time agreeing with this statement simply because there’s so much that enters into the equation when learning a language.

I know at least five people, living in the United States, who do not necessarily speak English better than some other people who are learning English in their home countries.

This can go to extremes, in which case we’re talking about a sociolinguistic term separation, which defines a person who rejects the host culture while maintaining their culture of origin. Of course, this talks about culture, but culture entails language and vice versa. You have to go out there and do stuff with natives and among natives! Do NOT rely on the the fairy from the enchanted forest that will come and plant the seed of knowledge in your head just because you’re living in a foreign country.

OF COURSE, it’s easier to find someone who speaks Spanish in Spain. That said, don’t think you’ll be fluent in the language you’re not even practicing. It’s common sense.

6) Learning a language involves long lists of vocabulary you should learn by heart.

If this were true, I would have never ever wanted to learn any language in my life. Why bother?! Unless you’re really into reciting poems that don’t even rhyme or make sense, I don’t see how you could embark on such a journey.

In order to learn vocabulary, you need context and that is what truly helps your brain make the connection. Without context, you’ll know the words but you’ll be unable to use them in the right situations.

I wrote a whole article about this, check it out: https://accentavocado.com/learning-vocabulary-by-heart-the-truth-about-it/

Hope you liked my list of language learning myths and that they’ll make the learning process go smoother. 🙂