Can you imagine traveling to a foreign place and being able to communicate with the locals without a translator? The possibility to live the world from another culture’s perspective is one of the charms of learning a new language. Here are some of the best tips for mastering your Spanish, French or Swahili as you start to plan your summer vacations. Most expensive language schools offer “full immersion” courses that they claim work wonders for your newly acquired knowledge. What do you do when your budget won’t allow for a two-week language learning retreat? Make it happen at home!
Put some music on in the language of your choice while you do the dishes. Rent foreign movies to get accustomed to pronunciation. Turn the radio or television on while you do other things and you’ll see how much your accent and understanding improves in a short span of time.
Another great tip that helps is trying to narrate everyday activities in another language while doing them. This makes it easier to improvise,and you’ll be surprised at how your vocabulary improves. Or you can try hobbies in a different language, like Chinese calligraphy to increase the enjoyment. In the end, language learning is less a matter of innate ability and more about not giving up. You can totally master another language in a few months — I believe in you!