Foreign Language
Foreign Languages
Compassionate foreign language learning
Laura-Jane started learning languages for one reason: she believed that she couldn’t do it.
Having learned 3 foreign languages beyond a conversationally-fluent level in 4 years while studying full-time, she strives to help others get over that biggest hurdle in the polyglot journey: getting to speaking fluently in your first foreign language.
Due to the unique linguistic position of English in the world (it’s everywhere, and everyone speaks it), Laura-Jane focuses on helping native-English speakers break out into multilingualism, with her tools being inspiration, encouragement, empathy and compassion. Ironically, she’s a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language.
Laura-Jane strives to help as many people as possible overcome the limiting belief that they just can’t do it. She aims to demystify the process of language acquisition with her infamous leadership style:
“Screw it, I’ll go first.”
A talk for native English speakers!
Help! I want to speak a language but I hate studying it
There is something deeply bizarre about being a student.
Yearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason
Why do I want to learn a language?
What’s so appealing about Japanese? You don’t need to learn it. It probably won’t help you develop in your career. You never need to talk to anyone in Japanese. In fact, you have no friends or family members who speak Japanese. Maybe you’ve never even met a Japanese person. But still, somehow, you just feel that you really want to be able to speak Japanese. Why?
Maybe Japanese is not your story: maybe you really want to speak Polish. Maybe you wish you could speak effortlessly in French. Perhaps Mandarin Chinese grips you when you’ve never even been anywhere near Asia in your life. Or maybe you’ve got your eye on something much more uncommon like Romani or Toki Pona. You know you’ll never need to speak it. In fact, you’ll probably have a hard time even meeting someone who speaks the language. Yet, for some reason, you just really want to be able to speak it and understand it. You want to be fluent in it. Now.
Can I really learn a language by binge-watching Netflix?
Yes. Absolutely. Don’t believe me?
Everybody knows that too much TV is bad for you. Sure, that’s definitely true.
But, when you want to get natural, authentic, spontaneous fluency in a foreign language, packed with vocabulary and authentic expressions, I say it’s time to ignore that. It’s time to watch more TV. And, like, a lot more.
What a “lexical item” is and why you need to know about it
What is lexis? What are lexical items? How are they different from vocabulary? Are you learning vocabulary or lexis when you study foreign languages?
Language is not made up of individual words in isolation (vocabulary). Instead, language is made up of strings of words that are usually found together (lexical items). We should aim to remember these lexical items, rather than focussing on individual words.
4 free ways to improve your vocabulary: intermediate
So you’ve been learning your target language for a while, but you’re not seeing much progress, and the dream of being able to converse fluently just feels so far out of reach. Sure, you can say a few words and phrases, and maybe even understand basic conversations, but fluency feels like something you can never really achieve. How can you improve your vocabulary (and, crucially, how can you do it for free)? Which resources should you start with? In this post, I’ll share 4 ways you, as an intermediate learner who has the basics under control, can improve your vocabulary, with free resources I use myself.
Main Takeaway:
The best thing about these methods is that you can forget that you’re learning a language and you’re improving your vocabulary because the focus is on the content, not the words used to deliver the content.
Focus on content you enjoy,
not the words used to deliver that content.
How to start learning vocabulary in 4 steps: beginners (free resources)
So you’re a complete beginner and you want to learn a foreign language. How do you get started? How can you start learning vocabulary (and, crucially, how can you do it for free)? Which resources should you start with? Firstly, congratulations. You’ve done one of the toughest steps: actually getting started with learning the language you’re interested in. In this post, I’ll explain how you, as a beginner, can learn vocabulary in 4 steps, with free resources I’ve used myself.
“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.”
– Amy Chua
3 more struggles only the native English understand
So, you’ve decided that you really want to learn a foreign language. But, as a native English language learner, there are struggles that you face that non-native English speakers simply don’t understand. They don’t realise how difficult it is for you. They don’t realise that you face obstacles they don’t even realise that, half the time, they’re creating. Last week, I wrote an article called “3 struggles only the native English understand”. Here are 3 more struggles that only native English language learners understand.
“Every polyglot was once a monoglot.”
– Unknown
3 struggles only the native English understand
As a native English person, it’s hard to learn a foreign language. In fact, really hard. It’s a struggle. Let’s talk about 3 struggles that only native English language learners understand.
“Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
– Susan Jeffers
7 Rules for learning multiple languages at once
Do you want to learn multiple languages at the same time? How do you do it? Are there tricks for learning multiple languages at once? What if they all interest you? Will it work? Is it possible?
These questions are really, really common, especially among polyglots. They want to speak all the languages, and they want to speak them all now. Right now.
Is it possible?
Yes, absolutely. But, my experience is that, if you actually want to get good at the languages, and not hamper your chances at either, I strongly, strongly advise choosing just one (for now) and sticking with it. If you try to learn two languages from scratch, you’ll bite off more than you can chew, and you’ll end up not being able to speak either.
So it’s possible.
But should you do it? Well, that’s for you to decide.
How can you learn multiple languages at the same time? Here are 7 rules.
Did you enjoy discovering the 7 rules for learning multiple languages at once? Then here are some of my other blog posts that might interest you:
Here are some free ways to improve your vocabulary, for beginners (4 steps beginner) and intermediate learners (4 free ways-vocab)
Click here (What a “lexical item” is and why you need to know about it) to find out what a “lexical item” is, and how knowing about it could really speed up your language learning journey. And click here (Can I really learn a language by binge-watching Netflix?) to learn how you can apply this theory about lexical items to super-charging your language skills just by binge-watching Netflix, or other streaming platforms.
Click here (Help! I want to speak a language but I hate studying it) if, frankly, you’re fed up with studying languages, you want some empathy, and you’re ready to learn in a different way.
And click here (Yearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason) if nobody gets why you want to learn a language, and you want to be inspired and understood.