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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Stop learning a language, start speaking it!

In my internet travels I came across the Lifehacker Blog. This blog refers to Language Hackers. One story tells is about a woman who did not speak anhything else but English when she was 21 years old. In the following seven years she learnt to speak another eight languages fluently. The blog argues that the key to actually learning a foreign language is to actually apply it.

Makes sense to me. The blog refers to Zenhabits -Simple Guide to speaking foreign languages. This site is full of tips and makes your mouth watery for language learning. Here is only a small selection of the tips mentioned:

Rather than downloading podcasts and buying too many courses, meet up with actual people and use the language! A few resources I like to use include:
  • Meetup.com for language meet-ups in major cities. You can also read advertisements in newspapers and your local library to see if people meet up interested in speaking the language you want to.
  • Join Couchsurfing and host foreign travelers in your home. The same site also has international meetings and a feature to search your city for people who speak a particular language.
  • You can also find native speakers online and practice over Skype, through many language learning social networks available for free online.

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