Learning foreign languages is difficult, and it is impossible not to study them nowadays. Foreign languages and, above all, English are necessary for everyone to do science and read the most modern books in the original language, to learn the latest news first-hand, watch films and enjoy modern art. The language is necessary for businessmen and politicians, lawyers and doctors, athletes and students.
Finally, it is impossible to travel without foreign languages, and trip is one of the most important sources of new emotions and life experience, everything that enriches us and helps us better understand our own homeland, ourselves.
Keep a diary in a foreign language
At first glance, the idea seems delusional. What kind of diary, what are you talking about?
Firstly, it is not necessary to write by hand at all – you can just as well keep an electronic diary. Secondly, the task is not as difficult as it seems at first glance: you will probably get a taste for it very quickly and start writing not under the stick or out of a sense of stubbornness, but simply from the heart.
Until the matter is disputed, it is not necessary to write a lot and often, the main thing is to do it regularly. It is not necessary to write in correct and official phrases – learn not to reproduce lines from a textbook, but to think in a foreign language, gradually turning it, if not your own, then at least familiar.
Most likely, you will not be satisfied with yourself, especially at first. But it is enough to look back, turn a few pages to make sure how much you have managed to master, what to achieve. Such reverse monitoring will allow you to track your progress, control your mistakes, gradually correct them, and help you gain confidence.
Find a pen pal
Having learned to communicate with yourself with the help of a diary, you can aim for something more. Why do we need languages? That's right, for communication! No diary can replace full-fledged communication with a native speaker, so students usually started correspondence with peers from the countries.
Now paper letters are rarely written, but this is not a reason to give up, because the Internet gives you many unprecedented opportunities! Just install the desired application on your mobile phone or search for residents of the country you are interested in on social networks - and voila! Of course, it is not a fact that a foreigner will immediately be interested in communicating with you, but do not give up - on the second, third or tenth attempt, things will definitely work out. The advantage of such live informal communication is also that you can learn a lot of interesting things about the life of the country, its culture, customs and traditions.
Compose
Okay, we mastered the diary and installed a roulette app to practice live correspondence. Everything seems to be fine, but you increasingly notice that your vocabulary is frankly lacking, and your communications consist of simple words, just like in typical chapters from a textbook.
It's boring and uninteresting, and it doesn't contribute to progress. But what to do?
Try to come up with a fairy tale! Well, or not a fairy tale, you can have a funny or scary story. Just not a simple one, as in the same textbook - it is better to come up with something fantastic and fabulous. Let your hero be a five-legged purple puppy with stalk eyes or a ten-year-old boy with blue hair flying on an old tire. Well, or pull push (by the way, try to come up with a definition for it in English or German – that's where there is room for practice!). The more ridiculous the story, the better — this is how you will train associative thinking and replenish your vocabulary.
Filter content
If you immediately take a text that is too complex, not adapted, to read, it will be extremely difficult to achieve success, and the temptation to quit halfway is very great.
An example of such complex content is fairy tales. They are also insidious and deceptive, because folklore is traditionally considered children's literature in our country. It's a shame not to understand a children's book, isn't it? Meanwhile, folklore works in foreign languages are traditionally considered one of the most difficult areas of translation!
Classical literature is also poorly suited for learning foreign languages, especially literature of the 16th-19th centuries: in the text you will almost certainly come across a bunch of unfamiliar words, references to personalities and events, specialized terms or old/outdated vocabulary. It is better to take a modern detective story or look for an adapted text.
A similar story is with movies and music. The language of Game of Thrones or Star Wars is simple enough, and memorizing new words and phrases will be easier than picking up something like Downton Abbey or Father Brown (especially the old version from the '80s and early '90s).
Use stickers and mobile apps
You can start with the simplest thing – change the layout on your cell phone (this way you will willy-nilly begin to get used to a new language for yourself). In addition, you can install an app with flashcards to work on expanding your vocabulary.
Online games can be another working solution. The fact is that people not only play in them, but also communicate! Install the game, choose the appropriate language, and get the opportunity to communicate with foreigners in an informal, natural environment.
Finally, vocabulary can be replenished not only with the help of abstract cards, but also with stickers. Paste them all over the house; So sooner or later you will definitely remember that a table is a table.
