Thinking Of Learning A Language By Yourself?

Top ten tips for learning a foreign language autonomously These are just suggestions. What might work for you might not work for your brother...

1. As you don't have a teacher to set goals for you and provide motivation, you'll have to do it yourself. A goal that is written down is more powerful than an intention that you try to keep in your head. A good place to keep the goals is at the front (or back) of your vocabulary or exercise book). Try this format: "I want to be able to: order a three course meal without using a dictionary, agree a price with a taxi driver before a trip, discuss politics with friends, write a letter of complaint.."and so on

2. Listen, listen, listen. Remember a baby hears thousand of hours of her parents' speech before she says her first word. Rip CD's of language courses to mp3 and listen on the train or while running. Put on the CD player while you're doing the washing up. There's no need to concentrate; just let the sounds and rhythm flow in.

3. Keep vocabulary notebooks religiously. Note down new words and group them in your notebooks by date, grammatical category, theme etc. Write down words as they sound to you. Worry about correct spellings later.

4. Never take yourself so seriously that you're afraid to be laughed at. Sbagliando s'impara (We learn by making mistakes) If you're afraid of making a mistake, don't even bother to start out on the journey; just wait for the Star Trek automatic interpreter to appear on the market (can't be long now).

5. Find out what works best for you and what seems least like a chore. It could be watching foreign language You Tube videos, reading foreign language Wikipedia articles or copying out verb conjugations longhand.

6. Concentrate on getting the verbs right and you can worry about learning the rest of grammar later. (Especially true for Romance languages)

7. Revise early in the morning what you learned the day before.

8. Rehearse dialogues of everyday situations in your head.

9. When you learn a structure (e.g.. Do you have any bread)try to identify if there are any parts that could be substituted and note and practice them. So, for example, this sentences could be extended to "Do you have any sugar/tea/coffee/water"

10. Little and often is way better than long learning sessions with days` intervals in between.