Use the freebies

Click on the picture for 60 examples

Out there, online and elsewhere, exist trillions of free resources that you may use to learn a language more easily than ever before. You'd be a fool not to.

So get out there and find them.

Half the fun is looking for them!

What DON'T you need to learn another language?

What don’t you need to learn another language? And what do you? My two cents' worth.

I’ll start with what you don’t need. It may surprise you, since this runs counter to the conventional wisdom.

  
You don’t need:

• Willpower. You shouldn't. Your amount of this is limited, and you’ll run out of it if you rely on willpower on a regular basis. What you do should be so arranged that you enjoy doing it.
• Gift. There are far fewer people with a gift for languages than you think. Conversely, almost everyone has the aptitude.
• Time. You don’t need great big chunks of time. Five minutes here and there will mount up. And short bursts are actually better.
• Analytical mind. You need to be interested in order to learn. But to break things up into ever smaller portions won’t help you use a language. You lose speed and fluency.
• Memory. Not short term memory. Long term memory is what you need. And that relies on ‘forgetting’ nonessentials or things you’re not quite ready for.
• A knowledge of grammar. Certainly not the technical terms and whatnot. But an internal feel for what sounds right is another matter.
• Teacher. No you don’t. You need to take charge of your own learning. And the sooner the better.
• Intelligence. What’s the lowest IQ that you need to be able to use your own language? Exactly!
• Materials. Language learning materials are produced to make someone a profit. Just make use of the materials that people of the language you’re interested in are interested in.
• Outgoing personality. No difference has been shown between introverts and extroverts. Not as far as learning a language goes
• Energy. You may choose to spend a lot of energy. But if you need to, then you’re doing it wrong. Energy, like willpower, is limited.

You do need:

• Desire. It helps a lot if there’s something that you have a passion for which requires knowing the language. That’s too wordy . . . You’ve gotta love something about it.
• Reason. The stronger your reason or need to know a language, the more likely you’ll learn it.
• Tenacity. It takes a long time. It isn’t difficult, but progress is slow. So it helps if you are dogged. If you have a history of going long projects.
• Independence. You need to be able to work on your own. You are the best judge about how you learn best. At least you should be.
• Imagination. Imagination will create something interesting out of something boring.
• Open mind. You need to be able to hold of prematurely judging. Every new idea is born drowning.
• Self-belief. If you believe that you won’t be able to do something, then you won’t. Guaranteed. 
• Experience. If you can call on something in your history where you succeeded in learning another language, or with a long course of study, then that’s a big plus. Even if you failed, that will help you avoid future pitfalls.
• Self knowledge. The better you know yourself, your on-buttons and off-buttons the more likely you are to climb ladders and avoid snakes.
• Interest. You need to be alert to notice what’s going on in a language. 
• Patience. It’s going to take time. You don’t need negative self-talk slowing you down even further. Realistically, you need patience.
• Laziness. Finding the easiest and most pleasant way to do things will conserve your resources.
• Pleasure. Enjoy what you do. Otherwise, what’s the point?
• Resourcefulness. Use whatever you have at hand well. Work to your strengths.

Converse with a chatbot

Why not engage in some lighthearted conversation with a chatbot? Bots are good to banter and hang out with. They are addictive. They are fun. They don't correct your mistakes; instead, they make their own!

I've only ever managed to have a typed conversation with chatbots, but by now there are probably voice-recognition applications out there.

Linguistic micro-climate

Another idea that I came up, and that may have been independently discovered, is what I call a Private XXX World (insert your target language).

Kato Lomb has previously written about "a personal linguistic micro-climate". I would need to read up to find out exactly what she means.

Anyway, what I mean is to set up situations in your environment that make it automatic that you are exposed to your target language throughout the day. 
That is, you normalize yourself to the idea of having it around. 

Pages pinned on the wall, DVDs in your language right next to the player, music in your chosen language that you choose to have loaded in your whatever device, your home page on the computer set up to easily link you up to various foreign language sites.

That’s the sort of thing I mean.

Inventory time

Carry out an inventory to help you learn a new language.

What have you got that you could make use of?

There's the obvious school-type stuff: dictionaries, books, stationery, textbooks, pens and pencils.

There are the electronic gizmos that you own. Things you switch on and try not to spill coffee over.

There are the intangibles: skills, contacts, knowledge, membership of a library, Internet-knowhow (do you understand torrents?), magazine subscriptions etc.

If you notice gaps, then create a wish list. 

Go shopping.

You want to be able to listen to things, so get the things (CDs, mp3s, DVDs) and make sure you have the equipment to play them on.

You want to have things to read, and not necessarily on paper. Think Kindles and the like. Consider comics. Kids stuff is often good, but it's often overlooked or looked down upon too.

The more complete and comprehensive you make your inventory, the more ideas you'll generate about how to go about learning your new language.

And the greater will be the odds that you'll succeed.