One of my students on italki who studied and speak many languages shared with me his method to learn successfully foreign languages. Enjoy!
You must have a passion, drive, perseverance and work very hard to reach your goals. You must desire to have a mastery of your foreign language. There are infinite resources available, but it requires work.
You need to see your quest as something of great worth – an adventure. You need to discover the gaps in your knowledge and abilities, and strive to constantly improve. You need to do this is an intentional way. You need to plan. You need to write down your goals. You need to write down virtually everything. This way you will not forget what you are doing.
Discover patterns and formulas in everything that you do. That is of the utmost importance. We learn by applying new information to information we already know. Identifying patterns and formulas is essential. Write down your findings and commit them to memory.
Study all aspects of language:
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking
• Comprehension
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Accent
• Idiomatic Expressions
• Slang
• Registers of Speech
• Specialized Terminology
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking
• Comprehension
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Accent
• Idiomatic Expressions
• Slang
• Registers of Speech
• Specialized Terminology
Constantly look up and verify anything you are unsure of: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary. Read as many books, articles and blogs as you can.
Write down phrases you want to be able to say. Apply what you learn. Immediately put into practice everything you are studying. Live the language. Make sure you experience all types of things in the language.
Listen to people who speak the way you want and imitate how they speak: their accent, their rhythm, their intonation and the words they use. Pretend you are a native speaker. Think and speak the language all day long. Try to speak in as many different situations as possible.
Write down everything you want to be able to say well and memorize it. Rehearse it until it becomes automatic. Have a native speaker correct you. Record your voice.
