How to Learn a Language - West Middle School Yearbook

Knowing multiple languages is an interesting and useful skill. Many people learn a language to travel, for family, and work, but knowing multiple languages can help you with grammar and other languages you might know. It also helps strengthen your memory and other academic parts of your brain.

There are around 6,500 languages spoken in the world. Some are spoken widely while others are not. About 40% of the world’s population speaks only one language. 43% of people are bilingual (meaning they are fluent in two languages), 13% are trilingual (3 languages), and 3% are multilingual (fluent in over four languages). Less than 1% of people can fluently speak five or more languages and they are called polyglots. Hyper polyglots are people that can speak over 12 languages fluently and they make up an exceedingly small portion of the population.

Do not despair if you can only speak one language, there are many programs that can help you learn a language. Some of the most popular are: Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, Pimsleur, and Quizlet.

Duolingo is a free language app that is good for starting a language on because it is more game-like than other programs. However, Duolingo does have a premium option that you can buy with more features.

Rosetta Stone is not free like Duolingo, but it does more pronunciation and uses a different teaching method than Duolingo. It uses the language you are trying to learn more than Duolingo or Babbel.

Babbel also costs money, but it has better lesson quality than Duolingo or Rosetta Stone and is also cheaper than Rosetta Stone. Babbel also clearly explains grammar unlike Duolingo, which does not explain it much.

Pimsleur is also costly but has many languages to choose from. Pimsleur uses audio-based learning instead of flashcards or translating like some other programs. It also gives you information about your language and the culture that speaks that language.

Quizlet gives you the choice of making a free account or getting Quizlet Live (the premium version) Quizlet is not solely for language learning and there is not just one course per language, so if you are not learning a language in a class, you may run into problems with Quizlet.

If you have your language learning program picked out, it is time to pick a language. You can challenge yourself with a hard language, learn an easier language just for fun, or learn a useful language that will help you and your community. You can also learn an endangered language like Irish Gaelic, Krymchak, and Okanagan-Colville to help preserve a culture and a language. The most important thing about picking a language is wanting to learn it because it will be hard to learn any language if it seems like a chore.

Some languages are harder for English speakers to learn than others, but according to Babble Magazine, the hardest language to learn for English speakers is Mandarin Chinese. This is because Mandarin Chinese does not use a Latin alphabet like English speakers are used to and instead it uses characters that can be pronounced differently for different meanings of the word. The second hardest language is Arabic, followed by Polish and then Russian.

Some languages are easier for people that speak English to learn. The easiest language for English speaking people to learn is Norwegian. This may sound strange, but because Norwegian is a Germanic language like English, many words are similar, and this language could be your first step to becoming a hyper polyglot. Norwegian also uses the same sentence structure as English. The second easiest language is Swedish, which is also a Germanic language and is ranked as number two because it is like Norwegian. Spanish is the third easiest language because it is a Romance language and shares some word stems with English words. Dutch is the fourth easiest language, and Portuguese is fifth.

The most important thing about choosing a language is not its difficulty, it is your motivation and your learning mindset. Just choose the language you want to learn and stick with it.

Once you have started learning, you need to set goals and keep yourself motivated. Setting goals and giving yourself a prize if you achieve them is a wonderful way to stay motivated while learning a language. Making learning your language a part of your routine also helps because it keeps it in your brain, and you learn some more every day. While you are using a language learning program, you can also listen to music, watch movies, and read books in that language which will help you learn. If you do that, you can see the language used in many ways and if you are watching or listening to something, you can get used to the pronunciation of words and how native speakers say things. If you think watching a movie in your language is too advanced for you, you can turn on English subtitles and that can help you learn as well.

Another good technique is immersion, which is usually living in the country where your language is spoken. This helps you learn a language quickly because there is no other way to communicate, and it helps you learn all aspects of your target language.

Learning a new language is great for your brain and it can connect you to people all over the world. It can also be a way to connect with other people in your community or make a vacation extra fun.