I want to share a secret with you about how to learn to speak a foreign language well quickly. And the secret is this – you need to start speaking it right away. There are some courses out there that tell you or teach you that you should first learn all of the sounds of the language and then learn the grammar, maybe then some vocabulary and once you’re able to put it all together by yourself then you can actually start speaking a language to someone else.
I say that is all wrong. The reason I was able to learn Spanish without ever having taken the Spanish course is because I started speaking Spanish right away. The best way to start is perhaps finding phrases or find a phrase book because phrase books generally have the most important things that you’re going to want to say in a foreign language or need to say and they’re all compiled for you. They have audio to them so you can understand or practice your pronunciation and the grammar is already there in context so you don’t really have to worry about changing that or understanding that.
Languages require experience but if you’re talking to another human being, the time passes quickly and painlessly and it’s actually rewarding experience to struggle with the language while you were talking to another human being. It doesn’t feel like you’re really exerting any effort at all.
Another important point is that many people lack confidence when they speak a foreign language. The best the fastest way to get over this lack of confidence is to start speaking and making small mistakes and getting used to the sound of your own voice and your own accent as you speak a foreign language. That way, you can start improving your accent and increasing your confidence from day 1 and you won’t have that big fear that may build up if you were to learn an awful lot of vocabulary and grammar and then be worried that the first time you open your mouth it sounded strange after you’ve considered yourself to be a very good speaker.
All in all, you really need to start speaking a language from day 1. It’ll improve your confidence, it’ll improve your vocabulary and it will help you with your accent. Let’s face it, it’s just more fun that way.
Roger Easlick has a passion for foreign languages and would like to see you speak with confidence and have fun at it. For more information, visit www.CrushALanguage.com.
