How to Learn a Foreign Language

A goal for many people, learning a foreign language isn’t easy and it only gets harder the older you get, they say.

Our good friends at MindTools have another great How To, this time helping out the FL Learners out there. If you’re starting out, or an intermediate in a language, these are some great tips to help the old memory.

1. Using Mnemonics to link words - English: grumpy - French: grognon - a grumpy man groaning with irritation.

2. The Town Language Mnemonic - To use the technique, choose a town that you are very familiar with. Use objects within that place as the cues to recall the images that link to foreign words.

3. The hundred most common words - Tony Buzan, in his book ‘Using your Memory’, points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards being able to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.

The hardest part is probably choosing which language to learn.

How to… Learn a Foreign Language - [MindTools]