Principle 4: Quality.
When you start learning a foreign language, you will inevitably face a series of difficulties. Many aspects of learning a foreign language can be discouraging. That's why, especially at the beginning, it is very important to strive for quality in order to build a solid foundation. You can call it a 'core foundation' – upon which to expand your language knowledge. It's important to focus on small amounts of learning material and study them carefully from day one.
Here are some helpful rules you can follow:
A) Master small portions of the language: long texts or dialogues can cause loss of concentration.
B) Work 1-3 times a day at regular intervals.
C) Vary your work: work on the same material, but from different perspectives.
D) Vary your work while following a precise and efficient schedule.
E) Concentrate your work: 30 minutes of learning with high concentration is ten times more effective than 2 hours scattered across multiple tasks (or doing activities you find boring and difficult).
Principle 5: Behavior.
Learning to speak a foreign language fluently depends on how well you manage to master the learning material. But it is also a result of other factors that are often underestimated or simply ignored. This includes psychological factors such as how calm you are in conversations, how open you are to receiving criticism when you make mistakes, and how open you are to new cultures.
With the same learning material, equal learning abilities, and the same teaching method – people who learn faster are those who start to 'explore' sooner and who are 'okay' with making mistakes, and are willing to learn from them. If you learn how to develop this wonderful attitude toward learning foreign languages, things could change drastically for you.
Principle 6: Curiosity.
It's no surprise that most polyglots are interested in other cultures and ways of life. Languages are the 'vehicles' of culture, and each language expresses a different vision of the world. Curiosity is what continuously drives us to learn more about different cultures, different people, and different things. Curiosity is closely linked to motivation. Don't be curious only about the language itself, but about everything related to it: people, literature, cinema, art. Curiosity about the world around you is the fuel that will take you to fluency in foreign languages.
Principle 7: Flexibility.
Flexibility is particularly important when learning. You must be flexible with methods, preferences, mistakes, and limitations.
Be flexible with yourself and your boundaries. If you accept that human beings cannot be perfect, an enormous burden will fall from your shoulders and the learning process will become much easier for you. Many people don't progress because they are mentally blocked and afraid of making mistakes. They wait for the moment when they finally feel confident… but that moment usually never comes. Confidence comes from taking the first step toward communication. Making mistakes, accepting criticism. In return, you will start learning faster and more effectively. It may sound paradoxical, but people who learn to speak a language incredibly well are those who made tons of mistakes, were corrected thousands of times, and learned all these lessons.
Be flexible with your learning methods. If you've developed a learning method, it should have a solid core, but it should also be flexible. It should adapt to the learning stage you're at and to the corresponding language you're studying.
Principle 8: Motivation!
You can have a 'Lamborghini,' but if you don't have fuel for it, it's as if you don't have any car at all. You can look at it in your garage, but you can't drive it. This is a dangerous misconception. Motivation is the key to learning foreign languages, but that's not really the issue. The main thing is identifying the reasons why many learners lose motivation, and the most valuable thing is to get timely advice on how to keep your desire to continue. Many start with enthusiasm, but that enthusiasm quickly evaporates. This happens for a number of reasons. Here are 4 tips to keep your motivation alive:
- Remember why you started learning the language. What made you start in the first place? Friendship? Love? Self-improvement? Career development? Whatever the reason – remind yourself of it regularly and use it to continue learning and improving.
- Record yourself speaking the language. After 6 months, play back the recording – you'll be amazed at how much progress you've made!
- Get inspired by others. The community of online language learners is constantly growing. There are already a huge number of inspiring videos of people speaking multiple languages – watch some of them. On YouTube there's already an abundance of them.
- Create a board of your achievements! That's right – remind yourself daily of what you've accomplished with images, photos, words – with everything that's related to the goal you're pursuing and that inspires you to achieve it.
Stay connected with Kabinata.com. Here you will learn the CORRECT foreign language of your choice and you will regularly receive valuable tips on how to master learning material quickly and effectively.