Hey guys!
How's it going?
My name is Micaela, and I got a brand new camera, and I love the quality, I feel like
the video is a lot more crisp and less distorted, and easy to watch, so I'm going to make a
quick and dirty video, these are 5 quick tips to help you improve you learning your second
language, whatever language that may be.
Be it English, or Japanese, or French, or Korean, or Chinese, or Italian, or Spanish,
or...
I dunno.
When I was younger I used to teach English to a class of elderly ladies who were about
60-70 years old.
Every week they would come to my class and they would love speaking English, and they
would tell me all the time, that they loved learning English because "English keeps the
mind young!"
When you can speak two languages, you also adopt two different ways of thinking, two
different ways to express the same thought or idea, and you open yourself to different
ways to express the same thought and idea.
And if you can get to a point where you are speaking two different languages every day,
it's a really good workout for your brain, it's very healthy for you.
So for Tip #1, because learning a language is a lot like exercise, it is vital that every
day you give yourself a bit of a warm-up, or at least a review.
And this isn't like school, you don't need to sit down for an hour and do an entire lesson.
It's important to keep everything in the front of your mind, otherwise you're going to forget
it, so, every day, no matter what, even if it's just writing your own name on a piece
of paper, or writing a sentence you learned the previous day on a piece of paper, or saying
something out loud, make sure that you are USING the language at least once a day.
It's really important when you learn a new language, to utilize every aspect of your
body and mind, sometimes that means that speaking out loud even if you're not talking to anybody.
So even just waking up and reciting a phrase you learned the previous day, it'll help a
lot.
TWO!
Immersion is definitely the fastest way to pick up a new language, but for those of you
who cannot travel across the world and live in the country that speaks the language you
want to learn, I know that not everyone has that privilege, what you can do is start surrounding
yourself with that language where you live.
Our playstation is in Japanese, and I'm pretty sure that if you live in other parts of the
world you can change the language of your playstation, or your smartphone, or your computer,
to the language that you're learning.
So if changing the language on your electronic devices doesn't really suit you, that's okay,
what you could try instead is picking up magazines or books written about things you are interested
in, in the language that you want to learn.
For example, I really love cooking, and so I have a ton of cooking books, and they're
not necessarily about Japanese cooking, they're about cooking all over the world, but they're
in Japanese.
So even if you're not able to, say, travel to Japan to learn Japanese, or travel to China
to learn Chinese, or travel to Korea to learn Korean, that's okay, by making several changes
to your environment you can immerse yourself in a second language in your own home.
Tip #3
I have to kind of eat my words here because in an older video I once said, "Do not learn
Japanese from Anime because nobody speaks the way that they do in Japanese cartoons",
when learning a new language, it is really important to expose yourself to speaking and
the rhythm, and in that sense, I think, sure, watching anime or cartoons is a great idea.
If you're like me and you're really into music, what really worked for me was learning the
words to Japanese songs.
Just by singing along to these songs whether I understood the grammar or the meaning behind
the words or not, I was getting my brain and my mouth accustomed to a foreign language,
and the way that it sounds, and the rhythm, and the way that things should be pronounced.
If music is not your thing, expose yourself to movies, TV programs, even cartoons, and
try and pick up little phrases or copy what you hear them say, just because it helps make
your mouth move.
I think developing the motorskills to speaking a second language, like getting your mouth
moving, is really just as important as every other aspect of learning a language.
So, if you're at home alone, and you're watching TV, and they say something, try saying it
back!
Try saying it the exact same way that they do.
Tip #4!
One of the most effective ways to learn a new language is to find the language's relevance
to YOU.
So what works for me even now, after ten years of living in Japan, is, sometimes I'll see
a word or a sentence, and I'll ask myself, "Okay, I know how to say this in English,
how would I say this in Japanese?"
How would I say this in the language I'm studying?
If you don't know, look it up, and write it down.
Say you've learned how to ask where something is.
In Japanese, it's "doko desu ka?".
Maybe I'm thinking, "Hmmm, where is the cat?
"Neko wa doko desu ka?"
Chinami ni, neko ga koko ni imashita.
(By the way, the cat's here.)
Lon-kun desu.
(This is Lon.)
Lon-kun wa, anmari, douga ni deru no ga, suki janai desu.
(Lon doesn't like to be in videos.)
Bye bye.
I'm pretty sure he hates me.
Finally, tip #5!
Study buddies!
You need a study buddy!
And if there's nobody in your immediate area, nobody you know personally who is on the same
language learning journey as you, join an online community, and try to meet people with
similar interests and similar goals, not only because you can motivate each other, but you
can also have a little competition.
For me, I'm super competitive, seeing the progress of other people really motivates
me to try harder, and try to progress more than them.
I'm terrible, I know, but I think a lot of people are like that.
So by getting study buddies, you're suddenly holding yourself to a different standard,
and you're kind of checking everybody else's progress to see if you are up to speed, and
I think it's a healthy way to push yourself to keep improving, and motivate yourself to
study a little bit every day.
There will be times when you feel like you've plateau'd, like you've reached the point where
you're not really learning anything new, and, nothing's really improving, but I also think
that plateauing just proves that you're getting comfortable with the level that you're at.
And because you're comfortable, you don't feel like you're actually getting any new
information, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, it gives you a moment to kind of
take a breather.
The important thing is: Don't give up.
The important thing is that you just keep at it, keep at it.
Even for people like me, I've been living in Japan for 11 years this summer, and there
are words that I encounter almost every day that I don't know!
And, that's okay!
Like, it's okay not to know everything, it's always going to be a work-in-progress, but
it gets easier.
You know, learning a second language has opened my life up to plenty of new opportunities,
plenty of interesting people, and it's taken me across the world!
And I'm sure, that if you keep it up, you'll see the same results!
So that's it for my new camera video, if you are looking for a language buddy, leave a
comment and maybe you can make some friends, or keep each other in check, because I know
that a lot of people watch my videos because they're interested in Japan and the Japanese
language, OR, they're interested in English, and making English speaking friends, so this
is a perfect opportunity for you guys to find friends and buddy up!
Leave a comment below and see who you can meet!
Alright, talk to you soon!
Bye!