Beginner Lessons

Following a fruitless attempt at getting directions from a lovely old Mexican lady selling vegetables on the side of the road, she thought, “I really need to learn Spanish.” That thought crossed her mind multiple times–multiple times a week–but she’d tried once or twice before with disappointing results.  She didn’t have time, there was nobody to talk to, and nothing seemed to stick anyway. She was never going to be fluent, at least not at this rate, so why bother? And even if she did want to give it another try, where would she begin?

Everybody wants to learn a new language, but comparatively few actually succeed.

We’re busy. We’re getting along just fine with our limited communication skills. We’re ‘Merican–the chosen people–others should learn how to talk to us. The absurd excuses and ethnocentrism go on and on…

The only really valid excuse I see is that the options for how to go about learning a new language are dizzying, causing people to give up before they even begin. But when you ditch all the lame excuses, you find the truth: You should learn a new language, and you absolutely can if you prioritize it. 

The Big Secret

There are thousands of language-learning systems out there that promise fluency, but regardless of which you choose, one thing is constant: the only way to become conversational is to study and practice.

I began learning languages as a reluctant sixth-grade student. It was mandatory, and our choices were Latin, French, and Spanish. Why anyone would waste their time on Latin, I didn’t know, which further limited my choices to Spanish and French. I didn’t want to study Spanish because my only exposure to Spanish-speaking people was the Puerto Rican girls in my school who held us all under constant threat of ass-kicking, but French didn’t seem remotely useful due to its geographic limitations, so a matter of practicality, I choose Spanish.

I bumbled my way through Spanish until I went on homeschool for high school and decided to take up German instead because then I could speak with my family overseas. I used the homeschool texts in addition to Pimseleur audio lessons, and in one semester, my understanding of German accelerated beyond three years of Spanish classroom suffering. Why? I was actually interested, which led to a greater frequency of study and practice using multiple methods.

At the time, I was commuting between New Jersey and Vermont for snowboarding at least once or twice a week, so I listened and responded to the Pimseleur audio lessons while I drove. When I wasn’t driving, I was completing my schoolwork, which provided the reading and writing portion of my language education. By using this multi-faceted approach, I was speaking conversational German in no-time!

A Cornucopia of Methodologies

Ultimately, extenuating circumstances required I repeat my Spanish education in community college, but this time, I had the same incredible teacher, Mrs. Keeling, take me through four engaging semesters packed with a variety of sense-dazzling teaching tactics including songs, soap operas, and novels, to name a few. Then, she sealed the deal by taking me to Alicante, Spain, for a three-week intensive study/home-stay program. I had such a good experience that I continued studying Spanish, including a semester-long home-stay in Seville and another short home-stay in Costa Rica, and I even got a bachelor’s degree in Spanish translation in addition to my bachelor’s in marketing.

The practice techniques Mrs. Keeling used were extremely helpful in learning Spanish, and I’ve tried to incorporate them into my study of Japanese. Pimseleur audio lessons allow me to listen and respond to basic conversational topics; they’re great if you’re an auditory learning (which I’m not, so I have to use other methodologies, too). When Rosetta Stone’s ambiguity isn’t making me crazy, it trains my brain to associate pictures and words. TheAndroid app taught me hirigana and katakana, which I practice regularly using  katakana and hirigana game. Additionally, it’s worth noting that I’ve found  to be one of the most comprehensive free tools for practicing Spanish, and I can’t wait for them to put out a Japanese version.

I watch Japanese anime with subtitles, and while I’d love to lie to you and tell you it’s immensely helpful for language learning, really it’s just fun to pick up a few battle cry words that I can yell at inopportune times to embarrass my Japanese friends. As far as videos go, Youtube led me to a treasure trove of fun and learning at  when I simply searched “learn Japanese videos.”

Most recently, Harmony turned me on to children’s books at Daiso. Translating them and then reading them to my friend, Satomi, has become one of my favorite pastimes. Satomi speaks English at such a high level that, for example, when she taught me that とりかえようよ and こうかんします both refer to exchanging something, I could teach her the subtle differences between “change,” “exchange,” and “switch.” Learning in this way is so much fun because it’s reciprocal, and in addition to learning Japanese, when I’m talking to Satomi about English concepts, I’m looking at my own language in a new light.

Got any tips of your own that might help people interested in learning a new language? What methodologies have been successful for you?