What Do You Need to Know When Starting to Learn a Foreign Language?

Probably you have already asked yourself whether there exists such a language teaching methodology that could help you to learn a foreign language. The answer to this question may surprise you, but you should accept the truth no matter how unfair or strange it seems to you at first. There is no such methodology with the help of which you can easily learn any foreign language. The only way to learn a foreign language is in your great desire to reveal all the secrets of the language you want to learn. That is why nothing and no one will help you with this. The methodologies of language learning that have been already created can only show you how you can approximate to your dream, but none of them can guarantee that you will succeed in it.

So, what should you do when you want to learn a foreign language?

1. Realise Your True Reason of Learning the Language

You have to be frank with yourself and answer the following question: “Why do I need to learn this language?”. It is all about your motivation. When the motivation is strong, you will learn any foreign language, but when it is weak, you will probably give up this idea very soon.

What can the motivation be like? You need to know the language for your job or you want to travel to a foreign country, you have a boyfriend/girlfriend who doesn’t understand a word of the language you speak or you just like the language and want to become an interpreter. These are only few examples of motivations one can possess when starting to learn a foreign language. Find your true motivation and always bear it in your mind when learning a foreign language.

2. Find Your Own Way in Learning a Foreign Language

When you have already realised your true motivation of learning a foreign language, it is time to search for the way you can reach your target. What are the ways of learning a foreign language? How many of them are there in the world? Which way should I follow? These are the questions you are probably asking yourself for the moment. In fact there exist thousands of ways to learn a foreign language and each of them depends on the language you want to learn. There are methodologies that help to better learn one foreign language but fail when learning another.

What is more, you should keep in mind that no teacher and no methodology can provide you with an excellent way of learning a foreign language. How can they know your language abilities, your strong and weak points in language learning? Only you know how you can learn foreign words, grammar phenomena and pronounce numerous words in the most effective way. That is why you have to examine all your hidden and already known to you language abilities. When you can do this, you can say that you have found your own way in learning a foreign language.

I do not say that you should not use all the methodologies that are created to help students learn a foreign language. What I want to say is that you should not 'blindly' stick to the methodology and make yourself believe that this very methodology or the teacher using this or that methodology will definitely help you to learn the language. 98 % of foreign language learners blame their teachers or methodologies in their poor results and mistakes when they have not succeeded in their language learning. As a result, you have no appropriate language knowledge and unpleasant experience with the usage of this or that methodology. I do believe that when something like that happens, the only thing a student has to blame is himself/herself. So, Feel and Be responsible for your own way of learning a foreign language.

3. Reveal the Secrets of the Foreign Language You Learn

When you want to learn a foreign language, you have to treat it as a puzzle you solve. When you are on the right way and can see your first successful results in this 'language puzzle' solution, you feel not only proud about you, but also fascinated by the process of foreign language learning itself. There is nothing better than finding out something new and useful every time you learn something.

Make your language learning process not only useful (because you know a definite reason why you learn it), but also interesting and exciting. Enjoy your language learning process! You will not learn the language if you do not love it! I thoroughly recommend you to fall in love with the language you want to learn.