We have the idea of learning a new language making exercises and being punished with red marks. Can you imagine a baby learning to speak in this way? I think that it is impossible. We learn our first language by immersion, listening and mimicking every single day, without a grammar lesson, without memorizing vocabulary and all these boring things. In my opinion, learn another language is a very important thing and it is easier than we think. Here, I give you some pieces of advice that can help you to learn a second language, especially if you already know some about it.
I know that adults have less time and for this reason, we need some knowledge before. If you know some vocabulary, you can have a conversation. I recommend to you to spend some time every day, only a few minutes if you haven´t more time, to study some vocabulary. You should watch films and listen to music in the language you want to improve. There are also plenty of free apps for the mobile phone or tablet which give us different options to practice. Another tip can be changing your TV and gadgets language, take part of conversations with social networks and meet foreign people. However, we don’t do it because we are ashamed to have mistakes or do it badly. I think that we have to break our fears and throw us to a new learning.
After these small tips to carry out in your daily life, I recommend to you, if you can, of course, to travel and immerse completely in the culture. Speak with many people, make jokes, go out, think in the language you are learning… But the most important: ACT LIKE A CHILD AND ENJOY!
I liked your post very mutch, María! I liked what you said about dedicate some time a day to watch a film or to listen to music in the language that we want to improve, but I think that the main reason of doing that is not yust to learn bocabulary, but also to improve our comprehension of the language. In spite of that, I agree with you that our fear of making mistakes back us out in many times and we have to change it.
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