How I Travel - Learning Languages

_{Under Construction}

I ALWAYS try to get to at least some super super basic idea of a language before I get there. There have been a couple times where I went to a country mostly mute, and it’s just stressful. Usually, I’ll try to dedicate at least a few months to a language for the basics.

Most of these steps are assuming solo study. Probably having a tutor/teacher would help a lot. And I think it would make a BIG difference if you don’t already know what kinds of language-specific resources could be useful (ie you don’t have friends suggesting specific things to you).

My Process #

First 1-3 months

This is basically the “learn the rules” phase.

1. Learn the alphabet (if applicable) a. Japanese - japanese.bpev.me
2. Find a course that focuses on grammar and structure of a language a. Japanese - marumori.io b. Spanish - languagetransfer.org (they also have other romance languages and more) c. Chinese - Not sure, tbh. But there’s probably some really good stuff.
3. Flashcards + mneumonics are really helpful for gaining vocabulary a. Chinese - chineasy b. Japanese - Wanikani c. Other - Emoji Flashcards
4. Writing/Speaking is more useful than reading/listening a. I haven’t tried it yet, but langcorrect.com looks promising.

A few things to note when you are choosing resources to use:

Try to have all of typing/listening/speaking/reading

I think which of these is MOST important might vary between languages, but I think each of these are very important in their own ways. Also, having some variation in your learning methods lets you practice more without getting burnt out on a particular resource.

Physically writing is, I think, the fastest way to learn a new alphabet. But also, typing is important because it is a slower-paced way to practice formulate thoughts and sentences. It forces you to create using the grammar rules that you learn, and really helps solidify them. Especially if you choose an audio-first or audio-only course, like languagetransfer.org, I think that it’s IMPERATIVE that you also practice reading and writing. Because it’s difficult to keep full sentences completely in your mind when learning, it makes it harder to process longer sentences in the more live setting of audio courses.

Listening and speaking are clearly important, as they are the mechanisms we for interacting with people in person! They’re also great in that you don’t necessarily have to be looking at a screen to practice them, so if you have some kind of audio course or podcast, it’s a great change-of-pace from staring at a screen.

I think that reading becomes extremely important after the first few months of learning, because it becomes the easiest way to learn words in-context. However, at the beginning of the language journey, it’s difficult to find sources to read fluidly, since you just don’t know many words. Generally, I think that if your course is not audio-only, course material + flashcards is enough reading material. If you ARE using an audio-only course, apps like LinQ and Beelingu have some easy material that can help you start.

Second few months

Before doing this, you should be able to at least write some simple short stories talking about the past/present/future, speaking in first person and third person with basic verbs, nouns, adjectives. Most languages will also have a few other fundamental grammar concepts that are a little more specific; ie formality, gendered nouns.

If it takes a long time, it’s ok. You just need to be able to understand the basic grammar when reading/writing at your own pace.

1. Reading and listening is now probably more useful than writing, because it’s easier to get mass input
2. Start solidifying the grammars that are a bit more specific, or extend beyond basics; for example imperative or conditional moods in Spanish.
3. Flashcards are still fine for low-friction study, but probably focused reading + translation will be a better way to learn vocabulary at this point.

A month before using a new language for daily life

We should check to make sure we understand common phrases.

1. Grind 3-5 Pimsleur courses a day (should finish 3 courses in ~1 month)
2. Make sure to be relatively quick to recognize numbers around money

My process if I have no time (< 1 month) #

This is kind of worst-case for me, and in some ways, it is counter-productive to learning a language in the long-term. But sometimes I end up going somewhere that I just want useful day-to-day words ASAP. For these situations I’m almost entirely focused on simple situations and word recognition (learning the alphabet and recognizing common words). The simple situations are obviously useful. Recognition is just really helpful for confidence; if I can read some simple words from signs, it helps avoid awkward situations. Hearing a word you know or being able to read a sign can be really nice, mentally. And when you’re interacting in that language for the first time, confidence is EVERYTHING.

The “simple situations” I metioned are basically just food things haha.

• Buying things at a convenience or grocery store
  • “Do you need a bag?”
  • “Cash or card?”
  • “Do you want a receipt?”
• Getting food at a restaurant (starting at a coffeeshop, because it’s a more restricted vocabulary)
  • “For here or takeaway?”
  • “Do you have a restroom?”
  • “I would like this, please” (point until you know words haha)
• “please”
• “thank you”
• “Wait a moment”

I usually try to always order in the local language, then take pictures of restaurant menus, so I can practice food words and order something different later.

If I have around a month of time, I still think that Pimsleur is a good resource to grind super hard. I take it a bit intense (3 or so lessons a day), so it only takes a month to get to a lot of common phrases. However, if I’m actually trying to learn a language, I think it’s waaaaaay more useful to learn how a language is structured before using Pimsleur: I often find it not adequately explaining WHY the language is a certain way, so it can become more memorization than learning. It can be especially frustrating because common phrases tend to be the part of a language that have the most exceptions to rules, so things can feel a bit random if you can’t already recognize that they’re exceptions.

I made a set of emoji flashcards to help for word recognition of common words. Introducing around 20-30 words a day gets you through the set in around month. Flashcards I think are good for the beginning of the language-learning process, just because they are low friction (easy to do while commuting, etc). For these flashcards, YMMV depending on the language, since it just works poorly for some things (for example, Japanese has multiple readings for many kanji, and these flashcards only have one reading per word).