You have no doubt heard the story of the Trojan War. The Illiad and the Oddysey are two of the most enduring and influential works of literature in the Western world, influencing popular culture to this very day. Swift-footed Achilles, the mighty Ajax, and beautiful Helen, are all household names, without hardly anyone not knowing who they are. These stories were created by Homer, an ancient Greek poet, who most likely based himself on accounts passed down orally for generations. Even three thousand years after the supposed events took place, they remain well-known to myriads of people from around the world.

For a long time, it was thought that these stories were works of pure fiction. Yet there were always people who thought that they were based on real events, real people and real places. One of these believers was Heinrich Schliemann.

The Life of Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann was a true rags to riches story, a man of German origin who became wealthy by being a shrewd businessman. A polymath, today he is most remembered mostly as an archaeologist. He was a real-life Indiana Jones, travelling the world, living through many adventures and discovering great ancient treasures.

As a kid, he grew up on stories of the Illiad and the Oddysey and the great adventures that the heroes of these tales had to go through. Unlike most other people who listened to these stories, he took them at their word. To him, Troy was a real place which was now buried somewhere on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Pondering every detail about it in the myths in his mind, he decided that he was going to find it.

What is not so well-known is that he was also a great linguist who managed to master many languages. Wherever he traveled, he tried to learn the local language, amazing the locals and using this knowledge to great advantage in his business dealings. Being and eccentric man, he would often note down things in his diary in different languages, which resulted in him keeping his diary in at least 12 languages.

What is most remarkable is that he managed to do this in a world without quick travel, without the internet and starting off as a poor errand boy.

Schliemann’s Language Learning Method

Schliemann simplified the process of learning a foreign language by developing a method that he applied consistently. Supposedly the system that he developed allowed him to learn any language in around 6 weeks. He applied this method every time he was about to learn a new language. When one of the elements of this method couldn’t be found, he always came up with a work-around.

The main parts of the method consisted of constant writing in the target language, reading out loud in it, and trying to get as much native input as possible. Schliemann was a self-directed learner and one of the main elements of this learning were books in the target language. The key to this was one little book: “The Adventures of Telemachus”.

This book was about the adventures of Telemachus, the son of Oddyseus and his quest to find his father. Since it was set in the times of the Trojan Wars, the subject matter was very interesting to Schliemann and never grew old. Reading it over and over again, he ended up memorizing the story in the book by heart.

The first thing that Schliemann would do when starting to learn a new language, is to try to track down a copy of that book (or some other book that he had read previously in another language and knew the story well) in his target language. That way, he could compare the two texts and learn new words and grammar structures by reading along in a new language, as well as in a language he already knew.

Another part of his system was using the newly acquired vocabulary in context. He would pick a subject that interested him a great deal and then write a text on it. This he would then send to a teacher to be corrected. Once he got back the corrected version, he would try reciting it out loud and committing it to memory. Supposedly he started off with having a real bad memory, but through practice his capacity for memorization improved a great deal.

A very important element of his system was trying to get as much native input as possible. He would try to engage with native speakers as often as he could. For example when he was living in the Netherlands, he started learning English. In order to acquire a better accent, he would go to English language sermons and just listen. After a while, he would start repeating the sermon quietly under his breath: a technique known as shadowing.

While in the Netherlands, he also decided to learn Russian. However there was a problem. He could locate only one person who actually spoke the language, the Vice-Consul of Russia Mr. Tannenberg. Unfortunately, trying to convince him as best as he could, Heinrich did not manage to get lessons with him. What he did instead was to hire someone who did not speak a word of Russian just to sit there and listen, while Schliemann would read out loud some of his writings in Russian. At least that way, he could practice his spoken Russian and pretend that he was having a conversation with another person.

Real-Life Indiana Jones: Schliemann’s Adventures

The ability to speak Russian opened up new possibilities to Schliemann. He moved to Russia and became a businessman there, growing very rich in the process. While living in St. Petersburg, he became a Russian subject and got married and had a family. However growing restless, he decided to go on another adventure, moving to America and partaking in the gold rush. While there, he added to his riches, became an American citizen and even started a bank.

After those wild years, Heinrich moved back to Russia, but kept feeling a strange pull. The dreams of his childhood were calling him, beckoning him to solve one of the world’s greatest mysteries. Tired of a meaningless life, Schliemann decided to concentrate on his real passion: finding Troy. Unfortunately, this had a negative effect on his family relations. He grew estranged to his wife and when she told him that she did not want to leave Russia and follow him, he decided to divorce her.

After the divorce, he moved to Athens and then after piecing together ancient clues, to the place where he thought Troy was located. What followed is stuff of legend, in a way more fantastic than fiction. Heinrich Schliemann, a man who started his life literally in the gutter, succeeded where many had failed and discovered the ancient city of Troy, buried beneath a hill in the northwestern part of Turkey. Not satisfied with this remarkable find, he continued his digs at other places tied to the legend of the Trojan War, uncovering great treasures in the process.

This story is no doubt fascinating, but we kind of digressed from the real point of this post, language learning. How we can apply the methods of this real-life Indiana Jones to improve our own language learning?

Schliemann was bad at languages when a kid at school. He even commented on this in his autobiography. In order to overcome this, he tried to come up with a more effective method, one which would incorporate lots of practice with the target language. Keep in mind that Schliemann came up with his system in the 19th century and that if he were living in the 21st century like us, he would probably do some things differently. However the principles that he came up with are still sound and very applicable.

The 7 Principles

How to apply:

1) Read native material from the beginning

One of the main parts of Schliemann’s method was reading. One of the first things he would always do when starting a new language was to find a book he had already read (usually the “Adventures of Telemachus”), but in the target language.

By doing this, he was able to read along and get new vocabulary and grammar intuitively. He would also try reading things out loud.

You can do this as well. For example, Assimil uses the same principle where it starts off with parallel texts, one in a language you already know and the other in your target language. Or you can also buy books which have parallel texts, one in your native language and the other in your target language.

2) Writing on subjects of interest as often as possible (apply the vocab you learn)

Reading books allowed Schliemann to pick up a lot of vocabulary quickly and intuitively, however he still needed to apply it in context. So he would try to write essays on subjects that interested him, using the new vocabulary.

He would then send these essays to a native speaker for correction. After getting the corrected version, he would read it out loud and try to memorize it.

This is something very easy to do. After you have a list of words and their meanings, try to use them in some sort of a text. Start off with simple texts and move on to writing harder texts as you get better and better. Get them corrected by native speakers and then learn from your mistakes.

3) Engaging with native speakers

During those times, it was not always easy to get access to native speakers. There was no television, no radio and no internet. Schliemann looked hard to try to find them.

He knew that if he was to get better, he needed to speak in his target language. When he didn’t manage to find one, he would pay someone just to sit there in front of him and listen while he read his essays out loud to him.

Now it’s much easier to find native speakers. If you don’t find them in real life, you can find them online.

4) Shadowing

Shadowing or repeating things was also a big part of his method. For example when learning English, he found a church where the service was conducted in that language. He would go there every Sunday religiously.

However he was not there for the moral lessons, but instead to listen to native speakers. He would sit there and listen and once he got better he would silently repeat the preacher’s sermon word for word.

Shadowing is pretty easy to do now as well. There is plenty of native material out there which you can shadow.

5) Creating an immersion environment

Schliemann would always try to create an immersion environment for himself when learning a language. He would often write in his diary in the language of the country he was travelling in or learning. He would also often force himself to do things in his target language.

You too can try to create an immersion environment for yourself. Watch television shows in your target language, have radio playing in the background, or maybe do such an easy thing as switching the language of your operating system in your phone to your target language.

6) Create a plan and stick to it

Schliemann had a plan and stuck to it. There were different aspects of his method and he would reproduce those in every new language he was learning. This would allow him to learn things quickly.

For example, for learning Russian, Schliemann tracked down different types of material: grammar, dictionary, translation of Telemachus. These would then serve as his learning resources.

He also always tried to get native input and start using the language in spoken form as soon as possible.

The key to you getting better is creating a plan. How do you learn best? Different people have different learning patterns and so not every plan fits everyone. However you need to figure out what works best for you, then set a schedule and stick to it.

7) Be consistent and work hard

One of the most important aspects of Schliemann’s method was the fact that he was consistent. He would set a schedule and stick to it. He tried to study at set periods every day.

However he would also try to use every opportunity to learn. For example, when starting out working, he would often deliver parcels to the customers of his firm. While doing that, he would always bring his language learning materials with him and learn on the way.

If you want to improve in your language learning, you need to be consistent. Set goals and try to achieve them. Use your target language as often as you can and get as much practice as is possible for you.

If you do this, maybe one day you will turn into an Indiana Jones type adventurer just like Heinrich Schliemann!

Read More:
How To Learn A Foreign Language

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As an intermediate to lower advanced level learner, you face many challenges that can prevent you from rising to the next level. Many language learners reach a certain level, but then do not progress further. Once you can already have a conversation or better, how do you go from there?

Many times you lose the motivation to keep on going and your language learning dies as a result. You get stuck in the intermediate level purgatory. What you need to do is continue on learning the language by combining it with something else you love or want to know more about. That way you kill two birds with one stone and keep yourself motivated.

This is something that I have been applying to my own foreign language studies. Unfortunately, my motivation is not always that great, so I often skip doing those grammar exercises that I should be doing.

By using the technique described above, where I combine learning languages with doing something else that I am interested in, I do keep on progressing in my target languages. It sort of lets me bypass the problem of not having motivation and keeps me on the right path.

Learning Spanish by Reading About Gladiators

There are several examples of how I apply this strategy in practice. Last summer, I was in Spain for a few days and did what I always do, I found a local bookstore and went in to browse the books that they had available. I am really interested in ancient history and went over to the history section to check out the books. Since I was in Spain, all the books were in Spanish of course.

I was looking at the books, when I noticed one on gladiators. I was always interested in ancient sports and this topic caught my interest. Then it hit me, why not satisfy my curiosity by reading a book on gladiators, but do it in Spanish?

That way not only do I get to learn more about gladiators and how they lived, but I also get to practice my Spanish! I decided to buy the book.

When I returned from Spain, I opened up the book and started reading. My Spanish is at a B2 level and so I understand most of what I am reading, but I do come across some words or sentences that I don’t understand.

The key here is to do what I call active reading. While reading the book, I have Google Translate open (or a dictionary) and consult it whenever I don’t understand a word or phrase. I keep the words and their translations listed on screen and when I am finished with the chapter, I transfer them to Anki in order to review them later. That way any new words you learn will stick in your head better.

Watch Cartoons!

This type of learning is something you can apply by yourself easily. If you want to learn about a certain subject or watch a certain movie, why not do it in another language?

Especially cartoons can be quite good for immersion in a foreign language. With cartoons, you don’t have the problem of a lack of synchronization between the lips and the spoken words that you get in dubbed shows, so your brain doesn’t have to work as much when listening.

I have a friend who learned English through this method. Her English is very good and one day I asked her what her secret was. I asked: “How did you learn English?” and she replied: “By watching cartoons and MTV!”

She enjoyed watching cartoons and listening to songs and as a side-benefit she picked up very good English! This way she did not have to face the problem of having to motivate herself to study the language, because her motivation was intrinsic.

One of my favorite shows to watch in other languages is The Simpsons. If your native language is English, you are already familiar with their exploits and that makes it much easier to follow what is going on when you are watching the show in a foreign language.

How To Make Learning More Fun

Having something familiar as a bridge can help you in picking up the language faster before you move onto pure native materials. A psychological principle called the mere-exposure effect is at work here. This effect, sometimes also called the familiarity principle, states that people develop a liking or preference for things they are familiar with.

Heinrich Schliemann, the famous adventurer and polyglot, most known for the discovery of Troy, used a very similar method when starting to learn a language.

Whenever he wanted to learn a new language, he would go to a local bookstore and pick up two books: a grammar book of the language he was going to study and a translation of the “Adventures of Telemachus” in that language.

The principle here was that he was already familiar with the story of Telemachus, and so could guess at words and meanings of what was written much easier than if he had picked a completely new book.

This technique works very well with mini-goals and is also good for people who have a hard time sticking with their goals. Since they are already doing something that they enjoy or know about, they don’t have to force themselves into it. It’s just a natural thing to do.

Learning by doing something else

If you are a person who likes to set mini-goals, then you can easily do it here. For example, you can set up a mini-goal of finishing up one chapter or one episode of a series and understanding it.

In today’s hyper-connected age, you can easily get transcripts, subtitles or commentaries, and you can rewatch that exact episode several times. The internet is full of native materials that you can use in order to help you with learning your target language. If you are a person who is lazy and can never finish any language learning goal, then this can be a way to overcome that.

I had a friend who really wanted to be a surfer. He went down to Brazil for a month in order to learn. Not only did he come back being much better at surfing, but he also picked up quite a lot of Portuguese. His instructor did not speak any English and so if my friend wanted to learn, he had to try to communicate.

He started off with a few basic words and phrases, but by the end he could hold a decent basic conversation. He did not go to Brazil to learn Portuguese, but only learned it as a by-product of learning something he loved.

If you want to learn Muay Thai, you can go to Thailand and go to some local gym and get taught by instructors who only speak Thai. If you want become better at BJJ, you can go to Brazil and hang around with the locals who practice at the gym. If you are into cooking, you can go to France or Italy and sign up for a local cooking class. That way you are interacting with locals, but it’s not a chore, but something enjoyable.

For those of you who don’t have the option of going to a different country, there is a solution as well. Pick something you love and do it in your target language. Set up a small immersion environment for yourself. If you love cooking and watch cooking shows all day, why don’t you watch them in the language you want to learn?

This way you are exposed to your target language on a regular basis in an easy and fun way. It still requires a bit of effort, but the effort is much less than forcing yourself to practice just for the sake of practice. Your mind accepts this way of learning much more easily and doesn’t put up as many obstacles as when you are learning the language in other ways.

The key to success and achieving your goals is intrinsic motivation. This is motivation that comes from the inside and when you are doing something because you like doing it. The satisfaction is internal and can often induce you into a state of “flow”. Flow is a mental state in which a person doing an activity is fully immersed in that activity. You are completely absorbed by what you are doing, which leads you to excel.

Unfortunately, many of us have a problem with long-term motivation and willpower in learning languages. For some, the activity of learning a language is an enjoyable experience by itself, but for most of us it is often a dreary chore. Oftentimes we falter and give up.

However we all have things that we love to do. For some it might be sports, for some it might be music, for some it might be cooking, while for others it might be reading books. By combining language learning with an activity you like to do or something that you want to learn more about (and would do anyways in your native language), you can overcome these long-term motivation problems. It can help you learn a language in a fashion which is much more fun. As a bonus, you also improve in the activity that you love doing!

Read More:
How to learn a foreign language

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So can you learn to speak a foreign language in a day? Of course not, but I did run into an interesting article by Joshua Foer on how he “learned to speak a language in a day”. Of course the words “speak” and “day” are very relative as will be explained later. Joshua Foer is the author of a book called: “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything”. In the book he describes his journey of learning how to remember things. He describes mnemonics, or a series of special techniques that can be used to remember various things (such as strings of numbers, poems, or other things). I will go into mnemonics in a later post, as it is an interesting subject and some aspects can be even applied to language learning, but also to remembering almost anything.

The particular article I ran across a while back, describes how Foer started learning a language called Lingala, which is an African trade language spoken in the Congo area. It is often used as a lingua franca in that part of the world. Foer started a new project which will have him spend a significant amount of time in that area and so thought that learning the local lingua franca could be useful. He decided to use Memrise, which is a website founded by British memory champion Ed Cooke and Princeton neuroscience PhD Greg Detre. It uses a combination of the principles of mnemonics and social gaming in order to help people remember various things, including words in different languages. So it can be used to enhance a person’s language learning.

Foer decided to use Memrise in order to help him learn Lingala. He found an old FSI Lingala course, as well as a small dictionary of the language, and used those as inputs for his learning. He would go into the site and try to learn new words every time he was logged on. These are learned based on the concept of creating “mnemonics” or “mems”. The article explains the principles in this way: “Memrise encourages you to create a mnemonic, which it calls a “mem”, for every word you want to learn. A mem could be a rhyme, an image, a video or just a note about the word’s etymology, or something striking about its pronunciation”.

Foer goes onto explain the concept of spaced repetition, or repeating concepts in repeated sessions, that are phased across time. This actually goes together with my theory of learning (at least based on how I learn) and that is repeating the same materials at different points in time. For example going through some chapters of a grammar book one month and returning to those same chapters two or three months later. It is amazing how much better you understand the chapters and how much more material you can retain! To get back to Foer and why he said that he learned Lingala in a day. He ended up memorizing over a thousand words of the language and when he looked at the statistics of how much time he spent on the site, it came up to less than 24 hours in total. That’s where the “day” comes from. It’s not a literal day, but instead all the amount of time added up together. This allowed him to have a very limited conversation with a Pygmy from the Congo jungle. Of course he notes, that he did not actually completely learn the language, but instead just formed a significant basis in the language, which can be expanded upon in further learning.

Here’s the article:
Joshua Foer Article

Here’s my strategy on learning foreign languages (I speak 6 fluently and am currently learning more):
How to learn a foreign language

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I have written about traveling being a way to see new things and expanding your horizons, however this effect is multiplied exponentially if you speak the languages of the countries you are traveling in and can thereby reach the people in their own native language and find out what they are thinking in their own words.

I can speak 6 languages fluently (level B2 and up) and am in the process of learning three more. I might be a bit special, since I come from a multicultural family and have moved around all my life, so I got some languages for “free”, however other ones I have had to learn from scratch. My only regrets are that I have always been shy and also that I tend to never finish up learning one language properly before starting a new one (classic “toward” behavior).

Learning languages is sometimes a very grueling process, however it all becomes worth it, once you start applying what you learn in practice. The best experiences traveling are usually associated with using a foreign language to communicate. Nothing beats the feeling you get after managing to get your point across to a native speaker in their country without having to resort to speaking English. The feeling of satisfaction and a job well done is the reward for all those countless hours of frustration and all those myriads of exercises you did.

Of course language learning is not all about frustration, but for many people it is an enjoyable activity. It becomes even more enjoyable when it opens up doors for you, doors that would otherwise have been shut, had you not learned that language.

So how do you learn a language?

1) why?

When learning a language the most important thing that you need to answer is: why are you learning that language? What is the reason behind you wanting to speak this language? This is a fundamental part that you need to have clear, because it is tied in with motivation.

Motivation is very important for any activity, and especially language learning. Something needs to push you to go through all those countless hours of studying, through all those times you make embarrassing mistakes or through all those times you feel clueless. A person without the proper motivation will stop the process of learning the language at the earliest opportunity when the going gets tough. They won’t be able to persevere.

In order to master a language, you need to have the right motivation. Some motivations can be stronger than others, for example living in a country and having to use the language you are learning in order to survive is a much stronger motivation than a guy who thinks it would be cool to know some foreign language and picks a random one out of a hat. With the first type of motivation you are likely to persevere, with the second one, you will most likely move onto other things fairly quickly.

Your environment and your internal state also have a serious effect on motivation. If there are outside things that are affecting your internal state, your motivation for learning might go down. For example depression can be a barrier that can keep you from continuing to learn a language, as you it brings down your motivation. However the cause and effect can be reversed. So for some people the continuous study of a language can keep their mind occupied and thereby the effect is less depression.

2) what?

Once you have the “why”, picking the language you want to learn should be easy. You should learn a language that you have a strong motivation to learn and one that you will find useful in your life. So think of what language you want to learn. Is the “why” strong enough for you that you will persevere in learning that language?

The ultimate goal of learning any language is for you to be able communicate in it. The dream of every language learner is to achieve the same type of ability with the target language as that of a native speaker. Unfortunately very few people actually get to that level.

You can judge your language activity using CEFR levels, which range from A1 to C2, with A1 being total beginner and C2 being native fluency. In between you have A2, B1, B2 and C1, with conversational fluency starting somewhere around low B2 level.

The CEFR describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in reading, listening, speaking and writing at each level.

source of above table: Wikipedia

There are many languages that you can learn. Since you are reading this, you probably already have a pretty decent level of English, so I won’t talk about this language. Excluding English, some very big languages are (among others) Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, as well as countless others. If you manage to learn at least a few of the languages I listed, you will be able to communicate with a large part of the globe.

Each language has its special challenges and therefore there is no “hardest” language. If you see some sort of a ranking of the hardest languages, you should know that that ranking is BS, as it is usually very subjective and not based on any facts.

The hardness of learning another language depends on your background and your abilities. It will be much easier for you to learn a language that is in the same language family as the languages you already speak. It will also be much easier for you to learn the pronunciation of a language, if your own language already has the same sounds of words as your target language.

When learning a language, it is not only speaking and understanding that you will learn, but also reading and writing. For languages that use an alphabet that you are already familiar with, this should not be too hard, however for languages with different alphabets (or ones that don’t have alphabets and you have to memorize characters for different words) that might prove a bit more difficult.

You will also have to learn pronunciation, grammar rules, vocabulary and other things. Some languages might have a very easy system of verb conjugations, while other ones might not. Some languages might have noun declensions, while others won’t. All these complexities will add to the challenge of learning a language.

3) when?

It’s much easier to learn a language when you are younger, especially if you want to be as close to native fluency as possible. However even if you are older, you can still learn a foreign language up to a very high level. So don’t despair.

The best way is to be learning the language 24/7 and be in a total immersion experience. Here the when is all the time! However most of us don’t have that luxury, so might be only able to dedicate a few hours a week for study.

The best strategy is to keep a rigorous schedule and don’t deviate from it. If you say that you are going to study a language for a minimum of 1 hour every day, then you should stick to that. Also remember to set some goals of by when you should be at what level. This will keep you motivated and on track.

4) how?

This is probably the question that every language learner is asking: How do you learn a foreign language? The answer to this is not so simple. It seems like everyone these days has some method that they promote as being the best way to learn languages, however be careful of falling into the trap of believing that someone’s method is the best. These things are very individual, and what works for someone else might not work for you.

You will need to find what works for you. How do you like to learn? Are you a visual, auditory or a kinesthetic learner? What type of a person are you? Are you shy or outgoing? All these things will have an impact on how you learn.

The best way to learn a language is to be in a complete immersion environment, however for most of the time that is impossible. So the trick here is to try to simulate an immersion environment as closely as possible. Try to listen to the target language as often as possible, by having the tv or the radio on in that language, even if it is in the background and you are not actively listening to it.

One piece of advice that you hear often is to start speaking the language from day 1, meaning you should be trying to communicate in that language right from the beginning, even if you don’t know a single word at first. The premise here is to talk in that language and not be afraid of making mistakes.

This advice can work for you, however in my opinion it’s not for everyone. Some people are just wired differently. It’s the same with babies, while some babies start talking very early and say all kinds of gibberish, other kids stay silent for longer, but when they start speaking at a later point, their sentences are much more coherent.

I am an example of a person, who does not like to communicate from day 1 in the target language. I am very afraid of making mistakes. Don’t know why, but it seems to be my internal wiring. Even to this day, I can remember some times when I either did something foolish or made a mistake and when I think of that moment, all the negative feelings that I was feeling then come back and I feel bad, even though that event happened a long time ago.

I don’t think I am the only person who has this. It’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that this type of a wiring allows you to remember things more easily. Studies of people with good memories showed that the reason why most of these people remember things better, is that they internally associate the thing they are trying to remember with some sort of a feeling. This process of association makes it stronger in your subconscious and therefore you remember it better. You sort of anchor it in your mind and whenever you have that feeling, the thing you are trying to remember pops up.

However that works in reverse as well. So when the thing that you are remembering pops up from somewhere (maybe you see the word written as you reading a book), then the feelings associated with that can come back as well. That’s why I hate to make mistakes, because these bad feelings get stuck in my subconscious. On the other hand, people who make mistakes and then forget about them, don’t have this problem. They can learn and forget and go on. They will have a harder time remembering things, but the trial and error way of doing things is much more suited to them.

So in deciding on whether to adopt the speak from day 1 method, see what type of a person you are, whether you are outgoing and whether you have strong associations of things with feelings and then either go for the method or go for another method more suited to you. Of course you can sometimes change your personality, but a lot of times this is very hard.

My method for learning languages is something what I like to call the 3 Wave Method. This means learn the language in three phases. This is of course an ideal state scenario, because unfortunately I don’t always follow my own advice sometimes and get lazy.

The first phase you get some sort of a learn on your own style material, like for example the Assimil or Teach Yourself series. To complement this, you also get some sort of a workbook which explains the grammar of the language and has some grammar exercises. This means that for the first phase you have these two types of materials. The first one has a strong audio (or video) component and the other one is all about grammar.

After you have this, then you set up a schedule on when and how often you will be learning that language. So for example you can decide to dedicate half an hour to the language everyday or maybe an hour 3 times a week. The exact timing does not matter, what matters is that you set up a schedule and then stick to it. Do not try to skip the time you have dedicated to language learning, since sticking to a schedule is one of the keys to being consistent and persistent.

So now you have the materials and you have a schedule. What you want to do now, is to get through all the material as fast as possible. So in this phase, you don’t have to be very rigorous (you can be if you want to though). Listen to each lesson of the audio a few times, try to understand what the words mean, but don’t worry too much. Once you have the gist of the lesson, go on to the next lesson. Same thing with grammar. Read about the grammar rules, try to memorize some things, then do some exercises, but once you have the basics of that chapter down, go on to the next chapter. The key here is to finish the material and have a basic overview of the language.

After you have done this, comes phase 2. Now you take the exact same material you used before and go through it again, this time however being much more rigorous in your approach. Why do this? What I find is that it is much easier to concentrate on the material and do it more thoroughly, once you have already seen it before. That’s why I advocate going through phase 1 quickly and seeing all the material before without concentrating on it too much.

For many people, if they spend too much time digging into the material the first time, they might get confused and discouraged and give up. However doing these two phases with the same material, lowers this factor of giving up significantly.

After you have finished these two phases, comes phase three. Now you should look at more native or at least higher level material. Maybe you can start watching some television series in that language (with subtitles or without), or reading newspapers in that language. Maybe find a language exchange buddy.

You continue on learning the grammar, however now with a different book! You will solidify your understanding of the grammar much more, if you see the same concepts be explained differently and that’s why I advocate using as many different materials as possible after you finish the initial phases. If you don’t understand a concept, go see the explanation of it in a different book. There is a wealth of resources out there, so use them!

If you can, I also encourage the use of classes. Some people are against them, however I found them pretty useful. Just listening to the teacher and doing speaking exercises with other students can be beneficial. It also keeps you honest, especially if you are lazy. With classes you have them scheduled and so have an incentive to attend them. If you are a person who has a hard time motivating themselves to study on your own, classes are a good way to push yourself.

Once you have solid grasp of the language, you should go to a country where the language is spoken on a native level. This will be the test of your skills, but also teach you a lot more of the language. You can either enroll at some sort of a language school there, or just go to the country and try to speak to the locals. A good way to practice the language is to go do something in that country that you like doing, for example martial arts or surfing or whatever and enroll in a class or an activity group to do that activity. There you will meet locals who also share your passions and you will be able to practice your language, while also doing something you love!

Don’t just sit there, pick a language and start learning!

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