9 RULES FOR LEARNING LANGUAGES
There are 9 golden rules for learning languages with stories. And if you apply even one of these 9 rules then you'll find yourself learning much faster, more words, more grammar, and you'll even start thinking in your new language before you know it.
9. Read At Your Level
Literally everything else depends on this. It's a bit like the pin in the grenade. if you want to learn a language by reading, then you've got to read at your level. Reading at your level means that it's not too easy or hard.
How do you know if you're reading at the right level? you know that when you can follow the plot of what you're reading not everything, not every little detail but just the main ideas. This typically means that you're going to understand at least seven out of every 10 words that you're reading. Because if it's too hard you won't learn anything. If reading hasn't worked for you in the past as a language learning approach, it's almost certainly because you're reading something that's too hard for you.
8. Focus On The Plot
When people learn languages they're often desperate for the learning to happen and that's when they start to look up words in the dictionary or worry about grammar rules or whatever it may be. But story learning magic works when you focus simply on understanding the plot of the story, because when you understand what you're reading, you will learn vocabulary and grammar naturally.
Stephen Krashen says “we acquire language when we understand messages when we understand what people tell us and when we understand what we read”. so when you're reading you have one job and that job is to follow the plot. Just focus on following the plot even if it's just the gist and read through right to the end of the story.
7. NO DISTRACTIONS
There is a famous study from UOC(University of Curacao) that found that if you get interrupted in the middle of a task, it takes 23 minutes to refocus on what you were doing. It kind of sounds like a lot but look at it in another way. We all know what a great flow state feels like that when we're super absorbed in a task and time flies. Just like that language learning is about focus. The deeper you focus, the more you learn and that makes it critical. When you do sit down to study you should do everything you can to focus on reading the story and understanding as much as you can. So sit down close the door, turn off your phone, sit where no one can disturb you, and make every minute count.
6. Learn the script
Learn the script seriously. Most scripts are not that hard to learn. Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, Russian you can learn all of these in a weekend and once you've got it. it's like that Narnia analogy when you open up a whole new world through the wardrobe. so it'll take you some time to really get used to the script and start to read fluently so start learning the script right away.
5. Always Listen Along While Reading
Listening and reading together doesn't take up any extra time, But you're getting double the benefit, because you're training your ears at the same time as you're learning which helps you to understand the spoken language. This is going to help you learn faster and put words into your long term memory and the great thing about having the audio is that you can also listen when reading isn't possible like when you're driving or in the gym.
4. Read Again
Story learning is all about reading and the magic of reading is that you can learn words and grammar naturally because your brain can notice things by itself. One of the best ways to give your brain the chance to notice things about the language you're learning is by reading things more than once. It's a bit like a great film where each time you watch it you notice details that you didn't spot the first time. The first time you read something you might just focus on understanding the plot but when you read it a second time you already know the plot. So you can start to guess some difficult words that you didn't catch first time and if you read it a third time you might notice some interesting grammar maybe. that's being used to tell the story point is give your brain the chance to notice as much as possible by reading chapters more than once.
3. Don't Study Grammar Rules
The third rule of learning any language is that do not study grammar rules. There’s a need to learn grammar, but only grammar is not the most important thing. The trouble is that grammar has a habit of being consumed to the point where many people only study grammar and don't think about anything else. And the truth is grammar simply isn't as important as you think. It is at least not until you're at a more advanced level.
The point of this rule is not to say don't ever study grammar or don't take an interest in grammar the point is that if you just set grammar to one side don't worry about it and just enjoy focusing on reading and enjoying the story, that way you'll learn so much more grammar than you ever dreamed of with a tenth of the effort and have a lot more fun doing it.
2. Learn Every Day
The biggest secret to any change in your life is to just do a little bit every day, stay consistent and then let time do the work. As a language learner your biggest enemy is often yourself, but if you can commit to reading in your new language just a little every day. You're in for a transformation. You won't believe all you have to do is not get in the way of yourself.
1. To Trust In The Process
The very first rule from the 9 rules for learning languages is to trust in the process. If one thing that is likely to stop you from learning every day then it's going to be getting restless and impatient for results expecting quick wins every time you sit to study because this leads to the butterfly effect of jumping from one language resource to the next hoping that this time that thing works for you. But don't let that be you, remember that slow and steady wins the race a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So just trust in the process because everything you've ever wanted is waiting for you just outside your comfort zone.
0 Comments