After years of teaching and learning languages myself, I've discovered some crucial lessons—often the hard way. These tips come from my personal experience as both a language learner and a teacher, and I hope they'll help you avoid some of the pitfalls I encountered along the way.
For a long time, I didn't speak Spanish despite studying it forever because I was afraid of making mistakes. This fear cost me ten years in which I could have been developing my language ability if only I could have accepted that learning a language means making a lot of mistakes. That damn perfectionist in me! I hope you don't make the same mistake as me.
Remember, the goal of communication is connecting with another human being and being understood. Your delivery doesn't matter if through communication you are achieving these goals. If you've been understood, you've successfully used the language you're learning.
Key takeaway: Communication success = connection + understanding. Perfection is not required.
According to research conducted by the FBI, a person's speaking ability is tied to their listening ability, and their writing ability is tied to their reading ability. Your passive skills in listening and reading will always be at a slightly higher level than your active skills of speaking and writing. So if you want to improve your speaking ability, listen to the language more. Likewise, if you want to improve your writing ability, read more.
Key takeaway: Want to speak better? Listen more. Want to write better? Read more. Your passive skills drive your active skills.
Living in a place where the language you're learning is spoken is an excellent advantage. First of all, in my experience, every interaction becomes more special when it's in a language you're learning. A person speaking their dominant language is a normal thing. On the other hand, putting into practice the grammatical structures and vocabulary you're learning can make every interaction into an especially delightful experience.
That said, start speaking as early and often as you can. Conversation unlocks so much for a language learner… Human connection, reinforcement of learning, new vocabulary and grammatical structures, and so much more.
Key takeaway: Every conversation is a precious learning opportunity. Start speaking early and often—don't wait until you feel "ready."
In a Spanish conversation class I took while teaching at a graduate school in Monterey, California, Laura Sanjurjo—a retired professor from the Defense Language Institute—shared her observation with me that most language learners slow themselves down when speaking because they think of what they would like to say in their dominant language and then try to translate that into the language they are learning.
Different languages use different structures and your language abilities in dominant languages will be so much more developed than your abilities in the language you are learning, so this approach is not the way. Instead, try to compartmentalize your languages in your mind. When you're speaking in the language you're learning, speak simply. Rely entirely on the grammatical structures and vocabulary you have available to you in that language.
After about six months of knowing a new group of friends when I first moved to Mexico and my Spanish was super rusty, one of them asked me, "Are you still translating everything in your head when you talk with us?" That question was a great reminder of the unnecessary energy I was using to translate what they were saying into English (my dominant language), to think of what I wanted to say in English, and then to translate that into Spanish. As you might imagine, by the time I was ready to speak, the conversation had moved on. A much more direct approach is to just cut your dominant language and the act of translation from the equation.
Note: The Defense Language Institute is a military school in which soldiers learn a language from zero to professional fluency in six months to a year. Their whole job is to learn the language while at DLI.
Key takeaway: Think directly in the language you're learning. Use only the structures and vocabulary available to you in that language, even if it means speaking more simply.
On another occasion, Professor Laura Sanjurjo from DLI shared her observation that when learning a language, people shouldn't be overly reliant on dictionaries. As a translator, this observation resonates. A translator's job is to understand every word in order to be able to convey content in another language. This means that as a translator, throughout my language learning journey I've fallen into the trap of looking up every single word I don't understand when reading, depriving myself of the opportunity to build up an understanding of important vocabulary through context, and also burning myself out on reading.
Again, I hope you won't make the same mistake I did. Of course, it's important to use bilingual dictionaries when learning a language, but don't become over-reliant on them. When you're reading, many of the words you read that you don't understand aren't that important, and the important vocabulary will be repeated and expanded upon so that you can develop an understanding of it from context.
Key takeaway: Not every unknown word needs to be looked up immediately. Trust that context will teach you the important vocabulary through repetition. Save your energy for reading more.
Language learning is a journey full of mistakes, breakthroughs, and moments of genuine connection. Be patient with yourself, stay consistent, and remember that every conversation—no matter how imperfect—is moving you forward. I'm excited to be part of your English learning journey!