In our modern society, we are often faced with the need to master at least one foreign language. But, as adults, we think it would be difficult for us to try and learn a foreign language or to improve the knowledge of the one learned in school. And, besides, few of us have a natural gift for foreign languages…
In fact, our language acquisition ability diminishes sharply after puberty, as shown by many studies. However, irrespective of age, learning can be easier if undertaken for fun. To achieve this, certain daily recreational activities can be turned into learning activities.
Ranking first among the agreeable ways of learning a foreign language is watching a movie without subtitles. Try and listen carefully to the dialogue and concentrate on the words. It is important to manage to recognize words and reproduce their pronunciation. You may feel that in certain scenes the dialogue flows too rapidly, especially if your ear is not trained, but it will be a good exercise to enrich your vocabulary.
Another pleasant way of learning a foreign language is to listen to songs in that language. You can then hum the lyrics. You can also watch videos displaying the lyrics of the respective songs in order to better understand the meaning and to sing them along with the artist.
It really helps to have daily conversations in that language because, as they say, the best way to get to master a foreign language is to live in that country for a while. A friend with whom to have face to face or just phone conversations would also be of great help. You can have a conversation based on requests for information or on various scenarios. Such conversations are essential to increase your vocabulary and help you find out how you would be able to use the language if confronted with the real situation. You will certainly be able to find an online forum or social media to register on for this purpose.
You can also read in order to accelerate the learning pace. It will surely help! The important thing is to start gradually from a lower level, depending on how well you already master that language, choosing more and more complex readings as you progress.
You should practice the language you want to learn as often as you possibly can during the day, until you no longer feel this is an undesired effort. If you manage to have fun while doing it, you will soon realize you are able to use that language much better than when you started. Be creative!