How To Train Your Brain To Grasp A Foreign Language?

Your Mindset is the Culprit when learning a new language. Change it Today.

Preparing yourself and planning for any task goes a long way in achieving the results you wish for. The same concept can be applied to learning a new foreign language.

I moved to Germany about 6 years back without any knowledge of German. But the mindset was crystal clear, learn the language if you want to get a job and get some International Exposure. Saying such a simple statement, over and over again in your brain will train your mindset to do the needful.

And it is just not limited to the statement above. The harsh fact is, that our brains are lazy and need an extra training to prepare them for the task at hand. And there are a few steps you can follow to learn:

There is a famous quote that goes around the internet which says ‘If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.’ Understand this quote and implement it in your life, upto an extent that you walk into a conversation to learn.

This eventually takes some practice, that includes, feeling awkward in conversations where you are struggling to find your words, avoiding people so that you don’t have to converse in the language and the list goes on…

Ultimately, the beginning of the learning process is destined only when you can get comfortable at feeling stupid.

It’s just not enough to feel curious in conversations, It is also necessary to ask questions when you don’t understand something in order to learn something new.

For Example, when conversing with a native speaker, you can always ask the meaning of a new word that the speaker uses. It does no potential harm to anybody, as a matter of fact, it makes the conversation more passionate.

Make a routine of asking two to three healthy questions to the native speaker during a conversation. And feel like a ‘Winner’ coming out of the conversation, and it doesn’t even matter what the topic of discussion is.

Start hanging out with people where you can atleast listen to the language, even if you are unable to speak it yet. This will sharpen your hearing skills and make your brain work harder, in order to try to connect the dots and finding out what the conversation is all about.

And since you are learning a new language, the faster you move into these foreign language conversations (even though they might seem intimidating), the sooner you are climbing the ladder to success.

Always search for a word if you see somehting new or if in doubt, doesn’t matter where you hear it and read it. Just take out your phone and type that word in. No harm done in learning a new word.

And then to make sure this new word, remains imprinted in your brain for a long time, using your own Followup method. Your followup methods could be noting down new vocubulary words or repeating the newly learnt words a few times over the day.

But my personal favourite followup method, is forming a new sentence in your brain using this word and repeating that sentence a few times in your head, until you are correctly pronouncing this particular word. Voila!

This technique is my personal favourite. This was recommended by my first German teacher, which I still remember and use upto this day.

My German teacher recommended talking or thinking to yourself in the foreign language that you are trying to learn. You might struggle for vocabulary or sentence structure inititally while having a conversation with yourself. This struggle however, is the most important part of the learning process.

This might sound absurd at first, but this system works wonders when used efficiently. In my personal experience, this mechanism can take your language skills to exponential levels.

We all love a binge session on Netflix now and then. How productive could it be, if you could mix up Serial Binging with Learning.

It is a fun way of learning with Netflixing used as the Condiment. The recommendations below assume, that English is your native language and German being the foreign language you are trying to learn.

The Condiment Formula:

· Beginner Level: Keep the Audio in English and the Subtitles in German. Keep a pocket dictionary handy, keep searching and keep learning all through your movie. This will allow you to understand everything in the video and buildup a steady vocabulary at the same time.

· Intermediate Level: Bring the Audio to German and the Subtitles to English. This will be the level, where you have built up a decent vocabulary to start listening German speech and transition towards speaking the language yourself.

· Road to Expertise: The final step would be to bring both Audio and Subtitles to German. This the level where you will do the fastest and the most complex learning of words and speech. And even transition to speaking the language fluently :)

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