From Tourist Talk to Native Speaker: Daily Language Exposure and Apps 🗣️

Most people learn a language at a lower intermediate level in school. While some continue into further study, most abandon their bi-lingual dreams and become astronauts 👩‍🚀 or professional football players ⚽️. 

The hidden reason why most people quit is because the way language is taught at school is all wrong 📚! 

Getting children to read through textbooks, answer questions and memorise sentences is an inefficient way of teaching. 

It is boring and doesn’t give students the real secret of learning a language. And that is…

EXPOSURE.

You can’t learn how to play football by watching YouTube videos. You MUST get on the pitch and start kicking the ball ☄️. 

Well, the same is true for language learning! Finding a way to immerse yourself daily, even changing the audio of your favourite sitcom to your language of choice, will train your brain to listen, react, and think in this language. 

Your brain is a very efficient organ. It removes unnecessary knowledge, so you must expose yourself daily to the language around you. Hearing people speak the language around you daily will eventually take you to a new level of fluency 🦻. 

For Those Learning English 🇬🇧

I’m sorry to tell you this, but English is one of the most complicated languages in the world. Many words that sound the same mean different things.

For example: ‘their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’ all sound identical but have entirely different meanings. 

Also, words that are spelt the same can often be pronounced differently, such as ‘bear 🧸’ and ‘fear 🙀’.

This is why you must practice the most effective ways of learning English. 

1 – Have contact with English-speaking people 👯‍♂️

Luckily, English is spoken almost everywhere, so you will always be able to find someone who can communicate in English. This is your most significant advantage! 

Find a friend, family or co-worker who knows English that will help you communicate in the language. Start with your essential command words:

I.e. hello, goodbye, thank you, please, and then slowly learn other commonly used phrases they use daily. 

This is the most convenient and effective way of learning a new language. 

2 – Use English language learning apps 📲

Where communicating with English language speakers is necessary, you should supplement this with the apps available. Fortunately, we live in an era where you can. Learn an entire language at the convenience of your iPhone.

Rosetta Stone has operated for 30 years (before the internet!). It previously sold disks and CDs.  You can download the smartphone app or use the desktop site. 

Rosetta Stone uses an ‘audio-visual’ approach that teaches through imagery rather than long explanations. It charges from £8.33 a month and offers a lifetime deal, so it’s worth checking out!

Given its status as the leader of language learning for 30 years, it is worth every penny! 

Babbel consists of lessons, content, and games which are interactive and fun. Cheaper than Rosetta Stone, Babbel is priced starting from £5.99.  

Busuu provides lessons and feedback from confirmed native speakers. Its unique selling point is that it will make you ‘street smart’ with languages, and you will be able to understand nuances and ‘young people’ slang quickly. It does come with a minimal free plan, but it usually upsells people to the premium options, which can cost between $7-$15 per month, depending on which deal you take. 

Memrise takes the oldest trick in the book and brings it into the digital age: Flash Cards. The technique of spaced learning and repetition is built into the app to optimise your memory as a user. The best deal starts around the £5 a month mark and moves up from there!  

Italki is my favourite! It provides a one-to-one service where you speak to natives of the desired country. I would recommend this, especially if you don’t know anyone who speaks this language at home. Prices vary based on the speaker, as the system is an online marketplace. Make sure to read reviews before choosing someone to avoid being ripped off!

Language App	Offer	Promo Code
Busuu	Save over 50%	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Rosetta Stone	Save over 50%	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Lingoda	30% Discount	NY2024	Click here to subscribe
Babbel	65% OFF for Lifetime	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Mondly	96% OFF for Lifetime	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Memrise	10% Discount	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Preply	50% discount	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
italki	Buy $10 get $5	TT5 or CF5	Click here to subscribe
Learn Laugh Speak	28% discount	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Elsa Speak	Free 7-Day Trial	No Code Required	Click here to subscribe
Novakid	15% Discount	NOVIM15 or NOVIM10	Click here to subscribe

3 – Watch English Content 📺

The English language is home to a plethora of entertainment: Hollywood films, epic box sets, famous YouTubers, and fashionable influencers.

I’d start with the most popular US come of all time ‘Friends’, the highest-grossing box set of all time ‘Game of Thrones, YouTubers such as ‘The Sidemen’, ‘Mr Beast’ and the most streamed podcasts such as ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ or ‘Diary of a CEO’.

English Speakers Learning Foreign Languages 🌍

Fellow English people like you, my teacher in secondary school was rather uninspiring. She didn’t care about nurturing our international development and was primarily concerned with getting us suitable grades. It wasn’t until long after I left school that I began to enjoy speaking Spanish 🇪🇸.

I started by speaking to a Peruvian 🇵🇪 friend who worked near my house. He was patient with me and saw my potential. Luckily, Peruvians tend to speak much slower than Spanish, which makes it much easier to understand. 

I supplemented this learning with some additional methods that I’ll mention below, and now I can confidently say “mi español es muy bueno” and that I can hold my own when I visit Ibiza, particularly after a few ‘cervezas’ to boost my confidence! 

So here I will give you the critical tricks to learning a foreign language that I found helpful. 

1. It would be best to get involved in the country’s culture. Watch its best films (in that language), listen to its best songs, and follow its influencers. This will give you a real insight into how the language is spoken and any particular mannerisms that locals use. After all, the majority of communication is conveyed through tone of voice and body language. 
2. Speak the language as much as possible. Whether you are talking to yourself or another person, it doesn’t matter. Narrate your day to yourself as you do it. If you are going to open the fridge, say in the language that you will open the refrigerator. This will get you thinking, speaking, and living in that language. 
3. Use apps to help. Some I recommend are Rosetta Stone, Babbel, Busuu, Italki, and Memrise. So be sure to check them out using the link for discounts here:
4. Be playful: If you set challenges for yourself, language learning becomes less of a chore. For example, try getting into a taxi and see how long you can go under the disguise of being a local (Difficult for English people I know). Try making someone laugh in the new language or something simple like following a recipe or writing a song. 

As an English person in a foreign country, it can be challenging to learn a new language, primarily because most people speak decent English and tend to translate themselves for you! But if you stay persistent, you will undoubtedly achieve your bi-lingual dreams sooner than you realise.  

Good Luck 🍀🍀