Are you learning a new language and feeling stuck between I can order a sandwich and a hard place? You are not alone. Language learning is difficult. Sometimes it can feel like you are putting in all the work you can to become fluent, but there’s always a hump you can’t seem to get over. Enter: this blog post. It’s time to start working smarter, not harder.

When it comes to learning a new language, immersion is key. The more you immerse yourself in both the culture of the language’s origins and native speaking of the language, the faster you’ll learn. Because of this, there is a world of difference in the rate it takes to become fluent. Putting a few minutes into your language practice each day versus moving to a new country and starting a life there will give you drastically different results. However, not everyone can tap their magic wand and transplant their life to a foreign country.

For those of us stuck in our native-speaking country, at least for now, these tips will help you reach your language goals without any major life changes. Without further ado:

7 Ways to Learn Another Language Fast

Table of Contents:

1. My King, Duolingo
2. Rock Out
3. Movie Night!
4. The Universal Language
5. We Need to Talk
6. Post-It Party
7. Make Your Phone Useful Again

1. My King, Duolingo

Let’s start off small; get some daily language immersion in with an app like Duolingo. Repetition cements a new language in your brain, and Duolingo encourages you to hold a daily streak because they know how important consistency is to the process of language learning. Bonus tip: speak each prompt out loud. This helps you hear your pronunciations and compare them to the Duolingo audio examples.

2. Rock Out

Find or make a playlist of music in your second language. If you can pull up the lyrics to read while listening, you’ll be able to pick up on some new vocabulary words. Find a time in your day when you consistently listen to music and start listening to this new playlist instead! Maybe you’ll find that your best runners high happen when listening to Reggaeton, or you feel most inspired in the kitchen listening to French jazz singers.

Music and culture are so heavily intertwined; just think about how important your comfort songs are to you in your life. Don’t miss out on your new language’s music genres and histories.

3. Movie Night!

Watch movies for homework? Adulthood is a dream. But for real – watching and listening to native speakers in your new language can expedite you from I can order a sandwich to I can order for the whole table. Find some films or a show in your language, throw some English subtitles on, and do your best to follow along! Don’t let this be a passive activity, really try to engage.

If you are a Netflix-a-night kinda person, replace a show you watch in your mother tongue with one in your new language and watch the changes flow in. After a few days, you may find your brain defaulting to your second language after the movie is over. For some movies, you can add foreign language audio over the English-speaking video, but you’ll likely miss out on any slang or lingo you’d pick up on from something filmed with native speakers. Something’s better than nothing, though!

4. The Universal Language

How can we talk about learning a new language without mentioning food? The universal language of love can play a fun and immersive role in your journey. See if there is a restaurant or grocery store near your neighborhood with food from your language’s country. Whenever I travel to a new place, checking out supermarkets and browsing different menus are some of my favorite activities that also boost my vocabulary.

You don’t need to book a flight, though; the same experience could be had within driving distance of your house. The likelihood of finding a place is dependent on what language and culture you are becoming familiar with and how prominent that culture is in your area, but it doesn’t hurt to check. The grocery section in a local Cost Plus World Market is a good constellation destination.

5. We Need To Talk

Having as many conversations as you can in your second language is truly the best way to level up. Speaking is, after all, the most important aspect of fluency. Not everyone has a friend they can have broken conversations with, though, so if you’re solo in your journey, you’re going to have to get creative. (If you do have a friend learning the same language, carve out time to attempt non-English conversations!)

If the only method of language learning you’re practicing is listening, writing, reading, or a combination, you’re missing out on your speaking practice. Find some material in your language, whether it’s a book, magazine, YouTube video, or food wrapper, and read the words out loud. Bonus points if you record yourself speaking and listen to it back to notice where there is room for improvement.

YouTube is a great tool for boosting your speaking skills. Find a video of a native speaker who breaks down pronunciations to pick up some tips. There are also videos of cartoons or real people having conversations in your new language. You can pause the video and try to answer, or just listen and pick up on helpful conversation tools.

6. Post-It Party

When you start having more conversations in your new language, you may feel trapped in a vocabulary deficit. There are so many things in this world, so learning a whole set of new names to associate them with in another language takes some time. To help your brain familiarize itself with new words for objects in which you already have words assigned, you’ll need to assign the new word to the object rather than to the word in your first language.

A great way to put this into practice at home is to put post-its over everything – dresser, door, mirror, plant, fridge, etc – with the new word in your second language on it. Every time you see the object, your brain will learn to associate it with another word! Don’t forget to recycle them when you’ve graduated from this:)

7. Make Your Phone Useful Again

This last tip is great for when you are looking for a hard-core immersion into your language right before a holiday or exam. Change the default language on your phone to your second language!

There are a lot of words we see on our screen so often throughout the day that we’ve learned to associate them with the action they produce or the icon they’re paired with. For example, we look for the camera icon rather than the word camera or hit a button on Instagram to post a comment. When your phone is in your second language, you’ll be able to pick up on a lot of new vocabulary words. If the change becomes too intense, you can always swap it back. You can also start small by changing only a few app languages at a time.

I’m so excited for you to take off in your language! Whenever you feel a little rusty, come back to this post and put one of the tips into practice. Remember—consistency is key. Share this with a friend who is on a language-learning journey, and follow along on Instagram for more tips!