It has often been said that the best way to learn a foreign language quickly is to go the total immersion route – to travel to a country where the language is spoken and push yourself to use it daily in a place where it surrounds you. I have to agree; I’ve been learning or speaking Spanish for about 12 years of my life now, and most of the times when I’ve felt the most “fluent” have been after a trip to a Spanish-speaking country, like Cuba or Peru.
However, it isn’t always possible to jet off to a foreign country. You may not have the budget for a plane ticket, or you might be a high school student just starting out on your language-learning journey. Or maybe you’re quarantined at home due to a global pandemic! 🙂 Whatever the reason, over the years I’ve developed a few ways to simulate foreign language immersion at home, and I wanted to share them with you today!
Use Apps
Apps are very useful, whether they’re your main way to learn languages or whether they’re only supplementary to a language-learning software or formal class.
Duolingo is probably one of the best and most widely-known, so it’s a good place to start. You can easily set goals if you want to, say, spend 10 minutes per day learning Russian. But then (if you’re me) you might ignore that little owl everyday and he’ll try to guilt-trip you into practicing by telling you he’s sad you missed your lesson. This probably works on some people, but it usually just makes me want to defy the owl’s manipulation and never practice again! Joking aside, Duolingo is one of the best free apps out there for learning languages!
Another one I enjoy is called Memrise. This app has courses that are full of (often user-created) flash cards to help you learn languages. These flash cards serve as little memory cues and are really helpful for learning vocabulary and pronunciations. Memrise also recently added thousands of clips of native speakers saying different phrases! You can actually learn more than just languages through their system as well – I’ve checked out courses that can help you identify constellations, birds of North America, or even what artist painted different famous works.
No language-learner’s phone would be complete without Google Translate. Yes, you need to be cautious when putting in entire phrases to be sure you’re getting the correct translation, but it’s very convenient for this times when you hear an unfamiliar word in the language you’re learning or randomly think, “hey, how would I say this in Swahili”? You can also download languages in the Google Translate app so you can use it even when you’re offline, which has come in handy on some of my travels!
FreeRice is a website/app that has been around since I was in high school. They’re run by the World Food Programme, which donates “free rice” to families in need – ten grains for every quiz question you answer correctly! If you’re studying English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, or Czech, it’s a great way to learn vocabulary while doing a bit of good. Like MemRise, FreeRice has expanded over the years and now offers courses in everything from famous quotations to coronavirus facts.
WhatsApp has been the best free app for texting/calling internationally for a long time, so it’s perfect for keeping touch with friends in other countries or any language-learning pen pals you might have (which we’ll cover later on!). If you don’t have WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or the messaging feature in Instagram have been other ways I’ve kept in touch with friends abroad.
Last but not least, a music app is a great option for learning languages, since, as we’ll cover later, listening to music can help in a variety of ways. I especially recommend ones like Pandora or Spotify that can curate stations for you and help you discover new music in the foreign language and/or cultures you’re studying!
Watch TV & Movies
There are four main skills you need to know when learning a language – speaking, listening, writing, and reading. TV and movies can help a great deal with the listening part, and even sometimes with the reading as well, if you make use of subtitles.
One of my absolute favorite tricks for learning languages is to watch a movie I know quite well (Disney movies, romantic comedies, or classics like Princess Bride) in another language. This is especially easy if you’re learning Spanish or French – check out the back of any DVDs you own for the Language section, and you’ll often find that you can watch it in English, French or Spanish. Familiar movies are best to start off, but once you become more fluent you can do this with basically any movie.
If you’re not studying French or Spanish, you may need to do a bit more digging. Many countries/languages have thriving film industries, like India, France, Japan, Korea, or Germany. If I ever set about learning Hindi, my love of Bollywood movies would certainly come in handy! Seeking out these foreign films can be a great way to learn your language and experience something new and different. Pictured above are a few of my favorite foreign films from my collection: Pan’s Labyrinth (Spanish), Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (Hindi), and I Am Dragon (Russian).
Luckily, streaming services make seeking out foreign films easier than ever. You can search for foreign-language films or TV shows on Netflix or other services. Netflix has a great deal of Spanish-language content, and I’ve noticed HBO Go has a good number of Spanish movies as well! My current guilty pleasure on Netflix is Velvet, a drama series set in a Madrid fashion house in the 1950s. Vegging out while watching soap operas is certainly an enjoyable way to practice languages!
A few other foreign films and shows on my to-watch list include Train to Busan (acclaimed Korean zombie movie), The Gift (Turkish fantasy series about a painter linked to an archaeological site), Grand Hotel, High Seas and Cable Girls (all historical Spanish TV dramas like Velvet), and Kon Tiki (Norwegian film about Thor Heyerdahl’s raft journey across the Pacific).
Another thing to try is playing with audio and subtitles. You can gain different things by watching a movie or show with different combinations: English audio / French subtitles, French audio / English subtitles, or French audio / French subtitles. The last combination is ideal when you’re just starting out and can learn pronunciation of different written words as you go.
Listen to Music
This is possibly my favorite tip on the list because it’s so easy and so fun! Music is the perfect way to learn many things – like enunciation, the “rhythm” of the language, and even common slang or abbreviations.
As I mentioned before, setting up playlists or Pandora/Spotify stations can be a perfect way to discover new music in the language you’re trying to learn. Spanish is particularly easy, since there are so many great Spanish and Latin American artists. I’ve included a list of songs above that can get you started. Here’s a link to a Youtube playlist with all of these songs so you can get an idea of which Spanish-language artists you might like to hear more of:
I’ll note that a few with particularly good enunciation are Julieta Venegas, Jesse y Joy, Prince Royce, Luis Fonsi, and La Oreja de Van Gogh. A few others who I really love but who you might have a bit more trouble understanding until you’re more familiar with the language would include Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, and Gente de Zona.
For other languages, you might need to do a little more research. There are websites that let you tune into radio stations around the world – try TuneIn.com, Radio.net, or Radio Garden. The last is my favorite. It’s the “Google Earth of radio”, letting you spin the globe and listen, live, to stations anywhere in the world.
Youtube is, of course, a great resource for researching artists who sing in the language you’re trying to learn. You can also use the same strategy as the movie one, and look for Disney songs (or others you might be familiar with), dubbed in another language. The familiar melodies can help you get the hang of pronouncing the new words. This Russian version of “I See the Light” from Tangled is particularly helpful, since it includes the Russian words in Cyrillic, the phonetic pronunciation, and the literal English translation of the Russian words.
Write it Out
The tactile nature of writing can actually help you remember things, so be sure to find opportunities to put pen to paper in your new language. You can jot down your grocery list when learning food vocabulary, for example, or write out physical flash cards to use for practice. Another easy way to learn vocabulary is to attach sticky notes to different household objects, labeling them in your new language.
Journaling is also incredibly helpful for practice, and a great supplement to any formal learning you’re doing. I kept a daily journal on my one-month study abroad to Cuba (which you can actually read, translated back into English, on my old blog here). It’s amazing to read it now and see how much my Spanish improved from the first day of the journal to the last day!
Taking a few minutes a day to write down a few random thoughts in your new language will really help your fluency. If you’re not really into the analog world, you can also jot notes, keep a diary, or send messages in your new language on your phone. Just be sure to add additional keyboards to your phone – I flip back and forth between my English, Spanish, and Russian ones!
Find a Pen Pal
One of the reasons I caught on so quickly to Spanish in high school was because I went out and made pen pals for practice! I had a profile on the website InterPals and was able to meet all kinds of new friends from around the world, from Malaysia to France to Mexico (there are always lots of people who would like to practice with a native English speaker!).
It was a fun way to make new friends, learn about other countries, and practice Spanish. Some of my pen pals were very good about correcting any mistakes I made (however embarrassing) in a kind and friendly way. Hearing from them also kept me motivated to learn and practicing my writing regularly.
Many language-learning apps, like Memrise or Duolingo, also have ways for you to make friends or be added to groups for practice. I’m not sure where else is a good place to make pen pals, since most of mine are now people I’ve met on my travels who I keep in touch with, so here’s a list of 9 pen pal websites – including InterPals – that you can check out if you’d like to make a new friend or two! Pictured above is me with Sarai, who I met in Cuba and love keeping in touch with via Facebook!
Read
Reading is, of course, a very important skill when it comes to learning a new language! The internet makes it very easy to find content to read – one thing I’ve done in the past is read one article per day from a foreign newspaper. El País was my newspaper of choice, and not only was it good practice, but I’d learn interesting things that may not be reported by US newspapers, like about Nicaragua’s attempt to create their own canal to rival Panama’s.
I don’t know how addicted most people are to Wikipedia, but for myself I’d say “extremely”. If you go to the home page you can see that selecting different languages is easy, and there are different numbers of articles in each language. You can also change any page into other languages by clicking them on the left sidebar. Some articles will have much more information in languages other than English, so you could absorb twice as much information if you read the page in two languages!
Then, of course, there’s the most traditional reading material: books. One easy method is to read old favorites translated into another language – which is why I couldn’t resist picking up the above copy of Harry Potter at a convenience store in Germany, even though German currently isn’t on my language-learning list! You could also try dual books, which have the original text and translations on opposite pages of each other, like this Russian/English book of short stories that I ordered from Amazon.
You can seek out books originally written in the language you’re learning, like The Little Prince for French, Franz Kafka’s body of work for German, or some books from the above stack, which represents a small portion of my Spanish-language collection. I’m particularly looking forward to reading El Tiempo Entre Costuras by María Dueñas and La Sombra del Viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, but have to admit the size of the books has been a bit intimidating to this point!
Speak Whenever You Can
Finally, we get to the hardest skill to practice. Even if you’re able to travel to another country and immerse yourself in the language, it can still take some effort to put yourself out there and practice speaking. At home it’s even harder, so you need to take every chance you can to practice!
In-person is best, if possible, so check out your local college, library, and Meetup.com to see if anyone hosts a conversation group near you. Most likely, if you’re learning a common second language, you’ll be able to find one! You can also look for conversation buddies through those same channels or even through Craigslist, etc.
If you’re taking a formal class or know someone who also speaks the language you’re learning, set up a regular lunch or coffee date at which you can practice! If you’re both learning the same language, vow to only speak that during your appointments. If you’re learning their language and they’re learning English, you can each practice speaking in your second language and make gentle corrections to each other.
We’re living in a largely virtual world now, so you can also see if any of the pen pals you made would like to do a Skype video chat or WhatsApp call so you can practice. Many language apps also offer the chance to converse with a native speaker, though it’s often for a fee.
If all else fails, talk to yourself! It may feel awkward, but you’ll feel even more awkward if it comes time to use your new skills and you find yourself completely tongue-tied. You can have practice conversations while driving to work, in the shower, etc. Singing along to music, as we mentioned earlier, is another way to really get your pronunciation down!
I hope this post gave you some new ideas of how to simulate total language immersion at home. Of course there are many more ways if you think outside the box (Can you attend a church service or cultural event where that language will be spoken? Could you teach your new skills to a child, partner or roommate? Is there a restaurant nearby where you might be able to order in your new language?).
Let me know what language you’re learning and any thing you’ve done to learn from home in the comments below!