How to accelerate the process of learning a new language
I’ve been wanting to pass on this little piece of knowledge for a long time. The assortment of tricks that one builds up along the way of learning another language.
It is a real journey, and not the least, a very beautiful trip that allows you to get out of one’s self, experiencing a different standpoint to look at the world. Each new language contains a whole universe of meaning, a unique way of perceiving, describing and appropriating the world. As a good painter of reality, it is like having an additional palette of colors to represent everything that surrounds us.
Learning a new language offers the possibility to undertake such a journey. You learn a lot about yourself and about others. One must question oneself, question the patterns one uses in one’s usual grammar, confront divergent logics to create categories, structure thought, describe action, express feelings or perceive time or space.
Once advanced on this path, all the richness of reading in another cultural sphere opens up to the explorer. Books are highways of thought that expose us to the reflection and sensitivity of some of the most brilliant minds that the earth has ever borne. Here is a chance to learn from other schools of thought to broaden one’s intellectual base and variety of references. Exploring a foreign language is a powerful and direct way to enter into the substratum of another culture, in other words, into a unique way of expressing through art a mark of one’s humanity, of leaving a trace of one’s passage in nature for posterity.
In the mysteries of language, all the thickness of a culture, with its particular traits, its way of seeing the world and transforming it, is thus coiled. It is also an open door to renew oneself. Forging another part of one’s personality, a culture always dresses its language with its values, it will thus have the effect of learning to be more diplomatic, more pragmatic, more nuanced or more expressive, inventive…
Through the discovery of the functioning of another language, one can feel certain cultural specificities impregnated in their matrix: the multiplicity of French formulations, the rhythm and passion of a Spanish dialogue, the pragmatism and vivacity of the English language or the organization and functionality of Japanese.
It is on this basis that we can develop one more mask in the panoply of our faces, expressing ourselves with the words of another language allows us to develop another character, to enrich our person. Understood as the per sonare, it is the social interface to be heard. It emerges a little different, tinged with the particularities of this language during such an exercise. We will see that this can be very useful to accelerate learning, to allow oneself to occupy another identity. So how can we find the best ways to appropriate another language?
We will start by considering the value of learning the target language (I), in order to stimulate one’s motivation and endurance on this long road. Then, we will show that it is necessary to overcome shame in order to free one’s potential to make mistakes and thus progress (II). Finally, we will see that it is useful to be exposed to familiar and benevolent relays to support one’s learning (III).
I) Increasing the value of the target language
A) Concrete outlets
An essential point to ensure one’s progress in a target language is to identify the potential gains to be made along the way. The full value of acquiring a new language must be discerned. To do this, one can measure the pool of speakers with whom one will now be able to exchange. For English it is quite obvious, it is the most spoken language in the world with about 1.2 billion speakers according to the Ethnologue in 2020. If we take the percentage of content accessible on the Internet, there too, its weight is overwhelming, about 56% of online content is in English according to the Internet world stat. It is therefore a whole stream of additional information to access.
In the same vein, you can increase the value of this skill and therefore your motivation for it by learning how many countries you can visit. Become a Spanish speaker, a whole continent is open to you, 21 countries have Spanish as their official language, which represents 475 million speakers according to UN estimates in 2019. From the beaches of Acapulco to the land of fire in Patagonia, you can now explore and make yourself understood. And let’s not forget Equatorial Guinea in Africa and the United States, three of whose states require all official documents to be translated into Spanish.
From a professional point of view, in any career, mastering an additional working language is an advantage, it multiplies your prospects as well as your hiring prospects. Consider again English, your potential employers are multiplied tenfold. A growing market like China’s now has about 1.1 billion speakers but with a much larger base of native speakers (921 million, as opposed to English which is more of a second language with only 369 million native speakers and 898 million people using it as a second language). This is an additional opportunity to do business, find suppliers or opportunities by mastering the main vehicle of thought but also of human sympathy: our language. Of course, we can do without learning the language of another to trade with him, fortunately for world trade, which would be drastically reduced if this were not the case. However, who has never felt the additional ease in interacting with others when one discovers the sharing of a mother tongue, or of a patois of any kind, that quickly creates a bond of proximity, it is a gas pedal of confidence. A shared language is a common heritage of meaning; the progressive learning of a unique way of conversing and describing the world allows this. This brings us to a second essential dimension in the motivation to learn a language, the artistic and cultural richness it contains.
B) The artistic and cultural contribution
Learning a language that is different from one’s own invites one to discover the historical, artistic and cultural supports that have marked its evolution. In the expressions, in the symbols conveyed by the language (the meaning assigned to a particular color, the way of expressing or concealing gender, social status, relationships between generations) and in the traits of mind that allow one to construct one’s conjugation, various treasures are hidden. The one to discover a whole heritage, a relation to beauty, to architecture, to History. How such and such a reference is used as a paragon to express such and such a situation (he thinks he is Bonaparte, we are not in Versailles here, parigot, calf’s head, all these concentrates say a lot about our centralization, the relationship between Paris and the provinces, or the importance of the figure of the leader in the French culture).
There is also this black gold that is preserved on a paper to which we will be able to access in original in the text, all the literature, the vision of the culture on itself whose access opens as we advance in the mastery of a language. We can draw from its most beautiful texts as well as its most sacred ones. Ask a constitutionalist, a specialist in parliamentary law, in the constitution of a state governed by the rule of law, about the richness of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the one adopted by the UN in 1948. To be able to perceive it in the exact terms of its linguistic matrix is a delectable bonus.
One could decline the thing at will with the appreciation of the original voices: who manages to return to the obsessive French dubbing after having tasted the original version? Good translations and interpretations are rare and always undermine some of the original flavor. Even when learning a combat sport, a trade, or an art, the techniques and skills of which are transferred in a privileged way to the original language. There remains an irreducible dimension to translation in its works and knowledge.
To experience an open scene at the theater in the language of Shakespeare, to see a play by Molière… this also goes in this direction, who would have the idea of translating his or her favorite singer into Arabic, English or Spanish, it will not be the same expression, one immediately understands that the rendering would suffer a great loss, the emotion, the timbre, the original personality. Even if successful translations and dubbing exist, it is not done in the majority of cases (the example of Claude François’ song Comme d’habitude, taken over in English with several shifts in meaning by Frank Sinatra, requires talented artists who have many keys to manage to exploit the basic universe and produce an interesting adaptation in another universe of meaning).
It is the same for knowing the deeds of the illustrious men and women who forged this culture, the historical landmarks that punctuate its history, the views on international relations, world conflicts, inventions, discoveries, the construction of the world and its various media of representation.
C) Contributions to his identity and personality
All this reserves mines of discoveries which end up increasing our personality and our knowledge. Part of the genius of a culture is transmitted through its language, it is transmitted like an internal melody to the language that more and more music lovers start humming. As we join the chorus, it rubs off on us too. We look more closely at the specificities of our language (the Latin tendency to structure everything around gender, from things to ideas to persons, the importance of being and having in Western culture, which has made them the two indispensable supports of its conjugation for all the other verbs, the first person in English, which always takes a capital letter, as if to singularize the importance of the subject).
One learns to distinguish the turns of phrase and expressions that are specific to us and that must be defused in order to fit into the grammar of another language (French and the general turns of phrase, on, or the reflexive to drown out the subject, its forms in c’est, the gallicisms, keeping a semblance of neutrality, the issues of the vouvoiement which are found in the use of titles in English before the surname of people).
How to manage distance and deference between interlocutors is a big part of learning many languages. In Japanese, the familiarity and hierarchy of the person one is talking to will determine the use of more or less polite forms of conjugation. Thus, through the art of communication, a representation of society and of the values that govern social relations is spread. Through the language it is a whole way of putting in common and of establishing a social link which is offered to the discovery.
What rigidity is incorporated into the language? Is there a centralizing academy to sacralize the language as in France, or a more moving and creative relationship as with the Commonwealth? The history of expeditions, of the language’s journey also has an important cultural charge.
At the level of the individual, this history is inscribed in his accent, forging it, changing it also means increasing his social interface, his character. Capturing the typical geographical expressions will reveal a little of who you are, of the environments and social groups you have been in contact with.
It is also necessary to confront another melody in the diction, which French speaker does not have the impression to sing to mark the English tonic accents which differ from the flatter register of his native language. There too, there is enrichment by learning another way of doing and expressing oneself.
It is moreover under this angle that a whole part of the enrichment by the acquisition of another language is presented and especially a second spring, gas pedal of learning: to authorize oneself another mould to melt a new identity in this different raw material.
II) Overcoming shame to allow yourself to make more mistakes
A) Forging an alter ego
This is a key often given by foreign language teachers: to better register in the use of a language that sounds different, that expresses ideas and emotions in other nuances, it is useful to forge another character. What better way to do this than to change the title of the protagonist. It is customary to Frenchize a first name, or conversely to convert a French name into English, from Pierre to Peter, from Juan to Jean… The choice can even be extended by giving free rein to the preference of those concerned. Behind this surface modification lies the real opportunity to change one’s identity and the way one expresses it.
A dynamic that goes through language, vocabulary, intonation, types of construction that this clever subterfuge invites to invest and reinforce. By adopting another first name to practice the language, one agrees to be perceived as significantly different, a little more through the eyes of the culture that looks at us. We find ourselves using expressions that are exogenous to our basic structures, adopting shortcuts that are common in this cultural field, such as the widespread use of diminutives in Anglo-Saxon culture. I became Val during my years of study and work in the US. This was convenient for many speakers because my first name was unusual and difficult to pronounce. It also facilitated a slight shift in the definition of my personality.
I also started to use diminutives, a lot of catch phrases, and compound words and verbs as the English language does. I also felt less embarrassed to change my phrasing under this slightly foreign identity, in short I hybridized by taking the paths of another language to express myself. This flexibility of changing identity is therefore an important learning facilitator, and should be recommended to anyone who wishes to progress more quickly in learning an additional language.
The same can be said of the rhythms, the level of language, the specific accent that one learns. This slight shift in identity makes it possible to forge a receptacle that is more conducive to receiving the new trappings of the inherited language. Socially, in the manner of a child who builds the contours of his personality on his first name by discovering its use by others, one builds a more fluid part of his existence in the language of acquisition.
In addition, this forms the ground for another process that is eminently useful for promoting learning, the fact of allowing oneself to make many and frequent mistakes. This is another learning reservoir.
B) Allowing oneself to not speak as well as in one’s native language
This alter ego has many other advantages. In addition to providing a stage for a slight shift and welcoming the specifics of expressing a new language into our repertoire, this additional identity increases our tolerance for mistakes. It is no longer Mathilde who has mastered the basics of her communication system transferred by her parents and school, but Maya, who is practicing all the patterns of the language of Cervantes as skillfully as possible. It is therefore normal in the process of building this new capacity that she makes many mistakes and especially that she allows herself to make them and to be corrected regularly by other speakers.
Because there is a great resistance here, a social malaise which slows down the learning of adults in the acquisition of new languages, the fear of failing in front of a strong expectation: an adult must master the frameworks of language. If one deviates from this rule, a situation of minority is feared. This expectation is also part of the received idea that children learn languages faster than teenagers or adults. Gabriel Wyner’s enlightening Tedx presentation on this subject deconstructs some of these prejudices. First of all, the exposure time is not comparable, between a child bathed in his original cultural environment for tens of thousands of hours and an adult deprived of this environment who tries to expose himself to a second language in a few hundred hours. From a neurological point of view, there is certainly with the stage of explosion of learning, a more fertile base to receive new connections. From an auditory point of view, between six months and one year a particularly fine capacity to grasp and record sounds would also be at work. However, this is only part of the explanation.
At least one other cause can be uncovered to understand this increased speed of learning, those that have to do with the normality for a child to be corrected, to make mistakes and not to be judged or to feel ashamed for these language errors. Let’s take for example a young child who is regularly corrected by his parents to acquire the automatisms of language, this plays an important role in the learning of the turns of phrase and the level of language, but also for the spelling in writing. In other words, the patterns of language use are so well anchored, repeated and incorporated into our synaptic networks that we make much less effort to mobilize them.
This also means that we no longer have time for latency, reflection and cognitive effort to compose our score in this language, we express ourselves in an easy and fluent way (a term used in French, here we see the importance of flow). This avoids the embarrassment of the transmitter and the receiver of the content. Because the times of pause, of research, the attempts of help and the impressions of minority will be thus erased, the interlocutors will remain on the same footing of equality (see Goffman and the importance to preserve the face). On the contrary, they will be able to value each other, one by the demonstrated ability to handle another language, the other by the ability to learn and share characteristic elements of it with his interlocutor. From this last element comes another learning gas pedal: finding an interlocutor who is kind to you and who will appreciate passing on the secrets of his or her language to you.
C) Find a friendly interlocutor
I often heard it during my stay in the USA as a language assistant at the Center of Roman Languages in Massachusetts, the best tip for learning a language: find a lover. I also found it in a Tedx video on the principles of making faster progress in a foreign language (Chris Lonsdale). Who else will deploy as much patience, kindness and affection to let you practice your weak basics, to put up with syntax errors, to adapt his ear to your pronunciation mistakes, to try to understand even your approximate vocabulary and imperfect conjugation. The first parallel to come is that of a parent to a child. In the phase when a child is babbling, he begins to use the patterns of the language without perfectly respecting them, who has not already observed a parent decoding the distorted words of a young child?
This is the same process that was at work with my host family in the USA, during the first months when I discovered this country and practiced English for the first time in a complete immersion situation, they were often my translators when ordering a menu, buying a product or asking for information. They had become capable of compensating for my lack of language use. They also served as a model for me to store the ready-made moulds, the frozen and learned expressions that today form a precious reservoir for my ear to distinguish the intonations, the appropriate or inappropriate uses of such and such a phrase or expression. I still refer to them almost automatically to express myself in English.
Without this exposure, I would never have cultivated this reusable stock. So it’s about identifying people who will adopt this same role that is both protective and emancipatory. It’s a kind of linguistic protectionism. Before launching into the great language business, supporting exchanges with all the potential interlocutors on the market of a language, it is better to strengthen one’s bases by relying on benevolent pillars. They will make us gain automatism and confidence to handle the language satisfactorily, and we will then be able to pursue our progress more easily with people who are less willing to put up with our mistakes.
The concern can go so far, as to inflect a little their basic accent to be better understood by the people in the course of learning. We see it moreover with the parents who acknowledge having understood so as not to discourage the toddlers but immediately reformulate their order in a language closer to the instituted standard, in order once again to make a bridge, towards the socially instituted forms of the language.
One finds here besides a crying inequality of any school system, a not negligible part of the basic program to exploit its resources are found anchored in the family lap and its capacity to accompany and develop the good use of the language (see what to speak means and the importance of the cultural capital according to Pierre Bourdieu).
III) Regular exposure to this universe of meaning
A) Creating a learning environment
This is the most crucial element, the one that most fuels the learning of the target language, an environment that promotes exposure to these language acquisition facilitators. Like a newborn baby, one must be exposed to a multitude of vectors to immerse oneself in the target language. One can think of widespread practices that now need to be explored further. From the age of 15, I remember how I eagerly translated the lyrics of my favorite singer on the first sites where lyrics were made available. Listening to and translating song lyrics is a key way. In addition to my standard English classes in the school system, I spent hours translating the colloquial, specialized, slang terms of the songs that inspired me most. I was no longer blissfully in awe of a world of meaning I didn’t understand, I could now measure the virtuosity of the use of words, the relevance of images and experiences converted into musical form.
This had the added benefit of training my ear daily to tame the words and pronunciation of the target language. Having chosen a famous rap author who used a rich vocabulary and several registers of the language, I knew from high school on vernacular and sometimes elaborate terms ignored by my own teachers. Above all, I was reinforcing what I had learned in school through my passion and in my time outside of class. The same could be said about series and books chosen in their original language. They expose us to the imaginary of the cultural sphere explored, they impregnate us with the values and norms that prevail in this other universe of reference.
France has become one of the first manga consumer countries in the world. How many French teenagers find themselves unexpectedly fascinated and influenced by Japanese history, aesthetics and values after having devoured small rectangular pamphlets that can be read from right to left? If you want to learn another language faster, you have to find its vectors and disseminate them in your daily environment. They will form as many supports and reminders of the patterns to be acquired in order to become effective in spreading thought in another language. In English, Shakespeare’s works are often revered for their scenic strength, their universal characters and the deep philosophical questions they raise. From a linguistic point of view, it is also a mine for acquisition because it is considered one of the authors who mobilize the most diverse palette of his native language, a real plus for expanding one’s knowledge while being entertained.
In the same register, to regularly impregnate oneself with a language in the acquisition phase, one can modify the parameters of certain electronic devices to acquire the vocabulary associated with this universe. Since I was a teenager, I have adopted the English language for the interface of my mailbox, I have often played video games in another language, and it is possible to do the same with one’s cell phone or household appliances. Anchoring yourself in everyday tools will help you become familiar with new lexical fields more quickly.
The emergence of download platforms has changed many dimensions. They have limited the number of intermediaries between production and consumption and made it possible to access a wealth of projects from different cultural spheres with a click. The series format has thus recently taken on considerable importance. Its iterative logic is a strength to support learning. This is yet another opportunity to learn more about a target culture and to appropriate new references and ways of referring to things, values and ideas. La casa de papel is a very good way to become familiar with the Spanish language. The best balance is obtained by watching the original version and then quickly switching to subtitles in the target language. You can even have fun mixing the three levels, I’ve even watched English series with Spanish subtitles. This mechanism relies heavily on the contribution of hearing the melody of a native speaker.
B) Choosing models to target idiomatic content
Here we come back to another great vector of learning, the fact of hearing and incorporating by mimicry the new patterns to be mastered. Babies do it at full speed by copying their entourage and their parents, adults can draw from a wider circle. Take advantage of online courses, the many applications dedicated to languages and sites that now offer easy access to native speakers. These types of programs are often in the form of tandem sessions, with one part of the session in one language and the other in the original language. I highly recommend this exercise, which I first practiced as a language assistant in the US. I started Japanese and perfected Spanish with fellow students. His dual approach roots the target grammar and forces one to question the basics of one’s own language in order to explain its arcana to one’s fellow student. For lack of a better term, cultural materials in movies, TV shows, and books can be used as a model to improve his language acquisition.
The idea is basically the same: choose models of people who express themselves with clarity and mastery in their mother tongue, listen to them, reproduce their intonations, the diversity of their vocabulary, the turns of phrase, the molds and the most frequent patterns to create meaning. This is another important learning lever: idioms (from the Greek idiomatikos, which is particular to a language), you need to appropriate them to grow in mastery in another language, native speakers expose you to this more valuable content. They are typical and difficult to translate. You need to target this more valuable content through these speakers. This will increase your learning curve, your speed in rendering expressions and the quality of the language you master. In this vein, Marc Green’s Tedx presentation points out finely perceived elements, the idiomatic dimension is found in pronunciation, colloquial registers and cultural attitudes.
Three peaks are to be identified to determine the limits of the acquisition of a new language: humor, because it plays with the richest and most recent cultural contents, the most creative associations linked to the language and its possibilities of word play. Telephone exchanges are also a great barrier to work on. The lack of face-to-face interaction cuts off a lot of information, limits certain vocal portions, and forces you to identify key tonal accents to use to make yourself understood. Finally, handling various emotional registers in another language, such as getting angry in a credible way and using relevant slang, is another frontier. It is necessary to confront this in order to better arm one’s language. Once you’ve practiced and validated these exercises, your level will inevitably jump.
Another escalator for the practice of a language is to start measuring and certifying your level of mastery as the saying goes in sociology, everything that is measured tends to improve, this is another vector that must be mobilized.
C) Activities that immerse in this universe
Among the activities that are interesting for the process of acquiring another language, one can try out different standardized tests. TOEFL and TOEIC have become references for the academic and professional world. Despite the inherent limitations of any standardization (lack of nuance and personalization), they nevertheless allow one to clearly identify the need for progress in one or another aspect of the language mastery process (listening, pronunciation, reading, writing). One can objectify one’s progress over months or even years, establish realistic objectives and reach them. If only the now established European division from A1 to C2 will allow you to better situate yourself. It is a useful starting point to guide your progress and your regular workload to reach the desired level.
In addition, you should of course double up on these activities with the most engaging ones and those that will allow you to immerse yourself in worlds impregnated by the target cultural sphere. We can think of squash and golf for English, or combat sports for the Japanese sphere.
The most interesting level will be to practice immersion in a world totally governed by this language. A tourist trip is a good start, but a longer, more exploratory trip for school or work purposes is the most important learning tool. Like the principle in architecture which dictates that design follows function, having to communicate in the language of learning stimulates the plasticity of your brain, the need to express yourself in another language on a daily basis in order to be understood, to cooperate and to exist, weaves strong neuronal imprints. Grooves that will always be latent afterwards, to be reactivated. A capital that can help you practice the language in a fluid way, without blocking or consuming too many cognitive resources. This prepares you for the grail of language practice: a fluid and fluent mastery of the language.
In short, we must remember the three pillars on which to base your learning of a new language: cultivate interest in its acquisition, have very clear objective data on the gains that await you. The speakers, the spaces, the contents and the richness to be discovered in their original version. This will provide you with the motivation and stamina to walk a path that continues for many years. In fact, this journey continues for a lifetime. Each human language is an inexhaustible treasure, except when it is lost because it is no longer used. Each language continues to evolve with the creativity and changes adopted by its speakers. Good for you, by learning rare languages you are fighting against the extinction of the intangible heritage of humanity. Secondly, you must at all costs overcome the shame and blockage caused by the expected lack of mastery of the language by an adult. This feeling of minority can be tamed by finding protective and benevolent relays (a teacher, friends, a spouse, a tandem…). This relay is to be put in parallel with the search for a daily and immersive exposure to the idiomatic content of the language. This is the third pillar of this approach: we must expose ourselves to this new universe of meaning through multiple regular vectors. The simplest way is to explore cultural content in its original version, the most successful is to immerse oneself entirely during a tourist, school or professional trip. The target here is clear, to identify and acquire the idiomatic patterns of the language. You have to repeat them like katas to make them your own. The faster you acquire the new forms, the more solid and automatic the use and restitution of this knowledge in everyday language will be.
This is the ultimate goal, to reach a fluent level, able to interact with ease and fluidity in a new language. The good news is that the more languages you learn, the better the process becomes. A good cultural background with a very different language is a tip to keep in mind to make related languages more easily assimilated. After discovering the specifics of Japanese (drawing 3 new alphabets, understanding how particles work), taking the road to Spanish seemed easier. You can also tell yourself that you can be a relay for other people and enrich your own language by trying hybridizations coming from elsewhere. This is how languages evolve and enrich themselves by stealing and inspiring, finding more and more smugglers on their borders who offer potential translations of idiomatic content on the language market.
Looking for this cumulative effect reserves the chance to amplify one’s painter’s palette to describe reality, create art or discover it. It is an opening of the mind, access to new heritages. Learning at least two languages would avoid many conflicts and perhaps even wars. The Franco-German rapprochement owes a lot to the 1963 Élysée Treaty and its television component, the advent of a bilingual channel. By splitting one’s language, one also enriches part of one’s identity. It is an important cognitive gain, an additional fortress for the memory, especially its semantic form. According to some research, learning another language protects against the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, while for others it produces performance gains in problem solving.
In addition to these cognitive gains, a new language makes us aware of another way of seeing, of enriching our interface for understanding and representing the universe. What a promising additional source of cognitive power. This cultural matrix is a beautiful way to extend and sustain our humanity. Now it’s up to you, what do you think are the best ways to acquire another language?
Bourdieu P., 1982, Ce que parler veut dire, économie des échanges linguistiques, Paris, Fayard.
Goffman E., 1959, The presentation of self in everyday life, Anchor.
Quelques vidéos intéressantes sur le sujet :
Green M., 2018, How to Talk Like a Native Speaker, TEDx Heidelberg,
Lonsdale C., 2013, How to learn any language in six months, TEDx Lingnan University, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0
Wyner G., 2017, Why We Struggle Learning Languages, TEDx New Bedford, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBMfg4WkKL8