Many people talk about how learning new languages is a great eye-opener. You no longer need subtitles to understand shows you are watching or music you are listening to. Going on a trip to your dream destination would be a breeze if you were able to understand its national language.

 

Youthoria conducted a survey to find out the struggles faced by 237 respondents when it comes to language learning. Out of 133 respondents with experience in learning a foreign language, 78 said that their biggest challenge was not having enough time to learn. This was also the same reason why respondents who wished to pick up a new language have not started yet.

 

Other than going for expensive classes, there are simpler and cheaper ways you can learn a completely foreign language on your own. Here are some ways you can start picking up a language through activities you do daily.

 

1. Learn the alphabet through online resources

Nurul Humaira, 19, who is learning Japanese, says: “I feel that recognising the different alphabets in Japanese is quite tough because the shape of the letters is similar to each other. Writing the letters is also one of the parts that I struggle with as I am not yet accustomed to the words.”

 

Thankfully, there are many free online resources that will be able to help you familiarise yourself with the alphabet. You can look the alphabet up on any search engine to have an overview. To practise your pronunciation, you can watch many YouTube tutorial videos where they go through the pronunciation of each letter multiple times. All you have to do is repeat after them and remember; practice makes perfect!

 

2. Incorporate language learning into your hobbies

One way to help make this journey more interesting is by learning through your hobbies.

 

“The students who are most successful at studying the language are those who also have an interest in it beyond academics which allow them to see the benefits of learning the language for their entertainment or for social communication,” says Ms Shermine Kwok.

 

Ms Kwok worked as an assistant language teacher with Fujieda Nishi High School in Japan, where she supported the Japanese English teacher during lessons and conducted speaking classes.

 

For example, if you love baking or cooking, why not watch tutorial videos or read recipes in your target language? Listening to music in your target language would help you gain new vocabulary. This way, you’ll be able to familiarise yourself with the language and at the same time, not feel as though you are forced to learn.

 

Nur Fateha Ishak, 18, has been learning Korean on her own since she was 12 after developing a liking for Korean pop music and Korean variety shows. One method that helped her was watching Korean variety shows and listening to Korean music.

She says: “Start off with subtitles and slowly lose the subs and you will notice that you could actually understand more than you expect yourself to.”

 

3. Change your mobile phone’s language to your target language

Every day, we spend so much of our time on mobile devices. What better way to benefit from all the time spent on your mobile devices than to learn your target language at the same time? Simply go to your device’s settings page and change the language.

 

This is a practice that you can try out once you have familiarised yourself with the alphabet and basic vocabulary. Through this practical way of learning, you will find yourself gradually getting used to reading instructions and having your thinking and decision process in your target language.

 

4. Interact with others speaking in your target language

While teaching her Japanese students, Ms Kwok noticed that her students struggled in using the English language naturally due to the test-centric learning methods in school.

 

It is very important that you apply whatever you have learnt to real life as you will be able to test your skills and find out what you have to improve on. One way of doing this is by looking for people who speak in your target language and communicating with them.

Arifah, 17, who used to attend conversational Chinese programmes and is now learning the language on her own, finds that she has been learning more conversational Mandarin phrases now that she is learning on her own.

 

She says: “Self-learning allows me to learn on the go as I am able to learn more words that are used by my Chinese friends on a daily basis. Unlike learning through proper classes, the amount of words I picked up or knowledge I used to gain were only restricted to the timeframe of the lessons.”