If you’re anything like me, learning a different language stopped when you left school. For me, I entered Year 10 having gained a Level 8 in my French speaking, only to come out with a D at GCSE level. Learning a language is hard…it’s harder than simply asking for a beer in Spanish, in preparation for that boozy holiday, or asking someone for directions in Paris. It takes commitment, skill and a lot of hard work. We asked the experts how they learn, but before we get to that, let’s look at which languages are best to learn.
Best Languages To Learn
To understand which languages are best to learn, we have to think about why we’re learning them. For the purposes of this article, I looked at which languages are most widely spoken and are deemed to be best for careers.
Portuguese
Portuguese will be a language in the spotlight this year. It’s spoken in Brazil, where the Olympic Games will be held this year in Rio. Brazil also recently overtook the UK as the sixth largest economy in the world.
Polish
The UK has really strong business ties with Poland. It’s also the only country in the EU to avoid recession and the largest consumer market out of all the new EU members. It’s also impossible to dismiss the amount of Polish migrants coming to the UK for work, so it could be a useful language for some managerial jobs.
Mandarin
According to a survey by the Telegraph, managers really value an employee who can speak Mandarin. It can be very difficult and you should expect to tot up an average of 2,200 hours in a classroom. It’s the official language of China, but you shouldn’t ignore the other language, Cantonese as this can also be very valuable, particularly in Hong Kong.
Spanish
Not only a major European language, but also important in Latin America, where economies are growing fast. With 405 million native speakers, it’s a relatively easy language that you should(!) be able to pick up in around six months.
French
The once popular school subject (and my former nemesis) is on the decline for youngsters wanting to learn it, but almost 50% of employers still see it as a valuable skill.
Russian
Lots of Russian businesspeople speak minimal English, so it can be a useful asset to have. It can be relatively hard to learn, in around 44 weeks.
Arabic
Speaking Arabic can have benefits, particularly for people who wish to pursue diplomatic careers. Expect to spend around 88 weeks learning.
German
For Britain, Germany is the largest export market outside of the USA. It also has the largest economy in Europe, so the potential here is huge!
Japanese
Japanese is seen as a very modern, cultured language to have in your toolkit, but it can be incredibly difficult to learn.
Why learn a language?
So, now you have established which language you want to learn, you should ask yourself why you want to learn it. Career? Great. For a hobby? Awesome! To impress others? No!. Learning a language is so time consuming that you should never do it just to impress a peer. If you’re doing it to impress locals of the country where the language is spoken, that’s great. More often than not, locals are overjoyed to hear a foreigner speak their language and will try their best to help you if you are struggling.
Tips from Babbel
Babbel is a website and app with resources to help you learn a variety of languages. Here are some of their top tips:
- Partner up with someone- a bit of healthy competition will spur you on.
- Talk to yourself to build up confidence.
- Try to learn from conversations, rather than textbooks.
- Have fun with it- watch foreign language films/TV shows, write songs and poems.
- Dive in- practice your new language every single day.
From learners to linguists- tips from the experts
Benny Lewis is the founder of Fluentin3months.com. He has a revolutionary approach to learning a language, and believes you just have to start speaking it. Benny says that everyone has time to study, you can do it whilst you wait in a queue, or sit on the bus. Sign up to the Speak in a Week free email course for more of his advice!
The Guardian believes you should go back and study your own language first before moving onto another. We’re not talking degree level, just go back and look at grammar. That way, when you learn another language’s grammar, you’ll have the core concept fresh in your mind.
Borislava Borovanska -BA in Language Studies at the University of Essex, @bborovanska:
“I personally believe that the more you immerse yourself in the language you are learning, the quicker you’ll learn. Reading books, watching movies and listening to music helps massively but what works best for me is actually speaking to people in their native language. That way I can expand my vocabulary quickly, I see what I struggle with and what I need to work on.
I also watch English movies with subtitles in different languages and that also helps me expand my vocabulary and improve my grammar.
My advice for people who are trying to learn a new language would be to first learn the cognates, words that share a similar meaning, spelling and pronunciation. For example, English and Spanish share thousands of common words (between 15,000 and 20,000). You’ll be surprised at how many words you already know in Spanish without even knowing Spanish!
Another useful tip is to learn the most commonly used words in the language you are learning. You don’t need to know all of the words of a specific language to speak it but if you know the right ones that can you advance quickly.”
Kerill Kennedy, Principal of New College Group – Liverpool:
“If time, finance and location permit, enrolling in a language course or signing up with a one-to-one tutor are both great ways to learn a new language.
Tuning into a television channel in the language you wish to learn can help enhance learning of contextual vocabulary in a less pressured environment. Simply listening and making notes will help to improve your understanding of the language and colloquial vocabulary.
Make the most of this more chilled out way of learning by watching a variety of programmes in a variety of genres; news, informative documentaries, light-hearted comedy shows and even popular soap operas.
Similarly, browse news websites, flick through magazines or order specific newspapers to help further develop your reading and written language skills. This will be particularly enjoyable if you look out for topics that genuinely interest you. As an example, if you’re interested in a particular country or region, getting a hold of their local newspaper will not only improve your reading capabilities, but also offers a great way of learning more about the area at the same time.”
As someone who loves languages, but really struggles with them, I think I’ll be using some of the experts’ tips to help me. I’m interested in learning sign language and Mandarin, so we’ll see how I get on.
Let me know in the comments if you’re feeling inspired by the article too!
