🌍 Why Learn a Language?
Language isn’t just a way to communicate, it’s a doorway into different cultures, perspectives, and ways of thinking. Learning another language sharpens our minds, deepens our empathy, and opens up a whole world of literature, film, and personal connections. In a world that’s more connected than ever, being multilingual isn’t just a useful skill; it’s essential for understanding others and bringing people together.
📖 Krashen's Theory
Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis focuses on comprehensible input as the key to language acquisition. This means using natived materials where you are in your language learning journey to grow.
Language learning isn't about forced memorization or drilling grammar, it is an organic process. Krashen emphasizes the importance of receiving language input that is just slightly beyond one’s current level, he calls this your n+1 level, allowing you to naturally acquire linguistic structures. He also distinguishes between language acquisition, which is subconscious, and language learning, which is conscious. The best way to achieve fluency, he argues, is to immerse oneself in meaningful, engaging content rather than rigid classroom instruction.
🕯️Language Learning Tips
These are things that personally worked for me!
1. Do things that you already enjoy in your target language.
For example, if you like history, watch history videos in your target language. If you like video games, play video games or watch let's play videos.
A lot of beginner content is not structured in this way and is downright boring.
This will help you to learn the language in a way that is enjoyable and engaging for you.
2. Read and listen a lot as early as you can!
Human beings learn through input! We pick up patterns and rules naturally over time.
Lots and lots of time and repetition leads to excellent pattern recognition and eventually fluency with the language.
I recommend consuming media that is meant for native speakers at a comprehensible level for you as opposed to graded readers and content for learners.
3. Keep a language journal
Write down new words and phrases that you come across in your target language. Practice writing down your thoughts or keeping a diary as you will be able to easily identity gaps that you have in your vocab and grammar.
4. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.
It's hard to give this advice when I still struggle with this myself. You WILL make mistakes and that is OK! Making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process.
Mistakes help us learn and grow. Don't be afraid to speak or write in your target language, even if you make mistakes. The more you practice, the better you will become.
5. Spaced repetition is your friend.
Spaced repetition is a technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time.
This helps to reinforce the information in your long-term memory.
This is something that you do naturally when you read or watch shows and come across words organically,
but you can also use apps like
Anki to help speed up this process.
With Anki, you can create digital flashcards that you can review at spaced intervals to help reforce new vocab or concepts.