How to study for language subjects
Are you learning a new language? Struggling with your Chinese, German, or Russian? Here’s a simple guideline to help you master a language. Hopefully you’ll become an excellent learner of your language subject.
Basically, there are four important areas to cover in a lingo:
1. Vocabulary
Words are basic building blocks of communication, which grants us the access to a language. You need word power to understand properly what others are saying and writing. Otherwise you might encounter embarrassing moments, where you can’t get the message even after someone repeated his sentence more than three times, just because you don’t know some words spoken. Words are also important to express ideas and convey messages. If you’re struggling to find the right words to write a birthday card for your Indonesian friend, you need to learn more words to express yourself better.
Most likely you have to put your own effort in building your vocabulary, since most schools won’t spoon feed you with every word. So get a writing block or use any document software to build a list of new words every day. Learning 5 to 10 new words per day is a good rule of thumb to improve your word power over a period of a few months. For each new word, write down its meaning clearly and put in one or more examples of that word’s application (phrase or sentence) so that you know exactly how to use that word. You can add extra information like pronunciation, gender etc.
2. Grammar
This area is what you learn a lot at language classes. It’s important to construct sentences in a standardised way in a language so that everyone can communicate with the same rule. Cover all aspects in this area and leave no grammatical rules out. If you are blurred or weak in certain rules, put effort in it and you will be rewarded with clear communication. I used to be weak in German grammar, and that makes my speaking a bit awkward to my listeners due to flaws in word order. You might not want that to happen.
Do exercises to make sure you improve and master your grammar. However, I don’t think doing exercises at class alone is sufficient, so read more to observe how the language rules are applied. With the help of internet, I think you should be able to find tons of good articles to learn grammar and new words.
3. Writing
Writing is a way to express in the language you are learning, by combining ideas and massages with your word power and grammar skills. To express yourself well, you need to have solid foundation in the basic mentioned above (vocabulary and grammar). Go slowly and master the basic if you are struggling with it. We have to learn to walk before we run.
I notice that reading a lot helps in our writing. Read books and magazines frequently, observe how the words are played around, and absorb some of the writing styles. It helps you greatly later on in your writing. Read works by different authors because every author has his own unique way of writing. Possibly you might learn how to write so well that readers laugh and cry after reading your articles!
Keeping a diary and writing frequently builds your idea momentum. The more you write, the more ideas will pop up in your head to make you write smoothly. Don’t stop expressing yourself in the language you are learning and let your creative juice flow.
If you are getting feedback from a language teacher, writing is an excellent way to spot your weaknesses for you to “debug” (since someone will point out the mistake you make). We make many unconscious mistakes while writing long articles. By knowing our mistake, either from teacher or proofreading, we can avoid repeating it next time.
4. Pronunciation and speaking
Although verbal skill is not always assessed in exam, it’s still important in communication. In my opinion, verbal communication is harder than writing because many disturbance factors are thrown in to make communication difficult. If someone talks too fast, too soft, or with weird accent, communication can fail. These problems happen much less with writing.
Begin by learning how words are pronounced in a language. Each language has its own system of pronunciation. After mastering the rules of sound, effort should be put into enunciating words clearly. I used to speak German with a blunt accent. My friend pointed out my mistake and suggested that I read articles out loud daily. I took his advice and read a few articles verbally per day and now I can bite my words clearly. This sort of exercise is helpful when the language has unfamiliar way of pronunciation. European languages generally are accented while East Asian languages are tonal.
You are lucky if you can converse with native speakers of the language you are learning. Or better still, spend some time in the origin country of the language. That improves your spoken language as fast as jet plane on super fuel. If that’s not possible, the next best thing is getting language tapes and CDs. At least this helps to improve your listening skills.
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