BREAKING OUT OF THE CLASSROOM: CREATIVE WAYS TO LEARN A LANGUAGE

1. BREAKING OUT OF THE CLASSROOM: CREATIVE WAYS TO LEARN A LANGUAGE

Does learning a language solely require you sitting in a classroom doing vocabulary drills for hours? Here are some alternate methods of learning a language and a few myths about learning a new language.
Travel to a country where the target language is the native tongue. This will give you full immersion in the new language and give you plenty of chances for practice. Like any trip you're embarking on it's best to pack along identity protection with your French or Russian dictionary. To stay on the safe side, sign up for LifeLock or a similar service before embarking on your trip. This will help offset the identity theft risks posed by possible leaks of your personal information at motels and restaurants abroad.

Learn the new language from YouTube videos. Mashable says that there are plenty of channels dedicated to language learning. There are plenty of language enthusiasts on the web available to help you learn, so it's okay to be picky. Look for those that give you plenty of chances to repeat new words and phrases out loud so that you can master intonation and inflection.

Watch foreign shows with subtitles. This gives you a chance to hear the language being spoken and see the translation at the same time. You'll get a good idea of how the language sounds and how it should be spoken. Noticing the inflections on certain words will add a little bit of authenticity to your speech, saving you from sounding too much like a tourist looking for the bathroom or a restaurant.

Try buying a Rosetta Stone series for the language you want to know. This will give you a professionally-produced course without the need to go to a school or adhere to an inconvenient schedule. A program like this can be used on your computer, your iPod, phone, and your car. If you're headed down to Old Mexico, pop that piece in the disc player for some last-minute refreshers in Spanish.

It's never too late to learn a new language. According to Voxxi, there are many myths surrounding the learning of a language. One of these is that it's impossible to learn a new one after a certain age. This myth is mostly perpetuated by those who have trouble with such a project. In reality, new languages can be learned at any time, and at any level. If you're not ready to learn a language now, don't worry- you can push it back until you're taking a senior citizen tour of the Caribbean and still be able to pick up on some of the local speech.

Adults can understand explanations of grammar, word connotations and other aspects of language that young children cannot yet grasp. Therefore, it's smart to use a language learning method that lets you apply your full abilities to make sense of the mechanics of language. Don't sell yourself short; jumping right in is an exciting way to catch fire of.

(Education Articles, Melissa Maranto, 11/16/2012)