We live in a world where knowing two or more languages is a necessity. However, if you weren’t lucky to start learning a second, and maybe third, language from a young age, it gets harder to learn a new language as you grow older. Many people start their second language learning experience enthusiastically and, as time goes on, they start to be less motivated and eventually lose all interest and abandon the entire endeavor. 

The reason for adults’ unsuccessful attempts to learn new languages is mainly not having sufficient knowledge as to how to approach this task. Most people start from where they left off at school where they were learning English or Spanish as adolescents ignoring the fact that they’re not 12 or 14 years old anymore. 

As much as the human brain is a marvelous thing that can do wonders, its capacity to learn new things and retain information changes as it grows older. Notice that I didn’t say the brain’s capacity is reduced with age, it just changes. This is why, as we grow older, we can’t learn through the same methods that used to work for us as children; we have to find a new way. 

In this blog post, I’m exploring the possible techniques and strategies that can help you learn a new language as an adult based on studies that explain the brain mechanisms while it’s learning a new language as well as how your native language or, as some call it, mother tongue, can help you choose the best second language to learn easily.

The Human Brain & Learning Language

Let’s first address the elephant in the room: why is learning a new language gets more difficult as we get older? Well, the answer is quite simple and surprising at the same time. 

Researchers have found that people who’ve learned a second language as children have stored the new language in the same parts of the brain as their native language. Adults who learn a second language, on the other hand, store the new language in different parts of the brain from where their native language is stored. 

While it’s been proven that language storage and articulation are predominantly controlled by the left frontal lobe and the left temporal lobe, this pertains only to the native language of the individual. Scientists have found that due to language complexity, learning a new language as an adult is done through an exchange between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and that the brain areas responsible for storing and processing a language are different depending on the age in which the individual started to learn the language. 

As a result, the process of learning a language must be completely different for adults and children, and the answer to the question I asked at the beginning of this section becomes: It’s not difficult for an adult to learn a new language compared to a child, the adult is just approaching it in the wrong way!

There are many success stories of adults who were able to learn foreign languages after the ages of 25, 30, 35, and even 40! These people don’t have super linguistic powers or any different abilities from you and me, they have simply found the right way to learn a language with the age factor in mind. 

I’m going to discuss a few learning techniques and methods to help you learn a foreign language, but before jumping into the “how to learn a new language part”, you must identify your language learning needs. 

Identifying Your Language Learning Needs

While you might be thinking that you already know what your language learning needs are and that you want to learn business English or take a course in commercial English, for example, let me tell you that this is not what I’m talking about here. 

Let me also clarify that language courses that specialize in certain fields like “business English courses” are almost completely useless in developing your brain to actually learn the language and use it as a human being in any setting. In other words, with a business English course, you wouldn’t be able to form a sound sentence outside the meeting room.

This is why it’s important to learn the language itself away from any professional field to be able to express your thoughts in the new language and then start collecting the needed vocabulary for your professional needs later.

What I mean by identifying your learning need is to know the best methods that would work to help you cope with the foreign language as a new way of communication. In other words, what do you need in the learning material to be able to comprehend and retain it? 

While identifying those needs is usually done by teachers for child learners, as adults, we must identify our learning needs ourselves through observation and self-assessment. 

Learning Needs Factors 

There are three main factors to look at when you’re determining your learning needs which are time, learning style, and accessibility.

• Time: The first difference in learning for adults is the time factor, While children’s entire time can be spent learning, an adult doesn’t have that capacity due to her/his responsibilities. So, the first factor you must identify in your learning needs is how much time daily/weekly you can spend learning a new language. This way, you can set a realistic schedule and expectations for your language learning experience.
• Learning Style: Perhaps this has become the most famous learning factor over the past decade for educators. The VARK model is known to almost everyone who’s teaching or has a student in the house. This model categorizes learners into 4 categories: visual, aural, read/write, and Kinesthetic (learning through experiment, trial, and error). You can know which learning style is best for you by answering this questionnaire. 

You’ll find that each person does not fit into just one category of the VARK model and you can see the ones that fit your learning style the most to use while learning a second language. 

• Accessibility: This factor is about more than having access to learning means like having a computer with internet to attend online courses or watch language-teaching videos. I must point out here that the accessibility factor also includes addressing any learning disability you may have like dyslexia and finding the best way to learn a language with an instructor or a method developed particularly for this condition.

Now that you’ve identified your learning needs, you can choose the language learning method that suits those needs best. Let’s take a look at some of the language learning techniques that can go a long way in helping you be multi-lingual!

Language Learning Techniques 

Based on your VARK questionnaire result, you can choose the right medium for you to learn a language. If you’re a visual learner, watching videos and movies, for example, is your way to learn English or any other language once you learn its basics. 

Aural learners can learn by listening to podcasts and having a discussion with other people in the new language. Language learners who prefer reading/writing are in luck as they can continue learning the way they used to in school. Get a couple of books about topics you’re interested in and start reading and maybe start writing your diaries or notes in the new language. Finally, if you’re a kinesthetic learner, you’re also in luck as you can use your experimental side to learn the language by learning its culture and trying to 

choose what suits your personality and learning abilities. If you like cooking, for example, you can watch cooking shows in the new language and try new recipes. If you’re into sports, start watching games with English commentary, for example, and play with people from that culture. You can also simply connect with people who speak the language on the internet and jump into conversations so that you can learn from real-life experiences.

Simple Tricks to Learn a New Language

You have to understand that any language on the planet is not about how to make sounds and pronounce words correctly, it’s about expressing the thoughts that are tightly connected to a culture’s language. 

This is why it’s crucial to make an effort to dive into the culture of the country that you’re trying to learn its language to really understand how its people think and begin to absorb their language on a human and psychological level. Having a high CQ will help you make this specific progress faster, nonetheless, with hard work and genuine interest, you can make it. 

Some of the famous language-learning tricks include: 

1. Listening to songs and podcasts in the language
2. Watching movies or TV series
3. Visiting the country of the language or conversing with natives online.
4. Reading children’s books to have images depicting words’ meanings. 
5. Practicing with other people.

How to Think in a Different Language

As Albert Einstein put it: Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind to think. Language, as a communication tool, is directly related to how we think. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, linguistic relativity, an individual’s view of the world and perception, in general, is affected by the language which he/she speaks. 

We all saw this hypothesis in action, even if fictional, in the masterpiece movie “Arrival”, where it was pointed out that our perception of time being linear is a result of our linear language and once the protagonist, Dr. Louise Banks, learned the circular language of the aliens, she was able to perceive the world from a fourth dimension and she’s able to see the past, present, and future as a whole. 

My love of that movie aside, we’re not saying that learning a new language can actually change your perception of time, but it will certainly change your perception of the world so that you’re able to see it from the viewpoint of the language’s natives and, subsequently, start to think as they think and “think in another language”. 

Once you can achieve that, and I assure you that you can, speaking a second language will become easier and faster as you’ll no longer need to think in one language and translate your speech into another, you’ll be simply speaking what’s on your mind.

How to Choose Your Second Language

Most likely, you’ve come to this post hoping to find the best way to learn a second language as an adult with a certain language already in mind i.e. you’ve already chosen which language you want to learn. Whether you need to learn French, German, English, or even Arabic as a second language, it’s important that I point out here that your native language can tell you which languages would be easier for you to learn. 

This is important because if you, like me, are not linguistically inclined and face trouble trying to learn a new language, learning an easy language based on your mother tongue can encourage you and give you the motivation to learn the language you ultimately want to know.

Simply put, choose a language that has a close or the same root as your native language. For example, native English speakers usually find Spanish and Italian the easiest to learn as the three languages share the same root, Latin. Likewise, Arabic is similar to Persian and, surprisingly, Spanish as well. Persian is easy to understand as both Arabic and Persian have the same root and share the same alphabet, but what about Spanish? 

Well, because of the Islamic rule over Spain for several centuries, Andalusia, Arabic vocabulary had a deep influence on modern Spanish which makes Arabic speakers today already know a little Spanish and vice-versa!

Here I have to mention that all of this would be of little importance if you are interested in the culture of the language and have deep knowledge and fascination with it. If so, you can skip this step and move on to learning the language of your choice directly. Personally, I have friends of Arab descent who were able to learn Japanese and Mandarin without much of a struggle thanks to their fascination with the two cultures. 

If you’re not sure which language to learn, there are multiple quizzes and aptitude tests on language learning websites that can help you determine which languages are best for you based on your personality, preferences, and skills. 

Language Learning Apps

Are you ready to start learning a second language? 

Thankfully, the world has changed and you don’t have to set a specific time to attend classes physically. Language learning apps are making the experience much more flexible and personalized to your own needs. These are my favorite language-learning apps that can make a difference in your journey.

Cambly

Cambly is my first choice as the best English learning platform because it checks almost all the criteria and factors that I mentioned in this post. 

First, you learn English from actual native English speakers with not only teaching experience but also experience in the business world, which will get two birds with one stone. You have the option not to pay separately for a “business English” course, but you’ll learn the vocab within a more inclusive English course. 

Secondly, you can choose your sessions based on level, topic, and tutor after viewing all available details about the three aspects. You can also get offers for groups and, finally, there’s a dedicated platform for children starting from 4 years old to help your child be bilingual even if you’re not! 

HelloTalk

HelloTalk uses an interesting approach similar to Cambly in terms of learning through interaction with native speakers. The main difference is that HelloTalk offers to learn many more languages than just English, but Cambly, on the other hand, uses certified tutors. So, pick the one that fits your requirements best!

HelloTalk is good for people who already have basic knowledge of the language so that they’re able to grow their knowledge through live chats with native speakers. 

Babbel

Speaking of basic language knowledge, Babbel is one of the most famous apps to teach you the basic foundations of the language of your choice. This app focuses on teaching vocabulary and essential conversation phrases. While Babble has a traditional approach, it has an important advantage which is allowing its user to create customized situations to learn basic conversation in different scenarios. This app can be a good first step before moving on to more advanced ones like Cambly or HelloTalk. 

Duolingo

Of course, I had to mention Duoling in this list. While this app is great for learning the vocabulary of almost any language, I have to say that I found it too basic that it doesn’t help build knowledge for even basic conversations. There are two main reasons I’m mentioning Duolingo here apart from the fact that it’s the most famous language app. First, it’s perfect for children to help them start a new language in a game-like environment. The second reason is that it has options to learn fictional languages like Dothraki, High Valyrian, and Klingon!

Second Language Learning Kryptonite – What to Avoid

In the beginning, learning a second language was a huge challenge for me until I met the right instructor who chose the right teaching methods to make this breakthrough. If you’re facing a similar situation, don’t give up. Learning a new language has nothing to do with age, it has everything to do with methods, techniques, aptitude, and your native language.

So, the first thing to avoid when learning a second language is giving up. 

Next, you have to be brave and a little reckless! Seeing how many people pick on others’ pronunciation of foreign languages, I understand why people get affected and be shy to speak a foreign language which, definitely, affects their learning process negatively. 

Give yourself the chance to stumble over your words. A perfect accent is not important. In some cases, not even wanted!

Think of children who are still learning to speak for the first time. For this child, when they try to tell someone something, it doesn’t matter how they put it, and they’re definitely not eloquent or fluent in whatever language they’re using. All they care about is getting the meaning across. 

What matters the most is that you’re able to build a correct sentence and convey an accurate meaning of what you want to say, no matter how you say it! 

Each language, most famously English, has different dialects and strange pronunciations that can even make its natives laugh. So, what’s so wrong about foreigners speaking this language having their own accent and “funny” pronunciation?!

I say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it! 

So, go ahead and install a language-learning app. Make the investment in yourself, trust your abilities, and enjoy your success.