{"id":192,"date":"2017-11-19T00:25:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T00:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2021-04-06T12:15:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T17:15:33","slug":"my-top-3-tips-for-learning-another-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/blog\/my-top-3-tips-for-learning-another-language\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top 3 Tips for Learning Another Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning another language isn\u2019t easy. Bottom line. I wish there was a magical pill you could take to all of a sudden be speaking another language. I wish I could tell you give it a day or 2 and you\u2019ll get it. But the reality is there are going to be days when you are like whatttt am I doing?! Am I ever going to get this? Days where you will feel defeated, frustrated, and hopeless or break down crying in front of your teacher (like me).<\/h4>\n
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Maybe I should have shared the good news first.\u00a0Because there is good news!<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s normal. You\u2019re normal. You\u2019ll get there. You will learn the language you set out to learn if you keep going forward. It\u2019s hard work but you can do it! Our motto in learning Spanish was “poco-a-poco” ie little by little\u2014and that\u2019s how it happened.<\/p>\n

I had always wanted to learn Spanish and finally at the age of 28, I did! Yup\u2014Calvin and I packed our bags and we went to Mexico through some connections we made in Kona. (Thanks Kenia!) Truthfully it was the hardest thing I had ever done, until I birthed a baby! Since then we have spent one accumulated year in Mexico and two years in Spain. We have failed a lot but we have learned even more!<\/p>\n

Here are my top 3 tips for learning a language. I hope they help you!<\/h2>\n

#1<\/h1>\n

GO to the place where the language you want to learn is the primary language spoken.<\/h3>\n

Yeah you can have good intentions and use resources like Pimsleur<\/a>, Rosetta Stone<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Duolingo<\/a>\u00a0which we did and they will help you. But I found that being in the place motivated me so much more. Because everyday I ran into people that I wanted to communicate with-whether it was asking the price for the bus fare or trying to figure out directions. Gestures only get you so far when it comes to language. Also, I\u2019m an extrovert and I just really wanted to be able to talk to people.\u00a0Side note: Sometimes I think women learn faster in general because we talk more!<\/em><\/p>\n

#2<\/h1>\n

Take some formal classes.<\/h3>\n

Even if it\u2019s just 1 month it will help you so much understanding why in Spanish they say \u2018casa roja\u2019 for red house when it looks like it\u2019s house red in English. The grammar and rules as crazy as they can be will help you to have a great foundation. We went to about 3 months of private classes for 3.5 hours a day 5 days a week in Guadalajara. We never regretted the time we spent learning because it seriously has helped us even to this day. I am so thankful for you Tere!<\/p>\n

#3<\/h1>\n

Be okay with making mistakes.<\/h3>\n

Actually get used to it. It\u2019s okay. It\u2019s how you learn! When someone corrects me I am much more likely to remember the correct way to say it. It keeps you humble. You really feel silly at times, like a baby really because the sounds are new. I remember our teacher would have us say the abc\u2019s in Spanish to practice the sounds and there were times Calvin and I would just crack up laughing because we felt like we sounded ridiculous. She would have us read the King James version of the Bible out loud before we even knew how to say words. It really did help us to learn because she corrected our pronunciation which was wrong every other word. We have some hilarious fail stories but they are kind of inappropriate to share so message me if you want to hear them.<\/p>\n

\"Language
Shopping is also a fun part of language learning!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some bonus tips would be:<\/strong><\/p>\n