Learning a new language can be fun and highly rewarding. I took on the endeavor to learn Spanish a couple years ago, so I could communicate more effectively with my fiancé's family. Most of his family speaks primarily Spanish. In addition to achieving personal goals, learning a new language can also help create new job opportunities abroad, make you more comfortable traveling abroad for work, help broaden your network, and serve as a productive break from graduate school. Learning a language has been a lot of fun and also a great break for my mind since it is so different from the technical research I do every day.
I would like to share the approaches I have taken to start learning a new language.
I would like to share the approaches I have taken to start learning a new language.
- Try a free application like Duolingo that rewards you for practicing every day. It is addicting and can quickly become part of your daily routine.
- Find people to practice with. When I mentioned that I was trying to learn a new language to coworkers, they were also interested in learning the same language and it quickly became a nice way to practice in a friendly environment. The more you can try and speak and hear the language, the faster you will learn it.
- Take a class at your school or at a continuing education facility. Some graduate schools will allow students to take a class without paying extra tuition. Alternatively, continuing education classes are often pretty cheap and can give you another opportunity to practice. They often offer online classes that might be a better option if you don’t have a lot of time although this isn’t as optimal for practicing speaking and comprehension.
