How to Teach Yourself a Language 5 Creative Strategies You Havent Tried Yet

How to Teach Yourself a Language 5 Creative Strategies You Havent Tried Yet How to Teach Yourself a Language: 5 Creative Strategies You Havent Tried Yet Trying to learn a new language, but finding yourself in a rut?Feeling stuck  with that new foreign book you just bought?All out of ideas for ways to expand your lingual palette?Stress no more! We here at FluentU think outside the box because we believe that some of the best ideas are the ones you havent tried.Wondering how to teach yourself a language? Its time to get creative. How to Teach Yourself a Language: 5 Creative Strategies You Havent Tried Yet1. Prioritize  One Phrase a DayBefore you treat your journey to fluency as you would your senior research report, slow it down. What I mean is: Resist the urge to cram! Cramming is not only ineffective in the long run, but its also a poor way to be using your time and energy. (This is exactly why SRS was created for effective learning with flashcards).Instead of trying to memorize the most words and phrases in short amounts of time, try the reverse. Choose one phrase a day and commit to it.Some phrases to consider:Excuse me, where ca n I find the nearest bathroom?What time do you wake up in the morning?My favorite hobbies are  writing and playing  video games.Notice how all of these phrases are jam-packed with useful words, while also being incredibly practical.After youve selected a phrase, devote an entire day to using that phrase as much as you can. Have fun and be creative when trying to implement your daily phrase. By using the phrase repeatedly and focusing your mental energy on it, your brain will have no choice but to let it stick.The next day, choose a new phrase to focus on, and repeat the process. Within a few weeks, you will have a useful portfolio of words and phrases that youll have a hard time forgetting. And if you do happen to have trouble remembering your daily phrases, stick with the same phrase for three days, or for an entire week!If youre stumped on ways to learn such phrases, give these resources a shot:Google Translate is generally a reliable go-to (but be aware the sentence structure may not be 100% accurate).Post your desired translation on an online language learning forum, like Word Reference, so that a native speaker can give you feedback on the proper translation.2. Closed Caption Your Favorite YouTube VideosClosed captioning is becoming an increasingly popular option for YouTube content creators. To make the site more appealing to various culture and demographics, YouTube is encouraging viewers to caption videos in other languages. This is a wonderful chance for the sites content to be more universal, and also a great  opportunity for you to learn new languages!If you have a favorite YouTuber who you religiously watch, go back to some of his/her videos and turn on the captions. You can do this by clicking the CC button alongside the bottom of the video. Then, click the gear icon located next to the CC button to adjust the language. While on this screen, you can also adjust the speed, allowing you to make the video slower so that you can follow along more easi ly.Try this with a video in your target language:  Listen to only the  first sentence and hit pause. From here, see if you know what  was  said, and then check by re-watching with the English captions. Continue listening and pausing the video, going sentence by sentence.You can also try to imitate a native speaker by memorizing part of the YouTube video.  This allows you to match your native language with the language spoken throughout the video. Try to pick out commonly used words or expressions. You never know what youll discover!And if you want to learn a language with videos, but are looking for more than just subtitles, head over to FluentU. FluentU is an online immersion platform that takes  real-world videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.  You can browse videos  by difficulty (beginner to native), topic (arts and entertainment, health and lifestyle, etc.) and  format (video blog, news ,  shows, etc.).With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that real people speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos, like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse ScreenFluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover over or tap on the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive TranscriptsYou can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.3. Turn  Your Phone into  a Language-learning ToolAdmit it. You re already on your phone way more than you should be every day, so why not use the time on your celly to bump up your language learning jelly? Change  your phones language setting to the desired language you would like to learn.Now, the next time  you instinctively check your phone, youll have the added challenge of deciphering your way through different screens and apps. It definitely gets easier over time, which only means one thingâ€"that youre becoming more comfortable in your target language because youve learned new words.But we can take it a step up. If you have a smartphone that has a built-in operator feature (i.e. Siri), try  speaking to the robot  in your  new language. This can  be a really fun way to test  your pronunciation, and an even more fun way to befriend a robot.If youre really adventurous, try using your GPS wherever you go to hear the directions in that language. When I lived in China, being able to navigate myself around the city was crucial. Almost everyday, I found myself either asking for directions or telling a driver directions in Mandarin. By practicing with your phones built-in GPS, or even the one in your car, you can easily create a roadmap to success in your  language learning endeavors.  Thanks  technology!4. Join a Meetup  Group of Other Language LearnersAlthough it may be tempting to learn your new language solo, having a group of like-minded people to support you in your learning can be the make-or-break in your strive for fluency.Meetup.com is the worlds largest network of local groups. By becoming a member, you can easily organize a local group or find one  of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 9,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.Currently, there are over 420,000 monthly meetups occurring in 180 countries. Chances are there are many happening in or around your hometown, so give it a shot. You may be able to find a group of other passionate language learners nearby, or you can be the first to get a group started.With this group, you can share language learning resources, inspire and motivate each other, watch films in your target language, eat at ethnic restaurants where your target language is spokenâ€"and probably gain a few new friends along the way!5. Stop Trying to Motivate Yourself and Instead Just Go for ItHeres the thing: We have the concept motivation totally wrong. We tend to believe that first we have to motivate ourself in order to accomplish or do anything. Before we know it, we sit around all day trying to think of ways to motivate ourselves, and in the process we get nothing done!Its time we flip the script on how motivation really works. Rather than motivating yourself until you take action, take  action until you are motivated.  Just the act of doing  something  towards your goal  eventually fosters motivationâ€"its incredible how well it works.Imagine both motivation and a ction as representations of the wings on a bird. In order for the bird to fly, both wings must work together. When one wing flaps, the other wing flips as well. The two wings work together in order to keep the bird moving.To put this into context, rather than devoting your energy to motivating yourself to learn a new language, just dive in and get started! The motivation will eventually catch up, but only after you take those first few steps.Here are some ideas to get you started right now:Pick a daily phrase from #1 and say it 10 times todayFind a popular song in your desired language on FluentU or YouTube and listen to it 5  times in a rowSign up for polyglot Olly Richards Language Learning Foundations video course, which is designed specifically to help you get set up and started with the ins and outs of learning a new languageYou may also be interested in his Grammar Hero or Conversations courses, which are designed to help you set up workable, step-by-step systems for learning your target language.Pick up your phone and change the device languageAnd there you go! These ideas for how to teach yourself a language may sound crazy at first glance, but sometimes crazy can be exactly what we need to move forward.You have nothing to lose in giving these techniques  a shot, so good luck!Frank Macri is a Professional Life Coach who supports  those  who want to replace  their monotonous  lifestyles with an off the beaten path adventure. For more tips on achieving your personal and financial goals, visit www.TheFrankLife.com.