How to Learn a Language at Christmas (Even If You Don't Celebrate Christmas)
It’s the season / ‘tis the season to relax with friends, decorate the home and…hang on, how are you meant to fit language learning in between all that celebration energy?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Read this article to get easy tips for learning a language during the holiday season.
With just a few days to go until the Christmas holiday, chances are you might be feeling busy right now. When you’ve got gifts to wrap and trees to light, how can you keep learning languages?
Don’t worry, it’s not impossible. In this podcast and article, I’ve got handy tips for you to keep you in touch with any language - no matter if it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Pagan Yule season.
You can also find this podcast by searching “Fluent Show” on 🍎 apple podcasts 📣Spotify 🔶Overcast 📻TuneIn Radio 🏆and anywhere you get podcasts
1) Surround Yourself With Your Target Language
At this time of the year, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in the home. You may already be decorating your house, which is a great opportunity for subtle language immersion.
The psychological concept behind this tip is that of priming, which describes the way your brain reacts to even the tiniest cues and adjusts its assumptions and expectations accordingly. You can use it to your advantage by decorating with a little language flair.
How about
- a few decorations adorned with words in your target language
- multilingual cards and greetings this year (try Irregular Endings)
- making and serving different foods and drink, inspired by your target culture
Even if your items don’t have any words in your target language on them, they will remind you that you’re a learner of another language and bring your loved ones in on your project.
2) Seek Out Tutorials in Your Target Language
This time of year is perfect for homemade gifts, decorations, and food. If you have an IRL friend who practices your target language with you, get out of the “1-to-1 conversation” routine and make something together!
For added bonuses, use a tutorial in your target language. This is excellent practice for reading comprehension and boosts your motivation by giving you something instant to show.
For example I’ve made biscotti before from a recipe in my Welsh learners’ magazine and then I packaged them up and gave them to friends and family as Christmas presents.
Look out for
- Crafting tutorials and magazine articles in your target language
- Recipes for seasonal food
- Crafting materials and instructions
3) Host a Language Party
The holiday season is a time to get together, not to sit alone and stare at Duolingo or Memrise. Here are a few ideas for bringing a bit of language flair to your holiday party:
Play Games Together
There are so many great word games that broaden your horizons about English, and it’s not too difficult to adapt them to a multilingual group. For example, guess the answers to a round of Pictionary or charades in another language, or get your friends to act out your vocabulary lists for you!
For more ideas, read these ideas for language learning games in a group.
Discover Music in Your Language
Play music in your target language and explore and share how they celebrate the season. If possible, get out and visit a celebration in the community of your language. There’s lots going on and during the holiday season most people love to open their doors.
If you haven’t found any music in your target language yet, go straight to my Spotify for Language guide or this multilingual Christmas song made by Lindsay Williams.
Watch a Christmas Movie
Many people have a favourite film about Christmas, and if you don’t have one yet then Netflix is ready to help out with every new instalments of the Christmas Prince series.
Here are a few ideas:
- Un conte de Noël in French
- 3 Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel,a German/Czech 70s classic
And of course, you can always put target language subtitles on Die Hard!
If you have not found a festive movie in your target language yet, now is the time to ask and enjoy some well-deserved downtime.
What If Your Target Language Has No Christmas Season?
No worries!
Use decorations that suit the season, and learn about celebrations at this time of year
Sneak a little snack or food from your target language environment into the boring old Christmas with Aunt Bridget
Use festive colours and glitter pens to write your vocabulary lists and language notes
Take pictures of your decorations and add them to your digital flashcard apps (for example, Smartcards + lets you easily add photos)
Find Time and Focus For Studying Your Language
The winter holiday season often means a drop in productivity. You are likely interrupted in your routine, and you may find yourself with lots of extra tasks on your plate.
If you find yourself wanting stay productive without the added stress, take my short language course Focus & Fluency.
It’s a proven way to get more motivated and kickstart your learning with smarter study techniques.
No matter what you do, merry Christmas if you do celebrate it - nadolig llawen - frohe Weihnachten, and comment below sharing your favourite songs and movies in your target language.
Festive Fluency Tips: How to Learn German This Holiday Season
I hope that you're enjoying a great start into the holiday season. One of the happiest activities during this season is decorating your home. Have you ever thought about how it could boost your language learning efforts?
Why This Is So Effective
You often spend so much time with books and screens that it becomes difficult to put language love into your life. Here are some of the easiest, most effective ways to bring language and Christmas together in your house this year.
Decorating your home with German items, signs, and Christmas cards triggers a priming effect. Similarly to Spaced Repetition Systems, it will remind you of your target language in situations where you don't expect it. Your brain stays switched on, reviews the right vocabulary for the season, and helps you learn a language.
Weihnachtsdeko: Quick German Christmas Decorations
For a German feel to your home, start decorating early and put out an Adventskranz (advent wreath). This wreath features four candles. As you count off the Sundays before Christmas Eve, a candle is lit every week so that all four candles are finally lit in the Christmas week. The ritual of lighting a new candle can ring in a natural break in your day, so it's an opportunity to take 5 minutes to combine it with the recital of a German Christmas song or listening to a festive song.
Crafty parents and lovers make their own advent calendars, too. You can do some basteln (crafting) of your own by collecting 24 little presents, wrapping them individually and putting them in a box or 24 empty toilet roll tubes. Note that the German advent calendar features only 24 presents as the German festivities and present-giving are held on Christmas Eve.
During the Christmas season, German homes will light up with candles and Christmas pyramids. The Räuchermann, a little incense burner figurine made to look like a smoking man, is also a classic at Christmas. Each year I excitedly light mine, even if my British husband complains about the smell. Make the incense burner work for your language studies by using its German name, naming the utensils you use for lighting the incense, or lighting it to ring in your regular study sessions every week.
The Christmas tree is another essential. Germany's tree goes back to pagan traditions of the Middle Ages. South West Germany and the French Alsace are the original regions where the Christmas tree was introduced more than 500 years ago. These days, the Germans export Christmas trees to many other countries including Denmark, France and Poland. Traditional German tree decoration stays away from tinsel and glitter in favour of wooden decorations, fabric ribbons and real candles. And just in case it catches fire, here's a German video demonstrating how to put out a tree fire.
Combine Decorating and Labelling
Labelling is a vocabulary review method that I discussed in detail in The Vocab Cookbook, and for language learners it should become the next step you take in your decorating. Label the new items and look out for the words associated with the new items.
For example, if there is a Christmas card from a friend wishing you Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!, where is a good place to display it in your home? Label it Weihnachtskarte, and if you are using an electronic flashcard app this is the time to add a picture to the card.
For those of you who choose not to decorate your home, here are a few other ways to engage with the season and still learn a language:
Christmas Markets
If you think that running around the Christmas market in a panic halfway through Christmas Eve is a common German image, you'll be surprised. The markets traditionally run from late November to the week before Christmas. They do sell many gift items, but are also used as a chance for families, colleagues and friends to get together over a mug of hot mulled wine.
Next time you're at an authentic German market, dare yourself to try a mug of Feuerzangenbowle which combines mulled wine with rum-soaked flambé sugar loaf. It's special! For those who don't enjoy alcohol as part of keeping warm at the Weihnachtsmarkt, there will always be some Kinderpunsch available.
If there is no market happening near you, don't feel left out though. Ask your language exchange partner or tutor to send you a video from their own market visit, showing you some items and telling you what they are in German.
German Christmas Characters
In Germany, you might get blank looks if you think that gifts are really delivered by an old man in a red coat who flies around on a reindeer sleigh and comes in through the chimney. Really. Who believes that? Obviously gifts are brought by a small angelic child! The German Christkind is a unique character, sometimes considered to be Baby Jesus himself, sometimes an angel. They come and place everyone's gifts under the tree on Heiligabend (Christmas Eve). In my house, we all used to get together for a meal and wait until the Christkind rings a bell. That's when you knew it was time for the good bit: Bescherung, where everyone got to open their gifts.
Many families sing songs like Alle Jahre wieder and Oh du fröhliche. They make the perfect basis for a merry study session. This year, I've already had a wonderful experience enriching my Welsh studies with recitals of Tawel Nos (Silent Night). The words are simple, the tunes are catchy, and you're guaranteed to pick up a few new words.
Does it Snow At Christmas in Germany?
Germany doesn't usually benefit from full snow cover to make things look romantic at Christmas. The North of the country is flat and close to the North Sea. The further South you go, the better your chances for a white Christmas. The Alps are prime territory for picture-book scenes, but Eastern Germany and Berlin usually keep up with the winter scenes too. Wrap up warm as temperatures often drop below zero and keep active by rodeln (sledging), Schlittschuh laufen (ice-skating) or Ski fahren (skiing). Germans love winter sports and always have a frontrunner in the key events of the season such as Skispringen (ski jumping) and slalom. If you are looking for festive TV shows to watch, the sports coverage of these events has excellent potential to combine repetition and easy language with an authentic winter atmosphere.
Ready to Start Decorating?
Are you building these tips into your study routine? Comment below to let me know your favourite Christmas study tricks!
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Linguistic Gift Ideas 2013
Hello blog readers, this Friday we are entering the final few weeks before Christmas! Yes, Hanukkah is over and so are the modern inventions Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I helpfully dozed all the way through them. Well, here I am, better late than never, in bringing you this year's Linguistic Gift Ideas.
The Gift Ideas Board
On my updated Pinterest board, I have lots of good stuff from cute French t-shirts to funny language guides and travel books. Please have a good peruse and root around the board, and let me know what you're giving for Christmas this year!
Awesome FlashSticks landed in the Shop
Sticky word notes, they're my number one. In all honesty, these are a learning tool that always works.
If you want to give some as a gift or it's too much effort to make your own, someone has now invented FlashSticks: pre-printed Post-It notes in four languages and designed for your chosen learning level. I am genuinely excited to be offering packs of FlashSticks through the online shop on my website! They are pre-printed, colour-coded and really fun. SO recommended.
Order by 19 December for Christmas delivery in the UK, and by 14 December for delivery within Europe (all posting dates are on the Royal Mail site).
Amazon Link
And just in case you're buying something on Amazon for Christmas this year, please consider going through this link here for US/this one for UK and supporting my blog. It doesn't cost you anything extra, and I get a little commission from them. These links land on my book Fluency Made Achievable, but will work no matter where on Amazon you go from there. Thanks guys!
