"It's Hard Work But It's So Worth It": Everything You Need To Know For Raising Bilingual Children

For a while now, I have wanted to bring you an expert on bilingual parenting on the Fluent Show, and here she is: Marianna du Bosq, host of the awesome Bilingual Avenue podcast, a show for parents who are raising bilingual children.

As a German native speaker who speaks English all day long, I find the prospect of bilingual parenting both daunting and fascinating.

Marianna's incredible energy shines through and she's got SO many tips. I came away with so much more knowledge about what bilingual parenting is really like, and I'm convinced you will too.

In the interview, we'll talk about:

• How much work do you have to put in as the "one language" parent of a bilingual kid
• What agreements parents should set up with each other when they decide to do this
• How to create a more immersive environment for children learning languages
• Whether you have to hire nannies and tutors and do all the expensive things to make this work
• How to overcome negative attitudes, and how to help a parent who feels left out when they don't understand their child
• How to learn a language along with your child
• What the school experience is like for Marianna's daughter who is in an English-speaking school
• What the most popular and effective bilingual parenting models are..and which ones are not the best ones to try
• Which episodes of Bilingual Avenue you should check out next (see below)

And most importantly, why raising a bilingual child is so worth the extra work and planning - Marianna makes a passionate case towards the end of our show so don't miss that.

Step By Step To a Bilingual Family Household

"It's hard work but it's so worth it."

Marianna has worked with many families to support their language plans, and she explains it comes down to six steps.

What I found interesting here is how useful and great these are for adults just as much as children - exposure and need at the heart, and really combing through our routines in detail can uncover new opportunities for speaking another language in the busiest schedules.

1) Start with a vision - how much of a language do you want the child to know, and how do you want family life to look in your family?

2) Assess your surroundings - Where will you and your child be able to get exposure to both languages?

3) Consider what your child's day is like and make notes on where the exposure in each language is coming from

4) Make your kid's interactions with the less dominant language partner fun, interactive, and engaging. They should find themselves entertained and wanting to communicate in that target language.

5) Implement a period of "language time" in the day, when you and your child have fun together and only speak the language you determine. Sometimes you may have to negotiate with them, but around language exposure you're the boss.

6) Stay encouraging and praise your child for speaking the target language, even if they aren't perfect at first. Focus on modelling correct usage rather than pointing out flaws.

I really loved how Marianna emphasized the two most important principles for bilingual life as need and exposure. Just like in adult learning, we won't be able to go far without those two. Need and exposure are the key to a productive language experience, and no matter how old you are you'll benefit from planning those in your life.

"Every time I switch to English, that's a lost opportunity for a word I could have shown, taught and modelled in Spanish."

The Top 3 Models for Bilingual Parenting

Wondering how to get started? Here are the three most popular models of bilingual parenting, and according to Marianna these are the most successful.

1. "One Person, One Language", a scenario in which each parent (or other person in the child's life, like grandparent or nanny) will choose a language and make that the core of all interactions with the child.

2. "Minority Language at Home", a scenario in which you make your home language the language that the child isn't exposed to in the wider world. For example, a Korean-speaking family living in Germany would focus on Korean at home but German outside the home.

3. "Language Time", which means you select pre-determined time periods and switch languages throughout your child's life. For example, as a parent you may want to speak Spanish for 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks in French.

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EPISODE LINKS

• Vocabulary and grammar tips for non-native speakers | Bilingual Avenue — My visit to Bilingual Avenue
• I am Germany on Twitter: "So, as I've been here for a while, and as I have children here, one of my issues is how to raise them bilingual/ teach them German." — Interesting twitter thread on this topic
• ‘We’re told we’re anti-Welsh bigots and fascists’ – the storm over Welsh-first schooling | Education | The Guardian
• Candyland Game — I did not know what this is.
• Bilingual 077: Managing the presence of multiple languages in a single mind with Dr. Giuli Dussias | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand
• Bilingual Avenue 093: 15 helpful tools to help you and your child learn a language with Lindsay Dow | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand
• Bilingual Avenue 101: Money saving tips for your next language trip with Lauren Lyons Cole | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand
• Bilingual Avenue 147: Parenting Abroad with Jennifer Langkjaer | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand
• Bilingual Avenue 017: Actionable Tips & Strategies to Enhance Language Development with Susanne Dopke | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand — This episode includes tips for play with bilingual kids
• Bilingual Avenue 004: Bilingual Benefits, Myths & Developmental Milestones with Dr. Brenda Gorman | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand — Can bilingualism cause speech delay?
• International education - International Baccalaureate®
• LangFest17: Bella and Yulia Devyatkina - Raising Bella in 8 languages - YouTube

Are You Planning a Bilingual Family? Got a Bilingual Family Already?

I'd love to hear more about your own experiences of parenting in another language. Leave a comment below or find me on Twitter

No More Hoarding! How to Organize All Your Language Learning Resources

Ever heard of resource overload? Most language lovers I know can't get enough of new books, courses, and blogs to inspire them...but there's a dark side!

Language resources can be overwhelming. You might wonder which ones are worth your time, or what you really need to get started in a language.

Over the years, I've amassed a huge pile of language learning resources, and in today's post I want to introduce you to a few of my favourites and explain four categories of resources that you should have when you're teaching yourself a language.

For instant organisation, you can find a Resource Organiser worksheet in the Language Habit Toolkit, available in the Fluent Online School.

1) Guiding Resources: Language Textbooks and Language Courses

The first resource I believe you should have is what I call a guiding resource. This can be a book, a CD set, a video course, or even a night class. For any resource to be considered a guiding resource in my mind, it must fulfil the following criteria:

Great Structure

Never compromise on structure. Look out for units, chapters, steps. There is none that is best for everyone, so ensure that your guiding resource follows a path that you will find interesting. You don't want something that just throws a lot of information at you, and you don’t want to be yawning by chapter 3.

The resource should have lessons that move you from one level to the next level. For example, in Benny Lewis' Teach Yourself book, there are different units and they tell you what it is you are going to learn - units such as talking about yourself, asking about other people, talking about family, and describing things.

Having a structure to follow is very important for independent language learners, so be sure to check out the curriculum before you buy.

Designed for Your Situation

When you buy a textbook, make sure you check if your choice might be designed for group classes (for example, Façon de Parler). This doesn't make such textbooks bad resources, but the way they are written, a lot of the exercises are usually not designed for you to do by yourself. The text will say something like: "Find a partner in your group and then practice these sentences with them," or "In the group, have a discussion of this image." The textbooks just assume that you're in a group class. If you're teaching yourself, this is not always helpful.

Multimedia

Third, there should be a multimedia component. This means that you want more than just a book or audio. You want the book unit to be accompanied by audio, worksheets, or video. Online courses in languages are getting better and better, but check that there’s offline access if you need it.

My preferred structure for a guiding resource is this:

Start with a story or dialogue, then an explanation of what was new, and finish with a chance for you as the learner to practice what you’ve learnt.

Good examples of guiding resources are

• Teach Yourself series, in particular the Language Hacking books
• Assimil (on Amazon UK)
• Duolingo if used in line with these recommendations

2) Input Resources: Enjoyable and Comprehensible Input

Input resources are very easy to find…the internet is a total treasure trove of them! I also call them supplementary resources, as they supplement all other learning.

You can have as many as you want. You never have too many input resources. With these resources, you can follow any story or video for some time, drop it, and then get back to it weeks later. Most YouTube videos in the language that you're learning are going to fall into this category. Music and TV shows also fall into this category.

Your input resources must be understandable, but not too easy and not too hard. You need to be able to sense that you're learning as you're following it; so, there should be a little bit of a challenge. But at the same time, you don't want them to be so easy that you know exactly what's coming.

If it’s fun, it works

Input resources also must be enjoyable. They must be fun, so feel very free to toss out what doesn’t interest you. If you don't enjoy them, you aren't going to engage with them. At Langfest in Montreal, I met the famous applied linguist Dr Stephen Krashen, whose belief in comprehensible input is all about these resources. This is where the magic happens. You need input, it needs to be fun, you need to understand it, and you need lots of it.

Good examples of input resources include

• Easy Languages on Youtube
• Olly Richards’ Short Stories for Language Learning (Amazon UK | amazon.com)

3) Reference Resources: Dictionaries, Grammar Guides, Phrasebooks

In a journey as epic as learning a new language, you’re going to get lost and waste lots of time without a map, and that’s what the reference resource can be for you.

Accessible Language Materials

First, the resource must be accessible. Obviously, they should be there for you to touch or open, but more importantly, they must be easy to understand. Second, the resource must be accessible in the sense that you should have it around. It should be there when you want it because the whole idea of a reference resource is you don't follow it as a course.

Dip in and out

Nobody ever learned a language by reading a dictionary. Instead of following reference resources as a course, you just have them around for when you have a question. At the start of language learning, I think reference resources are good to help you answer the question for yourself: Where am I going to look this up?

Many video courses fit right into the reference category. For example, the Fluent courses on German pronunciation and on grammar cross over between guiding and reference resources. My dream for my German courses is that somebody follows it, gains a lot from it the first time, but knows that they can dip in and watch every video individually.

Good examples of reference resources include

The three core reference resources you need are

• a good online or offline dictionary (read my in-depth dictionary tips)
• a good grammar resource (read more tips on effective grammar study)
• and a good pronunciation guide.

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So those are the three key categories of resources you should have somewhere in your personal language library. To re-cap:

1. Guiding Resources give your studies shape and help you know your progress. You want these to be structured.
2. Input Resources make language learning effective and enjoyable. You want these to be fun and right for your level.
3. Reference Resources are on hand when you have specific questions and need a quick answer. You want these to be easy to access and understand.

If you don't have these three areas covered on your (virtual or IRL) bookshelf, it's easy to feel lost when learning a new language, to miss things, and even to lose yourself and think you're better than you are or worse than you are.

4. Self-Teacher's Resources

Are you learning a language by yourself? You need one more: the self-teacher's resources, which are all about how to organise yourself. This category contains language learning blogs, podcasts, books to help you master the learning process.

The self-teacher's resources are awesome because they

1. keep you motivated and accountable
2. help you adopt great study techniques.

For a practical, action-focused take on this resource that will set you up for inevitable success, check out the Language Habit Toolkit, your language coach in a box.

What are your favourite resources? Want recommendations for a resource in your target language or feel you're lacking something?

No problem! Leave me a comment below or say hi in the Fluent Language Learners Facebook group.

My Partner Speaks English - How Can I Help Them Learn My Language?

It’s easy to fall in love, even without words. But sadly, learning a language doesn’t become easier even if you’re in love. Just like good relationships, learning a language is a long-term game. It takes compromise, commitment, and a bit of hard work.

The easiest way to communicate as a couple is to stay in the language you were using when you met. Most couples settle on a common “official language”. For me and my partner, it’s English. English is my everyday language, and I don’t have the habit of switching into German with my partner. As for him, he didn’t come out of school with remarkable knowledge or confidence when it comes to foreign languages.

Most of the time, our life together works just fine. But I do wonder:

• “Do we have to move to Germany before my husband has the opportunity to become a German speaker?”
• “How can I walk the line between forcing him to pick up my language, and encouraging him to discover the culture of my home country?”
• “How can I help him learn German without becoming his teacher?”

We are facing that classic native English dilemma: If everyone else speaks English already, where’s the urgency and pressure to learn another language?

Love is a Deep Motivator

No matter where your partner is from, you’re likely to spend a lifetime trying to figure out what exactly goes on in their head. As Carol Madfouh puts it in this lovely article on language learning for love:

“For us and any other couple from a mixed marriage you are having to work that wee bit harder the whole time to understand the mentality (…) I’m never quite certain whether I am pissed off with him because he’s Tunisian, because he’s French, because he’s a man… or whether just because he’s old!”

If you are the partner who is learning a new language for love, I want to thank you and congratulate you. I know it’s not easy, but you’re doing something amazing. Your desire for a deeper connection has a lot of value. It serves as your Vision Goal, the consistent motivation that keeps you committed to the problem.

Tips for Sharing Your Language With Your Partner

If you are the partner who wishes you could share more of your own language and culture in your relationship, I’m with you. It can be tough to walk the line between sharing your language and nagging someone to learn it.

Here are the things you can try for keeping your sweetheart motivated without putting too much pressure on them.

1) Talk to Third Parties

Every language learner knows that it feels bad to understand nothing, especially when you care about the person who is speaking to you. Introducing your native language into the household becomes a lot easier when there’s a third party around. Adding bilingualism to the home is common when you have a child (try Bilingual Avenue for more tips). But even if you don’t have kids, it helps to have your partner hear simple dialogues in another language.

If you are an expat yourself, your sweetheart likely won’t hear a lot of your native language outside the home. But what about your own circle of friends? Try and see if you can invite a fellow native speaker around the home, giving you more occasion to throw in a few words of vocabulary now and then.

At the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava, one fellow expat wife told me she switched to talking to her pet in another language. What a great idea! This way you can keep your native language active in the home without putting the pressure on way high.

2) Let Them Know What To Expect

One of the trickiest parts of switching into your native language with your partner is that you can never be sure what mood they are in. They may respond with curiosity and enthusiasm one day, only to roll their eyes and ask to be left alone the next. So it’s helpful to make your non-English moments a little more predictable.

• Try setting up an English-free zone in your house, where your partner knows they will be able to practice. I can’t decide if I would suggest the bedroom for this, or tell you to avoid that at all costs..
• Have a regular date night with your native language where you spend time experiencing something new like a restaurant, dance lesson, or language meet up
• Set language times or days, so you know that both of you have agreed to switch languages once a week

3) Treat Language as an In-Joke

In an animated discussion on language learning, Idahosa Ness from the Mimic Method shared that a past girlfriend and he would speak her native language to each other as a sign of closeness. Learning the language came more easily to him as he felt he was in on a private joke with his sweetheart.

Just like nicknames, sharing a second language can make any couple feel more deeply connected. If you want to build your own private language together, try starting with a few loving phrases, or learning the words related to something you love to do together.

4) Share Your Background Without The Language Barrier

If your partner lacks confidence when it comes to learning your native language, you can still offer many fun ways of engaging with your background. Bring in foods or music from home, or discuss the politics of your home country. As long as the topic is interesting to your partner, it will serve as an inspiration for both of you to connect to each other’s cultures.

Sharing traditions of your home country is what makes you special as a couple. It can also create memories that last for life. At my wedding in Germany, my husband asked for us to act out the German tradition of sawing a log together as the couple. My parents happily obliged…with a pretty blunt saw! The experience of my neighbour running in to “rescue the couple” with his chainsaw won’t be forgotten any time soon.

What's more romantic than a bit of mansplanation about sawing logs?!

5) Learn a third language together

The biggest problem with teaching your native language to your sweetheart is that it can create a power imbalance. You don’t want them to feel like the stupid one, right? Some couples have reported that learning a third language together became a great leveller and hobby. Go for something that you both consider relatively neutral and easy, such as Esperanto. This way, it’s their chance to flex those study muscles without feeling any pressure.

Respect Your Partner’s Learning Style

Allow your partner to determine the pace and learning style that they prefer. Even if you are a polyglot who swears by using Anki cards, their own preference might be for starting out in an adult class at the local college. Keep them accountable to their own goals, but never to demand unreasonable efforts. It may help to discuss their language learning goals together and to keep easy accountability through something like the Language Habit Toolkit. Like a good tutor, your job is to inspire motivation and excitement and to refrain from judgement.

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone from a different country? How did you go about language learning? Tell me more in the comments below. I’m excited to hear those stories.

3 Ways to Learn Any Language By Taking it Easy

Learning a foreign language is arguably one of the most rewarding things that people can do in their lifetime. Language learners stay healthy for longer, they’re more attractive, they earn more money.

There are over 6900 languages spoken in the world today, and in fact the World Economic Forum recently cited research showing that languages can be picked up at any age, and that bilingual workers and managers earn more in the workplace.

Learning languages is a smart thing to do, but a lot of people worry about whether or not it’s effective to learn a language without teachers, classroom, or in-country immersion.

How can you become organised, consistent, motivated, and effective as a language learner?

Full Disclosure: I Started as a Bad Self-Teacher

When I became a self-teacher, I had already learnt 5 foreign languages at school and university, and taken a postgraduate degree. I thought I was totally set for life as a language learner.

Safely supported by the structures of school, exams, language classes, I never really wondered what happens when you’ve got to think up your own routine.

After I left university, I took a job in international marketing. In my new job, nobody needed me to speak any other language than English. I still loved languages, and maintained my level in French after begging my employer to let me attend classes…but I was entirely dependent on those classes.

One day, a local teacher I knew decided to offer a single Polish class. I attended, loved what I learnt. The class never picked up enough students to become a course, and it was cancelled. So I decided I was going to “learn Polish” by myself. Simple!

That Polish class was in 2007, 10 years ago today. I consider it my first attempt at learning a language by myself. And I totally failed. I can’t say much more than “czesz, nie mowie po polsku” (and that means “hi, I don’t speak Polish”).

I can’t say it any other way: I was a bad language learner. My Polish project ended the way so many other people’s attempts end: I ran out of motivation and ideas after a few months. I didn’t know where to look for good materials. The language just fell off my radar.

If You Gave Up Before, You Haven’t Failed

At this point in language learning, many people feel that they have failed, or have “no aptitude for language learning”. But sadly, I already knew lots of languages. Aptitude wasn’t the problem. There must be something else I don’t know.

I didn’t really try another new language for a few years after that. I was interested, but had no need to learn…until my job started sending me to Kazakhstan: a country where English wasn’t the norm.

In Kazakhstan, I was surrounded by Cyrillic script and unusual sounds, and I totally wanted to talk to people. The radio, the maps, the street signs: Everything was in Russian (and Kazakh!). I felt like I just had to talk to more people in Russian.

So I did what I had not done for years: I started from absolute zero and I finally figured out “how to learn a language”.

Russian From Zero

Starting small was what mattered the most at this point. I didn’t need to be perfect, and I had to shake off any ideas about where I “should” be with my new languages. I bought the simplest, most encouraging book I could find: Russian in 10 minutes a day. And with this book, I found my first techniques of self-learning.

There were lots resources to play with: visual, aural and even kinaesthetic learning. There were even stickers and flashcards and role play ideas, giving me the kickstart I needed to feel entitled to discover my own style.

And slowly, I continued on my path and started learning the language. I didn’t get lost, and I didn’t “give up”. Instead, I developed language learning routines that put me head and shoulders above most friends I knew who studied in evening classes.

Learn How to Learn Languages With Ease

If you want to reap all those benefits of language learning that I mentioned at the start of this article, it’s important to learn how to learn. At some point, any group class will end and leave you with a cliff edge. The following tips will help you take things easy while growing your self-teaching skills.

Tip 1: Make it Just 10 Minutes a Day

Let’s not kid ourselves here: 10 minutes every day is not enough for you to learn a language “fluently” in under 2 years.

But what matters here is not how little you plan to study. This one is all about overcoming your internal resistance. If you feel like you have to study for 2 hours “or it won’t count”, you’re on your way to giving up too early. Instead, aim for the smallest possible effort, and make it consistent.

You’ll soon find yourself starting a 10-minute session that turns into an hour-long one.

If you want to get ahead in your language and build a simple language learning routine, try the Language Habit Tracker included in the Language Habit Toolkit. Simple system, monthly reviews, and you no longer have to worry about what counts.

Tip 2: Play

The best thing that happened to me when I started self-teaching languages was the flexibility that came with the “10 Minutes a Day” book. I had so many options: flashcards, images, role plays, stickers.

You will learn better when you break through your own limitations and shake up the routine every now and then.

Play around, dabble, try a new language or a new book, discard what you don’t need. It’s good to try out what experts recommend, but never feel like someone else’s path is the only way to do this.

The line here is this: If it’s not working for YOU, then it doesn’t work.

When you’ve played for a few weeks, use something like the “Your Month in Review” worksheet from the Language Habit Toolkit to find exactly what works for you and what you can safely discard.

Tip 3: Continue.

Looking back, persistence was one of the most significant actions on my way to becoming the multilingual person I am today. Had I stopped after that cliff edge of classes and exams, I would be on my way to average, knowing very little and regretting how much I have forgotten.

But if you continue on your language learning journey and make persistence one of your core values, you’ll never go wrong. You can forget a lot of what you learnt, but you cannot really go backwards!

It took me a while to hone these self-study skills, and nothing helps more than a good tracking routine. If you want to find out how to plan, track, and optimise your routine, check out the Language Habit Toolkit.

Do you love self-learning a language? How long have you been at it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Writing: The Magic Skill for Better Memory and Focus in Any Language

Writing in another language is so deep, focused and beneficial - think Deep Work by Cal Newport. It can be a little difficult to build a writing habit at first, I know. But with a clear focus on fluency and a few simple steps to break down your practice, this is not something you'll want to miss out on.

Do You Like Videos?

Check out my Fluent Friday video on this topic, click here to find it in my Facebook community.

So how should you effectively build the writing skill into your language learning routine? Let's jump right in and examine the best ways to get going.

And remember: As long as you're doing it, there's no way you're doing it wrong. (Click here to tweet this)

1. Practice At The Right Level

In case you've been focused on speaking practice and audio courses, you might not be familiar with writing routines yet. There are several levels you can use for getting started.

>>> Word Level Practice

My husband is a sporadic German learner who loves using apps, and recently I got him to try out Memrise in addition to Duolingo. The difference was surprising. Both offer a course for complete beginners, yet he quickly noticed that Memrise felt "a lot tougher, more like a challenge". There are several differences, but a key observation is that Memrise makes its users write their vocabulary words a lot more.

We cannot solve the problem of spelling without knowing something about how the rest of language works. (David Crystal)

Writing words makes you pay attention to spelling, to how the sounds connect and how pronunciation influences how a word looks. The coolest thing about core language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) is that you never practice one in isolation.

>>> Chunk and Sentence Level Practice

Done with words? Start putting them together! If you want to become that language expert who can say anything they like...if you want to break free from templates and stock sentences...nothing will be nicer than writing your own!

Start with simple gap filling exercises that you can find in any textbook, and then get creative! If you can write "good" into this gap, how else could the sentence look? What if there was a feminine word here?

Write your first small pieces, core sentences like a journalist: What happens when, why, how? Who is involved?

>>> Transcription Level Practice

Next it's time to start writing what you hear. For this method, you need a small and comprehensible audio source. Try a song, a short video clip with subtitles, or perhaps Glossika audio packages. This is important: There must be a correct (official) transcript that you can use as an answer key.

Listen to the recording and write down what you hear. Pause it as many times. Be as accurate as you can possibly be. And when you're done, it's the moment of truth: Check the answer key, analyze your mistakes, and correct what you've written.

My colleague Ron Gullekson has written a guide to transcription on Languagesurfer.com, which is worth bookmarking!

2. Use Writing To Boost Accuracy

You probably know that "fluency" is a tough one to define. For me, the following definition from Keith Johnson's book "An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching" sums it up best: Fluency is a mix of rapidity and accuracy in another language. So your speaking practice is giving you rapidity, and you need to boost your accuracy too.

In conversation and especially in speaking practice, you can get away with a lot. The purpose of your speaking practice is to keep moving, to make yourself more flexible and recover swiftly from forgotten words and wrong grammar. Speaking practice is about developing that rapid sense of "fluency", of handling a real chat in another language.

In writing practice, there is no place to hide. This is where you train your accuracy, the linguistic skill that you need for true fluency, confidence, and ultimately for coming anywhere near the level that you dream of achieving.

3. Write By Hand, Boost Your Memory

Working with pen and paper offers you lots of extra advantages when it comes to organizing and tracking your language progress. There are the simple benefits, like tracking visible progress on paper and resting your eyes after many screen hours.

But even beyond those things, handwriting is also scientifically proven to aid memory many times over. Do you keep forgetting vocab? Get yourself a handwritten list. Need to nail down core phrases for your next conversation? Jot them on a card.

For more details on why this works, check out The Miraculous Benefits of Keeping a Language Notebook. And make sure you hop on the Fluent Newsletter today so you're the first to know when my brand new language tracker goes live and you can print & use it at home!

4. Get The Most Out of Every Error

Since writing is a practice that really brings out your hidden weaknesses, it's easy to abandon your practice after you get the first feedback. I feel it all the time when someone writes a friendly comment on my Instagram feed, correcting my Welsh. It's embarrassing!

If you're trying to learn another language, you'll already know one thing. Embarrassment is not just necessary. It is WELCOME. Start learning from your mistakes in this simple way: After you receive a correction, go back and rewrite what you have previously written. Make that text as pure and lovely as you intended. Heck, go ahead and post it online!

I find that correcting my mistakes in writing is one of the most satisfying things in language learning. It's rewarding because you can feel yourself learning.

5. Aim For Exams

Writing big, long, connected pieces of prose is a very advanced language skill. If you're able to put together a postcard, a simple letter or a short description of something, congratulations. You're a language learner who's mastered everything you need for core communication.

To grow your writing practice, my top advice is to work with the exam sets for levels B1 and upwards. These exams get more demanding for language writers, while the lower levels are too easy to master and wouldn't help you catch all your errors.

Related post: Achieve More With a Language Test (No Matter If You Need It or Not)

For corrections of advanced writing, try a good and specialised italki tutor, a translator from ProZ, or an academic proofreader.

The Bottom Line

You might not enjoy the slow pace of writing practice at first, but that's because writing in another language is a routine that delivers real focus. Focus takes effort, but in the end, you will start developing a huge sense of progress and achievement in your target language. Your core skills will appreciate the little lift you're giving them, and those new memory connections are invaluable.

For more about core skills check out my book Fluency Made Achievable> >

Do you already have a writing practice? What are some of your best tips? Share them below or hop over to our Facebook group to learn more!