5 great reasons for language learning with a buddy

When you are learning a new language, your motivation is often rooted in appreciation of how people connect and communicate. Language learning is social by definition, and it's clearly most fun when you can practice and learn with others. All good on paper, but what if you don't know any fellow learners?

5 great reasons for finding a learning buddy

Just like a lot of language learners, I'm not averse to a bit of a challenge. Teaching yourself from books is definitely one of those, but my advice would be that you stay away from challenging yourself to learn in isolation. Here are 5 good reasons why sharing the language learning journey with a buddy (someone at your level, a friend or tutor) makes a lot of sense.

  1. You'll open up
    Expressing your feelings is super-beneficial, no matter if it's through talking, drawing, writing or singing. In the context of language learning, this means you will benefit a lot from speaking about the language learning experience. Shared frustrations and worries are often halved when you have the chance to talk to someone who knows what you mean.

  2. You'll keep going 
    Giving up is much less of an option when people know about your commitment to really making this work. Yes, this tip is just one of my whole library of tips that work both for diets and language learning :)

  3.  Double the research power
    Have you been on the internet these days? It's so full of great resources and media and music and articles that I barely have time to watch Game of Thrones! Even if your chosen buddy isn't one who shares your fluency ambitions, they can help you by keeping an eye out for the best resources, recommended tutors or fellow learners. A network is a powerful thing, and it's so easy to start.

  4. They can quiz you
    There is rarely a thing more efficient than asking a friend to quiz you on your vocabulary lists - they'll be able to engage with your experience with all the pressure taken off, play teacher, set challenges or even grade you.

    I can imagine that this works particularly well in married couples - wouldn't you just LOVE to have the licence to educate your other half?! From my own experience, I also love how it enables my partner to help me with things like my Russian, without having to understand any of it himself.

  5. You might save money
    From borrowing dictionaries to taking cheaper private classes with a tutor (like me), you might find that sharing the language learning experience can really save you a lot of money. This doesn't have to be an expensive experience and not every book or course will do the same for all people, but even if you spent no coins at all on it, you might benefit from a shared cost trip to the exciting destination of your dreams!

How to make it work

There's no straightforward recipe for success for learning with a friend or loved one. Some of us are reassured by having fellow learners, others feel particularly shy about it. You might also want to learn at a different pace to your friend, or work best at different times. If you aren't attending classes together, consider texting in the other language or sitting down just for a monthly catch-up. And if you have found someone who is not a learner him- or herself but wants to cheerlead and support you, how about planning that great trip together?

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Fluency Masterclass, Part 3: Listening

Welcome to the next part of the Fluency Masterclass. These four articles feature my best tips on ​how to boost your proficiency in the four core skills of language learning. I believe that balanced core skills are the best way to become fluent and confident. These Masterclass articles are designed to give language learners of any level new inspiration, and a focus on the core skills

​Language Learning Core Skill: Listening

​I'll let you in on a secret: My listening skills aren't really world famous. I have a tendency to guess ahead in conversations and get excited, cut in, intterupt and so on. Hey, it keeps life interesting! But as with all weaknesses, it's good to work on them a little. So my tips are in fact good advice for listening in any situation. I have found them helpful for improving my attention span and communication skills.

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​1) Listen from Day 1

Listening is so important in language learning. It's closely connected to the learner's comfort level and pronunciation skills, and in addition to that it presumes NO language knowledge at all! There is no pressure on learners to respond or produce language, no rule that says you have to pay full attention all the time, and it can be pretty entertaining too. So my advice really is this: Listen from day 1. In fact, make that day 1 about learning your new alphabet and copying the sounds you're hearing. The BBC, for example, has some excellent alphabet resources.

2) Make notes, repeat and summarize

This is such a simple and effective exercise. I recommend you start working on it in your native language before moving on to foreign language situations. Next time you find yourself listening to someone talking at length, especially in a face-to-face situation or on the phone, get out the notepad. Make notes of the most important points of what they are saying, and ensure you don't miss any. If a real notepad and pen are likely to come across just a bit odd, try and make mental notes.

This technique is in fact part of a communication approach called active listening. It emphasizes that it is important to identify the message. In language learning, this means: Don't get stuck on words you don't know. As long as you know what the main message is, stage 1 is complete. Repeat the audio a few times to fine tune every word.

3) Use a transcript - or make your own

A big part of language learning success is in recognising which sounds correspond to which letters on a page. Click to Tweet this

Remember that we are not focusing on one core skill in order to block out the others. Listening is easily combined with other skills. You can read along using a transcript. Or in order to improve your writing skills, write your own version of the transcript and then compare it with an official one. You'll be training your spelling, listening comprehension and speed all in one go!

4) Bring back the music

I wrote about the many benefits of making music a part of your language learning on the Fluent Language blog last year. If nothing else, it's fun! Music is such a great and obvious place to start for learning a language. You can work with specific materials aimed at language learners like the Teach Me Everyday series, or just get right in there and work with songs. Why not read up on how to do it on this blog article.

5) Use a really wide range of sources

Your target language has many sub-sets of language groups, and in real life situations you may never know which one you are going to encounter. So especially when you work on listening skills, it's important to cast the net wide. Take turns listening to the news,​ rap songs, local dialects and whatever you can get hold of. To get you started, note that many news services do a simplified language version of their own news casts, for example DW in German, RFI in French or ​Sveriges Radio for Swedish.

There is a wealth of further materials out on the web all about this topic, for example the following articles:

Got more tips? Comment away, I want to hear it!!

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