I decided which language I want to learn next! :)

So the last few weeks (or even months) I thought about which language could be the most useful, most beautiful and most logical language choice for me. Which language feels “right” for me?

I wanted to decide between:

• Japanese
• Russian
• Korean
• Spanish

Today was the day. Yes ladies and gentlemen I’m talking about THE DAY I finally decided which language I want to learn next.

It’s going to be Italian.

What?

That’s not even on the list?

Yeah because I’m a mess and suck at making decisions. 

To be honest I never wanted to learn Italian. I found it to be boring (because not much difference to the languages I know), no real cultural difference and where I make vacations (every year since I was 3 years old) they speak German anyway. I’m not into pasta, I’m not into pizza, I’m not into wine (I actually hate wine). There was nothing I was interested in when it came to Italian. And no this is not a story about how something special happened and then it got me like “Italian it is!”. Actually, it didn’t happen anything. Today I just thought “it’s going to be Italian” and now I’m excited about it for seriously no reason at all. Nothing happened. I didn’t even get in touch with the language today!

I always wanted my next language to be as different as possible and now it’s going to be Italian. For no reason. Funny how life goes. So ladies and gentlemen, I’m glad to present you my next language which I never thought I would even look at it. I’m super excited and for some reason the language suddenly sounds beautiful to me! 

I’m hoping for a funny journey. And I’m going to be in Italy in two months again so let’s see how it goes. :)

I did it! Yesterday I convinced my boyfriend to learn a new language (thanks to endless talks about why learning a language is the best thing on earth haha). Actually I gave up on this but out of nowhere he was like “I’m thinking about learning French”. Hell yeah!!! So he took French. Well not my favourite language but probably useful when visiting France and I’m not going to complain about it because I’m happy af that he’s going to learn a new language. We’re living in Germany so France is not that far away, even though we’re usually in Italy for vacation (I guess things will change lol). 

Learning languages as a couple, sounds like much fun but we’re not learning the same language, so it’s going to be a little bit different and also harder to help each other and study together. That’s why I’m writing this, how can we support each other the best way even if we’re not learning the same language and what are the advantages of learning two different langauges? Let’s do this!

• Challenge each other. We both use Memrise as a tool to challenge each other. There’s a high score list and I’m very competitive and he has 2 hours of boredom every day because he’s traveling by train. Today I couldn’t believe how high his high score was after getting up. It was already a little bit hard to keep up with him.
• Test each other. The thing with testing our vocabulary knowledge is… that he can’t read my vocab because of a different alphabet. The solution is easy: In my case he’s just asking the German words, I translate them and then he shows me the word. I can ask French and German words.
• Play games. There are many multiplayer games where you can play together and just switch the language of the interface to the language you learn.
• Be creative. You have so many options how to learn a language (just like my Tumblr post about “different ways to learn a language”), if you’re creative. For example: acting like you two do only speak your target languages but it’s important for the survival of humankind that you two talk to each other (about whatever). Just use Google Translate and type in what you want to say and show it your partner. You may think this is pointless but it’s not about learning what the other person says, it’s about learning how to make sentences on your own. No matter if they are correct, you should just try and think about what you want to say and how you could do that. Many language learners have the problem that they can understand a lot but are not able to make their own sentences because they rarely do that compared to studying their passiv vocab.
• Rewards. You probably know about rewarding yourself when reaching a goal, but now you can make a deal with your partner. For example the person who has a higher high score on Memrise can make a wish. Maybe there’s just a difference for very competitive people to “normal” rewards you give yourself but for me, this is so much more fun because I WANT TO WIN THIS SHIT! Also, there are way more option for your price because you’re not alone anymore (hello massage, I’m coming for you).
• More support. I know you can get support from friends (if you can get them to learning a language lol, I gave up there) or your language exchange partner but it’ll never be like getting through this with your partner. Also, if you’re living together your partner is always there for you, if you feel like giving up or want to celebrate (even very small) goals you reached your partner is just around the corner.
• It’s hot. Let’s be honest, speaking another language makes people more attractive (proven fact) and seeing the person you already love speaking another language (which you don’t understand, so it’s a skill you don’t have) makes him/her even more attractive.
• More opportunities. Because both partner learn a different language, there are double as much opportunities for vacation and where to travel, away from these tourism places.
• More cultural diversity. If you learn a new language you (mostly) also learn about their culture. So with a partner who’s learning another language you don’t just have one new culture around you but also another one.

Do you know these times when you’re sitting in front of your textbook, trying to learn these boring af vocabs you’ve seen 1000 times but still can’t remember and just wish to do something different (or hoping that the world explodes so you can at least stop)?

Well, there are more ways to learn a language and I think because we just learned how we “should” learn a language at school, we’re limited in creativity. Thanks to school it’s hard to think outside of this “textbook, vocab lists, tests, etc.” stuff but there are ENDLESS things you can do to learn a language.

Remember: everything you do in your native language, you can try to do in your target language!

This is for all the people who are tired and exhausted, who are thinking about quitting or don’t have fun with their target language anymore.

DON’T YOU DARE TO GIVE UP! YOU’VE COME SO FAR!

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Examples for different ways of learning a language:

• write a diary
• summarise an article about a topic you like (cooking, fitness, etc.)
• listen to a podcast/radio
• listen to music (while reading the lyrics)
• try to sing along with music
• read out loud while reading a book/magazine/blog/etc.
• watch movies/series/videos
• record videos in your target language or about how studying is going (progress, problems, etc.)
• write a blog (well hello there :))
• use apps that make it more fun (duolingo, memrise, lingodeer)
• chat with native speakers
• actually talk to native speakers ( I know what a crazy idea)
• read websites about things you’re interested in
• use social media only available in your target language
• change the language of your smartphone
• change the language of your pc
• change the language of your life
• play games in your target language (like not necessarily for learning it, I mean just playing a normal game IN your target language)  
• take online lessons with teachers that make you forget you’re learning
• do a challenge! (I love this one so much)
• find a learning group
• be active in forums (no matter about language learning or a forum in your target language)
• find a language exchange partner. (You should, seriously.)
• watch lessons on youtube
• read a (children-)book (with audio)
• talk to yourself 
• think in your target language (a fun way is to tell a story about your life while it’s happening like “I went down the road with a stranger always behind me, who could it be? What does he want? It got quiet… too quiet. I tried to keep calm but was it really a coincidence? All in the middle of nowhere?” I know I’m bad at this but I hope you get what I mean, think of it like reading a book.)
• learn vocabs with pictures, type in the word you want to know and ONLY look for pictures, try to feel the word. If you google for “strawberry” (in your target language and don’t know what it means) look at the pictures, the colours, how could it smell? Make a sentence with the new word. When was the last time you ate it? How was it?
• Write a story/book online or just for yourself.
• Make a mindmap
• Use a topic jar (a jar where you put in notes with different topics on it, you take one every day and write/talk about it)
• use social media to find groups interested in learning a new language or your target language
• translate texts and act like you’re a famous translator who’s the only person on earth who can translate your target language (for example if you’re reading articles about historical stuff, act like you’re the only one who can find out what happened back then and the whole world is counting on you!)
• try to solve random online tests
• listen to a song/audiobook/whatever and write down what you hear
• search for words you want to learn and build up (funny!) sentences with them or even whole stories
• read comics/mangas/etc.
• search for receipts  in your target language and pray to god you’re doing it right… if not, well you won’t forget the vocab again. Win-win situation. :p
• search for language learning groups near your living place and actually meet them (stay safe and check everything before)
• listen to children songs (I still remember the first children song I learned in English lessons… like… 11 years ago in 5th grade) these songs are supposed to stick… *cough* head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes *cough* sorry where was I?
• connect with language learners over Skype (useful groups of course like German trying to learn French, Frenchman trying to learn Turkish, Turk trying to learn German)
• write a list (you know… like I do right know so I don’t forget English)
• describe things you see (more fun with a partner)
• teach your target language to others
• listen to audio while sleeping
• take notes in your target language (I don’t mean for grammar rules or something like that, I mean notes you would take in your native language anyway)
• write a letter (so much better than an e-mail)
• write an e-mail (who has time for letters)
• learn rimes 
• learn jokes (it’s also useful for social interaction)
• talk to your pets (at least if they listen to you, if I start to talk to my cat she starts yelling into my face)
• translate songs and learn the vocab of it so you have more fun listening to it later
• think about a topic and write down every word you can think of and then translate them into your target language

Before you can start learning a new language, you have to choose one. Can I (or any other person) tell you which language that is? No. But I can give you questions, you can answer for yourself and at the end you will know which language suits you best.

- Does your family speak a foreign language you don’t speak?

- Do your friends speak a foreign language?

- Do you want something similar to the languages you know or something completely different?

- Do you need it for your future job?

- Do you need it for your current job?

- Which culture seems interesting?

- Which food seems delicious?

- If you want to move to another country (later)

- which one?

- Where do you go for holidays?

- If you’re single: which language would you like your partner to speak?

- Which language sounds good?

- Do you like the music of a country?

- Do you like series or movies of a country?

- Do you like art or literature? If yes of which country the most?

- With which language could you have most fun?

- Do you just want to learn another language (no matter which one) as fast as you can? Then look for an “easy” language as similar as possible to the languages you speak.

- Do you like someone special? Which language does s/he speak?

- Do you feel like you belong to another country based on their culture, people, etc.?

- If you’re fluent in every language, where would you go? Where would you live?

- Which languages do the people speak you look up to?

- What’s best for your hobbies? (If you’re into games from Asia, you can play them way earlier in their language. If you’re into fashion learn Italian or French, so you can read blogs of the most famous bloggers and know new trends before everyone else, etc.)

- Which language is useful for you?

- If you could decide where you would have been born, where would it be?

These are just a few questions but I guess you know where this should go. The language you choose needs to match your personality, interests, hobbies, etc. It shouldn’t be a boring vocab list you learn or textbook you have to get through. It should be something you feel, something you get exited about. You won’t reach your goal, if there is no real reason. The more you FEEL the language, the more you will stick with it. You won’t be motivated enough if you think Russian is cool but also know that you’ll never use it. But if you like the country, their culture, the people and FEEL like deep inside you’re Russian, this is the language to go with. That’s why there is no “best language” or anything like that. Because every person is different and so is the language that suits this person.

What’s not important:- Number of speakers This doesn’t matter AT ALL. To 99.9% you won’t keep studying a language if your only reason is something like “Many people speak Spanish, I’m sure many companies like that on my resume”. Why? Because it’s not a real motivation. A company you don’t even know MIGHT want you to have Spanish skills? That reason won’t get you through years of studying and lacks of motivation. There are other skills way more important to a company, so every other language will get you the same plus point. Even though, why would it help you to  speak Spanish, if all the other ones who apply for the job do that too? Same with Chinese. It has the highest number of speakers but who cares if they all live on the other side of earth? If you want to move to China, fine. If you really need Chinese for the job you want, fine. But just because of the number? No. And if your reason is “more people to talk to”: you can’t talk to all of them. Who cares if there are 1.000.000.000 people speaking “language 1″ and only 1.000.000 people speaking “language 2″? You won’t talk to over one million people anyway. I hope this guide helped you and you find out which language and country suits you best. :)

You decided to learn a new language? That’s great! But you don’t really know how to start? That’s totally normal, especially if you never learned another language before. But here are some tips how to get started. :)

1. Read about your language. Before you actually start studying your target language you should google it. At least the Wikipedia entry. That takes about 15 minutes but will help you a lot during your study process. It makes it easier to know how your language “works” before starting it. Is it similar or very different to the language you know? How’s the basic grammar? Do they use the same letters? Does it use genders? What’s special about your target language? Do you speak the language just how you read it?  So you won’t be confused while studying Spanish when the word “hablo” suddenly changes to “hablas” because you read before that they conjugate verbs in Spanish. That way you will understand it faster.

2. Break sentences or even words down. Maybe there is a pattern. For example in German we call a sloth “Faultier”. If you break it down you have “faul” (lazy) and “Tier” (animal). So while you learned the word for sloth you also learned the word for “lazy” and “animal”. In this case you can learn that we Germans don’t really have endless long words, we just like to put words together that already exist to describe something new. And suddenly “Studentenkrankenversicherungsmeldeverordnung” doesn’t look like a word straight from hell anymore because it’s just “StudentsHealthInsuranceReportRegulation”. And you know it because you broke other words down and discovered that Germans just put words together.

3. Learn the most common words. The most common 100 English words make up about half of all written English.

4. If you don’t know a word in your native language, you don’t need it in your target language. For example “Grommet”. I heard the German words for it but never used it or will use it. So why would I need to know it in English? Unfortunately schools don’t care about that.

5. Try sticky notes.

6. Make a plan what you want to learn.

7. Search for good resources like textbooks/Apps/websites/videos/etc. That’s also a way to get started. I prefer getting a textbook for beginners and combine it with tip number 9.

8. Find a teacher. I’m not really a fan of learning a language sitting in a classroom because you won’t talk much. But if you want someone leading you while you do your first steps in your target language, you should definitely check out italki.

9. Find a language exchange partner. Think about what you normally would chat about, search for the vocabs and use them! You will instantly practice them, learn the words you need to know and have fun while learning your first words in your target language.

10. Get help from the Studyblr or Langblr community! :)

Use the polite form in German to be rude.

So a friend wanted to practice German with me and started to speak in the polite form.

I told him that it’s not necessary to use it with me because 1. we’re about the same age and 2. we’re talking over the internet.

He asked me what the second thing has to do with it. I told him that I would use the polite form to speak with a 50 years old in real-life but not if he is messaging me over the internet.

Then he asked what I’m talking about, because I once sent him a screenshot of a weird old men. And I used the polite form while talking to him.

The thing is, this 50 years old man tried to hit on me and I was using the polite form to make clear (for him), how much older he is. So he would stop with this bullshit. But he was like all the other old men who try to hit on me and said “oh you don’t need to use the polite form with me, we’re basically around the same age”. Sorry b*tch, we’re what? I’m 22. Even if you double my age I’m still younger!

I kept using the polite form, which makes them angry every single time because it basically means “You’re so much older, don’t even dream of sleeping with me. It’s disgusting.”

And I think it’s really funny how you can use a polite form to be rude af and make people angry by using it with them.

Languages. Weird little things.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I hope you all are having a wonderful day. :)
 Lately I’m thinking about learning two languages at the same time. Usually I always was like “hell no, this is not going to happen” because I remember when I first tried doing this (without a plan or any knowledge how I could do that) I failed. Like really hard. I always switched up words and grammar, because I was learning them literally AT THE SAME TIME. For example when I tried to learn a new word, I learned it for language A and B simultaneously. Later I didn’t know which word belonged to which language. Or if I knew it in language A I just couldn’t get away from this word. No chance to remember it in language B.

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So the goal is to separate them as much as you can! You want to learn them at the same time but NOT together. Make them as different as possible.. You want your brain to connect these languages with different things. Now, it’s time to take a look on how you can do that.

• Don’t start them at the same time. I know first it sounds strange if you want to learn two languages at the same time but you shouldn’t start both on the same day. Because right at the beginning you have to learn the same words like “hello, how are you, my name is, bye, etc.” and as I said you want to separate them as much as you can. Just pick one and concentrate on it for a few weeks (like one month or if you learn fast even less) and then start the other one. This way you already know the very basic stuff in language A and don’t confuse it with language B.
• Don’t take similar languages. The worse you can do is learning two similar languages. First it sounds like a good idea, because of similar grammar and especially similar words, which could make you think “this way I learn faster” but it’s NOT the case.
  Italian and Spanish? Bad idea.
  German and Dutch? Bad idea.
  Russian and Ukrainian? Bad idea.
  The best is to take languages that aren’t even in the same language family.
• Take languages with different letters. This is a hack that can help you a lot. Especially if you are a visual learner, languages with different writing systems will make it nearly impossible to switch them up. I mostly learn stuff through seeing it. Like seriously, I can’t remember shit if I just hear it but I were able to learn 500 Spanish words for a test on the next day in 2 hours because I used a technique for visual learners. Of course I wasn’t able to keep all of them in the long term memory but it was enough to get an A. And I never ever switched up words (even if I learned them at the same day in two languages) if they were written in different letters, because if I remember a word, I see it in front of my inner eye. So to all visual learners: THIS is the best thing you can do.
• Use different colours and stick to them. For example always use blue for Russian and red for Spanish. It makes it easier for your brain to switch between them. You brain will associate the language with this colour. So if you switch from Russian to Spanish and your brain sees red it will automatically first use the connections it built up around this colour. And you connected Spanish with red. I don’t know how to explain that properly but if you see red your brain connects it with Spanish vocab because it’s “closer” than the Russian vocab.
• Use different times. Same as above. You connect one language with a specific time. For example after you get up in the morning you study Russian and before you go to bed you study Spanish.
• One of the languages should be a familiar one. This way you will have “less” work. For example if your native language is French then Spanish or Italian are good ones for you. But remember that the second language you chose should be as different as possible.
• Chose a main language. There will be a time when you question yourself, if this was a good idea. It will feel like you’re getting nowhere and of course you will think about if it’s because you don’t concentrate on one language. With a main language you will see more progress because you spend more time with it. A really great way to motivate yourself and if you don’t like the choice you made you can always take the other one as main language.
• Make a plan. I don’t know what else I could say about this because you probably all know what I mean. You have to make a plan WHEN you learn WHICH language for HOW LONG and WHAT you want to learn.
• Think in your target languages. As soon as you have an intermediate level, you can start using both languages at the same time and even practice them together. Try to translate from language A to language B. This way you can learn to think in your new languages because there is no need to think in your native language at all. At this point try to avoid your native language as much as you can.
• Take your time. You can’t expect to learn two languages as fast as you would learn a single one.
• Learn at different places. Same as the colour and time tip. Connect every language with another place. For example Russian is the living room and Spanish the kitchen. Or if it’s possible try to learn one of them at the library/park/etc.
• Connect them with emotions (and not only textbooks). For example speaking Spanish with your friends (happy, comfortable, etc.) and exploring Moscow while speaking Russian with the natives there (exited, nervous, etc.)
• Study both every day. I guess I don’t need to say more.
• Keep in mind that it’s even harder to keep your motivation. If you loose motivation in learning languages, it will be twice as hard to get back on track. Because everything will take twice as long. So if you find it hard to learn one language if you’re not motivated, you should consider learning one after another. Your progress will be slower if you learn two languages at once and if you’re not a person who can handle this, you should stick with one.
• Make everything different. I know I mentioned it a lot but just think about what you could change in your learning routine. You can help your brain to connect many things with language A or language B. You drink Cola while studying language A and tea while studying language B. Put a picture of Spain on your table while studying Spanish and one of Russia while studying Russian. Write with a black pencil in Spanish and with a grey one in Russian. Meditate before Spanish and work out before Russian (or other morning/night routines you do, followed by the language you want to connect it with).

I hope this post was helpful for you and keep in mind that if you just want to speak as many languages as possible, one after another will be faster. But if you want to learn both languages at the same time because you really like them, there is nothing stopping you. :)

The best way to keep your motivation is to reward yourself for reaching your goals (even the small ones!). :)
But first you need to set goals… if you have no idea what you could do on your language learning journey you can check out this postfrom@lovelybluepanda.
It’s a really cool post about “100 Goals you can have as a language learner”. There are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals.
So, if you’re done choosing the goals you want to reach, it’s time to choose the reward you want to get after completing it.
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Here are examples for rewards you can give yourself. :)

• go to a café with your friends
  
• watch a movie at the cinema
• make a trip to another city
• buy stickers, pencils, markers, washi tapes, etc. everything you’re using for your language learning entries
• buy yourself something big for reaching big goals ( like even a car, yes I’m talking about REALLY big goals)
• new shoes
• an app
• a monthly subscription for a language learning app/website like Busuu,  Babbel or Memrise
• food from your target country
• beauty stuff from your target country (yes I’m looking at you Korean and Japanese learners, there is much you can buy)
• order food to your house
• nail polish, lipstick, beauty masks, etc. (just small things you can buy at the next drugstore)
• massage
• new hairstyle
• eyelashes extensions
• take a day off
• visit a museum
• buy yourself a new book (maybe even one for language learning)
• make a Netflix day
• candy from the next grocery store
• buy something that’s trending in your target country
• a trip to your target country
• go to a restaurant with friends or your family
• a new outfit
• get a pedicure/manicure
• buy yourself flowers
• take a course (like cooking, drawing, etc.)
• visit a comedy club
• tickets for a festival/band/singer you want to see
• go golfing with friends
• paintball (like seriously… try it with friends it’s fun haha :))
• spa day
• join a sport club
• gym membership
• go camping
• a new laptop bag
• look online for something you want and take the first thing you see (that’s especially for people like me who usually need days to decide if they want something or not)
• visit a bookstore or library
• make a picnic
• take a hot bubble bath
• buy a magazine or even subscribe to one
• buy a plant for the room you’re usually studying
• new headphones to have a better quality while listening to songs in your target language
• piercing
• tattoo
• jewellery
  
• buy a few online lessons in italki
• yoga / meditation
• buy candy from your target language
• buy a bag with candy from all over the world
• a mixer for smoothies
• new workout clothes
• go to a party/club
• a new journal (or your first one)
• a fancy waterbottle
• search for new songs in your target language
• a colouring book to relax
• put money into a jar every time you reach a goal (for a bigger reward)
• search for events near your city
• go on a road trip with your best friend or partner
• take language classes
• buy a new videogame
• try a new hobby

Done. I hope you find some of my ideas helpful. :)