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Ways to learn a language on your own

As it is said by most people, the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. This involves placing yourself in an environment where you are constantly exposed to the language you want to learn. If the environment around us does not provide this exposure, then we must create one that does. The ways I am suggesting here contribute to creating an environment where you maximize your exposure to the target language. In such an environment, one constantly practices the language and so practice will be the key element in this environment. As we will see, practice can be done by finding people to speak with on language exchange and dating websites as well as in online games. After having found these people, you can actually start practicing right away using Google Translate in the way that is explained on this page. But the learning does not have to stop there; there are ways to expose yourself further to the target language such as by changing the language of the operating system of the devices you use on a daily basis and by watching movies with subtitles.

The ways I listed here were the ones I found particularly useful during my learning of languages. On a side note, I don't claim that these are absolute ways to learn a language on your own and that they are the best there is, but they worked for me and I believe they are simple enough that with just a strong work ethic and some time, anyone can make use of them and succeed.

Using Google Translate

One might think that using Google Translate is a terrible way to learn a language. And yes, if you've been using it for a while, you probably noticed that it can generate terrible translations. It can however, if used in a cautious way, be a powerful tool to learn a language. Here is the link to in case you don't know it.

Great for practicing a language

Using Google Translate is a great way to practice a language. It can be accessed quickly on both mobile phones and computers, it generates translations almost instantly on high speed internet and there is a wide variety of languages available. You can then use these translations to communicate back and forth with a native speaker of the target language and this can be done without any knowledge of the grammar of that language. This means that after you have read the method on this website and have found people to communicate with, you can start learning a language from scratch right away. However, before using Google Translate, I caution you to familiarize yourself with the alphabet of the target language if it is different than your own.

Here is how Google Translate works: it lets you input either a word or a sequence of words and then it outputs what it determines to be its translation. For some languages, you can even click on a sound icon to hear the audio of the translation. It means that not only can you use Google Translate to learn a language by exchanging written messages with people in another language, but you can also more easily practice the oral portion of the language with these people.

How to use it

As we know, you will not always get accurate translations from Google Translate since it's quite an imperfect translator. The thing is that translators fail to understand context which is sometimes necessary when performing a translation. This will not, however, prevent you from practicing a language effectively. Remember that you should use Google Translate mainly as a means of communication. So, when you want to communicate with a native speaker of the target language, use Google Translate to translate what you want to say into that language. However, since we know its translations to be questionable, you should not pay too much attention to the translations into the target language. You should only use Google Translate for translations this way temporarily because you might not yet know how to formulate anything in the target language.

Instead of focusing on translations, focus on how the native speaker you practice with uses the target language since he/she most likely knows how to do this, or at least, better than you can. So, use Google Translate to translate what he/she says to you into your language, if you do not understand it. Google Translate might not give you a "correct" translation into your language, but that is beyond the point; all you need here is to understand what he/she is saying and along with the context, you should be able to do that. And as you understand what is being said to you, you are creating a link in your mind between the two languages and thus, you are learning the target language. That being said however, nothing is perfect and you may run into issues where Google Translate's translation does not make any sense.

Issues you may run into

As I mentioned earlier, translators fail to understand context which may be necessary when performing a translation. Sometimes, what could happen is that there are many different words which qualify as a translation for your input word, but they all have different meanings. Google Translate chooses one meaning for you in that case, although it might not be the correct meaning and therefore you could end up with the wrong word. This can be a limitation of Google Translate, but there are ways around that. Next I will explain how knowing another language (and you don't need to be fluent in it) can be a way around that.

A solution to the imperfection

If you happen to know the word you are looking for, but in another language, then input that word in that other language and translate it into the language you want to know the word in. For example, I, knowing French and English, sometimes use Google Translate from French to Portuguese when there's a word in Portuguese I don't know. However, it could happen that the word in French I'm trying to translate may have different possible meanings so the output in Portuguese might be the incorrect one. But it could be that in English for example, there is one word for that specific meaning so inputting instead the word in English with a single meaning will give me the correct output in Portuguese.

If you don't know another language, then there are still options for you to check if a translation makes any sense. If appropriate, what I do sometimes is I type a word or a sequence of words from the translation into the search field of the Google website and then I click the Images tab directly below the search field. If the images generated in the results are of the translated word or sequence of words, it suggests that the translation has the correct meaning.

If I am dealing with a technical term and I want to translate it to a language I don't know very well, I sometimes enter it into the search field of wikipedia.org in the language I know and try to access an article with that name. If I do find it, I then select the language I want to translate it to on the left-hand side of wikipedia.org which changes the language of the article and in the title of that translated article, I find my translation. Now to double-check it, I enter it on Google Translate and translate it back to a language I know and if it translates back to more or less my original technical term, then I will know if the translation was correct.

Taking it a step further, using the Google website (optional)

The final trick I will list here involves doing a search on Google. This is mainly to check for the grammaticality of a sequence of words whether it is a product of a translation or of your own mind. You do a search of the sequence of words in quotation marks. Try to use a portion of a sentence and not a whole sentence since you might get too few search results or none at all if you use a whole sentence because it would be too specific. Here is an example to check if the translation in Portuguese is correct:

"He quickly opened the door"

Google Translate will give you "Ele rapidamente abriu a porta" as a translation, which you should definitely question. I inputted this into the search field on the Google website and did a search which gave me 797 results. Then, I tried instead my next best guess as to what the translation should be "Ele abriu a porta rapidamente" and it gave me 2860 results, which is over 3 and a half times more results than the translation Google Translate gave me. The number of results is written right above the actual results, to the left. Note that you don't need to guess what the translation should be. This is just to show you that when you enter a sequence of words on Google and it returns very few results, you should question its grammaticality. When comparing translations however, the translation with the higher number of results means (but not necessarily) that it is most likely the correct translation. A native speaker of Portuguese told me that the translation "Ele abriu a porta rapidamente", with the more results, is indeed the correct one and that the other from Google Translate with less results is incorrect.

Things to keep in mind while practicing

Regardless of the results of any of the things I suggested so far, you should never assume with a 100% certainty that a translation or something you formulated in the target language is both accurate and grammatical. The more you practice however, the higher the degree of accuracy and grammaticality you will be able to achieve when speaking this language, and also, the less you will need to use Google Translate to communicate.

A very important thing that needs to be mentioned is that you should try to have vocal conversations as early in the process as possible since languages are mostly spoken and the written language is often a poor representation of the spoken language. There are many things that the written language does not convey: the accurate pronunciation, tones, intensity, etc. Also, do not be shy to talk; it is normal for a language learner to make mistakes. Tell yourself that every time you talk, you get better. So, perhaps you will have mispronounced many words on your first exchange with someone, but the next time, you will come back improved. You may even be fortunate enough to stumble across someone who will willingly correct your pronunciation and try to show you how to pronounce some sounds correctly.

In this next section, I will explain how to get a hold of these invaluable partners with whom you will practice the language and I will inform you about other ways to immerse yourself further.

Language exchange websites

Used in combination with Google Translate, language exchange websites are a gold mine for learning languages. I know the spirit of this website is to be able to learn languages on your own, without them being taught by anyone. But the fact is that you don't need to be taught a language by members of a language exchange website, you only need to practice with them. It's an added bonus if they want to give you tips and corrections to your mistakes even though that's not necessary.

The thing is that there are people on these websites who are eager to learn one or more languages. A possible way you could use these websites is to try to find someone to practice with, no teaching involved. Of course, this person may want to practice in your native language with you too, so expect to give and take there.

I've personally used language exchange websites in the past such as mylanguageexchange.com and sharedtalk.com and in addition to having learned languages I've managed to make quite a few friends when I did so. There are even some of these friends that I've met in real life and that I still talk to today. Making friends is an added bonus to using such websites.

Dating websites

Dating websites have played a major role in the improvement of my skill level of Portuguese. I've mostly used badoo.com, but there are tons more out there which are completely free too. I have developed both serious relationships and friendship on dating websites, but most importantly, they have provided partners with whom I was able to practice Portuguese. As opposed to language exchange websites, the girls I was talking with on these websites did not ask me to practice English or French, so I was practicing Portuguese 100% of the time, which is awesome. It is important to note that dating websites do not have to be used to find love. Some people on there are completely comfortable with finding friendship so if all you want is to practice a language then make sure you make it known in your profile that you are looking for friendship only.

Movies with subtitles

A great method to learn a target language is to watch movies with subtitles. Now, that could be one of three things:

Note that the third possibility here is used to learn how the words are pronounced more than anything else. Either of the 2 first methods serves as making a bridge in your brain between the two languages. I personally find the latter way more effective since languages are primarily spoken (despite this being debatable due to the technologies surrounding mobile devices today). But of course, this goes according to your needs. So, perhaps for someone who finds exposure to the written language they want to learn more valuable, then the first and third methods might be best for them.

Watching movies to learn a language is both effective and at the same time it can be fun if the movie is entertaining of course.

Change the language of your operating system

This is something I tried several years ago when I was learning Norwegian. I installed Windows in Norwegian on my computer. What that did is that, for every operation I performed on my computer, the text accompanying these operations was in Norwegian. Sometimes, I did not need to read the text because I already knew what they meant from memory of having performed these operations in Windows in English, but I still read them to learn. Just as with movies with subtitles, a connection in my brain was being made between the text in Norwegian I was reading and my memory of what that text meant in English. And some other times when I was dealing with less familiar operations. I actually had to pick up a translator or a dictionary to figure out what the text meant because I did not want to do operations that would cause unwanted results.

As a downside result, switching the language of the operating system in the beginning made tasks on the computer more time-consuming, because I had to understand what the text meant. So, be careful when using this method; make sure you have enough time to do the tasks you intend to do on your computer. Also note that you can change the language of the operating system of your mobile device(s) (cell phone and tablet) and of the programs and apps you install for more exposure to the target language.

Putting everything into practice

So, from that point on, if you've followed the method offered on this website, you should be well on your way to success. All you need to do now is to put in the hours of your free time and keep practicing. Your skill level at a language just ought to increase toward your desired level. However, you might want to take a look at the extra section before practicing.

In the extra section of the website, I am doing part of the work for you, which you can consider a bonus: I am taking the method that I explained on this website and I am applying it to individual languages. I will not go very deep in each language however, I will leave that for you to do. What I am mainly doing is outlining several important aspects of the language in the hope that you become aware of them and of other aspects that you come across while you are learning the language. Here is the list of languages to which I applied the method so far:

Lyon