Hi 👋 I’m Adam and I love foreign languages.

Tips

After spending 1,000s of hours learning languages (mostly Korean, some Chinese & French), here’s advice I’ve come away with:

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Measure your progress in focused hours per week. "I've been studying Korean for 2 years" really doesn’t mean much. Instead, ask yourself—how many uninterrupted hours do you spend interacting with the language every week?

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Digitally immerse yourself in the language. Follow Korean Instagram meme accounts. Listen to Korean songs. Watch Korean vloggers. This will create more opportunities for you to interact with the language.

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Input > output! This is for two reasons:

  1. You simply can’t speak beyond the limits of what you know sounds right. As you practice listening, you not only improve your listening—you also slowly “unlock” new phrases & words which you can use when you speak later on.
  2. Listening is usually the roadblock to participating in conversation, not speaking. There are many times where I simply could not respond in a conversation or it ended early because I did not understand what they said.

This is how babies learn. They listen to 1,000s of hours of conversation before speaking their first word.

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Output is still important, though. South Korea has a problem where people can comprehend English well, but can’t speak it well.

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Use mnemonics when memorizing vocab. Mnemonics are “memory tricks”—any shortcut that helps you remember a word. They are so helpful—even the world’s memory champions use them!

For example, the word 친구 (Chingoo) means friend in Korean. A mnemonic might look like: “goo means sticky, and friends stick around!” This almost always works better than just repeating to yourself “Chingoo = friend!!!!”

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Interactive listening > Active listening > Passive listening

Passive listening: Listening in the background while focused on something else (cooking, driving). Better than nothing, but not very effective.

Active listening: Sitting down with a pen & paper, focused, taking notes, rewinding when you missed something. You will improve!

Interactive listening: active listening + “shadowing”: pausing to repeat what you hear back out loud. This is a very effective way to improve your accent & speaking skills.

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Create opportunities for ultralearning. Spending long periods of time dedicated to learning a language is very effective and rewarding. My Korean improved the fastest while living on farms in South Korea on my gap year.

This could take the form of a study abroad, gap year—even a 2 week vacation! And it doesn’t need to be “physical immersion”—you could spend a whole weekend digitally immersing yourself at a cafe!

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Small towns > big cities. That’s because:

a) you’ll be forced to speak the language—you’re less likely to meet international friends or locals who already speak your native language b) people will be more happy to talk with you—they’re generally more giving & have more time

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Try to always slightly push yourself beyond your limits. If you understand everything with ease, it’s too easy and you won’t be growing. If you’re at an intermediate level and feel like you’re plateauing, this could be why.

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Early on, you need to put in the solo hours. I see a lot of beginners learning a language who don’t invest much time outside of class. As a child, this might work. But as an adult, you need to spend time on your own repeating and memorizing to build a foundation.

To play basketball well, you can’t just play pickup games, you need to practice your shot in the gym on your own. The end goal is to have fun playing pickup games, but solo practice helps you get there.

The same is true for language learning.

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Don't study in libraries. Find places where you can repeat out loud what you're reading or listening to, like cafes. This will strengthen your speaking skills at the same time.

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Build a habit of daily practice. Add 30-60min of language learning to your evening or morning routine. You have to make time for it—the time won't find itself.

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Have fun with it. You will learn faster and go further if you're genuinely having fun, whatever that looks like for you. I personally don’t enjoy Korean Variety Shows so I never watched them, but I have a friend who learned most of her Korean through them!

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