If you're learning a language...

Learning a foreign language seems to be something we all try once, if not more. Many people choose to learn a language to communicate with family members, because they fall in love with a country, or because it was a requirement at school. However as we become older it becomes more difficult to learn a language.

Children who become bilingual have shown to develop learning skills. They tend to be better at problem-solving, thinking critically, and at retaining information. When learning a new language, the language center of your brain is processing speech while also producing language. Many learn a language through its linguistic patterns. But unlike how we can choose to learn certain things from a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic standpoint, learning a language requires us to learn in all three ways.

Language becomes very visual when we start writing it. In romance languages, learning about accents can help us better understand where the word’s inflection is. Certain language rules and how a word is spelled can determine the sound of the word. In farsi, the script is very beautiful and constantly shortening words with the use of symbols. This is similar to how in english the apostrophe usually tells us something about the conjunction of two words. Lastly, a weird way learning a language can become visual is when we learn a new sound. Sometimes a language will include a sound that isn’t used in your native language. Seeing a teacher pronounce that sound- how their tongue moves or what shape their mouth makes- is extremely helpful.

We can use our listening skills to better our understanding of language in many ways. Listening to how words are spoken are very important in bettering our accents when we speak. Repeating and copying what we hear is imperative to becoming comfortable and eventually forming sentences of our wanting. However, hearing is important because language goes beyond your ability to speak, it also is dependent on understanding people who speak the language with ranges of accents and sometimes dialects. Accustoming ourselves to different paces and accents will be a big part of learning a new language.

Kinesthetic learning is the act of learning in practice. If it was a grandparent that we wanted to talk to, speaking to them or constantly practicing with others in the medium of a natural conversation is a great option. It will allow us to learn from our faults and her near-native sounds. This way of learning a language is usually how little kids learn any language from their environment. Many people attribute this way of learning a language to be the most organic and ultimately the best way to learn a language. Though this method of learning a language allows us to carry out conversation, it does not make us literate by any means. Ultimately, to learn a language, we need a mix of reading, writing, listening, and talking.