The NOT To Do List for Successful Language Learners
To do lists seem like a good idea in theory, but they have one major disadvantage: there is an infinite number of potential to do items. With this in mind, Timothy Ferriss, best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek (and a speaker of 6 languages), recommends “not to do lists” instead. Since they isolate a finite set of behaviors that are getting between you and your goals, they are far more effective than traditional to do lists. This tool applies perfectly to language learning, where most learners waste a lot of time on ineffective methods and bad materials.
1. Do NOT spend more than 5% of your study time on grammar, translation, vocabulary lists or any other overt information about the language.
Languages are acquired, not learned. And acquisition by its very definition happens subconsciously over time given proper input.Which leads us to number 2.
2. Do NOT spend time on materials that are too difficult or don’t interest you.
Motivation is one of the greatest keys to success in foreign language learning, and motivation’s favorite fuel is interest. There is a wealth of free language learning content available today; you need simply look.
3. Do NOT study in long, infrequent sessions.
Behind motivation, consistency is the most important factor in language learning. If you are strapped for time (and who isn’t?), it is far better to study a little bit everyday than doing marathon study sessions a few times a month. For example, if you only have 2 hours free per week to commit to language studies, it is far better to do 20 minutes per day, 6 days a week than doing the whole 2 hours on one day.
4. Do NOT worry about speaking too soon, but don’t wait too long, either!
Although oral fluency is certainly the goal of most language learners, it takes the brain some time to assimilate enough input to be able to produce meaningful output. Babies listen actively to the language around them for up to 2 years before uttering a single meaningful word. Adults can get to the output stage much earlier if they follow the advice on this site, but they should not force themselves (or let themselves be forced) to speak before they are ready. This is perhaps the single greatest problem with formal language instruction: students are expected to speak long before they are ready, creating a great deal of anxiety and diminishing the student’s motivation and interest.
5. Do NOT memorize vocabulary out of context.
To have any chance of retaining or using new words, they must be heard or read (preferably the former) many, many times within a meaningful situation. “Narrow reading” is a good way to increase the repetition of key words in a meaningful way.
6. Do NOT try to learn new words, alphabets, ideographic characters or spelling using “rote”memory.
We have 5 senses at our disposal: use them! Integrate taste, touch, smell, sound and movement as much as possible. Use “imaginative memory” to visualize connections, stories, objects, etc. The crazier the story, the easier it will be to imprint in long term memory.
7. Do NOT overly rely on the written word.
Whenever possible, try to listen to a piece first before reading it. This trains you to rely on your ears first, and better follows the natural order of acquisition (remember: you learned to speak your first language long before you learned to read it!)
8. Do NOT look up words before making at least one full pass through each reading or listening material (or each section for longer pieces.)
Only once you have gone through once or even twice, then go back and look up words you don’t know. When you don’t interrupt the “semantic flow”, it’s easier to get a feel for the big picture. And this prevents us word-nerds from getting lost in unrelated vocabulary and new linguistic connections.
9. Do NOT let the “affective filter” put a damper on your language learning.
The affective filter is a fancy word for a simple and intuitive concept: your emotions and psychological state significantly affect your performance in a foreign language (or any skill-based act for that matter.) If you are nervous, angry, hungry, tired, or preoccupied with the fight you had last night with your significant other, your ability to speak well in a foreign language will go down faster than the current stock market. On the other hand, I am sure you have noticed that a few brewskies can significantly improve your ability to converse in a foreign tongue. Why? Because booze (like meditation, exercise, and experience) helps lower inhibitions and boost social skills like verbal communication. If your teacher makes you feel nervous or stupid, fire their ass. If your language partner does not see the logic in your incorrect, but nevertheless intelligent errors, replace them. You will never make any real progress if you are afraid to speak and are not free to make all the wonderfully logical, albeit incorrect, utterances that define both infant and adult language acquisition.
10. Do NOT forget to have some fun!
Language learning takes time, but it needn’t be difficult. If you follow the tips listed above and throughout the site, and approach language learning with a smile instead of a grimace, you too WILL succeed!
Listen to the Podcast
For you audiophiles (or non-native speakers of English wanting to practice your listening skills), here is an audio version of the not to do list. Click the arrow below to play the episode. If you don’t see the audio player controls, your device doesn’t support Adobe Flash or you need to install the Flash plugin in your browser. If viewing this on a mobile device, just click the download button below to stream the podcast.
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Download the MP3
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Presentation Format
Lastly, here is a presentation version of the list. Feel free to download and share the PDF.
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Translations
Some very kind Foreign Language Mastery readers have taken the trouble to translate the list into their native language. If you would like to translate the list into an additional language, please let me know and I will post the link here.
| German Translation |
| Korean Translation |
| Polish Translation |
| Russian Translation |
I do generally agree with these points, but I think there are a lot of caveats to #1. It seems like it’s become quite fashionable on the Web to criticise traditional language learning methods. If you spent 50% of your time memorising and studying grammar (i.e. ‘learning’), and the other 50% actively engaging with the real stuff (‘acquiring’), I think you’d make excellent progress. 95:5 seems a bit extreme.
Also, I’m not sure about downplaying translation in that way. Translation is a real art and takes a lot of practice to become proficient. If you just want to communicate with native speakers then sure, it’s not that necessary. But I think learning foreign languages without studying translation skills is a real wasted opportunity.
Thank you for your comment. While some criticism of traditional methods may be a matter of fashion, I think the bulk of it stems from a growing realization that all the time and money spent in classrooms produces very poor results for most learners, while more and more are successfully acquiring languages on their own through intensive, self-guided immersion using readily available online (and offline) tools and an ever growing pool of both learner-specific and authentic content.
I have worked in translation and have nothing but respect for the profession (and the skills required to do it well). But it all comes down to each individual’s goals. Not every foreign language learner wants to become a translator; most just want to use the language as a communication tool at work, with friends, or on the street.
In my experience as both a learner and teacher, translation is one of the major impediments to reaching fluency. On the other hand, once you actually reach an advanced level of oral and written fluency in a language, learning to translate will be that much easier.
I agree with most of these, I think this is a pretty good list that will go a long ways towards getting a beginner on the right track in that it does address common mistakes people tend to make, though I would say that at the VERY beginning it’s useful to just rote memorize like maybe the 200 most common words in a language (“is”, “go”, “person”, “he”, “she”, etc.) prior to doing anything else, if you wanted me to point out an exception.
Cheers,
Andrew
Thank you for your kind feedback, Andrew. Memorizing a small set of basic words can certainly be a good way to jump into a new language, and there are many excellent tools to help one do so more efficiently (spaced repetition, Tony Buzan’s “Master Memory Matrix”, etc.). But in my experience, memorization of explicit information lends itself better to the written word, and does little for the ability to understand or produce the spoken language. WIth this in mind, I prefer to get my ears used to the language first, and then back up my listening tasks with reading.
By the way folks, these articles were originally posted years ago and have collected quite a few comments that I am now working to reinstall as I rebuild the site.
John, Great list. As always great stuff and good reminders. I just added this article in my “read more” section of a new ten week email program I have to help people get started. I am excited to send people over to your writing. Glad you got all the bugs worked out too and are back up and running.
Thank you, Aaron. While it is a hassle to rebuild the site, I am taking it as an opportunity to make things even better than before. And please feel free to include excerpts of any other articles you want.
I definitely don’t spend more than 5% of my time studying English formally. Very nice post!
Thank you “Miss Language Learning”.
Thank you John! I agree with all information in this post. I help learners to organize their time, life and learning. So this post is more than helpful.
Thank you very much, Lana! Life is learning, and I think it’s great you help people better manage time and free up more time for learning.
Awesome article! What are your recommended methods of input? Should I listen to audio in a foreign language even if I don’t understand barely any of it?
Thank you, Jack. I recommend audio, video, and text input (in that order of preference) that fits your interests and is not too far beyond your level of comprehension. That is more difficult in the beginning of course (when almost all input will be incomprehensible) but you can help make sense of audio or video input with the help of transcripts and sub-titles. I usually pick podcasts which have transcripts available and then alternate between listening only, listening while reading, and reading only.