A faster way to start learning a language
You can get to the point where you can express yourself in a language by learning basic grammar and just 300 words. (Note: this guide originally included 200 words, but I added some more in order to cover a wider range of situations.)
My test for being able to express myself is: Can I keep a diary in this language? Can I talk about what I did today and my opinions on just about any subject?
Too often, people who have been learning a language for months or even years say “no.” However, in my experience, it’s possible after learning just basic grammar and the 300 most useful words. Memrise predicts that learning the 300 words in Spanish will take 6 hours of work. Adding in the time to learn basic grammar, the total time could be a few weeks to a month. (If you try out this method, I’d love to hear how long you find it takes.)
The key is that you have to learn the right 300 words. When I was teaching myself languages before, I could never find a good answer to the question: What words should I learn first? If you use Duolingo, they’ll start by teaching you words like “apple”, which aren’t very useful. I spent a lot of time writing and talking in order to determine which 300 words would let you express the most. I think I finally got it. But don’t take my word for it – see this demonstration.
I personally tested this method out with Esperanto and French and I’m now able to keep a diary in both languages, writing about anything that happened in my day and any thought that crosses my mind.
To be clear: 300 words won’t make you fluent, but they’ll allow you to express yourself, and it’s a lot easier to keep improving from there. Feel free to adapt the method based on what works for you. Here are the steps:
If your language uses a non-Latin alphabet, learn the alphabet.
Practice writing
(This method is introvert friendly! You don’t have to talk to strangers if you don’t want to. But at this stage you can also practice by speaking, if you prefer.)
I’ve made a Memrise course based on this guide for Spanish! Please fill out this quick survey to let me know if you’re interested in Memrise courses and for what languages.
If you run into any difficulties or if I can help you in any way, please let me know. Also, please send me your feedback! I’d love to know if this works for you or if it doesn’t. I welcome all comments, criticism, and suggestions for improvement. And if you think this guide could help other people, please consider reblogging it. :)
To be able to express yourself with 300 words, you’ll need to be able to rephrase things: e.g. “you comforted me” = “you made me feel better”. Even if it’s hard for you to rephrase things this way, the 300 basic words are a great starting vocabulary list.
This is the order in which I usually learn an alphabetic language: basic writing and speaking, reading, listening, advanced writing and speaking. Being able to express yourself doesn’t mean that you’ll immediately be able to listen to the language and understand it, because native speakers may speak fast and use a wider vocabulary (though hopefully they’ll slow down and simplify for you in a conversation). But it’s a lot easier to keep improving from a point where you have basic writing and speaking skills than from one where you don’t.
