Where to start?

It’s easy to say we want to be fluent in the language- it’s also very vague and that it makes it immensely more difficult to get started.

Without a clear roadmap of what to learn at what stage it becomes much difficult- no wonder we lose motivation and give up!

It is difficult to pick the right topic to learn when you don’t know how difficult that topic may be to learn.

To give you an example: I wanted to learn words related to costumer service because it is the industry that I work in, in my day job. My tutor and I tried for 30 minutes until she told me that it was too advanced for my current level and it would make more sense to come back to that a little bit later.

I found that incredibly useful, had she not explained that I would have tried on my own, failed, lost motivation and given up.

I like to pick different topics and get guidance from my tutor on how long it will take for me to learn that while also understanding if it’s the right fit for me to learn right now.

For example, I’ll spend a week learning how to order a few of my favorite local dishes along with coffee and drinks.

Then the following week I’ll learn how to say 3 things that I like about the city I live in, where I have traveled domestically and one or two things I liked about it.

After that, I’ll learn how to share my favorite 3 countries that I have traveled to and one thing that I liked about each.

I’ve found that it works well to go slow at first and focus on repeating the things rather than learning a ton of new things. It helped me not get too overwhelmed along with really mastering those few key things that I use all the time. It makes them “stick”.

What you’ll soon realize is that you’ll have some core sentences that you can say to perfection in your sleep. You’ll also find that you have some peripheral words and sentences that you can remember on good days but they aren’t sticking yet. That’s quite common and totally fine.

The easiest way for us to learn and build on what we already know is picking topics that are related to what is already sticking in our heads so we can reuse some of the vocabulary.

I pick my topics based on what I imagine my coworkers are talking about, what someone might ask me- or what I want to ask them.

In the beginning, I focus on things that I imagine will be useful to make my life less stressful because let’s be honest- as expats there are so many things happening around us every day that we don’t understand.

A pro tip that continues to win me points with the local is to learn a couple of slang jokes or “sayings” that are more culturally related rather than based on learning the language.

Not very complicated things but the locals seem to appreciate the understanding behind it.

In the next section, I’ll show you how to pick the right topic for your exact level.

How to pick something that is easy to learn AND that you can use TODAY

I strongly recommend tailoring the things you want to learn to your life rather than go with the flow. Most teachers in my experience haven’t been that good at making it relevant.

Below is an example list to get you started based on my experience in terms of relevance and difficulty- obviously this varies by language and your lifestyle but it is a good place to start.

I have two friends that are learning the same language using the same teacher. Let’s call them John and James. The teacher is teaching them the same things yet they have very different careers. John works with kids and James manages a fruit business.

In John’s everyday life it would be useful to know how to talk about things like homework and school.

For James, it is more relevant to know the names of the fruits he sells or be able to tell his staff that he is going to a client meeting.

I hope you can see how they are slowing down their own learning curve by focusing on things that don’t relate to their lives.

If you are keen on being fluent at some point it definitely makes sense to learn both topics but why make things harder for you before you’ve got the hang of it?

A list to start with (tweak as you need to fit your life):

1. Order coffee/tea/juice/beer/drinks (this is usually fun and easy to start with)

2. Explain directions to a taxi driver (this becomes handy in annoying situations)

3. The numbers

4. Order food (some dishes are usually slightly more complex + when you are a restaurant you can often just point to what you want which is why I put the taxi driver-things before ordering food)

5. Where you are from + how long you’ve lived in the country and why you are there (this is a popular question I’m sure you get a lot)

6. What your favorite 3 things about the country is (this is another popular question - notice a trend?) and what you’d like to try or explore that you haven’t

7. Quick “lightweight” jokes that are good when you are out in social groups - this can also be cultural sayings that you would use at work. The key is that you might actually use them. If you like to drink you could learn how to say “bottoms up!”

8. Sports or exercise that you like to do or watch (or popular sports in the country)

9. Explain about your job, what you do, where the office is etc. (or school if that’s more relevant to you)

At this point, you’ve probably learned enough that you can start connecting things here and there. It would be a good time to combine number 5 and 6 and work on a introducing yourself very basically, along with asking a couple of questions to the person you are talking to (and understand roughly what they say) such as if they are from the city you are in or they have a different hometown, what their favorite food is.

All this small talk becomes boring pretty fast but it’s easy to practice with people you don’t know. If you follow the procedure I’ve mentioned earlier you should be able to complete step 1-9 in around 60 days with just 20 hours of total practice time.

1. Talking about things around you such as someone’s car or bike, whether the neighbors are annoying (these should be divided up into subgroups)

2. Going to the pharmacy/hospital

Then take a step back and decide if you would like to learn more, learn a different language or if you are happy with the level you have achieved.

At this point, you are already way further than 90% of other people because you knew which problems you were going to have and tackled them up front.

Pro tip: Be careful with picking an introduction as a goal- it is difficult to know when you’ve learned enough to move on because there are so many small things you need to master that might leave you overwhelmed - don't make the same mistake I did!

Many of the first steps can be learned in a week or less- this makes you feel like you are progressing fast (which you are) and that is hugely important for your motivation in the beginning.