Learning Languages "On the Fly"

Hello, everyone and happy Sunday! As I was thinking about what I would write about this week, I had several ideas, but today's topic didn't come to mind until I was sitting on a plane on my way to Copenhagen where I'm spending my final college Spring Break.

I don't know what it is about plane-rides, but they somehow give me a space where my creativity flows and I feel free. I'm not sure if it's the thrill of knowing that I'm going to another country, seeing clouds go on for miles and miles on end, the fact that I enjoy watching a movie or a TV show alone, or listening to music from different corners of the planet that gets me going. There's just something about being on a plane that feels liberating, which brings me to how this post came to be.

Close to the 3 hour mark, I noticed that the lights had been turned off and that I didn't want to watch a second movie in a row, so I decided to play some music. One of the playlists that you can listen to on a Scandinavian Airline flight is called "Meditainment", which is basically an hour-long compilation of jazz and meditative music. This started to relax me, so I let myself just think. For once I felt like I could think about everything and nothing at the same time, because I knew that a long week was long gone and that a new exciting week would soon begin.

To give you some context, my parents, my sister, and I are going to Copenhagen over break for a pre-graduation trip. I have always preferred trips to asking for presents, so my mom figured that going on a trip abroad would be a well-deserved graduation present, and boy was she right. Over October break, my mom and I were home alone, so we discussed my graduation and how I wanted to celebrate it. After some brainstorming, my mom started looking at both domestic and international flight options flying out of multiple airports close to home. After some searching, we found out that it was cheaper to buy tickets for 4 to go to Copenhagen, Denmark than to go to New Mexico, or Arizona, which are 2 states I have yet to visit, so our decision was a no-brainer. 

I'm very fortunate to have a mom who studied Hospitality & Tourism during her undergraduate career, so my family has already traveled to over 40 countries together, but always on a budget. The key word is on a budget. Copenhagen was also an ideal location for me, because I love the cold and it's still winter there. As some of you know, I get very ill when I'm in warm and humid places, so Scandinavia was very appealing to me. Furthermore, it has been my lifelong dream to experience Scandinavia first-hand, specifically Sweden.

Copenhagen is located very close to Malmo and to other towns in Sweden, so my mom assured me that we could go to both. I have also wanted to learn a Scandinavian language since high-school, shortly after visiting the Swedish Language Village at Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji, Minnesota (located in the northern part of the state). Swedish has been a language that I have been fascinated by every since. There's something about Scandinavia that gives off good vibes that I can't describe. Needless to say, I'm very excited about this trip!

At the beginning of the flight, I was in the mood to watch a movie. Due to wanting to find out more about Scandinavia and Sweden, I decided to watch a Swedish movie called "Unga Astrid" (Becoming Astrid) with English subtitles. This past year, I have been exposing myself to Swedish music, so my ear has become slightly more attuned to the sounds the language makes. While watching the movie, I was able to pick up on a word, or a few words here and there based on my knowledge of the 7 languages I speak, which was fascinating. Who knows? Maybe my dream of learning Swedish will someday come true.

The reason why I wanted to write this post is, because I wanted to encourage you to take advantage of what airplanes and specific airlines have to offer. The more you travel abroad with international airlines, the more options you will have to choose all kinds of entertainment during your travel journeys. I especially love watching movies, as they give you insight on a country's history and culture. If you already speak the language at a decent level, it helps you build confidence in understanding a language in your listening comprehension skills in that language. 

For those of you who are beginners, or intermediate learners of a language, I recommend watching movies with subtitles in English if you have minimal exposure doing so in your target language, but if you're slightly more comfortable and brave, then it's best to watch them in the language you're learning, so that you start training your brain and your ear to familiarize yourself with the sounds, pronunciation, cadence, and various dialects and ways in which people speak that language.

I know how tempting it can be to resort to your first language, but I promise that every victory counts, even if you only understand 5% of a movie the first time around. The more you watch movies, the more you will start to understand them over time. Trust me, it's a process that takes years, but the earlier you start doing this, the less strenuous the language-learning process will be.

What I like and prefer about movies over television series is that you know exactly how long a movie will last. In other words, you know that for 1.5, 2 hours all you will do is watch a movie and nothing else. I also find them to be more thrilling, because you don't have to watch 3, or 10 episodes of a television series in order to get the full entertainment experience. Don't get me wrong, I also love television series, but I personally don't have enough free time to consistently watch one as a full time student and worker in my last semester of college.

Even watching movies in languages you don't already speak is beneficial. Most polyglots I have followed on YouTube and successful language learners suggest exposing yourself to as much audio content as possible before "learning", or "studying" the language. Forcing yourself to focus more on how the language sounds and the musicality of a language is highly beneficial, especially when you have subtitles in your first language. After just 2 hours of watching "Unga Astrid", I feel like I have a better grasp on how Swedish is supposed to sound.

Aside from movies, feel free to also watch television series and to listen to international music at some point during your plane-ride. If you're going to be sitting on a plane for 7, or 15 hours straight, you might as well do something fun and productive, so why not practice your language skills for free while you're at it?

I hope that you enjoyed getting to know my family and I bit better and that you got some practical tips on how you can make the most of your plane-rides when traveling abroad!

Bis später,

Laura 

How to Improve Your Listening Comprehension Skills in a Language

One of the most difficult roadblocks that many language learners have is knowing how to effectively improve their listening comprehension skills. Understanding audio input, whether it be listening to podcasts, videos, watching movies, or talking to native speakers, is one of the most important foundational elements that will help you start thinking in, and understanding the basics, and the complexities of a language.

Why are listening comprehension skills so important? The answer is simple. If you do not understand the majority of what you hear, all of the words that you will hear will sound foreign to you. In other words, your brain will block any words that it does not understand, making it difficult to make substantial progress. Luckily, it is easy, and not time-consuming to learn how to become a good listener. As the video above says, the most important factor is consistency, as well as quality of audio input. You cannot expect to do well in your high-school language class, or in your independent study if you only work on grammar, writing, and reading skills. What make languages a real experience is that you can use them to communicate with others, and to express your thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

Below, I will give you a few tips on how you can start improving your listening comprehension skills:

1. Listen to audio input as frequently as possible

Consistency, and repetition is key when starting off learning a language, or when you want to significantly improve your comfort level when speaking in, or understanding a language. Despite all of the commitments that we have, I recommend to listen to audio input every day for at least 5-10 minutes a day, especially when you are a beginner. Even if you are learning a language that is distantly related to your native language, you will slowly start to pick up words that you learn, or infer what words mean (especially if they sound similar to words with which you are comfortable in another language).

2. Listen to YouTubers

YouTube is a free website that has videos on virtually any topic. What is great about it is that there are YouTubers from most countries around the world, giving you endless possibilities of finding videos about topics in which you are interested (Feel free to read my post titled: “Listen to YouTubers in Your Target Language” if you want to read more about how I use YouTube to improve multiple languages at a time, and to get suggestions of some of my favorite YouTubers in several languages if you want to read more).

3. Buy podcasts, and/or download applications

Most of you probably own electronic devices, as well as smartphones, which allows you to download podcasts, and applications that pertain to language learning. Some of my favorite applications are: Duolingo (Feel free to read my post titled “Review of Duolingo (Application)” if you want to read more), Lingvist, and news applications in my target languages. All you have to do is type the name of your target language in the search button, and read reviews of several applications that could help you improve your listening skills. You can also search for names of good applications for specific languages on Google, or watch reviews of podcasts, or of applications on YouTube.

4. Watch Your Favorite Television Series, or Movies in Your Target Language

Another easy way to improve your comprehension skills is by watching your favorite television series, and movies produced in countries of your target language. I would recommend watching them in their original language, avoiding putting subtitles in your native language when possible. If you do this, you will give yourself an immersion experience, and will be able to focus on comprehending words, and overall main ideas, instead of obsessing over understanding every word. I have found that it has been more rewarding watching television series, and movies in their original language, because they have taught me a lot about other countries’ cultures, as well as idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary. If you did not feel that you are not comfortable enough with your language to do this, I would recommend watching them in their original language with subtitles in the original language, so that you can follow along with what the characters are saying.

I hope that you learned that what is most important about improving your listening comprehension skills is being consistent, and finding resources that are authentic in the original languages, or that are specifically designed for language learners.