News: Getting Started

Starting off on Your Journey

So, you've decided to learn a language, eh? First off, let me congratulate you. Why? Well, language learning is looked upon by many people as a complicated and difficult task. Unfortunately, this outlook deters many people from even thinking about starting to learn a language. So, the fact that you chose to learn a language, despite what the majority tells you, means a lot!

Nowadays, when a person does decide to take on this enjoyable hobby, they are quickly told that it's more work and dedication than they can put forward. This is further ingrained into them by all of the boring material and classes that are out there. Unfortunately, boring materials lead to boredom, and boredom leads to the loss of motivation; this is a horrible feeling. 

It's a feeling I knew all too well. You start on a language and are super studious; studying your vocabulary cards everyday and trying to read newspapers. You fork over some cash to get some supplemental learning material that is sold to specifically aid you in acquiring the language much faster than any other human being who doesn't have it can. A month or two later you haven't studied in a week, and your previous super-human motivation is gone.

Well, please don't worry. It's not just you. Everyone goes through this at one point or another. I also did when I was learning Japanese, and I know many people (that are completely fluent now) that also hit that point in their language learning career. This is why I created this world.

I created this world to help all of you out there, stuck in your language learning or maybe deciding to start to learn a language but are overwhelmed by how to begin, create a simple language foundation that will firmly set itself as a core method so no matter what material you use to learn the language you will have fun and be efficient.

So, without further ado, let's get to learning a language.

Step 1 Choosing Your Language

I know most of you have probably already chosen a language, so if you have you can continue on to the next blog. For those who haven't yet, and don't worry I was in the same boat before I decided on Japanese, let's take a few things into consideration.

• How relevant is this language to you in everyday life?

This one is kind of a no-brainer in some cases. If you are out in Germany, you are going to need to learn German as soon as possible. In other cases, it may not be so readily noticeable. For instance, if you are in Los Angeles, it may be a good idea to learn Spanish. So take relevancy into consideration. 

• Which language makes you smile when you hear it? Which language sounds pleasurable to you?

This is one of the most important things to answer early on, or you'll find yourself jumping from language to language. This will be a huge factor in motivation and needs to be carefully observed and analyzed. I was very partial to both Hungarian and Japanese at first. I used relevance and which language made me happiest when choosing Japanese.

• Which language's material is more readily available?

This used to be a huge deciding factor for people before the advent of the internet, and isn't such an issue nowadays. If you have a tie between two languages you want to learn, you can take this into consideration as a tie-breaker. For instant, if you're hell-bent on learning either some obscure dialect from southern Italy or common Italian, you may want to tackle the common Italian.

Well that's it for this blog and I hope it's helped you decide on a language for you to learn. If you have any comments or constructive criticism, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll see you all in the next blog, when I go into my first tip on getting you on your way to be fluent in your language of choice. Cheers!

Tips

• Don't be afraid of trying a few languages out at first. This will be a long time learning experience, so take your time and make sure your choice is a solid one.
• It is completely valid to choose a language just because you like how it sounds. Don't feel bad about this, because I promise you in the end you will be that much happier speaking it

Remember to go to the forums and request what language you would like me to do a video on! I will be creating a video for each of these steps.