I have real experience independent study of a foreign language from scratch. No courses, no tutors, no immersion in the environment, no communication with native speakers during training. That's how I learned French. This was my third foreign language which I took seriously. Before that, I had already mastered English and German. At different periods of my life, I learned these two languages ​​with and without teachers. And I came to the conclusion that when I started to teach on my own, my results were much higher than when I was helped in this process professional teachers. Why did it happen? Because in the moments of self-study, I had a completely different motivation. I didn't learn languages ​​to pass an exam, get a grade, or some other certificate. I studied for myself and enjoyed it. I studied according to my own program, which was perfect for me, and not for a group of several completely different people.

But, of course, self-study is not for everyone. You can learn a language on your own only if you are really motivated, i.e. Either you love foreign languages ​​very much, or due to life circumstances you really need to learn one of them (change of residence, marriage to a foreigner, work in a foreign language, study or practice in another country, travel). You also need to have a fairly strong self-organization in order to regularly find time for classes and engage in these moments seriously.

Therefore, before you start learning a foreign language on your own, think about why you need it? Is that how much you want it? If there is no ultimate goal, then you will constantly put off this activity. That is, if not potential job, studying, moving or needing to communicate in this language, or if you do not have the goal of reading a particular book in the original or watching a certain film without translation, or you do not have the goal of traveling to a country where this language is spoken in order to communicate with local residents, then it will most likely be difficult for you to do it yourself. So first set yourself a goal: why do I want to learn this language and how can I apply this knowledge? It is easy to come up with this goal. It all depends on your own interests and hobbies. Link your interests to a foreign language. Get yourself motivated to learn.

Then think about your abilities in self-organization. If you have these qualities, self-study is ideal for you. You will quickly be able to achieve serious success in this area. If everything is not as good with self-organization as we would like, then this idea should not be abandoned either. Since this is an excellent opportunity to work on yourself and develop this quality in yourself, which will undoubtedly come in handy in the future.

How to start independent learning of a foreign language?

Personally, I prefer to start with self-help books. Because I perceive information best visually, it is difficult for me to remember words by ear, I first need to see how the word is spelled in order to remember it. Also, the book can be taken with you anywhere, it will not run out of charge and will not lose connection with the Internet. You can make notes in the book, you can highlight important points just for you. The tutorial can be borrowed from the library, and while you choose the perfect one for yourself, you can try several options without buying each book. Of course, entries in such a book will have to be abandoned.

Electronic versions now also have a lot of amazing options, but electronic versions are difficult for many older people to adapt to. I am also a conservative in this matter and love paper tutorials.

How to choose a tutorial?

When choosing a paper or electronic tutorial, I advise you to be guided by the following principles:

Why? Because domestic authors know the features of your native speech, they know that you will understand intuitively by analogy with your native language, and what points you need to devote more attention to. Domestic authors will be able to explain to you more clearly the grammatical and lexical features of a foreign language. They speak the same language as you and know better what difficulties in understanding you may encounter when learning this foreign language.

2. Choose those manuals to which audio recordings are attached.

This is necessary in order to properly train pronunciation and listening comprehension. The text cannot explain the pronunciation of sounds. They need to be heard. You can read many books and understand them without a dictionary, but if you do not listen to the speech, then you will understand by ear only 20-30% of what you understand in the text.

3. Choose manuals where lessons are formed according to the principle of complicating the construction of phrases from a grammatical and lexical point of view, and are not divided into topics from different areas of life(e.g. travel, food, seasons)

Separate topics from different spheres of life make your knowledge of the language fragmentary. Words are remembered poorly without associative situations, and grammar is not mastered at all. Vocabulary and the ability to form ready-made grammatically correct phrases from known words must be developed simultaneously. If you just know the words "I", "walk", "to", "school", then you will not collect correct phrase"I go to school". This must be learned right away so that the language is alive and not dead.

I have such experience in this matter: at school I studied Latin and Greek. But they taught us just words in whole lists. As a result, I know a lot of words in Latin and Greek, which undoubtedly helps me in learning related languages. But apart from sayings that we were forced to learn by heart, I can’t really say anything in these languages. So these languages ​​\u200b\u200bare left dead for me. In order for a language to become alive, one must learn to speak it right away. Each new word should be tried to be inserted into some phrases, sentences. Understand how it can be applied.

4. Choose those manuals where there are large pieces of original texts.

This is necessary for the development of reading and translation skills. Artificially composed sentences without context are always very different from real texts. Therefore, it is necessary to practice reading and translating real texts from the very beginning.

5. Choose those manuals where there are a lot of tasks for translation from native language to foreign, and not vice versa. In this case, there must be answers to such tasks.

If you translate from a foreign language into your native language, then you develop a passive vocabulary(I understand everything, but I can’t say, because I can’t remember the right word or I don’t know how to stick the right words together into a phrase that is correct from a grammatical point of view).

To develop an active vocabulary (I understand and speak, and best of all I also think in a foreign language), you need to train the skills of translating long complex phrases from your native language into a foreign one. This helps to “activate” your passive vocabulary: learn to choose the right words, learn how to use them correctly. But do not be fooled - first try to translate, and then look at the answers.

How to continue?

After you have mastered the basics of a foreign language, you need to move on to the application of this language in practice as soon as possible. This is necessary to get a taste of the possibility of using your knowledge, to feel that you are already doing something, to want to study further, and to speed up the learning process. Do not wait until you study the tutorial to the end. It is enough to pass the first 10 lessons to already try to apply the language in practice. You can even abandon the tutorial for a while, return to it later, or not return to it at all anymore.

Start reading books in this language as early as possible (see useful article). And choose a book that is immediately interesting to you, and not a children's fairy tale or simplified adapted short stories. Read normal interesting books from the very beginning. The only thing is, at first avoid books where there are a lot of descriptions and philosophical reasoning. It is better in the beginning to choose books with a lot of dialogues, a diverse plot (novels, detective stories, adventures).

At first, of course, it will be hard to read. You will have to look in the dictionary often. But gradually it will become easier and easier. Do not look up every word in the dictionary, look only for those that you do not have enough to understand the general meaning of a phrase or piece of text. Descriptive moments can generally be skipped at first. By the middle of the book, you will no longer need a dictionary. And imagine how much joy and pride you will have from the fact that you read and understand a book in another language! Isn't that motivation! And if the book is interesting, then you will not have to force yourself to study the language, you will be happy to look for a translation of the next word to find out what will happen next with the characters.

Whenever possible, read aloud to practice your pronunciation and speaking skills. This will naturally slow down the reading process, so in order not to torture yourself, you can just read a couple of paragraphs out loud, and read to yourself again. A little practice and it's good. To learn how words and whole phrases are read, you can use free services such as Google Translate. Drive the phrase into it and click listen. Sounds pretty good. It's very fast and convenient.

Watch films in a foreign language with subtitles. I advise you to first choose only light films (comedies, adventures, melodramas), where the dialogues are simple and very vital. I also advise you to watch films that you have already seen, that is, the plot is clear to you and the translation of the text is not even needed. Review them several times. You need to develop your listening comprehension. It also helps to develop spoken vocabulary.

Listen to music in that language. I advise you to listen to a limited set of songs, and periodically add new ones. At first, just listen, try to hear familiar words and phrases. Then find and read the text of one of the songs, see the translation. And the next time you listen, try to hear the new words that you learned for yourself from the found text. Lyrics with ready-made translations are now easy to find on the Internet.

Look for an opportunity to communicate in a foreign language: orally and in writing. Register for international in social networks and look for companions. Look for interest clubs in your city where people meet. Travel, make friends. Arrange exchange holidays with your friends from other countries.

What mistakes should be avoided?

Full knowledge of a foreign language is the possession of four skills: listening comprehension, reading, writing and speaking. Therefore, the main mistake in learning a foreign language is focusing on only a few of these skills. But if you miss one of them, then you will never be able to say that you really know a foreign language.

Of course, it all depends on your language learning goals. If you only want to read books, then you can only focus on reading. If you only want to learn how to communicate face-to-face with people, you can only focus on developing your speaking and listening skills. This is your choice. But still, it rarely happens that we need a foreign language in such a truncated form. Therefore, I advise you to immediately focus on all four skills at the same time.

The problem of self-study of foreign languages ​​is often insufficient attention to the development of oral speech skills. But other skills are often not developed correctly. I want to warn you against the mistakes that I made myself.

• Listen to how to speak and learn how to speak correctly from the very beginning!

When I first started learning French, at first I just took a tutorial and started learning to read, just to understand the text. After some short time, I could already read cheerfully, but only to myself. I could not read even the shortest sentences aloud without stumbling. So I started learning to read and speak aloud, but I did it on the basis of explanations from the textbook. When I decided to listen to the audio lessons, I realized that I pronounce many sounds and whole words incorrectly. Wrong rhythm in my speech, wrong stress on words, wrong intonation. It was some kind of parody of French speech. So I had to relearn. And this is always more difficult than learning right away.

Don't repeat my mistakes! Immediately listen to how to speak correctly, immediately try to repeat after the speaker and read aloud. Break this silent barrier in yourself at once. Speak out loud from your very first language lessons!

• Don't forget to write!

At first I was too lazy to do writing exercises and write in general. She did everything only verbally, speaking to herself. French known for its complex spelling, so when after some time I decided to pee, I realized that I didn’t remember how to spell those words that I seemed to already know well at that time and easily recognized them in the text. Up to the point that many words had to be learned anew. Therefore, I advise you to do at least part of the exercises in writing. Again, when you only say the exercises orally, you yourself may not notice your own mistakes, even if you look at the answers later.

So write, friends! Skip the foreign language through your hands. This is also a useful skill.

What to do if you had to abandon training for a while?

Due to various life circumstances, I myself abandoned my French several times for quite a long period of time. When this happened to me the first 2 times, I had a hard time remembering what I had already learned. But then long breaks in classes no longer turned into amnesia for me. Knowledge has already settled in my head and was instantly restored when I returned to classes again.

If you have taken a long break in learning a foreign language, then when you start learning it again, go back a few lessons in your tutorial and do them again. This time you will master them faster. If you remember everything, then skip them and start where you left off.

Don't be discouraged if you feel like you have to start all over from the beginning. This is not true. In any case, something remained in my head, the second and third times will be easier. And after a while you will remember everything. And it will be like riding a bike. You won't forget. To refresh knowledge, it will be enough to talk for 15 minutes, stumbling, and speech will return, or read a couple of pages in a book.

Even if you have mastered the language at a very good level, you need to use it periodically (read, listen or speak) so that speech does not turn into a passive one. You will never completely forget. But a situation may arise that due to the loss of practice, only understanding will remain, the skill of oral speech will disappear. But it's not scary. He recovers very quickly. Just to prevent this from happening, refresh your knowledge periodically. Books and films are especially helpful in this regard.

How to find time?

There are only 24 hours in a day, usually we sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, spend 2 hours on the road and fees, 2 hours on food, cooking and cleaning. At best, 4 hours a day remain for rest and hobbies. But you still need to have time to devote time to family and friends, as well as just relax. When to study? Is it possible to forget about self-education in adulthood, if you already missed such an opportunity in childhood and adolescence?

No. You can find a way out. And actually there are two of them. Either use the time that we are wasting, or combine leisure with study.

• Use the time you normally waste

The ideal "empty" time that you can use is the time of travel in transport and any expectation (in line at the doctor, in a cafe, until a friend or girlfriend comes).

I enjoyed this opportunity for a while. If you drive to work or study for more than 15 minutes, then this time can already be effectively used. Of course, it is important that during such a trip, you can read or listen to audio lessons. Reading requires light and gentle shaking (subway is best here). If it’s dark or it’s shaking a lot, then it’s better not to damage your eyesight, listen to audio lessons, or don’t study at all. It is also desirable that there is an opportunity to sit or at least stand so that you are not constantly pushed or, even worse, not squeezed in the crowd. In such a situation, it is also not possible to work out effectively.

What can you do on public transport? Read a tutorial, read books, listen to music or audio lessons. The main plus in classes in public transport is their regularity. If you devote 30-40 minutes to classes 2 times a day for 30-40 minutes while driving to work or school and back home, then you will progress very quickly in learning, even if you no longer devote time to this at all.

If you walk, then again listen to music or audio lessons.

Things are more complicated if you drive a car. In this case, I do not advise listening to audio lessons at all. It is very distracting from the road. You should not risk your own and other people's safety for the sake of learning foreign languages. But listening to music in this language is possible and necessary. This will not hinder you, but will help you develop your listening comprehension.

• Combine relaxation with learning a foreign language

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Watch films? - Watch movies in foreign languages

Listen to music? - Listen to music in foreign languages

Do you have any hobbies? - Look for books in foreign languages ​​related to hobbies and read them to learn something new about your hobby. For example, if you love to cook, buy cookery books in a foreign language.

Do you love spending time with your family? - Involve your family in your hobby. Learn foreign languages ​​with your children.

Do you like to travel? - Choose countries where they speak the language you are learning, meet people there and practice your speech skills.

Make foreign languages ​​a part of your life! Turn learning foreign languages ​​into entertainment and relaxation! Then you will learn the language quickly and with pleasure!

Instruction

To successfully master any language, you must have a strong motivation. Without it, as a rule, it is impossible to learn a language. It also plays a big role if it is worth choosing which language to learn in this moment time. Therefore, always choose the one that you need right now.

To learn it quickly, you need to get rid of the belief once and for all that an adult cannot do it. Very often, it is precisely such an incorrect attitude that nullifies all efforts to master it. If you constantly think that it is too difficult and impossible, then it will be so.

It is also important to choose a course of study that will bring pleasure and not cause much difficulty. Focus on what type of memory you have developed best: written, visual, auditory or speech. The best option would be to use all types. You can learn a foreign language using the Internet, tutorials, courses or television programs.

Once you start studying, don't try to study for several hours a day. The desired result in mastering the language can be achieved only due to regularity, and not due to the amount of time spent. Even by repeating the studied material for 10 minutes a day, you will achieve more than with 2-hour classes 3 times a week.

In order to learn a foreign language, it is very important to immerse yourself in the culture of the country where it is spoken. Think about the images and associations that come up when you mention a foreign language that you want to know. This will help you immediately remember all the structures on which the language is built, and which you have managed to learn by this time. In the future, this will allow you to immediately rebuild to communicate on it.

Having studied the main structures on which a foreign language is built, learn to add not just new words to speech, but whole turns. This is how young children learn their native language, trying to repeat not only the words they hear, but also entire phrases.

To quickly remember foreign words, get acquainted with the history of their occurrence. For example, the days of the week in English are associated with the names of gods. Saturday is the day of Saturn - Saturday, Sunday is the day of the sun - Sunday, Monday is the day of the moon - Monday, Friday is the day of the goddess Freya - Friday, the definite article "the" is an abbreviated form of the pronoun "this", which is why it is used when the subject being spoken about is known, and the indefinite article "a" is an abbreviated form of the word one "one", and simply denotes one subject. Every language has its own stories related to the origin of words. The more you know like interesting stories about a foreign language, the faster you get used to the rules for constructing phrases and unfamiliar words in it.

Watch movies in the language you are learning. Today it is not difficult to find a foreign film in the original language with the help of the Internet and the purchase of licensed discs. Choose movies that you like and that you won't get tired of watching several times. First, watch the film in Russian, and only then in the original language, so that it is easier to understand and remember what they are talking about. It is better not to watch films with subtitles, as they distract attention from speech, which prevents the desired learning effect from being achieved.