My Perfect Plan for Learning a New Language

How I plan to learn French in 6 months.

The ability to speak an additional language is becoming increasingly important every single day. A lot of people have tried to learn a new language and failed multiple times.

This could be due to the lack of motivation, not having the right resources or even insufficient time. However, I believe it all comes down to the method. After a lot of hours spent researching polyglots online, I found many differences in their approaches to learning a new language.

Polyglot Benny Lewis suggested that it is vital for a language learner to start speaking the language from day one to become conversationally fluent in the language and learn that language very quickly. You would have a small rapid input session before using what you have learned, and this is done consistently.

Alternately, YouTuber Ikenna Obi takes the opposite approach, where he ensures a good amount of exposure to the language in the input stage before actually putting it to use. He suggests that the input stage can last anywhere between 3–6 months depending on the difficulty of the language.

The Decision and Application

From research and my experience learning Spanish, a combination of both would be the perfect way to learn a new language.

Beginning to speak from day one would be frustrating because we would not have sufficient vocabulary or knowledge of the grammatical structures to express what we would like to say. However, waiting too long from the input stage to start using the language could leave time for us to forget most of what we have learned.

I came up with this plan as I have decided to learn French. I intend to be able to read, write, speak, and listen in the language. Therefore, I will include ways to practice all four skills.

If you would like to learn a new language but your goal is conversational fluency, then you can still follow the plan. However, you would substitute time spent reading and writing with more listening and speaking.

The First Month

It would be entirely focused on nothing but input. As we all know, vocabulary is the building block of a language. It is the most important part to be able to use it. I would continue with acquiring vocabulary for as long as I am learning the language.

This can be done using a variety of apps such as Duolingo, Memrise, Babbel, or I could use a flashcard app to memorize 1000 of the most commonly used words in the language.

If your goal is conversational fluency, then it would be best to start with the most frequently used words in the language. Knowing this will generally allow you to understand about 80% of all spoken conversation.

However, if you’re interested in possibly taking an official exam in the language such as DELE for Spanish and DELF for French, then the more vocabulary you know, the better. Despite how unimportant it may seem to know what words like ‘giraffe’ might be in your target language, it may prove useful during these tests.

The Second Month

A lot of people seem to dread grammar, and most people choose to ignore it. As a perfectionist, I need to learn it. I’m not saying I would need to know every single grammar rule, but I need to learn a little bit about sentence structures, how to talk about things in the past or future, etc.

For this, I would use Babbel. I’ve read through multiple reviews of the program, and if there is one thing most people agree on, it is that Babbel is good for grammar. Although the website suggests it can take a person up to a B2 level in the CEFR, most believe it only takes you to a B1 level. After that, you’d be on your own.

Especially if your goal is conversational fluency, this would be sufficient to understand most of what others are saying in your target language and for them to be able to understand you as well. If you’d like to go further, then there are multiple resources available online and textbooks with detailed explanations.

I would do this intensively for at least 4–5 months to make sure I get a good grasp of the language.

The Third Month

For some reason, I struggle with listening the most. Maybe it is because there are many different accents and the natives speak very quickly. Either way, I plan to start with this early on so I can recognize the words that are being said.

It is easy to get listening practice: podcasts, music, youtube videos, Netflix for shows, and movies. This will by far be the easiest and most fun part out of all of them. And that is mostly because I will be able to do them while I’m in bed.

These are activities that I will do progressively over months as I progress with learning the language. This can even start in the first month if I find myself looking for some inspiration to pull through. However, I will only begin paying close attention to vocabulary and grammar structures in the third month.

The Fourth Month

As someone who has always loved to write, there was no way I was about to give up on this opportunity. Writing is also a fantastic way to start with the output process because I would not be as afraid of making mistakes as I would be if speaking with someone else.

Writing will allow me to make mistakes without the fear of being judged, do it slowly so I can refer to anything whenever I need and train myself to be able to produce the language.

I will start by writing a little every single day about my daily life. It will help me learn vocabulary that is useful and relevant to me. Even being able to produce 3–5 sentences, no matter the length, would prove to be an achievement.

As my knowledge advances, I can practice by writing short stories, poems, songs, or even to-do lists in the language I am trying to learn.

The Fifth Month

Another important aspect of input is reading. This may not be important to you if your goal is to be able to speak the language fluently. However, any type of exposure to the language will be useful in the long-run.

Written language is usually a lot more formal than what is spoken and seen in movies and shows. It may seem odd to begin reading one month after you begin writing in the language. At first, it is important to be able to produce the language no matter how short and simple the sentences may seem.

Once I am comfortable with the basics of the language, reading will help me reach a higher level. It will help me learn vocabulary that is accurate for what I would like to say, different sentence structures that exist, and phrases that I can use when writing.

To do this, I would start with Duolingo stories because it is short and easy for beginners. I would then slowly move on to short stories online, articles and eventually, buy a book in that language to read.

The Sixth Month

Now comes the one part that all language learners fear the most, and that is speaking. That is why I will do this consistently and in two parts. The first part will involve me getting a tutor on italki to speak to.

I will inform my tutor that it is my first time speaking the language to someone else, ask them to assess my level in the language and provide me feedback on things I did well, things I needed to improve on, and what steps to take next.

From there, I will continue to take lessons and progress with the language. I will try out multiple tutors to practice my speaking skills and become comfortable with the language. This would be done for half an hour a day, five days a week.

The second part will also include using italki, but this time I will look for language partners instead. This will allow me to assess how much of the language I can understand that is spoken in day to day use and by a native.

Summary

If you skimmed over the article looking for a short summary of what to do each month, then here you go:

1st Month — Focus on accumulating vocabulary 2nd Month — Begin learning grammar 3rd Month — Practice listening to the language 4th Month — Write at least 3–5 sentences daily 5th Month — Read to expand vocabulary and learn new sentence structures 6th Month — Time to speak to natives

If you’re learning a language that is similar to your native one or a language that you have learned previously, the 6-month plan would definitely work for you.

However, if you intend to pick up a language that is very different from any that you know, you would need a plan that spans between nine months to a year. You can still follow the structure of the plan detailed above, but you would spend much more time on each instead of just a month.

What language are you going to learn next?