How to Learn a Language Faster: 8 Practical Strategies

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If you’re here, chances are you have a burning question on your tongue: How to learn a language fast?

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

Here are eight language hacks to learn a language faster:

1. Create a focused target-language session and reduce distractions.
2. Include light target-language activities on low-energy days.
3. Determine a clear, specific goal before you start.
4. Find out what learning activities work best for you.
5. Accept mistakes and use them to your advantage.
6. Pause, listen and give yourself time to think.
7. Use memory techniques selectively and test your recall.
8. Make the most of language exchanges.

But I haven’t always known about them. In fact, I’m able to share these hacks with you today because I was, at a time in my Chinese language learning journey, wondering the exact same thing.

In this post, I will tell you about the hacks that helped me break through my Chinese learning block.

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

How to Speak a Language Fast: My Experience with Chinese

“How has this gone so badly?” I thought.

I was taking the official listening exam in Chinese proficiency, and I could not understand a single word of the recording.

The test was “elementary” level, and I was there, handing the paper to the teacher at the entrance to the classroom. Confused.

I had studied by myself at home for years, and I had lived for nine months in “full immersion” in my new country. I’d also attended Chinese classes for three hours per week.

How could I perform so badly?

When I received by mail the “Not-Passed Diploma”, my confusion turned into frustration. Who was to be blamed for my failure? I had really spent a lot of time studying seriously, religiously, with friends, books, music, movies, and language exchange. Was it me? Was it the teaching system of the school?

What was wrong?

It was not my first language learning experience. By the time I began learning Chinese, I was fluent in two languages besides my mother tongue and had studied other languages at a basic level.

But this time, I entered into the adventure of an exotic language from a remote place, and I failed.

After some time, things got better. However, it was a long and winding road with many obstacles.

During the following years, I discovered some secrets about language learning. These are not ideas I invented, and most of them have been well-known to many expert learners. But for me they were a discovery.

One way or another, I made a big change in my perspective of my learning process.

Here’s what I learned…

1. Create Focused Study Sessions

Switching tasks can carry a small mental cost, especially when you are concentrating. If notifications or media in another language keep breaking your focus, create a short target-language session and remove those distractions.

You do not need to block every other language from your day. Use your other languages when they help you understand an explanation or check a meaning, then return to the task you chose.

Make the transition easier with a repeatable cue: open the same notebook, put your phone away and begin with one short task.

2. Plan for Low-Energy Days

We’ve all had the experience of making a clear and decisive resolution: I will exercise twice a week. I will not lose my temper at the office. I will study Japanese every day.

After a beginning full of energy and determination, our motivation fades out and we find ourselves in the same situation: no exercise, losing our temper, and not studying Japanese.

The problem might be bad planning, unrealistic goals or lack of motivation. But there is another aspect we can take into consideration. Often, we make plans and make decisions for the times in which we will have a lot of energy.

Why not plan instead for those moments in which we will be exhausted?

It is good to ask yourself: How do I rest? Walking in the forest? Reading novels? Listening to music? Watching sports? Doing handicrafts? Painting?

Take your preferred way of relaxing, and add an element of your target language.

Examples to Include Your Target Language in Your Rest Time

Keep this as light exposure, not a substitute for focused study. Background audio can help you become familiar with rhythm and sounds, but comprehension grows when you also pay attention, check meaning and retrieve what you learned.

Do you like walking in the park? What about listening to a language podcast while you walk?

Enjoy reading novels? Look for a book adapted to your level.

Love listening to music? Have you tried learning a song in your target language?

Is watching sports your thing? Then watch the same sports matches you usually would, but listen to commentary in your target language. If this isn’t possible, then look for sports you can watch with commentary in your target language.

Is your favourite “hobby” spending time with friends? Then make a new friend interested in learning the same language as you. Learn together.

Still stuck for ideas? Choose audio you can partly follow, then return to one short section with the transcript or notes. Ten minutes of attention is more useful than hours of sound you never process.

Low-energy practice may feel unfamiliar at first, and it still requires some attention. Focused practice is usually more effective when you have the energy for it.

These routines are useful when concentrated study is not realistic. Treat them as a lighter form of practice, not the only way to learn.

3. Choose a Specific Goal

What is my “level” in my mother tongue? Most probably I would say that it’s at least “advanced”, or “native”. But that is hardly a real description.

Am I able to write a contract in precise legal terms? Do I understand the slang of my language from different countries or cities, or even age groups? Am I able to explain the intricacies of grammar to a foreigner?

Each one of these abilities could be a goal to attain in my own language.

When I decide that I will start (or continue) learning a language, I need to find a reason to learn the language… And I need to set clear goals.

Not only dreams, but clear specific goals, including the time and resources I am willing to spend on learning a new language.

For example, it might be that I am learning Russian because I enjoy studying “something”, and it happened that I found a Russian textbook at home. In this case my objective is to enjoy the act of studying.

It is a valid objective and studying Russian is just a means to attain that goal.

Perhaps I sing in a choir that sometimes performs songs with French, Italian and Latin lyrics. I would like to understand a bit of these three languages to make the singing more meaningful. In that case what I need is good pronunciation, together with some basic ideas about grammar and vocabulary.

We can imagine a more demanding situation: I want to apply for a scholarship that requires a certain level in Japanese. Or my boss just told me that in order to get promoted I need to be fluent (whatever that means) in Finnish.

It is then necessary to set clear goals.

Examples of Clear Goals

Here are some examples of goals:

• Within one month acquire vocabulary concerning seafood products.
• By 10th August, be able to read in a loud voice fluently, without stammering, and clearly, even if I don’t understand what I read.
• At the end of the year understand what the evening news is about in my target language.
• In three weeks decide what kind of materials I need to begin learning a language.
• Pass the intermediate level test in Quenya as a Foreign Language in February.
• Survive my trip to Inner Mongolia.
• Teach a university course in French next September.

Some people explain goal setting in terms of motivation – to stay motivated, you need a goal. That’s true, but it’s also about putting in place habits that mean you’re likely to achieve your goal.

This could be attending Chinese class on Tuesdays from 1-2 p.m. Or it might be reading for five minutes in the morning. Listening to music while jogging on Thursday afternoons. Or watching a video course on Saturdays at 8 a.m.

Connect each bigger goal to a specific action, time and cue. For example: “After breakfast on weekdays, I will review vocabulary for five minutes.” This makes the next step clear, though you still need to review and adjust the plan.

4. Choose Activities That Match Your Goal

Some courses teach learning strategies explicitly and others do not. Either way, it helps to test your progress and choose activities that match the skill you want to improve.

In a restaurant, this approach would make sense; we go to a restaurant to eat, not to learn to cook.

In language learning, it does not make sense.

From my experience of many failures (which led to later successes), one of the most useful things you can do is develop personal learning activities. This is especially necessary when you get beyond the basic level in a new language.

Creating personal learning activities means you examine yourself and your progress (instead of the school examining you), and find direction in your study that’s relevant to you and your goals.

How can you examine yourself? On a regular basis, ask yourself:

• What is my weak point now?
• Which area do I want to strengthen now?
• In which field do I need to acquire vocabulary?
• Where do I commit more mistakes?
• What am I afraid of?

Then create a simple learning activity to address the issues you discover. Not sure where to start with this? Just create something. Try. Fail. Work. Adjust. Change. Practise. Examine. Fail. Try again.

Examples of Learning Activities

Some of the things I’ve tried (some of which work only in a full immersion situation) include:

• Going to a shopping centre and trying to buy 101 different things, even if at the end I didn’t buy anything. (Don’t make the vendors waste much time.)
• Listening to music while reading the lyrics and singing aloud. Then singing without reading the lyrics.
• Creating a database of phrases and vocabulary from a novel, and reviewing the list using a free flashcards app.
• Reading an article every day in my target language, and talking about it at lunch with friends or colleagues. This worked much better when they didn’t know I was doing it as a language learning activity.
• Keeping a diary in my target language. One or two phrases a day.

I didn’t choose these activities randomly or because they came to my mind. At that moment in time, I needed to improve my vocabulary or listening skills, or reach some other concrete goal. I also chose them because they work for me. They deliver the results I want.

These activities work best when you persist at them. In my experience, they don’t seem very useful to start with. But after a few weeks I really began to notice the effects.

What do I do when I need ideas for creating or improving these personal learning activities? I draw inspiration from other learners, by reading blogs and websites.

5. Use Mistakes as Feedback

I was supposed to teach at the university. Naturally, I had to pretend that I was able to teach an entire semester in the language in which I had failed so many times. I knew my pronunciation was just terrible and I had not mastered the vocabulary.

I was nervous enough that day to feel physically ill.

Nevertheless, I tried to calm myself and began to speak. I greeted the students and thanked them for joining my class, but after some seconds a question came to my mind:

“What are you doing here? This is ridiculous.”

Suddenly I got nervous again, blushed and started to sweat profusely.

I survived the semester without using a single word in English (or any other language besides Chinese). Every week I had to give birth to a new lecture. It was both a very tiring and enriching experience.

Did I perform well? Of course not.

One year, after the end of the semester, I had dinner with one of the students, who is now a very good friend. He told me, laughing, that he didn’t understand much of what I had said during class the year before. I loved that! It was another fantastic failure diploma, and coming from a friend it was a real treasure.

I enjoy my classes. I don’t know if the students always do, but I do. One of the things I like is that we laugh at my mistakes.

Often I mispronounce words, I forget terms, or forget the right stroke of a Chinese character. Sometimes my students cannot understand my questions, or I cannot understand their answers to my questions. Often they just smile, sometimes they laugh, they imitate my tones, they try to correct me on the spot.

A more useful response is to notice the mistake, ask what caused it and try again.

This has many advantages. First, we laugh, and it is good to laugh. Second, because I visibly enjoy failure, my students are not ashamed to correct me. Third, I no longer feel afraid of making mistakes.

There is a moment in which it’s particularly useful to laugh at yourself: on really bad days. We are not machines, we are not computers. In theory, once an app is installed on a phone it will work in spite of the weather and the day of the week.

Human beings are not like that. It might happen that, for unknown reasons, your Spanish is less fluent on Mondays.

Don’t get frustrated. Smile!

Even if you make hundreds of embarrassing mistakes in one day, your friends are still your friends.

If mistakes keep tripping you up, the 200 Mistakes a Day Method gives you a practical framework for turning errors into regular speaking practice.

6. Pause, Listen and Think

Speaking from day one matters, but a short pause can help you use feedback. When someone corrects a word or you realise a sentence went wrong, stop long enough to notice the change, repeat it if you can, and carry on.

This is not an argument for staying silent. If the sentence in your head is too complicated, simplify it and keep the conversation moving. “I am tired. Should I sleep or work?” is far more useful than getting stuck while trying to translate Shakespeare.

7. Use Memory Techniques Selectively

Memorisation is one part of learning, alongside understanding, retrieval and meaningful use.

Image association can help you recall some words or facts, especially when the image is distinctive and you practise retrieving it. A memory palace is one way to organise those associations.

The association is a retrieval cue. Test it later without looking, and keep it only if it brings back the right word or phrase. Combine memory work with listening, reading, speaking and writing.

8. Make Language Exchanges Collaborative

“We are here in front of a cup of coffee for the first time, ready to help each other to learn a language. Now what?” This is a common scenario in the first session of a language exchange.

How do you get past this awkward stage?

After finding a language exchange partner, one of the first things I do is to establish a common goal. If we don’t have a common vision, the language exchange will hardly work.

In my case, language exchange partners come from two sources: friends-of-friends and websites.

When you choose a partner online, look for someone whose goals and availability fit yours. People may also want friendship or cultural exchange; that is not evidence that they lack commitment.

Do not judge a learner’s motivation by how many languages appear on a profile. Agree on a trial session and see whether you both prepare, show up and help each other.

For reasons unknown to me, for the first session of face-to-face language exchanges, almost all my exchange partners choose a place more expensive than what their budget would allow for a habitual meeting.

I almost always begin with: “let’s go to a cheaper place.”

After we order a cup of coffee or dinner, I introduce myself and explicitly say that my focus is to learn a language. I let my exchange partner know that I have strong motivation, and that I have some experience teaching and learning.

I also explain what I expect from them (“Don’t worry if you don’t have experience”, “It’s ok if you aren’t a grammar superhero”, “If after some weeks you don’t want to continue, just say it”, etc.).

Finally, I outline the rules of the game (one hour for your language, one hour for my language, frequency and time, etc.).

I have been doing language exchanges for years. Other people might have different experiences, but in my case they evolve in one of two directions:

1. After a few meetings we both realise that we are not going anywhere and the exchange naturally dies.
2. We meet for a long time, end up being friends, and after a while we don’t care much about language.

How to Make the Most Out of a Language Exchange

If you need more structure, offer to plan the next session and ask your partner what would help them too. Keep the exchange balanced rather than assuming one person should sacrifice their practice time.

It is normal that I, being the one who needs it more, should add fuel to the engine to keep it working. I should not expect my learning partner to have the same amount of interest and make the same effort; it’s part of the game.

In almost all cases, sooner or later my learning partner gets influenced by my enthusiasm and becomes more active, making the entire experience rich and pleasant (In my current exchange it is the opposite, he is more hardworking and says that I always arrive late).

I’d also say that an effective language exchange session requires a clear direction.

The direction might be given by a textbook or a selection of topics, or a clear goal, such as preparing for a test. I try never to arrive at a session without knowing what we will do that day.

With a private teacher, explain your goals and ask for a lesson plan that addresses them. A good class can be collaborative: you bring priorities, and the teacher brings expertise and feedback.

Learning is my objective and I need the help of others. I can use many means to learn such as books, recordings, and language apps. But I don’t use people.

Even if it might mean going slower or losing some good opportunities, I try to create situations in which both my exchange partner and I receive something. At the same time, sometimes I allow myself to be used. I have my goals, others have theirs.

Language exchange is something very personal and what works for some might not work for all, but one of the key components of a fruitful exchange is laughing lots and having fun. Show gratitude when you receive help from others.

Recap and Next Steps: How to Learn a Language Fast

So these are my tips to learn a language faster. If you want to keep the list for easy access, here is a useful infographic:

If you’re learning Chinese, like I did, don’t worry. With the right resources and the right mindset and strategy (that you can get from the tips above), you’ll do great.

For more practice ideas, continue with the guides below. If vocabulary is your current bottleneck, Vocab Vault helps you organise useful words and turn them into regular retrieval practice.

• How to Improve Your Listening Skills as a Language Learner – an In-Depth Guide
• 8+ Fun Grammar Games to Help You Learn a Language
• Spaced Repetition System: Learn Vocabulary and Never Forget It!

Original article by Mario Corti, updated by the Fluent in 3 Months team.