How to Speak any Foreign Languages With 5 Techniques

summary of the Sid Efromovich’s TED video

TEDxUpperEastSide(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WLHr1_EVtQ)

Made by Zinaida Burnasheva

Sid Efromovich, speaker at the TEDx UpperEastSide shares his 5 secrets to learn a language effectively. As a speaker of 7 different languages, Sid explains how his language learning strategy differs from his peers’.

Below, I outline the five skills that make the language learning process much easier according to Sid.

№1

Relax and…Make Mistakes

Unlike other forms of learning, Sid’s golden rule for learning a language is to feel comfortable making mistakes. This will allow you to break through the barrier of language and to explore the territory of sound and structures outside of database.

№2

Scrap the Foreign Alphabet

Learn how to take notes and make sure that you can take notes in a way that you can replicate sounds and structures later.

№3

Find a Stickler

Develop a relationship with someone who would feel comfortable correcting you, or even encourage you to get things wrong and make mistakes in the first place. A stickler can be your teacher, your tutor, someone on Skype, etc. The point though is to learn from the mistakes that the stickler identifies.

№4

Practice (in the Shower)

Engaging in the so-called ‘shower conversations’ and practicing different scenarios in the language you want to learn, enables you to spot possible mistakes while speaking to yourself. You can imagine being a tourist and ask for or giving directions. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to practice the language in the shower, you can also do this while walking in the street or while shopping in the mall.

№5

Use the Language (Buddy Language)

Find a person who also can’t speak the language, but who also wants to learn and engage in various conversations.  This will enable you to stay motivated with a person who shares the same goals and faces the same difficulties in learning the language as you.

I hope this tips would be useful for you.

Good Luck in Learning Languages!