4 Tips to Help You Learn a Language Like a Kid

There are lots of benefits to learning a new language as an adult. We grown-ups tend to be more dedicated, focused, and prepared for the ups and downs of language learning. However, it’s hard not to be envious of the way kids are able to learn a foreign tongue. They make it look so effortless and easy! Any time is a good time to learn a new language, whether you’re 8 or 80, and you definitely shouldn’t let your age put you off from accomplishing your goals. Still, we could probably pick up a few study tips from those young ones and apply them to our own learning journey. So check out these 4 tips for approaching your language learning in a more ‘childish’ way!

1. Sit still and listen

When babies start picking up the foundations of a language, they don’t start talking right away. Listening is such a major part of language acquisition, that children who are born deaf experience significant delays in learning how to speak and communicate. After all, how can you know how to say it if you don’t hear it first? Unfortunately, it seems like too many language programs place the emphasis on grammar and vocabulary, instead of listening. But if you really want to learn a language like a kid, you’ve got to highlight active listening. Don’t multitask or play the language in the background, focus on listening and interacting with what you’re hearing. Stay in one spot, like a baby who hasn’t learned to walk yet, and place 100% of your focus on listening to the sounds and trying to replicate them.

2. Read and sing (again and again)

Step into any kindergarten almost anywhere in the world, and you’ll find that songs and stories form a big part of a child’s learning experience. This is something you can easily apply to picking up a new tongue! Find children’s songs to sing along to, usually these are a lot easier to manage for someone learning a foreign tongue than music aimed at adults.

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Read some of your favourite books in your target language. I usually suggest the Harry Potter series because the books get gradually more and more advanced as you progress. If you’ve already read them in your native tongue, this actually makes it better because you’ll grasp more vocab and grammar since you already having an understanding of the context of the story. Remember, kids love to read and sing the same stories and songs again and again, so there’s nothing wrong with a little repetition—it’ll help to really cement that new knowledge.

3. Approach mistakes with humour

Little kids are super cute when they’re learning to speak, and that’s mostly because they make so many funny mistakes! When was the last time you saw a kid clam up and refuse to talk because someone chuckled at their grammar blunder or corrected them? Usually children tend to move on following criticism and don’t take it as a personal affront. It seems that our egos grow with us, so that by the time we’re adults we’re much more afraid of making errors than we were as a kid. Accept that, as a language learner, you’ll make lots of mistakes every single day and move on. I know it’s tough, but don’t let yourself get caught up with feeling embarrassed or ashamed of your skills. After all, those little tots that once made so many mistakes speak fluently now! It’s just a question of laughing it off and moving on!

4. Find your immersion

When a baby is born, it’s immediately immersed into a world where it learns by observation and listening. As a child grows, he or she usually continues to be surrounded by their native language, or it forms a significant part of their environment (e.g. their parents speak it with their grandparents, or they use the language outside the home). This sort of immersion is what makes learning a language as a child so authentic; the target tongue forms a very natural part of their lives. While this is difficult to achieve as an adult, you can still strive to bring as much immersion into your life as possible. This can be done by surrounding yourself with books, movies, and people who speak your target language. Find ways to interact in the language every day, and when alone at home use it to narrate your actions. Try to, as much as possible, think in the foreign tongue, so you’re immersed both internally and externally.

What do you find interesting about the way kids learn languages? Have you incorporated any of these methods in your own learning?