Getting A's In Language Class, Made Simple
By simple, I mean you will have to do some work, but it’s dead simple.
Language classes have the benefit of
1) being relatively straightforward – you know what’s required. Learn this vocabulary, this conjugation etc. and use them in simple conversation/sentences and
2) generally having right or wrong answers that enable you to get really high grades – there’s not really a lot of interpretation going on
But, students either
- Don’t bother studying and get poor grades
- Study hard but do it wrong and get poor grades or
- Study really hard and get good grades.
I’d like you to join an elite cadre who work reasonably hard but get really high grades.
To be fair, that’s the theme of most of my writing and content creation. High grades without grinding.
What's Holding Everyone Back?
Sadly, I struggled in my high school German class. I wasn’t motivated to learn the material and had no idea how to study effectively. Looking back, it’s absurd that no one said this is what we’re learning and showed the best way to learn it.
I won’t get on my soapbox again, but it’s outrageous that students are never taught effective learning skills. How much more would students learn if the first class in each subject each year highlighted some of the most effective ways to learn that subject? This is more than just a high school thing. Undergrad and grad students would benefit massively as well. <rant over>
Enough with the past, though; let’s get to the future. It’s a future where getting higher grades in language classes becomes pretty straightforward. So let’s go!
Anki - The Most Valuable Tool For Learning Languages
We’re going to be using Anki a lot. It’s a (mostly) free, web-based digital flashcard system. The web version is free, but the iOS app has a one-time cost.
I strongly suggest downloading it, not just for the language stuff we’re discussing today. It’s valuable for the rest of your classes as well.
It’s the program that med school students use to learn and memorize the massive volume of required information.
If it works for them, it’ll work for the rest of us.
You can download it here. The basics are pretty straightforward. There are plenty of sources where you can get info on how to use it. I’ll be making videos on it shortly and will post my best tips on my website as well.
1) Pronunciation trainers
Pronunciation trainers are pretty much what they sound like. They’re intended to help train your tongue to pronounce words correctly in your target language but also to train your ear.
Why bother? Well I’m glad you asked (no, really I am. I wasn’t being sarcastic)
1) Starting with a pronunciation trainer helps avoid confusing situations. It saves you from talking about two French philosophers: Descartes, whom you’ve heard of, and DesKartEEz, whom you’ve been reading about and mentally mispronouncing for ages.
2) Pronunciation trainers also provide massive leverage; they’ll help you learn more quickly when encountering new words.
3) You can bet your instructor will be impressed if you can pronounce words correctly. This alone will likely help your grade since speaking correctly in the target language is often part of the grading criteria.
A good pronunciation trainer will have ample examples of minimal pairs. These are words that sound similar but mean entirely different things. This is part of training your ear.
It turns out, when you’re learning English, it’s quite difficult to distinguish between “sinking” and “thinking” as well as “knees” and “niece”.
This is probably the case in your target language as well.
In a controlled study, Japanese adults had a hard time distinguishing between hearing “rock” and “lock.” But when you give them feedback, i.e., did they pick correctly? Their ears start to pick up the difference surprisingly quickly.
Now’s a good time to credit Gabriel Wyner, author of Fluent Forever. Some of these ideas, including the pronunciation trainer, come from his excellent book, which I highly recommend. It’s the best language-learning book I’ve ever read. (And I’m not getting paid to say that.)
He also makes and sells pronunciation-training flashcard decks for Anki as part of his business. You can find them here.
2) Flashcards with pictures
Depending on who you ask, you need to know 250-500 words in a language to get through simple introductions and hold basic conversations in a language. You won’t be writing poetry, but it’s something you can build on.
That’s the next goal after you start rolling with your pronunciation trainer.
You can find the most commonly used words in your target language online. Here is a PDF of the 400 commonly used words in English. It’s organized by topic, which is a useful way to think of them. Most other lists I’ve found are alphabetical. This might not be a perfect list for your target language, but it is a good starting point.
Once you get that list, make Anki flashcards with them.
But there’s a twist on this that’ll make them more powerful.
Most people put the English word on one side and the word in the target language on the other. The problem with this is that if you learn the words this way you’ll constantly be translating in your head.
Instead, use an image to remind you of the word on one side and the word in your target language on the other (use this site to find the word in the target language).
Here’s how you do it.
Go to Google Images and search for a picture of the word that really resonates with you. Take a second to really think about why this is the image you selected. Let’s say that card is for dog. Choose a picture of a dog that looks like one you had or have. You could instead select a picture of a dog you saw in a movie or that really scared you at a friend’s house.
Then, put the word in your target language on the back.
And voilà, your first card is ready.
This may be easier for a dog you have a connection with, but what about something like “tennis”? In those situations, put a picture of a tennis player you remember or an image of a tennis court and racquet.
Grammatical Genders
I also have a special tip for you to contend with the complexities of grammatical genders. It totally blew my mind when I first heard it. It blew my mind because I realized it solved the problem of remembering a noun’s gender.
Grammatical gender can be infuriating to deal with.
The main problem I’ve had with grammatical gender is that there’s no discernible logic that I’ve found. In German for example, turnips are feminine, cheese is masculine and maidens are neuter.
If a language has grammatical genders, there are likely to be two of them. From what I’ve found, German and Icelandic are among the few that have 3.
So here’s the trick.
We’re going to use mnemonic imagery to remember them, meaning you’re going to have three very different images in your mind for what happens to masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. If your target language only has masculine and feminine, then ignore the neuter.
Here’s what I want you to picture.
For every masculine noun you encounter, visualize it exploding, and I mean blowing up into tiny pieces. If the word is tree (masculine in French), imagine it exploding from the inside, with wood shards flying everywhere.
It may make you sad, since the dog is masculine in French as well, so attach that emotion to it, or if you can’t bring yourself to imagine an exploding dog, imagine disarming whatever it is that makes the masculine nouns explode and save the dog.
For feminine nouns, imagine them on fire. Hand is feminine in French so imagine your hand on fire. Imagine it as a cool blue flame or imagine yourself as a superhero who can control fire, whatever works for you.
Finally, for neuter nouns, if you have them in your target language, imagine that noun shattering like glass.
When I first came across this, it was a revelation. It was like the scales had fallen from my eyes. Trust me on this, this will make a huge difference for you.
Review Schedule
Creating these cards will take a few minutes, especially at the beginning, as you are getting a workflow going.
Don’t overcomplicate things.
Start by creating only 5 cards a day (aim to get to 10-20 a day) and reviewing for at least 15 minutes.
Review more if you have time, but gradually build up to 30 minutes if you can.
Start by reviewing the pronunciation trainer. Once you download it, it will only serve you up 20 new cards a day. However, this will start to add up when you get 20 new cards plus all the previous ones that you are seeing for a second, third and fourth time (and beyond).
If you can review these before the school year starts you’ll really help yourself out. And I mean big time. Going into the school year with a sense of how to pronounce words in a new language will give you a huge leg up.
3) Children's books
This is a total secret weapon if you can be humble.
Children learn their language by listening, talking and then eventually learning to read. They’ll start with VERY simple books.
Adults, on the other hand, learn a new language by getting a vocabulary book. {Record scratch} Wait, what? That doesn’t make much sense.
What if while you’re learning from your textbook, you also go to the library and borrow 10 Level 1 reading books? Work your way through those and then swap them out for Level 2 readers.
As you go along, make Anki cards for any words you don’t know. This will accelerate your learning and, overall, won’t take an insane amount of time.
This is so valuable because you’ll start to build intuition on how to put sentences together in your target language.
4) ChatGPT
This is a new and incredibly helpful tool.
ChatGPT will have a conversation with you in many different languages so you can have a practice partner. It will also correct you when you make a mistake if you prompt it to. This is an incredibly helpful way to put together your flashcard work and your in-class work.
Pick whatever context you’re studying in class at the time to take advantage of the power of ChatGPT.
The key to using ChatGPT effectively is what questions you ask. For example, you can ask it to reply to you in French or to have a conversation in French using basic words as if it were a waiter in a French bistro.
Alternatively, you can ask it to correct you as you speak (type) to it. Even better you can ask it to reply in the context above and then correct your French. The possibilities are endless.
What’s crazy is that in the very recent past (less than 18 months ago) you used to have to pay for this kind of service. Take advantage of it.
So that's it.
his roadmap will help you crush your language classes. These classes, especially at the more introductory level, should be easy A’s for you if you implement this approach. The other big benefit is that you’ll be able to communicate more easily when you travel.
Try these techniques out, and let me know how they work for you.
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That’s it for this week…don’t be shy to reply if you have any questions.
