Becoming Bilingual

What do you call a person who speaks three languange? Tri-lingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? An American. Almost every country except the United States require foreign language education. In many countries this education starts as young as elementary school. Learning a second language can be extremely helpful in your day to day life, particularly in areas with immigration levels. Of course, you may simply want to learn another language for your traveling purposes or just to further educate yourself. Here's a quick guide to becoming biligual in your second language of choice.

1) Take a class.
This is the most obvious step for most people. You can take classes at your local community college or community center. If there's a major university near you they probably offer even more classes in many more languages. A class will be most helpful with grammar. You can learn vocabulary on your own and even very basic grammar from listening to people speak, but the more sophisticated grammar that isn't used in every day language, you'll need to learn in a class.

2. Practice with people.
Make use with the people in your community who speak the language you're trying to learn. Visit a restaurant that serves the regional food of the language you're trying to learn, many times these specialed restaurants are family owned and the family speaks that language. Consider offering yourself as an English-language tutor. This way you'll be able to lean some of the language and you'll be helping someone else learn how to communicate. Speaking with other people will help you most with colloquialisms and common metaphors of the language. It will also help you learn some of the more subtle implications of words that aren't in the dictionary defintion. The thing must remember is to not be afraid. Native speakers are very understanding with mistaken grammar and mis-placed adjectives when they know you're learning. Many of them also really appreciate the effort you're making by trying to speak in their language. Don't be afraid.

3.Practice in your head.
Once you start learning the language, practice it in your head. Make up a situtation and practice what you would say. Pretend you're ordering at a restaurant or asking for directions or telling someone what you did over the weekend. Practicing in your head help you become more confident for when you actually have to speak to someone in person. It will also help you to internalize the grammar a little more.

4. Write essay and dialogues.
Writing is an essential part of any culture. Writing is also very different from the way people speak. It involves tone, voice, and sometimes even persuasive strategies. Assign yourself an essay. Make it on something you feel very strongly about. It may be a hot-button political issue, a favorite business, or a social cause you are passionate about. This task will really help you to improve your vocabulary as you come across words you understand in English but not in the second language.

5. Read.
Pick up a book or a magazine in your second language. As I mentioned before, writing is a lot different than speaking and reading will help you to pick up on the more formal tone of the language. This is also a major vocabularly builder. Native speakers who write books and magazine articles use words that you could never know as a non-native speaker. Look up any and all words that you don't know. It's been scientific proven that people who read frequently and a variety of materials have the largest vocabularies. Read up!

Exercises:
Try to identify everything around you, including every verb you could use in your environment as well as adjectives to describe your environment.

Put labels on objects around your house. Simply seing the words can drill them into your brain.

Get a penpal from a country that speaks your second language. If you get to know them well enough you may even have the chance to visit them in their home country.

Watch movies in your second language. Foreign cinema can be very different from the standard Hollywood movie that we usually see. Usually it's much more intriguing.