How to learn different languages: my unfinished story and why I understand students’ needs

I have always had a passion for languages. At first, for my native – Russian. I used to read more than any of my classmates at school and my groupmates at university. That’s probably why I have what you could call a natural born literacy, it’s common among those who read voraciously. And would you believe – my first reading lessons were mere hell both for me and my mum.

But then we finally sorted this out. You can read my article about it How to learn to read in Russian: hardest, simplest and most effective ways I hope it will be useful for you.

Then English came into my life. English… I can literally talk about what it means to me for hours, why I once gave up on it and what helped me to get back to it.

You are welcome to have a look at some articles on how to learn different languages:

How many words is it possible to learn every day or week?

Include a TV-show in your learning schedule and see what happens

In these little articles I share some learning tips with you that worked out for me. You are more than welcome to use them!

The Vampire Diaries TV show helped a great deal in my studies.

After some success was gained with English, I took up Spanish and German. Well, I tried to take them up, to be exact. I gave Spanish at least 4 tries and at least 3 to German. See why I failed (and why probably lots of learners fail not long after the start): How to lose motivation on the third language lesson: practical guide.

Time past and now I am learning Thai! What I can say… I adore learning this language! (check this out for How to say ‘adore’ in Russian). It’s not like any European language, it’s not what I am used to and it gives me complete brain meltdown. Back in Moscow, before moving to Thailand, I had never entertained a thought of learning this language (the first reason was that it has the longest alphabet in the world), but now it’s one of my biggest passions. And in the last couple of months I have already progressed much more than the entire time I did back at school while learning English.

My Thai tutor and me during our open air lesson.

Summarizing my current studies:

1) I have 1 hour lessons with an English tutor twice a week by Skype

2) I have 2 hour Thai classes at a language school twice a week

3) I have a 1 hour lesson with a Thai tutor once a week at home.

Thai classes at a language school are fun.

Are you a student too? As you can see, I am well aware of your needs and I know that you want to start to speak / understand a foreign language as soon as possible and you are looking for the most efficient ways to do that. Together we can find your personal answer to ‘How to learn different languages?’ question. So let me please help you with this one – subscribe to my blog and you will learn lots of useful and interesting things about Russian!