My own method of learning foreign languages

My own methodology of learning foreign languages

In the previous article I tried to support you in learning a foreign language. I hope you feel a bit more motivated now. ï wish you find even today’s article interesting and fun. You might try doing the same. I am not saying that what worked for me will work for you, but I met many interesting people thanks to my methodologyand was not afraid of speaking in an “unknown” language.

Picture: Just learn languages and be happy that you can get more friends!

Tinder methodology

So what was that famous method I was using to increase my level of foreign languages? It was meeting locals or people who spoke the language well. It is said you should always try to talk to people whose level is slightly above yours, so you keep motivated and you will have space for leasing.

When my first Erasmus in Spain finished, I was in that point of Spanish when I understood well, however, I was not able to talk much.  So before the Erasmus finished, I found a place where I could do an internship, moved to a different part of Spain and was full of expectations of improving my Spanish.

Soon, I got new friends who were doing their internships too. So we were an international group. It would be all right, but some of us did not know any Spanish, so we were communicating mostly in English.

I realised I would not improve my Spanish in this way, so I tried to contact a few people through Couchsurfing. Though, I could not really meet many of them. They were always busy. i used to go to some language exchangeswhich were held every Sunday, but it was not enough as it was mostly about introducing myself.

Picture: You can meet many people when doing Erasmus. The interns, people in language exchanges, co-workers and Couchsurfing helps a lot as well...

Once, I just talked about this with my friends: „I would not believe that we live in Spain and it is so difficult to make some Spanish friends with whom I could go outside and talk.“  

There was a friend who was originally from Moldova and she was dating every week someone new. All of the sudden she said: “Iva, when you want to meet people, why do you not use Tinder?”

I just opened my eyes widely: “But, Elena (it was not her real name, so not worry), I do not want to use the app as you do. I want to meet people so I can practice Spanish.” I did not even have an account on Tinder, I heard a few crazy things about that and I was not really interested in downloading it.

She said, I could write the reason of using the app into my profile wall, so it should be clear for everyone what my purpose of using it was.” Well, i asked her to show me how it worked and downloaded it the very next day.

Let me start!

So after downloading it, I matched quickly with one guy. I explained why I was on Tinder and wanted to know whether he would feel like meeting me and speaking in Spanish. He agreed and so we met in less than two hours. it was really good! Not only we were speaking in Spanish but as he was a local man, he showed me some places of the citywhich I did not even know they existed.

Picture: Meet locals and they will tell you more about the city where you currently live in!

So when I came home, I wanted to meet more people. In fact, it worked like Couchsurfing Hangouts (if you use Couchsurfing). The only difference was references. Anyway, I was meeting people in busy places and usually in the afternoon. I tried to be careful and if you want to do the same so you can practice languages or do anything you want, you should be careful as much as possible.

What happened next? I saw a profile picture where a guy was doing a slack line. I had never tried that before meeting him and I wanted to try it. So I put him to the right and as he did as well, we started to chat. I am a kind of person who does not like texting people much. I prefer talking to them in person. So I told him why I was on Tinder and why I swiped him to the positive side. I asked whether we could meet and if I could try doing the slack line. He agreed and soon we met. We were talking in Spanish even though he was French and he explained me how to walk on the line. We enjoyed the afternoon a lot. It was full of fun.

Picture: I tried walking on a slack line thanks to Tinder!

When I got back home

When my Erasmus was over, I was able to speak in Spanish quite fluently. I still did mistakes, but it is normal, as I am not a native speaker. Well, I thought there was no need using the app back home, so I deleted the app.

Though, soon I got interested in doing slalom on roller skates (in-lines). I also realised that if I do not keep practicing my Spanish, I would loos it easily. So I tried downloading it again with words that I would like to practice Spanish, playing the guitar and learn new tricks on in-lines. Again, I met a few nice people but then I deleted it for a longer period of time.

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