1. Start with the 100 most common words

Everyday conversations are pretty much the same: The weather, weekends plans, work, family stories...

It is incredibly difficult for a language learner to ever know as many words as a native speaker but 100 words would help you to get by in a simple conversation.

Start with the 100 most common words and then make sentences with them over and over again. Learn just enough grammar to be able to do this and do it until you feel pretty comfortable with all of them.

Here are ten topics of conversation, you can look for 10 words related to these topics: Myself / Family / Whether / Food / Leisure / Numbers / Adjectives / Actions / Cities / Holidays

2. Don't worry be happy

Don't worry about not understanding everything, try and guess the things you don't know from context, and ask about or look up words that come up frequently whose meaning you can't work out.

3. Use it, use it, use it!

Try to use whatever language you know, without worrying about mistakes or looking foolish.

Play with the language, learn from your mistakes and have fun.

If you are not confident enough to to take the plunge we advise to keep with you a note book and you can prepare and write some sentences that you will be able to use in a conversation in a shop / restaurant / hotel / train station / airport…

4. Listen and watch other talk

You must learn to listen before you can speak. Every language sounds strange the first time you hear it, but the more you expose yourself to it the more familiar it becomes, and the easier it is to speak it properly.

Different languages make different demands on your tongue, lips and throat. Pronunciation is just as much physical as it is mental

It might sound a bit strange but look at someone while they’re saying words that use that sound, and then to try to imitate that sound as much as possible

5. Be consistent

It’s amazing how much of a language you can learn in just a few days. It’s also amazing how much you can forget in just a few days.

Language learning is one of those things where it’s much better to do a little each day instead of a lot every once in a while. You’ll learn way more if you spend 30 minutes studying everyday rather than say, 8 hours once a week.

In your learning language process you will experienced very embarrassing moment, it is inevitable. You might be embarrassed at some point but trust us you will look funny to others and not in a bad way. People who laugh because your mistakes / pronunciation do not make fun of you but are amused and often charmed by your way of speaking.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve got any tips for language learners!