Chinese language tips

• 825K subscribers
• French Vincent has been teaching French for more than 20 years and has been sharing his speaking skills and helpful lessons on YouTube since 2007. As a native French speaker, Vincent has a passion for sharing his language and culture with thousands of people around the world, producing more than 200,000 videos over the years that have been viewed by millions. Believing that video is the most powerful tool to help others master French, Vincent prides himself on providing his students with all of the proper resources and skills they need to become fluent and realize their dreams.

• 1.28M subscribers
• French Damon and Jo are two best friends who took off around the world and created a travel show on YouTube for the social media generation: Shut Up and Go. Mastering multiple languages, Damon and Jo post language learning videos in English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, but mostly share tips to help others become fluent in French. Besides sharing their language tips, Damon and Jo are also known for their vlogs in foreign countries and their video lessons on the cultures in these countries.

• 4.59M subscribers
• English Lucy Bella Earl teaches British English for free through her online videos to an audience of more than 4 million viewers. Besides grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, Earl also instructs her subscribers on how to construct common sentences and use phrases in English to hold conversations with native speakers. She also helps new English speakers correct their common mistakes, repeat daily language exercises, and improve their listening skills. Overall, her thorough videos have made her one of the most popular language teachers on the platform with an impressive amount of views on each video.

People learn foreign languages for many reasons. If you want to learn because you want to navigate in a foreign country as a tourist, then you want basic speaking proficiency. You can make a lot of mistakes, and people will still understand you. If you are learning a language because you must conduct business in a foreign country, then you obviously need a higher level of mastery, and you must spend more time. But you can still learn quickly if you follow these tips, especially conversations with a native. Once you have the speaking mastered, your vocabulary will continue to grow and you will pick up the grammatical "rules" in that way. Writing and fluent reading will take a bit more time, of course, but you are well on your way. Remember this general rule – speak first, then move on to reading and writing. They are so much easier if you follow this sequence. More than half of the inhabitants of this planet speak more than one language. Of course, this is because many of them begin learning a foreign language in elementary school and continue through until they finish their formal schooling. Others pick up a foreign language as their kids learn it. Those who learn without formal training will obviously make mistakes, as will you. But, embrace the fact that you won't be perfect, learn from those mistakes, and move on.

When immigrant children arrive in America and are enrolled in school, many come with no English language skills at all. While they are usually given an ESL class which helps with grammar, reading, and writing, research has shown that their speaking ability is best mastered by "total immersion," that is, being in regular classes that are taught in English. This is why they are such fast learners, not because we mistakenly believe that kids learn faster. They just have no choice in the matter. If you really want to learn a language, you must speak it and listen to it every single day, whether you take an online class, meet up with native speakers, or go the more traditional route of a physical class. The biggest issue for adults in learning a language rapidly is often time management, whether you are a college student or a working adult. Block out the time.

There are a large number of free sites and apps for free. If you want to learn a European language, for example, try DuoLingo. Other free sources include BBC Languages, Omniglot, the Foreign Service Institute, or Khan Academy. And if you live in or near a medium-sized city, you can see if there is a Polyglot Club where you can have face-to-face meet-ups with native speakers of other languages. Again, you can find many other resources a Google search for "free foreign language learning tools and apps."