Essential Tools and Resources for Every Language Learner
How to know your language learning tools are serving you
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! For this post I thought I would outline all of the tools and resources that my students use throughout and beyond our time together. Questions are completely normal and one of the problems many language learners run into is not knowing what they have available to them. This is not a comprehensive list, every one of my students gets a unique sheet of resources, but it is a list of what I recommend they all use.
Grammar
When it comes to grammar, I really am not a big fan. In all actuality I truly believe grammar is a good thing to go over, but not a good thing to master. At least mastering it should not be your goal. Bad grammar is not only common, but perfect grammar often sounds stranger. While I believe we should all strive to improve our language and the language of those around us, that is a long term goal, not something worth focusing on in the first year.
One piece of grammar that you cannot neglect, however, is conjugations. My favorite resources for conjugations are:
Reverso - Reverso is an amazing all around tool if you aren’t already using it. I have every single student use it
Linguno - Linguno gamifies conjugation. It is not as repetitive as Duolingo, but it is also something that is very limited because you are not the one controlling the sentences.
Wordreference - Wordreference is similar to reverso, but a bit more academic and less user friendly. We used it a lot back in the translator days and if you are looking for precision towards the end of B2 beginning of C1, this is probably your best bet.
Grammar books are good and you can get them cheap from second hand bookstores, but grammar is something that is far easier to master through making mistakes than through attempting to be perfect. At the end of the day, the “perfect” grammar is the grammar that is used where you are. Memorizing the “vosotros” conjugations in Spanish for a move to Costa Rica is not worth your time.
If you do know where you plan to start using the language, one of the more enjoyable ways to learn grammar is to learn what is different between that place and the place where the language originated. Sometimes it is easier to remember the things that are different than it is to remember novel things. And you never know when having these fun facts in your back pocket might pay off.
YouTube is also incredibly helpful when it comes to this, but precision is important here. Learning from a generalized video is maybe a good first run through, but you should ultimately be finding videos that address specific issues that you are having. The only way, or at least the best way, to figure out what specific issues you have to address is by writing everything down.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a bit more enjoyable to build, in my opinion. Not because it’s easier, but because it is more relevant. Think about it in your own day to day life. If someone comes up to you and says, “I’m ran late today” you would likely get the idea. Is it a little awkward? Yes. But that’s just how it goes at the beginning. Vocabulary, on the other hand, can be a mess.
Imagine instead of using the incorrect conjugation, someone came up to you and said, “I crawl early today”. Quite a bit more decoding that has to be done in that case. This is how it goes in every language. The grammar is important, perfect grammar is a phenomenal goal, but correct vocabulary is far more important. That said, if you mess up a word, the person you are speaking to will let you know.
So, how do you build your vocabulary fast? Do these things today:
Read books above your language level
People fight me on writing the most, but this is probably the second biggest fight I have with people. My students do not read children’s books. I recommend children’s books, but only if you are working solo. If you have a teacher or a tutor or a friend or spouse who can help you, the comfort of children’s books will become a crutch that you may struggle to drop.
For more on how to get the most out of this exercise, read this article:
Working Above Your Second Language "Level"
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! Someone the other day told me that there is no way to discuss philosophy after only learning a new language for a few months. While it certainly is not normal, to say it is impossible is just plain wrong. When it comes to second language acquisition, outside of mainstream classrooms the limitations that are placed on you will be placed on you by yourself, not by anyone else.
Thesaurus
I bring this up pretty often, but using a thesaurus when you are writing is the easiest way to grow your vocabulary. Not even necessarily because you lack certain vocabulary in your native language, but rather because you do have a certain default vocabulary. The last thing you want is to be stuck with a set, limited, amount of vocabulary with which to express yourself.
You should be using a thesaurus to write irrespective of which language in which you are writing. The best thing you can do is move vocabulary from your passive to your active memory. It’s fantastic that you can recognize and understand the meanings of new words when you come across them, but even better is the ability to use them freely whenever you want.
For more on growing your vocabulary through targeted exercises, make sure you read this:
Efficiency
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! I recently reached out to my high school English teacher. With any luck she is reading this now! She was hands down the most influential educator I ever interacted with throughout high school (in 3 countries) and college (in 2 countries). Without her this business likely wouldn’t even exist, though my exchange year played a b…
Media
The final place that you need to be looking for materials where you can learn new vocabulary is in media. Social media, news media, entertainment media, all media. Why? Because those are the words people are using today, right now, to describe the world around them. Even if those words differ from how you may have seen them in a dictionary. Take the word “tio” in Spain, for example.
As aggravating as it can be, these places are where you have to come to find out what is happening in the present day. Language evolves, often far too quickly, meaning you are left at the mercy of the modern speaker, not the person who wrote the grammar book. If you only learn terms for their literary use, you will end up freezing in the midst of conversation when a word is used colloquially.
Translation
Translation is probably the most powerful tool you have available to you when it comes to improving both grammar and vocabulary. Alongside reverso and wordreference, you should be challenging yourself to need as little help as possible. Begin with short one sentence translations from your target language into your native language.
The major jump comes when you begin translating pre-planned sentences from your native language into your target language. You are already doing this in your head anyway, doing it on paper is a fantastic way to accelerate the process of linguistic integration. Once the language is fully integrated, translation is no longer necessary. That said, it will always be a valuable tool for improvement.
Doing all of this on paper, in pen, will multiply the benefits. It may seem silly, but once per week I have someone reach out to tell me they started writing after one or two or even three years and how much they wish they would have listened to me sooner. You can, and should, learn from their mistakes. Do not come to me in a year telling me you wish you could go back. For more on that, read this:
Effective Language Acquisition Strategies
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! It turns out that what you may consider “old school” is something I happen to view as effective. Interestingly, as we approach the moment when technology actually will have the ability to translate in real time, we seem to be losing the ability, or perhaps the desire, to teach foreign languages. As with most things, the furth…
One bonus tool for those of you who are in the habit of juggling multiple languages at the same time. This is something that was introduced to me by a friend and fellow polyglot and after getting used to it a bit yesterday, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Even if you only use it for one language to increase listening time. Find it here.
Conclusion
These are the tools that my students use day in and day out throughout the course of their education. We use them in class, of course, but these resources are things you should be using daily, with or without a class attached. The best part? All of them are free to use. After all this time, I thought it would be helpful to share the tools we use in class. I hope you are able to use these indefinitely to accomplish your goals.
The right tools and the right habits are all you truly need to accomplish any language related goal you have. In fact, those two things should be enough to help you accomplish any dream you have. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So get out and do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.
If you’re stuck in the gap between understanding and speaking, you’re not alone, and you’re not broken. The Guides library (paid subscribers) includes structured output protocols designed to bridge exactly this gap, day by day.
The fastest way to break through is with someone who can hear you, correct you, and push you in real time. That’s what my private courses are built for. Read what students say about the experience.