#17 TNT: How to Learn a Language by Living it Listen to this episode of THE NOMAD THEORY here🌈: https://simplecast.com/s/ff044344 ☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️ I took college level Spanish for an entire year, five days a week, and eventually left unable to put a sentence together.😵 I fell asleep almost every class and rarely even opened my mouth. It wasn’t my teacher, rather that the setting wasn’t congruent with my learning style. There was no real world application. 🤜🤛 On the other hand, while traveling as a NOMAD, effective communication is a necessity -- it becomes real. 🦄 Connecting with a native speaker in their own tongue beyond simple “get to know you” pleasantries is so gratifying and gives time spent abroad a new value. 🧠 Structuring this necessity into your environment, with purpose, uncovers an intrinsic motivation that grade point average never will. By employing a combination of the 5 tools and practices below, I became conversationally fluent in about 7 months. 📆📅📆📅📅📆📅 ☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️ 1. Duolingo: A free language learning application. It gets you about 10% of the way after completing the entire course. This might not sound like a lot, but solid basics form the foundation for future proficiency. 📗📱 2. Work: Even as a volunteer, you are still expected to complete tasks. If you can’t understand a request, you can’t deliver. Nobody’s happy when you tell the chef hamburger and the customer ordered veggie burger... Oops!🍔🥦 3. Intensive Courses: Language centers can be found in almost every major city. I took private classes with a certified teacher in Argentina for less than $8 an hour. 💸✏️ 4. Read Books in the Language: But not just any book. Find one with information that interests you. Make it relevant and immediately useful. The applicability doubles the benefit of your efforts. 🧠📕📙📘📒 5. Romantic Interests: What better motivation than love? Spend one week courting a beautiful Argentine and tell me this technique doesn’t work wonders.💓🔥💋 All things considered, learning a new language is a challenge. However, under the right circumstances, it’s not only possible, but a challenge worth accepting. Hopefully these tips help! ✔️✔️✔️ Thanks for listening to THE NOMAD THEORY 🌎, Stay Wild Folks A.C. Ridenour🍌