#2 Strategy to Develop Fluency in a Foreign Language
Apply the 80/20 principle and study the 1000 most common words to establish a solid foundation.
Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to record and release a podcast with an Italian polyglot, writer, and software engineer Antonello Zanini.
During our talk, we touched upon many subjects relating to language learning, software development, and writing. Yet, most of the conversation revolved around a single issue:
How can a person help himself to learn languages better?
Having given some inspiring ideas to speed up one’s language learning process, Antonello stressed two important aspects:
1. write at least 50–100 words per day in your target language
2. print out and start learning the 1000 most common words from day 1
It is hard to understate the importance of developing one’s vocabulary as well as putting it to practice. Struggling to learn English, Antonello decided to journal every day no matter what. After a while, this led him to start writing on Medium. Consequently, writing on Medium led to his career as a freelance technical writer. An unexpected turn of events, isn’t it?
If you learn 5 words a day that’s 1875 words per year!
Following the above-listed principles as well as some other techniques such as using Anki to practice vocabulary and seeking language exchange partners, Antonello has managed to learn English, French and Spanish. He also speaks Italian as well as his native language Bresciano.
If you haven’t yet listened to our podcast, I’ll leave a link to it above.
There you will hear more about Antonello’s life as a language learner as well as his career as a technical writer and software developer.
Thank you for reading and listening!
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