As you may know (who am I kidding? I'm not as well known as I think around these parts), I'm all about RedPillers learning practical and useful skills. Once again, I seek to deliver with the "how."

Why learn a language: The benefits of a second (or third) language span numerous arenas in your life, be they economic, relational, health, or other. It’s estimated that somewhere from 60-75% of the world is bilingual. If you fall behind in this free market, you have no one but yourself to blame.

Personally, I speak 4 languages (including English) ranging from fluency to basic communication. As cliché as it sounds, learning a new language has opened up a new world to me that I didn’t know existed. For instance, why take someone’s word for the attitude of Mexican press when I can read it myself in their own language? Anyway, time to get into the meat.

The Method: When learning languages (or anything for that matter), I’d like to say there is no “right” or “wrong” way. Rather, there is efficient and inefficient. If you’d refer to my guide on mastery, you can gauge what your learning style is and leverage it for this context. Now here are some specific methods that helped me.

Reading: Find a text in your target language (a news site, a novel, etc.) and read it. If it is a news article, read the whole thing. If it’s a book, read 2 pages at most. While you read, write down EVERY word that you do not understand. When you’re done reading, look up the translation of the word and write it next to the word you wrote down. Finally, read the text again.

This method was told to me by a friend who learned English rapidly, and it’s really what broke my Spanish through to the next level. There is little in the way of speaking here, but the gains for vocabulary are unparalleled. Just be sure to find a text you are interested in as you will have consistent exposure with it.

Speaking: Speaking with a native is the way to go. Another breakthrough for my second non-native language occurred when I dropped into a country with speakers of my target language. The immersion added an element of pressure, which forced my mind to use resources I didn’t know I had.

Oddly enough, I’ve since mimicked this pressured feeling with natives from my home base. It’s as simple as conversing with a native speaker and deciding not to revert to English EVEN ONCE during your conversation. My preferred app for this is HelloTalk. There are TONS of users available to trade languages with you, and the connection part is rather easy. Just be willing to give some of your time to teach English. It will pay dividends. If you can find a personal online tutor or an in-person language group, even better. The key is speaking and feeling the pressure. Like building muscle, it will burn, but you will only become stronger.

Listening: find a television program or podcast in your target language. While the program is running, turn on subtitles in your target language (NOT your native language) or read the transcript in the target language. This will help you differentiate words and she how they sound when used amongst other words. Again, find something that you are interested in, as you may do this activity more than once.

Programs: You are probably thinking: what about programs like Rosetta Stone?

If you weren’t, good. Otherwise, I can tell you from personal experience that I would toss it into the “wildly inefficient” category. Maybe it fits your learning style; for me, I didn’t see the need to repeatedly learn how to say ‘cat’ and ‘milk’ without even getting to sentence construction.

Programs I have found useful:

1) Duolingo: great for sentence construction and vocabulary, if nothing else.

2) Pimsleur: excellent if you want to speak right away and retain info.

3) Phrase books: can’t think of a brand in particular, but phrasebooks are immensely helpful in getting you to convey full ideas.

4) Bliu Bliu: a true gamechanger. Gets your practicing every day without gimmicks.

Remember that programs work only as much as you do. DAILY practice is essential to achieve a compound effect on your gains. Don’t get caught up in finding the perfect program. Just find one, set a goal, put your head down, and get to work. If all else fails, speak with a native.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions stated within are mine, and I have not been paid by any of the programs listed above (although, that would be sweet).

Conclusion: This is a very basic guide to getting your feet wet in another language. In using the methods above, you may find that the basics are really all you need to achieve a level of mastery.