the three magic ingredients for learning / mastering a language

[linguaholic]

Please name your three magic ingredients for learning / mastering a language:




• Passion
• Long Term-Motivation


• Personal Goal/Aim

So for me, the most important "ingredients" are Passion, Long-Term-Motivation and a Goal/Aim.

I hold the view that passion is the single most important ingredient when it comes to language learning. Actually I do believe that passion is the most important thing for all kind of things you do (work, study, hobbies and much more).

Long-Term-Motivation is also very crucial when it comes to Language Learning. It is really hard to master a language without it. When I think about me studying Chinese, I needed a few years to become fluent, I had to repeat writing characters over and over again, and this was just possible because I could somehow maintain the motivation to go on studying/repeating. Of course this also has to do with passion, so the two ingredients are definitely related, or let's better say the 3 of them. This leads to my last "magic ingredient", Goal/Aim.

To keep up your (long-term) motivation, you will need to have a goal / aim. Why are studying Language X? Why it is worth to invest 1000's hours in language X and not language Y? You should be able to answer this question. Perhaps you are studying language X as you plan to move to the country where X is spoken, maybe X is just a work requirement or maybe your girlfriend speaks language X and so you really want to learn it.

What's your opinion on this? I am curious to hear about your TOP 3 :karate:

[Jellyfish]

Will. Ability. Act.

I can follow the thought that led to your top 3 but without being able to learn no motivation passion uses anything. And in the end you just gotta do something.

[BWL]

Absolutely true! If you have no interest. motivation and perseverance, it will be difficult to accomplish anything in the first place, much less learn a new language!

[Gregor]

For me it would have to be:

Self confidence (I CAN do this)

Goal (To be able to read a novel in the language)

Talking with a native speaker

[mh57]

1) Interest/passion, 2) Consistency, 3) )individualized) Resources

You need to find the language appealing, you need to stick with it and you need to have resources that work well for you.

[tulosai]

For me it is

1. Time commitment, plain and simple. More hours = greater mastery.

2. Interest.  Without it you'll never keep at it.

3. Help. Others assistance in you mastery is invaluable.

[mareebaybay]

Those are some great ingredients for learning just about anything. Learning languages can be completed as long as you have some type of determination and push to complete such a task.

[justusforus]

I think language is like learning anything else.  Motivation is always a factor in learning, to have the discipline to study and practice.  I have known people who learn a language for a job requirement or more recently for love.  I thought it was great that a friend learned a foreign language to speak to their "new" family.  Probably a great idea to get along with the in-laws, or at least know what they are talking about!

[Rosa]

I think that if everyone spoke the same language it could be good for some things, for example, trading and other aspects among countries. It could also turn out to be bad too. I believe that just the way the story of the Tower of Babel tells of how people started to think and act out things the same would happen. Also, we wouldn't have any need to learn new languages and communicate about so that would be a little boring too.

[Baburra]

To me it would be dedication, learning ability, and resources. I think if one of these factors were taken out, then the person wouldn't be able to learn a new language. If the person is dedicated and has learning ability, for example, but doesn't have resources, then he or she wouldn't have anything to learn, and the same could probably be said for when you take out any of the two other factors.

[TheJamal]

1. Committment

2. Time with a native speaker

3. Having fun learning!

Feel like all these three factors are amongst the most important in learning a language. Any sort of big undertaking requires a tremendous time commitment to be successful. Also, having access to a native speaker can help with a lot of the questions you can't get out of a textbook. And the most important is having fun while learning a language. It has to be something you want to do, or you'll never be truly invested in doing so.

[jfab]

These are true. These 3 are indeed key ingredients. I would like to add that diligence and having a good study habits on this matter will make you learn and master a language in no time.

[Trellum]

For me it's quite simple, mostly my 3 magic ingredients to learn a new language are:

1 - Time.

2 - Motivation (I have a huge motivation because I know I will be using Dutch in the future a lot).

3 - Good learning materials (This is basic, because I actually like to learn languages on my own).

I have motivation and very soon I will get good learning materials, but sadly the only thing I'm missing right now is ''time''.  The only thing I need right now is time, that's the only thing that I'm missing.  If I only had more time I would be able to learn this language faster.

[Firelily99]

Motivation/desire, perseverance, and consistency.  I have to be motivated otherwise I wouldn't do well in the new language.  Perseverance because it isn't easy learning a new language and consistency to keep doing the same tedious exercises over and over.

[Rosa]

I would have to say Ability, passion and purpose.

It is very difficult to do well at anything when there is no passion inside for that thing. If you have a purpose then you will make an effort and also strive for excellence in order to fulfill that purpose. However ,you need to have the ability, otherwise you could even get to the end of your studies and find out that you still have not mastered the language because of your inability to do so.