How to Maintain a Language in the Internet Era

5 Easy Ways not to Forget a Language

Do you fear forgetting a language? Don’t let it happen! Read our tips to maintain your skills.

Imagine this: after years of big efforts to learn a language, and countless sleepless nights spent in memorising words and grammar rules… it feels like you’re inexorably forgetting everything. If that sounds familiar, we have good news for you: your skills only need a brush-up, and practicing a language has never been so easy.

Here are a few tips to maintain your language skills and learn new expressions in the internet era:

1. Read the newspapers.

The internet gives us access to virtually all newspapers in the world. That is a huge advantage for multilingual people. Reading the news – or at least their title – in a foreign language will not only help you keeping it and learning new words, but it will also give you a unique perspective on what happens around the world.

2. Watch movies with subtitles in the original language.

If you know the language well enough to understand all the movie without the aid of subtitles, well, congratulations! However, the truth is most of us don’t. Instead of selecting subtitles in your own mother tongue, try setting them in the same language you are watching the movie in. That will help you understanding what they say, but also, and most importantly, how they say it.

Movies are a great way to see how the language is used in everyday communication and to learn slang expressions that no school text will ever teach you. Also, movies are useful to familiarize yourself with different accents – and that is going to be very useful when you will travel abroad.

3. Find a language exchange.

Do you think language courses are too expensive? We don’t blame you! The good news is, there is a cheaper alternative you can use once you already know the basis of your target language. We are all native speakers of some language, and if you are lucky enough you will find someone interested in learning yours and making a language exchange. In cities, multicultural communities are usually big and language exchanges are easy to find on social media. However, the internet remains the biggest multicultural community in the world. Regardless if you live in New York or in a rural village, an internet connection is all you need to find a native speaker from the other side of the world.

4. Listen to the radio.

Among the continuous stimulus of the internet and the visual media, we sometimes forget it exists. However, the radio can be a precious resource to learn a new tongue. There, you will find a good balance between a formal and an informal language, as well as a well-articulated pronunciation. And, well, you’ll be updated on the latest hits.

5. Think in your target language!

As simple as this may appear, one of the most effective methods not to let a language slip away from your brain is… keeping it in your brain. Trying to think in your target language will be very helpful, especially when it comes to vocabulary. It may be describing to yourself the things you see around you, or thinking about something abstract. The main advantage is that you can do that in virtually any situation. Whether you are driving to work, cooking dinner – or talking with a particularly boring person –, translate your own thoughts!

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