The conversation among students of a foreign language usually centers on topics such as grammar, vocabulary, and idioms. Or how long it takes to master a foreign language. Or the merits of travel and immersion. Or, yet more creatively, the effect language has on personality. But few have stopped to consider how psychology impacts communication skills in a foreign language. Let me explain. .

People commonly experience fear when speaking in a foreign language. They struggle to find the right words. They are conscious of their accent. And they know they are more prone to making mistakes and looking foolish. Ironically, these fears actually impair their performance in the language. The energy that goes to nursing a fear is energy diverted away from the process of communication. I have friends whose written ability in a language is quite extraordinary, but you would never know due to the complex they’ve built up in their mind over speaking. Psychology, at times, is a greater impediment to clear communication than actual language ability.

I and a number of friends have observed that spoken foreign language ability tends to significantly increases with moderate alcohol consumption. That is, in fact, the bizarre observation that initially inspired this post. We know that alcohol lowers inhibitions, which makes many people more comfortable socializing in general. And that foreign languages tend to generate an increase in fear-based inhibitions. Without these inhibitions, people still make mistakes and have an accent, but they are less conscious of them. The end product is clearer, better, more confident communication.

The first step to overcoming any psychological impediment is recognizing it as such. Remember, no matter how many egregious language errors you ever make, the earth will keep on spinning. Mastery of this simple observation may, in fact, be the fastest way to improve communication skills in a foreign language.

For further reading, check out The Magic of Speaking in a Foreign Language.

In middle school, I had Hispanic friends who would often speak Spanish within earshot of me. For me, it was like watching a magician perform a magic trick. Maybe it was the sound of the language. Maybe it was their ability to seamlessly go back and forth between English and Spanish. Or maybe it was the sheer fact that I didn’t know what the hell was going on yet knew communication was taking place. In any case, this experienced motivated me to study languages, and I’ve been a committed student of Spanish and Arabic for the last 10+ years.

After being in the game for so long, I no longer think of foreign languages as a magic trick. Occasionally, I try to resurrect the childlike wonder that accompanied my initial plunge, but I’d be lying if I told you that nothing has changed after a decade of familiarization. In short, I have progressed from the honeymoon stage to the marriage stage of the relationship.

Language study is something I invest in on an almost daily basis between friends, family, and work-related activities. I can’t imagine my life without Spanish or Arabic. During the last decade, I’ve made countless friends from Latin America and the Middle East and many fond memories that would otherwise be lost in translation. Spanish and Arabic are also an important part of my professional resume. I worked as a translator for a summer and know that being trilingual is a big asset in the 21st century. By my estimate, the thousands of hours I’ve dedicated to this area have been well worth it. I may no longer see foreign languages as a magic trick, but they are most definitely a superpower.

Let me give you a vivid illustration of how attached linguists can be to the languages they study. Last year, I was playing pick-up basketball with one of my classmates at the university gym. His name is Steven. He was a high-motor, high-flying athlete, but after one of his awkward jumps he got clipped by a defender and landed on the side of his head. Thump. Steven was evidently concussed. We took him to the hospital, and after a couple hours of waiting he decided to sleep on it due to the long wait and high cost of treatment. Can you guess what Steven kept on asking us while he was waiting to be seen for a potentially serious injury? He asked us to speak Arabic with him, at least a dozen times! In his dizzied, confused state, his biggest fear was that he had forgotten Arabic, a language he had invested hundreds of hours in and clearly had an emotional attachment to.

Do you study a foreign language (or have an interest)? How has your perception of it changed over time? Has it opened any personal or professional doors? Do you plan on studying it the rest your life? How do you make it a regular part of your life, especially if you do not live in a country where it is spoken?

This language business is definitely an adventure. For further reading, check out the linguist tag and The Psychology of Speaking in a Foreign Language.

Sometimes we need help from others. And sometimes others need help from us. Whether it’s with the big things or the small things in life. In fact, it’s rare to go an entire day without thanking someone or being thanked. Carrying groceries, giving rides, and sharing knowledge in an area of expertise are common ways people in community help one another. My grandparents regularly ask me to fix their computer and solve any technology-related problems. A common response to being thanked is “No problem.” The issue with this response is that it contains two of the most hated words in the English language–“No,” and “Problem.” Sure, order and negation matter, but simply saying a word can subconsciously trigger negative associations. And admitting something is “not a problem” doesn’t make anyone feel exceptionally good. The world is not going to end if you keep using this expression. But you can respond in a much more effective way with a simple phrase.

Say “Happy to Help” Instead

“Happy to help” or “I’m happy to help” communicates to people that helping them is something we personally value. We don’t help out of a sense of compulsion but because we joyfully choose to. This can be a perfectly sincere response given the myriad benefits of helping others. Helping others diverts attention from our own problems. It gives us confidence knowing that we are high-value human beings. And it leads to reciprocity down the road from those we live in community with, be they family members, friends, or neighbors. Let alone the instinctive satisfaction of receiving gratitude from others.

The next time someone says “Thank you,” consider it an opportunity to leave an impression. The single best way I have found to do that is with the expression above.

Fluency is the ultimate goal of studying a foreign language. Fluent speakers can express themselves with ease in any context. Fluent speakers can use their language skills in professional or service capacities. Fluent speakers don’t need a dictionary by their side 24/7. Once a learner has achieved fluency, operating in the language is far more enjoyable as anyone who’s been on both sides can attest. If you’re already studying a foreign language, thinking about getting started, or just plain curious, keep reading for what the experts have to say on how long it takes to become fluent.

How Long is Measured in Hours of Study

People often want to know how many months or years it will take them to achieve fluency, but both of these are the wrong unit of measure. There is nothing magical about the passage of time when it comes to language acquisition. What takes 6 months for one person may take 6 years for another depending on the weekly investment they make in the language. This is why hours of study is the correct unit of measure for estimating language mastery. If I told you it takes 700 hours to master Spanish, then you could accurately estimate the years and months it would take you to get there based on your average weekly investment. Another thing to take into account is the background of the student. A student highly proficient in their native language or with experience studying another foreign language will require less time to reach the same benchmark. For those with no experience or little natural language ability, the process of language acquisition is more time-consuming.

There is nothing magical about the passage of time when it comes to language acquisition. What takes 6 months for one person may take 6 years for another depending on the weekly investment they make in the language.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), an organization of the US State Department, trains American diplomats in foreign languages so they can effectively serve US interests abroad. The FSI has published estimates based on 70+ years of experience of the average length of time it takes a new language student to achieve “professional working proficiency” (link). Professional working proficiency is based on the Interagency Language Roundtable Scale and takes into account both reading and spoken capabilities. Here is the complete description (link):

Professional working proficiency is the fourth level of five in the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale of language proficiency, formerly called the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) scale. This level is sometimes referred to as S-3 or Level 3. A person at this level is described as follows:

• able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics.

• can discuss particular interests and special fields of competence with reasonable ease.

• has comprehension which is quite complete for a normal rate of speech.

• has a general vocabulary which is broad enough that he or she rarely has to grope for a word.

• has an accent which may be obviously foreign; has a good control of grammar; and whose errors virtually never interfere with understanding and rarely disturb the native speaker.

The FSI has divided languages into four categories of increasing difficulty with respect to the time it takes native English speakers to achieve professional working proficiency.

Category 1 Languages: ~600-750 Classroom Hours

Category 1 is for languages most similar to English. It includes Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Romanian, and Norwegian. According to FSI, the average native English speaker needs ~600-750 classroom hours of study to achieve professional working proficiency. With one hour every single day of the year, it would take a beginner about two years to become fluent.

Category 2 Languages: ~900 Classroom Hours

Category 2 is for languages more distant to English than Category 1. It includes German, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay, and Swahili. According to FSI, the average native English speaker needs ~900 classroom hours of study to achieve professional working proficiency. With one hour every single day of the year, it would take a beginner almost 2 and a half years to become fluent.

Category 3 Languages: ~1100 Classroom Hours

Category 3 is for “hard languages,” languages with significant linguistic/cultural differences from English. The extensive list consists of the following:

Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Czech, Dari, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kazakh, Khmer, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Nepali, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Singala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somalia, Tagalog, Takiki, Tamili, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.

According to FSI, the average native English speaker needs ~1100 classroom hours of study to achieve professional working proficiency. With one hour every single day of the year, it would take a beginner more than 3 years to become fluent.

Category 4 Languages: ~2200 Classroom Hours

Category 4 is reserved for “super-hard languages,” languages that are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. It includes Arabic, Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. According to FSI, the average native English speaker needs ~2200 classroom hours of study to achieve professional working proficiency. With one hour every single day of the year, it would take a beginner more than 6 years to become fluent.

Conclusion:

Learning a language is an art, not a science. No two languages and no two language learners are the same. Figures from the FSI provide a good estimate of the time it takes serious students to achieve working-level proficiency. Keep in mind that professional classroom instruction was assumed in the creation of these estimates. If you are self-studying, it may take you longer depending on your independent learning ability and the resources you have at your disposal.

Based on my experience with Spanish, Arabic, and Japanese I believe the FSI’s estimates are an accurate reference.

Your accent is the first thing people notice when you speak in a foreign language. People’s perception of your language ability varies depending on how closely your accent resembles that of a native speaker. Both native speakers and those with no knowledge of the language use accent as a measure of language mastery. This association is problematic given that the two are often unrelated. I know people with near-native accents whose foreign language ability is minimal, and I know people with heavy accents who have near-native proficiency. However, the better your accent, the more comfortable native speakers will be speaking to you in their native language. Other students will also be more eager to practice their skills with you. And it just may be that you yourself will be more comfortable operating in the language. People with solid language skills are often timid about speaking due solely to their poor accent. It follows that a better accent can lead to better linguistic development. And, most importantly, it can make the process of acquiring a foreign language that much more enjoyable.

Fortunately, there are steps students of all levels can take to improve their accent. For this segment, I thought it would be best to consult my friend and university professor David Contreras. Professor Contreras has been teaching English in Colombia for 10 years and has had the opportunity to provide language instruction to more than 500 students. He is currently based in the Business Department at La Universidad del Magdalena, a research university located in the coastal city of Santa Marta. Here is a transcript taken from our conversation on WhatsApp.

Q: Professor Contreras, thank you for agreeing to participate in the conversation. One of the first things I noticed when I met you is how closely your accent resembles that of a native speaker. Is this how you sounded when you first started speaking English?

A: Speaking was actually the last language skill I developed. When I first started out, my accent wasn’t the best and I would often mispronounce words.

Q: What are some observations you have made about developing a good accent from personal experience and from all your years teaching English?

A: The best way to develop a good accent is to imitate native speakers. This is how I improved my accent. Over the years I have had many students who spoke English with a beautiful accent even though they had no formal training. These students learned the language by listening to songs and watching movies and television.

Q: So would you say that listening is the key to imitation hence the ability to speak a foreign language with a good accent?

A: Yes.

There you have it, folks. If you want to improve your accent in a foreign language, you can start by listening to native media and imitating native speakers. You may not see results overnight. Take my mother, for example, who moved to the US when she was 22. She had studied English in Jordan throughout her educational years. When I heard a recording of her speaking English when she first arrived to the US, I was surprised to discover how much her accent has improved. I attribute this progress to her regular interactions with native speakers. Being immersed in an English-speaking environment all those years enabled her to imitate native speech patters better than she could when she lived in a country whose native language is not English.

Relieving Tension in the Voice

Another factor that influences accent quality is tension around the vocal cords. Tension influences the ability of an individual to speak or sing clearly in any language, including his or her native language. The effect of tension is magnified when speaking in a foreign language due to a relative lack of experience with its pronunciation. When tension is released from the voice, a marked improvement in accent quality is often the end result.

There are a number of techniques to clear tension in the voice. These techniques are regularly used by singers before practice sessions and performances. And they are equally effective with the speaking voice. One of the most common of these techniques is an exercise called the lip roll. The lip roll is a popular warm-up favored by professionals and amateurs alike. See the video below in which professional singer and celebrity voice coach Eric Arceneaux demonstrates the technique.

Another technique endorsed by the experts is yawning. Yawning naturally relieves relieve tension in the voice by contracting the muscles in and around the vocal cords. With practice, anyone can learn to yawn at will. In the video below, Academy Award-Winning Actor Morgan Freeman, renowned for his clear, resonant voice, explains how yawning improves sound quality.

There are a myriad of other techniques you can find online. The lip roll and yawning just happen to be my favorite. Remember that stress is a common source of tension in the body. Any voice coach will tell you that tension in the neck, shoulders, and back negatively impacts resonance. Keeping stress levels low enables you to generate the best sound your organism is capable of producing.

Let us know what you think in the comments. Has your accent at all evolved since you first began studying a foreign language? What strategies and exercises have you found most effective at improving the quality of your accent?

For further reading, check out Linguee, the free app every foreign language student should download and this daily habit will dramatically increase your foreign language proficiency.

Language is something I am passionate about. I have studied Spanish on and off for 10 years and Arabic for 7 years. I even took a few years of Japanese in college although my Japanese skills have since fallen by the wayside. Every good linguist knows how important it is schedule language practice into their daily life. Whether that means listening to podcasts in the car, watching the big game in a foreign language, or simply interacting with native speakers. For years I have made sure the majority of my days consist of some language practice, even if it’s for a short period of time on days I am especially busy.

A daily habit that has greatly improved my proficiency in Spanish and Arabic is the habit of interpretation. No, I do not mean sitting down with a copy of Miguel de Cervantes or Kahlil Gibran and laboring over the written word. I am talking about translating speech that you are already hearing in your daily environment. For example, when I was a university student I would often spend entire lectures translating into Spanish or Arabic, especially if the lecture was boring. This process got my mind working at a high level and forced me to think intelligently in the foreign language. Here are a few pro tips gleaned from hundreds of hours of practice over the years.

Pro Tip #1: Start With Unimportant Material

When you first begin translating, it will be a slow and laborious process. Your mind will need time to locate the right words and expressions meaning you will likely not be able to keep up with the speaker. It follows that your comprehension of the material will be minimal. As a result, you probably won’t want to translate a review session for your organic chemistry final or your boss’s presentation of annual performance reviews.

Pro Tip #2: Look Up New Words and Expressions

This tip is especially important when you are first starting out. Translating will expose gaps in your language ability. Gaps of words, expressions, idioms, and grammars. Whenever you have a doubt, get out your dictionary (when in doubt, get it out). The process of looking up new material can be painstaking, especially when there is a lot you don’t know. But you will reap the rewards of your diligence if you stay persistent. Sooner or later there will be very few things to look up and you will be able to enjoy the process with minimal effort. I have already written about Linguee, the free app every foreign language student should download. Download it if you haven’t already. Linguee is perfect for translation because it gives sample sentences in addition to definitions. For examples, let’s say you want to look up the English translation of the Spanish expression “a tiempo.” You would simply type the expression in Linguee and complete sentences drawn from published material will result. Sample sentences give you an idea of how to translate words and expressions in context.

You may not want to look things up while translating. This can keep you from falling into a rhythm while drawing unnecessary attention to yourself (Pro Tip: sit in the back of your classroom). In that case, you can always write down notes of new words and expressions to be looked up later when you have easy access to a dictionary.

NOTE: Since I have been translating for years, I can get through entire sessions without looking anything up. This doesn’t mean I don’t benefit from looking up words and expressions to get a better idea of their usage. What it does mean is you will eventually get to a point where you can translate the meaning of nearly everything without a dictionary (even if that translation is not top quality). In short, when in doubt, get it out is important for translation regardless of your language level but it is especially important initially when there are gaps that disrupt your ability to flow in translation.

Pro Tip #3: There is More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

This hideous English expression highlights an important point: translation is an art form. No two translations are alike. This does not mean that all translations are equally competent. Some are certainly better than others. What it does mean is that your translation does not have to be perfect, especially for the purposes of this discipline. The goal of the process is to quickly arrive at a translation that works. You may not be able to translate every metaphor and idiom as such within a moment’s notice, but eventually you will be able to come up with a translation that captures the essential meaning of what is being said.

You want to limit yourself to what you already know as much as possible, which often involves simplification. Otherwise, you will make many mistakes. So if you do not know what “villain,” or “president,” or “house,” mean, you can say “bad person,” “leader of a country,” or “place where he/she lives.” The more words you look up eventually (see tip #2 above), right away or later, the more precise you will get..

Pro Tip #4: Watch Movies with Subtitles

This is one of the most entertaining ways to improve your translation abilities. The subtitles are, of course, a direct translation of the audio. Study them carefully and see how experts who get paid big bucks move material from one language to another.

Pro Tip #5: The Skill You are Developing is Actually Interpretation

Both translation and interpretation involve moving text from one language to another. Translation is written while interpretation is oral. Translation: the Bible from Hebrew to English. Interpretation: a CNN en Español commentator live transmitting into Spanish the content of a Donald Trump speech.

I have referred to the habit of this article as translation because it does not involve you speaking (unless you practice at home using your voice). Translation is also the term most people are familiar with. But the skill you are developing–moving live speech into a foreign language without the luxury of dictionaries and contemplation–most closely resembles interpretation.

Pro Tip #6: Don’t Try This If You Are A Beginner

As I mention in the title of this post, translation is not for beginner-level students. Your vocabulary and grammar simply aren’t advanced enough to keep up with any part of a live presentation. Wait until your level is at least intermediate and you have a solid foundation in the language.

Pro Tip #7: Persistence is the Name of the Game

Translation is a skill that takes many hours of practice to perfect. I remember when I first started translating from Arabic to English and vice-versa. It was an arduous process even though my Arabic was quite good at the time. Today translating to and from Arabic is much smoother, but there is still a ton of room for improvement. Remember, language skill is a muscle that is governed, like all other muscles, by two primary rules: 1) you get out (power, ability) what you put in (effort, time) AND 2) If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Good luck. Until next time, happy interpretation.

If you liked this post, check out the sequel, Lifestyle Of A Linguist: A Second Atomic Habit To Take Your Language Skills To The Next Level—Thinking In A Foreign Language.

UPDATE: I posted a summary of this article, and it blew up on Reddit. You may like to consult that thread here to read through different responses, Q&A, and community feedback.  

HelloTalk is the world’s leading language exchange application. Thousands of people regularly use the program to improve their language skills with native speakers and fellow learners around the world. HelloTalk supports text, voice memos, audio calls, video calls, group chat, and status updates. It has a brilliant correction feature that enables users to edit mistakes. I have made several friends using the application that I remain in contact with today. One of them even visited me in the United States. HelloTalk is an invaluable tool for students of a foreign language, especially those who do not live in a country where that language is spoken. However, there’s one mistake I constantly see people make that limits the benefit they get out of the application.

Language Exchange is About Reciprocity

HelloTalk is a medium of language exchange. The word exchange implies reciprocity, also known as give and take. Everyone uses the application for the same reason you do–to advance their foreign language proficiency. If you want to get something out of an exchange, then you have to be willing to offer something in return. Fortunately, ability is not the issue as everyone is able to benefit someone else somewhere along their language journey. However, there are those who only want to take and have no interest in giving. I get messages from people like this all the time. People want me to speak to them in English but have no interest in speaking to me in their native language. HelloTalk, and nothing else in the world, works that way. Let me give you an example of a good introduction that is likely to leave a good impression and a bad introduction that will have the opposite effect:

Good Introduction: Hello, my name is Ben. I’m an advanced-level student in Spanish and English is my native language. Would you be interested in having a language exchange so we can help each other advance?

Bad Introduction: Hi, I need help with English. I have a big exam coming up, can you teach me?

Obviously the first introduction is going to gain the most traction because it acknowledges the basic principle of reciprocity. I get what I need and you get what you need. That’s the definition of a win-win transaction, the kind that HelloTalk is designed to facilitate.

What is the most important tool for learning a foreign language? The answer, of course, is a dictionary. Without a dictionary, we would have to rely solely on our interactions with native speakers. This would greatly limit our ability to learn new words and expressions. Many of us studying a foreign language live in countries where it is not the primary language spoken and must go out of our way to interact with native speakers. In addition, the explanations given by native speakers are often incomplete. The invention of the dictionary was an absolute game-changer for all students of foreign languages. It saves hundreds of hours in study time and leads to better outcomes for the student. The only thing more useful than a dictionary for a foreign language student is an even better dictionary.

I have been studying Spanish on and off for about 10 years. The best dictionary tool I have found is Linguee. A good dictionary has two main components: 1) good definitions and 2) good example sentences. Linguee excels by both measures. Linguee definitions are complete with the translation, common phrases associated with the word, and numerous example sentences taken from actual published material. This ensures that example sentences are accurate and that word meanings derived from them in context are reliable.

You can access Linguee on its online website (linguee.com). You can also download the application on Android and iOS devices. What’s best of all is that the tool is completely free. While I only have experience with the Spanish-English version, the app also supports a number of other languages, including German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.

Happy language learning!