Learn a Foreign Language as an American

Has there been a time in your life when you've wanted to learn a foreign language?

In last week's newsletter, we discussed the irreplaceable benefits of foreign language acquisition (there's blog page coming soon where all my newsletters will live), and I clarified that I consider "to learn a foreign language" to mean becoming proficient at a level that is most practical for your personal goals and current life situation.

Now back to that time in your life when you may have wanted to start learning another language, did you do it? If not, why not?

Take a second to think about this question. Did you ever actually commit at least 4 weeks with 30 minutes of focused daily practice?

Today, I'm going to share how I learned Russian, and hopefully you'll notice some points along the way that illuminate how everyone can achieve at least some meaningful level of proficiency in any language of choice.

At the end, I'll highlight some points that I believe everyone can take advantage of during their own learning endeavors. I hope that these techniques that are more implementable for all lifestyles will draw more attention than my timeline of formal events such as domestic immersion programs or traveling abroad.

From the beginning:

At around age 22-23, I was in the process of getting out of the military when I purchased the Rosetta Stone series. I wish I could say I committed to every step of this journey with relentless consistency, but there were breaks and distractions. However, there were periods where I would stick with it and put in a focused 30-60 minutes every day, and this laid the foundation.

Regarding Rosetta Stone, it's a good software, but this learning approach has its limitations. I haven't found a perfect software or program out there yet, but this is a topic for another time. Maybe in the future, I'll create the best software for language learning and talk about that one.

At around 22-23, especially compared to how I felt right after high school, I was obsessed with learning. I began taking language classes at my local community college after moving back to my hometown. In one of these classes, my professor mentioned an immersion school that sounded very intriguing, and I decided to apply and attend for the intermediate level (long story shortened). This first 8-week language immersion program was life-changing for several reasons, but before we move on to the next stages of my journey, there are 2 points worth noting:

1) The lead professor was an American who first learned the language in college, and she spoke impeccable Russian without an American accent. Granted, this professor happened to be one of the smartest people I've met, but the fact that she wasn't a native speaker was very inspiring to me.

2) Everyone attending this program either for Russian or any of the other languages were adults, and they were attending on their own volition, committed.

For the sake of what I want to cover today, I'm going to summarize the following years of my language learning journey.

I continued my formal education in the language in college and summer immersion programs, one of which was in Kazakhstan where Russian is predominately spoken. However, I also worked alongside Russian speakers in the States, and I'm confident that most of my progress came due to using the language in my free time around things that interested me personally.

While enrolled in UCLA's renowned Russian Flagship program (known for an emphasis on proficiency and real-world applications), I was fortunate enough to spend an entire year in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where I had previously lived for 8 weeks over the summer. This yearlong program was unique because I was studying there with a small group of Americans who also had advanced levels of proficiency, and we almost NEVER spoke English (twice I believe: on Thanksgiving for a few hours and also during a winter holiday getaway for few hours...and that was it, I'm not kidding).

We worked at internships in the city, lived with local families, formed close friendships with locals, and ultimately formed new lives there, totally immersed in the language and culture. The culmination of this year abroad was a series of thorough proficiency assessments in all modalities (speaking, reading, listening, and writing), administered by both a Russian academic from St. Petersburg and American linguists that came out from Washington, D.C., and we all achieved the professional levels that we had been working towards. On a personal note, this was one of the most rewarding years I've had, and I still keep in touch with some friends I met on this program.

Upon returning home, I began graduate study in translation studies and was eventually recruited to instruct at a series of domestic immersion programs for the government. This whole process is a longer story, but an opportunity for a full-time position later presented itself, and I ended up teaching the language to service members for over 3 years.

I loved this job, and it was a profession I never saw myself leaving, but I eventually decided to try my hand at a more creative route in entrepreneurship and I am, among various things, currently building a film production business. An inspiring memory for me comes from when a college counselor referenced the institute at which I ended up teaching, and she said something along the lines of: "over 95% of instructors there are native speakers with PhD's, so you'd have to end up with a REALLY strong command of the language to ever be considered." I reflect on this not in a way to pat myself on the back, but rather as a reminder that basically anything is possible. It's also true that any professional achievements I've had should be attributed to the incredible programs, friends, and mentors I've been blessed with along the way. Of course, another shout out to my fellow Flagship men and women — we crushed it.

I haven't lost touch with my foreign language skills. It may sound funny, but one of the most rewarding feelings thanks to years of dedication is tuning into media of the target language from various sources and being able to understand what's being said about current events.

3 helpful techniques I want to close on that anyone can implement when acquiring a foreign language:

1) Use "spaced repetition" with words and sentences in context when studying.

There are apps that can help with this, and I can go more into detail another time. However, the main points here are frequency and consistency. 20 minutes of exposure and focused effort every day is infinitely better than 2.5 hours one day per week.

2) Don't get too attached to anything you learn.

Grammatical rules and idiomatic structures will be broken as you become more advanced, and you'll want to question life itself. I personally wasted too much energy getting frustrating at times, and this only delayed my progress. Listen, pay attention, feel it, relax, and go with the flow — your mind WILL adapt. Try to always keep an upbeat and optimistic attitude.

3) Most importantly: attach every lesson to personal emotion (without contradicting technique #2)

As mentioned above, emotions like anger and frustration can inhibit learning, but if you can associate structures and vocabulary of the target language with experiences you've personally been affected by, it's a game-changer. This, by the way, is why living in a country where the target language is spoken or immersion in general is so helpful — it's not the access to new information, instead, it's the abundance of emotional experiences you will inevitably accumulate, and these compound over time to expand your abilities in the language out of necessity.