Fun ways to practice a foreign language

If you want to be competent in your target language, you should practice it on a regular basis. The best way to do this is by doing things you enjoy i.e. Doing something that you don't feel like work.

Here are the amusing ideas that will help you improve your target language,:

1. Listen to your target language through radio

Nowadays it's easy to listen to radio stations from all over the world online, so you can enjoy at the same time. Also, if you listen to stations from diverse regions, you can come across a variety of accents and cultural variations.

Tip: the TuneIn app (www.tunein.com) lets you access international stations from your smartphone or tablet.

2. Watch videos on YouTube

You can find numerous videos on YouTube in your target language. By practicing the target language this way, you can also choose the level of difficulty based on the content you watch. For example, one person speaking for the whole video against a blank wall can be more difficult to understand that a more visual video where you can actually see the things they are talking about.

Tip: Make sure someone is speaking in the video.

3. Associate with a local club

Local clubs and societies are a great way to meet unfamiliar people and can be great accelerators to pick up your English. Try to join a group or volunteer in some organization outside of your comfort zone. Through these activities, you can enrich your vocabulary and speak about subjects that were unforeseen in your everyday life. Meetup.com is a great way to find groups like this.

4. Read a book or watch a film

If you are under an Advanced level, it may be best to read a book or watch a movie as this makes it easier to understand the plot and grab vocabulary.

Reading a series like the Harry Potter books or The Malgudi Days can be a great motivator as you can observe your improvement in the language with every book.

5. Change the language setting on your smartphone and social media

Surrounding yourself with an environment of your target language in everyday life is one of the best ways to improve your competence in it. Even though your surroundings do not expose you to the target language, changing the settings on your smartphone and social media can help you to feel more absorbed if you use them regularly.

Tip: You can use voice-activated applications like Siri.

6. Use social media

Chatting via social media can be a good way to practice your target language when you are unable to do it in day to day life. The language is informal and close to real-life speech but it involves a lot of spelling mistakes and short forms.

Tip: Speak to people on Skype to enhance your language skills

7. Listen to music

Listening to songs in your target language makes you enjoy music and practice your listening skills at the same time.

Tip: Read the lyrics, by this you can improve your reading skills and comprehension.

8. Follow an exercise or a meditation video

This way you can practice your target language and get fit, healthy and relaxed. It's also a good way to catch new vocabulary as you learn the language by listening.

9. Speak to yourself

Think in your target language about your daily routine. Try to frame sentences such as, I am going to become a successful person among all my relatives, I will finish this work by evening etc. This will make you habituated to think in your target language and is a fine way of identifying any vocabulary you need to learn.

10. Go on holiday

This is a great motivator to learn and improve your target language sincerely in the weeks and months before your trip. Try to practice while you are booking the journey, e.g. contact hotels, arrange commute, and sketch guided tours in your target language. This is where you can speak English well enough to communicate with others.

Tip: avoid using travel agents or booking package tours that operate in your mother tongue.

11. Replicate your beloved celebrity

If your beloved celebrity is a native speaker of English, or if he or she has learned English as a second language, you can make use of their story as motivation to advance your own language skills.

12. Watch a soap or TV series

Even though your favorite TV shows are normally dubbed in your native language, you try to watch the original versions in your target language, for acquiring your target language.

Watching soaps gives an insight into the kind of conversation used in everyday life in addition to visualising many great, popular TV shows that will encourage all to keep watching and enhancing their language skills.

13. Challenge yourself - Take a course

Set yourself a goal such as taking a Standard English exam. This will put necessary weight on you to get better before the date of the exam and will allow you to assess your achievement in a formal context. By taking an English language course ONLINE OR OFFLINE, you can dedicate yourself to take the time to enhance. It's also the best learning ambience as you will over and over again learn new things and your mistakes will be corrected by the teacher.

14. Picture yourself in the future

Visualize what you could do if you could speak English as fluently as your first language. Would you be able to get your dream job? Get promoted in your current work? Research deeper into English-language culture? Whatever your enthusiasm was to learn English in the first place, try to memorize it during your language-learning journey.