Why it’s important to build ourselves a strong foundation in a language 🌍

Since I discovered the power of being able to learn several languages to an advanced level in my early twenties, I have been pursuing with hunger and passion a journey of discovering all the great and beautiful languages of this world. I’ve taken some languages to an advanced level, while others stayed at the basics. If I remained at a basic level in a language, it was rarely due to a lack of interest and more due to other circumstances in my life, like having to move to another country, being surrounded more by one language than the other, etc.

But no matter what level I achieved, what was important to me was to build myself a strong and solid foundation in each of the languages.

What does that entail?🛠️

To me, a foundation means understanding the language’s sound and rhythm—enough to recognize it in conversations around you. It’s about grasping its grammar, syntax, and where its vocabulary originates. It means knowing how to express in a basic way what you want and what you do.

I’ve met people who say to me things like: “I learned French for three years in school, but I don’t remember anything.” How can you study something for three years and not remember anything? It’s because you did not build yourself a foundation in the language. It’s because you learned many different, random things, jumped through grammar tables and rules that made no sense to you and did not repeat the basics. They thought that building a foundation is learning a conjugation table by heart.

So, what do you need? 🤔

Here’s how you build yourself the foundation in the language:

1️⃣ Relevant high-frequency vocabulary: this is not “hello how are you” or “this is my uncle”. Observe your daily life, how often do you say those phrases? High-frequency vocabulary is learning how to say “I think that”, “I want … but …”, “you go to … because…”

2️⃣ Lots of repetitions with listening and speaking sentences using the vocabulary from step one

For example, I studied Persian only for a few months five years ago, and I can still say basic things like what I study and where I go. Why? Because I practiced foundational sentence structures repeatedly.

This approach to building ourselves a foundation is the principle on which I designed the courses in LinguaMerse. I believe it can help many people build themselves a strong foundation in their target language. 🌟

Once we have a strong foundation in place, we can then proceed to grow stronger and build upon the foundation, but the groundwork has to be laid first.

Hope this helps you build yourself confidence in your new language early on!

Have a nice day and happy mersing! 😊🪁

Alex