­　　時代進入到現在，幾乎所有的國家都有外語課，如何讓你的外語學習之路更簡單、更有效？

­　　1. Have a Word of the Day.

­　　每日一詞

­　　Trying to learn everything at once and getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of words in your new language can be overwhelming. Sometimes, even if you do learn new words, you forget them quickly because you haven’t heard them enough in context.

­　　試圖記住每個遇到的單詞、每天淹沒在詞海里工作量太大。即使你當下記住了新單詞，在沒有使用環境的情況下遺忘速度也是驚人的。

­　　One way to get around this problem is to keep a few new words in your vocabulary by using them on a daily basis. Since it takes an adult an average of 150 times to learn to use a new word properly, having a Word of the Day or several words can help build your vocabulary.

­　　解決這個問題的好辦法是挑選一些單詞出來，每天用一用。一個成年人掌握一個新詞平均需要使用150次，每日重點使用一詞或幾詞則可幫助詞匯量的累積。

­　　You can do this one of two ways. One, you can keep a running list of words you’d like to learn and designate one to be the word of the day. Or, two, you can wait for new words to come up organically in conversation, and then try to use the new word several times.

­　　推薦兩種方式：1. 列個單詞清單，每天輪流選擇一個作為使用重點；2. 選擇無意出現在對話中的新單詞作為記憶對象，再使用數次。

­　　2. Speak the language as much as you can (especially with native speakers).

­　　說得越多越好（特別是跟母語人士）

­　　It goes without saying that the best way to learn how to speak a language is to actually speak it. Reading and studying grammar books will only get you so far.

­　　毫無疑問，說好一門外語最好方式就是說說說。畢竟閱讀和語法只能幫你到這里。

­　　And yet, it’s so easy to get trapped in the “not-good-enough” mindset, where you don’t speak because you think you don’t speak well enough. And then your speaking doesn’t get better.

­　　我們很容易就陷入“因為說不好，所以不愿說；因為不愿說，所以更說不好”的死胡同。

­　　So make an effort to communicate with native speakers of your language. You’ll learn a lot more in a 5 minute conversation with a native Spanish speaker than you will from another English speaker who’s had 2 years of college Spanish. Try to spend 80% of your time speaking with those who speak the language better than you.

­　　盡最大努力去和那些母語人士交流吧。比起向那些學過4年專業英語的中國老師，和母語人士交流5分鐘的收獲要多得多。你應該將80%的學習時間用來和那些口語更好的人進行對話。

­　　3. Listen to foreign language radio or TV, even as background noise.

­　　聽英語廣播和電視，即使當背景也好

­　　Part of learning to speak a foreign language properly is learning the intonations and rhythms of the words. In French, for example, you can’t put the emphasis on different words in a sentence to vary what you mean (like you can do in English). And it’s easy to distinguish beginner students from near-native speakers by listening for the ones who pronounce French like it’s English.

­　　口語學習的一個重要部分就是學習聲調和節奏。例如在一個句子中，將重音放在不同單詞上就會表達出不同的含義。初學者和高手的區別就在于是否會將英語說成中國味兒。

­　　The remedy to that is to listen to the language as much as possible.

­　　提升的方法就是盡可能地多聽。

­　　Try to hear the pacing of the words, how they’re pronounced in different contexts, and what the different intonations are. How does the language sound when the speaker is excited, or angry, or asking an accusatory question?

­　　將聽的重點放在單詞的節奏上，在不同環境中發音、語調的區別。當說話者處于激動、憤怒或指責性地反問時語言有什么變化。

­　　Even listening to the language in the background will help you to pick up information on how the language is spoken.

­　　即使是把對話當背景也可以潛移默化影響你。

­　　4. Look up words you don’t know in a monolingual dictionary.

­　　使用單語詞典查單詞

­　　Figuring out the meaning of words can be tricky in a foreign language, since direct and accurate translations don’t always exist. While getting the word for physical objects, like milk or desk, might be straightforward, translating concepts can be a lot harder.

­　　通過中文來正確獲取英文單詞的含義有時可能不靠譜，因為真正直接、百分百準確的翻譯幾乎不存在。一些實物的單詞，如牛奶、桌子可能比較直截了當，但要翻譯一個概念則要難得多。

­　　By looking words up in a monolingual dictionary, you can make sure that the word or phrase you choose actually means what you think it does.

­　　通過查詢單語詞典，你可以確保所選用的單詞是你想表達的意思。

­　　5. When you make a mistake, immediately try to correct yourself.

­　　出錯時立即自我糾正

­　　If you mistype a word, you should delete the whole word before retyping it correctly to reprogram your brain to do it properly the next time.

­　　當你打錯一個單詞時，你應該將整個單詞刪除，再重新打出正確單詞，這樣做是在腦中重新編程避免下次再錯。

­　　The same goes for learning a language.

­　　學習語言也是如此。

­　　If you misspeak, and catch your mistake, immediately correct yourself by repeating the sentence correctly. It will help you program your brain to avoid making the same mistake again, and solidify the grammar rules in your mind.

­　　如果說錯了，你又發現了自己的錯誤，立刻將正確的句子重復幾次。這樣就在腦中重新編程，避免相同錯誤，并鞏固了正確語法。

­　　6. Carry around a notebook and write down new words you learn.

­　　隨身帶筆記本，記錄下新單詞

­　　Any time I heard a word I didn’t know, I’d write it down (asking the other person to spell it, if necessary).

­　　當聽到新單詞時，立刻記錄在本子里（如果不會拼就要大膽問別人）。

­　　After a few weeks, I had a great resource to look at whenever I thought, “Oh, I remember talking about that recently, but I forget what it’s called.” And just as importantly, I had a written record of all of the words I learned.

­　　幾周之后，當任何時候發生“我記得最近也說到過這個，但我忘了具體怎么拼”這樣的情況時，就可以翻開本子看看。重要的一點是，學過的所有單詞都有記錄。

­　　If you’re in the beginning stages of learning a language, this process might be too overwhelming, since you’re learning new words all the time. But once you get to an intermediate or advanced level, your learning process slows down. In the beginning, you progressed easily because you were learning simple verb tenses and lists of super useful vocabulary that you use every day – hello, “How are you?”, “Can I have a pen, please?” – and when you get past that stage, the learning suddenly gets more difficult.

­　　初學者這樣做工作量會很大，因為大部分單詞都是新的。但一旦過了初學階段，學習進程就會放慢速度。初學者學的東西是很輕松的，之后會突然難度大增。

­　　When you’re advanced, keeping a record of the words you learn can also help you from getting frustrated and thinking that you aren’t learning anything new.

­　　當進入高級階段，記錄新單詞還可以幫你擺脫學習出現瓶頸的挫敗感。

­　　As long as you use the language, you’ll always be progressing.

­　　只要在使用這門語言，你就一直處于進步狀態。