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- Go on the trip alone, so you won't be tempted to
speak your monther tongue all the time.
- Live in a family with no other foreign student, so
you will have to speak your target language for the most basic things,
and you will hear it all day long.
- Get one-to-one lessons with a smart, sympathetic and
competent native speaker. Group course are no good and you will need much more
time. Bad teachers do exist, and are well worth avoided. Some people teach a language
which is not their monther tongue; they may be a necessary evil in your country, but they
are definitely not in your target country.
- Speak only in your target language, even with
your con-nationals acquaintances
- Read the local newspapers, listen to the local
radio, watch the national TV
- Try to find some books in your target language about
some topic you love, and then read them slowly, writing down on flash cards the words you
don't know.
- Get interested in the local culture
- Try to make local friends and avoid the company of
your co-nationals
- Always try to make a perfect pronunciation
- Never be satisfied with being understood, but strive
to speak as well as a local
- If there are several versions of a document (a guide) in different
language, make a point to always take the version in your target language
- Always carry a deck of blank flash cards and write
down all the words you don't understand. If you're a beginner, then limit
yourself to the most useful words.
- Make a point of never going to bed before you have translated
all the day's flash cards (some you won't be able on your own, leave them aside
and ask your teacher). Then sleep a night on the new flash cards, and review them all one
time the next day.
- Try to find out the most common expressions and
fashionable words. That will give charm to your speaking.
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