时代进入到现在，几乎所有的国家都有外语课，如何让你的外语学习之路更简单、更有效?

　　1. Have a Word of the Day.

　　每日一词

　　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.

　　试图记住每个遇到的单词、每天淹没在词海里工作量太大。即使你当下记住了新单词，在没有使用环境的情况下遗忘速度也是惊人的。

　　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.

　　解决这个问题的好办法是挑选一些单词出来，每天用一用。一个成年人掌握一个新词平均需要使用150次，每日重点使用一词或几词则可帮助词汇量的累积。

　　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.

　　推荐两种方式：1. 列个单词清单，每天轮流选择一个作为使用重点;2. 选择无意出现在对话中的新单词作为记忆对象，再使用数次。

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

　　说得越多越好(特别是跟母语人士)

　　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.

　　毫无疑问，说好一门外语最好方式就是说说说。毕竟阅读和语法只能帮你到这里。

　　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.

　　我们很容易就陷入“因为说不好，所以不愿说;因为不愿说，所以更说不好”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.

　　尽最大努力去和那些母语人士交流吧。比起向那些学过4年专业英语的中国老师，和母语人士交流5分钟的收获要多得多。你应该将80%的学习时间用来和那些口语更好的人进行对话。

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

　　听英语广播和电视，即使当背景也好

　　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.

　　口语学习的一个重要部分就是学习声调和节奏。例如在一个句子中，将重音放在不同单词上就会表达出不同的含义。初学者和高手的区别就在于是否会将英语说成中国味儿。

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

　　提升的方法就是尽可能地多听。

　　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?

　　将听的重点放在单词的节奏上，在不同环境中发音、语调的区别。当说话者处于激动、愤怒或指责性地反问时语言有什么变化。

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

　　即使是把对话当背景也可以潜移默化影响你。

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

　　使用单语词典查单词

　　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.

　　通过中文来正确获取英文单词的含义有时可能不靠谱，因为真正直接、百分百准确的翻译几乎不存在。一些实物的单词，如牛奶、桌子可能比较直截了当，但要翻译一个概念则要难得多。

　　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.

　　通过查询单语词典，你可以确保所选用的单词是你想表达的意思。

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

　　出错时立即自我纠正

　　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.

　　当你打错一个单词时，你应该将整个单词删除，再重新打出正确单词，这样做是在脑中重新编程避免下次再错。

　　The same goes for learning a language.

　　学习语言也是如此。

　　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.

　　如果说错了，你又发现了自己的错误，立刻将正确的句子重复几次。这样就在脑中重新编程，避免相同错误，并巩固了正确语法。

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

　　随身带笔记本，记录下新单词

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

　　当听到新单词时，立刻记录在本子里(如果不会拼就要大胆问别人)。

　　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.

　　几周之后，当任何时候发生“我记得最近也说到过这个，但我忘了具体怎么拼”这样的情况时，就可以翻开本子看看。重要的一点是，学过的所有单词都有记录。

　　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.

　　初学者这样做工作量会很大，因为大部分单词都是新的。但一旦过了初学阶段，学习进程就会放慢速度。初学者学的东西是很轻松的，之后会突然难度大增。

　　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.

　　当进入高级阶段，记录新单词还可以帮你摆脱学习出现瓶颈的挫败感。

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

　　只要在使用这门语言，你就一直处于进步状态。

（编辑：何莹莹）