The Best Ways To Learn A New Language While In College (2024)

Learning a new language can seem as daunting a task as performing brain surgery or assembling a jet engine. But it is absolutely doable with the right mindset and proper tools, and the rewards can be significant. With a second (or third) language under your belt, you can earn more money, climb the career ladder, expand your mind, make friends, boost your confidence and improve your chances of getting into grad school.

There are lots of reasons to learn a new language and many ways to do it, but what’s the best way to learn a language? Truthfully, you won’t know which method is best for you until you start. Read on if you’re ready to start a fun, exciting and challenging new chapter in your life.

Why Should You Learn a New Language in College?

One obvious reason to learn a new language is to travel with greater confidence, but the benefits don’t stop there.

Career Opportunities

Did you know learning another language can lead to a higher salary? Research by Preply found that multilingual employees earn 19% more than those who speak just one language.

Plus, more companies today are hiring multilingual workers, and job seekers whose résumés boast a second or third language are proven to stand out from the crowd. A report from the Language Connects Foundation found that 90% of employers rely on workers to speak languages other than English, and most expect this reliance to grow in the coming years.

Knowing another language can also provide more opportunities in the job you already have, as multilingual employees can help clients and business partners be understood in their native languages.

Mental Health and Personal Achievement

There are more personal reasons to learn a language, as well. It can help keep your mind sharp and improve your understanding and appreciation of music, art and culture. You can read your favorite literary work in its original form, rather than the translated version. And as you progress on your learning journey, you can enjoy the satisfaction of achieving small incremental goals and ultimately, a major milestone.

Whatever your reason for learning a new language, now is an ideal time to do it. Technology has greatly improved instruction methods and allowed for real-time communication among people around the world.

How To Learn a New Language

There’s no one right method for learning a new language, and people learn in different ways. But experts consider a few key language learning methods to be the most effective. These include conversations, games, one-on-one tutoring and consuming media in another language.

Speak Up

Having conversations with native speakers is an important component of language learning, even at the beginning of the process. Language exchanges provide opportunities to converse in a new language with native speakers, while you help others learn your native language. Many learning programs and apps connect speakers via video chat.

Immersion Therapy

Surrounding yourself with your new language is a common and effective approach to learning. You can reset the language in your cell phone or web browser and use subtitles while watching movies and TV. You can label objects around your house with sticky notes. You can read foreign-language books (children’s books are easiest) and keep a diary in your new language.

Immersion is considered a natural way to place new words and phrases in context and learn functional grammar.

Small Bites

Having a clear goal to work toward can help keep learners motivated. Many effective language programs and apps break learning into small lessons, often ranging between 10 and 20 minutes. Bite-sized lessons encourage learners to dedicate a set time and place to studying their new language.

This approach can help instill good learning habits to help learners push through when motivation starts to wane.

Positive Action

Many learners are held back by a fear of making mistakes, so remember to go easy on yourself. Learning a language is a major project, and whatever path you take, you won’t finish it in a day. Also, remember that different people learn differently, so it might take a few attempts to find a program that works for you.

Language Learning Programs To Try

Finding a structured program for learning a new language can help with motivation and discipline. Consider these options.

Idlewild Language Courses

Cost: $295
Languages Offered: French, Spanish, Italian, German
Program Overview: Founded as a bookstore in New York City, Idlewild offered its first language courses in 2010. Each of Idlewild’s seven-week Zoom classes is taught by a native speaker with extensive teaching experience.

Italki

Cost: Up to $80; most courses cost between $10 and $20
Languages Offered: English, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and more
Program Overview: Italki is a Hong-Kong-based platform that focuses on human interaction. The program connects language learners and teachers from around the world in one-on-one video lessons that last up to 90 minutes. Learners choose from either formal professional teachers or less-formal community teachers and progress through materials at their own pace.

Pimsleur

Cost: $14.95 per month after a free trial
Languages Offered: Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Mandarin and more
Program Overview: Pimsleur is a language learning platform that employs teaching methods developed by pioneering linguist Paul Pimsleur. Thirty-minute lessons feature listening, repeating and practicing with pre recorded clips. The program reminds you to study every day and is compatible with laptops, tablets, iPhones or Androids.

Rosetta Stone

Cost: $15.99 per month for three months or $49.97 as one payment
Languages Offered: Dutch, Farsi, Tagalog, Irish, Vietnamese, Swedish, Russian and more
Program Overview: Rosetta Stone, a longstanding American education technology company, combines various learning methodologies to promote language learning. Rosetta Stone employs immersion learning and voice-recognition technology that compares your speech to that of native speakers. Exercises teach new vocabulary through interactive conversation and lifelike dialogue.

Language Learning Apps

For on-demand learning on the go, you might consider one of the below language learning apps.

Babbel

Cost: $66.90 for six months, or $89.40 for 12 months
Languages Offered: Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Indonesian, Polish, Danish and more
App Overview: The Babbel subscription app and learning platform employs real-life conversations that use voices provided by real native speakers, not artificial voices. The app features lessons, live online classes, games, videos and podcasts.

Drops

Cost: Premium service for $13 per month or $69.99 for a year
Languages Offered: Irish, Korean, Hebrew, French, Catalan, Arabic, Icelandic and more
App Overview: Drops, a language learning app by Kahoot!, uses games and memorization exercises to help users learn new languages or brush up on what they already know. The app for Apple and Android allows offline learning and unlimited use.

Duolingo

Cost: Free; $7 for Duolingo Prime
Languages Offered: Czech, Italian, German, Welsh, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish and more.
App Overview: Duolingo uses a combination of teaching methods and content intended to help users form good habits and stay motivated. The free app available for mobile or desktop uses AI to tailor learning experiences to each user and help them learn at the right pace.

Memrise

Cost: $14.99 per month, or $89.99 annually
Languages Offered: Spanish, French, Korean
App Overview: Memrise lets learners practice using more than 30,000 native speaker videos and a personalized AI language tutor. Users view content based on their interests, allowing them to hear how local speakers actually sound.

Mondly

Cost: $9.99 per month, or $47.99 for one year
Languages Offered: Norwegian, Spanish, Latin, Croatian, Afrikaans, German, Latvian and more
App Overview: Mondly allows you to choose from courses on 41 languages, using 40 practical topics broken into bite-sized lessons. Augmented reality conversations and games provide an immersive experience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Best Ways To Learn a New Language