First Aid Kit

Quick Hacks

Short boosters or mini-challenges you can try right NOW. Think of it as a five minute energy shaker.

Deep Dives

Longer, more dedicated and structured practice when you really want to focus on improvement.

Two ways to approach each problem

• 1. I want to learn a new language. I don't know where to start.

• 2. I have trouble understanding native speakers.

• 3. I want to be more confident when speaking.

• 4. I want to stop translating in my head.

• 7. I'm quite fluent but I keep making a lot of mistakes.

• 5. I want to expand my vocabulary.

• 6. I want to read without getting stuck on each word I don't know.

• 8. I want to improve my accent.

• 10. How do I maintain my language skills?

> > > Submit your own > > >

• 9. How do I know if I'm making any progress?

1. "I want to learn a new language. I don't know where to start."

Quick Hack

• See if it's for you first. Before going all in commit to just one week of daily exposure (videos, apps, notes, songs) before deciding if you want to go deeper. No pressure, just an experiment.

• Pick a sentence that you actually use in real life and learn how to say it perfectly. Use it daily, in your head or out loud.

Deep Dive

If you're serious about learning a new foreign language, want to see real progress, and avoid giving up when things get hard you should start with the First Steps. There I will take you through the very first things you need to ask yourself to think about your motivation, goals and how to track progress.

Don't rush things. Only after that we can talk about the actual language baby steps, and why drawing a creative roadmap for your language journey is a great tool that will help you. Coming soon.

2. "I have trouble understanding native speakers."

Quick Hack

Watch or listen to any short audio (10-30 seconds) in your target language. A YouTube video, podcast, or movie line works! (YT works best in my opinion). Change the playback speed to 0.75x, and listen again. Now try 2x speed. All this helps train your ear.

• Use this speed hack for other videos, too if you feel the pace is too fast for you to keep up.

Deep Dive

Coming soon.

3. "I want to be more confident when speaking."

Quick Hack

• Grab a random image (from Google, your camera roll, or a book).

• Set a 5-second timer.

• When the timer starts—BLURT OUT anything about the image in your target language! Doesn’t matter if it’s broken, messy or even wrong.

• Repeat with different images as often as you want.

• Why it works: It forces you to speak before overthinking, builds reflexes—so you stop freezing in real conversations, and trains you to trust yourself instead of doubting every word.

Deep Dive

Confidence, much like other soft skills, can be practiced. Some people are natural, some have learned it with age, experience or status, but it's also true that most people (however successful or bold) still have inner doubts or even impostor syndrome. And no, it doesn't necessarily come from being proficient or an expert. No matter how advanced you are, you can always build your confidence, and it will make your language comfort zone the cozy place you'll want to be in.

I like to fight it with some silly exercises:

• Choose a super simple sentence in your target language, (e.g., “I like coffee." "This is my favorite song." "I have no idea." “I love this place.” “That was amazing!”)

• Say it 10 times, but each time, do it in a different way:

  • Say it angrily.

  • Say it like a royal announcement.

  • Say it in a whisper.

  • Say it like you're telling a secret.

  • Say it like a sports commentator.

• If you're way past simple sentences ROLE-PLAY is another fun project you can do, even regularly:

  • When cooking a meal play a chef on a TV culinary show saying out loud what you're doing and presenting it to the "audience" (it probably only works if you live alone or with a cat). Make it real fun! Doesn't matter if you don't know all the vocabulary, no need to be accurate to the pinch, table spoon or cup.

4. "I want to stop translating in my head."

Quick Hack

• Pick a few simple words you already know in your target language, ideally things that are commonly found around you (e.g., water, book, cold, hungry, boyfriend).

• If you see water, say “water” in your target language.

• If you grab a book, say “book” in your target language.

• If you feel cold, say “cold” in your target language.

• If you're hungry, say "hungry" in your target language.

• If your boyfriend irritates you, say "boyfriend" in your target language, pronounce it really well. He might feel like you're calling him names but hey, it's just plain innocent language training, right.

• When you've had enough fun with this set, pick some other words and do it again later!

• Why it works: Trains your brain to switch to the target language naturally, uses real-world association instead of translation, and it feels like a mini-game—no pressure, just habit-building! Plus, you'll have one up on your BF.

Deep Dive

Take it to the next level, with longer sentences or more complex ideas. For the next 24 hours, whenever possible, describe things in your target language, either inside your head or out loud when you feel like it (hey, no judgments).

• Keep it rather simple, and PLAY.

• If you don’t know a word, skip it or rephrase it. Especially if you don't know something give it your best try to work around the words you don't know.

• Example: If you don’t know “ceiling,” just think “the thing above me.”

5. "I want to expand my vocabulary."

Quick Hack

You know you can always write lists of new words, or describe things around you (which is always a great idea, by the way) but here's a fun idea to keep it more creative and out-of-the-box.

Use your five senses! Look around and describe something using all five senses in your target language. If you don’t know a word, just guess or find a creative way around it!

• Sight: The sky is blue.

• Sound: I hear birds.

• Touch: The air feels cold.

• Smell: I smell coffee.

• Taste: This soup is salty.

Deep Dive

Expanding your vocabulary isn’t just about learning more words—it’s about choosing whether to cast a wide net (aka go broader) or dig into a single area (aka go deeper).

Go Broader

Pick one word you like in your target language. Let's try it with the word “coffee” (hmm, sensing a pattern here):

Find at least 5 words related to it from different categories:

• Synonyms (similar meaning): espresso, brew, java, instant (yep, I just did that)

• Antonyms (opposite meaning): tea, water, juice, beer (wink)

• Objects associated with it: cup, beans, filter, café, lid

• Actions related to it: sip, grind, pour, roast

• Feelings or emotions linked to it: energized, warm, cozy, jittery (speaking of "jittery" check out this hilarious comic by Nathan W. Pyle about "jittery liquid".)

Go Deeper

Draw your own Word Maps. Instead of focusing on one word, you'll focus on a whole topic that you want to master, and build a rich network of vocabulary around it. And by "draw" I mean actually DRAW. If drawing is your element you're probably already doing it for other things in your life. If not, it's even more important if you try it.

Step 1: Choose a Theme

Pick a real-life situation where you want to improve your vocabulary. Example Themes:

• Food & Cooking (great for travel, socializing)

• Daily Routines (useful for conversations about habits)

• Talking About Work (for professional settings)

• Hobbies & Free Time (to make social interactions easier)

• Navigating a City (ordering, directions, asking for help)

Let’s say you pick "Daily Routines."

Step 2: Brainstorm Related Words & Expressions

Group words by categories for easier recall.

Example for "Daily Routines"

• Morning: wake up, snooze, stretch, brush teeth, get dressed, breakfast

• Work/Study: commute, emails, deadlines, focus, meetings, brainstorming

• Evening: unwind, cook dinner, exercise, binge-watch, read, sleep

Step 3: Create Your Word Cloud

Now that you have a set of words, turn them into visual clouds, maps or bundles! I recommend creating your own hand-drawn or DIY digital version instead of using automated online tools. Canva would be my go-to tool for digital word maps or collages, and a plain old (or new) notebook or even just sheets of paper work great for writing, drawing and sketchnoting.

6. "I want to read without getting stuck on each word I don't know."

Reading fluency is a big challenge in and of itself. Getting to a "natural" level takes a lot of exposure and dedication but you can absolutely read in your target language just as easily as you would in your native tongue. To get to at least a comfortable and practical reading level where you don't have to pick up a dictionary three times for each sentence I have several useful tips, exercises and also habits that are worth adopting.

Quick Hacks

• 1. The very first quick hack is rather simple - pick a text that is suitable for your level not just in difficulty, but also length, and subject matter. Ideally don't reach for Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, James Joyce's Ulysses, or Charles Dickens's Great Expectations for a light reading exercise. I recommend actually lowering your expectations to be quite honest. There's a list of 100 Most Difficult Novels over on Goodreads for a fun reference.

• 2. The second hack is the real key to not giving up - pick something you are genuinely interested in. Whatever it is there are always good stories about it that will take you into real life adventures and your curiosity will keep you drawn to the story.

• 3. While reading, make the conscious choice not to pause over words you don't know, just skip them, and focus on the meaning you do understand to keep the flow going. This is something you will have to practice and train your brain to do.

• 4. Train the very important habit of guessing (or even sensing) the meaning of unknown words. Allow yourself to skip 3 unfamiliar words per paragraph before looking anything up.

Deep Dive

The key hacks of choosing the material that is something you are deeply curious about and not way too challenging, are an important requirement to intense work on your reading as well. What you can do to gain some tangible results is to alternate two different approaches:

Go Broader

Think volume - consume a lot of content, without slowing down to translate individual unknown words. Read a (thin) book. Reading takes time and exposure, you want to get immersed in the activity, for uninterrupted periods of time.

Reading here is not an exercise. You don't turn it into a class - no taking notes, or writing down vocabulary. Get used to the activity as a whole.

Go Deeper

The opposite approach is working with a shorter material but with great focus and effort.

You can take a page or just a paragraph from your book, an article online, or a page in a magazine, and dig into it. Write all the words you don't know, google the ideas and facts you read about, watch a video about the same topic.

Most importantly highlight or write down all the things that don't make sense to you. They might be too advanced for you now but they are a great thing for discussing with your tutor (if you take classes), or with your conversation buddy. Or just keep them tucked away for a later time when you accidentally discover your old notes and find out you get it now. Great feeling.

If you're already a pretty confident reader and your goal is to get your skills to the next level you will need to reach for more challenging books, and topics that are outside your comfort zone.

2 Ultimate & Fun Hacks

Combine Senses

My all time favourite hack is reading & listening to an audiobook (unabridged, aka not a shortened version!) at the same time. It's like watching a movie with subtitles, but someone actually takes the time to pronounce clearly, narrate the story with great intonation, and rhythm. Whenever you combine two senses it's an extremely effective training for your brain.

The other thing I absolutely love is reading comic books and graphic novels for adults. With beautiful artwork, stimulating your imagination, and telling a story in other ways and in less words than a regular book. Lucky for us there are whole library and bookstore sections dedicated to them.

Here's a few that are my favourite and have a permanent spot on my bookshelves at home:

• Une nuit à Rome by Jim.

• Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by David Polonsky and Ari Folman.

• Baking With Kafka by Tom Gauld (everything by Tom Gauld really!)

7. "I'm quite fluent but I keep making a lot of mistakes."

Tiny sidenote: mistakes are good. Don't beat yourself up over making them. But use them as a learning prompt and fuel for progress.

Quick Hack

Record yourself speaking on a familiar topic for 30-60 seconds. Now listen and try catching all the mistakes you can.

• Slow down the recording if you need to.

• Ask a native speaker or teacher to point out any mistakes you missed.

• If you like technology take it to the next level and use AI tools to transcribe your audio to text, and ask AI to highlight the mistakes.

• Create a corrected version of your text, and use it as your study material. Read it out loud, say individual sentences over and over.

• For comparison, study an article, Youtube video or podcast talking about the same topic. The key is teaching your mind to get used to the right words, pronunciation, expressions, or phrases.

• Finally, record yourself again and compare!

Deep Dive

Making mistakes you're not aware of is a matter of improvement and learning. Trying to correct mistakes that you know you make regularly, ones that have more likely become a habit because you probably know the correct language, is pretty hard, and requires a completely different solution. Small piece of advice: you will need to focus on fixing this when you practice on your own, not when you're trying to order a meal or telling a story to a friend. After all, you're focusing on saying what you want to say, and that's great. You don't want to pause and think all the time, or get so discouraged you stop speaking altogether.

Let's do a little experiment:
How do you type? Do you stab the keyboard with two index fingers, use all ten in a fluid motion, or something in between? Did you learn the proper typing technique, or just use whatever you can and not really think about it?

I learned to type properly with a great online course that makes it fun, and takes you through daily short practice for 30 days. I was already somewhat fast before but I knew I was making a lot of mistakes and wasn't using the more effective ten-finger technique, without looking at my fingers. I had wanted to learn this skill for ages but somehow always failed and gave up (sounds familiar?).

The first, most important thing I needed to do, one that felt so uncomfortable, so vexing, was to SLOW DOWN. So frustrating, I could have totally typed that sentence so much faster already, my way!
But you know what? It worked. It started slowly adding up, I was typing properly, I found a rhythm, and could gradually pick up the pace over the course of the 30 days.

It works the same with fixing bad habits when speaking. Sure you'll get to your point faster if you just say it the way that you normally do. It takes focus and slowing down to get out of the cycle. It's also not going to give you results over night (what does, really?) so the first step to improve is to acknowledge that the process is slow and gradual, and bring your mind to focus. The attention will make the energy flow to the right place, just like with meditation.

8. "I want to improve my accent."

When people say they want to improve their accent, they often mean they want to:

• Be understood more easily in conversations.

• Sound more natural or closer to a native speaker.

• Feel more confident when speaking, without worrying about how they sound.

Ask yourself: Where do you fall? What do you talk about when you think about accents? What parts of your speech would you like to improve?

The truth is, everyone has an accent, including all native speakers. Your accent carries your unique story and identity. The goal shouldn’t be to erase it but to improve the elements that help with clarity and flow.

Let’s break it down:

1. Pronunciation — Are you producing individual sounds correctly? (e.g., rolling the Spanish "R" or distinguishing between short and long vowels in English)

2. Melody & Intonation — Are you using the right pitch and rise/fall patterns? (e.g., questions rising in pitch, stress patterns)

3. Rhythm & Flow — Are you speaking at a natural pace? Are you linking words together like natives do, rather than pronouncing each word separately?

Before you can produce clearer, more natural speech, you need to hear it accurately. We often struggle with pronunciation because we don’t notice certain sounds or patterns in native speech. Our brains skips over details it doesn’t recognize!

Here’s how to tune in and sharpen your ear:

Quick Hack

Play with speed variations on Youtube. Pick something packed with voiceover or normal conversation. Let's forget about trying to understand the meaning for now, and just focus on the sounds. Start with normal speed first, then try going slower to 0.75x or even 0.5x. Listen carefully for missing sounds, word connections, or interesting intonation that you didn't notice before.

0.75 sounds still very natural, and it's very handy when you want to adjust a conversation to a more digestible speed. 0.5 sounds a bit weird but it's actually very helpful if you're trying hard to catch a slippery sounds that otherwise gets lost.

Now speed it up.

Once you recognize a pattern, play it at normal speed or even 1.25x. Your brain and ear will start picking up on these patterns and once you actually start noticing them it's much easier to start using them yourself.

Treat it like a detective mission – don’t just listen passively, actively search for hidden sounds, stress patterns, and missing words all around you. Over time, your brain will start predicting these patterns automatically!

Deep Dive

When you train your ear to pick up on sounds, rhythm, linking certain words, and even different people using the same language differently, you can focus on practicing your own delivery.

Here are two great ways you can try:

1. Shadowing - Again, Youtube is your friend. Either pick a video specifically dedicated to this kind of exercise (here is one by Emma from mmmEnglish as a great example), or simply choose your favourite channel. Repeat separate sentences after the native speaker, trying to mimic the way they speak - including pronunciation, rhythm, melody, and emphasis on different words.

2. Listening to audiobooks - My favourite way that passively conditions your brain to learn speech patterns, correct pronunciation, but also expands your vocabulary, and broadens your mind. You can also read the book at the same time to train your reading AND listening for even greater improvement.

9. "How do I know if I'm making any progress?"

Quick Hack

Capture a snapshot of your current abilities and compare it regularly.

• Record a short video of yourself speaking for 1 minute. Talk about something familiar - e.g. your day, what you like, your family, your home, or describe a picture or what's around you. If you're just starting out just say a few random words you know.

• Forget about it for a few weeks. Keep learning, practicing, and exposing yourself to the language.

• Redo the challenge after a month and compare. Does speaking feel easier? Are you able to form longer sentences or talk more fluently? Are you struggling less to find certain words?

Deep Dive

Start a journal. Inspired by The Artist’s Way morning pages, this is about building a habit of daily reflection in your target language—without pressure.

5 minutes daily is enough. Don't think about it too much, don't bother with grammar or spelling, just jot down whatever comes to mind: what you did today, where you are right now, how you're feeling or a random idea or thought you have. You can also try capturing the “stream” of your consciousness.

• If you skip a day, don't make a big deal out of it.

• The habit of writing something daily is just as important as what you write, maybe even more.

• You a realistic record of the evolution of your skills, as well as insights into your daily life, language (or other) struggles, motivation, mood, ideas, events, etc.

Challenge yourself to writing daily for 30 days, to try the new habit and see how it can change your life, not just your language skills. Get inspired by my favourite 3 minute TED Talk: Try Something New For 30 Days by Matt Cutts.

Need inspiration? Download my 5-Minute Journaling Prompts PDF—28 creative idea starters to get your words flowing!

Bonus Tip

Write a letter to your future self. Seal it and open it in 3-6 months. You’ll be amazed at how much has changed, and what you had to say.

10. "How do I maintain my language skills?"

Learning a language is one thing—keeping it alive without daily exposure is another. When you’re immersed, surrounded by native speakers, your brain has no choice but to stay sharp. But what happens when you move on to a new country, switch focus to another language, or simply don’t have people to practice with?

Quick Hacks

Small, bite-sized sneaky ways to check in with your target language, so subtle, your brain won’t even realize it’s practicing!

• Follow social media accounts in the language—memes, travel pages, cooking reels, whatever interests you.

• Narrate your actions in your head as you go about your day: "Now I’m making coffee… Wow, I need to clean this mess."

Deep Dive

Create a personal go-to playlist of resources, channels or media to practice the core activities (listening, reading, speaking, writing). Work your brain in different "directions" to stretch, tune and strengthen your skills.

Listen to a podcast, audiobook, or radio show.

Read a news article, short story, or blog post.

Watch the news or a documentary on Youtube. Stay on top of current events, trending topics, or cultural discussions.

Talk to yourself. Yep, really. This is often called the “shower conversation,” but you can do it anywhere—while cooking dinner, walking in the woods, or even sitting on the toilet. Basically, anywhere you won’t be overheard and labeled a weirdo. Narrate what you’re doing, argue with an imaginary opponent, interview yourself for a magazine, talk to a movie star, or just ramble. It keeps the language active in your brain, no conversation partner required!

What's your trouble?

Share your own problem, trouble or challenge YOU face as a language learner, so we can expand the Language Firs Aid Kit.