Practising with native content

In this month’s translation industry updates we’ll be looking at how we can boost our language-learning experience with native content, regardless of where we are in our language-learning journey.

Practising with native content involves engaging with written or audiovisual materials that are primarily targeted at local native speakers of that particular language. Using native content can be a great way of supplementing traditional study since it provides exposure to the target culture and helps build a sense of familiarity with colloquial language and how native speakers communicate. Practising with native content can also help to develop a greater sense of affinity with a language and culture and can provide an interesting and engaging alternative to more traditional study materials.

Lastly, exposure to native-language content can be helpful for laying the foundations for situations where you’ll be interacting in your target language with native speakers. Any kind of content targeted at learners will typically use more limited vocabulary and standardised speech. Real-life interactions are typically a lot messier, so gaining a level of native-like exposure through working with native content will help prepare you for situations where you have to hit the ground running. 

Tip number 1: Start at an appropriate level

The best language-learning resources are typically those which challenge us to a certain extent without completely overwhelming us. If you’re fairly new to a language, try to prioritise shorter content which can be reviewed frequently. At least at the beginning, it can be helpful to stick to content covering topics that you’re already somewhat familiar with. Choose something that you can easily work into your lifestyle, such as social media shorts if you spend time on public transport. Don’t hesitate to watch or read things several times, since sometimes you can find that your comprehension improves as you go over the same content more. 

Tip number 2: Look for contextual clues

If you use any kind of audiovisual content to help with your learning, it’s worth trying to use contextual clues to help you understand what’s happening. You can infer a surprising amount by looking for cues such as body language and tone of voice, even if these tend to vary between cultures.

Always try to choose content with a strong visual element wherever possible, as the visual cues will either help you to understand or at least keep you interested in what’s happening. If you’re using written materials, try to look for content which has photographs or obvious titles or subtitles since these will help give a general overview of what’s happening. Always look for repetition or patterns since this will help you to get a feel for the structure of a language even if you understand very little of it.

Also remember that regardless of whether you understand what’s happening, using native content can help you feel more in tune with the atmosphere of another place, whether that’s body language, weather, scenery, or fashion choices. For that reason it’s arguably worth watching or reading foreign content even if you have no interest in learning that language at all, since it can transport you to another place and give you an insight into how other people read and think.

Tip number 3: Try different things and see what works for you 

Regardless of how you approach learning a language, it’s worth drawing on a range of different resources since each one will challenge you differently. Over and above this, it’s easier to get a grounding in vocabulary and basic grammar concepts if your learning is reinforced from a number of sources. 

Don’t be afraid of experimenting with different types of content to see which engages you the most and works best for you, and always be ready to mix up your learning by trying different things. It’s also worth combining your exposure to native content with more focused formal study since whatever you are learning formally will make more sense when you see it in context, and having more of a formal grounding in a language will help you engage with the target content more easily. 

Even if you aren’t a huge social media fan, it can come in handy for language-learning purposes since a lot of social media content tends to be relatively short, have a strong visual component, and use subtitles. Over and above this, the comments will normally also be in the native language and can be worth reading to get the local take on what’s happening. Over and above this, once you’ve started following a few accounts the algorithms will often suggest you similar content which might be of interest to you.  

Tip number 4: Combine active and passive study

Even watching or reading content passively can be helpful in the sense of improving overall exposure to a language, but it can also be helpful to try to engage with content in an active way by writing down key phrases or looking up key words that you’ve identified. It’s also worth writing down unfamiliar words or expressions even if you don’t get round to looking them up. 

It’s also worth using the content to inspire you to learn more about any wider social issues that are portrayed, even if that means reading about it in your home language to begin with. A lot of the time art is a subtle (or not-so-subtle) portrayal of what’s going on in a country and captures a lot of the things that people tend to think and talk about the most.

Tip number 5: Seek out a community

Try to find fellow fans either in real life or online. If you can find fans who are native speakers of the language you’re trying to learn, that’s possibly the best of all because they’ll no doubt appreciate your effort to not only learn their language but also immerse yourself in their culture. Always ask for recommendations, and don’t be afraid to share good recommendations with other people. If you have friends who are also learning your target language, or who are genuinely just interested in the cultural output of that language, always tell them about good films or series that you’ve seen and be open to their suggestions.

Tip number 6: Be mindful of the strengths and limitations of each type of content

Remember that a lot goes into what makes a piece of content easy or difficult to understand. Something like a children’s book should theoretically be easy to follow because of the reduced word count and repetition, but then the content might be really different from the kind of things you’d normally talk about as an adult. Similarly, watching the news in another language might feel daunting but could actually be comparatively easy from the point of view that you probably already have a background understanding of what’s happening in current affairs, and newsreaders typically tend to have very standardised accents. If one particular genre doesn’t appeal to you, don’t hesitate to switch things up.

Tip number 7: Don’t give up

Remember that even native speakers might struggle with native-level content if it involves more challenging aspects such as archaic language, colloquialisms, or words from a different variant of the language. Also remember that even if you’re completely fluent in another language you might not necessarily understand the full subtext, particularly if you’re watching something that is very culturally specific or relies heavily on humour.

Becoming confident with native content can be a drawn-out process and it can take a long time to get to the stage where you actually enjoy consuming content in another language and actively want to seek out more of it, but once you cross that threshold there’ll be no stopping you.

That rounds up our tips for engaging with native content, but we’d love to hear your thoughts too, so if you have any further suggestions for using native materials to improve your language-learning process or even if you just want to share some of your favourite songs, films or series, don’t hesitate to write to us in the comments. 

Happy learning, and thank you for reading our monthly updates! 

Sources

Lindie Botes

How to actually learn a language from native content

https://lindiebotes.com/2024/06/12/how-to-actually-learn-a-language-from-native-content

Steve Kaufmann 

How to Think in Another Language (Without Forcing It)

https://blog.thelinguist.com/how-to-think-in-another-language-without-forcing-it