Obsessive Discipline

As someone who made a living through languages, I know a thing or two about how to choose a language to learn. To be honest, choosing the language to learn is the EASIEST part of learning a language. Here’s what you have to do:

In order to choose a language to learn, the most effective way is to choose languages that share the same root as your native tongue. This means that if your native language is Spanish, you should choose other Latin languages such as Portuguese, French, and Italian (Romanian could also be a possibility). If your native language is English, then German (or even Swiss-German) is the way to go. If your native language is Japanese, then Mandarin (or Korean) is a no-brainer. The reason for this is simple: it’s easy. By doing it like this, you’ll always see quick language learning gains, and this is HUGE for motivation and consistency. Remember, you only learn something when you consistently engage with it day after day.

Also, don’t try learning multiple languages at the same time. That’s way too hard and WILL burn you out. Pick one and stick with it for as long as you want (or until you reach B2 at it), then move to the next language.

Now you have a good starting point to choose a language to learn. So, what’s the next step?

Well, the next step is to actually stop procrastinating and actually start learning the language.

However, I understand that you may need some extra motivation before diving into a good textbook.

In this case, take a look at my blog post about How to Make Money Learning Languages and then I’m sure you’ll want to start learning a new language.

Now, let’s say you don’t want to follow the recommendations from my big paragraph over there.

What you REALLY want is to learn a language like, say, Japanese, even though your native tongue is English…

I won’t stop you, amigo. I got you.

After all, I’m here to help ALL of you, even the weebs.

I’ll now spend the rest of this article giving you different learning strategies and resources that are actually good. No fluff.

The Best Language Learning Strategy

Before I give you the best strategy to learn a new language, let me first establish a starting point.

Let’s assume for the rest of this article that you’re a native English speaker.

Then, if you’ve read the big bold paragraph at the beginning of this article, you know I recommend learning German (or Swiss-German) if you’re a native English speaker.

However, what if you’d like to learn a different language that doesn’t share the same root as your native language? Would your learning strategy have to change to accommodate this?

For the most part, no.

To learn a new language, all you have to do is set yourself up for success by picking one good resource. Usually, the best resource is a book, like a textbook or a bilingual book.

Let me tell you why.

Learning languages is all about input. Input, input, input. Consume as much of the language as possible, and you’ll learn ANY language very fast.

Good books make this very easy to do. They are the purest and most useful source of input you’ll ever get.

And yes, I know you’re sitting there probably thinking BUT WHAT ABOUT SPEAKING WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS?

Okay, amigo, hear me out.

While speaking with native speakers will indeed help you learn the language, it won’t do it any faster than simply reading and consuming as much content as possible in the language you’re learning.

Speaking simply isn’t efficient enough. It’s the icing on the cake. You only do that AFTER lots and lots of hours of input-focused study.

So, What Are The Best Books to Learn a New Language?

That’s an easy question to answer.

The best books are textbooks and bilingual books. Textbooks are where you’ll be learning your grammar rules and memorizing them through exercises. Bilingual books are where you’ll immerse yourself in the language and increase your vocabulary. Some bilingual books also come with exercises, which is very good too.

Textbooks, however, are way easier to find than bilingual books.

Also, once you learn a second language, learning a third one is WAY easier. Partially due to the fact you have MORE textbooks and bilingual books to choose from.

I like to call that the Compounding Effect of Language Learning. You can read more about this effect in another blog post I wrote.

And yes, yes. I know some of you want me to quit yapping and just link the books already.

So, here you go. I’ll link the ones I’ve read already and are actually good.

Book Recommendations For Language Learning

Language	Book Name	Book Type (Textbook vs Bilingual Book)	My Thoughts On It
Japanese	A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons for Mastering The Written Language	Bilingual Book	This is quite possibly one the best, if not THE best bilingual book I’ve ever read. There’s no fluff. It’s just lesson after lesson, non-stop. It has a very good difficulty progression, but expect to take a few months (if not years) to finish working through all of it. This book is so good that, after you learn your hiragana and katakana, you can simply ditch any other Japanese book you’re using and just work through this one instead. Also, this book is from the 90s. This doesn’t matter AT ALL. However, you’ll see some people criticizing it because of this. Ignore it. This is an amazing book.
Korean	Korean Stories For Language Learners: Traditional Folktales in Korean and EnglishKorean Stories For Language Learners: Traditional Folktales in Korean and English	Bilingual Book	This book gives you all you’d want from a bilingual book. Stories to practice vocabulary, short lessons to practice, etc. However, my recommendation is that you combine it with a grammar-oriented textbook. Then you’ll be all set for your adventures in the Korean language. Also, keep in mind that you’ll need to learn how to read the Korean alphabet before using this book.

I’ll keep updating this table as I learn more languages and buy more books.

Also, my blog has a series where I teach myself something for 100 days and try to make money from it. Sometimes I do it with a language in my Language Learning series.

If I’m learning a language, then you can be sure I’ll document the journey on my blog.

So, if you’d like to see how I did learning the language you’re interested in, feel free to check my Language Learning series.

That’s it for this post, folks. I’ll see you later.

I’ll leave you all with a FAQ down below.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to pick the right language to learn?

Preferably, you’d pick whichever language you like the most. However, if you’re just looking to learn a new language to profit from it, then pick the one that shares the same root as your native language. So if you’re a native speaker of English, favor learning German over others.

How can I choose my language?

Go with the language you like the most. If there’s no language you’re particularly interested in at the moment, then pick the one sharing the same root as your native language. The key is to make it as easy as possible for you to study it everyday.

How to choose which language to learn next?

If there’s no financial incentive behind your language learning goals, then always pick whichever language you’re interested in studying. If there’s money to be made, however, then pick the language sharing the same root as the other ones you know.

Which language is very useful in the future?

English will always be relevant. However, whichever language has lots of people using it, learning it would be a good idea. So, a few examples like this would be Mandarin, Arabic, and Portuguese.

Which language is most worth learning?

English would be the most worth learning. However, if you know English already then you should either pick whichever language shares the same root as the ones you know OR pick the language you’re the most interested in.

What language will be spoken in 2030?

English will always be very relevant. However, Mandarin and Arabic will increase in global use as time passes.

What is the easiest foreign language to learn?

The easiest foreign language to learn is the one that shares the same root as your native language. So if you’re a native speaker of Spanish, then French, Italian, Portuguese (or Romanian) would all be very easy to learn. If you’re a native speaker of German, learning English would also be very easy.

What is the best foreign language to learn?

The best foreign language to learn is the one you’re the most interested in. That way you’ll never have to force yourself to study it everyday, you’ll simply do it out of pure interest. However, if you’re looking to make money from your language learning efforts, then pick the language that shares the same root as your native language. That would be German if you’re a native English Speaker, or Spanish if you’re a native speaker of French, Portuguese, Italian, and so on.