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• Figure out what you should read! For an absolute beginner, stick to textbook exercises and content made for learners. Stay away from native material for now, since it will generally be quite unhelpful, and will just damage your confidence and motivation without actually improving your skills. For pre-intermediate learners, read articles and social media posts, since the language used in them are widely used, but not too complex. I remember that after 2 months of studying Spanish semi-regularly, I could make it through an article about language learning without really needing a dictionary to understand it. Articles like that are made to be accessible, so the language will be more simplistic.  For intermediate learners, now is a good time to hit the books! Language used in books is usually a lot more diverse and complex, so it will be challenging, but helpful. I recommend sticking to things that interest you, like translations of your favourite childhood books (I read a translation of Harry Potter in French and it was sublime). Upper intermediate learners will be more comfortable with YA books, while lower intermediate learners might prefer fanfiction and children’s books. Don’t go for something which has a bunch of jargon or old fashioned vocabulary like fantasy books or old classics. Go for something which will include vocabulary related to every day life and your interests, like romance or coming of age novels.  Alongside this, keep reading articles, social media posts and Wikipedia pages about whatever interests you! You can also read graphic novels, manga and webtoons as well, if you want, just as long as it sticks to the no jargon rule and actually challenges you. For advanced learners, this is the time for you to go for something really difficult, like the classics, advanced newspapers or academic journals and essays. Jargon doesn’t matter. In fact, jargon is good! At this point, you are trying to graduate from a fluent reader, to an educated reader. Maybe you could read textbooks up until high school level so that you could understand the average person’s level of vocabulary in certain fields, like science. Read Marx, read political theory, read whatever you want! This is the most intellectually stimulating stage of language learning, since it is the time that you can truly appreciate what you are reading. Also generally, across all levels, you can read the subtitles of videos, films or YouTube videos in French.
• Figure out how you are going to read! There are two ways to practice reading: reading intensively and reading extensively.  Reading intensively means that you look up every word that you don’t understand (and maybe turn them into flashcards to learn later). I recommend writing all these new words down, and make sure to record it in its unconjugated form to learn it later, unless you want to learn that particular irregular verb or past participle.  Reading extensively means reading a lot without looking up words. I do NOT recommend beginner/lower intermediate learners to do this, as it is only useful if you can understand at least 70% of it. I am able to do this with French, but not with Spanish, since it is only useful if you are at the stage where you can understand most of what is being written. I think this is better for upper intermediate/advanced learners.
• Know your literary tenses! If you don’t understand literary tenses, then you will need to learn it. You can do this using a textbook, or an article, or a YouTube video. Make sure whatever you use has practice texts for you to get used to seeing the tenses with. Also, make sure that you know some of the most common irregular verbs too, since these will come up a lot.
• Read the article/chapter/post once without looking up vocab at first! Try and see how much you can understand, and write down all the words that you do not understand, even if it is a lot. Take it slowly at first, and just try and work through a couple of pages. Then, translate the vocabulary, and try to learn the most important words. Then, reread what you were reading again. This method works very well for me, so I hope it works for you too!
• Read out loud! This helps your pronunciation AND your speed. Make sure you have audio to compare your pronunciation with. I had tajweed lessons for Arabic since I was a child, and all that practice has given me native like pronunciation and a very good accent. This is helpful, trust me!
• Read and listen at the same time! Subtitles of videos/films/shows and audiobooks are the best for this. After about 10 minutes of listening, replay what you were listening too and make sure you can catch every word. This improves your listening AND reading skills.
• Reread! I promise that after a while, your reading skills WILL improve the more you do it and the more you expand your vocabulary. I’m about a third of the way through my first YA French book, and I can already understand so much more than before. After you have learnt the new vocabulary in whatever you are reading, then reread it. This time, you won’t be stuck on what you don’t know, and will be able to enjoy the contents much more.

1. Learn the fundamentals sentence construction
2. Learn how to spell and count
3. Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

• The Alphabet
• Numbers 1 - 100
• Subject Pronouns
• Common Greetings
• Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have
• Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

1. Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day
2. Start conjugating regular verbs

• Days of the Week and Months of the Year
• How to tell the time
• How to talk about the weather
• Family Vocabulary
• Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

1. Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary
2. Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

• Colours
• House vocabulary
• How to ask questions
• Present Tense Conjugations Verbs
• Forming negatives

1. Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country
2. Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

• Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants
• Money and Shopping Phrases
• Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

1. Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

• Adjectives
• Reflective verbs
• Places vocabulary

1. Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs
2. Wrap up vocabulary essentials

• Adverbs
• Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

• There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

1. Choose the words you want/need to learn.
2. Relate them to what you already know.
3. Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.
4. Record them so learning is never lost.
5. Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

• Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.
• Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.
• Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.
• Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.
• Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

• Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.
• Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.
• Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.
• Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

• A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.
• Ideally, words should be reviewed:
• 5-10 minutes later
• 24 hours later
• One week later
• 1-2 months later
• 6 months later

• Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).
• Its grammatical category and other grammatical information
• Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.
• Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

• Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.
• Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

• Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.
• Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.
• Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

• Watch films in your target language.
• Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.
• Listen to the radio in your target language.
• Watch videos online in your target language.

• Try drawing a picture of what was said.
• Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.
• Provide a summary of what was said.
• Suggest what might come next in the “story.”
• Translate what was said into another language.
• “Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

• If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 
• Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.
• A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.
• Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

• Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.
• Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:
• Diary entries
• Shopping lists
• Reminders

• Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.
• Make up a conversation between two people. 
• Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.
• Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.
• Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.
• Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).
• Write a short story or poem.

• Read a lot
• Write a lot
• Get your writing corrected

1. You are going to feel like dropping out. I would say to stick it out for the first year and sit for finals. If you get a good grade for your finals, that could really give your confidence a boost and motivate you to keep going. And then, if you still feel like dropping out or changing majors, you should do as much research as possible.
2. Feeling pressured to do more things. During my first year, I said yes to everything–even things that I didn’t feel like doing. I felt like if I didn’t, I’d be missing out on something really important or fun. FOMO, basically. However, more often than not, I wasn’t missing much and these opportunities will arise again very soon.
3. Buying too many unnecessary things. I bought so many stationery and notebooks before I started uni in hopes that they would motivate me to study. I ended up not using even half of them my first year. At least, I’d be set for supplies until I graduate.
4. Revising in uni is not the same as revising in high school. I used to think I could study last minute for a test, like I did in high school. I learned the hard way that that wasn’t the case at all. Now, I review the topics after every lecture. The key is to keep up because all those lectures are going to pile up really fast.
5. Past papers are your new best friend. I find that professors have their favourite questions that they like to give out. During finals, they might even use the same exact questions as they did in tests!
6. Failing/Getting a low grade in a test isn’t going to ruin your life. I once got so caught up on that one test. But luckily during finals, I snapped out of it and just tried my best. My final grade wasn’t too bad. You live and you learn.
7. Wear whatever you want (as long as it doesn’t get you in trouble). When I wear a hoodie and sweatpants, I get comments that I look like I just rolled out of bed (which I did, duh). And when I have really nice makeup on and do my hair, I’m trying to impress someone. I think people just like to run their mouth and it’s nothing personal, so you shouldn’t care what they say anyway. 
8. Keep in touch with friends outside your university. It can really come in handy during times when you really have to vent about someone in your classes. They can also help you keep grounded and have a different perspective.
9. You don’t have to love the library. I’m the kind of girl who studies lying on her stomach on the bed with papers and books surrounding me and my cat stepping on them occasionally. I think the library is too quiet and public for me. And if you’re the same way and prefer the cafe or elsewhere, then that’s okay too. The goal here is that you get your studying done.
10. Stay healthy. Whenever it’s near finals, I would abandon every other responsibility except studying. I would stop eating healthy and quit exercising, all in the name of making time to study. But they should go hand-in-hand with studying and not one or the other. I find that the better I take care of myself, the better my grades are. You should also get enough sleep–this, I never fail to do.

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1. “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman
2. “A Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness
3. “Hawkes Harbor” by S.E. Hinton
4. “Bunnicula” by James Howe
5. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
6. “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende
7. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
8. “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice
9. “Carmilla” by Sheridan le Fanu
10. “Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
11. “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
12. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury
13. “If We Were Villains” by M.L. Rio
14. “The Canterbury Ghost” by Oscar Wilde
15. “The Accidental Alchemist” by Gigi Pandian

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