Journalling Ideas For Foreign Language Learners

As a foreign language learner, you're probably constantly on the lookout for effective ways to accelerate the language learning process and reach the desired level of the linguistic knowledge as soon as possible. Keeping a journal in your target language can help you achieve your linguistic goal(s) faster and with less effort.

Toolbox and resources:

• Tools to Turn Twitter Into a Diary
• Best Free Education Sites On The Web
• 3 Innovative Ways To Learn Or Improve A Foreign Language
• Language Express
• BBC Languages

If you are into learning languages, here are five types of linguistic journals you can start playing with today:

A descriptive diary

In a descriptive diary you report what happened during your day in detail, so you can practice the vocabulary needed to fluently explain your everyday routine, express your most common concerns and thoughts, and talk about important people (and pets) in your life in a foreign language. Due to this intention to master new vocabulary, you'll probably be writing much more than you would in your native language, but it's worth the effort. Social conversations more often than not revolve around everyday situations, so you'll have plenty of occasions to use the newly acquired knowledge.

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A literature-based diary

If you're an avid reader, reading foreign literature in the original is probably a no-brainer for you. Why don't you take your passion for literature a step further and decide to keep a literature based diary? You can add bits and pieces of your favorite novels, poetry or non-fiction books there, excerpts from magazines and newspapers, quotes found online, etc. The sky is the limit! Trust your creativity and sixth sense, and you'll know exactly which expressions, sentences, paragraphs, etc. to include in your diary. If there are any words you're not familiar with yet, look them up in the dictionary and jot down their meaning in the diary, too. Do it regularly and you'll see your knowledge of the language increasing exponentially. 

A vocabulary-focused journal

Another language mastery booster is a journal dedicated to vocabulary building. Organize the new expressions in a logical way, but leave enough room to creative touches, such as adding recipes, product instructions, article paragraphs, thoughts from chocolate wrappers, ingredients lists, and similar everyday sources of fresh content to learn. Perhaps you've saved those already, but had no idea where to put them. Now you do - you'll create a colorful, extremely useful and very special sample of copy-paste art. 

A book-like journal

For aspiring authors, the best journalling option might be an attempt to write a book - any genre will do - in their target language. Are you among them? If you are, remember this is supposed to be fun and relaxing, so don't beat yourself up if the writing's not exactly perfect. Focus on telling a story or presenting your expertise. The key objective is to dive into the vocabulary that's obviously important to you, and let yourself be pleasantly surprised every time you stumble upon interesting new expressions.

A creative writing journal

In case you're more inclined to short stories or poetry, and get bored by the idea of having to stick to one topic, it's the creative writing journal that will bring the magic in. Let your thoughts flow freely as you put them on paper. Don't stop if you can't remember a word or two - you'll insert them later! Give yourself the opportunity to notice the vast range of your knowledge. This might increase your linguistic self-confidence so much that you'll master your chosen language sooner than you imagined.

Keeping your motivation high is crucial, so envision the future you - the masterful foreign language user - as often as you can. Picture yourself engaged in a thought provoking, incredibly interesting conversation in your target language with an intriguing, amazing native speaker, or imagine yourself giving a great, breathtaking speech in this foreign language in front of a mass of raving fans. You get the point, right? In your mind, make yourself a language phenomenon!

John Chen is a travel writer currently located in Bangkok, Thailand. He likes writing about Thailand and he writes not only about traveling in Thailand, but also about business, culture, economy, education and food.