You’ve got your resources, you’ve got your routine, you’ve got your regular study time. But something is missing. Where’s everyone else?

You can be the most inspired language learner ever, you can have any resource at your fingertips, but if you haven’t got anyone to practise with, anyone to teach you, anyone to learn from, or anyone to share with, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

My degree was a little different to most. It was distant-learning, which means although you have a tutor, you’re left to your own devices for the most part. When I first started, I’d never studied solo before.

I’d always had a teacher giving me resources and guiding me in the right direction.

And to be honest, at first, I was grateful to be on my own. I figured that by now I could do this language learning thing, so obviously I could do it on my own too.

And it’s not that I was wrong, but I definitely didn’t do as well as I could have because I was ignoring one key element to any language learning: other people.

I had my tutor who I saw in real life and online throughout the year, and I had the forums where I could connect with other students doing the same course as me.

But I definitely didn’t take advantage of them enough.

And that was a mistake. Because community is key for language learning.

Other people are as fundamental to your language learning progress as the resources you have. Here’s why community is essential to your language learning.

Share success

There’s a lot of joy in language learning and if that’s building up inside you with no escape, it’s not as fun as being able to share your successes with others.

Engaging with others and sharing your success is a great example of why community is essential to language learning.

But here’s the thing, it’s not about showing off. Heck no.

It’s about creating a positive environment where others feel equally comfortable to share their successes and even feel inspired by you sharing yours too.

Share struggles

We all know language learning is no bed of roses all the time. Or maybe it is, because there are bound to be thorns in both.

From time to time, language learning won’t be fun, it won’t be easy, and it won’t be getting you the results you dreamt of.

It’s just as important to share your tricky moments as it is your positive ones.

By having people you can trust to ask questions to, get advice from and just simply vent to, you’ll be creating an healthy relationship with the laguage learning process by acknowledging that it’s a journey with a mixture of emotions and stages to expect along the way.

Once you realise this through sharing your struggles openly, you’ll be able to keep making positive progress.

Exchange ideas

Sometimes it’s tricky to write a language blog. Giving advice about anything is hard because we all have different ways of doing things, and language learning is no different.

Being open to hearing the ideas of others and to sharing your own is another great example of why community is essential to your language learning.

Share what worked for you (and what didn’t) and be open to hearing what worked and didn’t for others too.

Who knows – you might just find that the language app you’ve been considering creating exists after all!

Exchange language

It doesn’t always matter if the people you’re connecting with are learning the same language or different languages to you.

However, when cross-over does happen, it can be great to take advantage of for language exchange.

Language exchange isn’t always easy, especially online, however, when you’ve got a community you can trust, you know you’re in good hands.

Support others

Community isn’t just essential for your own language learning. You never know who you might be helping with the connections you make.

When someone else shares their struggles, being there to listen and share advice could be exactly the support they need.

When someone else reaches out looking for language exchange, you’ll be supporting them as well as your own progress by saying yes.

Language at its very essence is about people. So any opportunity to give back throughout the process should be taken advantage of.

Support yourself

At the time of writing this, there’s a big push in the UK to tackle loneliness.

A study by The Co-op and the British Red Cross found that over 9 million people in the UK are either always or often lonely.

And I’m sure the UK isn’t alone in those stats.

Language learning can be a great way to connect with other people, so we should use it as such rather than stay totally alone in the process.

Not only is community essential in your language learning for all the reasons listed above, it’s also essential to support yourself.

How to find community for language learning

The good news is that nowadays it’s easier than ever to find community for language learning. Yay!

Facebook Groups

It could be that a Facebook Group is all it takes to find others who love what you love and are doing what you love too.

There’s more language learning related Facebook Groups than I could possibly mention here, but to get started, try #WeDoLanguages.

#WeDoLanguages – this is my Facebook Group, so obviously I’m going to big it up here! Every day I post a daily prompt to get the conversation started, as well as any number of the over 5,000 members sharing things daily too. We even have a monthly chance to connect with others for language exchange too.

MeetUp

MeetUp is a great website with lots of local options to meet offline.

Of course, what’s available will vary depending on where you are. If you’re studying a lesser studied language and living in the Scottish Highlands then it’s unlikely you’ll find a local meetup for that language, but if you live in a bigger town or city, you might get lucky.

Libraries, cafes, community centres

If MeetUp doesn’t work for you then narrow your search down more locally!

Libraries, coffee shops, community centres, volunteer centres, leisure centres…all of these and more can be great places to go poster hunting for your perfect language community.

And if it doesn’t exist and you’re feeling brave, why not start your own local language community?