How to Learn a New Alphabet: 8 Tips and Tricks to Get You Started

When you want to learn a new language, where do you start?

The alphabet, of course.

It is the first step and lesson no.1 every language learner starts with. Even though learning letters and sounds seems like a piece of cake, it can get challenging.

Here are 8 tips and tricks to learn a new alphabet. 

Learn An Alphabet Song

Learning the alphabet in a new language is similar to babies and toddlers learning sounds and speaking in their mother tongue.

Learning a language with songs is beneficial for many reasons but the main one is that it is much easier to remember when there are rhythmic and catchy tunes If you, for example, are learning Japanese, you can successfully learn it with easy songs in Japanese.

So, if you want to use music and songs to learn the alphabet, there are plenty of catchy songs on YouTube, from Arabic, Chinese, Japanese to French, Spanish, and Russian songs.if your target language isn’t among these ones, you can easily find the alphabet song on YouTube and choose the one you like the most.

Don’t Learn The Whole Alphabet At Once

Learning the whole alphabet at once doesn’t seem like hard work at that moment, but it can be overwhelming for your brain because the day after learning the alphabet, you may start mixing letters and forgetting some of them.

Instead, we suggest learning several letters at once, and not the whole alphabet.

You can do that in several ways.

One of them is to start learning letters from the beginning of the alphabet. You can learn four to five letters at once. Then, the following day, you repeat the ones you’ve already learned and move forward to the other five.

The second way is to group letters into similar ones and lean them that way. This way of learning the alphabet can help you see the difference between similar letters and know to recognize them immediately.

So, depending on your learning style, you can choose how you will learn letters. 

Learn The Alphabet’s Order

It is very likely that no one will surely ask you to sing alphabet songs or to recite letters by order, it is good and useful to know it.

Knowing the order will help you easily use a dictionary and use it faster.

When you memorize the alphabet’s order, you can repeat it for yourself, which is useful because you can visualize the letters and therefore, easily connect sounds with letters.

Write Down Letters to Remember Them More Easily

In today’s internet and online world, it seems that people don’t use pen and paper at all. 

For learning the alphabet, it is good to remember the good old days and take pen and paper to write down the letters.

It will help you remember them better.

Get a notebook where you can practice letters. 

If you are applying the previous tip and learning several letters at once, you can write them down on the first page and in the following ones to practice writing them.

If you need it, you can always check out if you’ve written them correctly.

When you learn all the letters, you can practice writing them down from the first to the last one,\ and then you can say them aloud. This way, not only can you practice letters, but also the pronunciation.

Learn The Alphabet Using Your Native Language

Even though it may seem a little weird, it is actually very helpful in learning the alphabet.

One of the ways to learn letters is to write down the words in your native language.

Choose some words in your native language. Then write them down with letters in your target language.

Besides practicing and learning the letters, this way, you can connect letters with sounds.

Write Words That Start With Same Letters

This tip can help you learn letters but also build and improve your vocabulary.

Start thinking about words that begin with letters you’ve already learned well. Write them down.

Make sure you write down the words for all the letters from the alphabet.

This way of practicing makes you think about words and phrases in general. 

It is also very helpful because you are actively using the letters and repeating them in words you are using.

Use Flashcards

Flashcards are an effective learning tool.

Today, you can choose whether you want to use the old-fashioned way by using pieces of paper and writing down on them or you would rather use flashcard apps.

Both ways are equally useful. The only thing is what is more suitable for your learning methods.

Flashcards are usually used for learning new words and expressions, often to understand grammar as well, but we suggest you use them for learning the alphabet, too.

By using flashcards to learn the alphabet, you can use the ones you have already been using while learning new expressions. Spell the words by saying letters and sounds out loud.

Another way of using flashcards is to write down all the letters from the alphabet. By choosing the flashcard that contains a letter, you can say it out loud and, for example, think about the word that begins with the given letter.

Use Apps

Today, there are apps for practically anything that comes to your mind.

Therefore, it isn’t odd that you have very good apps for learning the alphabet.

One of them is TenguGu, which is available both for Android and iOS devices. It helps language students learn the alphabet in many different but engaging ways.

Many languages, such as Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, or Russian are available for use.

Don’t think about learning the alphabet like you are a kid. You aren’t but learning the alphabet is connected to the beginning of learning the language, which metaphorically means that you are a kid in your target language.

But, with these useful tips to learn the alphabet, you can ‘grow up’ very quickly, even more quickly than you think so. 

You only have to be prepared to dedicate your time and give your best to become an adult’ in your target language. And for that, you can get additional help from Justlearn tutors.