Language Learning in 2025 - Writing

In today's post in the Language Learning in 2025 series I am focusing on writing practice, considering what to write about and how to get feedback. As always, I have no paid affiliation with any of the resources mentioned in this post; I am only suggesting them as options that have worked for me. They may not suit everyone's learning style.

Writing

There are two main areas of difficulty when it comes to practising writing in a foreign language: what to write and how to get feedback. Let’s consider each in turn.

What to write

One suggestion you see everywhere is to write a diary. This certainly has merit in one respect, since it makes you think about everyday words and phrases in your target language, but it also has flaws.

If, like me, you have a day job, your days, and even your weeks, are likely to be very similar save for the occasional special event. After writing almost-identical content several times, you will soon become bored and inclined to give up on writing entirely.

So, rather than a diary, I would suggest answering different questions. A quick search online will bring up lists of questions aimed at language learners and writing practice, but a few initial ideas are presented in the graphic below, to give you some examples for each level.

In some cases you may even find textbook/study books that offer these prompts. I have one for Korean. Each themed section is split into 4–5 chapters, and each chapter opens with a paragraph to read, to see the basis of that chapter’s question. You then complete several short-form questions before writing your own full paragraph to answer the question. In each chapter, the authors also introduce a new grammar form that you can then use in your answer, so the book, while focused mainly on writing, also includes practice for reading, grammar and vocabulary.

Another idea, if you enjoy hobbies such as reading or watching dramas/films is to write reviews of these books/series in your target language.

And if this is still not enough, a final way to get in some writing practice is to look for a pen pal or an online language exchange partner to whom you can write letters or messages. An app such as Slowly — for sending electronic letters — combines both. The only occasional pitfall here is if your language partner is too focused on practising your language that they are learning and you end up slipping into using that too. Still, if you can find a good balance between you, correspondence is a good way to get to practice both reading and writing. With my online correspondents, I try to write 50/50 between both languages in each of my messages/letters to them, and they usually do the same in return, or else they write purely in their native language, which means even more practice for me.

Getting feedback

Of course, writing practice is only truly useful if you can get corrections and feedback, to see where you are making errors and to help you improve. There are three main avenues for this: penpals/language exchange partners, paid tutors, or a website like Journaly.

Journaly is a free site (with paid options also available) where you can post your writing and get feedback from a native speaker. You can correct posts written in your native language in exchange. Results may vary depending on your target language’s popularity. I have no trouble getting corrections on Korean, Japanese, French etc. but I never received a response the one time I posted in Icelandic. But that will likely be the case in other scenarios too: the more niche your chosen target language, the harder it will be to find resources for it.