Say bonjour to your new favorite reason to indulge in a glass of wine.

A small study published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology shows that a small amount of alcohol can help people speak a foreign language better. Researchers found that imbibing helped people speak a non-native language more fluently , even when they didnt think they were doing that well.

The studys authors observed 50 native German speakers who were attending a university in the Netherlands, where classes were taught in Dutch. Each person in the study indicated that they drank alcohol on occasion. The participants had also recently passed a Dutch proficiency test.

Each volunteer was asked to engage in a two-minute recorded conversation with an interviewer in Dutch. Half of the volunteers were given alcohol before the chat, and the other half were given water. The amount of alcohol varied depending on the persons body type. (For example, a 150-pound man was given slightly under a pints worth of beer.)

The conversations were then reviewed by two native Dutch speakers, who werent told which participants had drunk alcohol and which hadnt. The participants were also asked to rate their own performances.

Those whod had alcohol didnt rate their performance any better than those whod had water, indicating that they didnt necessarily feel more confident in their fluency than the water-drinkers.

However, the native Dutch speakers saw it differently. They ranked the alcohol drinkers as being more fluent in Dutch than those who drank water specifically, when it came to pronunciation. On metrics like vocabulary and grammar, the native Dutch speakers said, the two groups were comparable.

There are some caveats here. The amount of alcohol is key, for starters. Researchers theorize that drinking too much can have the opposite effect, making proficiency in another language worse due to slurred words. Its also not clear what the participants stress levels or emotional states were at the time factors that can help or impede a persons performance. The studys authors note that this experiment should be conducted with other foreign languages to see if the same effect occurs.

Still, the researchers concluded that a little liquid courage can help when it comes to fluency.

Dont drink? There are other options

If a little chardonnay isnt your thing, there are certainly other ways to get better at speaking a new language. Give one of these a try:

Prioritize rest.

Theres some evidence to suggest that your brain can learn new information while you slumber. This doesnt necessarily mean you can learn Spanish as you drift off, but research has shown that a persons brain can learn and understand new noise patterns even while theyre asleep. The results suggest that hitting the hay is vital for brain power, also. Its a start, right?

Get motivated.

Research shows that a persons level of motivation correlates with proficiency success when learning a new language. If you want to become fluent, get serious about it.

Jot down the words youre learning.

Writing during the learning process can help the brain retain new information. Studies show that when students take notes using pen and paper , theyre better able to recall the information from memory than when they take notes on a laptop.

Study another subject in the new language.

A study of high school students who were learning French found that when the students also took another class taught in French, the students were more motivated to learn French and tested better for listening skills in the language.

The more you know!