Fluent in 3 Months

I love this blog: http://www.fluentin3months.com/ He has a number of reviews of software packages and websites, along with his own "language hacking" guide.

Content! Find video (movies, series), audio (-books, radio, podcasts). The best way is to get exposed to the language as much as possible (some people prefer humans for this, some people prefer multimedia), and then you can use Anki on the side. For example, I'm recently watching Fullmetal Alchemist in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese, but I've picked up 50 or so phrases. Sometimes I get a phrase stuck in my head without knowing what it means, or I'll wonder how to say something (that I know I've heard but forgot), and later that day my brain will dig up the answer from the depths (essentially a much longer version of the 'active recall' that Anki uses). I'm a big fan of the Input Hypothesis (Stephen Krashen) which says the best way to learn a language is "input before output", in other words, immerse yourself in the language for a long period (say, 6-12 months) before trying to produce output (writing or speaking). In this way, by the time you speak or write, you will know what it sounds like, how the grammar works, and will be able to self-correct, rather than forming bad habits. We all know people who've lived in a country for decades and their grammar & pronunciation is awful despite constant use. The argument here is that they were forced to produce output (speak) before they were ready (got enough input to develop a workable model of the language), and were not corrected, typically out of politeness. The key point is that the brain does this modeling on its own,…

hmm, taking a class is a really bad way to learn conversation-centric language skills. for anyone here learning a language, check out: http://www.fluentin3months.com/ The TLDR on that site (and his book) is basically conversational practise (anywhere you can get it) is much much more important than lessons, which are too different from how our brains are designed to learn languages (which is by usage, not grammar rules.) I would say that this is especially true for someone who can already write as the OP can, but just has trouble with confidence in talking to people in person. The key lesson for OP from FI3M, is that people are very infrequently angry with you for speaking their language wrong. English speakers may have more of a sense of entitlement than speakers of other languages (dominant culture, etc) but in general people will do their best to communicate, however slowly (assuming you catch them in a situation where they have time.) A good way to do this is meeting someone for coffee explicitly to practise English. Either they can learn your language in return, or you buy them the coffee, obviously! :) (edit: situations where you can do this! You could always "buy an English lesson" from someone, I suppose. You could also arrange to meet someone you met at an English class on a different evening, in order to practise together, especially if your only common language is English.)

> Not that I had any success with it, but here is a book/site about how to learn which I found interesting: > https://www.fluentin3months.com He hasn't had any success with it either. Benny is incredibly bad at speaking the languages he's claimed to have "learned" in 3 months.

Try Pimsleur, Memrise and the book Fluent in 3 months. http://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american https://www.memrise.com/ http://www.fluentin3months.com/

this guy has helped ME in so many of my language learning ventures. And he's relentlessly optimistic and encouraging. http://www.fluentin3months.com/ He's learned Japanese (and like ten other languages), but his main value-add is general language learning advice.

They (=the us government) actually do, and the foreign service institute has some of the best language programs around [1] (some old courses are now even in the public domain [2]). Unfortunately those are mostly reserved to diplomats and would be hard (impossible?) to scale to occupation-army levels. [1] http://www.fluentin3months.com/diplomat/ [2] http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/

Take the advice of Benny from http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Click around and read some of his stuff there. Apply his language advice to playing. One of his main points is to just throw yourself into conversation in a strange country. Even if you only know 3 words and aren't prepared. Be scared. Mess up. Be embarrassed, but keep going. You can't just stay in the shed. You have to get out and play with others, be scared, mess up, get embarrassed, and keep going.

There is another great resource: http://www.fluentin3months.com/language-hacking-guide/ You can subscribe to his blog for free is really interesting. Check the complete site out.

This is the only list post I've ever written on my blog, since I was in a reflective mood about a long list of specific things and felt this got my point across clearest. You'll find a lot of stories that expand on and discuss particular parts in greater detail if you follow the links ;) It's been an amazing experience seeing this go viral (see the counts on the left of the post), but I'll be sticking to my non-list posts for the majority of what I write :) Also, this isn't advice but what I've learned. I didn't want it to come across as preachy, but actually something I would like to have told myself at age 21 and am thinking aloud. I hope you enjoy other stories shared on the blog! Here's people's favourite one I've written this year: http://www.fluentin3months.com/speed-dating

Amazing blog, thanks for posting it. Been living in Paris for two weeks now and not really even tried to speak French, my aim by the end of my internship was to become conversationally fluent. Definitely starting this soon: http://www.fluentin3months.com/the-smartest-decision-you-will-ever-mak…

I suppose Emil Krebs wasn't really proficient in 60+ languages, but had enough command of basic grammar and vocabulary to maintain a certain level of conversation in each of them. Something like the Fluent in 3 Months guy, who has learned 7 foreign languages as an adult: http://www.fluentin3months.com/

Not a language expert, but I've had some success gaining general fluency in one (non-native) language, and at least a smattering of a half-dozen others. Basic language courses (e.g., Berlitz, Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, etc.) can be useful in giving a basic grounding. Many countries have both native-language (that is, source country, not audience) broadcasts and podcasts and language-specific instruction. I'm more familiar with German-language resources here (especially the Goethe Institute and Deutsche Welle), which are excellent, but have had success in other languages (though not specifically Polish). Children's stories are an excellent basic language-learning tool. The grammar, syntax, and vocabulary are basic, but they do cover the fundamentals, and provide a good basis for further skills development. Once you've gained basic fluency, one podcast series I've recently discovered is the Easy Languages family of podcasts ... which includes an Easy Polish channel: Easy Languages: <https://www.easy-languages.org/> Easy Polish: <https://www.easypolish.org/> Having your current foreign language playing constantly is an excellent way to simply become attuned to it. Increasingly I find I'm learning to recognise specific words and terms long before I know what they mean specifically, though I can often work that out from context. Easy Languages also has an overview podcast which has 22 episodes mostly focused on the process of learning additional languages, several of…

I did not read your blog post (I'm in HN comment reading mode) but I will give a couple of pieces that I found to the puzzle. In The Tim Ferriss experiment the (in)famous (?) Tim Ferriss "learns a new language within 3 days" [1]. I put that in quotes because it is really up for debate. However, he had a very very clear goal: come off across as passable during an interview. While this is only 3 days, Warren Buffet says something similar with focusing on your 5 biggest goals and leaving anything else aside [2]. The point is: - Be consistent (I saw that word as well while skimming your blog post) - Only try to attack the goal direclty, since it is very likely that attacking your goal directly is possible. Tim Ferriss could've gone to classes to learn Tagalog or watch movies to learn it. However, there are better methods than that in service to his goal. - Focus relentlessly on your most important goals (a tip from Warren Buffet). By doing these 3 things, I believe that greatness can be achieved quickly, provided that you set a sharp definition of it. Achieving greatness in the eyes of others, however, is a very different feat and a bit of a fickle / unhealthy one, in my opinion (e.g. just see the reactions to what Elon Musk is doing, I think he's great, but I'm pretty sure he has naysayers). [1] https://www.fluentin3months.com/tim-ferriss/ (an interview about his experience) [2] https://constantrenewal.com/buffett-5-25-rule/

Duolingo is good for understanding structure and is far more mobile and immersive than RST. I agree with most of the comments here that it's difficult to find a full-service solution since different learners have different needs. It's very interesting that general consumers recognize RST for what it is: a massive marketing machine that took a standard, linguistic approach to language learning and applied it across many languages. What other products are so bluntly recognized as overpriced but fantastically executed from a marketing & sales approach to where year in and year out people are coming through the door?!?! I would argue that LiveMocha was just as guilty of applying a standard solution across many langauges. Different languages require different methods and approaches. I run http://lingo-live.com/ which is focused solely on Spanish. As a result, we have a small customer base who NEED or REALLY WANT to learn Spanish and have catered our product to this very specific need (also we further segmented our users into people who mainly want to SPEAK Spanish vs. write or read it, have very busy schedules, and are comfortable accessing their learning entirely over the internet, including live lessons with their tutor over Skype). Not having to worry about how we teach Chinese/Portugese/English/Esperanto... is a huge benefit and we can rely far less on ad spend and more on referrals and WoM since our students are actively engaged with our Spanish service and have someone…

I don't want to sound pretentious, but were you coding >6 hours a day? Languages are as much a process of thinking as they are a string of instructions for a computer. If you think in object-orientation you'll learn object-oriented languages very fast. Likewise, if you know a language like Lisp you'll learn man of its descendants in the same family of language quickly. I work full time and program when I'm not working, and I'm often surprised at the improvements and iterations I can make in (relatively) short periods of time. It's the same way you can become fluent in a spoken language in 3 months [1]. Talent isn't relevant after the first week - raw determination is. That said, you're right, you shouldn't expect to be a capable programmer in a language after just 2 weeks, but don't be so hard on yourself that such an accomplishment is impossible. [1]: http://www.fluentin3months.com/

Not necessarily a problem... http://www.fluentin3months.com/

Your motivation to learn the language will be a strong factor in your success. Wanting specifically to communicate in the language is a big plus. Get as much contents as you can and use it. Since you are studying Spanish, if you have access to a Spanish language cable network (or a broadcast TV or radio station in some cities) use that. Start with something that is fairly predictable, like the weather forecast. Get podcasts and listen to those. Rent movies in Spanish (and turn off the English subtitles). On the other side, find people to talk to. Ideally, you want native speakers. You want to spend extended periods talking in Spanish. Force yourself to say what you have to say in your new language, even badly, ungrammatically. You will make mistakes. Two blogs I like that emphasize exactly these two facets of language learning are: The Linguist on Language: http://thelinguist.blogs.com/how_to_learn_english_and/ Fluent In 3 Months: http://www.fluentin3months.com/

When I look at "What are the Most Spoken Languages in the World?"[0], I see so many in or around India, I can understand the need for unification of languages. [0] https://www.fluentin3months.com/most-spoken-languages

Also it seems there is a "standard" form of german since 1996: https://www.fluentin3months.com/german-hard-to-learn/

Scandinavian countries: 80 - 90% of them speak English. http://www.fluentin3months.com/scandinavian/ http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/scandinavianenglish/

I suspect you might have heard of him but I found Bennie Lewis' blog to be really good in my own language learning: http://www.fluentin3months.com/home/ My wife who speaks a couple of languages says that to really ingrain it you must think in the language, don't think in english and then translate.

A critical response by Benny Lewis: http://www.fluentin3months.com/chinese/

I’m referring to the way language students are taught, which is usually in a classroom setting involving lots of grammar drills. As a personal example, when studying German in high school, I had to rotely memorize charts for article declension [1], prepositions [2], etc. Being able to regurgitate these charts helped me pass standardized tests, but they didn’t actually improve my ability to speak German. Similarly, students of English are encouraged to painstakingly study rules such as those differentiating ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, ‘mine’ and ‘myself’. [3] Personally, I learned English through immersion instead, acquiring these rules subconsciously rather than consciously studying them! This is what input-based learning gets at. The theory goes that understanding input, and not conscious learning, is the only way to increase linguistic competence. [4] (again: not a linguist, any errors are mine) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Articles [2] https://www.fluentin3months.com/german-prepositions/ [3] https://www.espressoenglish.net/i-my-me-mine-myself/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_hypothesis

http://www.fluentin3months.com/no-usa-for-me/ (2011)