Learn Hebrew : In only 1 week!The ultimate course to learning the basic of Hebrew Language in a time record 5000 words

Memrise encourages you to create a mnemonic, which it calls a "mem", for every word you want to learn. A mem could be a rhyme, an image, a video or just a note about the word's etymology, or something striking about its pronunciation. In the case of languages such as French and Chinese, where there are thousands of people learning it at any one time, you can browse through a catalogue of mems created by other members of the Memrise community. This is especially fun for Chinese, where users have uploaded videos of various logographic characters morphing into cartoons of the words they represent.

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Preface by Tim Ferriss

Ive written about how I learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish. Ive also covered my experiments with German, Indonesian, Arabic, Norwegian, Turkish, and perhaps a dozen others.

There are only few language learners who dazzle me, and Benny Lewis is one of them.

This definitive guest post by Benny will teach you:

How to speak your target language today.How to reach fluency and exceed it within a few months.How to pass yourself off as a native speaker.And finally, how to tackle multiple languages to become a polyglotall within a few years, perhaps as little as 1-2.It contains TONS of amazing resources I never even knew existed, including the best free apps and websites for becoming fluent in record time. Want to find a native speaker to help you for $5 per hour? Free resources and memory tricks? Its all here.

This is a post you all requested, so I hope you enjoy it!

Enter Benny

You are either born with the language-learning gene, or you arent. Luck of the draw, right? At least, thats what most people believe.

I think you can stack the deck in your favor. Years ago, I was a language learning dud. The worst in my German class in school, only able to speak English into my twenties, and even after six entire months living in Spain, I could barely muster up the courage to ask where the bathroom was in Spanish.

But this is about the point when I had an epiphany, changed my approach, and then succeeded not only in learning Spanish, but in getting a C2 (Mastery) diploma from the Instituto Cervantes, working as a professional translator in the language, and even being interviewed on the radio in Spanish to give travel tips. Since then, I moved on to other languages, and I can now speak more than a dozen languages to varying degrees between conversational and mastery.

It turns out, there is no language-learning gene, but there are tools and tricks for faster learning

As a polyglotsomeone who speaks multiple languagesmy world has opened up. I have gained access to people and places that I never otherwise could have reached. Ive made friends on a train in China through Mandarin, discussed politics with a desert dweller in Egyptian Arabic, discovered the wonders of deaf culture through ASL, invited the (female) president of Ireland to dance in Irish (Gaeilge) and talked about it on live Irish radio, interviewed Peruvian fabric makers about how they work in Quechua, interpreted between Hungarian and Portuguese at a social event and well, had an extremely interesting decade traveling the world.

Such wonderful experiences are well within the reach of many of you.

Since you may be starting from a similar position to where I was (monolingual adult, checkered history with language learning, no idea where to start), Im going to outline the tips that worked best for me as I went from zero to polyglot.

This very detailed post should give you everything you need to know.

So, lets get started!

#1 Learn the right words, the right way.Starting a new language means learning new words. Lots of them.Of course, many people cite a bad memory for learning new vocab, so they quit before even getting started.

Butheres the keyyou absolutely do not need to know all the words of a language to speak it (and in fact, you dont know all the words of your mother tongue either).

As Tim pointed out in his own post on learning any language in 3 months, you can take advantage of the Pareto principle here, and realize that 20% of the effort you spend on acquiring new vocab could ultimately give you 80% comprehension in a languagefor instance, in English just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. We use those words a lot, and thats the case in every other language as well.

You can find pre-made flash card decks of these most frequent words (or words themed for a subject you are more likely to talk about) for studying on the Anki app (available for all computer platforms and smartphones) that you can download instantly. Good flashcard methods implement a spaced repetition system (SRS), which Anki automates. This means that rather than go through the same list of vocabulary in the same order every time, you see words at strategically spaced intervals, just before you would forget them.

Tim himself likes to use color-coded physical flashcards; some he purchases from Vis-Ed, others he makes himself. He showed me an example when I interviewed him about how he learns languages in the below video.

Though this entire video can give you great insight into Tims language learning approach, the part relevant to this point is at 27:40 (full transcript here).

)#2 Learn cognates: your friend in every single language.

Believe it or not, you alreadyright nowhave a huge head start in your target language. With language learning you always know at least some words before you ever begin. Starting a language from scratch is essentially impossible because of the vast amount of words you know already through cognates.

Cognates are true friends of words you recognize from your native language that mean the same thing in another language.

For instance, Romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and others have many words in common with English. English initially borrowed them from the Norman conquest of England, which lasted several hundreds of years. Action, nation, precipitation, solution, frustration, tradition, communication, extinction, and thousands of other -tion words are spelled exactly the same in French, and you can quickly get used to the different pronunciation. Change that -tion to a -cin and you have the same words in Spanish. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -o.

Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root, which can be spelled slightly differently, but that youd have to try hard not to recognize, such as exemple, hlicoptre (Fr), porto, capitano (Italian) astronoma, and Saturno (Spanish). German goes a step further and has many words from Englishs past that it shares.

To find common words with the language you are learning, simply search for [language name] cognates or [language name] English loan words to see words they borrowed from us, and finally [language name] words in English to see words we borrowed from them.

Thats all well and good for European languages, but what about more distant ones?

Well, it turns out that even languages as different as Japanese can have heaps of very familiar vocabulary. To show you what I mean, have a listen to this song (to the tune of Animaniacs Nations of the World), which is sung entirely in Japanese, and yet you should understand pretty much everything that I and the other Japanese learners are singing:

)This is because many languages simply borrow English words and integrate them into the new language with altered pronunciation or stress.

So to make my life easy when I start learning a language, one of the first word lists I try to consume is a list of cognates, or English loan words, which can be found quickly for pretty much any language.

#3 Interact in your language daily without traveling.

Another reason (or excuse, depending on how you look at it) people cite for not learning languages is that they cant visit a country where its a native language. No time, no money, etc.

Take it from methere is nothing in the air in another country that will magically make you able to speak their language. Ive done a lot of experiments to prove this (e.g. learning Arabic while living in Brazil).

Ive met countless expats who lived abroad for years without learning the local language. Living abroad and being immersed is not the same thing. If you need to hear and use a language consistently to be immersed, cant virtual immersion be just as effective? Of course. Technology makes it possible for immersion to come to you, and you dont even have to buy a plane ticket.

To hear the language consistently spoken, you can check out TuneIn.com for a vast selection of live-streamed radio from your country of choice. The app (free) also has a list of streamed radio stations ordered by language.

To watch the language consistently, see whats trending on Youtube in that country right now. Go to that countrys equivalent URL for Amazon or Ebay (amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.co.jp, etc.) and buy your favorite TV series dubbed in that language, or get a local equivalent by seeing whats on the top charts. You may be able to save shipping costs if you can find one locally that includes dubbing in the appropriate language. Various news stations also have plenty of video content online in specific languages, such as France24, Deutsche Welle, CNN Espaol, and many others.

To read the language consistently, in addition to the news sites listed above, you can find cool blogs and other popular sites on Alexas ranking of top sites per country.

And if full-on immersion isnt your thing yet, theres even a plugin for Chrome that eases you into the language by translating some parts of the sites you normally read in English, to sprinkle the odd word into your otherwise English reading.

#4 Skype today for daily spoken practice.

So youve been listening to, watching, and even reading in your target languageand all in the comfort of your own home. Now its time for the big one: speaking it live with a native.

One of my more controversial pieces of advice, but one that I absolutely insist on when I advise beginners, is that you must speak the language right away if your goals in the target language involve speaking it.

Most traditional approaches or language systems dont work this way, and I think thats where they let their students down. I say, there are seven days in a week and some day is not one of them.

Heres what I suggest instead:

Use the pointers Ive given above to learn some basic vocabulary, and be aware of some words you already know. Do this for a few hours, and then set up an exchange with a native speakersomeone who has spoken that language their whole life. You only have to learn a little for your first conversation, but if you use it immediately, youll see whats missing and can add on from there. You cant study in isolation until you are vaguely ready for interaction.

In those first few hours, Id recommend learning some pleasantries such as Hello, Thank you, Could you repeat that? or I dont understand, many of which you will find listed out here for most languages.

But waitwhere do you find a native speaker if you arent in the country that speaks that language?

No problem! Thousands of native speakers are ready and waiting for you to talk to them right now. You can get private lessons for peanuts by taking advantage of currency differences. My favorite site for finding natives is italki.com (connect with my profile here), where Ive gotten both Chinese and Japanese one-on-one Skype-based lessons for just $5 an hour.

If you still think you wouldnt be ready on day one, then consider this: starting on Skype allows you to ease yourself in gently by having another window (or application, like Word) open during your conversation, already loaded with key words that you can use for quick reference until you internalize them. You can even reference Google Translate or a dictionary for that language while you chat, so you can learn new words as you go, when you need them.

Is this cheating? No. The goal is to learn to be functional, not to imitate old traditional methods. Ive used the above shortcuts myself, and after learning Polish for just one hour for a trip to Warsaw to speak at TEDx about language learning, I was able to hold up a conversation (incredibly basic as it was) in Polish for an entire half hour.

I consider that a win.

)#5 Save your money. The best resources are free.

Other than paying for the undivided attention of a native speaker, I dont see why youd need to spend hundreds of dollars on anything in language learning. Ive tried Rosetta Stone myself and wasnt impressed.

But there is great stuff out there. A wonderful and completely free course that keeps getting better is DuoLingo - which I highly recommend for its selection of European languages currently on offer, with more on the way. To really get you started on the many options available to help you learn your language without spending a penny, let me offer plenty of other (good) alternatives:

The Foreign Service Institutes varied list of coursesThe Omniglot Intro to languagesBBC languages intro to almost 40 different languagesAbouts language specific posts that explain particular aspects of languages wellYou really do have plenty of options when it comes to free resources, so I suggest you try out several and see which ones work well for you. The aforementioned italki is great for language exchanges and lessons, but My Language Exchange and Interpals are two other options. You can take it offline and see about language related meet-ups in your city through The Polyglot Club, or the meet-ups pages on Couchsurfing, meetup.com, and Internations. These meet-ups are also great opportunities to meet an international crowd of fellow language learning enthusiasts, as well as native speakers of your target language, for practice.

But wait, theres more. You can get further completely free language help on:

The huge database on Forvo, to hear any word or small expression in many languages read aloud by a native of the languageRhinospike to make requests of specific phrases youd like to hear pronounced by a native speaker. If you cant find something on either of these sites, Google Translate has a text-to-speech option for many languages.Lang 8 to receive free written corrections.The possibilities for free practice are endless.

#6 Realize that adults are actually better language learners than kids.

Now that youre armed with a ton of resources to get started, lets tackle the biggest problem. Not grammar, not vocabulary, not a lack of resources, but handicapping misconceptions about your own learning potential.

The most common I give up misconception is: Im too old to become fluent.

Im glad to be the bearer of good news and tell you that research has confirmed that adults can be better language learners than kids. This study at the University of Haifa has found that under the right circumstances, adults show an intuition for unexplained grammar rules better than their younger counterparts. [Note from Tim: This is corroborated by the book In Other Words and work by Hakuta.]

Also, no study has ever shown any direct correlation between reduced language acquisition skill and increased age. There is only a general downward trend in language acquisition in adults, which is probably more dependent on environmental factors that can be changed (e.g. long job hours that crowd out study time). Something my friend Khatzumoto (alljapaneseallthetime.com) once said that I liked was, Babies arent better language learners than you; they just have no escape routes.

As adults, the good news is that we can emulate the immersion environment without having to travel, spend a lot of money, or revert back to childhood.

#7 Expand your vocabulary with mnemonics.

Rote repetition isnt enough.

And while its true that repeated exposure sometimes burns a word into your memory, it can be frustrating to forget a word that youve already heard a dozen times.

For this, I suggest coming up with mnemonics about your target word, which helps glue the word to your memory way more effectively. Basically, you tell yourself a funny, silly, or otherwise memorable story to associate with a particular word. You can come up with the mnemonic yourself, but a wonderful (and free) resource that I highly recommend is memrise.com.

For instance, lets say you are learning Spanish and cant seem to remember that caber means to fit, no matter how many times you see it. Why not come up with a clever association like the following one I found on Memrise:

This [caber -> cab, bear -> fitting a bear in a cab] association makes remembering the word a cinch.

It may sound like a lengthy process, but try it a few times, and youll quickly realize why its so effective. And youll only need to recall this hook a couple of times, and then you can ditch it when the word becomes a natural part of your ability to use the language quickly.

#8 Embrace mistakes.

Over half of the planet speaks more than one language.

This means that monolingualism is a cultural, not a biological, consequence. So when adults (at least in the English speaking world) fail at language learning, its not because they dont have the right genes or other such nonsense. Its because the system they have used to learn languages is broken.

Traditional teaching methods treat language learning just like any other academic subject, based on an approach that has barely changed since the days when Charles Dickens was learning Latin. The differences between your native language (L1) and your target language (L2) are presented as vocabulary and grammar rules to memorize. The traditional idea: know them all and you know the language. It seems logical enough, right?

The problem is that you cant ever truly learn a language, you get used to it. Its not a thing that you know or dont know; its a means of communication between human beings. Languages should not be acquired by rote alonethey need to be used.

The way you do this as a beginner is to use everything you do know with emphasis on communication rather than on perfection. This is the pivotal difference. Sure, you could wait until you are ready to say Excuse me kind sir, could you direct me to the nearest bathroom? but Bathroom where? actually conveys the same essential information, only removing superfluous pleasantries. You will be forgiven for this directness, because its always obvious that you are a learner.

Dont worry about upsetting native speakers for being so bold as to speak to them in their own language.

One of the best things you can do in the initial stages is not to try to get everything perfect, but to embrace making mistakes. I go out of my way to make at least 200 mistakes a day! This way I know I am truly using and practicing the language.

[TIM: I actually view part of my role as that of comedian or court jesterto make native speakers chuckle at my Tarzan speak. If you make people smile, it will make you popular, which will make you enthusiastic to continue.]

#9 Create SMART goals.

Another failing of most learning approaches is a poorly defined end-goal.

We tend to have New Years Resolutions along the lines of Learn Spanish, but how do you know when youve succeeded? If this is your goal, how can you know when youve reached it?

Vague end goals like this are endless pits (e.g. Im not ready yet, because I havent learned the entire language).

S.M.A.R.T. goals on the other hand are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

To start developing your SMART goal in a language, I highly recommend you become somewhat familiar with the European Common Framework that defines language levels. This framework provides you with a way of setting specific language goals and measuring your own progress.

In brief, A means beginner, B means intermediate, and C means advanced, and each level is broken up into lower (1) and upper (2) categories. So an upper beginner speaker is A2, and a lower advanced speaker is C1. As well as being Specific, these levels are absolutely Measurable because officially recognized institutions can test you on them and provide diplomas (no course enrollment necessary) in German, French, Spanish, Irish, and each other official European language. While the same scale is not used, you can also get tested in a similar way in Chinese and Japanese.

So what do you aim for? And what do words like fluency and mastery mean on a practical level?

Ive talked to many people to try to pinpoint the never-agreed-upon understanding of fluency, and Ive found that it tends to average out around the B2 level (upper intermediate). This effectively means that you have social equivalency with your native language, which means that you can live in your target language in social situations in much the same way that you would in your native language, such as casual chats with friends in a bar, asking what people did over the weekend, sharing your aspirations and relating to people.

Since we are being specific, its also important to point out that this does not require that you can work professionally in a language (in my case, as an engineer or public speaker, for instance). That would be mastery level (generally C2).

Though Ive reached the C2 stage myself in French, Spanish and am close to it in other languages, realistically I only really need to be socially equivalent in a language I want to communicate in. I dont need to work in other languages. Its essential that you keep your priorities clear to avoid frustration. Most of the time, just target B2.

To make your specific goal Attainable, you can break it down further. For example, Ive found that the fluency (B2) level can be achieved in a matter of months, as long as you are focused on the spoken aspect.

In phonetic languages (like most European ones), you can actually learn to read along with speaking, so you get this effectively for free. But realistically, we tend to write emails and text messagesnot essayson a day-to-day basis (unless you are a writer by trade, and you may not have those goals with your L2). Focusing on speaking and listening (and maybe reading) makes fluency in a few months much more realistic.

Finally, to make your project Time-bound, I highly recommend a short end-point of a few months.

Keeping it a year or more away is far too distant, and your plans may as well be unbound at that point. Three months has worked great for me, but 6 weeks or 4 months could be your ideal point. Pick a definite point in the not too distant future (summer vacation, your birthday, when a family member will visit), aim to reach your target by this time, and work your ass off to make it happen.

To help you be smarter with your goals, make sure to track your progress and use an app like Lift to track completing daily essential tasks.

You can join the Lift plan for language learning that I wrote for their users here.

#10 Jump from Conversational (B1) to Mastery (C2).

The way I reach spoken fluency quickly is to get a hell of a lot of spoken practice.

From day one to day 90 (and beyond), I speak at least an hour a day in my L2, and my study time is tailored around the spoken sessions to make sure that my conversation is whats improvingnot just my general language skills through some vague list of words I may never use.

So, for instance, I may start a session by asking what my native friend or teacher did over the weekend, and tell them what I did. Then I will share something that is on my mind lately and attempt to express my opinion on it, or allow the native speaker to introduce a new topic. Its important to take an active role and make sure you are having varied conversations. Have a list of topics you would like to discuss and bring them up (your hobbies, hopes for the future, dislikes, what you will do on your vacation etc.) and make sure the conversation is constantly progressing.

Lots of practice and study to improve those spoken sessions tends to get me to lower intermediate (B1) level, which means I can understand the other person speaking to me fine as long as they are willing to speak clearly and adjust to my level and mistakes. Its a LOT of work, mind you! On typical learning days I can be filled with frustration or feel like my brain is melting whenin factIm truly making a lot of progress.

But the work is totally worth it when you have your first successful conversation with a native speaker. Youll be thrilled beyond belief.

To see what this B1 level looks like, check out these videos of me chatting to a native in Arabic (in person with my italki teacher!), and in Mandarin with my friend Yangyang about how she got into working as a TV show host:

) )At this level, I still make plenty of mistakes of course, but they dont hinder communication too much.

But to get over that plateau of just good enough, this is the point where I tend to return to academic material and grammar books, to tidy up what I have. I find I understand the grammar much better once Im already speaking the language. This approach really works for me, but there is no one best language-learning approach. For instance, Tim has had great success by grammatically deconstructing a language right from the start. Your approach will depend entirely on your personality.

After lots of exercises to tidy up my mistakes at the B1 level, I find that I can break into B2.

At the B2 stage you can really have fun in the language! You can socialize and have any typical conversation that youd like.

To get into the mastery C1/C2 levels though, the requirements are very different. Youll have to start reading newspapers, technical blog posts, or other articles that wont exactly be light reading.

To get this high-level practice, Ive subscribed to newspapers on my Kindle that I try to read every day from various major news outlets around the world. Here are the top newspapers in Europe, South America and Asia. After reading up on various topics, I like to get an experienced professional (and ideally pedantic) teacher to grill me on the topic, to force me out of my comfort zone, and make sure Im using precisely the right words, rather than simply making myself understood.

To show you what a higher level looks like, here is a chat I had with my Quebec Couchsurfer about the fascinating cultural and linguistic differences between Quebec and France (I would have been at a C1 level at this stage):

)Reaching the C2 level can be extremely difficult.

For instance, I sat a C2 exam in German, and managed to hold my ground for the oral component, when I had to talk about deforestation for ten minutes, but I failed the exam on the listening component, showing me that I needed to be focused and pay attention to complicated radio interviews or podcasts at that level if I wanted to pass the exam in future.

#11 Learn to sound more native.

At C2, you are as good as a native speaker in how you can work and interact in the language, but you may still have an accent and make the odd mistake.

I have been mistaken for a native speaker of my L2 several times (in Spanish, French and Portuguese including when I was still at the B2/fluent level), and I can say that its a lot less related to your language level, and more related to two other factors.

First, your accent/intonation

Accent is obvious; if you cant roll your R in Spanish you will be recognized as a foreigner instantly.

Your tongue muscles are not set in their ways forever, and you can learn the very few new sounds that your L2 requires that you learn. Time with a native, a good Youtube video explaining the sounds, and practice for a few hours may be all that you need!

What is much more important, but often overlooked, is intonationthe pitch, rise, fall, and stress of your words. When I was writing my book, I interviewed fellow polyglot Luca who is very effective in adapting a convincing accent in his target languages. For this, intonation is pivotal.

Luca trains himself from the very start to mimic the musicality and rhythm of a languages natives by visualizing the sentences. For instance, if you really listen to it, the word France sounds different in I want to go to France (downward intonation) and France is a beautiful country (intonation raising upwards). When you repeat sentences in your L2, you have to mimic the musicality of them.

My own French teacher pointed out a mistake I was making along these same lines.

I was trying to raise my intonation before pauses, which is a feature of French that occurs much more frequently than in English, but I was overdoing it and applying it to the ends of sentences as well. This made my sentences sound incomplete, and when my teacher trained me to stop doing this, I was told that I sounded way more French.

You can make these changes by focusing on the sounds of a language rather than just on the words.

Truly listen to and and mimic audio from natives, have them correct your biggest mistakes and drill the mistakes out of you. I had an accent trainer show me how this worked, and I found out some fascinating differences between my own Irish accent and American accents in the process! To see for yourself how the process works, check out the second half of this post with Soundcloud samples.

Second, walk like an Egyptian

The second factor that influences whether or not you could be confused for a native speaker, involves working on your social and cultural integration. This is often overlooked, but has made a world of difference to me, even in my early stages of speaking several languages.

For instance, when I first arrived in Egypt with lower intermediate Egyptian Arabic, I was disheartened that most people would speak English to me (in Cairo) before I even had a chance for my Arabic to shine. Its easy to say that Im too white to ever be confused for an Egyptian, but theres more to it than that.

They took one look at me, saw how foreign I obviously was, and this overshadowed what language I was actually speaking to them.

To get around this problem, I sat down at a busy pedestrian intersection with a pen and paper and made a note of everything that made Egyptian men about my age different from me. How they walked, how they used their hands, the clothing they wore, their facial expressions, the volume theyd speak at, how theyd groom themselves, and much more. I found that I needed to let some stubble grow out, ditch my bright light clothes for darker and heavy ones (despite the temperature), exchange my trainers for dull black shoes, ditch my hat (I never saw anyone with hats), walk much more confidently, and change my facial expressions.

The transformation was incredible! Every single person for the rest of my time in Egypt would start speaking to me in Arabic, including in touristy parts of town where they spoke excellent English and would be well used to spotting tourists. This transformation allowed me to walk from the Nile to the Pyramids without any hassle from touts and make the experience all about the fascinating people I met.

Try it yourself, and youll see what I meanonce you start paying attention, the physical social differences will become easy to spot.

You can observe people directly, or watch videos of natives youd like to emulate from a target country. Really try to analyze everything that someone of your age and gender is doing, and see if you can mimic it next time you are speaking.

Imitation is, after all, the most sincere form of flattery!

#12 Become a polyglot.

This post has been an extremely detailed look at starting off and trying to reach mastery in a foreign language (and even passing yourself off as a native of that country).

If your ultimate goal is to speak multiple languages, you can repeat this process over multiple times, but I highly recommend you focus on one language at a time until you reach at least the intermediate level. Take each language one by one, until you reach a stage where you know you can confidently use it. And then you may just be ready for the next ones!

While you can do a lot in a few months, if you want to speak a language for the rest of your life it requires constant practice, improvement, and living your life through it as often as you can. But the good news is once you reach fluency in a language, it tends to stick with you pretty well.

Also, keep in mind that while the tips in this article are an excellent place to start, there is a huge community of polyglots online willing to offer you their own encouragement as well. A bunch of us came together in this remix, Skype me Maybe.

)I share several more stories about these polyglots and dive into much greater detail about how to learn languages in my newly released book Fluent in 3 Months. Grab a copy, or check out my site for inspiration to start your adventure in becoming fluent in a new languageor several.

Ganbatte!

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Question of the Day: What tools or approaches have you used for learning languages? Please share in the comments!--Language learning need not be complicated.

Principles of cognitive neuroscience and time management can be applied to attain conversational fluency (here defined as 95%+ comprehension and 100% expressive abilities) in 1-3 months. Some background on my language obsession, from an earlier post on learning outside of classes:

From the academic environments of Princeton University (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian) and the Middlebury Language Schools (Japanese), to the disappointing results observed as a curriculum designer at Berlitz International (Japanese, English), I have sought for more than 10 years to answer a simple question: why do most language classes simply not work?

The ideal system and progression is based on three elements in this order

1. Effectiveness (Priority)2. Adherence (Interest)3. Efficiency (Process)

Effectiveness, adherence, and efficiency refer to the what, why, and how of learning a target language, respectively. In simple terms, you first decide what to learn, based on usage frequency (priority); you then filter materials based on your likelihood of continued study and review, or adherence (interest); lastly, you determine how to learn the material most efficiently (process).

Lets cover each in turn. This post will focus on vocabulary and subject matter. For learning grammar, I suggest you read this short article. For reactivating forgotten languages like high school Spanish this sequence will do the trick.

Effectiveness: If you select the wrong material, it does not matter how you study or if you study practical fluency is impossible without the proper tools (material). Teachers are subordinate to materials, just as cooks are subordinate to recipes.

Adherence: Review, and multiple exposures to the same material, will always present an element of monotony, which must be countered by an interest in the material. Even if you select the most effective material and efficient method, if you dont adhere with repeated study, effectiveness and efficiency mean nothing. In other words: can you persist with the material and method youve chosen? If not, less effective materials or methods will still be better. The best approach means nothing if you dont use it.

By analogy, if sprinting uphill with bowling balls in each hand were the most effective way to lose body fat, how long would the average person adhere to such a program?

If you have no interest in politics, will you adhere to a language course that focuses on this material? Ask yourself: Can I study this material every day and adhere until I reach my fluency goals? If you have any doubt, change your selection. Oftentimes, it is best to select content that matches your interests in your native language. Do not read about something that you would not read about in English, if English is your native language (e.g. dont read Asahi Shimbun if you dont read newspapers in English). Use the target language as a vehicle for learning more about a subject, skill, or cultural area of interest.

Do not use material incongruent with your interests as a vehicle for learning a language it will not work.

Efficiency: It matters little if you have the best material and adherence if time-to-fluency is 20 years. The ROI wont compel you. Ask yourself: Will this method allow me to reach accurate recognition and recall with the fewest number of exposures, within the shortest period of time? If the answer is no, your method must be refined or replaced.

An Example of Effectiveness (80/20) in Practice

Paretos Principle of 80/20 dictates that 80% of the results in any endeavor come from 20% of the input, material, or effort.

We can adapt this principle and prioritize material based on its recorded likelihood and frequency of usage. To understand 95% of a language and become conversational fluent may require 3 months of applied learning; to reach the 98% threshold could require 10 years. There is a point of diminishing returns where, for most people, it makes more sense to acquire more languages (or other skills) vs. add a 1% improvement per 5 years.

To see exactly how I deconstruct the grammar of new languages, I suggest you read How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour. Now, on to the meat and potatoes of communication: words.

If you were a student of English (though the list can be adapted to most languages), the following words would deliver the greatest ROI per hour invested for the initial 1-3 weeks of study:

The 100 Most Common Written Words in English

1. the2. of3. and4. a5. to6. in7. is8. you9. that10. it11. he12. was13. for14. on15. are16. as17. with18. his19. they20. I21. at22. be23. this24. have25. from26. or27. one28. had29. by30. word31. but32. not33. what34. all35. were36. we37. when38. your39. can40. said41. there42. use43. an44. each45. which46. she47. do48. how49. their50. if51. will52. up53. other54. about55. out56. many57. then58. them59. these60. so61. some62. her63. would64. make65. like66. him67. into68. time69. has70. look71. two72. more73. write74. go75. see76. number77. no78. way79. could80. people81. my82. than83. first84. water85. been86. call87. who88. oil89. its90. now91. find92. long93. down94. day95. did96. get97. come98. made99. may100. part

The first 25 of the above words make up about 1/3 of all printed material in English. The first 100 comprise 1/2 of all written material, and the first 300 make up about 65% percent of all written material in English. Articles and tense conjugations that can often be omitted in some languages or learned for recognition (understanding) but not recall (production).

Most frequency lists are erroneously presented as the most common words in English, with no distinction made between written and spoken vocabulary. The 100 most common words as used in speech are considerably different, and this distinction applies to any target language.

The 100 Most Common Spoken Words in English

1. a, an2. after3. again4. all5. almost6. also7. always8. and9. because10. before11. big12. but13. (I) can14. (I) come15. either/or16. (I) find17. first18. for19. friend20. from21. (I) go22. good23. goodbye24. happy25. (I) have26. he27. hello28. here29. how30. I31. (I) am32. if33. in34. (I) know35. last36. (I) like37. little38. (I) love39. (I) make40. many41. one42. more43. most44. much45. my46. new47. no48. not49. now50. of51. often52. on53. one54. only55. or56. other57. our58. out59. over60. people61. place62. please63. same64. (I) see65. she66. so67. some68. sometimes69. still70. such71. (I) tell72. thank you73. that74. the75. their76. them77. then78. there is79. they80. thing81. (I) think82. this83. time84. to85. under86. up87. us88. (I) use89. very90. we91. what92. when93. where94. which95. who96. why97. with98. yes99. you100. your

Individual word frequency will vary between languages (especially pronouns, articles, and possessives), but differences are generally related to frequency rank, rather than complete omission or replacement with a different term. The above two lists are surprisingly applicable to most popular languages.

Content and vocabulary selection beyond the most common 300-500 words should be dictated by subject matter interest. The most pertinent questions will be What will you spend your time doing with this language?

If necessary, the most closely related rephrasing would be What do I currently spend my time doing? It bears repeating: do not read about something that you would not read about in your native language. Use the target language as a vehicle for learning more about a subject, skill, or cultural area of interest. Poor material never produces good language.

Feed your language ability foods you like, or you will quit your diet and cease study long before you achieve any measurable level of proficiency.

As a personal example, I used martial arts instructional manuals to compete effectively in judo while a student in Japan. My primary goal was to learn throws and apply them in tournaments. To avoid pain and embarrassment, I had tremendous motivation to learn the captions of the step-by-step diagrams in each instructional manual. Language development was a far secondary priority.

One might assume the crossover of material to other subjects would be minimal, but the grammar is, in fact, identical. The vocabulary may be highly specialized, but I eclipsed the grammatical ability of 4 and 5-year students of Japanese within 2 months of studying and applying sports-specific instruction manuals.

The specialization of my vocabulary didnt present a single problem in communication, it is important to note, as I was spending 80% of my free time training with people who also used judo-speak and other vocabulary unique to sports training and athletic development.

Once the framework of grammar has been transferred to long-term memory, acquiring vocabulary is a simple process of proper spaced repetition, which will be the subject of a dedicated future post.

In the meantime, dont let languages scare you off. Its a checklist and a process of finding material you enjoy with a good frequency ROI.

Ganbare!

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Odds and Ends: Giveaway and USC Video

Ill be giving away some very cool stuff this week on Twitter (electronics, my favorite bags, etc.). Just click here and follow me to see the goodies.

The Cisco-sponsored video about my house by the USC team is in the final 24 hours of competition and needs a few more views to win. Unfortunately, none of the embed views counted last time due to bad code. Please click here and wait a few seconds to help these kids get their big break!

Six Lines of Gold

Here are a few questions that I apply from the outset. The simple versions come afterwards:

1. Are there new grammatical structures that will postpone fluency? (look at SOV vs. SVO, as well as noun cases)

2. Are there new sounds that will double or quadruple time to fluency? (especially vowels)

3. How similar is it to languages I already understand? What will help and what will interfere? (Will acquisition erase a previous language? Can I borrow structures without fatal interference like Portuguese after Spanish?)

4. All of which answer: How difficult will it be, and how long would it take to become functionally fluent?

It doesnt take much to answer these questions. All you need are a few sentences translated from English into your target language.

Some of my favorites, with reasons, are below:

The apple is red.It is Johns apple.I give John the apple.We give him the apple.He gives it to John.She gives it to him.

These six sentences alone expose much of the language, and quite a few potential deal killers.

First, they help me to see if and how verbs are conjugated based on speaker (both according to gender and number). Im also able to immediately identify an uber-pain in some languages: placement of indirect objects (John), direct objects (the apple), and their respective pronouns (him, it). I would follow these sentences with a few negations (I dont give) and different tenses to see if these are expressed as separate words (bu in Chinese as negation, for example) or verb changes (-nai or -masen in Japanese), the latter making a language much harder to crack.

Second, Im looking at the fundamental sentence structure: is it subject-verb-object (SVO) like English and Chinese (I eat the apple), is it subject-object-verb (SOV) like Japanese (I the apple eat), or something else? If youre a native English speaker, SOV will be harder than the familiar SVO, but once you pick one up (Korean grammar is almost identical to Japanese, and German has a lot of verb-at-the-end construction), your brain will be formatted for new SOV languages.

Third, the first three sentences expose if the language has much-dreaded noun cases. What are noun cases? In German, for example, the isnt so simple. It might be der, das, die, dem, den and more depending on whether the apple is an object, indirect object, possessed by someone else, etc. Headaches galore. Russian is even worse. This is one of the reasons I continue to put it off.

All the above from just 6-10 sentences! Here are two more:

I must give it to him.I want to give it to her.

These two are to see if auxiliary verbs exist, or if the end of the each verb changes. A good short-cut to independent learner status, when you no longer need a teacher to improve, is to learn conjugations for helping verbs like to want, to need, to have to, should, etc. In Spanish and many others, this allows you to express yourself with I need/want/must/should + the infinite of any verb. Learning the variations of a half dozen verbs gives you access to all verbs. This doesnt help when someone else is speaking, but it does help get the training wheels off self-expression as quickly as possible.

If these auxiliaries are expressed as changes in the verb (often the case with Japanese) instead of separate words (Chinese, for example), you are in for a rough time in the beginning.

Sounds and Scripts

I ask my impromptu teacher to write down the translations twice: once in the proper native writing system (also called script or orthography), and again in English phonetics, or Ill write down approximations or use IPA.

If possible, I will have them take me through their alphabet, giving me one example word for each consonant and vowel. Look hard for difficult vowels, which will take, in my experience, at least 10 times longer to master than any unfamiliar consonant or combination thereof (tsu in Japanese poses few problems, for example). Think Portuguese is just slower Spanish with a few different words? Think again. Spend an hour practicing the open vowels of Brazilian Portuguese. I recommend you get some ice for your mouth and throat first.

russian-alphabet.jpgThe Russian Phonetic Menu, and

reading-real-russian.jpgReading Real Cyrillic 20 Minutes Later

Going through the characters of a languages writing system is really only practical for languages that have at least one phonetic writing system of 50 or fewer soundsSpanish, Russian, and Japanese would all be fine. Chinese fails since tones multiply variations of otherwise simple sounds, and it also fails miserably on phonetic systems. If you go after Mandarin, choose the somewhat uncommon GR over pinyin romanization if at all possible. Its harder to learn at first, but Ive never met a pinyin learner with tones even half as accurate as a decent GR user. Long story short, this is because tones are indicated by spelling in GR, not by diacritical marks above the syllables.

In all cases, treat language as sport.

Learn the rules first, determine if its worth the investment of time (will you, at best, become mediocre?), then focus on the training. Picking your target is often more important than your method.

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/11/07/how-to-learn-but-not-master-any-language-in-1-hour-plus-a-favor/

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/07/16/how-to-learn-any-language-in-record-time-and-never-forget-it/

clickdasWhy Cant You Draw The Face of a Penny? Understand the Reason and Learn Spanish Twice as Fast86 CommentsShare this:Facebook427TwitterEmailRedditWritten by Tim Ferriss Topics: Language, The 4-Hour Chef - 4HCAllow me to explain using a related problem.

Vocabulary lists in a run-of-the-mill Spanish textbook usually look something like the below, taken from real-world sources I wont shame by naming:

La mano the handEl arbol the treeLas muecas the wristsNos vemos maana! See you tomorrow!Mande? Sorry? Pardon? What did you say?Ahorita vengo! Ill be back in a minute!Pretty typical, right?

Sadly, this format is also priming students for failure. Two reasons:

Spanish is listed first, so were training recognition. If you want to be able to speak (produce) Spanish, you should list English first, then Spanish: cue and target. For at least the first month, you will be translating from English in your head before most speaking. Have your materials mimic this process, or youre working backwards.

Incredibly, almost no textbooks get this ordering right. If you train for recall, you get recognition automatically; if you train for recognition, recall is terrible, or as slow as molasses.

Think Im exaggerating? How many times have you handled or seen pennies and quarters in your life? Tens of thousands of times? Millions? Try and draw both sides of either from memory. Recognition does not = recall. You have to train specifically for the latter.

A fixed list equals inflexible recall. By illustration, answer this: what number is the letter L in the alphabet? 5th, 14th, which? What is the third line of your national anthem? Slow, isnt it? The answers depend on order on the pieces before them acting as cues. If you learn words in a fixed list, the preceding words act as a recall crutch for your target word. Youll eventually get it, but its plodding and haphazard. This is a major problem. This is also why, 10 years later, I can still sing (poorly) a few entire songs in Italian, but I could never recall those words independently for conversation.

We want RAMrandom-access memorywhere we can pull any word from memory quickly.

Mixing up flash cards accomplishes this, as does a software program like Anki or Duolingo (I advise), which does it automatically.

If you have a textbook with a fixed list, just practice doing them backwards and also in evens, odds, every-third item, etc.

Mucha suerte, ch!

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Learn to read Hebrew. If you want to be able to improve your vocabulary enough to sound like a native speaker, and to be able to use the Internet, you'll need to know how to read. Reading is quite easy as a matter of fact; it takes much less time than learning how to speak and listen. But to learn to read Hebrew, you're going to need to know the letters and vowels. Aleph. This is possibly the easiest letter of the Hebrew alphabet to learn. This is because it has no sound! In order to make it have a sound, one needs to put a vowel with it. It will often be found at the end of a word, making no sound. Think of it like the letter "E" in the English alphabet; it is at the end of a lot of words, but it's silent.Bet() and Vet(). Although these letters seem different because of their two different sounds, they are actually considered the same letter. Bet has a dot, and Vet doesn't. Bet makes the "B" sound, but doesn't actually have a pronunciation until a vowel is added. Vet makes the "V" sound, but needs a vowel to actually be read. Gimmel. Because Bet and Vet are essentially the same letter, this is the third letter in the Hebrew Alephbet. It has the "G" sound, like "gate". However, it never has the "G" sound as in "giraffe". Keep this is mind while pronouncing it in a word. Although, a gimmel with a flick or apostrophe (') is a 'giraffe' gimmel. Dalet. As it may be easy to guess, Dalet makes the "D" sound. Like all other letters in the Alephbet, it needs a vowel added to have a pronunciation. Hey. Hey makes the "H" sound, as in the "H" in "hey". It never makes the "CH" sound as in "chewy", and is often put at the end of a word as an ending, just like how Aleph is added to the end of a word sometimes. Vav. Vav makes the same sound as Vet, but is a different letter. Zayin. This letter is pronounced just like the "Z" in "crazy".[1] Chet. Chet is one of the more well known letters in Hebrew. It sounds almost as if you're hacking on something in your throat, or gargling without water. If those examples still aren't helping you hear the Chet, try growling in the back of your throat. It is a softer version of the noise you get from that. Remember, Chet never makes the "CH" sound as in "chewy". Tet. Tet makes the "T" sound as in "tango". It can never make the "TH" sound as in "thicket". Yod. This letter sounds like the "Y" in "you". Sometimes, it is softened into the sound of "EE", as in "Greek". Most of the time when this letter is in the middle of a word, it is pronounced more like "EE" than "Y".Chaf,() Kaf(), Chaf Sofit(), and Kaf Sofit(). This is one of the more confusing letters. Although it may seem like four different letters, it's all actually the same letter. Chaf is pronounced just like Chet, and Kaf is pronounced like the "C" in "cow". Chaf Sofit is pronounced the same as Chaf, but it comes at the end of a word. Kaf Sofit is pronounced the same as Kaf, but is also only at the end of a word. Although it seems confusing at first, just keep practising. It will all become as clear as your first alphabet after some practise. Lamed. Lamed makes the "L" sound, as in "lightning".Mem() and Mem Sofit(). Once again, these are actually the same letter, but they have a different version at the end of a word. They make the "M" sound, as in "Mike". Mem Sofit looks like Mem, only it is closed off at the bottom, and looks more boxy.Nun() and Nun Sofit(). Nun and Nun Sofit are pronounced like the "N" in "November". You'll only find Nun in the beginning or middle of a word, and you'll only find Nun Sofit at the end. Samech. Samech makes the "S" sound in "sierra". However, it never makes the "SH" sound in "shipwreck". Ayin. This is one of the trickier Hebrew letters to pronounce for non-natives, since Latin and Germanic languages do not have this sound. It is pronounced differently in different areas to ease pronunciation. Technically it is a "voiced pharyngeal approximant/fricative," and has equivalents in other Semitic languages, like Arabic and Syriac. In general, non-natives (and even many native Israelis) treat it like an aleph, which is to say, they do not pronounce it, only the vowel underneath it. If you want to try to pronounce the ayin, but can't quite get the voiced pharyngeal approximant/fricative, try pronouncing it like the "ng" in "singing" or the "nk" in "sink." Jews in various parts of the Diaspora pronounce the ayin in this manner. But it is perfectly acceptable to leave it silent. [2]Pey() Fey,() Fey Sofit() and Pey Sofit() Pey is pronounced like the "P" in "papa", and Fey is pronounced like the "F" in "foxtrot". Fey Sofit is a different version with the same pronunciation as Fey, but it comes at the end of a word. Pey Sofit also has the same pronunciation of its other version, but it only comes at the end of a word.Tsadie() and Tsadie Sofit()(Pronounced Tsadi, very often pronounced Tsadik - as a mistake). Tsadie and Tsadie Sofit are pronounced like the "zz" in "pizza." Tsadie Sofit is the same as Tsadie, but it only comes at the end of a word. It is also pronounced 'tz', and if you put a flick or apostrophe ( ' ) next to it, it's CH, like chocolate. [3] Qof. Qof makes the "K" sound, as in "kilo". It can also be pronounced as a "Q" sound, but the "K" sound is more common. Resh. This letter makes the "R" sound, as in "roger".Shin()and Sin(). Shin and Sin only have one difference: Shin has a dot over the line furthest to the left, and Sin has a dot over the line furthest to the right. Shin is pronounced "SH", as in "Shucks". Sin makes the "S" sound, like Samech and Tsadie.

Tav. Tav has the same sound as Tet; like the "T" in "tango".Learn to read the vowels. Unlike most languages, Hebrew letters do not make vowel sounds. Patach. Patach is basically a line to place under any letter, which becomes that letter with the "AH" sound after it, as in "aqua". Kamatz. Kamatz makes the same sound as Patach, and looks almost exactly like it. The only difference is that it has a tiny line in the midsection. Cholam Malei. Cholam Malei is basically the letter Vav with a dot over it. This creates the "OH" sound, as in "doe". However, this doesn't create the "VO" sound, as the v is lost when the dot is added. Cholam Chaser. This vowel can't go over all consonants, which is why there is also Cholam Malei. When this little dot is over (or a little to the left, but still on top) of any consonant, the consonant gains the "OH" sound, in addition to its consonant sound. Segol. Segol is three dots under a letter that create a triangle shape. These three dots add the "EH" sound as in "echo" to the consonant. For example, adding this to Bet would create the "beh" sound. Tzeirei. Tzeirei is two dots under a letter, creating a horizontal line, (not to be confused with sh'va, which creates a vertical line). This adds the "EH" sound to a consonant, just like Segol. For instance, adding this vowel to Vet would create the "veh" sound. Sh'va. Sh'va adds the "UH" sound to a consonant. It also has two dots, but they create a vertical line instead of a horizontal one. Adding this to Mem would make "muh". Shuruk. This vowel creates the "U" sound, as in "blue". It never makes the "UH" sound, which Sh'va does. This vowel can only be added to Vav, which loses its v in the process. Kubutz. Kubutz is three dots that are horizontal under any consonant, going to the right. It creates the "OO" sound, like "food" or "shoo". Adding this to Bet would make "boo". Chataf Patach, Chataf Segol, and Chataf Kamatz. Chataf is two dots creating a vertical line, however, it is added to Patach, Segol, or Kamatz to shorten the vowel. Think of it as a staccato in music, which shortens the note. Chirik. Chirik makes the "ee" sound, as in "Greek" or "me". It is one dot under any consonant. For example, Chirik under Bet creates "bee". Kamatz Katan. This vowel looks like Kamatz, only the second line doesn't actually connect to the midsection. Kamatz Katan creates the "O" sound, like "flow".