Benny Lewis's Blog, page 89

Solo or Couple Travel: Is Either Better?

If you’re a member of the Language Hacking League, or if you follow me on Instagram, or Facebook, then you already know the big news: Lauren and I are engaged!

This is yet another secret mission I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the past several months ;).

In the two years we’ve been together, Lauren and I have become truly inseparable, so it was tricky to set up a surprise proposal. Not only were we travelling together, but we were also working full time together on the blog, creating a new series of language guides, and Lauren has been busily learning Russian. I’ll let you know how I pulled it off in a moment…

But before I tell you the full story of our engagement, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write a personal post about the differences between this time period in my life travelling with Lauren and the ten years prior to that, when I travelled on my own.

I’ve read a lot articles on the pros and cons of travelling alone versus as a couple, and I feel like they barely scratch the surface of what it’s really like. As well as that, the authors seem to only have experienced one lifestyle or the other – they’ve either always traveled single travel or always as a couple – but not both. Most of my travels (in fact an entire decade), were spent solo. But the last two years have given me lots of experience on the other side of the coin as well.

I’d like to offer a more balanced look at single travel life followed by couple travel life. But I’ll tell you up front that neither is necessarily better than the other. It’s simply that travelling as a couple is the natural next step in my own life journey.

I consider myself very lucky, since I see my first decade of travel as an education. The lessons I learned will stay with me for the rest of my life. As such, I see single and then couple travel to be a wonderful natural evolution.

Meeting New People

When I met Lauren, I had just reached my ten year travel anniversary. A decade of travel taught me so much about the world that it was only possible for me to learn by travelling alone.

One of those lessons involves interaction with others. When you’re travelling alone, you have no choice in the matter; you have to learn to reach out others, or else you’ll miss basic human interaction.

Years of starting over every time I arrived in a new place, with no ties built or established friends to lean on, meant that I learned to rely on my wits and remain open minded. It also broke me out of the bounds of inhibiting shyness.

Since I’ve started travelling with Lauren, there is nothing to stop us from meeting new people, but the pressure to do so has been removed. We can rely on one another for company.

That said, as a couple, it’s still very easy for us to meet new people – potentially even easier than it is travelling alone. We can pool our resources and expand our social circles through our own separate interests.

This is much easier to do, though, when we live somewhere for several months. When we zoom through a place quickly, I will be more likely to stay with Lauren than venture out and try to meet as many people as possible.

I’ll admit that now, after doing it for so many years, I have gotten tired of having my entire social circle reset each time I get off a plane, but I’m glad I had a period of my life where I was pushed to learn with this challenge. I had to adapt, become more social, be more flexible with people, and make friends based on the merit of how I present myself on the first interactions.

After having to start over dozens of times from scratch, I definitely welcome knowing that my best friend is with me everywhere I go. She knows me, and I don’t have to prove anything or go through awkward small talk to be able to spend time with her. I’ve met a lot of people, but now I’m ready for quality and depth after having focused on range of friendships for my solo years.

Experiences and Memories

As you can imagine, with ten years alone on the road I have plenty of stories that I can share. I’ve climbed Mount Sinai and sailed across the Nile. I’ve windsurfed in lagoons in Brazil. I’ve hiked the Inca trail. All of these experiences, both the amazing and the tough ones, helped me grow and expand my horizons. I personally needed to do these things alone. And I wouldn’t give them up for anything. But when I tell them, it’s only my voice that I use. I tell them from my perspective.

Stories from my solo travels are great, but there is something to be said for telling a story that Lauren can continue telling. We can be a tag-team of sorts and give two perspectives on the same event. When she tells one of our stories, she remembers details that I would have left out, or otherwise forgotten. And when Lauren’s in the hotseat, I can relive the memory while she shares the story.

Even better, whenever either of us wants to relive a special moment, we have someone to share the story with. When I talk about my experience, say, walking the Great Wall of China, and look at a photograph that another tourist took for me, that’s not quite the same as the proposal photo you see at the end of the article, which is a moment that we can talk about for hours as we share our different perspectives.

Shared memories make for bigger smiles!

Finding Out Who You Are

One of the top reasons I’d give for grabbing a bag and hitting the road on your own is that it will challenge you, push you and expose you to experiences you would never get back home. In essence, you find out what you’re made of.

I could essentially re-invent my entire personality when I began travel. Hell, I even effectively changed my name! I went with the nickname Benny instead of Brendan as I began my travels, and decided to see what this new person was made of (since Brendan was just nothing more than a computer nerd). If I had a negative experience in one place, I could go somewhere else and start with a clean slate.

That’s only half the story, however. Who you are when you are alone is different to who you are when you’re with people you care about.

For example, when I’m on my own and meeting new people, they tend to want to talk mostly about travel or language learning – both of which I love – because those are the big elephants in the room. But I do have other interests, like science and technology, that I don’t often to get to talk about unless I’m with someone who knows me well.

Now I have the best of both worlds, since I can be social when I need to, but I can also feel complete with another person. I can come home and relax, and truly “be myself”, since meeting new people all the time is exhausting, no matter how extroverted you may be.

Dealing with Personal Problems

There are some unexpected side effects of travelling as a team that make a big difference to some of your basic, day-to-day needs. For example, for an entire decade, every time I needed to use a public restroom at a train station or airport or a restaurant just after arriving, I had to take my heavy bag (since it has everything I own in the world in it) with me into the bathroom. Do you know how big of a pain in the ass that is?

It’s so simple, but now Lauren and I take turns watching our stuff while the other one goes off. Little things like that, which you get help with all the time make travel much less stressful.

I’m also a vegetarian who happens to be allergic to nuts, which is an annoying combination. Not all countries tend to list all ingredients on their menus, so in the past I have bitten into a big bite of sandwich only to discover a peanut sauce that leaves me scratching my throat with my tongue for two hours. But Lauren isn’t allergic to nuts, and isn’t vegetarian, so now I travel with my own personal taste-tester for whenever I’m in doubt!

Along the same vein, though, we each have some personal restrictions that we inflict on each other. As a single traveler, you only need to deal with your own problems. You don’t need to accommodate for anyone else’s. In our case, because Lauren is really allergic to dust, I now only rent accommodation that doesn’t have carpets (when I can). And this isn’t something I ever had to think about before. On the flip side, because of me, Lauren always has to eat at restaurants that offer vegetarian options. If she were travelling alone, this isn’t a sacrifice she would need to make.

Sharing Joys

When you are a single traveller, you dictate where you go at all times. I had this full flexibility, and it meant that I could decide to hop on a train at the last minute or say “yes” to any opportunity.

Sounds like heaven, right? Do whatever you want, all time time!

Well, you can always get too much of a good thing. Not having any kind of filter when you’re making decisions means that it’s harder to have enough focus to stick with things until they become more worthwhile experiences. It’s harder to truly enjoy something when at the slightest hint of it not being wonderful, you can just walk away.

The paradox of choice means that you feel paralised because you don’t end up doing anything for long enough, since there are always reasons to feel FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), get up and go somewhere else. I’d feel antsy if I was ever at a party or event, talking to someone and wondering if maybe something more exciting was happening somewhere else. It actually was quite infuriating, since I felt this pretty much all the time.

As a couple, I have a new policy. When I look into things to do I always ask, would we like to do this? This I-to-we change means that I never see opportunities as lost, because my partner’s happiness is my happiness. It’s opened me up to new things that I never would have tried. And as a bonus, I’ve gotten great pleasure out of seeing Lauren enjoy these experiences.

For instance, I’m not a drinker, but I took Lauren and a friend to some vineyards in Australia as the designated driver. Seeing how much she enjoyed it made me instantly happier, and I got to see beautiful vineyards, which is normally not something I would have taken the time to investigate. I care about Lauren so much that I’d actually be a little sad to do something that would be simplistically just for me, like going to another Star Trek convention. I’d know that she’d either not be enjoying it, or not with me.

We’ve also been able to sway each other into trying new things we otherwise wouldn’t have thought to try. Without me, Lauren never would have discovered the wonders of the SciShow Youtube channel or Esperanto events, and without her, I never would have tasted butter beer or discovered the joys of the Renaissance Festival.

As I see it, it’s all part of growing up. It’s nice to go through a “rebellious” time (although I had nobody in particular to rebel against) where I could do what I want, but I’m really happy now to do things that we like. And of course, Lauren is just as happy to watch me geek out in a Gibert Jeune language book shop, or joining me at the Polyglot Gathering, or watching science Youtube videos with me!

Sharing joys is what life is all about!

Being Together Forever

I’m always much happier doing something that I know Lauren enjoys too. I’ve come to a place where I feel something would be missing if I was to try to do something that’s only for me. That’s why I knew I had to spend the rest of my life with her.

And that’s what brought about my proposal. Now for the story…

One catch of being so close is that we spend pretty much every minute of every day together! We work together, live together, travel together, eat together, and take breaks together. So I had to be inventive to surprise her with a proposal.

All logistical research on my computer had to do be done whenever she had a shower. To get the ring I had to invent an interview for my blog. Then on the big day, it took so much energy to stay calm, but I acted very casual and worked hard to steer the conversation towards making Lauren think that she suggested everything in terms of where we’d go and what we’d do.

I really wanted to capture the moment itself with a professional photographer, so we could remember it forever. So, last week in Paris, when we went to a café near the Eiffel tower, I pretended that I kind of recognized someone outside the window, but then I acted reluctant to talk to them. Lauren, then of course suggested that I should go say hi.

This “friend of an old coworker” (who I had told long in advance to be in the café at exactly that time) told Lauren he was waiting there for his clients who wanted a family photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower. Then he offered to take a photo of us in front of the Eiffel tower while he waited. Lauren thought that would be cool, and of course I agreed.

A few minutes later we were in position, and as he was snapping away I got down on one knee and popped the question.

She said yes

She was also shocked and confused, but figured out that he was a professional photographer who I’d hired to be there for the occasion and lure her there unexpectedly.

We spent the next hour snapping photos in front of the Eiffel Tower and around Paris. Lauren was dying to know how on earth I managed to orchestrate all this while we’ve been working full time all year.

Then I finally sat down with my new fiancée and told her all this.

This travel experience, and many others before it and to come would really not be the same if I couldn’t be with the person I share the experience every day. Travelling solo was fun, but travelling as a couple is rewarding to the deepest level.

Thank you Lauren, for making me the happiest I’ve ever been. This traveller is glad to see his solo travel days behind him!

Okay, so I’ve shared my stories of a solo traveler and a plus one traveler with you, now shares yours with me! Click the comments below to join the discussion on Facebook.

The post Solo or Couple Travel: Is Either Better? appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

5 Steps to Become Conversationally Fluent in Spanish

Spanish is the language that started off my lifelong obsession with language learning, so it holds a special place in my heart. Thanks to Spanish I was able to discover what what holding me back from becoming fluent in any language.

My road to fluency in Spanish was messy, full of false starts and bad methods. But I learned from that, and can share what I learned with you. In this post, I share five steps to take you from beginner to conversationally fluent in Spanish. This post is for beginners, or anyone who has been thinking of getting started in a new language, but hasn’t yet pulled that trigger. It’s time to get moving!

Of course a single blog post can’t provide a full Spanish language course. There are plenty of Spanish courses out there anyway. Instead, here are the strategies and mindsets you can use to become a Spanish speaker sooner rather than later.

Why Conversational Fluency is What Really Matters

You’ll notice that I said “conversational” fluency, and not just “fluency”. Here’s why:

You have to speak. Speaking is by far the most important part of developing your language skills. Most of us learn a language to connect with others. If you can’t say anything, you miss that connection.
Don’t get stuck on perfectionism. Getting caught up with the idea of being able to read, write, listen and speak perfectly will overwhelm you and cause inaction. Aiming for conversational fluency gives you a stepping stone on the path to full fluency (including reading/writing) and then mastery.

With that in mind, here are five essential steps that will take you to conversational fluency in Spanish.

Ready..?

¡Vamos! Let’s go!

Step 1: Find Your Real Passion for Speaking Fluent Spanish

Learning to speak fluent Spanish can be way easier than a Spanish teacher will ever admit.

Even so, there will still be times when it’s a struggle. You’ll only push through this if you have a good reason for learning Spanish. I like to call this your passion.

Everyone’s reason for learning Spanish is different. For me, I was committed to proving that I wasn’t “destined” to be bad at learning languages. I was passionate about proving a point and showing what perseverance and hard work could accomplish.

For you it might be different. Maybe you have a love interest who is a native speaker, or perhaps you want to pursue a career that involves the Spanish language. Literature, travel, adventure, hobbies — they can all fuel the motivation you need to keep you pushing forward with your studies and practice.

By exploring your real reason for learning Spanish, you have a better chance of keeping your motivation high as you progress. Whenever you feel stuck at Spanish, go back to the reason you picked it up in the first place. That’s what will keep you strong.

Bonus Tip: Don’t limit yourself to just one passion. Learning because your grandparents speak Spanish? That doesn’t mean you can’t also pick up a Spanish-related hobby, learn songs in Spanish, or start reading Spanish literature.

Step 2: Create Your Own Spanish Language Phrasebook

Most Spanish phrasebooks will provide you with hundreds or thousands of words and phrases. Chances are, at least 70% of them will be useless to you.

You can get around this by creating your personalized Spanish phrase book and vocabulary list. These are the words and expressions you will use all the time. Focusing on these is the fastest path to conversational fluency.

When starting off, make sure to come up with a list of words and expressions that deal with your life. Here are some topics to get you started (and some examples of what I might say):

Your life and experiences (“I have been traveling non-stop for 12 years.”)
Your family and relations (“I just got engaged!”)
Your hometown and country (“I’m from a small town in Ireland.”)
Your hobbies and interests (“I’m a vegetarian.”)
Your school and studies (“I studied engineering.”)
Your job or profession (“blogger”, “polyglot” or “online business”)

As you try to speak with others in Spanish you’ll naturally encounter other words or phrases that you will want to add to this list. You’ll also be able to check your initial attempts at translating it, to getting it right.

Bonus Tip: Frequency word lists are a great resource, but rather than take the list as it is, go through and select those words that you know you will use on a consistent basis. Usually after the top 100 words (the, to, yes etc.) you need to focus on words more relevant to you.

Think of it like a “you filter”, where you’re filtering the list to narrow down those which are most relevant to you and your life.

Step 3: Learn Spanish Conversational Connectors

Fluent Spanish speakers don’t talk like a book. If you try to talk the same way people write, you’ll wind up sounding like a robot.

Spoken Spanish has elements that allow you to bridge ideas and phrases, or add space to the conversation where your mouth can catch up with your brain (or vice versa). I call these “conversational connectors” (hat tip to Anthony Lauder who introduced them to me) and they are one of the keys to creating a more “fluent” sound in Spanish.

There are 10 main categories of connectors that I focus on:

Apologising — (“don’t be upset, but …”)
(Dis)Agreeing — (“most certainly”)
Closing — (“to sum up …”)
Filler — (“well, as a matter of fact …”)
Elaborating — (“to be more precise …”)
Opening — (“that is a good question …”)
Passing — (“and what do you think?”)
Qualifying — (“to tell the truth …”)
Quoting — (“recently, I heard that …”)
Switching — (“by the way …”)

Conversational connectors bridge the gap between written and spoken Spanish, so they’re a big help in developing conversational fluency.

Bonus Tip: Don’t try to memorize all the Conversational Connectors at once! Pick a few and use them as quickly as you can. This is the fastest way to ingrain them into your memory. You only need one or two to start, and then you can add to your repertoire as you gain more experience and confidence.

Step 4: Chat with Native Spanish Speakers

This is where you truly hit the ground running! To reach conversational fluency, it’s best to speak Spanish on a daily basis. Your goal is to use as much of the language as you can, as often as you can, wherever you can.

Location is no excuse. I’ve talked at great length about how learning online is better than in-person, and even shared methods for finding the right teachers on italki and how to use Skype to learn languages.

So, finding opportunities to speak shouldn’t be an issue.

Even if you are one of those rare people with no Internet, no native speakers in your city, and no resources, there is still a way to speak Spanish all the time:

Speak to yourself!

All the normal self-talk that you do in your head during the day can be done in Spanish! For example, instead of thinking “Boy, I’d really like to go for a walk”, think it to yourself in Spanish instead.

This might sound silly, but this type of “internal” training can do wonders to increase your fluency in Spanish by helping you to at least get used to thinking in Spanish.

You’ll also need to listen to spoken Spanish. So be sure to check out my list of Spanish language resources, including podcasts, videos, online services, and more.

Bonus Tip: When using listening materials, don’t just listen passively, but actively study what you hear. Listen and then listen again. Work for comprehension and try to duplicate the sounds you hear. This sort of active study of what you hear will increase your ability to speak like a native.

Step 5: Focus on the Easy Parts of Spanish

In any language learning project, you can easily get overwhelmed with all the things about the language which are challenging. In fact, it seems this is the first thing many beginners do.

So, why not try a different approach? Mindset and your approach to learning a language can be one of the greatest determiners of success. That’s why I recommend looking at all the ways Spanish is actually easy.

I’ve written previously about how understanding spoken Spanish can be easy. In my guide, Why Spanish is Easy, I go in depth with methods for simplifying your approach to Spanish.

I share over 60 pages of techniques in the guide, but here are a few specific things to keep in mind to understand why conversational fluency in Spanish is certainly achievable.

Spanish is Phonetic

Reading Spanish is MUCH easier than reading English (mainly because English is so weird). Once you learn the pronunciation rules (which take very little time at all) you will be able to say anything you can read! That makes pulling out a dictionary to find the right word a breeze!

There Are No Cases in Spanish

Did you know there are fourteen ways of saying pretty much every word in Czech? Many Slavic and Germanic languages have noun cases which can make learning a word like “house” a chore. In Spanish “casa” is always “casa” no matter if you are in the house, going to the house, talking about the house etc. You learn a word and it’s that way for good.

There Are No Tones in Spanish

If you’re learning Chinese, Punjab or Thai, a word with the same consonants and vowels can mean something completely different depending on if the tone is high, low, rising or falling. While Spanish has a different accent and musicality to English, the intonations are very similar (for example, when you ask a question). It’s a lot more familiar than you think!

Cognates: There Are Thousands of Spanish Words You Already Know

Thanks to the occupation of England by the Norman French, we ended up with many French words in the English language. Fortunately many of these are very similar to the same words in Spanish!

Changing just the ending of words can give you dozens if not hundreds of words in Spanish.

For example, changing the “-tion” ending to “-cion” gives you words like “asociación” or “instrucción”. Learning these “cognate” rules instantly gives you an expanded vocabulary you never knew you had!

Remember, It’s All About Your Mindset

Your ability to become conversationally fluent in Spanish has nothing to do with whether or not you are “gifted” or the specific rules of Spanish itself. It is really all about your mindset and approach to learning the language.

Back when I started learning Spanish I stumbled across a totally new philosophy which has fueled my study of languages from that day forward: I could only learn to speak Spanish if I spoke Spanish.

These five steps are a road map to help you move forward on your path with Spanish. But regardless of the course materials you use or the method you employ, if you want to be conversant in Spanish, then you need to actually converse.

It essentially boils down to getting out there, opening your mouth, and making some friends. So, what are you waiting for?

The post 5 Steps to Become Conversationally Fluent in Spanish appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

The “Pinch Yourself” Hack for Rapid Language Learning (Backed by Science)

My friend Maneesh Sethi spent five years travel hacking his way around the world, learning Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German along the way. Now Maneesh is working on Pavlok, a wearable device that uses electric shock to help you change your habits. It’s a device I see so much potential for that I was even an early investor in it!

Today, I’ve invited one of Maneesh’s team, Michael, to share a unique language hack based on the science of learning.

Here’s Michael…

Very few language hacks are developed in a laboratory.

Yet there is one hack so powerful that it took a whole team of scientists to uncover…

They had fancy equipment, an institutional budget and decades of experience between them. And it turns out you can replicate their results at home.

All you need to get started is some flash cards, your two fingers and the step-by-step guide in this post.

Let’s get started!

How Hard Pinches Increase Your Memory And Help You Learn Vocabulary

Language hackers have accepted truths:

You will get better if you are willing to make mistakes
There are around 1000 words in any language that make up 90% of everyday use
Immersion forces you to improve

But almost no-one talks about using science to learn languages faster (with one notable exception: spaced repetition).

Yet scientifically proven approaches can be VERY effective. Why have we ignored the science for so long?

For 80+ years, researchers have reported the successful results of negative stimuli for self improvement.

The reports range from using electric shock to help 60%+ of smokers quit their habit, to using nausea-inducing substances to help people quit drinking alcohol (studies show this is more effective than Alcoholics Anonymous).

The DIY version of an electric shock is giving yourself a hard pinch.

Let’s dig into the science and then I’ll explain how you can start using pinch-power for rapid language acquisition.

Here’s the Science Behind Improving Your Vocabulary

In a 2014 study, four researchers tested the effect of threat inducement on memory.

Spoiler: your body’s threat response improves memory! Here is the cool part — memories can be enhanced both selectively AND retroactively, which means a little threat today can enhance the memory of something you learned last week.

The study was conducted at the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Sciences at New York University. It cited 25 other studies, spanning five decades of rigorous scientific testing.

In the study, electrodes were used to improve short term recall of images after study sessions.

In Phase 1, subjects were asked to classify 60 items as either a “tool” or an “animal”. They were not asked to remember the images.

In Phase 2, shocking electrodes were attached to the subject’s right wrist. Again, they were asked to classify 60 objects as either a “tool” or an “animal”. This time the subjects were shocked on one of the two categories. Some were shocked on every tool, and some were shocked on every animal. The shock is perceived by the brain to be a threat, which increases awareness.

The subjects were then given a surprise recall examination (AKA: a memory pop quiz). Some received the memory test immediately following the study. Others received the follow-up assessment six hours or 24 hours later.

Conclusion: Electric Shocks Can Boost Your Memory and Vocabulary

The study found that participants who had an electric shock paired with their flashcards had an increased ability to remember those cards when compared with the control group.

And the findings were not only for those specific cards, but also applied retroactively to cards viewed in the past.

The above chart shows that without exception, threat-inducement resulted in increased memory and recall.

Here’s how this memory enhancement can be used in everyday life:

Vocabulary retention via flash cards
Useful phrases in a foreign language
Names of people you meet at a party
High-priority flashcards before a test
Bullet points before a big presentation
An email address or to-do item from someone you meet in person
Recall words on the tip of your tongue

The next section is a step-by-step guide on how to use threat inducement (via pinching yourself) to increase vocabulary retention and speed up your language learning.

How To Rapidly Memorize Vocabulary

The following guide shows how to use both software and hard pinches to learn languages faster.

The software is Anki. Anki intelligent flash card software based on the way your brain learns new things, like vocabulary.

The hard pinch is the “threat inducer” that forces your body to operate at a higher level.

Here’s what to do:

Download and install Anki. The Anki software is available for all major desktop and mobile platforms. You can then upload your own word lists or use one from the Anki library. Not sure about Anki? If you have another flash card method, you can use that.
Master the hard pinch. The goal is to induce a “threat response” and activate your brain’s increased awareness of an event. To do so, you need a pretty strong pinch. When I do this I squeeze a bit of skin, put my index finger on the back of it and then dig my thumbnail in. An effective pinch is uncomfortable and a little bit painful. An alternative is an elastic band that you can snap against your wrist
Review a category of flash cards. Examples of categories may be general (e.g., verbs, adjectives) or more focused (e.g., food, clothing, jobs). Don’t pinch yourself at this stage, but you may use another memory enhancement technique like reading the vocabulary out loud.
Review that same category, adding the pinch. This time when you review the category, pinch yourself once on each vocabulary word. Twenty flash cards? Twenty pinches. Also, spend a moment to focus on each flashcard before moving to the next. You may repeat this step as many times as you like on the first day.
In future study sessions pinch only on forgotten vocabulary. The goal is to focus your increased memory retention on those words giving you the most trouble. Again, spend a moment on each card before moving on to the next.

That’s it — a 5 step, science backed system proven to enhance your memory and help you rapidly increase your vocabulary.

You can learn 100 common food words.

You can learn the names of places to go.

You can learn how to check into a hotel.

You can learn it all.

And for most people this “pinch hack” will be enough. However, if you think you could use a little help, there is an upgrade available.

Want to Upgrade Your Pinch? Try a Real Electric Shock

Once you’ve mastered the pinch-hack above, you may be ready for the “upgraded pinch” – a safe electric shock. WARNING: The key word here is “safe”. Electricity can cause serious harm if not administered safely.

Pavlok is a wearable device that gives you small electric shocks on command. It’s safe and scientifically proven as more effective than DIY techniques like pinching or rubber bands.

It’s not just for improving your memory. Pavlok users are quitting smoking, nail biting, wasting time online and dozens of other bad habits.

Decades of scientific research show the majority of people who apply electric shock are able to quit these habits in less than 5 days. And more importantly, after a 12 month check-in they continue to abstain from their former addiction.

And you can use it for good habits too: exercising, eating healthily, learning languages and more.

Pavlok pre-sold thousands of devices, raising over $270,000 on Indiegogo. We are already shipping prototypes and you can pre-order the final production unit that will ship in May/June, 2015.

Click here for more info.

Limited Time Offer — We’ve collaborated with Benny on an exclusive Pavlok-Fi3M package deal. For the price of a Pavlok you’ll get the device AND access to Fluent In 3 Month’s Premium Course.

What are you waiting for?

Click here to get your deal.

BONUS: The first 10 people to order this package can get 25% off with the code: THANKSBENNY

Click here to learn a language the scientifically proven way.

The post The “Pinch Yourself” Hack for Rapid Language Learning (Backed by Science) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

How to Use Skype to Learn Another Language

Having real conversations with native speakers is one of the best ways to quickly improve your language skills.

Yet I’m constantly surprised by the number of people who wait years before they take that step — or who never take it at all!

Recently I was in a room with 20 language learners and asked them “How many of you have used Skype to practise your target language?” Not a single person raised their hand.

This needs to change. Seriously, if you haven’t tried it yet, now’s the time to start.

So many language learners know they should start practising with a native sooner rather than later… and then just don’t. Hopefully this post will light a fire under your arse!

Today I’m sharing in one post my specific strategies for using Skype to practice speaking a new language, and how to make the most out of every Skype conversation. And of course you can use these strategies without ever leaving home.

Let’s get started.

How to Find a Skype Language Exchange Partner

Your first task is to find another person who speaks your target language and who is willing to chat with you over Skype.

Italki – My favourite language learning resource. 

I’ve written loads about my favourite way to do this, which is with the excellent service italki.

Italki is an online language learning service that connects you with language teachers from around the world. If you’ve been curious to try it out, take a look at my review of italki where I break down their entire system for you.

I’ve also written out a guide for how to choose between italki’s many online teachers to find the best one for you. When you’re filtering through the various tutors and teachers, pick a native speaker who lives in the country you’re focused on. This will give you a direct pipeline to the authentic and modern way to speak your target language.

But I know that you’ve heard me talk about italki before. And while I really do think you should give it a try, there are alternative methods for finding great exchange partners, which I’ll share with you now!

HelloTalk – Casually chat in your target language throughout the day.

For example, if you’re on the shy side, you might try HelloTalk for a totally different experience. This app works on your smartphone, and connects you with other people learning your language who want to do a language exchange. The app lets you send voice messages or “text messages” to people who match up with your language, which is great if you don’t feel like being on video. When you get a text message on HelloTalk, the app will help you translate it, and it will auto-correct your replies to get rid of the mistakes.

What I really love about HelloTalk is that whenever I suggest it to a reader, they usually get back to me with great news like “I’ve been chatting in Mandarin in all day!” And that’s always great to hear. The downside to HelloTalk is that it doesn’t offer video chats if that’s what you’re looking for, and you won’t find professional teachers on the site – just other language learners (but they can still teach you a lot).

Join a language learning community and find an exchange partner there!

Try something for me.

Go into your Facebook account and search for “Esperanto”. Do you see that public group there with 16,000 members? Now go to meetup.com, type in your target language and your city, and click “search.” I just randomly searched for “German” in Minneapolis, Minnesota and found 3 different local communities.

In most cities all over the world, I promise you’ll be surprised by what you’ll find. There are communities of people everywhere who are searching for someone to practice their languages with. Why can’t that someone be you?

All you really need to do to find a language exchange partner is to step outside your comfort zone.

That’s the hardest part. “Finding” people is easy. Having the courage to talk to them is harder, but so worth it.

What to Expect from Your Skype Language Exchange Partner

There are basically two types of people you will practise speaking with on Skype: language exchange partners (free) or a teachers/tutors (paid).

With language exchange partners you should expect to spend some time helping the other person with your native language. You can suggest that each of you go back and forth, spending 10 – 15 minutes speaking in their native language, and then 10 – 15 minutes in yours. I recommend you set up the rules at the start of the call to keep things fair.

But keep in mind that most language exchange partners are not professional teachers and may not have any experience teaching their language to others. This is a great way to practise speaking, but you shouldn’t expect too much in terms of structured instruction or in depth explanations. And you may get the dreaded question, “What do you want to talk about?” So I recommend you arrive online with at least some idea of what you want to practise, so you’ll be prepared when you get that question.

Paid teachers, on the other hand, focus entirely on helping you speak and understand your target language. While you do have to pay money, the costs are considerably less than you would pay for a live one-on-one teacher, or even a group class. Plus, you get to do it from the comfort of your own desk or couch!

With paid teachers you should be clear about what you are looking to get out of your lesson, and prepare some materials or topics that you want to review.

A bit of preparation before you talk to your teacher will allow you to focus on those areas that are most important.

Two Steps to Prepare for Your Skype Language Exchange
Step 1: Decide What to to Talk About

Whichever language I’m learning, I usually prepare for my Skype speaking practice in the same way. If you’ve gone through my free Speak in a Week course, then you know that I recommend starting with phrases and words that are specific and relevant to your own situation. Keep a list of words that are specific to you and your life, so you can refer to it when talking about yourself.

Make sure that you have practised these phrases several times, and know how they should sound. Listening to the words beforehand on forvo.com is really helpful for this.

Another handy group of phrases to have ready are those that you may need to ask related to language learning. For example “Can you please repeat that more slowly?” or “Can you write it down for me?” These will become invaluable during your first conversations in the language.

There are of course more in-depth strategies for preparing for a Skype chat, but just knowing a few phrases you want to say in advance will take you really far.

Step 2: Tackle Your Nerves

Feeling nervous? So is the other person!

One of the biggest reasons I hear that people don’t take the plunge to practice on Skype is nerves!

I’m always hearing, “Benny, I’m shy!” or “Benny, I’m scared!” Well, I can’t change that, but I can tell you that your exchange partner is likely just as nervous as you are.

The person on the screen won’t be scrutinizing your language skills the way you imagine they will be. They won’t be judging you. They won’t be annoyed with your mistakes or slow speech. They’ll probably be too busy worrying that you will judge them, that you will be annoyed with them. They’ll be focusing on their own mistakes, not yours!

A lot of people get nervous the first time they speak with a native speaker. You’ll probably never feel totally “ready” to start speaking with another person. This is completely normal.

In fact, if you feel “ready” to speak with a native speaker, then you’ve probably waited too long! Feeling a bit terrified during your first conversation is to be expected and, while I can’t give you a magic pill to take away the nerves, I can tell you that this is absolutely temporary.

Once your first conversation is over, it will only get easier. In fact, it will start to get easier in the first 2 minutes of your conversation! Just hang in there and soon enough you’ll start to get into the flow of things.

How to Set Up Your Computer for a Skype Language Exchange

When I have a speaking session on Skype, I make sure that my computer desktop is set up in an optimal way. There are a few specific windows you should be sure to keep open on your computer while you’re chatting with a native speaker:

Your list of phrases and keywords in a notepad document
Google Translate to use during the conversation
An online dictionary to find words in your target language

If you have these open in tabs in your browser, or in easily accessible windows, all of the information you might need during the conversation is at your fingertips and easily accessible. This allows you to focus on practising speaking, rather than scrambling to look things up.

This might seem like “cheating”, since you have the things you want to practise right in front of you. But this is about getting used to speaking in the language. And the fastest way to become comfortable speaking and gain confidence in your ability is to open your mouth.

In time, you’ll be able to speak without those “cheat sheets” on your computer screen. In fact, using this sort of system, you’ll find yourself progressing to new phrases and words much faster than if you were always trying to reproduce them from memory.

5 Tips to Make the Most of Your Skype Language Exchange

Here are a few other tips that can help make your Skype call much more effective:

Tip 1: Open Your Mouth!

The best way to make the most of your Skype language practice is to open your mouth and speak! Enjoy getting to know someone from the other side of the planet.

It’s amazing when you think about how technology is brings this world closer together. Thanks to this amazing software called Skype, you no longer need to travel thousands of miles to converse with a native speaker!

Tip 2: Use Video, Not Just Voice

To make sure your Skype call is as effective as possible, try to have a video call.

“Can’t I just have a voice call?” you might ask, and sure, while that is technically possible, I highly recommend you arrange a video call with your native speaker.

Over 90% of communication is nonverbal, so body language can play a big part of getting your point across, or understanding what the other person is saying.

Seeing the person also gets you used to observing cultural cues that people use when speaking in that language. How someone uses their hands or shows emotion on their face can vary from culture to culture. Seeing it first hand will give you insight into the cultural nuances of how people communicate.

Tip 3: Try the Bingo! Strategy

Another way to make the most of your call is use the “Bingo” strategy, which my partner Lauren came up with. Essentially, Lauren has a list of possible things to say, and plays a bingo game with herself to try and practise all the phrases on the list. If she does this, it’s Bingo! For each phrase she uses it gets ticked off the list. (You can read all about it on her 2 Week Russian language study update here.)

Tip 4: Use Technology to Your Advantage

Try recording your Skype conversation to review later on. (To do this, always get permission first from your teacher, and don’t share the video unless you get permission for that, too).

If you record your session, you’ll be able to look back and figure out that word you didn’t understand, or watch again to remember all the words you wanted to say but didn’t know how. This way, you’ll be better prepared for next time.

You can also ask your teacher to incorporate Google Doc documentation, screen sharing, or other technologies into your lessons.

Tip 5: Review Your Notes After the Call

Lastly, don’t close your computer the moment your Skype call ends.

Instead, spend an extra ten minutes looking back at the notes in the Skype chat box. What words did your teacher type out that you didn’t know? What new phrases should you add to your study list or Anki deck? Were there any conversation topics that you struggled with during the conversation?

This “debriefing” time is so important to make sure that everything you just learned doesn’t get lost, but gets reincorporated into your study strategy.

Now, I know that so many of you have still been procrastinating on using your languages on Skype. What’s been holding you back? When will you pull the trigger? Let me know in the Facebook comments!

The post How to Use Skype to Learn Another Language appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

41 Brilliant Words & Expressions We Desperately Need in English

When you start studying a new language, one of the first things you’ll discover is that certain words and phrases in your new language have no English equivalent.

This can be really frustrating. How are you supposed to learn a language when you can’t think of a simple English translation? That said, this is one of my favourite aspects of language learning! Once you’re familiar with a language and its cultural roots, you’ll realize that many of these phrases are perfect for expressing concepts that you can’t say in English (without awkward rephrasing).

To demonstrate this, here are 41 words and phrases from other languages with no English equivalent. Check these out…

5 Terms that just make sense to have

1. Anteayer (Spanish)

The day before yesterday – Once you hear this word, you can’t help but realize that you’ve been missing it your whole life.

2. Ti voglio bene (Italian)

or Te quiero (Spanish)

or Ich hab’ dich Lieb (German)

In English, you jump straight from liking someone to loving them. But there’s a much bigger spectrum of human emotions than that, and I think many people overuse “I love you” because of it.

In other languages, there’s a midway point. These are usually translated as “I love you” in English, but each of these languages have an even deeper and definitely romantic “I love you” that goes a level above these.

This middle point is definitely love, but it’s more that you hope the person is safe and care for them. In English, you have to be more careful. Do you love the person, or do you love-love them, or perhaps you only really like like them, which is more than just liking them. So confusing!

3. Estadounidense (Spanish)

A person or thing of the United States of America. – “American” kind of works, but there’s a whole North America, Central America and South America too. Aren’t they “American”? Some of us foreigners may continue to call you all Yankees until we fix this. Luckily, this isn’t an issue in Spanish!

4. Gigil (Tagalog)

Cuteness overload – You know the feeling when you see the most adorable baby, the cutest kitten or the cuddliest dog and you just want to squeeze it, and let out a huge “awwwww!” That feeling of cuteness-overload has a word in Tagalog. And it’s a cute word to boot!

5. Ser vs Estar (Spanish)

To be vs. to be – The two Spanish words for “to be” is worthy of groans from many a beginner language learner, but it also helps you express subtle differences in being. Check out this book I once saw in Spain:

A photo posted by Benny Lewis (@irishpolyglot) on Sep 4, 2013 at 4:22am PDT

Translating this literally, you get “You aren’t fat, you’re fat”. Or more cumbersomely, “Being fat isn’t a part of your permanent existence that defines you, you are only fat temporarily”. In Spanish you can express that you are something only temporarily, and it’s not a part of your permanent being.

8 Terms With Bizarre Literal Translations

These expressions can be a lot of fun and, even better, tend to be really easy to remember since they are so strange and humorous. Even if we don’t start up a blog quake with this article, you’re sure to get a laugh or two.

1. L’esprit de l’escalier (French)

Literally staircase wit — When you think of the perfect retort too late. I love this one. You know that feeling you have a few minutes after you leave a conversation, and you think to yourself, That’s what I should have said! The French have a phrase for that.

To me, this brings up the image of leaving someone’s apartment in Paris and going down the stairs (since there aren’t many lifts in la ville lumière), and realizing that you had the perfect thing to say to their snide final comment. Technically you could walk back up to them and say it, but that would be weird.

2. Bloggbävning (Swedish)

Literally blog quake — When a blog topic goes viral and is picked up by the mainstream media.

3. 加油 / Jiāyóu (Chinese)

Literally add oil — To push forward with more energy and effort. This is often said at sporting events or to encourage someone undertaking a challenge. This is also how to wish “good luck” in Chinese.

4. 吃苦 / Chīkǔ (Chinese)

Literally eat bitter — To endure extreme hardship. For me this word evokes a strong mental image.

5. Hygge (Danish)

Literally well being — To create a warm atmosphere and enjoy the good things in life with good people.

6. Flipperförälder (Swedish)

Literally pinball parent — A parent who lets their children have lots of freedom. I certainly would have loved a pinball machine when I was a boy!

7. Cwtch (Welsh)

Literally safe space — To give someone a hug, but not out of affection/love, but to let them know that they are safe.

8. Glas wen (Welsh)

Literally blue smile — An insincere smile. We say “crocodile tears” in English – why don’t we have a crocodile smile?

15 Actions We Wish Were Easier to Describe in English

Many cultures have specific, culturally nuanced actions that you don’t often find in English.

You might save some money with a dar un toque, or who hasn’t felt the desire to deppenfahrerbeaugung while you’re in the car?

Check out some of these action words and phrases that would be great to have in English.

1. Cambiar el chip (Spanish)

Literally change the chip — That Eureka moment, when it feels like a switch has been flicked in your brain, and its internal processor (chip) gives you a whole new way of thinking.

2. 撒娇 (Sājiāo) (Chinese)

To throw a fit and to act childish to show how much you love someone. Kind of romantic… I guess?

3. Politikerleden (Danish)

Having disgust for politicians.

4. Bagstiv (Danish)

Waking up in the morning still drunk from the night before.

5. Deppenfahrerbeaugung (German)

Literally moron driver eyeballing — when you want to turn around and glare at a bad driver you’ve just overtaken.

7. Baggerspion (German)

Literally digger truck spy hole — The desire to peek into boarded-up building sites.

8. Mencolek (Indonesian)

When you tap someone on the opposite shoulder from behind to trick them. I do this to Lauren often, to watch her spin around and finally find me back where she started. I was pretty sure that I invented this ingenious and hilarious ploy, but never quite knew what to call it until now.

9. Iktsuarpok (Inuit)

When you keep checking outside to see if someone is coming.

10. 頑張ります /ganbarimasu (Japanese)

To put forth your best effort.

11. переподвыподверт (Russian)

To do something in a complex way that makes no sense

6. Aktivansteher (German)

Literally energetic queuer — An expert at the art of joining the best queues. I always seem to join the wrong line at the supermarket with the old lady counting pennies. I wish I had this superpower!

12. Dar un toque (Spanish) or Fare uno squillo (Italian)

To call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. Can also be used for subtle communications like to simply let the other person know you are thinking of them, or that you are running late but will be there soon. No actual communication other than the missed call is provided, but the context is pretty clear what you mean.

13. Nosh (Yiddish)

To nibble at a light snack.

14. Plotz (Yiddish)

To explode in anger.

15. Béaláiste (Irish)

A toast (drink) used to seal a deal.

13 Amazing Ways Other Languages Describe People and Relationships

The purpose of language is to communicate with people, so it’s no surprise that most languages have unique ways to describe people and their relationships. Even a smlimazl might catch a break, or a белоручка might end up getting a promotion.

Here are 13 words and expressions that give us a glimpse into how different cultures view people and relationships.

1. Saudades (Portuguese)

A deep and emotional yearning, used when someone misses something or someone. A classic word that has to make every list like this! Pretty much any Brazilian I’ve met outside of Brazil feels saudades for their home. Unlike simply missing it or feeling homesick, it’s like a part of you is missing if you can’t be there or with that person.

2. 缘分 / Yuánfèn (Chinese)

Fate or serendipity that brings people together (often used for romantic coincidences).

3. 夫妻相 / Fūqīxiàng (Chinese)

Literally Husband Wife Look — A couple who have similar physical appearances and consequently are likely to get along and be a good match.

4. 热闹 / Rènào (Chinese)

Literally Hot Noisy — A lively environment with lots of people (used to express feelings of camaraderie and closeness with others).

5. Hils (Danish)

Expressing concern or caring for someone who is being talked about. (See also: 〜によろしくお願いします in Japanese)

6. Sitzpinkler (German)

Literally A man who sits to pee — Or in other words, a wimp. A weird cultural aside here, I have been in many German homes where signs in the bathroom have instructed men to sit while peeing. That’s certainly a new spin on gender equality!

7. Okradlakpok (Inuit)

To talk excessively.

8. 〜によろしくお願いします / ~ ni yoroshiku onegaishimasu (Japanese)

Asking to pass on an expression of concern or caring for another person. (See also: Hils in Danish)

9. мерзлячка (Russian) and  Friolento/Friolero (Spanish)

People who don’t tolerate or are very sensitive to the cold. Lauren searched the world and finally found a word that describes how averse she is to cold environments.

10. почемучка (Russian)

A child who asks lots of questions.

11. белоручка (Russian)

A person who avoids dirty work.

12. luftmensch (Yiddish)

A dreamer; someone with no business savvy.

13. shlimazl (Yiddish)

A person with constant bad luck.

What Other Words Does English Need?

We had lots of fun putting together this list of words and phrases! But I’m sure we’ve missed some great ones.

Do you know of any good ones? Chime in with your suggestions in the comments and share them with the rest of the Fi3M family!

The post 41 Brilliant Words & Expressions We Desperately Need in English appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Interview with Tim Ferriss: Intensive Language Learning and the Tim Ferriss Experiment

About two and a half years ago, I finally had the chance to catch up with Tim Ferriss and interview him about language learning. It went well besides my bad connection in Brazil meaning I had to upload the lowest possible quality video. We had a great chat about language learning in general, around the launch of his 4 hour chef book.

Now, Tim is launching an entire TV series about rapid learning, so I invited him back on to chat about it. Rather than vague questions though, I had the unique perspective of interacting with Tim twice since my last video on language learning projects, so I brought that up in this discussion, namely:

Being the small world that it is, without planning it we had the same teacher in one of our languages, and that person told me how crazy a student Tim was
One of the episodes of his TV show was about Tim attempting to learn enough Tagalog in 3 days to survive a televised interview in the language. He got in touch with me and I coached him on some shortcuts in the language, and what I tend to do for my first Skype chats or first Youtube uploads to be able to say as much as possible. He combined my tips with his own vast language learning experience and did a spectacular job, and you can see that in one of the earlier episodes of his series.

Other than that, the theme of our discussion is based around rapid language learning for immediate uses. I hope you enjoy it! (This time in HD

The 8 Biggest Mistakes Language Learners Make (And How to Fix Them!)

Get a fast pass, and avoid the mistakes I share in this article…

Today I’m launching a new series of six language hacking guides to help people learn languages the fast way.

The guides cover French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and English.

This weekend only you can get them for a very special introductory price. Check out the deal here.

Now, onto the blog post…

If I asked you to name some language learning mistakes, what would you say?

Bad pronunciation? Not knowing the right words? Messing up grammar?

These are pretty common mistakes, and people make them all the time when learning a language.

But these aren’t the mistakes that will hold you back as a language learner.

In fact, these “mistakes” – having limited vocab, messing up grammar, having a thick accent – are a natural and necessary part of the learning process. So, they’re not really mistakes at all.

Today I’d like to share with you eight of the most common mistakes that will hold you back. I see language learners struggling with these issues every day. Don’t be one of them!

Luckily, although these mistakes will stall your language learning, they are easy to fix, just by making a few small changes in your mindset. Language hacking is all about mindset.

Language Learning Mistake #1: Freaking out about Making Mistakes

Mistakes are an essential part of learning languages (or learning anything, really). So don’t beat yourself up about them.

Think about it. There’s no way that you can reach fluency without making lots and lots (and lots) of mistakes. It’s utterly impossible. So why even try to avoid them? Instead, embrace being a beginner and accept that it means you’ll feel out of your comfort zone for a while.

The purpose of making mistakes it to learn from them. An excellent strategy is to learn your lesson as quickly as possible and move on, better and stronger than you were before.

If your experience of learning a language is filled with stressful emotions you’re much more likely to give up. By avoiding speaking until you can say things “perfectly”, you’ll silence yourself. Worrying too much about being perfect will paralyze you.

Always remember that mistakes are the gateway to improvement and are essential to our development. Without mistakes your progress will stall.

The Language Hacker’s Fix for Making Mistakes

Learn to love your mistakes.

At the very least, learn to learn from your mistakes. At the end of each day take a few moments to write down the mistakes you made with your language learning. Then, next to each mistake write what you learned from the mistake and how you can improve your process the next time around. After a while your mind will naturally start to shift from being stressed out about your mistakes to looking at them as an opportunity for improvement.

I have a very easy-going attitude with mistakes in language learning. They are so necessary that I have a goal to make at least 200 mistakes a day when I’m in my most intensive learning mode! By saying things wrong 200 times, I know I’m using the language, and I know I’m learning how to say them right as fast as possible.

Language Learning Mistake #2: Thinking You’ll Never Pronounce it Right

With hundreds of different sound units (phonemes) in the world’s languages – between 300 to 600, depending on who you ask – it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

It seems like an uphill battle when tackling the German “ch”, Chinese tones, or the long strings of consonants in Czech and Russian. Even when you look at a really familiar word like “radiation” in a language like French, it’s pronounced closer to “Hhah-dee-ah-see-ong”, which is very different from what you’d expect as an English speaker.

I’ll let you in on a little secret:

It isn’t that these words are hard to pronounce, but that English pronunciation and spelling rules are so weird.

Think about it. Why is the “ough” spelling pronounced so differently in though, through, plough and cough? As an English speaker you have an advantage of already being comfortable in a language filled to bursting point with complicated phonetic rules. If you can learn English pronunciation then it’s a safe bet you can learn to pronounce any language.

The Language Hacker’s Fix for Pronunciation

Identify the phonetic rules in your target language that give you the most trouble.

Then take a list of words (ideally relevant to you, such as where you’re from, your hobbies, your work, or studies) and try to say them yourself. You can check your pronunciation from home by searching for the words on Forvo.com to see how native speakers pronounce them. After a while you’ll start to internalize the patterns.

Repeat the words again and again, and muscle memory will eventually take over. Your mouth and tongue will have a bit of work to do at first to learn how to make these new sounds. But with repetition, you’ll eventually be pronouncing even the toughest words with ease.

Language Learning Mistake #3: Getting Tangled up with Grammar

Yes, the language you are studying has grammar. And yes, some of the grammar might be “hard”. But guess what? Every language also has aspects of grammar which are easy!

There are two related mistakes people make with grammar. The first is ignoring those aspects of the grammar that make the language much easier. For example, you’ll never need to conjugate verbs in Chinese or know noun cases in Italian. Don’t forget to embrace the parts of grammar that make things easy!

The second grammar mistake is to focus on the details of “hard” grammar without stepping back to see how things can be simplified. Genders in languages like French are much easier when you realize it isn’t about the word, but about the last letter(s) of the word! Even truly tough aspects like the rules of plurals in German have clever shortcuts you can use.

Every language has these “hacks” that can simplify the grammar and make learning much easier.

The Language Hacker’s Fix for Grammar

Enjoy the grammar points in your target language that are easy – they all have them – and find rules to simplify the parts that are “hard”.

Take a step back to see where you can identify those parts of the language that can be simplified into easy-to-understand rules.

For more detail on this, check out the FI3M anguage learning guides which provide a detailed look at language hacks that can shave hours off your study time.

Language Learning Mistake #4: Focusing on the Wrong Vocabulary

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with vocabulary is failing to choose the right words for you.

Vocabulary serves you best when it’s relevant to you and your life. After all, you’re much more likely to talk about your hobbies, family or home town than you are about the top kiwifruit producing country in the world (Italy, believe it or not).

By focusing on words that are specific to you, it allows you to quickly build a list of vocabulary that you can use in conversations right away. Not only that, but since the words you’ve learned are relevant to you, you will find them much easier to remember.

The Language Hacker’s Fix: Vocabulary

Don’t grab a generic list of “1000 most common words” in your language! Many of those words probably won’t be relevant to you as a beginner.

Before you start studying your language, write up a one-page document introducing yourself and your life. Talk about your family, hobbies, school, work or anything else that might come up in conversation. Then identify the most relevant words and focus on learning those first, as well as any words that complement them. For example, if I”m learning the word for “vegetarian” then it is also useful to learn the words for “vegetables”, “eat”, “food”, “meat” and the names of a few of my favorite dishes.

Language Learning Mistake #5: Believing Immersion is All About Living Abroad

If you believe that you can only be immersed in a language by living abroad, then you’re not alone. I’m constantly amazed at how many people have never taken the plunge to get spoken practice online.

Unfortunately this is a big mistake. The Internet makes it really simple to immerse yourself in a new language, wherever you live.

Immersion has less to do with your location than your environment. Build a lifestyle where exposure to your target language is around every corner — through music, TV shows, movies, software and the people you see regularly. For example, if you’re learning French, watch a great French movie like Amélie to help prepare yourself for chatting with native French speakers.

Infuse your day with exposure to the language and your skills will develop at a much higher rate.

It’s so much easier than you might think.

The Language Hacker’s Fix: Immersion

There are three easy things you can do right away to create a language immersion environment. First, and foremost, set up a Skype conversation exchange or language lesson on italki.

Don’t be intimidated to get started. Most people say their biggest regret is not starting sooner!

Second, load up foreign language files (music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.) on your audio player so that you have natives speaking (or singing) to you wherever you go. TuneIn is a great site to get free streaming radio in your target language.

Third, change the language on all your digital interfaces (smartphone, Facebook, computer, web browser) to give yourself full virtual immersion. I explain how to set up devices for digital immersion in my language hacking guides.

Language Learning Mistake #6: Getting Frustrated When Listening to Natives

One of the first things you’ll notice when learning a language is the speed at which natives speak. Even if you understand words written on the page, when you hear them spoken at full speed by a native speaker you can feel like you’re listening to a confusing collection of random sounds. This is especially true if you’re learning Spanish, as native Spanish speakers typically speak at lightning speeds (but there are ways around even that).

Instead of becoming frustrated, realize that this challenge can be overcome by training your ears to associate the sounds of the language with the written form.

With a few weeks of consistent practice you can train yourself to listen as well as you can read. Once you reach that point, it just becomes a matter of improving your vocabulary and grammar.

The Language Hacker’s Fix: Listening

While there are many great methods for developing your ear, just a few you can test out include checking out a TV show or movie you are familiar with (with dubbing and subtitles in your target language) watching it, listening in your target language, all while following along with the subtitles. After a while, test your improved listening skills by watching it again, this time with the subtitles turned off.

There are also tools that allow you to listen to content (video and audio) that is slowed down for learners, depending on the language. I especially love using podcasts to hear full-speed sentences broken down piece by piece.

Learning Learning Mistake #7: Having a Study-Heavy Approach

If you want to improve your language skills, I recommend studying less, not more.

Unless you are studying for a specific exam, burying your head in a book will actually slow down your language learning progress.

One of the biggest mistakes I see language learners make is believing that studying languages is about acquiring knowledge. Newsflash: it’s not! Learning a new language is about building a communication skill. Like any skill, you have to use it to improve it. Don’t get so mired in the study of a language that you forget the whole reason you’re doing this — to communicate with people around the world!

The Language Hacker’s Fix: Studying

Put down your book!

Schedule time to meet up and practice with native speakers. It is the fastest way to build up your skill in a new language. You can use your spoken sessions as a basis for your studies and as an opportunity to practice what you learn. This way you’re building that important muscle memory early on.

Language Learning Mistake #8: Believing it has to be Hard

While language learning is many things, believing that it is intrinsically “hard” is one of the biggest mistakes I see with language learners.

Does it take time and focused commitment? Absolutely! Can it be scary and intimidating? Sure! But is it “hard”? Not necessarily.

Your attitude towards language learning is the biggest factor in how difficult or easy a language will be to learn.

The truth is, the difficulty doesn’t lie within the language itself, but in the study methods and materials you use, and your attitude towards the language. Adapt your approach to be like a scientist testing out new theorems. Find the methods that work best for you instead of committing yourself to one that is familiar, but ineffective.

The Language Hacker’s Fix: Difficulty

The biggest fix here is in changing your mindset.

Don’t aim for perfection or use excuses such as bad luck or “bad genes”. Focus on short-term tangible goals and seek out language learning methods and hacks that can cut hours off your study time and make language learning easy.

There are also lots of fun ways to learn languages. I love learning through music and through gamified social systems like memrise.

Why Learning Languages is Easy

Mistakes are a necessary and valuable part of the language learning process, but that doesn’t mean you have to allow yourself to keep making the same ones over and over.

Focus on the big picture and always look for ways to “hack” your language learning with new approaches, systems and techniques. You’ll soon find that learning a new language is actually easy.

Want to avoid the mistakes I shared in this article? Check out my new language hacking guides that show you how to learn a language the easy way.

The post The 8 Biggest Mistakes Language Learners Make (And How to Fix Them!) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

Italian: Imperfect Tense Language Hacks

This is an altered extract from my new language hackers’ guide, Why Italian is Easy. Want to hack Italian so you can learn it fast? Find out more at the end of this post. Thanks to Transparent Language for the examples we’ll use in this post!

Confused by the past tenses in Italian? There are two main ways to talk about the past in Italian: the “passato prossimo” (perfect past tense) and the “imperfetto” (imperfect tense). But how do you know which one to use?

The perfect past tense (not to be confused with the “past perfect” tense), is something like saying “I have eaten” in English. It’s got that extra “have” (in Italian, it can also have an extra “to be”) and some form of the action word. In Italian, I ate / I have eaten would be “ho mangiato“.

The imperfect tense, on the other hand, is more like “I was eating” and in Italian is just one word, such as “mangiavo“.

Most grammar books explain this in complex ways, but let’s try to see if we can find a shortcut to decide when to use each form!

As a general rule, when in doubt, use the perfect past tense (avere / essere + “participle” of the action word). If you guess wrong, don’t worry – you won’t have Italians scratching their heads in confusion. Because these two forms are essentially like the difference between “I ate” and “I was eating” in English, they are just as understandable as one another. It’s just that one is more grammatically correct than the other. Don’t get too intimidated by this – perfectionism is your enemy!

Constructing the Italian Imperfect Past Tense

Constructing the “perfect past” tense in Italian is something I won’t get into here (I explore it more depth in my guide, Why Italian is Easy), but will show you how to construct the imperfect past tense in a simple way. For most verbs, look it up in the dictionary, then just remove the -re from the dictionary (infinitive) form and replace it with -vo for “I”, -vi for “you”, -va for “he”/ “she” / “it” / “you (polite)”, -vamo for “we”, -vate for “you” plural, and -vano for “they”. This works with all regular verbs.

That’s it! There are a few rare exceptions, the most important of which is ero, eri… (imperfect past tense of “to be”), but that one line explanation will cover most situations for you.

When to Use the Imperfect Past Tense in Italian

The perfect past tense is the “default” to use when in doubt. You should only use the imperfect past tense when:

Describing the ongoing state of objects, places or people in the past. Examples: da piccola avevo i capelli ricci (“when I was a child I used to have curly hair”), era un uomo coraggioso (“he was a brave man”), or la macchina era arrugginita (“the car was rusty”).
You could add a “used to” or “would” in English to imply consistency in the past, then it’s more likely you will use the imperfect past tense in Italian. Examples: ogni martedì ci incontravamo al bar (“every Tuesday we used to meet at the bar”), or correva alla porta ogni volta che suonava il campanello (“he would run to the door every time that the bell rang”).
Describing how a person was feeling or thinking in the past. Examples: aveva sonno (“she was sleepy”), gli faceva male la testa (“he had a headache”), or eravamo tristi (“we were sad”).
Discussing two things happening at the same time, while an “interrupting” event uses the perfect past tense, an ongoing event uses the imperfect past tense. Example: mentre guardavo la tv è suonato il telefono (“while I was watching the TV, the phone rang”).

There are other times when you’ll need to use the past tense, but these four points will cover you most situations. There’s no need to feel intimidated by this aspect of learning Italian!

I’m launching my new language hacking guide Why Italian is Easy this weekend. Get a 30% discount until Monday. Click here to find out more!

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DuoLingo Review: The Quick, Easy and Free Way to Learn A Language

One of the most popular and well-known tools for learning a language online is DuoLingo. DuoLingo is completely free. But is it worth it, and how do you use it? To investigate, Agnieszka from 5-Minute Language shares her experience using DuoLingo to genuinely learn some languages.

Over to you Agnieszka!

 

The free language learning app DuoLingo offers 9 language courses for English speakers. These include Spanish, with over 30 million learners signed up, Italian, with almost 8 million learners, and Irish, with half a million learners.

DuoLingo also includes language courses for speakers of languages other than English. These include French for Portuguese speakers, English for Czech speakers, and so on.

I’ve used DuoLingo to learn Spanish, German and Swedish. Let’s take a look at how this cool little app works and how it can support you in your language learning adventure!

DuoLingo: How Does it Work?

DuoLingo is a great example of a straightforward language app. It’s really simple to use. You set up a profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals (only if you’re brave enough) and off you go!

Each course in DuoLingo is made up of modules (the circles in the screenshot below) which are grouped to form skills.

 

DuoLingo dictates the order in which you need to complete the different modules, with new modules becoming active only once you’ve completed the previous one. This is also the case with individual lessons within each module. You need to complete lesson 1 to be able to progress to lesson 2, and so on. That said, DuoLingo allows you to ‘test out of’ individual modules as well as groups of modules (skills).

 

Pressing the ‘test out’ button lets you take a shortcut if you want to avoid going through the individual lessons or modules that cover material that you’re already familiar with. You need to pass the test to do that, however, because there are no shortcuts in language learning!

The option to ‘test out’ also applies when you begin a new language. You can start with the basics or you can take an ‘entry test’ and let the app determine your fluency level.

DuoLingo: What are the Lessons Like?

Each lesson in DuoLingo is made up of a range of activities, such as translation:

Or this activity where you have to match words to their foreign language equivalents:

New vocabulary is often taught with images, and grammar points are explained in little speech bubbles. There are also listening exercises where you need to type what you hear, and speaking exercises where you say what you hear. This can be quite funny if you use DuoLingo on public transport. The app does give you the option to deactivate your microphone if you’d rather skip the pronunciation exercises – if you don’t want the world to know you’re a polyglot, that is.

Until recently, DuoLingo used a ‘hearts’ system where you had to complete each lesson without losing all your hearts. The app’s latest update has replaced this with a bar that goes up and down as you get things right or wrong. This is less discouraging than losing hearts so I’m a big fan of this update.

DuoLingo Helps You Target Your Weakest Words

Once you’ve finished all of the lessons in a module an additional screen appears. It shows your ‘weakest words’ that the app identified while you worked through the module.

You can strengthen your weakest words there and then, or go back at a later point.

Here’s what you get once you’ve done your revision. I’m so proud whenever the icon turns yellow like this:

DuoLingo also gives you the option to redo all of your lessons, even if you got everything right first time round.

Once you’ve completed a module, the bar underneath that module’s icon shows an estimate of how well you’ll remember remember what you’ve learned. Naturally, if you’ve only just taken the lesson, the bar will be full. Its strength will decrease as days go by, unless you revise.

No weak words in the Spanish Common Phrases module for me – yay! Until next week…

DuoLingo Tracks Your Daily Progress

At the end of each lesson, you get a progress report that also shows your ‘streak’ – the number of days in a row that you’ve completed. If you’ve earned any ‘lingots’ (the DuoLingo currency you earn as you get things right), that’s also indicated on the screen.

DuoLingo: What’s Good?

Here are a few things that I really feel DuoLingo is good at and that helped me in my language learning adventures.

Help With Motivation

DuoLingo recognises that language learners need to be motivated to make sure they come back to the app and engage in some more language fun. DuoLingo uses several different tricks to keep you hooked.

The first is its goal-setting tool. The goals you can choose from vary from ‘casual’ to ‘insane’, depending on how serious you are about learning and how quickly you want to progress. I’ve picked the ‘regular’ goal for my Spanish course and the ‘casual’ one for German. A virtual coach (called “Duo”) reminds you every day whether or not you’re on track to reach your goal. I think this works well for those learners who are motivated by the idea of making a ‘formal arrangement’ with the app. It works for me. If my goal is recorded in the app, it has to happen!

And it’s so nice when Duo tells me I’m on track:

The second trick that DuoLingo uses to motivate its learners are bonus skills and the ability to earn ‘lingots’.

My Spanish course offers two bonus skills in the first part of the course – ‘Idioms’ and ‘Flirting’. The latter is sold in the following way ‘Do you believe in love at first sight? Learn some Spanish pick-up lines’. Interesting! I might spend my ‘lingots’ on buying a new outfit for Duo after all…

Start Using Simple Sentences From Day 1

If you’re an impatient language learner like me, you’ll want to be able to create simple sentences straight away. DuoLingo allows you to do just that.

Let’s look at the first lesson in the first module of the German course. You start with learning some vocabulary, such as boy, apple and water. After the first three or four slides, you’ve learned how to say a sentence:

All you need to do now is go out there and start speaking to real people (rather than your smartphone screen)!

Visual Revision Reminders

The ‘strength’ bars showing underneath your modules are a great reminder of the brain’s imperfections. You think you’ve learned something and can move on but really what you need is ‘spaced repetition’ to make sure the new language sticks.

‘Spaced repetition’ in language learning is a method whereby you revise specific words, and gradually increase the intervals between each revision session. The theory is that eventually you can have an interval of several without forgetting what something means. DuoLingo makes it really easy to know when your next revision session is.

A Beautiful Interface

I just love everything about the sleek interface of DuoLingo. One of my favourite things is the little turtle button that allows you to listen to ‘slow’ versions of languages. This creepily slow voice is a very useful feature in the exercises that ask you to type what you hear:

Visual Learning

A lot of the learning that goes on in DuoLingo is visual. There are pictures for learning vocabulary, colours that indicate whether you’re right or wrong, and highlighted tapable text for new words or grammar points. If you’re a visual learner like me, you’ll love it.

A Few Cautionary Notes on DuoLingo

Although DuoLingo can be very helpful in supporting your language learning progress, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind when deciding whether the app is for you. Let me give you a brief summary of the things I noticed that could be improved.

No Room for Mistakes

Making mistakes is an inevitable and essential part of language learning. The journey to fluency is often about having the courage to say things even if you know it’s not perfect. DuoLingo penalises you for making the tiniest little mistake in spelling or pronunciation.

For example, DuoLingo didn’t actually allow me to enter an ‘i’ with an accent and then told me off for not doing so. Naughty Duo!

So my advice to you would be: don’t take Duo’s perfectionism too seriously. He’s just trying to help, but sometimes he’s over zealous.

Some Sentences are Unnatural

This is especially true as you progress through the modules and you’re learning more complex grammatical structures. Some of the sentences that the app makes you translate would not normally be used in natural speech. Their point, though, is to illustrate certain language concepts, so it’s almost forgivable.

After all, you never know when you might need to talk about milk-drinking elephants!

Not Enough Control Over Vocabulary Topics

Because new lessons and modules are only activated in the app once you’ve completed the previous ones, you sometimes need to learn vocabulary which is not necessarily relevant to your learning objectives.

Words for clothes and animals are not something I expect to be using at all in German but I can’t continue until I’ve proven to Duo that I know how to say ‘tie’ and ‘mouse’. I wish I had more control over choosing which words are the ones that matter to me.

No Human Interaction

DuoLingo gives you the illusion that you’re practicing your speaking skills. However, what the app actually asks you to do is to repeat what you can already see on the screen in written form.

Therefore, when doing DuoLingo’s ‘speaking’ exercises, you’re essentially repeating after the app. You’re not retrieving anything from memory or asking your brain to create anything from scratch. As such, DuoLingo is an app that allows you to practice pronunciation but not to speak from day 1.

That’s why it’s very important for language learners to supplement DuoLingo with another form of learning focused specifically on speaking and interacting with other users of their target language, such as the free Speak in a Week course.

Conclusion: DuoLingo is a Great Tool for Language Learners

DuoLingo is not a stand-alone language course, but it’s an excellent addition to a language learner’s toolbox. It’s easy to use, it’s fun and it works. Don’t forget to do the homework, though. If your aim is to achieve real fluency, remember to read, speak, and truly live the language that you’re learning!

Agnieszka Karch is a language coach, polyglot and blogger at 5-Minute Language. Follow her on Twitter for more language fun.

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Why Chinese is Easy: The Smart Way to Learn Chinese Tones

Tones. A huge issue people have when learning Chinese is the fact that it’s a tonal language.

Let’s start with the bad news. If you don’t get tones down well, it will be really hard for native Mandarin speakers to understand you.

Now for the good news. Getting tones right isn’t nearly as hard as you think. In fact, tones can be easy – if you adopt the right approach.

Let’s look at how to make Chinese tones simple.

Practice with Teachers

When I first arrived in Taiwan, I spoke what I saw written down in my phrasebook. It didn’t go down well. Locals had no idea what I was saying. Why? My tones were completely off.

You can’t get far in speaking Chinese without getting a hold on tones.

That said, you do not need to master Mandarin tones in a hurry. I discovered a loophole that allows you to ease into tones while you learn other aspects of Chinese. The secret? Speaking with teachers.

I’ve found that Chinese teachers are more imaginative than most native speakers and will be flexible with your early tonal mistakes. Plus, hiring a teacher is the perfect way to kickstart your mission to learn Chinese.

When you’re starting out, simply aim to get tones as good as you can. Don’t let yourself get paralysed by perfectionism. If you get about 3 out of 5 tones right in most sentences then your teacher will still be able to deduct from the context what you mean, even when you get a couple of the other tones wrong.

With time and practice, you’ll fix your tone problems and soon you’ll be ready for conversations with people not used to speaking with learners. When I travelled in China, I was the first foreigner that many Chinese people had ever spoken to, and we could converse fine. This was mostly because I eased myself in through conversations with patient teachers and language exchange partners.

How to Understand Chinese Tones

With that in mind, how do you actually get the tones right?

You might have heard of the phrase “tone-deaf” in reference to music. When it comes to learning tonal languages, this doesn’t apply. You are not tone-deaf in a way that would prevent you from saying words in Mandarin. Nobody is. You can say every single tone in Mandarin. How do I know this? Because we have tones in English, too.

You are used to using tones to convey emotions, not to distinguish completely different words. In English, tones subtly indicate mood rather than having an obvious effect on meaning. When you realize this and make the right associations you start to distinguish the tones in Chinese much more easily.

Tones in Mandarin have some parallels with the way we express emotion through intonation in English. Along those lines, I’ve found Kaiser’s Dude System a really helpful way to understand how each tone would sound in English examples.

To actually get the tones right, I suggest you listen to native content and try to mimic it as best as you can.

I realized early in my studies that distinguishing tones was going to be a major influencer in how well I could understand those speaking to me, which would subsequently affect my ability to create tones. Because of this, I decided to make tones the central focus for my first two weeks of study. I aimed to get them right most of the time, rather than mastering them. As a consequence, I made less progress in memorizing vocabulary, but those two weeks made a world of difference for the rest of my Chinese mission.

After I fixed my initial problems with tones, I found that I had greatest difficulty distinguishing the second and third tones. So I went off to watch more Youtube videos focused on these tones. I also asked my teachers for help until I had my comprehension down.

The first step, before you can say tones correctly, is to understand them correctly. You can train your ear to hear the different tones as best as you can using the following resources:

Listen to the early podcasts in Chineseclass101 where each tone is explained in detail. Because this is an audio resource, it’s perfect for learning tones. No amount of reading about Mandarin will help you until you start hearing it.
Watch this very detailed video by my friend (and native speaker) Yangyang on The Most Effective Way to Learn Chinese Tones.
Use online tests and you’ll start to see which tones give you greatest difficulty. There are several tests available online including the Arch Chinese test and the Quick Mandarin test.
Any time you come across a new word and want to be sure that you get its tones right, search for it using the Chinese characters on forvo.com.

How to Pronounce Chinese Tones

After you’ve got used to hearing and understanding Chinese tones, you’ll need to be able to produce the tones correctly. There are several things you can do to ensure this goes ahead in the best way possible.

First, take a recording of a native speaker, ideally saying a phrase you are likely to say often, and play it back slowly. For example, I recorded my teacher saying “I am Irish” (Wǒ shì ài’ěrlán rén). Play each word and try to repeat not just the pronunciation but the intonation. Then play two words and try to repeat them together. Keep increasing the wordcount until you have a whole sentence. Repeat this aloud as many times as you can, for several minutes if you have to.

Next, work with your teacher to prepare a short script about yourself, and have it ready in pinyin. Next time you get on Skype or see your teacher, try to read that script slowly while staying focused on the tones rather than the meaning of the sentences. Keep practising this one script and you will get to grips with its tones.

To make you feel better that you aren’t alone as a beginner, check out this video I recorded 2 weeks into learning Chinese. I spent several days on this one prepared script, to get the tones as right as I could. I then tried to memorize the script itself for a day straight so that I wasn’t reading it. It’s painful to watch, but if I can put a video like this online for the world to see, you can easily make a quick intro about yourself and practise those tones for your teacher.

It was only one script, but it skyrocketed my progress in being able to produce tones for all conversations. Give something similar a try for yourself.

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