Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

by Gabriel Wyner

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. —Carl Sagan

Even if you don’t change careers, you’ve potentially increased your salary by 5–20 percent. Employers are willing to pay more for bilingual employees, even when those employees never need their extra languages to do their work. Employers see language skills as a sign of intelligence and competence, and that puts you—their newly bilingual employee—in higher demand.

By learning a language, you permanently change structures in your brain. Bilingual brains are measurably different than monolingual brains—certain brain regions are more developed—and

The bilingual effect is a kind of learned intelligence, and by picking up a new language, you get it too.

When you learn French, you effectively implant a little Frenchman in your head who never shuts up. Even when you’re trying to think in English, he sits in the background, mumbling away in French.

On the surface, this sounds terrible, like a kind of learned schizophrenia. But your brain adapts. In the process of learning to speak a new language, you necessarily learn to muffle and ignore your native language. You learn to focus in the face of constant linguistic distraction, and as a result, your brain gets better at focusing in general.

Last, you’re not studying for a boring test; you’re teaching yourself about intensely interesting topics. You’re looking for the mysteries hidden beneath the surface of every word and grammar rule.

Rather than learning forgettable translations, you’re learning to become a treasure hunter, and you’re going to use your flash cards to remind you of your adventures.

We’ll add two basic design principles to these ideas: • Many simple cards are better than a few complex cards. • Always ask for one correct answer at a time.

You’ll want each word to bring out an explosion of associations: sounds, spellings, multiple definitions, grammatical features, memories, and emotions.

So when a flash card asks you a question with more than one right answer—How do I make a “k” sound in English? (Answer: With a C, a K, or a CK)—accept any right answer (with a C!) as correct. You can make sure you know all the answers by creating additional flash cards (e.g., What sound does the CK in rock make?). This way, your flash card review sessions will stay fun, quick, and effective.

You could make one flash card that asks “What’s a chèvre?” and another flash card that asks “What’s this?”

If you use both types, you’ll have a much easier time remembering chèvre when you’re studying.

How do you pronounce “chèvre”? • How do you spell the word pronounced “sheh-vre” • What’s a food that chèvres eat? • What colors do chèvres come in? • What’s your least favorite memory of a chèvre?

You’re trying to create as loud and varied a response as possible, and you’ll do it one flash card at a time.

ESSENTIAL FACTS (YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THESE!): • Picture: Can you remember what this word means? What’s it look like? • Pronunciation: Can you say this word out loud?

BONUS POINTS (IF YOU CAN THINK OF SOME OF THESE WHEN YOU REVIEW, YOU’LL HAVE AN EASIER TIME REMEMBERING NEXT TIME): • Personal Connections: Can you think of any personal connections with this word? (Do you like cats? Can you think of a cat you know?) (My cat’s name is Lily.) • Similar-Sounding Words: Can you think of any other (Hungarian) words that start with the same sound or spelling? (Matrac [mattress] also starts with “ma.”) • Related Words: Can you think of any other (Hungarian) words that relate to this word in meaning? (farok [tail], kutya [dog], állat [animal])

The more cards you make per word, sound, or grammatical concept, the easier time you’ll have.

Learn thirty flash cards a day.

We’re trying to connect four or five chunks of information for every word in your new language: • Spelling: How do I spell this word?

Pronunciation: How does this word fit into my mouth?

Picture—the Spot the Differences Game:

Personal Connection—the Memory Game:

Gender—the Mnemonic Imagery Game [if your language uses grammatical gender]:

Make Your Cards Intensive Track: Three card types per word Normal Track: Two card types per word Refresher Track: One card type per word

Card Type 1: What’s this word mean? Can you say it out loud? (e.g., Chat is a [picture of a] cat, pronounced “shah” [∫a in IPA].) Card Type 2: What’s the word for this image? Can you say it out loud? (e.g., a [picture of a] cat = chat, pronounced ∫a) Card Type 3: How do you spell this word? (e.g., a [picture of a] cat, pronounced ∫a = c-h-a-t)

When you come back to synonyms in the future, bear in mind that no two words are exactly alike.

A Good Sentence, Phrase, or Dialogue: You want to find a sentence, a short phrase (two apples), or a snippet of dialogue (“Where are you going?” “I’m going to Disneyland!”) with some new content. It should have some new words, some new word forms, and/or a surprising word order.

The Story: What’s going on in this sentence or dialogue? When might you encounter this situation?

The Chunks: What does each word mean individually? What role does each word play in this sentence? If needed, how do you pronounce each word?

The Base Forms: If you encountered these words in a dictionary, would they look the same? If not, what’s the dictionary entry for each word look like?

Google Images Basic Version: Every image in Google Images has an associated caption, which is hidden by default. If you turn these captions on, you’ll be able to use Google Images to find illustrated examples of every word in your target language. TinyURL.com/basicimage

HEBB’S LAW Neurons that fire together wire together. This is how we build memories. If you see a cookie, smell a cookie, and eat a cookie, you will associate those three experiences in the future.

LANG-8 A free language exchange community devoted to providing writing corrections. You sign up, submit some writing, correct someone else’s writing, and get a correction of your own, usually in less than a day. Lang-8.com

Website Closed … attached to HiNative

LANGUAGE EXCHANGE WEBSITES Websites that are designed to help you find language exchange partners. Livemocha.com, Busuu.com, MyLanguageExchange.com, italki.com, and Language-Exchanges.org are some of the better-known language exchange websites.

LANGUAGE HOLIDAYS A trip abroad for the purposes of learning your target language and exposing yourself to the culture of your target language’s home.

LIVEMOCHA One of the more popular language exchange websites. Feel free to ignore its language courses; its main use is to connect you with a language exchange partner. LiveMocha.com

RHINOSPIKE A free language exchange community, devoted to providing audio recordings. You submit a text in your target language and a native speaker will read that text aloud and send you an MP3. In exchange, you’ll record someone else’s English text. The service is lovely, but be aware that it can occasionally take several days to get a response. Rhinospike.com

ADJECTIVES: long, short (vs. long), tall, short (vs. tall), wide, narrow, big/large, small/little, slow, fast, hot, cold, warm, cool, new, old (new), young, old (young), good, bad, wet, dry, sick, healthy, loud, quiet, happy, sad, beautiful, ugly, deaf, blind, nice, mean, rich, poor, thick, thin, expensive, cheap, flat, curved, male, female, tight, loose, high, low, soft, hard, deep, shallow, clean, dirty, strong, weak, dead, alive, heavy, light (heavy), dark, light (dark), nuclear, famous

ANIMALS: dog, cat, fish, bird, cow, pig, mouse, horse, wing, animalc ART: band, song, instrument (musical), music, movie, art BEVERAGES: coffee, tea, wine, beer, juice, water, milk, beveragec

BODY: head, neck, face, beard, hair, eye, mouth*, lip*, nose, tooth, ear, tear (drop), tongue, back, toe, finger, foot, hand, leg, arm, shoulder, heart, blood, brain, knee, sweat, disease, bone, voice, skin, body CLOTHING: hat, dress, suit, skirt, shirt, T-shirt, pants, shoes, pocket, coat, stain, clothingc COLORS: red, green, blue (light/dark), yellow, brown, pink, orange, black, white, gray, colorc DAYS OF THE WEEK: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

DIRECTIONS: top, bottom, side, front, back, outside, inside, up, down, left, right, straight, north, south, east, west, directionc

ELECTRONICS: clock, lamp, fan, cell phone, network, computer, program (computer), laptop, screen, camera, television, radio FOODS: egg, cheese, bread, soup, cake, chicken, pork, beef, apple, banana, orange, lemon, corn, rice, oil, seed, knife, spoon, fork, plate, cup, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sugar, salt, bottle, foodc HOME: table, chair, bed, dream, window, door, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, pencil, pen, photograph, soap, book, page, key, paint, letter, note, wall, paper, floor, ceiling, roof, pool, lock, telephone, garden, yard, needle, bag, box, gift, card, ring, tool

JOBS: Teacher, student, lawyer, doctor, patient, waiter, secretary, priest, police, army, soldier, artist, author, manager, reporter, actor, jobc

LOCATIONS: city, house, apartment, street/road, airport, train station, bridge, hotel, restaurant, farm, court, school, office, room, town, university, club, bar, park, camp, store/shop, theater, library, hospital, church, market, country (United States, France, etc.), building, ground, space (outer space), bank, locationc MATERIALS: glass, metal, plastic, wood, stone, diamond, clay, dust, gold, copper, silver, materialc MATH/MEASUREMENTS: meter, centimeter, kilogram, inch, foot, pound, half, circle, square, temperature, date, weight, edge, corn...

MONTHS: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

NATURE: sea*, ocean*, river, mountain, rain, snow, tree, sun, moon, world, Earth, forest, sky, plant, wind, soil/earth, flower, valley, root, lake, star, grass, leaf, air, sand, beach, wave, fire, ice, island, hill, heat, naturec

NUMBERS: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 82, 90, 91, 92, 100, 101, 102, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 10000, 100000, million, billion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, numberc

PEOPLE: son*, daughter*, mother, father, parent (= mother/father), baby, man, woman, brother*, sister*, family, grandfather, grandmother, husband*, wife*, king, queen, president, neighbor, boy, girl, child (= boy/girl), adult (= man/woman), human (≠ animal), friend (add a friend’s name), victim, player, fan, crowd, personc PRONOUNS: I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural, as in “y’all”), they

SEASONS: summer, spring, winter, fall, seasonc SOCIETY: religion, heaven, hell, death, medicine, money, dollar, bill, marriage*, wedding*, team, race (ethnicity), sex (the act), sex (gender), murder, prison, technology, energy, war, peace, attack, election, magazine, newspaper, poison, gun, sport, race (sport), exercise, ball, game, price, contract, drug, sign, science, God TIME: year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, morning, afternoon, evening, night, timec