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

by Gabriel Wyner

want you to understand why they work. Language learning is one of the most intensely personal journeys you can undertake. You are going into your own mind and altering the way you think.

Fluency, after all, isn’t the ability to know every word and grammatical pattern in a language; it’s the ability to communicate your thoughts without stopping every time you run into a problem. If you can successfully tell your friend about that baseball game—We were … watching the Dodgers—then you’ve just practiced fluency. You’ve gotten better at using the words you know to express yourself. If you can do this for every thought in your head, then you’re done. You’ve won the language game; you’re fluent. This is a learned skill, and it’s a skill you can practice using a simplified version of Taboo. There’s only one rule: no English allowed. Every time you speak with a native speaker or another language learner, you’ll stick to your target language exclusively. At some point, a thought will arrive in your head, and you won’t have the words to express it. That’s the moment that matters most. Seize it! It’s the opportunity to turn your memorized vocabulary and grammar into fluent spoken language, and you only get it when you stubbornly refuse to

language learning is good for your soul. It connects you to new people and a new culture in ways you could never imagine. Italians are different when they’re speaking Italian, and German poetry is exquisitely beautiful—but only in German. You get to see different sides of people and cultures—sides which are hidden from the English-speaking world. You even get to see different sides of yourself.