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Written by Tim Ferriss Topics:Language

12 Rules for Learning ForeignLanguages in Record Time TheOnly Post Youll Ever Need287 Comments

Preface by Tim Ferriss

Ive written about how I learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, Mandarin, andSpanish. Ive also covered my experiments with German, Indonesian, Arabic, Norwegian,

Turkish, and perhaps a dozen others.

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

This definitive guest post by Benny will teach you:

How to speak your target language today.

30-Day Challenges(2) 4-Hour Case Studies(46)

Automation(7) Dance(3)

E-mail Detox(20) Entrepreneurship(54)

Filling the Void(85) Gadgets(15)

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Investing(15) Language(16)

Low-Information Diet(41) Marketing(52)

Mental Performance(37) Mini-retirements(23)

Muse Examples(9) Nonsense(5)

Opening the Kimono OTK(4) Outsourcing Life(16)

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12 Rules for Learning Foreign Languages in Record Time The Only Post Youll Ever Need | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss 16/01/2015

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How to reach fluency and exceed it within a few months.

How to pass yourself off as a native speaker.

And finally, how to tackle multiple languages to become a polyglotall within a

few years, perhaps as little as 1-2.

It contains TONS of amazing resources I never even knew existed, including the bestfree apps and websites for becoming fluent in record time. Want to find a native speakerto help you for $5 per hour? Free resources and memory tricks? Its all here.

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

Enter Benny

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

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

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

between conversational and mastery.

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

As a polyglotsomeone who speaks multiple languagesmy world has opened up. Ihave gained access to people and places that I never otherwise could have reached. Ivemade friends on a train in China through Mandarin, discussed politics with a desertdweller in Egyptian Arabic,discovered the wonders of deaf culture through ASL, invitedthe (female) president of Ireland to dance in Irish (Gaeilge) and talked about it on live

Irish radio, interviewed Peruvian fabric makers about how they work in Quechua,interpreted between Hungarian and Portuguese at a social event and well, had anextremely interesting decade traveling the world.

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

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

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

So, lets get started!

#1 Learn the right words, the right way.

Starting a new language means learning new words. Lots of them.

Of course, many people cite a bad memory for learning new vocab, so they quit beforeeven getting started.

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

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

You can find pre-made flash card decks of these most frequent words (or wordsthemed for a subject you are more likely to talk about) for studying on the Anki app(available for all computer platforms and smartphones) that you can download instantly.Good flashcard methods implement a spaced repetition system (SRS), which Ankiautomates. This means that rather than go through the same list of vocabulary in the

same order every time, you see words at strategically spaced intervals,just before youwould forget them.

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

how he learns languages in the below video.

Though this entire video can give you great insight into Tims language learning

e - our e e - our e ecpes

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approach, the part relevant to this point is at 27:40 (full transcript here).

)

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

Believe it or not, you alreadyright nowhave a huge head start in your targetlanguage. With language learning you always know at least some words before you ever

begin. Starting a language from scratch is essentially impossible because of the vastamount of words you know already through cognates.

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

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

words in Spanish. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -o.

Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root,

which can be spelled slightly differently, but that youd have to try hard not to recognize,such as exemple, hlicoptre (Fr), porto, capitano (Italian) astronoma, and Saturno(Spanish). German goes a step further and has many words from Englishs past that itshares.

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

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

Well, it turns out that even languages as different as Japanese can have heaps of very

familiar vocabulary. To show you what I mean, have a listen to this song (to the tune ofAnimaniacs Nations of the World), which is sung entirely in Japanese, and yet youshould understand pretty much everything that I and the other Japanese learners aresinging:

)


http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:List_of_German_cognates_with_Englishhttp://www.linguasorb.com/learnspanish/spanish-cognateshttp://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/vraisamis.htmhttp://www.fluentin3months.com/4-hour/


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

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

#3 Interact in your language daily without traveling.

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

money, etc.

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

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

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

To watch the language consistently, see whats trending on Youtube in that country rightnow.Go to that countrys equivalent URL for Amazon or Ebay (amazon.es, amazon.fr,amazon.co.jp, etc.) and buy your favorite TV series dubbed in that language, or get alocal equivalent by seeing whats on the top charts. You may be able to save shippingcosts if you can find one locally that includes dubbing in the appropriate language.

Various news stations also have plenty of video content online in specific languages,such as France24, Deutsche Welle, CNN Espaol, and many others.

To read the language consistently, in addition to the news sites listed above, you can

find cool blogs and other popular sites onAlexas ranking of top sites per country.

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

#4 Skype today for daily spoken practice.

So youve been listening to, watching, and even reading in your target languageand all

in the comfort of your own home. Now its time for the big one: speaking it live with anative.

One of my more controversial pieces of advice, but one that I absolutely insist on when Iadvise beginners, is that you must speak the language right awayif your goals in the

target language involve speaking it.

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

Heres what I suggest instead:

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

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

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

No problem! Thousands of native speakers are ready and waiting for you to talk to themright now. You can get private lessons for peanuts by taking advantage of currencydifferences. My favorite site for finding natives is italki.com(connect with my profilehere), where Ive gotten both Chinese and Japanese one-on-one Skype-based lessons

for just $5 an hour.

If you still think you wouldnt be ready on day one, then consider this: starting on Skype


http://www.italki.com/?ref=885695http://italki.com/http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/langs.htm#langhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrEzKtjKViohttp://www.alexa.com/topsites/countrieshttp://cnnespanol.cnn.com/http://www.dw.de/themen/s-9077http://www.france24.com/fr/http://www.youtube.com/trendsdashboardhttp://tunein.com/


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allows you to ease yourself in gently by having another window (or application, likeWord) open during your conversation, already loaded with key words that you can usefor quick reference until you internalize them. You can even reference Google Translateor a dictionary for that languagewhile you chat, so you can learn new words as you go,

when you need them.

Is this cheating? No. The goal is to learn to be functional, not to imitate old traditionalmethods. Ive used the above shortcuts myself, and after learning Polish for just onehour for a trip to Warsaw to speak at TEDxabout language learning, I was able to hold

up a conversation (incredibly basic as it was) in Polish for an entire half hour.

I consider that a win.

)

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

Other than paying for the undivided attention of a native speaker, I dont see why youdneed to spend hundreds of dollars on anything in language learning. Ive tried RosettaStone myselfand wasnt impressed.

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

The Foreign Service Institutes varied list of courses

The Omniglot Intro to languages

BBC languagesintro to almost 40 different languages

Abouts language specific poststhat explain particular aspects of languages well

You really do have plenty of options when it comes to free resources, so I suggest youtry out several and see which ones work well for you. The aforementioned italki is greatfor language exchanges and lessons, but My Language Exchangeand Interpalsare twoother options. You can take it offline and see about language related meet-ups in yourcity through The Polyglot Club, or the meet-ups pages on Couchsurfing, meetup.com,and Internations. These meet-ups are also great opportunities to meet an internationalcrowd of fellow language learning enthusiasts, as well as native speakers of your target

language, for practice.

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

The huge database on Forvo, to hear any word or small expression in many

languages read aloud by a native of the language

Rhinospiketo make requests of specific phrases youd like to hear pronounced

by a native speaker. If you cant find something on either of these sites, Google

Translatehas a text-to-speech option for many languages.

Lang 8to receive free written corrections.

The possibilities for free practice are endless.

#6 Realize that adults are actually better language learners

than kids.

Now that youre armed with a ton of resources to get started, lets tackle the biggest

problem. Not grammar, not vocabulary, not a lack of resources, buthandicapping misconceptions about your own learning potential.

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


http://lang-8.com/http://translate.google.com/http://rhinospike.com/http://www.forvo.com/http://internations.org/http://meetup.com/http://couchsurfing.org/http://polyglotclub.com/http://www.interpals.net/http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/http://www.about.com/education/http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/languages.htmhttp://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.phphttp://www.duolingo.com/http://www.fluentin3months.com/rosetta-stone-review/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2_kWRB8-Ahttp://www.fluentin3months.com/free-dictionaries/


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Im glad to be the bearer of good news and tell you that research has confirmed that

adults can be better language learners than kids. This study at the University of

Haifahas found that under the right circumstances, adults show an intuition for

unexplained grammar rules better than their younger counterparts. [Note from Tim: This

is corroborated by the book In Other Wordsand work by Hakuta.]

Also, no study has ever shown any direct correlation between reduced languageacquisition skill and increased age. There is only a general downward trend in languageacquisition in adults, which is probably more dependent on environmental factors thatcan be changed (e.g. long job hours that crowd out study time). Something my friendKhatzumoto (alljapaneseallthetime.com) once said that I liked was, Babies arent better

language learners than you; they just have no escape routes.

As adults, the good news is that we can emulate the immersion environment without

having to travel, spend a lot of money, or revert back to childhood.

#7 Expand your vocabulary with mnemonics.

Rote repetition isnt enough.

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

For this, I suggest coming up with mnemonicsabout your target word, which helps gluethe word to your memory way more effectively. Basically, you tell yourself a funny, silly,or otherwise memorable story to associate with a particular word. You can come up with

the mnemonic yourself, but a wonderful (and free) resource that I highly recommendis memrise.com.

For instance, lets say you are learning Spanish and cant seem to remember thatcaber means to fit, no matter how many times you see it. Why not come up with a

clever association like the following one I found on Memrise:

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

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

#8 Embrace mistakes.

Over half of the planet speaks more than one language.

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

have used to learn languages is broken.

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

right?

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

The way you do this as a beginner is to use everything you doknow with emphasis on

communicationrather than on perfection. This is the pivotal difference. Sure, you couldwait until you are ready to say Excuse me kind sir, could you direct me to the nearest


http://www.memrise.com/http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128224.000-age-no-excuse-for-failing-to-learn-a-new-language.html


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bathroom? but Bathroom where? actually conveys the same essential information,only removing superfluous pleasantries. You will be forgiven for this directness, becauseits always obvious that you are a learner.

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

One of the best things you can do in the initial stages is notto try to get everythingperfect, but to embrace making mistakes. I go out of my way to make at least 200mistakes a day! This way I know I am truly using and practicing the language.

[TIM: I actually view part of my role as that of comedian or court jesterto make native

speakers chuckle at my Tarzan speak. If you make people smile, it will make youpopular, which will make you enthusiastic to continue.]

#9 Create SMART goals.

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

We tend to have New Years Resolutions along the lines of Learn Spanish, but how do

you know when youve succeeded? If this is your goal, how can you know when youvereached it?

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

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

Time-bound.

To start developing your SMART goal in a language, I highly recommend you becomesomewhat familiar with the European Common Frameworkthat defines language levels.This framework provides you with a way of setting specific language goals andmeasuring your own progress.

In brief, A means beginner, B means intermediate, and C means advanced, and eachlevel is broken up into lower (1) and upper (2) categories. So an upper beginner speakeris A2, and a lower advanced speaker is C1. As well as being Specific, these levels areabsolutely Measurable because officially recognized institutions can test you on themand provide diplomas (no course enrollment necessary) in German, French, Spanish,

Irish, and each other official European language. While the same scale is not used, youcan also get tested in a similar way in Chineseand Japanese.

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

Ive talked to many people to try to pinpoint the never-agreed-upon understanding offluency, and Ive found that it tends to average out around the B2 level (upperintermediate). This effectively means that you have social equivalency with your nativelanguage, which means that you can live in your target language in social situationsin

much the same way that you would in your native language, such as casual chats withfriends in a bar, asking what people did over the weekend, sharing your aspirations andrelating to people.

Since we are being specific, its also important to point out that this does not require

that you can work professionally in a language (in my case, as an engineer or publicspeaker, for instance). That would be masterylevel (generally C2).

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

To make your specific goalAttainable, you can break it down further. For example, Ive

found that the fluency (B2) level can be achieved in a matter of months, as long as youare focused on the spoken aspect.

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

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

months.

Keeping it a year or more away is far too distant, and your plans may as well beunbound at that point. Three months has worked great for me, but 6 weeks or 4 months

could be your ideal point. Pick a definite point in the not too distant future (summervacation, your birthday, when a family member will visit), aim to reach your target by thistime, and work your ass off to make it happen.


http://www.jlpt.jp/e/http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/hsk/105146.htmhttp://www.alte.org/membershiphttp://www.teg.ie/english/exam_levels.htmhttp://diplomas.cervantes.es/index.jsphttp://www.alliancefr.org/etudiants-individuels/diplomes-testshttp://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/pba/bes/enindex.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria


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To help you be smarter with your goals, make sure to track your progress and use an

app like Liftto track completing daily essential tasks.

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

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

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

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

So, for instance, I may start a session by asking what my native friend or teacher didover the weekend, and tell them what I did. Then I will share something that is on mymind lately and attempt to express my opinion on it, or allow the native speaker tointroduce a new topic. Its important to take an active role and make sure you are having

varied conversations. Have a list of topics you would like to discuss and bring them up

(your hobbies, hopes for the future, dislikes, what you will do on your vacation etc.) andmake sure the conversation is constantly progressing.

Lots of practice and study to improve those spoken sessions tends to get me to lowerintermediate (B1) level, which means I can understand the other person speaking to me

fine as long as they are willing to speak clearly and adjust to my level and mistakes. Itsa LOT of work, mind you! On typical learning days I can be filled with frustrationor feellike my brain is meltingwhenin factIm truly making a lot of progress.

But the work is totally worth it when you have your first successful conversation with a

native speaker. Youll be thrilled beyond belief.

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

)

)

At this level, I still make plenty of mistakes of course, but they dont hinder

communication too much.But to get over that plateau of just good enough, this is the point where I tend to return

to academic material and grammar books, to tidy up what I have. I find I understand thegrammar much better once Im already speaking the language. This approach reallyworks for me, but there is no one best language-learning approach. For instance, Timhas had great success by grammatically deconstructing a language right from the start.Your approach will depend entirely on your personality.


http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/11/07/how-to-learn-but-not-master-any-language-in-1-hour-plus-a-favor/http://yoyochinese.com/http://www.fluentin3months.com/pain/http://www.fluentin3months.com/comfort/https://lift.do/plans/452/learn-to-speak-a-foreign-language


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After lots of exercises to tidy up my mistakes at the B1 level, I find that I can break intoB2.

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

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

exactly be light reading.

To get this high-level practice, Ive subscribed to newspapers on my Kindle that I try to

read every day from various major news outlets around the world. Here are the topnewspapers in Europe, South AmericaandAsia. After reading up on various topics, I

like to get an experienced professional (and ideally pedantic) teacher to grill me on thetopic, to force me out of my comfort zone, and make sure Im using precisely the rightwords, rather than simply making myself understood.

To show you what a higher level looks like, here is a chat I had with my Quebec

Couchsurfer about the fascinating cultural and linguistic differences between Quebecand France (I would have been at a C1 level at this stage):

)

Reaching the C2 level can be extremely difficult.

For instance, I sat a C2 exam in German, and managed to hold my ground for the oral

component, when I had to talk about deforestation for ten minutes, but I failed the examon the listening component, showing me that I needed to be focused and pay attentionto complicated radio interviews or podcasts at that level if I wanted to pass the exam infuture.

#11 Learn to sound more native.

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

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

First, your accent/intonation

Accent is obvious; if you cant roll your Rin Spanish you will be recognized as aforeigner instantly.

Your tongue muscles are not set in their ways forever, and you can learn the very fewnew sounds that your L2 requires that you learn. Time with a native, a good Youtube

video explaining the sounds, and practice for a few hours may be all that you need!

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

intonation is pivotal.

Luca trains himself from the very start to mimic the musicality and rhythm of alanguages natives by visualizing the sentences. For instance, if you really listen to it,

the word France sounds different in I want to go to France (downward intonation) andFrance is a beautiful country (intonation raising upwards). When you repeat sentencesin your L2, you have to mimic the musicality of them.

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

I was trying to raise my intonation before pauses, which is a feature of French thatoccurs much more frequently than in English, but I was overdoing it and applying it to


http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/http://fluentin3months.com/roll-your-r/http://www.fluentin3months.com/c2-exam-results-and-analysis/http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_353518862_20?ie=UTF8&node=2399043011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=180J298JT8NRHYDNCWJS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1628063482&pf_rd_i=165389011http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_353518862_23?ie=UTF8&node=2399046011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=180J298JT8NRHYDNCWJS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1628063482&pf_rd_i=165389011http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_353518862_21?ie=UTF8&node=2399044011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=180J298JT8NRHYDNCWJS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1628063482&pf_rd_i=165389011


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the ends of sentences as well. This made my sentences sound incomplete, and whenmy teacher trained me to stop doing this, I was told that I sounded way more French.

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

Truly listen to and and mimic audio from natives, have them correct your biggest

mistakes and drill the mistakes out of you. I had an accent trainershow me how thisworked, and I found out some fascinating differences between my own Irish accent andAmerican accents in the process! To see for yourself how the process works, check outthe second half of this post with Soundcloud samples.

Second, walk like an Egyptian

The second factor that influences whether or not you could be confused for a nativespeaker, involves working on your social and cultural integration. This is often

overlooked, but has made a world of difference to me, even in my early stages ofspeaking several languages.

For instance, when I first arrived in Egypt with lower intermediate Egyptian Arabic, I wasdisheartened that most people would speak English to me (in Cairo) before I even had a

chance for my Arabic to shine. Its easy to say that Im too white to ever be confused foran Egyptian, but theres more to it than that.

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

To get around this problem, I sat down at a busy pedestrian intersection with a pen andpaper and made a note of everything that made Egyptian men about my age differentfrom me. How they walked, how they used their hands, the clothing they wore, theirfacial expressions, the volume theyd speak at, how theyd groom themselves, and

much more. I found that I needed to let some stubble grow out, ditch my bright lightclothes for darker and heavy ones (despite the temperature), exchange my trainers fordull black shoes, ditch my hat (I never saw anyone with hats), walk much moreconfidently, and change my facial expressions.

The transformation was incredible! Every single person for the rest of my time in Egyptwould start speaking to me in Arabic, including in touristy parts of town where theyspoke excellent English and would be well used to spotting tourists. This transformationallowed me to walk from the Nile to the Pyramidswithout any hassle from touts andmake the experience all about the fascinating people I met.

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

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

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

#12 Become a polyglot.

This post has been an extremely detailed look at starting off and trying to reach mastery

in a foreign language (and even passing yourself off as a native of that country).

If your ultimate goal is to speak multiple languages, you can repeat this process over

multiple times, but I highly recommend you focuson one language at a time until youreach at least the intermediate level. Take each language one by one, until you reach astage where you know you can confidently use it. And then you may just be ready forthe next ones!

While you can do a lot in a few months, if you want to speak a language for the rest of

your life it requires constant practice, improvement, and living your life through it as oftenas you can. But the good news is once you reach fluency in a language, it tends tostick with you pretty well.

Also, keep in mind that while the tips in this article are an excellent place to start, there

is a huge community of polyglots online willing to offer you their own encouragementas well. A bunch of us came together in this remix, Skype me Maybe.


http://www.fluentin3months.com/cairo-walk/http://www.fluentin3months.com/a-accent/http://www.mimicmethod.com/


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at I think that (talking to EVERYONE, especially in a foreign country)helps a lot too!

Congrats on this guest post, Benny.

Reply

Benny Lewis March 13, 2014 at 6:47 am

Thanks Matt! I was actually quite shy when I was younger language learning has made me more outgoing. Id highly recommend

it to people who want to get out of their shell!Hope to run into you again asap!

Reply

Elias March 12, 2014 at 6:36 pm

This is one of the best posts on this blog yet!

Reply

Aaron Posehn March 12, 2014 at 6:36 pm

Benny is one of the many language learners that consistently wow me aswell. Hes always so eager to get down the basics so that he can start toconverse with others, and once he does, he seems to really soar upwardand beyond. Ive read many of his posts and taken much of his advice. Asolid guy indeed when it comes to how to learn a foreign language.

Reply


Aw shucks, thanks Aaron! Yeah, people need to learn to have morefun with the beginner stage. Its what opens up the entire languagelearning spectrum to us!

Reply

Aaron Posehn March 13, 2014 at 8:49 am

Thanks for the reply Benny, and I definitely agree! I need toconstantly remind myself of this as well when I dive into new

languages. Keep up the great work!

Jimmy Naraine March 12, 2014 at 6:49 pm

Cant believe my eyes. Today I watched your Skype interview with Bennyand thought: how cool would it be to see some of his stuff on the blog.Great stuff! What I like the most about Benny is that he is so genuine inhis approach. I bet that this post is gonna get 700+ commentsThanks for posting guys!

Reply


700+ comments? Looks like I have my work cut out for me if Im tokeep up and try to reply to as many as I can

Glad you got to see me and Tim join forces again! I loved finding outduring our Skype call how much we share in common in languagelearning philosophies.


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Reply

Jimmy Naraine March 13, 2014 at 2:31 pm

So true, Id love to see a fresh video with both of you! Personally, Ibelieve that the main factor stopping people from embracing a newlanguage is FEAR. I really like your approach of speaking from

day 1. This is the key. Actually, I wanted to show you a yt video(in Spanish) where I recommend the 4HWW and explain how I

learnt Spanish in only 2 months. Hope it will not come across asspammy;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-bgMixT_sAll the best and keep building great content.

Chris Broholm March 12, 2014 at 7:00 pm

This is an amazing pillar article Benny, as a big fan of yours I was coursealready aware of many of the resources in the post, but writing them uplike this not only links many of the aspects of language learning together,it also motivates me like crazy to keep working hard. Currently Im onRussian (4th language) but aiming high like yourself!

Congratulations on your book launch as well!

Reply


You know you are doing something right, when other experiencedlearners agree they would share the same links. The trick is using bigplatforms like Tims great blog to bring those tools to a wider

audience. Yes, keep working hard!!

And thanks for the book well wishes! Hopefully this blog post inspires

a few more people to check it out!

Reply

Markus Green March 12, 2014 at 7:04 pm

This is a great post, Benny is very impressive and an inspiration.Im trying to implement some of the points mentioned in a project that just

started:http://www.languagebydoing.com

The idea is to combine learning a language with a passion or hobby.Learn Spanish through Salsa, French by cooking and such. Its explained

more thoroughly on the site.

That way you learn the vocabulary you need, get to practice in a naturalenvironment and get to play around. Having fun should be a more popular

goal while learning.Another thing is that face-to-face will beat online lessons and resourcesevery time in my opinion. You simply cant replace the experience ofhaving a human being to interact with right in front of you.

If you do decide to check out the site, I would really appreciate somefeedback and suggestions. Dont know if this can be my muse someday,but I definitely want to spread some love through the platform.

Reply

Agne March 12, 2014 at 7:37 pm

That is so awesome. At last my two people who inspired my languagelearning meet in one blog ^^


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George March 12, 2014 at 7:55 pm

Benny always has great insight on learning languages.

Reply

King March 12, 2014 at 7:59 pm

This was awesome- alot of these tricks helped me when I was relearningmy native language (Bengali) and also with Japanese. I remember jokingwith my friends when they found out I was a polyglot that- Its not that bigof a deal, all it means is that Im now socially awkward in 4 languages

Reply

Beth Clark March 12, 2014 at 9:13 pm

Very handsome profile pic! Skype me maybe? Lol

Beth

Reply

Chris W March 12, 2014 at 8:10 pm

Hey Tim,

This is a little off-topic but the email notices I get when theres a new post

from you always have WordPress.com as the sender name. Justthought Id let you know in case that wasnt your intention.

Chris

Reply

Tim Ferriss March 13, 2014 at 2:30 am

Huh thats weird. Thanks for the heads up!

Reply

ninos youkhana March 13, 2014 at 2:50 am

Yes..I get all your emails like thatI thought you were supportingthem or sponsering WordPress now.

Zac March 12, 2014 at 8:19 pm

In one of the first sentences from benny, it says In think instead of Ithink. For someone talking about languages you might wanna fix it haha

Reply


Yep, we fixed that typo! As I say in this blog posts; I like to make atleast 200 mistakes a day, and thats not just in foreign languages


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Antoine March 12, 2014 at 8:29 pm

Great post Benny! Im definitely looking to applying these steps and

reading your book!

Reply


Enjoy the book! Therell be free updates for life online.Best of luck with your language learning project!

Reply

Vinay March 12, 2014 at 8:58 pm

damn, Ive been living in Argentina for 11 months and just moved to Chile

for start-up Chile and I wish I knew this earlier!

Reply


I was in Spain for 6 whole months speaking English all the time before

I changed my approach, and look at me now! Its never too late

The last line of my book is a Chinese proverb, relevant to yoursituation: The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second

best time is now

Reply

Gulnara March 12, 2014 at 9:09 pm

In med school we rely on Anki a lot to retain lots of information that has tobe regurgitated in 2-3 month period and then on the boards in a few years,so spaced repetition is a key to success. http://www.supermemo.comisis great resource on that.In learning the languages, I find it more difficult to understand the nativespeakers. When I came from Russia to the US 10 years ago, I couldspeak English perfectly but when people would talk back to me, I had no

idea what they were saying. I find similar difficulties with Spanish. I speak

ok, but again, I dont always understand native people and to improvethat, I need a lot more time to practice listening.

Reply

Beth Clark March 12, 2014 at 9:11 pm

This post is fantastic. Thank you for all of this information and the links.Learning a new language has been a dangling carrot for me for severalyears now, and I appreciate you mentioning the SMART method to helpme pull focus and be more results-oriented while still remembering to

have FUN! Learning a language doesnt have to be and shouldnt be achore, right?

Reply

Damien Elsing, Copywriter March 12, 2014 at 9:16 pm


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Tim, this is amazing thank you! I have a friend learning Cantonese rightnow. Gonna forward him this as I am sure it will be a valuable resource.

Reply


This post on why Cantonese isnt as hard as you think may also help

your friend: http://www.fluentin3months.com/cantonese/

Reply

Anand Sapkota March 23, 2014 at 3:58 pm

You sir are amazing, i am visiting my friends in Monaco and Spainnext year, my goal is to learn Portuguese before my flight, is ittrue that if you learn Portuguese, its easy to learn Spanish andFrench?

Andres March 12, 2014 at 9:31 pm

Amazing resource for learn languages, there are a LOT of goog resourcesand also they are FREE! I worked as a salesperson for an english onlinecourse and people sometimes doesnt learn english in an effective way.

Reply

Sean March 12, 2014 at 9:34 pm

The coming together of two worlds! Benny and Tim! Thank you for thegreat guest post Benny!

Huge tip You will be forgiven for this directness, because its alwaysobvious that you are a learner. Ive found sounding like a moron isnt a bigdeal if the right intention is there. It seems people are more than happy tohelp you out when youre trying. Thank you for the time you both put into

this post!

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Catrina March 12, 2014 at 9:37 pm

This post was awesome and just what Ive been looking for, thank youboth!

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Happy to help!

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Dani Blanchette March 12, 2014 at 9:47 pm

I am one of those people who struggle with language, and just assume Isuck at it, but I love this article because it has so many ways to learn andis a total confidence booster. Ive been trying to learn Spanish, because

my husband is Colombian, and after almost 2 years living there mySpanish still sucks.

I recently discovered Duolingo and love it. Its like a video game so I get


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really involved with not dying (losing all my hearts). But Ive never heardof some of the other resources like Anki. I just downloaded it to my phonewith some flashcards and love it.

I totally put this article to post on my social media and bookmarked it. (Iam aware how much that phrase sounds like a spam comment) but itstrue. Its awesome to learn that someone else who thought they suckedat language and thought they just didnt have the talent for them is moremultilingual. Thanks for the confidence boost and great resources!

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Doesnt sound like spam at all! I definitely appreciate the share letsget more language learning encouragement out there!

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12 Rules for Learning Foreign Languages in Record Time — The