Learn to Sound like a Native and Pronounce

Words in Any Language

by Benny Lewis
Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. ?
Here’s a scenario that you may be familiar with:
You’ve learned the basics, and you’re ready to start speaking. You meet a native speaker, and you greet
them in your target language. And… they can’t understand you. You know you said the right words! So
what went wrong?
If that sounds like you, then you may need to work on your pronunciation.
Poor pronunciation gets in the way of sounding like a native speaker. Sometimes language learners feel
like pronunciation will come naturally with time. So many don’t take the time to focus on it.
This is somewhat true. The more you speak and hear the language, the more you will adapt and
pronounce words properly. But that’s assuming you’re actually speaking and listening all the time.
Many beginners don’t do enough speaking or listening in their target language.
Instead, they depend on learning from reading. They learn from textbooks, Google Translate or
transcripts. These can be helpful resources…but too much dependency on them can keep you from
mastering pronunciation. You don’t want to fall into that trap.
By focusing on pronunciation first, you'll be easier to understand right away. It can also help you feel
more confident in your language skills and sound more impressive to native speakers.
No matter what language you’re learning, there are ways you can study to improve your pronunciation!

Tactic #1: The Mimic Method

The Mimic Method, created by my friend and fellow polyglot Idahosa Ness, is a way to get over the
dependence on reading to learn. With this method, you switch how you learn, and learn faster by
training your ear. Think of it as Sound Rehab.
As a musician, Idahosa applied the same concepts of learning music by ear to language learning. The
method breaks down languages into sounds, syllables, and sentences. You put them together to create
rhythm and intonation, and effortless, native-like pronunciation. You first learn the Basic Elemental
Sounds of your target language so you’ll have the building blocks of good pronunciation. Then, you
focus on learning to pronounce words by ear instead of reading through a textbook.
For instance, English has about 43 elemental sounds, while Spanish has 39. So when learning Spanish
pronunciation, I need to focus on which sounds are different and master those first. I also need to
remove the extra sounds in English from my speech when speaking Spanish. It’s important to master
the basic sounds because otherwise, you’ll struggle with the language as a whole.
Learning by ear allows for faster recall, better listening comprehension, and near-native pronunciation.
After all, that's how babies acquire their native language with little to no accent.
Take a look at our review of the Mimic Method for more info.

Tactic #2: Master Listening & Shadowing

To learn a language, you must learn how to listen well. In our native language, we have a tendency to
passively listen quite often. But we can’t get by doing this in our target language. We don’t have a deep
enough understanding of it in the beginning to absorb what we hear. So, we can’t learn from passive
listening.
To pronounce words correctly, you need to learn how native speakers pronounce them. The best way to
do this is to actively listen. Pay close attention to exactly how the language sounds and flows. If you’re
watching a video or chatting in person, notice the way the native speaker moves their mouth to form
the sounds.
Let’s look at the way we use our mouth to create these sounds across languages. For example, the
Japanese “r” sounds nothing like the English “r”. In Japanese, the “r” is between an “l” and “r” sound.
It's created by flicking the tongue to the spot on the roof of your mouth where it starts to curve upward.
But in Spanish, the “r” sound rolls when it’s doubled. When it’s a single “r”, it sounds like a quick “d”
sound created by tapping your tongue on the ridge in your mouth just behind your front teeth. It’s very
similar to the “tt” sound in “butter” when you say the word quickly.
Think about how different that is from the hard English “r”. The English “r” comes from pursing your
lips and drawing your tongue back towards your back molars. Your lips don’t play much of a role in
forming that sound in Spanish or Japanese, and you don’t push the tongue back at all!
By listening closely, and observing how the mouth moves, you can greatly improve your pronunciation.
You can take it a step further by shadowing. Shadowing is a learning technique that relies on ear
training and mimicry. You listen to the speaker and repeat what they said, either at the same time or
immediately afterward. It helps you to not only remember the vocabulary and sentence structure, but
also the pronunciation. Plus, it helps you get over your anxiety of speaking! The more you shadow and
follow along, the better you will be able to copy the native speaker’s rhythm and tones.

Tactic #3: Learn the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an excellent learning tool for pronunciation. Although a
given letter can vary in sound across languages and dialects, the IPA standardises these sounds by
giving each one its own unique letter or symbol. It breaks them down in a nuanced way so you learn
every small difference. By learning IPA, you can really improve your pronunciation.
When you read a word written in IPA, you read how the word should sound in its original language. It's
uninfluenced by your native language or writing system. Thus, you learn how to pronounce it right the
first time. You’ll catch even subtle differences that distinguish learners from native speakers.
It can take a bit of effort to learn IPA, but it'll help increase your language learning speed and
pronunciation in the long run. You don’t even have to master the entire IPA – just learn the sounds used
in your target language.
George Millo wrote a fantastic, in-depth article for learning IPA, which you can check out here.

Tactic #4: Record Yourself Speaking

One of the best things you can do to improve pronunciation is to record yourself. This can be
intimidating at first! But when you record yourself, you can accurately hear how you sound. You’ll be
surprised how much more you notice about your speaking habits when you’re listening to yourself on a
recording rather than just hearing yourself speak in the moment.
Is your rhythm off? Which sounds are you struggling with? The recording will allow you to hear the
truth. Not only will you be able to catch vocabulary and grammar mistakes, but you can analyse your
pronunciation. Then you can see where you need to improve.
This is why so many people find the Add1Challenge helpful. The goal of the Add1Challenge is to have
a 15-minute conversation in 90 days. A big part of that is learning to speak the language with good
pronunciation. During the Add1Challenge, you record videos to analyse your own progress at different
points in the journey. And when you share your video with others in the community, you’ll get
encouraging feedback on your progress as well. It’s a win-win!
Once you know what you need to work on, you can go back and assess how native speakers would say
it. Then try it again!

Tactic #5: Speak from Day 1

All of the previous tactics have helped me in past language missions, but my most preferred tactic will
always be to speak from day 1.
The more you speak and converse with others, the better your pronunciation will become.
Why? Because you’re getting consistent practice. When you converse with native speakers, you’re
training your ear to pick up on the nuance of your target language. You become used to those sounds,
and you start to adjust to them.
You also hear the natural way a native speaker would say things. It’s usually very different from the
written form – spoken words can get clipped or smushed together, such as “going to” becoming
“gonna” in spoken English, or “what do you mean” becoming “whaddya mean”. The more you take
part in conversations, the easier it is to naturally copy those sounds and improve your own
pronunciation.
You will make mistakes along the way, of course. But embrace those mistakes! When you make
mistakes, and you practise speaking to correct them, you’ll internalise that information better than you
would if you only read it over and over.
While good grammar and vocab depend mostly on your brain’s long-term memory, good pronunciation
is more a question of muscle memory. It’s that muscle memory that lets you have easy, fluent
conversations. So you need to practise having conversations to grow.

Hacking Grammar: How to Learn Grammar

with No Exceptions
by Carl Eldridge
It started with the goal: explain English grammar with no exceptions.
I’m a native English speaker and an English teacher in Japan. When I started teaching, I went along
with what was printed in the textbooks. Grammar textbooks for ESL and EFL learners typically present
a grammar point, then some examples that support this point. If you don’t give it too much thought
everything seems well and good.
But as time went by, I started seeing more and more holes in the typical rules of “standard” grammar
theory. Students also see these holes and ask, “Why is this being used here?” Many teachers say
something like, “Oh, that’s just an exception, the rules of language only apply most of the time.”
But it made me feel like I didn’t know what I was talking about. It just didn’t add up.
As time went on, I became more aware of poorly written rules that only apply some of the time. The
same rules were common in many textbooks, but I didn’t feel comfortable presenting these to students
because I knew that they weren’t accurate.
I couldn’t accept that that was how English works. It’s not the way it works in my head. As an English
speaker, English makes sense to me. Traditional rules were obviously lacking something.
One day, I decided that I needed to hack English grammar so I could teach it more confidently —
without the rules that didn’t match real-life usage.
When learners asked me about exceptions, I didn’t want to tell them to just accept the exceptions as the
way it is. I wanted to help learners understand why a speaker would choose to use those words in that
way.
I wanted learners to view each new piece of grammar they discover as a useful piece of language — an
additional tool to help them communicate more clearly.
So, I quit my job, moved back to Australia with my wife and baby, set up office in my parents’
basement and began researching and writing full-time.
To write a grammar book that presents English with no exceptions, I decided to go back to basics:
People learn languages to communicate.
It’s Not About Being “Correct” — It’s About Making Sense to
Those You’re Talking To (Even If You Make Mistakes)
When I communicate naturally in English, my reason for using a grammatical form is not simply
because it’s “correct”, but because it makes sense to use it. My main goal is to be meaningful.
In my head, the English language makes sense. I put words together to express myself and
communicate my ideas. As a consequence, it is beautifully grammatical.
And this is consistent with the advice of many highly successful language learners. If you want to be a
good communicator, simply start putting words together and talk to people. Don’t worry about making
mistakes, keep trying it out and keep learning.
This is how I approach teaching English and learning Japanese, and it seems to work well.
This leads to the question:

“Do I Even Need to Study Grammar?”

As you learn a new language, you’ll keep learning words and expressions until you reach a point where
you can communicate fairly well. You’ll understand a lot of what people say and you’ll be able to make
yourself understood.
If you’ve reached this stage, then you’re likely aware that the way you speak is quite different from the
way native speakers speak. Chances are, you sometimes sometimes have misunderstandings as you
miss subtle details and nuances. You can communicate, but you want to do it better.
As Benny Lewis and others suggest, this is a good time to finally study grammar. The obvious solution
is to find a good grammar book.
Good teachers and learners take the material that is available and adapt it to fit their needs. When the
material is from an authoritative source, it’s easy just to trust it.
But many of these resources were written for traditional classrooms. So, they can leave you with the
feeling that a traditional grammar book is not what you need.
There are different learning styles. If someone is learning by talking to people and making mistakes,
it’s great if they have resources that support this method. There is more to grammar than remembering
what to do and what not to do.
In my opinion, grammar resources should directly address the reasons learners feel they should tidy up
their language. These typically relate back to the learners’ main goal of communication.
Many learners want to make better sentences to avoid misunderstanding and communicate their ideas
more naturally.
If learners want to learn grammar because they want to speak clearly and naturally and understand the
language more deeply, these are the areas that grammar resources should address.
A New Perspective: from “Starting with Correctness” to
“Starting with Communication”
I found that focusing on communication, interaction and enjoying using a language worked really well
for me and for my students.
As a beginner, communication is a great place to start.
Japanese learners often find it liberating when they can simply communicate and not worry too much
about forming correct sentences — which has been the main focus of English study in Japanese
schooling.
But then, they want to tidy up their sentences, which means grammar. And grammar study often comes
back to the correct forms and usage rules and exceptions that have bamboozled many beginners.
When you think about it, this “correct grammar” is quite a big deviation from the path my students and
I have been taking in our language learning journey.
As you learn more of a language, you may feel like you need to start getting more serious about
grammar. You may want to put our words together to form sentences that are more natural and clearly
express your ideas. To do this, you can stick to the principle of starting with communication and build
from there. When you become an advanced communicator, what you say will be naturally grammatical.
Rather than looking at “What is correct?”, the first questions to ask yourself are:
“Why is this part meaningful?” and “Why do people choose to use it?”
One of the complaints learners have about rule-based approaches and striving for grammatical
correctness is that there is too much to remember. But when you start with meaning, it becomes part of
the language you use because it makes sense and you understand why it is useful.
To get good at grammar, you need to learn more of what is useful and keep finding out what the
different words, expressions, and other parts of the language mean.

How This Approach Removes the Exceptions

Removing exceptions really comes down to this change of perspective.
Many exceptions arise because people try to put grammatical forms and structures into neat little boxes,
with each form or structure assigned to each situation. This is the way it is often presented, so many
learners think this is the way it is.
Here’s what I recommend you do: look at grammar from a different point of view and think of
language as something that is highly adaptive and flexible.
By studying grammar, you can develop your understanding of what each part means, how you
use the same basic parts in a wide range of situations, and why.
Based on this perspective, I wrote my book Real Grammar–Understand English. Clear and Simple. I
started from this perspective when writing and dove deep into the grammar of my own language. I have
found it works. When I think about or explain English grammar there are no exceptions.
During the writing process, I researched each English grammar point and its uses. Although it was
challenging, I now have a good general view of why we use English the way we do in any situation.
Before it made sense subconsciously, but now I am deeply aware of it.
I think it is important for learners to have resources that approach grammar from a perspective that
makes it clear for them. As teachers, we don’t want to confuse learners, we want to clarify the language
for them.
Resources that enable learners to see how a language works can offer very useful information to help
them answer questions that have been puzzling them about the language.
Language learners are bound to notice some things that just don’t seem to make sense. People with a
genuine interest often naturally ask “why is that?” Sometimes these questions are ignored, but if
answering this question helps you understand and gain confidence, find out why.
When you change your perspective on grammar, you can start connecting the dots in your head. You’ll
see not only when people use grammatical structures, but why the structures are useful.
And this perspective allows you to hack many of the other complications of grammar study, such as
rules, formulas, and linguistic terminology. You can look at simple explanations, images, and examples
of each part in context to think about what it means. By understanding the meaning, the uses make a lot
of sense, and there are no exceptions.

Hacking Grammar: Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions I get asked about grammar as an English teacher, and my answers
now that I understand grammar differently:

Why Do You Need Grammar When Learning a Language?

You need grammar to put your words together well (which is how I define grammar) so that it is easy
for people to understand you.
This can be done through trial and error and mass amounts of input, in the same way you learned your
first language(s). But as adult learners, you can use language learning hacks to get what you need
faster.
With grammar, you can better understand the parts of the language that puzzle you by approaching
grammar from a meaning-based perspective that fits with your goal of becoming a better
communicator.

What is the Best Way to Learn Grammar?

Many people have different opinions on this. Some say that it is good to get a basic foundation on
grammar from the beginning, others say you should study it once you can communicate well, but I
think there are many factors such as the learner and their learning style.
Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening: The
4 Basic Language Skills, and How to Practise
Them
by Benny Lewis
Reading, writing, speaking and listening – the four foundational skills of language learning.
You can’t build a house without a strong foundation (well, that’s if you want the house to stay upright
in all weather!). Similarly, you won’t become a well-rounded speaker of a language without building
upon the four foundations of language learning.
It took me quite a while to realise this.
I studied languages for years at school – and even after school without much success. I even moved to
Spain to learn Spanish. It was a lightning bolt moment that made me realise I could spend hours
learning how to read or write Spanish, but I had to actually start speaking to achieve fluency.
As you continue language learning, you will probably discover that you’re stronger in some areas than
others. Typically, people struggle most with listening and speaking.

How I Discovered My Achilles Heel: Listening Comprehension

Listening is the big one for me.
When I was learning German I set myself a goal of passing the advanced CEFRL exam. I passed four
out of the five sections of the exam.
It was only my listening that wasn’t up to scratch.
I didn’t mind too much – I could hold confident conversations in German, after only 3 months of
intensive study. That being my aim, I was happy with my result.
However, the experience helped me see that I need to focus more on listening when I’m learning a new
language.
The key factor of the four basic language skills is that they complement each other. As a science nerd,
I know that Newton’s third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, if you
want to be a well-rounded language learner, you need to ensure that you’re giving each skill the
attention that it needs.

What are the Four Basic Languages Skills?

These are the cornerstones of learning a language.
 Reading
 Writing
 Listening
  Speaking
The skills work in pairs. When you’re reading or listening, you’re consuming a language.
However, when you’re writing or speaking, you’re producing a language.
Once you’ve mastered these skills, you can safely say that you’re fluent in that language.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how you can strengthen each individual skill, to ensure that
you’re making the most out of your language practice.

How to Improve Your Reading Skills

There’s a very obvious place to start for those wishing to improve their reading skills: books!
Books not only help you learn a new language. They’re also a way to discover the culture behind the
language.
Thanks to the Internet, paper books aren’t your only option for reading practice. Most languages have
thousands of books available to download online – many of them free.
Here are just a few of my favourite reading resources, to get you started.

1. Picture or Comic Books

Picture books are an excellent resource for beginners. Chances are, you used picture books to help you
learn to read in your native tongue. So it makes sense you’d start here with your target language too.
Once you’re beyond the absolute beginner stage, I recommend comic books. They’re fun to read, and
the pictures help you follow the story even if you don’t know all the vocabulary.

2. A Good Dictionary and a Pocket Notebook

A dictionary is a language learner’s best friend. As you delve deeper into your target language, you’ll
frequently come across new words. By having a dictionary on hand, you can find out what those words
mean right away, and jot them down in your notebook.
I recommend investing in a pocket notebook. That way you can carry it around, add notes to it or
review what you’ve already complied when you’re waiting in line or on public transport.
You can do the same thing digitally. Almost all languages these days have a dictionary available as in
app form. And with a note-taking app like Evernote you can keep your notes organised into virtual
notebooks – for example by topic.

3. Dual-Language Books
Reading one book in two languages concurrently is a great way to improve your language skills, and it
can give you a big confidence boost as you realise how much of the language you already understand.

4. Newspapers or Online Journals

With newspapers you’ll not only improve your knowledge of a language, but you’ll also find out more
about the politics, art and attitudes of the countries where the language is spoken.
Many newspapers are available to read online for free.

5. Blogs
Whatever your interests – food, fashion, fitness, or just about anything – chances are there’s a blog
about them in your target language.
I can guarantee there’ll be enough material online to last you a lifetime… and then some.

How to Improve Your Writing Skills

Perhaps all this reading will get your creative juices flowing, encouraging you to sit down and do a
little bit of writing!
For many language learners, writing is the first time they actively try to produce language, rather than
consume the language. And even though I advocate speaking from day one, I see writing as an
important part of this process. I always recommend preparing a script before your first conversation.
Here are a few other ideas to get you started with writing.

1. Write a Letter to a Pen Pal

Did you ever take a language class at school where your teacher encouraged sending a letter to a pen
pal in a far-off land? Well, they were certainly onto something there.
If you’re at a beginner’s level, you can keep it to a few lines on a postcard. If you’re more advanced,
set yourself the task of penning (or typing, if your handwriting is difficult to read!) a page-long letter.
It doesn’t even have to be a letter that will ever see the light of day. Address it to your Mum, a friend,
or even your dog. It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re writing, that’s the key factor here.
If you’re looking for a friendly person to write to, italki is a good place to start.

2. Set Yourself a Daily Goal on Duolingo

Duolingo offers plenty of writing exercises at all skill levels so you can practise writing your target
language as much as you want.

3. Start a Blog in Your Target Language

I’m consistently amazed by how many opportunities have come my way from starting Fluent in 3
Months. I’d recommend anyone who’s learning a language to start a blog. And if you’re doing that,
why not write some posts in your target language?
Even before I started this blog, I used to create videos in the languages I was learning.
Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve realised is that everyone has a story that others will be
interested in hearing.
You’ll find that starting a blog will have a double effect. You’ll be getting consistent practice writing in
your target language, for sure. However, you may also gain a community of readers to support you
along the way.
How to Improve Your Speaking Skills
Speaking: the skill of doom! Most language learners find speaking their new language a daunting
prospect. I know people who’ve been studying for years and still haven’t had a conversation in their
target language.
I get it. Speaking a foreign language for the first time to a native speaker is a massive task. What if you
get something wrong? Will people be offended that you’ve massacred their language? Will they think
you’re stupid and laugh at you?
Personally, I think speaking is the most effective thing you can do to improve your language skills. Yes,
it’s scary at first. But once you’ve chatted with a few native speakers you’ll quickly build your
confidence.
And in my experience, I’ve never had anyone call me stupid or laugh at me for messing up my speech.
In most cases, I’m the one left laughing at any mistakes I’ve made, and the other person is just thrilled
to see that I’m trying.
This is why I’ve made it my mission to help people get over their fear and start speaking in their target
language from the day they start learning.
To strengthen this skill, you will of course have to find someone to practise speaking with.
Here’s how to do just that.

1. Find a Language Teacher on italki

italki is hands down my favourite tool for language learning, as it’s a quick, easy and affordable way to
find people to chat with in your target language.
There are plenty of language teachers at all kinds of levels available on italki. Don’t be afraid to try a
few, until you find one that’s perfect for you.

2. Find a Conversation Partner Online

If you’re just looking for someone to have a conversation with, rather than paid lessons, then try
looking for a language partner instead. Italki is brimming with language learners like you who are
looking for conversation partners to chat with.
Your conversation partner could be a native speaker of your target language, an advanced learner, or
even someone who is at the same level of learning as you.

3. Go to Meetups in Your Area

Most cities have a community of language learners – and chances are you can find one online.
I’ve used Meetup in the past to find and connect with likeminded language learners in my city. This is
an excellent way to find a potential language partner, or just make some new friends!

How to Improve Your Listening Skills

To have a conversation with someone it’s useful if you can understand what they’re saying.
I think listening is the hardest skill for language learners. I’m not just speaking from my own
experience here, but also from what other language learners have told me.
One of the reasons for this is that it’s easy to fall into the pattern of passive learning. People seem to
think that you can just watch a foreign film, or listen to some music and you’ll instantly be on your way
towards mastering that language. They then get frustrated when they find they’re actually making little
to no progress.
This is because you can’t just let the words flow in and out of your ears – your brain is part of the
process too. You need to study what you’re listening to.
There are endless listening resources available – audiobooks, music, movies and podcasts. What we’re
going to examine is how best to make these work for you… without falling into the trap of passive
listening.

1. Short Bursts Are Often More Effective

There’s no rule saying you have to spend an hour a day practising your listening comprehension skills.
In fact, I’d advise against it!
It’s far more effective to give yourself short five or ten minute bursts of study. That way you’ll be more
likely to actually get on and do something, rather than feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of an
intense language session.

2. Give the Audio Your Full Attention

You can play foreign music in the background while you’re cooking dinner or cleaning the bathroom,
but it’s unlikely to improve your listening skills.
It’s much better to sit down and give the audio your full attention. Treat it like a study session, and
you’ll get much more out of it.

3. Write Down Words You Don’t Recognise

When I’m studying audio, I tend to write down words I don’t recognise. After I’m done listening, I can
look these up in my dictionary and add them to my vocab list for further study.

4. Listen to the Same Audio Multiple Times

Don’t just listen to the same piece of audio once. Learn it inside out, until you can recite it back to
front. Once you’re completely sure of what’s being said, you can move onto the next thing.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up either. Study every resource you can get your hands on. This way you’ll
keep the experience both fresh and fun.

5. Follow an Audio Course

An audio-based language course is one of the best ways I’ve found to improve my listening skills. My
favourite courses the podcasts by Innovative Language. You can read more of my thoughts about them
here.
Learning Two Languages at Once: Can You
Learn Multiple Languages at the Same Time?
by Benny Lewis
Is it possible to learn two languages at once?
Yes! Learning two languages at once is certainly possible. That said, it’s not a mission I’d recommend
taking on lightly.
I’ve been learning languages for over 10 years. In that time, I studied over seventeen languages and
became fluent in 10. And I’ve never tried to learn two new languages at the same time.
Studying two languages from scratch at the same time is a lot trickier than studying one after the other.
So, if you’re serious about reaching fluency in two target languages rather than just studying them for
the fun of it, I recommend you don’t study them both at the same time. Get a solid foundation in one,
and then start studying the next one while gradually improving the first.
What if you don’t have a choice? Maybe you need to learn two languages for work, or because you’re
traveling to multiple countries. Or maybe you’re just really keen to take on the challenge of two
languages at once.
If this is you, I’ll tell you how I would approach this mission if I was in the same situation. It’s an
ambitious project, and I like ambition!

My Tips for Learning Two Languages at Once

Although I’ve never personally tried learning more than one new language at the same time, I do know
several accomplished polyglots and less experienced language students who have.
Those who have succeeded in reaching fluency this way have told me similar things about the best way
to approach it.

1. Choose Languages that are Really Different

Passion for the language you choose is always going to be the most important factor of your success in
that language. When learning two new languages, there’s another factor to consider: How similar the
two languages are.
If you study two languages that are similar, you run the risk of mixing up both languages and failing to
get a solid foundation in either one.
French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are Romance languages with similar grammar and vocabulary.
I can speak these languages without mixing them up in conversation, mainly because I always reached
a level of intermediate or better in one Romance language before starting to learn the next.
In my view, I’d have found it really tricky if I had tried to learn two of them at the same time.
For this reason, you should pick two languages from different families to study at once. Don’t pick
Spanish and Portuguese or your phrases will come out in muddled “Portuñol”. It will be very hard to
remember which words are from which language. Instead, choose Portuguese and, say, Welsh or
Mandarin, and save Spanish until your Portuguese is at least intermediate.

2. Study Both Languages Each Day

Studying both languages daily will make sure you maintain momentum in each one.
If you study one language for the first week, then another for the second week, you’ll find that when
you return to the first language, you’ll have forgotten a lot of what you picked up. You’ll constantly be
playing “catch up” in both your languages.
It’s always better to study for a shorter period of time every day rather than do longer study sessions
less often. You might not feel like you’re making such fast progress this way, because it will be less
noticeable. But ultimately, you’ll reach your end goal faster.
How should you divide your daily study time between the two languages? That part is your call. You
don’t have to study each one exactly half of the time if you don’t want to. If you find one language
harder than the other, devote more time to it than to the easier one.
On the other hand, if you simply enjoy studying one language more than the other, feel free to spend
more time studying it. It doesn’t matter, as long as you study them both, even for a short time, every
day.

3. Avoid Multi-tasking
Research shows that doing two (or more) things at once is the opposite of productive. This is especially
true when it comes to learning two languages.
What I mean here is combining both languages into a single study session. For example, watching a
Chinese soap opera while doing French flashcard drills.
When you try to do two things at the same time, you end up doing neither one of them well. Just ask
anyone who’s had a near miss while trying to text and drive.
That said, once you get a solid foundation in both languages, there are a few ways that you can
combine both languages into one lesson. You could watch a movie in one target language which
displays subtitles in the other. Or watch a language instruction video that teaches speakers of one
language how to say words and phrases in another.
This is known as “laddering” and it’s actually a really popular way of learning languages in the
polyglot community. I’ve done it a lot myself on my language missions.

4. Give Each Language a Unique Study Routine

Another way to avoid mixing up your two languages is to follow a different study routine for each
language.
You can do this any way you want. Pick a different place in your house to study each language. Study
one language only in the morning, and the other only at night. Or colour code your notes so one
language is written in blue ink, and the other red.
Choosing different habits for each language will not only keep you from mixing them up before you
reach intermediate level, but developing this regular routine will also ensure that you study
consistently. This makes it more likely that you’ll reach your language goal.

5. Don’t Rush!
Studying two languages at once means you won’t learn either one as quickly as you would when
studying a single language.
So don’t beat yourself up if you feel progress is slow. Take it at a pace that’s right for you.

Learning Two Languages at Once Is Possible

It might take longer for two languages than one, and you might need to get a little creative about how
you approach it. But if you’re committed, consistent, and passionate about studying both languages,
then you will succeed.

24 Time Hacking Tips from Language Hacker

Benny Lewis
by Shannon Kennedy
For busy language learners, it can feel like your constant thought is “I don’t have enough time!”
I’d like to share some simple shifts you can make in your life so you can manage your time – and have
more time available for language learning.
Many of these we’ve shared on Fluent in 3 Months (Fi3M) before – and much of the advice comes
from Fi3M founder Benny Lewis. Benny’s aim in creating Fi3M was to share language hacks – faster
and smarter ways to learn a language.
In other words, we want to help you learn a new language in less time – or in the small pockets of time
you have available through your day.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to have all our best advice on time management in one place.
Before we begin, there’s a quote that’s popular on Pinterest, which I really like. You may have seen it.
“You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce.”

While you can argue that your 24 hours aren’t the same as Beyonce’s – you don’t have assistants,
teams, or stylists helping you out – you still have the same 1,440 minutes a day. The key is to make the
most of each one of those minutes.
Now, here are the tips from Fi3M’s Benny Lewis on just a few ways you can use the 24 hours you have
each day more effectively when it comes to language learning.
Let’s get started!

1. Get Feedback on Your Mistakes

If you want to be sure that you’re actually using the language correctly, talk with a native
speaker who can provide feedback. Not only will you learn to use the language more
effectively, you’ll get a better ear for it and start to pronounce it more closely to native
speech.

From: How Adults Learn: 6 Important Things to Know

2. Create Personalised Vocabulary Lists

Instead of spending countless hours memorizing vocabulary lists from a textbook, I create
my own personalized vocabulary list, ensuring that I’ll learn the words that I’ll need to
know first.

From: Busted: 6 Common Myths About Polyglots and Language Learners

3. Avoid the “Just Do Something!” Mindset

A very popular way to kill time in language learning is to simply do ‘something’ and feel
that it's at least dragging you in the general direction that you need to go. No! Sometimes
doing ‘something’ is barely better than doing nothing. Do something worthwhile!

From: Solving specific problems rather than trying to learn everything

4. Focus on Learning What Matters

Trying to become a master of everything at once will not allow you to make progress on
anything specific swiftly enough to feel progress, and you can get demotivated.

From: Why hard work isn’t what makes good learners

5. Apply the 80-20 Rule to get 80% of the Results from 20% of
the Effort
Successful language learners find ways to use the little they know in the maximum possible
ways; this adaptation of Pareto's principle is an absolute must for people focused on
speaking well as quickly as possible.

From: The Pareto (80-20) principle in language learning

6. Count Hours, Not Years…
“Now add up your ‘hours’ based on this new system, but actually counting the time you put
in and you will see a dramatic difference. ‘Five years’ of two hours of passive listening a
day, four hours of grammar studying a week and two hours of actual practise with natives
per month would give you about 364 ‘hours’ (based on my weighted units) of genuine
work. That's fifteen days worth of work in your ‘five years’.”

From: How to learn a language in hours, not years

7. …Or Count Minutes, Not Hours

If you’re suffering from guilt or stress about how behind you are on your study hours, then
maybe you should stop counting how many hours you’re practising for a few days, and
instead see how many more minutes you can squeeze into a day.

From: “I’ll Do It Tomorrow” – Solving 3 Mindtraps that Make You Put Off Language Learning

8. Use the 5 Minute Pockets in Your Day

I highly recommend micro-commitments and zoning out in your target language.
Committing for five minutes is a lot easier than committing for thirty minutes, and after
five minutes I often find myself thinking “this isn't so bad, just another five minutes”.

From Fi3M Team Member Joseph Lemien, in Learning a New Language: Secrets of Language
Learning Pros

9. Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

If you charge into the frustration, embrace it, and fill up all your free time with it, then you
WILL get to the other side much quicker.

From: The only way to get far quickly is to get out of your comfort zone

10. Avoid Useless Information

If you removed two hours of social media you’re just – let’s face it – not doing anything
terribly productive, just consuming random bits of news and sound bytes, you could
literally become a proficient [language learner] in that amount of time.

From: Intensive Language Learning and the Tim Ferriss Experiment

11. Stop Using “I’m Too Busy” as an Excuse

If you sleep eight hours a night, then you have 112 hours a week to play with. If you work
full time for 40 hours a week, then there's still 72 hours left over.

From: How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

12. Can’t Find Time? Make Time!
No matter how busy you are, how much you work or socialise or devote your time to other
important projects in your life… you always still have some time left over that you may be
currently wasting!

From: How to make time if you are too busy

13. Go Public With Your Language Goals

One of the best ways to encourage progress is to tell others about your objectives. Making
your mission public will also make it real. There will be more at stake and you won’t want
to fail.

From: 5 Rituals to Help You Learn a Language Faster

14. Remember: There Are No “Perfect Conditions”

What I prefer to do is try to make things as ideal as they can possibly get and then handle
problems quickly and swiftly, whenever possible, if they come my way so that I can stay on
track.

From: Absolutely perfect learning conditions? An unrealistic pipe dream that holds you back

15. Eliminate “Time Sucks”

We are all very busy, but many of us still achieve great things because we organize the time
we have control over much better, and remove things that suck time out of our day, like
television.

From: The many reasons (32 so far) why we DON’T succeed in learning languages

16. Keep a To-Do List

What has worked better for me, has been setting up a to-do list of precisely everything that
I need to do that day and deciding approximately how much time it will require.

From: 21 ways to work, socialise & sleep well, maintain inbox 0 with 400+ emails, AND intensively
learn a language all in a day! Time hacking 2.0

17. Use the Pomodoro Technique

Use the Pomodoro time-hacking method to increase your productive sprints. By alternating
25 minute work sessions with 5 minute rests, you allow your brain to get some breathing
room and are able to get in more focused work.

From: The CIA is Wrong: It Doesn’t Take 1,000 Hours to Learn a Language
18. Remove Distractions
If you’re going to sit down for a session of language learning, take a few moments to turn
off all the electronic attention-hogs that surround you. Go away from your TV, turn off the
wifi on your devices, and close down unnecessary applications or windows.

From: 5 Simple Research Proven Hacks to Stop Wasting Time and Start Learning Fast

19. Stop Comparing

If someone is a smarter language learner than you, has more free time than you or
whatever, well good for them I suppose. But who cares when it comes to you and your
situation?

From: Questions that waste your time

20. Focus on One Day at a Time

The question should never be “how long does it take one to learn a language” but “how
long do you have?” or “How intensively are you willing to invest your time?”

From: How much time does it take to learn a language?

21. Immerse Yourself at Home

An immersion environment is all about finding opportunities to bring the language into
your current lifestyle and activities.

From: Language Immersion: How to Create an Immersion Environment on Your Phone

22. Just Start!

What would you be doing right now if you really wanted to learn a new language? The key
idea here is RIGHT NOW, and the answer is something. Anything. It really doesn't matter
what you do, just start, and start now.

From: How to Start Learning a New Language (Right Now. Today. Seriously).

23. Try “Blending”

Think about what you actually do in your free time and try it entirely through your acquired
language! I've played chess in Italian, read computer and men's health magazines in French,
taken dance lessons in Spanish, windsurfing lessons in Portuguese, flirted with pretty girls
in Esperanto and chatted in MSN and Skype in Irish Gaelic.

From: Combining learning languages with your hobbies

24. Use Mini-Missions
Apart from the actual benefits and doing something practical to reach your “end” goal,
there is a great sense of achievement that you can feel every day in reaching your objective.

Will You Make the Time to Learn a Language?

We hope you enjoyed this collection of tips from Benny Lewis on how to learn a language even when
you’re busy.
We’d love to know how you find time to study language. Feel free to share your time management
strategies in the comments below.
Need a little extra help making time for language learning? We’re really excited to announce our new
course on building solid language habits. Learn more about how you can fit language learning into your
schedule.

A 5-Step Method to Improve Your Listening

Skills
by James Granahan
Let’s talk listening skills. Do you remember how you felt the first time you heard someone speak your
target language?
Bamboozled?
Personally, I’ve always found listening to be the most difficult language learning skill. Maybe you feel
the same way?
In this post, we’ll look at the key to improving your listening and I’ll share the method I use to work on
my listening skills.
One the reasons I used to struggle with listening is that I didn’t really know how to practice it. Should
you read along while you listen or should you listen without a text? What should you listen to? Do you
need to translate every single word?
I had many failed experiments when I first started learning Spanish and it took me a long time to figure
out the best methods to practice my listening skills.
In fact, it was only when I moved to Argentina that I finally realised what I needed to do to improve my
listening and I discovered it somewhat by accident! Before I arrived in Buenos Aires, I thought my
Spanish was pretty good. Then I landed and I couldn’t understand anything! It was a bit of a baptism of
fire! On the bus, in the supermarket, no matter where I went I found myself smiling, nodding and
desperately trying to work out what people were saying to me.
The author James in Buenos Aires.
However, over the coming weeks and months my listening skills began to significantly improve and
this taught me a very valuable lesson: To improve your listening skills, you have to truly listen. You
have to listen with focus and attentiveness. Passively listening to things you don’t understand is never
going to work.
I was forced to do this because I’d moved to a new country where most people don’t speak English
very well and I had to figure out how to get by. But the same concept applies whether you’re travelling
abroad or learning the language from home. Active listening, not passive listening, is what will give
you results.

Passive vs. Active Listening: What’s the Difference?

Why Passive Listening Doesn’t Work
What is passive listening? Passive listening is when you listen to something without giving it your full
attention. For example, you put on French radio in the background while you’re working, or listen to
Spanish music without really paying attention to the lyrics.
Passive listening doesn’t work because basically … you’re not really listening! You’re doing something
else – it could be working, sleeping or daydreaming – rather than actually listening to the sounds.
When you listen this way, you can’t just expect to suddenly understand everything you’re hearing.
Think about it. Even in English, we don’t remember things or understand them unless we actually pay
attention to them. For example, lots of people like to have the radio on in their kitchen while cooking or
in the morning while having breakfast. Maybe you do this too. But how much of what you hear do you
actually remember? If you’re being honest, very little because you weren’t really listening. You might
remember a particular song you like or something important that was mentioned on the news but unless
you actually try to focus on what you’re listening to, most of it goes in one ear and out the other.
Since that’s what happens with our native language, why do we think doing the same thing in another
language will give us different results?
The idea of passive learning is appealing because it promises results without much work. But the truth
is that it just doesn’t deliver on those promises. If you’re spending time passively listening as part of
your core language learning, it’s time to stop and start practicing more efficiently instead.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s no harm surrounding yourself in the language by having music or radio
playing in the background while you’re in the kitchen or while you’re reading a book. You’ll still pick
some things every now and again when a particular word or phrase catches your attention. Just don’t let
passive listening become the foundation of your how you work on your listening skills. To really see
predictable, sustainable results you need to practice listening in a more focused way.

Why Listening Needs to be Active

Your brain needs you to bring attention to things to remember them.
By paying close attention to something and repeating it multiple times, you send a clear message to
your brain that something is important and needs to be remembered. This obviously applies to things
like learning vocabulary but it’s also true when it comes to the other parts of listening, including
sounds, accents, intonation or phrasing. You need to bring attention to them. That’s why it’s important
to listen actively rather than passively when you practice.
Another reason to practice active listening is to get used to differences between how words sound on
their own and how they sound in context. Native speakers often ‘smash’ words together when they
speak. We do this ourselves in English. For example, in American English the phrase ‘what’s up?’ often
sounds more like ‘wassup?’ or in Hiberno-English a greeting like ‘how’s it going?’ often becomes
‘howsagoin?’
These are things we take for granted in our native languages but when you hear such transformations in
a foreign language, they can leave you totally lost!
That’s why sometimes you might know a word but not recognise it when you hear it because the
sounds mutate when they're spoken together rapidly by native speakers. This is one of the many
reasons why focused listening practice is important. Just learning individual words isn’t enough. You
need to hear how these words sound and appear in context and that’s not something you can pick up
passively. Learning new words but never hearing them isn't sufficient when it comes to high level, real-
life conversation.
So how can you go about practicing your listening skills in a more active way and what kind of
materials should you practice with?

The Tools You Need to Improve Your Listening Skills

I suggest using a language resource that contains both audio and a text transcript. The main reason for
this is so that you can check your comprehension when you listen to something new. It’s always good
to listen without a text first to really test yourself, but it’s very useful to have a text or transcription so
you can check your understanding afterwards.
Here are some ideas for materials you could use to practice with:
 A scene from a movie or tv show (+ the subtitles)
 A podcast episode you have a transcript for
 A video on Euronews or another news site
 A YouTube video with a transcription
 A book in print and audiobook format
 Dialogues and their transcription
 An Assimil course
 LingQ
 Textbook audio and text
LingQ
When practicing your listening skills, I would always suggest working with a short audio clip of no
more than three or four minutes. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, unless you’re at an
advanced level, long clips are exhausting! Secondly, as you’ll see, repetition is an important part of the
learning process. Working with short clips means you can easily listen to them multiple times. Besides,
there’s much more value in working with a short clip and learning it well than working with a longer
one and not examining it in any real depth.
If you spend half an hour working with a single three minute clip, you’ll be able to listen to it multiple
times, look up what you don’t understand and repeatedly hear the new words and phrases you come
across. On the other hand, if you work for half an hour with a 15 or 20 minute audio clip, you won’t
have time to repeat the audio, and you may only hear each new word once or twice. You can’t really do
this and expect to remember very much of what you learned a few days later.
Finally, I strongly suggest that you think carefully about the content of the materials you choose and
find things that cover topics that are important to you. Fluency doesn’t require you to know every word
in the dictionary. It just requires you to know the words you’re going to need in the conversations
you’re going to have. Think about the kind of things you’re actually going to want to or need to talk
about in your target language and choose your materials accordingly. That way you can ensure that
you’re learning vocabulary that directly improves your ability to use the language.
Now that’s the groundwork explained, here’s my five step method to improve your listening skills.
A 5-Step Method to Improve Your Listening Skills
Step 1: Listen to the Audio – No Reading!
The first step in this method is to simply listen to the audio alone. Don’t read the text in advance and
don’t follow along with it as you listen. The point here is to focus solely on your aural skills and see
how much you can understand without any visual aid.
Of course, unless you’re already at a very high level, this can be very difficult. Rather than trying to
understand every single word, it’s better to focus on trying to understand the ‘gist’ of what’s being said.
See if you can pick out some key words or phrases that might give you an idea of what’s being said and
note them down. Find anything at all that you can cling on to and you’ll be able to use this as starting
point to learn more from the context.

Step 2: Repeat!
It’s not time to look at the text just yet. Many learners make the mistake of turning to the text too
quickly. However, the point here is to practice your listening skills so just stay focused on listening for
the time being.
On the first listen, you’ll probably have identified one or two key words or ideas. As you repeat the
audio, listen carefully and see if you can pick out and words or phrases you may have missed the first
time. By now you may already have some idea what this piece of audio is about, so use the context to
your advantage. If you can’t figure out exactly what’s going on, don’t worry. Just note down any
keywords you do understand or words that seem important.
At this stage, I’d suggest listening at least three more times. With each listen, you can add a little more
to your comprehension. Your goal should be to try and use all of your current knowledge in the
language to understand as much as possible from the audio before you read the text. When you feel
you’ve reached a point where there’s nothing more you can take from the recording, it’s time to move
onto the next step.

Step 3: Get Reading

Now it’s time to look at the text. Read through it and check how much you understood from your
listening. Did you get the ‘gist’ of it?
As you read through the text, identify any new words you come across. See if you can guess the
meaning of the words from their context; otherwise, look them up in a dictionary. If there are any new
words that you think will be particularly useful for you in conversation, write them down and add them
to your list of new vocabulary to learn.
As well as new words you haven’t seen before, you’ll also likely find words in the text that you already
know but didn’t understand! Some words can sound quite different when spoken together and at native
level speed. Pay careful attention to these words and be sure to listen out for them when you repeat the
audio.
Step 4: Listen With the Text
Once you’ve read through the text a few times and looked up any words you didn’t understand, you
should be confident about its meaning. Next, I suggest listening again a couple of more times while you
read along with the text.
This is the one time during the process that you’re using aural and visual stimuli together, so take
advantage of it. Try to connect the written words to the sounds and pay special attention to phrases or
groups of words and how they’re pronounced.
If there were a lot of new words in the text you’re working on, trying breaking the audio down into
smaller chunks as you continue to repeat it. Rather than repeating the whole recording at once, you can
work through paragraph by paragraph if you prefer.
I tend to repeat this step at least twice to help build connections between the written and spoken words.

Step 5: Listen Again Without the Text

Finally, go back and listen again a few more times without the text. By this point, you should be able to
understand almost everything quite well even without the visual aid of the text.
Over the next few days, it’s good to listen back to the clip again whenever you have a chance.
Download the recording to your phone so you can have a quick listen any time you get a few free
minutes. With each extra repetition your comfort level will grow. Because you’re now able to
understand the words and phrases you studied without any visual aid, you’ll also find it easier to
recognise this vocabulary when it comes up conversations or in other recordings you listen to.

In Conclusion: There’s no Quick Fix for Listening Skills

Whether you’re learning a language or any other skill, there’s no magic solution.
Improving your listening skills takes time and a lot of focused listening but if you work at it in the right
way you can actually make significant improvements faster than you might think.

Sentence Stretchers: An Easy Way to Sound

More Fluent in Your Target Language
by Holly Keenan
Most beginner language learners I know are keen to pick up new vocabulary, so they’re ready for real
conversations in their new language.
And it’s true that learning a wide variety of vocabulary is essential to having conversations about a lot
of different subjects.
But there’s a group of words and phrases that never seem to make their way into most beginner
students’ flash cards or vocab lists. I call this group of words “sentence stretchers”.

What is a Sentence Stretcher?

Sentence stretchers give you everything you need to expand short, basic phrases into far more
expressive, natural-sounding sentences. With sentence stretchers, you’ll sound more like a native
speaker, and have much more interesting conversations.
In grammar speak, sentence stretchers may be adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions or determiners. The
point is that they help you create longer, more complex sentences, and take your language skills to the
next level.
With sentence stretchers, you’ll sound more like a native speaker even if you still don’t know a whole
lot of vocab or verb tenses. They also make it much easier to say what you want without performing
complicated mental gymnastics as you build your sentences. This in turn will boost your confidence.
Think about it this way. How hard would it be to have even a short conversation in English without
using words like “without”, “anyway”, “maybe”, “so”, “as much as”, “until”, or “almost”?
Yet few language learners put any special effort early on into learning these seemingly minor words.
The longer you put off learning sentence stretchers, the more time you’ll spend having stunted, overly-
simple conversations.

How Sentence Stretchers Work

Consider the following exchange you’re likely to have when you first start speaking a new language:
Them: “Why do you want to study this language?”
You: “I want to travel to your country someday, so it’s a good idea to learn some of the language before
I go, even if I don’t learn it fluently.”
Now imagine trying to answer their question without using “someday”, “so”, “some”, “before” or
“even if”. It’s quite a bit harder!
“I want to travel to your country. It’s a good idea to learn the language. If I don’t learn it fluently, it’s
OK.”
Doesn’t sound too natural, does it? The rest of the vocab in the sentence – “travel”, “country”, “good”,
“idea” “learn”, “language”, “fluently” – are probably words that you’ll learn fairly early in your
studies. But you may not learn those “sentence stretchers” until much later, and so you’ll miss out on a
chance to improve your speaking skills early on.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s crucial to speak from day 1 and talk with native speakers as much as possible
no matter how many mistakes you make.
But if you want to get comfortable speaking your target language as quickly as possible, sentence
stretchers will help get you there.
Sentence Stretchers: The Basic List
Here’s a list of the most common sentence stretchers.
For each one, I’ve included a sentence that sounds more natural when the word is included. The earlier
you learn these words in your target language, the better.
 except: “I study French every day. I do not study French on Friday” could become “I study
French every day except Friday.”
 only: “I study Spanish two days per week. It is not a lot” could become “I only study Spanish
two days per week.”
 someday: “I want to travel to your country, but I don’t know when” could become “I want to
travel to your country someday.”
 even though: “I bought it. It was expensive” could become “I bought it even though it was
expensive.”
 anyway: “I can’t speak German fluently, but I will speak it” becomes “I can’t speak German
fluently, but I will speak it anyway.”
 might: “I don’t know, but I think he’s hungry” becomes “He might be hungry.”
 sometimes: “Studying Spanish can be easy. But it can feel difficult too” could become
“Studying Spanish is easy, but sometimes it feels difficult.”
 always: “I order the same meal when I eat here” could become “I always order the same meal
when I eat here.”
 often: “I wonder a lot if I made the right choice” becomes “I often wonder if I made the right
choice.”
 so/therefore: “I have more energy in the morning. That’s when I exercise” becomes “I have
more energy in the morning, so that’s when I exercise.”
 already: “I started studying English three weeks ago. I can say a lot” becomes “I started
studying English three weeks ago, and I can already say a lot.”
 without: “I want to study the language. But I don’t want to read or write” becomes “I want to
study the language without reading or writing.”
 both: “Will you and you come to the party tonight?” becomes “Will you both come to the party
tonight?”
 until: “I want to study Cantonese. I will stop when I’m fluent” becomes “I want to study
Cantonese until I’m fluent.”
 since: “I’ve wanted to travel to Australia for a long time. I wanted to when I was nine” becomes
“I’ve wanted to travel to Australia since I was nine.”
 still: “I’m not young, but I enjoy learning new things” becomes “I’m not young, but I still enjoy
learning new things.”
 enough: “The pan is hot now. You can add the bacon” becomes “The pan is hot enough now to
add the bacon.”
 instead of: “We were going to eat Italian food. But do you want to eat sushi now?” can become
“Do you want to eat sushi instead of Italian food?”
 throughout: “There are many festivals here in the year” becomes “There are many festivals here
throughout the year.”
  including: “All languages can be easy to learn. Tonal languages too” becomes “All languages
can be easy to learn, including tonal languages.”
 in case: “Take my umbrella. It might rain” becomes “Take my umbrella in case it rains.”
 even if: “I want to travel. It’s OK if it’s for a short time” becomes “I want to travel, even if it’s
for a short time.”

Your Turn!
What sentence stretchers do you use in your target language? Are there any other hacks you use to
build complex sentences in your new language? Let me know in the comments!

How to Improve Your Basic Writing Skills:

Hacks for Language Learners
by James Johnson
Basic writing skills matter – there’s no denying that.
However, there’s a good reason writing skills aren’t central to the Speak From Day One method for
language learning:
Languages are made to be spoken.
Real conversations with real people is what it’s all about. Connecting with people is what makes a
language come to life.
That’s why at Fluent in 3 Months, of all the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and
speaking), we focus on speaking. Speaking from day one is the smartest decision you’ll ever make as a
language learner.
Even so, it’s a good idea to have some basic writing skills. Being able to send emails, write the
occasional text and scribble down important phrases you’ve heard can really come in handy. Especially
if you plan on relocating to a new country.
So, In this article I’m going to talk you through basic writing skills are, how they’ve helped me and
how you can learn them.

What Are Basic Writing Skills (and Why Do You Need Them)?
Having basic writing skills means being able to get your message across.
Your writing won’t be grammatically perfect. You’ll make spelling mistakes. And, you’ll probably have
to look at a dictionary every now and again. But you make sure you're understood by the person
reading your writing.
Remember, you’re not trying to write a novel here, you’re just trying to communicate what you want or
need through your words.
You don’t really need a great level of vocabulary to write – even in your native tongue. Think of the
situations where you find yourself writing:
 Confirming a hotel reservation
 Responding to a delivery order
 Leaving a note for someone
 Writing an email for information
 Texting your new friend to invite them for a drink
All of these situations can be handled with just a few simple phrases or words.
 We’ll arrive around 4pm
 Can you leave the parcel with the neighbour
 “Buy milk!” – Love James
 Can you tell me when you’ll have the shoes available?
 Do you fancy a drink about 9pm?
All pretty basic, right? If you’ve learned the most common 100 words in the language, and you’ve got a
dictionary to hand, you can easily make these sentences and get your point across.
I’ve recently moved from England to Germany, and I’ve found the ability to write short phrases and
send emails really useful as I establish myself in a new country.
Let me explain…

How Writing Skills Have Helped Me

Back in England I was really into playing rugby, and it’s something I want to keep going in Germany.
By playing ruby in Germany I can use the language more, see more of the country, and escape my
girlfriend for a few hours on a Saturday.
I found a team but they didn’t have a phone number. The only options were to email or send a
Facebook message. That left me with a decision to make: do I write to them in English, or do I try my
best with my okay German. Well I decided to give it a go with my German.
Here’s how it went:
My grammar was all over the place, but they understood what I meant and I was able to get the
information that I needed. And when my German improved over the next few weeks, I could check in
with them again on Facebook:
As it stands, I was able to start playing rugby as soon as I moved to Germany. All from a few simple
written messages.
Not too shabby, right?
Being able to do a little writing (and I mean a little) saved me a lot of time and effort in Peru, too.
Normally a hostel will message you asking for confirmation of your stay – which I didn’t realise before
I went to Peru – and I was able to make sure my reservation was saved:
 
My grammar really isn’t great there, but I got my point across. And having basic writing skills for these
situations honestly makes a difference.
Okay, that’s some real-world examples of how it impacted me. Let’s look at how you can hone your
writing skills, shall we?

How To Write In Your Target Language

“Write like you speak” was the best piece of advice I ever received from a writing mentor, who was
helping me with my English writing skills. And, today, I’m going to urge you to do the same in your
target language.
It’s normal when you look at a blank sheet of paper to feel overwhelmed about what to write. You
wonder: Will my sentences sounds correct? Am I using the right tense for this verb? Will they even
understand what I mean?
How can you avoid these worries?
Instead of thinking about what you should write, I recommend thinking about what you would say to
someone, in person. Say it aloud, if you like. Then just copy that down exactly as you said it. It doesn’t
matter if your target language has a written case or a structure, just write it how you'd say it.
Basic Writing Skills: My Example
I’ll give you an example we can do together and I’ll show you my (imperfect) result in German below.
Let’s say you’ve found a really nice pair of sneakers in a shop. But, they don’t have them in stock. The
shop assistant has given you a product code, 0123456, and told you to send an email to their customer
services and you can check if they have stock elsewhere.
Here’s my rusty attempt….
Hallo,
Wie geht es Ihnen? Ich habe in Ihrer Koeln laden eine schuh mit den nummer 0123456 gesehen.
Konnen Sie wenn Sie diesen shcuhe in einen andere laden haben schaun? Vielleicht Düsseldorf?
Vielen dank!
James
All I did to create that was say it out loud and write it down word for word afterwards. There are
probably grammar mistakes (I think the case may be wrong in my second sentence). But that’s not
really important.
What is important is that the person who receives it understands what I’m looking for, where I looked
for it last, and which shop I’d like them to check that is close to me. The rest they can figure out for
themselves should they need to.
You could even do this with stripped back Tarzan German.
Hallo,
Ich bin James. Ich sehe die Schuche 0123456 in Koeln. Haben Sie mehr?
Danke,
James
All I said was, “I’m James. I see this shoe in Koeln. Have you more?”. The person at the other end still
knows what I want, even with this truly basic German.
Now you give it a try – write a simple request in your target language. How did you get on with your
attempt? Show me in the comments, I’d love to see.
The key here really isn’t to overthink it. You’d never think twice about writing an email in your own
language – which probably isn’t that grammatically correct either – so don’t overthink it in your target
language, either.
But, if you want to practice your written language, there are some great ways you can do that for free,
too.
Tools To Help You Practice Basic Writing Skills
Writing is one of those wonderful skills you don’t really need a partner to practice with. You can easily
pick up a task any time of the day – on the bus, waiting for a train, sat in front of the television – and
start writing.
I do recommend writing so that people can respond to you and check your grammar or spelling so you
can improve.
For that there really is no replacement for texting or emailing language exchange partners. Much like
speaking to them in person, writing where you’ll get a response will push you to learn.
But if you don’t have the facility to text or write to people just yet, there are some other great ways you
can get practice in for free. Here are some of the tools I’d recommend.

Duolingo
I first came across Duolingo through reading a review of it when I was learning Spanish. Now, for
vocabulary building it’s the first place I turn.
You’re able to see simple sentences written down as well as type them for yourself.

 
HelloTalk
If you want to practice your speaking and your writing, HelloTalk is a cool app where you can text
people (without sharing your phone number) and have some basic written conversations in your target
language.
Other users will be able to provide you with more grammatically correct sentences. You can even take
part in challenges where you write a certain amount of words in your target language, and then the
same amount in your native tongue.
You can read our complete review of HelloTalk right here.

Language Forums
The last place I’ll recommend for practising your basic writing skills is Language Forums. There are
two types of forums you can join to practice your written language.
The first is a niche forum. This is a forum that relates to a topic that you like, such as a hobby. For
example I’ve been able to find a rugby forum for German people. Here I can share my opinions and ask
about the sport:
 
This could also be a Facebook Group if you find that the forums are a little quiet. And, there’s always
the option of a language specific Reddit page, too:
Alternatively you can find yourself a language learning forum, like the Fi3M non-English forum, where
you can try out your written language with natives and other learners.
If you’re a little more self-conscious over your writing skills, this may be a more ‘safe’ environment for
you to practice.

How Do You Improve Your Writing Skills?

You don’t need to be an everyday Shakespeare to write in your new language. Simple sentences,
grammar mistakes and getting your point across are all part of the process, just like speaking.
I’m interested to know how do you improve your writing skills. What methods have worked for you?
Let me know in the comments.
The Best Way to Learn a Language: What the
Science Says
by Katie Harris
Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. ?
“What’s the best way to learn a language?” “What’s the quickest way to learn new words?” “How can
I sound like a native speaker?” “Do I really have to study grammar?”
Language hackers ask themselves these kinds of questions all the time.
We all want to use effective study methods so we can learn a language quickly and speak it well.
How can we know if we’re spending our time on the right things?
Everywhere you turn, language teachers are using different methods and giving conflicting advice.
Some learn vocabulary by memorising word lists, others absorb it naturally by reading. Some
concentrate on the sounds first, others prefer to improve their pronunciation as they go along. Some
swear by grammar drills, others never open a textbook.
Fortunately, language learners aren’t the only ones who’ve been puzzling over these questions.
Linguists, the people who study the science of language, have spent decades observing how people
learn languages. And while they don’t have all the answers yet, they have discovered a lot of cool stuff
about what works and what doesn’t.
So let’s take a look at some of the most common questions in language learning, what science has to
say about them. We’ll also look at the strategies science provides that can help us become better
language learners.

How Can You Sound More Like a Native Speaker?

Perhaps the first question to address is why you want to sound more like a native speaker.
Lots of language learners don’t worry much about pronunciation. They think that as long as people can
get what they’re saying, that’s all that matters.
And there’s some truth in this: you don’t need a perfect accent to communicate well with native
speakers.
But the more you sound like a native speaker, the easier it is for them to understand you. And the easier
it is for people to understand you, the more they enjoy talking to you. Which comes in pretty handy,
given that you need to talk to people in order to learn their language.
So why do we have accents in the first place? And what can we do about them?

Why do we Have Foreign Accents?

There are two main reasons language learners have foreign accents.
Firstly, it can be difficult to tell the difference between two sounds that don’t exist in our native
language.
Secondly, other languages can have sounds that require us to use our mouth muscles in a new way.
Let’s take a look at both of these issues, why they happen, and how you can address them.

Sound Differences that don’t Exist in Our Own Language

When I started learning Italian, I spent a few months desperately trying to avoid the word anno (year),
for fear of accidentally saying the word ano (ass). It felt as if Italians across the world were playing
some kind of cruel joke on me because I just couldn’t hear the difference.
On the flip side, I’m a native English speaker, so the difference between the sheep and ship vowels
seems pretty obvious. But lots of learners struggle with difference, which explains why everyone’s
terrified of speaking English on holiday, with all those beaches and sheets and what not .
This happens because when we’re born, we have super little polyglot brains that can tell the difference
between sounds in all of the world’s languages. As we grow older, our brain zooms in on acoustic
differences between sounds that are important for our native language and filters out differences that
are not important. This is good, as it helps us understand our own language better. But it causes
problems for language learners, because they filter out sound differences that might be important in the
language they’re learning.

How to Tell Sounds Apart

But it’s not all bad news. Linguists have been studying this phenomenon for years and they’ve found a
way to help learners hear and pronounce the difference between these tricky sounds.
This method, known as minimal pair training, involves listening to a word that has the sound difference
you want to learn (like ship or sheep), deciding which one you think it is, and getting immediate
feedback about whether you were right or wrong. After a few sessions, you’ll hear the difference more
easily and be able to pronounce them better.
You set up your own minimal pair training by using forvo to download sound files of the words you
want to learn to tell apart. Then use Anki to put the sound file on the question side and the written word
on the other. Listen to the word, try to guess which one it is, then flip the flashcard over to see if you
were right.

New Mouth Positions

Some sounds are difficult because they involve completely new mouth positions, like the rolled “R” in
Spanish or the “U” in French.
For these sounds, science has some good news: it turns out that with a little perseverance, it’s
absolutely possible to train your mouth muscles to pronounce sounds more like native speakers.

How to Train Your Mouth Muscles for Correct Pronunciation

To do this, you need to learn a little about articulatory phonetics (which is basically just a fancy-pants
way of saying mouth positions) to find out exactly where the tongue, teeth and lips should be in the
sounds you want to learn. Then practice them regularly until your mouth naturally moves to that
position.
That sounds great, but where do I learn about all these mouth positions, I hear you ask. Well, luckily a
smart guy called Idahosa Ness is already teaching people about the mouth positions in lots of different
languages, with his Mimic Method courses, available for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Mandarin and Portuguese.
Alternatively, try doing a quick search on YouTube. More and more language teachers are uploading
pronunciation videos and you might just find one which explains the mouth positions in the language
you’re learning.

What’s the Fastest Way to Learn New Words in Another

Language?
There are as many ways to learn vocabulary as there are successful language learners.
Throw this question out to a room of polyglots and watch as they they initiate a battle royale style fight
to the death, until the last survivor stretches out his weak arms in a victory celebration, clutching a pile
of bloodstained flashcards.
The most important debate – as far as science is concerned – is about whether we should make a
concerted effort to memorise words, for example using flashcards, or whether we should pick them up
naturally through reading and listening.
As with most battles fought between two polar extremes, they’re both a bit right. Both techniques are
useful for different reasons and if you can balance the two, you’ll be onto a winner.

The Science of Flashcards

Lots of learners use flashcard systems, which involve writing words or sentences in your target
language on one side and a picture or translation on the other. To learn the words or sentences, you look
at one side of the card, see if you can remember what’s on the other side, then turn it over to see if
you’d remembered it correctly.
These days, most people use apps like Anki or memrise, which leave a specific time lapse between card
reviews using a system called spaced repetition. This technique is based on research by German
psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus which showed that people learn more when they space learning out
rather than cramming it all together. This means that you’ll remember a word much better if you look at
it once a day for five days, rather than five times in the same day.
Ebbinghaus also noticed that people tend to remember things better when they can link them to
personal experiences. You can take advantage of this by using a memory technique called mnemonics,
which involves linking words in the language you’re learning to words and images in your own
language that sound similar. For example, to remember the Mandarin Chinese word for book, shu, you
could imagine a book with a shoe on it, which helps you link the image of a bookto its Chinese
translation.
Spaced repetition and mnemonics can boost your word power quickly and make your brain feel like an
awesome vocabulary learning machine. But they’re not the be all and end all of word learning
strategies. In fact, overuse of these techniques can actually harm your vocabulary, and here’s why.

Your N400 Signal: How to Learn Words the Natural Way

You may not know it, but your brain is already an awesome vocabulary learning machine. When you
read or listen to something, your brain doesn’t take each word at face value: it’s constantly taking
statistics about which words appear together regularly so that it can anticipate what’s coming next and
process speech faster.
Neuroscientists have found a way to measure when your brain is doing this. Our brains constantly emit
electrical signals, which change depending on what task your brain is dealing with. Scientists can read
some of these, using a technique called electroencephalography, to study how your brain processes
language (but don’t worry, they can’t read your mind… yet!).
One of these signals, called N400, changes depending on whether words make sense in context or not.
The N400 is relatively small for expected word combinations, like coffee and cream, and increases in
height for unexpected word combinations, like coffee and crap. This means that scientists can read the
N400 height to analyse the kind of expectations you have about which words usually occur together. If
your N400 doesn’t increase for coffee and crap, they might wonder how on earth you’ve been drinking
your coffee.
In language learners, the N400 changes based on proficiency. The better people get at a language, the
closer their N400 pattern is to a native speaker’s. This means that an important part of language
proficiency is taking statistics and building up expectations about what kind of words usually appear
together, just as native speakers do.
To get better at this, we need to flood our brains with bucket loads of natural content so we can build up
a picture or which kinds of words usually appear together. Reading is a great way to do this and there’s
lots of research that shows that reading works wonders for your vocabulary skills.
It’s important to choose resources that are right for the level, as if the percentage of unknown words is
too high, it can be difficult to figure out what they mean from the context and it’s frustrating having to
stop every two minutes to look up a word. Graded readers, which adapt books to make them easier to
understand at lower levels, are perfect for this.
And if you’re a higher level but you’re not a big reader, how about watching shows with subtitles in the
language you’re learning? It’s still reading, after all!

Do You Really Need to Study Grammar?

Grammarphobes often ask themselves whether it’s really necessary to learn all those grammar rules.
Can’t we just pick it up with the natural method, that is, through reading, listening and talking?
Linguists struggle to answer this question because it’s very difficult to control and measure.
Experiments usually compare one group who are taught grammar rules with another who sees/hears
sentences with the same grammar but are not taught the rules. But how do we know each group has
paid attention to the same grammar structure the same number of times? What if the ones who aren’t
taught the rules are secretly trying to figure out the rules in their heads, or running off home and
learning it on their own? How do you know if they’ve learned the grammar? Is it when they understand
it, when they use it or when they don’t make any mistakes?
And what if experiments that find no positive effect of teaching grammar simply aren’t being
published? “Hey, we did an experiment and nothing happened” isn’t exactly a bit hit with academic
journals.
That’s why, after decades of research, the grammar question is still a very murky one. To clear it up,
linguists have started doing meta-studies, which involve gathering all available research on learning
grammar rules and seeing if there’s a tendency. The results emerging are that grammar rules do help
people speak more accurately, but the results aren’t nearly as drastic as you might think, especially
given all of the attention to grammar in the majority of language classes and textbooks.
These results fit in with my experience as a language learner. Knowing the grammar certainly helps,
but spending the majority of my language learning time memorising complicated grammar rules
doesn’t feel like the most effective way to learn.

What’s the Best Way to Stay Motivated in Language Learning?

This is probably the most important question of all: you can know all the best ways to learn
pronunciation, words and grammar, but if you can’t be bothered, it’s never going to happen.
Luckily there’s loads of cool research on motivation that’ll help you get your language learning act
together. Here are a couple of ways to get started:

Find a Friend or Language Partner to Study With

Studies show that people who feel like they’re working as a team (even if they’re not physically
together) accomplish more. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Social: We’re social animals and sharing our experiences with others makes us feel more
positive about them.
2. Accountability: Once your goals are out there for all to see, you’re more likely to work towards
them.
3. Support: You get access to a lovely support network who can give you advice and
encouragement.
Over the last few years the internet has exploded with online language learning communities which are
helping people connect support each other in all kinds of awesome ways. One example is the Fluent in
3 Months community. Another is the Add1challenge.

Break Down Your Big Goals into Mini-Missions

Research shows that people who break down big tasks into little chunks get more done in the long run.
In one study, people who were given six pages of maths problems per session over seven sessions
completed the pages faster and more accurately than people who were given 42 pages from the start.
Breaking down the task is essential in something like language learning, where the outcome feels big
and scary. Instead of trying to “speak German”, aim for something smaller and more concrete, like an
hour of German a day, or however much time you can afford. By breaking it down this way, you’re
much more likely to do it. And if you keep it up day by day, you’ll be speaking a language before you
know it.

The Best Way to Learn a Language: Your Experience

Do these findings fit in with your experience as a language learner, or are they different? Let us know
in the comments.

Language Immersion: How to Create an

Immersion Environment on Your Phone
by Benny Lewis
Immersion is the best way to learn a language – and there’s no need to move overseas to do this.
Moving to another country is only one approach to creating an environment where the target language
is a part of your everyday life. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll immerse yourself in the
language.
A better approach is to create an immersion environment.
You can create an immersive experience no matter where you live.
An immersion environment is all about finding opportunities to bring the language into your current
lifestyle and activities.
One of the most common lifestyle elements we all share is the use of a tablet or smartphone.
How can you turn your phone or tablet into a virtual immersion environment? And how can you use
your device to connect with native speakers? These apps are the place the start.

1. Your Operating System

Okay, technically this isn’t an “app”, but it definitely deserves a mention! The biggest boost you can
give your digital language immersion is to change the default language on your device’s operating
system to your target language.
This has the added benefit of changing the language on many of your apps as well. For example, if
you’re a die-hard player of the game Hearthstone, then you can now play it entirely in a new language.
Plus, for any apps that you already use, this will help you build new vocabulary and phrases. Let’s say
you frequently “add new event” on your calendar app. When you switch the language on your device,
you’ll quickly learn how to say “add new event” in your target language.

2. Streaming Video Apps

You may already know about installing the YouTube or Vimeo apps on your devices to watch language-
related materials while you are out and about, but what about other video-streaming services?
If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime to watch movies and TV shows, you can put these
shows on your playlist and watch them on your device to enjoy some language immersion on the go.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Try searching for the word “videos” in your target language in
your device’s app store and you’ll find a variety of streaming services specific to your target language’s
audience.
For example, the popular Chinese video service, Youku, also has an app that will let you watch Chinese
language videos on your device. Find video-streaming services for your language and you’ll be able to
watch videos, shows and movies in your target language wherever you are.

3. Yelp
You may recall my adventures with Moses McCormick (a.k.a. Laoshu) in Ohio . I joined Moses doing
what he likes to call “Levelling Up”. It was really simple: we went to the local mall to find people to
practise languages with.
You may be at a loss to know where you can find businesses where people speak the language you’re
studying, so what can you do? Download the Yelp app, which connects you with businesses (including
restaurants, markets and cafes) in your town. Do a search for a specific type of food (“Japanese” or
“Mexican”, for example) and then read through the reviews to determine whether the owners and
employees are from that country.
Save those places to your favourites list and the next time you want to go out to eat, you’ll have a list of
restaurants and businesses where you can also practise your target language.

4. Voice Recording Apps

Many devices come with a voice recording app pre-installed. This can be used for more than just
remembering the song you hear on the radio, or recording a lecture in class.
Here’s what you can do:
 Record native speakers for later review. For example, if you’re watching a foreign language TV
show, why not capture the audio so you can listen while on the road?
 Record yourself in the language and analyse your accent and pronunciation. As painful as it can
be to listen to yourself, listening back later is invaluable in improving your speaking skills.
Better yet, send the recording to a native speaker to have them review it.
  Record your sessions practising with a native speaker. During a one-on-one lesson, capture what
is said and listen to it over and over to really ingrain what you learned.

5. Evernote
How many times have you been out and wanted to remember a word to look up later? Or how many
times were you talking with a friend who shared a golden nugget of language learning information and
you had to scrounge around for a paper and pen to take it down?
With Evernote, an online note-taking app that syncs between all of your devices, you are able to keep a
living document of all you learn in your new language.
I recommend setting up dedicated notebooks within Evernote such as “useful phrases”, “words to
memorise”, “things to look up” or “questions to ask my tutor”. Just creating these notebooks will
inspire you to start taking notes. Set aside a weekly study session to work through the notes you’ve
created.

6. Google Maps
As I said before, immersion doesn’t mean you have to visit another country. But even if you’re not
going there, you can still become familiar with the lay of the land.
One of the coolest features of Google Maps is Google Street View, where you can virtually stand on a
street in different countries around the world. You can look around at the shops, signs and surroundings
in that neighbourhood.
Use this to practise asking directions, or use it to try and guess the meaning of street signs and
billboards that you can see along the side of the road.
Take it to another level by sharing your screen with a native speaker and role play with them to find
your way around. Studying French? See if you can get yourself from Charles De Gaulle airport to the
Eiffel Tower, describing the directions you take and your surroundings as you go. Studying Chinese?
How well can you navigate the streets of Shanghai? This provides an almost endless supply of study
material and conversation topics.

7. Periscope
If you’re not familiar with Periscope, it’s a relatively new social networking system built by Twitter,
where you can stream live video to and from your mobile device.
People all around the world use it, which means that there is probably someone out there using it who
speaks your target language. Search using Periscope’s map tool for people who are broadcasting from a
country where your target language is spoken, and check out what they’re up to.
You can comment and type a greeting in the language as well, so you can get in some writing practice
to see how well the other person understands you.
Another way to use Periscope is to broadcast yourself speaking your target language. Scary? You bet!
But a great way to take the plunge and get immediate feedback on your speaking skills.
8. Games
I love playing games on my phone. Did you know they can be educational too?
Many games are available in a variety of languages. Using your device’s app store, do a search for the
type of game you like to play (“RPG”, “Board Game”, etc.) in the language you’re studying and see
what comes up.
The best games for language learning are role playing or strategy games, since they tend to be text-
heavy.
If you changed your operating system to the new language, odds are the game you’re already playing
has already been switched to the new language!

9. TuneIn
TuneIn is my favourite app for listening to radio. But you don’t have to just listen to your local stations
or music in your native language.
You can search TuneIn’s listings for radio stations all around the world. You’ll likely be surprised at
how many hundreds or thousands of stations you can find! Talk radio, the latest hit songs, traffic
reports and weather forecasts. You can get all these in any language.

Conclusion: Create an Immersion Environment on Your

Smartphone
Now you know: immersion isn’t all about moving to a new country.
You can create an immersion environment wherever you are, with tools you already use daily. It just
takes a creative eye to see beyond the obvious and create opportunities where they may not seem to
exist.
Do you have any apps you love to use for language learning that are out of the ordinary? Share
your ideas in the comments!