Have all your prior efforts to learn a foreign language gone in vain? Are you looking for a unique approach to learning a new language? Perhaps, what's missing is learning a foreign language through brilliant and effective memory tricks. Fluent Forever offers fun and engaging memorization techniques to help you remember new words and recall them with better accuracy.
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It (2014) by Gabriel Wyner reveals secrets of how to learn a foreign language swiftly and effectively. Gabriel integrates concepts of neuroscience and linguistics to get the most out of your memory. The book offers fun and engaging techniques to improve your memory and attain language fluency in no time.
Fluent Forever presents step-by-step tips to navigate through different elements of language learning - sound, pronunciation, vocab and grammar! Gabriel Wyner is a polyglot and has mastered the techniques of language learning - being a proficient academician with multiple degrees in engineering, opera and vocal arts.
Using these tips Gabriel learnt German in 14 weeks! And you can as well. Let’s find out how.
Connections to images and personal anecdotes will make new word learning a breeze.
Learning a new language is fun at first. But if too many words come into play the chaos sets in. The main problem in learning a new language is memorising new words. You might remember a word briefly and soon forget it. Fortunately, we have tips to make the new words stick to the memory for a long time. A new word will only stick to the memory if one creates a relevant connection in the brain while learning it. There are multiple ways to build such a connection in the brain. However, some connections work better than others. Do you know that a human's mind processes a new word at different levels? Four levels - Structure, Sound, Concept, and Personal Connection. Multiple studies show that our ability to learn a new word is enhanced if there is a personal connection to the word.Let's take a look at a scientific study to back the statement. A psychology experiment conducted in the 1970s investigated learners' capabilities on all four levels by asking multiple questions related to each level for example: How many small letters are there in the word 'crab'? is related to structure.Does 'task' rhyme with 'bask'? is related to sound."Is 'intellect' another word for 'brainpower'?" is related to a concept."Do you love burgers?" is related to a personal connection.The psychologists found out that students were six times more likely to recall a new word if the meaning was connected to a personal connection. So, the first tip here is to make use of personal connections to remember a new word for a long time. For instance, the German translation for ‘dog’ is ‘des Hund’. If a learner remembers the translation by associating it with a personal anecdote of the loving dog, chances of remembering increase by 50%. Visual memory plays a crucial role in our recollection of words. There's another experiment conducted in the 1960s which came in with similar results. A group of learners looked at 612 magazine ads. Later, learners looked at a new group of 612 photos. When asked to identify which of these they had seen in the first instance, most learners succeeded with 98.5% accuracy. It is clear that when a new word is connected to a picture, it becomes fairly easy to memorise and recall the word in future.So, the correlation between remembering new words and a photo/visual or a personal memory is...
Memory works better with the act of recalling.
Cramming all the facts and theories just before an exam is common. We all have done it and have even aced our tests sometimes! While crammed rote learning is valuable to score well on a test, it does not guarantee long-term learning of the facts and new vocabulary. You must have noticed this when you learn a list of difficult new words but fail to recall it by next week. Most foreign language learners face this issue. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, experimented on the long-term impact of memorization. He spent a couple of years learning lists of nonsensical syllables like Zhik and Nisk. He investigated the time taken to relearn the same list. The psychologist came up with a "forgetting curve" and noted that he was able to recall only 35% of words after a day and just remembered 10% of words after a year passed by. Experts agree that the process of overlearning or repetition of a fact is not useful for long-term memorization. However, they say that the act of recalling is a much better approach. The act of recalling, bringing back information to one's mind, informs your brain that the fact or information is essential to retain.Scientists conducted an interesting study to prove the effectiveness of recalling. A group of volunteers were given a list of words in Spanish. They were told that they'll be given $20 if they remembered the words after seven days. Volunteers were given two options during the experiment - to read the list for 10 minutes or swap the list after 5 minutes for a pencil and paper, note down words by memory, and return the paper after just five minutes. Interestingly, individuals who chose to write down the words remembered 35% more words compared to those who just read the list for 10 minutes. The ones who noted down the words basically recalled the words as they had to write down what they had read and fared better in memorization. So, recalling does work better than merely reading new words. Why is recalling a better experience? Well, research by neuroscientists proves that the feel-good hormone called dopamine is released as a reward to the brain when your brain recalls a memory. The release of dopamine further motivates the brain for extra storage. Utilise recalling techniques while learning a new language, and you'll be able to achieve language fluency in no...
Master sounds and pronunciation of a new language by attentive listening.
Notice how easily a child picks up and learns new foreign language words as compared to an adult. What's the difference? The difference lies in the manner in which both approach the learning process. A child remembers a new word by listening carefully while an adult will focus on studying.
Listening carefully helps in learning new words and even grammatical structures. It is also more engaging and fun than going over boring grammar rule books.
A study was conducted at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon on Japanese adults. The individuals were told to sit in front of a screen and were given headphones. The participant was instructed to press the button labelled "lock" if he heard the word "lock" and "rock" if he heard "rock". Do you know that the Japanese language does not use the letter L? So, most of the group members could not differentiate initially. However, if the participants were shown a sign of wrong or right after they answered, the participants learned to spot the difference within just 3 twenty minute sessions. Learning how new words sound will enable easier learning
So, attentive listening is a great approach to improving language fluency. Pay equal attention to learning new words and understanding the sound system of a foreign language and you'll master a new language in no time.
Now, that’s not just limited to learning new words but applies to grammar as well. By the age of 5, kids know making a ‘s’ sound i.e. adding ‘s’ at the end of a word makes it into a plural. Researchers used this knowledge in an experiment. Kids were shown a picture of a bird and were told that it is called a “Wug”. Next, they were shown two of the same birds and asked what they were. Their response? “Wugs”. The info kids obtained from observing the pronunciation/sound of words allowed them to learn this grammatical rule.
And it turns out, when it comes to kids, picking up word sounds isn’t the only thing they’re good at - but their brains know how to ace the whole language learning model! Let’s find out more.
Learn like a kid does!
A human's language learning ability is one of a kind across the animal kingdom. Our juggernaut of a brain comes with an inbuilt and intelligent software- a Language Machine. Just reminisce about how you learnt your native language as a kid - picking up a few words from here and a few phrases from there. As kids, we learn by observation and imitation. In fact, we learn a second language as an adult just as we learn our native language as a child. Overwhelming scientific evidence suggests similarities between the development stages of a second language and a native language. In fact, this order of development is how the brain picks up any language.Observe how a child learns to say a simple sentence like, "She is eating food". She will initially learn to say 'food' by pointing out an eatable, followed by uttering a phrase like, "She eating food". The technicality of formulating a complete sentence with a proper 'is' might come later on through formal learning. They’ll also start using the simple past tense ‘sang’ before learning to use the past participle ‘sung’. Later they learn the present continuous words - like sings, reads and runs.Similarly, each language learner will go through the same development stages to acquire expertise in a second language. So make sure you don’t mistake the common mistake most language learners do - overload your brain’s language learning system by too much information too soon. Linguists advise learners to give their brains input they can comprehend. A toddler will understand what you mean if you are playing with a toy and ask him “Do you wanna play as well?” - this is even if they don’t understand every word or the grammar rules in that sentence. So start with learning some words, followed by small sentences involving the simplest of grammatical rules. You can move on to more advanced stuff later.It definitely helps if you do not get caught in grammatical technicalities and enhance language fluency by observation and hearing. Now, most learners find it tough to grasp the complex grammatical structures of a language. And rightly so! It is a daunting task to keep up with all the pronouns and genders of a second language. Also, there are an infinite number of possibilities with a limited number of words. Word endings morph depending on a long list of rules. And it’s a chore you...
Increase your long-term vocab by playing word games.
Learning sounds do make memorization easier. But you'll need to retain the memory of sounds after you perfect the sound system.
Playing word games can help with the same. A good pick is the Spot the Difference game. All you require is Google images and you can start enhancing your vocab.
Just write any word and you find associated pictures on Google. A picture on Google might point out one or two meanings of a word. Often, it shows all the synonyms of a word. T=For example, the Arabic word ‘Ayn’ can mean different things - an eye, or a spring etc. Going through and learning all its variable meanings makes it easier to memorise the word for a longer duration.
To improve vocab, you need to spot the difference between what you expected to see and what picture is displayed on the screen. Note that all pictures on Google come with captions in around 130 languages when you use Google Images Basic Version. The ultimate tool helps you to see the different contexts in which the words can be used as the images are taken from different websites.
Wyner suggests another interesting memory game. The game is really helpful to memorise a word for a long duration. Consider yourself learning the lovely French language and the word you need to memorise is chein or dog. Try to personalise the word by associating it with a much-loved pet dog at home. A personal connection makes it easy for the brain to remember a new word for a long time.
Even if the above tools don't work out for you, the time spent in the process will still fixate the word in your mind.
A learner of a new language must make use of all the tools available, especially memory tools like word games. Words games will help you to make a long-term connection to new words.
Don’t use translations
Do you know that word-to-word translation is never a good idea when you wish to learn a new language? While it is tempting to translate every word into one's first language, it is not the correct approach if you want to fasten your language acquisition
The use of monolingual dictionaries is a better way to learn a new language. If you're learning French, look for the French word meaning in a French language dictionary only. While you are looking for the meaning of a word, you are also learning the context and meaning of new words that give their explanation. If the meaning is not clear, look up more meanings, and you will learn a number of words from just one search. Ofcourse, you’ll need to have some very basic knowledge of the language for this to work.
Also, the tendency to translate everything is not ideal. Stay away from translations and try to gain language fluency by listening. It’ll improve your pronunciation as well. Sometimes, when you speak a foreign language, a native speaker might point out that what you said is not wrong, but that is not how the sentence is spoken in the language. So, mastering grammar and vocab is just one step. You might learn to say something that is grammatically correct but does not feel natural in that language.
Listening is the best method to become fluent in a language.
So, next time try reading subtitles in your native language while watching a movie in the same language. This is an excellent method to use and master the natural rhythm of a new language.
Also when you watch a movie in a language you are trying to learn, remove the subtitles and interpret the meaning by trusting your listening skill. Initially, you may not understand everything, but listening will eventually broaden your knowledge base in the foreign language. The use of words in a specific context also becomes clear with this approach.
Chapter 9
Details coming soon.
Summary
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It (2014) by Gabriel Wyner is a unique and effective guide to language learning. The book deconstructs the foreign language learning process and equips a learner with effective techniques for quick memorization: correlating a word with an image, personalisation of words and sentences, listening attentively to the rhythms and sounds of a new language, and so on. The book comes up with fun, engaging and neuroscience-backed techniques to improve your memory and quicken the pace of language fluency for the learner.
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About the Author
Gabe Wyner, founder and CEO of Fluent Forever, is a best-selling author, opera singer and polyglot based in Chicago, IL.
Five years of high-school language classes taught Gabe one thing: he would never master another language. But he was determined to change his fate in a remarkable way.
Born in Los Angeles, Gabe graduated summa cum laude in 2007 from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Vocal Arts Performance. After he was awarded the Renaissance Scholar’s prize for excellence in unrelated disciplines, he moved to Vienna to pursue triple Master’s degrees in Opera, Lieder, and Voice at the Konservatorium Wien, graduating with honors in 2011.
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