Can You Really Learn Any Language Fast? - Fluent Forever Book Review

0:00 Hello everyone. This is going to be a video entirely in English. So, please feel free to add subtitles if needed. And if you are new here, welcome. I'm Jackie and welcome to my channel. So, let me ask you something. Based on your personal experience learning foreign languages and the experiences of other people that you know, what do you think someone needs to do to become fluent in a language? take a class, live abroad, study with an app like Dolingo every day. But what really works? This is the question I have been asking myself for years now. And when I read this book, Fluent Forever, how to learn

0:47 any language fast and never forget it by Gabriel Winer about 15 years ago. It really made me question a lot of things that I had been doing to learn languages and what I was also teaching. Some background information on Gabriel Winer. He is an opera singer and a polyglot. He does not have an academic background in linguistics which some people criticize but I personally like the fact that he went into language learning trying out new things after getting frustrated with the traditional methods. So, in this video, I'm going to cover the main points that he makes in his book, and I will also insert my personal opinions throughout the video. There is a lot of

1:33 really important information, so grab some coffee and make yourself comfortable. So, first things first, what is the Fluent Forever method? It is a system built around how your brain actually remembers new information. Winer believes that if you want to learn a language fast and retain it long term, you need to focus on these three things. Number one, pronunciation and sounds first, not grammar. Number two, visual images, not translation. And number three, spaced repetition with personalized flashcards to help you with memorization. Now, here's something a

2:18 little surprising. Gabriel Winer says that before you even start learning grammar or vocabulary, you should train your ears and mouth. Why? Because if people can't understand you, it doesn't matter how perfect your grammar is or how many words you know. He tells a story about a friend of his who studied French for many years. But when he got to France and tried to speak French, people kept switching to English because his accent was hard to understand. And because of this, they just assumed he didn't speak French very well. So, this all makes sense. We can probably all think of somebody that might speak really well, but because of their pronunciation or their strong accent,

3:04 they give a bad impression. And this is exactly why Gabriel Winer says that you need to start learning the sounds and phone names first. So his method actually starts with learning the international phonetic alphabet, the IPA, and doing a lot of training to identify and pronounce the different sounds and phonemes correctly. I'll be honest, these are my thoughts. At first, I was a little skeptical about the idea of learning pronunciation before anything else. However, I think he's right. Oftentimes we learn a language without focusing on the pronunciation and then we have to do the work of breaking bad habits because we learned words with incorrect pronunciation.

3:50 For example, I remember the first time I came to Brazil, I was asking for a instead of acai and obviously no one understood me. So, that's an example of learning a word without learning the correct pronunciation. However, you don't need to put pressure on yourself to speak perfectly or like a native speaker. Uh, that's probably just going to make you afraid to speak in general, but it's really important to listen to the words that you are studying as much as possible so that you learn them correctly right away. Also, my opinion here, unless you want to become a polyglot and learn several languages, I don't believe that you need to learn the IPA. I think listening to

4:36 audios using any online dictionary, I personally like Cambridge or Oxford, it's just as effective and it's a lot easier than learning the International Phonetic Alphabet. So, let me give you a practical example. If you have a hard time differentiating words like live and leave or it and eat or ship and sheep, it's because the I sound, the short I as in live, it ship probably doesn't exist in your native language unless your native language is German, Dutch, or English. So you have to train your ear and your mouth to identify and produce the sound. The best way to do this is by

5:24 reviewing words with audios like live, leave, it eat. And you can use Google Translate if you want any online dictionary. There are lots of apps that have these types of exercises. But by reviewing these words and paying close attention to the differences, you will notice that at first they might not sound that different, but over time with exposure, it'll get easier and easier. Now, let's talk about vocabulary. So, number two, the second key to the fluent forever method is building a language with vocabulary. And Gabriel Winer talks about the 625 words that build a language. But what

6:11 words should you learn first? He says you can build a solid foundation by starting out with the first 625 most useful words. So what are the most useful words? The most useful words are those that are concrete and pictureable. You can picture them. for example, dog, chair, house, apple, and they are frequently used. So, here's the catch. You need to study these words with images, not translations. He is quite against translating because he believes that if you think in the target language from the very beginning, you will learn much faster. So instead of creating a flash card with dog and kosohu, you

6:58 would see a picture of a dog. Ideally a dog that you know. And why does he like images so much? Because your brain remembers pictures and stories better than abstract text. He states with 625 words, you can describe almost anything around you. And once you know these words, you're ready to add grammar because now you have something to talk about. He has a list of these 625 words in his book and on his website and I'll add a copy of it to my Telegram group as well. Uh if you're interested, the link is in the description. It's completely free. And a quick tip, don't memorize these 625 words in alphabetical order.

7:44 Choose the words that you use the most and are the most interesting to you and then build on that by working your way around the list. So, the third key piece of the Fluent Forever method is spaced repetition and flashcards. Do you remember your grandma's phone number from your childhood, even though you haven't called that number in years? Or if not, I'm sure you remember your address from 10 or 20 years ago. Why do we remember things like that? But when we study new words and phrases, we can't remember anything. Well, it's called the forgetting curve. Basically, our brain is constantly filtering out information and storing what is important and

8:29 discarding what is irrelevant. When we learn a new word, but we don't review it or recall it over a longer period of time, we forget it. And that's totally normal. We remember things that are meaningful or memorable in some way, usually because we made a connection to an image or something personal or we remember things that we have to recall over a long period of time like your address or phone number before we had cell phones. So, SRS stands for spaced repetition system, and it's a learning technique that helps you remember information long-term by reviewing it at carefully timed intervals, just before you're

9:15 likely to forget it. Winer recommends using spaced repetition software like Anki or I use Quizlet with my online course um to create flashcards. So, for example, you would see a word on day one. And then on day three, you're not just going to review the word. You're going to force yourself to recall that word by studying the flashcards. Then a week later, you do it again. Then a month later. And when you force your brain to recall the new words and sentences in this manner, you're telling your brain to remember this information long term. So here are my thoughts. I 100% agree with the idea of studying

10:00 vocabulary in order of importance starting with the words that you use the most and the words that you are most interested in and then you can build your vocabulary from there. So instead of memorizing a list of random fruit, for example, learn the names of the most common fruits or the ones you like the most like bananas, apples, oranges, and don't spend much time on words like apricot, rhubarb, or cranberries. SRS flashcards are great for long-term memorization. And I include Quizlet flashcards in my online course for this very reason. It's a really fun way to review vocabulary and sentences. The flash cards have audios. However, if the

10:48 idea of reviewing flashcards or making flashcards doesn't interest you, that's okay. I personally, and this may be because I'm oldish, I never used an SRS app myself while learning other languages. So, it is not necessary. But if it's something that sounds fun to you, I would definitely try it out. But wait, what about grammar? What does he say about grammar? Okay, so Winer is against the memorization of rules and believes we should learn grammar through sentences again without translation into your native language as much as possible. So instead of studying rules and conjugation tables, you learn

11:34 phrases like I'm going to the store. Then you build from that. I'm going to the gym. I'm going to the library. By studying sentences, your brain recognizes patterns and builds what he calls a grammar machine. A grammar machine is an internal system for producing sentences correctly without having to consciously think of the grammar. So basically, it's responsible for you being able to understand native speakers in real time, speak fluently and naturally, and to intuitively form correct sentences without stopping to translate and think of the rules. So let's recap really quickly. So the main

12:20 components of Gabriel Winer's methods are pronunciation first. Learn the IPA, the phone names, the sounds, all of that first before anything else. Second, learn the first 625 words, those that are the most frequently used and pictureable. Third, use SRS, these flashc cards, to overcome the forgetting curve and lock the new information into your long-term memory. And he also talks about building your grammar machine by studying sentences and recognizing patterns, not by memorizing charts and rules. Just a reminder, he is again against the use of translation in your

13:07 native language as much as possible. So, let me share my thoughts right now. Um, I do agree with Gabriel about how we recognize grammar patterns by studying sentences. And as a teacher and as a student, this is something I do a lot. I include lots and lots and lots of sentences in my courses for this exact reason. However, I personally believe it's very helpful to have the translation available in your native language so that you can more easily make comparisons and recognize the patterns. I cannot imagine learning a foreign language without having translations into my native language or a language that I speak fluently. So, that's probably where I have a different

13:52 opinion. Um, I also find that learning grammar rules is very helpful because it makes it easier to organize, understand, and apply the information. And again, for me, understanding the rules allows me to recognize the patterns more easily. And the beautiful thing about being able to learn from other people is that we can learn from them and then we also have the freedom to do what works best for us. Okay. So, if you're still with me, we're almost done, but you don't want to miss this part. So, he has what he calls the five principles to end forgetting. All right. So, he shares five powerful memorization tricks to help you stop forgetting what you learn. So, trick number one is make it

14:39 memorable by using personal, emotional, or silly images. So rather than thinking of a random dog for example with the word dog, think of a dog that bit you when you were younger and now because of that dog you are terrified of dogs or maybe think of your dog that you love and you have a personal emotional connection to. One tip that he gave in this book that really stuck out to me was uh a tip to help remember the gender of words. So, if you're learning English, you don't need to worry about this. But a lot of other languages, there are different genders. The words can be feminine or masculine. And there are some words that are a little bit tricky to remember. So, a tip he gave

15:24 was to imagine the feminine words covered in flowers. So, for example, the word in Portuguese, it ends with an O. So instinctively I would think it would be Oriu but it's actually a tribu. So I have to imagine a tribe covered in beautiful feminine flowers and that will help me uh it will give me a visual to remember it's au. He also suggested that with masculine words they could be set on fire or cut with a sword or whatever visual feels masculine. So the word mapa ends in a but it's o mappa. So I can imagine that I'm setting my map on fire

16:10 or I'm cutting it with the sword. And just creating that visual will serve as a a reminder that this is o mappa not a mapa. The second tip he gives is to maximize laziness. Simplify your flashc cards and use the SRS app to do the work for you. So, if you decide to use Quizlet or Anki or any of these apps, the apps will do the work for you as far as letting you know when you need to review everything and it will help save you time in the long run. The third tip is don't just review, recall. So, rather than just reading notes or reading flashcards, force yourself to recall the

16:57 information. Don't just read it. One of my favorite ways to recall information is to teach it to someone. And you can teach your dog, your imaginary students, it doesn't matter. But when you're teaching whatever it is that you want to remember, you need to put it in your own words and explain it in a way that a five-year-old could understand. So this act of explaining things in our own words and in a very simple way is really powerful in helping us remember the information. Number four is wait don't tell me delay the answer. Let your brain struggle a little bit. In fact, that's actually a sign that shows you you're almost at the point of that forgetting

17:43 curve when you're about to forget it. So when you struggle to remember it, you're telling your brain, remember this long term. So the fifth tip is called rewrite the past. When you learn something incorrectly, fix it right away so that you don't repeat and practice the mistake. So like my example, if I learned aai instead of asai, I need to as soon as I discover that I learned that word with the wrong pronunciation, I need to practice saying asai asai asai as many times as possible to rewrite the past and correct that initial mistake. All right. So, if you are a teacher or a language lover, I

18:29 highly recommend reading this book because there's so much more information than I was able to present in this one little video. He has an updated version out now as well, so I'm sure there's a lot of new information in there. Um, but I'd like to leave you with this final question. What is one thing that has helped you the most to learn a foreign language? Is it flashcards, listening to music, playing video games, dating someone who speaks the language, taking a specific course? I don't know what's the one thing that you believed has helped you the most. Please let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you. And also, if you want a summary of this information and the list

19:17 of your first 625 words, I will put everything in my free Telegram group. The link is in the description. So, thanks again for being here until the end. And if you have any questions, ask Jackie. Bye-bye.