How to learn a language in 3 months?

How to learn a language quickly?

“Learn a language quickly” why not. But ”  learn a language in three months?” is a bit flashy… Well in my defense, this sensational title is not mine but Tim Ferriss ‘s , Tim Ferriss is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” . This kind of book is written by a very successful person, and which explains to you how to become like him. For my part, I have only read a summary … and to summarize the summary, he believes that true wealth is in free time . It is better to work less (do the 20% of tasks that bring in 80%) and enjoy your free time. Well, it’s true that it’s a bit different from the usual refrain of this kind of book.

But anyway, I’m mostly interested in the author. He’s a person who prides himself on speaking 7 languages, and who has a good experience in self-learning languages . He has written some rather fascinating articles on the subject on his blog, including the article How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months . He even went further by writing How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour .  For those who don’t read English (or don’t have the time), I’ll try to summarize them in my own way, adding a few personal thoughts.

1. Set your priorities

It may be possible to understand 90% of a language in 3 months. In fact, Luca showed us in a previous video that it was even possible to speak a few words in a foreign language after only 3 weeks of learning (or one month).

But understanding 95% of a language can take up to 3 years. Perfection comes at a high cost in terms of effort, and can come at a high cost in terms of time. So to start, and if your goal is to learn a language quickly, we advise you to first focus on the 20% of the language that will help you in 80% of situations. This is indeed the famous Pareto law (click on the link to learn more).

2. Learn vocabulary by frequency of use: the most useful and used vocabulary

Did you know that the 100 most common English words make up half of all English writing? Impressive, isn’t it?

This means above all that learning all the vocabulary words of a language is useless (at first). You have to start by learning vocabulary by frequency of use. That is to say, give priority to the most used words . Be careful, however, the frequency of use is not the same in speaking and writing.

Once you have the basic vocabulary, you can specialize your vocabulary on specific topics that you are likely to need. For example, if you want to learn Spanish quickly for business trips, it is better to focus on business-related vocabulary (negotiation, meeting, presentation, etc.). If you only want to learn Spanish to go to Colombia for a few weeks, for example, focus instead on travel-related vocabulary (i.e. transportation, accommodation, restaurants, etc.).

To learn a language quickly, don’t hesitate to get to the point.  No need to clutter yourself up and waste time learning words that you won’t use right away.

3. Learn the most commonly used grammar first

As with vocabulary, some grammatical forms are used more than others. So there is no point in starting with all the existing conjugation forms first. If you want to learn a language quickly, it is better to focus on the essential grammar rules.

For example, I remember studying long lists of irregular verbs in my first English classes. But I think that since then, I have never used the verb balyer ( sweep swept swept ), and even less in the simple past or the Past Participle (well, don’t think I never do the housework, eh) . 

To express yourself at the beginning, the present tense may be enough. The future and the past tense can always be bypassed. It is therefore enough to learn a few standard sentences that can be declined , and are used in 80% of cases. For understanding, it is even more obvious. It is indeed not necessary to know all the declensions and conjugations if you know the root (the radical).

By following this principle of priority, we arrive at a very fast result. This is how we have the best result in relation to the learning time .  It is well known that fast results give a strong motivation to continue. Even if it is not enough..

4. Vary the media (and prefer the most interesting ones)

Rapid progress is a motivating factor. But the interest in the content and learning materials is even more important. Since the Matrix learning machine does not yet exist to learn a language quickly, you will have to go through the repetition/revision phase. And this phase can be particularly boring if the course material itself is boring. So do not read things that you would not read in your native language. Use language learning to learn more about topics that interest you.

For example, if you never read newspapers, don’t learn a language by reading articles. Instead, try to find support in subjects that interest you. If, like Martine, you are passionate about turtles, then read books about turtles! Another thing, for listening comprehension, I strongly recommend series, reports or films in the original version. With or without subtitles. It’s effective and fun. Finally, still to improve your listening comprehension, you can also opt for podcasts specialized in language learning.

5. Choose an effective method for learning and revising

A language learning method should allow you to memorize the elements of the language for a long time. With the minimum of revision and as quickly as possible. There is a lot of research on memorization. And there are ultra-effective memorization techniques, but they are still little-known.  For example, the spaced repetition system that we use for our applications is very effective. It is widely used by those who learn so-called “difficult” languages ​​such as Japanese or Chinese. It is also used by medical students. But this spaced repetition system also works very well for easier languages.

Based on these principles, we have developed iPhone/iPad and Android applications with the help of teachers and polyglots from our team.

Tim Ferriss’ 5 tips in VIDEO

Check out Tim Ferriss’ 5 tips for learning a language quickly in the video below .

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more learning tips .

The best way to  learn a language quickly is to:

learn the most frequent vocabulary first (with pronunciation)

learn some typical phrases

use effective memorization techniques

use course materials whose content interests you (series or films in VOST for oral comprehension, and books or magazines for written comprehension)

At this point, you will have a good foundation to get by. Afterwards, the fastest way to progress in speaking is to immerse yourself in the language : surround yourself with the language you are learning, by watching films, series, listening to podcasts, reading newspapers, or even by talking with native speakers in your target language. Also, don’t forget to plan your learning : being well organized is essential to learning consistently.