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Fluent Forever
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It | Gabriel Wyner
The ultimate rapid language-learning guide! For those whove despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick. At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didnt learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources. In Fluent Forever Wyner reveals what hes discovered. The greatest challenge to learning a foreign language is the challenge of memory; there are just too many words and too many rules. For every new word we learn, we seem to forget two old ones, and as a result, fluency can seem out of reach. Fluent Forever tackles this challenge head-on. With empathy for the language-challenged and abundant humor, Wyner deconstructs the learning process, revealing how to build a foreign language in your mind from the ground up. Starting with pronunciation, youll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You'll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you'll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery, rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you'll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. Soon, you'll gain the ability to learn grammar and more difficult abstract words--without the tedious drills and exercises of language classes and grammar books. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
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CaliforniaCay
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Pickpick

I was expecting this to be a bit dry but it was surprisingly funny and engaging. I will need a physical copy at some point because I can see myself reading it over and over everytime I start to learn a new language (I'm a wannabe polyglot) but listening to it did have some advantages because he gives very specific pronunciation examples. Chock full of resources and language learning advice as well as his own experience and specific study methods.

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GingerAntics
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Pickpick

This book has given me some new ideas about how to learn additional languages. I feel like it would be so easy for schools to implement this type of program and actually make school foreign language departments useful. This book helped me feel better about how utterly useless Duolingo has been in my efforts to relearn German and French, and learn Irish (even having used the app for nearly a decade). 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

GingerAntics I think starting with the sounds of the language before moving on to vocabulary building is the most logical way to learn a language. It‘s how the brain naturally learns languages. I‘ve often wondered through my years of language learning in school why the sounds of the language are the absolute last thing taught, when they‘re the first thing native speakers learn. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics My only concern with this book is that some of the ideas don‘t work for all languages, mainly endangered languages. For languages like Irish, Navaho, Maori and other indigenous languages that need to be preserved for culture‘s sake, there aren‘t always accessible recordings of native speakers or books/newspapers to read in those languages. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics I get that as a vocalist, endangered languages aren‘t important to the author, but they are important to people, and his readers. He did a survey to see what pronunciation guides his readers wanted most. Irish tied for the number 1 spot. He‘s since made pronunciation guides for the entire top 10 languages apart from Irish. I‘m actually a little disappointed by that. It‘s been years. Clearly it‘s not going to be made. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics Overall, a solid book, but needs tweaking for some (arguably the most important) languages. #GabrielWyner #FluentForever (edited) 4y
17 likes4 comments
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GingerAntics
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Let‘s be real, this was only true until we all went into quarantine!!!
2020: Burn that Sh🤬 Down!!!
#GabrielWyner #FluentForever #BurningYear #2020

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GingerAntics
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GingerAntics
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“Am I under arrest.”
🤣😂🤣
What in the world is Wyner doing in these foreign countries?!
#GabrielWyner #FluentForever #WhyToGetAPhraseBook

Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick A friend of mine went to high school in the next town over and had a 32 year old Spanish teacher. He would teach a few of the smart kids phrases he found helpful on his trips to Spanish speaking areas and my friend, in turn, taught me. My favorite was "I have to piss so bad my teeth are floating. " ? 4y
GingerAntics @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick 😂🤣😂 that is truly useful!!! 🤣😂🤣 4y
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JenlovesJT47
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Pickpick

I learned a lot from this, and I‘d suggest that anyone who is trying to learn a new language to read this. That being said, I took off a star from my rating because it is so ridiculously repetitive, especially towards the end, that it was giving me major anxiety. But I am looking forward to using some of the techniques I‘ve learned from this. 4⭐️

#LearningFrench

🇫🇷🤓📚

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alienfan002
Pickpick

I'm reducing my focus on fiction for a bit while I focus on a new goal, learning Russian and Mandarin. I'm about 4 chapters in on this book and I can already tell it has phenomenal advice. Some of these ideas were floating in the back of my mind for a while without concrete form, and feel completely logical. I'm enjoying it immensely. This book has great advice regardless of the language you're learning.

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llwheeler
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Pickpick

This book was great! Well-written, engaging and encouraging. I've ordered my own copy so I can reference it. I'm going to put some of his suggestions and methods to the test. The SRS really intrigues me (basically you make flash cards in a system that automatically spaces a card out further if you get it right, or closer if you get it wrong). Looking forward to seeing what parts work for me and what doesn't. ⬇️

llwheeler Note: some places, particularly the marketing (how to learn a language *fast*!), make it seem like a get rich quick-type thing. But actually he describes methods taking min. 30 minutes a day for several months +. So more realistic sounding to me. 6y
llwheeler Also he is quite anti-translation, which I disagree with. I get what he's saying, he's emphasizing that a goal of fluency is to think in your new language and that's hard if you're mentally putting every new word into English first. But I still think translation is important sometimes. It is a skill and imo it is good to think about how different languages convey the same ideas. But obviously I think that, I spent my uni career translating. Lol 6y
tpixie Did you audio? Or library? 6y
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llwheeler @tpixie I did ebook from library. 6y
tpixie @llwheeler thanks 🎉 6y
Lindy I will check out this book because I love learning languages. I‘m an auditory learner, so I like the Pimsleur method. Right now I‘m using a combination of Mango Languages and Pimsleur to prepare for a trip to Japan. I will soon start watching Japanese language movies to get more immersion. 6y
llwheeler @Lindy I hadn't heard of Pimsleur before but based on a quick Google, the graduated interval recall sounds very similar to the SRS in this book. As I read this book, I was wondering how it would work for different learning styles (e.g. there's a visualization technique that he uses that I don't think will work as described for me). I've used Mango before and liked it well enough. 6y
40 likes2 stack adds7 comments
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llwheeler
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#friyayintro @howjessreads

1. Teleport!
2. Tagged my first (so far only) finished book of the year
3. I have some yearly reading goals. No big personal resolutions this year though.
4. Kdramas haha
5. 👍👍😊

ItsAngel What language would you like to learn? 6y
TheWordJar My daughter got into Kpop this year, which led to us exploring Korean culture quite a bit. I‘d love to explore Kdramas...any suggestions to start with? 6y
llwheeler @ItsAngel I've been working on korean for a while now, might try some of his suggestions / methods with that and see if it helps 🙂 6y
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ItsAngel @llwheeler I have dabbled with both Spanish and German. 6y
llwheeler @TheWordJar quite a few kpop stars also star in kdramas, so if she has a favourite it might be worth looking them up and seeing if they've done any 🙂 I discovered the bands CNBlue and FTisland because members were in the drama You're Beautiful (I rec the drama and both bands!) You're Beautiful is a girl has to disguise herself as boy to join a boy band. The Good Doctor is also really good (a more serious hospital drama) ⬇️ 6y
llwheeler @TheWordJar I haven't watched the American remake but I did really like the Korean original. From the commercials it looks like the premise at least of the two shows is the same. 6y
llwheeler @ItsAngel Nice 😊 6y
TheWordJar Ooh! You‘re Beautiful sounds like a good one for us to start with! How‘s Korean going? Any handy apps/courses you‘ve used? My daughter and I have worked our way through the Hangeul characters. Now she‘s starting a little vocab, and I‘m just trying to keep up so she has someone to practice with! 6y
llwheeler @TheWordJar Duolingo has been the best app for me so far. Early on, to practice hangeul after I learned the characters, I printed out a bunch of song lyrics to some of my favourite kpop songs and copied those 😁 since it didn't really matter what I was copying, I just needed practice. You are awesome for doing all this with your daughter! 6y
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llwheeler
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My hold on this book finally came in and you were right @Andrea4 it is so good! I'm about 20% through and loving it so far!

Note to self, probably never going to learn Taa.

Andrea4 Glad my recommendation was on point!!! 😁 6y
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Andrea4
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Pickpick

For those wanting to refresh a language or start from scratch, I highly suggest starting here! This guy has laid out SO MANY TOOLS and tricks for all. I haven't even really started following his program for strengthening my Spanish but even so I'm already improving. Honestly, one of the biggest tips for me was just DO IT- stop being shy/self-conscious/anxious.
Also- no one can give you a language, you have yo take it! Wonderful!

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Andrea4
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Multi-lingual people suffer from tip of the tongue syndrome more and have more difficulty naming simple objects because they have more words to sort through in their brains.
😜 @RyanWalsh sometimes a tree is a dendron sometimes it's an arból - what can ya do?

mcipher This sounds so good! 6y
Andrea4 @mcipher it's actually quite funny!!! (And informative) 6y
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kgriffith
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Gabe just asked, as it relates to word frequency, “When was the last time you used the word, ‘excavate‘?” and as it happens, it was about six hours ago when I was admiring a friend‘s new home and discussing their plans for the back yard 😂
Also, my kitchen smells lovely because this chicken stock was cooking while I was out and will soon be made into many soups.

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kgriffith
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“An accurate accent is powerful because it is the ultimate gesture of empathy. It connects you to another person‘s culture in a way that words never can, because you have bent your body, as well as your mind, to match that person‘s culture.”

StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego That's a great quote. The book sounds very good. 6y
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kgriffith
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“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela
Re-listening in advance of the FF app coming out of beta.

AlaMich I‘m a language nerd. I‘ve seen this book often and always wondered if the author really had anything useful to say on the subject. 6y
kgriffith @AlaMich The book itself is like a love letter to language; for that alone, I‘d say you should consider it as it‘s a quick read. I also fell entirely back in love with the *desire* to learn languages after a few years of frustration. 6y
AlaMich @kgriffith Sounds like a good enough reason to read it...thanks! 😊 6y
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Andrea4
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This word-nerd is starting this #audiobook 😁

llwheeler I have this on my library wishlist, let me know how it is! 6y
Andrea4 @llwheeler will do! Right now I'm enjoying it- the guy is quite funny and it is obviously interesting. Also, kind of explains why I find recalling things ie words easier than others. 6y
llwheeler @Andrea4 Neat ☺ 6y
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kgriffith
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!!! The beta app has been released and I‘m so freaking stoked! It was a huge decision for me to invest in this language learning opportunity at the level I did, but knowing that I‘ll have the ability to support folks in my communities in situations where they might otherwise be denied access or misled or find themselves in danger is absolutely worth it to me. I‘m gonna nail my Spanish first but then bring on the Somali, Swahili, Tagalog...

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LauraKath
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Hello all!! Making a come back to Litsy to showcase what I‘m reading during #24in48 Readathon!! My first time doing this, not going too ambitious but this is definitely a stack that‘s gonna keep me busy. I also have 3 books on my Kindle. I‘ll share them in a bit. What are YOU reading?

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kgriffith
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I loved the book, and the campaign closes in August and lifetime options are going away. I‘ve asked if a) it will have hands/eyes free learning for commuters, and b) they plan/hope to add ASL, because if so, it would be well worth it. AND, a friend wants to go in on it with me as it‘s for two people sooooo yeah this might happen! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fluent-forever-app-think-in-any-new-language-...

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kgriffith
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I created the flash card in red ink a couple of weeks ago and haven‘t looked at it in probably 5+ days. I drew the flash card in green ink tonight. Shittiness of gendered language notwithstanding, I find it hilarious that I drew almost the exact same thing. Brains are fascinating.

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kgriffith
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“To learn how ‘bonjour‘ fits into your companion‘s mouth and tongue; to learn how to manipulate the muscles, the folds, and even the texture of your throat and lips to match your companion‘s—this is an unmistakable, undeniable, and irresistible gesture of care.”
*swoon*
I am thoroughly enjoying this love letter to language.

RaimeyGallant Lovely. Bonjourrrrr. (That was me rolling my Rs. ;) ) 7y
ElleSkel Beautiful! 7y
RohitSawant Love this! 7y
kgriffith @RaimeyGallant I can hear it from here ;) 7y
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kgriffith
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“My favorite thing about language learning is this: I can basically play video games as much as I like, without suffering deep, existential regret afterward.” 🤓 #audiobooks

Jess7 I bought this as an ebook recently! I haven‘t started it yet, but will soon. 7y
kgriffith @Jess7 I‘m pretty sure that‘s when I bought it! I think I added the audio on 🤓 7y
Jess7 Awesome! I love sharing my passion for books and discovering new books together!! 7y
kgriffith @Jess7 Same! It‘s like being in a book club all the time 💜 7y
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Jess7
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Has anyone read #FluentForever?👆🏼It was a #kindledeal today, so I bought it. I am using my upcoming trip to Europe as an excuse to learn another language. I have been using #duplingo to learn French, and if there is time I may try to learn some Italian too. I do not expect to become fluent by mid-June, but it‘s exciting to learn a little bit.

#FiveYearAnniversaryTrip #AnniversaryTrip #France #Italy #UK #Paris #Rome #London #foreignlanguage

LaLecture I own this one but I still haven‘t read it completely as I wanted to read it step by step while learning a language (he has kind of a 4-step-program). I really like his approach. French is such a beautiful language! And the grammar ist really similar to Italian. It‘s really confusing though to learn both languages at the same time as the similarities can also confuse ^^. Have fun in Europe! Which countries will you visit? 7y
LoveToReadLiveToRead Oh I haven‘t used Duolingo for ages but this is the second time I‘ve seen reference to it this week so maybe I should pick it back up. I did French at school until I was 18 but then have only dipped in and out of it since then so started Duolingo a while ago to refresh my memory. PS your trip sounds great! X (edited) 7y
Reggie I did French for a week on duolingo and all I remember is il mange un orange. Lol 7y
ReadingsByTheC Your trip sounds amazing! I've had my eye on that book, thanks for the heads up on the kindle deal. 7y
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keithmalek

In school we learn things then take the test. In everyday life we take the test then we learn things. --Admon Israel

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keithmalek

If you encounter an errant French word in your travels, you can assume that every final consonant is silent except for the consonants found in the English word "careful." ( c,r,f, and l are frequently pronounced).

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TheBookDream
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This shift's options. What to read, what to read...

Btw, for today only B and N members get 20% off of everything!

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Peddler410
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Our daughter will be starting 2nd grade in the Chinese Immersion program at her school -- she started as a kinder. I've been trying to learn some along the way and spotted this at the store today. I might have to add it to my collection.

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TheBookDream
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This week's workplace choices

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ren_in_the_rain
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This is, by a wide margin, the most entertaining book on language learning I have ever come into contact with. If this had been my textbook in high school I might've learned to say something in Spanish besides "I don't like your face."

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ren_in_the_rain
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When you pick up a book on foreign language learning, you don't expect to laugh your ass off while reading it. Fluent Forever is a fascinating and witty deviation from the norm and I can't help wondering if it's opera singing author is as attractive as he is intellectual.

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