In this article I’m outlining my system to learn languages quickly. It works extremely well for most Indo-European languages. Battle-tested with Germanic, Roman and Slavic languages. It doesn’t work that well for most Asian languages (for Korean it turned out okay-ish, for Japanese and Mandarin it requires major modification).
Knowing our counterparts language in a negotiation is one of the most important steps to understanding them, even if we don’t negotiate in their language. Our native language forms our individual psyche way more than we give it credit for.
Step 1: Reconnaissance
When I approach a new language, I’ll first map the terrain. This means, getting an overview over the entire grammar. The entire one. I want to uncover every kind of declination or conjugation, every verb tense, every possible sentence structure. I’ll map them by creating a table with two columns. The first one contains an example. This example is always a full sentence, never a single word or a fraction of a sentence. The second one contains an abstract explanation of the rule behind the structure.
I’ll not include a translation. Translations are misleading, and memorizing words isn’t the goal of this step. The goal is to be familiar with every grammar rule in existence. Not memorizing it, but being familiar. Memorizing abstract grammar rules is inefficient. It’s not the way our brains process language.
Here’s why I do this: in my experience, immersion, i.e. using the target language extensively both actively and passively, in speaking and in writing, is the only effective way to learn. But I’m speeding up the process by taking a look at every grammatical structure I will ever encounter beforehand. I won’t memorize the rule, but I’ll recognize the structure easily once I’ve seen it at work a few times. That’s when I’ll pick it up intuitively, and much faster than I would without knowledge of the rule behind it.
Step 2: Glue words
While nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs make up the lions share of any language and its way to transmit messages, there’s a problem with them: there are too many of them, and they’re hard to translate literally.
That’s why memorizing words based on a “word – translation” method is not only extremely tedious and inefficient, it can also lead to wrong expression due to missed nuance in translation.
It’s way more effective to learn these words in context, in real phrases, through immersion. In order to do that, we’ll focus our memorization efforts on a small subset of words that are limited in number but enable us to understand phrases way more effectively. Words such as conjunctions, subjunctions and pronouns that give structure to the language. I colloquially refer to them as “glue words”. They’re usually easier to translate since they’re more functional and come with less language-specific nuance (exceptions still apply). If we plan to memorize any vocabulary before getting our feet wet, we focus on the “glue words”.
I have an example phrase for every relevant “glue word” in my grammar scripts because they are primarily grammatical structures.
Knowing the “glue words” will increase the amount of sentences we can understand from the first second of immersion massively.
Nouns and verbs are also much easier to pick up on the go because we associate them with images. That’s not really possible with “glue words” which are too abstract. So a bit of memorization is the most efficient way to deal with them.
Step 3: Watch and listen
This is the step that we commit the most time to before advancing to the next step. The reason is simple: we want to nail the pronunciation before we start reading. When we’re reading in an unknown language, we’ll inevitably speak the words to ourselves in our head, and we don’t want mistakes to become habitual.
Watching videos with subtitles is very effective, as we subconsciously synchronize the words we read with the sound and the lip movement (once we’re good enough to pay some attention to the speaker, not only to the written words).
In the beginning, we’ll prefer videos over audiobooks and podcasts. Facial expression and body language do transmit a good chunk of the meaning of any statement, and our brain picks up on its meaning a lot quicker when observing the entire communication. Body language during communication varies between cultures just as much as the actual spoken language, so without observing the body language of native speakers, we don’t really learn the language.
Once we have a somewhat intuitive grasp of these aspects we can also include audiobooks and other sound-only sources.
Step 4: Read
Once our inner pronunciation – the way words sound in your head – is sufficiently good, we’ll want to start reading in the target language. I don’t suggest reading generic stuff like the news. I suggest two categories of books to maximize our understanding of a language and culture.
First, the target languages great works of literature. No further explanation needed. Literature is a key vehicle of preserving language and culture over time. We will understand deeply rooted thought patterns and everyday metaphors. However, I’d choose modernized versions of the classics since we’re still primarily concerned with contemporary language. No need to confuse yourself with the Italian of Dante or Machiavelli.
Second, accurate historical novels written by natives speakers of the target language about their own history. Great entertainment combined with learning the language combined with understanding its culture and history and their own interpretation of it (equally important). Now that’s peak efficiency.
And by the way, if we’re learning any European language, we might want to read the Holy Bible in that language.
No matter if we’re religious or not. The Holy Bible is the skeleton key to all European-rooted cultures, and even those Europeans and Americans who consider themselves atheist are raised within a thoroughly Christian set of values and thought patterns.
However, all translation is also interpretation since languages can never be translated precisely word by word. That’s why there’s value in reading the Holy Bible in different languages in order to understand their respective culture.
Step 5: Write and speak
At this point, we’ll have internalized enough vocabulary and grammatical skill to write and speak. We should proceed to do so immediately, as these output-oriented skills work different at a neurological level than the previous input-oriented skills. Consequently our output will be worse than our understanding in the beginning. That’s how it is.
When it comes to writing, we might write whatever we want. I personally like to write short essays about topics I’m learning about anyway. Written messages and social media comments or posts are also great.
Two important things.
First, we’ll want to obtain feedback. Ideally by native speakers or advanced speakers of the target language. Alternatively, we use a capable AI model for feedback. While limited in many areas, large language models are (surprise) pretty good at language as such.
Second, we’ll want to write by hand occasionally. Activating the mind-muscle connection in this way results in a much stronger response in terms of neuroplasticity (i.e. learning) than typing alone. We’ll learn the skill of writing much faster. We might write a short essay by hand, take a photo, and ask an AI model capable of optical character-recognition for feedback. Simple enough, isn’t it?
When it comes to speaking, feedback is equally important. We’ll want to speak with native speakers of the target language. I recommend the app tandem. Premium, please. The free version is barely usable, but the premium version is very affordable and more than worth its price (it also more than replaces your Tinder and Hinge subscription by the way, given you’re a bit mobile).
If we’re short on time and can’t keep contact with suitable native speakers, we can also use an AI model with voice mode for this. Not a full replacement because AI doesn’t mimic facial expression and body language, but definitely good enough to get us off the ground.
Some language instructors recommend writing and speaking right from the beginning to challenge yourself. I’m not advocating for that because I tend to internalize too many primitive baby-step expressions. Completing the previous steps in order can easily be done in two weeks if we make it a priority.
Step 6: Specific vocabulary
Finally, we’ll probably want to learn some vocabulary specific to our profession or our interests. If we’re about to negotiate in the target language we’ll unavoidably need some legal vocabulary.
When it comes to specialized vocabulary, and especially legal vocabulary, the “word – translation” method is particularly bad. That’s unless we’re talking about standardized scientific vocabulary stemming from Greek or Latin, but I guess that’s obvious. Translating languages word by word does never work, but translating legal terms from different legal systems is a major fail.
To acquire such specific vocabulary, we need to forget our native language and think only in the terms of the target language.
My simple trick to do that: never learning specific words in isolation. Instead, learning several phrases including that word, and just memorize their general meaning, not their precise translation. Translating misleads. Thinking in terms of meaning and of intention-to-say-something gives us a much better understanding of each term. We ignore our native language and construct an expression from the perspective of a native speaker of the target language. It’s intellectually challenging, but it gets results.
Step 7: mastery
Now we’ve been learning our target language. But when do we start to actually master it? Mastery is a difficult term, but here are my two cents: the process of mastering a language correlates with us developing a distinct personality when speaking it. If we follow steps one through six diligently, we will reach a point where our inner monologue (or dialogue) temporarily switches to our target language. We stop translating entirely, we develop original ideas and thought patterns in that language. We might even dream in the target language occasionally.
The thought patterns won’t necessarily be familiar. In fact, we should expect to develop an entirely distinct personality speaking that language. Let’s remember the fact that language is fundamental to our psyche. True mastery of a language necessarily comes with another kind psychological setup.
It’s comparable to starting our computer (our brain) with a different OS. Both operating systems aren’t in conflict with each other. We’re simply starting one or the other to do the task at hand.
Switching between them does also require a reboot. Which is pretty funny at times. When I spend nine months in Latin America and then fly to Germany on a Eurowings or Lufthansa flight, I’ll unconsciously speak Spanish with the cabin crew, despite them speaking my native language. Upon showing my passport at immigration, I’ll probably speak English with a Spanish accent. Unconsciously. My German OS simply hasn’t rebooted at that time. Speaking English kinda always works, but not nearly as good as when the English OS is online.
My English OS, by the way, is my business personality. All my business related thoughts are in English. I’ll sometimes randomly start speaking English in Germany when I was thinking too much about business. Despite German being my native language, I articulate thoughts related to business and money way better in English than in German.
Conclusion
Language is not merely a tool for transmitting information. It is part of the system through which we construct meaning. Therefore, learning another language gives us access to another system of interpretation.
Practical use is the most effective way to learn any language, but we can speed it up dramatically by doing some theoretical reconnaissance beforehand. This includes taking a look at the entire grammar and memorizing the “glue words” that give Indo-European languages their structure. The point is not memorization of abstract rules. The point is enabling recognition. What we’ve seen a few times in theory, we’ll recognize easily in practice, and then we’ll learn it much faster.