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Fluent Forever
by Gabriel Wyner ISBN-13: 9780385348119 Trade Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Harmony Released: August 5, 2014 |
Source: Review copy from the publisher.
Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
For those who’ve despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick.
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, you’ll 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.
My Review:
Fluent Forever is a book on how people make lasting memories and how to use that information to quickly learn (and remember) the language of your choice. Don't throw out those grammar books and pronunciation guides, but put them to better work by using the latest research into how we make memories and how to make them endure. The research information can be used to remember anything more easily.
The rest of the book discussed how to apply the research to learning languages quickly: remembering new words and even grammar rules without getting bored or confused, how to learn words with a local (rather than American) accent, and how to become fluent in that language.
The author has a nice sense of humor and such an enthusiasm for the subject that reading the book was a lot of fun as well as interesting. Also, he pointed out free online tools (or alternative offline methods) to help you learn your chosen language effectively and then teaches you how to use those tools. It was very easy for me to understand and follow his instructions.
I learned Spanish back in high school and periodically try to re-learn it. It's probably been a good refresher exercise, but I usually get bored with it and so leave off when I get busy with other things. I've started following his system to (re)learn Spanish, and it's a lot more fun than other methods I've tried. It's designed to be fun. I'm also remembering things a lot better, which encourages me to stick with it. If you're serious about wanting to learn a new language, I'd highly recommend this excellent resource.
If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.
Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.
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2 comments:
I'm definitely getting this one from the library. Cheers from Carole's Chatter
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :) I've been using his method (free Anki program with free resources) for over a month now, and I've found it very effective at getting information to "stick" in my brain. I'm relearning Spanish at the same time I'm learning ancient Hebrew.
I've read another review of this book where the reviewer apparently had some troubles with Anki, but I found Anki very simple to use and even customized the cards some. I expect my mom (age 67) to initially need some help learning to use it, though, so I'll be helping her--she wants to relearn some French as a way to keep her brain active.
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