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How to Learn Any Language
Barry Farber has been a true adventurer in languages for forty-six years and can speak in twenty-five tongues. The techniques he presents in "How to Learn Any Language" will have you speaking, reading, writing and enjoying any foreign language you want to learn - or have to learn - in a surprisingly short time.Without beating your head against verb conjugations or noun declensions, you can follow Farber's principles and glide toward proficiency in your chosen language. His method consist of four ground-breaking but simple concepts hailed by language-teaching professionals:
172 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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1272 people want to read
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January 12, 2010
This is a really wonderful book. A few years ago I tried to learn Italian, but gave up as it was taking over my life and I didn’t really feel I was getting anywhere with it. This book would have been a great help and now it has even inspired me to have another go.
If you are going to learn a language you have to expect that it is going to require effort on your part. There are lots of ‘courses’ out there that tell you that you can speak Chinese in three months – but you are an intelligent person and really you know already that is not possible, particularly if the only language you have ever learnt before is English. To really learn a language you need to learn its grammar and learning the grammar of a language is hard work. Learning a language is one of the great intellectual challenges – particularly if you are learning it on your own. I once said that learning a language as a foreign language over the age of forty is a glimpse into what life is going to be like once Alzheimer's has kicked in – you know, struggling to tell people how old you are or where you live (io sono … no, io ho quarto … no, quaranta anni…) Ironically, learning a language later in life is possibly one of the best ways to stop Alzheimer’s getting a hold on you. Alzheimer’s is a place it is much better to visit, I think.
This book is written by someone competent in 25 languages> The book was written to help other people avoid the mistakes he made in learning languages – as he points out, there is a better, quicker and less painful way to learn and this book seeks to let you in on the secret. This book was published before the iPod was invented. Let’s just say the iPod has made learning languages infinitely easier yet again. It is hard not to love the iPod – there was a time when I lived without it, but I prefer not to think of that time, as it is a memory that is simply too painful.
If you are going to learn a language from scratch you need six things: a good grammar book for the language, a phrase book, an English to your chosen language and back again dictionary, a newspaper, flash cards for vocab and some recorded language courses. The one way to learn a language is to know there are many ways to learn a language and you should use them all.
Any grammar book is probably going to do. In fact, while I was learning Italian I had lots and lots and would read the various sections (say, on reflexive verbs) in each one to see if they would be better than the others at explaining what it was I wasn’t understanding. The great piece of advice given in this book is that you should keep flash cards and some of these should be kept not just for vocab but also for grammar you don’t understand. You should try to write down exactly what it is you don’t understand when you have a problem with the grammar in your target language. This serves two purposes as it helps you really identify your problem (so you can think about it more clearly) and gives you an unambiguous question to ask someone if you get a chance to speak with a native speaker of the language (which you should do at every opportunity that presents itself).
The phrase book should be used as the script for a play. Make up scenes and create plays in which you have to buy a lump of meat at the butcher’s or talk to a doctor about your hemorrhoids or chat up some sheila at a bar (probably best not to try mixing and matching the phrases you memorise for these conversations). The point is to have a number of phrases you can spit out without thinking in situations that you are likely to eventually find yourself in. The point is not to know and understand all of the grammar of these phrases, but to build a large group of such phrases so you can start communicating with native language speakers by saying more than just, ‘my name is Trevor and I prefer chicken’.
The dictionary needs to be comprehensive particularly for finding words related to the reason why you are learning this particular language in the first place. For example, if you are learning German so you can read Kant, you might want to see if ‘philosophical’ words are cross defined in your dictionary. Or is you are learning French because you are fascinated by European economics and will be reading lots of French economic theory – then a dictionary that has the French translation for micro-economic reform might be essential. Make a list of the sorts of words in English that you would expect to come across in a French article on your chosen topic and look them up in the dictionary before you buy it.
The newspaper is perhaps the best advice given in this book. You should buy this immediately, even though all you can do in the language at the moment is say hello. The point is that too much language learning structured by people who think they should be teaching you things at ‘your level’ – but you don’t want to learn a language at ‘your level’ you want to learn the language as she is spoken. Struggling over newspaper articles in your chosen language has the advantage of giving you a taste of the language as it is meant to be used. It is never too early to practice this. His advice is the underline all of the words you don’t understand in the first article in the paper and to add them to your flashcards as words you need to learn. This will also make you subconsciously aware of grammar before you encounter them as things to learn in your proper grammar study – as he says, you might even properly learn the grammar of the language by osmosis before your learn it ‘formally’ in one of your grammar lessons. You don’t need to buy the newspaper every day or even every week, as one newspaper should last for months as you struggle your way through each article. Some advice I would give beyond this is to read a broadsheet rather than tabloid in your chosen language. I say this not just because I’m a snob, but because tabloids in any language are much more likely to be written using idiomatic expressions and this might prove too much of a challenge early on, whereas broadsheets are often written in more standard language. If I was teaching ESL I would be much more likely to use The Australian than The Herald Sun – even though both are Murdoch rags and by definition shouldn’t be read by anyone.
You should make up lots of flash cards and carry a few of them with you everywhere you go. While waiting in line at the bank (do people actually do that anymore?) you should pull out a flashcard and challenge yourself to a quick test to recall the translation. (oh, by the way, that is something else I knew without knowing I knew – to translate is a written exercise, to interpret is a spoken one). He gives an interesting memory technique (based on making up stories to link the sounds of the foreign word you are trying to remember with their meaning) that makes a lot of sense and should reduce the time necessary for learning vocab.
He also gives a rule to help organise your study time: if you are able to read at any given time then you should read (either the grammar or phrase book), if you can’t read (you are driving your car, going for a walk, washing the dishes) you should listen to language tapes. Language tapes are great as they give you the proper pronunciation by a native speaker. They also generally give you a limited time in which to recall the foreign word you’re struggling over. Make this a game and see if you can beat the person to the word.
The other key bits of advice are to find native speakers of the language and hassle them – as he says, as long as they aren’t French (who it seems object to having their language spoken by anyone who is merely learning it – although my dear friend Ruth has told me she had exactly the opposite experience while in France) most people will be so delighted that you are trying to speak their language that they will effectively give you free lessons. He also mentions times when he has been given much more than just free lessons.
There is a lovely short introduction to the basics of grammar (what’s a verb, what’s a pronoun and so on) that is short and remarkably well written – perhaps as good a ten pages on the basics as I’ve ever read anywhere. He also ends the book with some information on how the world’s languages cluster together (if you speak Italian then Spanish is easy, if you speak Russian then most of the Eastern European languages are easy). The stuff on Finnish and Hungarian was very interesting, both of which are languages I’m not brave enough to try to learn.
This really is a lovely book – it is written by someone who is passionate about learning languages and that passion shines through the pages of this book so much that it is very hard not to become as enthusiastic to get stuck in. If you are thinking of learning a language (or think you might start if someone was to give you a bit of a pep talk) then this really is compulsory reading.
If you are going to learn a language you have to expect that it is going to require effort on your part. There are lots of ‘courses’ out there that tell you that you can speak Chinese in three months – but you are an intelligent person and really you know already that is not possible, particularly if the only language you have ever learnt before is English. To really learn a language you need to learn its grammar and learning the grammar of a language is hard work. Learning a language is one of the great intellectual challenges – particularly if you are learning it on your own. I once said that learning a language as a foreign language over the age of forty is a glimpse into what life is going to be like once Alzheimer's has kicked in – you know, struggling to tell people how old you are or where you live (io sono … no, io ho quarto … no, quaranta anni…) Ironically, learning a language later in life is possibly one of the best ways to stop Alzheimer’s getting a hold on you. Alzheimer’s is a place it is much better to visit, I think.
This book is written by someone competent in 25 languages> The book was written to help other people avoid the mistakes he made in learning languages – as he points out, there is a better, quicker and less painful way to learn and this book seeks to let you in on the secret. This book was published before the iPod was invented. Let’s just say the iPod has made learning languages infinitely easier yet again. It is hard not to love the iPod – there was a time when I lived without it, but I prefer not to think of that time, as it is a memory that is simply too painful.
If you are going to learn a language from scratch you need six things: a good grammar book for the language, a phrase book, an English to your chosen language and back again dictionary, a newspaper, flash cards for vocab and some recorded language courses. The one way to learn a language is to know there are many ways to learn a language and you should use them all.
Any grammar book is probably going to do. In fact, while I was learning Italian I had lots and lots and would read the various sections (say, on reflexive verbs) in each one to see if they would be better than the others at explaining what it was I wasn’t understanding. The great piece of advice given in this book is that you should keep flash cards and some of these should be kept not just for vocab but also for grammar you don’t understand. You should try to write down exactly what it is you don’t understand when you have a problem with the grammar in your target language. This serves two purposes as it helps you really identify your problem (so you can think about it more clearly) and gives you an unambiguous question to ask someone if you get a chance to speak with a native speaker of the language (which you should do at every opportunity that presents itself).
The phrase book should be used as the script for a play. Make up scenes and create plays in which you have to buy a lump of meat at the butcher’s or talk to a doctor about your hemorrhoids or chat up some sheila at a bar (probably best not to try mixing and matching the phrases you memorise for these conversations). The point is to have a number of phrases you can spit out without thinking in situations that you are likely to eventually find yourself in. The point is not to know and understand all of the grammar of these phrases, but to build a large group of such phrases so you can start communicating with native language speakers by saying more than just, ‘my name is Trevor and I prefer chicken’.
The dictionary needs to be comprehensive particularly for finding words related to the reason why you are learning this particular language in the first place. For example, if you are learning German so you can read Kant, you might want to see if ‘philosophical’ words are cross defined in your dictionary. Or is you are learning French because you are fascinated by European economics and will be reading lots of French economic theory – then a dictionary that has the French translation for micro-economic reform might be essential. Make a list of the sorts of words in English that you would expect to come across in a French article on your chosen topic and look them up in the dictionary before you buy it.
The newspaper is perhaps the best advice given in this book. You should buy this immediately, even though all you can do in the language at the moment is say hello. The point is that too much language learning structured by people who think they should be teaching you things at ‘your level’ – but you don’t want to learn a language at ‘your level’ you want to learn the language as she is spoken. Struggling over newspaper articles in your chosen language has the advantage of giving you a taste of the language as it is meant to be used. It is never too early to practice this. His advice is the underline all of the words you don’t understand in the first article in the paper and to add them to your flashcards as words you need to learn. This will also make you subconsciously aware of grammar before you encounter them as things to learn in your proper grammar study – as he says, you might even properly learn the grammar of the language by osmosis before your learn it ‘formally’ in one of your grammar lessons. You don’t need to buy the newspaper every day or even every week, as one newspaper should last for months as you struggle your way through each article. Some advice I would give beyond this is to read a broadsheet rather than tabloid in your chosen language. I say this not just because I’m a snob, but because tabloids in any language are much more likely to be written using idiomatic expressions and this might prove too much of a challenge early on, whereas broadsheets are often written in more standard language. If I was teaching ESL I would be much more likely to use The Australian than The Herald Sun – even though both are Murdoch rags and by definition shouldn’t be read by anyone.
You should make up lots of flash cards and carry a few of them with you everywhere you go. While waiting in line at the bank (do people actually do that anymore?) you should pull out a flashcard and challenge yourself to a quick test to recall the translation. (oh, by the way, that is something else I knew without knowing I knew – to translate is a written exercise, to interpret is a spoken one). He gives an interesting memory technique (based on making up stories to link the sounds of the foreign word you are trying to remember with their meaning) that makes a lot of sense and should reduce the time necessary for learning vocab.
He also gives a rule to help organise your study time: if you are able to read at any given time then you should read (either the grammar or phrase book), if you can’t read (you are driving your car, going for a walk, washing the dishes) you should listen to language tapes. Language tapes are great as they give you the proper pronunciation by a native speaker. They also generally give you a limited time in which to recall the foreign word you’re struggling over. Make this a game and see if you can beat the person to the word.
The other key bits of advice are to find native speakers of the language and hassle them – as he says, as long as they aren’t French (who it seems object to having their language spoken by anyone who is merely learning it – although my dear friend Ruth has told me she had exactly the opposite experience while in France) most people will be so delighted that you are trying to speak their language that they will effectively give you free lessons. He also mentions times when he has been given much more than just free lessons.
There is a lovely short introduction to the basics of grammar (what’s a verb, what’s a pronoun and so on) that is short and remarkably well written – perhaps as good a ten pages on the basics as I’ve ever read anywhere. He also ends the book with some information on how the world’s languages cluster together (if you speak Italian then Spanish is easy, if you speak Russian then most of the Eastern European languages are easy). The stuff on Finnish and Hungarian was very interesting, both of which are languages I’m not brave enough to try to learn.
This really is a lovely book – it is written by someone who is passionate about learning languages and that passion shines through the pages of this book so much that it is very hard not to become as enthusiastic to get stuck in. If you are thinking of learning a language (or think you might start if someone was to give you a bit of a pep talk) then this really is compulsory reading.
September 11, 2011
Trevor gives a good summary of what you'll find in the book, and I don't have much to add. Instead, I'll talk about how it relates to work that we're doing at Geneva University, developing speech-enabled software to help people learn a new language. If there's one thing that comes across in Farber's advice, it's the importance of regular practice. As he says, you get better at a language by using it, and you should use it in as interactive a way as possible.
There's a sliding scale here. The very best method is to develop a romantic relationship with a speaker of the language in question. (A smugly multilingual Swedish friend, who's used it more than once, calls it den sexualpedagogiska metoden. I'll leave you the translation as an exercise). If, for whatever reason, it doesn't work for you to get involved with a native speaker, then living in a country where they speak the language is still pretty good. The longer you can live there, and the less you speak your own language while you're doing so, the better you'll get on. After that, the next step down is talking regularly with a native speaker, while staying in your own linguistic environment.
But alas, many language students can't find any way at all to talk with native speakers, so they have to descend further still. Farber gives you some useful recommendations. The cassette courses he describes are now generally available in MP3 form. There are Internet-based courses too. Flashcards let you practice vocabulary in odd moments. And don't undervalue the simple idea of just carrying around a book in your language of choice, and reading it when you have a chance. It's all worth doing. None the less, you aren't going to become fluent if you don't practice speaking.
I got the idea for the project we've just started during our last project, where we developed a speech translation device for doctors who wanted to be able to talk to foreign patients. (If you're interested, there are more details in this 2008 paper). I spent a fair amount of time talking to different versions of the medical speech translation system, and discovered to my surprise that I'd noticeably improved my fluency without even trying. Perhaps this was something worth investigating! We looked around, and discovered that people at MIT had come to similar conclusions, and reused English/Chinese speech translation software to build what they called a "translation game". The system gave you an English sentence, you tried to say it in Chinese, and it performed speech recognition to try and decide whether you'd got it right. If you did, you scored a point. The level of difficulty of the examples was adjusted up or down depending on your average score.
We liked the MIT idea, and saw that we could not only build the same thing, but could probably do it better than they could. Their statistical framework required thousands of examples to train the recogniser; we only needed a couple of hundred, because our platform is based on grammar rather than statistics. So while they were limited to an area where they happened to have data (airline flight reservations; not very interesting to the average language student), we could do pretty much what we wanted. Our prototype system, which we've been working on since August 2009, lets students practice their conversational abilities in a tourist restaurant scenario; it's simple, and everyone thinks it's useful. It runs in English, French, Japanese and German with vocabularies of between 150 and 400 words, reasonable for beginner/low intermediate students.
Here's an example session with CALL-SLT, our prototype system; I'll show you the French version, since it's probably the easiest one for most readers to follow. I start up my browser (Firefox or Chrome are recommended) make sure I have a current version of Flash installed and plug in my headset. I go to the system home page and log in as "guest" (you don't need a password). I get a screen that looks like this. Note the instructions on the right-hand side:
I then click on the "choose lesson" button (the green stack of books, top right). I get this menu:
I choose the first lesson and click on the green tick mark underneath. Now it shows me in telegraphic English what I'm supposed to say:
ORDER POLITELY LAMB
I'm not sure how to say that in French, so I hit the "help" button (blue question-mark, bottom right). I get:
I double-click on the first example that appears at the bottom and I can hear my colleague Johanna saying "Je voudrais l'agneau". Now I try saying the same thing. I press down the "recognise" button (purple, top right), speak, and release when I've finished speaking. The display now looks like this:
I got it right (the green bar on the left) and the system shows me the words it heard.
It's simple, but I can say from experience that it works; I couldn't do restaurant Japanese at all when I started, but after practicing with the Japanese version for a few says I was quite confident that I could order a beer, get a pair of chopsticks, ask where the bathroom was, or reserve a table for two for seven thirty. When I went to Japan in September I was able to test my knowledge in real situations, and restaurant staff understood me fine!
Please try out CALL-SLT yourself if you're curious, and feel free to let us know what you think! If it doesn't work for you, or you run into problems, we're particularly keen on hearing why. And if you want to read more about it, we have a couple of conference papers here and here.
_______________________________________
I was trying to put into words what it is that our system offers, compared with the existing internet-based alternatives that Meredith and Not mention. I think it's a Goldilocks deal.
On the one hand, you have these things like TellMeMore, where they give you a sentence and you have to repeat it. There are also listening-type exercises - I tried one yesterday on LiveMocha. It asked me questions about the time, and I had to point to one of four clocks to select the right answer. But these things were too easy, and I didn't feel any sense of achievement from doing them. They weren't any fun as a game.
On the other hand, you can sign up to talk to a real person. My spoken French isn't nearly as good as my reading skills, and I need more practice, so I did that. I considered doing the same for Japanese. But my Japanese is terrible, and I would just bore anyone who decided to talk to me. I can't impose on them like that. As far as Japanese is concerned, talking to people is too hard.
Now CALL-SLT. It's a challenging game, and I get a nice glow from learning how to say things well enough in Japanese that it understands me. At the beginning, I had to think for thirty seconds before speaking on the hard examples, and I still missed most of the time. Now I can just do it. And I never have to feel that I'm boring it, or that it's humouring me. It's my willing language teacher slave. As Goldilocks says, exactly right!
_______________________________________
We have now added a clever course in elementary Japanese ("Survival Japanese") designed by Ian Frank at Future University, Hakodate, Japan. You can get it by logging in as described above, then choosing "English for Japanese" from the "Choose Language" menu (orange button, top left), then "WMDF". After this, you can select eight possible lessons from "Choose Lesson" (green button, top left). The course is meant to take a few hours, and will teach you a range of useful things to say in common situations - greeting people, at a restaurant, shopping, party, etc.
We did an evaluation last week using the Amazon Mechanical Turk, where we paid subjects $2 a session for up to 7 sessions to try and use it to learn some Japanese. Nearly all of the dozen or so subjects who stuck with it to the end were very complimentary... one of them said he was sure when he started that he'd never be able to remember a single word, but now he's going round irritating his family by constantly using Japanese expressions they don't understand. So be careful. You wouldn't want that to happen to you.
_______________________________________
We're now constructing an elementary French course together with the University of Bologna, Italy - you can find it by choosing "French for English Speakers" in the "Language" menu, then "Bologna". We've also added an initial course for Greek, and a Swedish version should be coming up some time next week.
If you find this stuff interesting and want to know more, check out our new website!
There's a sliding scale here. The very best method is to develop a romantic relationship with a speaker of the language in question. (A smugly multilingual Swedish friend, who's used it more than once, calls it den sexualpedagogiska metoden. I'll leave you the translation as an exercise). If, for whatever reason, it doesn't work for you to get involved with a native speaker, then living in a country where they speak the language is still pretty good. The longer you can live there, and the less you speak your own language while you're doing so, the better you'll get on. After that, the next step down is talking regularly with a native speaker, while staying in your own linguistic environment.
But alas, many language students can't find any way at all to talk with native speakers, so they have to descend further still. Farber gives you some useful recommendations. The cassette courses he describes are now generally available in MP3 form. There are Internet-based courses too. Flashcards let you practice vocabulary in odd moments. And don't undervalue the simple idea of just carrying around a book in your language of choice, and reading it when you have a chance. It's all worth doing. None the less, you aren't going to become fluent if you don't practice speaking.
I got the idea for the project we've just started during our last project, where we developed a speech translation device for doctors who wanted to be able to talk to foreign patients. (If you're interested, there are more details in this 2008 paper). I spent a fair amount of time talking to different versions of the medical speech translation system, and discovered to my surprise that I'd noticeably improved my fluency without even trying. Perhaps this was something worth investigating! We looked around, and discovered that people at MIT had come to similar conclusions, and reused English/Chinese speech translation software to build what they called a "translation game". The system gave you an English sentence, you tried to say it in Chinese, and it performed speech recognition to try and decide whether you'd got it right. If you did, you scored a point. The level of difficulty of the examples was adjusted up or down depending on your average score.
We liked the MIT idea, and saw that we could not only build the same thing, but could probably do it better than they could. Their statistical framework required thousands of examples to train the recogniser; we only needed a couple of hundred, because our platform is based on grammar rather than statistics. So while they were limited to an area where they happened to have data (airline flight reservations; not very interesting to the average language student), we could do pretty much what we wanted. Our prototype system, which we've been working on since August 2009, lets students practice their conversational abilities in a tourist restaurant scenario; it's simple, and everyone thinks it's useful. It runs in English, French, Japanese and German with vocabularies of between 150 and 400 words, reasonable for beginner/low intermediate students.
Here's an example session with CALL-SLT, our prototype system; I'll show you the French version, since it's probably the easiest one for most readers to follow. I start up my browser (Firefox or Chrome are recommended) make sure I have a current version of Flash installed and plug in my headset. I go to the system home page and log in as "guest" (you don't need a password). I get a screen that looks like this. Note the instructions on the right-hand side:
I then click on the "choose lesson" button (the green stack of books, top right). I get this menu:
I choose the first lesson and click on the green tick mark underneath. Now it shows me in telegraphic English what I'm supposed to say:
ORDER POLITELY LAMB
I'm not sure how to say that in French, so I hit the "help" button (blue question-mark, bottom right). I get:
I double-click on the first example that appears at the bottom and I can hear my colleague Johanna saying "Je voudrais l'agneau". Now I try saying the same thing. I press down the "recognise" button (purple, top right), speak, and release when I've finished speaking. The display now looks like this:
I got it right (the green bar on the left) and the system shows me the words it heard.
It's simple, but I can say from experience that it works; I couldn't do restaurant Japanese at all when I started, but after practicing with the Japanese version for a few says I was quite confident that I could order a beer, get a pair of chopsticks, ask where the bathroom was, or reserve a table for two for seven thirty. When I went to Japan in September I was able to test my knowledge in real situations, and restaurant staff understood me fine!
Please try out CALL-SLT yourself if you're curious, and feel free to let us know what you think! If it doesn't work for you, or you run into problems, we're particularly keen on hearing why. And if you want to read more about it, we have a couple of conference papers here and here.
_______________________________________
I was trying to put into words what it is that our system offers, compared with the existing internet-based alternatives that Meredith and Not mention. I think it's a Goldilocks deal.
On the one hand, you have these things like TellMeMore, where they give you a sentence and you have to repeat it. There are also listening-type exercises - I tried one yesterday on LiveMocha. It asked me questions about the time, and I had to point to one of four clocks to select the right answer. But these things were too easy, and I didn't feel any sense of achievement from doing them. They weren't any fun as a game.
On the other hand, you can sign up to talk to a real person. My spoken French isn't nearly as good as my reading skills, and I need more practice, so I did that. I considered doing the same for Japanese. But my Japanese is terrible, and I would just bore anyone who decided to talk to me. I can't impose on them like that. As far as Japanese is concerned, talking to people is too hard.
Now CALL-SLT. It's a challenging game, and I get a nice glow from learning how to say things well enough in Japanese that it understands me. At the beginning, I had to think for thirty seconds before speaking on the hard examples, and I still missed most of the time. Now I can just do it. And I never have to feel that I'm boring it, or that it's humouring me. It's my willing language teacher slave. As Goldilocks says, exactly right!
_______________________________________
We have now added a clever course in elementary Japanese ("Survival Japanese") designed by Ian Frank at Future University, Hakodate, Japan. You can get it by logging in as described above, then choosing "English for Japanese" from the "Choose Language" menu (orange button, top left), then "WMDF". After this, you can select eight possible lessons from "Choose Lesson" (green button, top left). The course is meant to take a few hours, and will teach you a range of useful things to say in common situations - greeting people, at a restaurant, shopping, party, etc.
We did an evaluation last week using the Amazon Mechanical Turk, where we paid subjects $2 a session for up to 7 sessions to try and use it to learn some Japanese. Nearly all of the dozen or so subjects who stuck with it to the end were very complimentary... one of them said he was sure when he started that he'd never be able to remember a single word, but now he's going round irritating his family by constantly using Japanese expressions they don't understand. So be careful. You wouldn't want that to happen to you.
_______________________________________
We're now constructing an elementary French course together with the University of Bologna, Italy - you can find it by choosing "French for English Speakers" in the "Language" menu, then "Bologna". We've also added an initial course for Greek, and a Swedish version should be coming up some time next week.
If you find this stuff interesting and want to know more, check out our new website!
March 1, 2016
For anybody looking for resources, you may find it useful to take a look at my blog on learning French. Whether or not I succeed in doing that, what I am managing is a large collection of super-useful resources for learning and practising. A lot of them are quite obscure, so you might find stuff there that you really like but won't see mentioned on your average '10 places to learn French before you die' list, all such lists being pretty much generic.
https://frenchalone.wordpress.com/
And yes, this is six years after first writing about this book.
------------------------------------
I must confess that I started this book at chapter eight, magical memory aid, only to discover it was about making up stories to remember words. Instantly my back is up as I recall a childhood of people trying to make you remember things by having to remember other things. This book gives the bizarre example of setting about a method to recall the letters of the music staff. Like it doesn’t go in alphabetical order? Honestly. I’m shaking my head. Aren’t words pictures and patterns? I still don’t in the least understand why they aren’t sufficient.
On the other hand, walking back from coffee today, I asked the person I was with if he’d ever used this practice and he said he’d been raised on it by teachers. And he gave me an example, which I’m ashamed to say has stuck in my head every since and that’s been 7 hours.
Roy G Biv
Don’t tell me. I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t know who this is. Or didn’t until earlier today. And now after many hours of this and that, I still know who he is. And I’m pretty sure that if I were to have sex tonight, which I mention purely in a theoretical kind of way, it’s Roy who would be occupying my thought during it. He’s probably there for life. I’ll end my days with dementia and everybody around me will wonder about me and Roy G Biv.
Can I make myself use this technique? I just don’t know.
There are other things that bother me. He wants you to fill up all those empty times in your day, wasted now, with language learning. Standing in a queue, taking the escalator. But don’t we all already use that time?
The author of this book is certainly a wanker, but it might be that this is just because he needs to fill up the book with something. It could be a list which was a few pages long. But there is padding like you wouldn’t believe. A blow by blow account of every language he’s ever learned. He even gives a detailed account of when he decided not to learn languages. And yet, fairly early on he says something which is just SO true that I have to put that in italics as well. SO true.
He is discussing at which point you might say you have learned a language:
p.40
This strikes me as exactly correct. It is the point where you are no longer conscious of the language you are speaking.
I guess I like to think that in a sense even people like me who are linguistically bereft nonetheless in a certain sense have learnt a bunch of languages in their lives. For me I’d include the language of conventional economics, that of Marxist economics, music, knitting, bridge….the wonderful language of cooking. When you first cook there are all these expressions, merely words which one has used a million times before which suddenly seem completely mysterious and a source of great consternation. ‘A splash’, ‘a handful’ ‘turn up’ ‘turn down’ ‘put some’ Then at some point you find that you think in these words without realising that you are. The language and therefore the concepts are now yours.
Then again just along a bit and he comes out with another profound concept:
p. 43-4
How often have I given the same advice to bridge students. Do it as an act of faith, trust me, and eventually you will understand. This really works. After a while, instead of doing the things I’ve set down as rules ‘just because’, it becomes clear why. But why couldn’t possibly come first. Maybe this is because language rules, like good bridge plays, aren’t necessarily demonstrable as true. I’m not sure that one needs to follow chess advice in the same blind way, though I rather think if I’d done more of that as a kid I would be a better player.
If ever there was a person whose role in life is to test this book it’s me. I have a talent for not speaking languages which might be envied if there was in fact any point to the knack. There are a couple of aspects to the whole business that don’t scare me the way they scare other people. This thing about getting too old to learn a language. I was always a slow learner, so I shan’t even notice that I’m lagging. And I don’t know a thing about grammar so it isn’t going to upset me that it’s done differently in another language. I’ll be blissfully unaware of the offending practices.
It’s going to be French. This is what a bad person I am. A few years ago I taught myself to speak English with a French accent because the thing I especially like about French is the sound and I realised that all you have to do to sound French while speaking English is to put the stress on the opposite syllable from the one we do in English. A generalisation, no doubt, but pretty much true. For a while I thought the easiest way to do this was to use only two syllable words as long words can get a bit confusing, but I didn’t persevere with this theory. Suddenly I’m full of enthusiasm for the idea that I might as well learn the darn language and be done with it…though I must admit I still have an idea it will be easier to speak English with a French accent than French with a French accent.
I’d say give me a day to finish the book first, but that is against the spirit of the thing which is to get on with it. Tomorrow. I’ll get on with it tomorrow. And report back.
------------------
Update a couple of years later: I'm starting to wonder if the whole language thing is overrated. I'm in a French-speaking country without a word of French to my name and it doesn't seem to matter that much. I find the Swiss are pretty much like the French. They may hate Englishmen. They may hate that thing where Englishmen think if they speak English slowly and loudly nobody in the world won't understand them.
And even if you ask them sweetly 'do you speak English?' they reply back 'non' which, to be honest, I find just a little suspicious as an answer...
But if you say 'Bonjour' in a particular way, and now I'm referring to how I say it, they will absolutely insist that you speak not another word of their language, the English will flow from their lips and honestly. Why on earth was I ever thinking of learning French?
Oh yes. Hmmm. I forgot. To read fabulous French writers in the original. Hmmm. Yes. Excusez-moi.
https://frenchalone.wordpress.com/
And yes, this is six years after first writing about this book.
------------------------------------
I must confess that I started this book at chapter eight, magical memory aid, only to discover it was about making up stories to remember words. Instantly my back is up as I recall a childhood of people trying to make you remember things by having to remember other things. This book gives the bizarre example of setting about a method to recall the letters of the music staff. Like it doesn’t go in alphabetical order? Honestly. I’m shaking my head. Aren’t words pictures and patterns? I still don’t in the least understand why they aren’t sufficient.
On the other hand, walking back from coffee today, I asked the person I was with if he’d ever used this practice and he said he’d been raised on it by teachers. And he gave me an example, which I’m ashamed to say has stuck in my head every since and that’s been 7 hours.
Roy G Biv
Don’t tell me. I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t know who this is. Or didn’t until earlier today. And now after many hours of this and that, I still know who he is. And I’m pretty sure that if I were to have sex tonight, which I mention purely in a theoretical kind of way, it’s Roy who would be occupying my thought during it. He’s probably there for life. I’ll end my days with dementia and everybody around me will wonder about me and Roy G Biv.
Can I make myself use this technique? I just don’t know.
There are other things that bother me. He wants you to fill up all those empty times in your day, wasted now, with language learning. Standing in a queue, taking the escalator. But don’t we all already use that time?
The author of this book is certainly a wanker, but it might be that this is just because he needs to fill up the book with something. It could be a list which was a few pages long. But there is padding like you wouldn’t believe. A blow by blow account of every language he’s ever learned. He even gives a detailed account of when he decided not to learn languages. And yet, fairly early on he says something which is just SO true that I have to put that in italics as well. SO true.
He is discussing at which point you might say you have learned a language:
p.40
My standards are less exacting. I’ll confess to ‘speaking a language’ if, after engaging in deep conversation a charming woman from a country whose language I’m studying, I have difficulty the next morning recalling which language it was we were speaking.
This strikes me as exactly correct. It is the point where you are no longer conscious of the language you are speaking.
I guess I like to think that in a sense even people like me who are linguistically bereft nonetheless in a certain sense have learnt a bunch of languages in their lives. For me I’d include the language of conventional economics, that of Marxist economics, music, knitting, bridge….the wonderful language of cooking. When you first cook there are all these expressions, merely words which one has used a million times before which suddenly seem completely mysterious and a source of great consternation. ‘A splash’, ‘a handful’ ‘turn up’ ‘turn down’ ‘put some’ Then at some point you find that you think in these words without realising that you are. The language and therefore the concepts are now yours.
Then again just along a bit and he comes out with another profound concept:
p. 43-4
You don’t have to know grammar to obey grammar. If you obey grammar from the outset, when you turn around later and learn why you should say things the way you’re already saying them, each grammatical rule will then become not an instrument of abstract torture disconnected from anything you’ve experienced but rather an old friend who now wants you to have his home address and private phone number.
When the grammatical rule comes first, followed by its pitiful two or three examples in the textbook, it seems to the student like an artificially confected bit of perversity rolled down upon his head like a boulder.
When the grammatical rule comes after you’ve got some of the language in you, it becomes a gift flashlight that makes you smile and say, ‘Now I understood why they say it that way!’
So, you are right now and forevermore warned not to bridle or to question, ‘Why is the word for ‘go’ in this French sentence vais and in the very next sentence aller?’ Simply embrace the faith that both sentences are correct and learn them….
The more shaken you become by grammatical storms, the more tightly you must hug the faith. I vow it will all become clear.
How often have I given the same advice to bridge students. Do it as an act of faith, trust me, and eventually you will understand. This really works. After a while, instead of doing the things I’ve set down as rules ‘just because’, it becomes clear why. But why couldn’t possibly come first. Maybe this is because language rules, like good bridge plays, aren’t necessarily demonstrable as true. I’m not sure that one needs to follow chess advice in the same blind way, though I rather think if I’d done more of that as a kid I would be a better player.
If ever there was a person whose role in life is to test this book it’s me. I have a talent for not speaking languages which might be envied if there was in fact any point to the knack. There are a couple of aspects to the whole business that don’t scare me the way they scare other people. This thing about getting too old to learn a language. I was always a slow learner, so I shan’t even notice that I’m lagging. And I don’t know a thing about grammar so it isn’t going to upset me that it’s done differently in another language. I’ll be blissfully unaware of the offending practices.
It’s going to be French. This is what a bad person I am. A few years ago I taught myself to speak English with a French accent because the thing I especially like about French is the sound and I realised that all you have to do to sound French while speaking English is to put the stress on the opposite syllable from the one we do in English. A generalisation, no doubt, but pretty much true. For a while I thought the easiest way to do this was to use only two syllable words as long words can get a bit confusing, but I didn’t persevere with this theory. Suddenly I’m full of enthusiasm for the idea that I might as well learn the darn language and be done with it…though I must admit I still have an idea it will be easier to speak English with a French accent than French with a French accent.
I’d say give me a day to finish the book first, but that is against the spirit of the thing which is to get on with it. Tomorrow. I’ll get on with it tomorrow. And report back.
------------------
Update a couple of years later: I'm starting to wonder if the whole language thing is overrated. I'm in a French-speaking country without a word of French to my name and it doesn't seem to matter that much. I find the Swiss are pretty much like the French. They may hate Englishmen. They may hate that thing where Englishmen think if they speak English slowly and loudly nobody in the world won't understand them.
And even if you ask them sweetly 'do you speak English?' they reply back 'non' which, to be honest, I find just a little suspicious as an answer...
But if you say 'Bonjour' in a particular way, and now I'm referring to how I say it, they will absolutely insist that you speak not another word of their language, the English will flow from their lips and honestly. Why on earth was I ever thinking of learning French?
Oh yes. Hmmm. I forgot. To read fabulous French writers in the original. Hmmm. Yes. Excusez-moi.
July 13, 2010
In many aspects, this book is quite outdated: with internet access, you don't have to chase Mexican waiters in your local taco joint to practice your Spanish, or try to find a newspaper in Tagil at a newsstand. Instead, you can make use of YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles in your target language, or one of many websites for language learners - all useful additions to more standard language-learning tools. And yes, as some other reviewers noted, at times Farber's jokes and explanations can be irritating, although his writing style is typical of the journalists of his generation.
However, this book still has something to offer to a language learner. Its main advice - to dive into the "real-world" language right after you had an initial glimpse of grammar - is highly effective. This was the way I began learning Spanish, and I'm telling you, it was better and faster than learning English (my first foreign language) through years and years of forcing my way through textbooks and grammar materials.
I didn't buy into Farber's "hidden moments" system that much - seriously, I don't want to look through my flash cards while waiting for an elevator (I will probably miss an elevator while trying to fish them out of my purse). However, I really liked some of his other advice. One of my favorite exercises now is to look around me and find five things that I can't name in Spanish - and learn them (write them down if you don't have a dictionary with you when you are doing this). Another useful exercise is to pretend you're an instant translator into your target language when you are watching TV/listening to a song/thinking about something (again, make note of all the words you couldn't remember or didn't know and look them up later).
Finally, Farber's book is very motivational and his love for languages, contagious. It somehow makes me believe that if he can speak 25 languages rather fluently, there is no reason why I - or any of you reading this - cannot. And this is a revolutionary thought.
However, this book still has something to offer to a language learner. Its main advice - to dive into the "real-world" language right after you had an initial glimpse of grammar - is highly effective. This was the way I began learning Spanish, and I'm telling you, it was better and faster than learning English (my first foreign language) through years and years of forcing my way through textbooks and grammar materials.
I didn't buy into Farber's "hidden moments" system that much - seriously, I don't want to look through my flash cards while waiting for an elevator (I will probably miss an elevator while trying to fish them out of my purse). However, I really liked some of his other advice. One of my favorite exercises now is to look around me and find five things that I can't name in Spanish - and learn them (write them down if you don't have a dictionary with you when you are doing this). Another useful exercise is to pretend you're an instant translator into your target language when you are watching TV/listening to a song/thinking about something (again, make note of all the words you couldn't remember or didn't know and look them up later).
Finally, Farber's book is very motivational and his love for languages, contagious. It somehow makes me believe that if he can speak 25 languages rather fluently, there is no reason why I - or any of you reading this - cannot. And this is a revolutionary thought.
April 11, 2017
"The promise here is not gain without pain. It's the most gain for the least pain."
Great inspiration for language learners. Farber's method is the perfect choice for those with chaotic lives.
His discussion of time enlightening. As a mom to rambunctious boys, I have learned how to be efficient with the random blocks of 5 or 10 minutes they give me. But Farber encourages the harnessing of 5 or 10 seconds. If you can learn just one new vocabulary word while waiting on the person you are calling to answer, do it, he says.
His flashcard method is also helpful. I recently read Wyner's Fluent Forever. I love Wyner's method of creating associations in the brain by making your own flashcards with images. I implemented his methods with my son who is learning Chinese and Indonesian this year and it is very effective. It is very time-consuming, though. Farber's method of memory aids for vocabulary may not be quite as effective, but will better fit the needs of the busy.
I have been putting off learning another language thinking that I needed at least an hour block of time a day to devote to it. But after reading this, I think I can do it now.
Great inspiration for language learners. Farber's method is the perfect choice for those with chaotic lives.
His discussion of time enlightening. As a mom to rambunctious boys, I have learned how to be efficient with the random blocks of 5 or 10 minutes they give me. But Farber encourages the harnessing of 5 or 10 seconds. If you can learn just one new vocabulary word while waiting on the person you are calling to answer, do it, he says.
His flashcard method is also helpful. I recently read Wyner's Fluent Forever. I love Wyner's method of creating associations in the brain by making your own flashcards with images. I implemented his methods with my son who is learning Chinese and Indonesian this year and it is very effective. It is very time-consuming, though. Farber's method of memory aids for vocabulary may not be quite as effective, but will better fit the needs of the busy.
I have been putting off learning another language thinking that I needed at least an hour block of time a day to devote to it. But after reading this, I think I can do it now.
March 7, 2013
This review will be short and simple. I finished reading the entire book in...... about 5-6 hours. And I took a few short breaks doing it.
If you like learning languages, this is a good book to read. I got it on recommendation from a site as I was exploring ways to learn Japanese (already started that, really, but anyway).
This book is not going to give you instructions on learning any particular language. You're not going to be able to start learning any language just from this one book - you're going to need the tools for that language. The author has mastered many, and this book is a general guide, sort of an approach and attitude for learning a language on your own. (And motivations as well for doing so.) It's a good book to read at the beginning of your journey into any language, to help you get started and figure out how to approach it.
The book itself is pretty engaging. I learned a few words in various languages (very few of which I have actually spent time studying or will in the near future), and compared the methods in the book to what I'm already doing to study Japanese. Some of what I'm doing already follows this approach, and I'll be adding a few more tricks to my language learning skills. It's also filled with anecdotes that keep you entertained as you read, including a short autobiography of the author's language learning journey. I didn't even mind the "Back to Basics" chapter, basically reintroducing you to the English grammar you may not have paid attention to in school (For me, that was anything that ended in "ive"), and was a decent refresher of terms you might come across in foreign grammar.
If you like learning languages, this is a good book to read. I got it on recommendation from a site as I was exploring ways to learn Japanese (already started that, really, but anyway).
This book is not going to give you instructions on learning any particular language. You're not going to be able to start learning any language just from this one book - you're going to need the tools for that language. The author has mastered many, and this book is a general guide, sort of an approach and attitude for learning a language on your own. (And motivations as well for doing so.) It's a good book to read at the beginning of your journey into any language, to help you get started and figure out how to approach it.
The book itself is pretty engaging. I learned a few words in various languages (very few of which I have actually spent time studying or will in the near future), and compared the methods in the book to what I'm already doing to study Japanese. Some of what I'm doing already follows this approach, and I'll be adding a few more tricks to my language learning skills. It's also filled with anecdotes that keep you entertained as you read, including a short autobiography of the author's language learning journey. I didn't even mind the "Back to Basics" chapter, basically reintroducing you to the English grammar you may not have paid attention to in school (For me, that was anything that ended in "ive"), and was a decent refresher of terms you might come across in foreign grammar.
July 24, 2017
This book must have been a game-changer for any language enthusiast back in 1991, but now the majority of advice looks really obvious. Like, guys, how about flashcards? And this mnemonics thingie and a major breakthrough called "immersion"!
Yet, the general system of learning presented in this book looks very solid and thorough, and I will surely use it in my future linguistic endeavours.
But the best thing about this book (apart from its depth and conciseness) is that it is amazingly motivating. After reading it you just cant resist the urge to learn a language. Or two. Or twelve.
And not just learn but also enjoy this process of learning all the way through!
Yet, the general system of learning presented in this book looks very solid and thorough, and I will surely use it in my future linguistic endeavours.
But the best thing about this book (apart from its depth and conciseness) is that it is amazingly motivating. After reading it you just cant resist the urge to learn a language. Or two. Or twelve.
And not just learn but also enjoy this process of learning all the way through!
August 30, 2011
This is a tiny book, and one of the most explosively written books I've ever read. Nothing about the author is subtle, and his manic enthusiasm for language learning jumps off the page. Despite its size, it offers concrete advice on self-learning languages, lots of fun anecdotes, and a ton of motivation. If you're learning a foreign language, it's impossible not to find yourself re-enthused after going through this book. Love it!
October 9, 2019
Here's a very accessible type of book where Barry Farber, amateur polyglot then fluent in twenty-five languages, outlines his methods to learn a foreign language efficiently. All based upon his personal experience, his advices might strike as being unconventional to whose used to a more traditional approach to learning. However, developed through trial and error over more than four decades, his tips are highly valuable and still relevant. In fact, over time this book became an absolute classic despite some of its weaknesses.
His approach is actually very easy to sum up. First, he stresses that there is not one single miracle tool to truly master a language, but many. Indeed, as audio and written material, native speakers, and other resources available abound, being fully competent is just a matter of how to use them all in a complementary way. This is what he calls the Multiple-Track Attack; a pompous name for sure, but that perfectly gives the idea of how to tackle a target language: like a besieged city to assault on all fronts, in order to fully conquer it.
'Attempting to master a language through a grammar book alone is too boring; with phrase book alone, too superficial; with cassettes alone, too fruitless (except with Pimsleur!); and with dictionary and newspaper alone, impossible. The multiple-track attack makes your work pay off.'
He insists then on the importance of practicing the language that is, talk, talk, talk, and... talk! The point, made very clear throughout, is that a language is above all a mean to communicate; so learning one will not be enough if the learning is not put to use in communicating. Of course, this does sound like obvious common sense! Yet, how many courses have we all come across where the focus is on increasing the amount of vocabulary and/or improving accuracy through grammar drills, at the expense of actually conversing? Then here we are! This is actually his final blow: a dismissal of all teaching methods first and foremost based on accuracy. Accuracy coming through fluency, his insights on grammar are, about, striking and lethal:
'... you don't have to conquer the grammar to conquer the language. Conquer the language, and you'll possess the grammar!'
Sure, the book has its flaws. Relying mostly on his personal journey and experience, the author might come across as annoyingly self-centred and boastful. There is a whole chapter dedicated to grammar which is so slim and basic that, it could have easily been discarded. It also is one of those books putting emphasis on mnemonics to learn vocabulary, and I personally think mnemonics to be over-rated and having its limits (a point that, to his credit, Barry Farber acknowledges even if shyly). Also, first published in 1991, some of the resources material he recommends are now obviously outdated; although it doesn't undermine his argument in any way (Internet and smart phones have replaced cassettes and tape recorders, but the core principle -using them efficiently alongside each other- remains the same).
Having said that, clear and entertaining here's definitely a classic on foreign language learning. Published more than two decades ago, it might be getting old, with tips and advices that have been outlined again an again on more recent publications, but it still is a useful and valuable tool to have at hand. Just check it out!
His approach is actually very easy to sum up. First, he stresses that there is not one single miracle tool to truly master a language, but many. Indeed, as audio and written material, native speakers, and other resources available abound, being fully competent is just a matter of how to use them all in a complementary way. This is what he calls the Multiple-Track Attack; a pompous name for sure, but that perfectly gives the idea of how to tackle a target language: like a besieged city to assault on all fronts, in order to fully conquer it.
'Attempting to master a language through a grammar book alone is too boring; with phrase book alone, too superficial; with cassettes alone, too fruitless (except with Pimsleur!); and with dictionary and newspaper alone, impossible. The multiple-track attack makes your work pay off.'
He insists then on the importance of practicing the language that is, talk, talk, talk, and... talk! The point, made very clear throughout, is that a language is above all a mean to communicate; so learning one will not be enough if the learning is not put to use in communicating. Of course, this does sound like obvious common sense! Yet, how many courses have we all come across where the focus is on increasing the amount of vocabulary and/or improving accuracy through grammar drills, at the expense of actually conversing? Then here we are! This is actually his final blow: a dismissal of all teaching methods first and foremost based on accuracy. Accuracy coming through fluency, his insights on grammar are, about, striking and lethal:
'... you don't have to conquer the grammar to conquer the language. Conquer the language, and you'll possess the grammar!'
Sure, the book has its flaws. Relying mostly on his personal journey and experience, the author might come across as annoyingly self-centred and boastful. There is a whole chapter dedicated to grammar which is so slim and basic that, it could have easily been discarded. It also is one of those books putting emphasis on mnemonics to learn vocabulary, and I personally think mnemonics to be over-rated and having its limits (a point that, to his credit, Barry Farber acknowledges even if shyly). Also, first published in 1991, some of the resources material he recommends are now obviously outdated; although it doesn't undermine his argument in any way (Internet and smart phones have replaced cassettes and tape recorders, but the core principle -using them efficiently alongside each other- remains the same).
Having said that, clear and entertaining here's definitely a classic on foreign language learning. Published more than two decades ago, it might be getting old, with tips and advices that have been outlined again an again on more recent publications, but it still is a useful and valuable tool to have at hand. Just check it out!
April 5, 2016
This book was one of the first books added to my to-read list of 2016. As a student of Japanese, and who is aspiring to learn even many more, I thought it to be a good meal. I wasn't wrong, It was DELICIOUS.
Barry Farber, the author of this book, is an enthusiast in the language-learning world, who managed to learn 25 languages and decided to share his experience, his methods and his ideas. The book as I understood, originally targeted for his fellow Americans, with whom he starts with a joke stating that Americans, mostly, can speak only one language, and with that he encourages them to prove the world wrong, and move forward to learn more. Worry not, my friends. Putting that joke aside, the techniques outlined here has nothing to do with Americans only. All "Language Fanatics" can make use of the information!
First, Barry will take you through his story of language learning. According to him, his experience was not the most successful, for he didn't follow the best rules out there (and yet he can speak 25 languages, imagine what you can do if you did), and then he shall introduce you to the most benefiting system of learning, along with the language learning myths which must be discarded. Then, He will tackle the idea of how to select the language you want to learn, and list the tools with which a high efficiency of the process is guaranteed. (PS. some of the tools are somehow outdated, ex. cassettes and paper dictionaries, but the concept is the same and can be applied with high tech tools, ex. smart phones.) How to put these tools in action, how to make full use of the time you have, what are the tricks to unlock your weak memorization ability, how to make sure you are not losing what you have learned, and many other issues, are addressed in the later chapters. In addition, Barry describes the basics of any language that must be realized, before dwelling into the world of a new language.
If you have a target language you want to learn on your own, try applying the techniques listed in this book. If you don't, yet you find learning another language interesting and you don't know which to start with, check the last appendix of "How To Learn Any Language" . Who says only books, movies or theater plays can be reviewed? Languages too! Their usefulness, their difficulties, their similarities with others of the same family, their characteristics and potentials treats are summarized in short reviews to make it easier for you to pick up the one that suites you the most.
Barry Farber, the author of this book, is an enthusiast in the language-learning world, who managed to learn 25 languages and decided to share his experience, his methods and his ideas. The book as I understood, originally targeted for his fellow Americans, with whom he starts with a joke stating that Americans, mostly, can speak only one language, and with that he encourages them to prove the world wrong, and move forward to learn more. Worry not, my friends. Putting that joke aside, the techniques outlined here has nothing to do with Americans only. All "Language Fanatics" can make use of the information!
First, Barry will take you through his story of language learning. According to him, his experience was not the most successful, for he didn't follow the best rules out there (and yet he can speak 25 languages, imagine what you can do if you did), and then he shall introduce you to the most benefiting system of learning, along with the language learning myths which must be discarded. Then, He will tackle the idea of how to select the language you want to learn, and list the tools with which a high efficiency of the process is guaranteed. (PS. some of the tools are somehow outdated, ex. cassettes and paper dictionaries, but the concept is the same and can be applied with high tech tools, ex. smart phones.) How to put these tools in action, how to make full use of the time you have, what are the tricks to unlock your weak memorization ability, how to make sure you are not losing what you have learned, and many other issues, are addressed in the later chapters. In addition, Barry describes the basics of any language that must be realized, before dwelling into the world of a new language.
If you have a target language you want to learn on your own, try applying the techniques listed in this book. If you don't, yet you find learning another language interesting and you don't know which to start with, check the last appendix of "How To Learn Any Language" . Who says only books, movies or theater plays can be reviewed? Languages too! Their usefulness, their difficulties, their similarities with others of the same family, their characteristics and potentials treats are summarized in short reviews to make it easier for you to pick up the one that suites you the most.
January 17, 2009
I actually read this in hardcover. This is one of those titles that explains why I don't go into the bookstore very often. Putting me in a bookstore is like putting an alcoholic in a bar -- we're both going to get something! I found this little tome in hardcover in the bargain rack, and as I was contemplating ways in which I could improve my Spanish skills, I found it serendipitous that I and this book had crossed paths. It was a very quick read -- and also very enjoyable. Farber's personal stories and insight into the quirks of numerous languages infuse a great deal of enjoyment into the book. They also help to make up the book because the actual description of the method he advocates for language learning is not very complicated. I am actually using parts of that method to learn Chinese, and they have helped immensely. That being said, I find that other parts of his method break down when you are studying a language that does not use Romanized characters. And his reliance on audiocassette tapes is really dated. I suppose if you are an old-schooler like myself you probably have a Walkman or like device collecting dust in some closet. Mine is actually buried on some box in one of my closets. Regardless if you are a dinosaur or a more recent animal, I would recommend finding ways to accommodate for the times, because the underlying principles are very sound. They must be if someone like me can learn a little Chinese in a short space of time!
October 23, 2012
The title largely describes the book's contents.
The bad, first.
Published over 20 years ago, it has rather fallen behind the times. In this era of iClouds and iPads, extolling the virtues of "portable cassette players" seems charmingly daft. Naturally, there's not a hint of online chat, DVD-ROMs, iTunes U, etc.
Also, the allegedly-useful system for improving vocabulary memorisation is as old as the hills and, truth be told, utterly useless. Yes, you can find weak English rhymes for Spanish, Italian and (to a lesser degree) French vocal, however I defy you to do likewise for Russian which is loaded with word sounds like pozhaluista, vse and zhizn.
The good. The suggested method for getting started in any language is an excellent one. Throw as Assimil course into the mix, and you'll be onto a winner. The author's suggestion that you take a brave pill and attempt to converse in your new language at the earliest opportunity is also praiseworthy.
Barry Farber offers plenty of encouragement, a largely workable approach, some amusing personal anecdotes, plenty of dry wit.
In this slim volume, he succeeds in reminding the reader why s/he started down the language-learning road in the first place - and for me, part way through two occasionally exasperating courses, that proved most helpful of all.
The bad, first.
Published over 20 years ago, it has rather fallen behind the times. In this era of iClouds and iPads, extolling the virtues of "portable cassette players" seems charmingly daft. Naturally, there's not a hint of online chat, DVD-ROMs, iTunes U, etc.
Also, the allegedly-useful system for improving vocabulary memorisation is as old as the hills and, truth be told, utterly useless. Yes, you can find weak English rhymes for Spanish, Italian and (to a lesser degree) French vocal, however I defy you to do likewise for Russian which is loaded with word sounds like pozhaluista, vse and zhizn.
The good. The suggested method for getting started in any language is an excellent one. Throw as Assimil course into the mix, and you'll be onto a winner. The author's suggestion that you take a brave pill and attempt to converse in your new language at the earliest opportunity is also praiseworthy.
Barry Farber offers plenty of encouragement, a largely workable approach, some amusing personal anecdotes, plenty of dry wit.
In this slim volume, he succeeds in reminding the reader why s/he started down the language-learning road in the first place - and for me, part way through two occasionally exasperating courses, that proved most helpful of all.
January 31, 2016
- Note: 3/5
- Re-readability: no
The book really has only a handful of techniques to teach, which are pretty much read off from the TOC:
- The Multiple-Track Attack. Approach your language from all angles: grammar, audio courses, audiobooks, real magazines and newspapers, … Get/buy all these resources from the very beginning and go in chunks.
- Hidden Moments. Use any idle moment as a change to learn your target language. In particular. have always flash cards in hand. Easy with SRS in your mobile.
- Harry Loarayne’s Magic Memory Aid. Use crazy mnemonics to learn your words.
- The Plung. Use all possibilities to practice your target language. Talk to foreigners! Write in the language! Never leave a conversation without haven’t learned something new.
- Keep the learning a daily practice! 1 hour does wonders after 1 year.
- Accept the challenges and don’t walk around them. Tackle them!
The book is cheerful in that it inspires you to learn new languages with the provided colourful stories of romance, war, and misunderstandings.
Other than that, the list above is pretty much what the book has to offer.
- Re-readability: no
The book really has only a handful of techniques to teach, which are pretty much read off from the TOC:
- The Multiple-Track Attack. Approach your language from all angles: grammar, audio courses, audiobooks, real magazines and newspapers, … Get/buy all these resources from the very beginning and go in chunks.
- Hidden Moments. Use any idle moment as a change to learn your target language. In particular. have always flash cards in hand. Easy with SRS in your mobile.
- Harry Loarayne’s Magic Memory Aid. Use crazy mnemonics to learn your words.
- The Plung. Use all possibilities to practice your target language. Talk to foreigners! Write in the language! Never leave a conversation without haven’t learned something new.
- Keep the learning a daily practice! 1 hour does wonders after 1 year.
- Accept the challenges and don’t walk around them. Tackle them!
The book is cheerful in that it inspires you to learn new languages with the provided colourful stories of romance, war, and misunderstandings.
Other than that, the list above is pretty much what the book has to offer.
February 21, 2012
Though only about one third of this book involves actual advice on learning languages, the information provided could potentially be invaluable. The author's story of how he became a language learner is amusing to say the least. Farber's advice for language learning applies to reading books, as well as learning a new language. I was able to finish reading this book within about three days while reading only during spare moments (mostly on hold while calling someone at work). Invaluable!
October 31, 2007
The best book on learning a language that I've ever found ( I teach college Spanish). Barry has a sense of humor and a lot of practical experience on the subject. I'm considering making it a required book for my classes.
January 19, 2014
First of all, there are plenty of great, non-obvious tips for language learners in here. Second, Barry Farber's writing, which is packed with analogies and anecdotes, makes this a really enjoyable read.
May 24, 2018
原本以為本書會介紹到「語言學」的部分，或是諸語之間的異同比較。結果內容大部分都只是作者本人的「自傳」、講他拼命學習各種外語的經過……普普通通、可輕鬆閱讀的小書。附錄的最後一章（諸語的評論）比較有保存價值。
October 14, 2014
My favorite quotes are as follows:
Pg. 13: "... grammar was just another of those barriers designed by grown-ups to keep kids from having too much fun."
Pg. 23: "Expertise is a narcotic. As knowledge grows, it throws off pleasure to its possessor."
Pg. 23: "Too bad. If you can't distinguish the harder languages from the easier ones, you miss the higher joys of confronting your first samples of written Finnish."
Pg. 24: "I covered the Olympic games in Helsinki but wisely decided not to try to learn Finnish. It was the wisdom of the young boxer who's eager to get in there with the champ and trade punches, but who nonetheless summons up the cool to decline and wait until he's more prepared."
Pg. 31: Hungarian has one of the most complex grammars in the world, but grammar is like classical music and good table manners. It's perfectly possible to live without either if you're willing to shock strangers, scare children, and be viewed by the world as a rampaging boor."
Pg. 95: "X-rated images come readily to mind, even to the minds of nice people. Make your associative images lurid and unforgettable."
Pg. 128: "Again, grammar is best attacked from the rear."
Pg. 168: "If you were the hated kid in ninth grade who stayed after algebra class to beg the teacher to introduce you to calculus, you might want to try one of these [Hungarian, Finnish, or Estonian]."
There are a few mistakes in the book:
Pg. 30: nö should be ny.
Pg. 46: en haluaa should be en halua.
Pg. 105: Hyvää Päivää should be Hyvää päivää.
Pg. 13: "... grammar was just another of those barriers designed by grown-ups to keep kids from having too much fun."
Pg. 23: "Expertise is a narcotic. As knowledge grows, it throws off pleasure to its possessor."
Pg. 23: "Too bad. If you can't distinguish the harder languages from the easier ones, you miss the higher joys of confronting your first samples of written Finnish."
Pg. 24: "I covered the Olympic games in Helsinki but wisely decided not to try to learn Finnish. It was the wisdom of the young boxer who's eager to get in there with the champ and trade punches, but who nonetheless summons up the cool to decline and wait until he's more prepared."
Pg. 31: Hungarian has one of the most complex grammars in the world, but grammar is like classical music and good table manners. It's perfectly possible to live without either if you're willing to shock strangers, scare children, and be viewed by the world as a rampaging boor."
Pg. 95: "X-rated images come readily to mind, even to the minds of nice people. Make your associative images lurid and unforgettable."
Pg. 128: "Again, grammar is best attacked from the rear."
Pg. 168: "If you were the hated kid in ninth grade who stayed after algebra class to beg the teacher to introduce you to calculus, you might want to try one of these [Hungarian, Finnish, or Estonian]."
There are a few mistakes in the book:
Pg. 30: nö should be ny.
Pg. 46: en haluaa should be en halua.
Pg. 105: Hyvää Päivää should be Hyvää päivää.
August 15, 2009
This book is more anecdotal than educational. It spends most of the time on stories telling how the author learned different languages and on quirks of all kinds of languages. It inspires you to learn another language though (or two or three).
I very much agree with most of the language learning system that is described, but it also makes a few assumptions that won't work for everyone.
For once, the claim that the system is "inexpensive" - it really depends what you consider inexpensive. The author advises to buy all kinds of language learning material, preferably several self-teaching courses etc. That's nice - I love learning languages and have a lot of material myself, but he shouldn't pretend it's *inexpensive*, especially when he recommends Pimsleur so much which can cost you several hundred dollars just for the very basic course (unless you get it from the library).
A more important problem I have with the method is the reliance on native speakers of the language you learn in your neighborhood. There is really a lot of talk on how to learn from them and the author pretends that it's normal to have them around, but not everyone lives, say, in NYC.
There is a lot of really good advice in the book though and it certainly gets you into the mood to pick up another language.
I very much agree with most of the language learning system that is described, but it also makes a few assumptions that won't work for everyone.
For once, the claim that the system is "inexpensive" - it really depends what you consider inexpensive. The author advises to buy all kinds of language learning material, preferably several self-teaching courses etc. That's nice - I love learning languages and have a lot of material myself, but he shouldn't pretend it's *inexpensive*, especially when he recommends Pimsleur so much which can cost you several hundred dollars just for the very basic course (unless you get it from the library).
A more important problem I have with the method is the reliance on native speakers of the language you learn in your neighborhood. There is really a lot of talk on how to learn from them and the author pretends that it's normal to have them around, but not everyone lives, say, in NYC.
There is a lot of really good advice in the book though and it certainly gets you into the mood to pick up another language.
May 19, 2016
Well, _I_ liked it.
But some out there in Reviewerland have said that they found Mr. Farber a bit full of himself. The man can talk to people in several languages, and likes to tell people about it in his book. He's been all over the world, and mentions it. He has a method that works for him, and is not shy about telling us about it's virtues.
And I'm OK with that about him.
I borrowed his book to improve learning _one_ language, and it gave me a method. It may not be a method for everyone, but I am a good enough consumer to know One Size Don't Fit All. I enjoyed the authors enthusiasm for languages and lifelong learning, and the personal stories added some realism to the book.
Was it, perhaps, a bit longer than necessary? Yes and no -- if it were the only book I were to own on being a polyglot, then I think it is just the right length. As part of a library, maybe there was too much personal focus.
But some out there in Reviewerland have said that they found Mr. Farber a bit full of himself. The man can talk to people in several languages, and likes to tell people about it in his book. He's been all over the world, and mentions it. He has a method that works for him, and is not shy about telling us about it's virtues.
And I'm OK with that about him.
I borrowed his book to improve learning _one_ language, and it gave me a method. It may not be a method for everyone, but I am a good enough consumer to know One Size Don't Fit All. I enjoyed the authors enthusiasm for languages and lifelong learning, and the personal stories added some realism to the book.
Was it, perhaps, a bit longer than necessary? Yes and no -- if it were the only book I were to own on being a polyglot, then I think it is just the right length. As part of a library, maybe there was too much personal focus.
August 27, 2011
Farbers offers an easy to read "How-To" to tackling the one item on everybody's bucket list. Multiple track attack, hidden moments, and the magic memory lane are but a few chapters to mastering the skill of learning another language. Not as detailed as Berlitz or Pimsleur, it does not seek to the reader one specific language. He instinctively knows the bulk of the Herculean task is left with learner. He breaks it down to the simple, bite size chunks needed to tackle this adventure. This book tells of Farber's own story of learning Tagolog to French.This book gives the reader the checklist and strategy needed to learn a new language.
June 5, 2014
I loved the first half, therefore I give it 4 stars. The second part is a little less interesting. It pursues the learning of foreign languages from an American point of view and I, being Italian, cannot relate.
I'll try to follow some of the tips and tricks because I know they work. I speak a very good English and I tried to add some other language to my skills. But I started late and, as Farber explains in his book, European grown-ups are not comfortable with speaking when their knowledge of the language is just basic. I swear I'll be act more American in the future.
I'll try to follow some of the tips and tricks because I know they work. I speak a very good English and I tried to add some other language to my skills. But I started late and, as Farber explains in his book, European grown-ups are not comfortable with speaking when their knowledge of the language is just basic. I swear I'll be act more American in the future.
July 8, 2025
Simple read on learning languages by a man obsessed with picking up new languages. Too simple to be true? Doesn't emphasize enough the social support side of learning languages in the classroom, but is very good for independent learning. If you're extremely motivated and independent, this is the book for learning languages. If not, well it is still a good resource for helping out your learning in the classroom.
November 11, 2012
I liked the sit back and enjoy his stories aspect of this book. The author really has a fun history and a great story to tell about how he learned a bunch of different languages. He gives sound advice proven to be true by his own experience. The one thing I was waiting for was a concrete plan. He includes a plan, but for me it felt incomplete and fuzzy. As a language learner, the more specific details of a plan the better. A good read that will give good ideas to your language study.
January 24, 2013
Yes, it's outdated... but the basics still apply, and it's a wonderful book about learning languages. At the minimum, the author's passion for learning is inspiring. Look - it's in the bargain section of bookstores or online, and it's worth the $6 or $7 if you want to gain insight on how to overcome past obstacles of language acquisition and move forward quickly. The vocabulary section (mnemonics) alone is worth a good read. Thx
May 31, 2024
4.5 stars [Language Acquisition]
(W 3.56 | U 4.5 | T 5)
Exact rating: 4.35
#2 of 7 in genre
(W 3.56 | U 4.5 | T 5)
Exact rating: 4.35
#2 of 7 in genre
December 5, 2018
This book was a good narrative manual on how to start on a new language but it is outdated and needs a new edition. It will help a little in organizing ones thoughts but that about it.
May 15, 2024
Maybe this will restart my German...?🙃
July 7, 2018
Book 2 in the Whatever Title I Thought Up For This That I Thought Was Funny At The Time.
First things first, this cover does not match the cover of the one I got from the library. I'm telling you this on the off chance that here has been a new edition since the 1991 one that I had. And oddly enough, that would be influential.
Because, here's the thing, Farber is all about telling you how to use your cassettes and flashcards and grammar books and places you may or may not find a person to practice with (assuming you too live in a decent sized city or are studying a language like Chinese or Spanish which might have a higher immigrant population). SO, that being said, technically this book gets a 3.5, mostly because I couldn't figure out how useful a lot of it was.
But, here's the numbers on Mr Farber. 15 languages, including the crazy ones like Chinese, Hungarian, Finnish, Russian. Y'know, the ones that everybody is afraid of. But of course, according to him, they're not so bad, and ANYbody, ANYwhere, can learn them. (If I ever get around to my Russian adventure, we may have some more to say on this topic. But, anyway...) He doesn't get real specific on his level on these guys, but I'm gonna go ahead and say if you are confident enough in your Finnish to list it, you're probably doing all right.
There wasn't really anything overly stunning in this one. Pretty much everybody is on the "crazy mnemonic/memory palace" thing these days, although in Farber's defense, he beat all the rest to the punch by at least 20 years (or at least figuring from when I started hearing about it everywhere *nods at BBC's "Sherlock"*).
One thing that I did enjoy seeing was that yet another guy with a good dozen languages under his belt specifically give you permission to take it easy on the grammar. Farber is a little less wild and free, recommending the first 5 lessons in any grammar book so you aren't totally floundering, but still, I figure if these guys are not only saying "don't stress about it," but rather "Don't START it till later," it would be wise to thankfully take that advice to heart.
In theory I would test these out with some kind of language experiment, but currently I'm spread pretty thin in a lot of weird directions, and to be fair, there isn't a lot of vast difference between this and Benny Lewis's book, mostly just technology opportunities that Farber didn't have to utilize.
But, so far, and this is key, these books make you motivated to *want* to learn. They make you excited. They make it seem doable. And I think more than anything in this little jaunt I've begun, reducing the size of a daunting goal like "learn a foreign language" makes everything seem a thousand times easier.
Plus, like half the world is at least bilingual. It can't be that hard.
First things first, this cover does not match the cover of the one I got from the library. I'm telling you this on the off chance that here has been a new edition since the 1991 one that I had. And oddly enough, that would be influential.
Because, here's the thing, Farber is all about telling you how to use your cassettes and flashcards and grammar books and places you may or may not find a person to practice with (assuming you too live in a decent sized city or are studying a language like Chinese or Spanish which might have a higher immigrant population). SO, that being said, technically this book gets a 3.5, mostly because I couldn't figure out how useful a lot of it was.
But, here's the numbers on Mr Farber. 15 languages, including the crazy ones like Chinese, Hungarian, Finnish, Russian. Y'know, the ones that everybody is afraid of. But of course, according to him, they're not so bad, and ANYbody, ANYwhere, can learn them. (If I ever get around to my Russian adventure, we may have some more to say on this topic. But, anyway...) He doesn't get real specific on his level on these guys, but I'm gonna go ahead and say if you are confident enough in your Finnish to list it, you're probably doing all right.
There wasn't really anything overly stunning in this one. Pretty much everybody is on the "crazy mnemonic/memory palace" thing these days, although in Farber's defense, he beat all the rest to the punch by at least 20 years (or at least figuring from when I started hearing about it everywhere *nods at BBC's "Sherlock"*).
One thing that I did enjoy seeing was that yet another guy with a good dozen languages under his belt specifically give you permission to take it easy on the grammar. Farber is a little less wild and free, recommending the first 5 lessons in any grammar book so you aren't totally floundering, but still, I figure if these guys are not only saying "don't stress about it," but rather "Don't START it till later," it would be wise to thankfully take that advice to heart.
In theory I would test these out with some kind of language experiment, but currently I'm spread pretty thin in a lot of weird directions, and to be fair, there isn't a lot of vast difference between this and Benny Lewis's book, mostly just technology opportunities that Farber didn't have to utilize.
But, so far, and this is key, these books make you motivated to *want* to learn. They make you excited. They make it seem doable. And I think more than anything in this little jaunt I've begun, reducing the size of a daunting goal like "learn a foreign language" makes everything seem a thousand times easier.
Plus, like half the world is at least bilingual. It can't be that hard.
December 3, 2018
Definitely worth a glance if you need some motivation with language practice and a very quick read!
While this book is definitely dated (he mentions how you should use language learning cassettes and record yourself speaking on tapes), the core concepts make a lot of sense as he explains how language instruction in grade school got it wrong.
I’d have to agree! I studied Spanish for 8 years and felt like I knew nothing when I moved to Santiago, Chile where I lived for a year. While I was near fluent after a year, I’ve lost so much from lack of practice and have felt a little deflated about languages as a result.
I kept thinking, if it took all of that work for one language, it would be impossible to learn another because languages don’t come naturally to me. This book, despite its dated language and patriarchal comments at some points, has given me inspiration to brush up my Spanish and to try something new (maybe Italian?) with its practical tips for study.
There were many parts that I skimmed (this guy LOVES languages a lot and expounds on his love quite a bit), but you can definitely pick out the important bits. I was amazed by the chapter on memory tricks and will always easily remember how to say angry in French and wife in Italian after one quick read through. Definitely going to read a book by Harry Lorayne on memory after this.
While this book is definitely dated (he mentions how you should use language learning cassettes and record yourself speaking on tapes), the core concepts make a lot of sense as he explains how language instruction in grade school got it wrong.
I’d have to agree! I studied Spanish for 8 years and felt like I knew nothing when I moved to Santiago, Chile where I lived for a year. While I was near fluent after a year, I’ve lost so much from lack of practice and have felt a little deflated about languages as a result.
I kept thinking, if it took all of that work for one language, it would be impossible to learn another because languages don’t come naturally to me. This book, despite its dated language and patriarchal comments at some points, has given me inspiration to brush up my Spanish and to try something new (maybe Italian?) with its practical tips for study.
There were many parts that I skimmed (this guy LOVES languages a lot and expounds on his love quite a bit), but you can definitely pick out the important bits. I was amazed by the chapter on memory tricks and will always easily remember how to say angry in French and wife in Italian after one quick read through. Definitely going to read a book by Harry Lorayne on memory after this.
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