Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick.
 
“A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero
 
At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered.
 
Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. 
 
This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
1116250070
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick.
 
“A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero
 
At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered.
 
Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. 
 
This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
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Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

by Gabriel Wyner
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

by Gabriel Wyner

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Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick.
 
“A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero
 
At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered.
 
Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. 
 
This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780385348119
Publisher: Harmony/Rodale/Convergent
Publication date: 08/05/2014
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 78,605
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.18(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Gabriel Wyner graduated summa cum laude at USC, where he won the school’s Renaissance Award.  His essay on language learning for Lifehacker.com was one of the site’s most read in 2012.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Fluent Forever"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Gabriel Wyner.
Excerpted by permission of Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Stab, Stab, Stab 1

Beginnings 2

Cheaters Occasionally Prosper: The Three Keys to Language Learning 3

The Game Plan 6

How Long Does Fluency Take? 8

Do This Now: The Path Forward 10

2 Upload: Five Principles to End Forgetting 17

Principle 1 Make Memories More Memorable 18

Principle 2 Maximize Laziness 27

Principle 3 Don't Review. Recall. 29

Principle 4 Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me! 33

Principle 5 Rewrite the Past 36

Timing Is Everything: The End of Forgetting 39

Do This Now: Learn to Use a Spaced Repetition System 48

3 Sound Play 54

Train Your Ears, Rewire Your Brain 57

Train Your Mouth, Get the Girl 64

Train Your Eyes, See the Patterns 71

Do This Now: Learn Your Language's Sound System 77

4 Word Play and the Symphony of a Word 83

Where to Begin: We Don't Talk Much About Apricots 86

Games with Words 89

The Gender of a Turnip 94

Do This Now: Learn Your First 625 Words, Music and All 99

5 Sentence Play 108

The Power of Input: Your Language Machine 109

Simplify, Simplify: Turning Mountains into Molehills 118

Story Time: Making Patterns Memorable 122

On Arnold Schwarzenegger and Exploding Dogs: Mnemonics for Grammar 126

The Power of Output: Your Custom Language Class 130

Do This Now: Learn Your First Sentences 132

6 The Language Game 143

Setting Goals: Your Custom Vocabulary 144

Words About Words 147

Reading for Pleasure and Profit 151

Listening Comprehension for Couch Potatoes 154

Speech and the Game of Taboo 158

Do This Now: Explore Your Language 164

7 Epilogue: The Benefits and Pleasures of Learning a Language 170

The Toolbox

The Gallery: A Guide to the flash Cards That Will Teach You Your Language 177

The Art of Flash Cards 183

The First Gallery: Do-It-Yourself Pronunciation Trainers 191

The Second Gallery: Your First Words 199

The Third Gallery: Using and Learning Your First Sentences 215

The Fourth Gallery: One Last Set of Vocabulary Cards 235

A Glossary of Terms and Tools 243

Appendices 259

Appendix 1 Specific Language Resources 261

Appendix 2 Language Difficulty Estimates 267

Appendix 3 Spaced Repetition System Resources 271

Appendix 4 The international Phonetic Alphabet Decoder 277

Appendix 5 Your First 625 Words 293

Appendix 6 How to Use This Book with Your Classroom Language Course 307

One Last Note (About Technology) 311

Notes 313

Acknowledgments 319

Index 321

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