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I learned to speak 56 languages and I
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learned each of them in under 24 hours
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yes I know that sounds a little bit
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ridiculous uh even to me but it is true
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and it's actually the only way that I
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could have posted 56 videos of me
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surprising strangers by speaking their
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language in just the past few years so
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I've talked about this before but I was
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actually terrible at learning languages
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in high school not that I got bad grades
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my grades were actually pretty good but
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I just couldn't speak any of these
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languages that I studied I would just
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see this language textbook full of super
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intimidating alphabets and scripts and
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charts and tones and just become totally
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overwhelmed you know and having grown up
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in a monolingual English speaking
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environment in the United States I would
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just think to myself man it's either
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Geniuses or Dutch people who can
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actually learn to speak multiple
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languages and I really wanted to learn
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to speak but I would try by reading the
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textbook which is how I thought you were
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supposed to learn a language but I would
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inevitably get bogged down in the
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details and then just totally give up
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but after I moved to China and started
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learning Chinese I started experimenting
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more and more with language learning on
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my YouTube channel and especially since
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this became my full-time job a few years
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ago I actually started getting really
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really good at learning languages to the
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point where now I consider myself
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possibly the world's leading expert on
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how to learn a language as quickly as
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possible which by the way does not make
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me anything close to the world's
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greatest polyglot there are millions of
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people in this world who have way better
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language skills than I do but having
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gone from zero to basic conversational
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ability in 56 languages from every
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continent on the planet except
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Antarctica I do think that I at least
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have some experience in the topic of how
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to learn any language quickly see what I
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realize the problem with typical
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language textbooks is is that they
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frontload too much you have to learn all
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of these alphabets and weird scripts and
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charts and tones and grammar before you
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even get to chapter one there are these
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incredibly boring and by themselves
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useless things that you're somehow just
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expected to memorize out of context and
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it isn't just textbooks that teach like
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this this forms the basis of our
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language learning pedagogy in almost all
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language learning classrooms around the
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world and while I do understand the
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desire to create a solid foundation I
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think you end up instead intimidating
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beginners and mystifying language
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learning you make language learning feel
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like calculus when it's actually much
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easier than that don't get me wrong
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learning languages is hard but as Matt
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versus Japan likes to say it's hard in
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the way that exercise is hard not in the
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way that calculus is hard it does not
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take a genius to go jogging but it does
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take a certain level of commitment and
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this textbook Style by the way is also
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not the way that 99% of people who
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actually succeed at learning languages
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actually learn their languages a really
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interesting example of this is that most
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Chinese Teachers like to teach you
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Chinese characters on day one before you
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even learn to speak because that's how
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they first learned Chinese when they
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went to elementary school in China but
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what this overlooks
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is that on their first day of elementary
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school in China they already spoke
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fluent Mandarin which they had learned
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word by word phrase by phrase sentence
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by sentence from their parents and not
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from a textbook so by the time they were
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learning the writing system they already
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understood the entire essence of
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Mandarin speaking and grammar to which
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they could then apply the characters so
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my system has two parts and part one is
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speaking practice the key to my rapid
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language learning is spending 1 hour per
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day speaking with online Tutors or
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friends and I do this for 10 to 15
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sessions spread out over 3 weeks the
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focus here is purely on practical
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conversation skills I start from zero
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from very basic phrases and then we
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gradually build up to more and more
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complex conversations and I Do by the
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way actually have a free list of phrases
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that I like to use for this purpose
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which you can also check out at the link
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in the description I like to call them
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my magic sentences and I think speaking
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from the very beginning literally day
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one um is crucial because it helps to
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Dem the language and it also helps to
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get over your fear of speaking which is
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precisely the problem that I had in high
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school when I would spend all this time
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studying my textbooks and then when it
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came to actually speak I would be
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petrified I wouldn't know what to say
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because I had never actually spoken
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before everything I learned had come
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from the textbook plus the direct
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interaction with native speakers helps
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me internalize the flow of the language
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very quickly an analogy that I often use
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is that trying to learn to speak a
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language by reading a textbook is like
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trying to learn to ride a bike by
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reading a textbook you know you're just
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just studying the physics of how your
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feet move and the rotations at this
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number of RPM create this movement so
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all I have to do is turn left into the
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torque and like we've all been
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brainwashed by school into thinking
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that's how it works but it's not and in
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theory maybe it is possible to learn how
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to ride a bike by reading a physics
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textbook but practically speaking you do
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need to understand the rhythm of bike
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riding and actually ride a bike in order
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to learn how to ride a bike now part two
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of my method is sentence mining after
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each speaking session I collect and
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record key words phrases or sentences
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from the session into Anki a free flash
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card program to gradually memorize what
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I just learned in the speaking session
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over the next few weeks by the way
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always front card English and back card
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target language to make flashcards that
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force you to actively recall the words
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rather than just passively recognize him
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and I only put sentences whose grammar I
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fully understand into Ani so so I have
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to learn the grammar from my teacher
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before I can go and memorize the
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sentences and so this means that I'm not
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just wrote memorizing sentences I'm
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actually memorizing grammar as well by
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natural osmosis what I'm definitely not
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doing which I used to do in high school
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all the time is memorize big conjugation
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charts or memorize alphabets or memorize
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tone rules or things like that and so as
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I memorize these sentences I'm also
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naturally memorizing the grammar of the
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language as I said before the grammar of
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most languages isn't too hard hard as in
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calculus that this is really so
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difficult um with the possible exception
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of some Native American languages which
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you know so for each language that I
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study over these 15 sessions I end up
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developing an decks you know that
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contain anywhere from 50 to 100 cards
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and that really is all you need to know
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in order to have basic conversations in
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any language about 50 to 100 words and
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phrases and yes you also pick up other
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things by osmosis from your speaking
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sessions because you're continually
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practicing as well so the anid deck
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doesn't form the entire basis of what
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you learn but it forms much of the key
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grammar and vocabulary that you'll need
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to actually have conversations in your
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language and the phrases in the anid de
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are all things that are natural and
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immediately useful to me and I'm
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typically not learning stuff that I
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don't think I'll need to use a lot of
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textbooks will start you out by focusing
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on color and Direction words and I find
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personally I never use those so why
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would I learn those at the beginning as
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the first things that I ever learned and
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again I don't learn the alphabet or the
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script in the very beginning either I
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actually write everything into Anie the
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way that the word or the phrase or the
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sentence sounds to me rather than how
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it's written in its native script which
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I find actually helps me learn way
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faster because I'm not so worried about
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like what's sounds the CH make in this
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language or like what does this weird
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squiggle mean I don't really care I just
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write what it sounds like to me I'll be
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honest I do have very good auditory
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memory but I do think you can do this
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even if your auditory memory is not so
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great you can actually put audio samples
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into Anki as well so every time you load
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up the card you get an immediate sound
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cue for what it sounds like and you can
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play the audio from native speaker so if
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you do it like that you don't have to
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worry that you're not perfectly
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remembering the sound either I found
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that learning the alphabet can come
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later once I have an actual
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conversational level um or never you
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know because if you're not interested in
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becoming literate in the language you're
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studying you might not be interested in
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becoming literate that's your choice you
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know you can completely ignore the
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alphabet or the script of the language
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and so this way this way I'm not bogged
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down in the task of learning a new
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script from day one I do these anky reps
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every day so I'm going to show you right
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now let's load up um the language I'm
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currently learning which is Scottish
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glic so we have cows uh that's
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NA okay good what whiskey do you
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like
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um
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J it something like that right
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J okay good that was good and you see
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I'm learning things that both are
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culturally relevant but um also like
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these basic phrases you know sentences
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like do you like or cheers or basic
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nouns like cow things I can actually use
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to build more complex conversations off
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of Scotland is beautiful
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um
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ala ala Bria and you can see when I'm
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learning these sentences and phrases I'm
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not just memorizing sentences either I
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mean I am memorizing sentences but these
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are sentences that you know can be
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modified and changed and a sentence like
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Scotland is beautiful is the same thing
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as a sentence like the Apple is tasty
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you know they work the same way so if
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you memorize Scotland is beautiful um
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and you also know the words apple and
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tasty then boom you have two sentences
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there right you didn't have to memorize
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two sentences you just needed to
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memorize one to get that grammar and so
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space repetition systems like Anki are
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an absolute GameChanger because they
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help me review these phrases at
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intervals optimized for memory retention
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so by reviewing my an for just a few
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minutes every day I actually ensure that
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these phrases stick in my long-term
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memory ready to be whipped out in any
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conversation though because I'm lazy I
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actually do archive the decks of
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languages that I'm not actively studying
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meaning that I for get languages that
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I've learned in the past and so right
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now I can't speak anything like 56
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languages at the same time so that's
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basically it speak from day one use
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sentence mining to record the key wordss
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and phrases and then memorize everything
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with space repetition software like anky
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this approach has helped me learn
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languages as quickly as possible while
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ensuring that I don't get lost in
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translation so if you're interested in
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learning more about how I learn
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languages make sure to check out my
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master class the link in the description
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below and now you can get speaking
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practice with an AI tutor at my new
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website your teacher.
