Learning a new language is a kind of idea that typically comes up as part of our New Year resolutions. Yet when a year passes, we often decide to learn the same language, this time for real. But is it possible to learn a new language really fast? And how fast is that? Language learning is typically a slow process and it takes years to reach fluency. This is part of the reason why so many people fail -- they simply lose momentum. Other things come up, you skip a lesson, then another, and at the end the whole thing quietly slips out of your life. So learning with speed does have the advantage of bypassing these issues. But to cut to the main point, rapid learning is really possible. I had a friend who decided to learn Chinese, which by all accounts is not one of the easiest languages, and she did this with amazing speed. In about three months she was able to talk and carry on basic conversation, which was truly astonishing, especially since I had spent years studying Chinese myself. She studied mostly by herself, not in China but at home, and she succeeded. It was a humbling experience to watch her progress. How did she do it? Her basic secret was doing all the time, as much as she could take. I guess she had a certain degree of obsessiveness, as she just sat there for many hours every single day and worked using any material she could lay her hands on. When she got tired of textbook drills, she worked on the lyrics of a song, after that she memorized vocabulary, tried to figure out what websites said. And then she was back at the textbook again. Rotating different methods and media she could spend a lot more time than otherwise would have been possible.

She seemed to have a bizarre fondness for rote memorization. She said that most people do not realize that you really need the vocabulary to speak a foreign language, and there is no way around it than to learn it by heart. There are no shortcuts. So in order to get on with the task, she just started memorizing words, the more the merrier. And after three months, she was speaking and reading basic Chinese. Was she particularly gifted in learning languages? I guess so. She was also very bright in general. Nevertheless, her technic was that of full immersion ad nauseam. She just would not quit, she studied every day until she was completely exhausted. Not 4-5 hours but about 12. Of course, she did not stop afterwards either, although she did not have that much time anymore. But at that point she could talk to people in Chinese and from there on the road really only goes forward. Yet it was these initial three months going from zero an intermediary level that was the most amazing feat I have ever seen. by Imre Galambos 2010 Learning a language fast © 2010 Logoi.com. All Rights Reserved