The Natural Way to Learn Languages
How I learned to understand TV shows and read some books in Japanese in only SIX MONTHS
Has anyone learned a language through their high school and actually walked away speaking it? Did you really learn Spanish or French? Of course not, and it isn’t even your fault. The way schools teach it is terrible, and I am baffled we still have it in our school system. But what baffles me more, is the fact that later in life, when curious adults go to learn a new language, they use the EXACT same method as before and then wonder why they couldn’t learn as fast as the guy on YouTube who said they could learn a new language in a week (spoiler alert: he didn’t, he’s just a kid trying to milk you for views). Maybe the Duolingo bird hasn’t kidnapped your family yet, due to your 100+ day streak on Duolingo, but what difference does it make, because you still can’t speak yet, nor understand real native material.
This constant battle makes many feel like they just aren’t “language people,” even though such a thing does not exist. Languages are something the human brain is wired to learn. It is a natural process. The only reason it doesn’t feel natural is because we learn them in a very unnatural way.
My Natural Way of Learning That Makes Duolingo Fear Me
That is where my beautiful method comes in, allowing for a more natural and fast way to learn. This method will work for all people, no matter what kind of learner you are. I do not have a name for this method, but perhaps I will just name it after one of my surnames (either in Japanese or English). This method makes the Duolingo owl fear me, because jokes on him, I have his family in the basement now. How the tables have turned.
But without further stalling, here are the main principles I follow when learning:
Rule 1 (perhaps the most important): DON’T USE TEXTBOOKS OR FLASHCARDS. Textbooks on the surface seem super useful, as they are books stuffed with all the good things to know, but they are a huge hinderance. because you are now relying on your native language to find meaning in a very structured and unnatural manner, plus the content is unimaginably boring. This is an unnatural way to learn, so brain won’t let it stick. The use of flashcards is entirely up to you. I personally think it feels too artificial and very boring to do, with a lot of dependence on your native language, but whatever works for you.
Rule 2: Don’t speak until you are ready. A lot of internet polyglots love to mention how good speaking is early on, but from my perspective, it can actually hurt your fluency when you’re new to a language. This is because when we speak a foreign language in the early beginner stage, we rely heavily on our native languages to translate everything (so natives might not understand what you’re saying at all, due to the direct translations which are almost always inaccurate). This is an extra step, as we want the thought to pop up in the target language, and say it in a normal and fluent fashion. So remember that speaking is bad early, but speaking is half of a conversation, so make sure you practice it. However, don’t try to be a Speaking Nazi and force yourself to talk every day, but just remember that when you feel comfortable to talk, go ahead and talk! A good point to start speaking is when most of the content you watch or listen to sort of makes sense, without having to translate into your native language, and understanding content feels faster. This sounds really vague, but you’ll know when you’re there (for me, this was about 3 months into learning Japanese, but everyone is different). When speaking, I follow this quote from Steve Kaufmann: “To speak well, you have to speak a lot,” so once your comprehension is fluent, speak a lot!
Rule 3: Read and listen to a TON of materials. When I was starting out with Japanese, I read mostly simple graded readers and basic articles on various things. Then, I listened to personal blogs made by a couple different Japanese podcasters, and looked up words and grammar structures I didn’t know. When I was past that “early beginner” stage, I started watching TV and YouTube videos, and reading a lot of news articles and books, getting me to an intermediate level, and I am soon to reach the fluency stage of Japanese. The key is to find stuff you enjoy listening to or reading, and turning your leisure time into study time (eventually you won’t even realize you’re being productive while watching TV).
Rule 4: Your goals should be ambitious. In the modern day, most advice on goals that is given usually suggests “taking it slow,” and not trying too hard. This is sometimes a good thing, and I encourage people to take their time. Despite this, I want to always be working and progressing towards my goals. This kind of low-achieving mindset is just sad to me, as I like to aim for the stars any chance I get. I am so determined to learn Japanese, that I actually had a period of my life where I spent 7+ hours a day studying math lectures, and reading articles in Japanese, to the point where I forgot to eat and drink (you don’t need to go this far, but this is just to put my motivation into perspective)! A good goal is “I want to speak ______ with basic fluency in 1 year.” I love this kind of goal, as it might require you to spend an hour or two a day consistently studying it. This might get some Redditors mad, who say:
“WELL ACTUALLY, ACCORDING TO MOST PEOPLE, IT TAKES OVER 5 YEARS TO REACH FLUENCY IN JAPANESE” 🤓
Hush BootyBandit94, we all know you’ve been trying to learn Japanese for 7 years to no avail, so please find somewhere nice to sit and continue reading. Big goals are good, because motivation is high, and it shows you are dedicated. I would actually argue if you don’t reach this goal, that’s fine, because you likely got very close to it (making you look like a super genius among your friends). If 100 is considered near impossible, I want to fall 30 short of that, rather than feel content and happy that I reached 10. AIM BIG.
Rule 5: Go to town and have fun. Your brain actually remembers fun things better than boring things, so if your studies are fun, you will actually learn faster. Plus not being bored all day is a good thing. Always remember to have fun and enjoy the process, and don’t get caught up in perfectionism, because it’ll come one day… perhaps not soon, but eventually. My studies are full of watching TV (I am not a huge fan of watching movies or TV, but it certainly becomes entertaining when I am learning from it), reading books, listening to podcasts, watching math lectures, and writing articles like these in Japanese. It is way too fun for me, because I can carry out my daily life in Japanese, building real fluency and not even trying that hard.
Summary
Yes, this is a giant middle finger to everything you know about learning things, but trust me. To show you how confident I am with this method, I plan on being 100% fluent in Japanese by the year 2025 Then in the next 10 years, I plan on learning at least 5 more (maybe not the same level of fluency, but basic fluency for certain). Also keep in mind, I am studying Japanese at such a rapid speed, while also studying Mandarin Chinese for business.
I have even applied this learning method to studying the PIANO. I believe I have revolutionized learning, and can speed learn almost anything. Perhaps I need to try this with mathematics or science. If you are kind enough to subscribe to this newsletter, I think you will find a boatload of extremely useful tips here. You can fully utilize my genius learning method that I believe to be a thousand times better than language learning apps and textbooks. This builds a second brain in your target language, which means you get to think IN your target language, making your native language nearly irrelevant when using it! REAL FLUENCY is actually possible with this method, and I would recommend everyone to try it out for themselves.
Good luck with your studies, and have fun. More posts coming soon, so I’d subscribe.
-Andre Mackey 中野晴翔