The Third Ear: You Can Learn Any Language

by Chris Lonsdale

You've admired people who are fluent in a foreign language. You've seen the way they impress others at parties, get more job opportunities and have the most fun while travelling. You can be just like them. You just need to understand and follow a few simple steps to unleash your hidden talent - something we call your Third Ear.

Learn the 5 most important sentences to get started. The 60 key words that you need to have a basic conversation in your new language. The 6 fundamental principles that great learners use to approach a new language. And much, much more!

Forget what your teachers said – they were wrong! You can learn a new language quickly and easily. And the pain and frustration of traditional methods will be replaced by an enlightening journey that offers new friends, better opportunities and exciting destinations.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Psychology, Linguistics, Spanish Literature

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2006

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

(doctor Lozanov)

Some years ago I read some of Lozanov’s writings on Suggestopedy (use of the right-hemisphere [brain’s] potentialities and the unconscious in facilitating the learning of foreign languages). Now I’ve seen a tape Chris Lonsdale recorded in China, for students attending. It’s surely another important contribution to the field of Psychology of Learning.



His own experience seems enough-validating; his mode of thinking about some pertinent questions (how to learn any language in 6 months? How to speed up learning? How to quickly learn a new language? How adults do it?) may, ultimately, legitimize the assertion: school is not needed.

As for his biography he said that at the age of 11 he wrote a letter to the (then) USSR experts to know more about Hypnopedia; but he concluded it didn’t work. Then he became passionate about Psychology, and by 1981 he had set himself to learn Chinese (MANDARIN) in 2 years. It turned out he became fluent in 6 months; he recalls the train-talk with Chinese people while he knew almost nothing, the willingness to interpret gestures…and the person who introduced him to the language while he had a long train travel.

Chris developed a set of principles, but the basic ones start with these lines: you should contact with those who already “did it” (learned the language), be exposed to situations, and thereafter identify principles and APPLY THEM.

His set of recommendations is summarized in 7 actions and 5 principles. But you must dispel two myths; one, that you must be talented; and, two, immersion per se will do the trick;really,immersion, it’s not enough.

I won’t develop in minutia those recommendations; they’re just a set of right combining principles of 4 major categories like: attention, relevance, meaning and memory.

I would highlight (on “principles”) : use relevant tools, use language to communicate, seek some understanding (not the whole thing ongoing when immersed) and accept the fact that there’s “unconscious absorption” happening too.

Learning a language requires training/practice: exercise (sometimes “painfully”) your face muscles; “physiological training”.

Certain psychophysiological states favor learning, some don’t. Being happy, relaxed and in an alpha-brain state is good; conversely, sadness, depression and upset-states are not good.

As for “actions”, some ahead. (1) Listen a lot; (2) get the meaning, before words (3) start mixing/combining (verb / noun / adjective)…





祝你好运

[Yakov Pyatnitskov · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start with – if you think whether or not the book is for you or what to know more about the methods, watch Chris Lonsdale's TEDx talk. It'll give you a good idea of what is in the book.

I may be biased (also learning Chinese, hence the examples in the book came very handy) or the book came at the right time but I loved it. the biggest shift is that it changed my perspective of learning language from "mastering a language per se" to "using a language as a TOOL for communication".

The former explains how you can spend years learning by textbooks and get lost traveling to a country whose language you studied. The latter encourages and urges you to USE the language from day 1 and not be afraid or shy of mistakes. For me it was a game-changer.

Other important take-aways were:

= Using core words.
1000 of words make up ~90% 0f everyday speech. Master those and you can speak. Master 100 main verbs and some nouns you will be understood.

= Don't be discouraged as an adult.
Proven by studies, adults learn BETTER given the same number of hours as children. The kids just spend more time learning a language which gave birth to the myth that is only easy to learn when you are young.

= Make a tool-box.
That's a good one. Create a list of words by categories and subcategories (time, shape, size) and learn those. Those are often used in dialogues and can be combined with ANY word in ANY sentence.

= Set your intentions.
Be honest with yourself: why are you going to learn it? Is that reason strong enough to propel you forward? Do you NEED to learn a language or are you just toying with it? If so, the chances high you'll abandon it after the initial sense of novelty passes.
Be honest and save yourself time. Or better - find a strong reason WHY you want to learn it.

=Focus on speaking.
Circumstances vary but most of us want to speak a foreign language. Not pass a test but actually communicate with another person. For that we need to listen a lot and talk a lot to learn how to speak the words.
Don't do grammar (yet), learn some phrases and try to use them from day 1. Immerse yourself in listening with some podcasts or go to the country if you can. Practise phrases many times until they become automatic.

Overall, a great book written by a person who clearly deeply cares for languages and people who study them spruced with interesting stories from living in China back in the 80s (it was A LOT different from what I read).

Thank you Chris!

[Thao Phuong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read for those who want to learn foreign languages. Claimed by the author as a "practical guide" to language learning, the book to me is more a collection of motivational stories and personal advice than a technical guide to achieve foreign language fluency. The main techniques presented- immersing yourself to the language, be mindful of the patterns and "audibols"-only works when the person has acquired certain knowledge of the language and for audio-lingual learners. It may not be as effective for other types of learners (visual, kinesthetic)
Still, what I love about the book is how the author approached language learning from the perspective of a psycholinguist. Readers can benefit from the metacognitive knowledge given to monitor the language acquisition process or "control your own learning". The use of anecdotes with a heavy load of humor to exemplify his points makes the book very pleasant to read. Above all, the major underlying message that everyone can master a new language no matter as long as they make enough efforts and practice mindfully is a philosophy that we- language learners- shall live by.
Key takeaways:
-The ability to learn a language is never lost. Adult can use their knowledge of the world, an understanding of how words connect as their advantages in learning
-View language as a tool. Focus on communication skill. Don't grammarate
-Be mindful of the audibols- the sounds. Learn to recognise them, connect them with images and meanings and learn to produce the sounds as native speakers do
-Pay attention to patterns
-Start with small core (vocab+structures)- practice it over and over and build from there (a few words every day)
-Pick up high efficient words: words that get a reaction, can be used all over the place, get native speakers to tell you new words, communicate politeness=> Use language to learn language. This is a novel idea that I believe will be highly practical
-Pick up representative words (names of categories), ritual greetings
And lastly, practice practice practice. Always look for opportunities to practice, solidify and extend your capacity.

[Lmcwil · Rating 2 out of 5]

He makes some valid points, but most of it is just common sense. On the whole, I was disappointed by the book's shallowness. Further, it would have been nice to see some research backing up his assertions, as opposed to a series of anecdotes (mostly from his own experience). I've resisted reading this book for a long time because I had my doubts about it, but since it was just sitting there on Jenn's shelf and it's not very long, I figured why not?

Worth picking up at someone else's house and skimming over. Worth actually paying for at the book store and lugging around with you on a plane? Not so much.

[Myra Flor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I partially read this book. It's only useful if you haven't lived abroad and haven't dabbled in language-learning many times before. Otherwise, I think the author generally has good tips on the language learning process & changing your mentality on learning a language as an adult. He seems to go off track quite a bit though which I felt distracted from the content.

[Nan Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful

This book contains many ideas that are new to me. There are things that we already know, such as the importance of listening, speaking, vocabulary, grammar, etc. However, the idea of learning to speak first by active interactions and subsequently learning to read and to write is something that worth trying.

[Meliksah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensible information about language learning.

Author has a scientific mind, he explains concepts with mental scientific hooks.

That's what I liked about this book while learning how to learn.

[Alvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good insights...

This book is very practical. I am going to use the concepts taught here especially the concept of expanding the core slowly

[Bekhruz Shakirov · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book. Pretty simple to understand the basic idea of the book. There are also some useful techniques and tricks)))

[Natalio Cardoso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro interesante para animarte cuando estás intentando aprender un idioma pero te da la sensación de que no avanzas lo suficiente... Para eso es bastante útil. Sin embargo, algunas de las técnicas o consejos son o bien irrealizables, o bien evidentes para cualquier estudiante serio de lenguas.

Ahora bien: si el lector está ya viviendo en el lugar donde se habla la lengua que desea aprender, entonces sí le encontrará más utilidad, aunque solo sea como ‘tercer hombre’ que le guíe por el túnel de la desesperación hasta la luz de la fluidez.

[កូនខ្មែរ សម័យអង្គរ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I can learn a lot about this book, especially, the methods to learn learn English fast.

[Jesús Dávila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not impressed and somewhat disappointed with this book. I had read several good reviews about it in Amazon.com, and it does not live up to all the hype created there. Most claims are based on anecdotes (which are sometimes quite boring) and hardly any on scientific research.
Since I have read several books on the subject, I did not get very much out of it. However, I would still recommend it to anyone looking to pick up another language and wants some simple pointers.

[Cassi Gallagher-Shearer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some good tips and reminders on how to learn a language. Like others have mentioned a lot of it is antidotal stories, which I didn't mind as much, but I was expecting more. Some of the writing and grammar took me out of it (It DOES use a "NOT!" joke) so I had trouble wanting to keep reading. That being said the book did leave me with some good takeaways I'll be applying to learning Spanish.

[shane m sapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful

Currently, I live in Tijuana and am working on Spanish. The author presented a lot of good points that are applicable to any endeavor to learn a second or third language. I recommend this book to the serious student of languages.