How to Really Learn a Language

by Jeff Martin

Where are all the bilinguals? Have you ever felt like you are no good at learning foreign languages? Have you invested time and money into classes, courses, or mobile apps, yet with little success? You’re not alone. There are millions of people out there just like you. They believe that some people are simply gifted at learning languages, while the rest are destined to struggle. Allow me to change your mind, if you will. I’m a master certified Spanish court interpreter, with no college degree. I’ve never lived in a foreign country, but I’ve managed to become fluent in several languages, and I didn’t start learning foreign languages until I was an adult. I’ve been a polyglot for many years, and I’ve only met a handful of people ever that can do what I do. However, I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of people who have taken foreign language classes and/or have bought language courses that have never truly learned a foreign language. My mission is to change that. I’ve spent the last eleven years writing a book just for you. My philosophy is simple. Language learning is something that we naturally do at first, with our native language, yet becomes a mystery when we approach learning a second one. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be a mystery at all. We learned our first language so naturally and flawlessly, so it should be easier to learn a second one. Yet, because of the approach we take, most people never become fluent in a second language. My goal is to open up your eyes to see that everything we need to know about learning foreign languages is already within us, in our experience that we gained from learning our first language.

Genres: Language

91 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2018

Reviews

[sawaaiiq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin says to go back to basics, stop learning a language like you're 20, 30, 40 years old and start learning as you learnt the first language you mastered, your own.

As a child you would have learnt your first words taking in and consuming your environment, full immersion and little to no grammar. Why would that change now? But the only issue is, how do you go about doing that when learning a foreign language? The only way is to speak to natives and learn with them until you build a big enough vocabulary bank to then focus on fluency, correctness, and mastery.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely encouraging

Mr Martin shatters many of the myths about language learning in this very special text. His message could not be more clear: you can! He’s shows you how.

[Mason Bivens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to build your own approach to language learning

This book really rationalizes its recommendations and criticisms of language learning. When reading this book, it's really easy to blow past the little tips that may only show up in a sentence or two while he intends many weeks to be spent with that idea..such as listening. The book breaks down "fluency" into edible numbers based on "kindergarten fluency, 5000 words", 10 year old fluency, adult native fluency (along with typical words). This was a mind bender for me, especially after learning what kind of conversation you can expect to have with each level of 'fluency". In summary, this book illuminates language learning so that you can understand the work required to hit your language goals, help you optimize your language learning, explains how to really train an accent, and then dives into advanced linguist topics if you're there. I highly recommend this book!

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why am I crying?? WHY?? AM I CRYING?? This book has really good information and is organized very nicely and is SO INSPIRING. I feel inspired to immerse myself in foreign languages and learn the way Martin explained it. The ending hit really hard for some reason?? JEFF MARTIN IF YOU'RE READING THIS, KNOW THAT YOU ARE VERY COOL.

I'm going to be using these techniques to try and learn Korean. A potential career path that I want to take is teaching English as a foreign language and a country I would like to teach in is South Korea.

Personally, some of Martin's experiences and such I don't relate to but IT DOESNT MATTER IN THE LONG RUN. I really like grammar and stuff so I'm probably not going follow this book exactly; I'm probably going to look up grammar and sentence structure while learning it verbally. Martin wrote that he wasn't really interested in that but I AM and I AM INTERESTED IN KNOWING IT

Anyway this is supposed to be a review about a book talking about languages I'm sorry I really like languages and grammar and stuff okay bye (read this book READ IT)

[Steven Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The entire gist of this book can be summed up in one sentence: immerse yourself within a group of native speakers.

Truly, that's it. In 65 pages that is the crux of the author's formula for learning a language.

He does, however, have one extremely important valuable piece of advice that is well worth adhering to. Since the purpose of learning a new language is to be able to converse in it, he states "don't let your purpose become your fear and downfall."

In other words, get over your hesitations and fears of speaking and start using the language to converse. You'll make mistakes, but that's how you'll learn and gain confidence.

[vidyuth Kini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book

There are several books written about how to learn languages. This one doesn’t say anything fantastically new and I read it for research purposes. What I can say is that I believe the authors recommendations are true and furthermore that you can get this truth in a concise format without much jargon. So if you haven’t too much experience with this type of book, I would highly recommend it. It will save you time and boring technicalities.

[Tom Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good clear practical advice

It’s not thin and then padded out into a book. This is a well-structured, nicely-written text on how to get going to learn a language properly.

I’ve got a handful of things to do already, and will go back after to see what else to pick up. Yes would recommend reading it if you’re moving along into intermediate but were wondering what’s needed to keep going and move to the next level.

[Alfiewillmott10 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book , keeps everything simple and proves anyone can learn a language if they follow the steps and keep an open mind . This book has started a life long journey for me in learning languages and has completely changed my viewpoint on languages all together . Overall a genuinely great , inspiring book .

[Frances Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief and to the point

This book is awesome. It is precisely what I was looking for in my research on how to teach Medical Spanish, which is a language specialty. I will use the steps recommended by Jeff Martin to help medical professionals to communicate in Spanish with their Spanish-speakiing patients. I will recommend this book to my prospective students.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Quit focusing on grammar, reading and writing. Learn a second, third, etc language the same way you did the first - by listening and then repeating the sounds you heard. Get recordings and videos of native speakers and learn to speak like a native.

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad bought me this book because I couldn’t speak Spanish, and I read it and damm this book gives really good pointers on how to sound like a native speaker. It also helps to teach your kids how to learn the different languages. over all awesome book!

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and to the point. Read it on kindle. It cost 77p = 1$. Took me about two hours. His point is that there is nothing fundamentally difficult about learning languages. The most important thing is to spend time with native speakers.

[Yseult · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read. With an open mind.

[Sheelie Kittee · Rating 4 out of 5]

so many great ideas here! Excited to apply them to my own language learning 'odyssey.'

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author basically argues for the idea of immersing yourself in the language by speech.

[Arlene Everingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and sensible advice

I am really happy that I stumbled across this book. It offers sensible advice on language learning and was so interesting that I read it in one go!