Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World

What About My Learning Style?
The courses I recommend are very visual: you read the rules and sentences
as the majority of your input. Audio CDs may be included, but these are
accessories to the main book-based course. I have found this works for me,
but there are major problems with a visual learning approach, especially for
languages that use the same script as your mother tongue; you have that
mother tongue bias on how the words “should” be pronounced.
This is why many people opt for an entirely audio-based learning
approach. I find this way is more efficient for those with a conversational

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focus, but there is still a lack of good materials. For those learning
(Mandarin) Chinese, for instance, I find that Chinesepod.com—which has
podcasts for learning Mandarin—does this excellently in various language
levels 
with 
entirely 
audio-based 
explanations. 
Similarly,
Japanesepod101.com does the same for Japanese. Both of these are paid
access podcasts. Other audio-based courses include Pimsleur and Michel
Thomas, both of which don’t rely on visual cues at all and get you more
focused on the sounds of the language, which has huge advantages for
communication-focused learners. These may or may not be worth the
investment, depending on the language version and your learning style.
Beyond audio, there are methods that involve leaving courses and
teachers or tutors aside altogether and deconstructing natural speech or text
yourself. This option is way too difficult for most people, including me. I do
think we need some kind of learner-oriented guidance in language learning,
up to the B1-B2 level.
The trick is that there is no perfect answer; it depends on style. If you
think you can learn better through visual means, see the books I
recommend, and if you appreciate audio learning more, use podcasts or
audio-based courses or, ideally, focus on getting private spoken lessons or
engaging in a free exchange, since that would be way more interactive and
tailored to your specific needs.
Language Log
Apart from the course you use, you should definitely have a goal with your
language learning project, as I discussed in detail in chapter 2.
With this in mind, go to fi3m.com/forum and announce your mission to
the world there! You can also go to Wordpress.com and create your own
free blog, then link to it in Facebook. Or you can just make brief updates on
your progress within Facebook or on another social media site. Some
people prefer to write about their progress, while others prefer to post video
updates on YouTube, or audio updates on SoundCloud if they consider
themselves to be more audiophiles with their languages.
Even if you are not public about it, document your experience in some
way that helps you feel a sense of achievement. Even just writing or typing
in a private diary can make a world of difference.

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