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

Words Are Your Arsenal

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It is not important to be better than someone else, but to be better than
yesterday.
—J
IGORO
K
ANO, CREATOR OF JUDO
Each day, you can increase your vocabulary and thus your ability to
communicate ideas. Focus on learning new vocabulary, phrases, and typical
things you say often, and then burn them into your memory so you can pull
them out at a moment’s notice.
Now try out some of the tools you’ve just learned:
Pick one simple word in your target language that you don’t know yet and
look it up or find it in a course book. Now think about a hilarious or
ridiculous way to associate a similar-sounding English word with the
translation of that word using the examples listed in this chapter for
inspiration. Then do the same for other words. Test yourself on these
words an hour later, the next day, a week later, and you will see that the
keyword method makes them way more memorable.
By the way, what’s French for “train station”? What’s the first word in an
Italian sentence asking where the bathroom is? And how do you say
“target” in Mandarin? As long as you remembered even just one of these,
you can start to see how effective the keyword method is.
If you are still stuck for ideas, check out Memrise.com for some excellent
mnemonics associated with common words in many languages. Use this
for inspiration to help you make up your own associations for words you
come across as you learn the language.
Find translations of a handful of typical phrases like “What does that
mean?” and use my music-association suggestion to help recall them.
Write a short introduction to your personal story, answering the question
“Why are you learning this language?” first in English. Make it short
enough that you can provide the answer in about thirty seconds. Next, find
a native speaker to help you translate it or proofread your own translation.
Then use a combination of all the techniques mentioned in this chapter to
help you go through the entire monologue without any help.

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While these techniques are great for learning specific words and
phrases, the best way to make sure you assimilate the natural use of a
language is to actually use it. Familiarity is not built through flash cards and
fun image associations, but through consistent use and seeing the words in
context.
Use the tools in this chapter to help give yourself a boost with putting as
many words as possible into your arsenal, but make sure you are also
practicing as much as possible in real conversations so those words and
phrases become a natural part of your language use. You will then learn
even more words as you use the language.
For more on the concepts raised in this chapter, as well as videos,
interviews, and relevant links, check out fi3m.com/ch–3.

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CHAPTER 4

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