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

Keep It Simple, Stupid: Rephrasing to Keep the Flow
One thing you will quickly learn at this beginner stage is to phrase what
you want to say in your mother tongue before you “translate” it into the
target language. Translating as a long-term strategy is a bad idea if you want
real fluency, as this extra step will slow you down too much. But you will
be speaking slowly as a beginner, so it’s okay to think of what you want to
say in English first and then translate it.
Let’s say, for instance, that the conversation veers toward your future
plans, and initially you decide you want to say, “I will travel to Spain in
July for a two-week vacation.” But then you realize you don’t know how to
use the future tense (“will”) confidently enough yet, you have forgotten the
verb for “to travel,” and you can’t even remember the words for “July” or
“vacation.”
A traditional language learner would probably give up at this point,
resigned that he or she is not “ready” yet, and switch to English or avoid the
topic entirely. But someone focused on communication, rather than saying
precisely the right thing, will look at ways to rephrase with different words
so what is used effectively conveys the same meaning.
Rather than worry about future verb-tense conjugations, many
languages have a handy feature of sticking to infinitive verb forms after

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modal verbs. In less complex language, this means that if you use words
like “want,” “need,” “would like,” “should,” “may,” “can (able to)” in their
standard present-tense conjugation with, say, “I” (“I want,” “I can”), you
can follow them up with the dictionary (infinitive) form of the important
verb you wish to use, such as “to travel.” When you think of it, the essential
difference between “I want to travel” and “I will travel,” while important, is
not significant when you want to convey a simple meaning.
To keep it simple, I’d recommend you learn just “I want,” “you want,”
“I can,” and “you can” to begin with, especially if your exchanges are
directly with one person (since the he/she/it/they pronouns will be less
relevant in that situation). The word “want” can be an okay replacement for
the future tense (“want to speak” instead of “will speak”). “Can” is good to
use in many direct questions, so rather than “Do you speak Italian?” I would
go for “Can you speak Italian?” The point of doing this is to use the
standard dictionary form of the word “speak” (parlare in Italian) without
needing to conjugate (change) it. “Need” (or “have to”) is good for any kind
of obligation. So rather than “I start work at nine,” I might say, “I need to
start work at nine.” The meaning isn’t precisely the same but it’s close
enough.
This isn’t pharmaceutical science or bridge-building engineering, where
a tiny mistake could cost lives. This method will be used in a casual first
conversation with a native speaker who is aware of the fact you are still
learning. Always go for “close enough” and search your mind for words
that have similar meanings, even if they aren’t necessarily synonymous.
So moving on with my original example phrase, the next word I wanted
to say was “travel,” but it’s still day one or two and I may not know this
word yet. Although, I have learned “to go,” so I can use that instead! “To go
to Spain” and “to travel to Spain” are essentially the same thing.
In terms of having more conversations earlier in your learning
process, simple all-encompassing verbs and adjectives will get you
much further than a wide scope of vocabulary will. So “very good”
for a beginner is a fine alternative in most contexts to “wonderful,”
“delicious,” “nice,” “great,” “admirable,” “talented,” “friendly,”
and so many other words. It isn’t a great alternative, but it will do.

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Later you can convey your thoughts precisely, but for now focus on
saying something. Besides, saying that a meal is “very good” is
infinitely better than absolutely needing to use the word “delicious”
but not remembering it and instead saying nothing.
Whenever I can’t remember a word I want, I pause and quickly try to
think of alternatives. What’s another way to say it in English, and, most
important, do I know that word in this language yet?
With that in mind, “to go” will do fine for “to travel” for beginners.
With “July,” try to think of anything vaguely similar. Let’s say you
happen to know the word for “summer.” It doesn’t mean the same thing as
“July,” but it’s close enough. If not, you could also say “in two months” or
“soon” or “later” or “when I can” or a host of other alternatives that convey
your general meaning while also keeping the conversation flowing.
For “vacation,” I could say that I want “to be a tourist.” This isn’t quite
something I would say in English regularly, but the meaning is clear
enough, and the word for “tourist” is similar in many languages.
So we have just turned “I will travel to Spain in July for a two-week
vacation” into “I want to go to Spain this summer to be a tourist for two
weeks.” There is essentially no difference in these two phrases, except that
the second may be much easier for you to say if you already know these
words in your target language.
Keep it simple, as I said, and always remember that you can convey the
meaning of what you want to say as long as you are flexible about how you
say it. Not using precisely the right words is a temporary sacrifice so that
you can find your flow in the language and reach an intermediate stage
much faster. Then you will be able to start using those more precise words.
Go through this slightly frustrating stage of using simpler words for a short
time, and you will sound much more articulate sooner!