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

Tonal Languages
When it comes to languages like Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, or Vietnamese,
many people quickly say they could never speak these because their tones
make them too hard. Many claim they are tone deaf and could never manage to
process them. I find this strange, because even if the person claiming this is
musically tone deaf, that person can still fully interpret the prosody and
intonation of speech in his or her native language.
We have tones in English and other European languages; we just apply
them to indicate subtle differences in the meanings of words and sentences
rather than using them to change the core meaning of a word (although this is
also possible). We can all tell the difference between “Oh?” when said as a
question to show a curiosity for more details (the tone goes from low to high)
and “Oh . . .” disappointingly said to show feeling let down by the information
heard (the tone is shorter and lowers briefly). The sounds of both of these
serve to convey how the word should be understood.
It definitely takes practice for those of us not used to incorporating tones so
specifically into our learning process or applying them to languages to convey
differences in meaning. Time with a native speaker, and going through it
slowly while repeating what that person says a few times, can help you adapt
to these. Anyone dedicated to it can learn tones relatively quickly, and then
they become second nature.

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Despite the fact that tones distinguish meanings of words, people still
understand me regularly even when I fail to use the right ones thanks to the
context of the sentence, and the fact that they adjust to me as a learner. The
more I say, despite using incorrect tones on several words, the more context I
provide and the listener can adjust to see what I mean.
When I arrived in Taiwan, I spoke only Mandarin outside the house, and
despite needing several weeks before feeling more confident with my tones, I
ordered food, asked directions, and was understood by those not used to
speaking with foreigners. They understood what I meant from the context, and
what tone I meant, similar to the way that you’d understand me if I asked you
for “the wee to the leebry” on the street—wrong pronunciation indeed, but
very likely to mean “the way to the library,” especially with plenty of context.
Like with everything else in language learning, attitude is the key. Rather
than lament over how impossible tones are, you just throw yourself at the
problem and solve it. I gave tones my full dedication during the first weeks of
learning Mandarin, instead of spreading myself thin trying to learn too many
things at once. This helped me get ahold on them more quickly for the rest of
my learning process.
You saw in chapter 3, with my mùbiāo example, how I learn vocabulary in
tonal languages, by incorporating a visual aspect of falling or going straight or
bouncing or flying up, depending on the appropriate tone. Others have used
colors to help them make tone associations. I also tried singing out sentences
and recording videos to track my progress. Though this took a lot of work, it
was nowhere near as difficult as so many made it out to be.
It’s not about mastering tones in your first week or two but just making
sure you are doing them well enough to be understood. Then, as you practice,
you can continue to improve your skills. Consistent time with native speakers
will show you how tones aren’t as bad as you think.
Chinese
Chinese is one of the most notorious languages around, and many claim that
it’s the hardest in the world. This is usually based on nothing more than seeing
Chinese script, in which you have to learn a completely new complex
character for “every single word.”
Don’t take these scare tactics to heart! First, keep in mind that Chinese is a
broad term, encompassing many varieties as well as the writing system, but

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you may want to narrow down your work to Mandarin, Cantonese, or some
other specific variety if your focus is more spoken.
I decided to temporarily put aside learning how to read Chinese so I could
focus on speaking Mandarin. Reaching the conversational level in that
language in a few months became much more realistic. Then, when I was a
more confident speaker, I got back into the language from the perspective of
improving my reading skills. It was much easier than when I’d tried before,
because I had a better sense of how the language worked and a firmer
understanding of the meaning of the words when sounded out.
Learning new vocabulary when you already have some basics is actually
much more logical than it is in many European languages. For instance, jiăn
zhèn qì means “shock absorber” in Mandarin. With a small amount of
knowledge, this word, which may initially seem intimidating, can be quite
easy to decipher. Jiăn, for instance, means “to reduce.” (Ji nféi means “to lose
weight” [reduce fat] and ji n jià means “sale” [reduce price].) Qì, a very
common everyday word, means “tool” or “device.” Even if you don’t
recognize that zhèn means “to shake,” you can still deduce that it’s a tool for
reducing something, which is a lot of help!
In general, new words are very easy to understand when you look at their
components in this way.
When you are ready to read Chinese, it may seem as if there are too many
characters to process, but keep in mind that a smaller number of frequent ones
are used a lot and with just five hundred you will already recognize 80 percent
of the characters you read and certainly those on most menus and signs. With a
good mnemonics system, and when you are already used to speaking the
language first, you can focus on this better and progress in it very quickly.
When I was learning how to read, I used my trusted keyword method to
help me learn vocabulary. For simple characters, this is quite easy. “Big,” ,
actually looks like a person stretching out his or her arms to say how big
something is, but for more complex characters you need a little more context.
One way to do this is to learn as many of the radicals (building blocks of each
character) as you can and build up a meaning from them. Some of these
meanings are logical, such as “home” being because it’s a “pig” under a
“roof,” and in older times a home would have had an animal in it.
Some are not so immediately logical and require imagination to connect
their building blocks. Many books are available that go through characters
systematically, explaining why they mean certain things. When using these,

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keep in mind that it is more efficient to focus on the most frequent characters
rather than try to go from beginning to end.
As a vegetarian trying to understand menus, for instance, I discovered one
thing that helped me immensely. Many vegetables have the same radical above
them that implies it’s a vegetable or is grass-related. “Spinach” is 
, “green
onion” is , “tomato” is 
, “potato” is , “aubergine (eggplant)” is 
,
“lettuce” is 
, and so on.
Can you see the same fence-like component on the top of each character?
Character formations are far from random, and there are consistencies
throughout that help you to learn them faster.
For much more encouragement related to learning Chinese, see
fi3m.com/chi.