Learn That Language Now

So, something that my college, Middlebury College, has is “Midd on the Globe” which consists of language classes run by students. One of these classes is for Korean and since I have studied Japanese for a long time, I decided to take this class to see how similar Korean is to Japanese.

I’ve only taken one class this past Monday, but I can say that the alphabet doesn’t look too difficult. Although there seem to be a lot more vowels than the 5 vowel sounds in Japanese, having an alphabet sure beats having to learn thousands of Japanese characters. So far the alphabet seems pretty regular, too.

As for vocabulary, there seems to be a lot of similarities. Often the word is not exactly the same but similar enough that it makes it easy for me to remember it. Now I understand why the Korean students always had such an easy time in my Japanese class. Also, the vocabulary seems to be similar in that it often follows a consonant-vowel pattern like Japanese. Although this isn’t strict: it’s possible to have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. However, the rhythm seems to be similar to Japanese and the second consonant usually seems to be soft.

Grammar also seems to be very similar to Japanese with the subject-object-verb order. Also there seems to be particles that are similar to the Japanese ones. Again, now I see why the Korean students always had such an easy time in my Japanese classes. At least now I have an advantage over everyone else in my Korean class since I know Japanese sentence structure and vocabulary. It’s good to finally be ahead for once!

I’ll be sure to write more about my observations between Korean and Japanese in the future as I learn more. For now though, if you want to learn tips, techniques and tricks for the fastest language learning around, please check out my Learn That Language Now book. I have a free sample up now, so go check it out!

Japanese kanji are one of those things that beginners of Japanese often become enamored with in one way or another. Kanji are the key to reading Japanese and are also a nice way to show off to your non-Japanese speaking friends. From tattoos to scribbling down characters on a piece of paper, kanji are visually appealing and fun to write.

Unfortunately, Japanese kanji can be a nightmare for learners, especially beginners. Learning 1,945 distinct characters is no easy task. 1,945 is, of course, the number of joyo kanji which are the kanji recognized by the government and used in everyday use. To read a newspaper, one would need to know most of these 1,945 kanji.

Additionally, the characters often have multiple readings depending on the context and the way they are used. This can cause even further headaches for beginners since often times, the character they come across when reading will have a different reading from what they originally learned!

Despite these  problems, Japanese kanji are necessary in order to read and write Japanese. Before I tell you what I have found to be the best way to learn kanji, let me tell you about some of the ways I tried that did not work.

Originally, when I was first starting out kanji, I tried learning the kanji the same way that Japanese children do. That is, I learned all the kanji that Japanese 1st graders learn and then I moved on to the kanji that 2nd graders learn and so on. The problem with this is that as a foreigner learning Japanese, the vocabulary I know is much different from a Japanese child. For that reason, some of the kanji I was learning were simple to write but not very applicable to my studies or the kind of Japanese I was using in class. To be honest, it is more beneficial to learn slightly more complicated kanji as long as you are using them often in class or somewhere else.

Another failed attempt was when I tried to learn kanji before I actually knew the vocabulary that the kanji was associated with. While this actual act isn’t that bad, the problem comes during review. If I don’t know the Japanese word already, the chances that I’m going to be using it later are very small so I never get to review the kanji or use it. For that reason, I got few reviews in of the kanji and I soon forgot it. Essentially, the time I spent learning it was wasted.

Another note I should make before I move on to some tips is that if you’re a beginner in Japanese, you shouldn’t worry too much about kanji too soon. In real life situations, you will most likely be using a computer or a cell phone to type out Japanese and in those cases, all you need to do is enter in the pronounciation of the words and recognize the kanji. Being able to recognize the kanji is a lot easier than being able to write it from memory. For this reason, you should be able to recognize a lot of kanji just by reading and studying. Even though you won’t be able to write them from memory, you will still be able to communicate as long as you have a computer or a cell phone which will be almost always.

In any case, there may be some times where you have to write out kanji (most likely for your class tests). The best advice I can give for learning kanji is to break down the kanji into their components and make up a story. Basically, you’ll notice that all kanji are made up of smaller parts called radicals. If you take these radicals and make up an image or word to represent them, you can then make up a small story combining all the radicals. This image will stick in your head and make it easier for you to remember the kanji in the future. If you have to learn the word or pronounciation of the kanji, as well, you can also add that into your story and thus knock down all the pins at once!

In any case, you’ll notice that the more complex kanji are actually made up of simpler kanji. So, as you create these stories, it will become easier and easier to learn the more complex kanji. The best thing to do is just to relax and slowly learn the kanji as your Japanese studies progress. In this way, your brain will become more familiar with the way the kanji look and you will find that you are able to pick up new kanji with ease. Eventually you won’t even need to make up stories to remember the kanji, you will just remember them naturally.

Hopefully you learned a thing or two from my post. If you want more language learning information, tips, tricks, techniques and method for the fastest language learning around to get you fluent quick then I recommend checking out my Learn That Language Now book. I now have a free sample up from the book so go and check it out!

For those of you who don’t know already, Esperanto is a human-constructed language created in 1887. It was created in order to be a simple language to learn for those people who already knew a European language. It is estimated that there are 100,000 to 2 million speakers in the world.

When I was in high school, I began to learn Esperanto while taking Spanish classes because I had read on the Internet that it was an easy language to pick up. So, I took a free online course and even went to my bookstore and bought a book on Esperanto grammar and an Esperanto dictionary. What I found was, it was true: Esperanto grammar and vocabulary is regular and easy to pick up. There are no irregularities or exceptions like we find in natural languages. This made it a delight to learn.

There was, however, a problem with Esperanto for me and it ultimately led to me stopping my learning of it. The problem is that there just isn’t enough material to keep me interested in it. For example, there isn’t a wide range of literature or TV shows or movies or comic books. Additionally, there aren’t that many people who speak it and if the numbers I quoted above are true, those 100,000 to 2 million people are not concentrated in one area, but are instead spread throughout the world. So, that makes it a bit difficult to get up and visit a country where Esperanto is spoken and enjoy yourself being immersed by the language.

Ultimately, while Esperanto is an easy, regular language to learn, I would recommend spending one’s time on a real, natural language. The reason is because there is a lot more context available for you to enjoy yourself in. Esperanto, to me, seems more like a hobby. If you are looking for a niche to work yourself into, it might serve pretty well. I’m sure there are many message boards and communities on the Internet that promote Esperanto. In my opinion, however, it is much more worth my time to learn a natural language that is bigger and more useful simply because that’s where my interests lay.

I occasionally find people who tell me they want to learn Esperanto because it is an easy language and if they master it, it will make learning other languages easier after that. While I admire this logic, I don’t think it is quite on track. I think it would be more useful just to learn the language that you *want* to learn first. It doesn’t make sense to learn a completely different language solely for the sake of making the language you want to learn easier. I would argue that your interest in the language and your dedication to it is what is going to pull you  through to fluency; not the fact that you were able to learn a separate language beforehand.

So, my final advice to those of you who are considering  learning Esperanto is: check out the internet community and see if it’s something that interests you. If it does, then great, you should go ahead and learn Esperanto as long as it still gives you pleasure. On the other hand, for those of you who don’t like Esperanto for Esperanto and are instead thinking of using it as a stepping stone, I’d say, just go ahead and learn the language that you want to learn. It just doesn’t make sense to spend time on something that you are not really intending to use for itself anyway.

I hope my comments have been interesting to you. If you’d like more information, as well as, tips, tricks and techniques, I highly recommend checking out my language learning book. It includes a wealth of information as well as the method to get you fluent faster than you ever thought possible. I even have a free sample up now from the book, so check it out!

As I mentioned in my last post on making the best of your study abroad trip, one of the best ways to improve in your target language is to make a friend or two who speaks the language natively. These friends will allow you to practice the language while having a good time. If you are lucky, they will introduce you to more people who speak the language natively and soon you will have a circle of friends who are willing to help you out in your target language.

Often times for people who have just moved or are doing a study abroad program in a country where their target language is spoken, they find it difficult to make contacts with the native population. This is understandable for anyone moving to a new area. However, there are a few advantages you have in gaining friends and new contacts. But, first let’s talk about the types of people you will find.

Similar to my post on how to become fluent through a boyfriend or girlfriend, there are a few types of friends you will encounter in your new country.

The first type is the kind who is interested in you for improving their own English. These types are usually pretty easy to befriend since they are gaining a lot by speaking to you in English. If you are really having trouble making friends in your new country, it may help to make a friend with one or two of this type of person since it may lead to them introducing you to other friends. The problem with this type is that they will want to speak English to you for part or all of the time and since you are trying to learn their target language, this obviously does not help you.

The second type of person is the person who has studied English to some degree in the past but either doesn’t feel comfortable speaking it or isn’t really interested in speaking English. This type is better than the first type since they will communicate with you in your target language and will be understanding of your mistakes. They are more likely to take things slowly with you in order to help you understand. They will also be somewhat knowledgeable of differences between your culture and their own.

The third type consists of people who have either never studied English or failed miserably at it in school and have absolutely no interest in learning English. This type is sometimes the hardest to meet and make friends with because they usually have little interest in foreigners. On the other hand, you will find a small subset that is interested in meeting foreigners as long as you have an interesting personality. In any case, you can expect that this type will speak to you only in your target language and will speak to you in it at full blast; that is, they will speak the language to you as if you understood it like a native.

So, which type is the best type to try and meet? It depends on your skill level in the language. In my opinion, the third type can be the most interesting since they will never hold back when speaking to you in the language. However, speaking to this type requires that you know the language extremely well. The second type is a softer version which is good for intermediates since they will often speak slowly for you or help you out with hard bits of vocabulary or grammar. The first type is probably only good for you if you know absolutely nothing in your target language or you are really desperate for friends.

Again, I should add that there are no hard, set types… it is possible to find third type people who will sit down with you and slowly explain things in their language or first type people who will set up times to speak only in the target language to help you out. However, the three categories I’ve talked about seem to be the most common types you will run across.

So, now that you know a little about the types of people you will meet, how do we go about meeting them? There are a few ways… probably the most direct way is to get out and try to join any kind of activity you can find. By doing some sort of activity, you will be exposed to others and will soon get to know them better. Another way is to simply be outside a lot. Especially if it is obvious that you are a foreigner, you will find that people will come up to you and try to speak to you. Often you will find a lot of type 1s who will try to come up and practice their English with you. It is very easy to make friends with these types since they are usually very interested in English and people from English-speaking countries.

Another great way to find people is to use the internet sites. There are many sites out there that you can search for that allow you to put up a profile or search other people’s profiles to make friends. You simply create a profile and wait for people to contact you  or you can go out and contact others. After the initial contact, you can talk online for a while to see if this person is actually someone you want to meet and then you can go and meet them. This is a good way to meet people especially if you are shy about meeting people in person at first.

A good way to find these sites is to search Google for the country or target language and then “penpal”. Although most of these sites will show people who are looking for penpals, many of the people on such sites would be delighted to meet a foreigner in their own country. To give you an example for Japanese, japan-guide is a great way to make Japanese friends.

Well, I hope I was able to give you some help about making friends in a foreign country while trying to learn your target lanugage. If you want even more tips, tricks, techniques and the best method to get you fluent the fastest, then definitely check out my Learn That Language Now book. I even have a free sample up from the book now, so go take a look!

A problem I often see is language learners who study abroad but end up not learning as much of the language as they would have liked to. There are a few tips I can give for those of you who are planning on studying abroad that should help you learn the language.

First, I should say that simply going to a country where the target language is spoken is not enough to learn it. I’ve seen plenty of people go to a country for long periods of time (even years) and come out still not speaking past a few basic phrases. The point is, you’re going to have to put some effort into learning the language even while you’re in the country if you want to make the best of it.

So, how do we do this? If you don’t have a notecard program set up where you are reviewing new vocabulary already, then make sure you go ahead and do that as soon as possible. Setting it up is a bigger topic and can be read about in my Learn That Language Now book. Once you have your notecard program set up, you can begin adding vocabulary that you come across everyday.

Here is where being in the country really turboboosts your language studies. You are surrounded by real, natural language everyday. All you have to do is find some of the language and then add it to your notecard program. The great thing about being in a foreign country is that this language will surround you and force itself into your face everyday. For example, when I was in Japan, I would ride the subway to class and I was surrounded by advertisements rich with Japanese text. Not only did these advertisements provide me with real practice of my reading skills but I was also able to pick up on new vocabulary and study it later. You can find new vocabulary all around you; whether overheard on the train, seen in the supermarket, read in a newspaper, or anywhere else, it will all become good language practice for you.

Because you are in the country where the language is spoken, you simply cannot fail to find new vocabulary to add and learn. The important point though is that you keep track of it and make an active attempt to learn it. If you do not do this, you can be sure that the next time you come across the word, your chances of remembering it will be significantly lower.

Ultimately, the point is, don’t let the great opportunity of being surrounded by the language trick you into thinking you don’t have to put any effort into it. Study abroad can really boost your studies, but you need to make an active attempt to acquire the words around you, so do it! Another great tip is to find some native friends who can speak to you in the language — I’ll talk more about this in a later post. If you can’t wait or if you want more tricks, tips and the quickest, best method for learning a language, by all means, feel free to read about my Learn That Language Now ebook. I even have a free sample up now, so check it out!

A friend of mine recently told me that he had decided to go to South Korea to teach English. He doesn’t know a single word of Korean and I thought about the kind of advice I would give to someone in this situation since I know there are probably quite a few people out there considering teaching English in a foreign country without knowing a word of the native language.

For someone who doesn’t know much of the language, let’s say, Korean, in this case, and who doesn’t have time or money to take classes or get a tutor in their home country, I would give the following advice. First, go to your local bookstore and get a small phrasebook. Flip through the phrasebook and pick out any phrases that you think you will likely be using. Phrases like “thank you”, “do you speak English?”, “please”, etc. are all good starters. A good way to study these phrases is to put them on notecards and then carry around those notecards wherever you go, studying the phrases whenever a bit of time pops up like when you are standing in line at the supermarket, for example.

Note that you don’t have to learn every phrase in the phrasebook. In fact, most of the phrases in the phrasebook are likely not worth studying at the moment since the situations that they describe are so rare they are unlikely to come up. Instead, try to imagine what your life will be like in Korea and then decide which phrases will be most useful to you.

Now, if you have a little extra money, I would also suggest buying an audio course. The reason for this is that it will get you used to hearing the sounds of Korean and it will have you speaking the basic phrases. This way, the natives will be able to understand you and you will be able to understand them. Especially for a language so different from English, it may be hard to get a good grasp of the spoken language from just a phrasebook. There are many audio courses out there but if I had to recommend one, I would say Pimsleur is a good bet. Pimsleur makes nicely packaged courses that are pretty enjoyable and cover the most commonly used phrases that you will need. If you are technically inclined, you can rip the CDs into MP3s and put them on your MP3 player for the plane ride over to Korea.

So, what I’ve recommended is the bare minimum to get you started in the language right before going over. Of course, when you get to your future country, you’ll want to continue your studies and I have some advice on that, too, which I’ve put into a nice book that covers all aspects of learning any language so that you will be learning as quickly and fluently as possible with the least amount of effort. You can find more information about my book and read more free articles on language learning at my website, Learn That Language Now. Good luck in your language studies and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!

This post is similar to my last one on learning Japanese kanji. I received the following question from a reader about Chinese…

Robertson, thank you for putting this book together.  I certainly picked up some tips and tricks to help me learn a new language.
 
I am attempting to learn Chinese.  Do you have any experience learning pinyin?  Your thoughts about using pinyin to learn Chinese?
 
In regards to your learning Japanese, did you only learn the characters (Kanji?) or did you first learn any Romanization of the language? (if there is such a thing for Japanese)
 
I’m guessing it would be easier to learn to speak the language first, instead of trying to read or write it.  Especially an Asian language, since there is no alphabet equivalency for English speakers.
 
Your thoughts?
 
Thanks,
Wes.

Hi Wes,

Thanks for contacting me. I do have some thoughts concerning Chinese.

About characters, I would suggest this: concentrate on learning to recognize many characters but not necessarily how to write them just yet.

I would suggest that when you create new entries in your flashcard program, type the entire word and sentence in Chinese characters (traditional or simplified or both if you so desire) and then write the pinyin afterwards. On the “other side” (answer), you can write the English as I describe in my book.

The reason for this is that by going through your daily repetition, your mind will get used to seeing the characters and by receiving this kind of input, you will find that you will begin to remember them more easily. Since you’ll be doing a high amount of repetition for vocabulary and sentences, you may as well get the most out of it by adding characters, too.

If you have not studied characters at all, I would suggest studying them a little to get a sense of the basic radicals, etc. You may want to take a look at the most basic ones. Then you can just sit back and slowly get more accustomed to the characters through your vocabulary repetitions.

Again, I wouldn’t worry too much about being able to write the characters since in today’s world, everybody uses computers to write and thus you only need to know the pinyin and be able to recognize the correct character to use. If you are interested in being able to write the characters properly, I would suggest practicing that only after you are able to read and recognize many characters. As I said before, most people use computers these days to write so the ability to read and recognize characters is much more important than writing. For this reason, it makes sense to put your writing studies at a lower priority than reading, recognizing and learning new vocabulary and sentences.

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me here. Thanks.

-Robertson B. Kunz

Kanji is a seemingly impossible barrier for beginners of Japanese (or Chinese) to overcome. Since I’ve studied Japanese, I will look at kanji but what I write here is applicable to Chinese characters (hanzhi), as well. While many Japanese beginners lament the fact that there are over 2,000 kanji to learn to be able to read a newspaper, I will show you why kanji isn’t nearly as bad as you think and I’ll point out a few tips to help you in your kanji studies.

If you’re still in your beginning phases of learning Japanese, you’ve probably looked over a real Japanese newspaper or peeked inside a real Japanese book to see if you could understand anything with your Japanese 101 knowledge. What you found probably horrified you. Thousands upon thousands of characters that looked alien to you and most of which you had probably never seen nor knew existed before! “How could I possibly learn all of these?” you ask yourself, “English has 26 characters, why does Japanese have to be so difficult and use over 2,000 characters within three writing systems? I’ll never be able to learn all of these!”

I’ve seen a lot of Japanese beginners get so downtrodden at the prospect of learning so many characters that they seemingly give up trying to learn how to read and write properly. Truthfully, it does not have to be this way!

There are a few things to keep in mind when first starting to learn characters. For one, as a beginner, you are not used to seeing any of the characters and your brain hasn’t had enough input to begin to subconsciously make sense of them. You’ll find that as you learn more and more characters, your brain will be able to learn new kanji quicker than before. This is because the kanji are made up of many different radicals and when you build up your repertoire of kanji, it makes it easy for your brain to relate new kanji to the kanji you already know. There is already a “hook” for the new kanji to be attached to.

For this reason, although even the easiest of kanji may seem impossibly difficult to remember now, in the future, you’ll be learning new difficult kanji effortlessly since your brain will easily be able to connect the different parts of the kanji to kanji you already know.

Secondly, don’t worry so much about being able to write every kanji. In today’s world, it is much more important to be able to read the kanji than to be able to write the kanji. Most of your Japanese professors will probably stress that you be able to write all of the kanji that you learn. The truth is, this is somewhat of a waste of time. The reason is because today, everybody uses computers to type. For this reason, you only need to be able to recognize the correct character once you input the pronunciation into the computer in order to write proper Japanese.

Additionally, if there is ever a time where you do not have a computer at hand or you are forced to write something without the help of a computer, you can always use your cell phone to look up the right character and see what it looks like. In fact, many native Japanese speakers in Japan do this very trick because even they cannot remember how to write all of the kanji.

Thirdly, the 1,945 joyo kanji may seem like a huge amount but let’s break it down. There are 365 days in a year. That means if you study just 5 kanji everyday, you will reach 1825 kanji by the end of the year and that number basically covers the 98% most common kanji. That means by studying 5 kanji per day, you can become fluent in the joyo kanji by the end of the year. 5 kanji a day doesn’t seem too bad at all, does it?

Furthermore, if you’ve studied Japanese for two years, that means you could have been studying 2 or 3 new kanji everyday for these past two years and could have been fluent in kanji by now. 2 or 3 new kanji everyday seems like nothing, doesn’t it? The point is, instead of being overwhelmed at the number of new kanji, just break it down to manageable pieces and then stick to a habit of studying a couple of them everyday. If you stay with the habit you will find that you will have mastered those “impossible” kanji faster than you thought possible.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more tips, tricks, techniques and a method that will insure you will become fluent then I recommend checking out my new book Learn That Language Now. Thanks!

This article is a continuation of “How to Become Fluent Through a Boyfriend or Girlfriend (Part 1 of 2). In the second part, we’re going to talk about some of the pitfalls and tactics to avoid them.

Pitfalls
Now that we’ve agreed that having a girlfriend who speaks the language you are trying to learn helps, let’s look at some of the problems.

Perhaps the only pitfall to this situation is if you run into a girl who is desperately trying to learn English or who speaks English better than you can speak her language. If this happens, she may want to speak English with you at least 50% of the time you are with her. There are some tactics for trying to get around this problem which I’ll talk about in just a bit. I know some of you are going to stop right there and say “What? Tactics!? This sounds underhanded” but please, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

In any case, you’ll notice that “desperately trying to learn English” and “speaks English better than you can speak her language” will apply to a lot of girls who are in your native country. To have the best chances of finding a girl who can only speak the language you are learning or who doesn’t care about English, I recommend going to the country of the language you are learning and finding a girlfriend there if you’re willing to invest that sort of time, energy and effort.

Another problem with meeting someone in your own country is that the context in which you are introduced will most likely be English. This is bad since it starts off your relationship as an English-based one. Of course, it is possible to change this but if you have mutual friends that introduced you, then every time you meet with those mutual friends, you will be forced to speak English to each other, further enforcing English as the language of use within the relationship.

Tactics
How can you change the language of the relationship to the one you want or deal with a significant other who is persistent in trying to learn English? The answer is quite simple, really.

All you have to do is continually speak or respond to your significant other in the language you are studying, even if he or she speaks to you in English. This situation is most likely to occur at the beginning of your relationship since the language of conduct will most likely be cemented as you get to know each other more.

You don’t need to say anything about the fact that you are going to respond or speak to her in the language you want since the important thing is to just do it. Just stay calm and act as if speaking to her in that language is the most natural option. If you’re in the country where that language is spoken, then it is the most natural option and you really shouldn’t be speaking English, anyway.

Let’s say you are in a foreign country and you ask a girl out. If you meet a girl for a date and she greets you in English, you will probably want to respond in the language you are studying. If she then switches to the language you are studying, your mission is accomplished and you can now enjoy both a date and some “study” time.

Some girls will greet you in English because they may be unsure of how much you know of their language and they are just trying to be polite. By speaking in her language, you show her that you are okay with speaking in that language for the rest of the time.

If, however, she responds back again in English, you will want to continue responding in the language you are studying. It will probably seem awkward to you but just continue. It will seem awkward for her, too, and for this reason she will eventually switch to the language you want.

The point is, you need to be persistent or else you will get stuck in the trap of her speaking to you in English every time you meet. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but it’s worth it to see if she’s willing to speak to you in her language and thus give you the extra bonus of some language study.

If you try this tactic and she still continues to respond to you in English without remarking on the fact that it seems odd that you are both speaking in different languages then you may be out of luck. You may also want to reconsider the reason she’s seeing you. Is she seeing you because she’s interested in you or does she just want a free language lesson? Especially if you’re in a foreign country, you will want to watch out for girls who are interested solely in foreigners for their ability to teach them English for free.

Having a significant other who speaks the language you are studying can help you a lot but you shouldn’t let that language time go to waste. You need a method to insure that you will remember every word he or she uses without fear of ever forgetting. You’ll want an overall strategy so that this input from your significant other will help your language studies even more than you thought! And, hey, even if you don’t have a significant other yet, don’t worry about it, I will still show you the fastest, easiest, most efficient way to learn a foreign language. Begin your empowered studies now by reading about Learn That Language Now.

Recently, someone was asking whether or not having a significant other who speaks the language you are trying to study will help you in your studies. I think most people, even those who have never studied a language before, would say “of course!” So, the purpose here is not to convince you that a foreign lover will help you on your path to fluency but rather, to show you how he or she can help and also the problems that might occur with such a situation.

In my personal experience, yes, having a girlfriend who speaks the language you are studying helps a lot. “Why?” you might ask.

The reason for this is that you are able to slip in a lot more studying time without it feeling that way. Because this person is your significant other, you’re probably going to want to spend a good deal of time with him or her and you will probably end up speaking to him or her quite a bit.

Just to make things easy, let’s say you speak an average of one hour per day with your significant other. Over a week, that’s seven extra hours of practicing the language. And, of course, over a year that’s 365 hours. If you have read my ebook, you already know that 365 hours is a good chunk of time towards reaching your goal (and if you haven’t already read my ebook, go take a look now!)

Not only does having a Japanese girlfriend or a Swedish boyfriend (for examples) help you speak the language more naturally, but the chances that you will run across a word you don’t know and then have it taught to you by your significant other are also higher.

Additionally, just by hearing that amount of language everyday, you will have a ton of repetition and you will grow accustomed to the language and its patterns. Because this is your significant other speaking to you, you’ll probably be interested in what he or she is saying and you’ll be more likely to go out of your way to figure out new vocabulary or grammar patterns that he or she is using.

Person A and Person B
To show you the difference again, let’s look at Person A who has no foreign girlfriend and person B who does. I’m going to do this from a male’s perspective since it’s annoying to write “he or she” and “boyfriend or girlfriend” in every sentence but obviously, this situation can be turned around just as easily to come from a female’s perspective. This example will show you how the “study” patterns differ between having a foreign lover or not and will also show the types of activities that will aid you in your “studies”. Let’s start with Person A.

Person A studies an average of half an hour per day. Sometimes he’ll study 2 hours in one day but some days, he won’t study at all. His studies mostly include trying to read newspaper articles online or trying to complete grammar exercises in his grammar textbook. He often gets distracted by incoming e-mail or by surfing the internet during his studies.

Person B, on the other hand, goes out to dinner with his girlfriend regularly as well as to other fun activities. Of course, all of this is conducted in the language Person B is trying to learn. Person B’s girlfriend introduces him to several movies and books in the language that he enjoys very much. Person B’s girlfriend introduces him to her friends who also speak the language he is studying. Person B often speaks to his girlfriend over the phone or online because he’s interested in her and speaking to her doesn’t feel like a chore. Occasionally, Person B’s girlfriend will use a word or grammar point he doesn’t understand. Because Person B wants to know the meaning, he immediately looks it up in an online dictionary and remembers it well because his girlfriend used it.

As you can see, the amount of time that Person B spends with his girlfriend (and thus receiving/producing his studied language) will be much higher than someone simply studying. Also, Person B’s “studies” are much more fun than Person A’s studies and one could argue that the language Person B is learning is more natural than the language Person A finds in his textbook.

You’ve probably noticed that you tend to remember things that you are interested in better than things that you are not interested in. I don’t know about you but talking to my girlfriend is fun so I’m better able to remember the context and usage of words than if I had learned them in some dry, written textbook context.

We’ll talk about the pitfalls, tactics and other problems of a “sleeping dictionary” tomorrow, so stay tuned.