Have you been learning your target language for some time, but don’t feel you’ve made real progress?
You are not alone!
Many people spend a lot of time studying the language without feeling that they have actually acquired the necessary knowledge to have a real conversation.
The fact is that learning a foreign language takes time and effort. It doesn’t happen automatically, as some apps may advertise.
Learning a foreign language can be a long and frustrating process. Sometimes, it seems that you’re hardly making any progress – despite all the hard work that you put in.
However, the process of becoming conversational in your target language doesn’t have to be a gruesome process and it doesn’t have to take months. In fact, you can reach a conversational level of speaking in a matter of weeks by following a simple method!
You may wonder if this is even possible. The answer is – YES!
We’ve done it many times ourselves and we see how our students quickly reach a conversational level in a language they learn from scratch, all the time.
Benefits of speaking another language
Becoming fluent in a new language takes time and requires a lot of practice, but the reward is huge.
Speaking one or even multiple foreign languages can literally change your life in the following ways:
- Traveling to another country and talking to the locals in their own language.
- Developing a better understanding of another culture by learning the language.
- Watching your favorite movies in another language, without subtitles.
- Maybe your spouse speaks another language and you want to finally be able to communicate with his/her family members. How would they react?
- Retiring abroad in a place where the sun shines everyday day.
Lucas and I have learned over 10 foreign languages and we can assure you, learning languages has completely changed our lives.
Becoming fluent in a second, third or even a fourth language can change your life too! Imagine what your life would look like?
The frustration barrier
So, you’re excited about the benefits that speaking a foreign language can bring and you are ready to dive in!
Full of optimism, you started searching for the best ways of learning words, phrases, grammar… You started making some progress, but you soon realized this process will take a lot of time and effort. So, you start losing motivation.
This is a common problem for all of us who decide to learn a new language.
The beginning phase can be especially difficult. When you just start learning something new, you know that you’re going to be bad at it. Learning only becomes fun after you reach a certain level. Some call it the ‘’frustration barrier’’.
Why would you start learning a new language if you know you’re going to be bad at it?
Over the last decade, we’ve talked to tons of language learners from all over the world who studied a language for months, sometimes even years and eventually realized they couldn’t even hold a 5-minute conversation with a native speaker.
It’s no wonder why so many people give up and never become fluent.
Is it possible to break through the ‘frustration barrier’ in a matter of weeks and learn a language in a fun way without feeling embarrassed?
Again, the answer is… yes!
How long does it actually take?
We believe that in roughly twenty hours of self-study and twenty hours of practice, you can get to a level where you can get by in the language, and hold basic conversations with native speakers.
This can be achieved in about 7 weeks, depending on how different the target language is from the languages that you already speak.
Please notice that we’re not talking about achieving fluency here. Becoming fluent in a new language takes at least a few years.
We’ve interviewed and worked with some of the best polyglots (people that speak many languages) in the world, but we’ve never met anyone who managed to become fluent in a new language in a matter of months. Maybe some of them became kind of fluent in a new language but that language was similar to a language that they already spoke quite well.
Most people underestimate how much it takes to become fluent. The good news is that most people overestimate how fast you can reach a conversational level. We’re talking about a level where you’re able to fly to the country where your target language is spoken and have simple, but fun and spontaneous conversations!
How do you learn the language fast?
We use a special method with which we break through the ‘’frustration barrier’’ right at the beginning so that the learning process becomes fun, you achieve real results and gain momentum that you need to eventually achieve fluency.
This approach works for any language. Our students and we have used this method to reach high levels in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin and over ten other languages. Make sure that you follow the principles that we will teach you and transform the way you learn languages.
Keep an eye on our following blogposts. We’re going to share with you an approach that will enable you to start speaking your target language from the very beginning.
In the following blog, we will go through the basics of rapid skill acquisition. We will then show you three principles of learning a new language from scratch quickly.
If you want to find out more fast, you can learn more in our e-book The Art of Rapid Language Learning.
About the writer of this article:
Jan van der Aa traveled to 100 countries and learned 10 languages before he turned 30. On his website he shares his language learning experience and helps people from all over the world to learn languages faster.
