People always learned this way
You’ve already done this onceAges 0 to 5You learned your first language, grammar and all, from the talk around you, with no rules, no tests and no flashcards.
Ten seasons of Friends, no classesSeoul, the 2000sA generation of K-pop idols learned English from one sitcom, watched with Korean subtitles, then English, then none.
English before the first lessonFlanders, 2020Belgian ten-year-olds know hundreds of English words before their first lesson, picked up from games, videos and TV.
Stories beat grammar, two to oneFiji, 1980Fijian classes given storybooks learned English twice as fast as classes drilled in grammar, and stayed ahead for two years.
Sixteen languages, no textbooksBudapest, 1944Kató Lomb learned sixteen languages, each from a novel she couldn’t yet read. The Russian one she read in a cellar under siege during WW2.
From no English to Heart of DarknessAt sea, 1878Joseph Conrad learned English at sea in his twenties, kept a Polish accent all his life, and wrote Heart of Darkness in it.
Adults can learn faster than kidsThe Netherlands, 1978Adults who moved to the Netherlands learned Dutch faster than young children all year. Teenagers were fastest of all.
Ten meetings and a word is yoursWebb, 2007Meet a word about ten times in real sentences and you know its meaning, its spelling and how to use it.
Read and listen, remember moreWebb & Chang, 2015Read a story while you hear it read and you learn more of its words, and still know them three months later.
Forty-nine studies agreeJeon & Day, 2016Across forty-nine studies, people who read a lot in a new language got measurably better at reading it.
How many words you really needNation, 2006The 2,000 most common words are about four fifths of any book. A novel takes 8,000 to 9,000, and stories get you there.
Listening counts as readingRogowsky, Calhoun & Tallal, 2016Adults given a book as text, as audio, or both understood it equally well, right after and two weeks later.
Babies crack a language in minutesSaffran, Aslin & Newport, 1996Eight-month-olds pick out the words of a made-up language after two minutes of hearing it. Nobody taught them.
How diplomats get fluent fastForeign Service InstituteThe US Foreign Service trains diplomats all day in small classes, and gets them to Spanish in about 30 weeks and Japanese in 88.
Grammar comes secondTomasello, 2003Children build grammar from the sentences they hear, not from rules.
666 books in 118 languages
Browse the library →
最后一班早车ChineseLevel 1Romance
今天是星期五，也是林安最后一次坐这辆公交车。
Два стаканаRussianLevel 1Slice of life
Сегодня Сергей приходит в это место не один.
L’ultimo autobusItalianLevel 2Romance
Ogni mattina Marta prendeva lo stesso autobus davanti a casa.
Dos gots de teCatalanLevel 1Slice of life
Cada dia, Laia va a la casa de la dona.
마흔의 경기KoreanLevel 2Sports
오늘은 민호가 권투를 시작한 뒤 처음 하는 경기다.
最後のバスJapaneseLevel 1Romance
朝、駅前のバス停に直人がいる。
كوبان من الشايOmani ArabicLevel 2Slice of life
اليوم سالم يروح مقهى صغير بعد الدوام.
قبل الثلجArabicLevel 2Adventure
في بيت سامر ونادر، يبدأ اليوم الأخير قبل الثلج.
پہلا ٹکٹUrduLevel 1Coming of age
آج حمزہ کا سینما میں پہلا دن ہے۔
Tiket PertamaIndonesianLevel 1Coming of age
Aku berdiri di depan bioskop pada sore pertama.
أول نهار في السينماTunisian ArabicLevel 2Coming of age
سامي واقف في مدخل سينما النور.
De vaste bestellingDutchLevel 1Slice of life
Vandaag staat de verkoper op de markt.
aloglot
/ˈæl.ə.ɡlɑt/AL-uh-glot
- 1n.noun A person who speaks a language other than their mother tongue.
- 2adj.adjective Speaking a non-native language.
- 3n.noun You!
Origin
French alloglotte, from Greek ἄλλος “other” and γλῶσσα “tongue”.
Compare to polyglot “speaker of many languages”.
Why stories, not flashcards?
You’ll want to study
Books about whatever you’re into
Books at every level, help a tap away
Alo, a patient AI speaking partner
It actually works
Knowing phrases beats memorizing rules
Key words keep coming back in context
Reading, listening, speaking, AND writing
It fits with a class
Extra practice anytime, judgment free
Grammar lessons become instinct
Turn this week’s lesson into a story