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.
246 books in 93 languages
Browse the library →
Die UrlaubstabelleGermanLevel 2Humor
Am Samstag sitzt Familie Kern in ihrer Wohnung in Stuttgart um den Küchentisch.
La meilleure copieFrenchLevel 3Crime
Camille avait étalé le plan du musée sur une grande table tachée de peinture.
김치통 안의 느린 변화KoreanLevel 7Explainer
냉장고에서 막 꺼낸 김치통을 열면, 먼저 차가운 냄새가 올라오고 붉은 양념 아래에서 작은 기포가 보이기도 한다.
福建山里的一片茶叶ChineseLevel 7Explainer
一杯福建绿茶和一杯福建红茶放在一起，差别很容易看见。
誤った世紀の手紙JapaneseLevel 6Dark academia
水奈は、東京にある私立の霜京古典学院で博士論文を書きながら、黒瀬教授の蔵書を整理していた。
Pierogi przed świętemPolishLevel 3Travel and food
Przed świętem w domu robi się pierogi.
Niemand brengt iets meeDutchLevel 2Humor
Lotte zet glazen op tafel in haar kleine appartement in Utrecht.
Makan Malam di Tengah MacetIndonesianLevel 2Humor
Mobil keluarga Dika tidak bergerak di jalan Jakarta yang penuh.
বর্ষার পাতে সর্ষে ইলিশBengaliLevel 6Travel and food
বাংলার বর্ষার খাবার টেবিলে সর্ষে ইলিশ একটি পরিচিত প্রধান পদ।
السوقOmani ArabicLevel 2Slice of life
سارة في مسقط من ثلاثة أسابيع.
Con đèo cao nhấtVietnameseLevel 2Adventure
Sáng nay, Minh và Lan ở trước căn nhà thuê tại Hà Nội.
El ceviche de LimaSpanishLevel 5Travel and food
En Lima, el ceviche empieza con pescado fresco, una tabla y un cuchillo.
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