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.
Books in Bengali
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জোয়ার ফেরার সময়BengaliLevel 2Survival
আজ রফিকের মাছ নিয়ে ঘরে ফেরার কথা।
শেষ বাসBengaliLevel 1Romance
সকাল আটটায় রূপা পুরনো বাসস্ট্যান্ডে দাঁড়িয়ে থাকে।
কে ডেকেছে শিবুকেBengaliLevel 2Humor
আজ কলকাতার বাড়িতে মিতার বিয়ের কথা পাকা হওয়ার দিন।
আজকের প্রথম অক্ষরBengaliLevel 1Slice of life
ঢাকার শাপলা গলিতে আজ মিতুর প্রথম পড়ার দিন।
দেরির ঘড়ির দোকানBengaliLevel 2Humor
আজ রফিকের ঘড়ির দোকান খোলার দিন।
বাজারBengaliLevel 2Slice of life
কলকাতায় একটি ছোট বাজার আছে।
তিনটি কথাBengaliLevel 2Mystery
মায়া আজ নতুন শহর থেকে বাড়ি ফিরছে।
কাবুলিওয়ালাBengaliLevel 8Classic
The Cabuliwallah (The Hungry Stones and Other Stories)
রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর1892
নীরব ওস্তাদের চালBengaliLevel 5Martial arts
চট্টগ্রামের এক সরু গলির শেষে পুরোনো কুস্তির মাঠটি ছিল।
প্রথম কাজের রাতBengaliLevel 2Coming of age
রাফি আজ ছায়া সিনেমা হলে দাঁড়িয়ে আছে।
জামালের চাBengaliLevel 2Slice of life
জামাল আজ সকাল থেকে বাজারে আছে।
দুই কাপ চাBengaliLevel 2Slice of life
সকাল দশটা বাজে।
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”.
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