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 Chinese
Browse Chinese books →
石头上的灯笼ChineseLevel 4Mystery
杭州西湖边，天还没亮，林晓和阿成坐在一条小船里。
楼上的生日东西ChineseLevel 1Slice of life
小周住在上海一座楼里。
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。
市场ChineseLevel 1Slice of life
她是一个女人，几周前来到成都。
面包起来了ChineseLevel 2Cozy fantasy
今天是面包店开门的第一天。
第一张电影票ChineseLevel 1Coming of age
今天是林晓第一天上班。
灯还在问ChineseLevel 5Science fiction
清晨六点，福建外海的青屿还罩着薄雾，林桥已经把灯室的玻璃擦了一遍。
四十岁的比赛ChineseLevel 2Sports
今天下午，林安在安安体育馆参加第一次打拳比赛。
最早的客人ChineseLevel 2Slice of life
成都的天还黑着。
爷爷和新机器ChineseLevel 2Humor
今天是周末，家里买了新机器。
两杯茶ChineseLevel 2Slice of life
今天是星期日。
阿Q正传ChineseClassic
鲁迅1921
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