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 Italian
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Luca era in ritardoItalianLevel 1Humor
Quel giorno Luca doveva andare a casa della signora Ada.
La pasta di AdaItalianLevel 1Slice of life
A Bologna, quella mattina, ero a casa di Ada.
Il mercatoItalianLevel 1Slice of life
A Bologna, la donna è nel piccolo mercato vicino a casa.
Prima del lavoroItalianLevel 2Coming of age
A diciassette anni, Matteo pensava di passare l’estate al mare con gli amici.
Le avventure di PinocchioItalianLevel 9Classic
Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet
Carlo Collodi1883
Il suono del Parmigiano ReggianoItalianLevel 8Travel and food
Nelle latterie del Parmigiano Reggiano, il lavoro è cominciato con il latte munto la sera precedente.
Due tazzeItalianLevel 1Slice of life
Il bar era aperto da poco.
Il passo chiusoItalianLevel 2Adventure
Marco e Luca erano nella casa di famiglia, vicino al passo di Nera.
Sotto la tendaItalianLevel 2Slice of life
Era sera, e Sara aveva finito il lavoro.
La scarpa del lunedìItalianLevel 2Mystery
Il negozio di Renato era in una piccola via di Firenze.
La lista sotto il tavoloItalianLevel 1Mystery
Elisa era nel bar vicino alla fermata.
Il primo lavoroItalianLevel 1Coming of age
Luca era nel cinema Stella per il primo lavoro.
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
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It actually works
Knowing phrases beats memorizing rules
Key words keep coming back in context
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Grammar lessons become instinct
Turn this week’s lesson into a story