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 Japanese
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いつも遅い時計屋JapaneseLevel 2Humor
町の通りに、時計を直す店がある。
四人目の稽古JapaneseLevel 3Martial arts
仙台の小さな道場に、雨の音が聞こえた。
閉じた道JapaneseLevel 4Survival
奈緒は知床半島の細い道でトラックを止めた。
借りた名前JapaneseLevel 5Literary fiction
父の仕事場を片づけるため、私は朝から高山の古い通りを歩き、錆びた引き戸の前で鍵を三度回した。
四十一番の名前JapaneseLevel 3Thriller
四十一番の客は、なぜ毎晩ちがう名前で泊まるのか。
預けるという言葉JapaneseLevel 4Spy
横浜の海が見える会議場で、貿易会議が始まる前、美咲は通訳室の小さな窓を開けた。
花火と包丁JapaneseLevel 3Crime
京子は屋台の台に三つの湯のみを置いた。
坊っちゃんJapaneseLevel 7Classic
Botchan (Master Darling)
夏目漱石1906
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。
小さな浴槽の湯JapaneseLevel 4Magical realism
別府の坂道にある銭湯で、澄江は朝から床を洗っていた。
白石峠を越える日JapaneseLevel 2Adventure
朝、白石峠の下の家で、直人と亮は荷物を持つ。
最初の切符JapaneseLevel 1Coming of age
今日は蓮の初めての仕事の日だ。
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