12 Rules

To Learn Languages
In Record Time
Tim Ferriss | Benny Lewis

Introduction
Ive written about how I learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish.
Ive also covered my experiments with German, Indonesian, Arabic, Norwegian, Turkish, and
perhaps a dozen others.
There are only few language learners who dazzle me, and Benny Lewis is one of them.
This definitive guide by Benny will teach you:

How to speak your target language today.

How to reach fluency and exceed it within a few months.

How to pass yourself off as a native speaker.

And finally, how to tackle multiple languages to become a polyglotall within a few

years, perhaps as little as 1-2.
It contains TONS of amazing resources I never even knew existed, including the best free apps
and websites for becoming fluent in record time. Want to find a native speaker to help you for $5
per hour? Free resources and memory tricks? Its all here.
If you want to get some more useful tips and guide from Benny, be sure to check out his site and
read his book!

- Tim

Enter Benny
You are either born with the language-learning gene, or you arent. Luck of the draw, right? At least, thats what
most people believe.
I think you can stack the deck in your favor. Years ago, I was a language learning dud. The worst in my German
class in school, only able to speak English into my twenties, and even after six entire months living in Spain, I could
barely muster up the courage to ask where the bathroom was in Spanish.
But this is about the point when I had an epiphany, changed my approach, and then succeeded not only in learning
Spanish, but in getting a C2 (Mastery) diploma from theInstituto Cervantes, working as a professional translator in
the language, and even being interviewed on the radio in Spanish to give travel tips. Since then, I moved on to other
languages, and I can now speak more than a dozen languages to varying degrees between conversational and mastery.
It turns out, there is no language-learning gene, but there are tools and tricks for faster learning
As a polyglotsomeone who speaks multiple languagesmy world has opened up. I have gained access to people and places that I never otherwise could have reached. Ive made friends on a train in China through Mandarin,
discussed politics with a desert dweller in Egyptian Arabic, discovered the wonders of deaf culture through ASL,
invited the (female) president of Ireland to dance in Irish (Gaeilge) and talked about it on live Irish radio, interviewed Peruvian fabric makers about how they work in Quechua, interpreted between Hungarian and Portuguese at
a social event and well, had an extremely interesting decade traveling the world. Such wonderful experiences are
well within the reach of many of you.
Since you may be starting from a similar position to where I was (monolingual adult, checkered history with language learning, no idea where to start), Im going to outline the tips that worked best for me as I went from zero to
polyglot.
This very detailed post should give you everything you need to know.
So, lets get started!

#1
Learn the Right Words, the Right Way
Starting a new language means learning new words. Lots of them.
Of course, many people cite a bad memory for learning new vocab, so they quit before even getting started.
Butheres the keyyou absolutely do not need to know all the words of a language to speak it (and in fact, you
dont know all the words of your mother tongue either).
As Tim pointed out in his own post on learning any language in 3 months, you can take advantage of the Pareto
principle here, and realize that 20% of the effort you spend on acquiring new vocab could ultimately give you 80%
comprehension in a languagefor instance, in English just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. We use
those words a lot, and thats the case in every other language as well.
You can find pre-made flash card decks of these most frequent words (or words themed for a subject you are
more likely to talk about) for studying on the Anki app(available for all computer platforms and smartphones) that
you can download instantly. Good flashcard methods implement a spaced repetition system (SRS), which Anki
automates. This means that rather than go through the same list of vocabulary in the same order every time, you see
words at strategically spaced intervals, just before you would forget them.
Tim himself likes to use color-coded physical flashcards; some he purchases from Vis-Ed, others he makes himself.
He showed me an example when I interviewed him about how he learns languages in the below video.
Though this entire video can give you great insight into Tims language learning approach, the part relevant to this
point is at 27:40.
- Resources
Video
Transcript

#2
Learn cognates: your friend
in every single language
Believe it or not, you alreadyright nowhave a huge head start in your target language. With language learning
you always know at least some words before you ever begin. Starting a language from scratch is essentially impossible because of the vast amount of words you know already through cognates.
Cognates are true friends of words you recognize from your native language that mean the same thing in another
language.
For instance, Romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and others have many words in common with English. English initially borrowed them from the Norman conquest of England, which lasted several
hundreds of years. Action, nation, precipitation, solution, frustration, tradition, communication, extinction, and
thousands of other -tion words are spelled exactly the same in French, and you can quickly get used to the different
pronunciation. Change that -tion to a -cin and you have the same words in Spanish. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -o.
Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root, which can be spelled slightly
differently, but that youd have to try hard not to recognize, such as exemple, hlicoptre (Fr), porto, capitano (Italian) astronoma, and Saturno (Spanish). German goes a step further and has many words from Englishs past that it
shares.
To find common words with the language you are learning, simply search for [language name] cognates or [language name] English loan words to see words they borrowed from us, and finally [language name] words in English to see words we borrowed from them.
Thats all well and good for European languages, but what about more distant ones?
Well, it turns out that even languages as different as Japanese can have heaps of very familiar vocabulary. To show
you what I mean, have a listen to this song (to the tune of Animaniacs Nations of the World), which is sung
entirely in Japanese, and yet you should understand pretty much everything that I and the other Japanese learners are
singing:
Video
This is because many languages simply borrow English words and integrate them into the new language with altered
pronunciation or stress.
So to make my life easy when I start learning a language, one of the first word lists I try to consume is a list of
cognates, or English loan words, which can be found quickly for pretty much any language.

#3
Interact In Your Language Daily Without Traveling
Another reason (or excuse, depending on how you look at it) people cite for not learning languages is that they cant
visit a country where its a native language. No time, no money, etc.
Take it from methere is nothing in the air in another country that will magically make you able to speak their
language. Ive done a lot of experiments to prove this (e.g. learning Arabic while living in Brazil).
Ive met countless expats who lived abroad for years without learning the local language. Living abroad and being
immersed is not the same thing. If you need to hear and use a language consistently to be immersed, cant virtual
immersion be just as effective? Of course. Technology makes it possible for immersion to come to you, and you
dont even have to buy a plane ticket.
To hear the language consistently spoken, you can check out TuneIn.com for a vast selection of live-streamed radio
from your country of choice. The app (free) also has a list of streamed radio stations ordered by language.
To watch the language consistently, see whats trending on Youtube in that country right now. Go to that countrys
equivalent URL for Amazon or Ebay (amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.co.jp, etc.) and buy your favorite TV series
dubbed in that language, or get a local equivalent by seeing whats on the top charts. You may be able to save shipping costs if you can find one locally that includes dubbing in the appropriate language. Various news stations also
have plenty of video content online in specific languages, such as France24, Deutsche Welle, CNN Espaol, and
many others.
To read the language consistently, in addition to the news sites listed above, you can find cool blogs and other popular sites on Alexas ranking of top sites per country.
And if full-on immersion isnt your thing yet, theres even a plugin for Chrome that eases you into the language by
translating some parts of the sites you normally read in English, to sprinkle the odd word into your otherwise English reading.
- Resources Trends Dashboard

#4
Skype Today For Daily Spoken Practice
So youve been listening to, watching, and even reading in your target languageand all in the comfort of your own
home. Now its time for the big one: speaking it live with a native.
One of my more controversial pieces of advice, but one that I absolutely insist on when I advise beginners, is that
you must speak the language right away if your goals in the target language involve speaking it.
Most traditional approaches or language systems dont work this way, and I think thats where they let their students
down. I say, there are seven days in a week and some day is not one of them.
Heres what I suggest instead: Use the pointers Ive given above to learn some basic vocabulary, and be aware of
some words you already know. Do this for a few hours, and then set up an exchange with a native speakersomeone who has spoken that language their whole life. You only have to learn a little for your first conversation, but if
you use it immediately, youll see whats missing and can add on from there. You cant study in isolation until you are
vaguely ready for interaction.
In those first few hours, Id recommend learning some pleasantries such as Hello, Thank you, Could you repeat that? or I dont understand, many of which you will find listed out here for most languages.
But waitwhere do you find a native speaker if you arent in the country that speaks that language? No problem!
Thousands of native speakers are ready and waiting for you to talk to them right now. You can get private lessons
for peanuts by taking advantage of currency differences. My favorite site for finding natives is italki.com, where Ive
gotten both Chinese and Japanese one-on-one Skype-based lesson for just $5 an hour.
If you still think you wouldnt be ready on day one, then consider this: starting on Skype allows you to ease yourself
in gently by having another window (or application, like Word) open during your conversation, already loaded with
key words that you can use for quick reference until you internalize them. You can even reference Google Translate
or a dictionary for that language while you chat, so you can learn new words as you go, when you need them.
Is this cheating? No. The goal is to learn to be functional, not to imitate old traditional methods. Ive used the
above shortcuts myself, and after learning Polish for just one hour for a trip to Warsaw to speak at TEDx about
language learning, I was able to hold up a conversation (incredibly basic as it was) in Polish for an entire half hour. I
consider that a win.
- Resources

Free Dictionaries
Video (TedX Warsaw) Video (Speaking Polish After 1 Hour)

#5
Save Your Money. The Best Resources are Free.
Other than paying for the undivided attention of a native speaker, I dont see why youd need to spend hundreds of
dollars on anything in language learning. Ive tried Rosetta Stone myself and wasnt impressed.
But there is great stuff out there. A wonderful and completely free course that keeps getting better is DuoLingo
- which I highly recommend for its selection of European languages currently on offer, with more on the way. To
really get you started on the many options available to help you learn your language without spending a penny, let
me offer plenty of other (good) alternatives:

The Foreign Service Institutes varied list of courses

You really do have plenty of options when it comes to free resources, so I suggest you try out several and see which
ones work well for you. The aforementioned italki is great for language exchanges and lessons, but My Language
Exchange and Interpals are two other options. You can take it offline and see about language related meet-ups in
your city through The Polyglot Club, or the meet-ups pages on Couchsurfing, meetup.com, and Internations. These
meet-ups are also great opportunities to meet an international crowd of fellow language learning enthusiasts, as well
as native speakers of your target language, for practice.
But wait, theres more. You can get further completely free language help on:


The huge database on Forvo, to hear any word or small expression in many languages read aloud by
a native of the language


Rhinospike to make requests of specific phrases youd like to hear pronounced by a native speaker.
If you cant find something on either of these sites, Google Translate has a text-to-speech option for
many languages.


Lang 8 to receive free written corrections.
The possibilities for free practice are endless.
- Resources Forvo
Lang 8
Omniglot
Rhinospike
BBC Language
About.com Education
Foreign Service Institute

#6
Realize that Adults Are Actually
Better Language Learners than Kids
Now that youre armed with a ton of resources to get started, lets tackle the biggest problem. Not grammar, not
vocabulary, not a lack of resources, but handicapping misconceptions about your own learning potential. The
most common I give up misconception is: Im too old to become fluent.
Im glad to be the bearer of good news and tell you that research has confirmed that adults can be better
language learners than kids. This study at the University of Haifa has found that under the right circumstances,
adults show an intuition for unexplained grammar rules better than their younger counterparts. [Note from Tim:
This is corroborated by the book In Other Words and work by Hakuta.]
Also, no study has ever shown any direct correlation between reduced language acquisition skill and increased age.
There is only a general downward trend in language acquisition in adults, which is probably more dependent on
environmental factors that can be changed (e.g. long job hours that crowd out study time). Something my friend
Khatzumoto (alljapaneseallthetime.com) once said that I liked was, Babies arent better language learners than you;
they just have no escape routes.
As adults, the good news is that we can emulate the immersion environment without having to travel, spend a lot of
money, or revert back to childhood.

- Resources Study from the University of Haifa

#7
Expand Your Vocabulary with Mnemonics
Rote repetition isnt enough.
And while its true that repeated exposure sometimes burns a word into your memory, it can be frustrating to forget
a word that youve already heard a dozen times.
For this, I suggest coming up with mnemonics about your target word, which helps glue the word to your memory way more effectively. Basically, you tell yourself a funny, silly, or otherwise memorable story to associate with a
particular word. You can come up with the mnemonic yourself, but a wonderful (and free) resource that I highly
recommend is memrise.com.
For instance, lets say you are learning Spanish and cant seem to remember that caber means to fit, no matter
how many times you see it. Why not come up with a clever association like the following one I found on Memrise:
This [caber -> cab, bear -> fitting a bear in a cab] association makes remembering the word a cinch.
It may sound like a lengthy process, but try it a few times, and youll quickly realize why its so effective. And youll
only need to recall this hook a couple of times, and then you can ditch it when the word becomes a natural part of
your ability to use the language quickly.

- Resources Memrise

#8
Embrace Mistakes
Over half of the planet speaks more than one language.
This means that monolingualism is a cultural, not a biological, consequence. So when adults (at least in the English
speaking world) fail at language learning, its not because they dont have the right genes or other such nonsense. Its
because the system they have used to learn languages is broken.
Traditional teaching methods treat language learning just like any other academic subject, based on an approach that
has barely changed since the days when Charles Dickens was learning Latin. The differences between your native
language (L1) and your target language (L2) are presented as vocabulary and grammar rules to memorize. The traditional idea: know them all and you know the language. It seems logical enough, right?
The problem is that you cant ever truly learn a language, you get used to it. Its not a thing that you know or dont
know; its a means of communication between human beings. Languages should not be acquired by rote alone
they need to be used.
The way you do this as a beginner is to use everything you do know with emphasis oncommunication rather than on
perfection. This is the pivotal difference. Sure, you could wait until you are ready to say Excuse me kind sir, could
you direct me to the nearest bathroom? but Bathroom where? actually conveys the same essential information,
only removing superfluous pleasantries. You will be forgiven for this directness, because its always obvious that you
are a learner.
Dont worry about upsetting native speakers for being so bold as to speak to them in their own language.
One of the best things you can do in the initial stages is not to try to get everything perfect, but to embrace making
mistakes. I go out of my way to make at least 200 mistakes a day! This way I know I am truly using and practicing
the language.
[TIM: I actually view part of my role as that of comedian or court jesterto make native speakers chuckle at my
Tarzan speak. If you make people smile, it will make you popular, which will make you enthusiastic to continue.]

#9
Create SMART Goals
Another failing of most learning approaches is a poorly defined end-goal.
We tend to have New Years Resolutions along the lines of Learn Spanish, but how do you know when youve
succeeded? If this is your goal, how can you know when youve reached it?
Vague end goals like this are endless pits (e.g. Im not ready yet, because I havent learned the entire language).
S.M.A.R.T. goals on the other hand are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
To start developing your SMART goal in a language, I highly recommend you become somewhat familiar with the
European Common Framework that defines language levels. This framework provides you with a way of setting
specific language goals and measuring your own progress.
In brief, A means beginner, B means intermediate, and C means advanced, and each level is broken up into lower (1)
and upper (2) categories. So an upper beginner speaker is A2, and a lower advanced speaker is C1. As well as being
Specific, these levels are absolutely Measurable because officially recognized institutions can test you on them and
provide diplomas (no course enrollment necessary) in German, French, Spanish,Irish, and each other official European language. While the same scale is not used, you can also get tested in a similar way in Chinese and Japanese.
So what do you aim for? And what do words like fluency and mastery mean on a practical level?
Ive talked to many people to try to pinpoint the never-agreed-upon understanding of fluency, and Ive found that
it tends to average out around the B2 level (upper intermediate). This effectively means that you have social equivalency with your native language, which means that you can live in your target language in social situations in much
the same way that you would in your native language, such as casual chats with friends in a bar, asking what people
did over the weekend, sharing your aspirations and relating to people.
Since we are being specific, its also important to point out that this does not require that you can work professionally in a language (in my case, as an engineer or public speaker, for instance). That would be mastery level (generally
C2).
Though Ive reached the C2 stage myself in French, Spanish and am close to it in other languages, realistically I only
really need to be socially equivalent in a language I want to communicate in. I dont need to work in other languages.
Its essential that you keep your priorities clear to avoid frustration. Most of the time, just target B2.
To make your specific goal Attainable, you can break it down further. For example, Ive found that the fluency (B2)
level can be achieved in a matter of months, as long as you are focused on the spoken aspect.
In phonetic languages (like most European ones), you can actually learn to read along with speaking, so you get this
effectively for free. But realistically, we tend to write emails and text messagesnot essayson a day-to-day basis

#9
Create SMART Goals
(unless you are a writer by trade, and you may not have those goals with your L2). Focusing on speaking and listening (and maybe reading) makes fluency in a few months much more realistic.
Finally, to make your project Time-bound, I highly recommend a short end-point of a few months.
Keeping it a year or more away is far too distant, and your plans may as well be unbound at that point. Three
months has worked great for me, but 6 weeks or 4 months could be your ideal point. Pick a definite point in the not
too distant future (summer vacation, your birthday, when a family member will visit), aim to reach your target by this
time, and work your ass off to make it happen.
To help you be smarter with your goals, make sure to track your progress and use an app like Lift to track completing daily essential tasks. You can join the Lift plan for language learning that I wrote for their users at the link below.

- Resources Bennys Lift Plan

# 10
Jump From Conversational (B1) To Mastery (C2)
The way I reach spoken fluency quickly is to get a hell of a lot of spoken practice. From day one to day 90 (and
beyond), I speak at least an hour a day in my L2, and my study time is tailored around the spoken sessions to make
sure that my conversation is whats improvingnot just my general language skills through some vague list of
words I may never use.
So, for instance, I may start a session by asking what my native friend or teacher did over the weekend, and tell them
what I did. Then I will share something that is on my mind lately and attempt to express my opinion on it, or allow
the native speaker to introduce a new topic. Its important to take an active role and make sure you are havingvaried
conversations. Have a list of topics you would like to discuss and bring them up (your hobbies, hopes for the future,
dislikes, what you will do on your vacation etc.) and make sure the conversation is constantly progressing.
Lots of practice and study to improve those spoken sessions tends to get me to lower intermediate (B1) level, which
means I can understand the other person speaking to me fine as long as they are willing to speak clearly and adjust
to my level and mistakes. Its a LOT of work, mind you! On typical learning days I can be filled with frustration or
feel like my brain is melting whenin factIm truly making a lot of progress.
But the work is totally worth it when you have your first successful conversation with a native speaker. Youll be
thrilled beyond belief.
To see what this B1 level looks like, check out these videos of me chatting to a native in Arabic (in person with my
italki teacher!), and in Mandarin with my friend Yangyangabout how she got into working as a TV show host:
At this level, I still make plenty of mistakes of course, but they dont hinder communication too much.
Benny Speaking Arabic 1
Benny Speaking Arabic 2
But to get over that plateau of just good enough, this is the point where I tend to return to academic material and
grammar books, to tidy up what I have. I find I understand the grammar much better once Im already speaking the
language. This approach really works for me, but there is no one best language-learning approach. For instance, Tim
has had great success by grammatically deconstructing a language right from the start. Your approach will depend
entirely on your personality.
After lots of exercises to tidy up my mistakes at the B1 level, I find that I can break into B2.
At the B2 stage you can really have fun in the language! You can socialize and have any typical conversation that
youd like.
To get into the mastery C1/C2 levels though, the requirements are very different. Youll have to start reading

# 10
Jump From Conversational (B1) To Mastery (C2)
newspapers, technical blog posts, or other articles that wont exactly be light reading.
To get this high-level practice, Ive subscribed to newspapers on my Kindle that I try to read every day from various
major news outlets around the world. Here are the top newspapers in Europe, South America and Asia. After reading up on various topics, I like to get an experienced professional (and ideally pedantic) teacher to grill me on the
topic, to force me out of my comfort zone, and make sure Im using precisely the right words, rather than simply
making myself understood.
To show you what a higher level looks like, here is a chat I had with my Quebec Couchsurfer about the fascinating
cultural and linguistic differences between Quebec and France (I would have been at a C1 level at this stage):
Benny Speaking French
Reaching the C2 level can be extremely difficult. For instance, I sat a C2 exam in German, and managed to hold my
ground for the oral component, when I had to talk about deforestation for ten minutes, but I failed the exam on the
listening component, showing me that I needed to be focused and pay attention to complicated radio interviews or
podcasts at that level if I wanted to pass the exam in future.

# 11
Learn to Sound More Native
At C2, you are as good as a native speaker in how you can work and interact in the language, but you may still have
an accent and make the odd mistake. I have been mistaken for a native speaker of my L2 several times (in Spanish,
French and Portuguese including when I was still at the B2/fluent level), and I can say that its a lot less related to
your language level, and more related to two other factors.
First, your accent/intonation
Accent is obvious; if you cant roll your R in Spanish you will be recognized as a foreigner instantly.
Your tongue muscles are not set in their ways forever, and you can learn the very fewnew sounds that your L2 requires that you learn. Time with a native, a good Youtube video explaining the sounds, and practice for a few hours
may be all that you need!
What is much more important, but often overlooked, is intonationthe pitch, rise, fall, and stress of your words.
When I was writing my book, I interviewed fellow polyglot Lucawho is very effective in adapting a convincing accent in his target languages. For this, intonation is pivotal.
Luca trains himself from the very start to mimic the musicality and rhythm of a languages natives by visualizing
the sentences. For instance, if you really listen to it, the word France sounds different in I want to go to France
(downward intonation) and France is a beautiful country (intonation raising upwards). When you repeat sentences
in your L2, you have to mimic the musicality of them.
My own French teacher pointed out a mistake I was making along these same lines. I was trying to raise my intonation before pauses, which is a feature of French that occurs much more frequently than in English, but I was
overdoing it and applying it to the ends of sentences as well. This made my sentences sound incomplete, and when
my teacher trained me to stop doing this, I was told that I sounded way more French.
You can make these changes by focusing on the sounds of a language rather than just on the words.
Truly listen to and and mimic audio from natives, have them correct your biggest mistakes and drill the mistakes out
of you. I had an accent trainer show me how this worked, and I found out some fascinating differences between
my own Irish accent and American accents in the process! To see for yourself how the process works, check outthe
second half of this post with Soundcloud samples.
Second, walk like an Egyptian
The second factor that influences whether or not you could be confused for a native speaker, involves working on
your social and cultural integration. This is often overlooked, but has made a world of difference to me, even in my
early stages of speaking several languages.

# 11
Learn to Sound More Native

For instance, when I first arrived in Egypt with lower intermediate Egyptian Arabic, I was disheartened that most
people would speak English to me (in Cairo) before I even had a chance for my Arabic to shine. Its easy to say that
Im too white to ever be confused for an Egyptian, but theres more to it than that.
They took one look at me, saw how foreign I obviously was, and this overshadowed what language I was actually
speaking to them. To get around this problem, I sat down at a busy pedestrian intersection with a pen and paper
and made a note of everything that made Egyptian men about my age different from me. How they walked, how
they used their hands, the clothing they wore, their facial expressions, the volume theyd speak at, how theyd groom
themselves, and much more. I found that I needed to let some stubble grow out, ditch my bright light clothes for
darker and heavy ones (despite the temperature), exchange my trainers for dull black shoes, ditch my hat (I never
saw anyone with hats), walk much more confidently, and change my facial expressions.
The transformation was incredible! Every single person for the rest of my time in Egypt would start speaking to me
in Arabic, including in touristy parts of town where they spoke excellent English and would be well used to spotting
tourists. This transformation allowed me to walk from the Nile to the Pyramids without any hassle from touts and
make the experience all about the fascinating people I met.
Try it yourself, and youll see what I meanonce you start paying attention, the physical social differences will
become easy to spot. You can observe people directly, or watch videos of natives youd like to emulate from a target
country. Really try to analyze everything that someone of your age and gender is doing, and see if you can mimic it
next time you are speaking. Imitation is, after all, the most sincere form of flattery!

# 12
Become a Polyglot
This post has been an extremely detailed look at starting off and trying to reach mastery in a foreign language (and
even passing yourself off as a native of that country).
If your ultimate goal is to speak multiple languages, you can repeat this process over multiple times, but I highly
recommend you focus on one language at a time until you reach at least the intermediate level. Take each language
one by one, until you reach a stage where you know you can confidently use it. And then you may just be ready for
the next ones!
While you can do a lot in a few months, if you want to speak a language for the rest of your life it requires constant
practice, improvement, and living your life through it as often as you can. But the good news is once you reach
fluency in a language, it tends to stick with you pretty well.
Also, keep in mind that while the tips in this article are an excellent place to start, there is a huge community of
polyglots online willing to offer you their own encouragement as well. A bunch of us came together in this remix:
Skype me Maybe
I share several more stories about these polyglots and dive into much greater detail about how to learn languages in
my newly released book Fluent in 3 Months. Grab a copy, or check out my site for inspiration to start your adventure in becoming fluent in a new languageor several. Ganbatte!
Learn more about my methods on my site or by checking out my book!