Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn any new language almost "effortless" in a very, very short time, even within hours while having fun ? What is the latest wisdom on accelerated language learning ? A very short answer up front: Yes, it is possible! Please find below a summary of the latest insights and methods collected from outstanding teachers and experts in the field.

1. The Fastest Ways To Learn Any New Language
Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn any new language almost "effortless" in a very, very short time, even
within hours while having fun ? What is the latest wisdom on accelerated language learning ? A
very short answer up front: Yes, it is possible! Please find below a summary of the latest insights and
methods collected from outstanding teachers and experts in the field and based on my 20+ years
experience in accelerated learning & development where I have helped over 300 000+ People globally
learn faster and better.
Relax and Learn - both go well together
With his blog post in 2007: "How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour" Tim Ferris
initiated a 5 year long still ongoing discussion and exchange about the methods of accelerated
language learning.
Not only did Tim introduce his approach to accelerated language learning but yet he attracted
comments from very knowledgeable readers and experts. With over six hundred comments this is now
a treasure trove for language learners and teachers. Additionally to the wisdom shared in this place I
have added further methods that have emerged in the learning & development & change
management research over the last years.
(If you want to see the current discussion or contribute to it please go to:
Continuous Learning & Development: The Fastest Ways to Learn Any New Language)
KEY INSIGHTS
A) Motivation before Confidence
For any type of learning the key is first of all motivation and then confidence. If you are not convinced
about learning a particular language none of the following methods will work for you.

2. Motivation can be stimulated by external factors (extrinsic). Examples are your employer asks you to
learn a new language or you move to a new country for work. Having your own dream to be competent
in another language or your objective to read one of your beloved authors in the original language are
examples for internal motivational factors (intrinsic).
Usually intrinsic factors will be more sustainable than extrinsic factors and might keep you more
likely on track . Try to identify at least one intrinsic factor for learning the new language.
Intrinsic motivational factors can be categorized and vary from person to person. This is based on
the Harvard Approach of Negotiation
1) Security: example: understand and have access to information in local language, can ask for
direction when travelling
2) Livelihood: example: will help generate income, do need to get a job
3) Belonging: example: can talk to people in their local languages, can have local friends
4) Reputation: example: local business partner respect me more when I know some words in their
language
5) Self-determination: example: I can navigate myself through the foreign country, I can visit
places where no foreigner has been yet, ..
What also helps for those who had already tried and fail to learn a new language is to analyze what has
derailed you from learning the new language in the past. Was it the teacher, was it because you had to
or was it the method, ... ?
And often in our educational school systems we are forced to learn a new language, we have no choice.
Nobody will investigate what our personal intrinsic motivational factors are nor would anyone explore
what methods would work best for us individually.
B) Have a clear vision about your goal
What do you see when you close your eyes and think about learning the new language ? Do you see
yourself reading a highly sophisticated book in this foreign language, do you see yourself writing a
business contract, are you watching a television show or are you standing at an ice cream stand at a
beautiful foreign beach asking for your favorite ice cream in the local language ?
Get clarity for what you want to use the new language for. The amount of learning, the method and the
effort differs if you just want to find your way when travelling through a foreign country or become a
student at the local university or even work in a local company in this foreign country.
In his book the 4-Hour Work Week Timothy Ferris has shown in the chapter "D is for Definition" how
to make your personal dream more specific. His example: If your dream is fluency in Chinese
this is still quite broad. Try to make it more specific to the level as: "My dream is to have a 5-minute
conversation with a Chinese co-worker." It can be even more specific: "I want to talk in these 5-
minutes about what I did last week-end and what movie I saw and what restaurants my co-worker
would recommend..."
Recommended action: write down very specifically how your ideal state would look like
The clear vision about your objective will help you to identify your personal threshold. It will
indicate how much vocabulary do you really need to learn and to which extend do you need to
understand the grammar, the number of characters if it is a pictorial language, etc.....

3. In the Chinese fluency example you would not need to read or write any Chinese characters. All what
you would need is to speak and understand your co-worker about daily life leisure topics. (Movie,
restaurant, leisure time activities).
Recommended action: like in the very specific example above write down in your native language
what you would like to talk about with the other person. What questions would you ask and what
answers you would give. Whatever your specific dream is try to write a story board for it. If it is
for example to present to a local audience in a business context than try write the presentation you
want to give in your local context. If it is to sign a contract than use the contract in your local language.
The idea is to get a physical grip on your dream. Once you have a text, a story board, a contract or a
presentation then put this content into google translate and see what kind of output you get in the
target language. Then take the result and have Google translate it back to your native language.
Analyze the results on what difference there are to your original text.
And with Tim Ferris approach you can quickly examine in less than an hour how difficult it will be for
you to get into the new language.
An example shared by Alan Little for the Russian Language using Tim´s grammar deconstruction
approach
French: I have created an example and a small quiz on slideshare (3 slides).
Finally rate your objective on what effort it is for you to reach it. Use a scale of 1-8. An 8 I
would rate if it is comparable to hiking up Mount Everest the highest mountain in the world. A 1 would
be a stroll along a beach, a short walk with a friend through a forest. A 3would be walking up a
mountain with 6000 feet in altitude. Related to what effort it means to you. If you are like the famous
alpinist Reinhold Messner hiking up Mount Everest would be then just a 4. To sum it up it should be a
relative rating and not absolute.
Would you like to get feedback from others by sharing what language you would like to learn, what
intrinsic motivation you have, what your specific visions looks like and how you rate the effort to get
there ? If you want to see the current discussion or contribute to it please go to:
Continuous Learning & Development: The Fastest Ways to Learn Any New Language
C) Learning Environment and Approach
Identify your personal learning barriers.
1) First Barrier: Mental: The Inner Game: Tim Gallewey
The game your mind plays with you before you embark on any new project such as learning a
language. That is this little voice in your head that sets in once your excitement is over. The voice
comes up latest after the 4th day (old Japanese Zen wisdom) you have decided on or started your
learning expedition.
It could go like this: "Hohoho, I told you, you have no talent in learning languages". "You will
never reach your goal, you do not have the time for it". "You have no discipline, forget it." "You do not
like to sit down and learn all these words by heart, that is boring." "You have more important things to
do in life". "Everybody is learning English now, why should you learn a foreign language." "You have
never have the budget to travel there anyways" "A new language in a few hours, you are crazy, it
already took you 5 years to learn Spanish and you are still nowhere perfect" ...

4. The Inner Game in more detail. The relaxed concentration or flow state is important. This
happens when your inner voice is silent. Highly successful sportsman always talk about it. Example
is the world leading tennis player Roger Federer.
It won't help if you fight it. Also the content is not decisive. If your inner voice would say
instead "You are the best language learner that has ever walked this planet" or "I will succeed"
or "I am so happy to learn this language" it might boost your energy but not get you into the relaxed
concentration mode.
How to overcome this first barrier ?
The inner judgmental voice can be directed and focused on the task at hand by giving it a new
neutral observative task.
Example:
- Techniques shared by Professor of Linguistics Alexander Arguelles who speaks now 50 languages
- Read each new word out loud and listen to your voice
- Write on a piece of paper: The first rule is not to force yourself to remember or learn this word. Just
enjoy. (see Michel Thomas)
- Focus your mind on the point below your navel - the so called lower dantian (used in Qigong
practices)
- Sing the word
- Breath in when you read silently the new word and breath out afterwards and focus on the breath not
on the learning of the word
- Hit a gong before you read the word
- Stand up read the word and sit down
- Superlearning uses also relaxation techniques see research
- any more suggestions please leave in the comment:
If you want to see the current discussion or contribute to it please go to:
Continuous Learning & Development: The Fastest Ways to Learn Any New Language
Tim Gallewey demonstrates how he uses the Inner Game approach to teaching to non
talented beginners tennis in an extreme short time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzR8x5MgvDw&feature=player_detailpage
What I also do is to acknowledge in a nonjudgmental way what my inner voice creatively comes
up with. I write it down in my diary. This will empty my head and eventually shut down my inner
voice.
There is also the outer voices that I collect in this manner. Everybody will have an opinion on how to
do things and what you are capable off. Your mother, your father, your teacher, your best friend, the
television, the newspaper, the next best-selling author on language learning, the language learning
schools and platforms who use a certain methods, experts, professors, etc. The outer voices are a
nightmare for sportsmen and famous team coaches. Roger Federer lately had to overcome this
challenge. When he wasn't successful in tennis the media started to talk about his age and suggested
him to retire. Luckily he was able to overcome these voices and is now again the No 1 in tennis . There
must be plenty more examples. Looking forward to your comments. (If you want to see the current
discussion or contribute to it please go to: Continuous Learning & Development: The Fastest Ways to
Learn Any New Language)
Some further evidence through scientific research is showing acceleration of learning as well as how
relaxed concentration or mindfulness reduces stress:

5. Prof. Dr. Klaus Jantke showed in a research by one of his PHD Student Anja Hawlitschek that learning
through games work best if students are not instructed up front. Just ask them to enjoy the game
versus the benchmark group who was told to focus on the learning in the game. The first group of
school children performed better in the post test.
Prof. Jon Kabat-Zinn on Mindfulness and the impact on health at the Google Academy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3nwwKbM_vJc
Beware also not to turn it against you by thinking that you only learn when you are in this relaxed
concentrated state of mind. You always learn, but in this state learning it is just accelerated. As soon as
you recognize consciously "Oh, now I am in the flow state" - it will be gone. It just happens, you
cannot force it.
2) Second Barrier: Environment
Have you been told that the only place to learn is at your desk ? If you look at Michel Thomas approach
in methods below you will see that the best place to learn is where you feel comfortable and do not
think about that you must learn now. It can be your most comfortable chair, it can be when you are
lying in your bed or if you enjoy driving your car than this is a good place as well. First advice: learn
wherever you are comfortable and have your learning material available. Do not put
environmental barriers up. Do not choose only to learn in the language school that is 20 km away from
where you live or have your learning material stowed away in a cupboard where you have to move
other things first in order to get to it. Professor Theresa Marteau shows how little details in our setup
of our environment have a huge impact (Video) on us such as our health behavior. This counts as
well for many other habits and for sure for our learning behavior.
3) Third barrier: Time
Are you programmed that you only learn when you spent at least an hour with a teacher on the
subject? Even if it is just 30 seconds do it. A quick glance in your material, a question to a friend how
to say such and such a word in the language you are learning, etc. Remove any barrier that tells you
that you need to have a minimum of minutes per day to learn your new language. Also it puts you
under pressure when you did not find the time for it.
It is the net time spent on learning the language that counts not the quantities amount per day
combined together. If you just learn when you have 30 seconds up to a few minutes this still can add
up to a net time spent of one hour or more per day and it could be even more effective. Second
advice: Drop your fixed time spent on learning assumption
4) Fourth Barrier: Money
There you are. You have just got the tip of the best language teacher alive, the best method that
someone just recommended to you or the best place to travel to learn the language of choice fast and
well. The only thing you are lacking is the money. You have the motivation, you would have the time
and dam you do not have the funds.
Wait, there are so many others way to start to learn your favorite language just now while at the same
time you start saving the money for the extraordinary opportunity that was recommended to you.
Third advice: No money is no excuse. There are methods that are free to use, there is material
that costs you only a few bugs.

6. D) Methods
Yes there are methods that will accelerate your learning versus practices that will slow it down or get
you off track. Key for all effective methods are they need to strengthen your confidence. My
example is how kids learn to ride a bicycle or swim. Kids that use small bicycles with two additional
stabilizing wheels when 5 years or younger will take much longer to learn to ride a bicycle without
these stabilizers. They cannot build their confidence in balancing the two wheel bicycle. Kids that have
a so called training bike which they need to walk with will learn how to be confident on a bicycle with
two wheels early on. At the age of five they switch effortless without training to a normal kids bike. The
same is with swimming. Children with swimmies will not build enough confidence in swimming
without this support. Therefore in swimming classes swimmies are not used. To teach little kids to
swim the modern swim schools have develop lots of small fun exercises that slowly build their
confidence.
Fourth advice here: do whatever that is easy for you now while you investigate which methods
are most effective and efficient for you. Latest research (HBS Working Knowledge) has shown that
performance is better of those that do things related to their objectives that are easy to do and can be
done immediately versus those who only focus on the analysis first and undergo a thorough selection
process of identifying the best methods before implementing those.
Fifth advice: use the learning practices that you enjoy and have fun with even if they might
slow you down. Applying the language more important than the method itself.
There are plenty of methods available and they can be combined at your digression. Some are targeted
at the first novice learner of the language and some can be added once you reached a certain level in
the new language. Listening to the local radio station in the new language could be quite a challenge
for the beginner as an example. To summarize it into the Sixth Advice: Use of Multimethods is
better than applying just one single method at a time.
In 1986 my best ever interpreter for my negotiations in China had learned English in one year from
scratch. I asked her how she made it in such a short time to such a professional level. Besides having
this intrinsic thrive to connect to the outside world and grab the new opportunities she had used a
multimethod approach. As soon as she got tired with her textbook, she turned to an audio cassette,
then switched to television or radio, or tried to find other fun exercises to practice English. At a certain
level she looked for any opportunity to have a conversation in English, mainly with foreigners. This
way she would spent the whole day learning English by switching the methods as soon as she got tired
with them during the day. She had build a total immersive learning environment around her. And on
top of it her accent even though she started English in her 20s for was perfect. I could not hear her
Chinese background.
In my many years of experience I noticed the following tendencies when people learn. There is
preference or dominance of intuitive learning over analytical learning, social learning (learning with
others) over autodidactive learning, face to face learning over virtual learning and immersive learning
over detached learning and contextual learning (in sentences) over object modular based learning
(learning the vocabulary and grammar rules) and repetitive learning versus associative learning. But
once again the seventh advice is:
An as well as approach is better than an either or. You do not need to avoid any of the learning
"styles" above. Add them all if you can. Besides feeling for example very comfortable with the intuitive
approach this should not stop you using an analytical method from time to time. What will really slow
you down is to focus on just one single method or on a few methods and apply those in a sequential

7. order. There is no better way to fail then to apply a cascading approach. Industry at large and project
management in particular have moved away from it. Today agile development is used and this is also
the more effective and efficient system for your language learning project.
Some useful methods are already listed here:
Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain [5/5]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SmsV3-nrN8k
In 2009 Daniel Tammet a memory champion or so called savant demonstrated how to learn a new
language in just one week. In the video he demonstrated this capability with the Icelandic language. It
is an immersive approach supported by language teacher who acts as his coach during the week. He
will use his mnemonic techniques while participating in daily life and leisure activities. He is not
sitting at a desk nor at a quiet remote place to acquire the new language. And what will your inner
voice say if I tell you that with the wisdom collected in this blog post you could do the same as David in
less than three days ? Looking forward to your comments!
Why these mnemonic techniques are so powerful is shown here with the Baker/baker paradox and
loci-method Reference: How to train your mind to remember anything
In the Baker / Baker paradox research psychologist showed a photograph of a person with the name
Baker to the research participants. One group was told the name of the person and the other group was
informed instead about the profession of this person is that of a baker. A few days later when they
showed the photograph of Mr. Baker again to the different members of the two groups, the one group
who was told about the profession members were much more likely to remember the name of Mr.
Baker. To quote the world memory champion Joshua Foer: “If you want to make something
memorable, you first have to make it meaningful.” Reference.
Immersive, associative and conversational confidence learning: Michel Thomas: Michel Thomas, The
Language Master Pt 1 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jhy7ZQC38&sns=tw
The key objective of the Michel Thomas method is to build conversational proficiency in a very short
time. The first rule he tells his students is not to try to memorize or to take any notes. He wants his
students to be relaxed and concentrated. He teaches in a living room style setup. The students sit in
comfortable arm chairs in a circle. I have used "Stuhlkreis" (Gestalt) settings myself. They support the
energy within a group for long periods of time. So it is no surprise that students who spent 8-10 hours
a day with Michel Thomas still find it enjoyable and exiting. Michel is not using any material nor a
blackboard. It is a highly interactive conversational environment. Wherever helpful he will use
associative techniques and he is building up slowly and systematically the complex structure of the
language. It is a coaching approach as he will also encourage the student to find the correct
solution. This also strengthen the confidence of the learner. And to no surprise if you watch the above
documentary you will still learn some French without any effort.
Social Learning: Sugata Mitra: Watch Minimally Invasive Education through Social Play
http://f4a.tv/frWCMz Minimal Invasive Education by Sugata Mitra discovered in 1999 in New Dehli
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk60sYrU2RU&feature=player_detailpage
Watch how Tamil only speaking children between the age of 8-12 years taught themselves
Biotechnology in English with the help of a computer and passed a test with the same results as a
group of children at a private school who had a teacher in biotechnology. Sugata Mitra discovered self
organized education of children with the help of the internet in 1999 in New Dehli. You will see that
this is a universal capability of children. In whatever country he applied this approach it would lead to
the same results, independent if it were in UK, Italy, Bangladesh or South Africa.

8. It started out as an experiment with kids in a slum of New Dehli and how they would use an open
space computer without instructions. The children achieved in this so called self organized learning
environments fascinating and amazing results. In this social learning setting Sugata Mitra discovered
that while 1 child is using the computer the four other children will give useful advice. Additionally
these 5 children are surrounded by 10-15 more children who will also throw in their tips and
hypotheses. When you test those groups of children in a pre and post test it will show that all the
children will have learned. It even became more effective with a coach who did nothing else as to
encourage the children and ask them open questions such as "how did you do that", can you show
again what you have done ?
Other examples for social learning is Toastmasters. There is no instructor in Toastmasters. It is the
combined effort of a group of people to advance their communication and presentation skills. I have
started a company Toastmasters club and have witnessed and was amazed myself how highly effective
it is to help people to become confident public speakers and communicators in a very short time.
Tim Ferris: Watch Tim Ferriss: Accelerated Learning in Accelerated Times http://f4a.tv/wvXSxs
In the video Tim introduces his Deconstruction Process to Learning anything from Languages to
Tango Dancing , Swimming or Body Building.
He has developed a guiding process which he calls: DieSEL's FaCE
1. DEconstruction (minimal discrete units (look for anomalies and extrems) - plus Pareto 80:20
principal)
2. The Opposite of Best Practice
3. SELection (elimination first)
4. Sequencing (in what order to do the minimal descrete units identified in Step 1)
5. Frequency
6. Compression (one page)
7. Encoding (mnemonics)
Plus the Rules of Behavioral Change
In the video above Tim talks about Linkword Language method and how it accelerated his language
learning. It is an associative method. Free examples on the site will introduce you to the method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hd_qmlWxxg&feature=player_detailpage
Tim Ferriss on language learning
Professor Alexander Arguelles on Language Learning: speaks, reads and writes in 50 languages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130bOvRpt24&feature=player_detailpage
Professor Alexander Arguelles uses an autodidactive approach. To learn a new language he starts with
language learning books and materials from Assimil. It is a phased process where the learner slowly
moves into the new language. The aim is to stop the learner from translating back and force and
become competent to learn in the new language only. The method uses bilingual books and is
sentenced not word based. Grammar is explained but very lightly at the bottom of each text. Professor
Arguelles explains in the video the process to apply to the learning material. The final state is when you
can say the sentences while writing them down. In the step before the learner will read out lout the
sentences in the new language while listening to the recorded speaker. To get to this level of practices
the students has to take several steps before. It is a repetitive autodidactical approach. A quick method
to build up structures and pronunciation in a new language. A good method for those who do not feel
comfortable in groups and enjoy autodidactical learning. I still would recommend the method to all
learners to include it in your curricula.

9. Dr. Kató Lomb (1909-2003) spoke 16 languages. Born in Hungary she learned the first English when
she was at the age of 24. She is also was one of the first simultaneous interpreters in this world. In this
free pdf ebook she describes how she learned so many languages. Key for her was to have fun with the
material. Instead of choosing a language learning course book she chose to read books in the target
language that fits her interest. In her words "The traditional way of learning a language (cramming 20-
30 words a day and digesting the grammar supplied by a teacher or a course book) may satisfy at most
one's sense of duty, but it can hardly serve as a source of joy. Nor will it likely be successful". Her
saying was "One learns grammar from language, not language from grammar". Polyglot Tim Ferriss in
his blog post "How to learn any language in 3 months" recommends the exact same thing.
Sir Richard Francis Burton Method (1821-1890): learned 25 languages and understood 72. Sir Richard
Francis developed his own method to accelerate his language acquisition. He is more systemic
structuralist similar to Tim Ferriss. Key in the learning is to understand the basic grammar rules very
early on and then fill it will vocabulary. The maximum time he spent learning a language per day was
15 minutes. Longer period he said is tiring for the brain.
Other methods that are now well known to the broader audience are Berlitz, who used total immersion
learning from 1950s onward. EF who organizes language learning vacations and Pimsleur who starts
conversational without grammar. And well known is Rosetta Stone who use Multimedia (Computer)
for language learning.
E) Experience
My personal experience with language learning.
I commute every day at least 60 minutes in one direction. So now my car became my study place. Not
only does this make my commute more fun at the same time I add new skills to my profile and become
more attractive to my employer.
The best way I learn a language is to listen to others. Same as kids do before they start to speak.
I found this wonderful example for learning Russian and it costs nothing.
It is in German and the teacher is a Russian lady who teaches her husband a German in Russian. It is
downloadable also through itunes. Details on the Russlandjournal.de website. I have downloaded the
lessons to my iphone.
I have tried other tapes and cassettes from other more known companies in this area but none has
been so effective to learn to speak Russian than this one for me personally.
For my French I just listen to the news and discussions on the radio. The jackpot for me is when they
talk about social media and learning. I can get an update on the topic or a new view point while
enjoying myself and improving continuously my French.
What method do you use ? What is your recommendations ? Looking forward to your comments.
If you want to see the current discussion or contribute to it please go to:
Continuous Learning & Development: The Fastest Ways to Learn Any New Language