Fluent Forever

0:00here's a true story over 10 years ago I

0:02was in a bookstore remember those and I

0:04was just browsing the language shelves

0:07because of course I was and I see this

0:10book called fluent forever now even in

0:142014 there were YouTube polyglot

0:16grifters in fact that was probably their

0:18apy and even then I was skeptical of

0:22outrageous claims like learning a

0:23language in 3 months so I pick up this

0:26book ready to just rip it apart I was

0:29expecting a mix of linguistic na over

0:31confidence and just general confidence

0:34man paum I open it to a random page and

0:37he's talking

0:38about how important it is to learn the

0:40sounds of your target language and how

0:42the International Phonetic Alphabet can

0:44actually help you do

0:46that okay I think even the conmen have

0:50to have a nugget of Truth to give

0:51legitimacy to their lies but surely

0:54there's something to tear apart here so

0:56I flipped to another page and it's a

0:58great example of how to think about

1:00syntax and morphology in a useful way

1:04okay fine but then when I flip the page

1:05something I've never seen before surely

1:08this will be where I catch them but

1:10actually wait a minute this is really

1:12good long story short I bought the book

1:15and it had a pretty strong effect on how

1:17I think about language learning so

1:19imagine my reaction when I get an email

1:21out of the blue offering me a free copy

1:23of the updated second edition it'd be

1:25nice if you gave it a review but there's

1:27no strings attached I was curious what

1:29update there were and curious to revisit

1:31it 10 years at a PhD in linguistics

1:34later and it turns out it's still really

1:36good in fact I had to wait to make this

1:38video not just because I was making a

1:40failed foray into ASMR for an audience

1:43that hates ASMR even more than I do but

1:45also because I lent the book to a friend

1:48who was toying with the idea of

1:49revisiting their Spanish so today I'm

1:51going to talk about what I got out of

1:53fluent forever in 2014 what's different

1:56and interesting in the new edition and

1:58of course what Gabriel Wier gets right

2:00and what he maybe gets a little wrong if

2:01you're new to the channel I'm Dr Taylor

2:03Jones I have a PhD in linguistics from

2:05the University of Pennsylvania and I

2:07love learning languages and sharing the

2:10insights of linguistics today instead of

2:12debunking hyperpolyglots ridiculous

2:14claims we're going to see what one

2:16polyglot does right and what we can

2:19learn from him I'm Dr Taylor Jones and

2:21this is language

2:23[Music]

2:28Jones weap surprisingly this video is

2:31not sponsored but I do want to give a

2:32special thanks to Jonathan at penguin

2:34random House's Harmony books imprint for

2:36thinking of me and for sending me the

2:38new addition I'd been meaning to revisit

2:40the original book and this gave me the

2:41motivation to revisit it and some new

2:44content so who is Gabriel Wier honestly

2:48if you read the preface to the new

2:49edition and I won't post spoilers here

2:52it seems like he's also been asking that

2:54question a lot lately seriously read the

2:57prefaces and acknowledgements and

2:58forwards to to things if you want to

3:01piece together some hot Goss Gabriel I'm

3:04happy for you and it sounds like you had

3:06a hell of a journey anyway for our

3:07purposes what you need to know is that

3:09Wier was an aspiring opera singer who

3:12had failed at language learning in the

3:13classroom but caught the language bug

3:15with an experience at midbury the famous

3:18language school where you take a pledge

3:21to speak nothing but your target

3:22language for a few months and you live

3:25in Residence and they kick you out if

3:27you slip up he tells a great story in

3:28his book about a in for the wrong level

3:30in French and faking his way in of

3:33course he realized that part of his

3:35cramming to fake learning was actually

3:36just making use of more effective

3:38methods with a lot of motivation and a

3:40specific goal but I digress he became

3:43obsessed with learning effectively and

3:44did a ton of research like actual

3:47research and used himself as a language

3:49learning guinea pig now a a brief note

3:52here is important being motivated to

3:54study lots of languages and even having

3:56success achieving a high level in those

3:59languages does not mean that you know

4:02anything about how to teach those

4:03languages or even how to succeed at

4:06effective and quick learning most of the

4:08hyperpolyglots I see on YouTube have

4:09succeeded to the extent that they have

4:12despite themselves and they pedal bad

4:14advice so that's basically what I was

4:16expecting the first time I picked up

4:17this book but instead what I got was

4:20somebody who when he wrote about

4:22Linguistics wrote knowledgeably and

4:24correctly when he talked about learning

4:27and memory he drew on current research

4:29Arch and he put it together in a way

4:31that made connections I hadn't yet made

4:33on how to actually apply the linguistic

4:35side of things and the learning and

4:37memory s side of things to efficiently

4:39effectively learn now this video is not

4:42sponsored but I can say that the

4:43original book was fantastic and the new

4:46edition is also great clearly expanded

4:49and was a blast to read if you want to

4:51order a copy I will have a link in the

4:53description so I'm not going to go over

4:54all of it because that would be like a

4:565-hour video but I will tell you some

4:59key points and some things that

5:01surprised me and that I have added to my

5:04language learning routines and if you

5:06want more check out his stuff and maybe

5:09buy the book his main argument basically

5:11boils down to three things that you

5:12didn't really need Gabriel wer to tell

5:13you learn sounds first don't translate

5:16and use spaced repetition software but

5:19there's a lot to unpack in that alone

5:20and the book itself covers so much more

5:23and for what it's worth he's part of the

5:24reason that those three things feel

5:27obvious to people interested in language

5:29learning and on YouTube right now let's

5:32unpack those three quickly though

5:34languages are spoken first and foremost

5:36we're bracketing SCI modalities here so

5:39sounds are the building blocks learning

5:41the sounds of your target language first

5:43and using all and only the sounds of

5:45your target language is a tremendous

5:48piece of advice it will give you a good

5:50accent it will help your listening

5:52comprehension it will help prevent

5:54mixing up similar languages like Spanish

5:56and French because while a lot of the

5:58words look similar on the page under the

6:01hood they're totally different and the

6:03sounds are the building blocks of

6:05morphemes and in turn words phrases and

6:08sentences morphological and syntactic

6:10patterns that could be confusing are

6:13just not when you start with the sounds

6:15and get a handle on what's actually

6:17going on similarly don't translate seems

6:19like either obvious advice or completely

6:21impossible and unhinged when you're

6:23first starting out but the idea is

6:26basically just to map those sounds that

6:28you've learned to con ceps ideally

6:30circumventing the process of translating

6:32through your L1 the benefits are well

6:35documented and include faster

6:36comprehension recall and production and

6:39more importantly you start to train both

6:41phonological and semantic priming in

6:43line with your target language he gives

6:45an example in the book of a textbook

6:47claiming girl in English is dushka in

6:51Russian technically true but a Google

6:53image search turns up results that are

6:56shall we say very different depending on

6:59the language

7:00and it's like this for well every word

7:03otherwise languages would just be code

7:05and not you know different languages and

7:07lastly he kind of folds all of his

7:08memorization advice into use spaced

7:11repetition software and then just has a

7:13lot of details on how to optimize that

7:15but of course the devil's in the details

7:17he gives so many excellent tips it's

7:19hard to remember them all ironically so

7:22space repetition software or SRS is

7:24basically just a software optimized

7:26approach to surfing the forgetting curve

7:28I've talked about this at l elsewhere

7:30but long-term learning is actually a

7:32process of repeatedly forgetting or

7:34nearly forgetting something and then

7:36strengthening all the neural networks it

7:37connects with in the act of remembering

7:40trying to remember or being reminded so

7:42in service of these big three ideas he

7:45has chapters or sections of chapters on

7:48learning and memorization uh the

7:50importance of sound and how to approach

7:51it this is what got me hooked words and

7:55vocabulary building sentence structures

7:56and how to memorize them stress

7:58minimization and a lot of other good

8:00stuff I'm just going to share a few of

8:02the things that really stood out to me

8:04first was his game of spot the

8:07differences which we've already seen

8:09with gka this is surprisingly fun and

8:13extremely helpful second was his use of

8:15action pneumonics for memorizing

8:18grammatical category things like gender

8:20or case marking I talk on my channel a

8:23lot about what I call uh naughty

8:25pneumonics but he's got a master class

8:28on how to maximize their impact and why

8:31they work basically anything that kicks

8:33your animalistic hindbrain into gear

8:35things like violence and sex and strong

8:38emotions are things that are implicated

8:41in memory circuits and the formation of

8:43vivid long-term memories I'm pretty sure

8:45I still remember his examples from

8:48German from reading the first edition in

8:502014 so there's maybe something to be

8:53said for this kind of amydala hacking

8:55but the main two things that really

8:57stood out to me in reading the new

8:59addition

9:00were his approach to simplifying

9:02learning grammatical rules and pick a

9:05thing his approach to grammar is so

9:07totally diametrically opposite to my

9:09training as a linguist and yet it's also

9:11just another way of saying the same

9:13thing He suggests learning grammatical

9:15structures by referring to a good

9:17grammar where have you heard that before

9:20and picking an example sentence or two

9:22or three and then just breaking that

9:24sentence apart into multiple flash cards

9:26using Clos deletion that's a fancy term

9:28for fill the blanks the way he

9:30recommends is to have one for new words

9:32one for new forms of a word and one for

9:34any kind of surprising word order so he

9:37gives the example of learning pacif

9:39isation by taking a sentence like my

9:41homework was eaten by my dog and giving

9:44yourself an image of a dog along with

9:46multiple cards one would be like my

9:49homework was eaten blank my dog you can

9:52do that or you can try to memorize that

9:54by is the preposition that introduces

9:57the optional agent in a passive

9:58Construction

10:00but honestly that technically correct

10:02linguistic description is basically just

10:04another way of saying that the word by

10:07goes there in that sentence similarly he

10:10might have a card with my homework blank

10:12to eat by my dog and you'd have to

10:14supply was eaten so you get really

10:17really good at a few specific sentences

10:19but there's sentences that teach you all

10:21aspects of the structure that you're

10:23learning and then when you learn a new

10:26word you can easily fit it into those

10:28structures I thought this was brilliant

10:30and an even brillian addition was to

10:32underspecified and other hints meaning

10:35basically something like my homework was

10:36eaten by

10:38a/n blank if you were memorizing dog

10:41this way you don't narrow down the

10:42search Space by having the word a

10:44indicate you're looking for a noun that

10:45starts with a consonant pick a thing was

10:47another great trick that's a

10:49simplification of the memory Champion

10:51technique of person action object he

10:53gives the example of needing a neonic

10:55for multiple different German plurals

10:57there's like six different ways that

10:58German plural izes things how do you

11:00know if words pluralize with s or or

11:02something else entirely in general you

11:04have to just memorize that so the

11:06Brilliance of his approach is its

11:08unashamed laziness ends with an s that's

11:11just like English so treat it as the

11:12default even if linguists would argue

11:15about whether that is structurally or

11:17statistically accurate for an English

11:18speaker it's the closest to expected so

11:21for our learning process it's the

11:23easiest and therefore the default ends

11:26with can you remember that without

11:28additional effort no action needed but

11:30let's say you can't the example he gives

11:33is struggling to remember that it's not

11:35students but in German it's student so

11:39pardon my accent by the way so he thinks

11:41about a thing related to students in

11:42this case he settles on a backpack he

11:45adds a backpack to the card and then to

11:47every card that he makes for a word that

11:48has an in plural he goes on to explain

11:50something like an envelope might be

11:52better since it triggers phonological

11:54associations so what about something

11:56like naon which also takes Ian

11:59well you're going to imagine multiple

12:01Nations wearing

12:03backpacks that's it I started doing this

12:07with my memorization and holy you

12:09guys to give context I'm super lazy and

12:12dualingo Hebrew is actually one of the

12:14better things out there if you

12:16supplement with Ani that's a space

12:18repetition software but of course I went

12:20with pre-made an decks as a timesaver so

12:22I've been adding pictures to my deck but

12:24often it's just of you know something

12:26evocative of the concept and I have work

12:29words that I struggled with because I

12:31just kept getting them wrong or

12:32confusing them exam in frying pan for

12:35example that's M

12:37and I had a bunch of words like this I

12:40started adding more pneumonics

12:42phonological cues or even just partial

12:44phonological cues or both phonological

12:47cues and demonics and holy

12:50literally the process of even just

12:51trying to do that got some of these

12:52words locked in for a frying pan I added

12:55a chef shrugging and asking a question

12:57the question of course is you want they

12:58should but for pay loot activity I had a

13:02bunch of kids bouncing on balls that

13:03wasn't working for me I've added pay and

13:06loot it's absolutely ridiculous how

13:08effective this is it's so freaking

13:10stupid but it really really works and if

13:12you speak a bunch of languages you're

13:14not limited to English for the priming I

13:16finally memorized importing which I'd

13:18used a picture of a container ship at a

13:20port for by adding bees to it it's mayab

13:25get it may AB anyway it works for me and

13:28that's all that matters if you use

13:30pneumonics leave me a comment with your

13:32craziest one oh and one more thing he

13:35has an approach for memorizing grammar

13:37paradigms without just brute forcing it

13:40like we did in French

13:44class not knocking that method but I'm

13:48excited to try his version which is

13:50basically to use Clos deletion flash

13:52cards with interesting stories for each

13:55of the forms something unexpected and

13:58engaging like

14:01the last thing that I want to say he

14:02gets really really right is a chapter on

14:04Stress Management and goal setting

14:06insert joke here about the state of the

14:08world such that this wasn't in the 2014

14:10edition of the book there's tons of

14:12other good stuff in the book and he

14:14writes in a clear and engaging fashion

14:17and there's fully 153 pages of

14:19appendices and how-tos seriously it's

14:22pages 220 through 373 it's got all sorts

14:25of information on flash cards and of

14:27course the list of your 625 first words

14:29to learn that he's famous for I will say

14:32there are some flaws but nothing that I

14:34think really detracts from the overall

14:36benefit of the book first he doesn't

14:38really have much to say about how to

14:40learn underresourced languages he has a

14:43ton of information on resources but a

14:46lot of this is just assuming that you're

14:47learning something like Spanish or

14:48French or Russian or Japanese which

14:50frankly is statistically a safe bet and

14:53while he does have some on using AI I

14:56was surprised not to see much discussion

14:58of AI Imaging generation which I applied

15:00to make pneumonics based on what he had

15:03written elsewhere in the book for

15:05instance Mish is serving so I made geese

15:07who are servers as a neonic it works for

15:10me mid gab is overcoming so I made a

15:13neonic about a bear who overcame the

15:15world telling him that he couldn't be a

15:17Lady Gaga impersonator in a meat dress

15:20meat

15:22gab but on the whole the book is great

15:24and I'm grateful that Harmony press sent

15:26me a copy like I said I immediately

15:28loaned it to a friend said friend is now

15:30fired up to improve their Spanish

15:32because it feels more achievable that's

15:34the main thing that he's selling of

15:36course the other thing that he's selling

15:39is an app which purports to simplify a

15:42lot of the process for you reducing your

15:44data entry time and allowing you more

15:46time for memorization and learning I

15:48think that's totally fair and if you

15:49have the money to throw at the problem

15:51why not he says as much as well if you

15:53want to snatch a copy of the book I'll

15:54have an Amazon affiliate Link in the

15:55description I definitely think it's

15:57worth the asking price I'm probably

15:59going to try to implement all of his

16:00suggestions when I go back to Persian

16:01which has been a struggle for me to

16:03retain compared to French and Spanish

16:05and so on if you like what I'm doing

16:07with the

16:08channel you know except that one attempt

16:10at ASMR then please like And subscribe

16:14and leave me a comment I've said it

16:16before but comments feed the algorithm

16:18and the algorithm feeds my family you

16:20can also support the Channel with super

16:22thanks or over on patreon.com language

16:25Jones until next time happy learning