Book Review: Fluent Forever {Blogging for Books}

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links. See Disclosure/Policies.

Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner*

ISBN: 978-0-385-34810-2

ebook, 336 pages

Publisher: Harmony

Retail: $11.99

About the book:

The ultimate rapid language-learning guide! For those who’ve despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick. At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources. In Fluent Forever Wyner reveals what he’s discovered. 

The greatest challenge to learning a foreign language is the challenge of memory; there are just too many words and too many rules. For every new word we learn, we seem to forget two old ones, and as a result, fluency can seem out of reach. Fluent Forever tackles this challenge head-on. With empathy for the language-challenged and abundant humor, Wyner deconstructs the learning process, revealing how to build a foreign language in your mind from the ground up. 

Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You'll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you'll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery, rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you'll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. Soon, you'll gain the ability to learn grammar and more difficult abstract words--without the tedious drills and exercises of language classes and grammar books. 

This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

About the author:

Gabriel Wyner graduated summa cum laude at USC, where he won the school’s Renaissance Award. His essay on language learning for Lifehacker.com was one of the site’s most read in 2012.

My thoughts {well, these thoughts are actually my daughter's, who read the book much faster than I}:

Well, I haven’t learned any languages yet using the techniques in this book… But I’m working on it! ;)

The book starts out with why you should use the techniques in the book. I tend to like the books that tell you what and how, so at first I was impatient. However, the why’s the author provides were interesting, and he always backed them up with research.

Here are some principles from the book, and a bit of the ‘why’s:

The Three Keys to Language Learning:

1. Learn pronunciation first. -This involves what you hear, see, and say. Wyner gave the example his experience with the word scheme. When he would read it, he would pronounce it in his head “sheem”. However, he kept hearing in others’ speech the word “skeam”. Later he did find out the correct word-sound relation (it’s “skeam”); but he said he had a permanent ‘gap’ in his mind. Word situations like that are ‘broken’ words. If you don’t learn to pronounce the language you are learning correctly, you could end up with all sorts of broken words, and it will make it harder for you to understand others. Also, you’ll get a cool accent ;) Wyner says that native speakers are happily surprised when you pronounce their language correctly.
2. Don’t translate. -Learning a new language shouldn’t be like learning a code - you don’t want to have to decipher everything you read or hear. If you try to use as little English as possible when learning a new language, you can begin to understand the words and phrases quickly, without the hassle of translating. You connect the words to what they really are, rather than their English equivalent. You can actually begin to think in that language.
3. Use spaced repetition systems (SRSs). -”SRSs are flash cards on steroids.” Instead of constantly reviewing and repeating cards, SRSs space out your cards depending on how well you know them. By pushing them into further spaces of time, they test the edge of your memory. ‘Tip of your tongue’ experiences reinforce your memory of words.

These three principles are combined into Wyner’s learning system. The technique is largely based on using flash cards. These flash cards use minimal English; instead, pictures take the place of the definition of a word. This way, you can stop thinking “Egao means smile”, and instead think, “Egao means :)”

After telling you why, Wyner tells you how to make the flash cards that will teach you pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

This book is not a language course. Rather, it is telling you how to make your own language course. So, there is a lot of work for you to do - materials, set up, etc. Maybe that part isn’t so easy; but it’s once you get yourself oriented, know what you have to do, and do it - the learning starts, and it’s fun and easy! By making your own course, it becomes personal, and it sticks in your brain.

Wyner's website, Fluent Forever, has lots of resources to help learn a foreign language. We are using the book and the site together. Wyner is creating pronunciation trainers and word lists for: Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (European), French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), German, Russian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic (MSA), Hebrew, Hungarian, English, and Dutch (from the site). French is done now and the rest can be preordered. 

We definitely recommend this book for anyone who is truly interested in learning- and retaining- a foreign language. I will say that I would love to have this in print rather than ebook form.

*Disclaimer: I received an ebook version of this book free from the publisher via Blogging for Books for the purpose of this review. No compensation was given. All opinions stated are those of my daughter and myself. See Disclosure/Policies.

Homeschool Spanish Academy {Schoolhouse Review Crew}

Back in May here on my blog I did a 5-day series on foreign language- why learn one, which one to learn, what curriculum to use, making your own, and implementing it into your life. One of the best scenarios I can think of when learning a foreign language is to learn from a native speaker- one-on-one.

I have found a program for Spanish that I would highly recommend.

As a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, our family was given a free 7-week lesson subscription for middle/high school from Homeschool Spanish Academy (HSA). What makes this program so great (and quite different from others on the market) is that you are actually interacting with a live, native speaker.

In order to get the most out of this program you need

• fast internet,
• a Skype account,
• and a web-cam (the website says that you need a head set with a microphone but if your web-cam has audio, I don’t see that you need this).
• Schedulicity account (you’ll have to sign up to schedule your appointments right at the start)

We had all of those (even the headsets that we didn’t use) –until it came time to actually use the program! Our internet has slowed down significantly for who-knows-what reasons. Also because of the upload time for my computer (or is that an internet related issue as well?) we are unable to use video for the entire lesson.

To see if your computer and internet will support this program you first start at speedtest.net (See this page at the HSA site to learn more about “How it Works”) The 'tech’ people (which was actually Ron, the founder and owner of HSA) from HSA call before classes are actually started to make sure that your connection speed and equipment are going to work. They walk you through all of it and are very helpful at all the steps along the way. I think that is great. It’s a terrible frustration and disappointment to purchase a program only to find out afterwards that it won’t work with your system!

You don’t need to purchase any books for this class. The lessons are sent via email before classes in pdf (and Word for homework) format. I print them out and hole punch them. Homework is gone over in the next class but if you would like to request it corrected and sent back via email, they can do that. (I haven’t asked for that…yet)

Scheduling when to take your classes is virtually pain free- they use Schedulicity (you’ll have to sign up for an account) and it makes it very easy. You receive email confirmation and reminders about the class you’ve signed up for. You can choose who the instructor is for the class or let it pick for you.

HSA offers levels of instruction from early learning (age 5 and up) to adult. The Early Learning sessions are 25 minutes long, while the Middle School, High School, and Adult sessions are 50 minutes.

From the website: Each group then has 4 levels.* Each level is then divided into 2 sub-levels (i.e. Level 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B), for a total of 8 sub-levels. Within each sub-level, there are 14 lessons, at least 5 quizzes, and at least 4 exams (some sub-levels have more) *High School Curriculum also has a level 5A advanced level.

See it in action! This link takes you to a video on YouTube put together by HSA. Or watch a short snippet of my kids in Spanish class (If it doesn’t show for some reason, here is the link to my video)

FAQs- if you have a question, you’ll most likely find the answer here!

The above image is the pricing for what my kids were enrolled in: middle school program, 2 students. To see other pricing options see this page, choose your category and see the prices.

The very first lesson (for us) was a free trial and it was very basic. The alphabet and spelling was covered.

We still have four more lessons to complete and you can bet that we will!

What we thought of this:
Well…I think you know already that I like it  

Although neither of my kids was thrilled when I told them we were chosen for the review (*I* was ecstatic), both enjoy the classes. We have had two different instructors and both they have liked. The instructors start out easy, with conversation (how was your week, how is the weather, etc) before moving on to the lesson. She also talks about where she lives. It gets the kids smiling.

It was a bit to get used to with the web cam because ours kept freezing up. We had to turn off the video on our end (so the instructor couldn’t see the kids). They were able to see her, though, and the audio worked fine. At the end of the lesson, the video would be turned back on so that the kids could say good bye to the instructor.

I did say that in order to get the most you need to have certain criteria met. But honestly, I do think this can be done successfully without the webcam. It was definitely enhanced with it but push come to shove (or simply internet fizzling), it would still be a great program without it.

The kids really liked the friendliness of the instructors  

If I did this again, I would put my kids in separate classes. With both kids (one being more confident than the other), it seemed that each could not truly go at their own pace. Fox continuously looked to his big sister for the answers! The instructor needed to focus on one or the other’s strengths/weaknesses. And our instructors did do that very well, I add.

Also, I would opt for the twice a week class option. We were given a one-time-a-week lesson and the kids are doing well with it but I really think that more frequent lessons would be much more beneficial.

I definitely recommend this program to those wishing to learn Spanish! Read others reviews of this program to help you decide if it would work for your family.

***Disclaimer: I received this free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated are my own. I received no compensation for this review. See Disclosure/Policies.

********************************************************

Find Homeschool Spanish Academy here:

• Website: www.HomeschoolSpanishAcademy.com
• Follow on Twitter @EspanolOnline
• Like on Facebook
• Read the Blog Here
• Phone: 1-713-280-HOLA(4652)
• Email: info@homeschoolspanishacademy.com

Some other information about HSA's program (from the website):

How does this compare to a traditional public school curriculum?
Our curriculum follows the same general national standard guidelines outlined by the American Council On The Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL). This means that we progressively cover all Spanish grammar and emphasize reading, writing, speaking and comprehension. We do however, omit a few things that public school might include, such as cultural perspective of other Spanish speaking cultures. We tend to focus on Guatemalan culture as we are experts in that, but we often give information and anecdotes to our surrounding neighbors in Central America. (emphasis mine)

Will colleges and universities accept your program for college admissions?
Yes! Among the colleges and universities we have spoken to, parents simply need to submit the grades of the student and a record of their completed work. HSA provides this documentation to parents if requested. Additionally, we will provide parents with an overview sheet of our curricula and teaching methodologies. Lastly, we invite all admissions offices to contact us if there are any questions about grades, work, or student abilities.

Will colleges and universities accept your program for college credit?
Among the colleges and universities we spoke to, they will NOT accept our program for college credit. The only credits they accept are from the AP Exam and Dual Credit courses.

Highlighting Links by Subject for Schooling- Foreign Language

Each week there will be a post {or two or three} highlighting some links that have been collected and compiled on the Links by Subject for Schooling page on my blog. At this point, I plan to go alphabetically through the subjects because that’s how I am but the websites most likely won’t be alphabetized…sorry for any confusion!

Foreign Language

Byki- Learn a language from A to Z This program is available for free {the Express edition} or for purchase {the Deluxe edition}. On the site you can access lists that have been made by other learners/contributors to help learn a new language. The Express edition allows you to read, hear, write and track your progress. The Deluxe edition has more support and also more resources than the Express edition.

Livemocha- Free language learning lessons and resources for a limited number of languages {38 languages at my count}. We’ve used this in our homeschool and found it to be quite good. Read, listen, match and say words and sentences to learn. A “Gold Key” can be purchased by the month or for a year which allows for extra resources for any of the languages that Livemocha offers {much more than 38}.

World Champ- Free site with resources for learning over 100 foreign languages. It has flashcards, Absolute Recall™, web reader {so you can read other foreign sites without a dictionary}, classes and soon will have self-paced lessons. For the classes, I’m not sure if these are strictly through access from an outside source {such as taking a class at a school and the instructor giving the students a code to access the class online}. Also, the site does offer Premium membership which grants access to more resources.

Free Online Language Courses- From word2word.com, this site offers links to free courses for learning many different languages. Quite a few different links that take learners to other sites for learning. Also many languages have more than one link {Russian has 14 links!; Spanish- I lost count} if you are not happy with one site. I can’t vouch for all the links because I’ve only used a few.

WorldLanguage.com- This is a website where you can purchase resources and materials for learning a foreign language. By putting it in this post, I’m not suggesting it is better than other sites. You may find these items at different sites for a better value but you may find something here that you’d not known of previously. Good starting point when looking for products to purchase, perhaps.

Those are some of the links for Foreign Language that have been collected. Stay tuned for more link ‘highlights’ every so often.

She wants to learn Japanese...again...

All things Japanese: drawing, reading, writing, naming our cat, changing the commands in her cell phone... Dd Lee wants to learn Japanese again. I say again but not that she learned it once and now wants to 'again', rather we began Japanese during the school year last year and she decided that Spanish was going to be enough for now. Well, she has had a renewed interest. She visited her friends in Oregon for a few days and they (sweet girls that I love!) are all about Japanese everything! I should have seen it coming! :)

So, now I am trying to put together a 'curriculum' for her with what we have. I cannot buy anything else for the school year, because it's all been bought based on what we planned on doing. We have quite a bit so I don't think that we will be lacking, however, the ability to teach it is another story for another time perhaps.

The books that we have I have found from used book sales or on paperbackswap. Here is a run down of our books:

• Japanese for Beginners. Yasuo Yoshida. ISBN 4050506475. Published by Gakken Co., Ltd. Copyright 1976
• Kanji & Kana. Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn. ISBN 0804813736. Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. Copyright 1982
• Japanese for All Occasions. Anne Kaneko. ISBN 0804815674. Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. Copyright 1990
• Pocket Japanese Dictionary. Periplus Language. ISBN 0794600484. Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. Copyright 2003
• Living Language Conversational Japanese. Revised by Hiroko Storm. ISBN 0517590662. Published by Crown Publishers, Inc. Copyright 1993
• Living Language Japanese Dictionary. Revised by Hiroko Storm. ISBN 0517590670. Published by Crown Publishers, Inc. Copyright 1993

The Living Language Japanese books also have audio tapes with them. Good assortment of good books, in my humble-and-uneducated opinion :) Now I need to figure out how to make a curriculum and schedule to help her learn it. She is pretty good at doing things on her own and I honestly have no clue about Japanese. I used Byki for a while for all of us to try and learn various languages...Japanese was hardest!

I am going to be taking the advice found at DonnaYoung.org for lesson plans to try and make this work. Unfortunately, Lee may have to do this mostly on her own. If she really wants to learn she can do it. I will try and post the lesson plans when I am done as well. Also our/her progress ;)

And before I forget, there are a ton of links for Foreign Language sites that are free (as well as some inexpensive to expensive lol) on my Links by Subject for Schooling page. Scroll down to Foreign Language.

* Here is the tentative schedule we have started. I explained to Lee that she will most likely have to do this mostly by herself. She was receptive to the plan :) I will of course be here for her in any way that I can. It is only up to Week 6 (which is the second review week) but it will be continued/revised as we go. *

Life of Fred Math and First Form Latin

I have been thinking about math...for the kids...lately. Fox hates math (not doing math, because he is good at it, but the workbooks that we have been using) and it turns into such an ordeal to make him do it. Lee isn't having a problem with doing it although she does agree with him that the workbooks are, ahem, retarded. I have heard a lot of good things about Life of Fred books. Today I ventured to the site to check them out...again. You can find out about LoF books at Polka Dot Publishing and can purchase them from Z-Twist Books. I decided to order two of the books (Decimals & Percents and PreAlgebra 1 with Biology). There are no shipping charges unless you want your books faster than the free shipping will get it to you. I am excited to get them.

I also was looking at Latin for them. We are working on Spanish (German & Japanese on the side a bit also but not too strenuously) for this year and will continue with it because I personally feel it is very important. We wanted to do French but honestly, I just do not see that happening. They would need to take an outside class for that! I have tried to learn French myself and I found it very difficult. However, being that Latin is the root of our language- and others- I felt it would be good to pursue that course. I hadn't bookmarked any of the great sites that others have recommended that they have used...and now I wish I had. I went on a search for forums and such that had posted recommendations and came across Prima Latina from Memoria Press. I have heard many good things about this particular course/publisher so I did some comparing. My dc are both going to be in middle school next year (oh my! where has the time gone!) and I felt that starting at the very lowest level may not be the best. I want them to be challenged but at the same time not too much. I checked Latina Christiana but decided to go with First Form instead because it specifies that it is for grades 5 and up.

So that has been my day. I was pouring over these things for hours, trying to decide. I also have saved Ray's Arithmetic books (can find these in the links page, under Math) that I would like to use.