General

• Scriptorium Technique to Reading Fluency in Latin, Italian, Greek, and more (Luke Ranieri)
  • Engages all four language-learning disciplines: reading, writing, listening, speaking
  • Technique:
    • Read aloud the longest phrase you can keep in short-term memory.
    • Write down the phrase without looking at the source, saying it out loud.
    • Check to make sure you wrote it without errors.
    • Re-read your transcribed phrase.
  • Do this as much as you can. Luke did this for the entire “Lingua Latina per se Illustrata.”
• Ephemeris Technique (Luke Ranieri)
  • Write journal entry
  • Record audio
  • Listen while reading
  • Listen only
• The Reading Habit That Will Make You Fluent (Olly Richards)
• Stop Studying Languages — Read Like This Instead (Olly Richards)
• Why massive input beats flashcards every time (Steve Kaufmann)
• I speak 12 languages – copy my 30 min learning routine (Mikel Telleria)
  • 90% of language learners fail
  • Lies
    • you need to study grammar to speak
    • apps make you fluent
    • just immerse yourself and learn naturally (passively)
  • Method
    • Build your sentence list (language islands). Record everything you say for a couple days. Talk to yourself out loud using a speech-to-text app. Narrate your entire life. These are the sentences you need (not arbitrarily chosen vocab list in a text book). Have an AI translation your sentences.
    • Listen. Flood your ears with audio. Have an AI generate text-to-speech audio of your translated sentences. Listen to them repeatedly during dead time (brushing teeth, dressing, exercising). Goal is to listen so many times you know what it sounds like before you hear it.
    • Shadow (connect listening to speaking) by repeating what you hear as you listen. Language is physical; mouth needs to practice. Check your pronunciation by audio recording yourself and comparing it with the original, or have a native speaker give feedback.
    • Active recall (non-negotiable). Look at your English sentences and force yourself to say them in the target language. This is the hard part but this (friction) is where learning occurs. This is what is missing from comprehensible input. Start small and gradually increase; every day it will get easier.
    • Narrate your day in the target language out loud. Role play your life in the target language.
  • Daily routine
    • Listen to audio while getting dressed, driving, etc.
    • 10-15 min of active recall at lunch. High intensity focused work. 15 min/day is enough. Even better if you do this more than once spread out through the day. Especially helpful to do a session right before bed.
    • Grand total of 30min focused practice per day. Everything else is passive listening. Use dead time intelligently.
  • Expectations
    • Week 1: Very hard. You won’t be able to remember/say anything at all.
    • Week 2: Some sentences are starting to stick. Recall 20-30% of sentences without checking.
    • Week 3: Things start clicking.
    • Week 4: You can do basic conversations.
    • Week 6: You are generally conversational.
  • Pre-Input Comprehension
    • Before watching/listening to native content, get a transcript and study the new words.
  • This is work that actually produces results. 6 weeks of focused, intelligent practice and start having real conversations. More effort on the front end, but you’ll dramatically better results and long-term spend less time learning the language.
  • https://www.nll.coach/nll-introduction
• How 5 Polyglots Broke Language Learning (Jerry Registre)
• Tim Ferriss’ 12 Golden Sentences – Language‑Learning Method
  • https://tim.blog/2014/03/21/how-to-learn-a-foreign-language-2
  • https://tim.blog/2007/11/07/how-to-learn-but-not-master-any-language-in-1-hour-plus-a-favor
  • https://x.com/i/grok/share/EWAiP4QkTChQYPAkB0rDu9MlL
• Kato Lomb
  • study 10 minutes per day; 3 autos method
    • Autolexia = read for oneself; find something interesting to read
    • Autographia = write for oneself; write about her thoughts and daily routines
    • Autologia = speak to oneself; speak to self casually about her daily life
  • don’t fear making mistakes
• Powell Janulus
  • Love making mistakes
  • “Velocity Instant Fluency” by Marilyn Atkinson
    • Intoning: Singing voice has little to no accent. Select 20-30 words to learn, assign rhythms to each, repeat 3x. Does this 1x/day for 30 days.
    • Encharting: A sentence building system. Who, why, action, what.
• Steve Kaufman
  • Don’t use memorization
  • Vagabond Technique: Expose brain to language in different ways. Encounter words so many times the brain has no option but to remember them.
• The Cognitive Debt We Accumulate Every Time We Use AI

Comprehensible Input

• Ex-Professor Reveals Way to REALLY Learn Languages (according to science)
• Kenneth Hale
  • Listen + silent period
  • Stephen Krashen: Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. We acquire languages by listening, not speaking. Try to understand the language slightly above current proficiency level; guessing words from context and inferring meaning.

Hebrew

• How I Would Learn Hebrew (If I Could Start Over)
  • Learn the alef-bet
  • Learn basic words and phrases
  • 70% of conversation is 1000 common words. Fluent Forever list of 625 words. Put in Anki Droid. Forvo web site has native speakers saying words. Add audio to the flash cards.
  • Learn the conjugations.
  • Learn the genders.
  • Hello Talk – free app that let’s you speak with native speakers. Also Glossia. Piece of Hebrew Youtube channel for listening comprehension.
  • Immersion. Listen to music, especially rap (they speak fast and use a lot of slang). As you get better, shadow them (repeat exactly what and how they speak).
  • Speak, speak, speak. Hello Talk. Start with voice notes. There is a lot of slang.