To Get Fluent in a New Language, Think in Pictures

When learning a foreign language, tie new words to bold images and old memories.

When trying to learn a foreign language, we struggle because we have too much to remember: too much grammar, too many arbitrary rules and far too much vocabulary. Forgetting what we learn is our greatest foe, and we need a plan to defeat it.

To Get Fluent in a New Language, Think in Pictures RV-AO049_FLUENC_DV_20140801193243

To Get Fluent in a New Language, Think in Pictures RV-AO049_FLUENC_DV_20140801193243

In 2010, I realized that I had no such plan. I was studying at the time to become an opera singer, and I needed to be fluent in French, German, Italian and Russian to make my singing more expressive and to become truly competitive in opera's difficult job market. As a student, I couldn't afford language programs like Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur. So I started researching how to learn on my own—and developed a method that brought me to fluency in French in five months and Russian in 10. I now speak fluent French, German, Italian, Russian and—just for fun—Hungarian. I'm going to start on Japanese this fall.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/to-get-fluent-in-a-new-language-think-in-pictures-1406938139?google_editors_picks=true

That might work for "cat" but what about for concepts such as "yesterday?"

Last edited by CovOps on Sat Aug 02, 2014 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total

Well...

'All my (language) troubles seem so far away...'

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To Get Fluent in a New Language, Think in Pictures

To Get Fluent in a New Language, Think in Pictures

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