I’m a language nerd. When I was young I was that kid who would check out those books on kids around the world to see what customs and languages people spoke across the globe. During the summers I would choose a language and check out one of those learn-on-your-own books. This would last only a few weeks, but it left me with bits and pieces of random languages.
In college I was lucky enough to live in Spain for a year and finally learn enough Spanish to be able to say that I speak Spanish. When I graduated with my Spanish degree it felt that a life-long goal had been met. Level up! Then I started getting hungry to learn another language. But that’s right around when life got busy. Getting my career off the ground, marrying my partner-in-crime, and settling in to adulting kept me from really focusing on learning another language. And then there was the choice of what I would learn next. Too many options!
That’s when I stumbled across Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever. I saw it on our library’s “New Books” shelf and the title immediately called out to me. Like me, Mr. Wyner speaks many languages and enjoys learning new ones. He’s developed a system (with awesome resources) to help those of us with limited time to learning another language. He breaks down the language learning process into various steps and then explains how he uses simple tools like Google images and other online resources to develop flashes cards and mnemonic devices to develop a vocabulary. With tools like Netflix and dvd collections at libraries, language learners have a lot of resources with which to enrich their vocabularies and language immersion.
With Wyner’s helpful suggestions I think I have a good plan for how to accomplish my goal to learn another language and earn my polyglot badge. I just wish he’d give more explanations. Regardless, I can’t wait to jump into my next language.