Name: Fluent forever
ISBN: 9780385348119

Fluent forever

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—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. 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. 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.

What Hacker News says

13324Aug 2025

I used Anki pretty heavily during ~8 years of law school and it was a game-changer. Two things that helped me the most (and that I think apply to any kind of flashcards, digital or paper):

- The twenty rules of formulating knowledge (https://www.supermemo.com/en/blog/twenty-rules-of-formulatin...) ; old but really solid advice on how to actually write cards that stick.

- The book Fluent Forever; it’s meant for languages, but the general principles carry over to learning basically anything.

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jphelanJun 2025

Congrats! I'm happy to suggest some ideas. This is near and dear to me so I've got a lot to say lol. I think when beginning French the most helpful services for beginners relate to pronunciation and language comprehension because that is the "secret trick". Seriously, I recommend giving pronunciation/comprehension a lot of attention at first. There are only like 10-20 new sounds (plenty of resources to find the list if you search IPA French https://www.frenchcourses-paris.com/french-lessons-in-paris/... find one that clicks for you) so don't worry that it's too much even though I know it's hard and looks cryptic at first. I think most people end up mis-learning to read French like it's funny English then they will never have a good experience and certainly won't be able to have a conversation. I had the same experience with Chinese where if you don't learn tones at the start then it will always be miserable. For example in Chinese you can ask for dumplings and people literally just hear you saying sleep unless you add the right inflection (like the way we make a statement a question vs a demand).

In terms of the exact resources for pronunciation - The Fluent Forever guy has a good anki deck for $12 (I bought it and I'd recommend it - just have patience and know he tends to over explain IMHO but the cards are linked in there and they're great) https://blog.fluent-forever.com/chapter3/ and I'd recommend finding your own favorite YouTube videos to explain how to pronounce the French R and nasal sounds. I would try watching some YouTube in French just to wet your beak. Know that it's frustrating to not yet have good comprehension but keep at pronunciation/comprehension and you'll get there.

I recommend making Anki cards for like the top 100 and then the top 500 words, and include images and sounds (Anki strengths).

I'd suggest to have a goal of understanding some rewarding things like children's T.V. (Bob l'éponge) or language learning YouTube (Easy French) - really fun. Then after you master some early words and feel like you have a "French ear" jump in and do some "early reader" kinds of book (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/short-stories-in-french-for...) because that will be really rewarding and reenforcing.

I also recommend jumping in to italki probably earlier than you feel comfortable (or this app, as it continues to improve!) and doing some community conversations in just an unstructured way. Just be ready to try a couple people and find someone you like. If you can travel to France I think that is probably best, too! You'll be very happy that you've got a good "R" at this point.

I think at that point you're ready to look at the A1/A2/B1/B2 test content and learn it on your own pretty easily or work with a structured tutor. It should be chill and not too challenging at that point.

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tossandthrowApr 2025

This is a falde dichotomy. Focusing on grammar is not the opposite.

If you follow the approach in "Fluent forever" by Gabriel Wyner you will focus on 1) sentences and 2) speech from day one.

The idea is that you really don't want to focus on learning translation but learn the language. Ie. It is not important that you know how to translate horse to Pferd. What is important is that you know how communicate the concept of "I want to ride a horse" in German.

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larsiusprimeJan 2025

Author of the piece here, I speak three languages (Norwegian, English, and Spanish) and am currently working on a fourth (Japanese).

"Taking the pedals off the bike" advice for language learning:

- Learn pronunciation first

A lot of people never master a native (or semi-native) accent, but if you sit down and figure it out, it's easier than it seems at first. Getting the native pronunciation down matters because otherwise you literally can't distinguish between certain words, and it will be a habit you'll never unlearn. It makes everything else easier. It also gives you massive cred with native speakers who will overlook your atrocious grammar and paltry vocab because "wow, you sound good! I'm impressed." It's taken both as a sign of respect and that you're putting in the effort, and makes you punch above your actual weight. This does wonders for confidence and makes you less shy about trying to learn by speaking & listening, which is crucial.

Gabriel Wyner does a good job explaining it in his book "Fluent Forever" (his method is pretty cool too but I have some critiques of it overall, "learn pronunciation first" is the best single lesson to transfer to other language learning methodologies).

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nevesJan 2025

this is the base of Fluent Forever: https://fluent-forever.com/index.html

the book is very good for who likes to think about learning.

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OnawaMar 2024

That dude needs more money to support development, because his method is amazing. The other amazing method I love and used to learn Spanish was "Fluent Forever". Stick to the book there though, the author tried to grow his empire too big and the apps aren't that great in my opinion.

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