The One Advice Which Changed My Opinion About Language-Learning Forever

I fell in love with languages 12 years ago after an unexpected experience.

A friend in my suburban French high school spoke English well, with a perfect accent. As someone who could barely handle himself in simple situations, I was shocked.

How could he speak so well so young? What did he do differently?

And so I asked him. His answer was simple:

I just watched a ton of American TV series.

This seemed too easy. If you could learn a language by watching TV, we'd all know it. There had to be a catch. And so he explained what he did differently.

I watched for a few months with French subtitles, then for about 6 months with English subtitles. Then I took them off and never looked back. It's been two years now.

That's it? I thought. It still felt too simple. His level of English proved his method worked though. And so I gave it a go. In a much more intense way.

For the remainder of the school year, I dove into American TV shows.

Every day, I watched a minimum of 3-4 hours of TV series with French subtitles. Two months later I switched to English subtitles. Six months later I took them off.

Each time I switched to the next step, my comprehension plummeted. I went from understanding the vast majority to barely enough to follow the plot. Forget jokes, they flew right above my head.

Each new TV series I started felt like becoming a baby all over again. I understood what I saw. Not what I heard. Then I got a few words. Then, a few sentences. Then the actions gave me an idea overall.

It got better within a few weeks each time. I could notice my understanding improve almost daily. No real effort required. All I did was keep an open mind and do my best to understand. That was it.

What made the difference was the sheer amount of context I exposed myself to. In 6 months, I had seen more than 800 hours of content. In the entire year, I probably watched close to 2,000 hours.

Yes, my life was English. I was pushing my limits to force my brain to accept English as a "normal" language. Not a "foreign" language. It had to become part of me.

And it did.

Context and input that became more and more comprehensible with time did the trick. In less than a year, I went from barely handling conversations to watching videos in English without any effort.

Of course, had I done this from the beginning of my English learning journey, I would have been missing the basics of the language. I didn't need to wait for my 7th year of learning the language though. I could have started as soon as I knew a few concepts.

If you want to learn a language, start by learning the very basics of the language:

• How are sentences organized
• What are the 20(-ish) most common nouns, verbs, and adjectives
• How do the most common grammar patterns fit in sentences
• If the language uses a different script, learn it

Then, read and listen to a few simple dialogues exchanging pleasantries as you start diving into TV series of the language you want to learn.

Learning a language doesn't have to be hard. No. Scrap that. It shouldn't be hard. If it is, you're doing it wrong.

It should be fun most of the time.

Would you ever procrastinate on something you love and have fun with? I wouldn't.

So go out there! Or, you know, stay inside and watch tons of videos! Before you know it the language will be part of you.

And a whole new world will open to you. A bright, incredible world.

Full of magnificent discoveries waiting for you.