About the Author
Benny Lewis, aka the Irish Polyglot, speaks 11 languages - all self-taught. He runs the largest language learning website in the world, fluentin3months.com. Dr. Licheng Gu $$$ is a professor of Chinese -language instruction at Northwestern University and author of four books on Chinese.
Works by Benny Lewis
Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World (2014) 345 copies
Language Hacking Guide 7 copies
The No-Nonsense Guide to Language Learning: Hacks and Tips to Learn a Language Faster (2018) 3 copies
LANGUAGE HACKING SPANISH (Learn How to Speak Spanish - Right Away): A Conversation Course for Beginners (2016) 1 copy
Why German is Easy 1 copy
Why Spanish is Easy 1 copy
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Reviews
Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn… by Benny Lewis
Language learning books can't get better than this one!
There are some helpful tips in this book and it is a quick read.
"One controversial aspect of my advice is that I say we should focus much less on writing and reading in the early stages, [...]"
There is no denying that the best way to learn a language is by fully immersing yourself in it. If you speak it, listen it, read it, and just about see it everywhere, you are more prone to acquire the knowledge you need to advance in it.
That said, not everyone can drop their day job and go traveling the world; and not anyone can even afford a holiday in their own country, let alone abroad.
With Fluent in 3 Months, it feels like the sole point of the book is on spoken conversations. Yes, it offers some advice on what to do if you can't travel, but some of the options are also not viable to everyone, basically making you feel slightly neglected.
That's not to say there's no sound advice in here, nor any inspiration to be found. And it doesn't mean that you can't take the recommendations and adapt them to suit your life. But there's a slight gap between studying a language to mostly speak it while you travel (which is what he seems to refer to when saying "fluent"), and studying a language to mostly read it (or even to know it fully and be truly fluent). Particularly if you're studying a language that has symbols.
While the book does offer some insight on reading and writing, it's quickly dismissed with a "See more in (website)".
Yes, registering is free (if you have the book), but I bought the damn book, why can't you just say it here? It's not like this type of advice can change much over the years? Must I physically find an internet-able device that can connect me to this website, register, and then waste time browsing to find something that should have been included in the book? (Book that reads like really short blog posts, btw).
Still, you can't really fault the book for not being focused on writing, I suppose. I mean, it's right there on the title: Learn to Speak Any Language; it's in the blog too, where you see it's mostly about traveling, couchsurfing and speaking.
It's not really a book for anyone who wants to be serious about studying a language to fully understand and use it in all manner of ways, though it can be adapted to work for those people too.
All in all, it's an interesting read and an inspirational book, but not overly good if you want advice in doing more than just speaking the language.… (more)
Well, yes, you could be fluent in three months if need be, and you could immerse yourself completely in an environment speaking your target language, but the title is a bit of a hyperbole.
Nonetheless, Lewis has a lot of really good ideas for increasing exposure to your target language and inspires a passion for learning it.
Nonetheless, Lewis has a lot of really good ideas for increasing exposure to your target language and inspires a passion for learning it.
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Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Members
- 479
- Popularity
- #51,492
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 10
- ISBNs
- 22
- Languages
- 1