In this article, we will talk about Gabriel Weiner’s experience in learning foreign languages and the most important tips he provided, in addition to the most important means and sites that will help you apply his advice in the best possible way.
Gabriel Weiner had to learn four languages in the past few years for his career in opera singing, and he used a new method of learning where he adopted a good and beautiful style in learning the language in a short time of his free time every day, and this method is based on four stages that Gabriel used and that you can use as well.
Gabriel used this method to learn four languages (Italian, German, French and Russian) and was able to obtain level C1 fluency in French in about 5 months, and he also used it to learn Russian where his plan was to reach level C1. This method includes four stages and naturally these stages take a time that varies depending on the language you want to learn and also depends on the amount of time you will have available daily and the aids you will use while learning.
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute has estimated the language difficulty of native English speakers, and has estimated that Russian takes twice as long as French, and Chinese takes twice as long.
However, let’s say we’re talking about learning a language like French, and you have 30-60 minutes a day to study it, these would be estimates of how long it would take to complete each of the four stages of learning French, for example.
The first stage: Learn the correct pronunciation of the language and get used to it
The duration is approximately one to two weeks, and you may need a little longer to get used to languages that have a different alphabet than your mother tongue. Starting to learn pronunciation is done by following these steps:
1- Learn the pronunciation of the letters of the new language, especially the vowels, because they will help you a lot in understanding words and sentences and will help others understand you easily, as your listening comprehension will improve and you will be able to distinguish the pronunciation of letters and words directly.
2- Memorize as many words as possible because this will help you learn the pronunciation of letters in different positions, in addition to the fact that you will notice that you can memorize words better and faster because you have learned well the pronunciation of letters and the correct way to spell words.
But how can we learn the correct pronunciation? In fact, there are many methods and many excellent sources on the Internet. For example, on YouTube, there are some lessons presented by Gabriel Weiner that help you learn the correct pronunciation of the English language
Stage 2: Learning Vocabulary and Grammar
Duration: approximately 3 months, and this stage includes two types of commitments:
1- Create tables of the vocabulary and grammar you want to learn.
2- Review the vocabulary and grammar periodically.
To make this stage simpler and easier, you should focus on the following tips:
1- Write the vocabulary you want to learn in tables arranged and divided according to the category or topic. This will help you organize and study them, as you will have to learn between 20 to 30 new words per day in about 30 minutes. If you can save an hour of your time per day, the learning process will be faster.
To facilitate memorizing and reviewing words, I advise you to use the Sylingo website, where you can write your vocabulary that you want to learn in organized and arranged tables with the ability to listen to the correct pronunciation of each word, so you learn the pronunciation of words directly when memorizing them, thus avoiding memorizing words with the wrong pronunciation. In addition, there are many tests on the site, including auditory, verbal, multiple choice, etc. The site also reminds you periodically to review the words that you have previously studied and make sure that you have memorized them well.
2- Try as much as possible to avoid using your native language to explain the meanings of vocabulary, and try to use the vocabulary that you have previously learned to explain and interpret them or use pictures to link the word to the meaning in your mind.
Avoiding using your native language helps you practice thinking in the language you are learning directly, thus shortening the time you spend translating while talking to others, which helps you avoid stuttering while speaking and helps you learn faster and better.
3- Use tables constantly and repeatedly, as this helps you learn vocabulary. In these tables, write the most common words in the language you are learning, as starting to learn these words first will be the best investment of your time. After memorizing 1000 words, you will be able to know 70% of the words in any text on average, and 2000 words will provide you with knowledge of 80% of the words in the text. This is of course not enough to learn the language fluently, but it will be a great base on which you can build most of your sentences!
If you are going to start learning from scratch, start with a table that contains, for example, 400 words of common and easy basic words, such as man and woman, dog and cat, running and cooking, etc. You can find many tables in various fields in the Sylingo website library.
The amount of vocabulary and grammar you learn will increase over time, so it is best to use monolingual dictionaries (for example, a French-French dictionary) and write an explanation of the vocabulary if its meanings are ambiguous to you. The more vocabulary and grammar you know, the better you will be able to use it in description, explanation, and speech. Most people aim to learn approximately 2,000 to 6,000 words, in addition to learning the basic grammar of the language. This depends, of course, on the level you want to reach in learning the language. For example, if you have 5,000 words and want to memorize them, you can do so in less than 6 months approximately if you allocate 30 minutes a day to memorize them, and you will need half the time if you allocate an hour of your time a day.
Stage 3: Listening, Reading and Writing
This stage overlaps slightly with Stages 2 and 4, as you can start Stage 3 as soon as you feel comfortable reading or writing almost anything, i.e. after spending a month or two in Stage 2. You can spend all your free time reading, watching TV or writing about topics that you love. For example, you can spend your day in front of the TV screen on channels that speak the language you want to learn, and this is really useful! As for writing, you should write anything you want, such as news you read, an idea, what you did in your day, a list of things you need to buy, etc. The goal is to practice writing well.
Once you have a good amount of vocabulary and get used to using grammar, start writing articles, watching TV shows, reading books and talking about things you see or do. During this, every mistake you make and correct it or learn new words should be added to a special table for you to review continuously and continue writing your vocabulary and grammar.
Stage Four: Speaking
At this stage, you should speak as much as possible, regardless of whether you like speaking or not. The important thing is to try to speak without errors in vocabulary and grammar. This is difficult at first, but with practice it will become easier. For example, you can prepare the topics you want to talk about and write them down and try to talk about them at every opportunity you get. Remember that you should never use your native language, otherwise you will not acquire the skill you are trying to acquire, which is to adapt to errors in your vocabulary and grammar by quickly and automatically getting around them without having to think about them. You can use the Internet to talk to people who speak the language you are learning. This will certainly help you practice speaking. You can watch TV shows and movies in the language you want to learn, read books, and have conversations online.
The more effort you put in, the faster your mind gets used to this language and your mind gets used to quickly using all the vocabulary and grammar you learned in the first, second, and third stages. Thus, you move to the fourth and final stage of learning, which is speaking comfortably and fluently.
