How to learn languages fast for inpatient entrepreneurs

Although English is the standard business language, there are still situations where you just need to learn another language to do business.

A typical problem is that most people never learned a language at school (most schools don’t know how to approach language learning). Therefore I’ve put a list of the most effective language courses that will save you lots of time and frustration.

I’m proud to say that I speak 5 languages fluently (Norwegian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese). Based on my experience I think the following courses and methods are the best for how to learn languages fast.

4. Have fun while learning with Duolingo- Learn in 1 year

Duolingo

Duolingo is maybe not as effective as the methods further down, but it has something that other courses don’t. It has lots of charm, a great community, and a more game-like experience to language learning.

On Duolingo, You mainly learn by translating sentences, and the fun part is that while translating, you also contribute by translating websites (such as Wikipedia). There is also listening exercise as well as speaking exercises.

The other methods, you are dependent on your self-motivation to succeed. On Duolingo , you can quickly integrate into a community, and you won’t feel alone in the learning process.

Duolingo

3. Become fluent in 6 months (even Chinese)- Method explained by Chris Lonsdale

This approach is relatively simple. You’ll understand how it works by watching how Chris Lonsdale explains you how you to become fluent in any language.

2. Learn a language in 6 months – Gabriel Wyner

Gabriel Wyner has put together a very interesting language structure to learn a language fast. His method requires a lot more effort because you have to use a memorization technique as well as taking the interest to read grammar books. The process has four stages.

Stage 1 is getting familiarized with the sound of the language. That is learning to recognize and spell different sounds that are specific to one language.
Stage 2 is learning the 625 most basic words used in every language. It’s the 20/80 approach. Memorizing words comes through using a fun memorization technique as well as searching images on Google.
Stage 3 is understanding grammar
Stage 4 is reading, practicing and watching subtitled movies.

Fluent-Forever

1. Learn a language in 1 month – with Michel Thomas, the language genius

Absolute fastest language learning course if you are motivated to learn a language. This method works if you’ve never studied the language before. You’ll learn how grammar and vocabulary without memorizing anything. You just need to concentrate and think!

And this course works great because you’ll learn to understand the language. It’s like riding a bike: Once you’ve understood, you’ll never forget!

What you have to know is that you have to press pause often to think about how you have to say different sentences. Basically, Michel Thomas always asks his students how to say stuff, and you have to pretend that you are one of the students in the recording.

You can get courses in French, German, Italian and Spanish for free by downloading the Michel Thomas method app on Appstore (you then have in-app purchases). You can also find courses that uses his method, in Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.

Michel taught languages to his students in 3-5 full days and his courses went for 20 000$.

Remember that the method works best if you’ve never studied the language you want to try to learn.

Michel Thomas courses

NOTE:

  • There is no point of learning a language unless you really need to (this is when you’ll learn the fastest).
  • With whatever you are learning, you will not become great unless you practice. If you consider that we practice our native language every day for hours, achieving such a level in whatever language requires daily practice.
  • Learning by watching movies and series in the original versions with subtitles in your mother language is a very effective language learning method. Most Scandinavians learned English this way. Fleex , for example, is a company helping people around the world to learn English while watching your favorite series. You can as well start watching lots of films in the language you want to study.