Category Archives: language – learning

Learning another language

Just started learning Chichewa/Chinyanja, more on that again. I’m fascinated by language(s), but have always found it quite a struggle to get to any level of proficiency. This time I thought I’d check out language learning methods. I’ve just finished reading Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It (New York: Crown Publishing, 2014). It’s inspiring, though I don’t think I want to get all that many languages under my belt. But it is practical, and I’ve been applying some of the concepts and techniques to Chichewa with what I think are very satisfying results. I had tried to use Anki last year to learn Swahili and Russian, but hadn’t made much of a go of it, and have lost most of what I learned then. This time, I seem to be making great strides by taking on board Wyner’s tips and techniques for using Anki efficiently. I can definitely recommend Wyner’s book, even though at first I was very sceptical–I mean, he couldn’t be right, could he? But I think he is. Of course, you need to set aside time and put in the effort, but it seems to be working. After just 3 weeks with just about half-an-hour a day I feel I’ve progressed much further than my first year of French at school. I’m going to return to Russian and Swahili again using the techniques I’ve learned from Wyner and am expecting better results.