Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner is a truly empowering read. Super practical, immensely readable, and relentlessly encouraging, the book is a celebration of both the beauty of language and the power of the human mind. Wyner insists that anyone can become fluent in a language in a relatively short time with his approach. He’s very convincing.
Wyner’s methods are a combination of memory hacks, intentional sequencing, and purposeful gaming. His claim is that can trick your brain into remembering things, and this is where many language-learning systems fall short; namely, they don’t respect the way our brains really work. His system is also ordered in the way we learn best: language sounds come first, then vocabulary, then grammar. The cornerstone of the whole thing is an innovative flash card system combined with a fun and games approach.
Half the book is an overview of practical tools in the form of flash card galleries and appendices. All throughout the book, Wyner encourages the reader to visit his website, www.fluent-forever.com, and just get started. This book is a starting point and a framework; merely a beginning. It’s up to the reader to take it from there.
Wyner has got me believing I can learn Spanish in a matter of months. Challenge accepted. I’ll let you know how it goes. Although I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the system (yet), I recommend Fluent Forever because it opened my eyes to new possibilities and re-kindled my excitement to learn new things. Hopefully it will do the same thing for you.
Please Note: This book was gifted as a part of the Blogging for Books Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work.