how anyone, at any age, can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world
Benny Lewis: Fluent in 3 months (2014)
249 pages
English language
Published Nov. 15, 2014
A new blueprint for fast language learning. Lewis argues that you don't need a great memory or "the language gene" to learn a language quickly, and debunks a number of long-held beliefs, such as adults not being as good of language learners as children. --
Everyone before reading this, "Does it work?!" There's no magic trick to learn a language, you have to study. There are tips and ideas on how to learn a language fast but it's all about the work you are willing to put in.
I'm probably just not the target audience for this work, but then this is probably because the title is overselling the content so much. A better fitting title would be "How any couchsurfer at any age can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world by doing couchsurfing".
Lewis focusses a good deal on how important it is to start practicing to speak right away and that reading and writing aren't that important. Which might work well if you have lots of spare time to do couchsurfing all over the globe. He also mentions that you can do it in your home country by finding other speakers or setting up Skype calls.
But that also requires you to be able to plan your spare time for those sorts of things in more detail than I'm able to. I often find myself spontaneously having 30 minutes or so unoccupied, …
I'm probably just not the target audience for this work, but then this is probably because the title is overselling the content so much. A better fitting title would be "How any couchsurfer at any age can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world by doing couchsurfing".
Lewis focusses a good deal on how important it is to start practicing to speak right away and that reading and writing aren't that important. Which might work well if you have lots of spare time to do couchsurfing all over the globe. He also mentions that you can do it in your home country by finding other speakers or setting up Skype calls.
But that also requires you to be able to plan your spare time for those sorts of things in more detail than I'm able to. I often find myself spontaneously having 30 minutes or so unoccupied, but that won't help me in setting up trips or even dates with speakers of the language. And as I'm not watching TV at all and don't go out partying I also can't cut time there, thanks for the tip though… So reading at my own pace is definitely more the way to go for me. And for this he offers very little.
I also think it kind of shows that the book is more or less a collection of blog posts which I felt are only somewhat stringed together. I guess the main message "everyone at any age can learn a language" is a great one and he repeats it often enough that people will hopefully believe him, but the methods he presents will probably only work if you at least have somewhat similar circumstances then Lewis.
