How to Learn a Language Fast
I became conversational in Italian in 3 months - here is my process you can use to start speaking a language quickly
The sun was casting a white glaze over the dark green hills of Italy when I landed at Leonardo Da Vinci airport. 7 AM. I can never sleep on planes. I had to power through the day and, the European way, take an obscene amount of espresso shots out of those stupid little cups.
As I left the terminal, I saw the most slick-haired Italian guy ever leaned up against a car smoking a cigarette. Taxi driver.
I knew I was going to sound painfully American but I didn’t care—I knew the main obstacle to speaking another language is fear.
“Ciao, come stai?”
He didn’t speak any English. It was a forty minute ride to my hostel. The perfect opportunity to test my skill in the language. I had been practicing Italian every day for three months in preparation for this trip.
I surprised myself with how well I could talk to him. It was nothing like how I can speak Spanish. I wasn’t smooth. I didn’t understand some stuff he said. But damn it, we were speaking Italiano!
Even though I was thinking hard about things to say in Italian, somewhere deep inside of me was screaming in English “can you believe this? This is insane. You’re actually doing this right now.”
It is said that to speak another language is to live another life. This is dramatic. Pretentious even.
Let me be clear: I promise you that this idea statement is absolutely, one hundred percent, accurate. You do live another life when you speak another language. At least that’s what it feels like.
Let’s define. I became conversational in Italian in three months, not fluent.
Fluency is having the ability of natural creation. It’s being able to express yourself in all your weirdness, explain your beliefs with nuance, and tell stories and jokes effortlessly. It’s dreaming and thinking in the language. It’s comfortably reading and writing without translating.
Conversational is memorizing a high volume of typical exchanges. It’s being skilled at understanding questions asked to you, getting to know cab drivers, having a back and forth while ordering coffee, telling the waitress the food was fantastic, and things like that.
But the important distinction here is that conversational is a completely different level than basics. Saying you know the basics of a language is a fancy way of saying you don’t know the language at all. When you’re conversational, you’ll win the respect of native speakers, surprise them, make them laugh, and even have them tell you that you speak it very well sometimes.
Let’s dive in.
I. No one is Coming to Save You
Step number one for any serious language learner: delete Duolingo.
I applaud Duolingo from a business perspective. From a purely capitalistic point of view they crush it. They have many people addicted to their product—around 500 million registered users in fact. Unfortunately that’s 500 million language learning dreams that will die.
I’ve never heard of anyone becoming conversational in a language, never mind fluent, thanks to this app. Not once.
Take matters into your own hands. Commit to being an autodidact—someone who self-educates without direct guidance from formal teachers. Someone who uses their curiosity to pursue knowledge and skills on their own terms.
II. Your Brain is a Sponge
As an autodidact you’ll use the four elements of language learning: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Again, as opposed to watching the Duolingo bird do a dipsy doo after you typed in “the girl eats the apple” or whatever nonsense that stupid video game had you do.
It’s about volume and flooding your brain with the language. Not virtual birds that make ding noises. Okay I’m done insulting Duolingo.
Let’s proceed.
Immersion means knowing your brain is a sponge. It’s about using the elements of listening and reading.
Everyone knows that immersion is the key to language acquisition but forgets you don’t need to go to another country to experience it. I turned my iPhone into a foreign land of digital immersion through YouTube videos, podcasts, and music.
For listening, Easy Italian podcast was great. It’s part of the Easy Languages family, an organization that has a content team for many languages. Their podcast and YouTube videos help with comprehension.
For reading, I tried, very unsuccessfully, to read The Divine Comedy in the OG Italian. But nonetheless it exposed my brain to a high volume of Italian words. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t on Kindle though. It has a built-in translation feature.
I would even ask ChatGPT to give me examples of conversations in the language. The AI is a polyglot!
A dreadful misconception is that if you’re absorbing your desired language but aren’t comprehending anything that you’re wasting time. No. Realize: it is beneficial. You have to assault your mind with the language even when you don’t understand. You have to give your mind a chance to get used to the sounds, rhythm, and common phrases of the language.
You have to give your brain the chance to adapt.
This can be frustrating but it helps. I listened to many Easy Italian podcasts where I didn’t understand much. But over time I started to figure out what they were talking about. Even though I couldn’t say everything they were talking about, I began to understand. Which is why it’s vital to listen and read, read and listen.
Immersion, immersion, immersion.
Actionable Habits (Your brain is a sponge)
—Listen to podcasts and YouTube videos in the language of your choice every day (Easy Languages YouTube and Podcast is a solid place to start).
—Read in your desired language on Kindle, X, or anywhere that has a built-in translation feature. Test what you can understand before you tap translate.
—Use Chat GPT to simulate conversations (prompt: “I’m learning Italian. Please give me examples of five basic Italian conversations”). See what you can decipher each day through reading. Play with the AI’s incredible language powers and learn from it.
III. Google Translate Features + Physical Writing
Write in your desired language.
It’s amazing how much the writing element makes the speaking element easier.
How to go about it?
I sat down with a pen and fresh notepad dedicated to the language. Google Translate on the computer. Phone in the other room. Focused. And I literally would just think of things I want to be able to say in Italian. Things I say all the time in English. Then I would type these words and expressions into Google Translate, see the Italian version, and write it down.
Then I’d tap the speakerphone on Google Translate and play the pronunciation, then practice saying the pronunciation as I heard it. I did this over and over and over and over. No, you’re not crazy for talking to yourself. This is how many people learn languages. I can’t emphasize enough how helpful it is to practice pronunciations this way.
Don’t worry about having an accent. Everyone has an accent from someone else’s perspective. Just focus on pronouncing as best as you can. Over time your “accent” will naturally improve.
I also can’t emphasize enough how important it is to write it down by hand. When you have pages and pages of words and expressions written down, they inevitably become coded in your brain.
Here’s the translations of the first page I wrote of Italians phrases (pictured above):
Ciao - hello
Come stai? - how are you?
Buongiorno - good morning
Buona giornata - have a good day
Buona notte - good night
Arrivederci - goodbye
Ciao - bye (it can mean both hi and bye)
Grazie - thank you
Posso avere un caffè? - can I have a coffee?
Quanto Costa? - how much does it cost?
Vengo dagli Stati Uniti - I come from the United States
Parlo Inglese e Spagnolo - I speak English and Spanish
Il mio Italiano è elementare - My Italian is basic
Ho sempre amato la storia di Roma - I have always loved the history of Rome
Essere qui è fantastico - To be here is fantastic
Io sono scrittore - I am a writer
Non lo so - I don’t know
Ho un’allergia alimentare - I have a food allergy
Non posso mangiare noci - I can’t eat nuts
Ho senso? - Do I make sense?
Capisci? - You Understand?
Posso dirlo in Inglese - I can say it in English
Tutto bene - all good
Stavo cercando di leggere La Divina Commedia - I was trying to read The Divine Comedy
Buondí - good morning
Buonasera - good evening
Salve - greetings
Buona Serata - good evening
Actionable Habits (Google Translate and physical writing)
—Every day, use Google Translate to learn and write down 10 new phrases.
—Then use the speaking feature on Google Translate to hear the pronunciation, then practice pronouncing it yourself. Do this until you can say your 10 written phrases from memory with some confidence.
—The next day, write 10 more phrases while still practicing the ones you’ve already learned. Repeat ad infinitum.
IV. Practice talking with native speakers through the Tandem app
Then it was time to bring those written pages to life. The Speaking element.
Once I had three pages or ~one hundred of these words and phrases written down and slash or memorized, I logged into a language exchange app called Tandem. Other similar ones are HelloTalk and iTalki, and Lingoda.
It’s a social media site specifically for language learning. A place you can contact native speakers. You can translate texts with a tap and make calls within the app. But best of all, it makes it easy to start sending voice messages back and forth with native speakers.
Actionable Habits (How to use the Tandem app)
—Type out a message “Hi, I’m going to Italy soon, can I practice my Italian with you? I can help you with English.” Copy it. Paste to as many people on the app as your thumbs can bear.
—When people answer, send a voice message of things you wrote down. When they respond with questions its another opportunity to say new things. This is how you get comfortable moving your tongue in the way of a different language.
—Over time as you gain confidence through reps on reps, you can make a call.
Here’s examples of things I said over and over to get conversations going on Tandem:
A personal statement:
“Sto imparando l’Italiano da poco tempo, ma posso capire la lingua a volte, perché sono fluente in Spagnolo, e come voi sapete, è molto simile.”
Which means:
“I’ve been learning Italian for a short time, but I can understand the language sometimes, because I’m fluent in Spanish, and as you know, it’s very similar.”
And an introduction:
“Ciao, come stai? Mi chiamo Jeff, Ho ventidue anni, e Sono Americano. Dimmi, di dove sei in Italia?”
Which means:
“Hello, how are you? My name’s Jeff and I’m a 22 year old American. Tell me, where are you from in Italy?”
And when in doubt of responses:
“Non capito tutto. Puoi dirlo in inglese?”
Which means:
“I don’t understand it all. Can you say it in English?”
It’s no secret that talking to a native speaker—in person or online—can be scary. But let’s recall that Bruce Wayne was afraid of bats. When you follow your fear good things happen.
If you want your language dream to come true, you have to make a habit of talking to your language partners every day.
Doing so through online voice messages is the language equivalent of crawling before you can walk. At first I was literally reading off the paper where I wrote down translations from Google Translate. It’s a cheat code to build your confidence in this way. The technology we have is insane. Use it.
I would repeat the same words and expressions to language partners a silly amount of times. Then try new things to say that I had written down. Then repeat them to different language partners a silly amount of times.
When I still wasn’t sure how to pronounce something I would go back to Google Translate and listen to the speaking feature again—to practice saying it out loud myself again. Then go back to Tandem voice messages and say it. Reps.
Repetition multiplied by time equals skill. Volume, volume, volume.
V. I used to have a speech impediment as a kid. (insert inspirational line)
I followed this process every day for ~3 months in preparation for a trip to Italy. By the time I got there I had Italians telling me: “parli bene l’italiano!” (you speak Italian well!)
You can experience this in whatever language your heart desires if you practice like this—daily—for a similar sustained period.
No matter how “bad” the conversations are, it’s critical to talk to native speakers. It is the way.
There were people in my Spanish classes junior and senior in college who were embarrassed that they couldn’t hold conversations in the language. They somehow overlooked the reality that to speak another language you have to talk to native speakers as much as possible. Many people who like the idea of being multilingual aren’t really willing to do this. They get scared when it’s time for that action boss.
Which is why you can’t take yourself so seriously.
I’m convinced the main thing that stops people from speaking another language is fear. Fear of making mistakes, fear of awkwardness, fear of sounding strange, fear of seeming stupid.
The way to get past these fears is to be able to laugh at yourself.
The fears inevitably fade when you don’t take yourself too seriously. And what do you find on the other side of that fear? On the other side of that fear is a suddenly mysterious person that shocks their friends with their multilingual skills.
If you apply the principles of this article consistently, you will become that person.
I bet you’ll one day find yourself talking to a taxi driver in a foreign language, while the back of your mind screams “can you believe this? This is insane. You’re actually doing this right now.”
Awesome job, Jeff. I initially stopped to take notes till I realised you've been gracious enough to include actionable habits and takeaways. What a mensch!
This is really timely and useful for me Jeff since I'm just starting Spanish with my son. Thanks