More than 50 years ago a classmate and I had to memorize dozens of constellations. She suggested thinking of the well endowed Mama Cass for Cassiopeia. I told her that was really stupid, and I have never forgotten it.
I think even more memorable than naughty mnemonics are stupid mnemonics. Mnemonics that when you see or think of them you get upset because that doesn't make any sense. But then years later, you still remember it because of course you remember the one that is so bad you're not supposed to remember it.
@@watariboshithe stupid mnemonics are the best. When I was a young tween I was taking a Russian course and the provided mnemonic for 2 (два) was "imagine dividing a shoe into two pieces. Divide. Dva." I was beyond confused at why it was a shoe specifically instead of a cake or a piece of paper or something traditionally cut into multiple parts. I haven't studied Russian in two decades but the joke was on me because I never forgot!
@ Ha, no. I would have thought that, with a name like Cassandra, she wouldn’t have needed some mnemonic involving Mama Cass to remember Cassiopeia. (Maybe that’s why she thought the suggestion was stupid.) But I get the point that, no matter what, the mnemonic was, well, memorable. (And who doesn’t like Cass Elliot?)
My mom is not very good with languages. When we moved to Israel in the late-sixties, she was constantly using sounds to connect to new words. She would then turn these into stories for us about characters (one clever, one not) learning Hebrew and constantly getting things wrong. The challenge was to figure out from the story what the Hebrew term was that had been mis-heard. It was fun and we remember them fondly to this day. And when we were younger, they certainly kept us quiet and entertained... your images that have an association in English (I don't know French, so those wouldn't help me) remind me very much of those stories.
Not a mnemonic for an L2, but in high school English we had vocabulary words and part of it was coming up with a story to make a dumb mnemonic for it. In each new group of words the teacher would give her example story. The word was “ethereal.” The teacher talked about this absolutely enchantingly beautiful woman. Her dress was elegant and seemed to float around her. Her hair flowed in the wind and shined in the sun. Her face, her body, everything about her was captivatingly beautiful. Then she was asked, “how did you get to be this beautiful?” Then in a thick southern accent she replied, “well, I ethereal every mornin’!” I’ve never _ever_ forgotten the meaning of that word
I read the old edition last year and the difference after I started applying his instructions is so big it’s ridiculous. It’s not only easier and faster but also so much more fun.
I was also skeptical of the book, since I figured it was more "learn my system and you could be fluent in x days" than actual useful advice. But, since it has a legitimate linguist's (you) seal of approval, I bought it. Thanks for the recommendation.
I remember a friend from Spanish class and I drilling each other with flashcards. Every time I messed up on "los ojos". Finally she drew pupils in the 'o's and the 'j' naturally looked like a nose and I learned it just like that.
Another gem- Wyner is unique. It’s your channel that got me resyllablfying spoken target language, segregating phrases, clauses and sentence into structural units into which I can pour new vocabulary, creating peculiar to bizarre sentences correct in form and easily remembered. I can read english aloud as though the phonemes were french and all voyelles nasales. The sound-to-picture works especially well on idioms which coalesce to a vivid picture from the sound and meaning. This last is golden.
I love being able to use more than one language for mnemonics. I’ve been learning Chinese characters using the Heisig method, but since I also want to associate each character with its most common pronunciation, I’m also using Matthew & Matthew’s approach to pinyin mnemonics. A good example I have is that I can easily remember that 灭 “destroy” is miè because my mnemonic is a Spanish-speaking dwarf (4th tone) saying “mierda!” as he sees his things being destroyed by a fire.
I used to absorb every Steve Kaufmann video I could find, until I reached a very high level of French and realized that Steve’s French-purportedly his *best* language that he’s been speaking for the longest-is really mediocre. That really put everything into context for me. I guess he’s good if your goal is to half-learn the surface level of a bunch of languages, but if your goal is to someday have a deep and extensive understanding of your TL, he’s not the guy.
That only is the case, because he doesn't see a reason to keep improving a language he can already use for all the purposes he wants (usually reading and listening). His spoken French propably was a lot better when he spoke fewer than 10 languages, but the man never stopped learning languages. He knows that if he were to live in a France for a few months his French skills would skyrocket and be top-notch again.
Oh, a second edition, cool. This book introduced me to ANKI, frequency lists, IPA, and many other useful stuff, like all the way back in the 2016. And now has Chinese become my second nature, partly also thanks to Gabe. Happy to see you like this book, too.
I borrowed the first edition from the library a month ago and liked it so much I ordered it, making sure I clicked on the new edition so I would have the latest and greatest. It just came yesterday, and I didn’t even realize they shipped the wrong book - the first edition- until seeing you holding up the new edition in this video. Thanks so much! Gotta ship this back and get the right one!
I'm only 2 minutes in so this comment is before watching. I tried and failed to learn or even retain any language before, and then read fluent forever. It gave me some confidence in language learning and understanding the process and led to me actually learning Spanish (finally). I'm now learning French. It also helped me put other things together for learning in general. Also, finally, anki is amazing and not just for language.
I'm old, so like 100 years ago, when I was in high school, I bought Barry Farber's How to Learn Any Language. It was the first time I realized that there were other people in the World who loved languages. I spent decades looking for another book that was as helpful to me as Farber's book had been. Wyner's has come the closest. It really is great. I guess I'll be buying the 2nd edition.
Very cool and unexpected that you covered this! I came across Gabriel's book in 2017 and it immediately resonated with me. In 2019 I began using some of the concepts, particularly related to Anki for studying Russian (alongside a frequency dictionary), and yes my progress was insane for my own expectations. Though I do speak Polish natively so I was on easy mode, truth be told ;) Nonetheless after about 5 months I was B1~B2 conversational with my italki teacher and my Georgian mother-in-law-to-be!
I can't speak for Wyner, but I wouldn't talk much about using AI for language learning either. There are environmental and privacy concerns with generative AI, and I wouldn't touch it unless there was literally no other option.
I know it is not very environmentaly friendly but damn chatgpt helps me so much, answering all my grammar questions and correcting my writing, explaining whys and hows. It is the free private tutor some paying apps are selling
I struggle with flash cards because making and reviewing them always feels like I could be spending that time with listening to/reading/writing more instead.
Here's my entry for the "crazy mnemonic" contest. I was trying to remember "alfombra," Spanish for "rug." I broke it into AL FOAM BRA, so I pictured a rolled-up rug that was slowly unrolled to reveal former VP AL Gore wearing a FOAM BRA.
Funny. I just imagined an Arab looking guy carrying an expensive oriental carpet into my flat, dropping it and it makes a "FOMB"-sound. The fact that the guy is an Arab tells me that there is "al" at the beginning of the word because all words of Arabic origin. The "ra" came by itself.
I'm so glad you've done a review of this book because I have come across it in the past and I was skeptical of the "sounds too good to be true" nature of the title
Not translating is such a good advice. Reminds me of my favorite book I'm currently in the process of reading - Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. The book is without a single word in non-Latin, it makes me guess the meanings of the word and get used to their usage cases instead of reading dozens of possible translations. And I always catch myself thinking in Latin, which is a language I JUST STARTED learning. 22 years ago, when I took my first steps aquiring the big and scary language of English, I would laugh in your face if you told me thinking in your target language is possible and is actually not a hard skill, if you tackle it the smart way. Yes, 22 years ago I was 6😐
Bravo. Feeding the algorithm here. Just a quibble. Your discussion of German plurals makes it sound less predictable and more difficult than it is. As a German learner, it might depend on your prior language learning experience. Six plural rules. One category is usually Latin words. The next category is foreign words. If you know English, French, and Latin (I do), these two categories are easy to recognize. That leaves four categories. These also form patterns which can be described with quasi-rules. Add a little bit of time and effort, and you develop and pretty good feel for making the plural of a noun.
I’ve been studying memory techniques for the past few years. I’ve been kind of frustrated in my attempts to apply it to learning languages, but for some reason I find it really easy to use for learning bird species and families. Word plays often work best for me, so I’ve got, for instance, embarrassed by buntings (buntings are the emberizidae family), the necessity of being stern with starlings (sturnidae family), or larks allowed (or aloud)- alaudidae family. Planning to go back to languages and give it another try once I finish the birds. I bought the book, so maybe it will inspire me to try it sooner rather than later.
Former Russian lang major 40 yrs ago at Temple U and masters in Slavic linguistics survivor from SUNY Albany here. Ok, first I've got to say that I ADORE your channel and content (well, aside from the brief dally with ASMR which grates on me, LOL). You speak to the linguistics geek part of me! I've had Gabriel's book for a number of years so I'm jazzed to see there's a new edition, and I even have it as an audio book. But back to what you were saying. Yes, I too wish there was more to say about lesser learned or minority languages (rabid Irish learner here!). And wanted to share my best ever mnemonics story: Back when I was moving and surrounded by JUNK that I needed to get rid of, I came across the Irish word for it "truflais" (kind of sounds like "truff-lish"). I was attending a weekly conversation course and wanted to use that word SO much but it wouldn't stick in my head. Initially I thought, 'well truflais sounds like truffles', but I don't consider truffles to be junk at ALL, so back to the drawing board. And then the famous image of Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek series, surrounded by a sea of furry 'tribbles' that had fallen out of the grain bin in the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" came to mind. Troubles-Tribbles- Truflais!! That's pretty much how I felt, chagrinned by being surrounded by a sea of junk, and well... 5 years later it still works to bring the word back when I need it! Here's the image that comes to mind. I still laugh over this one! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tribbles Now I have to order a copy of the revised version of Fluent Forever. Keep on rocking on Taylor!
I don't know why exactly, but only now, reading your story, it hits me that if they have that replicator for food, they'd never need a grain bin. Is that addressed in the episode?
Nice review of Gabriel Wyner's book! It's one of my favorites. After reading it, I made my Ivrit Anki decks from scratch, by the way :-)) Shabbat Shalom to you!
I used the cloze deletion technique to help a French kid do French conjugation exercises... It worked and was so much more fun for the both of us than trying to get him to write the second person plural pluperfect indicative of the verb "souffrir"... Coming up with a funny story that used all the random verbs, persons and tenses in the exercise list was part of the fun and made it much more engaging for him! It is also a bit closer to the way we use conjugation in real life!
Than ks for the review! I bought the first edition on the strength of your earlier comments about the first edition, just bought the revised edition after this one. Your comments about under-resourced languages REALLY resonates with me right now, hopefully the tips in the revised edition will help me with the DIY necessary
Fluent Forever is the book that changed my language learning journey too! I'm glad to see you like it too. I use the app, and while it's clunky, I find it quite useful and continued paying for the subscription even when not actively language learning just to support what they're doing with it and hope it improves.
It is important to know the sounds of a language. That is why people are working hard to try to discover what phonemes there are in American English. I have a dream that one day, all dictionaries will have the same IPA spellings of American English words.
To remember Finnish “sytyttää” (to light, to ignite), I pretend it’s a VERY mispronounced version of “suit and tie” and picture a guy in a suit and tie bending over a candle that lights the tie on fire. “Sytyttää” is definitely not pronounced anything like that phrase, but it’s memorable and close enough that I have remembered it ever since coming up with it.
Thank you for the video! My memorization: l think it's better to determine at the beginning what methods work best for you personally. For me they are: - imagination - when I have known a new word or expression I imagine a situation in which I use it, and even play little scenes by myself. F. e., when I learn the word "Kippes!" ("Cheers!" in Finnish), I imagine myself at the table with a glass of beverage raised (in reality I lift my cup of tea:) - associative memorizing works well. Käärme=snake and sounds almost like "karma" :) - I practise phonetic memorizing. Looking at the object (or imagining it) and repeating the word many times aloud. I also read all the exercises aloud and try to sound as close as possible to native speakers, it helps a lot. I listen to Finnish songs, read the lyrics and try to sing, even if I do not understand the sense. - I also need theoretical knowledge. If I combine it with spoken exercises, they multiply each other and give the best result. - I try to speak even a few words I know IRL, even if there is no one who speaks Finnish. I use Duolingo and see that it is obviously not enough. But I'm so grateful to this service and the people that have created and operate it - Duolingo gives me the opportunity to start, to become familiar with a language, and to raise motivation to learn it. P. S. I think, the learner's dominant way of perception should be taken into consideration. Thus, I'm an audial and kinetic learner, and it's important for me to listen, speak, sing, move while speaking and communicate, and I do it without persuasion. But to memorise written words I have to pay extra attention. So, doing exercises with blank spaces, I every time type the whole words, and if it is needed to feel spaces with a long word (f. e., "tervetuloa"="welcome")10 times, I do it by my fingers only. For visual learners texts and pictures will be essential, and they should concentrate specially on listening and speaking aloud, and for them, I suggest, it is very important to have conversations with native speakers or someone who speaks the language well - from the very beginning of studying.
In Egyptian Arabic the plural for church is كنايس Pronounced ca-naais i put a picture of a can and a snake on a card and it always made me remember it.
I stumbled upon Gabriel's book early in my Spanish learning journey. I almost forgot about it. Guess now that there's a new version, I may need to revisit! Thanks for this video!
For sure I want to buy the book. I have struggled to learn French and Spanish all my life and when I was an elementary school teacher (teaching Grade one) they had no French teacher for my school and because I had taken French in university I was talked into teaching a Grade seven French class. I could barely speak it although I could read and write it as we were taught in school but speak it fluently-not a chance. I was so stressed that year that I quit teaching. That was many years ago and I am still trying to learn to speak it.
Learning Arabic (i'm sure like Hebrew) provides a million opportunities for association with triliteral roots. Some of my favorite: n-z-l (descending) the nozzle of the hose drops water 3-r-f (know/announce publicly) very smart dog n-s-ii (neglect) the nosy neighbor neglects their own yard I probably built hundreds of these over the years...
So interesting! I found mnemonics to be unnecessarily strenuous, so I tend to only use them with stubborn words. I tried to use them more for easier words, but all the stories and associations got muddled together.
I read the first version of the book back in 2014 myself and also found it super helpful, I saw the thumbnail with the new version and immediately bought the book 😂
I was actually just thinking recently about how "memory tricks" don't really work for me. If I learn mnemonics, I always think more of the mnemonic than the thing and it is more like an intrusive distracting thought that ultimately impedes a fluent thought. Basically they make me remember the right thing consistently, but consistently 1-2 seconds later than it is useful. For languages at least, I don't find that particularly useful. And spaced repetition software basically turns my brain off and I don't learn anything. The only thing that has ever worked for me for learning languages is reading/writing/listening/speaking in the target language and trying to notice things I don't understand (either grammar or vocabulary) and then looking them up later. But I definitely agree with the no translating thing. As soon as it is feasible, one should switch to dictionaries and grammar books written in the language you are trying to learn.
My worst mnemonic is remembering that "急(kyuu)", the word for ''Sudden" sounds the same as "九(kyuu)" which means nine, and you kow what was sudden? 9/11. ...It works ok
Well, unless you were at the presidential briefing that week "Bin Laden set to attack US." Or if you were in the Minneapolis FBI, or if had the inside skinny on airline stock futures. But yeah. Me too.
Gracias, vielen Dank and anymay anksthay! I bought the book on your recommendation and explanation alone. I have several half-finished languages that I now think I'll be able to get my mind around. Thank you so much!
6:50 if my ears aren't tricking me, you're saying "девушка" and the text says "девочка". Both mean "a girl" but the first person depicted matches the text and the second one matches the pronunciation (age-wise). "Девушка" is usually used to refer to a woman who's in her late teens all the way to young adulthood and sometimes even way past that if she still looks youthful. As a bonus point, "девочка" might be used to refer something more lewd, same as in English, so that's why you can get something like that in Google images, if you look up "девочка" and scroll far enough.
Nice, informative review. You got my lizard brain so excited it clicked your affiliate link when I was only half-way through it. This was a pleasant change from the other purchases my inner lizard has made. (Oh, hello Mr. Algorithm!)
Love the video, I’ve been trying to implement some of your tips to my studies of French. One thing I’ve noticed: מייבא should be pronounced with a v sound rather than a b sound, as in “me-yah-veh”, it shares the same root as the word for “come”, יבוא. Hope this helps and have a great day :)
can you please make a video about accent reduction after someone has been talking with their L1 language sounds for years and years thus creating certain tendencies that give their accent away? in a previous video, and here too, you mention that learning the IPA sounds is rly helpful early on, and obviously it's helpful in general, but afaik there aren't many people that sound "native" after years of settling into their L1 accent. is there anything one can do to break out of this? thank you
i strongly recommend shadowing (after a smidge of IPA study to be able to notice the sounds properly). choose somebody you'd like to sound like in your target language and just shadow them. you'll notice drastic improvement in your speech in just a couple of weeks, or at least that was my experience. just note that the goal is not to sound exactly like the person to the point that you basically become a carbon copy, it's important not to lose your own personality in the process of the exercise. just strike a good balance and you'll be alright. good luck :]
@@AuradnorA college friend had watched You've Got Mail over and over in China to develop an American accent instead of the British one she was being taught. Sounds like this "shadowing" you're talking about--that is, she doesn't have to know Meg Ryan to shadow her!
Funny co-inki-dink. I just read this book less than a month ago. Thanks for the affirmation of my choice of book! 😉 I remain ambivalent about flash cards but am leaning toward giving them a try. At least I already bought a couple stacks.
I have been learning languages since the time LPs and cassettes were the only audio aids that were available. I have developed my own tricks for language learning over the course of a B.A., two M.A.s and a Ph.D. I have started to get into computer-based learning tools, though I have never used Anki. I suppose it has its benefits, but I find that the exercise of writing vocabulary cards by hand gives me the benefit of yet another channel of learning: the kinesthetic.
That's one of the language books along with Katom Lomb's How I learn languages that I want to read the most. First, I just need to learn 5 or 6 more languages. Then, I'll find time for them.
some fun mnemonics for kanji in japanese: 末 vs 未, mario uses the lower branch as a footstool on 未 (not really related to the meaning, but it's a really common kanji so it doesn't matter) 衰 vs 哀, the 哀 is so pathetic it doesn't even get stabbed through the middle (哀れ means pitiful or pathetic) 祟 vs 崇, the flap's left open for the spirits to come drifting in (祟る means to haunt) it's funny too, because i usually don't need mnemonics for kanji, so i specifically remember which ones i've got mnemonics for and that in itself helps me jog my memory by association. weird how it works huh
I try not to use mnemonics often for kanji, because the recalling the kanji works in a weird way (indirectly), but yeah for some nasty ones I used mnemonics. like a whale is a "city fish" or the fisrt kanji of 'dame' being a "fat horse"
I got this book in 2015 shortly before moving to Rome for a year, and found it wildly useful. Will def pick up the new edition! He had a pronunciation trainer back then that was incredibly effective. I liked his app but it was early days and there were some hiccups- I’ll look at it again
I'll pick up a copy soon. On the subject of underserved languages, I wanted to learn Welsh several years ago and was excited to finally see it on Duolingo, but when I shared what I was learning with a Welsh friend, he pointed out a lot of mistakes the speaker was making and how pronunciation and accent were iffy at best. Also lots of examples like the one at the beginning of your video, where the word is technically right but situationally wrong. Do you know of any better resources to start learning Welsh?
I’ve been learning French for 6 months and I’m SO happy I can now afford to take lessons. I learn best when I can take notes and study them. Old school. That’s how I work. I speak with my French friend and watch French movies and listen to French music. My favorite French movie is a 1960 black and white called Breathless that’s on HBO Max.
French is my L2 and what first married me to the love of language learning and usage. I believe the singular hardest part for English native speakers is the consistent cadence and volume foreign to our ear. (It was WILD when I was learning IPA and saw that syllables aren't stressed in French. WHAAAAA?!) Sounds like you're doing the good work - continue to listen to anything and everything French and the sound structure will come first slowly and then more quickly. Bonne continuation!
Dr Jones, I must recommend that you also read another book that was released today: The Hyperpolyglot Handbook. It will maximise your DLC and exponentially increase your ability to shock NPCs into doing double backflips.
Having a mental block remembering the Romanian word for 'exciting'. So what's exciting? A toboggan ride. Pictured that but it needed a Captain which prompted 'captivant'. The word is now welded on.
The affiliate link goes to the Kindle version of the 2014 edition. If you click the Paperback version, you'll end up on the 2014 Paperback version. You have to click to the "newer edition" link to get the 2024 version. And, when you're on the 2024 paperback edition, there's a link for the Kindle edition...back to 2014. So if you're buying the book from the affiliate link, be careful which one you buy.
I simply do not understand mnemonics. How is it easier to learn two new random things, and a trigger for one of the random things, and a translation between the two random things, than it is just to learn the target? I've had schoolteachers try to make me learn mnemonics and not one has stuck. Indeed, the only one I've ever retained was for a phone number; a friend of mine proudly announced that she could create a mnemonic for _any_ number, I gave her mine, and after three weeks she sheepishly returned and said, all I've got (I'll write it here because I don't think anyone can spam me with a 40 year old phone number) is BUN-1-XIT. That was memorable. But I've made my whole career out of learning stuff, and I just read documentation and put it in my head. Of course, I will admit natural language learning is specifically my weak point, it seems to take me a decade or more to pick up a language. I don't know if that's related.
one note but the audiobook audible revised edition has no accompanying pdf despite it saying it has it in the audio. hopefully they fix this one day. but it's annoying that it keeps referencing the accompanying pdf, only to have it not even be available
I'm messing around with learning a new language right now. By that, I mean that I just added a vocab deck for the language to Anki and am working through a few new words a day, without learning anything else about the language or having any exposure to it. Maybe in the future I'll try to properly learn the language. After failing to retain any of the first words on this deck, I started to create stories from the phonemes of the words I've memorized (figuring out words in English that sound similar to some of the phonemes, and then building a story with those words, kind of like what Heisig describes in Remembering the Kanji) and suddenly my retention rate is like 90%. It's been quite an enjoyable journey, tbh.
12:00 adding mnemonic glyphs for morphological matter seems strange to me too, like using 'envelope' for 'en' plurals...but if you think about it, that's kinda how writing was developed. So there might be something to it.
My favorite mnemonic was for the Korean word for "employer," which I could not remember for the life of me. The Korean is 고용주, so I came up with "Go, young jew!" and put a picture of a favorite Jewish actor.
I read it some years ago - I suppose I'll reread the updated version. Funny and gross mnemonics are great - I still remember some that I used in high school. For basic Hebrew, I can recommend "Hilarious Hebrew" book which uses mnemonics for 270 homonyms between Hebrew and English. My teacher recommended it to the class and I would often pick random page to read.
I read Fluent Forever quite a while ago (previous edition), and was turned on to SRS. I tried Anki for a bit, but now the only SRS I use is Hack Chinese because my main interest at the moment is learning and remembering Chinese characters.
Brilliant after purchase of a different book which shall be nameless (but to be fair was not all bad) exactly the sort of title I avoid Looking forward to giving this one a try
More than 50 years ago a classmate and I had to memorize dozens of constellations. She suggested thinking of the well endowed Mama Cass for Cassiopeia. I told her that was really stupid, and I have never forgotten it.
I think even more memorable than naughty mnemonics are stupid mnemonics. Mnemonics that when you see or think of them you get upset because that doesn't make any sense. But then years later, you still remember it because of course you remember the one that is so bad you're not supposed to remember it.
@@watariboshithe stupid mnemonics are the best. When I was a young tween I was taking a Russian course and the provided mnemonic for 2 (два) was "imagine dividing a shoe into two pieces. Divide. Dva." I was beyond confused at why it was a shoe specifically instead of a cake or a piece of paper or something traditionally cut into multiple parts. I haven't studied Russian in two decades but the joke was on me because I never forgot!
Wait a minute...and your name is _Cassandra?_
@@jeff__w Is she your long lost classmate?
@ Ha, no. I would have thought that, with a name like Cassandra, she wouldn’t have needed some mnemonic involving Mama Cass to remember Cassiopeia. (Maybe that’s why she thought the suggestion was stupid.) But I get the point that, no matter what, the mnemonic was, well, memorable. (And who doesn’t like Cass Elliot?)
My mom is not very good with languages. When we moved to Israel in the late-sixties, she was constantly using sounds to connect to new words. She would then turn these into stories for us about characters (one clever, one not) learning Hebrew and constantly getting things wrong. The challenge was to figure out from the story what the Hebrew term was that had been mis-heard. It was fun and we remember them fondly to this day. And when we were younger, they certainly kept us quiet and entertained... your images that have an association in English (I don't know French, so those wouldn't help me) remind me very much of those stories.
Not a mnemonic for an L2, but in high school English we had vocabulary words and part of it was coming up with a story to make a dumb mnemonic for it. In each new group of words the teacher would give her example story.
The word was “ethereal.” The teacher talked about this absolutely enchantingly beautiful woman. Her dress was elegant and seemed to float around her. Her hair flowed in the wind and shined in the sun. Her face, her body, everything about her was captivatingly beautiful. Then she was asked, “how did you get to be this beautiful?” Then in a thick southern accent she replied, “well, I ethereal every mornin’!”
I’ve never _ever_ forgotten the meaning of that word
Etymology works better for me.
Eat cereal never sounded so good. I could not hear it till I did it out loud! Damn your eyes, and thanks.
I read the old edition last year and the difference after I started applying his instructions is so big it’s ridiculous. It’s not only easier and faster but also so much more fun.
Feeding the algorithm and DEMANDING AN ANKI VIDEO!
Seconded!
Engaging tactical reply for engagement
Anki!
Responding because jOOONNNNEESSSSS
This video would be magical
I was also skeptical of the book, since I figured it was more "learn my system and you could be fluent in x days" than actual useful advice. But, since it has a legitimate linguist's (you) seal of approval, I bought it. Thanks for the recommendation.
I remember a friend from Spanish class and I drilling each other with flashcards. Every time I messed up on "los ojos". Finally she drew pupils in the 'o's and the 'j' naturally looked like a nose and I learned it just like that.
Love your channel man, my favourite liguistics youtuber. Keep it up!
Thank you! Will do
This is by far the best channel of language learning I've ever encountered
UK viewers: the Kindle version is available for a pound. I presume it may be on offer elsewhere too.
It’s available on Amazon as an ebook for US $4.99 as I write this!
Thank you so much - I’ve just bought it on my kindle for 99p!
Thanks for the tip- fastest quid I ever spent!
Yeah - couldn't believe my luck when I spotted that!
Yeah I got it on Amazon US for like $2, 90% off, holy hell
Another gem- Wyner is unique. It’s your channel that got me resyllablfying spoken target language, segregating phrases, clauses and sentence into structural units into which I can pour new vocabulary, creating peculiar to bizarre sentences correct in form and easily remembered. I can read english aloud as though the phonemes were french and all voyelles nasales. The sound-to-picture works especially well on idioms which coalesce to a vivid picture from the sound and meaning. This last is golden.
I love being able to use more than one language for mnemonics. I’ve been learning Chinese characters using the Heisig method, but since I also want to associate each character with its most common pronunciation, I’m also using Matthew & Matthew’s approach to pinyin mnemonics. A good example I have is that I can easily remember that 灭 “destroy” is miè because my mnemonic is a Spanish-speaking dwarf (4th tone) saying “mierda!” as he sees his things being destroyed by a fire.
Having a life dedicated to learning a dozen languages, you and Steve Kaufmann are the only language UA-camrs I truly trust. Such great content!!
Luca Lampariello and Richard Simcott are legit too.
Let’s also not forget Alexander Arguelles!
I used to absorb every Steve Kaufmann video I could find, until I reached a very high level of French and realized that Steve’s French-purportedly his *best* language that he’s been speaking for the longest-is really mediocre. That really put everything into context for me. I guess he’s good if your goal is to half-learn the surface level of a bunch of languages, but if your goal is to someday have a deep and extensive understanding of your TL, he’s not the guy.
@@jeremybuckets I can't get on with his videos since everything is an advert for LingQ.
That only is the case, because he doesn't see a reason to keep improving a language he can already use for all the purposes he wants (usually reading and listening). His spoken French propably was a lot better when he spoke fewer than 10 languages, but the man never stopped learning languages. He knows that if he were to live in a France for a few months his French skills would skyrocket and be top-notch again.
Oh, a second edition, cool. This book introduced me to ANKI, frequency lists, IPA, and many other useful stuff, like all the way back in the 2016. And now has Chinese become my second nature, partly also thanks to Gabe. Happy to see you like this book, too.
I borrowed the first edition from the library a month ago and liked it so much I ordered it, making sure I clicked on the new edition so I would have the latest and greatest. It just came yesterday, and I didn’t even realize they shipped the wrong book - the first edition- until seeing you holding up the new edition in this video. Thanks so much! Gotta ship this back and get the right one!
I'm only 2 minutes in so this comment is before watching. I tried and failed to learn or even retain any language before, and then read fluent forever. It gave me some confidence in language learning and understanding the process and led to me actually learning Spanish (finally). I'm now learning French. It also helped me put other things together for learning in general. Also, finally, anki is amazing and not just for language.
I'm old, so like 100 years ago, when I was in high school, I bought Barry Farber's How to Learn Any Language. It was the first time I realized that there were other people in the World who loved languages. I spent decades looking for another book that was as helpful to me as Farber's book had been. Wyner's has come the closest. It really is great. I guess I'll be buying the 2nd edition.
Very cool and unexpected that you covered this! I came across Gabriel's book in 2017 and it immediately resonated with me. In 2019 I began using some of the concepts, particularly related to Anki for studying Russian (alongside a frequency dictionary), and yes my progress was insane for my own expectations. Though I do speak Polish natively so I was on easy mode, truth be told ;) Nonetheless after about 5 months I was B1~B2 conversational with my italki teacher and my Georgian mother-in-law-to-be!
Motivation!
I can't speak for Wyner, but I wouldn't talk much about using AI for language learning either. There are environmental and privacy concerns with generative AI, and I wouldn't touch it unless there was literally no other option.
I know it is not very environmentaly friendly but damn chatgpt helps me so much, answering all my grammar questions and correcting my writing, explaining whys and hows. It is the free private tutor some paying apps are selling
I struggle with flash cards because making and reviewing them always feels like I could be spending that time with listening to/reading/writing more instead.
Feeding the algorithm for your family, Dr. J. A lot of what you cover is over my head, but I love language so I listen and glean what I can.
I'm glad you reviewed this. I bought it last year and I'm sorry to admit I haven't opened it yet.
Here's my entry for the "crazy mnemonic" contest. I was trying to remember "alfombra," Spanish for "rug."
I broke it into AL FOAM BRA, so I pictured a rolled-up rug that was slowly unrolled to reveal former VP AL Gore wearing a FOAM BRA.
Increíble
Stunning
Funny. I just imagined an Arab looking guy carrying an expensive oriental carpet into my flat, dropping it and it makes a "FOMB"-sound. The fact that the guy is an Arab tells me that there is "al" at the beginning of the word because all words of Arabic origin. The "ra" came by itself.
Algorithmic Engagement Comment: love your content and your snarky presentation style. That is what I tune in for the most, actually.
Oh wow, one of my favorite linguistics UA-camrs talking about someone I've hung out with!
I'm so glad you've done a review of this book because I have come across it in the past and I was skeptical of the "sounds too good to be true" nature of the title
Not translating is such a good advice. Reminds me of my favorite book I'm currently in the process of reading - Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. The book is without a single word in non-Latin, it makes me guess the meanings of the word and get used to their usage cases instead of reading dozens of possible translations. And I always catch myself thinking in Latin, which is a language I JUST STARTED learning. 22 years ago, when I took my first steps aquiring the big and scary language of English, I would laugh in your face if you told me thinking in your target language is possible and is actually not a hard skill, if you tackle it the smart way.
Yes, 22 years ago I was 6😐
Bravo. Feeding the algorithm here. Just a quibble. Your discussion of German plurals makes it sound less predictable and more difficult than it is. As a German learner, it might depend on your prior language learning experience. Six plural rules. One category is usually Latin words. The next category is foreign words. If you know English, French, and Latin (I do), these two categories are easy to recognize. That leaves four categories. These also form patterns which can be described with quasi-rules. Add a little bit of time and effort, and you develop and pretty good feel for making the plural of a noun.
I’ve been studying memory techniques for the past few years. I’ve been kind of frustrated in my attempts to apply it to learning languages, but for some reason I find it really easy to use for learning bird species and families. Word plays often work best for me, so I’ve got, for instance, embarrassed by buntings (buntings are the emberizidae family), the necessity of being stern with starlings (sturnidae family), or larks allowed (or aloud)- alaudidae family. Planning to go back to languages and give it another try once I finish the birds. I bought the book, so maybe it will inspire me to try it sooner rather than later.
Just found your channel not that long ago, and...now I am hooked. Valuable information and simple ways of explaining things. Thank you
Former Russian lang major 40 yrs ago at Temple U and masters in Slavic linguistics survivor from SUNY Albany here.
Ok, first I've got to say that I ADORE your channel and content (well, aside from the brief dally with ASMR which grates on me, LOL). You speak to the linguistics geek part of me! I've had Gabriel's book for a number of years so I'm jazzed to see there's a new edition, and I even have it as an audio book. But back to what you were saying. Yes, I too wish there was more to say about lesser learned or minority languages (rabid Irish learner here!). And wanted to share my best ever mnemonics story:
Back when I was moving and surrounded by JUNK that I needed to get rid of, I came across the Irish word for it "truflais" (kind of sounds like "truff-lish"). I was attending a weekly conversation course and wanted to use that word SO much but it wouldn't stick in my head. Initially I thought, 'well truflais sounds like truffles', but I don't consider truffles to be junk at ALL, so back to the drawing board. And then the famous image of Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek series, surrounded by a sea of furry 'tribbles' that had fallen out of the grain bin in the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" came to mind. Troubles-Tribbles- Truflais!! That's pretty much how I felt, chagrinned by being surrounded by a sea of junk, and well... 5 years later it still works to bring the word back when I need it! Here's the image that comes to mind. I still laugh over this one!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tribbles
Now I have to order a copy of the revised version of Fluent Forever. Keep on rocking on Taylor!
I don't know why exactly, but only now, reading your story, it hits me that if they have that replicator for food, they'd never need a grain bin. Is that addressed in the episode?
Nice review of Gabriel Wyner's book! It's one of my favorites. After reading it, I made my Ivrit Anki decks from scratch, by the way :-)) Shabbat Shalom to you!
I used the cloze deletion technique to help a French kid do French conjugation exercises... It worked and was so much more fun for the both of us than trying to get him to write the second person plural pluperfect indicative of the verb "souffrir"... Coming up with a funny story that used all the random verbs, persons and tenses in the exercise list was part of the fun and made it much more engaging for him! It is also a bit closer to the way we use conjugation in real life!
call me a goose in white gloves and an apron the way I'm serving the algorithm.
Than ks for the review! I bought the first edition on the strength of your earlier comments about the first edition, just bought the revised edition after this one. Your comments about under-resourced languages REALLY resonates with me right now, hopefully the tips in the revised edition will help me with the DIY necessary
Fluent Forever is the book that changed my language learning journey too! I'm glad to see you like it too. I use the app, and while it's clunky, I find it quite useful and continued paying for the subscription even when not actively language learning just to support what they're doing with it and hope it improves.
This is timely! I checked out this book from the local library, so now I'm more motivated to actually read it. Thanks.
Exactly what I needed. Thanks for sharing!
Happy to help feed your family. I like your approach and of course you are intelligent and approachable, like having a friend as a study buddy.
It is important to know the sounds of a language.
That is why people are working hard to try to discover what phonemes there are in American English.
I have a dream that one day, all dictionaries will have the same IPA spellings of American English words.
I read the book years ago and got a lot from it, lots of useful information for language learning
Petition for more language related stories from Dr. Jones
Thanks! Just ordered. It's more expensive at Powell's, but they aren't part of the oligarchy -- that I know of.
To remember Finnish “sytyttää” (to light, to ignite), I pretend it’s a VERY mispronounced version of “suit and tie” and picture a guy in a suit and tie bending over a candle that lights the tie on fire.
“Sytyttää” is definitely not pronounced anything like that phrase, but it’s memorable and close enough that I have remembered it ever since coming up with it.
Thank you for the video!
My memorization:
l think it's better to determine at the beginning what methods work best for you personally. For me they are:
- imagination - when I have known a new word or expression I imagine a situation in which I use it, and even play little scenes by myself. F. e., when I learn the word "Kippes!" ("Cheers!" in Finnish), I imagine myself at the table with a glass of beverage raised (in reality I lift my cup of tea:)
- associative memorizing works well. Käärme=snake and sounds almost like "karma" :)
- I practise phonetic memorizing. Looking at the object (or imagining it) and repeating the word many times aloud. I also read all the exercises aloud and try to sound as close as possible to native speakers, it helps a lot. I listen to Finnish songs, read the lyrics and try to sing, even if I do not understand the sense.
- I also need theoretical knowledge. If I combine it with spoken exercises, they multiply each other and give the best result.
- I try to speak even a few words I know IRL, even if there is no one who speaks Finnish.
I use Duolingo and see that it is obviously not enough. But I'm so grateful to this service and the people that have created and operate it - Duolingo gives me the opportunity to start, to become familiar with a language, and to raise motivation to learn it.
P. S. I think, the learner's dominant way of perception should be taken into consideration. Thus, I'm an audial and kinetic learner, and it's important for me to listen, speak, sing, move while speaking and communicate, and I do it without persuasion. But to memorise written words I have to pay extra attention. So, doing exercises with blank spaces, I every time type the whole words, and if it is needed to feel spaces with a long word (f. e., "tervetuloa"="welcome")10 times, I do it by my fingers only.
For visual learners texts and pictures will be essential, and they should concentrate specially on listening and speaking aloud, and for them, I suggest, it is very important to have conversations with native speakers or someone who speaks the language well - from the very beginning of studying.
It's so good to see Jone recomending a book that has been published in Brazil. I actually stopped the video twice to search for a good offer hahaha.
This is a great video! Thank you for this. Straightforward review that gives me everything I need to make a decision on this quickly!
In Egyptian Arabic the plural for church is
كنايس
Pronounced ca-naais i put a picture of a can and a snake on a card and it always made me remember it.
I bought the book as soon as you said you thought it was good. Looking forward to reading it!
I stumbled upon Gabriel's book early in my Spanish learning journey. I almost forgot about it. Guess now that there's a new version, I may need to revisit! Thanks for this video!
For sure I want to buy the book. I have struggled to learn French and Spanish all my life and when I was an elementary school teacher (teaching Grade one) they had no French teacher for my school and because I had taken French in university I was talked into teaching a Grade seven French class. I could barely speak it although I could read and write it as we were taught in school but speak it fluently-not a chance. I was so stressed that year that I quit teaching. That was many years ago and I am still trying to learn to speak it.
you can't buy what you need in a book
Keep trying!!! Know that you will make lots of mistakes 🙂 Nice people will have mercy -- you can do this!!
Love the s-backing! Excellent video and I'm excited to read this book!
Learning Arabic (i'm sure like Hebrew) provides a million opportunities for association with triliteral roots.
Some of my favorite:
n-z-l (descending) the nozzle of the hose drops water
3-r-f (know/announce publicly) very smart dog
n-s-ii (neglect) the nosy neighbor neglects their own yard
I probably built hundreds of these over the years...
So interesting! I found mnemonics to be unnecessarily strenuous, so I tend to only use them with stubborn words. I tried to use them more for easier words, but all the stories and associations got muddled together.
I read the first version of the book back in 2014 myself and also found it super helpful, I saw the thumbnail with the new version and immediately bought the book 😂
I was actually just thinking recently about how "memory tricks" don't really work for me. If I learn mnemonics, I always think more of the mnemonic than the thing and it is more like an intrusive distracting thought that ultimately impedes a fluent thought. Basically they make me remember the right thing consistently, but consistently 1-2 seconds later than it is useful. For languages at least, I don't find that particularly useful.
And spaced repetition software basically turns my brain off and I don't learn anything.
The only thing that has ever worked for me for learning languages is reading/writing/listening/speaking in the target language and trying to notice things I don't understand (either grammar or vocabulary) and then looking them up later. But I definitely agree with the no translating thing. As soon as it is feasible, one should switch to dictionaries and grammar books written in the language you are trying to learn.
Sounds like a really great resource, I'm snagging it next time I do an amazon order. Thanks!
My worst mnemonic is remembering that "急(kyuu)", the word for ''Sudden" sounds the same as "九(kyuu)" which means nine, and you kow what was sudden? 9/11.
...It works ok
Well, unless you were at the presidential briefing that week "Bin Laden set to attack US." Or if you were in the Minneapolis FBI, or if had the inside skinny on airline stock futures. But yeah. Me too.
Gracias, vielen Dank and anymay anksthay! I bought the book on your recommendation and explanation alone. I have several half-finished languages that I now think I'll be able to get my mind around. Thank you so much!
6:50 if my ears aren't tricking me, you're saying "девушка" and the text says "девочка". Both mean "a girl" but the first person depicted matches the text and the second one matches the pronunciation (age-wise). "Девушка" is usually used to refer to a woman who's in her late teens all the way to young adulthood and sometimes even way past that if she still looks youthful. As a bonus point, "девочка" might be used to refer something more lewd, same as in English, so that's why you can get something like that in Google images, if you look up "девочка" and scroll far enough.
Nice, informative review. You got my lizard brain so excited it clicked your affiliate link when I was only half-way through it. This was a pleasant change from the other purchases my inner lizard has made. (Oh, hello Mr. Algorithm!)
Love the video, I’ve been trying to implement some of your tips to my studies of French. One thing I’ve noticed: מייבא should be pronounced with a v sound rather than a b sound, as in “me-yah-veh”, it shares the same root as the word for “come”, יבוא. Hope this helps and have a great day :)
עד כמה שידוע לי (ו-"פעלים" מחזק את דעתי), כל הנטיות של הפועל "לייבא" הן עם ב' דגושה...
Thank you for the review -- I just got the first edition - - I think i will finish reading it 🙂
Another great video😊
can you please make a video about accent reduction after someone has been talking with their L1 language sounds for years and years thus creating certain tendencies that give their accent away? in a previous video, and here too, you mention that learning the IPA sounds is rly helpful early on, and obviously it's helpful in general, but afaik there aren't many people that sound "native" after years of settling into their L1 accent. is there anything one can do to break out of this? thank you
i strongly recommend shadowing (after a smidge of IPA study to be able to notice the sounds properly). choose somebody you'd like to sound like in your target language and just shadow them. you'll notice drastic improvement in your speech in just a couple of weeks, or at least that was my experience.
just note that the goal is not to sound exactly like the person to the point that you basically become a carbon copy, it's important not to lose your own personality in the process of the exercise. just strike a good balance and you'll be alright. good luck :]
@@AuradnorA college friend had watched You've Got Mail over and over in China to develop an American accent instead of the British one she was being taught. Sounds like this "shadowing" you're talking about--that is, she doesn't have to know Meg Ryan to shadow her!
I bought the new edition now. A great video.
Funny co-inki-dink. I just read this book less than a month ago. Thanks for the affirmation of my choice of book! 😉
I remain ambivalent about flash cards but am leaning toward giving them a try. At least I already bought a couple stacks.
I have been learning languages since the time LPs and cassettes were the only audio aids that were available. I have developed my own tricks for language learning over the course of a B.A., two M.A.s and a Ph.D. I have started to get into computer-based learning tools, though I have never used Anki. I suppose it has its benefits, but I find that the exercise of writing vocabulary cards by hand gives me the benefit of yet another channel of learning: the kinesthetic.
That's one of the language books along with Katom Lomb's How I learn languages that I want to read the most. First, I just need to learn 5 or 6 more languages. Then, I'll find time for them.
10 years and a PhD in linguistics later is such a strong claim 🔥
some fun mnemonics for kanji in japanese:
末 vs 未, mario uses the lower branch as a footstool on 未 (not really related to the meaning, but it's a really common kanji so it doesn't matter)
衰 vs 哀, the 哀 is so pathetic it doesn't even get stabbed through the middle (哀れ means pitiful or pathetic)
祟 vs 崇, the flap's left open for the spirits to come drifting in (祟る means to haunt)
it's funny too, because i usually don't need mnemonics for kanji, so i specifically remember which ones i've got mnemonics for and that in itself helps me jog my memory by association. weird how it works huh
I try not to use mnemonics often for kanji, because the recalling the kanji works in a weird way (indirectly), but yeah for some nasty ones I used mnemonics.
like a whale is a "city fish" or the fisrt kanji of 'dame' being a "fat horse"
@JohnValentine-f1s fat horse made me laugh, those are good ones too
feeding your algorithm and kindly requesting an Anki video !
Thanks for the vid! I read Fluent Forever back in 2017 and I kept wondering when he was going to update his method.
Thanks for that review, I've just reserved it at my library.
Thanks for this!
Very cool. Will get the book.
I got this book in 2015 shortly before moving to Rome for a year, and found it wildly useful. Will def pick up the new edition! He had a pronunciation trainer back then that was incredibly effective. I liked his app but it was early days and there were some hiccups- I’ll look at it again
Stoked to give it a read
Loved the book, but never gelled with the app tbh. Excited to read the new edition
I'll pick up a copy soon. On the subject of underserved languages, I wanted to learn Welsh several years ago and was excited to finally see it on Duolingo, but when I shared what I was learning with a Welsh friend, he pointed out a lot of mistakes the speaker was making and how pronunciation and accent were iffy at best. Also lots of examples like the one at the beginning of your video, where the word is technically right but situationally wrong. Do you know of any better resources to start learning Welsh?
I’ve been learning French for 6 months and I’m SO happy I can now afford to take lessons. I learn best when I can take notes and study them. Old school. That’s how I work. I speak with my French friend and watch French movies and listen to French music. My favorite French movie is a 1960 black and white called Breathless that’s on HBO Max.
French is my L2 and what first married me to the love of language learning and usage. I believe the singular hardest part for English native speakers is the consistent cadence and volume foreign to our ear. (It was WILD when I was learning IPA and saw that syllables aren't stressed in French. WHAAAAA?!) Sounds like you're doing the good work - continue to listen to anything and everything French and the sound structure will come first slowly and then more quickly.
Bonne continuation!
Dr Jones, I must recommend that you also read another book that was released today: The Hyperpolyglot Handbook. It will maximise your DLC and exponentially increase your ability to shock NPCs into doing double backflips.
Having a mental block remembering the Romanian word for 'exciting'. So what's exciting? A toboggan ride. Pictured that but it needed a Captain which prompted 'captivant'. The word is now welded on.
❤ Fluent Forever!
The affiliate link goes to the Kindle version of the 2014 edition. If you click the Paperback version, you'll end up on the 2014 Paperback version. You have to click to the "newer edition" link to get the 2024 version. And, when you're on the 2024 paperback edition, there's a link for the Kindle edition...back to 2014.
So if you're buying the book from the affiliate link, be careful which one you buy.
The algorithm demands sustenance! I shall feed it with my meager comment
I simply do not understand mnemonics. How is it easier to learn two new random things, and a trigger for one of the random things, and a translation between the two random things, than it is just to learn the target?
I've had schoolteachers try to make me learn mnemonics and not one has stuck. Indeed, the only one I've ever retained was for a phone number; a friend of mine proudly announced that she could create a mnemonic for _any_ number, I gave her mine, and after three weeks she sheepishly returned and said, all I've got (I'll write it here because I don't think anyone can spam me with a 40 year old phone number) is BUN-1-XIT. That was memorable.
But I've made my whole career out of learning stuff, and I just read documentation and put it in my head.
Of course, I will admit natural language learning is specifically my weak point, it seems to take me a decade or more to pick up a language. I don't know if that's related.
one note but the audiobook audible revised edition has no accompanying pdf despite it saying it has it in the audio. hopefully they fix this one day. but it's annoying that it keeps referencing the accompanying pdf, only to have it not even be available
My three favorite things. Thank you.
Thanks!
I'm messing around with learning a new language right now. By that, I mean that I just added a vocab deck for the language to Anki and am working through a few new words a day, without learning anything else about the language or having any exposure to it. Maybe in the future I'll try to properly learn the language.
After failing to retain any of the first words on this deck, I started to create stories from the phonemes of the words I've memorized (figuring out words in English that sound similar to some of the phonemes, and then building a story with those words, kind of like what Heisig describes in Remembering the Kanji) and suddenly my retention rate is like 90%. It's been quite an enjoyable journey, tbh.
12:00 adding mnemonic glyphs for morphological matter seems strange to me too, like using 'envelope' for 'en' plurals...but if you think about it, that's kinda how writing was developed. So there might be something to it.
Great review, thank you
My favorite mnemonic was for the Korean word for "employer," which I could not remember for the life of me. The Korean is 고용주, so I came up with "Go, young jew!" and put a picture of a favorite Jewish actor.
When will you interview Stuart Jay Raj, Luca Lampariello, and or Richard Simcott.
I read it some years ago - I suppose I'll reread the updated version. Funny and gross mnemonics are great - I still remember some that I used in high school.
For basic Hebrew, I can recommend "Hilarious Hebrew" book which uses mnemonics for 270 homonyms between Hebrew and English. My teacher recommended it to the class and I would often pick random page to read.
The mnemonic method reminds me a lot of James Heisigs “Remembering the kanji” where you build on those queues for all 2200 kanji
This is the book that motivated me to start learning languages! Ha!
I read Fluent Forever quite a while ago (previous edition), and was turned on to SRS. I tried Anki for a bit, but now the only SRS I use is Hack Chinese because my main interest at the moment is learning and remembering Chinese characters.
Brilliant after purchase of a different book which shall be nameless (but to be fair was not all bad) exactly the sort of title I avoid
Looking forward to giving this one a try