How to learn any language
by Barry Farber · first published 1991
7mentions
5recommended by
7HN commenters
2009–2023first – last mentioned
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A practical guide to teaching yourself languages, presenting a system of techniques and strategies. It covers how to use books and audio, and includes forums and a companion site for learners.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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A fantastic book about learning languages: How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own by Barry Farber - http://www.amazon.com/How-Learn-Any-Language-Inexpensively/d... which is available as a PDF here: - http://fld.hit.edu.cn/english/webedit/uploadfile/20085121524...…
on “How Learning a Second Language Changed My Life” ↗…dabble in different languages. It is one of the best ways to learn whether a language will interest you over the longer term (and a great vignette into another culture). A good book on the subject is How to Learn Any Language by Barry Farber. He has a system of techniques that he's developed over the years, having supposedly learned a couple of dozen languages. It is helpful to study other polyglots, such as Sir Richard Burton,…
on “Ask HN: How have you learned a speaking language?” ↗…http://www.allsetlearning.com/products/chinese-picture-book-... That said, if your goal is learning Lithuanian rather than product building, you don't need an app. You need books and audio. For an overview of how to use them, try reading Barry Farber's How to Learn Any Language. Here's my own summary and results using his strategies: http://toshuo.com/2007/learn-a-language-by-taking-advantage-... Disclosure: I'm friends with John from ASL and Dave from Popup, but my recommendation…
on “Show HN: My first product. Thoughts?” ↗…it's also very helpful to help master the differences between same characters used in japanese and in chinese. A good website to read on learning languages (despite the rather cheesy title) is http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html The forum discussion is rather interesting... Good luck, and try to visit the country, it's still the quickest way to learn the language
on “Ask HN: How to learn languages with non-Latin alphabets?” ↗I recommend the content and especially the forums on http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html. Different languages have different best resources. Assimil are normally a good bet in my experience.
on “How Duolingo reignited user growth” ↗I think that book is titled "How to learn any language", by Barry Farber.
on “Why standard Indonesian is not spoken throughout Indonesia” ↗I agree with your comment. As a sidenote concerning your last point, Gabriel Wyner's book "Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" explains in detail how to build an SRS system to learn a language and it strongly advises against using translation tasks in your SRS. Instead of thinking in the target language,…
on “Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition” ↗