Is it possible to become fluent in a language in 3 months?

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Welcome to my new blog “Fluent in 3 months“! I've already been making videos over at my main multilingual site Around the World in 80 Mays for some time, and I will include some language learning videos there soon. I have, however, decided to create this new site specifically for discussing my best language learning techniques 🙂 After learning Irish Gaelic, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Esperanto I have picked up quite a lot of short-cuts, memory techniques, and a pretty good mentality that has hugely helped me to learn these languages, and earn the title of “polyglot”, so it's about time that I shared them!!

I insist that it's something that anyone can do. I am not naturally linguistically talented (or at least, no more so than your average Joe); I had very poor grades for languages in school (and studied Electronic Engineering at university) and I only started speaking non-English languages at 21 (Age at time of posting: 26). Nevertheless, I have definitely learned that it is a lot easier than most people think and I have reached quite good proficiency in the languages listed above, as well as changing my career to freelance translator!

My posts will be aimed at learners of any language, but I will be using those that I know as an example, including the one I happen to be currently learning. I will also be talking about specific languages.Now that I can see how easy it is to learn languages, I am constantly travelling to new countries and staying there (for around 3 months usually) and immersing myself in the language, although it can just as easily be done in the comfort of your own home with the right tools and attitude.

This summer I will be spending 3 months in Prague and I currently speak no Czech. Nothing. Right now I don't know how to say “Please” or “How are you?” or “Where is the train station?” or even “My name is”. I do not speak any language closely related to Czech (such as Polish) and Czech is very different to all other languages that I have learned up to now. Despite this I strongly believe that after 3 months I will be able to say that I speak “fluent” Czech; i.e. have comfortable conversations with locals about a wide range of topics, without a strong accent and with a good enough command of the language for expressing myself clearly in many social situations and understanding as much as possible. I don't plan on having my head in books all summer, or paying huge fees for courses; and most importantly, I'll be having a lot of fun along the way! After that, I'll use the same methods to learn the next language!

If you'd like to see how it's done, use the subscribe link on the left to see my upcoming tips and language-learning story and join me as I become fluent in a new language in 3 months! 🙂