Hi 👋 I’m Adam and I love to learn languages.

Tips

After spending 1,000s of hours learning languages (mostly Korean, some Chinese & French), here’s advice I’ve come away with:

• Create opportunities for ultralearning (sustained, obsessive study). Spending months or years dedicated solely to learning a language is both incredibly effective and rewarding. My Korean improved by far the most while living on farms in South Korea on my gap year.
• Measure your trajectory in focused hours per week.. "I've been studying for 5 months" doesn't mean much. Instead, ask yourself—how many uninterrupted hours do you spend interacting with the language every week? That's the best yardstick.
• Input is significantly more important than output early on. This is beacuse 1) you generally listen and read more than you speak and write, 2) it gives you context & confidence to understand more of what's being said in a conversation, and 3) it's hard to speak beyond the limits of what you know sounds right.
• Get off Duolingo. It's great as a one-stop-shop for picking up a bit of the language in a few weeks. But if you're a more serious student, you're better off combining tools that each serve one particular role best—a dedicated SRS like Anki, materials designed for one particular language like TalkToMeInKorean, etc.
• Passive listening isn't real practice. It simply doesn't come close to the effectiveness of active listening at a desk with pen and paper. This is coming from someone who's spent hundreds of hours walking around listening to Korean podcasts.
• Don't study in libraries. Choose places where you can speak aloud what you're reading or repeat back what you're listening to. This will strengthen your speaking skills at the same time.
• Build a habit of daily practice. Add an hour of language learning to your evening or morning routine. Deliberately set aside time for it—the time won't find itself.
• Have fun with it. You retain knowledge better and can go further if you're genuinely having fun, whatever that looks like for you.
• Put in the solo hours. I see a lot of people trying to learn a language just with a tutor, friend, or language buddy. This is a nice supplement, but dedicated solo practice consisting of repetition and memorization is the meat and potatoes of language learning.
• It's a fallacy that learning language takes longer as an adult than a childr. While kids absorb knowledge faster, adults can apply greater sustained effort, taking them farther in the long run. An adult's 8 hours studying at a desk beats a child's 3 hours chatting with friends.

Resources

All Languages

• Anki. Spaced reptition flashcards. An essential tool amongst language students.. and med students.
• Workaway. A platform that connects host famillies with travelers. I spent a year living in Asia while volunteering through workaways, and they were a great way to get plugged into the local community and practice my target language. People in these communities tend to enjoy language exchange and are excited to help you improve.
• Italki. A solid place to find tutors for speaking practice if you're currently living in a place where you can't speak the language.

Korean

• TalkToMeInKorean. TalkToMeInKorean produces loads of helpful and entertaining content. They are 100% worth the subscription. Their IYAGI and TalkToMeIn100%Korean audio series are especially great.