Post 6: A New Beginning: Here's my story (Part 2)

September 9th, 10th and 11th:

After much research in finding that it IS possible to learn a language 'fluently' in 90 days, I was ready to begin. [more on the definition of 'fluent' later]

I usually don't purchase "data" [such as applications, ebooks, and music] because it's not tangable [and I'm a very tangable kinda guy], but somehow I was convinced into buying Benny's book "Language Hackers Guide" for $49! (maybe it was because Benny's fluent in over a half-dozen languages, or because it was on sale; soon it'll be $70 because more language translations will be added, but I get the free update! =] In any case, the main reason I purchased his ebook was every blogger who mentioned Benny had something good to say about his book.

After it was purchased and downloaded, I quickly read through most of his ebook to realize what I need to do:

1. create a blog
2. join a social networking site, and
3. create a day-by-day plan

The easiest task was to join a social networking website. So I choose the recommened website, MyHappyPlanet. Here I was extremely luck. I sent out one request and found someone who has been extremely helpful: Anna [Remember the name? I mentioned her earlier].

Soon after, I created this blog: Fluent Italian in 90 Days. [If you'd like a post on how I did it, ask me in the comments]

So I joint a social networking website and I created a blog. The only task left was to write a day-by-day plan of how I'm going to learn fluent Italian in 90 days!

This was not so easy. Benny includes many worksheets, tasks, and tricks in learning [which I highly recommend buying. There is a 60 day money back guarantee], but he missed one simple question : How does a beginner start from scratch?

What I mean is, where do I begin?

I need to make a plan and fill out a calendar, but what do I write? I wanted to know how and what I should learn, but he only gave me the how [the tips and tricks]. The most probable reason for this is every person is different, and every language is different, therefore every method of learning will be different.

This still didn't answer my question!

With every blog post, comment, and website, I only found people suggesting how to remember phrases, words, and grammar. This didn't make sense to me. Does anyone start from scratch. I kept asking myself, "what is scratch?" What is the first step other than remembering phrases and practicing with people?

I couldn't find this 'scratch' I was looking for, so I went ahead and jumped in. In day 3 of my blog, I purchased the Italian phrasebook by Lonely Planet, which I carry everywhere. I also purchased an Italian Dictionary by Langenscheidt. It was about $17 for the two [so with the Language Hackers Guide, I've spent about $67 on materials. That's way less than my college text books!]

With these two books I began to study how to pronounce words in Italian. Ha ha, yes. I already spent almost a week 'studying' Italian, yet I didn't even know how to pronounce the letters? Well, maybe I knew a little...

... but the problem is, I think differently than the traditional Joe.

I think too much.

My main consern has not been what I learn, but how I learn. Do I study with flash cards? Do I use audio tapes? Or do I learn from textbooks? What is the most effective learning approach for me?

I've researched about how our brains works, how infants learn to speak, how we translate words into audio, how we process information, how the information is remembered or forgotten, how accents are acquired, and much more....

With as much reading and writing that I've done, I've finally found the best way for me to learn...