fluent in 2 months

I had been studying Spanish from textbooks in London for months. Then I visited my friend Gabriella in Madrid. At... Re…

You've studied German long enough to open a news article and work through it with a dictionary. Slowly, yes. But...…

You're standing at a bakery counter in France. After months of daily app practice, you thought this moment would fe…

People write to me with the same story. They had a 600-day streak. They showed up every morning, tapped the... Read Mor…

You've put the hours in. The words still won't come when someone's waiting for an answer. I learned French …

You've found a novel you actually want to read in Spanish. Or a podcast transcript you've been dying to underst…

I get messages about this exact moment. Readers tell me they've kept a long daily streak alive on Duolingo, without…

When I started learning Cantonese, there was so little available that television became my main study tool. I watched a…

You’re in the car. Or out walking. Either way, thirty minutes are doing nothing. You’ve studied this language before, o…

You're standing in a café in Madrid, and the waiter asks you something. You catch the first word. The rest... Read …

Say sjuttiosju (just the number 77) to a Swede and watch their face – it's the word they use to... Read More The p…

Norwegian has not one, but two official written languages. Although I haven't learned it, that's exactly the ki…

Danish has a sound so subtle that Norwegians and Swedes, who read Danish just fine on the page, still second-guess... R…

Your son's Colombian wife invited the whole family for Sunday lunch. Everyone else is talking, fast, the way people…

Gareth Popkins and I first met at one of the early polyglot gatherings in Berlin, more than a decade ago... Read More …

If you have tried to learn a language before and it did not stick, I want you to know something.... Read More The post…

You can order a coffee in Paris without panicking. You can follow the gist of a film if the subtitles... Read More The…

A reader named Adriana sent me a question about reconnecting with a childhood language. She wrote: “When I was young...…

So, you have a 300-day streak! The little owl is delighted with you. Then someone actually speaks to you, in... Read Mo…

You can follow a Spanish podcast without getting lost. You can read a restaurant menu without reaching for your phone..…