You read the Fluent Forever book! Yay! Let’s get you the information you need.
Question: So…the book came out in 2014. Has anything changed since then?
Answer: The stuff in the book still works well, so you have the following three options:
- Option 1: Just do what’s in the book!
- Option 2: Do some slight modifications to what’s in the book
- Option 3: The New App
To get access to the App beta, you’ll need to become an Indiegogo backer. Do that here: http://goo.gl/snAzLc
I’ll summarize each option, then give you resources for it. Choose whichever one you like!
Option 1: Just do what’s in the book! (It still works well!)
None of the tools in the book have broken in the last 4 years, with the slight exception of Google Images, which provides shorter captions than it used to provide. So you can use the book as written.
Pros to Option 1: You’ve already read the book, so you know how to do this!
Cons to Option 1: Deep inside your soul, you will know that there are other options that could work faster. Grr…
Resources for Option 1:
- The Gallery: A guide to the flashcards that will teach you your language
- Audiobook PDF Guide: Get a copy of the Audiobook guide for free (this is actually a pretty handy guide for folks with a hard copy of the book, too)
- The Pronunciation Trainers: Available in 15+ languages!
- The Most Awesome Word Lists You Have Ever Seen: A 625 wordlist you’ll need to get started to create flashcards in Anki. Receive your free wordlist here. You can also shop the bundles to get both the Pronunciation Trainer and Wordlist at a discounted price. Find more information here under “Bundles”.
Option 2: Do some slight modifications to what’s in the book (they work a little faster!)
Over the last four years, I’ve been making tweaks to the Fluent Forever method. Specifically:
- I modified some of the flashcard styles slightly
- I started to learn grammar at the same time as my 625 word list, by having a tutor help me make personalized example sentences for each word.
Pros to Option 2: These tweaks allowed me to learn faster than I could before. Yay!
Cons to Option 2: You’ll have a bit more to read before you can get started, and the learning curve is a little steeper. You’ll also have an additional expense for iTalki tutors (an hour every week or two), and you’ll need to put in some effort to coordinate those lessons.
Resources for Option 2:
- Hacking Fluent Forever
- A Complete Guide to Learning a Language with a Tutor on iTalki
- Three New Flashcard Types to Speed Up Flashcard Creation
Option 3: The New App
In September of 2017, we decided to crowdfund a new language learning app to replace Anki. The goal was to make an app that streamlines the Fluent Forever method so that you can maximize every minute of your study time. This has become the most successful crowdfunding effort for an app in history (!!). The first beta release will be in May of 2018.
Pros to Option 3: Basically zero learning curve, and ridiculously fast improvement. No need to learn how to use Anki.
Cons to Option 3: The app won’t be publicly released until August of 2018 (though you can start with the earlier options and then transition to the app). The app costs more than Anki.
Video on whether to choose option 3:
To get access to the App beta, you’ll need to become an Indiegogo backer. Do that here: http://goo.gl/snAzLc
Resources for Option 3:
