Lingo Hacks

6 Secrets for learning any language in NO

Time!

by

www.LingoMastery.com
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 5
Chapter 1: Why Learn a Language, Anyway? ............................................................................... 8
Chapter 2: The Make-It-or-Break-It Stage .................................................................................. 11
Chapter 3: One Hack to Rule Them All ....................................................................................... 15
Chapter 4: The Tools You Will Need........................................................................................... 20
Chapter 5: Mind Training ........................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 6: Looking Into the Future ............................................................................................ 28
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 31
 What you’ll find in this book (and what you WON’T)

Hello, and welcome to Lingo Mastery, where we make learning

languages look easy.

In the following book — divided into six descriptive and easy-to-read

chapters that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last
page — we are going to open your eyes to some of the most dangerously
efficient hacks that you can apply in your process of learning any
language.

You are not going to be taught a long-winded lesson on how to apply

gender to Spanish, French or Italian; why Arabic writing is so intricate
and unusual; or how you can say ‘Antidisestablishmentarianism’ in
Japanese — this book is much more than that.

We’re going to teach you how to improve your grammar and take it to
new levels WITHOUT forcing you to digest each and every grammar
rule.

We’re going to help you break your record in memorizing countless

amounts of vocabulary and learning complicated words WITHOUT
throwing extensive lists of terms in your face and making you read them
non-stop.

We’re even going to give you plenty of motivation as to why you should
start learning a new language today and what resources you can use to
do so.

‘But how exactly are you going to do this?’ I hear you ask.

Simple.

We know that the average person simply does not have time to go to
courses in their local language school or even spend their evenings in
modern online webcam classes, especially because you don’t want to
show an exhausted, messy-haired version of yourself to some handsome
or beautiful and well-dressed teacher from across the world. We’re
absolutely aware of this, and our goal is to present you with an
alternative that will not only work, but give you more out of your
learning!

By the time you put this book down, you will have learned to use some
of the most incredible language tools to gain up to 80% of fluency in any
tongue, while applying less than half of the effort you’d require at any
school or video class available out there.

Sound good? Of course it does. Let’s begin, then…

 Introduction

The Moment We Realized Everyone Was Doing it All Wrong…

We’re all teachers in one way or another. And although Lingo Mastery
is run by language teachers, we have certainly needed those unexpected
instructors to help guide us along our way.

Our parents, our peers and those strangers on the street; the people on
the news and the actors on our favorite TV shows and movies; even
those famous musicians and artists, with their tendency to drive the
new crazes into the media. They’re all teachers, if you think about it.
Men and women who, in some kind of manner, pass lessons on to us
and demonstrate what is right and what is wrong.

Everyone needs a lesson to understand how to get something done, or

to stop doing something wrong. To direct us on our course in life and
demonstrate the way things are done properly.

It wasn’t until a few years back when we realized that language teachers
are simply doing it wrong, and have been for a long time. Now, we’re not
trying to criticize the noble role of a language instructor in teaching
their students a way to acquire fluency in a new tongue — we just want
to tell everyone that there’s a much more efficient way that perhaps
these experts were hiding to keep you going to their classes.

We used to teach students new languages the traditional way: following

the curriculum that our schools and institutes provided us, practicing
concept after concept, rule after rule and having them do homework
again and again until something stuck. The people in charge were
accustomed to this method, and they were content in a way.

After all, it didn’t matter to the school or the institute if the kids or
adults went home without having truly learned to speak the language.
They’d done ‘all they could’ to teach. If the student didn’t learn, well,
that was their own problem.

If you’ve ever tried a learn a language and have spent months or even
years trying hard and haven’t managed to get past the basic or
intermediate level, then you’ll FULLY understand what we mean by
this.
As a teacher, some of us began to feel frustrated. Sure, we were seeing
new faces and adding years of experience to our CV’s, but we weren’t
truly doing what we wanted to do. We weren’t truly teaching the
students how to do things properly, as a respectable teacher should.

I personally remember sitting down on my own one day and saying: “Let
me try to learn a language with the method I teach, and see how good it
is.”

Can you imagine the look on my face when I realized that the
method I had followed blindly for so many years wasn’t as efficient
as they’d told me?

As my eyes opened, those of others did, and we began to look for ways
to teach things properly, effectively, using methods that wouldn’t
require students to spend years of their life simply to get out of basic
levels of a new language. Methods that could get them to achieve
around 80% of fluency in MONTHS.

Many of us began to apply these new methods to fresh new students,

and the shocking moment came when they started to learn at an
impressive rate — one that we’d never witnessed before in a typical, old-
fashioned classroom. Vocabulary skills skyrocketed, spelling abilities
soared, and going to class wasn’t a chore to our students anymore, it
was an amazing opportunity to further their grasp of a language.

This is basically how Lingo Mastery was born.

I, personally, wanted people to know what it felt like to actually learn a

language, and I wanted to unite those teachers that felt the same way
that I did. It worked, and now we’re spreading this even further as a
TEAM.

What audience are we targeting this at, though? I wondered when we

began. What languages will we teach?

But then it hit me.

There was no reason we should limit ourselves.

We could teach EVERYONE who wanted it, no matter what age. It

wouldn’t require a special talent or natural advantage. It would just be
a case of applying what we teach: the RIGHT method. And when it
came to what languages we could teach, well…the sky was always the
limit.

So let’s begin — it’s time to demonstrate that we know what we’re

talking about, and that we can definitely improve your learning. So sit
back, grab a drink or a snack and let’s start showing you how to learn a
language like a professional.
 Chapter 1:
Why Learn a Language, Anyway?

Six Reasons Why You Will Want to Learn a New Language within
the Next Twelve Months

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the
results of a hundred battles.”
- Sun Tzu

We’d be lying if we told you that learning a new language isn’t scary.
This isn’t even a feeling that only you and we suffer from, either — there
is even an anxiety studied by psychologists called ‘xenoglossophobia’,
which is basically the fear of learning or using a foreign language.

It comes as no surprise, then, that only 50% of the world’s population

(or just around 50%) can speak two or more languages, with numbers
getting as low as 1% when it comes to the percentage of pentaglots —
people who can speak five or more languages.

In fact, only 18% of Americans can speak two or more languages

fluently, and if we put these numbers into perspective, it is quite a
shame that we’ll most likely encounter difficulties communicating with
natives in other countries, or even immigrant citizens who haven’t
learned our language yet in our own country.

But is that even the best reason why we should learn a new language?
No! Becoming fluent in an additional language has been associated with
increased income, better social skills and even an enhancement in
cognitive ability. By learning a new tongue, you’re basically becoming
better at all of the characteristics you’ll need as a successful human
being.

We’ve compiled a specific list of six reasons why you’ll want to learn a
new language within the next twelve months. Trust us when we tell you
— you’re really going to want to start practicing once you’ve read these
stats.

1. You Get Smarter

This first reason is the absolute best reason to learn a new language, no
argument. Success and money are good, but self-betterment and the
investment in oneself have no rival whatsoever. Remember: there is
nothing like doing something that will improve you.

Recent scientific research has demonstrated that bilinguals have an

increased development in their executive functions — that is, the
processes related to problem solving, mental flexibility, attentional
control and task switching.

Bialystok et al. (2004) tested bilingual children against monolinguals,

and the results showed that bilinguals outperformed the monolinguals
in every conflict task that they came across. Awesome, huh?

2. You Make More Money

This one is almost a no-brainer — the most attractive CV is the one with
the most skills, and a second (third or fourth) language is up there with
a certification in a programming language or online software tool,
according to career talent scouts.

Studies in Switzerland demonstrated that multilingualism was much

more important than it seemed: speaking more than one language is
correlated positively with the speaker’s yearly salary, as well as the
productivity of entire nations (an improved GDP, in other words).

Another study proved that bilingual citizens make around $3,000

MORE per year than monolinguals.

3. You Become More Open-Minded

Ever been on the subway and heard someone talking in another

language? Haven’t you felt a bit of prejudice and wondered if they’re
talking about you? Trust us — they’re not, they’re probably just
chatting normally. Most of us are just wired to have a certain level of
fear or distrust towards what we don’t understand, and that’s okay.

But if you want to get past that, learning a language is definitely the
best way: multilingual individuals performed better on a study made by
Dewaele, J. (2012), which was based on examining personality traits
such as cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative.

Basically, learning a new language will open you up to more cultures,

and it will give you the key to learning just what those people sitting
across from you are saying!

4. You Become a Healthier Adult Later On

Bilingualism has been associated with benefits against age-related

cognitive decline for decades, and recent studies have found that
speaking several languages can increase protection against Alzheimer’s
disease and other natural decline that old age brings.

Monolinguals also showed a higher amount of age-related signs of

decline when their brains were studied, as well as decreased gray
matter density.

We all want to be healthy and strong when we grow old, so starting to

learn a language today could definitely put you on that path early!

5. You Become Better at Socializing

Now, unless you’re planning to learn a new language by hiding in a cave

with a laptop and an internet connection, you’re going to need to
practice and communicate with other people who speak the same
tongue as you. More importantly, you’re going to have to find the
communities that speak the same tongue since they won’t exactly come
looking for you!

One of the amazing advantages of learning a new tongue is that you’ll

have to find a group, website, forum or app where you’ll practice the
language or clear up your doubts when you get stuck. This not only
allows you to get past the troublesome parts of your lessons, but also
will open you up to meeting new people.

Who knows, you may just get to meet the love of your life or the best pal
ever in one of those reunions!

6. You’ll Learn Your Next Languages Much Quicker

This has a lot to do with learning curves — once you do something

enough, it should get much easier to do in the future due to the way
our brains learn things.

Learning a language is no different.

Your cognitive ability, especially the part related to your metalinguistic

awareness (a trait related to the awareness of the meaning of words,
letters and numbers in your brain) will be boosted once you’ve learned a
second language, and you will find it easier to learn a third, fourth, and
even fifth after that.

So with all of this said and all of the reasons we’ve provided, as well as
plenty more that you can think of yourself, what are you waiting for to
start learning today?
 Chapter 2:
The Make-It-or-Break-It Stage

It’s Time to Learn the Basics or Die Trying!

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning,

studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or
learning to do.”
- Pele

Have you ever read about those big universities that everybody tries
hard to get into, studying for weeks or months on end after having
already fought hard to keep their grades up in high school to even sniff
a chance of being recognized as students worthy of a spot at these
campuses…

…and yet hundreds of these hard-working students are still overlooked

once the enrollment period is done and dusted, and they are left lost
and aimless as they’re forced to look for somewhere else to study
instead?

Learning a language can be just as cruel and unforgiving if you don’t do

it right, believe us. In fact, it can quickly turn from an interesting
experience into a nightmare that you end up quitting while feeling that
you wasted your time.

What you need, then, is a GOOD FOUNDATION. Take special note of

this concept, because we will be touching upon it again and again in
this book and in future lessons.

Having a good foundation is like building a house on good, sturdy land.

You won’t have to worry about all of it collapsing once you’re half or
three-quarters of the way in. In language terms: you won’t have to go
back and learn old concepts you should already have known, just
because you’ve hit a point where you suddenly need those words you
didn’t bother to practice earlier.

But what are the basics, and why are we stressing on this point being
so important?
Simple. Despite whatever you may feel about the target language and its
complications, every single tongue on Earth is a code, and every code
can be cracked.

Think about it: have you ever read or heard of the language family tree?
Similarly to your good ole’ genealogical tree, the language family tree is
an amazing representation of how each and every language has some
kind of connection with others around it, and how the development of
every existing tongue has been the result of evolving languages
preceding it.

This explains concepts such as cognates, which are words that either
sound or are written similarly (or both) in two or more languages, and
which mean the same thing.

Words such as night (English) can easily be found as nuit (French),

nacht (German), noche (Spanish) or notte in Italian. The English word
star, meanwhile, can be found in Spanish as estrella, as tara in
Hindustani and Bengali, estel in Catalan and ster in Dutch, among
many other languages. By now you should get the point.

How exactly does this happen, though?

As mentioned a few paragraphs above, every language is a code that

was born from yet another code; no modern language was simply born
from nowhere and was spoken without anyone adding to it or modifying
its structure. Somewhere, you’re bound to find the similarities in
pronunciation, grammar structure or spelling…and that’s where you
have to start.

To learn a new language, you will have had to start from a base tongue
— in this case English — and it is just a matter of establishing the
simplest examples of how sentences work in English first, before
discovering how they do so in whatever language you’re learning.

The basics, ladies and gentlemen. Subjects and predicates; nouns, verbs
and complements; direct objects and indirect objects. There’s nothing
complicated to mapping out the code you know, and that’s the very first
step to learning to map the code you wish to learn.

Of course, reader, we’re not saying this structure will help you learn to
write in fluent Japanese or form sentences in Arabic, but for most
Western tongues, this is an infallible method.

By now, you’re probably wishing we’d stop explaining how it works and
gave you an example instead, so that’s exactly what’s coming up next.

Example of how this ‘code’ method works:

The most learned language in the U.S. is Spanish by far, with numbers
showing that up to 37% more students are enrolling for Spanish classes
than the next most popular one, French; this is why we’ve decided to
illustrate the following example as an English-Spanish translation and
not, say, Italian (sorry folks).

In this basic and straightforward exercise, we’re going to show you how
the method works, using the very simple phrase:

I throw the ball to Daniel.

Which in Spanish would be:

Yo le tiro la pelota a Daniel.

With the following considerations being made:

I = Yo
Throw = Tiro
The = La (feminine)
Ball = Pelota
To = A
Daniel = Daniel

As you can see, the structure remains similar in both languages, with
the exception of the word ‘le’, which counts as a necessary pronoun for
it to make sense.

“Ah, but that’s all well and good with such a simple sentence, but what
about if you add something more difficult to the phrase?” I hear you say.
Fine, let’s do that:

After throwing the ball to Daniel, I took the next bus to the nearby
city.

Which in turn would be:

Después de tirarle la pelota a Daniel, tomé el siguiente autobús a la

ciudad cercana.

With the considerations being made where:

After = Después
Throwing = De tirarle
The ball = La pelota
To Daniel = A Daniel
I took the next bus = Tomé el siguiente autobus
To the nearby city = A la ciudad cercana
Get it now? This can be proved again and again in almost every
language. Why, though? Because our languages are codes.

Nothing more.
 Chapter 3:
One Hack to Rule Them All

The Greatest Language Lesson You’ll Ever Learn

“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of

wonder.”
- Ralph W. Sockman

Before going any further, we just want you to give yourself a pat on the
back.

If you’ve invested your time and patience into reading this book and
have read this far, then you’ve already begun taking the steps to
improving yourself and conquering a new language. Let us tell you right
now that no language hack or learning method compare with the pure
steel of willpower and determination, and anybody that attempts to tell
you the contrary is either lying or mistaken.

The hack we’ve prepared for you in this chapter will only be as effective
as the drive you use it to learn with and the effort you put behind it, so
please, PLEASE work hard to fulfill your dreams. Nothing great has ever
been born from anyone simply using a shortcut — it has actually grown
from the ingenuity and capability of the individuals who did.

The rule of 80-20, and why your mind is about to be blown

A 19th century economist in the University of Lausanne was sitting

writing a paper one day when he realized something odd about his
nation, Italy. Clearly, 80% of the land in the whole country was owned
by 20% of the population.

The economist, a young man by the name of Vilfredo Pareto, performed

further studies on other countries, and demonstrated that they too had
similar wealth distributions. This led him to conclude several points
which soon turned into principles and rules, which have since evolved
to be applied to economics, mathematics, sociology and politics. Even
so, there is still one more relevant than any of the others, as well as the
most recognized — The Pareto principle of factor sparsity, or 80/20 Rule.

This precious rule, simply put, has been used to demonstrate that 80%
of all our results are born from just 20% of our efforts. This law has,
however, been applied to all the fields of life so as to show that we can
gather all sorts of examples of the Pareto principle in business, work,
love, and many more aspects where you wouldn’t expect it to appear:

Business
- 80% of all your sales will be made by 20% of your customers

Work
- 80% of all your accomplishments will be achieved by 20% of your
effort

Love
- 80% of all your happiness will be provided by 20% of your loved
ones

Life
- 80% of your best moments will occur in 20% of your lifetime

And so on, since you probably get it by now.

“But what does this all mean for someone who is learning a
language?!” – I hear you cry!

It’s simple: the Pareto principle will be your golden ticket to getting the
best out of absolutely every minute, every hour and every day of
studying you spend on the new tongue you’re trying to learn; it will even
be the reason why you end up acquiring fluency in bare MONTHS,
unlike what you’d achieve in any classroom (virtual or physical).

“Does it really work, or are you feeding me of this clickbait

nonsense I’ve seen everywhere?” Of course it works, we’ve applied it
to our teaching and demonstrated it time and time again.

And we’re about to hand the knowledge over to you, so sit back, strap
yourself in and let’s go!

Initiating hack… Loading 99%... 100%. Execute:

ParetoPrinciple.exe

The first thing that you must know when learning a new tongue is the
following: the most important tool you will EVER have in your
studies (whether you’re on the basic level, intermediate or advanced), is
your vocabulary — basically, the words that you know.

Knowing one hundred words will always make you better at Spanish,
Italian or French than knowing fifty, regardless of the amount of
grammar rules you’ve practiced or the fluency you have in pronouncing
those fifty words. Learning words is extremely important, and not one
language teacher can deny it.
This hack, however, isn’t just about learning words. That much is
obvious, and we’re not here to state the obvious.

Our hack is about learning the most essential and frequently-used

words in a bid to take you from “I don’t know how to say hello in that
language” to “Bonjour Mademoiselle, comment puis-je vous aider?”

Learning the most common words in any tongue through the use of
extensive practicing of word lists (reading and listening is KEY to
getting this right) is the biggest hack you’ll ever find on language
learning. Ever.

Putting it all into statistics – A study that proves this hack works

Have you ever heard of Alexander Arguelles, the American linguist? He’s
known for being able to speak over fifty languages, and his studies are
extensive on finding the best methods for learning new tongues (based
on his own experiences).

One of his most famous studies involves the analysis of the correlation
between learned terms and the ability we should have at understanding
and expressing ourselves in a different tongue:

250 words — Knowing two-hundred-and-fifty words will allow you to

construct simple sentences in any language. Without them, you simply
cannot communicate at the most basic level.

750 words — If you’ve learned this many words, then you will be able
to speak the language at an everyday level.

2000 words — Knowing two-thousand words will give you the ability to
say almost everything you’ll want to communicate with another person.
Almost.

5000 words — You’ll have the same grasp of the language that any
native speaker without a higher education possesses.

10000 words — You will be able to say you share the vocabulary of a
native with a higher education. At this point you could decide to stop,
or…

20000 words — Twenty-thousand words are more than enough to read

and speak at an academic or technical level, representing a high level of
language mastery. You have successfully accomplished learning this
tongue’s vocabulary once you hit this number.

But he didn’t stop there. The linguist’s study needed something more,
another demonstration of how useful these frequent words can be, and
the next step beckoned: measuring just how much of a language you
could learn with varying levels of vocabulary.

The results were amazing:

A student who knows the 1000 most frequently-used words will

possess the knowledge of 76.0% of all vocabulary in nonfiction
literature, 79.6% of all vocabulary in fiction literature, and 87.8% of
vocabulary in oral speech.

If that same student went and learned the 2000 most frequently-used
words, he or she would be familiar with 84% of nonfiction vocabulary,
86.1% of fiction literature vocabulary, and 92.7% of the vocabulary
used in oral speech.

Finally, if this particular student went all the way and learned the 3000
most frequently-used words, he or she would possess the knowledge
of 88.2% of vocabulary found in nonfiction, 89.6% fiction, and 94.0%
of vocabulary used in oral speech.

Can you begin to see the 80/20 rule being applied here? We’re not going
to tell you to limit yourself during your learning, but the best point to
stop at while learning vocabulary is at 2000 words, as you’ll improve
your vocabulary only marginally after that, and at that milestone you’ll
also know enough of the tongue to be able to communicate with natives.

Do you think you can pull it off? Of course you can!

The sole thought of learning 2000 words can be a terrifying prospect,

something that not everyone can do when you’re just starting to pick up
the basic terms of a new language. Some new students even look at
these stats and shake their heads, preferring to learn their new
language the old way. The inefficient way.

But fear not, language students! This hack isn’t just the efficient way to
learn a language, but an extremely simple and straightforward one. You
see, there are plenty of word lists out there that provide you with the
most common words in each language, making use of statistically
proven software or human searches to find these terms and compile
them all into one file.

“Okay, that’s finding the words, but what about learning them?” You
ask.

Simple, my friends: scheduling a daily learning routine can be more

than enough to get them done in three months. Three months of
learning will give you a fluency of 84% of nonfiction vocabulary, 86.1%
of fiction literature and 92.7% of oral speech. How many schools,
institutes or online classes can do that for you?
Not a single one, that’s how many.

Learning 20 to 30 words per day, every day, will allow you to have
learned anywhere from 1800 to 2700 words once those 90 days are
done. In fact, taking a day or two off per week will still allow you to hit
those precious 2000 words once the three months have passed. Did
you expect it to be this easy? Well it is.

When it comes to tips, we recommend that you learn not only how to
read or write a specific word, but also listen to it and learn to say it. It’s
crucial to tell you early into this book — listening and talking while
you read is a vastly superior system to just reading and writing.

The power of oral vocabulary is invaluable. Don’t waste the chance to

use it whenever you can, and be sure to get someone else involved so
that they can help you and help themselves along the way!

Plus, think about it — words can be really nice to read and understand,
but you’ll never get to talking to that waiter in that five-star restaurant
in Italy if you never learned to actually pronounce all of those Italian
words!

But more on that in the next chapter, anyway…

 Chapter 4:
The Tools You Will Need

Reading vs. Audio? Or is it Both?

“We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and then our
tools shape us.”
- Marshall McLuhan

Yeah, about what we said at the end of the previous chapter…

You’re going to need to learn to listen and to speak as much as you’ll

need to read and write.

“More learning?” I hear you ask (or not).

Well, you’re going to need to go all the way if you want to do this
properly. Regardless of how bad you are at pronouncing a word, you’re
going to have to try; similarly, you’ll have to put your ears to the test
over and over at listening while you read. It’s just part of learning a
language, and you can’t learn a new tongue without it. No exceptions.

There are just too many things that cannot be learned simply by
reading, and this was something that didn’t quite help us in the past —
just two or three decades ago, it was tougher to learn a new language
outside of a classroom. Of course there were primitive tapes and old-
fashioned videos that you could use, but you needed to have the right
equipment at hand, and you also needed to be ready to rewind and fast-
forward whenever you either missed or misunderstood what the
narrator had just said.

Now, however? With online tutorials, websites, apps, eBooks and

audiobooks, you’ll have an excess of resources to start practicing with
before you’ve even gotten past the basic level of your studies. EBooks
and audiobooks are so fascinatingly good, in fact, that you can even
read and listen on the go, simultaneously, eliminating the need to grab
an old Walkman while you watch an outdated VCR! Well, okay, not
necessarily those pieces of equipment, but other inefficient ones instead.

But what exactly are the benefits of reading while listening, or RWL as
linguists call it?
 1. You eliminate all background noise

You may not realize it at first, but the amount of auditory input you’re
receiving at a given time while studying may affect your learning
process. Something such as the chirping of a bird, the slamming of a
door or the honk of a car horn may distract you long enough for you to
miss an important concept, or at least for you to need to re-read it.
This, in the long term, will take away from your experience, and you
may feel less prone to studying at certain hours due to the distractions
that present themselves.

With an audiobook, you’ll be able to concentrate fully on your studies,

your ears becoming as focused on what you’re reading as much as your
eyes are, and you’ll have the advantage of being able to study in almost
any conditions — even on a busy, noisy street or a room full of people.

2. You improve your pronunciation

This one is quite certainly the best reason to start using audiobooks
ASAP, at least when it comes to the learning itself. Certain words you
read in books are pronounced very differently from how they’re written
(who would have said colonel is said as kernel, jeopardy isn’t
pronounced as geo-pardy, and genre isn’t jeneur?)

For this reason, you may certainly learn to read and write with text
materials — which is excellent — but you’ll go on to pronounce things
in the way you thought they were said, and not how they actually are
said. Consistently listening to how words are said will eliminate this
obstacle, giving you the correct pronunciation again and again, as well
as allowing you to learn how certain common structures are supposed
to sound (thus allowing you to identify how to say words you haven’t
studied before).

Overall, pronunciation is something you’ll want to improve, and

listening to audiobooks will help you take care of that. Think about it:
you may be standing before a crowd when you make that dreadful,
costly mistake of saying a word in the most catastrophically wrong way
possible.

3. You get to apply what studies have proven on reading-while-

listening

This is the good ole’ stat-backed number on our list that you were
waiting for, because what is a list if no studies back the facts up, eh?

In a study made by language students in Taiwan (Chang, 2011), two

groups of English students were compared in terms of their listening
fluency and vocabulary gain after 26 weeks of classes. One of the
groups had been subject to the usual formal instruction supplied by the
university, while the other had undergone a special RWL (Reading-
While-Learning) treatment, which involved a listening text alongside a
multiple choice and dictation exam.

The results were incredible — the RWL group outperformed the control
group in both exams, improving their scores in more than 100%. This
successful group also studied more books, and showed the capacity of
studying longer and more difficult texts in the second part of the study.

Other studies (Lightbown, 1992; Trofimovich et al., 2009; Tragant et al.,

2016; among others) have also demonstrated that students studying a
language in RWL classes have developed a better attitude and
motivation towards language than those following the traditional
methods, and that their comprehension levels are similar while
maintaining a better fluency and speed-of-learning level than their
counterparts.

Make your own conclusions, but it is becoming pretty obvious that

reading while listening is a superior system to use for your language
studies.

4. You can gain the fluency of a native without much effort

Another issue that a language learner can come across once they’ve
gotten past the initial barriers is the inability to talk like a native. I’m
not just talking about the accent, because that will require you to
physically be around natives, but the fluency itself.

Being fluent can be defined, according to Dictionary.com: “Able to

speak or write a specified foreign language with facility”.

Now, you’ll notice that fluency isn’t the same as pronunciation, which we
already mentioned. Fluency is actually a level of ease with which you
can say what you need to say, whether you’re pronouncing it right or
not. It is also more important to be fluent than it is to have an excellent
pronunciation, considering that you’ll be able to have proper
conversations if you’re not pronouncing properly, but not if your fluency
is below average.

Chang’s study in 2011 demonstrated that fluency can be greatly

improved on by applying the RWL method, and other studies have
shown that listening to somebody’s voice while you study (even when
not reading) can achieve greater effects on your memory than just
reading.

5. You learn to anticipate what you’re listening to

This one will probably go under the radar due to its simplicity, but
when you’re reading while listening, you may begin to see a pattern
developing in terms of knowing what the audio is about to say before it
actually does. This will train you in a discreet way that will actually
improve your language skills — it’s almost like predicting the way the
actual tongue works, and it’s what you’ll be able to do after a certain
amount of time using this method!

If you can pick up one or two things before they’re said and begin to feel
comfortable with the language you’re listening to, you’re going to start
improving your fluency within no time.

So by now, with these five reasons to start learning by reading while

listening (RWL), you’re not going to want to miss out on following this
technique on your way to mastering a new language. In fact, we
recommend that you start considering audiobooks to accompany your
eBooks right away — you’re not going to regret it!
 Chapter 5:
Mind Training

Because We Can’t Teach You if You Don’t Teach Yourself!

“I hated every minute of training, but I said ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now
and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
- Muhammad Ali

What do you think you could do if you put your mind to it and left all
your fears and doubts behind?

The only valid answer to this question is: anything. That’s right,
students — if you can put yourself to the test and train your mind in
the right way, you could just about pull off anything you wanted,
including learning a new language and going to a country to speak it
with the natives.

“How, though?” you begin to ask, wondering just why we make it sound
so easy when you’ve tried and tried and haven’t succeeded in getting the
results that you wanted. Look, nobody said it was easy, pal! But we
want to make you BETTER at it.

If chapter 3 was about hacking languages and chapter 4 was about

using a special technique to improve your learning, then this chapter
could basically be about how to reinvent your whole strategy to make
both of the previous chapters sink in even better.

Your body can become better at gaining mass, muscle, endurance or

whatever skill you apply it to, so why would you doubt that your brain
can achieve the same by training in its own ways? Exactly, there’s no
reason to doubt!

Let’s begin then — it’s time you learned how to make your mind want to
learn a language.

 Habits: the good, the bad and the ugly

Habits…a word typically associated with something you don’t want to

do. Think about it: we usually associate ‘habits’ with smoking, chewing
with our mouth open, drinking, biting our nails or forgetting to say
‘thank you’, and we’re taught at an early age to get rid of such things.
But what if I told you that you can make efficient learning a habit, just
like you made a habit of crossing your legs while reading this book (We
got you, didn’t we)? There’s nothing alien or impossible about training
yourself into turning your learning into a habit if you know how to do it!

Think of your priorities in life at the moment. Perhaps you’re a college

student, or a caring mother, or a guy working extra hours to take care
of a household. Perhaps you’re a freelancer that loves programming
code at night when everyone is asleep, or you’re a travel lover that
wants to go to every big tourist attraction before you settle down.

It really doesn’t matter in the end — everyone and anyone can develop
good, healthy habits.

The best way to begin establishing your language study as a regular,

recurring activity is to arrange your priorities, and assign this particular
task a priority just about as high as any other thing you feel you must
do before the day is done.

Say you wake up every morning and have breakfast/a shower before
spending eight hours at work, or six, or whatever. You most likely have
a break during work, which you use to eat, and then you may have
some free time that you’ll use to rest at home, have dinner and then
enjoy some leisure time and prepare yourself for the next day(s) before
sleep.

You probably see your schedule as full right now, right? If you have a
partner or children, you’ll add them to the equation and shrug at our
suggestion that you could actually study every day if you put your mind
to it.

“What? No,” you think, “I don’t want to overload myself or something.

That’s how you get a heart attack.”

Wrong!

Studying a language doesn’t imply pushing away your other

responsibilities, nor does it mean that you need to dedicate three to four
hours a day to reading textbooks and listening to audio lessons. If you
can dedicate 45 minutes per day on learning the terms like we
explained in chapter 3, and an additional 45 minutes per day on
reading to eBooks while listening to audiobooks, you’re going to tear
your way through your language lessons like a pro.

Believe us — we’ve already taught languages in daily two-hour classes,

and those were the inefficient, traditional versions of what you’re about
to embark on. One-and-a-half hours of efficient study per day should be
enough until you’ve learned the terms; one hour for reading while
listening after that should suffice.

Make studying a habit: find some spare time in your day and fill those
social media or TV minutes with some soft studying instead. Your
second language skills will be grateful once you’re done.

 How to create a functioning schedule?

This may be the trickier part of training your mind — we can always tell
you to make a habit of studying in your free time, but your free time
might already have something assigned to it, such as a nap before
studying for tomorrow’s math exam or doing the dishes.

Fear not: you can still manage this without any worries. The key phrase
here is — don’t leave learning for later.

It’s that simple. Priorities are crucial if you want to organize your time,
otherwise you may find yourself tired after walking the dog and
watching an episode of your favorite series, and studying may not feel
as tempting anymore. Learn to separate things into how important they
are.

There is a difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’. Learn this

difference and you’ll be already half way there.

For example, having a shower can be something both urgent and

important, since you can’t go around everywhere with last night’s
clothing. However, today’s exercise session is simply important, but not
urgent. You could go running during your free time at 4 p.m., but if it
keeps you from studying some Portuguese, then leave it for 5, why not?

On the other hand, you can find things which are urgent but not
important, such as reading an email, going over something your
colleague sent you or looking up an item you needed to purchase
online. To avoid forgetting to do these things, we recommend either
multi-tasking (which works for some better than others), or handing the
task over to somebody else. Who? Your partner, a co-worker or even an
employee (you can find assistants online, depending on your needs, and
any costs may ultimately be worth it thanks to the increased output
you’ll be getting).

Finally, we come across the non-important, non-urgent matters of life.

Some of the most extremist coaches and teachers say: “Get rid of these
things! You won’t need them to become a better person!”, but what is life
without half an hour daily on social media? An hour and a half
watching a thrilling soccer game? A few rounds of video gaming with
your siblings?
Yeah, it would be pretty boring if we went 100% production and 0%
fun mode in life, so you can’t just quit those tasks. Instead, make it
your goal to build a single period out of all the free time you’re going to
enjoy in the day. Instead of having three hours a day off divided into
three segments (morning, afternoon and night), try to enjoy those three
hours in the afternoon and study or work during the morning and night
all you can. It has been proven to work efficiently, and you don’t get
distracted once you’ve gotten started on the important stuff!

Remember: knowing what is urgent and what is important (as well as

what is both and what isn’t either of the two) is crucial to identifying
what you must do during your schedule. Finding the tasks that can you
do, those you can postpone and those you can delegate is a skill that
will take you far in life, no matter what field you’re applying it to. If you
can still balance all of that out with spending time with your family and
friends then success will come naturally.

Master it all and you will learn to organize your time like the CEO of a
Multinational Corporation in no time!
 Chapter 6:
Looking Into the Future

What Comes After All of This Info?

“The past cannot be changed, the future is yet in your power.”

- Unknown

We’ve shared with you our knowledge and given you the tools to
reinvent yourself as a language student. Our language hacks are in
your hands now, and you feel confident.

Yet even with what you now know, you may still be wondering just what
exactly the first step is in the right direction. Think about it, none of
this that you learned with our book is worth anything if you don’t know
what you’re going to do with it!

“Do I start making my schedule first? Or should I begin learning the

words from the word lists? What if I apply the hack with the eBook I
bought? Should I get an audiobook now, or should I wait until I’m done
reading this final chapter of Lingo Hacks?” Suddenly, you feel a bit
overwhelmed and you’re back to square one, suffering from the nerves
of facing the mighty monster that a new tongue represents.

To keep you from descending into madness and rage-quitting your way
out of the beautiful experience of learning a new language, we’ve
prepared one final recap for you to get yourself prepared for what is
coming. All we can say is: enjoy it!

 What you have to do now

1. Make your very first draft of a schedule

You need to feel comfortable with your very first timetable, so you can’t
expect to go ahead and start forcing yourself to study an hour a day or
to stop doing what you did until yesterday during your leisure time —
life doesn’t work like that.

Go slowly and above all, adapt to what you’re starting to do. There is
nothing better than to love what you do. Forcing yourself to rearrange
your entire life is not going to end well. Start off with a draft and find
your limits. You’ll see how it goes better that way!
 2. Get your first language audiobook

You may have already purchased eBooks in the past, and that’s great!
But if you don’t read-while-learning (RWL), you’re going to miss out on
the important side of studying that will boost your fluency! Try to get
audiobooks from trusted publishers, who typically use professional
voice actors to get their works done.

Most importantly, try to practice and compare RWL to normal studying

and see the benefits for yourself. They certainly will be there, but
sometimes you need to see it to believe it.

Want any of our Audiobooks for FREE? If you don’t have an Audible
account yet, you can get ANY of our books (over $25 value) for free
when you sign up on a Free Trial. Just click here, chose any book and
click “Try Audible Free”.

3. Start looking for word list eBooks and free vocabulary

resources online!

This one is especially important. You can’t hack a language if you don’t
have the tools! Search for vocabulary lists and eBooks built for learning
new words. It is of paramount importance that you begin learning new
words ASAP, and you will need to have the resources ready for when
you begin.

Remember, RWL can also be used for this aspect of learning, and will
improve your fluency and efficiency.

4. Download an app and get practicing

Phone apps can be a double-edged sword — they can make you believe
you know a lot when you’re still a novice — but they certainly can be
helpful when you’re not at home. Get a language learning app today and
start practicing your new tongue on-the-go!

5. Find a study partner — even better, find a group!

Learning a language alone can be a sad prospect. We’re not saying it

can’t or shouldn’t be done, but your efficiency will grow with help from
either a partner who is on the same level as you, or someone who can
actually help you improve your grammar and vocabulary. This will also
provide you with a valuable opportunity of making new friends, and
open the door for special moments and memories together. Aww!

6. Consider getting specialized assistance in your language

Our final tip is a ‘just in case’, like those hoses locked behind a glass
pane that must be broken if a fire starts.

You may not always have the ability to understand what’s going on in
the book in front of you. Sometimes you’ll feel so stuck that it might
even make you want to tear your hair out.

But do not fear: you still have one last ace up your sleeve. You can find
an online teacher that can help you solve your doubts and practice with
you. Just like a bodybuilder once needed a trainer to start off or how
the best sportsmen need a proper coach to perform at the highest level,
you may simply need a great teacher to take you by the hand and guide
you through the worst of what you’re studying.

There is nothing wrong or shameful about admitting defeat every once in

a while. To do so and to change your ways is to become stronger and
wiser. Never forget that.

And with all of that said, we can finally conclude this wonderful book…
 Conclusion

It’s Time to Say Goodbye

Wow, wasn’t that a lot to process?! You learned how to hack a language,
develop your tools, how to apply the Pareto principle, understand the
importance of learning a language, build a schedule and manage your
free time, all in one book!

Amazing, huh?

We’ve written this book with the intention of making you all better
students, but also because we want to make you better people. We
want you to socialize in other languages, to make more money because
of your ability to speak a second, third and fourth tongue. We want you
to develop your mind and organize your life.

And we want you to begin doing it all today.

Believe in yourself — because when you do, you can accomplish

anything. Go out there, apply these teachings and learn whatever
language you want.

Check out Lingo Mastery on Amazon to find the resources DESIGNED

for YOUR language learning journey.

After that, well…

…the whole world will be yours to conquer.

THE END