This isn't a "clickbait product" (lol)
There's no easy way (lol). Become fluent in XX minutes a day for X weeks! ... That depends on the person, right? I think (lol) Business information and diet products are all the same (lol)
What is fun?
It might not be easy, but compared to the forced methods of places like schools where we were taught to fill in the blanks in empty parentheses like "1, 2, 3!" while sitting at our desks, I think there are plenty of fun self-taught methods.
Do you remember the first time you rode a bicycle? Of course, you probably fell hard, right? But eventually, you pedal, feel a little lift, and then try to pedal again while feeling that lift, and you can go even further. Humans can endure hardships (even if they fall) as long as they are having fun.
What is fun, you ask? I think it's a accumulation of (small) successful experiences. In a foreign language, it's like, 'Ah, they understood me!' or 'I successfully ordered!' That's what I think it is. Then, dopamine is released. The brain apparently craves more dopamine when it gets some. So, it's good to create more situations yourself that are likely to release dopamine.
Some of my friends have been bilingual since childhood, but I wasn't. I started when my brain started to get a little stiff (around 30 years old). So, I decided to try to learn by doing some extra fun things (because it's hard to improve at the same pace as others). I'll share my method a little.
Well, you might think it's a lie, but to tell you the result, it started with Korean, then English, and now Italian, and I think it's effective. I think it depends on personal preference, so if you're interested, here you go!
American Baptism (Today's topic is English)
Of course, I studied beforehand, I even trained. I got a good score on TOEFL in Japan (lol)... But I couldn't understand almost anything the Americans were saying. I couldn't catch it. Whether I could convey anything was a million light-years away. Whether I was shopping at a store or anywhere else, American English sounded like a continuous stream of 'mushy, rumbling' sounds. While I was distracted by that, the conversation moved on, and I couldn't understand anything. It was a continuous cycle. It's completely different from the bicycle situation above. The more I pedaled, the more I went backward. It was a continuous cycle of panic and anxiety. (People who can't communicate in English in America are completely looked down upon as less than human. I'll talk about that another time!)
Band-Aid is Band-Aid
So for a while, for the time being,
I decided to respond to all conversations with 'A-ha'.
'How are you?' American
'A-ha' Me
'???' American
(It was immediately obvious. I didn't understand anything. In the end, 'A-ha' is completely useless for questions starting with 'What' or 'How'.)
Offense is the best defense
"Alright, if I can't understand, I'll speak more than the Americans before I'm asked. I'll make the first move!" I decided. But not being able to understand is proof that you don't know how to construct sentences. In a state where you don't understand sentence structure, your brain will only act to pick up the words it knows, and you won't be able to understand anything at all. It will only amount to checking the accent of words you know. It's not the time to be saying things like, "Oh, that's how you pronounce that word!" (lol) Conversation won't happen. The feeling that I need to come up with an attack strategy grew stronger day by day.
Live commentary style
So, how do you construct sentences? What came to mind was narrating my commute to and from school. I tried imitating the DJs on the traffic radio.
Alright, let's begin! Little by little is fine. Explain your situation.
"Ok... I am in my car." Alright, what kind of car is it?
"I am in my car. My car is a silver SAAB." Alright, what can you see?
"I see a lot of cars in front of me." Nice, and what do you want to do?
"I would like to get off the freeway." Keep adding more.
Then you discover words you can't say, like "What do you call 'traffic jam'?" "How do you say 'change lanes'?"
Right, if you can say HOW, WHERE, WHAT, color, distance, etc., you'll become a little cooler. From there, I further thought about numbers. Okay, what's the engine size of the car in front? How far away is it? etc. "A car in front of me is a red V8 Mustang, maybe 92 Mustang, and it is speeding at 60 miles per hour." If you can say this much, you might feel a thrill, thinking, "Am I speaking? Me?"
Attack successful
If you can accurately describe your situation, there will be no "gaps" for the other person to ask questions. The other person will faithfully follow what you want to say. (When you can't speak, having an aggressive mindset like this is fine, and I accepted that I'm a foreigner after all.) Then, what do you know, the attitudes of the people around me changed significantly.
So, what was born from my words?
Well, it must be "confidence."
Perhaps if I had been confident even with a limited vocabulary, I might have received a certain amount of respect.
I arbitrarily thought that listening to Americans speak English was the way to show respect when I came to a foreign country.
Speaking with confidence, that's all I think was needed.
However, the live commentary style of English study definitely increased my vocabulary and made my life easier.
By imitating DJs, my vocabulary rhythm and pronunciation improved rapidly.
Before I knew it, I too was speaking a slightly more fluid, rolling English.
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And then, with a loud voice like a radio DJ, I was doing my live commentary that day, driving my beat-up silver SAAB 900S with its bumper missing!
“Gooooood morning, Los Angeles! Today’s traffic on the 605 seems that it is pretty jacked up around the Hawaiian Garden. You may as well exit at Whittier Blvd. to detour….. etc”
↓Video of my daughter when she could ride her bike