A book that will change your perspective on how to learn languages. Naturally and effortlessly.
Why read this book?
We all have an innate talent for languages, but we stop using it as adults
Each of us learned our own native language. It may have taken us a few years, but every healthy child in a normal environment is capable of learning their native language.
But when we try to learn a new language as adults, our efforts often end in failure.
Why is this? Do we lose the ability to learn languages as we age? Not at all!
There is evidence that this talent can be activated again even in adults
According to scientific research, as adults, our brains have access to the same mechanisms we used to acquire our native language as children.
However, for many reasons, as adults we simply stopped using these mechanisms and started learning languages differently.
Discover and activate your natural talent for languages
In this book, we will embark on a journey to rediscover the natural ability to learn languages that’s inherent in all of us, young and old alike.
Children learn their first language without apparent effort, spontaneously, joyfully, and successfully.
Scientific research suggests that if adults learn foreign languages in the same way they learned their first language as children, they will also acquire them effortlessly, understand them very well, and speak them fluently.
About the authors
Kateřina Chládková
- Researches language acquisition and speech communication in children and adults.
- Studied linguistics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
- Has worked as a researcher at the universities of Utrecht, Amsterdam and Leipzig, where she was also a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute.
- Currently works at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove and the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences.
- Runs the SPEAKin lab research group.
- Educates the general public about science. For instance, she has appeared on Czech Television in the educational series Zvěd.
Miroslav Pešta
- Is the founder of the Mooveez Company. Its Mooveez app helps users learn languages like children. Effortlessly.
- Is the owner of Kids & Us language schools for children as young as one and ran Stories, an experimental language school that used natural learning methods for adults.
- Studied international relations and psychology and sociology in business management at the University of Economics in Prague.
Adults skip important steps, which is why it’s so difficult for them to learn languages, unlike for children.
Did you know that…
… after they are born, German and French babies cry differently
Children tune into the melody and rhythm of their mother tongue while still in the womb, and once they are born, they cry and later speak in this rhythm and melody too. Based on research by leading universities around the world, tuning into a language is key to mastering it later on. And remember, adults and older school-age children are also capable of this....
… does writing block our natural ability to learn a language?
When we learned to understand and speak our native language, we were illiterate. We could not read or write. We learned to communicate only by listening, observing, and imitating. Learning to read and write is difficult in itself, even if a child already knows the language. There are no gaps between words in a sound recording and the brain must learn to recognise individual words using the rhythmic-melodic patterns (the intonation) of the language. Writing distracts from this and engages a different logical part of the brain – one that is not all that suitable to language learning. And this is an impediment to adult and school-age learners, significantly reducing how well they are able to learn languages as compared to when they learned their first language. They tend to read the writing the same way as in their native language, but in fact, each language uses slightly different sounds, has a different melody, a different rhythm, and different gestures.
... is learning a language more like skiing than maths?
Imagine learning to ski by reading a manual instead of trying it out on the slopes. When we learned our own language as children, no one explained vocabulary or grammar to us. Our brains figured it all out on their own by listening and observing. The brains of both children and adults have what is known as statistical and cross-situational learning mechanisms so this type of learning occurs automatically. It’s therefore better to expose yourself to the new language and to use this innate ability in our brain than to learn rules and vocabulary. Knowing vocabulary and grammar forces us to think too much about the language rather than to think in the language itself. According to tests done by universities, we have this innate ability even as adults....
… when we are learning to speak, do we imitate the language just like a parrot?
Just as no one explains grammar to a parrot when it begins to beautifully imitate the sounds of a language, nothing is explained to children either. Due to their daily exposure to the language, their brains gradually begin to recognise which words and word endings belong together and which don’t. Only then do children begin to imitate the language. At first, they make many mistakes but that’s part of the learning process. Just as no child learns to walk without falling, they don’t learn to speak without making mistakes, which gradually disappear. This is also a very effective method for adults and doesn’t require much effort since it comes naturally to us.
... is your brain able to tell which sounds belong to the language and which don’t?
When children listen to their native language, their brains begin to process it. This is called statistical learning. Based on the frequency of occurrence, the brain begins to recognise which sounds belong to the language and ignore those that don’t. For instance, English children recognise three similar sounding sounds [e], [a], and [ə] while Czech children for example recognise only the sounds [e] and [a]. This makes it easier for them to distinguish between individual words later on and to assign the correct meanings to them. It also makes it easier for the children to be understood. Research from leading universities shows that if adults or older children go through the process of proper language attunement, they will also significantly improve their comprehension, pronunciation, and overall ability to learn a language very well....
… does tuning into language mean that we harmonise our brain waves with the melody and rhythm of the language?
Research shows that when we listen to a language, our brain vibrates and our brain waves align with the dominant melodic-rhythmic patterns of the language. We can think of tuning into a language as a gateway to the language or as a thread onto which words and grammatical phenomena are gradually strung. Without this thread, the beads will scatter. This is an important early stage of language learning that traditional teaching methods and other educational applications completely overlook. The prenatal "filtered" listening which is available in the Mooveez app helps tune your brain into the new language. It does this for adults as well as older children.
We Are in Forbes Magazine: Forbes says we're a more scientific Duolingo and we couldn't be prouder!
We would like to share a great article with you that was recently published in the prestigious Forbes magazine:
After reading the headline, you might ask yourself the following question: Can adults learn like little children do? That's impossible! But research by linguist Kateřina Chládková’s team from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University has presented a truly revolutionary idea in foreign language learning. The adult brain can learn a new language just like a child's brain does because we don't lose this ability with age. Has this piqued your interest? In a great interview done by Forbes magazine with Kateřina Chládková, you’ll learn much more, including how our Mooveez app implements these scientific findings into its curriculum and learning features.