169 - Fluent in three months, learn a language with Benny Lewis

Benny the Irish Polyglot isn't your typical crazy Irishman. He
spends his time completing language missions and currently speaks
eight languages. Learn how to learn a language with Benny. When he
graduated from university with a degree in electronic engineering,
he was fluent in only one language - English. He'd studied German
at school, but didn't get anywhere with it, and after six months
living in Spain was in a similar situation. But one day, he made a
dramatic decision - he *really* decided to learn Spanish. He cut
English out of his life as much as possible (he still had to work
and talk to his parents) and spent the rest of the time speaking
Spanish. It was the start of an epic journey. Benny learned that
the big secret to learning a language is to speak the language from
day one. Don't wait until you're "ready" - you'll never feel ready.
But you can communicate immediately, using what you have. In Spain,
he used his body and extrapolated new words from ones he knew and
ones other people used. He learned that it's important to be
confident and social. Just start talking to people with confidence
and it will seem like you speak better than you actually can. To
start, learn some phrases (Benny likes Lonely Planet phrasebooks)
and leave the grammar to later - the point isn't to speak
perfectly, it's to communicate. Break each task into small pieces
and use creativity to help you learn - singing, for example, will
help you remember phrases faster. It can be difficult to get around
the problem of people wanting to practice their English by talking
with you, but it's possible. Benny always helps them by explaining
how they can improve their Enlgish (websites, couchsurfing etc.)
but he explains it in their language - giving him more chance to
speak his target language. Download Benny's book from
http://indietravelpodcast.com/fluent