English

(fake Australian accent, haha :)

This post is for anyone who wants to master English (I'd say most of the earth's population). 

Assuming you speak zero English, I believe you can learn to be fluidly conversational in English in 3 weeks. (and I don't know how you are reading this). 

Here are my 3 biggest and best suggestions that I have also tried out:

1. Speaking - Pronunciation of Vowels is MOST important - Unfortunately, the English language has probably the most vowels out of all languages (around 20 in American English. Way more than the commonly perceived a, e, i, o, u. For example, there are 7 different pronunciations for even the letter [a]). Too many vowels! The good news is, if you can properly pronounce English vowels, you're better off than most English leaners in the world! So focus on vowels! It will give you a good English-speaking accent. 

In the short video below, I demonstrate a simple technique that I created to practice English vowels. Master this technique, and you'll feel more comfortable with English vowels. When copying the sounds I make, the manner of which you use your mouth, tongue, lips, and jaw will produce every English vowel available. You can teach this technique to anyone who is learning English. 

TRY THIS TECHNIQUE TO MASTER VOWELS:

2. Understanding - Even I have a hard time understanding some dialects. It's a hard language to understand, especially since we have so many countries that speak it with different accents. The only way to get better at understanding is practice. Meet new people in English! Don't worry about understanding an accent that you will never encounter. In other words, don't learn the Irish accent if you're not going to Ireland!

The best advise I have for understanding English is:

Watch English movies with English subtitles. Simple, but not many people do this. This practice is good because we can SEE what people are saying. That's definitely a benefit when people are talking too fast. 

3. Vocabulary - NOTE: this language hack is applicable to any language!
Learn this list of English words provided by Tim Ferriss (author of "The Four-Hour Workweek").

The 100 Most Common Written Words in English

"The first 25 of the below words make up about 1/3 of all printed material in English. The first 100 comprise 1/2 of all written material, and the first 300 make up about 65% percent of all written material in English. Articles and tense conjugations that can often be omitted in some languages or learned for recognition (understanding) but not recall (production)."

1. the
2. of
3. and
4. a
5. to
6. in
7. is
8. you
9. that
10. it
11. he
12. was
13. for
14. on
15. are
16. as
17. with
18. his
19. they
20. I
21. at
22. be
23. this
24. have
25. from
26. or
27. one
28. had
29. by
30. word
31. but
32. not
33. what
34. all
35. were
36. we
37. when
38. your
39. can
40. said
41. there
42. use
43. an
44. each
45. which
46. she
47. do
48. how
49. their
50. if
51. will
52. up
53. other
54. about
55. out
56. many
57. then
58. them
59. these
60. so
61. some
62. her
63. would
64. make
65. like
66. him
67. into
68. time
69. has
70. look
71. two
72. more
73. write
74. go
75. see
76. number
77. no
78. way
79. could
80. people
81. my
82. than
83. first
84. water
85. been
86. call
87. who
88. oil
89. its
90. now
91. find
92. long
93. down
94. day
95. did
96. get
97. come
98. made
99. may
100. part

Benjy Uyama
September 6, 2013 (Looking Glass Falls, NC)