F., 12-year-old French Boy. Learning Spanish with Ear2Memory.
Ear2Memory (E2M; install here) is a free Power Repeat app by Bernd Sebastian Kamps that will help you learn any language in the world. By efficiently managing your language audio files, E2M will enable you, within less than four months, to clearly distinguish and understand, word for word, 45 to 60 minutes of foreign speech (you’ll ‘conquer an island of total understanding’).
In the process, you will
- Learn your first 1000 to 2000 words
- Have excellent spelling skills
- Develop an intuitive comprehension of important grammar rules
- Acquire a fairly genuine accent
- Learn a robust method via which you will be able to learn even more languages in the future (because you know how good it is; that the time you need is quantifiable; that success is quickly visible, etc.)
As progress in language learning is a direct function of time, be prepared to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. E2M will help you keep your motivation high.
Executive Summary
The time needed to learn a foreign language is impressive: hundreds of hours to transfer 5000+ words into a human brain and then hundreds more hours to understand people speaking at ‘3+ words/second’. In addition, language learning seems to be immune to the accelerating and streamlining effects of modern technology – today, like 50 years ago, it takes over 1000 hours to start being fluent in another language.
No technology has been shown to be able to compress this time frame.
Here we present a method of double exposure to a new language through intense listening plus reading. The rationale for simultaneous ear/eye exposure is that incoming signals from the ear are processed in different brain areas than signals coming in from the eyes and both areas need to be trained simultaneously. Our free smartphone app Ear2Memory is designed to assist the initial 50 to 100 hours of language learning. The only requirements are:
- Time (at least 30 minutes every day)
- Supplementary audio files that you acquire (examples: page 18)
If you dedicate at least 30 minutes to daily Ear2Memory exercises, you will rapidly learn more than 1000 words, have excellent spelling skills, develop an intuitive comprehension of important grammar rules and acquire a fairly genuine accent.
Download
- Standard PDF (61 pages)
- Printer-friendly PDF (13 pages)
Web Edition: Coming soon
Executive Summary
App Overview
Welcome to Ear2Memory
1. Objective: Island of Total Understanding
2. Method: Time
3. Results
4. Language Manuals
5. Full Power versus Standby
6. Preliminary Exams
7. Champagne!
8. Further Ear2Memory Uses
9. Phase II + III
10. E2M: Click and Long-Click
11. Appendix: Law of second language acquisition
Audio + Book Recommendations
English native speakers
- Teach Yourself – Complete… series: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, etc. (Some manuals of this series don’t include the translation of the texts.)
German native speakers
- Langenscheidt-Sprachreihe ‘mit System’ – Englisch, Spanisch, Französisch, Italienisch, Portugiesisch, Niederländisch, Russisch, Griechisch, Norwegisch, Schwedisch, Dänisch, Tschechisch, Polnisch, Türkisch, Chinesisch, Latin. This series includes both normal and slow speed audio files.
Langenscheidt’s ‘mit System’ series is probably the best series of languages manuals in the world!
French native speakers
To our knowledge, there are no ATTW (Audio + Transscription + Translation + Word lists) or ATT manuals available in Spain, Italy and Portugal. If you are aware of one, please contact us via our mailing list.
Ear2Memory Chocolate Bomb
If your friends like chocolate, prepare an Ear2Memory Chocolate Bomb and be the new Chocolate Queen. Touch the bomb delicately with a spoon, and a stream of chocolate lava will gush out of it. The eyes are overwhelmed; the palate will faint.