How to start speaking a foreign language by learning only 5 minutes a day?

Do you think that learning a language in 5 minutes is just a marketing trick? Our linguistics expert explains why you will begin to understand a foreign language with Fast Phrases application by learning from 5 to 20 minutes daily.

Read about how our experts helped Javier learn English!

I am a salesman in Fonetiko. Almost all my coworkers are multilingual. Not so long ago, my language skills looked very poor next to theirs. I would not be able to utter a single word in a foreign language, while my colleagues can joke in all languages of the world.

As most Spanish people, I used to have a problem with language learning. I had language classes at school, but the results were not satisfying. Despite cramming on grammar, the truth was that I knew nothing at all. Before the experiment with Kate, a Fast Phrases linguist, I was afraid of speaking in a foreign language. I feared that someone will spot my errors and start laughing at me.

When I was offered a promotion, I started wondering how fast I can learn English.Especially that the company was to send me for a two-week training in London! Fortunately, they gave the contact to a Fast Phrases linguist - Kate.

Now I know that language learning is not about a perfect grammar or accent.. Kate convinced me to such a view. She showed me that even among the commited Fast Phrases students I will not find a single person who desperately searches through hundreds of coursebooks..

I sat and talked to Kate Miller, a Fast Phrases linguist, who explained to me why I need 5 to 20 minutes of learning daily to command a new language.

Elementary and high school students learn English for 1-2 hours daily on average. Theoretically, they are at the age when the language is adopted the quickest and they are taught by trained specialists. Nonetheless, very few students can use a foreign language after graduating from school..

How is is possible that with Fast Phrases application 15, 10 or even 5 minutes is enough?

Fast Phrases philosophy

I met Kate so that she could explain to me the basic philosophy behing learning with Fast Phrases. She explained that I need no pile of coursebooks, nor hours spent on learning.

„Too much information overloads the brain and it can no longer absorb new knowledge. It is called an information overload. This is the main drawback of most learning language methods” – said Kate. „Information overload is responsible for no progress despite hours of learning. That is why most of us cannot say a single full sentence in a foreign language despite the fact we all learned it at school 3-5 hours weekly on average.”

Despite the information overload, our brain is being attacked by various noises. The human brain classifies the constantly incoming information to important and redundant ones. The least important messages are rejected, which means that instead of transferring them to long-term memory, the brain keeps them on a 'short-term memory drive' for a moment, and then 'deletes' them. That is why you don't remember what you had for breakfast last week or how to say „napkin” in a foreign language..

How should I learn to make all new material go straight to the long-term memory?

It turns out that, instead of remembering many things at once, repeating the smaller load of information more often is more efficient.

First of all, thanks to this, a new information will not be classified as just an information noise by the brain

Secondly, a fragmentation rule is applied. What does it mean? The brain works the most effectively when it absorbs around 7 pieces of information at once. That is why in Fast Phrases app the learning material has been divided into 5-minute sessions, during which you remember the reappearing information.

The best effects is by 3-5 sessions a day. No matter, where! A lunch break? A bus to work? A queue in a shop? All you need is 5 minutes and you have completed another learning session!

Simple, right?

An algorithm that has the desired effect

Dividing the material into sessions has another advantage. Repeating small portions of material helps in saving them to the long-term memory. The Fast Phrases has a method that significantly intensifies that process.. What method?

The sentences and words reappear in intervals that are measured in real time by the algorithm that adjusts to your learning pace. If you turn on the app and complete several learning sessions, you will notice that, apart from the new material, there are some words that are repeated. This will be the material you yet have to command.

The algorithm will examine, for example, how often you confuse the terms, if you remember particular words or how you manage tje construction of a sentence. It cannot be cheated by means such as remembering the place where a word or a picture was placed - the application mixes the answer options to that you could indeed confirm what you have previously learned.

Thanks to that, Fast Phrases double checks if you really learned the language.

The last advice Kate gave me was to be systematic when it comes to learning. „Learn every day. It does not matter if you do it in the morning or in the evening. You don;t have to complete the same number of sessions, even though it is the best to learn by the mode where at least one session is in the morning, one at noon and one-two in the evening. Remember that the key to learning is everyday practice”.

The explanations of the linguist made me calm. I gained the appetite for learning and hoped that this time I will learn English. I followed all Kate's tips and turned on the Fast Phrases app whenever I could. It was unbelievable how quickly did the learning bring the results! After two weeks I flew for a conference in London. I learned even on a plane.

At the airport, a colleague from London office was waiting for me. When I greeted him in English and we started talking, all the stress was gone at once. I spoke English! I made it!