Universe of Memory 05: The cost of wasted time + testimonies

Vocabulary Labs can save you all this time, pain and frustration. If I didn't manage to convince you until now, that's ok. I still hope that you managed to learn a lot from these e-mails. If you're still hesitating, keep in mind that Vocabulary Labs comes with a 60-day guarantee. If you don't find it to be helpful, simply e-mail me, and you will get your money back without jumping through hoops. Take a chance on me, and I will take a chance on you. As many Vocabulary Labs students say - it might be the best language investment of your life. P.S. The course closes on Sunday at 9 am (GMT+2), or Saturday 11:59 (PT). It won't be back up for at least a couple of months. My students have my full support and that requires time. There are only so many people I can help at the same time. Here is how to join. Best, Bartosz

One of the aspects of language learning which not many people are willing to discuss is time. Mastering it fluently, or even at a conversational level, is one of the most time-consuming activities you might take up. If you use your typical learning approach, it will cost you anywhere between 600-1500 hours to start having a conversation in your target language. And even though people care about their time, and they hate to waste it, somehow they are fine with using ineffective methods for years on end. They buy dumbed-down advice of "you have to have fun." Sure, it will cost you extra 500 hours of your life to get to the same level, if you get there at all, but you will have fun. And I die a little bit every time when I get an e-mail saying "But this or that polyglot learned a language just by listening!" My answer is always the same - it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how fast I, or any other polyglot, can learn. Any person who knows many languages can learn much faster than the average. But can YOU, as a non-polyglot, learn fast without this advantage if you just use the right methods? The answer is, yes, you can. However, when you take a look at your typical testimonies from almost any language course, you might doubt it. They look lifeless and unenthusiastic. "I enjoyed the course.", "I learned so much.". Ugh. Here are just a couple of testimonies from Vocabulary Labs. Pay attention to the language my students use and to their results. "Although at present I devote about 20 minutes a day to study, I see that I have learned more than in the last month, going to ordinary language classes" - Anna K. "(...) I didn't believe at first that a B1 (in Finnish) in 4 months is achievable, but now I think it is pretty possible if I just keep doing it at the same pace (which is not highly demanding, by the way)." - Katrina Y. "One of the greatest investment I did for my education." - Marcelo A. (6 weeks after finishing the course) "Today I managed to read a Japanese newspaper article online and I would estimate I understood about 80 - 85% of it. Certainly, I understood everything the article was trying to express. Little victories keep my motivation high!" - Leon Mc. "I acquire 1000+ new vocabulary per month by putting in just 1-2 hours per day." - Jatupol P. "Your course is the first language course that I have ever owned where I actually looked forward to reading the next units and modules. Other language courses simply reminded me of boring and ineffective school work." - Ashley B. You can read more testimonies here. We are not talking about slight improvements in their learning pace. We're talking about complete transformations. Keep in mind that they are not exceptions. These results are pretty ordinary. I am not sure if there are many language experts out there who can boast the same results. And hence my question to you - how much is your time worth? The way I see it, even for a person who earns 5$ per hour, using the right methods might cut your learning time by hundreds of hours. That's a big chunk of your life which is potentially worth thousands of dollars. And I am talking about just one language here. What if you want to learn more of them? Are you prepared to kiss all that time goodbye? I am sure you all know at least a couple of people who learned a language and then they forgot it. They spent all that time to learn a language and then they wasted it. Why? They just didn't know how to learn properly, and how to maintain languages.