There are two categories of people who are trying to learn languages: an ordinary genius and a super-genius.

You may think that you are in a third category called “not very good at languages,” but there really is no such category of people. Yes, that includes people who aren’t very bright. I met a child with Down’s syndrome who studied Russian enthusiastically and learned it reasonably well.
Individuals who aren’t very good at languages are called gorillas and chimpanzees. I’m not talking about people who act like gorillas and chimps; I’m talking about real gorillas and chimps in the zoo.

Researchers have fairly well established that with enough time and an infinite supply of bananas, you can teach a gorilla or chimp (in captivity) about 100 words of sign language. So our fellow primates can indeed learn languages, but they are not very good at it.

A chimpanzee can make climbing trees look really easy because it’s what chimps are naturally good at. Likewise, human beings can make learning a language look really easy! It’s what we are good at.

For example, human parents actually try to prevent their children from learning certain words. That’s how good we are at learning languages! So maybe you are like me and dropped out of Spanish class in college because it seemed too hard. I’m going to suggest that it was because the methods for language instruction in the United States are mostly incompetent.

When you fail to learn because of bad study materials or methods, the teachers and the people who sell the materials generally say, “Well, you aren’t very gifted at languages.” This is a lot easier for them to say than saying, “Our methods and materials are no good.”

This web site is a very well developed language-learning tool. Will it work for you? If you follow the instructions and have a great attitude, it will absolutely work for you. If you don’t follow the instructions or if you are unkind to yourself as you are studying, it may not work for you. It’s a wonderful tool, but you must use it as recommended to get great results.

Of course, there IS a normal range of human talent for learning languages, but all humans are in the genius category compared to gorillas and chimpanzees, which are not very gifted with languages.

Who is a super-genius and who is an ordinary genius? Anyone who plays a musical instrument is a super-genius, as is anyone who can mimic accents well. Other super-geniuses are people who already speak two languages that are quite different from each other, such as English and Chinese.

Ordinary geniuses are people like me who flunked out of language classes, who think they are tone deaf, or who believe they are not very good at languages.

If you are an ordinary genius but would like to upgrade yourself to being a super-genius at language, the obvious thing to do is to start studying a foreign language.

Pay special attention to the difference between your voice and the voice of the native speaker. Remember to say the phrase at the same time as the instructor to help you get up to speed.

You can also speed up your progress by paying extra attention to sounds of all types. Any time you hear a sound of any type, try to mimic it.

Practice doing everything you can with your voice, and pretty soon you will be a super-genius at language!