Fluent Forever : How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

3.
 This is a ridiculous number—it’s more than enough nerve fiber to wrap around the earth three times. Our neurons can play the most
extreme version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ever devised: you can connect any neuron to any other in six jumps or less, and none of
those neurons need to have anything to do with Kevin Bacon.
4.
Earlier I told you to burn books that contained “Englishy” pronunciation like “bawn-JURE.” Now I’m resorting to Englishy
pronunciation myself, with a terribly inaccurate “MEW-ther.” I’m going to do this a lot, because I don’t think you want me to explain
pronunciation in every language. Sorry. Please don’t burn this book.
5.
How much of a majority? No one knows precisely. While we can analyze specific texts with precision (nonfiction texts are
approximately 80 percent nouns), we run into problems when counting words more generally. Words turn out to be extraordinarily
slippery creatures when you attempt to count or classify them. Is bear a noun, a verb, or both? Should we count bear separately from
bears? Answering these questions is sometimes more an art than a science.
6.
 Additional studies show a 5:1 benefit for testing over studying, meaning that five minutes of testing is worth twenty-five minutes of
studying.
7.
Note that when I refer to “memory,” I’m referring to declarative memory—the memory of facts and events. Nondeclarative
memory—memory of habits, skills, and so on—seems to be located elsewhere. People with a damaged hippocampus will lose their ability
to form any new declarative memories, but they’re still able to learn and improve at skills (like drawing) even if they can’t recall learning
how to do them.
8.
I’ve used urtebetetze (birthday), Tankdeckel (gas cap), Das ist mir völlig Wurst (I don’t give a damn), economía (economy),
bonjour (hello/good day), tschüss (bye!), and hallo (hello). Mjöður is the Icelandic word for “mead.” It’s not actually a flaming drink,
but you can put a dead snake in it if you like.
9.
 It was Robin Williams.
10.
It was Rudyard Kipling, who couldn’t bear to wait until spring for his favorite pastime. While writing The Jungle Book in rural
Vermont, he painted his golf balls red, put tin cans on the snow, and went to town.
11.
The magic number turns out to be 10–20 percent of the final test delay, so if their test was a year later, we would see the best results
at a delay of fifty-six days. It is as if our brains know that something we encounter once a week will be important in five to ten weeks,
but something we only encounter once a year will be important in five to ten years.
12.
Anki is free in all cases but one: if you want to be able to study off-line on an iPhone or iPad, then you’ll have to fork out a fair bit of
money for the app. If you have a reliable Internet connection on your iPhone or iPad, then the app is unnecessary (although I
wholeheartedly recommend it). The Android app is free.

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