Hacking

a foreign language

7 habits of those who know

how to learn a language in
less than 3 months

Bertrand Millet
 A tale about languages and information technology

My father only speaks French. My mother only speaks French. The same goes for my four
grandparents. I studied German for 13 years. I do not speak a word of it today.

Hello, my name is Bertrand Millet and today I would like to offer you a priceless gift. Let me reveal
to you the 7 habits of all those who always manage to hack foreign languages.

What is language hacking?

Hacking is term initially used in information technology. It refers to the exploitation of a flaw in a
system, in order to penetrate it, and take control of it. I think you can now start to guess what
hacking could be like when adapted to languages.

It is a way to approach language learning that allows you to:

Learn very quickly
Take control of your own learning process
Do whatever you want with the learned language
Understand easily the functioning of the language instead of learning its rules

This last aspect is crucial and makes a fundamental difference. Language hacking requires a
global and concrete vision of a language, instead of learning in a linear way its grammar and
conjugation. In a nutshell, language hacking changes all the paradigms liked to the more traditional
ways of learning foreign languages. And believe me, it goes way faster.

So I will be introducing you today to the habits of language hackers.

Who am I?
As I told you so in the introduction, I do not come from an environment where speaking a foreign
language is a natural thing. Today, I speak 6 languages and I had to learn them all. More or less
quickly, I must admit. And I actually went through a number of failures.

It starts with German. A language in which I invested most of my education. Today, if I manage to
mumble 3 sentences in a row, it is a miracle. So just imagine me trying to have a full
conversation a disaster!

Then came Tunisian Arabic. I spoked it fairly well, but it took me way too much time to learn it.
Moreover, 10 years later, I cannot remember anything. Or lets put it that way: I do not speak it
anymore

Based on those failures I explored the world of fast learning technics and applied it to foreign
languages. It even became my job. And I hacked the hackers to pull out the very essence of their
approach. After two years of work, I came back with a method: Fast n Fluent. Fast n Fluent is a
method enabling you to speak any language what so ever in less than 3 months. No matter which
level you start with.

How is it possible?
Fast n Fluent uses a number of tools and approaches that I gathered and created during my
research. During this work I incidentally spotted 7 off the wall though common habits to all those
who know how to learn a language in 3 months.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

I have decided to offer them to you, in order for you to be able to take on the extraordinary, and yet
so easy, adventure of learning to speak a foreign language fluently.

What is left for you to do?

Only 3 thing:

1. Choose the language you want to learn

2. Today take the steadfast decision that you will fluently speak this language very soon and
announce it publicly
3. Read the following pages, it will make your dream come true

And let us discuss this again in 3 months

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 7 habits to make your dream come true

A question of motivation or
Do you really want to learn a new language? Yes? Are you sure about it? Good! Then what price
would you be willing to pay to make this dream come true? I am serious. Answer the question and
write down the price somewhere.

Done?

Look again at the number you wrote. Now question yourself once again: would you REALLY be
willing to pay that price? If so, keep the paper the way it is. If not, write done the real amount.

So, why did I asked you this question? Simply in order to measure your real commitment to this
project.

Do not worry, I will not ask you for a dime. Nothing. This e-book is completely free, and I mean it to
stay that way. However, I will ask you to change your habits, and this, my friends, is the big
challenge. It requires solid motivation. I could, by the way, have started this chapter by asking you:
what would you be ready to change in your life to speak fluently a foreign language? If you also
want to answer this question, please go ahead. It is a perfect transition.

Indeed, learning is synonym to change. One who has learned is by definition different from
before. Therefore, he has changed. This is the reason for my question. Because this is what we
are actually talking about: changing.

a question of habits?
If you really want to learn a language quickly, and I mean if you REALLY want to, you must change
a few habits. Specifically in the way you have been used to learn. Let us be honest, these new
habits may notably affect your day-to-day life. So I will ask you once again. Do you really want to
learn this new language?

Do turn the page only if your answer is yes, absolutely. I am serious. Otherwise, you might
change against your will.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 7 habits to learn differently

All that being said, let us not fall into supernatural and paranormal beliefs. No, the sole reading of
this e-book will not enable you to speak a new language. You will need to study it. However,
reading this e-book will enable you to start efficiently. On one condition though: that you do not
content yourself with reading it, but that you actually implement immediately its
recommendations.

This e-book is meant for all those who want to start learning a language using non-institutional
methods. Therefore this e-book is though out to be pragmatic, leading you straight to the point.

You will find in each chapter:

A habit helping thousands of polyglots throughout the world
An explanation of why to use this habit
Questions to which you will need to answer in order to make all of this very concrete
Working guidelines

This is how I wish you to use this booklet:

READ CAREFULLY ONE BY ONE THE DIFFERENT HABITS
Do not get to the following one until you have implemented concrete actions in your day-to-day life.

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

And write down your answers as much as you can. Writing down your thoughts is the best way to
organize them.

ACT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

Implement AT LEAST one concrete change in your environment before getting to the following
habit.

Are you ready? So let us finally answer this question: What do language hackers do so
differently?

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 Habit n1: they create themselves a real stake

You will probably tell me: I also have a real stake at learning a new language!. It might be true.
But please let me doubt it. Because what I am talking about here is a level of stake that I rarely
encounter. Each year I follow dozens of language learners, and when we talk about motivation
most of the answers I hear are:
- Id kind of like it
- Ill be going there on holiday soon and Id like to be able to communicate with locals
- Im of whatever descent, but nobody at home taught me that language
- And worst of all: Its for my self-enrichment.

Please do not get me wrong. These are obviously commendable aspirations. Nevertheless, my
experiences showed me that the vast majority of those who start with these kinds of goals
abandon during the first weeks of their learning process.

So, what is a real stake?

A real stake is a situation in which if you do not manage to learn the language, you will have to
deal with heavily negative consequences: losing your job, public ridicule, loss of money, loss of a
relationship etc.

Some might tell you that this phenomenon also occurs in cases of potential big win (instead of a
big loss). However, form my experience, the fear of loss works much better than the lure of gain.

Natural or artificial?
In certain cases, the stake creates itself. Your language project might even be directly linked to it:
for example, a professional advancement will be granted to you only if you speakfluent Spanish. If
it is your case, no need to go further, you have a real stake. The fear of missing this opportunity will
normally suffice.

But most of the time things are not that attractive. So let us give yourself a helping hand by
pushing yourself to the point of no return (PNR).
The PNR: instruction manual
The PNR, is a certain action that you do, and which commits you until the end. It is a situation you
put yourself in, and which, if you do not assume fully, will drive you to disaster.

TRY FOR YOURSELF

IN ODER TO SUCCEED FINDING YOUR PNR:

1. Connect yourself to the deep reason pushing you to learn a language, and write it down
2. Set the first thing you will do once you will get to a sufficient language level
3. Set yourself a deadline to do so and write it down in your datebook
4. Write down the potential negative consequences of not upholding your commitment
5. Mark, on a scale from 1 to 10, the position of those negative consequences
6. Find a way to make it worse

Fastilitez-vous les langues

Once you have done all that, you either have a real PNR (8 and above on your scale), or you do
not. If not, let me suggest a series of boosters in order to motivate you a little more:

Gamble a large amount of money with someone

Commit to someone dear to you and that you profoundly do not want to disappoint
Make a donation to a political party or a cause that you hate
Take a professional commitment linked to your success in language learning

Are you done? Sure? Now you can start. If not, please let it go because you might just end up
abandoning a few weeks from now. You may be thinking that it is a little extreme to challenge you
that much from the beginning. But you turned the page, right? I warned you!

A survival situation
You may be skeptical about the absolute necessity of having a PNR. Let me offer you another
perspective.

All human beings on earth (with a few exceptions) speak at least one language. That language,
they managed to learn it. They actually speak it fluently. Even the least educated and cultivated
people speak at least one language fluently. So, in your opinion, what was their PNR? At birth, we
all have the same: staying alive. Indeed, communicating in a language understood by those
who surround us is a matter of survival. That is why we have all succeeded in this challenge at
least once in our lives.

Comparing this first PNR, to the one you have just created makes it much less impressive. So, if
you do have the courage to go a little further, follow me. In any case, if you are still reading, it
means that you have already passed your PNR. As Alphonse Allais said, Once youve
overstepped boundaries, there is no more limits.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Habit n2: they seize every opportunity to speak
Madrid. Expatriates from all over the world. Evening party. 500 people. Loud music, festive
atmosphere.

My partner and I are struggling to find our way through this horde of dancers. It seems like we are
in the middle of a wheat field in the windy season. We finally run into a human crossroad of people
we had previously met.

My partner opens the floor of conversation with a few of them, while I am minding my own
business with the rest of the group. One thing units us all. We live in Spain and we are all, more or
less actively, learning Spanish. At that game, I must admit that my partner gets by admirably. At
least, better than I do. It has been less than 3 months that we arrived and she already speak
pretty well. She chats, she explains, she relates and moreover, she jokes. How classy!

I am divided between the conversation I am participating in and listening to what is being said in
her group. Suddenly I had an epiphany: we were not speaking the same language. While she was
expressing herself in Spanish not completely fluidly or correctly - I was being lazy, speaking
English. A language I use without effort. To top it all, my partner was speaking to a group of
Americans while English is one of her mother tongues. Nonetheless, she did not give up. From the
begging to the end of the evening, she stuck with Spanish. Even, when people tried to answer in
another language.

Everybody has opportunities to speak

Too often, I hear learners telling me I dont have the opportunity to speak. That is not true. If, just
like most people, you are trying to learn Spanish or French, statistically, there are people around
you who master those languages. At least their basics. They all could be perfect language
partners.

TRY FOR YOURSELF

HERE IS YOUR TO DO LIST:

do a little survey in your entourage and find at least 3 people who speak your target
language. Ask them to spend an hour chatting, or
find 3 language exchange websites and subscribe to at least one of them, or
find a language exchange group in your surroundings and attend it.

You are not part of the statistics? No worries, ask internet. The internet is full of websites and
groups created with the only purpose of making language exchange easier.
If you do not know on which website to go, try at least those two:
http://www.alandum.com/
https://www.gospeaky.com/

Thank you technology!!

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Habit n3: they see learning moments as leisure and
pleasure

Each time the question drives me crazy. Even though I must have heard it 1000 times. In world
where tme is money, I understand that people wonder. However, most of the time, this question is
synonym to your language-learning failure.

How long is it gonna take me every day? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! This question does not
even make any sense. But since you might wonder anyway, I will answer.

If you are asking yourself this question, it means that you envision your language-learning project
as an obligation. Or worse, as a chore. And NOBODY likes chores. Are you wondering how long it
is going to take you to hug your child? Or how long is it going to take to watch this movie that you
love? Are you counting the minutes spend with your friends? I hope for you that you do not.

Time does not exist

So what makes you wonder when it comes to languages? Are you worrying that you will not have
enough time? Time is just a question of priority. If learning a language is a priority for you, you will
find the time. You might need to watch a little less TV or sleep-in a little less in the weekends. But I
am sure this would not bother you, and that you would make it a priority, if I gave you a million
euros to do so during a year.

It is all about priority and therefore motivation

For those of you who have a fully packed schedule, there are numerous tricks to make your lost
time periods learning periods. Thanks to new technologies, washrooms or public transports
have become priceless learning moments. Come on, you actually spend them checking you
Facebook ;)

TRY FOR YOURSELF

HERE IS YOUR ACTION PLAN:

Set down a regular one-week schedule. Include leisure and resting moments. To do so
efficiently, just make an assessment of the past 4 weeks. (This will prevent you from
creating an imagined schedule such as : Tuesday 6-8PM : running, even if you havent
done so for the last 6 months and that your running shoes are dying of loneliness in your
cupboard)
Underline the moments you judge less important than learning your new language
If there isnt, well maybe this just isnt the right time for you
Reserve a few time-lines specifically for languages (at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week).
Even better, do so with someone else and give each other an appointment

Use the lost time periods

For the lost time periods, find a few resources to use on your smartphone, tablet or mp3 devices.
For the most old-fashion of you, just take a book. (Personally, I love to start a new language with
children books and cartoons).

Fastilitez-vous les langues

Habit n4: they measure their progress regularly and
celebrate their victories

That is a very pleasant habit to take. Nonetheless, very few people do it spontaneously. I mean, let
us face it. When was the last time you really celebrated an achieved goal? And the time before? It
has been a while, right? The most incredible part is that this particular habit plays a huge role in
success. So why are we not celebrating more? For two main reasons:

A question of culture
The first reason is that most of us just think, Its not worth it, that the victory is so little that it is not
worth celebrating. Thanks to most of this planets education systems, and to the Judeo-Christian
heritage of expiation and guilt that some of us share.

However, as the proverb says its never too late. Let us change this bad habit and, as of today, let
us start celebrating our victories. From the smallest to the biggest. That being said, we now need
to know what a victory is, and that is where the second reason enters.

A question of indicators
How could we celebrate victory when a game has no starting point or no ending point? Impossible.
Imagine an endless soccer game. Putting aside the fact that most women in households will end
up killing their husbands, it would not make any sense. It would even be useless to play.

So when does learning a langue stops? When will you consider that you have won the game? I am
going to help you: the answer is never. You will always be learning new things. It is an endless
process. Therefore, it is up to you to create the different games inside this endless championship.

First game : memorize 100 words of vocabulary

Second game : speak with a native during 5 minutes
Third game : use a sentence in past tense
etc.

You will then be able to determine:

1. when it starts and when it stops
2. where youre at and whats left to do
3. how long it is going to take you
4. and above all how much youve progressed since last time

At that point, you can celebrate for real.

A good celebration
Celebrating is an art. It requires method. Here is the recipe of a good celebration:
its unusual
it requires time
it costs (at least a little) money
the strength of your desire to have this particular celebration is proportionate to the difficulty of
the challenge

Fastilitez-vous les langues

When it comes to big victories, add the following:
It has been a long time that you were dreaming of doing it
You have been forbidding yourself from doing it for a long time
In another context, it would be completely absurd

Because I am a nice guy, here is my personal list of the 10 weirdest ways I celebrate my language-
learning process victories:
1. Go for a 15 days road trip
2. Daring to apply for a TV audition
3. Make love in my target language
4. Escape for 3 days in the wild nature with no means of communication
5. Not go to work for a week
6. Only eat junk food for 2 days in a row
7. Pay for a diving certificate
8. Go for a parachute jump
9. Hit on girls in my target language during a whole afternoon
10. Get back in contact with one of my former language teacher

TRY FOR YOURSELF

TO MAKE ALL OF THIS VERY CONCRETE:

Find a mild way of celebrating
Implement it as of tonight to celebrate the fact that you are seriously starting your
language-learning process. I am serous, do it
Write down the 10 first games you are going to play as of today
For each of them write down a corresponding celebration
Put all this in your datebook: end of the game AND celebration

Have fun tonight and we will see each other tomorrow.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Habit n5: they prioritize and learn what they need
Almost no other language learning method does it, though it seems so obvious when you read it.
Almost a truism. That being said, we cannot blame those methods, because no one can know
what you need better than you do.

At least, that is what language hackers do. Instead of enduring the language, and its pre-
established organization, they choose what they want to learn before they starts doing so. There
are 2 complementary approaches:

Play with probabilities

Did you know that with only 500 words you can understand 60% of ordinary conversations? And
with 3000 words, the score goes up to 80%!!!

The thing is to know which words to choose, the ones most frequently used. So which are they?
That depends of each language. How do I know it? Thanks to a crazy project: frequency lists.
Frequency lists are repertories of the most frequently used word in a given language. You can find
all this over here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists

With that in mind, if you want to quickly become operational, start by learning the 500 most
frequent words, and thats it ! You are speaking. Moreover, with the good method, in even less
than 2 weeks you can learn those 500 words.

Play with your probabilities

You might not have ever noticed, but each human being has his own set of vocabulary. That
means that we use certain words much more than others. It is normal and simply linked to our life
context. Obviously, a mechanic and a surgeon do not use the same words on a daily basis. Same
story for a tourist or a businessman.

Consequently, on a daily basis we only use 600 different words to express ourselves. Well, a
language hacker will determine and then learn the words he will use on a daily basis in his target
language. He will make them a learning priority. Why learn the word contract in Mandarin if you
are going to china to discover its gastronomy?

TRY FOR YOURSELF

USE THESE 2 METHODS AS OF TODAY:

1. Look up the frequency list in your target language and start learning the first words (be
careful to learn word and verbs)
2. Make a list, in English of words and expressions that you will need in your target
language
3. Compare them to the frequency list
4. When they dont match, learn your words

You will very soon be able to make yourself understood and understand the basics.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

Habitude n6: they make many mistakes (and I mean
loads of them)

Because language hackers speak each time they have an opportunity to do so, they make many
mistakes. They do so as of the first day of their learning process. And it is a good thing. Indeed, the
n1 mistake of those who learn slowly and poorly is to wait for everything to be perfect before
starting. However, it is only by speaking that things will become perfect (whatever that means).
The thing is to know how to take the best of your mistakes.

TRY FOR YOURSELF

1. Find your next conversation session (if you implemented my recommendations of habit n
2 you should already have one)
2. Ask your language partner to correct you each time he/she hears a mistake. You will call
that a step session
3. Program 1 step session per week and no more (a step session will make you progress
in terms of grammar, the 2 others will help you work on fluidity)
4. When your partner corrects you, re-use immediately the correct form of the word or of the
grammar rule for which you just got corrected
5. Do so at least 2 more times during the conversation

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Habit n7: they use tailor-made tools

This a shifting point. Language hackers rarely follow basic language learning methods. If they do,
they use them their own way. By working with classical language learning methods, I realized they
did not suit me and hindered my progress.

Here is a compilation of pitfalls that I have come across through language learning methods:
Making you learn useless words when other very useful ones are studied only weeks later
Coming back too many times on a same notion even if I already understood it an hour ago
Not being well adapted to my day-to-day reality in terms of resources or studying hours
Being too much focused on reading, writing or listening when my n1 objective is to speak
Making me listen to useless recordings when in comes to real situations (because the recordings
are too clean, to well organized, with no noise around the people speaking etc)
Not giving me enough funny and playful resources
Not enabling me to speak with natives
Being too expensive when it comes to getting to a high language level or to learn several
languages

Each to his own

Its by assessing all these observations that I created Fast n Fluent. The goal was to propose a
methodology, which is not a language learning method but a method design to teach people how
to learn a language. The objective is to teach learners basics skills, such as improving ones
memory, developing ones ear, overcoming the fear of speaking etc.

The biggest difference and advantage is that Fast n Fluent teaches you how to hack a target
language. That is to say, how to draw your own path to learn a language in less than 3 months.
Understanding the system, not the rule.

TRY FOR YOURSELF

FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO LEARN HOW TO HACK BY THEMSELVES:

Do not work a lot, but work every day
Surround yourself with a maximum of resources in your target language (books, music,
movies)
Try a new tool/resources for a few days, if it doesnt pay off change it immediately
Try a maximum of different methods
Look up conferences or classes of language hackers and ask yourself how to make what
he/she is saying possible for you
Be curious, go in a library to look at books on the subject
Surf the web to find language partners
etc.

A precious investment
This approach will be a little time consuming at first. But you will be able to start over the process
very easily for any other language in the future. Thats how I proceeded to create Fast n Fluent
and that is what enables me today to hack languages. This is what I pass on to all those I
accompany through Fast n Fluent.

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Conclusion: the 8th habit (the secret one)

It happened 8 years ago. I had just finished my first hypnosis training. I was in a high society
party where the main attraction was performed by a hyper-mnemonist. You know, these kind of
people capable of memorizing really quickly huge lists and numerous information.

After a bluffing show, I started playing groupie to speak to the artist. Fate was on my side, and he
happened to be the friend of a friend. The later introduced us. We ended up spending the entire
evening together. I asked him to reveal me his trick. His answer stupefied me. There was no trick.
He just went through a high level training, just like an athlete would. Naively I said: youve must
spend all your life doing so and he answered no, not really. If you want, I can teach you a really
cool technic to impress people. Obviously, I jumped on the opportunity.

He then explained to me the technic he uses to memorize lists of 40 words or more, in a specific
order, in less than 2 minutes. It took him only 5 minutes to teach it to me. And the crazy part is that
it works! Slowly I started making links between what he was explaining to me and the hypnosis
training I had just finished. I shared my thoughts with him and we realized that, without even
knowing it, his technic was putting him in a hypnotic condition. .

After that evening, I used this technic for many years to impress girls in bars. I must admit that I
had quite of a success. However, it is only 3 years ago that I realized that this method could help
me learn very quickly foreign vocabulary. And guess what: it works! Thanks to this method, and to
others that I have discovered since, I am able to learn up to 100 words of vocabulary in 15
minutes.

This is how hypnosis, and later on, autohypnosis, became part of Fast n Fluent. But shhhhhhhh, it
is a secret.

Have a nice trip. May it be as fulfilling for you as it is for me every day.

Bertrand Millet

Fastilitez-vous les langues

 Thank you !
See you soon on :
http://fastnfluent.com

Fastilitez-vous les langues