Want to work less and speak multiple languages?

January 29. 2008 by Keegan Hall.

I think I am the minority amongst my friends: I enjoy reading. I typically read books that pertain to business, success and personal development and occasionally mix in a variety of magazines. I recently finished a book called The 4 Hour Workweek.

As the title suggests, the author -Tim Ferriss- offers numerous antidotes for eliminating your 9-to-5 in hopes of ultimately joining the “New Rich”. I must say this book opened my mind in a variety of ways. Although a few of the tid-bits offered in the book are a little far-fetched, there were numerous chapters that really got the synapses in my brain firing.

I have an immense curiosity for languages and Tim Ferriss touches on this subject in this book. He boasts that he can speak numerous languages fluently and that anyone can learn a language within one hour. Yes, one hour. Although he claims that you will not “master” the language, it is certainly reasonable to be conversational within one hour.

Tim’s assertion stems from the fact that many languages are similar in grammatical structure. The key is to really breakdown that structure to uncover the root of the language. Be sure to take notice of the following relationship: is the sentence structured as “subject-object-verb” or “subject-verb-object”. Once you understand this relationship then the task of constructing a sentence in a foreign language is much more manageable.

I took Spanish during my high school days (didn’t everyone?) and had an opportunity to study abroad in Rome, Italy while in college. My wife is originally from Romania so, as you can see, there are a few different languages that regularly clunk around inside my head. I broke down the Romanian language (with the help of my wife, of course) and explored the relationship between SOV and SVO. We took a few basic sentences to use as examples. I must admit, once I really took notice to these relationship, the language seemed much more manageable to learn. Although I am nowhere near fluent, I certainly have a renewed enthusiasm for learning this language that I formerly deemed “impossible”.

I highly recommend this book as it full of extremely useful tips and tricks that anyone can implement today. Check it out.

Free Spanish Lessons!!

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