"Welcome to Fluency Today - languages online for busy people

When I was seven I taught my mother Polish. Our mother tongue was English, but my mother was about to marry a Polish army officer and she wanted to learn a few words of his language .... I tested her with long lists of Polish vocabulary.

I must admit, however, that the language of their marriage remained firmly English - maybe my mother wasn't a gifted linguist ... or maybe ... was it the teacher's fault?

Another example ...

Later, when I was doing a lot of business in Russia, I studied Russian. My teacher was a delightful old lady whose main claim to fame was that, before the Revolution, Tolstoy used to take tea in the garden of her Moscow house.

She taught me Russian poetry - I can still recite it now, but it didn't help me to negotiate price, terms and delivery dates with my customers - maybe I wasn't much good at Russian ... or maybe ... was it the teacher's fault?

A lifetime of learning and teaching languages has made me realize how much the learner depends on the teacher to select appropriate language and present it to her in a methodical way which makes learning easy.

The greatest problem most people have today with languages is TIME. We are all busy, and finding the necessary time gets more difficult as life speeds up. As language training professionals this has worried us and we set about finding a way round it.

Our experience over many years, working mainly with commercial organizations, but with private people too, has made us aware that traditional "whole language learning" makes no sense for those who would just like a few words to survive, be polite and show that they are culturally aware, but who do not have the time to "go to school all over".

For example - if you're going to France for a couple of weeks you don't spend years learning the language - you get a phrase book and maybe a cassette and hope you'll get by.

Phrase books are both good and bad. Good - because they accept you aren't learning the whole language and they select phrases for you and put them under useful headings. Bad - because you can never find the right phrase when you need it - or understand the reply.

Why can't you find the right phrase or understand the reply? Because the phrase book has still given you too much of the language and not been selective enough.

Furthermore, it has not given you a simple and effective way of learning and using what it contains. If you tried to learn it all, it would still take ages and your pronunciation would probably be hopeless. It is not offering you targeted learning.

Most people, therefore,don't actually study the phrase book much before they leave home with the result that they cannot say much either when they get over there.

So - how quickly can you learn to speak a language reasonably well?

In a year maybe - if you live in the country and speak it every day. Four or five years if you study at home and have little speaking practice. We know from experience - we've taught hundreds of people. And you will know too - if you did languages at school.

Yet - you must have seen all those claims in adverts from the publishers of language books and tapes - French in Three Months ... or even ... German in A Week - That's just not possible!

What those publishers are really saying is that you could speak some French in three months or German in a week, but they don't make it easy for you because although they give you thousands of words of vocabulary, lots of grammar rules and pronunciation hints - you're the one who has to do the learning!

Most language sites on the web are just as bad. You can find sites with useful phrases and even audio recordings for pronunciation. But, just like the old books and tapes - they have left you with all the work of sorting out what to learn.

You're either left with the choice of trying to learn it all - impossible in a few hours! Or you're faced with the task of searching though it all and deciding what you do (or don't) need
- more time gone.

Every one of our programs contains carefully selected key phrases which you need and will want to use.

We give you a simple-to-follow learning method which will have you saying what you want in HOURS - not months or weeks! You'll learn to become confident in pronunciation and then you'll find it easy to memorize what you pronounce - no more thumbing through phrase books!

We've tried and tested our programs with people ... face-to-face ... individually ... in groups ... by video-conferencing remote learning... or with self study text and audio files and we know they are powerful teaching tools.

You want to be able to communicate the basics, be polite, attract attention, establish contact, show approval, disapproval, understanding or ask for clarification, ask how much? why? when? where? - and you want to do all this using simple language - so that you can speak fluently and be understood!

Sure, most of the airline and hotel people you'll meet will speak English, but once you get even slightly off the tourist track you could be on your own because, according to official figures, only 18% of Germans and 11% of French people claim to have any reasonable degree of fluency in our language.

You'll get so much more from your holidays or business travels if you're able to at least speak and understand a few words of a foreign language. You start getting the benefits in terms of breaking the ice and making real contact with people right from the first words you actually say.

How can we empower you to do all this? Because we've carefully targeted the really important language for you.

The record so far for 95% correct recall of the total content of one of our full programs by a complete beginner in French is 90 minutes of reading text and listening to sound files for pronunciation and a further 55 minutes of memory exercises with the practice materials.

Some of us learn more quickly than others so we cannot claim that you will learn as fast as that, but we guarantee that you will be amazed by how much you can say in four or five hours. If you've ever tried to learn a language before you'll see the difference.

You have our GUARANTEE ... because if you are not happy with what you've learned with any of our programs - we'll refund the full amount without any questions asked. How many phrase books or tape courses make that offer?

The great thing is that you can prove it for yourself ... by going to our free trial page and choosing either a French or a German free evaluation program. Do use the practice cards to test your knowledge - you'll find you'll be fluent in those in just MINUTES rather than hours.

We aim to make language learning easier, less time-consuming and as effective and enjoyable as possible.

To do this we have to consider not only the program content and methodology outlined above, but we must also look at who should actually be doing the learning.

Can certain people learn languages more easily than others?

Generalizations can be dangerous, but it is accepted that very young children (before they actually go to school and have to learn languages!) are the quickest to pick up a second tongue.

Contrary to popular belief, older people are at no disadvantage, indeed, providing they are healthy they may have greater dedication, more time to study and make faster progress than their younger counterparts.

The most important difference in language learning aptitude in our experience is between that of men and women.

Women are generally better communicators in their mother tongue (even this expression gives a clue). This is borne out by the fact that the vast majority of students going on to take languages in higher education are girls.

Although we have have no discriminatory policy in our language training organization over the last ten years 90 percent of our tutors have been women.

We can also say that although the majority of our students have been male, the best results have been obtained by our female trainees.

The message behind all this is that while you may also be better at packing the suitcases for the family holiday it will be worth your while taking the time to pack a few words of French or German into your head too - as the chances are you will do it more effectively than the male in your life could.

We have also considered whether we should develop some Fluency Today programs specially for women, centered around your needs and interests, but so far it seems to us that the basic language we have selected applies equally to both sexes.

We do, however, have an open mind on this and should be pleased to receive any suggestions you might like to make. But first, do discover for yourself how effective our existing French and German programs are by going to ..."

Our Free Evaluation page


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