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You will NOT learn a language in 6 weeks.  Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to make quick (and unearned) money.  But you CAN learn quickly – and probably much more quickly than you realize.

If you find the thought of learning a new language daunting, or have tried and failed, you aren’t alone.  Speaking a new language is a complex and demanding skill – and the usual methods for teaching are rooted in outdated techniques and overblown promises.

But learning doesn’t need to be frustrating, nor take many years.  Three months, starting from scratch, is enough to learn effective techniques, lay solid foundations and make progress.  Two years should be enough to achieve a good level of fluency.

Learning through a diet of books, grammar rules, and random conversations with little substantial interest for the pupil leads to frustration, often to failure, and even in the event of success will usually require between ten to fifteen years of ongoing, sustained dedication.

Over 25 years ago, ILFB founder Patrice Leriche established a small firm, with the aim of finding a new, better way to teach people how to speak foreign languages.  Appalled at the failure rate for new learners, Patrice patiently set about uncovering the skills and knowledge that had enabled him as an enthusiastic linguist to learn, and developing ways to use these to teach.

Our understanding of the way the human mind deals with a new language, and how it works generally, has leapt forward in the past decade.  After years spent observing and honing techniques that actually seemed to work, science caught up and began explaining why a different approach works.

The path to fluency will always involve hard work and dedication, but it can also be a lot of fun and a very rewarding experience. 
 

Here are a few things you should consider if you aim to learn a new language:

• Reading language books may appeal to you and is an easy option given the wide availability of the material. Unfortunately, the format is largely ineffective and the content is usually irrelevant to your real-world needs. However, you are likely to blame yourself for not being able to digest them properly and improve.  The mental processes that make this so are quite well understood and easily explained.

• To pursue a foreign language beyond a few months, let alone achieve high standards, requires effective, resilient and specific memorizing skills.  It is important to understand the way you can engage and nurture your linguistic memory.

• Motivation, interest, will-power and clear objectives are important, but alone they are not enough. There is a clear route to fluency – working with your brain rather than against it.  Approaching language learning in this way is also the also the easiest and most pleasurable, which is part of the key to success.

• Understanding grammar might give you an empowering sense of control, or even help you pass exams.  Equally, grammar might bore you rigid, confuse or frighten you, and quite possibly all three. If speaking is your aim, you are beating at the wrong bush.  Paradoxically, good grammar is a by-product of fluid language.

• Some tools – ones rarely used in language teaching – drive your progress naturally. It is important to secure the right environment to nurture your linguistic development – once understood, you will quickly and logically realise how futile and inadequate it is operate without them.

The aim of this website is to provide access to a toolbox and help aspiring (and established!) linguists understand the clear steps that lead towards what is typically and naively regarded as ‘talent’ for languages, and in time make this available to anyone.

To this end we have constructed a suite of worksheets, each addressing a specific topic designed to boost the efficiency and speed of learning.

The techniques set out here are designed to match how your mind really functions, targeting and activating relevant brain areas.
                                                       
As each document is usually just one page long, we encourage you to print them and refer to them regularly. As you will see, the ‘phantom’ nature of the abilities requires practice to bring them into the open and nurture linguistic dexterity.

These competencies are not available anywhere else.

For more information please contact info@ilfb.co.uk or +44 (0)208 305 2248.

We are keen to hear from language trainers with proven results and a clear understanding of the key processes driving their success.