What I want to look like when I’m speaking another language.

You know….all Instagram-like, sun shining…

Here’s the thing: I’m a native English speaker. I’ve worked as an au pair in Paris, and lived in Germany for over 6

years. I studied Russian in school for 8 hours a day for a year.

And I STILL get tongue-tied sometimes when I open my mouth to speak another language.

What I’ve learned over the years is this: you can take all the classes you want, and you can study a language

through an app. But you still need to use that language in real-world ways: listening to it, reading it, and speaking

it.

I’ve talked to so many people who studied a second language for a year or two (or more), who said they could

barely remember a word of it.

Sometimes they’d say, “I’m terrible at learning languages” (as we carried on a perfectly good conversation in

English).

When you stop using a language regularly, you get rusty.

After a while, you don’t want to start over and take any classes. You don’t need to relearn how to ask directions to

the train station.

You just want to be able to carry on a casual conversation with someone. Or feel comfortable getting around on

your own when you travel to another country again.

I created The FLLO to help you.

If you’ve learned some French, German or Spanish, but forgotten a lot of it–you can start reading at the most

basic level of the library: the Foyer. It’s your first step to refresh what you learned before: a few simple sentences,

a bite-sized article between 50 and 99 words.

And you’ll almost always be familiar with the topics: The Statue of Liberty. World War I. The Wizard of Oz.

If the Foyer is too easy–go to the 1st Floor, where the articles are a little longer, between 100 and 199 words.

There’s even a level beyond that–the 2nd Floor, where the articles are 200 to 299 words. So you’ve got plenty of

room to grow your vocabulary.

Take a few minutes a day to read in another language for fun. Give your brain a break from grammar, and go

with the FLLO. 🙂