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How To Become Conversational in Any Language In 3 Months or Less

By: Jeff Sullivan

WHO IS THIS ARTICLE FOR?

• Entrepreneurs looking to gain access to new markets, networking opportunities, and a competitive advantage

• Travel often and enjoy learning about other cultures

• Are you frustrated with traditional language learning methods? you’ve always wanted to be multilingual but stopped trying because you got discouraged by boring classes or unhelpful apps

WHO AM I?

My name’s Jeff Sullivan, and I’m a writer, language lover, and basketball addict. I write about culture, history, languages, and other cool things.

In June 2022 I launched Three Point Thursdays newsletter from a café in Barcelona while I was studying abroad there. My plan was to pursue my curiosity, let the universe answer, then share what I learn with smart people on the internet.

The sun was casting a white glaze over the dark green hills of Italy when I landed at Leonardo Da Vinci airport. 7 AM. I can never sleep on planes. I had to power through the day and, the European way, take an obscene amount of espresso shots out of those stupid little cups.

As I left the terminal, I saw the most slick-haired Italian guy ever leaned up against a car smoking a cigarette. Taxi driver.

I knew I was going to sound painfully American but I didn’t care - I knew the main obstacle to speaking another language is fear.

“Ciao, come stai?”

He didn’t speak any English. It was a forty minute ride to my hostel. The perfect opportunity to test my skill in the language. I had been practicing Italian every day for three months in preparation for this trip.

I surprised myself with how well I could talk to him. It was nothing like how I can speak Spanish. I wasn’t smooth. I didn’t understand some stuff he said. But damn it, we were speaking Italiano!

Even though I was thinking hard about things to say in Italian, somewhere deep inside of me was screaming in English “can you believe this? This is insane. You’re actually doing this right now.”

It is said that when you speak a different language it feels like you’re living a different life. This is dramatic. Pretentious even. Let me be clear: I promise you that this statement is absolutely, one hundred percent, accurate.

Let’s define. I became conversational in Italian in 3 months, not fluent.

Fluency is having the ability of natural creation. It’s being able to express yourself in all your weirdness, explain your beliefs with nuance, and tell stories and jokes effortlessly. It’s dreaming and thinking in the language. It’s reading and writing in the language comfortably without translators.

Conversational is memorizing a high volume of typical exchanges. It’s being skilled at understanding questions asked to you, getting to know cab drivers, having a back and forth while ordering coffee, telling the waitress the food was fantastic, and things like that.

But the important distinction here is that conversational is a completely different level than basics. Saying you know the basics of a language is a fancy way of saying you don’t know the language at all. When you’re conversational, you’ll win the respect of native speakers, surprise them, make them laugh, and even have them tell you that you speak it very well sometimes.

Let’s dive in.

I. No one is Coming to Save You

Step number one for any serious language learner: delete Duolingo.

The Duolingo bird deceived you through its cartoonish cuteness. It’s a manipulative monster.

I applaud Duolingo from a business perspective. From a purely capitalistic point of view they crush it. They have many people addicted to their product—500 million registered users. Unfortunately that’s 500 million language learning dreams that will die.

I’ve never heard of anyone becoming conversational, never mind fluent, thanks to this app. Not once.

Take matters into your own hands. Commit to being an autodidact—someone who self-educates without direct guidance from formal teachers or rigid structure. Someone who uses their curiosity to pursue knowledge and skills on their own terms.

II. Your Brain is a Sponge

As an autodidact you’ll use the four elements of language learning: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Again, as opposed to watching the Duolingo bird do a dipsy doo after you typed in “the girl eats the apple” or whatever nonsense that stupid video game had you do.

It’s about volume and flooding your brain with the language. Not virtual birds that make ding noises. Okay I’m done insulting Duolingo.

Let’s proceed.

Immersion means knowing your brain is a sponge. It’s about using the elements of listening and reading.

Everyone knows that immersion is the key to language acquisition but forgets you don’t need to go to another country to experience it. I turned my iPhone into a foreign land of digital immersion through YouTube videos, podcasts, and music.

For listening, Easy Italian podcast was great. It’s part of the Easy Languages family, an organization that has a content team for many languages. Their podcast and YouTube videos help with comprehension.

For reading, I tried, very unsuccessfully, to read The Divine Comedy in the OG Italian. But nonetheless it exposed my brain to a high volume of Italian words. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t on Kindle though. It has a built-in translation feature.

For reading I would even ask ChatGPT to give me examples of conversations in the language. I would type the prompt “give me an example of basic Italian conversations” and see what I could decipher. When I couldn’t understand (most of the time), I would ask GPT to translate it. The AI is a polyglot!

A dreadful misconception is that if you’re absorbing your desired language but aren’t comprehending anything that you’re wasting time. No. Realize: it is beneficial. You have to assault your mind with the language even when you don’t understand. You have to give your mind a chance to get used to the sounds, rhythm, and common phrases of the language.

You have to give your brain the chance to adapt to the language.

This can be frustrating but it helps. I listened to many Easy Italian podcasts where I didn’t understand much. But over time I started to figure out what they were talking about. Even though I couldn’t say everything they were talking about, I began to understand. Which is why it’s vital to listen and read, read and listen.

Immersion, immersion, immersion.

Actionable Habits (Your brain is a sponge)

—Listen to podcasts and YouTube videos in the language of your choice every day (Easy Languages YouTube and Podcast is a solid place to start).

—Read in your desired language on Kindle, X, or anywhere that has a built-in translation feature. Test what you can understand before you tap translate.

—Use Chat GPT to simulate conversations (prompt: “I’m learning Italian. Please give me examples of five basic Italian conversations”). See what you can decipher each day through reading. Play with the AI’s incredible language powers and learn from it.

III. Google Translate Features + Physical Writing

The pronunciation (speaker symbol) and save (star symbol) features are extremely useful.

Write in your desired language.

It’s amazing how much the writing element makes the speaking element easier.

How to go about it?

I sat down with a pen and fresh notepad dedicated to the language. Google Translate on the computer. Phone in the other room. Focused. And I literally would just think of things I want to be able to say in Italian. Things I say all the time in English. Then I would type these words and expressions into Google Translate, see the Italian version, and write it down.

I would then tap the speakerphone on Google Translate and play the pronunciation. I would then practice saying the pronunciation as I heard it. I did this over and over and over and over. No, you’re not crazy for talking to yourself. This is how many people learn languages. I can’t emphasize enough how helpful it is to practice pronunciations this way.

Don’t worry about having an accent. Everyone has an accent from someone else’s perspective. Just focus on pronouncing as best as you can. Over time your “accent” will naturally improve.

I also can’t emphasize enough how important it is to write it down by hand. When you have pages and pages of words and expressions written down, they inevitably become coded in your brain.

I wrote down ~10 pages of words and expressions like this to form a foundation of things to say in the language.

Here’s the translations of the first page I wrote of Italians phrases (pictured above):

• Ciao - hello

• Come stai? - how are you?

• Buongiorno - good morning

• Buona giornata - have a good day

• Buona notte - good night

• Arrivederci - goodbye

• Ciao - bye (it can mean both hi and bye)

• Grazie - thank you

• Posso avere un caffè? - can I have a coffee?

• Quanto Costa? - how much does it cost?

• Vengo dagli Stati Uniti - I come from the United States

• Parlo Inglese e Spagnolo - I speak English and Spanish

• Il mio Italiano è elementare - My Italian is basic

• Ho sempre amato la storia di Roma - I have always loved the history of Rome

• Essere qui è fantastico - To be here is fantastic

• Io sono scrittore - I am a writer

• Non lo so - I don’t know

• Ho un’allergia alimentare - I have a food allergy

• Non posso mangiare noci - I can’t eat nuts

• Ho senso? - Do I make sense?

• Capisci? - You Understand?

• Posso dirlo in Inglese - I can say it in English

• Tutto bene - all good

• Stavo cercando di leggere La Divina Commedia - I was trying to read The Divine Comedy

• Buondí - good morning

• Buonasera - good evening

• Salve - greetings

• Buona Serata - good evening

Actionable Habits (Google Translate and physical writing)

—Every day, use Google Translate to learn and write down 10 new phrases.

—Then use the speaking feature on Google Translate to practice your pronunciation. Do this until you can say your 10 written phrases from memory with some confidence.

—The next day, write 10 more phrases while still practicing the ones you’ve already learned. Repeat ad infinitum.

IV. Practice talking with native speakers through the Tandem app

Then it was time to bring those written pages to life. The Speaking element.

Once I had 3 pages or ~100 of these phrases written down and slash or memorized, I logged into a language exchange app called Tandem. Other similar ones are HelloTalk and iTalki, and Lingoda.

It’s a social media site specifically for language learning. A place you can contact native speakers. You can translate texts with a tap and make calls within the app. But best of all, it makes it easy to start sending voice messages back and forth with native speakers.

Actionable Habits (How to use the Tandem app)

—Type out a message “Hi, I’m going to Italy soon, can I practice my Italian with you? I can help you with English.” Copy and Paste. Boom. Send to as many people as your thumbs can bear.

—When people answer, send a voice message of the phrases you wrote down. When they respond with questions its another opportunity to say new things. This is how you get comfortable moving your tongue in the way of a different language.

—Over time as you gain confidence through reps on reps, you can make a call.

Here’s examples of things I said over and over to get conversations going on Tandem:

A personal statement:

“Sto imparando l’Italiano da poco tempo, ma posso capire la lingua a volte, perché sono fluente in Spagnolo, e come voi sapete, è molto simile.”

Which means:

“I’ve been learning Italian for a short time, but I can understand the language sometimes, because I’m fluent in Spanish, and as you know, it’s very similar”

And an introduction:

“Ciao, come stai? Mi chiamo Jeff, Ho ventidue anni, e Sono Americano. Dimmi, di dove sei in Italia?”

Which means:

“Hello, how are you? My name’s Jeff and I’m a 22 year old American. Tell me, where are you from in Italy?”

And when in doubt of responses:

“Non capito tutto. Puoi dirlo in inglese?”

Which means:

“I don’t understand it all. Can you say it in English?”

It’s no secret that talking to a native speaker in person can be scary. But let’s recall that Bruce Wayne was afraid of bats. When you follow your fear good things happen.

If you want your language dream to come true, you have to make a habit of talking to your language partners every day.

Using online voice messages is a great way to get talking. It is the language equivalent of crawling before you can walk. At first I was literally reading off the paper where I wrote down translations from Google Translate.

Building up confidence through online voice messages and learning how to pronounce well before doing it in person is a language learning cheat code. Eventually, you can start making calls too. Which you can do directly on Tandem and other similar apps I mentioned.

The technology we have is insane. Use it.

Tandem

Online I would repeat the same words and expressions to language partners a weird amount of times. Then try new things to say. Then repeat them to different language partners a weird amount of times.

When I still wasn’t sure how to say something I would go back to Google Translate and listen to the pronunciation feature again—to practice saying it out loud myself again. Then go back to Tandem voice messages and say it. Reps.

Repetition times equals skill. Volume, volume, volume.

V. I used to have a speech impediment as a kid. (insert inspirational line)

I followed this process every day for ~3 months in preparation for a trip to Italy. By the time I got there I had Italians telling me: “parli bene l’italiano!” (you speak Italian well!)

You can experience this in whatever language your heart desires if you practice like this—daily—for a similar sustained period.

No matter how “bad” the conversations are, it’s critical to talk to native speakers. Reps. It is the way.

There were people in my Spanish classes junior and senior in college who were frustrated or embarrassed that they couldn’t hold conversations in the language. They somehow overlooked the reality that to speak another language you have to talk to native speakers as much as possible. Many people who like the idea of being multilingual aren’t really willing to do this. They get scared when it’s time for that action boss.

Which is why you can’t take yourself so seriously. I’m convinced the main thing that stops people from speaking another language is fear. Fear of making mistakes, fear of awkwardness, fear of sounding strange, fear of seeming stupid.

The way to get past these fears is to be able to laugh at yourself.

The fears inevitably fade when you don’t take yourself too seriously. And what do you find on the other side of that fear? On the other side of that fear is a suddenly mysterious person that shocks their friends with their multilingual skills.

If you apply the principles of this article consistently, you will become that person.

I bet you’ll one day find yourself talking to a taxi driver in a foreign language, while the back of your mind screams “can you believe this? This is insane. You’re actually doing this right now.”

You can find my writing at jeffcsullivan.com. I send out exclusive articles to paid subscribers, but the majority of my work is free. However I do write about languages more often on the premium side. So if you’re language curious, and found this article valuable, here’s a 50% lifetime discount if you want to sign up. Why? Because Danny is the man. And I hope you become pals with both of us. And multilingual!

50% lifetime discount to Jeff Sullivan’s Three Pointers (special offer expires in 30 days): https://www.jeffcsullivan.com/1bde601c

Also, don’t hesitate to shoot me a dm on X @jeffsullivan__. I would be happy to chat, and help you with any and all things language learning.