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Refold Method Overview
Introduction
This is a companion document for the Refold in 10 Minutes video. Click here to watch
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Filling in the gaps that were glossed over in the video.
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overview
Table of Contents
Introduction
Problems with Language Learning
Traditional Language Learning
What is Fluency?
Motivation is a Scam
How to Learn a Language
Building a Language Instinct
Language Learning is about (Optimal) Input
Interesting Content
Comfortable Environment
Understandable Content
Comprehension Grows with Practice
Output isn't helpful
Learning Stages
Phase 1: Foundation
Phase 2: Reading (+ listening)
Phase 3: Listening
Phase 4: Speaking
Phase 5: Writing
Phase 6: Fluency
Phase 7+: Beyond
Personal Learning System
Habit Building
Useful Links
Problems with Language Learning
The language learning industry is backwards. The success rate of language learners
around the world is abysmal. Nearly EVERYONE studies a second language as a teen or
adult, but the number of people who fluently speak that language well is shockingly low.
How could that be possible?! Humans are wired to learn language. We've been doing it
for 150,000 YEARS. It's literally built into our DNA.
Traditional Language Learning
The traditional method of learning is what we call "grammar-translation."
Traditional learning teaches you grammar as a way to translate between two
languages.
They think that if you just practice this translation enough, eventually it will become
automatic and instantaneous and you’ll be fluent.
In reality, you just end up translating forever.
Upside: You can make blazing fast progress for a few days or weeks and speak pretty
quickly. But there is a hard limit to using speaking hacks and memorizing phrases.
Downside: Speaking like this creates super unnatural language. Other languages aren't
just English but with different pronunciation and word order.
What is Fluency?
When people dream of fluency, they imagine speaking a second language as naturally
as their first, being able to navigate the language through feeling.
We call this “language instinct,” and that’s what we focus on with the Refold method.
We want you to use a language without conscious thought. Grammar-translation will
never help you gain an instinct for the language.
Motivation is a Scam
The other problem is how people tend to approach language learning. It’s a long term
goal and most people fail to recognize that. A lot of people get the wrong idea by
watching polyglot YouTube or Duolingo marketing and think that a language can be
learned with just a bit of focus and minor effort.
Most people end up relying on bursts of motivation for language learning, but these
bursts of motivation don’t last long enough to get learners to fluency.
So, a large part of our method is focused on sustainable habits and processes to make
sure you get to fluency, no matter what.
If you want to learn read about this in more depth, get our free PDF on the “Six
Secrets of Language Learning.”
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tips, tricks and other language learning advice.
How to Learn a Language
Building a Language Instinct
Humans are actually excellent at learning languages. Everyone speaks at least one,
without even trying. We pick up the patterns of our native languages as children,
through observation and interaction. Our brains are pattern matching MACHINES.
All we need is exposure to those patterns. Lots and lots of time and repetition leads to
excellent pattern recognition, knowledge, and language fluency.
Language Learning is about (Optimal) Input
We learn languages by understanding messages in that language. Understanding the
language is called “input” (which is reading/writing or a combination of both).
But, you can't just barrage yourself with the language and hope to learn. You need what
we call "optimal input," which has a few different parts to it.
Optimal input is:
1. Interesting
2. Comfortable
3. Understandable
Interesting Content
You need to care (at least a little) about the language and what is being said. If you’re
totally uninterested in learning, it’s going to be very difficult. No “language” is boring,
but the content might be. This is why Refold focuses on helping learners have fun and
find the content that suits them.
Comfortable Environment
You also need to be at ease when learning. If you’re stressed or physically
uncomfortable (for whatever reason), you are less receptive and it’ll be harder to learn.
Making sure you’re free from distractions, have good video/audio quality, and have a
nice place to be is important for learning.
Understandable Content
And finally, input needs to be comprehensible. Not entirely, you only need to understand
bits and pieces or individual words. Or even be able to guess what’s happening from
actions and visuals.
But if you’re not understanding anything, you’re not learning anything.
Comprehension Grows with Practice
In the beginning, you'll only understand bits and pieces. But don't worry, if you're
understanding anything, even single words, your brain is in the background, learning the
patterns of the language.
Eventually, your ability will improve to the point where you're understanding whole
sentences. The main idea, or plot, of what's happening may still elude you.
Then, you'll reach the point where you understand the main idea, but there will be lots
of nuance that you're still missing.
And then, at some point, you'll be able to understand everything, even the nuance, like a
native speaker would.
It’s easy to get discouraged when even the simplest of things are hard to understand,
but with dedication and perseverance, you won’t be able to avoid understanding.
Output isn't helpful
Outputting before you have any instinct for the language isn't a good use of time,
especially because it can stress you out and make your learning painful, which is an
important part of being able to learn.
This is counterintuitive, but we don't actually need to speak to build good language
instinct. Speaking and writing help you refine your instinct, but only what's already there.
Imagine that you’ve never heard music before in your life. And suddenly, you’re tasked
to learn to play the piano. You couldn’t sit down at a piano and start learning since you
don’t even know what the purpose is. You’ve never heard music, so you don’t know
what good/bad music sounds like. You don’t even know what a piano is and how to
make progress.
You would start by listening to a lot of music and learning what it is. Only once you
know what music sounds like and what the fundamental rules are, can you start to
really learn to play.
The same goes for speaking a language. If you start saying sentences without any idea
what they should sound like, what’s natural, and how a conversation flows, you’re not
really going to make any sense or learn. Plus, you can’t understand what someone
responds with if you’re in a conversation.
Focusing on understanding first is much easier and leads to deeper fluency.
Learning Stages
Phase 1: Foundation
Hours: 100 (100 total)
Goal: Learn 2000 words
In phase 1, you're focused on the absolute basics of the language — the common
words and patterns. You want to turn it from gibberish to familiar gibberish.
You'll be spending lots of time with the language through audio and text.
Potential activities:
• Watching YouTube channels for beginners
• Watching children’s shows
• Rewatching dubbed versions of favorite movies
◦ Tip: Find your Learner Type. It will help you have more fun depending on what
you personally enjoy.
• Learning basic vocabulary (Anki recommended)
• Reading about basic grammar patterns
• Learning cognates
• Practicing the phonetic writing system
Phase 2: Reading (+ listening)
Hours: 500 (600 total)
Goal: Learn 5000 words
In phase 2, your goal is to understand the language in common scenarios, when given
time to think. When you slowly watch a scene of two natives chatting with subtitles,
you can follow along and understand their meaning.
Again, you'll be spending time with text + audio and learning new words that you come
across. This phase is one of the longer ones.
Potential activities:
• Intensive 3-channel reading
• Freeflow 3-channel reading
• Interactive reading with a reader tool
• Freeflow reading with an audiobook
◦ Recommendation: use a book/story you already know
• Freeflow YouTube (easier content)
• Sentence Mining
• Vocab study (Anki recommended)
• Grammar Priming
• Freeflow listening to basic podcasts
• Crosstalk
Phase 3: Listening
Hours: 400 (1000 total)
Goal: Fast comprehension
In phase 3, you'll be focusing on taking your decent, slow understanding and converting
it to speedy comprehension.
You'll be practicing with audio only to train your ear to hear the language as it is. This
phase also can take a while, but is when the language starts to be "effortlessly fun."
Meaning that you could spend hours enjoying things without too much brain juice.
Potential activities:
• Intensive listening
• Freeflow listening
◦ Recommendation: use easier YouTube content or dubs of things you already know
• Sentence Mining
• Vocab study (Anki recommended)
• Grammar Priming
• Freeflow listening to basic or intermediate podcasts
• Chorusing
◦ Unedited demo of chorusing
• Crosstalk
Phase 4: Speaking
Hours: 200 (1200 total)
Goal: Speaking comfort
In phase 4, you're going to focus on being comfortable speaking. This might sound
odd, but when you start, you will feel clumsy and awkward. This happens because you’ll
have a language instinct and be able to tell where your problems are. You'll make plenty
of errors, but you’ll improve rapidly and feel… not terrible. Your speaking will be
impressive to natives, they'll say "Wait, this is only your 3rd conversation ever?"
But, just as a reminder, there’s more to all these stages. In this phase, you’ll also start
writing and continue doing reading and listening. But speaking comfort is the main
focus.
You'll be speaking a lot with yourself and native speakers, focusing on getting ideas out
there instead of your mistakes.
Potential activities:
• Speaking with natives (tutors, coaches, friends)
• Monologue on your own (and record it)
• Narrate your life
• React to a video
◦ This is where you watch a video in your target language and speak your
thoughts aloud and things you see
• Read aloud (and record it)
• Start a journal or blog
• Chorusing
• Continue with favorite listening focused immersion activities
Phase 5: Writing
Hours: 300 (1500 total)
Goal: Correct output
In phase 5, you'll be focusing on all those mistakes you made in phase 4. Now that you
don't feel ridiculous, you can take the time to improve them and sound more like an
adult rather than a weirdly large and smart 6-year-old.
You'll be focusing on slower output, so more writing, to analyze the language and learn
where your biggest mistakes are.
Potential activities:
• Speaking with natives (tutors, coaches, friends)
• Corrected reading
◦ In a session with a native, you read aloud, and they give you comments and
suggestions on each sentence until it sounds natural
• Corrected writing
◦ Before a session with a native, you write something. Then, with them, you go
over your writing for mistakes and things that sound strange
• Mistake mining
◦ Much like sentence mining, but you’re finding mistakes you make and saving
them for later review
• The 10x10 method
◦ The video linked above has two parts talking about the method. The timestamp
in the link above is the general idea, and this section is how we’d recommend
you apply it to this phase.
• Start a journal or blog
• Chorusing
• Continue with favorite listening focused immersion activities
Phase 6: Fluency
Hours: 300 (1800 total)
Goal: Easy use of the language
Once you're comfortable and mostly correct, it's time to let that all sink in and become
a fluent user of the language. Phase 6 is different for everyone, but it's more or less
time spent getting used to your new abilities.
You'll be spending time doing things in the language, exploring new topics, and
continuing to learn.
Potential activities:
• Explore new topics (also known as domains)
◦ For example, classic film, science, art, marketing…
• Corrected reading
◦ In a session with a native, you read aloud, and they give you comments and
suggestions on each sentence until it sounds natural
• Write essays or articles (anything that requires editing and rewrites)
• Corrected writing
◦ Before a session with a native, you write something. Then, with them, you go
over your writing for mistakes and things that sound strange
• The 10x10 method
◦ This video has two parts. The link above is the general idea, and this link is how
we’d recommend you apply it to this phase.
• Start a journal or blog
• Be a mentor to a native speaker of the new language and help them in their
language learning
• Start reading paper books in the language
• Continue with all your favorite immersion activities from before
Phase 7+: Beyond
Hours: ???
Goal: Expand your abilities
Congratulations! You’re a fluent user of the language, and you're on your own to explore
new topics, make new friends, and continue to practice your abilities.
Potential activities:
• Start a blog in the language
• Start a YouTube channel in the language
• Write essays or articles
• Make materials for other learners
• Have fun with the language
• Learn a dialect or regional accent of the language
• Study for (and pass) the C2 exam (or equivalent test)
• Anything activity from a previous stage, but with harder materials
Personal Learning System
Language learning is a (very) long term goal. You can't just hope to be motivated for
months and then years. You will fail if that's your whole plan.
Habit Building
To ensure your success, you need to have rock solid habits which will push you to
success.
We start with “consistency over intensity.” Start small and build up. It can be tempting
to dive in headfirst, but this leads to quick burnout.
Instead, make things simple by starting with only two learning activities. That's it. Our
recommendation is learning simple vocab with a flashcard deck and immersing in the
easiest content you can find and enjoy.
After you've built a solid learning habit, you can start to increase your learning time and
the complexity of activities. It may be counterintuitive, but going from nothing to
something is quite hard. Going from a little habit to a larger habit, however, isn't too bad
at all!
We are here to help! The Refold Discord Community is a fantastic resource if you need
any recommendations.
Useful Links
Join the Refold Community
Get the Refold Course
• This course is a step-by-step guide through the process if you want to be shown
what to do each step of the day. Get started on your language-learning journey
today!
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