Why traditional language learning fails and how my partner and I are using comprehensible input to learn Portuguese as our fourth language - no grammar books, no translations, just natural acquisition.
Most people study a language for years and still can't order coffee in Paris. My partner and I just finished our first Portuguese lesson, and we're doing the exact opposite of what we were taught in school. No big books, no grammar rules, and zero translations. Here's why studying is actually the slowest way to learn.
The Traditional Approach is Backwards
Let me paint you a picture. When I first studied Spanish, I arrived at a Spanish school in beautiful Sevilla, Spain. The first thing the teacher did was slam a huge grammar book on the table - BOOM. Our first lesson? Verb conjugations. And 50% of that lesson was about irregular verbs. "Most verbs are like this, but there are some irregulars that are like this."
This is how adults approach learning a new language. We try to be scientific about it. We want formulas. We want to understand how to build sentences, what the rules are, how to remember everything. This is the traditional way - what we do in school for our second language, even for our first language.
Why? I think as an adult, you want to study like an adult. It's hard to be in a place where you don't understand. So you look for understanding through academic frameworks.
But here's the thing: this isn't how you actually learned your first language.
How Children Actually Learn Language
Think back to when you were one, two, or three years old. Or watch a toddler in your family. How did they learn?
Your family invested tremendous effort to show you exactly what things are and how to pronounce them. In your first stage of learning your native language, you never read a book. Someone showed you an object and told you what it was. In my native language, this is a "gas" (cup). You see this? This is a gas. That's it.
Maybe you won't remember after a few weeks, but eventually you will. Why? Because this is how our brain operates.
But when you're an adult, this method feels ridiculous. It feels overwhelming. "I'm going to speak with another adult like I'm a child? They're going to tell me the word 50 times?" We don't want to learn like this. But this is exactly how our brain works.
The Natural Order of Acquisition
Here's the sequence of how children learn language:
- Understanding (Input) - First, they learn to comprehend what people are saying
- Speaking - By year three, they can speak fluently
- Reading - Introduced around age 6-7
- Writing - Begins in first grade
We spend seven years teaching toddlers the spoken language before they write anything. And this is the language you know best.
So why, when learning a new language, do you immediately pick up a book?
The Evidence for Comprehensible Input
Don't just take my word for it - there's research. Students using Comprehensible Input (CI) methods:
- Acquire language three times faster than traditional models
- Get higher grammar scores (even without studying grammar explicitly)
- Show significantly better proficiency and fluency
It's crazy: if you learn grammar just by comprehending it naturally, you'll outperform those who studied the grammar book. I'll put links to these studies in the video description.
Why "Kids Learn Easier" is a Myth
People always say it's easier to acquire language as a child. But there's no biological reason for this. Your brain capacity is significantly bigger as an adult. Kids need their bodies to adjust to so many things during those first three years.
The real reason? Sociological, not biological. We simply teach children better. We use better methods with them than we use with adults.
My Discovery in Sevilla
Back in Sevilla, facing that huge grammar book, I knew there had to be a better way. I started searching YouTube and found a one-hour video by a professor documenting his journey learning a new language for a whole year. He already knew six or seven languages, and he was teaching Spanish by demonstrating this natural acquisition method.
The video is called "How to Acquire any language NOT learn it!" by Prof. Jeff Brown
IMO it's the only video you really need to watch.
How Memory Actually Works
When I see an image of a tower, I immediately know:
- In English: tower
- In Hebrew (my native language): migdal
- In Spanish: torre
I don't translate. I see the image and I know. Why? Because when I saw a tower in Sevilla, I was introduced to the word "torre" so many times through Google Maps, teachers, and context that now I just know it.
The wrong way looks like this: You see a tower and think, "Okay, this is a tower. How do you say tower in Spanish?" If you're doing this, you're on the wrong path.
The right way: After 50 exposures to the image and the word together, you'll remember naturally - not through translation, but through direct association. You'll remember the visuals in the backend of your brain. This is how you get to fluency and speak better.
Why Only Input Matters (At First)
This is a bold statement: only input matters.
Of course, eventually you want to produce output - speak and write. But when you're starting out, you should focus exclusively on input. You need to understand what's going on.
This doesn't mean listening to business podcasts in your target language. You won't understand anything. You need to:
- Watch children's videos
- Have someone play with you using images and pictures
- Consume content where you understand the story, even if not every word
The France vs. Bulgaria Example
Have you noticed that in France, even in Paris, many people don't know English? But in Bulgaria, almost all young people speak English fluently.
It's not the education system. The real difference: France dubs all movies and TV shows for children. Bulgaria keeps them in the original language with subtitles.
This is why many young people in Israel speak Spanish fluently - they watched 400 episodes of telenovelas from Argentina. They never took a class, never visited Argentina. They just watched and absorbed.
The Formula
I've created a simple formula (not scientific, just practical):
Comprehensible Input + Fun = Comprehensible Output
If you understand what you're being taught and you have fun doing it, you'll be able to produce output that others understand. And that's what communication is about - understanding each other.
Our Portuguese Journey
This is exactly how my partner and I are approaching Portuguese as our fourth language. We both already speak three languages (different ones), and we're using this comprehensible input method from day one.
No grammar books. No translation exercises. Just comprehensible, fun input that gradually builds our natural understanding and ability to communicate.
I hope this approach helps you get where you want to go with your language endeavors. Let me know how it goes!