Any Language You Want

A collection of contradictory true personal stories in answer to “What’s the best way to learn a language?” In each of the 18 chapters, Fabio — a language learner and teacher — shares a story about how he mastered English, his second language, and tells you what’s the best way to learn another language. Each chapter ends with the same sentence: “This is how to learn a language”. But each chapter disagrees with the next. One story tells you to hire teachers and take classes — just like he did while learning English in London. The next one argues you should do everything on your own. Take no courses, hire no teachers. Do what Fabio did when he was living in Australia. One story says you should never touch a dictionary. The next one persuades you to look up every unknown word you encounter. Should you aim at sounding like a native? Yes. Wait, no, you shouldn’t. Which chapter tells the truth? Which story is right? All of them. It’s a language learning method of conflicting perspectives and approaches to help you become an independent learner. “Any Language You Want” was read and reviewed by Scott Thornbury, one the most renowned and influential figures in the field of language teaching methodology.”I have long been a connoisseur of the ‘stories’ of highly successful language learners, so I was keen to hear Fabio’s own account. Even more so when I discovered how closely we align on the issue of prescriptivism: I have always argued that there is no one ‘best method’ for learning a second language, and Fabio draws the same conclusion from out of the multiple strands of his own very readable and insightful ‘language autobiography’.”