One of the things I'm out to do with Phrasing is 10x the amount of languages I can learn in my life. I think this goal is not only achievable, but that I'm already halfway there with Phrasing. I believe that within the next few years, I can reach and exceed that 10x multiplier.

This specific number comes around from a Paul Graham principle of what you need for a business to be successful. One of the ways to build a successful business is to have a 10x better product, and thus millions of entrepreneurs are out chasing this 10x number.

I didn't set out to "build a 10x better product," I just wanted to learn multiple languages, big and small, with spaced repetition that didn't suck, and with a beautiful UI. However, when it came time to start my Language Logs, I realized that the number of languages I could manage currently was actually just shy that 10x number. Give me a couple more years, and I could exceed it. That's easy to say though, so I put my money where my mouth is and set out to prove it.p

I believe that over the next 4 years, I'll be able to learn several languages to fluency, while refreshing, maintaining, and exploring countless others.

This is not to be confused with achieving results 10x faster. I do not think any app, or any method, can bring the amount of years it takes to learn a language fluently down to weeks/month. I believe that to be impossible, and would call out anyone claiming otherwise. Learning anything deeply takes a lot of time, and that is doubly so for language. However, over that long period of time, I think it is entirely possible to learn more language. I think we could spend less time daily studying language, and over the same duration, come out the other end understanding more.

The language learning multipliers

2x - Spaced Repetition

Spaced Repetition routinely results in over 2x the recall in countless studies. I have a whole article going into the science behind learning multiple languages where I cover this in more detail with references.

2x - Interleaving

Learning multiple languages will result in at least 1.3x recall, and up to 2x recall out of the box. However this is just raw recall—I believe the number is much higher when you factor in the impact on grammar, phonological processing, code switching/language discrimination. This is again covered in the previously mentioned blog post on learning multiple languages.

2x - Automation

I have studied a lot of languages, and interviewed countless successful polyglots. I have yet to interview anyone who does not describe a process that could be more than 50% automated.

If you can spend more than 2x the amount of time actually learning vs researching, managing, and creating cards, then you should be able to learn 2x as much.

2x - Enjoyment

Phrasing uses the weaponization of social media algorithms and applies those principles to your language learning. If it doesn't interfere with your learning, and it results in you doing more reviews, then I'll consider it a force for good.

If you can review more than 2x the amount of material before getting burnt out, stressed, or bored, then you should be able to learn 2x as much.

2x - Leverage

Learners will normally spend an exorbitant amount of their time just learning "beginner" material. The thing is, once you master this, you then go on to learn "the real language" and often time forget everything you learned in the beginning.

Phrasing works with the idea of leverage. We look in your library, and teach you the highest leverage words. These are the words that you are not going to see all day every day, but will carry the most semantic weight.

These are the words that, should you want to be able to use and understand them, you'll have to study them in as SRS. You'll get exposed to all the beginner and common words naturally through exposure, by their very nature.

2x - Comprehensible Input

There's no real metric for how much more effectively one can learn a language with comprehensible input vs without. Some of the biggest critique's of Krashen's theories is that they are unfalsifiable.

However, I have studied French for 5+ years and been unable to understand most music, movies, and tv shows. I then started listening to InnerFrench and could almost immediately understand dramatically more French.

My goal is to unlock comprehensible input years earlier than most other methods.

There's also a slight theory that has been forming in my head since I started using Phrasing, and it boils down to the question how long does input need to be to acquire language from. One of the several reasons Phrasing recommends long expressions is because I believe that the answer to this question is actually that it just needs to be long enough for you to have forgotten the beginning of the input by the time the input ends—that it just needs to be longer than you can reasonably fit the entire expression in memory, and you must rely on an asynchronous processing method

Conclusion

Now in reality, you can’t just multiply these numbers together. But I would venture to guess that via Phrasing, you can increase the amount you can learn by 4-10x eventually (4x better than if you're already doing everything right, 10x better than a casual learner, 100x better than using Duolingo).

Are we there yet? No, I think our Humane SRS is a bit “leaky” — still more effective than the competition, and oh such a joy to use. We can do a better job determining leverage, and I think we'll need to improve the word deduplication before we can get to a true 10x, but for now I think we're probably 80% of the way there. There are some automation things to iron out, and getting native audio is essential to max out the comprehensible input axis, but I spend less than 0.1% of my time currently sourcing Expressions.

Currently, I think I'm making at least 5x the progress I ever made with Anki, and maybe 2x the progress even the most modded Anki deck could provide. Give me one year, and I reckon I can reach that 10x number. Give me another 10 years… well, the sky is the limit.

I don't believe that I have the language skills to ever be said person, but an outlandish dream of mine is to one day enable the first centilingual individual.

So whether you're aiming for bilingualism, trilingualism, or centilingualism, sign up today and see how much Phrasing can accelerate your language journey.

To fluency, and beyond.