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Welcome to Second Language Strategies
Welcome, aspiring polyglot.
If you just found this page, you’re probably in one of three situations. You’ve been wanting to learn a new language for years but haven’t started. You started at some point, maybe a class in school, maybe an app on your phone, but it didn’t stick. Or you’ve been grinding away for months and can’t figure out why you still freeze up the moment a native speaker talks to you.
Whichever one it is, you’re in the right place. I’ve spent the last three years and over 250 articles breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and why most people’s experience with language learning has been so unnecessarily painful. This page will walk you through the best of everything I’ve published, in the order that will actually help you, so you don’t have to dig through the archive wondering where to begin.
My name is Odin. I’m a polyglot with 10+ years of experience across 5 languages, and I’ve been teaching private students to go from zero to conversational in as little as 12 weeks for several years. If you want to know more about who I am and why I do this, you can read my full story on the About page. But honestly, the work speaks for itself. Either what you read here helps you, or it doesn’t. No amount of credentials will change that.
Let’s get into it.
Phase 1: Fix Your Foundation
If you’ve tried to learn a language before and it didn’t work, it’s almost certainly not your fault. The way most people are taught, in classrooms, on apps, through textbooks, is fundamentally broken. Before you study a single word, you need to understand why, and what to do instead.
The “Pillars” of Second Language Acquisition This is the most important post on this entire site. There are five pillars: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and translating; and if you’re neglecting any of them, you’re building on a cracked foundation. Most people over index on one or two and wonder why they plateau. Start here.
The 10 Commandments of Second Language Acquisition The rules I give every single one of my students. Speak early. Make mistakes. Set real goals. Stop waiting for the perfect moment. If you internalize these, you will learn faster than 90% of people who attempt a new language.
Understanding the Silent Period At some point early in your journey, you’re going to feel like you understand things but can’t produce anything. You’ll hear a sentence and know what it means, but when you try to respond, nothing comes out. This is the silent period. It’s normal. It’s temporary. And there are specific things you can do to move through it faster. This post explains all of it.
Phase 2: Build the Right Habits
Once you understand the framework, the next question is always: what do I actually do every day? These posts answer that.
Tight on Time? No, ten minutes a day is not enough. But you also don’t need four hours. This post breaks down what’s realistic, what’s optimal, and how to structure your study time so that every minute counts. If you have a job, a family, and a life, this one’s for you.
Homersion: Manufacturing Immersion at Home You don’t need to move to another country to immerse yourself. You need to rebuild your daily environment so that your target language is unavoidable. Swap your weather app. Change your music. Replace your podcasts. This post walks you through how to engineer an immersion environment without leaving your house.
I’m Bored (and Why That’s a Good Thing) This is one of my more unconventional takes, and one of the ones that resonates the most. Boredom drives creativity, and creativity accelerates language acquisition. If you’re constantly stimulated by your phone, you’re robbing your brain of the space it needs to process what you’re learning.
Targeted Vocabulary Stop memorizing random word lists. If you’re a doctor, learn medical vocabulary. If you surf, learn surf vocabulary. If you’re learning Spanish to talk to your partner’s family, learn the words you’ll actually use at the dinner table. This post explains the methodology I use with every private student to make vocabulary acquisition immediately relevant.
Phase 3: Level Up Your Output
Passive input, listening, reading, absorbing, will only take you so far. At some point, you have to start producing. This is where most people get stuck, and where real progress begins.
Stop Talking (The Secret to Better Speaking) Counterintuitive, I know. But learning to listen, really listen, including reading body language, is what separates people who can survive a conversation from people who can thrive in one. Active listening is a skill most language learners never train. This post changes that. (Paid subscribers only.)
Under Pressure: Speaking on the Clock When you speak a second language in real life, there’s a timer running. The other person is waiting. Your brain floods with cortisol. And everything you thought you knew disappears. This post covers how to build the coping mechanisms and timed practice habits that prevent this from happening.
Optimization (and Why It Can Be Your Enemy) Too many people spend more time researching the perfect study method than actually studying. There is no perfect method. There is only showing up every single day. Where optimization fails, brute force wins. This is one of the most popular posts on the site for a reason.
Phase 4: Use the Tools
I’ve built a library of free and premium resources to support your learning at every stage.
Free PDFs Downloadable guides, vocabulary lists, and practice frameworks — completely free. If you haven’t grabbed these yet, do it now. They’re designed to complement everything you read on the site and give you tangible exercises to work through immediately.
Second Language Logbook Progress you don’t track is progress you can’t see. This logbook gives you a simple, daily structure for documenting your journey, vocabulary, blind spots, wins, and areas to improve. When you feel like you’re stagnating (and you will at some point), this is what you’ll look back on to prove yourself wrong.
3 Months to Conversational: The Book Everything I teach, distilled into one book. If you want the full methodology in a format you can carry with you, this is it. Available now on Amazon.
Phase 5: Go Deeper (Paid Subscribers)
The free content on this site is enough to fundamentally change how you approach language learning. But if you’re serious, if you want the full system, the paid subscription unlocks the entire archive, including the guides that form the backbone of what I teach my private students.
Guides (Paid Subscribers) This is the crown jewel. An integrated system of downloadable guides that covers every stage of the language learning journey, from your first words to lifelong fluency. Built on cognitive science. Updated regularly. This alone is worth the subscription if you’re committed to becoming bilingual.
The guides include:
The First 30 Days — The neural architecture and daily habits that make continued progress inevitable rather than wishful thinking.
Medical Spanish & French Handbooks — For healthcare professionals who need to communicate with patients in another language. Dozens of patterns and vocabulary frameworks you won’t find anywhere else.
Advanced strategy guides — Deep dives on topics like exam preparation, conversation control, translation exercises, and more.
Paid subscribers also get an additional post every week, priority replies, and access to the full backlog of 200+ articles. If you’ve been reading the free posts and thinking “I want more of this,” this is the move.
Phase 6: Work With Me Directly
Everything on this site, the articles, the guides, the book, is designed to help you learn on your own. And it works. But there is no substitute for working with someone who has done this hundreds of times and can customize every single lesson to you.
I offer personalized 4, 8, and 12-week language courses. These aren’t generic curricula. Every program is built around your target language, your goals, your schedule, and your life. If you’re an engineer who needs technical Spanish, we work on technical Spanish. If you’re preparing for a TOEFL exam, we build toward that. If you want to surprise your family by speaking their language at the next reunion, we make that happen.
Optional weekly one-on-one sessions are available, and I strongly recommend at least one per week if your schedule allows. The combination of a personalized curriculum and direct instruction is what gets my students from zero to conversational faster than anything else available.
Don’t take my word for it, read what my students have to say:
One student passed his TOEFL and got accepted to a university in New York. A couple completed the 12-week Spanish course and stunned their Puerto Rican family. Another made more progress in four months than in his entire life trying to learn on his own. These are real people with real results.
If you’re ready, fill out the interest form here. I’ll personally get back to you.
Where to Find Me
I post new content here every week. Paid subscribers get an additional post on top of that.
Beyond the newsletter, you can find me on:
X (Twitter) — daily takes and quick tips
Instagram — short-form content and community
YouTube — long-form lessons and breakdowns
TikTok — quick language learning clips
For direct questions: odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com
It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.
BtOdin