Polyglot: How I Learn Languages
Welcome to my Polyglot: How I Learn Languages book summary!
“The language-learning method that is good is the one that enables you to learn the most reliable patterns relatively quickly. The precondition of internalizing them is to face the correct forms as much as possible until they become automatic.” (p. 76)
One-Sentence-Summary: From the woman who said, “languages are the only thing worth knowing even poorly”, Kató Lomb (1903-1997), the Hungarian Polyglot discusses her life as a translator and language acquisition strategies.
I’ve finished reading Polyglot: How I Learn Languages by Kató Lomb. Total pages: 219
booboo real-time book rating: ★★★☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 34%)
The author is a bona fide polyglot, and while the general methodology is still relevant, it is, at the same time, outdated. Originally written in Hungarian, the book is hard to follow due to its age, the author’s writing style, or a poor translation. Chapter 20, How I Learn Languages, finally gave a step-by-step breakdown of the language-learning method but the author shifted to discussing why she prefers a female teacher which took up too many pages.
This blog contains both my summary and review of the book Polyglot: How I Learn Languages.
Kató Lomb Language Learning Method
“To go from comprehensible to half-understanding to complete understanding..” (p. 149)
- Buy as thick a dictionary as you can find (target language-native language)
- Start listening to target language. The author chooses news and first listen to the news in a language that you know. Write down words you don’t understand and look up in the dictionary.
- Record one episode per week and lsiten to it many times while focusing on pronunciation
- Buy a textbook with answers and a literature book
- Plays or short stories
- On the first reading of the book, write the words (in sentences) you understand into your notebook.
- On the second or third reading of the same novel, you can look up some words you don’t know.
- Listen to news, in both target and native language (so you have a key of what’s to come as most global news will be repeated across stations and languages). Write down words you don’t know and look them up immediately afterwards.
- One per week take the broadcast and play it back while repeating.
- Find a teacher or local who is a native speaker, who:
- will speak at a slow than normal pace
- correct the written assignments you have previously prepared. These are made up first of free compositions, somewhat random blurbs and sentences. Then she moves on to translations, as written in the book, but I think it is actually a transcription of audio. “Written translations pinpoints one’s errors ruthlessly, while a listening ear might be prone to just glossing over them.” (p. 155)
- Travel to the country. “Frequent listening to spoken [target language]..” (p. 158)
Are some people good at learning languages?
The author says NO. “No one is ‘just’ good at languages.” (p. 173). I disagree strongly. I wrote about why some people are naturally better at learning languages than others.
Even the author, in the same chapter promoting that no language gene exists, goes on to talk about Mezzofanti, an Italian linguist who apparently could speak almost 100 languages fluently. Surprisingly, “..he learned them all by never leaving the borders of Italy…he could flawlessly memorize and reproduce the Latin words he heard on the street.” (p. 179). Sounds like a natural language learning gift to me!
Learn Words in Context
“‘Mom, what does “TB” mean?’ / ‘It depends, son, on what you are reading. It may be “textbook” or “thoroughbred.” If you are reading a sports story, it may be “tennis ball.” In a medical article, it may mean “tuberculosis.” In a physics test, it may stand for “turbulence.” / The above conversation, taken from my own life, illustrates that words – or in this case abbreviations – cannot be removed from their contexts. One can only understand them – and should only learn them – in their contexts.” (p. 107)
The example could be better, but the demonstration holds (merica in Spanish is faggot, but friends use the word in conversation; the tone and surroundings would reveal whether it is a faggot or buddy).
I ask my native-speaker friends what words mean, and often it’s not clear without context. That’s because apart from nouns (tree, house, etc.), words get flimsy, especially verbs.
Learning words in context will allow you to better grasp the language. Even words that seem to have identical translations often have subtle differences in meaning. In English, family refers to the immediate family, but in Spanish, it means distant cousins, even ones they’ve never met, from cities they’ve never visited.
If you only learn single words, you attach a meaning to them based on your native language. Not good.
Languages are from Latin
“Let’s not be angry then with mistakes. Many a valuable thing were born out of them – among other things, the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. All three developed from the vulgar (common) use of Latin. / ..we shouldn’t create new languages. But we can acquire the existing ones better by comparing the properties of the starting (mother) language and the new language.” (p. 137)
The Roman Empire spread across Europe, so that ~10% of the world speaks a language born from Latin. How did that work? Latin was not forced on the people; as the empire grew, soldiers spoke Latin and married locals whose children also spoke it; the existing population had to learn Latin to trade with Rome.
You are reading my book review and summary by Kató Lomb. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.
What is the best way to learn a language?
“Do not believe that a teacher’s instruction, no matter how intense and in-depth it may be, gives you an excuse not to delve into the language on your own.” (p. 161)
After getting to B2 in Spanish, B1 in Portuguese, and A1 in Russian, researching language learning methods to write a book, and years later researching dozens and dozens of hours to further understand the strategies used by real polyglots, I have come to the conclusion: the best method is the one you make your own.
I spent years with excellent teachers using proven strategies, yet fluency eluded me. Why? Because I was following a method rather than building one. The efficiency of the system became a crutch — I outsourced the struggle to the teacher and the structure, which meant I never did the messy cognitive work that actually creates retention. A “worse” method that forces you to figure things out yourself will outperform a “better” method that you passively consume, because learning lives in the struggle, not the system.
The paradox: the more optimized the method, the less work your brain has to do — and the less work your brain does, the less it retains.
This is a time-saving counter-intuition so I wanted to state it again, but differently: you will still learn the target language faster because efficiency only matters when multiplied by adherence. A method you didn’t build yourself carries friction: you don’t fully understand why each piece exists, it doesn’t fit your schedule or interests naturally, and you haven’t stress-tested it against your own weaknesses. That friction compounds daily into skipped sessions, half-hearted practice, and eventual abandonment. Your friend’s 5x more efficient method, applied at 20% consistency, loses to your “inefficient” method applied at 100%. Ownership creates consistency, and consistency beats optimization.
Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.
Thanks for visiting and thanks to Kató Lomb for writing Polyglot: How I Learn Languages!
Date Started: Friday, December 19, 2025
Date Finished: Thursday, January 15, 2026 (28 days)
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