Introduction (from the book)

I was 12 years old in early 1978 when I learned about the Rosetta Stone in school. Looking at the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs fascinated me. And the more I read about that stone, the more I wanted to learn about that ancient language. But, of course, it wasn't easy since the only book I could find at the local library was "Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics" by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge. Even then - it wasn't easy using that book (as time went on, I made handwritten corrections in that book - much to the librarian's chagrin). But I did read all the books I could find about Ancient Egyptian life, culture, etc.

1978 - 1982

I spent about two years learning Ancient Egyptian when I moved on to Ancient Greek and Hebrew. This time I was going to the reference books section of the local library to find what I needed, so there were more materials I could use to help me learn. The books there were quite academic and somewhat difficult to follow for a beginner. But learning a little bit of Modern Greek and Hebrew helped a little bit.

1982

In 1982, with some knowledge of three ancient languages and two modern ones, I started attending German classes in school. And I LOVED it! Finally, a way to learn a language with actual feedback as to my progress - Vielen dank Herr Schwarzbauer!

In that class was an exchange student from Finland, and that got me thinking, "What does the Finnish language look like?" The only book I could find at the city library was a dictionary and a couple of books written entirely in Finnish. So...here goes nothing - I'm going to learn Finnish while also attending German classes.

When she saw that I was carrying a Finnish dictionary with me, she got all excited, checked out the dictionary, and wrote me a note - "You have to start study Finnish - I'm going to test you!". So with her help, that dictionary, and a book written in Finnish, I was learning Finnish – language number 7.

1982 - 1985

Throughout the rest of my school years, I got to know the other exchange students and started checking out their languages. I met students from Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico. Of course, I had to see what their languages were all about, right?

In November 1983. I met Carmen Carneiro, an exchange student from Mexico who unknowingly gave me a boost in finding a way to simplify language learning. Because of the little bit of what I learned in the previous years, she helped me with some questions I had about the Spanish language. She was very patient and kind in this regard.

In June 1984, a couple of weeks before she returned to Mexico, we talked about the Portuguese language. I told her about the account of a French and Portuguese soldier talking about the spelling similarities in the French and Portuguese languages in the book "Native Tongues" (see below). She thought that was interesting and wondered what similarities can be found between Spanish and English. There were a few examples we thought up, and that sparked something in my brain - how many similarities are there between English, Spanish, and Portuguese?

Because of my previous experience with learning Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs and learning about the Rosetta Stone in school, I started researching the Spanish and Portuguese languages for ways to learn them quicker and easier than the language courses available at that time. My first breakthrough was in the book ‘Native Tongues’ by Charles Berlitz:

André Maurois has recounted an incident between soldiers who met in the trenches during WW1. A Portuguese soldier offered to teach a French soldier a thousand Portuguese words in less than one minute for 100 francs. The French soldier accepted. 'Look,' said the Portuguese, 'all the words you have in French that end in -tion are the same in Portuguese, except that they end in -ção...there are over a thousand of them and they are all feminine gender, just like French. That took less than a minute, didn't it? One hundred francs, please.

Because of that one paragraph, I decided to research languages - not the books, not the teaching methods, or scientific studies, but the languages themselves. I wanted to know what would make vocabulary and grammar easier to learn and retain in memory without all the headaches. I researched it for a couple of months before I came upon a book titled ‘The Mother Tongue’ by Lancelot Hogben^[1] . Through the use of examples from 12 European languages, that book helped me realize just how much languages have in common.

That's it! Starting with a fresh mind and outlook, I quit all knowledge and theories from the previous years on language learning and looked at just the languages themselves and what they have in common with not just English, but also each other. As time went on, I was able to expand my list to a total of eleven European languages and a handful of other non-European languages.

The Rosetta Stone Challenge™

Now that I was finding these similarities and applying them to a language lesson format, I thought about what to name this method. Well, since the Rosetta Stone was what kicked things off, I called it "The Rosetta Stone Challenge" and in the Summer of 1984, started putting it to use teaching Spanish and Portuguese. Eventually, I was able to apply the method to other languages until by 1993 there were over 20 languages available.

**Author's Note: The name and method of language learning in The Rosetta Stone Challenge™ are in no way affiliated with the Rosetta Stone® language software. The Rosetta Stone Challenge™ is an original language course offered since June 1984 and is guaranteed to help you achieve conversational fluency within six to nine months.**

Speak Up! Languages™

In 1993, I decided to update the method to go along with changes in the way languages were evolving (current slang and idioms, spelling reforms, etc.) With another three years of development and testing, I was able to simplify the method a little more and add the ability to apply it to any language.

In 2004 I built a website to teach languages using the Speak Up!™ Method for people around the world to reach conversational fluency in their target language. In 2021 I retired from language teaching and now working as an educational consultant. This book along with the companion website will give you the information you need to not just choose the right path to language learning, but also achieve your goal of mastering a language.

^[1] Currently out of print. But you can still purchase a copy on Amazon