Remember the thrill of learning to ride a bike? The training wheels, the cautious starts, the inevitable falls, and finally, the exhilarating freedom of gliding on two wheels? Learning a language with the Bimodal Blitz method is similar.

The basic Bimodal Blitz method combines listening and reading to engage multiple areas of your brain, enhancing memory and making language acquisition as easy as riding a bike. Just as training wheels provide stability and confidence for a novice cyclist, tools like LingQ, Readlang, and quick translations act as linguistic training wheels. These supports allow beginners to grasp the general meaning of a text even if their comprehension level is non-existent.

However, over-reliance on translations will hinder progress and prevent full immersion in the target language. The goal is to experience the language as directly as possible, which is why translation aids are merely a starting point.

The GOLDEN RULE

The key to success with Bimodal Blitz is to gradually reduce dependence on apps and challenge yourself to stay in the target language. This means your first priority, the golden rule, from the first page of the first book you blitz, is to try and synchronize your reading with the audiobook narrator. It's like how when cycling, you must keep your eyes on the road ahead. Staying synchronized will improve your phonetic and visual association, fine-tune your pronunciation, and develop a feel for the language's rhythm, intonation, and structure, just as a cyclist learns balance and cadence.

DEVELOPING LANGUAGE INTUITION

As you progress, you'll find that the repeated exposure to text in your target language builds a subconscious understanding of the language's structure, common phrases, and vocabulary. I say subconscious because when you blitz a book, you are reading it within a single day. You won't have time to consciously parse this massive input of text, so find books that interest you and enjoy them without analyzing them too much. It's by simultaneously reading and listening to books in a strict time frame and at increasing speeds that you challenge yourself to rely less on external aids and more on your developing language intuition.

FINDING YOUR FLOW

And just like riding a bike, Bimodal Blitz is about finding your flow. This is where the magic happens. When you're in a state of flow, you're immersed in the book, and language acquisition is both optimal and enjoyable. The easier you can get into a flow state, the more books you want to read in your target language. Your reading and listening comprehension continues to improve. You can also better adjust to faster reading and listening speeds. You stay in sync longer, and when you lose your spot, you can find it faster. You start to wean yourself off translations and dive deeper into the target language.

This immersion is achieved, first and foremost, by staying synchronized with the audiobook narrator. 

TRANSLATIONS vs IMMERSION

For the complete beginner, relying on translations is perfectly reasonable, but don’t let it be at the cost of enjoying the book and achieving a flow state. Remember the golden rule. Take those quick glances at interlinear text or make on-the-fly translations, but only when you are in cadence with the flow and tempo of the audiobook narrator. To accomplish this, experiment by adjusting the speed of the audiobook accordingly. It takes practice! As you progress and your reading locks into place, you'll find yourself needing these translations less and less.

As you advance to longer and more complex books, you'll still encounter new words and grammar structures. That's when those quick translation glances come in handy again. But again, keep your reading in sync with the narrator, even as you briefly consult these translations. This balance between immersion and translation is what helps you build language automaticity and achieve those flow states.

The BIMODAL BLITZATHON

Stage One of the Bimodal Blitzathon is where you blitz a book/audiobook a day for 30 to 100 consecutive days. It can be intense at times, but it accelerates your language learning exponentially. As you blitz through simpler books at the beginning, you'll gradually increase the audiobook speed and duration, challenging yourself to stay immersed in the target language.

Just like removing the training wheels from your bike, you'll find that you can go faster and farther with each passing day. The more books you blitz, the more vocabulary, writing styles, and great books you'll encounter. Your reading speed and comprehension will improve, and you'll start experiencing those magical moments of language automaticity and flow more frequently.

Stay synced with Bimodal Blitz by following @BimodalBlitz on Twitter/x. And for those who want to learn a new language, I encourage you to dive into a book in your target language and experience blitzing for yourself.

P.S. A book on how to Bimodal Blitz will eventually be released explaining the method in detail. For updates, subscribe to this blog.