Foundations

Hi… You found us. 


And yeah, we’re going there. 


As a company, we understand that success in any part of our lives, is not one thing. 


But yeah, we’re going there. We are going to put ourselves out there and tell you what you already know in your heart. 



We don’t mean to be a life coach business. But here’s the thing. Learning a language is synergistic. When you have a good life attitude and balance, you learn better. And when you learn a language, you become happier, and it feeds into a positive feedback loop.

The language House.

Gather your bricks before laying mortar.

Foundations. 

When building a house you don’t show up to a plot of land with paint buckets, mirrors and pillow covers. 

You build the foundation first. You follow a blueprint. 

Painting and furniture and dishes are something you choose and decorate your already built house later. 

Language is like this built house. There is the basic shape. Everyone has this same language house. Just the inside is decorated a little differently for different people based on what they like to talk about. 

The language house. 

Nouns are the bricks in your language house. You stack them together. But they don’t stay together without mortar. Grammar is the mortar. 


But if you just jump in learning grammar, you’ll have a pile of sloppy mortar. It’s confusing, doesn’t have a shape in your mind. Nouns give you that shape. You can stack a brick here and there as you go, and then the grammar seals it and helps you use it correctly. 


Adjectives are a bit like paint. They give your house a description. It can be solid colors, or a mural. 


And since bricks aka nouns are so important, it’s better to gather them together first. Especially the most used ones, the most necessary ones, because then you have more ways to play with the grammar that you are learning. This help the mortar/grammar solidify. Grammar is the foundation of speaking correctly, but without those solid bricks to help you on your way, your grammar understanding will come very very slowly. This is why we go heavy on nouns and adjectives first. But don’t worry, there are clear and concise grammar explanations along the way at every moment you have learned enough nouns and adjectives to help that grammar be understood and stick. 

Grammar is a habit

Grammar is habit



We don’t focus on grammar yet. Because it’s like taking the effort to mix concrete and then dump it on the ground. Without bricks, it makes no sense to mix the concert. We focus on getting those bricks gathered and aligned first.  



Also, Grammar is mostly habit.  This is shown by how often entire populations make grammar mistakes, like “I have never gotten a “…. Well… gotten is an incorrect usage of “got”.   Or, “there’s books on the shelf.”  It should be there are books on the shelf. But we don’t think about it because it’s a habit. Often people don’t really even know why they say things a certain way in their own language.  When I ask native speakers grammar rules in their language, they usually don’t know them. They just say “that’s just the way we say it”. 


If you think about it, that’s the same way new words and slang come into usage. If you went back in time 20 years and said, “I don’t know, but I’ll google it”, people would not know what you mean. But through repetition and exposure we begin to use it. 


That’s really the best way to get grammar. Yes, we will explain what is happening in sentences, but as always, just gloss over it, and move on. The main thing is to keep nouns and adjectives and the basic verb forms in your head. With enough exposure, you will start to get the “feel”. And that will make you speak more like a native in the long run than someone who is very focused on making you speak with perfect grammar from the beginning. It’s as much a waste of time and resource as that pile of concrete next to the building site. 

Fighting Overwhelm

We’ve been tricked into thinking languages are difficult. 




We don’t take the right path, so we get overwhelmed. 



It’s true that slow and steady with the race. The main thing to take away from this is, that you should focus on the steady part, and go the highest speed that allows you to maintain the steadiness. 


Sprinters don’t with marathons. And habits are marathons. The sprinter goes hard and fast. They let out all their motivation in one go. 



If you are building our own house. And it’s going to take 10,000 bricks. And you need to carry the bricks from some spot. And let’s say that you have a goal of moving them all in 15 days. That means that you have to move 670 bricks per day. Well, let’s say that you find that you can do it, but then you’re so exhausted that the next 2 days you’re too tired and sore to do anything. And on the 3rd day, in your mind, you’re not getting motivated to move that many, because you’re thinking about how tired and sore you’ll be again for the 3 days after. So, you put it off. You don’t do anything. You don’t go to the building site to move the bricks. When, if you would have just moved 350 per day, you would have done half the work per day, but it’s manageable. You’re not dreading going to put the work in. And you actually get it done within 30 days without exhausting yourself. Whereas the person who wanted to do 670 per day, they did it only once a week, because that’s all they could motivate themselves to do. So in a month they moved less than 3,000 bricks.

What is fluency?

The idea and definitions of fluency are overrated and flawed. 



Some of the layers might seem obvious to you, and for others they are not. It’s the same as if you were sitting in a class in University with 300 students. Not everyone will get the same grade. 


Why not?


Some people are more or less interested. 


Some take the class out of necessity, and some out of passion. 


Some brains think 


Some have outside stressors and distractions. 


Some work the night shift. 


There are many reasons. 


And in the end, not everyone will get the same grade. 


Lingafy is for everyone. It is the best tool. Because there isn’t a professor, or a deadline. There is no travel. We know, because we have been to university. 


It’s not an app that is meant to gamify and distract you, so you make real progress. 




Back to Fluency: Not every English speaker knows every English word, or word in their country, or even part of their country. They don’t know every pop culture reference. 


Remember clicks in high school? 


People have the false idea that fluency is to know everything in a language. Do you think if you walked into a factory where they build rockets, you would know the names of every apparatus?


No.  


Fluency is being able to communicate with most people, most of the time, about most things. And the things you don’t know, their person who does can explain it to you, and you will understand. 

For example an archery instructor, or a doll collector, or mechanic. This is “functional fluency”.  You know 85% of what they are going to say. Scientific studies have shown that this is how much you need to know, to understand everything else in context. 


You will always hear words you don’t know. I hear people use English words I’ve never heard all the time. But because of the context of the words around it, I don’t have to look in a dictionary to find the meaning. I can even start to use that word myself, just by hearing it. This is how the Lingafy corpus works. You learn these words, and you start to catch and understand and keep for yourself all these words you hear that you’ve never heard before. But it doesn’t matter that you’ve never heard them, because you understand them. At first, it will feel like an unusual skill, but with time, with more and more words and practice, it will all come naturally. It’s really quite thrilling when you begin to year words you’ve never heard before, but you understand them without searching for the meaning.

CEFL

And other "authorities" are dinosaurs.


Debunking the Authority of CEFR and Traditional Language Levels—And Why Lingafy Is the Upgrade

1. CEFR/ACTFL Are Products of Their Time

  • These frameworks were designed decades ago for classroom settings, long before AI, personalized learning, or even widespread internet access.

  • They represent a snapshot of consensus among educators—not a universal law.

2. Inconsistent, Vague, and Outdated

  • B1 in one school is B2 in another—the line is blurry and subjective.

  • They struggle to keep up with how people actually use language today (social media, texting, memes, code-switching).

  • CEFR hasn’t changed much since 2001, but language and communication have.

3. Not Real-World or Individualized

  • CEFR levels don’t tell you what you can do in your real life—just how you performed in a sterile test.

  • Most people don’t care if they’re “B2.” They want to order a pizza, argue with their landlord, flirt at a party, or close a business deal—all things that standard tests can’t really measure.

  • Actual fluency is contextual. You can be great at business meetings and lost at a barbecue, but the CEFR would label you the same.

4. Not Built for Progress Tracking or Personal Growth

  • You “level up” every 1-2 years—with little feedback in between. There’s no fine-grained measurement of daily progress or motivation.

  • No guidance on what you should work on next for your goals.

5. Authority ≠ Infallibility

  • The only reason people worship these frameworks is because institutions require them—not because they’re the best at measuring what actually matters.

  • If better tools exist, why not use them?

Why Lingafy Is the Upgrade

  1. Personalized Progress, Not Arbitrary Labels

    • Lingafy measures your ability to do your real-world tasks—no one-size-fits-all “B2” stamp.

    • Tracks granular progress in all skills, not just big milestones.

  2. Real Fluency, Not Just Exam Fluency

    • Built around real-life scenarios, modern slang, cultural references, and actual communication needs.

  3. Adaptive, Dynamic, Modern

    • Uses AI and real data to adapt lessons and challenges—no more learning fruit vocab for months.

    • Instant feedback, interactive practice, and up-to-date content.

  4. Transparent and Evolving

    • Open to improvements and user feedback—Lingafy evolves as languages (and learners) do.

    • No black-box decisions or committee-driven confusion.

  5. Designed for Lifelong Learners

    • Whether you want to travel, work abroad, or just chat with friends, you get a personalized roadmap—and see real progress every week.

Pitch/Conclusion

“Legacy frameworks like CEFR or ACTFL were breakthroughs for their time—but their time has passed. Language and technology have evolved, and so have our needs as learners. Lingafy is the modern upgrade: personalized, real-world, transparent, and actually motivating. It’s not about fitting into an old box. It’s about finally measuring what matters to you—and giving you the roadmap to reach real fluency.”


Why your brain doesn't get full.

Why your brain doesn’t get full. 


Can you stop running out of memories?  Can you imagine that today you go to buy a coffee, and across your eyes is written, memory full?  

The thing is, since computers became mainstream, people have made an illogical and false connection to the memory of a computer chip, to the memory of the brain. 


Brains do not get full. Details get fuzzy, but when you meet your friend and talk about some evening from 10 years ago, you both start to remember it, and some details come back. Humans have active and passive memory. We remember birthdays from 15 years ago. We remember them even better with a prompt like a photo, or someone else saying a detail. That’s what “reminding” is. You sort of forgot, but then, you can remember again. You don’t remember the birthday, but then you see the picture, of all the people who were there, and then you remember details that weren’t in the picture, and then “it all comes back”. You remember your cannonball into the pool, or some candle lit someone’s hair on fire. 


With languages it’s similar, but even easier. Generally, people can keep learning languages. Words. 10-20 a day, for their whole lives. The thing is, to be functionally fluent, you need to know 1053 words on average, give or take 50 based on the language. Learning 10 words a day, that would only take 3 months. So people can learn 4 languages a year for their whole lives. That’s 40 languages in 10 years. And though they might not speak incredibly fluently, when natives around them speak, they hear the words and they put the meaning together the same way as being “reminded”. 

Contextual Progressive

Why You Need Both Sides of the Language Equation


To learn a language effectively, you need more than just a native speaker of your target language—you also need a teacher who speaks your own native language and has successfully learned multiple other languages. Why? Because understanding how to build bridges between linguistic structures requires someone who can “translate” the logic from your language into the new one in a way that makes sense. Meanwhile, a native of your target language who’s also navigated learning additional languages can give you the most authentic pronunciation, cultural context, and idiomatic usage.

Focus on the Core Vocabulary
One key insight is that every language has a subset of frequently used words that cover the majority of everyday conversations. Research shows that learning roughly 1,054 of these high-frequency words yields about 85% comprehension in most contexts. Instead of trying to memorize endless word lists, you master the terms you’ll actually encounter—and do so in a structured way.

Contextual, Progressive Learning
At Lingafy, we believe in contextually progressive learning. This means you learn each new word (from that essential 1,054) in the context of words and phrases you’ve already mastered. By building on existing knowledge, each step feels natural and more memorable, rather than disjointed. When a native speaker of your language (who’s conquered other languages themselves) teams up with a native speaker of your target language, you get both the big-picture framework and the precise, real-world usage.

Taken together, these elements ensure you’re not just picking up random vocabulary and grammar rules—you’re applying them in ways that make sense from day one. That’s the power of having both sides of the language equation on your side, taught through an approach that prioritizes frequent words, logical progression, and immediate real-life relevance.

Progressive Contextual

Anyone can learn Russian letters

Peter

Paul


I like Paul. 


Пaul is tall. 


Do you like пaul?


Паuл is aлso nice. 


Do you лike пauл aлso?


П and л


Реstauрants serve фооd. 


Restaurants serve food. 


I лike my фрiends. 


Ф and Р


Yes. The russian r looks like the english p, but don't conфuse them. 


Рussian is a nice лanguage. 


T is the same. M is the same. Yaaay. 


So is O and K. 


Талк то ми. 


Talk to me. 


И is ee. Like the long ee sound. 


Bee. Me. Free. 


Би. Ми. Фри. 


B is Б 


B b


Berry

Very. 


This berry is very big. 


А is also the same. Hurray. 


So. How do you pronounce "как" ? 


It means how?  And it is the beginning of " how are you? "


Как дела?


D is д


E is almost like e but it has a y sound in front like in english "yellow"   With russian letters yellow would be ело 



French fries. 


Френч Фраиз









A short spanish story.

Here’s a 200-word paragraph that mixes about 85% English words and 15% Spanish. (The 15% is supposed to represent what you don't know, but can imply through context).

One sunny morning, Sara and her friend Tom went to the parque to play. Sara brought her red pelota and Tom brought his comida for a picnic. They ran fast and laughed a lot. “Let’s play near the árbol,” said Sara. Tom said, “Good idea! The sombra is cool.” After playing, they sat on a manta and ate sandwiches and manzanas. Sara said, “I love fruta.” Tom gave her a big sonrisa and said, “Me too!” They watched the pájaros fly in the sky and listened to them sing. Then, Sara saw a cute perro running with a little boy. “Look at the perro!” she said. The boy waved and said, “Hola!” Tom and Sara waved back. After lunch, they picked up their basura and put it in the bote. “We should come back mañana,” Tom said. Sara smiled and said, “Sí, I want to play in the parque again!” As they left, they felt happy because they had a fun day together with games, food, and new friends.

Not just Nouns

A mix of the most relative words and concepts.

The 1054 words is not just nouns. It is noun heavy, but it's very difficult to make any meaning if you only focus on the most used words, such as pronouns, articles, and auxiliary verbs. 

Here are some sentences that do not include nouns or adjectives.

  1. She will do it and make them.

  2. They can have it or use them.

  3. We will go and see it.

  4. You must find it and take them.

  5. He can get it or give them.

  6. They are here, but we are there.

  7. I will do it if you can.

  8. She will get it, but not do that.

Without nouns (like dog, house, book) or adjectives (like big, red, happy), these sentences are technically “correct,” but they don’t really say what anyone is doing. It shows how empty language can feel if you leave out those key pieces!

These concepts are grammatically the most important to learn. But they are very very difficult to learn without helper nouns and adjectives. By learning the most common nouns and adjectives first, you will be able to better understand grammatical structures. 

Our program is a mixture of the most common words, with a sprinkling of some of the less common words to help give a complete picture.

It's not language specific, but on average depending on the language, there are approximately 532 nouns, 143 adjectives, 218 verbs, the rest are the most common conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions and adverbs.

Remember, the language house needs it "noun-bricks" to be sturdy. 

Only then can we decorate it with tenses, and conjugations, declinations, slang, idioms and abbreviations etc. All which are taught in the appropriate order. 

Tangents

Don't worry, we have made extra side lessons to suit your personal interests.

The 1054 is the "core" vocabulary. It doesn't include words like doll, pottery, archery, crytals etc. These are not commonly used words. However we have made side lessons that include them to suit those who have that specific interest.