Is the Antimoon Method for you?

by Tomasz P. Szynalski

The Antimoon Method is a great, fun way to learn English very well in a few years. But it’s not for everyone. Before you start, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you want to speak English fluently and without mistakes? While some of the principles of the Antimoon Method are universal and apply to all language learning, the Antimoon Method is designed for people who want to become proficient — to write in English with few mistakes, to understand more than 90% of a movie, to have good, clear pronunciation, to be able to give a presentation in English, etc. If your goals are more modest — maybe you just want to be able to order a meal or understand technical documentation in English — some of the advice on Antimoon is not for you (although some of it may still be useful).
Do you like learning new things about any subject? Do you enjoy books, movies and TV shows? To learn English well, you need massive amounts of input. For most learners living in non-English-speaking countries, the only realistic way to get massive amounts of input is English-language content: websites, books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, etc. To get lots of English-language content, you need to want to get English-language content. It doesn’t matter what you’re interested in — it could be psychology, programming or Twilight — but you have to be interested in something. If you don’t have a thirst for knowledge and you’re not a fan of books, movies and TV shows, you probably won’t get enough input to learn English well.
1. *) If you only have 10-20 minutes a day, but you are a highly motivated person with a lot of self-discipline, try an online English course based on spaced-repetition technology. It’s less “sexy” than watching Game of Thrones, and it won’t give you great English, but it’s probably the best you can do with 10-20 minutes a day.
Do you have the time? The Antimoon Method relies on getting “massive amounts of input”, which means something like 60 pages and 6 hours of spoken English a week. You can achieve most of that goal without a big time investment – by making relatively simple lifestyle changes like getting your news and entertainment in English instead of your native language. If you are so busy that there is no way you can get 60 pages and 6 hours of input, the Antimoon Method won’t be a good match for you.*
Are you intellectually curious? When you see something you don’t understand, do you immediately want to know what’s going on? When you give someone a book in a foreign language, you can get two different reactions. One type of person will complain — “This is no fun! Look at all these difficult words!”. Another type of person will immediately get interested — “Hmm... I wonder what this word means? Interesting...”. If you are closer to the first type, you will have a hard time learning English: it’s hard to learn a language if you are afraid of — or bored with — unknown words.