Learning fast about the grammar of a foreign language

Idea

Tim Ferris recommends in his TED talk Smash fear, learn anything (fast forward to 10:00) to ask a native speaker to translate the following six carefully selected sentences in present, future and past tenses.

• The apple is red.
• It is John’s apple.
• I give John the apple.
• We want to give him the apple.
• He gives it to John.
• She gives it to him.

This will teach you about subject, object, verb, placement of direct and indirect object, and the genders.

I’d augment some those sentences with negation because negation is different in every language. For example:

• The apple is red, the apple is not green.
• It is John’s apple.
• I give John the apple, I give John no orange.
• We want to give him the apple, we do not want to give him the orange.
• He gives it to John.
• She gives it to him.

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