The person
behind the method
jonah friedman
Creator of The Disclosure Method
Founder & CEO
Language has shaped nearly every dimension of Jonah Friedmans life from his education and profession to his travels, relationships, interests and understanding of the world.
3 advanced certifications
Dele C1 / Daple C1
DELF B2
5000+ hours
Teaching & Tutoring
32 countries
Across Six Continents
4.0 GPA
Arizona State University
discover jonahs story
Jonah Friedman is the Founder and CEO of Spanish Disclosure Consulting LLC and the creator of The Disclosure Method. Language has shaped nearly every dimension of his adult life: his education, profession, routines, relationships, travels, entertainment, intellectual interests, and understanding of the world. He holds a DELE C1 certification in Spanish and a DELF B2 certification in French. He earned a DAPLE C1 certification in Portuguese with a classification of “Bom,” including a score of 99 out of 100 on the speaking component. Jonah graduated from Arizona State University with a 4.0 GPA while attending on a full-tuition scholarship. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Geography, completed ASU’s Spanish for Heritage and Bilingual Speakers program, received a TESOL certificate, and earned a Certificate in Brazilian Studies. During his time at ASU, Jonah served as Head Tutor for the university’s Portuguese language program and was a member of the Brazilian Students Association. These experiences allowed him to connect language learning with teaching, culture, identity, geography, community, and international understanding. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Language Acquisition and Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona. Across more than 5,000 hours of teaching and tutoring, Jonah has worked with learners possessing different goals, personalities, schedules, strengths, frustrations, and levels of experience. Those thousands of hours helped him understand not only how differently individuals learn, but also how consistently learners encounter the same fundamental problems. Many are intelligent, motivated, and willing to work. They simply do not know where to direct that work. Having traveled to 32 countries across six continents, Jonah has also experienced what advanced language ability can make possible beyond a classroom. Languages have given him access to friendships, conversations, invitations, cultural experiences, and ways of understanding places that would otherwise have remained partially closed. For Jonah, language has never been merely a collection of words. It is access. It is the ability to enter another part of the human world and participate rather than remain outside observing. Jonah Friedman created The Disclosure Method to provide the missing system. The method is the culmination of Jonah’s life as a multilingual learner, educator, traveler, and language-acquisition specialist. It is also the foundation of Spanish Disclosure Consulting LLC, the company he created to make that system available to people who have the desire to acquire another language but have never been shown a complete path. The Disclosure Method is not merely something Jonah teaches. It is his own personal method—the framework he has used to organize his learning, achieve advanced proficiency, earn internationally recognized certifications, develop his pronunciation, work intelligently with instructors, and turn languages into permanent parts of his life. Its genius lies in taking everything that contributes to successful language acquisition and placing it into the right relationship, sequence, and stage of development.
01 — A PERSONAL METHOD MADE TEACHABLE
it wasn't created as a marketing concept
It was built through experience
The Disclosure Method™ was developed through Jonah’s own language learning, academic study, years of teaching, experimentation, observations, successes, mistakes, and a constant examination of what truly produces meaningful improvement.
read how the method developed
The Origin of The Disclosure Method The Disclosure Method began in 2020, when Jonah Friedman used the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to seriously investigate how adults could learn languages efficiently, enjoyably, and to a high level without relying on traditional classroom methods or moving abroad. His goal was simple: determine what Second Language Acquisition research, linguistics, learning science, and the world’s most successful polyglots actually suggest people should do to become strong speakers. He applied those ideas directly to Spanish while continuing to study the process itself. By spring 2021, his Spanish had improved enough that he was placed into Arizona State University’s bilinguals program. That summer, he studied Portuguese intensively enough to skip a Portuguese course the following fall. Over the next several years, he continued testing and refining the same general approach across Portuguese, French, Russian, tutoring, and professional language teaching. He began working as a Portuguese tutor at ASU and as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in 2022. He later worked as a Spanish tutor, studied French before trips to France, pursued formal proficiency certifications, and continued studying Russian after graduating. His teaching experience became especially important to the development of the Method. Across more than 5,000 hours of language teaching and tutoring, he trained learners from around the world in many of the same principles he had used himself. He saw the same problems repeatedly: learners misunderstood how acquisition works, didn’t consume enough content, never read aloud, practiced inefficiently, misunderstood speaking and grammar, and often had no clear idea what they should be doing at different stages of development. That led to the central problem The Disclosure Method was designed to solve: What should a learner do, and when should they do it? The Method is not based on one theory or one technique. It combines principles from Second Language Acquisition, linguistics, learning science, expert polyglot practice, tutoring, technology, and Jonahs’s own repeated language-learning experience. Its defining feature is structure. The learner does not do the same activities from beginning to end. The process changes as the learner changes. Phase 1 builds the foundation. Phase 2 develops active speaking ability. Phase 3 expands that ability into real-world fluency. Within that structure, learners still have substantial freedom to choose their own content, interests, tutors, routines, and resources. The Method provides the path without turning language learning back into school. Jonah does not view The Disclosure Method as the invention of entirely new language-learning principles. Most of the underlying ideas already existed in research and in the practices of successful language learners. The problem was that they were scattered. Research explained one part. Polyglots explained another. Teachers used another. Technology made new practices possible. But the average learner was still left trying to figure out how everything fit together. The Disclosure Method is the organization of those pieces into a practical system. Spanish Disclosure was later created to bring that system to Americans learning Spanish and make the process easier to understand, more enjoyable to follow, and less wasteful of time and money. What began as Spanish Disclosure’s Founder’s attempt to figure out how he should learn languages became a repeatable method for helping other people do the same. The Disclosure Method exists to make building the path to high-level language ability clearer.
02 — THE GENIUS IS IN THE ARCHITECTURE
POSSESSING THE INGREDIENTS IS NOT THE SAME AS POSSESSING THE RECIPE.
The individual tools of language learning already exist. Learners can use tutors, study pronunciation, read aloud, practice grammar, watch authentic content, and use artificial intelligence.
THE DIFFERENCE IS KNOWING HOW EVERYTHING WORKS TOGETHER.
The Disclosure Method™ gives each activity a purpose, determines when it should be introduced, and shows how it should connect with everything else the learner is doing.
THE INNOVATION ISN’T ANOTHER TOOL
IT’S THE ARCHITECTURE THAT CONNECTS THEM.
EXPLORE THE ARCHITECTURE ↓ The genius of The Disclosure Method is not hidden in one secret exercise. Many individual elements of the method already exist. Learners can watch subtitled content, hire tutors, study pronunciation, read aloud, practice grammar, use artificial intelligence, or travel abroad without Spanish Disclosure. But possessing ingredients is not the same as possessing a recipe. The Disclosure Method explains the role of each activity, when it should be introduced, what ability it is meant to develop, and how it should interact with everything else the learner is doing. It does not simply recommend more resources. It creates order among them. It distinguishes input from output, controlled production from spontaneous speaking, declarative grammar knowledge from usable grammatical skill, pronunciation awareness from physical pronunciation ability, and classroom performance from real-world communication. It recognizes that timing matters. Speaking can be valuable, but speaking freely before developing adequate perception and pronunciation can reinforce inaccurate habits. Translation can be useful, but it should function as strategic support rather than permanent dependence. Tutors can be extraordinarily valuable, but only when the learner understands how to direct them. Grammar matters, but memorizing explanations is not the same as using grammar accurately while speaking. The method does not treat these ideas as contradictions. It gives each one its proper place. That is its central innovation: The Disclosure Method does not merely tell learners what works. It organizes what works into a complete developmental sequence.
03 — THREE PHASES. ONE COMPLETE SYSTEM
language development is a process
the order matters
The Disclosure Method™ organizes language acquisition into three consecutive phases, with each phase building on the abilities developed before it.
Rather than asking learners to practice everything at once, the method helps them focus on the right activities at the right stage of development.
phase 1
BUILD THE FOUNDATION
Environment • Input • Comprehension • Pronunciation
phase 2
activate the language
Reading • Speaking • Correction • Grammar
phase 3
integrate & expand
Culture • Real-World Communication • Advanced Ability
EACH PHASE PREPARES THE LEARNER
FOR WHAT COMES NEXT.
EXPLORE THE PHASES Phase 1: Build the Foundation Phase 1 establishes the conditions necessary for successful acquisition before extensive free speaking begins. The learner first organizes the practical infrastructure of language learning: devices, accounts, subscriptions, browser extensions, tutors, schedules, budgets, content libraries, equipment, and protected learning time. This may appear less exciting than immediately memorizing phrases, but it solves a major problem. Language acquisition cannot become a stable part of someone’s life if every practice session begins with uncertainty, disorganization, or a search for something to do. The learner then begins consuming familiar, supported, comprehensible, and repeated input. Favorite movies, television programs, online videos, podcasts, and personally meaningful subjects become sources of language exposure. Dual subtitles, translations, repetition, and familiar stories make authentic material more accessible. At the same time, learners study how language acquisition works. They become informed participants in the process instead of passive consumers following instructions they do not understand. Phase 1 also gives speech sounds and pronunciation the attention they deserve. Learners study the sound system, develop awareness of how the target language differs from English, work with instructors, and practice guided reading aloud. Extensive spontaneous speaking is deliberately limited during this period. The learner first develops better perceptual models and physical habits, reducing the likelihood of repeatedly practicing avoidable pronunciation errors. Phase 1 is not silence for the sake of silence. It is preparation with a purpose. Phase 2: Activate the Language Once the foundation is sufficiently developed, Phase 2 begins converting recognition into increasingly independent production. Input becomes broader, more varied, and more challenging. Learners hear different speakers, accents, subjects, registers, and formats so that comprehension does not become dependent on one instructor or one predictable source. Extensive reading aloud becomes a critical bridge between understanding language and creating it. When learners read accurate, meaningful sentences aloud, they produce language with correct words and structures already available in front of them. Translation can help them connect those sentences directly to meaning. Repetition helps strengthen pronunciation, rhythm, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency. This is one of the most ingenious parts of The Disclosure Method. Learners do not have to choose between passive comprehension and completely spontaneous speech. Reading aloud occupies the space between them. It allows the mouth and brain to gain extensive experience producing sophisticated language before the learner could independently construct every sentence in real time. Guided speaking is then introduced with tutors and instructors. Learners answer questions, tell stories, discuss meaningful content, describe experiences, complete speaking tasks, and practice real communication. Corrections are never treated as interruptions to the lesson. They become part of a deliberate loop: The learner speaks. The instructor identifies a problem. The instructor supplies or guides a better version. The learner repeats the correction. The learner applies it in a complete phrase or sentence. The improved form reappears in future practice. Grammar is trained through the same philosophy. Learners do not merely memorize terminology or complete written exercises. They focus on one useful structure at a time, study how it works, read accurate examples aloud, recognize it in authentic input, practice it with an instructor, and use it repeatedly in speech. Grammar becomes something the learner can do—not merely something the learner can explain. Phase 3: Integrate, Expand, and Stabilize Phase 3 moves the language beyond controlled development and into the unpredictable world. Learners consume advanced content with fewer supports. They read aloud without depending heavily on translation. They speak with a wider range of people in different environments and learn to function when no instructor is present to simplify the conversation or correct every mistake. The language expands socially and culturally. Learners study regional variation, accents, idioms, humor, slang, profanity, register, history, cultural references, etiquette, and the different ways language changes according to relationship and setting. They use the language to build friendships, travel, understand communities, pursue professional opportunities, consume culture, prepare for proficiency examinations, and participate in experiences that once would have been inaccessible. Phase 3 reveals the ultimate purpose of the entire architecture. The goal is not to become exceptionally good at completing language-learning activities. The goal is to possess another language through which to understand more, experience more, know more people, and participate in more of the world.
04 — STRUCTURE WITHOUT IMPRISONMENT
A clear path doesn't mean a rigid experience
The Disclosure Method™ provides a structured sequence for language development while allowing each learner to personalize the experience around their own interests, schedule, instructors, goals, and circumstances.
STRUCTURE PROVIDES THE PATH.
PERSONALIZATION MAKES IT YOURS.
EXPLORE PERSONALIZATION One of the greatest design challenges in language education is balancing guidance with freedom. Too little guidance leaves learners confused. They follow impulses, jump between resources, avoid difficult weaknesses, repeat ineffective habits, and mistake activity for progress. Too much control creates a rigid curriculum disconnected from the learner’s interests, personality, schedule, energy, and goals. The Disclosure Method solves this problem by separating the structure from the content. The structure remains stable. Learners develop their environment, receive meaningful input, train pronunciation, read aloud, work with instructors, build grammar, expand cultural knowledge, and gradually enter real-world communication. But the experience inside that structure is personal. One learner may build practice around films. Another may prefer sports, music, history, travel, comedy, business, cooking, gaming, or relationships. Learners can select instructors whose personalities and accents interest them. They can generate materials connected to their professions and choose content they genuinely want to understand. The method provides boundaries where boundaries protect progress and freedom where freedom increases engagement. That balance is exceptionally intelligent. Learners are not forced into identical experiences, yet they are not abandoned to invent language acquisition from nothing.
05 — AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR MODERN LANGUAGE LEARNING
A clear path doesn't mean a rigid experience
The Disclosure Method™ gives these resources specific roles within a structured learning system, helping participants understand what to use, when to use it, and how each tool supports their development.
TECHNOLOGY CREATES VALUE ONLY WHEN PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW TO USE IT.
The Disclosure Method™ gives these resources specific roles within a structured learning system, helping participants understand what to use, when to use it, and how each tool supports their development.
MORE TOOLS DON’T AUTOMATICALLY CREATE BETTER RESULTS.
SEE HOW THE TOOLS CONNECT Modern learners have access to extraordinary technology. A smartphone can deliver authentic speech from thousands of native speakers. Streaming platforms can make another language part of daily entertainment. Online tutoring platforms can connect learners with instructors around the world. Artificial intelligence can generate personalized explanations, stories, conversations, examples, and practice materials in seconds. Yet technology creates value only when people understand how to use it. The Disclosure Method functions as an operating system for this modern learning environment. It does not pretend that one application is the answer. Instead, it assigns different tools different jobs. Streaming content supports comprehension and repeated exposure. Dual subtitles provide temporary scaffolding. Inline translation connects language to meaning. Artificial intelligence produces personalized material and explanations. Tutors provide human judgment, feedback, correction, modeling, and interaction. The Disclosure Method Planner turns intention into organized action. Workshops teach learners how the complete system functions. The method transforms a chaotic marketplace of resources into a coordinated ecosystem. A tool no longer has to accomplish everything. It only has to perform its specific role well.
06 — IT TRAINS THE LEARNER, NOT JUST THE LANGUAGE
THE GOAL ISN’T PERMANENT DEPENDENCE.
THE GOAL IS INDEPENDENCE.
Many language programs teach learners what to study. The Disclosure Method™ goes further by teaching participants how to understand and manage the language-acquisition process itself.
As learners progress, they become better equipped to choose resources, evaluate instructors, organize their practice, recognize weaknesses, and determine what they need to do next.
THE LEARNER DOESN’T JUST DEVELOP THE LANGUAGE.THEY DEVELOP THE ABILITY TO KEEP LEARNING IT.
A SUCCESSFUL SYSTEM SHOULDN’T CREATE DEPENDENCE.
IT SHOULD CREATE CAPABILITY.
WHAT INDEPENDENCE LOOKS LIKE ↓ Most language programs deliver lessons. The Disclosure Method develops language learners. That distinction changes everything. A lesson may teach a grammar rule or vocabulary set. Learner training teaches someone how to select resources, organize practice, evaluate advice, work with instructors, identify weaknesses, use correction, personalize repetition, and make intelligent decisions throughout years of development. The objective is not permanent dependence on Spanish Disclosure. The objective is independence. A successful learner eventually understands why an activity is useful, what ability it develops, when it should be adjusted, and what to do when progress becomes difficult. The learner becomes capable of diagnosing weaknesses and selecting appropriate responses. If one accent remains difficult, consume more of it. If a grammatical structure repeatedly causes problems, return to the grammar loop. If pronunciation breaks down on particular sounds, investigate and practice them. If comprehension has become too dependent on subtitles, gradually remove support. If conversation remains limited to familiar subjects, expand the range of input and interaction. This judgment may be the most valuable ability The Disclosure Method teaches. It allows someone not only to acquire one language, but to understand how to do it again.
07 — LANGUAGE IS ACCESS
LANGUAGE IS MORE THAN WORDS.
IT IS ACCESS.
Learning another language creates opportunities to participate in experiences that can remain partially closed to those who cannot communicate directly.
It can provide access to new people, places, cultures, conversations, relationships, and ways of understanding the world.
LANGUAGE CHANGES WHAT YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN — NOT JUST WHAT YOU CAN UNDERSTAND.
Jonah’s own language-learning experience has influenced how he travels, communicates, builds relationships, and experiences other cultures. Language became more than an academic skill. It became a way to participate more fully in the world.
LEARNING A LANGUAGE DOESN’T JUST CHANGE
HOW YOU COMMUNICATE.
IT CHANGES THE WORLD YOU CAN ENTER.
EXPLORE WHAT LANGUAGE MAKES POSSIBLE ↓ A Higher Vision of Fluency The Disclosure Method does not define success as merely surviving an elementary interaction. It is designed for people who want to speak impressively well. Communication matters, but pronunciation, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary, fluency, cultural knowledge, and sociolinguistic awareness determine how completely someone can express who they are. When language ability is limited, part of the person remains hidden. Their humor may disappear. Their knowledge may sound simpler than it is. Their stories may lose their detail. Their personality may be compressed into the small collection of structures they can control. As the language becomes stronger, less of it stands between the speaker and everyone else. Conversations require less repair. Ideas become more precise. Humor becomes possible. Relationships become deeper. People can focus on the individual rather than the effort required to understand them. Jonah does not believe learners should be told that accuracy is unimportant simply because precision requires work. He believes they deserve to know what is possible.
08 — WHY SPANISH DISCLOSURE EXISTS
GOOD FORTUNE BECOMES RESPONSIBILITY.
Jonah had the opportunity to study languages deeply, learn from skilled instructors, teach thousands of hours, travel internationally, earn advanced certifications, study research, and spend years refining his own approach to language acquisition.
Those experiences eventually developed into a system that could benefit more than one learner.
Spanish Disclosure™ exists to make that knowledge accessible
To help learners avoid unnecessary frustration, use their time and resources more effectively, and approach language acquisition with greater direction and confidence.
KNOWLEDGE BECOMES MORE VALUABLE
WHEN IT CAN BE SHARED.
GET TO KNOW THE MISSION ↓ Spanish Disclosure Consulting LLC was created to transform The Disclosure Method from Jonah’s personal framework into a complete training ecosystem. The company’s workshops, guide, planner, pronunciation materials, digital resources, learning tools, and participant systems all serve the same purpose: helping people understand and correctly implement the method in their own lives. The name Spanish Disclosure reflects a promise. The company exists to disclose the truth about language acquisition—to replace vague advice, disconnected activities, gimmicks, and false shortcuts with clarity. Spanish Disclosure does not promise that acquiring a language requires no effort. Meaningful ability requires time, commitment, attention, repetition, correction, resources, and sustained practice. What the company provides is something equally valuable: A system worthy of that effort. When learners understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what should happen next, hard work becomes purposeful. Progress stops feeling accidental. They no longer have to wake up each day and guess what “studying Spanish” is supposed to mean.
ONE METHOD. A LIFETIME OF POSSIBILITIES
SPANISH IS THE FIRST DOORWAY.
The Disclosure Method™ is designed to teach more than one language. It teaches learners how to understand the process of language acquisition itself.
Once that process is understood, the same underlying framework can help guide the acquisition of additional languages throughout a learner’s life.
LEARN THE LANGUAGE
UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS
