The ULTIMATE SECRET of Learning 20 Languages!
Check out Steve's video▸ • Culture, Language &…Gh...
How is it possible to speak 20 foreign languages? The Canadian polyglot and KZheadr Steve Kaufmann aka @Thelinguist spills the tea about how he accomplished learning all of these different languages, which part of the language learning process you should skip, and he tells us about the time he hitchhiked from Canada to Europe! 😅
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0:00 Steve Kaufmann
1:05 How many languages do you speak?
2:42 What's the story behind this?
5:31 Hitchhiking to Europe
7:41 Do you have a favorite language?
8:27 How difficult is German?
12:06 Tips for learning German
14:47 [German segment]
19:02 Importance of culture
19:46 Different personalities?
23:26 Did you ever give up on a language?
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 29, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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Have you ever tried learning a language? If so, what were the biggest challenges for you? And do you have any tips for overcoming those challenges? 🤔
I am trying to learn German. The biggest challenge so far is the grammar.
As someone who is on the major of Modern Languages and already learned English and French and is currently learning German and Portuguese, I can say it is a strange journey some times a problem is not getting enough practice or just being confused and nervous trying to use the language in context. Also grammar is always a strange thing to approach even in languages close to your native language. I tried learning Japanese during the pandemic, and was doing ok, but soon enough I stopped having enough time.
I often say I am "multi-lingual" with seven languages but with exposure to more. I agree with the listening and reading a LOT. I love to listen to get my ears used to pinpointing where one word end and another begins, where the accents are within words, the flow of the language to more advanced ideas about how words are used in different situations. It's fun!
I know people talk about cases and gender being difficult to remember (and they certainly can be), but something that still gives me problems after years of studying German, is that prepositions don't really line up 1:1 in their usage, despite often having a direct English translation.
I am struggling with German. I studied it in college years ago, but now I have lived in Austria for the past however many years, taken courses, studied on my own, used apps, but still struggle remembering vocabulary and articles, including whether words are masc, fem, neuter. I have wondered if this fatty tumor near the language portion of my brain is keeping me from progressing, but mostly I feel like a failure at it all the time.
It was great speaking with you Feli. Thanks for having me.
Steve, you're the best polyglot ever to me. You're pretty smart and talented at speaking multiple languages on your own. 💙
Your comment deserves many more likes since you've done an amazing job as a polyglot!
You sound biased against Korea and Koreans, not just the Korean language. If I am correct, I wouldn’t doubt you were negatively and unfairly influenced by the japanese when you lived with them. Korean grammar is almost identical to japanese grammar, and in fact, some words are exactly the same (probably from japanese colonialism).
You sound biased against Korea and Koreans, not just the Korean language. If I am correct, I wouldn’t doubt you were negatively and unfairly influenced by the japanese when you lived with them. Korean grammar is almost identical to japanese grammar, and in fact, some words are exactly the same (probably from japanese colonialism).
@@mailinglist2451 same words are most probably from Chinese. Telephone (電話 / 电话) "Denwa" in Japanese, "Dianhua" in Mandarin, "전화" (Jeonhwa) in Korean, "Điện thoại" in Vietnamese...
Feli is a really good interviewer.
Ja sehr gut
Yes, she didn't interrupt him, something almost all interviewers do
Totally agree!
I was stationed in Germany with the Army. They gave us a week of Head-start German. I met a girl and when we hung with her friends, I got tired of asking her what they were saying. I went to the PX and both a book that I think was something like German in 10 Minutes a day. 🤣🤣 That got me to where I could understand about fifty percent. I listened a lot and watched German TV and eventually was able to put it together. And yes, I Gedutsed a lot of people. It helped a lot because her family understood, but didn’t speak a lot of English. We’ve now been married almost thirty years and I still love to speak German!
Thank you for serving.
Most of my assignment top Germany we only had German TV We were told to watch sesame street to help us learn the language. BY the way, Abbott and Costello movies are hilarious in German.
This is a very sweet testimony. I learned German in college - sort of. I love speaking German too!
Feli, This was your best video that I have viewed, because my mind is not geared towards languages. I’m a retired Mechanical Engineer and my mind, still, is based on numbers and science. I think the human mind is very complicated and for some reason we personally evolve in different directions. Your guest was fantastic, he explained perfectly to me why he is so different from me, concerning learning a new language. Thank you very much for this insightful video!
eric: you are fortunate for there is a lot of German language content in your field: the development of the aircraft, auto, etc.
You can do it man. I'm also a mechanical engineer who recently retired. I started casually studying Dutch two years ago and am already reading books and watching and understanding many films and TV shows. I like to watch Steve's videos because I almost always agree with him. It's not about formal grammar courses or tests. It's about enjoying the language and culture.
Anyone can learn a new language, I've learnt pre quick so far with German I already knew a bit prior, due to Feli and youtube channel get germanized etc, one language I'm finding harder to learn is Irish and Scottish, I'm doing ok in Spanish, and Latin but I'm finding German easier to learn... Just a matter of interest in the language and culture, and knowing a have Ancestors who were German makes it easier to learn...
As someone that loves to learn languages by listening and speaking to native speakers I found it very interesting what Steve had to say in this video. And thanks Feli, you make some of, if not the best language/german related videos on yt
I just finished learning my German lesson tonight and your notification pops up. What a coincidence and it's amazing listening to you guys speaking in German. Ich liebe Deutsch Sprache. It will be my Fourth language if ever I become fluent. Für mich Deutsch Sprache ist schwerig aber schön und toll. 😊😊😊😊 25:54
I am an Indian,a south asian and my mother tounge is Bengali although I am quite proficient in English. I am learning Czech just for fun. It is a slavic language and it is very different from English. Gender and cases are very complicated and the way of saying things are also different. I am struggling but enjoying a lot also.
I am from Poland and I live 50 km from Czechia. You inspiration me at the moment. “Learn Czech just for fun”.
I learned Dutch for fun as a young person in the 90's. Learning foreign languages are fun.
I wasn't good enough in English lessons in school and so my parents and my teacher decided to 'dump' me to an English guest family in Hastings, south England. This family coundn't speak a single word in German language and so I had to learn their language using hands and feet. I learned much faster and more than I ever would in school, as well as useful stuff like jokes, culture and behavior. I had so much fun learning and practicing English that I made appointment after appointment. 2-3 times a year for 3 years in a row I went either to Hastings, Cambridge or Sheffield always for 2-3 weeks. And after that I could switch between both languages as if there where a button in my head. 2009-2011 I worked on a cruiseship and there where no other German speakers in my department and my switch fell in place after 10 minutes of smalltalk. Thx to the guest families and my teacher. cheers
Thank you Feli and Steve, that was a great interview! ❤ I speak German and English fluently. At the age of over 70 I am still dabbling in French. I took 3 years in high school. Every time I plan on going to France I rev up my French learning on KZhead. There are several really great French teachers who not only teach the language but also talk about French culture. I love French culture and the language. While I will not be able to engage in an everyday conversation, I know just enough to get by. French people really appreciate when you try speaking their language. It makes interactions with them a lot more pleasant when you show respect for their language.
As a German learner, who’s been truely practicing Learning German for about 3 months, I don’t think it too hard of a language to learn as an English speaker. Like I listened to the German segment of this video, same as I do with Easy German podcast, and I understand about 40% (at 0.75 speed). There are definitely much harder languages to learn, including my 1st language (Persian). Definitely agree with the fact that you have to accept that you will make grammatical mistakes.
What are you using to learn German. My grandfather moved to the US after WWII but most of my family is still there in Bottrop. My talks go through my cousin because he serves in the German military which has taught him to speak English really well. My wife and I are visiting Germany in the next couple years to visit my family there and I want to be able to talk with them in German. I knew a little bit of a German years ago but forgot most of it. What’s the best books or apps to use?
@@Bowhunterohio I’m also originally from Iran and when I moved here to US, I didn’t know English that well, but I watched a lot of cartoon on PBS, sports, tv, and of course school, all helped me learn English. So I’m trying to use those methods now for German
I am learning persian and now I am around B1 Level and persian isnt a difficult language when you managed to learn the alefba and writing. It remembers me a lot of english language. German is way more difficult than persian (genders, times, Dativ, Genitiv….)
Im also learning Gwrman for 3 months allready and it isnt that hard and i also learned English like 4 years ago Im actually Bulgarian
@@Bowhunterohio Just do as Mr Kaufman said. For example watch German KZhead videos, watch movies with a German audio file, find free German literature, articles, books, etc, to improve your reading, connect to native speakers somehow and have convos with them (maybe online). Hope that was helpful. Greetings from a German
Wow, that's a combo I didn't expect. The language learning community on KZhead was always my favourite part of the platform and Steve was always a big part of it
I started learning German just about a year ago and 5 months ago went to Germany and had the best time. Servers in restaurants and others who were very busy (and in big cities) would sometimes reply in English but most of the time if I spoke German, so did the people. Which was a challenge! And they were absolutely LOVELY about it. They were patient and kind. I think if you love a language and work hard, it will show when you talk to native speakers. My German is far from fluent. ❤ This interview is so great!!
I studied German in high school, but didn't really have to use it as an American. I started learning French last year for my trip to France, and I found that as I was beginning that journey, a lot of my German would pop into my head when I was trying to do French. I think my mind just goes into "translation mode", as I also find myself sometimes using American Sign Language when I am working in another language. Loved this interview. Thanks.
American sign language and French sign language are similar. :)
Feli, you and your content are so enjoyable. Keep up the great work!
I absolutely loved this episode of your channel. I grew up in a home where German was spoken often, mostly around food and dinner, but all other interactions were in English. I learned Spanish in High School and had an opportunity to spend time in Mexico at that same time. I studied Japanese post Bachelors at a local community college. Through business I had the opportunity to live and work in Taiwan learning Mandarin and lived and work in Japan learning Japanese. My experience was to immerse myself in the place where I was and absorb as much as possible like Steve. I would go on walks through the community and engage as many people as possible shopping, asking for directions, figuring out public transport, and experiencing the local culture as much as possible - that helped to build my vocabulary and my comfort in the languages. It was amazing to me how many people would take the time to help you learn their language and they always appreciated your effort to learn their language. Off to learn German now to get back to my family’s roots. Thank you for the encouragement!!!
Whao that was very interesting & good interview 😊
I follow both you and Steve so this conversation was awesome. Steve's comments about interest in and love of a culture helping with languages is so liberating.
To all German language beginners. First lesson. the finger = der Finger the hand = die Hand the arm = der Arm the shoulder = die Schulter Start with the easy words.
Marvelous video! Steve is a fantastic connoisseur of language and educator and was incredibly helpful for me at the beginning of my German journey, so it's very cool to see your world and his colliding! Also really great questions with really nice answers throughout.
I went to Germany (Bremen) recently and I was amazed by the good people out there ❤
I’m a fan of your both channels. Very keen to see this collaboration. I’m a bilingual Canadian and French is my first language. I’ve learned English as a teenager and I know a bit of Spanish. I relate with you both about code switching. When I’m with friends and family in Quebec City, I tend to use a more popular and vernacular accent of French closer to my Québécois culture. However, in my professional life either in Montreal or in Brussels, I use a more formal and international speech.
I worked with a Parisian colleague here in the USA. He drove to Quebec for a vacation, the Canadian border guard burst out in French when he saw their passports. He said he could not understand a word the man said, but nodded politely rather than offend him, and was then waived through. On exit, he was questioned why did he not have an entry stamp? Apparently the officer had been trying to tell him to pull over and go inside to get his entry stamp.
This was very inspirational---I'm feeling more motivated and less of a failure.
What an inspirational guy!!! Great video, Feli!👍
This was a great video Feli! One of your best.
This is a collab I didn’t know I needed but definitely wanted
Fair play to the fellah for learning so many languages. As I hitch-hiked around Europe during my sabbatical, my German and French school lessons proved themselves to be wanting. Apparently, French people rarely encounter a situation whereby there is a pet monkey in a tree, nor is their aunt's pen ever kept in the garden. Germans looked at me as though I was daft when I asked; "How many clocks is it". Don't waste your time learning Grammar, is my advice. Simply Read, talk, listen and remember. Watching TV and Movies is great prep.
I thought the aunt's pen was on the uncle's desk.
Or maybe you just weren't that good a student as you think (it's not difficult to tell the difference between an hour and clocks, just keep it singular).
@@WeiszVonHH You are such an inspiration to humanity. Keep up your exemplary work. The world is much better with you in it. Generations to come will compose poems about you. I will treasure your advice always. Thank you.
@@pierreabbat6157 Bless your little cotton socks. You are so sweet. Thank you.
Well, we do say "How much clock is it?" -> "Wieviel Uhr ist es"
My native language is American English. My undergraduate major was French and I had a minor in Spanish. I have a doctorate in applied linguistics from Georgetown University. One of the requirements of degree was to be able to converse in two foreign languages. Although my conversational Spanish was stronger, I had an easier time in French because it was a chat. I passed the Spanish but struggled some because it was basically a grammar test and I was a long way away from studying Spanish grammar. My wife is native German and we spoke to our four kids in German when they were young. What I could say was not very sophisticated because it was things like "Be quiet" and "Did you brush your teeth?" This was all spoken and I have not clue as to how to write them. I think I can now say a lot of things in German with a passable pronunciation. When I have to read text in German, I basically read it to myself out loud and it becomes somewhat understandable. I find spoken German to be somewhat easy because so much of our English vocabulary comes from German. My Spanish is very fluent because we lived two years in Nicaragua (Senior Fulbright Hays Lecturer) and one year in a Peace Corps training center in Puerto Rico (we were staff). To this day if I am trying to speak French and can't come up with the right word, I go to the Spanish equivalent and that often triggers my memory of what it is in French. Steve Kaufmann just blows me away with what he has done in learning different languages.
I always love your videos, Feli. You are so 'real' and frank about all of your topics and your transparency is truly refreshing. Thanks for creating such quality content. Ausgezeichnet!! Vielen dank!
Feli, I found your channel by chance a few months ago, and have enjoyed every video I have watched. This video was by far my favorite!! Thank you for sharing your experience and story, and thank you for all your hard work! Congratulations on your success, and here's many more years of continued success!!
Thank You Feli. A very dry (trocken) Topic, but with your positive mood, extroverterierte Natur and open minded approach it was soooo interresting!
Feli, you have such a beautiful and radiant energy!!! I really enjoyed this interview and continue to learn so much! Thank you for sharing 💕
This is the most wonderful video you have ever done. It makes me want to speak with you and your guest. Danke schoen!
Feli has one of the best smiles ever!
Great episode. Thanks, Feli.
I personally think theres a huge difference between learning a language, that is somehow connected to your mothertongue in their roots and learning languages, that almost share nothing with your mothertongue. As a german, i tried learning russian and its pretty hard.
Russian uses a different alphabet, which makes it difficult for anyone who isn't used to cyrillic.
Yeah as a Spanish speaker who is currently learning German and Portuguese, I can definitely second this, I have had an easier time learning Portuguese than German and an even harder time when I tried to learn Japanese.
@@davidz3879 I think in this case the alphabet is the slightest problem.
@@patax144 Spanish & Portuguese are very close.
@@davidz3879 You can master the Cyrillic alphabet in two hours. What makes Russian difficult are the verbal aspects. And Russian has 6 cases, the initial grammar barriers are high.
Sehr angenehmer, sympathischer Mann. Tolles Gespräch!
I’m not sure how I found your channel. But I’m glad I did. Always interesting.
Nice video! 👍 Super interesting!
Dieses Interview war großartig
Very informative!
Great job by both of you. Very entertaining and informative video.
A what a delightful video. Really enjoyable! Keep up the excellence Feli :)
Hi Feli, love your show, and gave you a like,👍 great interview with your guest. Thank you Feli see you next time.❤❤
Feli, First thanks for all the good work on you channel ! I only went into it recently, and I have to say that we share a lot of point of view and that you made me "heimweh" more than once. Long story short, I'm French from Strasbourg, living in Pittsburgh for 23 years now... Being from Strasbourg. I grew up in contact with a lot of German Culture, TV (ADR, ZDF...)and radio. Fun point in the 80's FM radio was forbidden in France and to get a good Stereo program of American and English pop I had to tune to SWF3 (SüdwestFunk) or the Canadian radio in Lahr... The Alsatian culture is really connected to the Baden-Wurtemberg and Black Forest. The dialects are quite close, the cooking shares a lot... We cross the borders even to work or justt to shop at Aldi, to relax the Caracalla Spa (sauna, hamam,etc...) and Eupopark is our preferred amusement park ! I do speak my dialect, but really poorly since my parents didn't want me to catch the accent that comes with it... Too bad it pops up when I'm to happy, and the people I speak with for the first time can sometimes think that I'm German... So lüstig, aber falch. KZhead has some content and we can find some artist on Apple Music. Back to learning the languages. I obviously speak my mother tongue. I keep it alive with the thousand or so French of our community and try tp pass it to my kids... Netflix recently, has pushed a lot of good French shows, Apple+ seems to go that way too. Moving here, my English was at the High School level (8 years), good reading, decent writing but making a sentence was a struggle, it didn't came instantly. 20 years later, I think I can do it. I've worked it without support/classes just through the everyday use, Tv, radio, books and everyday work. Fun fact, my first job here was with Berlitz to teach French, but they had no student for me, so I went to teach German, shadowing the actual German teacher to learn the principle of the Berlitz method... On the side I have a high interest in German, learned at school as a second language (6 years), and through the German Wählen. And it went forgotten since I had no use for it. Arriving here, it came out of the attic (my brain) by connecting with other emigrants from Germany, Austria and even Scwhweitz...You know, emigrant to emigrant, we do that, without real reasons... I do try to reconnect to what I've learned via YoTube and some movies that could have the tracks in German, I've tried some Farmers Market with the Amish, but the results were quite disappointing, even if delicious.... There is a decent German community in the Burgh, and we have two Breweries with German ties : Hoffbräuhause and Penn Brewery... OctoberFest is always fun here, especially when the Band sings German with an American accent🤣. It's rather small compared to what you've seen in Chicago, but it's here ! Last but not least, I took on a mission to learn Spanish. I had one year in Highschool, it turned out to be a disaster... So now I try to learn on the go with my colleagues and friends, and the same medias that I use for German. It's not very efficient, but fun. And emigrants to emigrants... For all the languages, music is always a good support and way more available, to train the ears and try to train the brain by understanding the lyrics and context.... Learning the bases of a language, training the ears is very easy now that we have internet, the options are multiple and most are still free. Keep up the good work ! I really appreciate the fresh point of view of your videos ! Tchuss ! Chris.
I never expected my recent language learning interest to tie back to your channel, yet here we are.
Amazing video. I loved it.
The best teacher is the one who motivates you and gives you the tools to learn more and more autonomously.
Been a huge fan of Steve's channel for a long time! Also a big fan of LingQ. I've also often seen more progress when I put away the grammar tables and focus on trying to internalize the language instead.
I have been learning Hungarian for the past 10 years. I used to go there on holidays with my family as a child a lot and it is certainly a special place to me. Been there lots of times since aswell. It always feels great to see the look in the face of Hungarians when me as a foreigner speaks their language and converse with them not in German, not in English, but their own native language. They are always blown away about the surprise and that a foreigner made the effort to learn their language. I try to watch Hungarian movies every now and then and also a Hungarian soap opera on youtube and I noticed every time I pick up a few more words where I know the meaning /translation of. However I still do feel that I speak pretty basic and still lack vocabulary, despite my teacher thinking I know more than comes to mind spontaneously. Possible. Grammar wise it is also quite difficult with 26 cases and different endings, depending on definite/indefinite/what person etc. but as you mentioned you will develop a feeling/intuition for it and at some point it becomes -I don't know how- kind of automatic or you feel which is the right word/ending/word order whatever. What comes quite easy for me is to have an ear for sounds and to emulate them. My reacher is always happy with my pronunciation and says it is very good. Not sure bout that, some sounds are still tricky to pronounce. Also because of my history with the country or that I like few aspects of it, that kept me motivated to keep going with it. Next month I have my 10 year anniversary of learning the language. Unbelievable! I think passion is a very good base point for learning a language, cause then you do it for your passion, not because you have to. Learning a language with a teacher or program is good and fine, but try to immerse yourself as much as possible into it. Maybe try to find a dubbed version of a movie you already know inside out (so you know the story) and watch it in your desired language. That is one good tip. And go to the country for a holiday and be dependent on speaking it every day. In the shops, in the hotel, getting around. Don't worry about making mistakes. Regular live practice is the best People may correct/help you, but also you will get lots of respect for learning the language and that again is a great motivator
He must have an INCREDIBLE memory...............amazing
❤ Massive input is the way. It's taken me to the edge of fluency in Dutch and to varying levels in IT/FR/ES/DE.
Hello Feli! I’ve really enjoyed your channel and the perspective you give by having experienced both cultures. Thank you for all that you share. I find it very interesting and informative. Your channel is much appreciated! I do have a question after watching Steve’s interview. Steve mentioned that reading basic books in the language would be helpful. Do you suggest any specific books or series to start with for someone who has absolutely zero German experience, but wants to learn the language? Also, have you ever considered producing a video that provides basic tips and tricks to guide someone who would like to move to Germany from the US? Thanks in advance! You’re channel is fantastic! PS What is Servus? I noticed you welcome everyone with that in each video?
A gem of a guy- much like my son''s polyglot grand dad, a professor who 'whipped up" the language of whatever country he was going to! I haven't heard Sprachgefuhl for years!
"Different personalities in different languages"! That's interesting, because when playing a musical instrument, the playing style changes with the instrument, even when you just switch to a different instrument on a keyboard and you have the exact same keys to play it. It's a different feeling if I play the same melody for example with a piano voice or with an organ voice on the keyboard, with an organ I often feel like I could hold some notes longer to make the melody sound better, to get into the feeling of the music, but with a piano voice instead, it does not make sense to hold a note longer, it's over very soon - of course there is s difference with the pedal or when you gold a note, you hear it decline softly, it does not end abruptly, but it does not stay at the loudness as you hold the key like on an organ. So it's a different acoustic feeling and it reflects back to the style of playing the different instruments. And this way I can understand that it changes you a bit depending on what language you speak. The elegant france for example, oh it sounds magnefique ;-) And other languages are inherently by itself not twisted in this way, you can make it a bit, if you move and shape it, you can always shape what you say, but different languages bring you in different speaking vibes... It's fantastico, fantasique (the complicated written french endings are silent, you just know, they are there...), fantastic, fantastisch!
Thank you for turning me on to Steve. It's given me a new lease on the language learning life.
Great video!
Feli, once again, fantastic video! I am really enjoying your you tube channel since finding you a couple months ago. Steve is certainly impressive, and his tips give me something to really consider. I noticed you spoke in the familiar second person. Could you maybe do a language video on the topic? When I was an American exchange student to West Germany in 1985, the "Sie" vs "du" rules were a constant source of tension for me. I noticed young adults who were just meeting for the first time would often twist their sentences a bit to avoid choosing between the two. Can you help make sense of this? Has there been some language transition in Germany in the last 30+ years, such as there has been away from using "Fraulein?" Are Germans generally less formal now?
Super Kanal. Ich find es gut das du unsere Sprache und unsere Eigenschaften erklärst👍👌! Weiter so
dass
Hy Feli :) super video - thanks a lot for this, i really enjoyed. To answer your question, did i ever learn a second language: oh yes i did! i am currently same as you, fluent in english (mainly thanks to Hollywood) and german (ich bin aus Dortmund, deutsch ist also meine Muttersprache), but i did not at all stop there: i took every available foreign language in my scholastic carrer: english, latin, french and even italian. after successfully finishing highschool i went on and even studied a bit of Latin (with the odd semester of an ancient greek course) and Italian - but that was rather unsuccessful. since i began working normally in the IT sector i made it my hobby to learn whichever language intrigues me at the time - so i went on some language learning apps like babbel and duolingo and completed as many chapters as i wanted and could find time for in turkish or french and by now i am on a running 1350 day streak of completing at least one small lesson of spanish in duolingo, so i engange it daily even if i dont really have anyone to use spanish with in real conversations. so yeah, i am well on my way to becoming a polyglot one day :D i am 37 by now by the way keep up the nice work, i was really happy when i found your channel a few weeks back! Beste Grüße und alles Gute aus Dortmund! Alex
I have recently subscribed to your channel recently. You are doing an amazing job. I speak 3 languages(English, Hindi, and French). The key to learning a language is to engage in the conversations of that language. You should make it a fun experience and don’t treat it like a job. Take out a notebook and write a few vocabulary words and phrases everyday. This video with you and Steve Kauffman was truly inspirational.
How do you compare the languages? What’s the most fun to speak?
All 3 languages are from the Indo-European language family. All that means is that they’re all related to Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. French is a very logical language. Hindi and English are very phonetic. Hindi is the most fun language.
@@deepakreddy7008 Are you certain that English is very phonetic in spite of the dyphtongisation?
You have great people skills which makes it a pleasure to watch your content and this was a great interview. I’m a language enthusiast too but I can attest that it’s one thing to get really into ONE foreign language and get to a B2 or C1 but then doing it again in another language is crazy hard. It’s all about time. You’ve probably wasted most of your time and youth on the first 2nd language and when you get around to other languages you’re older (memory isn’t quite as good) and you’re more busy etc. Basically I think it’s harder to learn your 3rd language etc. At least to a B2. Your previous knowledge may give you a small head start but it’s the intermediate plateau that kills learners. For this reason I think Steve is super impressive. People talk about what’s the most difficult foreign language they don’t say this but they’re automatically ruling out all non Western European languages. If you limit it to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, and German then German could arguably be the most difficult.
Aferojn! I saw that Esperanto sneak into your German Steve! (You did a good job I just like finding Esperanto in the wild even when it's a mistake :p)
Foreign language study has been a life long interest and hobby, since I was about 13 (I'm almost 60 now) when i tried to teach myself German (our junior high only has Spanish and French and I didn't want to study those). When I got to graduate school, I had the opportunity to take a language and it came down to Spanish or German. I tried testing out of German 101, but missed it by a small amount. Since I'd have to start either language from the beginning, I decided on Spanish since i live in the Southwest. Since then, I've picked up Japanese (From living there), and can understand slowly spoken Italian and Portuguese, as well as read a reasonable amount of those two languages + French. I'm now in the process of teaching myself Swedish because, why not? :) I definitely notice that I 'code switch' between languages. I'm pretty introverted, so I have to know you before I really speak to you in English. Spanish, though, I'll talk to anyone and I actually use my hands when I talk. Japanese, I was somewhere between the two. Finally, the best tip I can give it do NOT be afraid to make mistakes. Communication has always been my goal, so as long as my mistakes don't make it impossible, I'm good. I try not to make them, but I know I will and I don't sweat it. Thanks for connecting with Steve. He's been a great resource to the language learner community and it's nice to see him expand outside the standard "polyglot" channels. 🙂
I can perfectly relate to what both of you said about learning a foreign language enjoyably and with increasing success and gratification: 1st, you gotta have a certain interest in a language/ country/ native-speaker (in my case having had a crush on an American girl during a student exchange) and 2nd, go with the flow (rather than studying, for instance, a language's grammar like crazy) -- which, in my understanding, is just like a young child does it: humans don't learn their mother tongue by learning grammar, but the grammar comes naturally as you listen, learn, practice and make mistakes. In a nutshell, as Steve Kaufmann put it: you gotta embrace it! Best to both of you from Germany
Fascinating point re languages enlarging personality. It’s true I do feel differently as a person in German- in part because my vocabulary is more limited so I rely more on gestures and simplifying and just being polite - which isn’t bad!! Yeah, I’ve studied some tough languages but he’s right on about finding content to focus on. The hardest part with tough languages is working up enough vocabulary but once you get that it snowballs. Thanks Feli, awesome per usual. 🇺🇸🇩🇪🇺🇸🇩🇪
Ty for commenting on personality changes & language. When I speak Spanish I am much more effusive & prob also smile more. I’d always attributed this to ways to compensate for not being a native speaker.
I studied German at Duetsches Haus in New York City for four years because I was so interested in the language. I really liked the way it sounded and I found that I had an affinity for it as pronunciation was not a problem. My main problem was that although I could speak and converse, understanding when it was spoken to me was and is always more difficult because people always speak so quickly that it was difficult sometimes to get the entire meaning because so many words would just fly by.
American living presently in Austria since my wife passed away six years ago, As German is the only language I hear around me, it makes it much easier to learn, I met my wife in Belgium and she was born in Austria but we never spoke German together, only English and also French since I was already fluent in that language. Each morning I read German language newspapers online, whenever there is a word I do not comprehend, I simply use Google translate and then memorize the signification of those words. Here in Austria, especially in Tirol where I live, people speak a dialect which I am only recently able to understand. In order to learn a new language, the best way is to speak with the local people, do not be afraid of making mistakes, people are thrilled when realizing that an American is talking their language and will go out of their way to help you. I love Feli's videos, they are very inspiring and I also just subscribed.
As a German learner myself, I can certainly relate to my counterparts learning Mandarin, and even Cantonese, that obsessing too much on tones may hinder progress, just like how I used to be obsessed with over when should I use der/die/das/dem/den/des and so on and how can I tell if a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, until I realized later on that picking up from actual conversations are a much bigger help in absorbing how grammar actually works in a particular language than just trying to memorize rules of the language.
He live a very interesting life. Love this video and the discussion. I followed Feli because I will be attending German Language class for my preparation to study in Germany. Im nervous in learning German, never in my life i imagine that i'll get an opportunity to study abroad and in Germany...at the same rime im excited. It was nice to hear Germans are understanding that their language is hard to learn and very nice to people new who's new to it.
Moin! I think Steve nailed it about the interest part. When I was in high school in Ohio, I wanted to take German, but my mother made me take Spanish. I got decent grades but hated every minute of it. I never really learned that language though I can still pick out certain words 35 years later and can read it a little. During Uni at Ohio State, I kept trying to get into German classes, but it never worked out with my schedule. I gave up somewhat and nearly got a minor in Japanese. I enjoyed learning about the culture of Japan, but I never became anything above an A2 sort of level. Finally, after many years, as I reached my late 30s, I was determined to finally learn German. I found it surprisingly easy and dare I say almost natural. By the time I was six months into learning German, I was better able to basic conversation in German than I ever had been in Spanish or Japanese. I think a large part was the fact that I would attend many German language events. Then, I began listening to Deutsch Pop (Silbermond, Juli, Luxuslärm, etc.) and German Industrial Metal (Eisbrecher mostly). I then got the chance to work with Germans and eventually go on a work exchange for six months to Hamburg. It has been eight years since I returned to the States, and I miss Germany and the people so terribly much. I know I am not as proficient as I once was, but I still listen to German music, about half of my Instagram Reels feed is auf Deutsch. I do work trainings in German when it is available in German. I do all of that in hopes that I don’t lose more of my proficiency that I have.
Feli, in 2011, I emailed the Catholic Bishop of Saratov, Russia about some genealogy questions. He was also the Bishop of Munich. He actually understood my broken German. He was very understanding and very helpful.
Native Turkish speaker, speak English and Japanese at a good level, Russian and Indonesian in a beginner level, took German in middle school but it stopped there after graduation. I've tried learning others but for now,, I'm sticking to building up on Russian and Indonesian, age: mid 40s. Something interesting, Russian also has all those case endings like German, along with the word genders but it seems easier for me than German because...most probably there's no article. I have to worry about one less thing. Turkish doesn't have articles as well. Actually Steve is my reason that I haven't given up on language learning. When I started this Russian course I was over 35 and the oldest person in the classs, even older than the teacher! After I passed 40 I was like, "OK you're officially old now, it's too late for you to learn a new language", then saw Steve's channel. This guy is older than my dad and yet he still tries new languages. After that, I started Indonesian.
Greetings from Vancouver!
I was born in Hong Kong so my mother tongue is Cantonese. I learned English in school. I am not fluent in Mandarin Chinese but can get by if I travel in China or Taiwan. I tried to learn French when I was 30 but gave up immediately. I started learning Japanese when I was 39 and have been learning that since then for 13 years. I agree completely with Steve when he mentioned the writing system. The Japanese is not an easy language but for me at least I never struggle with their writing system. One less thing to worry about, more time to focus on other aspects of the language. Looking back, English was kind of forced on me and I wouldn’t say I enjoy learning it. Japanese is a whole different story. I really enjoy the language and the culture and that’s how I was able to sustain it.
This gentleman showed off both his Mandarin and Cantonese speaking skills in a Chinese youtube channel. He's impressively fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese. He said he learned to speak, read, and write in Mandarin Chinese within a year of intense study while living in Hong Kong. He did have the advantage of a daily language tutor hired by the Canadian government as part of his job in HK.
Really enjoyed this video. I only really speak German and English and have lived abroad since the year 2000. Living in the UK is very different to living in the Republic of Ireland where I have lived for a decade before moving here. Difference is that due to the British politeness hardly anyone corrects you here should you make mistakes whereas the Irish where more helpful in that regard. The trick to overcoming language barriers is to simply keep at it and not to discourage yourself, making mistakes is totally ok
Terrific video, loved the conversation! I've started learning Spanish ten years ago by myself and not really consistently, like from vacation trip to another, _poco a poco_ . The major progress started to occur with conjugation drills in a Spanish-learning app just a couple of years ago, so when I arrived to Spain in Oct '22 I was capable of forming sentences with decent grammar. Last year my interest to German was ignited as I had met some great people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland in Spanish language school. I only had half a year of German 21 years ago in school so I was feeling bad about my knowledge at that moment and our convos were in English or Spanish. Needless to say that learning Deutsch isn't easy when you're in your thirties but the most challenging thing is to actually *start speaking* . Ich glaube dass ich mehr Übung brauche. Or something.😅 So, learning German since August '23 and getting stuck here and there, probably lack of motivation happens too. Maybe I'll also get to learn French since speaking Spanish at Intermediate-Upper Intermediate level might make it easier, but who knows.
Interesting video! I am a Swede living in Sweden, so I started learn English in school when I was nine years old and I started to learn German in school when I was 13. When I was 19 I had learned English for ten years and German for five years, but at that point my German was actually somewhat better than my English. Now, some decades later, Swedish and English are the only languages I use regularly, and thus the only languages I feel fluent in. When I was studying Archaeology at university the course literature was in both Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and English. In written form the three Scandinavian languages are quite close to each other, so it isn't that much of a challange. But it became much worse when we got lectures by a Danish professor! At the beginning I just heard a lot of "rødgrød", but after 15 minutes I started to understand what he was saying. After a while the initial confusion at the beginning of each lecture was down to five minutes. I also started to learn Icelandic at Uni. I remember that I met a Norwegian speaking archaeologist on campus immediately after a lesson of Icelandic and in that situation my brain couldn't swich back to Swedish at all! One of my older friends had it even worse when he studied archaeology, because then they were expected to know German, so he had to learn German by reading "Jungneolithische Studien" (a 1000 pages doctoral thesis from 1962 by Mats P. Malmer)!
I am never goint to get to 20 languages, but I always felt that it would be good to learn a little about the language of the country you are visiting. Iceland was interesting with some symbols for the "th" sound plus a few others. I could see the Norwegian influence, and I remember the similarity of some Norwegian and German words when I started with German and this helped. Thanks for the podcast, it was fun.
I love Steve. He is so talent
One of my grandfathers was speaking five languages fluently: German, French, English, Italian and Russian. He also knew a bit of classic latin and greek. His father, my great-grandfather, was speaking even eight languages but I can't remember which beyond the five mentioned above. Originally he wanted to become a diplomat but I don't know exactly why he took a different professional path after studying economics at university. I wouldn't say that that had set some expectations on me learning languages. But my grandparents and m y parents were certainly encouraging and supporting learning other languages. With Austria and Switzerland at our doorstep, our part of Germany having been occupied by France after WWII and Italy not too far away (plus a remote relative of my grandfather living in Italy) dealing with other languages just came up every now and then which made me curious. Concerning English my mother and my grandfather were a bit more insisting. Also I was lucky that my elementary school was participating in a project about starting English lessons in the fourth year in school. My parents loved British and Irish folk music and I've adopted that admiration very quickly too. Curiosity of what they were singing about spurred my ambition to learn the language. That interest just grew stronger when I started to listen to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, etc. One day my parents became serious about learning and improving their French which almost coincided with a course of French on our regional TV program called "Les Gammas". It was built around a story of three aliens landing on earth in a wooden, perfectly spherical space ship. My sisters and I were - of course - more interested in the story about the three aliens, but it was a nice preparation for learning French in school.
Outside of the mandatory language courses in high school and college, I didn't put all that much effort into learning French. I was "just ok" at speaking and understanding it in the past, but web browsers with automatic translation killed that. At least I still know how to order at restaurants. From my experience, the hardest thing for me was just finding people to speak it with me. Once my exposure to the language went away, my ability to speak it soon followed.
I'm Canadian from Montreal and I'm fluent in both French and English, I picked up Spanish and Italian pretty easily, I found German difficult as the words I knew in Yiddish mean different things in German and the grammar is challenging. After seeing this video I feel like giving learning German another try.
good interview
When I was a kid I was fluent in Italian (my background) and English but as I got a littler older I spent more time around my English speaking side of my family and lost most of it. I can usually sort of understand if I hear a conversation by pulling out words and then figuring out what is being talked about but I couldn't speak, write or read it at this point. I should really get back into it.
It seems every time I try to learn a new language, the swear words are the only ones I end up learning!
Someone once told me that the only German sentence you need to learn is "Ein pils, bitte." A slight exaggeration!
@@gravellegb Prost? 🍻
Recently, I've been doing German family research online via churchbooks which are in German and Latin. These books were written in the 1700's. I don't know any German or Latin, so it has definitely been a challenge. I must say that Google Translate is my best friend, but as I continue on, I notice that I'm recognizing more and more words. I didn't think I was good with languages, but maybe there is hope for me yet. Italian is next as my husband has an Italian ancestor. 🙂
Very interesting!
I'm 56 yrs old and I've been attempting to learn German, for about two years. It started when we made plans for the 2022 Oktoberfest in 2019. It's starting to get "easier" lol for me, but I'm reading and understanding spoken Deutch more the speaking the language. We made several friends in München and Vaterstetten where we stayed. We are going back in Jun or Juli 2025. Tchuse.
I dreamed of being a polyglot from childhood. One of the first books I remember checking out of our elementary school library was one titled something like "I Can Read Chinese". I was always fascinated with languages and codes. I liked solving cryptograms. When I was in third grade, we had someone teach us how to count in French. That was really confusing because I didn't realize "cat" was spelled "quatre", "wheat" as "huit", etc. I also had neighbors who had traveled and I found their French and Italian books of interest when I was about ten. When I started middle school, a big part of spelling was etymology. That really grabbed my attention. Also about this time, I was fascinated by the writing systems listed in my grandmother's dictionary and started to try to learn Fraktur type, Russian, Greek, and Hebrew. Arabic was too difficult for some reason. Then also in middle school, a friend brought a Langenscheidt's mini Russian dictionary to school and I became intrigued with foreign dictionaries and phrase books. So I started a collection for many years eventually having about 200 books in about 90 different languages. However, in the end, I never became even remotely fluent. I took German and a little Italian in high school. My mom and I took a Hebrew class. I would read my Spanish and Russian Bibles during class in Bible school along with the English that the instructor was teaching in. I also learned to read a few kanji, hiragana, and katakana as well as Georgian and learned the orthographies of many languages that used Latin and Cyrillic based languages. I got to where I could read a little in several languages picking apart the sentences and using what I learned mostly from etymology, but some of my books. But in the end, I gave away all of my books to a friend in Wycliffe Bible Translators, and pretty much gave up. That's because I realized a few things. First, I think I may have suffered some traumatic brain injuries throughout my life due to some rather strong hits to my head, one in high school could very well have been a concussion. Ever since then, my rote memory skills were terrible. I could grasp concepts and analyze and see relationships, but never actually could learn specifics too well or with a great deal of effort with a lot of repetition. After high school and after realizing my struggle, I decided to go into comparative linguistics and orthographies as a hobby. At least that way, I could still deal with the esthetics and analysis of languages, even if I couldn't really learn them without a lot of struggle. Second, I realized that I had no one to talk to. No one around me except at a few times in my life, spoke anything except English (except now I am married to a Filipina and slowly struggling to learn Tagalog and even a hint of Ilocano). That was huge for me and the main reason I gave all my books away. None of them were doing anything for me if I was by myself and had no one to talk to. I always wanted to travel, but was always too poor to even afford a passport, let alone go anywhere. So I settled to travel some around the US. I did finally get a job for a while with an antiquarian book dealer. That was great because I actually started to utilize some of my French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Italian reading skills (he rarely got anything in Russian or other Slavic languages), and even started to pick up some Latin. But then again, I was alone in that for the most part. I never made friends at work and the people I hung out with struggled to even speak Spanish let alone anything else. I did finally get to go overseas when I was 53 to meet my future wife in Singapore and have been to Japan a couple of times and the Philippines many times. So, that's my story and it still bothers me to that I am not fluent.
I knew basic conversational german but having a german lover improves the language immensly !
Das Sprachgefühe! That's a great term, never ran across it before. That's what I had after hitchhiking through Turkey many years ago. I had taken two years of German in high school but wasn't good at it. Later on I spent 17 months in Heidelberg courtesy of the US Army (where the locals already had a bad impression of Americans and in general didn't socialize with us), was discharged in Germany and wound up hitchhiking through Turkey, which is where I finally gained Sprachgefühe, as so many Turks had spent time in Germany as Gastarbeitern. So to this day I speak German with a Turkish accent!
Beyond memory requirements, being able to make the unfamiliar sounds associated in some languages would be the most difficult part of all. Learning to be multi-lingual at a young age would be extremely helpful in accomplishing this goal..
I tried to encourage my grandsons to learn Spanish when they were young because they were living with their abuelo and abuela but they didn't want to because the kids at school didn't speak Spanish.
People always say that German sound ugly, I love how it sounds
first i like to say, relateability is also very helpful, when learning from tv series and books, so looking for something that one can relate to easily due to the understanding of situations. for example, a friend learned well watching the german version of the office, called Stromberg. but he got a little shmug so i made him watch a german comedian known for really juggling around with the language, a guy named Jochen Malmsheimer, who really gave him a hard time, no more shmugness to be found. xD i know that was mean but i just couldn't help myself.
Incase anyone wants to learn German bytheway, I recently found "Nico's Weg" on KZhead. I already knew German before, so I cannot vouch on how helpful it is for the basics, I've read from others that it is quite a fast story, immediately goes into German. But the storyline is entertaining and I watch it unironically as a normal movie nowadays, I just like it. There's 4 video's I think. And again, the story is really captivating.
Dä Steve isch en krasse siech💪🏻
"the odd word in Swedish" - when Steve was talking with Gabriel the Brazilian, he threw the odd word in Italian (dopo) in a sentence. Depuis, después, dopo, depois, macht nichts!
I took German back in High School for 3 years and 2 in University. I still remember enough to get around if I had to. We were taught Mitte-Hoch Deutsch, which I can tell is somewhat different than Feli speaks, but in a lot of ways it appears Bavarian dialect is becoming my preference, considering the slight vocabulary differences. I can understand her, but she’d probably scratch her head a little listening to me. I could be wrong. This is why I keep watching her content. Over 20 years of working with SAP, has allowed me to keep up what I know, particularly when reviewing code comments, which are primarily German.