How to REALLY learn a language in 2024 (a linguist explains)
2024 ж. 18 Ақп.
149 398 Рет қаралды
In this video I explain how to really learn a language in 2024.
Links to books mentioned:
Yufa! (mandarin grammar): amzn.to/3UKxB48
Grammar of Persian: amzn.to/4bK6Umg
Thackston's Persian: amzn.to/42Jfs8G
Routledge Colloquial Persian: amzn.to/3uDB4qq
Farsi Shirin Ast: amzn.to/42J2cRA
Edited with Gling AI: bit.ly/46bGeYv
#languagelearning #linguistics #language #polyglot #spanish #duolingo #rosettastone #italki #lingopie #persian #french #spanish #chinese #mandarin #anki
I got to the end of French on Duolingo and my French is no better. But the owl has a little gold jumpsuit.
That’s the real victory
😆 🤣 😊 hooray for the owl.
W Duo
I found duolingo was better as a cue card style app and not a learning app.
Well now I’m motivated to finish up the French course!
I laughed outloud so much at some of your witty comments that my wife came in to find out what was so funny. I told her I was just watching a linguistics channel on KZhead. She's now worrying about my having early onset dementia.
When she sends you to the nursing home at least remember you got a good laugh 😂😂
@@zevelgamer. or don’t remember anything
she clearly does not recognise the amusing delight that is linguistics. you must disown her and live a language-studying hermit for the greater good. @@languagejones6784brutal. also true. but brutal.
😅😂
Watch out for the conlang videos, if you have to explain one you'll be in trouble. 😂❤
you're saying I can't become fluent hebrew speaker after a 30 days in duolingo?
I think after thirty days I could fluently name vegetables and animals, but I go so much slower on Hebrew duolingo than other languages
Don't even try Hebrew on Duolingo, as a native Hebrew speaker, you won't learn anything useful, I've skipped to the last lesson and no word was useful. I still remember something with a dove.
@@languagejones6784מלפפון וגמל שלמה
@@zevelgamer. I wouldn’t go that far. It’s been a big help, I just need to supplement it with a lot of outside study. And I kind of like the little Jewish shibboleths scattered throughout
@@languagejones6784 no, I wasn't actually grinding Duolingo, I just skipped to the final test and it was absolutely not useful and some of the sentence weren't even phrased correctly.
Bindged these videos at work, been trying to learn my indigenous language(irish) for years after living near an irish speaking community and im making more progress than ever
I'm so glad to hear that!!!
Maith thú- ádh mór ort leis
I’m 72, my goal in learning language is to keep my mentality. I began in learning Portuguese because I’ve a Portuguese son-in-law. After a year and a half I gave up when I listened to my son-in-law and my granddaughter exchanging a couple of remarks and not understanding a word they said. My son-in-law airily explained this by pointing out that the accent of the App I was using was Brazilian and not Portuguese. I gave up on the spot and began instead to learn Spanish, which I’ve been doing for about a year now. My enthusiasm for learning has decreased. Any suggestions? 😁😁😁
@@patrickwalker-nolan7617 Disown your son-in-law.
Irish people at work.
Funny story related to the comment about Farsi speakers offering their belongings. My wife is a native speaker of Arabic and we were at a wedding where she was wearing a nice Abaya. Another guest at the wedding complimented my wife on the Abaya and, like in Farsi, there is an Arabic saying which basically means "well, if you like it, you can have it". This, of course, is polite talk and not a literal offer. The guest who had complimented my wife, was the daughter of Arab migrants, and as such maybe didn't understand the social interactions as well as she might, said "wow, really? I'll pick it up at the end of the night!" I had to buy my wife a new Abaya the next day.😮
LMAO. I got confused at that part of the video, thank you for explaining
😂😂😂 I once introduced a female colleague to a male friend, during the intro I kindly requested for her to do him. I meant to say show him. 😂 I only realized my mistake because of her reaction. 😅 I explained the mix-up and what I intended to say. I was horribly embarrassed 😂
I did not know that. I made a mental note to myself a long time ago to be extremely careful about complimenting middle easterners after a few times of refusing to take their possessions. "Oh, no I couldn't." You should "Oh, no. It's lovely, but no" It was just so awkward. Now I'll know if it happens again just to laugh it off.
@@eriasmara7739 💀☠💀
Mi casa su casa.
I'd love to watch a video about you talking about books to read for people who have an interest in learning linguistics from scratch, or something like a bookshelf review where you talk about your top picks! I've recently discovered your channel, and I'm completely in love with it. Keep up the good work! ❤
Thank you. I hadn't realised that my discontent with my own language learning was because I've achieved my first goal for Italian, even though it wasn't explicit. I can now define my new goal and what I need to do to achieve it.
That’s really interesting! I wonder how many people have that experience
Thanks for the video! Also, you were cited in my Evidence textbook in our readings this week!
Loved this video. I learned Portuguese very quickly. I was living in Portugal with a Portuguese partner and I studied at least an hour a day. The rest was background noise which eventually started to make sense. Brits would often say to me "It is not surprising you learned so quickly, you have a Portuguese husband. Like that would magically help me with the language! The truth is, one days he told me "You will never learn this language", and that was my inspiration! Took me about 6 months! I now teach it. How did I learn? Most of the time it was hearing the language. I wanted to be able to speak it, not just read it.
Having a partner does help immensely though. But Brits are always the first to put down others' achievements in second languages and always put it down to some outside force that you/they have no control over. As if language learning is luck and not a skill. But having your partner allowed you to live there, and living there is what allowed you to absorb it, as a complement to your studies. So they're not 100% wrong either.
To be honest it was because I heard so much. Being in an environment where I only heard Portuguese etched it on my brain. I had other friends living with partners who were Portuguese and didn't learn how to speak. I really wanted to learn it though. I think that motivation is the main drive. @@FreePigeon
Good for u I have a Spanish partner and I still can’t speak Spanish well . U really need to have the discipline drive and mental energy to persist to speak a language out of your comfort zone
Que legal! poxa, já que você está aprendendo português, eu quero aprender inglês, podemos nos falar pelas redes sociais para nos ajudar um ao outro :)
@@F3liperossetto A bem dizer, já aprendi. Como tem aprendido o Inglês até agora?
Great tips and I appreciate the humor above all else.
As a French, I learnt persian mostly by speaking with people on tandem. Took me 3 years to be fluent. I wish you much success with this beautiful language.
Farsi/Darsi - not Persian
@@helpanimals- فرقی نداره. مردم هر دو رو میگن
Idk man I learned more using audiobooks than speaking with people
@@Trillvil1 if after listening to audio books you can speak the language easily, that's fine. But in the case of farsi, you won't learn the spoken language because audio books use the written language. The vocabulary and expressions can change quite a lot.
البته یه چیزی هم باید بگم. تو فرانسوی، فارسی farci تلفظ میشه، به معنی "پر شده" (مثل پر شده با گوشت). هیچکس نمیفهمه. ولی وقتی میگم Persian ، همه متوجه میشن، چون مردم کمی با شعر فارسی (poésie persane) آشنا هستن
After watching thousands of language learning videos, finally I found this chennel that doesn't repeat the same things other people have spoken a thousand times. Great gratitude.
“ 你中文说的太棒了，是个真聪明的老外啊！” Been there. One of the most annoying parts of being a private language teacher is having parents ask you to recommend the "best" book or online resource. When they say this, I hear "I'm willing to spend a whole bunch of money to have my kid ace the tests, and if that doesn't work, it's your fault." That happened mostly in China, but here in the USA (public schools) you'll have the occasional ask as well. Your advice is really spot-on in my opinion. Thanks!
fyi 得 for verbs, 的 for nouns so "說得太棒"
Depends what you interpret 'best' as. Some people think 'best' means most expensive, some people think 'best' means most effective.
Oh my gosh ... The stuff you said about ADHD!! 😭 I remember trying to listen to hours of Japanese, even as I slept, because that's what someone suggested. My brain felt like mush... Passive listening however has been great for me. When having conversations, it's like all those words my brain stored while listening suddenly activates. Absolutely a huge believer of doing what works for you.
I edited the template of my Anki Cards to have to type the Kanas of the Kanji I read instead of just "thinking about the word" and checking afterward if it was "more or less the same". The recall was at first a bit harder, but now I realize that actively having to write down the reading of the kanji really helps to memorize them better than just "thinking about it". Good tip :)
Could you explain how you edited them to be like that or drop a link to somewhere else that can? It sounds really interesting!
@@ArchangelTenshi Sure, basically in your Anki card, for the field you want to type (most often : READING), you just prefix the "variable" by "edit" Example : {{edit:Reading}} To show the answer at the back, you need to have {{FrontSide}} somewhere in the back of the card template of course
I love the clarity with which you lay out the process. Too often I find myself doing something in the language and thinking "Huh, why am I doing Y when my goal is actually X?", followed by a quick reorienting of my focus. Subbed immediately!
At some point i was leaning just for the music, but I then fell into a bunch of communities around my language as well (Scottish Gaelic). The first year was intense study of acquiring words, and it took the next two to actually be comfortable with the language as a whole. Now I'm looking at jumping back in and seriously studying again! Thanks!
Great vid, I appreciate how straightforward your videos are providing info in a consice and clear way without going into the stupid hype clickbait this community suffers from so much!! Thanks! If you could make a video about how best to learn vocab and maybe about the linguistic origins of some languages that would be interesting.
Some really good advice in this video, and I love that you include specific tips for neurodivergent learners - not enough attention is given to this so thank you! My goals are to be able to read Russian literature in its original language and to be able to hold a B2 level conversation on pretty much any topic. I know I should set myself a timeframe but to be honest the stress of a deadline is going to make me more likely to quit so I will leave it nebulous unless I miraculously find more time in my life somehow.
I'm so glad I came across this video. I'm trying to learn Farsi also as some of my family is Persian however I've been really struggling to find resources so this was super lucky for me to find so thank you so so so much
Thank you so much; this video was very encouraging for me. My self learning methods have always been so different that I felt weird coming to youtube for tips. My language goals have always been related to reading. I wanted to read art tutorials in Japanese, so I learned the writing system and then the grammar. With a dictionary or two, I could then slowly translate whatever I wanted step by step. Now my goal is from my mom. She asked me to help her research her grandparents and other ancestors that died before she was born. She is struggling because we need to reach out for records from four different countries. I want to have enough language competency that I can research the laws regarding family records and acquire as much as I can without getting scammed because we don't speak the language. I am overwhelmed by the task, honestly. I have been starting small by going back to the language I learned in high school, but the polyglot youtubers definitely have me feeling stupid sometimes. I think I need to just trust myself and go back to grammar. I love grammar. I'm so sorry for the long comment, but thank you so much for sharing your informed advice here.
I've often used 'false mnemonics' / 'mnemonics that don't work' - for some weird reason they seem to work better for me than 'correct' ones. For example, way back when, I always remembered that 'tower' in French / Spanish is feminine, because it . . . um . . shouldn't be.
That’s kind of how I remember the gender of “bridge” in Portuguese-it’s the opposite of the gender in Spanish!
Iirc, the C-word's equivalents in French and Spanish are both masculine.
The gender of “girl” in German (Mädchen) is neuter. In Spanish, “the sea” is “el mar”. In French, it’s “la mer”.
Hey I am very happy to see your comment. I have a very similar thing! Most of the incorrect uses of words or typos that made me confused for a moment to decypher it, lives rent-free in my memory until this day!
I love this video. I spend far too much time on the "over and above" and not nearly enough with my text book (Assimil - well it's haaaard) I am going to change my study habits. Yessss, more on Michel Thomas, even your teaser was interesting.❤
I'm a lazy language learner but I do really enjoy being able to hold conversations when I'm in Italy. I started with a weekly tutor and Gabe Wyner's approach to vocabulary building with Anki. Once I built a foundation, I was able to grind from A2ish to B1ish by listening to podcasts and practicing speaking. I use the bird app to keep from getting too rusty, and it works pretty well for that. I have a good ear (heard a lot of a second language when I was a baby, and I think it helped), and Wyner's stuff encouraged me to lean into that and get very focused on hearing & producing the right sounds. It makes a huge difference when you're actually in conversation.
2024 is the year of language mastery! Thanks for the insightful tips, can't wait to level up my language game.
wooo thank you so much for this video! going to try to implement your suggestion of starting with 20 minutes of consistent study followed by several 20 minute sessions in a day (where possible on days off from work etc). this seems much more realistic than the daunting 60 minutes I've been forcing myself to do for 4 days that eventually results in 3 days of no study whenever work goes a bit long. good reminder that slow and steady wins the race, not big, tremendous, sporadic efforts.
interesting video for sure, as someone with ADHD I'm glad you're starting to bring the topic of neurodivergences into the picture, I personally am doing my own version of the 100 day challenge you mentioned for German(B1, but haven't been practicing consistently) and Polish(A2, main focus language for abt a year) I have a document with a way to "quantify" roughly how much value and exposure content adds in numbers and have a chart keeping track of how much I've done each day and averages per week and in total to harness the "number go up me happy" principle as I like to call it for dopamine and also, the averages and totals keep me from loosing all my motivation when I've missed a day and keep me focused on "the big picture", I've been at it for 3 weeks already and I've so far watched the equivalent of 69 Easy language SI vids (nice) at a pace of about 1.5 videos a day and I'm definitely feeling the progress! Motivation(s): for Polish I just want to get to a decent level and be able to understand and enjoy content, and maybe go to Poland if I get the chance for German I want to study in Vienna, but I have to get to C1 before 2028 for that, so I'm doing this to get consistent practice and input at least for the time being Update: I've surprisingly stayed at it for 13 weeks by now (almost 100 days) and I can say it has worked, I've been watching an average of an equivalent of 2.5 easy language videos on average with both and it *has* worked well, I've gotten my Polish from a mid A2 to a low B1(which in my experience is the hardest gap) and my German from a lower B1 to a higher B1 ( not B2 but will hopefully be there in less than a couple years), I can safely say that it has been one of the short bursts of best improvement in languages I have had and I've only been dedicating around 40min-1hr of watching videos or episodes a day to get that for both! and the tracking has worked! not only has it worked wonders for accountability and consistency, but it's also something that proves the work I've done and something I know I can be proud of! (which I'd been lacking)
My goal is to continually reach a higher and higher level of proficiency in Mandarin. I prefer goals that are vague and that you never actually attain. I would love to learn other languages, but I would rather be highly proficient in one than know the basics in ten; and I don't have time to fit any more languages in. And besides, as much as I love the process of learning a language, on a practical level, I probably wouldn't use any other languages too much, with the possible exception of Spanish. I don't plan on doing a lot of travel; I don't plan on ever moving to another area; and the place I live doesn't have a large number of people who speak other languages besides English, Spanish, and Mandarin. I also don't have a particular interest in reading books or watching videos in any other language in particular. So I'll probably just stick to Mandarin. Maybe after my kids have all grown up and I retire some day, I'll have time to learn other languages! Lol
Nice little touch there with the music from the show Tehran when speaking about Persian :)
I’m glad somebody caught that!
Totally badass video. Thank you.
It is super cool that you are learning Persian😊. I am trying to learn German for so long and it became a suffering experience for me. due to not being consistent I have been able to accomplish basic of the language and couldn’t develop to advance and enjoy it. مرسی از ویدیوی خوبتون🌹 با آرزوی موفقیت برای شما.
What a wonderful voice you have. You can easily record audiobooks.. thanks for your tips and tricks
as an autistic who speaks/studies 7 languages currently focusing on Persian, i'm almost scared how perfect this video is. i don't have the money to purchase textbooks or courses, but the recognition has me motivated to get back in my game and slobber over Hafez for 8 hours a day
Im so happy that you name-checked the legendary Michel Thomas since he got me hooked on French way back, and yes; what an epic life story! How is it not already a Netflix series?! Also thank you for noting the inherent difficulties for ND folk in learning a language. The tips at the end are also super helpful.
this is an excellent and witty rundown. also, bird app 😂 edit: oh snap thanks for the shoutout
this is an excellent and witty rundown. also, bird app edit: oh snap thanks for the shoutout
I've been so confused and kinda upset with myself because I wasn't seeing the same progress I had in the past. I have ADHD and I was able to hyper-fixate for the longest time. But once I realized my decline of interest I panicked and took a college class. although I don't regret my decision, I again didn't see the same improvement. I am back with an old tutor and have a trip to Taiwan in three months. So this is something that I really really want but the drive isn't there. I tend to forget that ADHD can be as much a hindrance as it is a helper. I get easily distracted and lose focus super easy. Studying has been hard. But I think consistency is where I need to start. I will do my best to set a goal and work towards it. I appreciate this video it gave me a lot to think about!
I should have said more about this in the video, but it’s really important to not beat yourself up for losing interest either. Sometimes it’s just hard. Having those external factors - a regularly scheduled time where it’s a pleasant experience (for me, that’s a warm drink and a treat) - really helps. And just knowing “today I’m not feeling it, but I’m just gonna do a little” is sometimes really helpful too. Good luck with your learning!
Really great video, thanks for the immensely practical advice. State: Studying Japanese since Oct 2022. I want to learn Japanese because it's on my bucket list, I want to consume written and spoken media in Japanese without assistance, and I want to have enough Japanese to visit Japan. Japan visit I'm thinking in about 5 years. Long term goals: mastery in 10 years, Japanese language as a life-long adventure. Short term goals: I've committed to my Zoom classes to get through Japanese for Busy People vol I-III, and that will take to the end of next year, I think, and I want to be conversational maybe towards the end of this year. Conversation is actually the next rank of classes with my sensei. I will probably take the JLPT, but I personally refuse to use a test as a goal; works for some people, but feels artificial to me. Methodology and insights (remember, do what works for you!): I watch ~45-50 minutes of anime in Japanese with English subs while I exercise, daily. Classes once a week. I do the exercises in the book _out loud_, no writing...most of them are geared towards generating output to match the grammar just learned, and I want to be able to _speak_ Japanese, and think on my feet. Anki deck: Started with some premade cards, now I make my own, based on vocabulary and example grammar sentences. Next step is to make more fill-in-the-blank sentences. The cards have audio, I read, _say the answer out loud_, turn the card over, read the answer and _listen_, and if my answer was halting, I repeat it until it's smooth. Kanji: Combination of class, TokiniAndy's new series he's making, and WaniKani. Ringotan for drawing kanji on my phone with my finger. Mostly throwing everything at the wall with Kanji, and keeping what sticks. Absolutely not learning the kunyomi and onyomi: I'm learning to read, not learning to be a dictionary. Thanks for the advice on narrating one's life in one's target language. I do that some, but should do it more. Dopamine: I'm after that really good feeling when I _understand something_ or make a discovery. Especially when watching anime. Like, I actually get shivers. Thanks for the attitude check on mistakes: part of the _point_ of an SRS is I should get about 10% of my reviews wrong; those are the cards that really needed refreshing. Motivation: I find that having a class that meets weekly gives me no excuse to put anything off. Same with the Anki deck: If I don't review the 150 review cards today (that's about 30 minutes), it'll be more tomorrow. The above is wordy, but I am grateful that this video induced me to write that down.
Getting the amygdala going does help a lot. For example, I learn words 10000 times better when I embarrass myself by using the wrong one in front of a crowd. Never forget it again after that.
So am I right when I say one should use the target language when it's sad, angry and scared because our brains make an emotional and impactful connection?
Thank you for sharing your tips for the neurodiverse among us at the end. As an individual with ADHD, I greatly appreciate that you took time to point out specific reminders and ideas for brains like mine! It truly means a lot!
As a amateur powerlifter learning Polish (to communicate with my patients) and French (yearly vacations) i loved your analogy with the deadlift (although i love the deadlift)
If the bar ain't bendin' You're just pretendin'
Currently studying Russian via KZhead, switching language options on certain programs(Subtitles and Audio), and following Russian TikTokers. Writing down words and phrases has helped me better retain than using Duolingo. This has been very helpful, thanks mate!
For me these past 3+ is watching film, playing video games and doing some light convo on ome tv(just for the lol of it 😂 , I love it when they see some South East asian dude randomly speaking broken Russian lol )
This is great! I'm trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese because my partner is from Brazil and I want to communicate with his family so I'm focusing on verbal comprehension and conversational skills. As someone with diagnosed adhd you hit the nail on the head that repetitive memorization is literal torture. I tried Duolingo but I pick things up pretty fast and I get bored very quickly. I'm going to be trying to watch Brazilian tv shows with Brazilian subtitles (no English) to see how that works!
Pimsleur mentioned woooo 🎉🎉 I love that app so much, I use context clues in non verbal learning, so it's easy to be passive and miss some things. Being forced to speak helps me so much
"or [..] a lot of declarative knowledge _about_ language" THERE WAS NO NEED TO CALL ME OUT LIKE THAT! 😭 ..and i'm not even an academic, i'm just a nerd 😢 anyway, what i wanted to say is i agree very much on the different strokes for different folks approach. as much as i support immersion the people who promote it often talk very disparagingly about grammar-based approaches, but i think that isn't fair bc not every grammar-based teaching approach is the same, not every learner reacts to the same approach the same way, and for some learners learning the grammar from a zero basis may actually help them get used to a language that works completely different to their base language much more efficiently.
I’m learning Finnish (I’m a half Finn from the US), & actually being consistent for 254 days straight on Duolingo for as little as 10 minutes has made me conversational in Finnish. I just added Quizlet to the mix yesterday which helps.
Learning Arabic while living in Egypt. Very helpful, thankful.
As a Persian language teacher I do confirm the significant difference between the spoken and the formal Persian but I encourage you to continue learning it because the beauty of this language makes the journey so pleasing and enjoyable 🥰
This is really interesting. Especially since you called me out with Vietnamese. The goal is just to have some basic communication with my in-laws. But honestly, the more I learn the more I enjoy it and the deeper I want to go. From Esperanto which was about as easy as is possible (which I feel pretty much fluent) to VN which is about as difficult as I can imagine. The distance between the two has been instructive. I've wanted to learn Greek as well and dabbling for a few months I was surprised how easy it was (compared to VN) but I put it aside to focus on VN as my main task. I feel guilty wanting to do some italki lessons, (since I have a native speaker living with me lol) but she's not a teacher. Her parents are technically teachers, but they teach in school in Vietnam, and no English. Sometimes I feel a little grumpy when a KZheadr talks about "mastering" a language in no time and it's Spanish or French. Zero hate on either language, but cognates are super helpful. And random app call out. I got Mango free from my library. I like the audio. I liked being able to tap and hear individual words. VN-wise I sometimes don't 100% agree with the translation, but it's very good. I hear Duolingo has gone downhill since I quit, but in its day Esperanto punched way above its weight class in quality. The volunteers did a tremendous job.
For conversational ability, it's really helpful to really focus on listening and understanding spoken language. You can memorize the entire dictionary, but if you can't hear the words being spoken correctly you won't understand. An exercise that helped me a lot was watching a conversation without subtitles, writing or mentally noting what was said, then watching again with subtitles to see if I missed anything important. Then I'd listen again without subtitles while paying attention for the words I misheard or missed completely. After a while, I made fewer and fewer mistakes with my listening and could follow conversation both in videos and IRL even if I didn't know every word's meaning. It's a great way to practice especially for languages that are spoken very quickly like Japanese or Spanish or for languages that have thick accents like Arabic or German. Japanese was very tricky as they speak incredibly quickly in real conversation and often mumble or skip syllables that are difficult to string together.
Thank you for confirming that my plan was going in the right direction. I want to learn Hebrew so that I can read the signs, the newspapers, etc. when I get there, and once there to take some classes without being an absolute beginner. I like to have really good base before I even open my mouth, that's what works for me. I'm 82 and I'm doing this also because of my fear of dementia!
You should be able to read signs quite quickly, but reading newspapers will take quite a bit longer. With patience you will get there.
@@kennethgreifer5123 I used to make a running total in my head of the cost of my groceries as I added them to my cart and then compared the sum with what the cashier rang up. I was young and living in Paris without much money. It made me good at addition but my purpose was to save money if the cashier charged me too much. I was going to the grocery store every few days so the list was not big. I might start doing that again whenever I shop somewhere.
that's a noble motivation! it's terrifying to me too, even tho I'm under 20 years old
Respect. I'm 21 and learning French just because I'm from England and they're my neighbours and I learnt a bit at school and I also want to have a solid base before I visit, or try and open my mouth to an actual French person.
I'm learning Hebrew as well!
Omg I've used Michel Thomas courses before and I always had a suspicion he was an interesting person! I would love to hear more about him!!
Thanks!
I listened to a few episodes of Chai and conversation and really enjoyed them. Didn't learn any Persian, but I wasn't trying to.
My goal: living and working in an English speaking country. I have been learning English for about 2 years. However i don’t feel that I can pass IELTS for example. Method: I just try to read,speak,watch content and learn grammar as much as possible. At least 2-3 hours per day.
I think you shouldn't underestimate your abilities. When I moved to another country I also had a lot of doubts about lvl of my english but in reality, everything was much more easy that I was thinking. Obviously the begging (like couple of days is a little bit awkward and stressful) but then everything is fine and the awareness that you are able to communicate with people from abroad is a big rush of motivation
If you wait till you think you're ready, you'll never do it. If those sentences are an indication of your level, you should be okay.
Your English is pretty good from what I can see.
Just to add my experience. My break-through in learning French was Babbel's grammar course (15mins a day), mostly because the example sentences were good listening practice and it unlocked being able to absorb other passive sources like in-language KZhead tutorials. I'm a long distance runner and I watch a lot of French runner videos, and I can understand increasingly more of them. I use Apple Translate to check if my pronunciation is understood. One mistake was not writing out the sentences from the Babbel grammar course, and my plan is to go back and do that. The video here reminded me that I need to be more specific about my goals -- the most important of which is to be able to express my needs in French AND THEN be able to respond to follow-up. I need to pay attention to resources that illustrate that specific problem.
My goal is to connect with a language and a culture that was taken from me when my grandparents immigrated to the United States. The idea of being able to fluently speak Spanish fills my heart with joy.
OMG, I love this, thanks so much! I've always loved languages and cultures that aren't my own. And being ADHD/autistic/whatever, one of the weirdest things I discovered long ago about myself is that I seem to be able to read and adapt to social situations better in cultures (and their languages) I acquire than I do in the milieu in which I grew up. (Full disclosure: I'm a Brit living in the US whose first language was Polish.) I'm not sure what I just said but it seemed meaningful at the time. When I went abroad to study, I discovered a social boldness in myself that I hadn't known I possessed. Quite suddenly, social interactions actually became somewhat fun.) Anyway, I do appreciate your tips for those of us who are neuro-pervergent. Finally, I would love a video on Michel Tomas and his life story. Cheers!
My goals, as I wrote them before finishing the video were to be able to read religious texts written in Farsi, and to be able to converse with Farsi speakers at religious events. After finishing the video, I think I set pretty good goals. I can regularlly check the reading ablity by reading a new passage periodically, and I can check the conversation goals a regular gatherings.
My goals: fluent by the end of the year! Well what I really mean by that is being able to do everything a native could, just at a much worse level. Being able to read, write, speak, and understand the language at a level where I can communicate and be communicated to, with clarifications and assistance needed at times. But to be entirely true to myself, it's just to watch anime without subtitles... My method? Sentence mining. Literally just watching a lot of stuff, grabbing words I don't know, and having a lot of flashcards. 35 new a day gets me to around 13000 new words. Which I think is plenty to get the basic level of "fluency" I desire. The only real problem is me having to stick with it, and I've been doing fine on that front for over two months now (started a bit before the New Year) Any critiques or advice is welcome
hey! I've been studying japanese for about 3 years (well, it's been 7 years since i "started" it, but i stopped in some of this years so it's more precise to say i studied for 3), and although it's a tough thing to hear and say, it's unlikely you'll become fluent in one year, especially if you don't have any experience with language learning. note, unlikely, not impossible. each definition of fluency requires a different time to archive, but since your main goal is to watch anime without subtitles, one year would be enough to watch a slice of life anime about general topics. when we start learning something we get very motivated, do miraculous routines and impossible goals. it's normal, but something that probably is going to happen is that the first time you don't achieve your goal, you'll get disappointed and want to give up. this approach to focus on vocabulary is really good though. since i started focusing more on it since the latter half of the last year, i went from barely understanding a kid's story to watching animes with topics that aren't what people usually talk about and enjoying a lot of forms of native content it's very good to focus on vocabulary and learn words in a natural way such as consuming content, but make sure to not totally neglect grammar studies. i like your approach, but i would recommend having around 30% of your time studying japanese with grammar. don't need to become a grammar nerd, even natives don't know a lot of things, but some things are necessary to fully understand what it's being said in an anime, for example. hold on a little with such a high number of vocabulary. it looks really good on paper, but in real life, you'll eventually get burned out (i speak from experience). plus, after a while pass you may notice that you can remember a lot of these words you learned, but not quite sure what it means, because you didn't gave yourself the time to let your brain absorb it, and it will start getting overwhelming having to deal with so many flashcards. 35 words per day is awesome, but 10 or 15 words is way more realistic. of you really want to reach 35 words per day, do it slowly. and the flashcards... this is totally my personal opinion, but i think reviewing flashcards it's a way too passive way to memorize words. you won't really learn them, just memorize a bunch of characters together and forget about them in 6 months or so if you don't use/see that word. they're nice, but i recommend doing something more active like, instead of see a word in the flashcard and remember it's meaning, try to remember the word without any help. i learn my words for the day, and then during the day I'll try to write them, remember their meaning and pronunciation. i learn more when i write things down and also like to write and read a lot of things in japanese, so maybe this approach is not right for you. english isn't my first language, so forgive me if it is too hard to understand. good studies, remember to enjoy the language! the process of learning japanese is delighting, although frustrating sometimes.
@@dalilsty Thanks for the extensive reply! I agree, going for general fluency would be really hard for a year, although it's as you say, I'm not really going for full comprehension, just for easier SoL shows. And for that I'm already somewhat decent at, knowing more than 90% of certain shows like Horimiya. I agree, and definitely am doing the best I can to structure my learning to avoid burnout. I've already been going at it with this style for about 2 months, and I find it pretty sustainable. I've tried learning Japanese previously, but stopped after burning out. Not to say I'm bulletproof to it, but I think my current setup is working fine for me. Although thanks for the advice, if I ever feel it's needed to cut down on the new cards per day I will With grammar, I already went through Tae Kim's grammar guide, and I think I have a lot of the general aspects down. Currently when watching and listening I'm at the stage where I can understand a lot, but if I actually tried to write or speak it would be a broken mess. Although I should be studying grammar more admittedly, what resources do you think are particularly good for grammar? I understand the brain not being able to absorb it, and I've also run into this multiple times already. But I don't really see it as a bad thing. I don't view my flaschards as the actual way I'm learning vocabulary, just as a tool to assist, with most of the actual learning coming from watching shows. Because as you say, flashcards alone aren't the best way to learn words, and at certain times it really feels like you're learning the card, and not the word. For some added context I'm only spending around 20 minutes a day doing flashcards, compared to about 80 minutes of watching content. So the emphasis really is placed on the latter Your English is great! Honestly if you didn't say it wasn't your first language I wouldn't have known. Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it all in mind when going forward. I don't really plan on having my learning being so rigid, so any advice is great when looking to see how I should change it slightly in the future. Agreed, language learning is the best when it's fun. Can be frustrating, but insanely rewarding.
My daughter was fluent in Polish as a small child, now she has a baby and for a year now I've been putting in real minutes on duolingo. I'm kinda addicted to getting points on duolingo, sigh, which may be slowing 🐌 down my genuine progress. I will become fluent someday, I will be reading children's books to my granddaughter next year. I've traveled through Poland 3 times, and will more times
I’m finding that watching to KZhead videos and Spotify songs, even without subtitles helps. I get filled with the accents, the intonations, and the mannerisms. When I studied Russian in college, a very long time ago, our professor instructed us on the way native Russian speakers hold their mouths and lips. Not at all like American English speakers move our mouths. Also, there was no English spoken in class after the second week. Everything was in Russian. This goes from the textbooks to classroom instruction. Class was about 3 hours on alternate days. It was followed by a Russian history class where the prof spoke English with a noticeable Russian accent. On those days people were telling me I also had picked up a Russian accent in my English. For a guy with a definite Texas accent, that was quite an accomplishment. Oh, my motivation for learning Ukrainian is to relocate as soon as possible to assist in country.
I like your direct approach for learning a language. I tried to learn French a few years ago but the instructor said that I wasn’t making much process. I was a bit de-motivated by that feedback. So I stopped, but I really like the language and culture.
I've always struggled with deciding which language I would like to learn more, because I when I think about it my main focus is not really to consume media in that specific language, but rather to produce or just write poetry in that language
Thanks for the vid! Which is better in your opinion for training reading comprehension in a foreign language: graded readers, bilingual texts or "good old" translation with a dictionary?
I want to learn (Mexican) Spanish well enough to understand media content and communicate casually with others (my mom). I would like to visit Mexico City one day and also go and see the crystal caves. Recently in my language journey, I've been thinking it would also be fun to be able to translate, and later interpret. So I need to expand my vocabulary. I know I need to work more on listening comprehension too. I think your videos are super informative! I'm enjoying your chanel a lot. Thanks for sharing.
My goal is to be able to work in my target language - Spanish (Latam). This includes reading technical/formal documents and engaging in conversation with colleagues about somewhat technical topics. I currently speak with a Guatemalan coworker for 2 hr every other week, and I've started an online course about my field of work that's held in Spanish. I plan to use transcription while looking at the videos.
I'd definitely agree about how the choice of learning methods is inherently tied to your goals. On a related note, thanks to you, I've finally realized why is it that "the bird app" and others never quite did it for me, as opposed to even the most traditional textbooks and good old Livemocha (G rest its soul) - a textbook is a complex and, for most of us, compelling story of a language that unfurls before you like a one-of-a-kind hand-sewn Persian rug; Livemocha with it's social media-esque premise used to bring with it the excitement of having a native speaker actually write to me (I even met my wife through it), and in both cases the intellectual or social pleasures of the process reflects those of your target. Whereas the modern apps, ehh... to me it's just senseless self-inflicted violence under the auspices of internet capitalism.
Im a librarian at a branch with a large population of Mandarin speakers, id like to learn Mandarin well enough that i can help Mandarin patrons with simple questions and give simple instructions like "this is the kids only area" in a polite way. As a longer term goal, id like to get to the point where i can do my entire job bi lingually, bur first things first.
@3:02 - initial goals are to to communicate basic concepts re food/drink/appreciation in italian and improve my understanding of any follow up responses from native speakers.
I'm Hungarian so my English is my second language, and here is my story. I studied it in high school but we went with a snail space. So there were the basics but not much. After graduating I hadn't have much need for English. But I was interested in anime and broadband internet just started spreading. Being from a small country with weird language (so small market) there was pretty much only one option sailing the seven seas. That meant Japanese dub with English subtitle. No way around I need to engage English as I didn't know anything about Japanese. I still remember taking one episode double the time because I stopped to look up words in the dictionary. Than come the second phase. I like video games and videos about it. So one of my fried was like you should check out this AVGN guy. So I did and I liked it. And I now I was forced listen to English if I wanted see more (no closed caption back in those days). And with that the internet opened up. I never felt like I'm studying or learning the English language it was just a byproduct. So I think the lesson of my story is that find something that you interested in and consume it in a language that you are trying to learn and that way it is not a chore but something that you just pick up.
My goals are simple. I want to be able to consume media, books, music, tv/movies, and listen in on people's conversations out in the wild. Living in New York I'm surrounded by native speakers and I'm nosy. I hate translated subtitles because even with my little knowledge so far I'm shouting at the tv because that's not what they said. I'm am mostly fluent in Spanish and am now working on Russian, Korean and Portuguese. But my goals are soft goals because really I'm learning because i simply love these languages and i want to fill my brain with them.
i do also want to learn korean!!
do u have any tips?
I had from a very young age wanted to learn Irish. It was the language of my forebears when they immigrated and that immigration was at a time when Irish was being devastated. But this was pre-internet in country where no one spoke the language. Irish orthography is bananas, you probably can learn it from a book, but I couldn't. I dipped in and out over the years but still could not get from the words on the page to sounds. I started in earnest late last year with the simple goal of being able to say something, and understand a few spoken words. Low hanging fruit but after (yikes!) decades of frustration having such a simple and attainable goal has made me extremely happy. I now want to set the next goal to stretch a little further but also not to set myself up for disappointment.
My goals are to have a casual conversation in Cree and Michif and to read syllabics. It's not that easy because there are several dialects of Cree and if you're learning Northern Manitoba and mix in some Swampy, it gets so confusing. 😂
You are so entertaining, it's distracting me from actually working on my target language. 😭
Nice reference to eating glass :-) It'll definitely hurt me! (also I'm learning just a tiny bit of European Portuguese, just so I don't feel completely disoriented when I visit in a month)
★★★★★ Another great presentation. Two tips.(1) Learn phrases and memorize them. Example: Where's the bathroom? Better yet: Excuse me, where's the bathroom, please? There are lots of phrases you use every day in a language. Make them automatic. I am so good at this that sometime I get in trouble. My interlocutor sometimes rips out the answer too fast and I have to ask for a repeat. (2) At the intermediate+plus level, "chunk" your learning and review. Examples: I just learned pituitary gland, spleen, pancreas, small intestine, and large intestine in German. Or, chunk different ways to say the same thing, such as "to make an effort." Again, in German: sich anstrengen, sich Mühe geben, sich bemühen und alles/sein Letztes geben. I find that chunking helps a lot. It goes without saying that using the target language passively and actively as much as possible helps.
I‘ve never attempted to learn a language that I haven’t at least scratched at in school. I‘m a bit overwhelmed about how to start at 0 without a teacher 😵💫 I also struggle to apply any language learning skills I theoretically have because as a teenager I never consciously thought about the strategic aspect about learning a language. This video really helped!🙏🏼
My goal right now, as I am living in Spain for 4 and a half months is to become comfortably fluent in the language, where I can not only navigate everyday situations (ordering in a cafe, dealing with some classic Spanish bureaucracy, etc.), but to be able to have an in depth conversation with someone in Spanish and only in Spanish.
I want to learn dari well enough to carry on a legitimate conversation with the people Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Due to issues with my military ties, I can't make the trip for at least 4-5 years. That being said, that gives me a lot of time to make some serious headway with the language. Throughout most of my life, I've learned multiple phrases and words in many different languages. One thing I've noticed was that I never really had trouble with the pronunciation aspect. As with many things, if you don't use it, you lose it. Language has proven to be no different. All that being said, how do you suggest I move forward with this, especially considering my the time frame I'm working with? I really enjoyed the first video I've seen from you. You have a new subscriber. I really look forward to this journey. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.
And thank you for talking about the pain of language study when you have ADHD. My biggest problem is keeping motivated when something isn't new anymore and then just switching over to a new language
My goals are perhaps less common: I want to learn Swedish to read novels and watch television. My grasp of grammar is probably already sufficient but my vocabulary holds me back for reading, and my ability to parse the sounds of casual speech holds me back when listening. How should I practice? I am retired and have lots of time, but limited focus and energy. I have achieved novel reading in French (after becoming fluent) just by beating my head against novels. I still can't understand it on tv without subtitles, but with them I can figure out the French. That's a more achievable goal, to be able to grasp the Swedish via the subtitles.
I have been more scattered in my languages (as indicated by my last comment mentioning Persian), but now I am currently seeking to be fluent (ideally B2) in Greek and Turkish by this fall, because I may be going to Cyprus. (The program I am being considered for only recommends a novice level, but I want to be able to experience the local culture. I am currently A1 in these languages but have been focusing on them over the past few weeks.) I also am interested in getting to a level C1 in German (currently B1), so I could study in Germany. I am also interested in getting to a C1 level in Spanish, French, and Arabic because I majored in translation in college and this would help on my resume, as these were the languages I took translation classes in. (My concentration was Arabic, but I am more knowledgeable of French and Spanish. I can read most of what I encounter online in French and Spanish, so my goal is improving my oral skills. I am not there yet in Arabic, but do want to improve my skills. Also, while I am a Christian and not a Muslim, the Quran was written in Arabic and the Arabic source text is particularly revered by Muslims, more so than translations. I am interested in learning Arabic as a way of building bridges between the West and the Muslim world, which is a reason I am interested in Persian as well.) I am also interested in reaching a C1 level in Hebrew, as I minored in Peace and Conflict Studies and knowing Hebrew and Arabic at approximately equal levels will help with working to build bridges in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Also, part of the Bible was written in Hebrew.
Hello, i am a university student (i study linguistics) and I am interested in linguistics and language learning i wish you do more videos about linguistics and language learning/acquisition And thank you for the very informative video 😊
I just found your content and I love it! Thank you! Quick question: when you speak about defining your goal or “reason”, how do you do this? What I’m asking sounds elementary, but hear me out. I struggle with know exactly WHAT I can do with a language I’m learning (Korean specifically) because I’m not sure what there is to do with it once I master a certain level? Speak it, yes. Take in content, double yes (big Kdrama fan! 🙋🏻♀️). But after that, is teaching/tutoring an option? Translation? And if this is the case, how does one go about determining which material is best suited?
I am studying French because I think it is a beautiful language, I would like to live there one day and, having studied it at school, it is possibly my best chance at becoming bilingual (ego!!). To be able to speak confidently and effortlessly in another language would be a worthwhile achievement in my lifetime. I really struggle with producing sentences in real time. I've noticed that I have obvious gaps in grammar and feel like these should be addressed if I am to start producing with a bit more nuance. As is common with French learners, listening is also very difficult - something to work on is forgetting perfect comprehension and learning to listen more freely, accepting gradual exposure and familiarity as a better solution. I started 'skimming' Norwegian recently out of sheer boredom, though I'd like to travel there for arctic adventures one day, possibly even work as a guide of some sort. I enjoy meeting Nordic people because of their positive outlook and lightheartedness. I also find the similarity with English interesting and Norwegian seems like it would be easy to learn with dedicated study. It's been pretty fun so far!
I am 69 and learning French for a few reasons .... To exercise my brain and challenge myself (I am also learning to play the piano). In addition to this, I am learning because my young grandchildren are in French Imersion and I want to support their studies by being able to converse with them in French. Also, most of their lessons they sometimes want help with ie maths, socials and science are in French... having to keep stopping to look up translations is time consuming (not that I mind that particularly) but it can be frustrating for my grandchild. They are thrilled that I want to learn and are delighted that they can participate in my learning. We have had many laughs a my attempts at pronouciations.
Im trying to learn spanish for the sole purpose of being able to converse with spanish speakers because i love talking to people and where live at theres a lot of spanish speakers that dont speak great english.
Hey just a quick question, are you planning on making a follow up to your IPA learning guide? I loved the first part and felt kind of dismayed when I realized there was no part 2
My main goal is to conduct business & have professional conversations in French & Spanish to enable me to develop professional relationships with suppliers, stakeholders & customers who are native French & Spanish speakers. Long way to go lol
Thank you for recognising the physical pain that comes with tedium for some of us with ADD/ADHD. Also, best of luck with the Farsi. I find it one of the most beautiful languages in the world, both in speech and in writing.
I genuinely clicked on this video to learn how to speak better French (as a French major student in college who can’t really SPEAK French) and then you started talking about persian which is my mother tongue! I hope you enjoy your trip in Iran (ig you’re heading there)😁
Thanks ❤❤❤❤❤
13:53 number 6 i think has been exactly where i always fail because i'll get so into studying and learning new words, practicing grammar, going through various resources, and then a few weeks or so (or less!) later i'll just drop everything and "take a break" that lasts several months or a year. I really do kinda struggle with grappling with the fact that progress is going to be slow, so knowing that, "if i cram more into my sessions, it'll go faster!" and it doesn't go well.
My goals in learning Spanish are: to have fun, basically! I like studying new languages and I like how the sounds are like in Spanish. I also want to travel to Buenos Aires and Chile, and maybe someday Spain too.
I'm going to learn a new language to be able to comunicate more effectively I haven't decided what language but I'm thinking of either spanish or mandarin
yes please for michel thomas - i've read "a test of courage" and would love to hear your thoughts about how his method works
thanks so much for considering neurodiverse ways of learning! i have adhd and i try and learn a new language every 3 months because i get bored so quickly but im determined with my current one (we'll see how it goes)
YES to the video on Michel Thomas. I find that level of contradiction irresistible. "Do NOT attempt to learn this language while jumping out of areoplanes!" [jumps]
I am from Iran and I was literally shocked and thrilled simultaneously when you said you're learning Persian. if you ever needed a favor that I could've helped you with I'd be happy to help
Thank you! I have a video coming out this week talking about how far I got (and didn’t get) in just over two months