The 5 Stages of Enjoyment in Language Learning
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I enjoy every stage of my language learning; when I start to explore a new language; when I go back again to something familiar that I don’t understand; when I start to understand more; when I understand most of it; and when I no longer feel I need to learn it.
0:00 Stage 1: discovering the language.
2:08 Stage 2: the language becomes familiar.
2:55 Stage 3: the plateau.
4:48 Stage 4: understanding around 80%.
6:00 Stage 5: Totally comfortable in the language.
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The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3HyXXik My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com Which of the five stages of enjoyment in language learning are you in right now?
Stage 3 for Japanese. You’re totally right, Steve, about the feeling of should being able to understand but can’t… yet 😉
1) discovery: everything is new and exciting 2) familiarity: the sounds and structures are feeling familiar 3) plateau: slow and steady progress 4) understand 60-80% can have conversations (b2) 5) can fully function in the language (c1)
Phase 3 is the killer, am stuck so am frustrated I get demotivated.
Unless you need a certification for work or something, I don't worry about B2 or C1 or whatever. Can I do the things I like in the language? Can I have good conversations and make friends? Can I read and watch series/movies? That's all I worry about. I'd probably do poorly on an exam, but who cares if you can do everything you enjoy.
Great. It is my opinion too: I focus on talking to people. Nowadays I don't care about certificates or tests. I prefer to test myself
Right. Me too. My pleasure is self selected reading in English.
Also at this point you will complete your acquisition fully passively by listening or reading stuff you enjoy. So you get there eventually of you continue, what's hard is getting past that point where you have to constantly translate cause you lack vocab. It's really frustrating, I feel like I will never pass that point
I'm in stage 4 with English. Thanks, Steve. I understood 100% of your vídeo. I'm from Brazil.
Espero que algum dia meu português seja assim seu inglês. Agora mesmo, Tô Muito ruim. Agora mesmo.. talvez estágio 3 de 5. Talvez superior 2.. Upper 2nd level🤷 mas acho que 2
I understand pretty much everything in English but I can't communicate comfortably in English, especially in speaking.
I'm taking Japanese now and decided to use Premium LingQ instead of language courses offered where I live. 2 weeks into it and I already like it, it's the same things I've been doing before according to Steve's advices but now it's fully automated and I don't have to switch between dictionaries, lists of vocabulary, translators to check the pronunciation and eventually lose my focus and waste a considerable amount of time doing all of these things. Audio wasn't even an option before and now it's always ready in LingQ and the speed of speech feels a lot more normal and natural than intentionally made slower to make it easier understand. I get it, it's easier that way, but it won't help when you start consuming native content in the target language. So thank you for the amazing app and hard work! Your videos are a great source of motivation for me.
Wise words. I think a very under appreciated aspect of language learning is that if we are enjoying the content/process, our subconscious language learning processes are activated in a more efficient way and the material is more likely to find its way into long term memory. We remember material more when we are enjoying it than if we are trying to brute force (anki!) to shove information into our heads.
Excellent video... thanks Steve! I find myself clearly in Stage 3 of learning French according to your helpful description of each stage and found it super-helpful to get clarity on this long plateau stage while being somewhat excited about what Stage 4 (and hopefully 5) offers in time. Your message of enjoying each stage is also invaluable!
Thank you for all your wonderful videos. I love every step of language learning. I am North American and my mother tongue is English. I have a Bachelor in Spanish. My husband is from El Salvador and I have adopted the accent of El Salvador. I am teaching myself Hebrew. I can write in Hebrew and I can read it as long as it has the vowel signs. I struggle with remembering the vocabulary but I will never give up!
I'm at stage 4 in my target language after a 4 year period. I'm trying to improve it further to a C1 level. I feel like at C1 in my reading and writing, but B2 in my listening and talking. Who knows, I might be able to get there by the end of this year.
I've been learning Japanese for around 10 months now and your description of "stage 3: the plateau" is so familiar. Especially the part where sometimes it feels like I should understand but I don't and how it's a period of frustration. I just want to get to "stage 5: totally comfortable in the language" as fast as possible and learn other languages but I know I have to stick with Japanese for now.
I've never enjoyed studying nearly as much as I do now with LingQ. I love using podcasts, and I'm having a blast going through a Stephen King novel in Spanish. I have to look up a lot, but it's alright. I'm really getting a kick out of it, and I can see myself keeping this up indefinitely. I'll stick on Spanish for the next couple years or so and then switch to French.
Thank you Steve. I love to hear you!
Really enjoying your language approach and always have! Hope you are keeping well Steve!
Love the content you're putting out Steve! Thanks a lot!
I’m Japanese and I’m learning English. Through his videos, I usually study English. I’ll continue my efforts!!!
I enjoy listening very much as you explain things clearly and help give me something to think about in the realm of this great hobby.
Thanks for your video 😊
That was inspiring thank you
Listening to your videos has really helped me have a far better attitude to language learning and an understanding of how to learn most effectively
Just subscribed, i found it while watching the What I've Learned channel during an interview with Steve about speaking 20 languages. That was so fascinating, i had to look up the channel and here i am. Just trying to get good at Japanese and Spanish.
I love this so much : )
MANY THANKS! I am using LingQ, it's very useful and entertaining. YOUR VIDEOS ARE ALWAYS VERY MOTIVATING, TRULY INSPIRING
Watched a few of your videos and it's making sense to me. My problem is that I pick up the language extremely fast so I assume itll be fast and easy believing I'm some genius but truth is I've been around this language my whole life. I am slowly but surely beginning to enjoy the language again and I'll have to keep up with my studies instead of taking breaks
You give great tips. English isn't my native language and may be eight month ago I wouldn't say/write anything use English. I had a case when I was passing job interview and interviewer say that "Let's check your English" and they switch from our native language to English and ask me some common question... But I couldn't say anything. The silent spent about 3 min after that I said that "I'm not ready. Sorry for your waitng". I have some knowledge about English language. I was learning it at school but some internal bounded doesn't give you feel relax and trying to speak somethink even if It will be little bit wrong. Eventually I agree that we have to have goal enjoing while learning.
Master, you're always bringing good insights to all of us, a big thank you from Brazil! 👏👏👏
My journey for example with Braz. Portuguese was: I am into the language for a good month. Having learned all the words and grammar in an Assimil course I feel so confident and competent to listen to Brazilian News or Radio show hosts talking with local Brazilian politicians cause the language is no noise anymore after all. Great! So I set about listening to "higher" and real native stuff not recorded in a studio for learners. So what happens then? NOISE..... 😵💫😅
@@rvdzst totally understand you man, but keep it up, Brazil is such a huge country, so even to us seems a mess to get some words and expressions, but soon or later you gonna get used to the language
@@ocaminhodoingles The same happened to me in Spanish as well btw. Sure, of course I will continue! There are people I can already understand quite well and there are some that mumble and mutter no end, where I can imagine it should be even hard for native Brazilians to understand everything. For example to me people from Sao Paulo seem to speak clearer than people from Mato Grosso do Sul (the location of the radio station). But it´s just a first impression.
@@rvdzst yeah, I think so too, they speak quite clear in Sao Paulo, but it depends of the person too, because there is a lot of slangs some people use in some places, so that would be a difficulty also
Hi steve, I'm on step 3 and I'm trying to push the 4th in Japanese, not the easiest as it's the longest but I keep pushing ! Thank you as always
Wonderful! Yes, of course, enjoyment is not only a crucial condition for success in language learning, but its very goal. Why else learn a language, really?
It's true we need new topics new method to learn languangues, i got those two things, i found on youtube videos. On KZhead we can found videos that enjoyeble to watch, learn English through KZhead videos is my cup of tea.
Thank you Steve for sharing your clue which is very helpful and valuable...best regards from Donald at Suzhou, China
Suzhou. I was there in 1975 and again in 2003. Great city. Great food. Cheers.
@@Thelinguist I shared your vlog with my thousands of friends and followers in Linkedin, the professional platform...thank you and welcom (back) to China to see the update, not just the local MEDIA...happy new year 2023, the year of rabbit in China, cheers, professor Kaufmann
I actually really needed to hear this. I'm at that plateau stage with Russian right now (и немного расстроена 😅). I haven't been taking the time to study everyday and needed that push to get back at it again.
I know the feeling. Is English your first language?
@@Tehui1974 Yes it is. Plus I'm American so they don't teach second languages in most schools except for some Spanish in high school. Now I'm 34 and a year into trying to teach myself Russian. 😂
Enjoyed work good , it's a way to learn with relaxing, but we must to move to other stage when we could be more familiar or in other word we have to practice talking with many people to overcome our languge familiar with others
the mind, the soul, idea, intended, unreasonable, ignorance, health, pride, dream, stray, impatient, fear, serious attitude, life, hypocrisy causes disbelief
Cheers
I am between stage 3 and 4 right now in Japanese.
Has este video en español por favor, gracias
I think I'm at a B1+ with my Spanish but am finding it hard to progress with vocabulary and tenses especially . What things can I do to help? Maybe you could make a video on what things to focus on when studying a language..?
I believe there is a natural order whereby our brains get used to the structures and patterns of a new language. Just keep going and be patient. Try to enjoy the language.
Know that it's inevitable. I just hit c1 this November after starting from a1 last October. For me, the b1 and b2 plateaus sucked. I felt like garbage. I was miserable. I had to Brite force the language by force feeding myself star wars the clone wars with no subtitles and listened to music and studied the lyrics and sang in the shower and stuff. It was all a sort of blind stumble as I very slowly got better at ordering food or selling mattresses. But when I felt the click hit and I suddenly heard everything even if I don't understand it yet I knew the faith paid off. Honestly, don't be afraid to reduce the intensity, but do it iebery day so your subconscious mind knows it's important enough to retain. I've done 10 hr days and 10 minute ones because I felt like my brain turned to peanut butter. Keep the faith, build the habits, and wait.
@@jasonjohnson6938 May I ask how you find out about your current language level? Can it only be done through an official exam? Or can we assume that the levels on LingQ more or less correspond to the levels of the EU ref. framework?
@Henryetha officially, it can only be done through an exam. I ended up taking a variety of different placement tests for high level programs. It doesn't actually matter where you are, just that you feel like you're making progress. 1200 hrs? Ok, amar y vivir on Netflix Is 60, bojack 80, swar wars 300, etc etc. The great thing about the placement tests is they're free. However, they're limited to testing your auditory and reading comprehension. Deploying the language live is much harder. But understanding ins MUCH more important
I am waiting for LinQ to have Hindi , I have been learning it but it’s more challenging to find good resources than in other languages.
When someone starts learning a language,he has a lot of motivation to keep going. after a while faces the complexity of learning a language he gives up and learn learning a language is not an exciting activity.
did you translate the captions? O.O
Been living in Japan for 13 years and never got passed Stage 1. Very frustrated because I can't progress past basic greetings no matter how much time and effort I put in. It started off as exciting new, but has slowly but surely spiralled into a black hole of misery from which there is seemingly no escape. If it's mathematics and science I ace it! But learning a language seems to be an aptitude or skill I lack. Will keep soldiering own though. Great video!
Have you tried anki and immersion learning?
Focus on comprehension. Have tried to learn to read, by the way? A lot of investment up front but great dividends in comprehension.
Yes Steve, I can read Hiragana & Katakana and a few hundred Kanji. Will focus more on reading. Thank you!
Thanks for the comment but Anki, and SRSs in general, don’t seem to work for me. Ditto for immersion.
@@kenoath5717 it takes a lot time and effort for immersion, especially tolerating ambiguity earlier on. If you only read, you won't build up much listening and speaking ability. Reading is definitely something that helps too, though. I personally use the yomichan browser plugin as a pop-up dictionary
I don't know my situation in English, when I watch videos in YT or Podcast I'm able to understand 80% or even the 100% of the content, even if I haven't seen the video in the past, with animes or tv series like star wars I can understand all, but when I watch movies or series in live action many times I can't understand when they speak very fast or with coloquial phrases.
All normal. Just keep going.
Thanks for going the extra mile and adding auto translate from languages KZhead doesn't auto translate on its own, like Hebrew
The best enjoyment will come, when you are able to earn money while learning language! 😀
Hello,Steve. I really want to know how to listening and reading(Is’t listening and reading the same materials during a period or find more materials to listening and reading after you have red it?
Qual conselho você daria para alguém que tem 6 anos para aprender inglês e francês?
Please focus on the functionality of LingQ more! And let users create more content!
Steve, I wonder if you could comment on the trajectory to take for effective listening - Reading has seemed easier, in the sense that I start with the ministories and other beginner material, work on roughly 15% unknown word texts until now I'm at the point of having saved 8,000 LingQs. However, looking for listening material like podcasts, I often only understand maybe 20%. Of course with a transcript, usually it's much better, but I don't know how to improve my listening when I understand so little, I wouldn't really consider it comprehensible input. It's less to do with not knowing the words, and more to do with not understanding the speech. People with KZhead channels about their language are usually very easy to understand, sometimes 90%, but I recognise it's a very unnatural environment and clear annunciation. What can I do?
I totally get where you are coming from; when I first started learning spanish I focused heavily on grammar and reading and eventually found myself where I wasn’t recognizing words I knew on paper in audio format. I realized I needed to just throw myself in and alternate mixing native materials (news, podcasts not geared towards learners of the language, a specific hobby or interest) and the learning materials, but for all of the learning materials like youtube channels, I increased the speed gradually 1.5x then to 1.75x and so on. Passively and actively listening for 1-3 hours daily (while driving to work, cooking, or showering), enabled me to understand most everything I heard in the span of a couple months. It takes a lot of time but is very worth while. Also I find there is a certain point where “learning materials” don’t help you advance so much as just listening and engaging with content directed for a native speaker audience. Bridging that gap between “learner material” and “native material” takes time and requires alternating between the levels of difficulty. Because not every language will have materials/comprehensible input for every stage. Ive found myself in this gap recently with hindi- All the materials for learners only bring you to an A2 level and then all the other material is B2 ish at the minimum. So Im trying to mix my youtube teachers plus movies and podcasts even tho, I couldn’t understand them at all without subtitles or hinglish frases. Best of luck in the journey and keep going!
It's a long road. I wish podcasters would provide transcripts. I go to automatic transcription sites but it's a lot work and the results are less than perfect which is tough for language learning. I think this will improve over time with AI.
I know you go through each mini story dozens of times, but do you do the same with subsequent content? Should it be more wide reading after the mini stories, only going through it a few times before moving on?
We need English in Morocco. French speaking country organization (francophonie) prevent Moroccan boys to access to English. Being a french bilingual country speaking does not justify this awful situation in the country, simply because there are others countries alike and even that they didn't marginalize English as still it is in Morocco. It is a quite flagrant state because Morocco is the first country which recognized USA existence first, and secondly it is a capital country, the first economical partnership for the European community, and finally its diplomacy has always been excellent during centeries as an African gate, and has always played in the great nation cour historically speaking of course. Pupils learn English only 3 or 4 years before acceding to university. And the ESP English course does not exist in others studies (scientific English or business English..).
My wife and I visited Morocco a few years ago, stayed in Fez (right in the Medina) & Chefchouen and visited around by bus and taxi. The presence of French and Spanish (up north) or Berber in the south is no obstacle. People who know 2 or 3 languages have an advantage in learning more. I found Moroccans very friendly. They were willing to speak with me in Standard Arabic, which I was learning at the time, and when that failed we went to French. Many also spoke excellent English.
I am learning with two teachers private lessons of Swedish and Finnish I would like because I love learning foreign languages your advice since you know better it would be better to learn Norwegian on my own which is close to Swedish or Estonian which is close to Finnish?
Once I reached an intermediate level of English I feel like I'm not making a progress and not improving what should I do
Read books, papers online, watch films, sitcoms , and so on. There's always something new to learn, even in your own language. Good luck.
It is also true that the older you are the more difficult it is to memorise and understand a new language. Any tips for 40+? :)
I am 77. My advice is based on my own experience. Don't rely on memory Don't memorize. Just get used to the language gradually by listening, reading and speaking when you get the chance without trying to hard.
In the context of graded readers , which stages should you feel appropriate to move to the next graded level?
I am not such a fan of graded readers. I prefer to struggle with authentic content once I am past the introductory stage or podcasts or other material with less low frequency vocabulary.
thank you
That's me with Dutch, I've been struggling for years... :(
Can you learn a language just by using the Bible? I am a Christian and I love the Bible! I am learning Portuguese. Do you have tips on how to learn a language just by using religious text? Do I need to learn the basics before learning the Bible in Portuguese because the Bible has complicated words? Any thoughts? Thank you, Mr!
do you know youtubers who speak easy and repetitvely the arabic language or the russian language ?
Could you tell me what you require here, or you can email me.
According to the description about what a c1 person is able to do I don't think I am a c1 boy with my own native language 🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂 these enjoyments can be torture to sb🎉.😅
I don't think the last stage is enjoyable as such: you have reach a stage when you don't even notice or think about that you are using a language that you didn't understand once upon a time. I have reached a level where I can understand practically everything, including all accents, but I still make grammatical mistakes in my speech and even more so in my writing, and I don't think I ever will reach the level where my own language won't interfere with my English. That ship sailed long time ago. That's because I didn't formally study the grammar rules and I am not talented enough to pick them up naturally. But even if I would suddenly speak and write like a native, I don't think I would feel any satisfaction: I simply wouldn't notice.
Quien habla ruso?
чего изволите?
I'm not enjoying learning. The outcome is what motivates me.
then it will be pretty difficult to stick to it - enjoying the process makes it something you can sustain
same
I heard a rumor that you're Ikenna's father. Is that true?
Grandfather