813. Language Learning is a Voyage of Discovery / Steve Kaufmann Interview
Steve Kaufmann is a very prolific language learner. He has learned at least 20 languages to varying degrees during his life. Some of them he learned during his career as an international diplomat and businessman, and others he has learned during his (semi) retirement.
In this interview Steve talks about his language learning experiences, methods and motivations. We talk about various metaphors and similes for language learning including ocean voyages 🚢, cows 🐮, skiing ⛷ and cutting grass🏡 and I ask Steve about cross-cultural experiences he has had during his career.
The audio version of this episode contains my intro and ending rambles about getting my hair cut and how you need to remember that you’re a baby cow-shark on skis 🐄🦈🎿😅.
Subscribe to the audio podcast in a podcast app plinkhq.com/i/312059190?to=page
Episode page with audio version, links, etc wp.me/p4IuUx-sLt
@Thelinguist
00:00 Hello Steve
01:11 How many languages do you speak?
02:49 Why so many languages?
04:09 How did you learn Mandarin Chinese?
06:38 Did you ever lose motivation?
08:38 How did you feel when using Chinese while working as a diplomat?
11:35 Languages are like cake, wine or cheese
12:07 Is Steve a special case? Can everyone learn like Steve?
14:15 What stops people from learning languages?
15:25 Is it all just input, or is deliberate practice useful too?
17:36 How do you learn a language from scratch? (e.g. Persian or Arabic for Steve)
21:37 Steve's motivation and tolerance for failure/mistakes/"fuzziness"/forgetting
24:15 If Steve was learning English, what would he do?
27:30 Language learning metaphors and smilies
37:29 Steve's career as an international diplomat and businessman
45:16 Learning about Persian and Arabic history and culture
Thanks again to Steve for the interview!
👏👏👏👏 4:56
A pleasant interview. It was an easy conversation on a subject of interest, which you kept going with your varied and probing questions. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am learning Persian on my own,could you share PDFs or any stuff with me?i am from India.
@@ziaulhaque4462 I am a native in Persian. If you need help, I will be happy to help you.
I have successfully kept my LingQ streak for 153 days since I subscribed the premium last September(Although it takes some 'extra effort' to use it as normal in mainland China). Great thanks to Steve! It really helps me to enjoy the pleasure of reading and learning English at the same time. What's more you inspires me to learn another new language and help me a lot in building a proper, not frustrated attitude in the process of learning a language.
I've done that kind of intensive courses at home (self-study) and I noticed that works for me, however, I prefer not to do it beacuse I feel like I'm a machine absorbing things without any pleasure. In my case I'm not in a hurry with English and also love the language, so I try to enjoy the process of learning. Luke's channel is one of my faves to practise listening as well as learning new words, expressions, different accents, etc. I'm at the moment that I'm noticing better comprehension of music and films, and I'm very grateful for the effort that Luke makes to do these videos/podcasts. Thanks a lot Luke!
2 of my favourite english maker people together, speaking with each other in 1 video. What can be better? Like a dream come true! Thank you a lot Luke and Steve!
It´s taken me ages to learn English and I´ve felt frustrated several times but nowadays I´ve found a new encouragement that has allowed me to develop the intensity that Mr. Kaufmann says and spite the fact I´m still feeling in the plateau, I´m learning a lot listening podcasts of my interests and reading, the only thing is I haven´t found nobody to talk to
P
You both are the great teachers , all your suggestions and experiences are inspirational . To be honest when i watch your episodes , you make me feel easy on this way. Thank you so much and keep it up 👍👍👍 i am the one who is waiting to your new episodes always 🤩
Absolutely amazing. I'm feeling encouraged to continue my study in English. Thanks Luke and thanks Mr Steve.
Im native Arabic speaker and i speak english, i have tried to learn another language (Spanish) but it i have noticed it effected my english in negative way!!
Hello from Uzbekistan, I have really appreciate to Mr. Steve's knowledge about Movarounnahr's(Uzb) and Xuroson's(Afg) history. In fact, these regions produced many scholars who were responsible for the first and second renaissance of the world after the AD.
Just like Steve has said I've always believed the most important thing is understanding the person you're talking to, because if you don't understand him you can't talk but if you understand him you can pass to other person what you want to say in some way, so the key is listen a lot and being acquainted with words
I didn't know Steve, so thank you for this content. So inspiring. Thank you for this channel!
Great inspiring interview for all language learners! Thank you!
Kudos to Steve for having learned and/or keeping on learning languages with a different alphabet. Respect! Incidentally, your remark about the importance of repetition reminded me of a very dear English language teacher of mine who used to tell us that one should learn "by dint of repetition". Now I see it may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it certainly did work for me. Thank you!
Fantastic and informative interview covering topics that I have never seen before about Steve’s life, even in his channel. Thanks, I really appreciate it!
I liked that man. He's got smart sight. Learning language no matter what is function of our intellect. The more intelligent we are, the easier it is.
I thought I m good for speaking 5 languages...Steve s a whole different level...he s motivated me to improve the languages I already speak and maybe learn something new...he s awesome!
Thank you so much for this episode. I was listening it during my day walk in a town. Very pleasure ☺️
Never before the process of rumination hadn't been described in such an entertaining manner, well done Luke! Thanks for fascinating stuff. You are definitely taking the cake. Cheers!
I can barely keep up my English language skills but hearing this interview made me realise we don’t need to have a wall, we can keep going and going, ty!
Thank you I learn many things from this conversation. I will see it again and again
What an inspirational interview! Thank you so much Luke for sharing such informative and brilliant content.
الله يكتب اجرك يالوكاس على هالبودكاستات مررره استفدت منها ❤️❤️
Motivation and practice now I know how to improve my English ! Thanks. Steve I hope you enjoyed your stay in Grenoble.
Luke, you are a great interviewer. Thank you for doing your homework and research about Mr Kaufman.
That's magnificent ☺️. My favorite KZheadrs together. I'm so excited!!! Keep it up!!! I'm really grateful for it.
Hello! I'm excited about this conversation. I wanted to add this comment before starting to listen to the conversation, because I know that this is going to be very useful program for learners of English as a second language. I first watched a few episodes of Kaufman's presentations in early 2020. His ideas about the acquisition of English language are innovative, novel and result oriented. Hopefully, this episode is full of ideas that every lepster is certain to be satisfied with!
Well,I’m Chinese guy and I really obsessed in George Orwell’s book so I spent a millions of time like Steve said over and over again practice till you exhausted!I feelings good while I’m in processing in learning English.By the way,Thanks both of you ❤
Hi Teacher Luke, Glad I found you on the podcast. I still have been searching for the way practicing my English. Having finished your podcast, I feel more motivation to keep practicing my English which is being my obstacle. Thanks so much.
Thanks, dear Luke and Steve, for the podcast and the video and all your efforts. As a languages lover and a Persian native speaker, I really enjoyed it. Best wishes. ❤❤❤
What a charming man Steve is, like the actor from Crocodile Dundee! Thanks for the inspiring interview!
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Steve really inspires me. As a good role model.
Wow 20 languages that’s amazing, Great podcast and great questions, thank you so much teacher luke for this channel i listen to you everyday, I wouldn’t be able to learn english if it weren’t for your channel. Thank you so much
Nice metaphors and similies, especially the one with a cow. I also have one metaphor and I'd like you to know Luke. It goes like this: Learning a language is like a magic. Being able to speak and understand people from completely different part(s) of the world is something incredible, like magic. Nowadays, in many countries people learn English by using textbooks, videos , films and podcasts. Most of these learners don't get the chance to talk to native speakers and yet when they meet a native speaker (English in this case) ( or any other language one is learning), these people can understand each other easily without any trouble. thanks to the podcasts and especially for Luke's English podcast. I like the diversity of the content of your work, especially the ones where you teach different accents across the UK and british expressions only brits know. When I talk to my British friend, she often gets surprised by some vocabularies I use which I learned through listening to your work. I now know English and Korean and little Russian and I feel like a magician too. Overall, teacher Luke, you are a magician maker/producer I'd say. You are also a magician in terms of French and Japanese(not sure about the second one but anyway). Have a good day and keep up the good work. All the best. Your long-term ninja magician l, Isroilov Muslimbek. 😅
wowowow!
Great,a lot of stuff to get the knowledge .enjoying a lot.
Luke thank you so much for your excellent job ❤ I’ve been learning English for a while and recently I started with French. Definitely, Steve is amazing, he’s motivation and determination is remarkable 🤩 I follow him on Facebook 😊
Dear Luke, I am so happy for you and this interview was inspirating with this gentleman. Your tone is very pleasant and I appreciate that you always bring us exciting topics.🙂 Your guest is pretty intelligent, and diligent, I have been learning English for almost 15 years but I still haven't claimed my goal, to be fluent. Our teachers in the school were not too qualified, because they were Russian teachers and they were retrained to English teachers in the 90s, so they were almost learning the English with us, with plenty of mistakes in the language, but this is not their fault, they tried their best. Today is so much easier for kids.🙂 When I went to the U.K.to get some job and I picked up the language very quickly. I also had German in high school but I did not like it, so I was not able to learn it properly. I think you have to love the language if you would like to learn it properly. Since I am not there in the U.K, I am listening podcasts and reading articles and comments on English sites. I learn 3 or 4 hours a day and I really enjoy it. I do not need it to my work or anything, just for fun. Keep it up, Luke, take care.🙂
Congratulations, I really appreciate your story
@@JorgeLima-qi2lh thank you and have a nice day.🙂
@@namaste2thank u and have a nice food.
Love you both Steve and Luke ❤❤. You are the best👍💯
This is a very interesting dialogue . I truly enjoyed listening to Steve on his milestones in lingual skills.
Great episode. Thank you both.
Wow, thanks alot for this. It is full of helpful stuff which I will use and positive encouragement. Thank you luke and Steve.
Wonderful conversation, thanks 👏
Thank you very much for amazing interview!
Thank you Luke and Steve. It was an amazing podcast, particularly when you were talking about learning Persian, my native language :)
Thank you from Türkiye 😊l always try to listen you.Your videos help me a lot my learning language process.😊
You are my favorit coaches in the language lerning area I am so glad to see you together
I've been watching some of Steve's countless number of collaboration with other KZheadrs the past 2 days and here you are coming up with a collaboration with him yourself 😂 Was an absolute blast watching you two speak and could well say it was a one hour worth of english listening material.
Teşekkürler efendim
Thank you Luke ,it’s a great Chanel to learn English!
Steve is an amazing gentleman. I have some Swiss friends in Switzerland who learnt Chinese but they only could read and recognised Chinese pinyin (kind of Chinese phonic, no words). Compare to Steve, I am such a stupid lady, although I had lived in London more than 3 years, I couldn't watch BBC without subtle 😅
Fascinating and informative interview!
Thanks both of you for very interesting talk…))🧡🎈☀️
Great interview! Thank you for sharing. It's made motivated to continue with learning German and Lithuanian 💪😎
Yes I am walking in park and listing ur good communication 🙂
Amazing Teachers
❤ It was nice to listen to! Thanks a lot!
I enjoyed the episode it's very interesting and motivating to improve my english skills. thank you very much
Thanks for your lovely recommendations
Thank you so much Luke for the vidéo ❤ I love it so much ❤I am from Guadeloupe ❤❤❤
Amazing conversation,thanks a lot.
Thanks for the interview.
Thanks a lot for this talk! it was fascinating, as always:)
He s a really amazing man Luke I liked when he said brain works with repetition and novel to avoid being bored with old information and it really works and will empower brain to well sement informations.nice video well done
It's really amazing, this gentleman speaks 20 languages, but there are people who struggle to learn only one language, so where the problem lies in? We, the language learners are expecting more from him.
I've been learning English for 30 years... Still it’s going on...I'm fond of it🎉
Hi Luke, Thank you so much for this interview, Steve is very encouraging for People who are learning à langage whatever it is. You must stay positive and motivated and the progress will come at the end.
"Enjoy the process" , ❤
I really like your videos with interviews with well-known personalities.Thans a lot for your video
Thanks Steve for your motivation! From Nepal 🇳🇵
Thank you very much. A really interesting interview. I have not so excellent ability for languages unfortunately. I am learning only English for long years. It is constant, i think even infinite occupation. But quite a nice one, it can easily fill almost any gaps in my activities even in such circumstances when none other kid of activities could. And it fights depression quite well.
Me too I prefer this channel Thank you so much sir
Great vídeo, I could understand 80 per cent. Congrats and keep doing this great job.
Very interesting and motivating ! 🎉
One of your ‘gold’ episode 😍
Steve kaufmann is my inspiration.
These insights are great!!
I listened to this podcast yesterday. It's amazing. BTW, I am Iranian and living in South London (Tooting). I'd be happy to have a chat with you if you wanna know more about the Persian language and culture.
Thanks a lot, it was really fascinating interview
Very motivating your channel, for learning englsh. It´s of great value
Amazing interview!
46:05 As a Persian I feel like I should mention that the Persian language is 1 language in 3 countries (at least officially) with three standard varieties that are slightly different from each other (mostly just in pronunciation but also some vocabulary). The colloquial dialects in each country, namely Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan can be quite a bit more different from each other, though not much more than American English and British English, Iranians just aren't usually exposed to Tajik or Dari speakers much at all, so they usually have a harder time understanding people outside of Iran than Tajiks or Afghans do Iranians or each other
wonderful conversation
Very interesting, his analysis about Persian is indeed true
both are my favourites thanks lot 😍
I like this: "Novelty and repetition". Easy-peasy!
great episode!👍
Thanks a lot i enjoyed it 🙏
I am so happy for i have seen you together
Спасибо!
Incredible interview. :).
Thanks, luke I can't thank you enough. I ran lately on a tv show called mind your language I wonder if you watched it before it is hilarious.
I love you both
absolutly awesome interview, really motivating. I ask me in which language is steve dreaming ?!
我70 岁了 感谢您们提供这么好的学习方法
我学了一年英语，几乎记不住单词，听两位老师的课程，可以看懂电影～英语字幕，可以自己看医生，办理各种证件～～～方法～～～很重要
大大赞👍
Finally going to the UK.
Thank you so much. How about Paris now. Hope that everything is good
You guys are cool 😎 hey 👋 from Kiev
❤
Hi Luke! How did you know I’m at the gym? I just laughed out loud when you said it and people kind of started casting weird looks at me 😅
That's really impressive meeting. May I ask you? Why you don't respond to me? I'm appreciated your utmost efforts and grateful forever. I'm from Iraq.
Hey. I am speaking natively Persian and I teach it. It's hellot difficult than other languages, some of my students say that it's kinda a extraterrestrial language.
i'm learning english, espanish, french, italian, korean, japanese, chinese, germany, cantonese and hebrew
great