I Quit French
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- Опубліковано 23 тра 2020
- Days of French 'n' Swedish has quit learning French. Why?
I have an open discussion about my reasons behind no longer studying one of the namesake languages of this channel. This was a very tough decision but at the same time, such a necessary one that it actually felt kind of obvious. I will now be studying Swedish "full time". Come with me for the ride.
Using any of these links for the services described really helps me out by making me feel like people care... and sometimes literally paying me money (and normally giving you some kind of bonus... cool.)
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Wow, you actually made it to the end of the description. Even I have never been here before. - Навчання та стиль
I think the upfront honesty is awesome, so many people on UA-cam are all "oh I speak 158 languages" and we all know it's bs beyond a basic conversational level.
Exactly!
And completely lacking grammar! 😱 The "I want to learn how the language functions" is such BS, that's what the grammar is there for!!
@@Raquel-wo4bx kinda true but I'm learning 😍frnch
how do you know this? it makes sense, but the videos they put out testing themselves seem pretty convincing to me
@@nathantang9964 It depends who we're talking about.
Luca Lampariello, sure. Other people... nuuuuut so much.
Normal, human person has normal human limitations and doesn't hold himself to the standards of a hYpErPoLygLoT. Relax, bro, we get it.
this.
my man john profaci speaks over 130 languages, watch out bud
lol love this.
Trying to learn two languages is not nearly trying to be a hyperpolyglot. It's a bad idea yes. It's a bit over-eager yes. But it's not some kind of absurd or prideful idea. It was just trying something out that turned out to be not so great.
Human brain has no limit bro
People watch these “(hyper)polyglots” thinking that they’re actually as fluent in all those languages as they present themselves to be. The truth however is that those are either very simple sentences (“I’ve started learning this language because of x reason, I met a person from this country once” repeat that a couple times for every language you claim to speak) or they’re scripted. In this video you’ve showed yourself in an above surface level dialogue with somebody where you were unprepared as well. Thanks for the transparency.
Yeah, and actually we do this kind of "Umm... wait no... yeah so anyway..." in our native languages. It's almost impossible to find clips of myself speaking Swedish without stopping like this but a lot of them are not linguistic so much as "thought" pauses.
Yeah! Pete Buttigieg used the same trick during the Dem primary by greeting in multiple languages in a viral video.
I've heard ikenna speak Romanian, he didn't even know how to write I am from New York in Romanian right. Also he didn't know how to pronounce a basic phrase such as Mulțumesc.
@Re Up ..
Have u ever watched Ikenna's video about 3 types of languages learners? He classified himself as a 'fluency hunter' which means he learns a language until he hits a certain level of fluency, not too basic yet also not too advanced, only for understand medias or to be able to converse with ppl in the aimed language, without having to force himself to be emotionally connected in that language like natives.. and when he hits that point, he moves to another language, the reason is because he loves learning languages, that's it.
@@stevecool21iscool55 .. Ikenna is only fluent in English, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and now he's still improving his Spanish... Look at his channel banner.
If there is a single reason for this channel is not growing, it's he is so realistic. People just want to hear what makes them happy.
That might be true but actually about 2 weeks ago this channel was getting 1000 subscribers a day, which is considered very high for any channel under 200,000 subs.
@@daysandwords Good news man! I hope it gets even better.
I'm learning French and this channel popped up in my recommendations but if it's not about French then I'm not subscribing. There's (way) less people trying to learn Swedish than French. I'm glad that he shows that learning languages is not easy, though.
@@franciscofuentes8916 I’m not learning Swedish or French, but I still think the content here can be useful no matter which language you’re learning and can be applied to other situations.
Responding 10 months later. The guy's doing well.
Bruh is okay, I studied english for about 10 years until I started to understand just what I was saying, remember this is not a race on "who can speak more languages in less time"
Well said. At the end of the day it's all about how USEFUL the language is for you, not about some imaginary point system and race to see who can arrive at an abstract idea of "fluency" in the highest amount of languages the fastest. I started learning French on the side. Right now I still feel like a complete beginner--and while I hope that I continue with it until I reach fluency in a few years, that is ultimately not my motivation. My motivation is that it's better to have *some* level of French knowledge, even if it's basic, than no level of French knowledge. I find value in that, in and of itself. And that's what motivates me to keep studying.
Bruh but i got say, 10 years dude, thats i little bit to much
It took me 7 yrs of consuming content in English(all of it) and speaking to strangers online for me to be proficient in English, and I did it out of joy, took my time to understand things and do my research, the important thing is to enjoy the journey in my opinion
Same. I think the key to learning languages is the way you learn them. I spent 6 years of school learning English and couldn't talk at all, and was only able to make very simple sentences. Even after having my parents enroll me into extra afternoon classes. Then suddenly I changed school and started having classes with American teachers and subject classes 100% taught in English. The change was a total shock at first, I couldn't understand anything, couldn't say what I wanted, nothing. After first year I started getting used to it, I grasped the grammar, I could understand most of it but my vocabulary was very lacking. Some friends of mine suddenly started getting very invested in a books saga, I borrowed the book, it was all in English. I accepted the challenge and read through it, every sentence there were words I didn't understand and had to Google. Like this every page took hours, but I was learning by the boat loads. Around page 72 I realized that I could understand most sentences. I started watching TV shows with subtitles in my native language first then changed it to English after a couple seasons. And by this time I could understand around 90% English. Literally after 6 years of useless learning a sudden change in style propelled my english level to a B2 in the time of around 2 years. All it took was to realize that a language cannot be learned only on paper, and that vocabulary is sometimes more important than grammar. Also using modern texts and real life dialogue to learn sentence structure is the most useful thing. After you realize what habits can impulse your language learning, learning any other language is way faster.
Ten years?
Either you weren't paying enough attention or your teachers were not good at all
Honestly, if a lot of other UA-cam polyglots released videos of themselves speaking in the languages they claim to speak, it would probably be just as bad or worse. Some people love getting to A1 in a lot of languages but it’ll never be more than a party trick. There’s no shortcut to true, effortless speaking so I totally respect your decision.
You must be right actually... I rearly see polyglots speaking in different languages spontaneously and for a long period. It's kind of like the instagram equivalent of people pretending to have fun.
Petros Stefanidis right - a lot of the time they just cut the clip after a few introductory sentences. Steve Kaufmann is probably the best I’ve seen in terms of being a *real* polyglot, but it’s obvious he’s worked really hard for literally decades
They tend to be very annoying. I am sure some can say a few sentences in dozens of languages, but would be unable to hold a 5 minute conversation. Not sure what is the use for that "knowledge".
@@AustinLouden yes, absolutely right. I'm Spanish and I can also speak Portuguese without any difficulty. I've watched Steve Kaufmann's Videos speaking both languages and he is great at it. But you can see it's spontaneous, especially in Portuguese, as he's mixing many words from Spanish and making mistakes but he is pretty understandable and nice to hear to.
@@AustinLouden I believe Luca - but yeah cutting it makes it much easier. It's also one of those things that if you really DO speak the language, the more you think about it, the worse it gets. For example my last video was in Swedish and was off the cuff, because I just kinda felt like having a rant in Swedish, and it was actually OK. If I had prepared it, it would have sounded like crap.
Your honestly has earned my respect. Finally, a sincere language learner on UA-cam that isn’t pretending like he is some kind of super computer.
Recommendation from me (personally) as a language teacher: "learning a language is like growing a garden" you can't force it onto yourself super fast. For you to learn even one word fully you need to see it at least seven times in different contexts. Work on a reasonable number of languages preferably start out with a language from a similar language family. Prefer to be someone who knows three langugaes on C1 level rather than someone who knows 7 languages at A2-B1 level. Languages are so vast. Instead of travelling the world find out the nook and cranny in the same town, visit it over and over.
EDIT: I have been reading all your insightful answers! There are some statements I don't entirely agree with but that's totally OK! I recommend you read "How Languages are Learned" by Lightbown and Spada if you're interested in the field!
You frankly can know 5-10 languages at C1+ if you give them a sufficient amount of time.
@@erikuslatinevivit348 it's not the amount of time you put in that matters, but more doing things on purpose, knowing what you need to improve at the moment and working on it. You can spend hundreds of hours just doing something in that language but that doesn't mean you would seriously improve. So know what you are doing and study mindfully :)
Beautiful comment! Thanks!
bathed.pacheetah I disagree with you. But then again that depends on what you want to improve. What does ”seriously” improving mean? If you want to improve your fluency then almost all practice of the language is useful, but then there are more or less efficient ways of praciticing. Reading is more efficient than listening to music in the language for example.
I think when you get to B2+ in a language theres really not a lot of studying left to be done, just more exposure to the language i.e practice.
@@erikuslatinevivit348 I disagree with your last statement. Yes, after level B2 you probably understand like 80% of the spoken language but there is still a lot to learn. And is not practising a synonym for learning especially with languages? There's always a lot to learn. I can't even say I am proficient in my native language. I can always learn more.
One thing I've noticed is that English speakers tend to underestimate the time it would really take to get to a level where you are comfortable enough in a foreign language, say, for example, watching stand-up comedies without subtitles and still laughing at the right moments.
Personally, I started learning English since 1st grade in primary school (it's a compulsory subject in Vietnam), and then kept on listening to English music and watching mainly English television throughout my teenage years, always at the top of my class, but it's not until recently that I felt like I understand more or less everything people say (only with familiar accents though, introduce me to a Scot and I'd think he's speaking German). So that's about 15-16 years of consuming countless amounts of contents in one language.
I majored in Hispanic studies in college, so Spanish. I reached B2 level in just about two years, but it's been incredibly hard to get past that mark, and also discouraging because no matters how hard I try it feels like I'm not advancing even a tiny bit. But I know it would take time, so I'll just stick with it.
So for anyone out there trying to get through the vast ocean between intermediate and advanced levels of any language and feel like you're stuck, please keep in mind that it's a frustrating and time-consuming task, but not impossible. Be persistent, don't lose hope and you will get there eventually. Buena suerte a todos!
Haha I just want to say that even as a native English speaker (American) it’s really hard to understand thick Scottish accents. Not to mention their vocabulary is vastly different to other english speaking countries. I once watched a video deciphering Scottish tweets and it was seriously like reading a different language. They use a lot of words/slang that simply do not exist in American English. Similarly, I listen to quite a few Scottish bands and sometimes have difficulty understanding the lyrics. It seems to me that your English is top notch!
@@frankiec3659 yeah I think it's a common problem with any language that have a lot of speakers. The equivalent of Scottish accents in Vietnamese would be those dialects from the central provinces, each one with its own phonetic peculiarities and vocab. Generally people from the cities or in the service industries are easier to understand, but I swear everytime they interview a fisherman or a farmer from that region on the national television they put subtitles on!!
Bảo Thư Nguyễn oh yeah they have to do the same thing in the US sometimes when interviewing people from the Deep South. Language variations/dialects really are fascinating
And how are those Hispanic studies going? I find it strange (but also really cool) that someone from Vietnam is studying spanish in college so I'm wondering how is that going for you
Well, I'm french and the part when you spoke French didn't seem that bad, your accent is really decent actually. But I understand why you quit french, it's hard to learn two languages at once!
If I had another advice to say, it would be : don't focus yourself too much on the results and if possible enjoy the process of learning (even though it might be frustrating not to see much improvement)
Jessy Gt I like this! And really agree, enjoy the process, aim to do something you’d be happy doing still in 10 years or a road for 10 years rather than just focusing on where will I be tomorrow or in a year, cause honestly you never stop learning a leanguage😂 even English and it’s my native language, and honestly when I and many others start learning another language we also start forgetting some of our mother tongue😂 you do you, and find what works best for you and as always have fun! For what good is it to learn something the whole time if it makes you miserable, challenging yes, tough and times yes but something you passionate about or the results and moving forward will give you, like moving to another country to literally work there! Focus on the journey for life is but of many journey and all true destinations are just check points😊💪✨✌️
....I completely agree with your final piece of advice. I am 'bloqué' between A1-A2 and, although I have intermittent online sessions with a 'tutor', I am not seeing results. I spend the best part of each day (>5hrs) with my head in UA-cam, Netflix and online (web and radio) yet I am unable to progress. End result: I AM NOT ENJOYING MYSELF☹️. Something is broken and I do not know how to fix it.
Thank you. My accent is decent yes, but I've never had a lot of trouble with a French accent. My Swedish accent was actually a lot more "work" to make sound good.
Really my French isn't that bad, like I said... but I'm still just happier focusing on 1 language. I don't want to focus on the result either, but I didn't enjoy Swedish OR French because I found them so much harder than they could be if I just did one.
@@kinhelfa I understand your pain bcoz I also feel the same way sometimes (I'm learning French) but now I have found a way to de-stress, whenever I feel bad that I cannot do it, I search for other polyglots experiences eg Steve kauffman and Lucas lamperillo, they all underwent the same pain but instead of focusing on the pain they rather enjoyed the process
styloetpapier styloetpapier - Thank you. I am going on enjoying the journey. When and if that 'lightbulb' moments happens will be an added bonus.
I really appreciate this transparency. Very cool and very refreshing
meanwhile in other channels there's who are saying that he can learn one language in a week. For that reason, I'd rather watch this videos than those one kind of channels.
mate, I tried to learn French and Arabic at the same time. ended up giving up on Arabic for a couple of years. picked Arabic back up when I felt my level in French was satisfactory, and now I've been focusing solely on Arabic for the past 2 years and I still struggle a lot. don't worry. learning multiple languages at the same time is not a good idea for most people. you'll just end up half-assing both.
I am a native Arabic speaker
Please carry on!
That's why it's pretty good to learn two similar enough languages at the same time. When I do decide to learn French I'll be learning(and mainly focusing on) a French based Creole Language called Louisiana Creole(which is the native language of my ethnic group). Learning french might give me and edge and vice versa but hopefully that's the case for me.
@italisten an Arabic speaker here. I'd offer help in exchange of help with German it Spanish.
@@mazu8057 أهلاً :)
Lol, “French was annoyed.” That’s a very French thing to say.
My French was jealous that I started learning Russian, or maybe I was jealous of not sacrificing all my time for French. I read some Russian when I feel my head is full of French, just to relax.
This level of honesty is such a rare occurrence to see in people. I am so happy to see you not only doing something that is so beneficial to you, but also that you are willing to share that with others. It is very brave. Best of luck with your learning!!
Looking at you Steve Kaufmann...
Victor Stroganov to be fair, Steve is really good at English, French, and Mandarin. English being his native language, French being his second, almost native language (he’s Canadian), which he solely focused on throughout school with no intention in learning a third language, And Mandarin being his only focus during his years as a diplomat. But I do think he overestimates how well he speaks all the other languages he claims to be fluent in because outside of the three above mantiene languages, he obviously hasn’t put much effort into his million other languages. lol
I want you to know that the entire reason I subscribed to your channel was because you DON'T try to pretend to be a super-human polyglot, you seem like a guy with a passion for languages who truthfully shares his experiences/progress and the things that have helped you the most to learn. Videos like yours are a million times more helpful than fake "How to learn French in 7 days in your sleep" click-bait bullshit.
Honestly just from the you speaking French clip you showed I got the impression that it's not that you don't know how to speak good French, but you seemed so nervous not to make any mistakes that you couldn't speak naturally
I get the feeling that the same thing happened to your Swedish speaking clip
I have zero interest in swedish and just a bit in french so this isn't the reason why I follow your channel. But the honesty and the open way how you deal with the topic of language learning. It's so easy to find here on YT people swearing about speaking 190 languages and not really helping the ones who are struggling with a new one. I truly believe that each one of us can have different goals and different processes but the tips that you offer and follow your journey it's inspiring me a ton.
Also I feltl like saying to you be more kind with yourself. You learned a lot in french and this helped you to fall in love again with swedish. It's quite amazing. Some people take a break, you just embrace something else. Was hard work and make you develop somehow. Not bad at all
Same, I'm learning neither language, but am a regular here for the process and relatable content.
Learning a language is very difficult. It's so nice to see someone be very open with their experience. Great video
Well, maybe it's not "difficult' but it really takes years. And the fact that like many things that we have to learn it takes years is something many people do not want to admit nowadays. But yes, the truth is it does take years.
@@femmeNikita27 I agree with what you said, everyday you can learn something new and there are always things to learn.
Man I think you're too hard on yourself sometimes. It's definitely okay to take a break but when you're learning a language without speaking it daily in natural scenarios, youre bound to stumble. So those clips to me are just proof that youre a human being. Hope you learn to find peace in your limitations
Learning languages is so incredibly time-consuming. I've been almost fully immersed in English for 17 years already, ever since 8th grade, because I moved to a bilingual country. I speak English more than 50% of the time, read only in English, and even work as a Spanish/Portuguese to English translator, yet I still cannot consider myself as good as an English native speaker.
I've studied other languages throughout the years, but never at the same time because I'm already aware of how overwhelming it can be. I studied German for a couple of years during my undergraduate studies, then did Russian for a year, then moved to Austria for a year to improve my German, then came back to my country and started learning French for a year, then switched to Chinese during my graduate studies, then studied German linguistics for my thesis, then French after graduation, and so on. I never forgot what I learned, even if I took years off.
For these languages I've been intermittently studying, I'm aware that I won't ever reach the same level I currently have in English unless I move to a corresponding country. Sometimes it's better to set smaller goals to avoid frustration. For example, I'm okay with knowing enough German to read novels once in a while, French to get by and read the news, Chinese and Russian to understand the songs I learn, etc. Smaller goals can eventually lead you to bigger ones without making you lose interest due to unrealistic expectations.
This inspires me a lot.. thanks
Hello Daniel. If I had the opportunity to have an immersion experience, certainly, it’d be awesome!
The part where you said you can’t consider yourself as good as an English native speaker got me. I’m actually seeking for that. Sad to know that maybe it’s not possible, haha.
I’m working on my vocabulary and pronunciation quite a lot, though. I’d really like to work on my cultural awareness. A good command of the language requires the ability to understand jokes and cultural references, and it’s a lot more challenging without living in the environment.
I significantly cut down on everything in Portuguese and started watching and reading a lot more in English. I feel deeply satisfied with the results of this choice I made.
May I ask you which country you live in?
@@Shellszs Hey Sabrina! I live in Puerto Rico, so that's why I'm fully bilingual at this point. All my classes at school and at the university were in English. People here code switch between Spanish and English in their regular day-to-day life. Some friends even avoid speaking Spanish altogether. Puerto Ricans--especially in the metro area--are more culturally American than Latin American. This helped me understand culture despite not really living in the States. If you're able to reach a similar level of language and cultural immersion, you may get to a point were you can fool native speakers, which actually happens to me. You might never get to reach exactly the same level as a regular English speaker who has years of advantage over you, but I can't deny the fact that you could actually get really close to it :).
@@danielmontanoferreira706 Thank you for your insight. I appreciate the detail you went into. I couldn't have imagined what it's like in Puerto Rico. Truly impressive!
I wish you all the best.
Dude you picked english at 8th grade, pretty sure you do have a good as native english
Hi, a language teacher here: mate, I think you are too harsh on yourself. The problem is this hype around polyglots who claim to speak a dozen languages and that one can learn several at the same time. Well, that may be true for some people, but not for the majority of us, and there is simply a lot of boasting going around in that community, with a side dish of "hey, look what a unique quirky genius I am." Your french actually sounds VERY VERY good, and I can tell you from experience that most people would need around 5 years to get to your level (yeah, no kiddin'.) Second point: it is absolutely normal to have periods of boredom and burn-out during language acquisition. Don't let that discourage you! Take a break, and motivation will come back by itself; you cannot force anything. You apparently have the very rare ability to self-reflect in an honest manner, and that can be extremely helpful in learning a language. You are on the right track! So, if you'd like to get some more motivation and/or advice from a teacher's side, drop an answer below and we can continue the discussion via email. I would find it a huge pity if you gave up now.
Thank you for your comment. I quitted Russian a year ago because I was suddenly overwhelmed by the grammar and I wanted too much in a short time.
Now I decided to start over again, let things be more fun, let them grow and give me time. If I now come on this place where it got more difficult I will not be nervous, continue and accept that I make mistakes. I will give my brain time to grow in this new district of words, rules and thinking.
@@christianh.2067 Cheers mate! 👍 Go for it - you can (and will) do it! 😉
Hello everyone! I have been conflicted this whole time! I want to learn many languages, but I want to start off with Korean and French first. I listen to Korean media literally everyday, but I am equally as interested in learning French. I have been told it's a bad idea, but I don't know what to start first! I was thinking of starting French first, and then moving on to Korean? I watched their previous video explaining why I could learn 2 at the same time, and then I watched this one, and now I am confused.
@@tomboygamer5018 Hi there. I don't think there is a general rule for this - it depends on the individual. Perhaps you are someone who is able to study two (or three, four...) languages at the same time, perhaps not. I wouldn't waste too much time on this question, to be honest. That time would be better invested in actual studying. Regarding the question "which one to start first", it's the same; no general rule there, just try it out and adjust your strategy as you go along. It all depends on individual factors, like your native language, previous language learning experience, your personal reasons for learning a particular language, the country you live in etc. The only "advice" I can give: don't believe anyone who is trying to tell you that you can FULLY learn a language in six months with "this or that app, this or that software, this or that textbook", or any such nonsense. Language learning is a LOT OF WORK, no matter which language you want to learn, and you will have to go through periods of boredom and self-doubt, BUT THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL. Go for it, and all the best! 👍
Salut Jean-Baptiste, vous avez vraiment raison. Pour ma part, je vis au Liban et là on apprend 3 langues depuis la maternelle à peu près. C’est l’arabe, l’anglais et le français. Et je suis vraiment content d’avoir appris le français car c’est vraiment l’une des plus belles langues. Chez nous, on a même l’option de passer le bac français! Actuellement je me lance pour faire un double bac, ce qui veut dire chez nous le bac français et le bac libanais en même temps, et en une année uniquement. C’est vraiment dure et chargé comme programme mais j’aimerais tellement avoir les 2. Je sais que mon français n’est pas toujours parfait et que je fais pas mal de fautes, mais je vise à m’améliorer encore et encore. Bonne continuation à vous professeur!
Students of classical music intentionally take long breaks from practicing difficult pieces. When they pick them up weeks or months later, the piece has matured cognitively and is now a lot easier to play than when they layed it down. I think the same goes for languages or any kind of skill. The process is nessesary for the brain to get perspective and see the overall patterns in order to level up. If you do pick up french later, I think you will notice that something has 'happened' and that it suddenly is easier than before.
The thing that "suddenly" happens is that you retain enough active vocabulary (vocab you're easily able to use in conversations) to convey your thoughts.
The reason he struggles to speak French and Swedish here even after 3 years of learning is because his learning has been solely focused on increasing his passive vocabulary (vocab you recognize and know when you hear or read it but don't have easy access to in conversation) instead of his active vocab.
Best answer. A+
Your Swedish is easy to understand imo, this is coming from a Norwegian.
His pronounciation is really good
I will join this Nordic co-operation in the comment section and also say that I, as a Finn, also find your Swedish really pleasant on the ears and easy to understand. And that is coming from someone who is much more used to the Finnish variety of Swedish.
yeah, understood all of it (Danish) that's pretty good
It really is. I am Swedish and I could understand him fine.
i'm not even from a nordic country, i learn norwegian but it's easy to understand for me too 🙋♀️
nothing wrong with focussing on one language for now and coming back to the other one later on! my language learning is all over the place, so this seems like a very admirable decision for me
Hey Lamont! I'm a French learner (around A2) and was tempted to start another language just last night while doing review on Busuu. The boredom and pride you describe is very common and hard to resist. Thanks for your honesty and vulnerability. Most of us need the reminder to focus on one thing at a time.
"Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing."
That quote is exactly what I was thinking of while he spoke. And I def agree.
Love that quote lmao
i'm studing french too and sometimes realy want to get this feeling of novelty and start other language, or at least improve english. I'll remember this video and go to french youtube every time as I find myself downloading "learn to speek persian in 30 days"
@@hulponot29rus
Je suis bien content que vous soyez intéressé par notre langue, bon courage c'est pas facile le français .
Juste pour info, c'est quoi qui vous motive à apprendre notre langue ?
me: is learning two languages and has viewed this channel as proof it's possible
me now: uh oh *chuckles* I'm in danger
😂😭
It isn't impossible but...just hard to do and manage
luca had a video where he learns 3 languages at one time, so ofc time management and planning is key
i am doing three😂
Same 😂
My gosh, you're so great. I completely understand feelings of pride, and as many other people have said, I think your honesty is so refreshing. The Polyglot community can be a bit judgemental and competitive at times, and I think can make audiences feel isolated and like a failure. You seem really great, I hope you take care, and I look forward to more of your videos!
I offload languages (Italian, Spanish, Russian) that will sometimes return to rotation (Russian), but when it feels right to intensify efforts on one language, you should do just that. I do like seeing someone who prefers a high degree of proficiency over a very basic conversation in dozens. Mile wide, inch deep.
I agree wholeheartedly. These polyglots were fascinating to me when I was younger, but as I got older I realized that they have the very basic, duo-level proficiency of the languages. Imo, there's no point of learning a language unless you plan to use it on a regular basis and to communicate with natives. If you aren't able to have a full on conversation with natives or to interact with the culture at the heart of the langauge, it's truly useless. For that reason, I've chosen my target languages and stick to them. No point in wasting my time learning to base level.
Read this, my man:
I love you, I support you. I want you to improve.
I wanna see you as fluent in Swedish as I am in English.
I put in 7 years of studying and consuming the language.
I believe, you'll get there way sooner than that, but if you don't, I am around to see you work through it.
Kudos to you...you took the initiative.
:)
Regards,
A student who loves Spanish but has to learn Chinese as well since the university demands it.
;)
Seriously, this is why you are now my go to UA-camr to watch for language advice. None of those “Fluent in one month,” stuff. This kind of video motivates me more because I don’t feel like I lack something, that language learning is “so easy.” This makes me feel like I can be patient and I will learn.
As the great Ron Swanson said, "Don't half ass two things at once." Happy you chose whats best for your language learning goals; I look forward to seeing your future content
Haha, that's great.
Hey man, it's okay! No need to apologise! You might even come back round to it again when you feel as though you're ready. Keep your chin up buddy! Do what you need to do :3
As a Norwegian I can say your tone/melody when speaking Swedish sounds really good! Hope you'll get the progress you're looking for moving forward
Hey there. Really appreciate your honesty on this channel, especially as an older new language learner. It's great to have the perspective of someone who is also finding their way. Best of luck with Swedish!
You’re humble to admit your boredom. It’s difficult to learn just one language. Now, I can imagine what it is to learn two.
its just something you tried that didn't work out as well as you thought, that's life. At least you tried and found out it was probably a mistake.
Love this. I’m glad to hear you’re much happier now!!!
Definitely supporting you this, even if I am learning French! I've just hit the one year mark and I understand the comfort you spoke about.
Interested to see where your journey goes and the insights you discover!
Oh boy, at first I thought you are being way too hard on yourself, then when I got to the end of your video I realized your "why" :) You have one of the best u tube channels I've come across! Your honesty and way of relating the real struggles of learning are just refreshing! I am looking forward to hearing about your progress. I have been learning french for 4 years and can not speak as well as you demonstrated, so I hope you come back to it soon :)
Thanks for your honesty. Your progress and hard work are really inspirational and helpful. I appreciate it a lot.
You’re content has always been incredible and I doubt that will ever change, keep on going and don’t sweat this change
thank you for your honesty and for sharing. its a lot of pressure to try and do both or even multiple languages at the same time. sometimes we are our worst enemies when it comes meeting expectations. We should never lower them but we should be make wise decisions for the journey that we on and re-evaluate the goals we want to achieve. I am currently doing my second year for my Bachelor of Arts degree with French as my major. I've had a huge desire to learn Spanish for a long time and I am wanting to start with it. Now hearing your story has made me rethink this, if the timing and dedication to language learning should be focused on one at a time.
Subscribed for the honesty. So good to find another genuine person on this platform!
I'm proud of you for recognizing your limitations and realizing what works for you (or what doesn't work). I'm realizing the same thing, and your videos are really helping me make more effective plans for language-learning with so many languages being of interest to me. I've known for a long time that I couldn't focus on multiple languages at the same time, but I've struggled to figure out how to maintain other languages and when to switch between main target languages.
Part if it is realizing that I don't need to do any extra studying to maintain my ASL skills since I'm at a high level and it's incorporated into my life so much. I realized that once I reached certain plateaus in a language, I could focus on something out and return to that language at the same level as before. So I'm trying to reach those plateaus one language at a time and be honest with myself about what I want to DO with the language - and actually do it! Most of the time, I just want to read folk tales from the culture in their language. I've had so much fun once I stopped trying to do lessons in multiple languages and instead just USE the languages whenever I feel like it and do lessons in only ONE language until I hit the plateau and switch to just having fun doing what I wanted to do with it while I do lessons in another one.
Thanks for sharing! I live in Quebec and have been meaning to learn Spanish even though I should be practicing my French.
I might as well start today! 😁
Takes some guts to admit this. Cheers to you and looking forward to the progress you're going to make!
Lot of great content on your channel. I appreciate your authenticity!
I think that it’s important to focus on one language and I like this step your taking tbh you will get Swedish down as it isn’t too hard to remember grammar/vocabulary then you can focus en français bonne journée du nord!
Being a french speaker myself, I think you're being too harsh on yourself. It took me a very longtime to be at a similar level with my english, but I get it. I've been learning mandarin for the past few months and, boy, do I struggle! I can't imagine learning another language at the same time. Best of luck with your swedish learning ! A très bientôt en français
This makes a lot of sense and is something that I (and lots of others I'm sure) have struggled with. I have been 'learning' German for years. Lots of years. And I started working on French just a year ago. At first I thought that I needed to continue 'maintaining' my German, but for me, I have learned that I have to put it aside completely (for now) or I'm not going to progress much with my French.
Hey, hier eine kleine Aufgabe auf deutsch für dich. :) Tut mir echt Leid zu hören, dass du momentan eine Sprache komplett ignorieren musst um dich auf Französisch zu fokussieren. Ich kann das sehr gut verstehen, da ich es auch bevorzuge eine Sache zu lernen, die dann aber richtig. (Momentan verbessere ich auch mein Französisch.) Trotzdem hoffe ich, dass du irgendwann wieder mit Deutsch weitermachen wirst, wenn du dich sicher genug fühlst. Ich bin mir sicher, dass du davon auch ganz viel lernen kannst und es dir hoffentlich auch Spaß macht. Also viel Glück!
Alles gut digga
Thank you so much for creating this video. I love how you delineate your mistakes. I can see myself going down that rabbit hole. It’s great to see your perspective after 3 years. Thank you, sincerely.
Great stuff man! I am glad you have been honest with yourself on your journey. Am very excited to see how you do. I am totally cheering you on buddy!
Bro the dramatic music really gave us a portal into your psyche, thanks for that lol. Good luck with your Swedish. I bet it'll improve much faster now that your focussing on it exclusively.
Lamont, this is one of the reasons I love your channel. Despite you feeling like you've been deceiving yourself, and perhaps us in the process, you always come across as someone who really cares about learning, is working to understand yourself, and is constantly reevaluating where you're at/how things are going. Videos like this one and "NOT A POLYGLOT" demonstrate this authenticity and help to ground the expectations of those of us who watch lots of language learners and question our own progress. Polyglot or not, I think you've fostered one of the best language learning channels out there. You've done a lot for my own perspective on learning, work, goals, expectations, and limits. I applaud you on making this decision, and I hope it really helps you to get your Swedish to a level that you feel good about!
Thank you for being honest and vulnerable.
That helped me so much you have no idea
Nice work as you are. Thanks, super refreshing. You are naturally very self reflective. It will.play into your language learning journey. It will also make you a better speaker as well. Embrace it 💛
Being honest with oneself is one of those things that hurt at first, but with the passing of time you realize it was the best decision, so much you don’t ever want to come back to your old way of being. I love this channel :) I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this kind of content.
I really appreciate your honesty about this! I totally get your decision and hope you won't be getting any mean comments about this.
I respect you for your honesty and we all can learn from mistakes, keep it up!
The honest and humble evaluation is commendable. What you've said here makes sense though and I hope it leads to a feeling of progress in your Swedish learning.
Are you going to rename your channel "Days of (sort of) French 'n' (definitely) Swedish"? 😅
i actualy think that would be really funny
+1
Haha, I hadn't seen this comment. If I DID rename it then it would be that haha.
Or like "Days of French on the slow decline, Swedish on the rapid incline, and probably German or Finnish at some point in the future".
@@daysandwords Lamont i thought you said in a previous video you were planning on doing a Slavic language next??
That took some courage ! Bonne chance !
Way to put yourself out there and practice what you preach, you’re gonna do great with Swedish. Looking forward to hear your experiences.
Thank you so much for this video. I have seen so much of myself over the last few years in this video.
This video has made me re-think focusing on Italian whilst being perhaps too satisfied and complacent having around a B2 in Spanish and moving on. Most of the apps are catered to beginners so there's fewer resources so I mainly speak Spanish with friends when I can but the studying has taken a back seat. I feel like I should be watching more videos in Spanish to improve my vocabulary and become more fluent. Thank you!
steve Kaufman also advises only learning one language at a time.
I think it depends on your goals. He's clearly upset at his level but if you're okay with slow progress it's fine.
Haha, which is weird considering he's learning 3...
@@daysandwords I believe only as a challenge, however, as a general rule he says he doesn't recommend it.
Days of French 'n' Swedish well he’s had decades of experience so he’s able to manage 2-3 languages simultaneously. Whereas people like you(I just stumbled across this video so I’m not aware of your history in linguistics) and myself are beginners in the language department so it’s better to go 1 by 1.
@@daysandwords He quit Turkish because 3 is obviously too much. And now he JUST put out a video saying he's putting Farsi on the backburner just as I predicted.
I've watched some of your videos in the past, and I was curious enough to watch this one when it appeared in my recommended. The honesty and straightforwardness is so refreshing and is not something you see too often unfortunately. You gained my respect from this video, if anything. Definitely had to subscribe.
This is really awesome and I'm appreciating your vulnerability
Dont worry! We understand, learning two languages at the same time doesn't work for you and that's completely ok, you have to do what's make you comfortable, I hope that you get a better level in swedish and show us your improvements! Your french is gonna wait and be much more happy than before when you finally come back to it! Thanks for showing you as a real human
Many young aspiring polyglots (myself included) are just really excited and motivated, so they want to learn 3, 4, 5 languages at the same time. But I think that's way easier to just focus on one at a time and like you said you simply get more clarity in your mind. The solution is to focus on a language during a certain time, 3 or 6 months isn't that long and you can reach a pretty good level.
I hope you will get to the Swedish level you want soon and tell us when you will come back to your French learning (I would be pleased to test you French :)
yeah, I think two should be the most that most people should do if they really want progress; you have your main language, the language you’re investing the most time in, and then you have the “minor language”, less time, but learning it on the side for a bit.
though focusing on just one language is the better choice definitely hahaha
I loved that last bit! True awesomeness and realness!😊💚✨✌️
Honesty is so important in language learning channels. Thanks for sharing!
Great decision! Learners are all struggling! I can’t even get through basic French in one year.. (sigh) not even imagine do two at the same time..
Your channel is incredible for me because I'm only interested in learning one language, sure it isn't Swedish but so many channels try to teach how to learn simple aspects of a language of many languages and focus on being a so-called polyglot. I want to get as close to fluent as I can in one other language, so I want to know the learning process and how to progress to a high level of one language, not to be simply somewhat conversational in many. So that's why I subscribed!
EDIT: I just want to clarify that I only subscribed today. I'm really new.
Really respect you for making this video and decision. Earned a sub!
I feel relieved abit am both at beginner stage in french and korean and at times its a struggle... Am glad you've shared this and considering my way forward too
After I reached a pretty decent level in Japanese, I got kinda bored with it and started German. However, I've never studied german with the same frequency or intensity as Japanese so I've hardly progressed in it.
Eventually I came to realise that I value Japanese much more and would like to get to a really high level with it. It also makes more sense from a job perspective, although I'm already at a satisfactory level.
I still study german from time to time, but it's just to change things up and nothing too serious ie I make no commitments for it.
Xellos976 what do you mean my from a job value?
M
Legit me with French and Italian...I gave up Italian and now I'm am very comfortable with my French.
@@BG-oy5ts if I work as a translator or in Japan, it'll be more helpful to better at Japanese than knowing some basic German.
I've already cleared the bar for business level fluency, but it'd be helpful to be even better.
@@holysex1052 The similarity between the two didn't help?
I think you should commend yourself for what you've achieved as well - we often talk about fluency as if it's a specific number of points that we've gained. To be able to speak even a little of another language is to open yourself up to another culture. You've had a lot of success in both languages, so make sure you don't see dropping French as a failure, it's just a decision to focus not a decision to quit.
I had subscribed to u because I'm currently learning french but your honest on this and how real you're in language learning progress just show you are one of a kind.
Thanks for making this video. I can really relate to this right now.
Me before watching: What kind of clickbaity title is this?
Me after watching: oh. 😭
In all seriousness, good on you, mate. I've been in the same slump for years with multiple languages, yet I'm still not conversationally fluent in any of them. I've decided to stick with only Italian this year to get to a proficient level or a level I'm happy with. In bocca al lupo!
It's completely understandable. Your swedish is going to radically improve
Thanks for your honesty! Good for you!
I love your honesty. Much respect to you.
Good on you!
Just before you (temporarily) abandon French, can you recommend some of the French UA-cam channels you were following? I'm just starting to watch more videos in French, so that would be of tremendous help. Thanks!
innerfrench is awesome. Fun and slow + clear french. It makes me think I know french, lol
Cyprien is a good French UA-camr. Also the Easy French series is FANTASTIC
Comme une française is very good. I loved her videos when I was learning French
I recently just subscribed so I think that’s ok. Maybe you just need to relearn the basics or something.
On a side note does that mean the channel name will now be “days of learning Swedish”?
your honesty and direct way of talking is why I subbed, not many people are like this nowadays!
you have just got a new subscriber , it is rarely to find somone who gives you his experience without exaggeration in praise and he gives it to you as it is
that german example really hit close to home, I guess I’m shelving all the other languages for sometime now
also I’ve been giving 3+ hours on German, watching German TV shows, I might as well spend the time I’d do for other languages on reading German hah
Just wondering, do you include the hours you spend consuming German media into your learning time?
Viel glück Das deutche sprache ist schön.
Six Gargoyles I do haha, because I write down a lot of the news words down to aid my memorization, I watch certain parts over and over if I didn’t understand, and I watch the content at least 2 or 3 times before moving on.
read Is good ja dankeschön sie ist ja ziemlich schön
@@jslice6137 I see, that sounds productive, I'll keep your technique in mind. ;) Danke für deine Antwort!
Oh, I love how you showed those clips of you struggling! That was really motivating.
I think whatever is the most fun for you is what is the best way ☺️ be kind to yourself. Learning is not a race. I think it's a bit down on yourself to say that learning French was a mistake! You were becoming less interested in swedish and took up a new thing for a while, got quite far, had fun again and now it's more fun again to focus on swedish and French is motivating to you! That doesn't sound like a mistake. A bit inefficient, maybe, sure. But fun! I mean no one is chasing you with a gun to make the learning as *efficient* as possible lol. Relax man.
I'm personally learning Japanese just slowly with a course at uni just having fun with it! And on the side I'm trying to refresh my French by listening to podcasts and stuff that i can do on the side that i can't yet do for Japanese. And it's so surprising to me how much i can still understand after probably over five years of not studying it and also not being very good in the first place. It feels almost like I got better over my break. Which I'm sure isn't true but just going at it with less pressure makes it a lot more rewarding and enjoyable. So like. Relax, nothing is going away. Just make sure you're okay and having fun
I think this is my first time watching you and I like you. Your honesty is respected as you see in the commentaries. Great lesson for being true for yourself and not force too much. Thank you
When I started watching your videos I did for the language motivation. That has been the core of your channel. I will continue to be excited for your channel now that you have accepted only one language as a goal.
I gotta say to me this sounds a lot like your goal / motivation is just a bit too fuzzy at the moment and that keeps you from being casual about there not being the kind of progress you want - because you don't really know what kind of progress you actually want. There is absolutely no shame in taking some time off a language to figure out which kind of progress you want, to find tangible goals and even if you have both these things it might be that general motivation is lacking - and that is absolutely fine as well. And it's also absolutely fine to realise that maybe there is just nothing tangible enough to work toward - and to then decide to drop a language.
That being said; You don't always have to get "better" or thrive for 'symmetric progress' - sometimes getting "different" and just 'getting the job done' is plenty. Imo language is all about being used. It is a tool, a means to an end. Maybe there is such an end when it comes to French for you too, something where content just happens to exist only in French and it's not about "being good at French" but "getting by because you have to". It's hard to search for these things. They usually just happen to be there one day - but fingers crossed it will happen and until then; do keep some French in your feed for maintenance purposes, if you will. (For me the 'because you have to' are certain French academic journals. My French talking and listening skills are absolute sh*t -not sure if I could order a baguette without stammeing- but reading scientific papers on the topics magazines such a s le monde diplo deal with as well is a breeze - and it is what I need to be able to do so it works out just fine. I'm still glad I have that B2 on paper, even though it does absolutely not reflect my competence ^^)
This is a good comment. Thank you for your comment. Well done.
This question, what are actually your goals in the languages you are studying, came to me too, while listening to your video. You addressed this somewhat at the end for Swedish, and that is what you are going to do for now, so that is good. I still think that you might be helped with some very specific 3 month goals and/or 1 year goals separated out for all 4 communication modes (reading, writing, speaking, listening), so that you have more of some targets to work towards, and can experience the type of success that comes from achieving one of them. Some goals are more easily quantifiable or measurable, like reading a book or finishing all the dialogs in a movie, others are harder to grab, like being able to talk about a specific topic comfortably. But we need such mile markers, especially in the inter-medium level (B1, B2), imo.
In general, I think the B-level mud pits just got to you. And you really should not beat yourself up too much, it will all work out, if you just keep going. B1 is especially hard this way. You think you have done already so much, and then you reach this level, where everything feels so hard (like walking through heavy mud), and also, there is often no end in sight. Maybe you were in that phase in Swedish, and therefore just bored, then started French and that was exiting and new, until you had reached that same level in French as well, and now two languages were in that ugly phase.
If that holds true for you, then dropping one, and working on the other to finally get that language to a better place, then recovering for a while, and then picking up the other language and dragging it through that same phase, seems absolutely like the right thing to do, imo. And I wish you good luck with it, and hope you can achieve your goal of developing this more into a channel for Scandinavian language learning. I have to say though, that you have produced some terrific language learning material, while personally struggling with both French and Swedish, and created some pretty good content here, so I hope that you don't give up on all the general language learning content. What you do here, is pretty special. All the best.
I have the same experience. I had to learn French in school but started Russian on my own after about 2 years. Then I continued studying both at the same time for about 2 more years. But then when I no longer had to study French in school, I decided to not continue it and focus entirely on Russian and it was 100% a good decision.
I really appreciate that u are honest and not lieing so i really appreciate you
Tack för att du skickade den här videon. Jag har kämpat med detsamma känslor när jag lär mig svenska (och det är det enda språk som jag lär mig) - att vara uttråkad och att tvivlar min själv och tycker att jag inte är tillräckligt bra på språket. Du är en äkta person. Tack för allt du har gjort.
I think learning two languages is a good experiment for everyone. It makes your language learning more efficient and it helps you increase your daily amount of learning. Then after a while when you get sick of learning two you can go back to learning one while keeping your higher level of productivity.
the flex in "i dream in swedish now" isnt the "in swedish" bit, its the "i dream" bit, remembering dreams is incredibly rare for me xd
Love the honesty. And I have done this in the past -- french and spanish at the same time ... not a good thing to do AT ALL!!!! Thank you for this honesty!
You are not alone. Thank you for your honesty.