For example, the mistake in the title of this video: With this ONE Tool I have learned -a- 1M words in 14 Foreign Languages It's "1M words," not "a 1M words."
Luca, our methods differ. I use SAMPLE SENTENCES in target language, lists of synonyms, lists of paired synonym-antonym pairs, and above all the search for cognates and link words. though, root expansion from clues like a list of First Letters Only, a method similar to yours, works because it keys in on our curiosity. I never write things out by hand in a notebook nor do i translate into my own language. I try to get into the target language and stay there, learning my target language with materials in the target language.
i do however translate poems song lyrics sutras from target language into native language since these are often unknown in native language and the above materials often have advanced vocabulary yet are brief enough to be worked through in a day.
@@QuizmasterLaw I don't understand your need to write this here. He is selling his knowledge and experience. Why trying to compete? I think your approach is brilliant and very interesting and worth to be shared! However, the way you write it and the choice to comment here are just out of place, sorry.
@@alwaysuseless Was it necessary to write this here? Either you are completely unable to think or you are literally wearing yourself out with envy. It only shows how miserable you are.
in brief: In this video, Lucas, a language coach who speaks 14 languages, shares his secret to building a large vocabulary in any language. He explains the three things you need to get started: -a portable notebook, -authentic target language content, -and his six rules for memorizing new vocabulary. Lucas demonstrates his process using a German podcast as an example. He first marks or highlights interesting words and phrases in the content, then transfers the most important expressions into his portable language learning notebook. He emphasizes the importance of storing just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content, which he calls "density." By having appropriately dense notes, learners can recall the main ideas and sequence of concepts from the original content, making it easier to remember the expressions. The speaker discusses six powerful rules for memorizing words in any language using a notebook. Here is a summary of these rules: 1. Mark, highlight, or underline what you want to remember: When reading or listening to content, identify important expressions to learn and remember. 2. Transfer the most important expressions into your notebook: Write down these expressions in your target language to help commit them to memory. 3. Store just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content: Write down enough information to reconstruct the original piece of content, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming. 4. Connect stored expressions to the context in which they were learned: Add context, such as a title, source, and date, to help remember where the information came from. 5. Translate the expressions into your native language: Use a two-page notebook layout to write translations of expressions, allowing for a bird's-eye view of the content in both languages. 6. Review your notebook regularly: Consistently review the expressions and translations to reinforce memorization and improve recall. By following these rules and regularly reviewing your notebook, you will be well on your way to memorizing words and improving your language skills.
Great summary 👍🏼I'm going to paste it into an Osbsedian note ;) But I would also put my short texts on a flashcard. That would help me revise them more regularly.
I prefer to just start a book and read for hours. I write at the margins the words that are new and of interest. Just by writing and translating them I am able to remember them later. By looking up a word at least 3 times and writing down the translation in the margins of the book you can memorize them. Writers tend to use over and over certain words. I have read the Da Vinci Code in French, English and Portuguese. I know that it is not the " best literature", but it is easy to read and therefore an effective way of acquiring vocabulary. (I am a Spanish Native Speaker and Teacher). Those 4 languages help each other also.
I speak the same languages, I'm a Mexican speaker and I agree with your methology. I think you must record common vocabulary at the beginning and then about your realm of expertisse.
I speak the same languages, I'm a Mexican speaker and I agree with your methology. I think you must record common vocabulary at the beginning and then about your realm of expertisse.
I used to do the same with German. I was so curious, that I looked up every word. Another strategy is to look up as few words as possible to see how much you understand from context.
Paula, as a native English speaker, may I offer you 2 suggestions for your reading pleasure? 'The Kite Runner' & 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Two classics and easy to read.
@@tonyodonnell9655 Hi Tony I love those two books. I used to teach Spanish in a "Classical Education" High School, therefore always have been interested in literature.
The fastest way i honestly learnt langauges was the most simplest yet everyone says its not as effective and boring......literally made hundreds of flashcards over the course of months using single words/ basic sentences etc on each one. Practicing daily. Adding new cards regularly. Once i memorised a big chunk of the essentials of the language, i then moved onto just casually listening to audio (radio, videos, tv programs etc). Its simple.
@@elainer8288 sorry i dont know any softwares 😔. I found it really easy just writing the words/sentences on my precut flashcards literally on the day i decide to add mord to the exercise
@@saufiilyas7381 no i used small paper cards. For listening to audio- watching a tv episode daily such as a casual sitcom in the language i found was good. The audio part should only be done after you have spent good time on the flashcards for building your vocabulary first. My speaking part only really improves afterwards when im directly speaking to a person of that language on a consistent basis.....living in the country/video calling/phone calling etc.
Guys as someone who masters 3 languages I sort of have used this concept. I also write down important vocabulary words and learn them as part of sentences that I creat myself. Mémorisation of vocab simply does not work. Have a conversation partner in your learning language is extremely helpful.
This is very much like a manual version of LingQ used with an SRS. I used these 2 tools to become conversational in Mandarin in about 9 months. Great video for my confirmation bias on how languages should be learned haha nice work.
super interesting! I'll add to that process also the cycle of: - extensive reading - intensive reading (using luca's method) - extensive reading - self talk/discussing with a native speaker on the subject.
This approach makes a lot of sense, and avoids the drudgery of flashcards. I particularly appreciate the idea of using the context as an anchor for the memory. But I do find that storing the content on paper is a bit inflexible for creative review. So I'm experimenting with a tweak to Luca's technique. This time around I'm putting the vocab into a Personal Knowledge Management database with powerful tagging. Then I can search by any combination of source, part of speech, function (eg shopping, date and time, environment, mountaineering) and degree of learning (inbox, difficult, easy, learned). This way I can filter any subset I want for review by self-talk, prepping for language exchanges, drilling grammar patterns, writing a journal or whatever. Early days, but I think I'm going to like it.
Personally how I have been doing things all my life as a non-monolingual person. However, I hear often that it's boring, tedious and time consuming. Yes, it's slower than flashcards and requires deeper focus, probably why it does help with memorizing these words better for a longer time, but sadly many people do not want to do it becuase it's slow, no hi-tech approach and because it takes more time than a deck of flashcards. However, I do prefer it and really cannot complain. Key thing I would say is also selection of a content. To select it well we have to first plan for what we want to learn and for what purpose. And I would say this is the biggest hurdle to overcome for most people. There are simply too many choices and people simply cannot think in strict terms about how and why and in which types of situations they are going to be using their target language. And this is why many people do not have the foggiest idea where to start from with such approach.
It seems a lot of additional work to me, you have to learn how to use the database system first. I'm old [school] and using my phone is not a reflex, so I prefer paper. It is discreet, and more suited to me. I have a problem: I never go back to what I've already noted, the notebook makes revision easier in my case because it's immediately and always available. Each one his own, what is important, as always, is what we like.
@@AlinefromToulouse I can't disagree with anything you say - we should all use what we enjoy and that works for us. I'm not trying to convince anyone, just to put another option on the table for people to consider.
@@tullochgorum6323 I didn't reproach you with that, your method has a lot of advantages, but it takes a bit of time to learn how to use, as well as to make filters, as a disadvantage. I must admit that after a while, I'm lost because of the important number of layers. In fact, the best way could be to use both devices, but nowadays, paper is not an option people tend to think about, which is a shame. I would add that the reasons why we learn a language are an important factor in the balance, it dictates what we have to concentrate on and devote time to.
@@AlinefromToulouse I love paper too. But I'm also a coder and enjoy tinkering with technology. Now I've set up this system (which took a couple of hours to figure out) I'll be able to use it for all my language projects. The main aim is to accelerate the mastery of the first 2000 - 3000 words and phrases needed to begin engaging comfortably with real native materials and conversations. I calculate that it will take around 1 working day to enter the data as I work through my introductory courses, but that's not wasted. I'm actively engaging with the word as I figure out how to classify it, and this will help encode it into memory.
Interesting! I do almost the same thing. The main difference is that after I finished my list on paper, I type those sentences and their meanings into an Excelsheet, save the list as a CSV file and export the whole list into Anki which automatically creates recognition and recall cards from the whole list and the sentences are ready for me to review.
Wow,is there a tutorial how to do this stuff? Sounds amazing. I'm usually writing them on my phone and then rewriting in the exercise book later, but your method seems even better
It took me years of learning German to develop a similar technique. The difference is that instead of writing down in a notebook, I am using folded in the middle A4 pieces of paper. In this way, during review sessions, I can combine newer with older vocabulary. So I do agree with you, the results of contextualizing the new words and expressions are indeed remarkable and I also highly recommend it.
A very informative video! As a polyglot I dont actually find the whole learning process the hardest. Maintaining a language (especially when you know lots of them) is far more challenging. Ci vediamo in Polyglot Gathering Luca!
Indeed. Bringing back my rusty from to my former top form nowadays is kind of a challenge. But on the other hand I'm amazed at how fast I'm able to do very detailed revisions of quite complex issues, so I suppose human brain does not forget as easily as we think. And with Internet everywhere I would say we live in best times for maintaining the language easily.
I started off using a notebook for German, but ended up with too many notes. Then I put words into Anki. I gradually discovered that I remembered the words, but not the way to use them i.e. the context and any required prepositions. I now put sentences into Anki, which tests my understanding of the grammar and usage. I did store complex sentences, but for my level in German I find that simple ones are more effective as they isolate key features. Simple sentences are helping me to learn the case system, which now seems much less frightening than at the start. In addition, I listen regularly to text fragments, relistening each one many times. I have difficulty remembering German words, but this repeated exposure is helping a lot. The brain seems to act like a pattern recognition device with a statistical learning algorithm. So amount of content is key. Is your system better? I have no idea. It might be. Perhaps the best system is the one that the student enjoys.
Great video from Luca again! One skill I think this helps develop is the ability to paraphrase. That is, to summarise even complicated things in a clear and concise way. This is essential for being able to communicate any idea on-the-fly, without getting tongue-tied due to fear that you don't know some advanced vocab or grammar structures. That is, it helps you become "fluent with what you have" and to gradually progress "what you have" along the way.
Paraphrasing and summarizing force you to determine the real meaning, usually looking at the content a second time, and more deeply. The handwriting aspect also causes you to spend more time internalizing the content and adds another sense to your memory (the physical feeling of your hand drawing the words). P.S. I haven't seen your channel in a while. I'll check out what you've been up to!
Thanks for the kind words Anthony! You da man. When are we going to meet in Prague again? =) I will be spending 3 months in Poland in the summer, and it is not far =)
I completely agree with you, Luca. I came across a video of a girl who claimed to have passed the B2 exam in Russian and Spanish within three months by using flashcards and sentence-building exercises for four hours a day. Intrigued by her success, I purchased the same course and followed the method, even attending tutor sessions. However, despite learning around 3500 words in Russian from scratch, I struggle to comprehend the language, non capisco una mazza😂. Simply knowing individual words and their usage in a sentence does not equate to understanding the language in context. As for my Russian proficiency, I can only speak about basic topics, which would probably be classified as between A1 and A2 level. In contrast, with a basic course and a lot of comprehensible input in German, I was able to achieve a solid B1 level within the same three-month time frame.
I'd like to render my profound indebtedness to you sir for helping me out of my hassles and tribulations. Hope this greatly aids me in getting my decent grades in class tests and semester exams in every round of my challenging university career
if I’m intermediate in a language (so I understand what’s going on but there’s still a bunch of words I don’t understand in a text), what I simply do is look up the meanings of the words on a page, then I re-read the page with the meanings in mind, sometimes I read the page a third time even. It works very well from me because I still have the meanings of the words in my mind while I re-read them in context.
Your small notebook reminded me of my own that I used to study latin language during high school education. On one side of the notebook, I used to write down new vocabulary (latin - croatian) and on the other, I used to writw down some famous latin proverbs. During our latin classes, we would have oral exams and our latin teacher would always check the small notebook of every student. I actually find it useful, even though it may seem oldschool! Thanks for all of the advices, Luca!
I feel you, I too once enrolled in Jim Kwik's memory course. I mean the coarse is substantial, but he is just giving it away for free in small chunks on youtube, and you can easily find the same information somewhere else. (And, you know what. Only 1/10 of his content was worth it) As you have just mentioned, as I also noticed. “Bruh, did I seriously just spend money on this coarse and he or she is just gonna give away for free. Ain’t cool.” But, you know what, you have just upgraded your Hold Up meter. With that I mean if you are considering about investing in yourself by taking these type of courses. Then you can just easily find it on youtube.
A ski instructor can sells you a ski lesson. Nonetheless, the same teacher may have a youtube channel where he teaches the same things (or almost). Despite this, people keep buying ski lessons and watch ski instructional videos. In conclusion, for several people both things can be worth it. Moreover, most of UA-cam teachers about everything follow the same policy, publishing on line....little by little...their very own know how. So, many congrats to Luca Lampariello for what he's doing, in any way he is doing it.
Never buy online courses. 99% of the time you will find passionate people who make far better content for free. And if not, you will find a book with better content for very little money.
@@danketsu-seyo Yeah I totally agree with you on that. 100% But you know what, it sounds quite funny when I say it. There is just something about enrolling on a coarse and finishing it. Give yourself 3-6 months, then you clearly see how that same information is ubiquitous. And you think to yourself with a climbs disappointment on how you were persuaded by the their Image and specially their effort that human had accomplished. With that experienced, you just really know that other courses are gonna be build in similar fashion.
hey luca since you're reading the comments and that's very humbling and gentle of you ❤ I suggest you making us a video about how you were learning languages back in the day when you first started or even when you were a college student considering back then you didn't have the resources you have today and yet you still managed to learn perfectly ( I saw your very first video you were perfect) . and how did you balance between studying and learning languages I think it's pretty difficult for youth learners including myself to figure that out and you're really a role model for me ❤
I learn a new language first by focusing on pronunciation and just recognizing sounds. I listen to hours of the language being spoken, subtitles off, just to get the cadence. Then I take the time to type out video transcripts or articles in my target language, to work on recognizing words and syllables, putting a "face" to the sound. Only after I've done this enough to where I'm recognizing words and phrases do I start focusing on meaning. I take the documents I've written and use the search tool to find and highlight (by different color) all (1) conjunctions, (2) articles, (3) pronouns. I learn these first to get a sense of structure and flow of thought. When I feel I've mastered these tasks, I then start to learn vocabulary, looking at nouns, adjectives, and verbs. If I already have the pronunciation, cadence, structure and flow of thought down, it makes it a lot easier (and more entertaining) for me to wait until this point to start learning vocabulary. Just my personal method. It works for me 😊
How often do you review a page of notes? Every day? What happens when you have 10, 20, 50 pages? Do you keep re-reading all notes, if so how frequently?
Hi Luca, honestly I am not professional like you but in my life I've tried to learn several languages as well. I love Assimil and I have my method, for example when I'm going to start the new challenge with the language I'm going to search the words usefull for us in the life in different topic, for example: JOBS -->teacher, waitress, plumber. DAY OF THE WEEK, MONTHS, PLACES--> school, hospital, metro etc etc and the most common verbs. When I've reached the 50th lesson with Assimil I restart the course from the first lesson but not reading, I put the audio lesson and I write what I'm listening. At the moment that the lesson is done, I'm going to check what I've already written and look and mark my mistakes and write near the wrong word and the correct word. I can say that the music helps me, and I love Easy languges on UA-cam as well. I'm still waiting to take a coffee with you in Rome :D Alessio.
Luca, great content as always. I am going to try this in lieu of making flash cards for a few weeks to see what happens. One note though, it looks like you might have inadvertently duplicated some of the example starting at 10:20 a second time at 17:45. You are about to talk about context at that point, but suddenly you are writing the notes again.
I just loved the fact that you did this example with german haha bc it is exactly the language i'm learning know. I love languages and I just love learning new words every day. That way i feel i get into the language, i start to understand podcasts, etc. Like you, i have a notebook, I highlight words and expressions like you when reading, for example , " wird sich herausstellen als", that way i learn an important concept (sich... als etw. herausstellen) etc.
Your videos are often very helpful and encouraging for me. The notebook is a good idea, but my manual writing is limited by arthritis. (For this reason also, flashcards are not possible because I can't grasp and separate the smooth cards.) This is what I am doing now. After studying an extremely easy German audio course for beginners (Paul Noble; Amazon Audio) I found a German book that interests me, and I downloaded it for free from the Gutenberg Library. This allowed me to copy and paste the entire book (400+ pages) into MS Word, and by word processing I separated each sentence into separate lines. I also have the hard copy of the English translation, and the audiobooks in both German and English. I have read and listened to the English translation multiple times, so I am very familiar with the content. The audiobook in German is not very good for learning, because the reader slurs his words and the recording is not high quality. However, with the Google translator and DeepL (both free), I can learn the pronunciation, and also record my homemade lessons using Audacity (also free) to playback for review. Starting with the first paragraph of 6 sentences, I identified and defined all the verbs and nouns (with Collins German Dictionary, free online), letting adverbs and adjectives come along for the ride, and then translated the phrases (between the commas). Then by highlighting the words I know, I highlighted in red font all those words in the entire book (in seconds). It turns out that almost every sentence in the book has one or more of the words that were in those first 6 sentences! So I can attempt comprehension of new sentences (especially since I already know the content in English), and build vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure from there. After that and subsequent books, perhaps I'll take a university course to verify my understanding of grammar. Eventually, I want to take an official test to qualify as a translator.
Wow! I love it! This is fantastic! Thank you for this tip! I will do the same for my German! I never thought of starting books in 2 languages so early! Excellent!
it is an exercise typically used in the lexical approach, but in a CBI (content-based instruction) version. Personally, I prefer in the early stages to use such exercises to learn and practice/generate the language structures (chunks). While from level b1/b2 in the CBI approach, in my opinion, better types of exercises are used to interact with the content in both an analytical and creative way (mind maps, key words, brainstorming, summaries, debates, etc.).
Definitely going to give this a try! Thanks! (4/29/23 for reference) Edit: For my content, I chose to watch a video in Spanish about Dr. Michael Greger‘s daily dozen. (I am currently working to improve my health through nutrition so I wanted to watch content pertaining to that) One of the first phrases that caught my attention was: “ sostener ese estilo de vida“. When I realized I needed to make changes in my way of eating, I didn’t want to just diet. I wanted to make sustainable changes. That’s why that phrase is so meaningful to me and I don’t think I will soon forget it. I’m really excited to continue improving my vocabulary in Spanish with this method!
Pedro you are right ! Don’t get me wrong. I love Luca who is a great inspiration and someone I’d love to have as a friend. But all this makes me think of the joke that went as follows : Consultants are guys who take your watch to tell you the time…. Another one was : Jack, meneate le culo !
Great content. But what is the process of revising all this vocabulary or to add new ones? Is it one sheet of paper per studying session? What are the reviewing intervals after having let's say... 50 pages full of vocabulary?
@@LucaLampariello It's a great content. I actually think the next phase is equally of even more important than the one showed in the video. Hopefully you can work on it for a future video. Thanks.
This channel is hugely motivating. If one can learn 14 languages with such inefficient methods, then how hard can it be to learn just one language using efficient tools!
I tend NOT to write down new words, and I certainly don't translate words/phrases into my own language (unless it happens to be urgently necessary!). I started developing my INTUITION to try and understand words/phrases in the target language. INTUITION is a skill that even very small children use, when trying to understand what their parents say. Since little children have no formal concept of grammar, and have no other language to translate into, they rely ENTIRELY on their SENSES to understand language: SIGHT; HEARING and feeling or sensing emotions. Important words/phrases remain; less frequent, less important words/phrases tend to be filtered out or forgotten. Having a good MEMORY is essential, too and it is something that can be trained and developed. THough I'm not a linguist (I only speak 4 languages fluently) I do believe in the importance of frequency, of being exposed to the target language as often as possible, listening, speaking, reading and writing - from a variety of sources. Writing out shopping lists in a target language, watching video-recipes and following them, writing SMSs or emails in the target language, talking out loud to yourself in the target language (when no mother-tongue speaker is available)... all these things can help.
I'm happy that I'm not just the one doing this. As a 16 years old I'm speaking 7 languages fluently for this is my method. I tend to be sharper in mind when I don't translate it to my language than when translated. Since there were no native speakers available. I only talk to myself aloud for minutes until soon I feel effortlessly thinking and speaking on that language😊 💯
But even children cannot learn everything with intuition. A child learns only easy words and grammar structures (and by taking more time than adults). Then, they have to go to school or read/listen to different contents that explain them complex things. It is definitely not as a child that I learned the meanings of some words like "entropy", "copula", etc.
@@anthracite9253 For sure you can learn a whole lot of complex vocabulary / grammar structures at school. But without the essential input of those first formative years, everything else will be practically useless.- Even at school, children learn a great deal simply by listening to their teachers, before they formally learn to read and write. Generally speaking - if parents read to their children, I mean quality children's literature - children can learn practically enough to sustain them throughout life... but they do need this input, especially if good education is not guaranteed (as happens in some poorer countries) And personally I think, while words like entropy are nice to know, we can also live without them... I also learnt 3 foreign languages as an adult through intuition: without dictionary or translation, without teachers or coursebooks, apps or software. Many people do....
@@1sola1verita Sure, children can "learn" (well? I think an adult forgets a lot of things he was supposed to have learned as a child) a lot of things. But is it really worth it? When a child learns in one year what an adult learns in one day, is it really worth it? I think I can communicate and understand things much, much, MUCH BETTER as in my childhood, not only thanks to "intuition". When you learned 3 languages (until which level? C2? ), what if you could have learned 6 languages in the same duration but not only thanks to intuition? Yes, we could live without knowing the concept of "entropy". But: - very long ago, in prehistoric times, mankind could live without knowing almost any word, so, where is the limit about "unneccesarily words" we could live well without them? Is it really worth it? - imagine we could have never talked the same way we do now on Internet, if there was no people thinking about such a complex concept like "entropy" and more? Anyway, I genuinely congratulate you for learning 3 languages. As long as your learning method is suitable to you , that is the most important thing. :-)
How many of these notebooks have you filled during your language learning career? Hundreds? Thousands? Do you archive them or do you throw them away? Thanks for the video
"umweltfreundlich" - It's compound words like this that's one of my favorite things about German. I see "welt", and "freundlich", so I can kind of deduce a large, unknown word. I took German in highschool and college 25 years ago (and had the opportunity to write letters in German to German relatives), but I can still read/understand at an intermediate level. At this level, I can tell I'm able to deduce new words from context. Advanced level is still too fast/wordy for me right now, but maybe I'll brush up on my German at some point. I just wished there was this much content available way back in the early to mid 90s. lol. I just wished there was an easy way to copy/paste audio. I'm not much into virtual flashcards (I have to physically make a flashcard for it to 'click' in my brain for the first time. Virtual flashcards are too passive for me), with one exception - those "1000 words" videos where a native speaker (not a voice generator!) slowly repeats the word twice, then uses it in a sentence, with the translation below it. I've learned quite a few Polish words that way. The only change I'd make is that, starting with the intermediate level (maybe even late beginner for simpler words), I would write (describe) the translation in the target language.
This feels like Anki with way more extra steps and none of the SRS benefits. You can still take sentences from content you enjoy and put the sentences on the reverse side of the card to check the "language in context" marketing point. This approach falls apart completely if you are dealing with words in the thousands (you know, ACTUALLY learning the language), unless spend years on a basic set. Also, there will be difficult words (3-6%) which you would struggle to remember no matter what, do you transfer them from one notebook to the other? What if it's just one word inside of an expression? Do you commit the cardinal sin and isolate it? What about expressions with 3+ meanings? If you take a short expression and learn it instead of a single word you are still "taking language out of context". You can only get "full context" by making the card with all of the meanings of a word. I don't know whether you ever learned Russian, but I can spend hours listing our verbs that have "unrelated" meanings. Furthermore, you would naturally forget about 10-15% of the words you have "burned in" 2-3 months ago. How do you even review piles of notebooks that have 15-25 words per two sheets and 500 words total? If only there was some application that would store them, sync them and remind you to review them at intervals that have proven to work. In summary, nice grift strategy, but a horrible method. I'm not even going to comment on "find content at your level" section, because that is so evidently something that a non-linguist would say.
That’s a very precisely regimented and schematic approach to language learning; definitely interesting. It’s probably not suitable for everybody but still very well explained. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you! Amazing, very valuable info! how do you manage having such a great prononciation and the intonation in such short period of time? 🎉is there any special methode?
Thanks for sharing This is a fantastic technique reading and taking notes all together Do you have any advice on getting the gist out of nonfiction texts as quickly as possible?
This technique assumes that lnaguages can be translated one-to-one to one another, but this is simply not the case, also with that method you have to always rely on your native language (or another language you're fluent at) which just seems prone to never be able to think first hand in your TL because the idea of translating everything is so deeply rooted with this method. About translation, there are words such as 'Schadenfreude', 'Zeitgeist', 'Fernweh' and many more in german, that just do not have an English equivalent, by adding an English equivalent to such a word just creats a warped interpretation of that word that is not entirely wrong but lacks nuance. For example, my German to English dictonary tells me that 'Schadenfreude' translates to "glee [malicious], spitefulness, gloating, mischievousness" and none of which are good translations, because English lacks this entire concept. And with English and German, they are in terms of Vocab and Grammar pretty close to each other, I am not sure how this method would not totally mess up you understanding in a language that is much more foreign, such as Mandarin, Korean or Japanese. Just to give you an example in Japanese: A: お待たせしました、ご注文は何でございますか B: 私はラーメンです。 A literally translates to: "I have let you waiting, as for the order, exist?" Well this is understood at leat. B however translates to: I Ramen am (I am Ramen), which is wrong if you just translate word for word. What it actually means is closer to "As for me, it is Ramen" and "it" refers to the order "注文". Mind that these are very basic sentences, translation completely falls apart for anything more complicated in Japanese as the languages are structuraly and in terms of vocab completely different. I am not trying to shit on your method btw, I just think there are more effective ways to learn without the need of translation all the time. Also, I have a very hard time believing that you know 70k words in 14 languages, as I don't even know 70k in German, my native tounge, but that also greatly depends on how you count a word.
@@AJ-fo2pl I am not saying you that Japanese cannot be translated into English, perhaps you should have read my comment more carefully, I am saying that his method, which mostly relies on word for word translation, creates in a lot of instances a warped view of your TL, regardles of your TL. With Japanese it's just more extreme. Yes entire novels have been translated, but it always lacks nuance, not just a little, ofcourse it's good enough that translations are worth reading for the majority of people, but bear in mind that professional translator have made that possible, this does not only require being fluent in both languages but is an entire skill on its one and I don't think this skill is useful or necessary for people who do not want to become translators. My example is not an abbrevation, this is a valide sentences on its own as it has all that a valid sentence requires in Japanese, namely a 動詞 (verb) and yes in traditional Japanese grammar (学校文法) です is considered a 動詞. "There is nothing too deep or philosophical to draw from this in terms of conclusions about the structure and nature of translation in particular and language in general." No clue where you got that absurd idea from, but again, learning a language by translation between languages completely different to one another will lead to a very warped view and missunderstandings, THIS does however not imply that it is impossible to accurately translate between these two languages. The difference is that a learner cannot yet accuretly translate as he wouldn't be a learner if he could. Let me give you another example sentence: 携帯知らない？ which literally translates to: "Don't you know my phone" but actually means "Do you know where my phone is/ Have you seen my phone?" As I just demonstrated, the meaning can be translated accuretaly, but the problem starts when you begin translating word for word. Honestly if you have read entire books in Japanase, as have I, you should be very aware that the way both languages express ideas is very different. An English thought is just fundemantly different than a Japanese thought, this is nothing deep nor philosophical, it just means the languages don't share much in common with eachother.
Fully agree with you. Adding translation into your language learning process is more like a crutch than a useful tool. My own English improved tremendously once I started using browser-based English-only dictionary. And of course, massive input (listening & reading) is the key for learning any language. And that’s how I’m attacking Spanish right now.
@@SimplyChinese Yeah good summary, it's actually quite a simple process, not sure why people come up with all these elaborate methods. Good luck with Spanish!
Luca, why should we translate the phrases or words to our mother tong? I am curious.. it wouldn't be more beneficial if the unknow vocabs were tranlated into the target language? Could you be so kind as to explain the purpose of this? Cheers and Thank you for amazing content❤
Great tips! Thanks. One question about your notebook... how many of them do you have for one target language? Do you use different notebooks for different purposes? Thanks
It seems to me that it would be a good idea to use Anki since you can test yourself all the time and what's more you don't have to control when a given repetition should be done.
What's your approach when you don't know the meaning of several words that may be interesting for you in a long text/audio? I mean, do you look up every single unknown word while reading/listening?
I have recently transcribed an entire video from the Easy Language team, albeit in English, and I want to go through each phrase/sentence with the target language subtitles. I think I'm on the right track. I think so??? Thanks
It's a good method. Depends on a level but if you have no better idea and if you are not very advanced doing such things with daily news, especially if you know what the piece of news is about , since it's some internationally known daily event, is a good starting point. For more advanced learners shorter TED TALKS might be a good idea. For very advanced people- longer podcasts or tv or radio shows on the matters of their interests. Or academic lectures.
I would not transcribe an entire video, THAT is too much work (in my humble opinion) and you "get more buck for your bang" by printing a script and working on it by highlighting, circling, adding your own notes to it.
Hi Luca, First thanks for all the work you do and the very useful content you are creating for us learners. Q: You did not mention how the audio of the podcast fits into this approach. Do you play the audio first while reading the text and then begin this approach with the pencil and highlighter?
Gracias Luca por mini master class. Tengo una pregunta de densidad: ¿Cómo puedes actuar si en cada párrafo de tu contenido no hay nada interesante o nuevo, solo está en primero o en último? ¿Necesito utilizar palabras o frases de cada párrafo que conozco bien (si no tienes nada interesante) para mantener un buen nivel de densidad (y reconstruir contenido después)? Para mí, nuestro objetivo aquí son nuevas palabras y frases interesantes, y no tanto una reconstrucción del contenido. Si el contenido tiene la misma densidad de nuevas palabras y frases interesantes, tienes amboth. Pero ¿Qué haces en caso si contenido no tiene la misma densidad de alguien interesante para ti, en que enfoques?
Wait, aren't steps 2 and 3 repeating the same thing (write down relevant expressions along with their translations)? Are you doing it twice? What's the differentiation here?
How about doing everything said in this video with one exception, typing on the notepad app on your phone instead of manually writing down on a notebook? I wonder in terms of effectiveness to retain information, if there's too much of a gap between the two. Does anyone know if there's any scientific study that compares if writing down is far superior than typing in order to get the information stored in your brain? Or if anyone who tried both methods and has anecdotal evidence which one is better, please share.
Try both and do whatever you like better. Prof. Dr. Manfred Spitzer probably did some studies and gives lectures (I only have shallow knowledge of) about the retardation effects that the learning style of typing & swiping has on the brain compared to learning things with paper and pen.
I don't think the hands sense the different words much at all while typing, but with handwriting a difference is felt much more. Writing is also slower, which means you're spending more time on the selected phrase. Anything is better than nothing, but in my experience handwriting is more effective without a doubt. In fact, I my opinion differs from Luca claiming the review is the most important part of this kind of activity. I get much more out of note taking, than note review, but not everyone has the same experience.
For me, an introvert , writing is a form of ' output' info i can dwell on. For outgoing talkative extroverts, 'speaking' can be their preferred 'output'.
I love this method! Is anyone using this to learn Chinese? Would you write both Pinyin and characters on the left? Or perhaps just one or the other? If so which would you choose? Thank you for any potential input!
If I learned Chinese, I think I would do the same thing I do in Japanese: writing only in Chinese characters if I know pronunciation very well, or writing both with Chinese characters and phonetic transcription if their pronunciation is unknown to me. In any case, writing Chinese characters seems important to me.
@@Rudolphhhhhh I think he only does it once because the writing looks the same. I think it was an editing thing where he took a video earlier in time. I am trying it out. But like everything, I do it for a couple days and then just absentmindedly forget to do it. 🙄 back to my little notebook!
For a beginner level, I will try studying some quick basic knowledge then going straight to ilustrated fairy tales and bilingual stories for kids. The objective is to try to start using the comprehensible input method using bilingual content for reading as fast as possible as early as possible and studying structure at a very much higher level when I am already capable of advanced reading. Has anybody ever tried that out?
At an advanced level in a language, I like to watch a movie on Netflix with the subtittles in the target language. Every time there is a word, expression or a sentence combination new to me, I pause and take a picture of the tv with my cell phone and also a picture of the same scene with the subtitles translated to my native language. I also like to buy the same book in 2 languages and highlight the words or chunks I don't understand in both. So I skip going to the dictionary. I just go with a book in a target language I am very advanced at and I only need to look up about 2 words in a chapter.
Hello Luca, thanks for sharing such a helpful video. I'm learning German and my native language is Farsi and as you might know, far from German. Wouldn't it be better to write down English on the front page instead of Farsi?
This is very informative and helpful, the only confusion I have is you were using a piece of text that you already new what every word means. Is this technique more about how to retain the knowledge you already have over learning new words. Because if it's about learning new words and phrases then translation stage in this video, I imagine would take the longest amount of time.
@@LucaLampariello Hi Luca, for sure... Both of them have his pros and cons I think.... PDF files can be very practical, you can even save them on you cellphone and so always take them everywhere you go... On the other hand seems like the act of writing the meaning of the words with a pencil on a paper turns to be easier to remember later, and I dunno why, LOL... I'm a Brazilian descendant of an Italian great-grandfather from Mantova, so I'm trying to catch some of your tips here to also learn Italian and maybe become a polyglot like you since you have succeeded pretty well on it, making a great job... Quindi thank you for your reply and a big hug from Brazil.
From all the words and phrases you marked or highlighted in step one that were interesting to you, write the ones that are most important in your notebook. Write in the target language on the left and the translation on the right. That’s my understanding of step two.
Thank you for this very interesting and helpful video. But I have one question: what is the point about the Rule 2, compared to the first one and the third one? This rule seems very useless to me and should be skipped, but I may be wrong.
How do you actually review the words when you come back to your notebook? Do you write sentences? record a video of you speaking? I would love to know! Thank you for an informative video! :)
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For example, the mistake in the title of this video:
With this ONE Tool I have learned -a- 1M words in 14 Foreign Languages
It's "1M words," not "a 1M words."
Luca, our methods differ. I use SAMPLE SENTENCES in target language, lists of synonyms, lists of paired synonym-antonym pairs, and above all the search for cognates and link words. though, root expansion from clues like a list of First Letters Only, a method similar to yours, works because it keys in on our curiosity.
I never write things out by hand in a notebook nor do i translate into my own language. I try to get into the target language and stay there, learning my target language with materials in the target language.
i do however translate poems song lyrics sutras from target language into native language since these are often unknown in native language and the above materials often have advanced vocabulary yet are brief enough to be worked through in a day.
@@QuizmasterLaw I don't understand your need to write this here. He is selling his knowledge and experience. Why trying to compete? I think your approach is brilliant and very interesting and worth to be shared! However, the way you write it and the choice to comment here are just out of place, sorry.
@@alwaysuseless Was it necessary to write this here? Either you are completely unable to think or you are literally wearing yourself out with envy. It only shows how miserable you are.
in brief:
In this video, Lucas, a language coach who speaks 14 languages, shares his secret to building a large vocabulary in any language.
He explains the three things you need to get started:
-a portable notebook,
-authentic target language content,
-and his six rules for memorizing new vocabulary.
Lucas demonstrates his process using a German podcast as an example.
He first marks or highlights interesting words and phrases in the content, then transfers the most important expressions into his portable language learning notebook.
He emphasizes the importance of storing just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content, which he calls "density."
By having appropriately dense notes, learners can recall the main ideas and sequence of concepts from the original content, making it easier to remember the expressions.
The speaker discusses six powerful rules for memorizing words in any language using a notebook.
Here is a summary of these rules:
1. Mark, highlight, or underline what you want to remember: When reading or listening to content, identify important expressions to learn and remember.
2. Transfer the most important expressions into your notebook: Write down these expressions in your target language to help commit them to memory.
3. Store just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content: Write down enough information to reconstruct the original piece of content, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming.
4. Connect stored expressions to the context in which they were learned: Add context, such as a title, source, and date, to help remember where the information came from.
5. Translate the expressions into your native language: Use a two-page notebook layout to write translations of expressions, allowing for a bird's-eye view of the content in both languages.
6. Review your notebook regularly: Consistently review the expressions and translations to reinforce memorization and improve recall.
By following these rules and regularly reviewing your notebook, you will be well on your way to memorizing words and improving your language skills.
Great summary 👍🏼I'm going to paste it into an Osbsedian note ;)
But I would also put my short texts on a flashcard.
That would help me revise them more regularly.
Is this an IA? LOL
Seems chat gpt answer to me lol
@@fulvia1454 pleasant to hear you are an Obsidian user :-)
This is definitely from chatgpt 😂
I prefer to just start a book and read for hours. I write at the margins the words that are new and of interest. Just by writing and translating them I am able to remember them later. By looking up a word at least 3 times and writing down the translation in the margins of the book you can memorize them. Writers tend to use over and over certain words. I have read the Da Vinci Code in French, English and Portuguese. I know that it is not the " best literature", but it is easy to read and therefore an effective way of acquiring vocabulary. (I am a Spanish Native Speaker and Teacher). Those 4 languages help each other also.
I speak the same languages, I'm a Mexican speaker and I agree with your methology. I think you must record common vocabulary at the beginning and then about your realm of expertisse.
I speak the same languages, I'm a Mexican speaker and I agree with your methology. I think you must record common vocabulary at the beginning and then about your realm of expertisse.
I used to do the same with German. I was so curious, that I looked up every word. Another strategy is to look up as few words as possible to see how much you understand from context.
Paula, as a native English speaker, may I offer you 2 suggestions for your reading pleasure? 'The Kite Runner' & 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Two classics and easy to read.
@@tonyodonnell9655 Hi Tony
I love those two books. I used to teach Spanish in a "Classical Education" High School, therefore always have been interested in literature.
The fastest way i honestly learnt langauges was the most simplest yet everyone says its not as effective and boring......literally made hundreds of flashcards over the course of months using single words/ basic sentences etc on each one. Practicing daily. Adding new cards regularly. Once i memorised a big chunk of the essentials of the language, i then moved onto just casually listening to audio (radio, videos, tv programs etc). Its simple.
Thanks for the excellent tip! 😊 I like this way too. Do you know any softwares we can create flascards in to print them later?
@@elainer8288 sorry i dont know any softwares 😔. I found it really easy just writing the words/sentences on my precut flashcards literally on the day i decide to add mord to the exercise
did you any digital flashcards? can you elaborate more on listening to audio? did you also improve your speaking simultaneously?
@@saufiilyas7381 no i used small paper cards. For listening to audio- watching a tv episode daily such as a casual sitcom in the language i found was good. The audio part should only be done after you have spent good time on the flashcards for building your vocabulary first.
My speaking part only really improves afterwards when im directly speaking to a person of that language on a consistent basis.....living in the country/video calling/phone calling etc.
@@stephenY96 thank you for you response and provide tips to learn a language. I appreciate it.
Best person who talks about languages.
Guys as someone who masters 3 languages I sort of have used this concept. I also write down important vocabulary words and learn them as part of sentences that I creat myself.
Mémorisation of vocab simply does not work.
Have a conversation partner in your learning language is extremely helpful.
This is very much like a manual version of LingQ used with an SRS. I used these 2 tools to become conversational in Mandarin in about 9 months. Great video for my confirmation bias on how languages should be learned haha nice work.
super interesting! I'll add to that process also the cycle of:
- extensive reading
- intensive reading (using luca's method)
- extensive reading
- self talk/discussing with a native speaker on the subject.
Key is interesting content, don't choose something you would not want in your native language. Great video 🎉
This approach makes a lot of sense, and avoids the drudgery of flashcards. I particularly appreciate the idea of using the context as an anchor for the memory.
But I do find that storing the content on paper is a bit inflexible for creative review. So I'm experimenting with a tweak to Luca's technique.
This time around I'm putting the vocab into a Personal Knowledge Management database with powerful tagging. Then I can search by any combination of source, part of speech, function (eg shopping, date and time, environment, mountaineering) and degree of learning (inbox, difficult, easy, learned).
This way I can filter any subset I want for review by self-talk, prepping for language exchanges, drilling grammar patterns, writing a journal or whatever.
Early days, but I think I'm going to like it.
Personally how I have been doing things all my life as a non-monolingual person. However, I hear often that it's boring, tedious and time consuming. Yes, it's slower than flashcards and requires deeper focus, probably why it does help with memorizing these words better for a longer time, but sadly many people do not want to do it becuase it's slow, no hi-tech approach and because it takes more time than a deck of flashcards. However, I do prefer it and really cannot complain. Key thing I would say is also selection of a content. To select it well we have to first plan for what we want to learn and for what purpose. And I would say this is the biggest hurdle to overcome for most people. There are simply too many choices and people simply cannot think in strict terms about how and why and in which types of situations they are going to be using their target language. And this is why many people do not have the foggiest idea where to start from with such approach.
It seems a lot of additional work to me, you have to learn how to use the database system first. I'm old [school] and using my phone is not a reflex, so I prefer paper. It is discreet, and more suited to me. I have a problem: I never go back to what I've already noted, the notebook makes revision easier in my case because it's immediately and always available.
Each one his own, what is important, as always, is what we like.
@@AlinefromToulouse I can't disagree with anything you say - we should all use what we enjoy and that works for us.
I'm not trying to convince anyone, just to put another option on the table for people to consider.
@@tullochgorum6323 I didn't reproach you with that, your method has a lot of advantages, but it takes a bit of time to learn how to use, as well as to make filters, as a disadvantage. I must admit that after a while, I'm lost because of the important number of layers.
In fact, the best way could be to use both devices, but nowadays, paper is not an option people tend to think about, which is a shame.
I would add that the reasons why we learn a language are an important factor in the balance, it dictates what we have to concentrate on and devote time to.
@@AlinefromToulouse I love paper too. But I'm also a coder and enjoy tinkering with technology.
Now I've set up this system (which took a couple of hours to figure out) I'll be able to use it for all my language projects.
The main aim is to accelerate the mastery of the first 2000 - 3000 words and phrases needed to begin engaging comfortably with real native materials and conversations.
I calculate that it will take around 1 working day to enter the data as I work through my introductory courses, but that's not wasted.
I'm actively engaging with the word as I figure out how to classify it, and this will help encode it into memory.
Vielen Dank für dieses Video! Deine Aussprache ist übrigens sehr gut!
Interesting! I do almost the same thing. The main difference is that after I finished my list on paper, I type those sentences and their meanings into an Excelsheet, save the list as a CSV file and export the whole list into Anki which automatically creates recognition and recall cards from the whole list and the sentences are ready for me to review.
Great stuff! As I always say: do what you like, and you will keep doing it
Wow,is there a tutorial how to do this stuff? Sounds amazing. I'm usually writing them on my phone and then rewriting in the exercise book later, but your method seems even better
It took me years of learning German to develop a similar technique.
The difference is that instead of writing down in a notebook, I am using folded in the middle A4 pieces of paper. In this way, during review sessions, I can combine newer with older vocabulary.
So I do agree with you, the results of contextualizing the new words and expressions are indeed remarkable and I also highly recommend it.
A very informative video! As a polyglot I dont actually find the whole learning process the hardest. Maintaining a language (especially when you know lots of them) is far more challenging. Ci vediamo in Polyglot Gathering Luca!
Indeed. Bringing back my rusty from to my former top form nowadays is kind of a challenge. But on the other hand I'm amazed at how fast I'm able to do very detailed revisions of quite complex issues, so I suppose human brain does not forget as easily as we think. And with Internet everywhere I would say we live in best times for maintaining the language easily.
Excelente material, ¡realmente se siente una conexión contigo en este video como si estuviéramos allí al lado tuyo, Luca!
I started off using a notebook for German, but ended up with too many notes. Then I put words into Anki. I gradually discovered that I remembered the words, but not the way to use them i.e. the context and any required prepositions. I now put sentences into Anki, which tests my understanding of the grammar and usage. I did store complex sentences, but for my level in German I find that simple ones are more effective as they isolate key features. Simple sentences are helping me to learn the case system, which now seems much less frightening than at the start. In addition, I listen regularly to text fragments, relistening each one many times. I have difficulty remembering German words, but this repeated exposure is helping a lot. The brain seems to act like a pattern recognition device with a statistical learning algorithm. So amount of content is key. Is your system better? I have no idea. It might be. Perhaps the best system is the one that the student enjoys.
Great video from Luca again! One skill I think this helps develop is the ability to paraphrase. That is, to summarise even complicated things in a clear and concise way. This is essential for being able to communicate any idea on-the-fly, without getting tongue-tied due to fear that you don't know some advanced vocab or grammar structures. That is, it helps you become "fluent with what you have" and to gradually progress "what you have" along the way.
Paraphrasing and summarizing force you to determine the real meaning, usually looking at the content a second time, and more deeply. The handwriting aspect also causes you to spend more time internalizing the content and adds another sense to your memory (the physical feeling of your hand drawing the words).
P.S. I haven't seen your channel in a while. I'll check out what you've been up to!
Well said 👌🏾
Thanks for the kind words Anthony! You da man. When are we going to meet in Prague again? =) I will be spending 3 months in Poland in the summer, and it is not far =)
I completely agree with you, Luca. I came across a video of a girl who claimed to have passed the B2 exam in Russian and Spanish within three months by using flashcards and sentence-building exercises for four hours a day. Intrigued by her success, I purchased the same course and followed the method, even attending tutor sessions. However, despite learning around 3500 words in Russian from scratch, I struggle to comprehend the language, non capisco una mazza😂. Simply knowing individual words and their usage in a sentence does not equate to understanding the language in context. As for my Russian proficiency, I can only speak about basic topics, which would probably be classified as between A1 and A2 level. In contrast, with a basic course and a lot of comprehensible input in German, I was able to achieve a solid B1 level within the same three-month time frame.
I'd like to render my profound indebtedness to you sir for helping me out of my hassles and tribulations. Hope this greatly aids me in getting my decent grades in class tests and semester exams in every round of my challenging university career
Luca's pronunciation is INCREDIBLE. We (as a society) need to get a sample of his DNA and preserve it for future generations...
Thanks for sharing your grasp in learning languages Luca, we very appreciate you!
if I’m intermediate in a language (so I understand what’s going on but there’s still a bunch of words I don’t understand in a text), what I simply do is look up the meanings of the words on a page, then I re-read the page with the meanings in mind, sometimes I read the page a third time even. It works very well from me because I still have the meanings of the words in my mind while I re-read them in context.
Your small notebook reminded me of my own that I used to study latin language during high school education.
On one side of the notebook, I used to write down new vocabulary (latin - croatian) and on the other, I used to writw down some famous latin proverbs. During our latin classes, we would have oral exams and our latin teacher would always check the small notebook of every student. I actually find it useful, even though it may seem oldschool!
Thanks for all of the advices, Luca!
This is basically what you teach in your paid online course, but over here, you give it away for free...
I feel you, I too once enrolled in Jim Kwik's memory course. I mean the coarse is substantial, but he is just giving it away for free in small chunks on youtube, and you can easily find the same information somewhere else. (And, you know what. Only 1/10 of his content was worth it)
As you have just mentioned, as I also noticed. “Bruh, did I seriously just spend money on this coarse and he or she is just gonna give away for free. Ain’t cool.”
But, you know what, you have just upgraded your Hold Up meter. With that I mean if you are considering about investing in yourself by taking these type of courses. Then you can just easily find it on youtube.
A ski instructor can sells you a ski lesson. Nonetheless, the same teacher may have a youtube channel where he teaches the same things (or almost). Despite this, people keep buying ski lessons and watch ski instructional videos. In conclusion, for several people both things can be worth it. Moreover, most of UA-cam teachers about everything follow the same policy, publishing on line....little by little...their very own know how. So, many congrats to Luca Lampariello for what he's doing, in any way he is doing it.
Never buy online courses. 99% of the time you will find passionate people who make far better content for free. And if not, you will find a book with better content for very little money.
@@danketsu-seyo Yeah I totally agree with you on that. 100%
But you know what, it sounds quite funny when I say it. There is just something about enrolling on a coarse and finishing it.
Give yourself 3-6 months, then you clearly see how that same information is ubiquitous. And you think to yourself with a climbs disappointment on how you were persuaded by the their Image and specially their effort that human had accomplished.
With that experienced, you just really know that other courses are gonna be build in similar fashion.
@@matteoallegretti1663 that makes perfect sense. Thx!
Luca has so much great content inside of what he says. Good stuff.
I do something similar, but memorising the unknown words I encounter through visualisation & association.
hey luca since you're reading the comments and that's very humbling and gentle of you ❤ I suggest you making us a video about how you were learning languages back in the day when you first started or even when you were a college student considering back then you didn't have the resources you have today and yet you still managed to learn perfectly ( I saw your very first video you were perfect) . and how did you balance between studying and learning languages
I think it's pretty difficult for youth learners including myself to figure that out and you're really a role model for me ❤
Very important that the text has accompanying audio too
Always
I learn a new language first by focusing on pronunciation and just recognizing sounds. I listen to hours of the language being spoken, subtitles off, just to get the cadence.
Then I take the time to type out video transcripts or articles in my target language, to work on recognizing words and syllables, putting a "face" to the sound.
Only after I've done this enough to where I'm recognizing words and phrases do I start focusing on meaning. I take the documents I've written and use the search tool to find and highlight (by different color) all (1) conjunctions, (2) articles, (3) pronouns. I learn these first to get a sense of structure and flow of thought.
When I feel I've mastered these tasks, I then start to learn vocabulary, looking at nouns, adjectives, and verbs. If I already have the pronunciation, cadence, structure and flow of thought down, it makes it a lot easier (and more entertaining) for me to wait until this point to start learning vocabulary.
Just my personal method. It works for me 😊
Thank you, luca
How often do you review a page of notes? Every day? What happens when you have 10, 20, 50 pages? Do you keep re-reading all notes, if so how frequently?
Hi Luca, honestly I am not professional like you but in my life I've tried to learn several languages as well. I love Assimil and I have my method, for example when I'm going to start the new challenge with the language I'm going to search the words usefull for us in the life in different topic, for example: JOBS -->teacher, waitress, plumber. DAY OF THE WEEK, MONTHS, PLACES--> school, hospital, metro etc etc and the most common verbs. When I've reached the 50th lesson with Assimil I restart the course from the first lesson but not reading, I put the audio lesson and I write what I'm listening. At the moment that the lesson is done, I'm going to check what I've already written and look and mark my mistakes and write near the wrong word and the correct word. I can say that the music helps me, and I love Easy languges on UA-cam as well. I'm still waiting to take a coffee with you in Rome :D
Alessio.
Luca, great content as always. I am going to try this in lieu of making flash cards for a few weeks to see what happens. One note though, it looks like you might have inadvertently duplicated some of the example starting at 10:20 a second time at 17:45. You are about to talk about context at that point, but suddenly you are writing the notes again.
I just loved the fact that you did this example with german haha bc it is exactly the language i'm learning know. I love languages and I just love learning new words every day. That way i feel i get into the language, i start to understand podcasts, etc. Like you, i have a notebook, I highlight words and expressions like you when reading, for example , " wird sich herausstellen als", that way i learn an important concept (sich... als etw. herausstellen) etc.
Your videos are often very helpful and encouraging for me. The notebook is a good idea, but my manual writing is limited by arthritis. (For this reason also, flashcards are not possible because I can't grasp and separate the smooth cards.) This is what I am doing now.
After studying an extremely easy German audio course for beginners (Paul Noble; Amazon Audio) I found a German book that interests me, and I downloaded it for free from the Gutenberg Library. This allowed me to copy and paste the entire book (400+ pages) into MS Word, and by word processing I separated each sentence into separate lines. I also have the hard copy of the English translation, and the audiobooks in both German and English. I have read and listened to the English translation multiple times, so I am very familiar with the content. The audiobook in German is not very good for learning, because the reader slurs his words and the recording is not high quality. However, with the Google translator and DeepL (both free), I can learn the pronunciation, and also record my homemade lessons using Audacity (also free) to playback for review.
Starting with the first paragraph of 6 sentences, I identified and defined all the verbs and nouns (with Collins German Dictionary, free online), letting adverbs and adjectives come along for the ride, and then translated the phrases (between the commas). Then by highlighting the words I know, I highlighted in red font all those words in the entire book (in seconds). It turns out that almost every sentence in the book has one or more of the words that were in those first 6 sentences! So I can attempt comprehension of new sentences (especially since I already know the content in English), and build vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure from there. After that and subsequent books, perhaps I'll take a university course to verify my understanding of grammar. Eventually, I want to take an official test to qualify as a translator.
@kryzon daan Exactly! And if I don't remember the word from before, it is a good reminder that I should!
Wow! I love it! This is fantastic! Thank you for this tip! I will do the same for my German! I never thought of starting books in 2 languages so early! Excellent!
But how is it possible to the red word thing? Does anybody know? I love it!
That's the video I was looking for...thanks a lot Luca for sharing this amazing technique....
great video! it's such a simple and inspiring idea! thanks
Thanks 🙏 for this video and sharing your language learning skills. I’m going to be applying this method
Thank YOU for the kind comment! :-)
Nice German accent, Luca! Schöne Grüße aus Wien!
it is an exercise typically used in the lexical approach, but in a CBI (content-based instruction) version. Personally, I prefer in the early stages to use such exercises to learn and practice/generate the language structures (chunks). While from level b1/b2 in the CBI approach, in my opinion, better types of exercises are used to interact with the content in both an analytical and creative way (mind maps, key words, brainstorming, summaries, debates, etc.).
Very useful - to learn vocabulary you learn vocabulary - how to learn - you read, you take notes, you review :) Shiiiii it is a secret!
Definitely going to give this a try! Thanks! (4/29/23 for reference)
Edit: For my content, I chose to watch a video in Spanish about Dr. Michael Greger‘s daily dozen. (I am currently working to improve my health through nutrition so I wanted to watch content pertaining to that) One of the first phrases that caught my attention was: “ sostener ese estilo de vida“. When I realized I needed to make changes in my way of eating, I didn’t want to just diet. I wanted to make sustainable changes. That’s why that phrase is so meaningful to me and I don’t think I will soon forget it. I’m really excited to continue improving my vocabulary in Spanish with this method!
Thanks for these tips. I ´ll get to work and keep an eye on your videos😉.
You are most welcome Maria =)
In few words. "Put yourself to study"
Pretty much lol
That never works
Pedro you are right ! Don’t get me wrong. I love Luca who is a great inspiration and someone I’d love to have as a friend. But all this makes me think of the joke that went as follows : Consultants are guys who take your watch to tell you the time….
Another one was : Jack, meneate le culo !
and waste 1 year stagnating at the same basic level all because you chose some poor methods straight from the beginning. Luca's giving some great tips
Great content. But what is the process of revising all this vocabulary or to add new ones? Is it one sheet of paper per studying session? What are the reviewing intervals after having let's say... 50 pages full of vocabulary?
We need an entire different video to reply to this question ;-)
Check The Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve, you will get a good grasp of it.
@@LucaLampariello It's a great content. I actually think the next phase is equally of even more important than the one showed in the video. Hopefully you can work on it for a future video. Thanks.
@@LucaLampariello so plz make that video 😁🙏🏻
@@King-Park I agree with you.
Luca, show us the tricks of the trade, fino in fondo ;-)
This channel is hugely motivating. If one can learn 14 languages with such inefficient methods, then how hard can it be to learn just one language using efficient tools!
I tend NOT to write down new words, and I certainly don't translate words/phrases into my own language (unless it happens to be urgently necessary!).
I started developing my INTUITION to try and understand words/phrases in the target language. INTUITION is a skill that even very small children use, when trying to understand what their parents say. Since little children have no formal concept of grammar, and have no other language to translate into, they rely ENTIRELY on their SENSES to understand language: SIGHT; HEARING and feeling or sensing emotions.
Important words/phrases remain; less frequent, less important words/phrases tend to be filtered out or forgotten.
Having a good MEMORY is essential, too and it is something that can be trained and developed.
THough I'm not a linguist (I only speak 4 languages fluently) I do believe in the importance of frequency, of being exposed to the target language as often as possible, listening, speaking, reading and writing - from a variety of sources. Writing out shopping lists in a target language, watching video-recipes and following them, writing SMSs or emails in the target language, talking out loud to yourself in the target language (when no mother-tongue speaker is available)... all these things can help.
Good tips ! And 4 languages is alot !
I'm happy that I'm not just the one doing this. As a 16 years old I'm speaking 7 languages fluently for this is my method. I tend to be sharper in mind when I don't translate it to my language than when translated. Since there were no native speakers available. I only talk to myself aloud for minutes until soon I feel effortlessly thinking and speaking on that language😊 💯
But even children cannot learn everything with intuition. A child learns only easy words and grammar structures (and by taking more time than adults). Then, they have to go to school or read/listen to different contents that explain them complex things.
It is definitely not as a child that I learned the meanings of some words like "entropy", "copula", etc.
@@anthracite9253 For sure you can learn a whole lot of complex vocabulary / grammar structures at school. But without the essential input of those first formative years, everything else will be practically useless.- Even at school, children learn a great deal simply by listening to their teachers, before they formally learn to read and write.
Generally speaking - if parents read to their children, I mean quality children's literature - children can learn practically enough to sustain them throughout life... but they do need this input, especially if good education is not guaranteed (as happens in some poorer countries)
And personally I think, while words like entropy are nice to know, we can also live without them...
I also learnt 3 foreign languages as an adult through intuition: without dictionary or translation, without teachers or coursebooks, apps or software. Many people do....
@@1sola1verita Sure, children can "learn" (well? I think an adult forgets a lot of things he was supposed to have learned as a child) a lot of things. But is it really worth it? When a child learns in one year what an adult learns in one day, is it really worth it? I think I can communicate and understand things much, much, MUCH BETTER as in my childhood, not only thanks to "intuition".
When you learned 3 languages (until which level? C2? ), what if you could have learned 6 languages in the same duration but not only thanks to intuition?
Yes, we could live without knowing the concept of "entropy". But:
- very long ago, in prehistoric times, mankind could live without knowing almost any word, so, where is the limit about "unneccesarily words" we could live well without them? Is it really worth it?
- imagine we could have never talked the same way we do now on Internet, if there was no people thinking about such a complex concept like "entropy" and more?
Anyway, I genuinely congratulate you for learning 3 languages. As long as your learning method is suitable to you , that is the most important thing. :-)
Лучший учитель!
Muy enriquecedor tu video Luca, gracias por compartir tan detalladamente tus consejos a quienes amamos aprender idiomas. Saludos desde Argentina🇦🇷🥰
Muchas gracias Flor, me alegra de que el video te haya gustado!
How many of these notebooks have you filled during your language learning career? Hundreds? Thousands? Do you archive them or do you throw them away? Thanks for the video
.
"umweltfreundlich" - It's compound words like this that's one of my favorite things about German. I see "welt", and "freundlich", so I can kind of deduce a large, unknown word. I took German in highschool and college 25 years ago (and had the opportunity to write letters in German to German relatives), but I can still read/understand at an intermediate level. At this level, I can tell I'm able to deduce new words from context. Advanced level is still too fast/wordy for me right now, but maybe I'll brush up on my German at some point. I just wished there was this much content available way back in the early to mid 90s. lol.
I just wished there was an easy way to copy/paste audio. I'm not much into virtual flashcards (I have to physically make a flashcard for it to 'click' in my brain for the first time. Virtual flashcards are too passive for me), with one exception - those "1000 words" videos where a native speaker (not a voice generator!) slowly repeats the word twice, then uses it in a sentence, with the translation below it. I've learned quite a few Polish words that way. The only change I'd make is that, starting with the intermediate level (maybe even late beginner for simpler words), I would write (describe) the translation in the target language.
Thank you for an amazing video!
This feels like Anki with way more extra steps and none of the SRS benefits. You can still take sentences from content you enjoy and put the sentences on the reverse side of the card to check the "language in context" marketing point. This approach falls apart completely if you are dealing with words in the thousands (you know, ACTUALLY learning the language), unless spend years on a basic set.
Also, there will be difficult words (3-6%) which you would struggle to remember no matter what, do you transfer them from one notebook to the other? What if it's just one word inside of an expression? Do you commit the cardinal sin and isolate it? What about expressions with 3+ meanings? If you take a short expression and learn it instead of a single word you are still "taking language out of context". You can only get "full context" by making the card with all of the meanings of a word. I don't know whether you ever learned Russian, but I can spend hours listing our verbs that have "unrelated" meanings.
Furthermore, you would naturally forget about 10-15% of the words you have "burned in" 2-3 months ago. How do you even review piles of notebooks that have 15-25 words per two sheets and 500 words total? If only there was some application that would store them, sync them and remind you to review them at intervals that have proven to work. In summary, nice grift strategy, but a horrible method. I'm not even going to comment on "find content at your level" section, because that is so evidently something that a non-linguist would say.
That’s a very precisely regimented and schematic approach to language learning; definitely interesting. It’s probably not suitable for everybody but still very well explained. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you! Amazing, very valuable info! how do you manage having such a great prononciation and the intonation in such short period of time? 🎉is there any special methode?
GREAT VIDEO, WHAT IF I READ SOMETHING THAT I DO NOT KNOW THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION WILL THIS METHOD STILL WORK?
Thanks for sharing
This is a fantastic technique reading and taking notes all together
Do you have any advice on getting the gist out of nonfiction texts as quickly as possible?
such a valuable video, thank you so much !
You are welcome! =)
Thanks for your generous Vedo. It's very helpful. And also please fixed your camera. When it's shake hands to watch. 😊
This technique assumes that lnaguages can be translated one-to-one to one another, but this is simply not the case, also with that method you have to always rely on your native language (or another language you're fluent at) which just seems prone to never be able to think first hand in your TL because the idea of translating everything is so deeply rooted with this method. About translation, there are words such as 'Schadenfreude', 'Zeitgeist', 'Fernweh' and many more in german, that just do not have an English equivalent, by adding an English equivalent to such a word just creats a warped interpretation of that word that is not entirely wrong but lacks nuance. For example, my German to English dictonary tells me that 'Schadenfreude' translates to "glee [malicious], spitefulness, gloating, mischievousness" and none of which are good translations, because English lacks this entire concept. And with English and German, they are in terms of Vocab and Grammar pretty close to each other, I am not sure how this method would not totally mess up you understanding in a language that is much more foreign, such as Mandarin, Korean or Japanese.
Just to give you an example in Japanese:
A: お待たせしました、ご注文は何でございますか
B: 私はラーメンです。
A literally translates to: "I have let you waiting, as for the order, exist?" Well this is understood at leat.
B however translates to: I Ramen am (I am Ramen), which is wrong if you just translate word for word. What it actually means is closer to "As for me, it is Ramen" and "it" refers to the order "注文".
Mind that these are very basic sentences, translation completely falls apart for anything more complicated in Japanese as the languages are structuraly and in terms of vocab completely different.
I am not trying to shit on your method btw, I just think there are more effective ways to learn without the need of translation all the time. Also, I have a very hard time believing that you know 70k words in 14 languages, as I don't even know 70k in German, my native tounge, but that also greatly depends on how you count a word.
@@AJ-fo2pl I am not saying you that Japanese cannot be translated into English, perhaps you should have read my comment more carefully, I am saying that his method, which mostly relies on word for word translation, creates in a lot of instances a warped view of your TL, regardles of your TL. With Japanese it's just more extreme. Yes entire novels have been translated, but it always lacks nuance, not just a little, ofcourse it's good enough that translations are worth reading for the majority of people, but bear in mind that professional translator have made that possible, this does not only require being fluent in both languages but is an entire skill on its one and I don't think this skill is useful or necessary for people who do not want to become translators.
My example is not an abbrevation, this is a valide sentences on its own as it has all that a valid sentence requires in Japanese, namely a 動詞 (verb) and yes in traditional Japanese grammar (学校文法) です is considered a 動詞.
"There is nothing too deep or philosophical to draw from this in terms of conclusions about the structure and nature of translation in particular and language in general." No clue where you got that absurd idea from, but again, learning a language by translation between languages completely different to one another will lead to a very warped view and missunderstandings, THIS does however not imply that it is impossible to accurately translate between these two languages. The difference is that a learner cannot yet accuretly translate as he wouldn't be a learner if he could. Let me give you another example sentence: 携帯知らない？ which literally translates to: "Don't you know my phone" but actually means "Do you know where my phone is/ Have you seen my phone?" As I just demonstrated, the meaning can be translated accuretaly, but the problem starts when you begin translating word for word. Honestly if you have read entire books in Japanase, as have I, you should be very aware that the way both languages express ideas is very different. An English thought is just fundemantly different than a Japanese thought, this is nothing deep nor philosophical, it just means the languages don't share much in common with eachother.
Fully agree with you. Adding translation into your language learning process is more like a crutch than a useful tool. My own English improved tremendously once I started using browser-based English-only dictionary. And of course, massive input (listening & reading) is the key for learning any language. And that’s how I’m attacking Spanish right now.
@@SimplyChinese Yeah good summary, it's actually quite a simple process, not sure why people come up with all these elaborate methods. Good luck with Spanish!
I like ur German accent ❤
Luca, why should we translate the phrases or words to our mother tong?
I am curious.. it wouldn't be more beneficial if the unknow vocabs were tranlated into the target language?
Could you be so kind as to explain the purpose of this?
Cheers and Thank you for amazing content❤
Great tips! Thanks. One question about your notebook... how many of them do you have for one target language? Do you use different notebooks for different purposes? Thanks
Wow your german sounds so good 👍🏻
It seems to me that it would be a good idea to use Anki since you can test yourself all the time and what's more you don't have to control when a given repetition should be done.
Hey luca were do you see the correct translation to
You target language?
Danke für das Video!!!
Any language teacher will tell you these things
What's your approach when you don't know the meaning of several words that may be interesting for you in a long text/audio? I mean, do you look up every single unknown word while reading/listening?
I have recently transcribed an entire video from the Easy Language team, albeit in English, and I want to go through each phrase/sentence with the target language subtitles. I think I'm on the right track. I think so??? Thanks
You don't need to transcribe the video itself. There are free websites that allow to extract subtitles just by inserting there a link to a video
It's a good method. Depends on a level but if you have no better idea and if you are not very advanced doing such things with daily news, especially if you know what the piece of news is about , since it's some internationally known daily event, is a good starting point. For more advanced learners shorter TED TALKS might be a good idea. For very advanced people- longer podcasts or tv or radio shows on the matters of their interests. Or academic lectures.
I would not transcribe an entire video, THAT is too much work (in my humble opinion) and you "get more buck for your bang" by printing a script and working on it by highlighting, circling, adding your own notes to it.
Hi Luca, First thanks for all the work you do and the very useful content you are creating for us learners. Q: You did not mention how the audio of the podcast fits into this approach. Do you play the audio first while reading the text and then begin this approach with the pencil and highlighter?
Gracias Luca por mini master class.
Tengo una pregunta de densidad: ¿Cómo puedes actuar si en cada párrafo de tu contenido no hay nada interesante o nuevo, solo está en primero o en último?
¿Necesito utilizar palabras o frases de cada párrafo que conozco bien (si no tienes nada interesante) para mantener un buen nivel de densidad (y reconstruir contenido después)?
Para mí, nuestro objetivo aquí son nuevas palabras y frases interesantes, y no tanto una reconstrucción del contenido. Si el contenido tiene la misma densidad de nuevas palabras y frases interesantes, tienes amboth. Pero ¿Qué haces en caso si contenido no tiene la misma densidad de alguien interesante para ti, en que enfoques?
Do you do the steps 1-5 in one day?
Wait, aren't steps 2 and 3 repeating the same thing (write down relevant expressions along with their translations)? Are you doing it twice? What's the differentiation here?
Editing mistake
O melhor! Excelente video.
Thank you sincerely!
Hi Luca! How do you navigate grammar to get to a level that is enough to leverage this approach?
We need an entire new video for that ,-)
How about doing everything said in this video with one exception, typing on the notepad app on your phone instead of manually writing down on a notebook? I wonder in terms of effectiveness to retain information, if there's too much of a gap between the two. Does anyone know if there's any scientific study that compares if writing down is far superior than typing in order to get the information stored in your brain? Or if anyone who tried both methods and has anecdotal evidence which one is better, please share.
Try both and do whatever you like better.
Prof. Dr. Manfred Spitzer probably did some studies and gives lectures (I only have shallow knowledge of) about the retardation effects that the learning style of typing & swiping has on the brain compared to learning things with paper and pen.
I don't think the hands sense the different words much at all while typing, but with handwriting a difference is felt much more. Writing is also slower, which means you're spending more time on the selected phrase. Anything is better than nothing, but in my experience handwriting is more effective without a doubt. In fact, I my opinion differs from Luca claiming the review is the most important part of this kind of activity. I get much more out of note taking, than note review, but not everyone has the same experience.
For me, an introvert , writing is a form of ' output' info i can dwell on. For outgoing talkative extroverts, 'speaking' can be their preferred 'output'.
Why not? Test and see what works best for you
Is this a leading question?
Do you recommend any text books for memorising ,vocabulary. I am currently learning Italian.
as a native english speaker : if luca corrected my english , i would take his advice no questions asked
I love this method! Is anyone using this to learn Chinese? Would you write both Pinyin and characters on the left? Or perhaps just one or the other? If so which would you choose? Thank you for any potential input!
If I learned Chinese, I think I would do the same thing I do in Japanese: writing only in Chinese characters if I know pronunciation very well, or writing both with Chinese characters and phonetic transcription if their pronunciation is unknown to me. In any case, writing Chinese characters seems important to me.
Hey Luca,
Do you always do this learning process in English or it's just for the matter of the video you translated from German to English?
Just for the matter of the video, normally I use Italian (my native language)
@@LucaLampariello Good to know. Thanks for answering.
I’m confused. Does he rewrite it a second time? I can’t tell.
Me too. I did not understand the point about the Rule 2, because it seems redundant compared to the Rule 3.
@@Rudolphhhhhh I think he only does it once because the writing looks the same. I think it was an editing thing where he took a video earlier in time. I am trying it out. But like everything, I do it for a couple days and then just absentmindedly forget to do it. 🙄 back to my little notebook!
@@lynntfuzz Anyway, I think the most important thing is seeking inspiration to different methods, and then personalize it.
For a beginner level, I will try studying some quick basic knowledge then going straight to ilustrated fairy tales and bilingual stories for kids. The objective is to try to start using the comprehensible input method using bilingual content for reading as fast as possible as early as possible and studying structure at a very much higher level when I am already capable of advanced reading. Has anybody ever tried that out?
Your German is excellent!
Would you have any tips for ~A2-level French content?
Use Français Authentique! Download and go through the podcasts - one a day.
At an advanced level in a language, I like to watch a movie on Netflix with the subtittles in the target language. Every time there is a word, expression or a sentence combination new to me, I pause and take a picture of the tv with my cell phone and also a picture of the same scene with the subtitles translated to my native language.
I also like to buy the same book in 2 languages and highlight the words or chunks I don't understand in both.
So I skip going to the dictionary. I just go with a book in a target language I am very advanced at and I only need to look up about 2 words in a chapter.
Thank you. beliebt just means popular, and I believe you wanted to say, "very liked" but it sounded, at least to my ears, "very light."
Hello Luca, thanks for sharing such a helpful video.
I'm learning German and my native language is Farsi and as you might know, far from German. Wouldn't it be better to write down English on the front page instead of Farsi?
You can use English or Farsi, I don't think it makes that much of a difference - as long as you speak English well
How do I know if word is relevant to me if I don't know it's meaning?
This is very informative and helpful, the only confusion I have is you were using a piece of text that you already new what every word means. Is this technique more about how to retain the knowledge you already have over learning new words. Because if it's about learning new words and phrases then translation stage in this video, I imagine would take the longest amount of time.
I like to use PDF files to read and highlight the words using the balloons to put the meaning of the words in.
You can use a piece of paper or work directly on a PDF (on computer, IPAD etc). I personally prefer paper but to each his own =)
@@LucaLampariello
Hi Luca, for sure...
Both of them have his pros and cons I think....
PDF files can be very practical, you can even save them on you cellphone and so always take them everywhere you go...
On the other hand seems like the act of writing the meaning of the words with a pencil on a paper turns to be easier to remember later, and I dunno why, LOL...
I'm a Brazilian descendant of an Italian great-grandfather from Mantova, so I'm trying to catch some of your tips here to also learn Italian and maybe become a polyglot like you since you have succeeded pretty well on it, making a great job...
Quindi thank you for your reply and a big hug from Brazil.
I love the Anti- stress ball!!..
Me too! =)
I didn understand the step 2, someone could explain it to me please?
From all the words and phrases you marked or highlighted in step one that were interesting to you, write the ones that are most important in your notebook. Write in the target language on the left and the translation on the right. That’s my understanding of step two.
Thank you for this very interesting and helpful video. But I have one question: what is the point about the Rule 2, compared to the first one and the third one? This rule seems very useless to me and should be skipped, but I may be wrong.
If i listen to UA-cam only to learn any language? Good idea??
What is the difference between rules number 2 and 3? It seems he wrote down the same sentences.
How do you actually review the words when you come back to your notebook? Do you write sentences? record a video of you speaking? I would love to know! Thank you for an informative video! :)
Or you could use Lingq. Basically the same but doesn't feels like work.
awesome Thank you!
Merci Lucas
De rien =)