Irish-polyglot here. You visit a shop..[ spain, japan, etc]...Whenever they switched into English , I would tell them I didn't understand English. If they continued to speak English at me....I would monologue at them in Gaelic. I then would give them the option of doing the transaction in the local language or else in my native gaelic. The funniest was in an irish pub in spain , a rude Spanish lady worked there. The other irish customers enjoyed some of the insults I gently threw at her. 😂
I'm Italian. My mother's best friend moved to Germany 30 years ago with her husband. They spent 20 years there until he retired. She doesn't know a word of German. Not a single one. We've always been baffled by this because 20 years is a long time to spend in a place you don't understand the language of. However, all this woman knew was her family, her home, her son, she'd go out to do the groceries and that was most of the German culture she would absorb in her daily life.
One thing I noticed when I moved to Tanzania to learn Swahili, people who know (some) English often tried to speak English with me. I would usually reply in KiSwahili 😂 or explain that I'm trying to learn Kiswahili, and politely request to speak their language. These days, I usually reply in English as to be polite, then slowly direct the conversation back into Kiswahili. The curse of being a native English speaker is that people always want to "practice" their English with you since it's the most desirable language to learn. 🤐
I think a very underestimated element of preparing before immersing in a country is to learn how to listen to normal speech. Far too many ‘beginners’ courses focus on written material (rather than native audio), basic grammar rules, and textbook phrases. This can result in a major struggle to make the breakthrough when they arrive because they simply can’t understand a word they hear. I’ve helped out a lot of Asian students here in Ireland and many take years to feel confident in English, even when they’ve had years of schooling before arriving - but others have no problems. The one distinction between the two groups I’ve found is that the ones who’ve struggled learned textbook and classroom English, while the quick adaptors will tell you that they spent much of their time watching American TV shows or YT channels.
It took me a year to start hearing Japanese. I literally felt like people were talking slower at the one year mark and that’s with several years of study before I went. The listening practice I had was anime with subs and audio flash cards. If you don’t get the listening practice before going you will when you get there at least. It takes patience.
the cases you spoke about are not an absolute truth. I have a friend who is the exact opposite: he's living in the US for 5 years and he still presents basic grammar errors... why? 1- Because he ignored grammar and his only method was watching movies and videos. 2 - He still "thinks' (when formulating sentences "on the fly") in his native languague (brazilian portuguese) instead of choosing the words and thinking in english.
I can attest to it on a smaller scale. I had terrible grades in primary school and nearly failed English two years in a row. I couldn't speak or read a word. Then I started playing videogames with English voice acting and Polish subtitles. I started watching movies with subtitles. I watched a lot of American UA-camrs. It wasn't full immersion but as close as I could get without going to England on a language learning course. After over a decade of watching nothing but English speaking creators and media, listening to English speaking musicians, reading books in English, etc. and getting officially certified as a C1 level speaker I can say immersion, even not full immersion like living in a country where they speak your target language, works wonders if you have some basics of that language covered so you don't have to resort to translator apps or going back to your native language...
Same with me! My native lang is Croatian and I basically became fluent in English over a 7 or 8 year period (was basically fluent by the time I was 17, and started consuming Eng content when I was like 9 years old) by reading and listening to lots of English content online. Never went to an Anglosphere country in my life!
I worked with cubans for 3 months a few months back. One was here 3 years, she seemed to be learning english, but didn't know much. Her husband was here 17 years and only knew enough to get by at work. I started learning spainsh when I met them. Going on 8 months learning it everyday, unfortunately im not close to being conversational. It's a shame it happens, but I've learned there is Stigma on both sides. Spainsh people express they get grief from english speakers and their afraid to speak with english speakers while attempting to learn english. Then with American born Latinos, if they don't know how to speak Spanish fluent or at all they some times get grief from spanish speakers. Before I left they seemed like they where more interested in learning english.
@@thetightwadhomesteader3089 if they only watch Spanish TV, listen to Spanish radio, and read Spanish newspapers, of course they are not going to learn English. How stupid would it have been if my German ancestors had acted that way, and I lived in a German speaking bubble and barely knew any English? What is the point?
@@michaelhorning6014 I'm not saying I disagree, I wouldn't move to another country and not learn the language or customs. I think the fact I'm learning spainsh everyday and I'm learning italian on the side proves that. I don't need to learn either other then I want to. Definitely people come here and refuse to adopt the language and culture. There are others that want to learn, learning another language is hard, I know it's been hard for me, then a lot of people in America lack the patience to help someone learning. I know I got bombarded with 100s on one app, they wanted to learn english...I had to quit because it was just to much.
2:07 I don't know, I personally learn German and Japanese only to read books, watch movies and consume other forms of entertainment content. I'm sure there are plenty of introverts who find communication with other people an exhausting hard work to be avoided at all costs and only want to interact with other cultures as passive observers.
Una mia collega è andata in Inghilterra col fidanzato senza sapere nulla della lingua inglese, dopo un anno di lavoro in un bar è tornata sapendo solo i nomi delle cose che vendeva. Quindi sì, sono d'accordo con te. Bel video!!
This is some sound advice. I can only agree after having moved to Germany and now to Spain, it really kickstarts your language learning Edit: it also helps if your mother language is so hard that absolutely nobody speaks it, like Hungarian in my case
Yeah our beloved hungarian can be useful in this case. :D Only about 15million of people talks it natively, and even if someone would learn it as a second language they would be a very few people and usually not on a high level enough.
This was brilliant as it meets me exactly where I am at. I have been studying Italian several years, and travel there frequently. This year I had moved to Florence for 4 months, and knew that I would have a challenge improving Italian because natives want to speak English. It's a game. They speak English, I speak Italian. I can bend it to an all Italian conversation, but I was exhausted from working a lot and didn't. Basically, I let my guard down and unfortunately didn't improve as much as I like. I know when I go to places where they don't speak English, I can get along just fine even though I am at B1. But in Florence my mind freezes because the locals speak better English than my Italian. So, while I'd like to stay in one place when I return there (in the USA) in a few months, I feel like I should not live in Florence. But also, one thing I learned from my local Italian teacher which you repeated here, is you have fun with it and talk to everyone. I worry too much about mistakes, and then miss opportunities. I feel like I want advice, but I also know the answer confirmed by what you said -- don't hang around people who speak English, have fun, speak more with people, and study more. Fail on all counts, lol!
I can tell without lookimg at the name you are a woman, afraid to make mistakes, look stupid or emphasize your Italian, instead of speaking English. False ideas of politeness are a hindrance when learnig a language. When I went to Montreal, I said I was Hungarian, so no one would speak to me in English.
When I was stationed in the Netherlands, they gave us a week of Dutch language classes of about 2 hours each day. I learned a few phrases and some grammar. It was enough that with a English/Dutch dictionary I could puzzle out cooking instructions on boxes of food I bought at the grocery store. And figure out the store signs. My pronunciation was horrible so every time I tried speaking Dutch people would switch to English. I could understand simple sentences even if I couldn't speak very well. I'm more of an introvert and I was very shy at the time. Bottom line is that you are correct about immersing yourself in a language and culture if you truly want to become proficient.
I can attest to staying away from your native language. I couldn't avoid it when I lived in Korea but it did hinder my attempts to learn the language. I moved there with my husband and kids.
I am Irish but live in The Netherlands for 22 years. I see a lot of people sign up for expensive courses and they don’t even use the language after. Alongside Dutch I speak Italian, Irish and some other languages, and people seem to think it is a talent when in reality it requires time and effort mainly with self study and practice, not a classroom. I discourage people from classrooms because - disclaimer my opinion - it’s lazy and they believe the act of paying a lot and sitting in a classroom will cause them to somehow absorb the language by osmosis. When they leave the classroom they will revert to using English with the excuse that their Dutch is not good enough and blame the class!
How’re you liking it? I’ve mostly considered the Netherlands to be kind of a colourless and flavourless country, to be frank. Of course, I don’t wanna be disrespectful. It’s just that I don’t know much about it, I can’t say much about it, and it doesn’t really evoke any emotions, within me. So, let’s see, if you can change my mind, about this. But, Ireland, I’ve always been fascinated with. Love to Ireland, from Finland 🇫🇮❤🇮🇪.
@@PC_Simo I guess the Dutch can be hard to get to know and the cities and landscapes are pretty much sterile and geometrical. Trees and bushes are regularly pruned or chopped down adding to the sterile feel, nothing like a lopsided tree growing in a garden in Ireland!
@@seustaceRotterdam Yeah; while I do still like order, where it’s appropriate, I do prefer to see my trees and forests and nature (and gardens), in as natural a state, as possible. While Finland, for example, is still the most forested country, in Europe (at 75%); it is pretty sad to see the satellite image of our South-Eastern border with Russia, where you can actually see the stark contrast: Whereas, on the Russian side, the forest is beautifully untouched; on the Finnish side, it’s completely symmetrical and grid-like, what we call: _”Puupelto”_ (”Field of trees”). I guess, at least the air is pretty clean, in the Netherlands; given, how much the Dutch people prefer cycling over cars 🤔.
I've been learning spainsh for 8 months so far, 2 or more hours a day. I haven't paid for anything just reading, typing and watching spanish content. I'm no where near being conversational yet though, I wonder if I'll ever get there. I think if I get fluent (or close) that I'd have the confidence to learn more languages. I've tried in the past learning italian, german and spanish. I gave up pretty fast then, at least now it's easier with the resources..but damn it's still hard learning another language, at least for me 😅
Tandem is great and I strongly recommend. Also, when I was in Russia, one of my friends and I used to walk across SPb, trying to speak the best Russian we could possibly speak. Then, in 2009, two Russian girls came to Brazil and after a few days they were speaking Portuguese to each other, in the same way I did with my friend back then.
Lucky you. I downloaded a lot of those language exchange apps, tandem included, they sounded like a really great idea at first but in the end they are just like a dating app. They are terrible, nobody is really interested in learning the language there.
I know many people in the US who speak bad English. Likewise, we all know of expats who exist only in English. Sad life tbh. My Italian isn't great, but I survived vacation to Rome speaking almost no English.
Some people do learn a language for media consumption. Many who learn Japanese for example start learning it because they don't want to depend on localizations changing the meaning of the original work for example.
These advices are golden. I have experienced immigrating to Germany in a young age and to Spain as a family father. It is a huge difference. Here in Spain I talk with my family in German and Swedish. At work I speak German because it is a German-speaking school. Yes, my Spanish is still crap because I arrived here with no knowledge in Spanish. And yes in German I’m fluent, as I knew basic German when I moved to Germany and I had almost only German colleges and friends there. Such a difference.
Excellent advice as always Metatron. Another idea.....sign up to doing the stuff you like in the new country. Football coaching, boxing, brazilian jiu jitsu, flower arranging...whatever. Also i enjoy watching the football on telly with a noisy commentator shouting in my target language...plus a beer or ten. ❤
It’s also crucial (related to the preparation) to have a pretty solid foundation, especially on the vocabulary and the script of your target language (preferably, also, on the accent and dialect of your target country/region), before even considering immersion. If you, literally, don’t speak/understand a word of the language; it’ll just be like solving an equation with 0 constants and only variables: x * y + z = w That’s just basic logic. If I moved to India, with my current level of Hindi/Gujarati/Marathi/etc.; I might as well not even have gone. I can’t even begin to grasp it, if I don’t have any foundation, to build upon. Of course, that goes without saying.
Hello there my good sir, I wanted to say as a man that moved to Mexico 11 years ago to be with my wife. I have been studying Spanish for 11 years now, I can speak to natives and have a full on conversation with a correction here or there. I personally thank them every single time they correct me. I do however sneer and stay away from people that speak English here, especially native speakers.
I can assure you there are people who are learning Japanese (or at least trying) just so they can watch anime without needing to view it through the lens of translators. They having seen too many irrational, unnecessary , and counter productive localizations so now they refer to translated media as 'fanfiction'.
a lot of people have shown that often the localizer were activists and changed the meaning of the anime, manga and even video game to fit the woke narrative
I know avatar the last airbender isn't technically foreign anime, but I was watching it in spanish and it made the experience better. It's hard to explain, but with the setting it made it feel more like a living world or something. I imagine if I knew a language from Asia it would be even more interesting. That said, I'm having a hard enough time with spanish...I don't want to imagine learning a language like japenese.
problem is everyone speaks english and will switch to it, I think if i went to another country i'd pretend to only speak some remote language so they'll be forced to try and communicate with me in their native tonugue
That is not true in many parts of the world. In latin america, for example, outsie of the wealthiest or vey touristy areas very few people speak english.
I lived in Spain for a year way back in 1975/76. Sadly, I wasted much of it by hanging out with other English speakers instead of immersing myself in Spanish. Luckily, since then I have been able to attain a pretty high level of fluency, but I can attribute that more to how I learn the language today. Contrast that with the time I lived in Germany. From the very first day I was there, I simple started speaking German, bad as it was. I sought out Germans and they were happy to chat away in German..of course. Before I went to Germany, many people said to me that ALL Germans speak English. I found that is the case, but when they found out that I could speak passable German, they immediately switched back to their native language. So, doing this, I became able to live comfortably in German society in pretty much all situations.
01:57 I know this isn't the main point of this video, but I would have to disagree. I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to get to a decent level in a language simply because they want to understand it, and not because they necessarily want to communicate in it. I think there is a lot of merit in learning to understand a language, even if you don't plan on speaking or writing it much. There is a lot of information and content out there (be it academic or entertainment) that is only available in a specific language, and I think there is a lot of value in understanding it, even if the "communication" only goes in one direction. That being said, I do very much agree with the main points of the video. I studied Japanese for a year or so before going there as an exchange student, and it definitely helped *a lot* in picking up the language faster. I think some amount of actively studying the basics of a language is necessary in order to pick it up "naturally".
I agree with you, great video. I've seen the results of these mistakes often in students. I would just add that not everyone learns for communication; some learn for understanding (mostly when it's learning as a hobby) and that's fine too.
"Nobody starts a language just because they just want to read a book" - I beg to disagree. I learned English originally exactly because I was a teen in love with David Eddings - I had just read Belgariad in translation, and Malloreon had just had its first part published in English, and I couldn't wait for the Finnish translation.
Same here. I wanted to read certain magazines and books, and they happened to be in English. But I didn't learn English so that I could read those books, in that sense it's true.. instead I learned English *by* reading those books. I never focused on learning English, but indeed the books were the reason I ended up learning English to a reasonably high level. (One reason I wanted to read books in English was that I was at a time reading a lot of translations, and after a while I could immediately tell who the translator was - I could see the translator in the writing - they all have their different ways - and I got fed up of that. I wanted to read the author, not the translator. So I went and looked for the original material.)
This is pretty crazy, because I did almost the same exact thing, though it was The Tamuli for me. I didn't read The Malloreon after The Belgariad, because I couldn't find it in Finnish. So I picked up The Elenium, and ran into the same thing again: couldn't find the next trilogy in Finnish. So I picked up The Tamuli in English. Not only that, but my name is Janne as well :D
I completely had that exact experience when I was growing up in France, there were 5 of us, our parents, my siblings and I, we had an English community, we watched English television, almost every long term holidays we'd be in Ireland or England, the only one who learned French was my brother, and even with his French it was very conservative, too formal and still he speaks like a posh parisian, I speak French now but, I didn't even know the pronoun for I in French.
Je parle français maintenant finalement et je peux dire les mots de l'argot et verlan, par exemple je dis "débile" pour le mot stupide o je peux dire "kiffer" mais bien sûr, je kiffe ça. Aussi🤣 Wesh, mon pote, il a dead ça hier après-midi mec, tema la vache là frèrot, si tu plaît faire golri la France,😂 garde tes sous et attends pour la meuf, c'est bien ou quoi, merde v'là les keufs.
I totally agree, having been through both experiences. As a native Romance language speaker, at university I had studied for about one and a half year German before I moved there for an exchange programme, where I mostly hanged out with either locals or other foreigners whose German was better or at the same level of their English, hence it was the primary language of choice to communicate. After 7 months in that environment, I had reached a good degree of fluency in the language. Later in life I moved because of work to the Czech Republic without having any clue about Slavic languages, and working at an international companies where the default language is English. After almost a decade of living there (during which to be fair I never put any effort in study the language), I have some rough understanding of what people say or it is written and I can speak just enough to deal with basic day-to-day errands, but that's pretty much it.
This is so true. I have a Croat friend that went to live and work in Germany in 2016, and to this day he can't speak more than five words of the language, and uses Google to understand the letters he gets. He can understand a some of the gist of what the Germans sometimes say, but he can't talk to them. Not that he needs to (or even wants to; he despises Germans), because there are so many foreigners in Germany that he gets easily by using English at work and in his daily life, or then just going to his national restaurants/churches/stores, of which there is an abundance in the Germany city he's in (Pforzheim). In fact, there are barely any German places left at all in the normal streets.
I agree that full-on immersion without knowing at least some basics won't work for everybody. Most of my family speaks Mennonite Low German. I've heard it my whole life, but even though I understand it fairly well, I unfortunately can't speak it. It's much easier for me to speak Finnish, even though I've only spent about a month total in Finland in the eight years I've been learning Finnish.
how does that logic even work? being able to understand a language but cant speak it? it doesnt make sense if you cant speak it then you just dont understand it it's as simple as that lmao
"Avoid English speakers" - as a lot of my friends from English-speaking countries can attest, it can be almost impossible in some places. For instance, my country has been so thoroughly affected by the American cultural imperialism for the last decades that I doubt you can find anyone under seventy and over twelve with normal cognitive function that doesn't speak English.
Well so I have been learning Spanish for 11 months now and I am able to watch on very popular show in Elite almost almost without subtitles. It's a bit hard with the audio not being as good as in some other dubs of old shows. But still I think that's a pretty good point to reach inside of a single year of study. However in 2 years I plan to move to Spain for a semester of uni and I hope that works out but this is exactly what I will do speak spanish with native and English only with those that cannot. The tourists or expats or others. I am quite excited for it. Incredible the sort of opportunities that open up when you study a language, in addition it's just absolutely fun as well.
I've been meaning to visit USA but I'm also studying Spanish. So I'll try to master Spanish first and then I'll go and visit, so I could use Spanish with spanish-speakers without them switching over to English. In Spain it's way easier, especially in small towns.
As an Englishman I travelled a lot and wanted to learn the native languages BUT it is different for an English speaker to get the experience because in every country every person there would only (practise to) speak to me in English (except the French who resolutely would only do french). No matter how hard I tried, they just wouldn't help... it seems the rest of the world wants to improve English (except france😉)
Well, all depends. If you travel to a country where less than 20% of the population speaks fluent English, you shouldn't have a problem. There are also plenty of people who do speak English but prefer to speak their own langauge.
I really enjoy your video across the board, im myself preparing to move from quebec (french Canadien) to mexico city, I’ve been studying for the part 4 months, one hour a day on average, hope to be ready
Completely agree on everything, but one thing and I'm totally going to sound like "that guy", but I actually want to learn some languages just because I want to able to read in them comfortably. It's not exactly the same thing though, because those are the languages that I'm not really interested in much, so that's the reason why I'm fine with just learning how to read in those languages (literally don't even need to understand, just read and pronounce stuff correctly 😅)
Yes, the English speakers.. back some decades nobody spoke English in Italy, except in certain tech companies, and I gradually learned little by little and it was very fun. Years later it's English everywhere and it always ends up in a common English conversation, even for simple stuff. Nothing new learned after that, full stop.
Aight, currently learning _Japanese_ and I'll be learning _Spanish_ after. Not sure what's next but definitely not stopping after. Edit: I didn't say what I was learning.
My grandfather lived in England for 40 years and never learnt the language, my grandmother still lives here and never learnt the language, and both my parents were not fluent in English until I was several years old. It’s hard to learn a language, especially in a place like London where there will be people guaranteed to speak your language if it’s European or Asian
Some of my favorite moments living in Japan were making friends with Japanese people. One friend I made at an icecream shop because of a band shirt I was wearing, she was the employee and she later introduced me to the metal scene there and I then started playing in a band with one of them. It felt so good being able to do things like that. My Japanese still sucks, though lol
I’m getting flashbacks to my time in Japan living at an English speaking sharehouse. Most of the residents were actually Japanese and didn’t speak English but wanted to. As you can imagine I spoke a lot of English. Then when I left the sharehouse most Japanese people I talked to also spoke English to me. Even if they couldn’t put a basic sentence together. But not everyone. Thank goodness. It was frustrating though and at the time I felt like the world was out to stop me from learning Japanese. But after leaving Japan and thinking back in it I still got lots of Japanese speaking practice - more than if I lived alone and tons more than if I lived anywhere in the US 😂.
I read somewhere on the internet that when kids move to a new place and start speaking a second language, they don't care if they make mistakes; they just plough on ahead talking, and so they get loads of practice and loads of time listening to L1 speakers. Choosing to not give a hoot about any mistakes I make was SUCH a benefit to learning. And hey-Germans use plenty of English words in German all the time (at least millenials and younger do), so if I throw in an English word that I don't know in German, no-one bats an eye.
Kids are amazing language learners but this idea that they don’t care about mistakes is a myth. My German friend moved to Portugal when he was 6 and learned portugués very quickly being the right age but he said he always had to be careful when taking to other kids not to pronounce something wrong etc.
Reşat Ömen did a video on he became fluent in English, he grew up in German had Turkish parents by starting to count in English, then would go online to watch future episodes of shows he liked of Nickelodeon shows.
Yeah, I observe this with Mexican migrants to the USA who love walking through the desert. They are too poor to afford English classes before they come here and too busy working once they arrive to learn English. They might learn some basic English, but rarely reach fluency and depend on their kids.
My native language is Brazilian portuguese and I don't watch anything in my native language at all I live in Brazil in the moment what I just hear in portugues is just my parents that's it.
I pulled a Metatron watching the Tucker Carlson interview with Javier Milier earlier today totally interpreted by ear phone - but listened to the mans Argentinian talk (yes listened and saw subtitles)
I totally agree with submerging yourself into other cultures myself I’m 23 years old lived in Colombia with my now girlfriend who is from there for two years listening to Spanish everyday but a very different type of Spanish
A question for you Metatron. As a learner of Standard Italian, will watching Gomorrah improve my comprehension ? Or will it pollute my standard Italian with a ton of Napoli bad habits ? Great TV show. But not always easy with the dialogue. Well ? ...to put the shoe on the other foot....you must watch "Love/Hate" for some excellent Dublin dialogue.
My mother tongue is Turkish but I am half Italian. My BA is on English Language and Literature. I took Super-Intensiv courses at Goethe Institut in Ankara but did not like German. Now I am finally learning Italian bc I found the right instructor, I used to know Italian but it was "Napolitana". However, I moved to Switzerland, Bern where German is spoken but it is not High-German. I do not understand a thing. There are like 4 languages in my life and I am slowly starting losing my fluency in Turkish and English while trying to learn Italian. What is my situation? What would you suggest?
Interesting point about the psychological factors (possibly even a topic which a whole video could be made), granted one might question the statement "Autistic people can't learn languages" (I'm Autistic so perhaps this has an interest for me) but I wonder if there's a less absolute idea about whether there are extra steps/challenges or what have you that language learning and neurodiversity have to contend with.
Fellow autistic language-learner here. :) I've generally found my particular flavour of autism mostly beneficial to learning-linguistics in general is somewhat of a special-interest, and I tend to have a good head for patterns and pattern-recognition, which IME makes learning grammar easier for me than it seems to be for other people. It also helps that I moved to Berlin, where the vulture is so much more direct than northern England that there are so many fewer subtextual things necessary to learn. Not to say it doesn't have its drawbacks-I absolutely can't watch German broadcast TV with subtitles on, because seeing a sentence in preterite-past while hearing it in perfect-past is jarring to the point I understand neither. Being a pathological introvert is also a thing I constantly have to fight against as well, if I want to speak to people. Nothing too insightful; just my tuppence. :)
@@LeaAddams Thanks for being understanding. I did find German easier than French (due to the more structured approach) and have often found it hard to keep speaking to people. Patterns are good to pick out.
@@bestianegrafcbayernmunchen5454 Oh no, I’m from Ukraine. And with the influx of Ukrainian immigrants it’s now harder to not come across a Ukrainian than otherwise. Plus Jewish community and Russian.
How do you become a Metatron student? I speak, read, and write Spanish very well, I’d say between intermediate and advanced, but want to get a lot better. I’m American so English is my native language. I feel like I’ve plateaued and not sure where to go from here.
I have a problem with people hearing my accent when I speak their language and switching to English. Sometimes my brain is on the language that I'm trying to learn so I just continue speaking that language and probably seem rude. Example, I'll order a coffee and people will switch to English.
lol avoiding English speakers in Italy is …. I don’t want to say challenging but it is definitely like beating a boss in a. Video game when you are able to use Italian as a non Italian in a major city
I just don't understand how someone can spend months or even years in another country and not even try to be at least decently conversational in the country's main language.
If someone is in another country they probably have a lot more interesting things to do than study vocabulary and grammar. That's why people recommend studying the boring stuff at home before going abroad so that you can focus more on interacting with the people not sitting around studying all day.
Wonder if you will start picking up "Murican" like Lawrence from "Lost In The Pond"?😆Some people will travel to Europe and only eat at American Fast Food places which is almost as dumb as what you describe.I can understand being wary of local food in maybe Asia or Africa but I am pretty sure Western European food is probably fairly safe.I have heard that even in France locals do appreciate if you at least attempt to speak in their language.
i Know a guy. he migrated here from Afgahistan. as a boy in his late teens. he got o a smal island 158 year around inhabitants. one other speaking pastun. first time I meet him. he had been about six month here. you could hardly hear anything wrong in his language. then I know migrants that lived here six years and you hardly hear what they speak. so how much you have to speak a language, matters a lot.
Irish-polyglot here. You visit a shop..[ spain, japan, etc]...Whenever they switched into English , I would tell them I didn't understand English. If they continued to speak English at me....I would monologue at them in Gaelic. I then would give them the option of doing the transaction in the local language or else in my native gaelic. The funniest was in an irish pub in spain , a rude Spanish lady worked there. The other irish customers enjoyed some of the insults I gently threw at her. 😂
I speak japanese with very little accent (~n2), but it's still very obvious I'm not a native speaker. I did the exact same XDXD
i speak fluent japanese and i sound almost like a native speaker
I'm Italian. My mother's best friend moved to Germany 30 years ago with her husband. They spent 20 years there until he retired. She doesn't know a word of German. Not a single one. We've always been baffled by this because 20 years is a long time to spend in a place you don't understand the language of. However, all this woman knew was her family, her home, her son, she'd go out to do the groceries and that was most of the German culture she would absorb in her daily life.
One thing I noticed when I moved to Tanzania to learn Swahili, people who know (some) English often tried to speak English with me. I would usually reply in KiSwahili 😂 or explain that I'm trying to learn Kiswahili, and politely request to speak their language. These days, I usually reply in English as to be polite, then slowly direct the conversation back into Kiswahili. The curse of being a native English speaker is that people always want to "practice" their English with you since it's the most desirable language to learn. 🤐
I just find people who don't speak English.
@@stevedavenport1202 yeah, that's why i moved to the villages in a regional area. hastens the learning process by necessity!
I think a very underestimated element of preparing before immersing in a country is to learn how to listen to normal speech. Far too many ‘beginners’ courses focus on written material (rather than native audio), basic grammar rules, and textbook phrases. This can result in a major struggle to make the breakthrough when they arrive because they simply can’t understand a word they hear. I’ve helped out a lot of Asian students here in Ireland and many take years to feel confident in English, even when they’ve had years of schooling before arriving - but others have no problems. The one distinction between the two groups I’ve found is that the ones who’ve struggled learned textbook and classroom English, while the quick adaptors will tell you that they spent much of their time watching American TV shows or YT channels.
It took me a year to start hearing Japanese. I literally felt like people were talking slower at the one year mark and that’s with several years of study before I went. The listening practice I had was anime with subs and audio flash cards. If you don’t get the listening practice before going you will when you get there at least. It takes patience.
the cases you spoke about are not an absolute truth. I have a friend who is the exact opposite: he's living in the US for 5 years and he still presents basic grammar errors... why? 1- Because he ignored grammar and his only method was watching movies and videos. 2 - He still "thinks' (when formulating sentences "on the fly") in his native languague (brazilian portuguese) instead of choosing the words and thinking in english.
I can attest to it on a smaller scale. I had terrible grades in primary school and nearly failed English two years in a row. I couldn't speak or read a word. Then I started playing videogames with English voice acting and Polish subtitles. I started watching movies with subtitles. I watched a lot of American UA-camrs. It wasn't full immersion but as close as I could get without going to England on a language learning course. After over a decade of watching nothing but English speaking creators and media, listening to English speaking musicians, reading books in English, etc. and getting officially certified as a C1 level speaker I can say immersion, even not full immersion like living in a country where they speak your target language, works wonders if you have some basics of that language covered so you don't have to resort to translator apps or going back to your native language...
Your written English is indistinguishable from native, except that … your spelling and grammar has a higher standard than most natives!
Same with me! My native lang is Croatian and I basically became fluent in English over a 7 or 8 year period (was basically fluent by the time I was 17, and started consuming Eng content when I was like 9 years old) by reading and listening to lots of English content online. Never went to an Anglosphere country in my life!
In the USA we have people who have lived here for thirty years, but they live in ethnic enclaves and don't speak a word of English.
I worked with cubans for 3 months a few months back. One was here 3 years, she seemed to be learning english, but didn't know much. Her husband was here 17 years and only knew enough to get by at work. I started learning spainsh when I met them. Going on 8 months learning it everyday, unfortunately im not close to being conversational. It's a shame it happens, but I've learned there is Stigma on both sides. Spainsh people express they get grief from english speakers and their afraid to speak with english speakers while attempting to learn english. Then with American born Latinos, if they don't know how to speak Spanish fluent or at all they some times get grief from spanish speakers. Before I left they seemed like they where more interested in learning english.
@@thetightwadhomesteader3089 if they only watch Spanish TV, listen to Spanish radio, and read Spanish newspapers, of course they are not going to learn English. How stupid would it have been if my German ancestors had acted that way, and I lived in a German speaking bubble and barely knew any English? What is the point?
@@michaelhorning6014 I'm not saying I disagree, I wouldn't move to another country and not learn the language or customs. I think the fact I'm learning spainsh everyday and I'm learning italian on the side proves that. I don't need to learn either other then I want to. Definitely people come here and refuse to adopt the language and culture. There are others that want to learn, learning another language is hard, I know it's been hard for me, then a lot of people in America lack the patience to help someone learning. I know I got bombarded with 100s on one app, they wanted to learn english...I had to quit because it was just to much.
A lot more than 30 years. In San Fransisco there are 8th generation Chinese who only speak Chinese.
2:07 I don't know, I personally learn German and Japanese only to read books, watch movies and consume other forms of entertainment content. I'm sure there are plenty of introverts who find communication with other people an exhausting hard work to be avoided at all costs and only want to interact with other cultures as passive observers.
Una mia collega è andata in Inghilterra col fidanzato senza sapere nulla della lingua inglese, dopo un anno di lavoro in un bar è tornata sapendo solo i nomi delle cose che vendeva. Quindi sì, sono d'accordo con te. Bel video!!
This is some sound advice. I can only agree after having moved to Germany and now to Spain, it really kickstarts your language learning
Edit: it also helps if your mother language is so hard that absolutely nobody speaks it, like Hungarian in my case
I hear there are phrasebooks…
Yeah our beloved hungarian can be useful in this case. :D
Only about 15million of people talks it natively, and even if someone would learn it as a second language they would be a very few people and usually not on a high level enough.
This was brilliant as it meets me exactly where I am at. I have been studying Italian several years, and travel there frequently. This year I had moved to Florence for 4 months, and knew that I would have a challenge improving Italian because natives want to speak English. It's a game. They speak English, I speak Italian. I can bend it to an all Italian conversation, but I was exhausted from working a lot and didn't. Basically, I let my guard down and unfortunately didn't improve as much as I like. I know when I go to places where they don't speak English, I can get along just fine even though I am at B1. But in Florence my mind freezes because the locals speak better English than my Italian. So, while I'd like to stay in one place when I return there (in the USA) in a few months, I feel like I should not live in Florence. But also, one thing I learned from my local Italian teacher which you repeated here, is you have fun with it and talk to everyone. I worry too much about mistakes, and then miss opportunities. I feel like I want advice, but I also know the answer confirmed by what you said -- don't hang around people who speak English, have fun, speak more with people, and study more. Fail on all counts, lol!
Go further south.
I can tell without lookimg at the name you are a woman, afraid to make mistakes, look stupid or emphasize your Italian, instead of speaking English. False ideas of politeness are a hindrance when learnig a language. When I went to Montreal, I said I was Hungarian, so no one would speak to me in English.
When I was stationed in the Netherlands, they gave us a week of Dutch language classes of about 2 hours each day. I learned a few phrases and some grammar. It was enough that with a English/Dutch dictionary I could puzzle out cooking instructions on boxes of food I bought at the grocery store. And figure out the store signs.
My pronunciation was horrible so every time I tried speaking Dutch people would switch to English. I could understand simple sentences even if I couldn't speak very well. I'm more of an introvert and I was very shy at the time.
Bottom line is that you are correct about immersing yourself in a language and culture if you truly want to become proficient.
I can attest to staying away from your native language. I couldn't avoid it when I lived in Korea but it did hinder my attempts to learn the language. I moved there with my husband and kids.
I am Irish but live in The Netherlands for 22 years. I see a lot of people sign up for expensive courses and they don’t even use the language after. Alongside Dutch I speak Italian, Irish and some other languages, and people seem to think it is a talent when in reality it requires time and effort mainly with self study and practice, not a classroom. I discourage people from classrooms because - disclaimer my opinion - it’s lazy and they believe the act of paying a lot and sitting in a classroom will cause them to somehow absorb the language by osmosis. When they leave the classroom they will revert to using English with the excuse that their Dutch is not good enough and blame the class!
How’re you liking it? I’ve mostly considered the Netherlands to be kind of a colourless and flavourless country, to be frank. Of course, I don’t wanna be disrespectful. It’s just that I don’t know much about it, I can’t say much about it, and it doesn’t really evoke any emotions, within me. So, let’s see, if you can change my mind, about this. But, Ireland, I’ve always been fascinated with. Love to Ireland, from Finland 🇫🇮❤🇮🇪.
@@PC_Simo I guess the Dutch can be hard to get to know and the cities and landscapes are pretty much sterile and geometrical. Trees and bushes are regularly pruned or chopped down adding to the sterile feel, nothing like a lopsided tree growing in a garden in Ireland!
@@seustaceRotterdam Yeah; while I do still like order, where it’s appropriate, I do prefer to see my trees and forests and nature (and gardens), in as natural a state, as possible. While Finland, for example, is still the most forested country, in Europe (at 75%); it is pretty sad to see the satellite image of our South-Eastern border with Russia, where you can actually see the stark contrast: Whereas, on the Russian side, the forest is beautifully untouched; on the Finnish side, it’s completely symmetrical and grid-like, what we call: _”Puupelto”_ (”Field of trees”). I guess, at least the air is pretty clean, in the Netherlands; given, how much the Dutch people prefer cycling over cars 🤔.
I've been learning spainsh for 8 months so far, 2 or more hours a day. I haven't paid for anything just reading, typing and watching spanish content. I'm no where near being conversational yet though, I wonder if I'll ever get there. I think if I get fluent (or close) that I'd have the confidence to learn more languages. I've tried in the past learning italian, german and spanish. I gave up pretty fast then, at least now it's easier with the resources..but damn it's still hard learning another language, at least for me 😅
Tandem is great and I strongly recommend. Also, when I was in Russia, one of my friends and I used to walk across SPb, trying to speak the best Russian we could possibly speak. Then, in 2009, two Russian girls came to Brazil and after a few days they were speaking Portuguese to each other, in the same way I did with my friend back then.
Lucky you. I downloaded a lot of those language exchange apps, tandem included, they sounded like a really great idea at first but in the end they are just like a dating app.
They are terrible, nobody is really interested in learning the language there.
I know many people in the US who speak bad English. Likewise, we all know of expats who exist only in English. Sad life tbh. My Italian isn't great, but I survived vacation to Rome speaking almost no English.
Some people do learn a language for media consumption. Many who learn Japanese for example start learning it because they don't want to depend on localizations changing the meaning of the original work for example.
nah many wanna learn japanese for anime without the subs lmao
@@TheRedFoxMcCloud What do you mean "nah"? Thats exactly what OP said.
These advices are golden. I have experienced immigrating to Germany in a young age and to Spain as a family father. It is a huge difference. Here in Spain I talk with my family in German and Swedish. At work I speak German because it is a German-speaking school. Yes, my Spanish is still crap because I arrived here with no knowledge in Spanish. And yes in German I’m fluent, as I knew basic German when I moved to Germany and I had almost only German colleges and friends there. Such a difference.
Excellent advice as always Metatron. Another idea.....sign up to doing the stuff you like in the new country. Football coaching, boxing, brazilian jiu jitsu, flower arranging...whatever. Also i enjoy watching the football on telly with a noisy commentator shouting in my target language...plus a beer or ten. ❤
It’s also crucial (related to the preparation) to have a pretty solid foundation, especially on the vocabulary and the script of your target language (preferably, also, on the accent and dialect of your target country/region), before even considering immersion. If you, literally, don’t speak/understand a word of the language; it’ll just be like solving an equation with 0 constants and only variables:
x * y + z = w
That’s just basic logic. If I moved to India, with my current level of Hindi/Gujarati/Marathi/etc.; I might as well not even have gone. I can’t even begin to grasp it, if I don’t have any foundation, to build upon. Of course, that goes without saying.
Hello there my good sir, I wanted to say as a man that moved to Mexico 11 years ago to be with my wife. I have been studying Spanish for 11 years now, I can speak to natives and have a full on conversation with a correction here or there. I personally thank them every single time they correct me. I do however sneer and stay away from people that speak English here, especially native speakers.
I can assure you there are people who are learning Japanese (or at least trying) just so they can watch anime without needing to view it through the lens of translators. They having seen too many irrational, unnecessary , and counter productive localizations so now they refer to translated media as 'fanfiction'.
a lot of people have shown that often the localizer were activists and changed the meaning of the anime, manga and even video game to fit the woke narrative
Same for people that want to learn Korean for Korean Dramas and K-pop
@@FrenchLightningJohnoh how relevant this is now
I know avatar the last airbender isn't technically foreign anime, but I was watching it in spanish and it made the experience better. It's hard to explain, but with the setting it made it feel more like a living world or something. I imagine if I knew a language from Asia it would be even more interesting. That said, I'm having a hard enough time with spanish...I don't want to imagine learning a language like japenese.
You can tell when someone learns Japanese from anime because they use words like "omae" and "teme" lol
problem is everyone speaks english and will switch to it, I think if i went to another country i'd pretend to only speak some remote language so they'll be forced to try and communicate with me in their native tonugue
That is not true in many parts of the world. In latin america, for example, outsie of the wealthiest or vey touristy areas very few people speak english.
I lived in Spain for a year way back in 1975/76. Sadly, I wasted much of it by hanging out with other English speakers instead of immersing myself in Spanish. Luckily, since then I have been able to attain a pretty high level of fluency, but I can attribute that more to how I learn the language today.
Contrast that with the time I lived in Germany. From the very first day I was there, I simple started speaking German, bad as it was. I sought out Germans and they were happy to chat away in German..of course. Before I went to Germany, many people said to me that ALL Germans speak English. I found that is the case, but when they found out that I could speak passable German, they immediately switched back to their native language. So, doing this, I became able to live comfortably in German society in pretty much all situations.
The surprisi g thing is that you could find English speakers at all back in 1975 Spain!
01:57 I know this isn't the main point of this video, but I would have to disagree. I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to get to a decent level in a language simply because they want to understand it, and not because they necessarily want to communicate in it.
I think there is a lot of merit in learning to understand a language, even if you don't plan on speaking or writing it much. There is a lot of information and content out there (be it academic or entertainment) that is only available in a specific language, and I think there is a lot of value in understanding it, even if the "communication" only goes in one direction.
That being said, I do very much agree with the main points of the video. I studied Japanese for a year or so before going there as an exchange student, and it definitely helped *a lot* in picking up the language faster. I think some amount of actively studying the basics of a language is necessary in order to pick it up "naturally".
I agree with you, great video. I've seen the results of these mistakes often in students. I would just add that not everyone learns for communication; some learn for understanding (mostly when it's learning as a hobby) and that's fine too.
"Nobody starts a language just because they just want to read a book" - I beg to disagree. I learned English originally exactly because I was a teen in love with David Eddings - I had just read Belgariad in translation, and Malloreon had just had its first part published in English, and I couldn't wait for the Finnish translation.
Same here. I wanted to read certain magazines and books, and they happened to be in English. But I didn't learn English so that I could read those books, in that sense it's true.. instead I learned English *by* reading those books. I never focused on learning English, but indeed the books were the reason I ended up learning English to a reasonably high level.
(One reason I wanted to read books in English was that I was at a time reading a lot of translations, and after a while I could immediately tell who the translator was - I could see the translator in the writing - they all have their different ways - and I got fed up of that. I wanted to read the author, not the translator. So I went and looked for the original material.)
This is pretty crazy, because I did almost the same exact thing, though it was The Tamuli for me. I didn't read The Malloreon after The Belgariad, because I couldn't find it in Finnish. So I picked up The Elenium, and ran into the same thing again: couldn't find the next trilogy in Finnish. So I picked up The Tamuli in English.
Not only that, but my name is Janne as well :D
Number 1 rule don't stick to immigrant community, especially to one fron your country
"Ben ditto Segnore" ! Bien dicho Senor!
I completely had that exact experience when I was growing up in France, there were 5 of us, our parents, my siblings and I, we had an English community, we watched English television, almost every long term holidays we'd be in Ireland or England, the only one who learned French was my brother, and even with his French it was very conservative, too formal and still he speaks like a posh parisian, I speak French now but, I didn't even know the pronoun for I in French.
Je parle français maintenant finalement et je peux dire les mots de l'argot et verlan, par exemple je dis "débile" pour le mot stupide o je peux dire "kiffer" mais bien sûr, je kiffe ça.
Aussi🤣
Wesh, mon pote, il a dead ça hier après-midi mec, tema la vache là frèrot, si tu plaît faire golri la France,😂 garde tes sous et attends pour la meuf, c'est bien ou quoi, merde v'là les keufs.
I totally agree, having been through both experiences.
As a native Romance language speaker, at university I had studied for about one and a half year German before I moved there for an exchange programme, where I mostly hanged out with either locals or other foreigners whose German was better or at the same level of their English, hence it was the primary language of choice to communicate. After 7 months in that environment, I had reached a good degree of fluency in the language.
Later in life I moved because of work to the Czech Republic without having any clue about Slavic languages, and working at an international companies where the default language is English. After almost a decade of living there (during which to be fair I never put any effort in study the language), I have some rough understanding of what people say or it is written and I can speak just enough to deal with basic day-to-day errands, but that's pretty much it.
This is so true. I have a Croat friend that went to live and work in Germany in 2016, and to this day he can't speak more than five words of the language, and uses Google to understand the letters he gets. He can understand a some of the gist of what the Germans sometimes say, but he can't talk to them. Not that he needs to (or even wants to; he despises Germans), because there are so many foreigners in Germany that he gets easily by using English at work and in his daily life, or then just going to his national restaurants/churches/stores, of which there is an abundance in the Germany city he's in (Pforzheim). In fact, there are barely any German places left at all in the normal streets.
There is no mistake Metra, you have a good show. I liked the Italian - Argentine segment.
Thanks for the new video ! 😊
I agree that full-on immersion without knowing at least some basics won't work for everybody. Most of my family speaks Mennonite Low German. I've heard it my whole life, but even though I understand it fairly well, I unfortunately can't speak it. It's much easier for me to speak Finnish, even though I've only spent about a month total in Finland in the eight years I've been learning Finnish.
how does that logic even work? being able to understand a language but cant speak it? it doesnt make sense if you cant speak it then you just dont understand it it's as simple as that lmao
@@TheRedFoxMcCloudPassive and active vocabulary are different.
@@Sourcoolness i know but still
@@TheRedFoxMcCloud That makes no sense. If you understand the difference, then you should understand that comprehension doesn't guarantee production.
@Sourcoolness they probably on some bull shit because you cannot magically understand a 2nd language without translation lol
"Avoid English speakers" - as a lot of my friends from English-speaking countries can attest, it can be almost impossible in some places. For instance, my country has been so thoroughly affected by the American cultural imperialism for the last decades that I doubt you can find anyone under seventy and over twelve with normal cognitive function that doesn't speak English.
Well so I have been learning Spanish for 11 months now and I am able to watch on very popular show in Elite almost almost without subtitles. It's a bit hard with the audio not being as good as in some other dubs of old shows. But still I think that's a pretty good point to reach inside of a single year of study. However in 2 years I plan to move to Spain for a semester of uni and I hope that works out but this is exactly what I will do speak spanish with native and English only with those that cannot. The tourists or expats or others. I am quite excited for it. Incredible the sort of opportunities that open up when you study a language, in addition it's just absolutely fun as well.
I've been meaning to visit USA but I'm also studying Spanish. So I'll try to master Spanish first and then I'll go and visit, so I could use Spanish with spanish-speakers without them switching over to English. In Spain it's way easier, especially in small towns.
As an Englishman I travelled a lot and wanted to learn the native languages BUT it is different for an English speaker to get the experience because in every country every person there would only (practise to) speak to me in English (except the French who resolutely would only do french). No matter how hard I tried, they just wouldn't help... it seems the rest of the world wants to improve English (except france😉)
Well, all depends. If you travel to a country where less than 20% of the population speaks fluent English, you shouldn't have a problem. There are also plenty of people who do speak English but prefer to speak their own langauge.
I really enjoy your video across the board, im myself preparing to move from quebec (french Canadien) to mexico city, I’ve been studying for the part 4 months, one hour a day on average, hope to be ready
Completely agree on everything, but one thing and I'm totally going to sound like "that guy", but I actually want to learn some languages just because I want to able to read in them comfortably. It's not exactly the same thing though, because those are the languages that I'm not really interested in much, so that's the reason why I'm fine with just learning how to read in those languages (literally don't even need to understand, just read and pronounce stuff correctly 😅)
Yes, the English speakers.. back some decades nobody spoke English in Italy, except in certain tech companies, and I gradually learned little by little and it was very fun. Years later it's English everywhere and it always ends up in a common English conversation, even for simple stuff. Nothing new learned after that, full stop.
Aight, currently learning _Japanese_ and I'll be learning _Spanish_ after. Not sure what's next but definitely not stopping after.
Edit: I didn't say what I was learning.
Assuming _English,_ during your formative years.
My grandfather lived in England for 40 years and never learnt the language, my grandmother still lives here and never learnt the language, and both my parents were not fluent in English until I was several years old. It’s hard to learn a language, especially in a place like London where there will be people guaranteed to speak your language if it’s European or Asian
Some of my favorite moments living in Japan were making friends with Japanese people. One friend I made at an icecream shop because of a band shirt I was wearing, she was the employee and she later introduced me to the metal scene there and I then started playing in a band with one of them. It felt so good being able to do things like that. My Japanese still sucks, though lol
I’m getting flashbacks to my time in Japan living at an English speaking sharehouse. Most of the residents were actually Japanese and didn’t speak English but wanted to. As you can imagine I spoke a lot of English. Then when I left the sharehouse most Japanese people I talked to also spoke English to me. Even if they couldn’t put a basic sentence together. But not everyone. Thank goodness. It was frustrating though and at the time I felt like the world was out to stop me from learning Japanese. But after leaving Japan and thinking back in it I still got lots of Japanese speaking practice - more than if I lived alone and tons more than if I lived anywhere in the US 😂.
I read somewhere on the internet that when kids move to a new place and start speaking a second language, they don't care if they make mistakes; they just plough on ahead talking, and so they get loads of practice and loads of time listening to L1 speakers. Choosing to not give a hoot about any mistakes I make was SUCH a benefit to learning. And hey-Germans use plenty of English words in German all the time (at least millenials and younger do), so if I throw in an English word that I don't know in German, no-one bats an eye.
Kids are amazing language learners but this idea that they don’t care about mistakes is a myth. My German friend moved to Portugal when he was 6 and learned portugués very quickly being the right age but he said he always had to be careful when taking to other kids not to pronounce something wrong etc.
Reşat Ömen did a video on he became fluent in English, he grew up in German had Turkish parents by starting to count in English, then would go online to watch future episodes of shows he liked of Nickelodeon shows.
Yeah, I observe this with Mexican migrants to the USA who love walking through the desert. They are too poor to afford English classes before they come here and too busy working once they arrive to learn English.
They might learn some basic English, but rarely reach fluency and depend on their kids.
I was preparing for Spain for simply 2.5 months till I went there. It went smoothly though
My native language is Brazilian portuguese and I don't watch anything in my native language at all I live in Brazil in the moment what I just hear in portugues is just my parents that's it.
I pulled a Metatron watching the Tucker Carlson interview with Javier Milier earlier today totally interpreted by ear phone - but listened to the mans Argentinian talk (yes listened and saw subtitles)
I've been learning Mandarin for 2 years, and feel ready to go to China, but I don’t have enough money for the plain ticket even
Sos un crack! me encantan tus videos!
I totally agree with submerging yourself into other cultures myself I’m 23 years old lived in Colombia with my now girlfriend who is from there for two years listening to Spanish everyday but a very different type of Spanish
When living in Europe, I used to run away from my fellow countrymen just as the devil runs away from the cross (local saying here).
There's nothing in the air in the country that makes you learn the language.
Do you have any advice for those whose target language is from a country that is a pariah of the entire western world?
A question for you Metatron. As a learner of Standard Italian, will watching Gomorrah improve my comprehension ? Or will it pollute my standard Italian with a ton of Napoli bad habits ? Great TV show. But not always easy with the dialogue. Well ? ...to put the shoe on the other foot....you must watch "Love/Hate" for some excellent Dublin dialogue.
My mother tongue is Turkish but I am half Italian. My BA is on English Language and Literature. I took Super-Intensiv courses at Goethe Institut in Ankara but did not like German. Now I am finally learning Italian bc I found the right instructor, I used to know Italian but it was "Napolitana". However, I moved to Switzerland, Bern where German is spoken but it is not High-German. I do not understand a thing. There are like 4 languages in my life and I am slowly starting losing my fluency in Turkish and English while trying to learn Italian. What is my situation? What would you suggest?
Interesting point about the psychological factors (possibly even a topic which a whole video could be made), granted one might question the statement "Autistic people can't learn languages" (I'm Autistic so perhaps this has an interest for me) but I wonder if there's a less absolute idea about whether there are extra steps/challenges or what have you that language learning and neurodiversity have to contend with.
Fellow autistic language-learner here. :)
I've generally found my particular flavour of autism mostly beneficial to learning-linguistics in general is somewhat of a special-interest, and I tend to have a good head for patterns and pattern-recognition, which IME makes learning grammar easier for me than it seems to be for other people. It also helps that I moved to Berlin, where the vulture is so much more direct than northern England that there are so many fewer subtextual things necessary to learn.
Not to say it doesn't have its drawbacks-I absolutely can't watch German broadcast TV with subtitles on, because seeing a sentence in preterite-past while hearing it in perfect-past is jarring to the point I understand neither. Being a pathological introvert is also a thing I constantly have to fight against as well, if I want to speak to people.
Nothing too insightful; just my tuppence. :)
@@LeaAddams Thanks for being understanding. I did find German easier than French (due to the more structured approach) and have often found it hard to keep speaking to people. Patterns are good to pick out.
Somehow I ended up speaking my native language more when I moved to Canada than I was at home. I had to literally go out of my way to talk in English.
are you from France
@@bestianegrafcbayernmunchen5454 Oh no, I’m from Ukraine. And with the influx of Ukrainian immigrants it’s now harder to not come across a Ukrainian than otherwise. Plus Jewish community and Russian.
How do you become a Metatron student? I speak, read, and write Spanish very well, I’d say between intermediate and advanced, but want to get a lot better. I’m American so English is my native language. I feel like I’ve plateaued and not sure where to go from here.
I have a problem with people hearing my accent when I speak their language and switching to English. Sometimes my brain is on the language that I'm trying to learn so I just continue speaking that language and probably seem rude. Example, I'll order a coffee and people will switch to English.
lol avoiding English speakers in Italy is …. I don’t want to say challenging but it is definitely like beating a boss in a. Video game when you are able to use Italian as a non Italian in a major city
8:40 Like my anti-social ass is gonna approach anybody, anyways 😅.
Hi Metatron. Did you take the HSK exams for your Mandarin?
I have 5 years in Albania and only speak the basics of it 🤣
I just don't understand how someone can spend months or even years in another country and not even try to be at least decently conversational in the country's main language.
If someone is in another country they probably have a lot more interesting things to do than study vocabulary and grammar. That's why people recommend studying the boring stuff at home before going abroad so that you can focus more on interacting with the people not sitting around studying all day.
Wonder if you will start picking up "Murican" like Lawrence from "Lost In The Pond"?😆Some people will travel to Europe and only eat at American Fast Food places which is almost as dumb as what you describe.I can understand being wary of local food in maybe Asia or Africa but I am pretty sure Western European food is probably fairly safe.I have heard that even in France locals do appreciate if you at least attempt to speak in their language.
He still has Italian mannerisms when he speaks English.😄
Forever
i Know a guy. he migrated here from Afgahistan. as a boy in his late teens. he got o a smal island 158 year around inhabitants. one other speaking pastun. first time I meet him. he had been about six month here. you could hardly hear anything wrong in his language. then I know migrants that lived here six years and you hardly hear what they speak. so how much you have to speak a language, matters a lot.
stay safe
Twelfth
First comment.
first?
Third
Lol