I think watching a video with the two methods - looking up words and not looking up words - is the most useful way to learn a language. First, watch a video right through without stopping it, with subs or without subs. Then watch the video to word-mine it, which increases your vocabulary. Watching right through helps you pick up expressions and grammar as well as good pronunciation and intonation; and looking up words helps you expand your vocabulary. You need both things to acquire a new language. I find listening without interruption to something I've studied previously is quite enjoyable and helps my subconscious mind absorb the language. Using one method exclusively - word-mining everything you watch, or alternatively, spending years watching videos you don't understand a word of - is counterproductive. Using a balanced approach is the best in my opinion.
Interesting ideas! Of course, you can have a mix of both - the idea is to try not to disrupt the flow of what you're watching. As you say if you watch it for the first time without stopping it but with subtitles, this is great as you don't know what to expect. It's exciting and you're in the zone because you haven't seen it before. You will have a lot of emotional investment into it for this reason. Then, if you'd like to watch it again but you already know what happens, this could be a good opportunity to allow yourself to look up a few words. Maybe limit yourself to commonly spoken words that you don't know as these will likely be most useful for you in real life. However I agree with your point, there's multiple ways to approach it :)
@@learnwithlingoers I agree with you that watching material uninterrupted is very important for learning. Watching the same material over and over again, without breaks, is also helpful. I think a balance of word-mining to free-flow listening of about 1 hour : 4 hours is helpful. I tend to do the free-flow listening during my sleep. I don't have enough time during the day, and besides, the language might be absorbed into the subconscious better this way. Funnily enough I don't get tired in the morning doing this. Good video for generating discussion on language-learning. 😃
@@learnwithlingoers Actually I change my mind, and I think you are 100% right. I have been doing word mining and now realize it's of zero help. Learning by just watching - WITHOUT WORD LOOK UP - is the best method. I plan to watch around 2,000 episodes of around 10 minutes each, using this method. I will keep rewatching this material until I understand most of it. Then I will see if I am closer to fluency or not. Kids learn their native language this way, by watching TV and videos, and even though they don't understand a lot at the beginning, with time, they understand all of what they watch after a few years.
It works up until a certain point. I’m now learning more advanced words and it’s difficult to understand even with context sometimes. This is why I use Language Reactor. Makes it quick so I don’t waste much time.
So, from what I could understand from the video, we, the learners, should be learning like "living in the moment while learning a new meaning with the new words we encounter, and incorporate them as much as we interpret what really means upon context". I don't know if I am not mistaken with this, but, in my own words, this is what I get.
Good stuff James! I'm learning Chinese (not only from) youtube videos and it's frustrating when a 10min video takes you over 30mins to finish because I'm constantly pausing it to look up words.
im doing the same in japanese but i think taking your time is actually very rewarding (so far at least) . theres no point in trying to rushing through learning.
Paldies, great content. I am learning Latvian. Watching the cultural music on UA-cam has been a powerful tool! Especially the "Latvian Song Festival", at times making me weep. Latvian history and culture is deeply moving, having survived a myriad of occupations, war, genocide.......... Hence the emotional aspect as I recently learned my infant father and grandparents escaped Stalin's "Red Terror". Many family members were sent to Gulags.
I agree with u!!! Even tho i do, I've been contemplating that whether it is effective to increase vocabulary or not. I'm a Japanese who have been learning English. I'll continue watching UA-cam videos without subtitles and not looking up!! Thank u for making this great video🎉
Thanks for the comments everyone! My goal is to make more useful, practical videos on language learning. Let me know any struggles you have, what you'd like to improve and what you'd like to see more of from this channel! Every suggestion helps :)
Hey, mate! I think we could easily have had an hours long conversation about languages, because we think alike here! My German comprehension improved immensely last year from watching content, reading and videogames. For one, because of the native input, but also because i was looking forward consuming the content, instead of procrastinating study material. Just finished Animal Farm in German after months of reading. Went from understanding very vaguely to most at the end. Audiobook and reading at the same time made it even more efficient and enjoyable. Except for Swedish, where I'm still a beginner, I do a combined approach of repeatedly listening new content without looking up or subtitles and i translate + repeat small texts with audio till i can mostly understand them. Was thinking of going through a new book by looking up all unknown words, but you just reminded me to simply enjoy the content instead and learn within context. Cheers! :')
@@questioneverything55 Simply having fun with the language worked for me. Whatever entertains you in another language, just bring it into German. Watching dubbed anime and Netflix shows improved my comprehension in a matter of months, mainly because I enjoyed what I saw, even if my comprehension was low. Same for books, I read Animal Farm because I've enjoyed it previously and I know the story. Even though it was a hard read, the enjoyment of story really helped. So just pick some TV show you like or other type of media with German dubs. Cheers!
To read books or texts I follow some strategies: 1. I try to read as fast as possible without using the dictionary. I call this "fast reading". I try to guess the meaning of unknown words from the context. I simply ignore whatever I don't understand. 2. I read the book again consulting the dictionary for every unknown word. By unknown word I mean any word whose meaning or pronunciation or inflection or conjugation I don't know or don't remember. This is the "slow reading". Even though it is much slower than the first reading, I don't read the entire book again, I only read the interesting or important parts of the book. So the second reading may actually be faster than the first reading.
I remember back in 2013 when i was 5, as a romanian when i started watching modded minecraft in english at first i was confused because english sounded like romanian. And because at that time i didnt know google translate existed, i didnt look words to translate. Yes i did confuse tanks with thanks but i quickly fixed the mistakes. And i wa surprised years later like 2-3y i speak better than new learners who require grammar videos on youtube. I wanna try same strategy with passive input but for spanish!
I recently watched a movie in Russian language. It was subtitled in English, but English is not my mother tongue. I only had time to read some of the texts. I have only studied Russian for a short time and only knew a small part of the words. However, I understood the movie very well and was able to enjoy it. Even though I didn't understand most of the words, I still understood what was being said. Weird!
Very good question! I'd say if you're wanting to real for entertainment/pleasure then you'll be more in the flow if you're able to keep reading without interruption. Without stopping to look up words. If you understand the jist of what you're reading but there's a few words you don't understand, just keep reading. This is because if you stop reading, pause, look up the word etc, this will add friction to the process of reading. It may feel more like 'a chore' or 'homework' rather than entertainment. If that makes sense. Alternatively, if you don't understand what you're reading at all, then it makes sense to look up the words because you couldn't progress without knowing what you're reading about. Hope that makes sense :)
I agree and disagree. The german words and phrases i know the best are ones ive never looked up. Like “du bist dicht“ or „was laberst du“ or „lass mich endlich in Ruhe mann“. I know those and a lot of other stuff as if it’s english, because i never looked them up and because of the emotional weight of the scenes i learned them from. But, on the other hand, i wouldn’t have had enough context to understand those phrases had i not looked up some words in the sentences before and after. So good principle, but in practice, i think it should be a mix, and you could get the same effect. For example, at first i only knew “fertig” because i looked it up, but now ive heard it so many times that i dont have to translate it to “finished” anymore, fertig is just fertig. Something that interesting that supports his point though is that there are no direct translations between languages. “Fertig” doesn’t mean exactly “fertig” and if you are leaning on translation, you’re less likely to pick up on the subtle differences between the words that seem to be equivalent on the surface. Learning words and phrases his way is ideal for getting that kind of nuance.
True! Depends how much exposure you think you'll have to the language. You need exposure to be able to hear new words and phrases enough times to understand what they mean. That comes as part of the journey of learning a new language though - you need lots of exposure :). Good points!
Hey, yes so "Italy made Easy" is a great podcast for people new to Italian. They speak slowly so it's easier to understand them. They're on Spotify and UA-cam :)
Good advice. What if you comprehend less than 10% of a language. Do you still recommend the input method or standard learning then more input after a minimal level of understanding?
@@LeeJCander If you're super early on, use subtitles in your native language so you understand what's going on but still don't look up words. More advanced - subtitles in target language, understand the jist of what's happening but you don't need to know every word. Main point: When you keep stopping and pausing the thing you're watching it gets tedious and annoying. You need to make it enjoyable rather than feeling "forced". Hope that helps!
That's cool - once you're able to say a few basic phrases, enough to have a simple conversation then look for a native speaker to practice with. You have two options with this; find a language exchange partner which is free (trading your time for their time) or you can pay for online lessons (it can be as little as $5 per hour though so it's not too expensive). I use Preply for this. It means you can build confidence and actually put to use what you've learnt. For Preply, you can use my referral link if you want to have 70% off your first lesson:preply.com/en/?pref=NDY3MzU2NQ==&id=1712666886.780919. No worries either way though, that's my advice! Good luck whatever option you choose :)
I look up words that prevent me from understanding the sentence. For example if I read the following sentence in German: Er schlag ihn. I have to look up the word schlag to understand what er did. I find that language learning is mostly common sense. Let your instincts tell you what to do. Complicated theories are usually what they seem to be. Namely nnonsense.
Exactly… often times I hear people saying not to look up words, not to learn grammar, and it’s like… why? If you’re someone who likes putting in absolutely zero intentional effort then fine, but those of us who hate hearing “estaba” and not knowing what it means, even though it’s clearly related to estar, would prefer to just look it up and learn quickly.
Again, if the language is from a different language system, exposure on it's on won't work, you need to make an effort to learn the vocab. Maybe the advice should rather be to look up the words the second time you watch the movie.
@@Reflekt0r True. I guess there are more specific scenarios or ways of watching content depending on what level you're at in the language. This video was more in general - for people who love to pause it every 10 seconds to look up a word but then forget what's actually happening :)
I think watching a video with the two methods - looking up words and not looking up words - is the most useful way to learn a language. First, watch a video right through without stopping it, with subs or without subs. Then watch the video to word-mine it, which increases your vocabulary. Watching right through helps you pick up expressions and grammar as well as good pronunciation and intonation; and looking up words helps you expand your vocabulary. You need both things to acquire a new language. I find listening without interruption to something I've studied previously is quite enjoyable and helps my subconscious mind absorb the language. Using one method exclusively - word-mining everything you watch, or alternatively, spending years watching videos you don't understand a word of - is counterproductive. Using a balanced approach is the best in my opinion.
Interesting ideas! Of course, you can have a mix of both - the idea is to try not to disrupt the flow of what you're watching. As you say if you watch it for the first time without stopping it but with subtitles, this is great as you don't know what to expect. It's exciting and you're in the zone because you haven't seen it before. You will have a lot of emotional investment into it for this reason. Then, if you'd like to watch it again but you already know what happens, this could be a good opportunity to allow yourself to look up a few words. Maybe limit yourself to commonly spoken words that you don't know as these will likely be most useful for you in real life. However I agree with your point, there's multiple ways to approach it :)
@@learnwithlingoers I agree with you that watching material uninterrupted is very important for learning. Watching the same material over and over again, without breaks, is also helpful. I think a balance of word-mining to free-flow listening of about 1 hour : 4 hours is helpful. I tend to do the free-flow listening during my sleep. I don't have enough time during the day, and besides, the language might be absorbed into the subconscious better this way. Funnily enough I don't get tired in the morning doing this.
Good video for generating discussion on language-learning. 😃
Spot on :). If there's any other topics or areas you'd like me to do a video on, let me know!@@engespress
@@learnwithlingoers Actually I change my mind, and I think you are 100% right. I have been doing word mining and now realize it's of zero help. Learning by just watching - WITHOUT WORD LOOK UP - is the best method. I plan to watch around 2,000 episodes of around 10 minutes each, using this method. I will keep rewatching this material until I understand most of it. Then I will see if I am closer to fluency or not.
Kids learn their native language this way, by watching TV and videos, and even though they don't understand a lot at the beginning, with time, they understand all of what they watch after a few years.
I'd love an update.
It works up until a certain point. I’m now learning more advanced words and it’s difficult to understand even with context sometimes. This is why I use Language Reactor. Makes it quick so I don’t waste much time.
So, from what I could understand from the video, we, the learners, should be learning like "living in the moment while learning a new meaning with the new words we encounter, and incorporate them as much as we interpret what really means upon context".
I don't know if I am not mistaken with this, but, in my own words, this is what I get.
Exactly. That's spot on :)
Great advice. I haven't looked up a word in months and my Spanish is always improving!
Thanks for the feedback - good to hear about your Spanish :)
thanks a lot for very useful information.
There's something that I have been speculating about for a long time. Your video is so underrated because you present this idea so elegantly.
@@seayellow5834 Thanks! Really appreciate the feedback. Glad you agree :)
Good stuff James! I'm learning Chinese (not only from) youtube videos and it's frustrating when a 10min video takes you over 30mins to finish because I'm constantly pausing it to look up words.
That's it. It can become annoying having to pause the video as it takes much longer to finish it. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your Chinese!
im doing the same in japanese but i think taking your time is actually very rewarding (so far at least) . theres no point in trying to rushing through learning.
There needs to be a balance between accuracy and fluency.
Paldies, great content. I am learning Latvian. Watching the cultural music on UA-cam has been a powerful tool! Especially the "Latvian Song Festival", at times making me weep. Latvian history and culture is deeply moving, having survived a myriad of occupations, war, genocide.......... Hence the emotional aspect as I recently learned my infant father and grandparents escaped Stalin's "Red Terror". Many family members were sent to Gulags.
@@tracywright6908 Nice, glad you enjoyed it :)
I agree with u!!! Even tho i do, I've been contemplating that whether it is effective to increase vocabulary or not. I'm a Japanese who have been learning English. I'll continue watching UA-cam videos without subtitles and not looking up!!
Thank u for making this great video🎉
Glad you find it useful! No worries :)
Thanks for the comments everyone! My goal is to make more useful, practical videos on language learning. Let me know any struggles you have, what you'd like to improve and what you'd like to see more of from this channel! Every suggestion helps :)
Hey, mate! I think we could easily have had an hours long conversation about languages, because we think alike here!
My German comprehension improved immensely last year from watching content, reading and videogames. For one, because of the native input, but also because i was looking forward consuming the content, instead of procrastinating study material.
Just finished Animal Farm in German after months of reading. Went from understanding very vaguely to most at the end. Audiobook and reading at the same time made it even more efficient and enjoyable.
Except for Swedish, where I'm still a beginner, I do a combined approach of repeatedly listening new content without looking up or subtitles and i translate + repeat small texts with audio till i can mostly understand them.
Was thinking of going through a new book by looking up all unknown words, but you just reminded me to simply enjoy the content instead and learn within context. Cheers! :')
Great to hear you found the video useful and you're learning German. Good luck with it :)
I am just starting German (I am in my early 60s) What do you recommend watching? I want to be able to read Thomas Mann and other great German authors.
@@questioneverything55 Simply having fun with the language worked for me. Whatever entertains you in another language, just bring it into German. Watching dubbed anime and Netflix shows improved my comprehension in a matter of months, mainly because I enjoyed what I saw, even if my comprehension was low. Same for books, I read Animal Farm because I've enjoyed it previously and I know the story. Even though it was a hard read, the enjoyment of story really helped. So just pick some TV show you like or other type of media with German dubs. Cheers!
To read books or texts I follow some strategies:
1. I try to read as fast as possible without using the dictionary. I call this "fast reading". I try to guess the meaning of unknown words from the context. I simply ignore whatever I don't understand.
2. I read the book again consulting the dictionary for every unknown word. By unknown word I mean any word whose meaning or pronunciation or inflection or conjugation I don't know or don't remember. This is the "slow reading". Even though it is much slower than the first reading, I don't read the entire book again, I only read the interesting or important parts of the book. So the second reading may actually be faster than the first reading.
I remember back in 2013 when i was 5, as a romanian when i started watching modded minecraft in english at first i was confused because english sounded like romanian. And because at that time i didnt know google translate existed, i didnt look words to translate. Yes i did confuse tanks with thanks but i quickly fixed the mistakes. And i wa surprised years later like 2-3y i speak better than new learners who require grammar videos on youtube. I wanna try same strategy with passive input but for spanish!
@@LuigiCotocea Thanks for sharing!
@@learnwithlingoers Your welcome!
Thanks
No problem. Glad you liked it :)
If there's any other topics you feel you'd like me to cover, please let me know! Thanks
I recently watched a movie in Russian language. It was subtitled in English, but English is not my mother tongue. I only had time to read some of the texts. I have only studied Russian for a short time and only knew a small part of the words.
However, I understood the movie very well and was able to enjoy it. Even though I didn't understand most of the words, I still understood what was being said. Weird!
Ah interesting - thanks for sharing!
Is this the same advice for reading as well?
Very good question! I'd say if you're wanting to real for entertainment/pleasure then you'll be more in the flow if you're able to keep reading without interruption. Without stopping to look up words. If you understand the jist of what you're reading but there's a few words you don't understand, just keep reading. This is because if you stop reading, pause, look up the word etc, this will add friction to the process of reading. It may feel more like 'a chore' or 'homework' rather than entertainment. If that makes sense. Alternatively, if you don't understand what you're reading at all, then it makes sense to look up the words because you couldn't progress without knowing what you're reading about. Hope that makes sense :)
I agree and disagree. The german words and phrases i know the best are ones ive never looked up. Like “du bist dicht“ or „was laberst du“ or „lass mich endlich in Ruhe mann“. I know those and a lot of other stuff as if it’s english, because i never looked them up and because of the emotional weight of the scenes i learned them from. But, on the other hand, i wouldn’t have had enough context to understand those phrases had i not looked up some words in the sentences before and after. So good principle, but in practice, i think it should be a mix, and you could get the same effect. For example, at first i only knew “fertig” because i looked it up, but now ive heard it so many times that i dont have to translate it to “finished” anymore, fertig is just fertig. Something that interesting that supports his point though is that there are no direct translations between languages. “Fertig” doesn’t mean exactly “fertig” and if you are leaning on translation, you’re less likely to pick up on the subtle differences between the words that seem to be equivalent on the surface. Learning words and phrases his way is ideal for getting that kind of nuance.
True! Depends how much exposure you think you'll have to the language. You need exposure to be able to hear new words and phrases enough times to understand what they mean. That comes as part of the journey of learning a new language though - you need lots of exposure :). Good points!
I am currently learning Italian ,well trying because I just can’t find the right resources and structure any suggestions
Hey, yes so "Italy made Easy" is a great podcast for people new to Italian. They speak slowly so it's easier to understand them. They're on Spotify and UA-cam :)
@@learnwithlingoers much appreciated, thanks for that.
Good advice. What if you comprehend less than 10% of a language. Do you still recommend the input method or standard learning then more input after a minimal level of understanding?
@@LeeJCander If you're super early on, use subtitles in your native language so you understand what's going on but still don't look up words.
More advanced - subtitles in target language, understand the jist of what's happening but you don't need to know every word.
Main point: When you keep stopping and pausing the thing you're watching it gets tedious and annoying. You need to make it enjoyable rather than feeling "forced".
Hope that helps!
@@learnwithlingoers thanks man!
I liked your content 👍
Thanks!
I'm going through the Spanish LanguageTransfer course. What would you recommend I do after finishing that?
That's cool - once you're able to say a few basic phrases, enough to have a simple conversation then look for a native speaker to practice with. You have two options with this; find a language exchange partner which is free (trading your time for their time) or you can pay for online lessons (it can be as little as $5 per hour though so it's not too expensive). I use Preply for this. It means you can build confidence and actually put to use what you've learnt. For Preply, you can use my referral link if you want to have 70% off your first lesson:preply.com/en/?pref=NDY3MzU2NQ==&id=1712666886.780919. No worries either way though, that's my advice! Good luck whatever option you choose :)
I look up words that prevent me from understanding the sentence. For example if I read the following sentence in German: Er schlag ihn. I have to look up the word schlag to understand what er did. I find that language learning is mostly common sense. Let your instincts tell you what to do. Complicated theories are usually what they seem to be. Namely nnonsense.
Exactly… often times I hear people saying not to look up words, not to learn grammar, and it’s like… why? If you’re someone who likes putting in absolutely zero intentional effort then fine, but those of us who hate hearing “estaba” and not knowing what it means, even though it’s clearly related to estar, would prefer to just look it up and learn quickly.
this japanese learning shit is making me more fluent in english because all i watch is how to acquire language in english. smh
haha fair enough!
Autor: "don't look up words"
Me: "What's 'look up' translate is..."
Again, if the language is from a different language system, exposure on it's on won't work, you need to make an effort to learn the vocab. Maybe the advice should rather be to look up the words the second time you watch the movie.
@@Reflekt0r True. I guess there are more specific scenarios or ways of watching content depending on what level you're at in the language. This video was more in general - for people who love to pause it every 10 seconds to look up a word but then forget what's actually happening :)
Chispas...Pensé que eras alemán
Haha, nah. Soy ingles de Manchester :)
@@learnwithlingoers Glad to meet your channel