I was 21 too when I started learning my first foreign language seriously after doing badly at French at school and dropping it at the first opportunity, I am now trilingual and starting my 4th language. The difference for me at 21 was having a really big reason for learning Spanish, I met a Mexican girl and started learning her language to prove I loved her and we got married a few years later...now I find it amazing watching my children growing up bilingual and being really proud of them.
Congratulations! I think a lot of what Benny says is true: Know there's commonality between languages, or tricks to learn, and speak. I met people on Skype and that worked for me. I now take lessons online. I plan for my children to speak several languages. When I was in school I was told, "Why do you want to learn a foreign language? The whole world speaks English. You already speak English."
I moved to France on a whim with my girlfriend (now my wife), speaking no French. Now, after 6 years, I speak great French (I think) and learnt exactly the way Benny Lewis talks about. I got a break working in a bar and spent a lot of time nodding and smiling and spending 10 minutes explaining basic concepts. Don't worry, go for it, learning a foreign language is fantastic!
Benny never said he's against grammar. He even said it point blank. As a beginner, your job should be to pick up common vocab and set phrases, and once you get used to using those in conversation, you'll have a good enough command to use them creatively at will. From there, you can start studying grammar, but always make speaking/listening the priority. Remember, your main goal in attaining fluency is getting used to speaking the language, not memorizing its rules. Even if you understand the rules, it doesn't mean you'll be able to speak it. A key component in language learning that, for the most part, gets ignored entirely is muscle memory. It doesn't matter how well you understand grammatical concepts in your target language. If you don't speak them, then you can't use them. Your ears and your mouth still have to get used to hearing and speaking the language, and coordinate that with what you already know in your head: the mental representation of the world around you. That's something we all have and language is only the tool we use to express it. Impressing people with what we learned is always fun, but communication comes first. Reading and writing can always come later. Most native speakers don't understand half of those grammatical concepts anyway; they just know what sounds right from what doesn't and know how to get their mouth to communicate their ideas readily. That's all fluency is and that's the goal that should be aimed for. Just look at the amount of illiterate people with limited vocab that are still native speakers of a language. Sure, they might be stigmatized as being uneducated or stupid, but you can't say that they don't know their language or that they can't be understood. Not saying that you should aim that low, but you got to start somewhere. Besides, it's better to speak the language from day one and make mistakes as a beginner, rather than study the grammar for a month and still not be able to speak simple phrases well by the end of it due to lack of practice. The more often you speak, the easier it will become to iron out those mistakes and lessen their occurence. That's how we learn as humans: through practice and experience. Not by studying rules that are irrelevant to where you are in actual speaking ability of your L2.
@@christianneabella1340 this is the kind of message I like to see. Everybody learns differently. However what one person suggests to you may just in fact work for you. It just really depends on the individual I think. I'd say probably what's best is to just try multiple methods of study and try and find out what's most effective for you. Although as a disclaimer I'm not fluent in anything but my native English so what I say isn't coming from any major experience.
Totally agree with you! I wasted so much time learning English and even got high score in test, but when the first time I stood at the airport where it was broadcasting English, I could not understand a word! What a shame!
I have been wanting to speak Spanish for years now, I was also really bad at Irish and French in school and have a bad memory, you have really inspired me to go and learn now! thank you so much for you video!
I went from beginner to intermediate B1 level in French in 33 days . I've been studying 1 to 2 hours a day . I'm on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rose-fernandez-953a6b1a9
Makes a lot of sense. When you observe a baby/toddler trying out language they go through the same process without any fear of being incorrect. They just make the sounds and eventually it works out :)
God bless you, Benny Lewis! I'm an extremely exasperated ESL teacher in Germany, and it's a constant struggle to get my corporate clients to understand the true science of language acquisition and the futility of studying grammar, as opposed to focusing on speech. Thank you so much for your insight-it's exactly what I've been telling students for year. Now, if I could only get them to listen...
Wow! These are great practical tips. I have always feared talking the second language to native speakers, but when you said embrace speaking and aim to make at least 100 mistakes a day, that opened my eyes. Thanks Benny!
Your presentation was great, Benny. Very well said. I hope a lot of potential language learners will be encouraged by your video and take the next step: opening their mouths and just speaking.
its so true about people being scared to speak through fear of making a mistake and looking stupid...people may laugh but admire you for having a go. having spent a lot of time in argentina where very few people spoke english i have witnessed this from both perspectives. whats the worst that can happen? just have a go!!!!
I'm an au pair in Germany and I'm taking my 2nd language course right now (though it's not the only practice I'm getting, I speak it the whole time with the kids too). Last week I went for ice-cream with some classmates and we were talking our imperfect German together. The owner overheard and asked where we were from (Ireland, France, USA, Poland and the Czech Republic) and like you say, she was pleased and encouraging and also said to just keep talking it, and not to mind the mistakes :)
when you gotta learn it, you will learn it. For example; when I travelled in India I visit a place there, a building. I forgot where, either in Delhi or Jaipur, anyway. The Indian tour guide showing tourist around, have not left that country of India. BUT these young Indians guides spoke either French, German or Dutch for the tourist. I asked how them how did they manage to learn the language, because naively, I thought it would have been difficult for an Indian speaking person having ever only seen India to speak another language... they said they did schooling, setting themselves homework and then having the confidence to speak it out aloud there self-taught skill. Very impressed I was indeed.
its from Juanes (Colombia)... it's a song. "tengo la camisa negra, porque negra tengo el alma, yo por ti pierdo la calma y casi pierdo hasta mi cama.. tu ru tu ru"
I'd like to thank you for one of the best language talks I've seen. I failed to get past beginner Spanish for 20 years then dated a Spanish speaker for 2 years. In those 2 years I've watched TV and read novels in Spanish but was also able to ask questions and try sentences. One place I'd disagree is in Italy I was insulted by a shop keeper for butchering his language. Maybe he was just one bad egg. A waiter in the same city had a go at me for eating pasta 'wrong' So maybe I just don't get along with venicians! Now I'm thinking in Spanish every night and have started to learn Italian using Spanish as my base rather than English. Sometimes I'll realise I don't know the Spanish as well as I'd thought so I'm learning both. It's a wonderful journey I'd recommend to anyone and I have a terrible memory too!
Benny muy inspirador tu discurso sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas... No hay nada mas bonito que aprender un idioma.. Realmente eres un ejemplo a seguir para mucha gente... Saludos desde Venezuela....
I just watched this video and i totally finished it! the way you speech and the words coming out of your mouth giving me chills, i am motivated and i really learn some tips from you to learn my new language THANK YOU A BIG THUMBS UP!
Not yet. I'll announce it on my email list when they notify me, don't worry! It's taking longer than expected for some reason. Should be up within the next week or two.
Guess what everyone - I just gave a brand new talk!! It's way better than this one. Can't wait to show you (will take a few weeks before it's in TEDx stream - subscribe to the email list on my blog to get notification)
I am in the process of learning German and I tried the trick of telling all my friends I am doing it. I can't quit now! :D Meine Deutsch ist etwas schlecht aber es ist spaß noch zu lernen!
I really appreciate this mate. Your passion and enthusiasm for language is very evident in this video. The stuff you touch on is incredible important for a lot of learning in general really. Language is one of those skills that can be difficult to maintain motivation for as the results of your hard work can be quite intangible at times. It can feel like your putting all this effort in and going nowhere; a truly sisyphean task. That's were all those excuses you were talking about come into play; you give yourself all the reasons in the world as to why you are not capable of learning a language: I'm too old, I just don't have the brain for it, my memory is not good enough, I don't have the time/money, etc. You have to realise that all these things are just reasons to justify giving up, and that if you give way to these thoughts you will never be able to achieve ANYTHING truly difficult in your life. You have to accept that the process of learning and development is filled with failures, wrong turns, and dead-ends. That to fail is to learn! Too many people see them as separate, and even more detrimentally, that failure is a sign of inablilty or poor methodology. The reality is that failing is learning; they are synonymous. At the end of the day you have to have faith in the incredible machinery of the human brain, even when it seems as if progress is halting or stunted. You have to have the composure to understand that your brain is making the pathways and connections that will open up new degrees of comprehension in the future. I think you show a great understanding of that principle when you implore people to, just start speaking. I couldn't agree more mate, just give your brain the information in needs, and the context to compartmentalise it, and just enjoy the process of allowing the brain to do what millions of years of evolution have wrought it best at, learning.
Great talk, Benny. I am a believer that concepts here can be applied more generally in other areas of learning: don't just study the theory, but also interact with it or try it.
FANTASTIC speech, so full of wisdom and actual understanding about what languages are all about! They are a tool! the hell it matters if you are not brilliant at using it in the way the book says you should, if you get the job done, which is communicating yourself and understanding what others are saying to you! A very inspirating talk indeed. Thank you Benny Lewis. pd: you absolutely catched it when you say that people don't get frustrated when you "butcher" their language, but rather feel surprised and happy to see you trying to learn. In many cases, it even gains you instant respect from other people when they see you are trying to learn their language.
Excellent presentation Benny. I realised today that I am might be a language hacker as well, came home and googled it to see if there were any others in the world to find the first 3 search pages about yourself !!! I might be more of a Grammar hacker though... About forgetting peoples names, I have heard it said that the reason we forget is because when we are getting introduced to someone, we are listening to how they pronounce our name. For example: Benny, this is Mike. Your not listening to the word Mike, your listening to how your friend pronounced the word Benny. Also, I have found that you are 100% correct. We have to be brave in order to be fluent, and that takes time. A quote by Charlie Chaplin is "It takes courage to make a fool of yourself". i would say it takes the most courage.... For me, Language teaching is 95% psychology. I Enjoyed your talk, not many Cavan men have given TED talks yet, and that´s comming from a Monaghan man. Take Care. Mick.
+Benny Lewis This video really helped me. I'm learning Japanese, and I agree with you on so many levels. We even share some similar words like computer. I got an app, and jumped right into talking with native japanese speakers. In return, I would talk to them in english. My skill has increased a ton. Thanks so much for the inspiration.
I think its important to note that he mostly likely wouldn't have made such rapid progress had he not heard Spanish daily for 6 months, he already had a strong 'repertoire' in the language but a block in oral expression (probably out of fear).
If you want to make your child a polygrot, start early. More the brain is plastic, more quickely you pick not just the foreign language but anything. When you are a grown up, you can still learn new skills. Total Immersion.
I'm a Dutch speaking Belgian, studied English, French and German in school and taught myself Spanish. I love what you said about grammar, I use it in the exact same way. When you're at a level you can communicate and express yourself and then start learning the grammar, it feels like you're glueing all of the pieces together. Suddenly, it all starts to make sense, I love that feeling. -- Knap wat je op je eentje bereikt hebt, erg inspirerend. :)
Thank you so much. I have taken Chinese and ran into difficulties, mainly because I did not use it because I felt I did not know enough. I am now learning German and I feel very inspired from all the points you made. You rock!
i have a feeling he may have a degree of dyslexia based on being highly visually associative, having problems remembering names, and having problems learning his mother tongue. what a creative, dynamic individual and great advice. all the ted talks on learning a language emphasize the necessity of not fearing mistakes in the beginning, and this is so true. this talk brought out the power of using association, which i use and teach my students, and the fact that many will encourage you if you are learning a non-English language. unfortunately, in the US there are many who are impatient with English Language Learners. but don't let them stop you.
I’m reading his book and before then I thought he was serious about being fluent in a language within 3 months just based on the book title but now I realize his method is to get you speaking the language and consistently studying the language within just 3 months no matter what; he also doesn’t believe general fluency exists and simply wants you to speak in your target language with other people no matter the flaws in your grammar or vocabulary. On chapter 2 and I’m really enjoying his book
Great speech. I like the whole premise of just do it no matter if it's wrong. Reminds of a quote - "if you keep getting up every time you fall, you become unstoppable". Back to learning/speaking Japanese :-)
Wonderfully put, The key phrase i keep seeing is "MAKE MISTAKES" iv done it myself and yep if you screw up it doesn't matter. Iv said "your welcome", when i meant to say some thing completely different. But they laugh and then are so pleased to correct you. Iv done this myself from the other way round.
I started learning Japanese before few months ago (end of age 16) it also feels a bit old actually xD But it's never too late to learn a new language and encounter a new culture, it is always there for you and the right time is when you start learning it because you want to
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've just been to your website and I had been thinking about a lot of the things you talk about (the excuses) even tough I loved learning French and English before and I let it go. And I'm now learning German and I was feeling so demotivated because I keep thinking how hard it is. Thank you.
What I find helps is to look at everything in english and think "how can I say that in said language?" At first it wont be as usefull at first but as your vocabulary grows translating what you see solidifies it.
One of my tricks is listening to music of other country and try to sing them, than I learn the meaning of the words. I just repeat it and like that I know sentences, words pronunciation!! I watch the news in different language, and try to understand what they are talking about :D
When I was 6 years old and moved to Syria, I didn't know a single word in Arabic. I was told I would be homeschooled for one year, but it only took me three months to be able to go to grade two with the Arabic I was able to speak at the time. The only reason why I made such fast progress was all due to the fact that I had the best teacher to teach me. Even the smallest things you do can change someone's life forever. I encourage you all to try your best and learn any language you find you will benefit from. Work hard because it will pay off. Good luck to all!!!
I speak 3 languages at C2. German, English and Vietnamese. Currently trying to learn my forth language which is french. Trying to get fluent there, too.
Your memory is good. Using an association like you did is an example of a memory trick. Most people who have "good memories" use tricks like this automatically. It's not that we don't have good memories, it's that we don't pay attention in the first place. I improved my memory somewhat by reading "The Memory Book" by Harry Loryayne (sp?). It's a lot like the excuses we use not to learn a language.
The whole world will end when you try to speak another language. That's exactly what I feel every time I try to speak English in front of local people even though I just go to Starbucks and order some drink. I'm Chinese and I've moved to the us for 1 year. I'm currently in high school. I gotta do a bunch of presentations in front of the whole class, a class full of local English speakers. I just feel so stressed before presenting and I'm horribly exhausted after finishing them. I don't have friends here. I've been suffering self-abasement since I was really young, this feeling is just getting worse after I came here. I really can understand what u said in ur speech because that's what I'm struggling and what I feel right now. I started to talk to less people and talk less since I'm so afraid as soon as I speak English, people will look me weird, which I have experienced a lot. I kinda know people look me weird is not because of accent, but my nervous looking which may look really dump. I tried to get over it, but it was just something out of my control. I care of what others think of me, I DONT want them consider me as a nerdy dump girl who looks so oddly nervous when talking. I watched ur video today, it's just so inspirational to me. I don't really know how do I start to talk with others, but I'll try. THANKS❤️
Sunny Qi Hey! If you ever need any help with English message me. I have been learning Chinese for about a year now so I am always looking for language partners
I feel your pain. I am just starting to learn Chinese and with so many words that sound the same that are spelled differently but have different characters it is definitely going to be a challenge. I hope to be able to learn the language well enough that I will be able to read a menu in a Chinese restaurant. You have inspired me to try not to let other people's opinion of my feeble attempts at speaking to stop me from trying. I hope you have made a lot of progress learning English. Welcome to the U.S.A. We need more smart people. Cheers!
Good thing you found this video to show you that English speakers have no problem with foreign accents. I mean, there are some who do, but they are such bad people that you should feel happy not to be friends with them.
Sunny Qi: Part of the issue is that you are in high school. That is a hard place to be and be different. High school kids are tough on each other to begin with so being different is really hard. Just remember, a couple of years out of high school and you won't even know where those kids are. In the grand scheme of things high school society is irrelevant. Keep going and maybe try to have lots of interactions with older English speakers.
Hi This is Pankaj Joshi From India... I too Believe in your way of Learning a new Language... i too follow many points you brought out in learning new Language... Thanks a lot Benny Lewis keep inspiring us All...
wow! I think this vid help me the most! I use to stutter when I spoke english and spanish(since I grewup hearing so many different accents on both), so my fam was very hard on me to get it right, I just became quiet. So now that I'm I frade of speaking the little french I know, I'm probably being harder on my self. Especialy because I gave up on german before, when I was 17...and now I'm french @ 26! But the motivition is there, though drifferent than yours. Thanks for the tips and motivation!
+la Ténia Look, it all depends on the language, I spoke french as my second mother tongue (my first one being german) and I had a pretty good level in english. Now, I became almost fluent in italian in only 4 weeks, and it was not even in Italy! The thing is, like Benny said, if you learn a european language, you often already have tens of thousands of words in your language that are so similar to words in the language you're learning. Since french and italian are two latin languages, this is even more extreme, I'd say that easily 80% of the words of both of those languages at least sound somewhat the similar. On the other hand, I would have big troubles learning some asian language in 3 month, since they have almost nothing in common with european languages, but I'm not saying it's impossible.
Often when I try to speak another language the person recognises that I'm an English speaker and switches to English. It would then be incredibly embarrassing for me to persist with speaking the foreign language when their English is so good and my foreign language skills are comparatively bad.
Perhaps you can explain that you're trying to learn their language and would appreciate if they would use their language. Or perhaps you can pretend you don't speak english (even if your accent betrays that) so their language is the only one you can communicate in. Worst case scenario, you find someone else instead. I'm intending this to be just suggestions on ways that you can get around the problem. I understand your frustration, 'cause I deal with it myself, and it /is/ intimidating to be faced with that issue.
Aubrey Lavigne Your only fail safe suggestion is to pretend that you don't speak English. The other suggestions, and all the alternatives I can think of, are likely to fail or just make people angry. For example, in Belgium, I was trying to improve my French, which was already pretty good, especially when speaking (although my dialect is from Louisiana and little-known in Europe), but almost *everyone* responded to me in English, even deep within Wallonie (French-only region). So, sure, I could ask them to continue in French or something, but often I was speaking to people in business settings (store clerks, workers at the train station, bartenders, etc.) where holding up the worker plus everyone waiting behind me just so I could continue to practice my French was not really practical unless I wanted to annoy everyone, because the exchange would be over in English within a fraction of the time. It was also not possible to go find someone else to speak with in these situations. That's not to say that this method is bad, or that it doesn't work, or that a lot of these things aren't just excuses, but sometimes native English speakers really are at a big disadvantage when it comes to attempting immersion learning.
Tom Stephenson Drop the rhotic "R" and the "L" and maybe try making your "V"s less noticeable (except when it's necessary in the language, of course)? These are some of the things I've heard a lot of people doing when they speak another language and it's incredibly obvious that they're English speakers. Good luck :)
For a 17 minute video it would be very time consuming, but if you are willing to volunteer, I promise I'll upload it! You should use a service like captiontube to time it to create a captions file I can use. Unfortunately, just a translation of what I say is not something that I can use. So this would mean you'd have to 1. transcribe it in English, 2. translate it to Arabic and 3. Time the captions and create a properly formed captions file. It's a lot of work! If you do it, let me know!
Haha, just busting your chops man. Really though, i completely agree with your methods. Though I got straight A's in French and Spanish in school, i always felt disappointed that i wasn't as fluent as i'd hoped to be. But i got a lot more confident by having conversations and making mistakes and learning from them. With regard to your point about people getting annoyed, I think it varies from language to language and culture to culture. Congratulations on traveler of the year!
So right Lewis. I'm just associating a lot from what you say. I speak 5 languages and I am also bad in remembering names. I believe too every one can learn any language.
I have a very similar experience with learning English. When I was at a beginner to intermediate level I stated playing a lot of competitive game online. I played counterstrike which is a competitive 5 vs 5 team game. After hooking up with a few brits and swedes we formed a team and played together. I got a lot of speaking practice out of it under the umbrella of anonymity. As somebody pointed out in the comments this technique is harder to use for introverts. But if you are playing online with a made up identity that doesnt come into play nearly as much. Apparently your brain also switches to different personalities when you speak in a different languages. So you might be less or more introverted in a different language. That's also something to keep in mind.
Great speech! Sometimes starting with reading books can help a lot. I'm now reading Harry Potter in spanish and because I've read the books in dutch and english a thousand times it's pretty easy to figure out what everything means.
***** Well, I would encourage anyone to read Harry Potter a thousand times:) But no, I was just commenting about my own experience. But since you apparently find this important enough to comment on it, so feel free to give me a certificate for it.
Bravo. I enjoyed your talk. I am learning Spanish the way I learned English. By watching TV. Among other things. You've encouraged me to keep going. Keep talking about yourself. No one will believe you if you talk about someone else's experience,
Ciao, sono Americana e sto imparando il Italiano! La mia prima lingua é il Spagnolo. I’ve been studying for about 2 weeks and I started off immediately by listening and reading out loud (despite not knowing what I was reading). I’m excited to reach fluency! I’m 21 years old and would like to know between 4 or 5 languages.
Mi recomendación para aprender un idioma es, hablar con nativos, tener cerca los libros de gramática para consultas e imitarles. No pensar en las palabras si no en los sonidos. Preguntar y copiar tratando de exagerar al máximo la pronunciación, los sonidos. Las palabras y la gramática para después. Imitar, copiar, sin vergüenza. Nunca lograremos sonar como un español o inglés nativo, así que cuanto más imitemos más rápido llegaremos a ser una imitación perfecta, hasta que se vuelve natural. Y de vez en cuando gramática, un libro, para no quedarnos en lenguaje de calle.
I moved to italy a month ago,I normally speak broken italian and am not scared of making a mistake.so far so good...... I just find myself speaking, I havent gone to school and not planning to...its happening naturally.people actually enjoy listening my broken italian
Can you please share your exact daily method to do it? Like, i will try to speak the words first, or go directly to speak the daily greeting, or ask instructor to give me homework or... Because what i get from your videos is you try to speak, but i think it will be helpful if you tell us your daily activities regarding how to learn a language so fast
I was 21 too when I started learning my first foreign language seriously after doing badly at French at school and dropping it at the first opportunity, I am now trilingual and starting my 4th language.
The difference for me at 21 was having a really big reason for learning Spanish, I met a Mexican girl and started learning her language to prove I loved her and we got married a few years later...now I find it amazing watching my children growing up bilingual and being really proud of them.
God damnit I have the same motivation for learning Spanish...and I'm 21
that's such a cute story!! thanks for sharing! I want to learn different languages too I'm already bilingual, I just need to put the effort
I married a Brazilian girl but after 15 years its only now that im starting to learn the language. You got to be ready for ylurself.
maybe try helping her learn some of the languages you're good on, and doing so in full view of your children
Congratulations! I think a lot of what Benny says is true: Know there's commonality between languages, or tricks to learn, and speak. I met people on Skype and that worked for me. I now take lessons online. I plan for my children to speak several languages. When I was in school I was told, "Why do you want to learn a foreign language? The whole world speaks English. You already speak English."
I moved to France on a whim with my girlfriend (now my wife), speaking no French. Now, after 6 years, I speak great French (I think) and learnt exactly the way Benny Lewis talks about. I got a break working in a bar and spent a lot of time nodding and smiling and spending 10 minutes explaining basic concepts. Don't worry, go for it, learning a foreign language is fantastic!
6 years it's to much time.
Benny never said he's against grammar. He even said it point blank. As a beginner, your job should be to pick up common vocab and set phrases, and once you get used to using those in conversation, you'll have a good enough command to use them creatively at will. From there, you can start studying grammar, but always make speaking/listening the priority. Remember, your main goal in attaining fluency is getting used to speaking the language, not memorizing its rules. Even if you understand the rules, it doesn't mean you'll be able to speak it. A key component in language learning that, for the most part, gets ignored entirely is muscle memory. It doesn't matter how well you understand grammatical concepts in your target language. If you don't speak them, then you can't use them. Your ears and your mouth still have to get used to hearing and speaking the language, and coordinate that with what you already know in your head: the mental representation of the world around you. That's something we all have and language is only the tool we use to express it. Impressing people with what we learned is always fun, but communication comes first. Reading and writing can always come later.
Most native speakers don't understand half of those grammatical concepts anyway; they just know what sounds right from what doesn't and know how to get their mouth to communicate their ideas readily. That's all fluency is and that's the goal that should be aimed for. Just look at the amount of illiterate people with limited vocab that are still native speakers of a language. Sure, they might be stigmatized as being uneducated or stupid, but you can't say that they don't know their language or that they can't be understood. Not saying that you should aim that low, but you got to start somewhere. Besides, it's better to speak the language from day one and make mistakes as a beginner, rather than study the grammar for a month and still not be able to speak simple phrases well by the end of it due to lack of practice. The more often you speak, the easier it will become to iron out those mistakes and lessen their occurence. That's how we learn as humans: through practice and experience. Not by studying rules that are irrelevant to where you are in actual speaking ability of your L2.
Wonderfully put!! Thank you!! I’m trying to learn Spanish now and I needed this reminder.
@@christianneabella1340 this is the kind of message I like to see. Everybody learns differently. However what one person suggests to you may just in fact work for you. It just really depends on the individual I think. I'd say probably what's best is to just try multiple methods of study and try and find out what's most effective for you. Although as a disclaimer I'm not fluent in anything but my native English so what I say isn't coming from any major experience.
Really impressive!
How to get past the intermediate pleateau in English?
your comment is so underrated, seriously man, thank you
Totally agree with you! I wasted so much time learning English and even got high score in test, but when the first time I stood at the airport where it was broadcasting English, I could not understand a word! What a shame!
I have been wanting to speak Spanish for years now, I was also really bad at Irish and French in school and have a bad memory, you have really inspired me to go and learn now! thank you so much for you video!
Con bastante práctica vas a poder. Te recomiendo hacerte amigos que hablen castellano. Un beso.
I went from beginner to intermediate B1 level in French in 33 days . I've been studying 1 to 2 hours a day . I'm on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rose-fernandez-953a6b1a9
Makes a lot of sense. When you observe a baby/toddler trying out language they go through the same process without any fear of being incorrect. They just make the sounds and eventually it works out :)
God bless you, Benny Lewis! I'm an extremely exasperated ESL teacher in Germany, and it's a constant struggle to get my corporate clients to understand the true science of language acquisition and the futility of studying grammar, as opposed to focusing on speech. Thank you so much for your insight-it's exactly what I've been telling students for year. Now, if I could only get them to listen...
Wow! These are great practical tips. I have always feared talking the second language to native speakers, but when you said embrace speaking and aim to make at least 100 mistakes a day, that opened my eyes. Thanks Benny!
Your presentation was great, Benny. Very well said. I hope a lot of potential language learners will be encouraged by your video and take the next step: opening their mouths and just speaking.
its so true about people being scared to speak through fear of making a mistake and looking stupid...people may laugh but admire you for having a go. having spent a lot of time in argentina where very few people spoke english i have witnessed this from both perspectives. whats the worst that can happen? just have a go!!!!
I'm an au pair in Germany and I'm taking my 2nd language course right now (though it's not the only practice I'm getting, I speak it the whole time with the kids too). Last week I went for ice-cream with some classmates and we were talking our imperfect German together. The owner overheard and asked where we were from (Ireland, France, USA, Poland and the Czech Republic) and like you say, she was pleased and encouraging and also said to just keep talking it, and not to mind the mistakes :)
From all the youtuber polyglots, you're the best!!! Thank you so much for all the help you provide us. That's gold! :)
when you gotta learn it, you will learn it. For example; when I travelled in India I visit a place there, a building. I forgot where, either in Delhi or Jaipur, anyway.
The Indian tour guide showing tourist around, have not left that country of India. BUT these young Indians guides spoke either French, German or Dutch for the tourist. I asked how them how did they manage to learn the language, because naively, I thought it would have been difficult for an Indian speaking person having ever only seen India to speak another language... they said they did schooling, setting themselves homework and then having the confidence to speak it out aloud there self-taught skill. Very impressed I was indeed.
the Sun and the Earth u
the Sun and the Earth uuuuyuuu bypby
"I have a black shirt'' XD I couldn't get over that
+ZCM0303 Lol! It's actually a really famous song reference
+Candela Luna Juanes!
its from Juanes (Colombia)... it's a song.
"tengo la camisa negra, porque negra tengo el alma, yo por ti pierdo la calma y casi pierdo hasta mi cama.. tu ru tu ru"
I have the** black shirt
That song was hugely popular in Kazakhstan when it came out. But Americans don't know it.
I'd like to thank you for one of the best language talks I've seen. I failed to get past beginner Spanish for 20 years then dated a Spanish speaker for 2 years. In those 2 years I've watched TV and read novels in Spanish but was also able to ask questions and try sentences. One place I'd disagree is in Italy I was insulted by a shop keeper for butchering his language. Maybe he was just one bad egg. A waiter in the same city had a go at me for eating pasta 'wrong' So maybe I just don't get along with venicians! Now I'm thinking in Spanish every night and have started to learn Italian using Spanish as my base rather than English. Sometimes I'll realise I don't know the Spanish as well as I'd thought so I'm learning both. It's a wonderful journey I'd recommend to anyone and I have a terrible memory too!
Benny muy inspirador tu discurso sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas... No hay nada mas bonito que aprender un idioma.. Realmente eres un ejemplo a seguir para mucha gente... Saludos desde Venezuela....
Im going to learn French, Japanese and Hindi, Benny is my inspiration
+ApexHD_ Step by step my friend ;)
+ApexHD_ がんばって！;)
Go for it man :D
+Neuvalent Vous allez échouer. Just kidding! Good luck!
I'm currently learning french, it's such a beautiful language!
I just watched this video and i totally finished it! the way you speech and the words coming out of your mouth giving me chills, i am motivated and i really learn some tips from you to learn my new language THANK YOU A BIG THUMBS UP!
You just changed my point of view about learning a language in 100%.
No. Being hosted once is enough. I'll link to the new TEDx talk once it's up!
"Tengo la camisa negra" He likes Juanes. Juanes is a Colombian singer and that is the name of one of his songs.
Not yet. I'll announce it on my email list when they notify me, don't worry! It's taking longer than expected for some reason. Should be up within the next week or two.
Guess what everyone - I just gave a brand new talk!! It's way better than this one. Can't wait to show you (will take a few weeks before it's in TEDx stream - subscribe to the email list on my blog to get notification)
I am in the process of learning German and I tried the trick of telling all my friends I am doing it. I can't quit now! :D Meine Deutsch ist etwas schlecht aber es ist spaß noch zu lernen!
TheShaleco Goooood! I speak both English and German, you could message me sometimes if you want.
essennagerry even me I can speak many languages English, France,Italy, Spain and somali
deeq mire Dude, I want to learn Italian and French as well. After I perfect my German and English, I guess. And after I learn Japanese. Lol. :D
och lernen aug Deutsch! ich nutz duolingo und ich probieren Deutch zu sprechen mit meine freundien wie Deutsch sind oder auch Deutsch lehrnen
+evi v du bist skandinavian oder dutch? :D
I really appreciate this mate. Your passion and enthusiasm for language is very evident in this video. The stuff you touch on is incredible important for a lot of learning in general really.
Language is one of those skills that can be difficult to maintain motivation for as the results of your hard work can be quite intangible at times. It can feel like your putting all this effort in and going nowhere; a truly sisyphean task. That's were all those excuses you were talking about come into play; you give yourself all the reasons in the world as to why you are not capable of learning a language: I'm too old, I just don't have the brain for it, my memory is not good enough, I don't have the time/money, etc. You have to realise that all these things are just reasons to justify giving up, and that if you give way to these thoughts you will never be able to achieve ANYTHING truly difficult in your life.
You have to accept that the process of learning and development is filled with failures, wrong turns, and dead-ends. That to fail is to learn! Too many people see them as separate, and even more detrimentally, that failure is a sign of inablilty or poor methodology. The reality is that failing is learning; they are synonymous. At the end of the day you have to have faith in the incredible machinery of the human brain, even when it seems as if progress is halting or stunted. You have to have the composure to understand that your brain is making the pathways and connections that will open up new degrees of comprehension in the future.
I think you show a great understanding of that principle when you implore people to, just start speaking. I couldn't agree more mate, just give your brain the information in needs, and the context to compartmentalise it, and just enjoy the process of allowing the brain to do what millions of years of evolution have wrought it best at, learning.
Great talk, Benny. I am a believer that concepts here can be applied more generally in other areas of learning: don't just study the theory, but also interact with it or try it.
FANTASTIC speech, so full of wisdom and actual understanding about what languages are all about! They are a tool! the hell it matters if you are not brilliant at using it in the way the book says you should, if you get the job done, which is communicating yourself and understanding what others are saying to you!
A very inspirating talk indeed. Thank you Benny Lewis.
pd: you absolutely catched it when you say that people don't get frustrated when you "butcher" their language, but rather feel surprised and happy to see you trying to learn. In many cases, it even gains you instant respect from other people when they see you are trying to learn their language.
Read his book, HIGHLY recommended. Got me over humps for Spanish, Italian, and Russian. very easy read. thanks Benny!
Excellent presentation Benny. I realised today that I am might be a language hacker as well, came home and googled it to see if there were any others in the world to find the first 3 search pages about yourself !!! I might be more of a Grammar hacker though... About forgetting peoples names, I have heard it said that the reason we forget is because when we are getting introduced to someone, we are listening to how they pronounce our name. For example: Benny, this is Mike. Your not listening to the word Mike, your listening to how your friend pronounced the word Benny.
Also, I have found that you are 100% correct. We have to be brave in order to be fluent, and that takes time. A quote by Charlie Chaplin is "It takes courage to make a fool of yourself". i would say it takes the most courage.... For me, Language teaching is 95% psychology.
I Enjoyed your talk, not many Cavan men have given TED talks yet, and that´s comming from a Monaghan man. Take Care. Mick.
+Michael McKenna Cheers! Great to see more language hackers out there!
+Benny Lewis This video really helped me. I'm learning Japanese, and I agree with you on so many levels. We even share some similar words like computer. I got an app, and jumped right into talking with native japanese speakers. In return, I would talk to them in english. My skill has increased a ton. Thanks so much for the inspiration.
What app is that? Can you tell me the name?
+Richard R Yup! It's called "Hello talk". It has texting and calling.
I think its important to note that he mostly likely wouldn't have made such rapid progress had he not heard Spanish daily for 6 months, he already had a strong 'repertoire' in the language but a block in oral expression (probably out of fear).
he also had complete immersion
If you want to make your child a polygrot, start early. More the brain is plastic, more quickely you pick not just the foreign language but anything. When you are a grown up, you can still learn new skills. Total Immersion.
I'm a Dutch speaking Belgian, studied English, French and German in school and taught myself Spanish. I love what you said about grammar, I use it in the exact same way. When you're at a level you can communicate and express yourself and then start learning the grammar, it feels like you're glueing all of the pieces together. Suddenly, it all starts to make sense, I love that feeling. -- Knap wat je op je eentje bereikt hebt, erg inspirerend. :)
It was hard for me, when I went to university. I spoke on Skype and learned how to speak it! I'm fluent now.
Thank you so much. I have taken Chinese and ran into difficulties, mainly because I did not use it because I felt I did not know enough. I am now learning German and I feel very inspired from all the points you made. You rock!
i have a feeling he may have a degree of dyslexia based on being highly visually associative, having problems remembering names, and having problems learning his mother tongue. what a creative, dynamic individual and great advice. all the ted talks on learning a language emphasize the necessity of not fearing mistakes in the beginning, and this is so true. this talk brought out the power of using association, which i use and teach my students, and the fact that many will encourage you if you are learning a non-English language. unfortunately, in the US there are many who are impatient with English Language Learners. but don't let them stop you.
thank you Benny!
Always nice to see one of my first Inspirations three years ago. Thank all of them sooo much
great video love it! and love your attitude men!
Right on.
This has been my language learning experience. Thanks!!
Thank you so much benny
I’m reading his book and before then I thought he was serious about being fluent in a language within 3 months just based on the book title but now I realize his method is to get you speaking the language and consistently studying the language within just 3 months no matter what; he also doesn’t believe general fluency exists and simply wants you to speak in your target language with other people no matter the flaws in your grammar or vocabulary. On chapter 2 and I’m really enjoying his book
I had come to many of the same conclusions on my own through my life. This shows how natural it is to learn languages. Nice.
the last 2 minutes gave me chills...bravo!
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Wow! You did speak at Tedx!! That's impressive :D
Great speech. I like the whole premise of just do it no matter if it's wrong. Reminds of a quote - "if you keep getting up every time you fall, you become unstoppable". Back to learning/speaking Japanese :-)
Your video has been the most inspiring video I have heard yet. Thank you.
Great talk! Thank you!
You've help me find the missing key; SPEAKING the language instead of just studying it.
Benny Lewis is my Hero.
amazing thing this guy was done!
That's great, i will give it a try to be like that! :)))
Thanks Benny!
Thank you for the inspiration !
Wonderfully put, The key phrase i keep seeing is "MAKE MISTAKES" iv done it myself and yep if you screw up it doesn't matter. Iv said "your welcome", when i meant to say some thing completely different. But they laugh and then are so pleased to correct you. Iv done this myself from the other way round.
I started learning Japanese before few months ago (end of age 16) it also feels a bit old actually xD
But it's never too late to learn a new language and encounter a new culture, it is always there for you and the right time is when you start learning it because you want to
so 1:learn language by associating situations,2:make the commitment to learn
Benny, é admiravel vc falar tantas linguas especialmente o portugues vc fala muito bem.
Thank, Mr Lewis for your advice,
Really inspirational. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've just been to your website and I had been thinking about a lot of the things you talk about (the excuses) even tough I loved learning French and English before and I let it go. And I'm now learning German and I was feeling so demotivated because I keep thinking how hard it is.
Thank you.
This is awesome!! I am learning three foreign languages and this is so inspiring for me. :)) Thank you for your advices how to not give up in life.
What I find helps is to look at everything in english and think "how can I say that in said language?" At first it wont be as usefull at first but as your vocabulary grows translating what you see solidifies it.
Thank you! That was very inspiring!
What a beautiful closing statement!
One of my tricks is listening to music of other country and try to sing them, than I learn the meaning of the words. I just repeat it and like that I know sentences, words pronunciation!! I watch the news in different language, and try to understand what they are talking about :D
When I was 6 years old and moved to Syria, I didn't know a single word in Arabic. I was told I would be homeschooled for one year, but it only took me three months to be able to go to grade two with the Arabic I was able to speak at the time. The only reason why I made such fast progress was all due to the fact that I had the best teacher to teach me. Even the smallest things you do can change someone's life forever. I encourage you all to try your best and learn any language you find you will benefit from. Work hard because it will pay off. Good luck to all!!!
I speak 3 languages at C2. German, English and Vietnamese. Currently trying to learn my forth language which is french. Trying to get fluent there, too.
Your memory is good. Using an association like you did is an example of a memory trick. Most people who have "good memories" use tricks like this automatically. It's not that we don't have good memories, it's that we don't pay attention in the first place. I improved my memory somewhat by reading "The Memory Book" by Harry Loryayne (sp?). It's a lot like the excuses we use not to learn a language.
The way you say "Thing" is a thing of beauty.
Loved your talk, very inspirational!!!
The whole world will end when you try to speak another language. That's exactly what I feel every time I try to speak English in front of local people even though I just go to Starbucks and order some drink. I'm Chinese and I've moved to the us for 1 year. I'm currently in high school. I gotta do a bunch of presentations in front of the whole class, a class full of local English speakers. I just feel so stressed before presenting and I'm horribly exhausted after finishing them. I don't have friends here. I've been suffering self-abasement since I was really young, this feeling is just getting worse after I came here. I really can understand what u said in ur speech because that's what I'm struggling and what I feel right now. I started to talk to less people and talk less since I'm so afraid as soon as I speak English, people will look me weird, which I have experienced a lot. I kinda know people look me weird is not because of accent, but my nervous looking which may look really dump. I tried to get over it, but it was just something out of my control. I care of what others think of me, I DONT want them consider me as a nerdy dump girl who looks so oddly nervous when talking. I watched ur video today, it's just so inspirational to me. I don't really know how do I start to talk with others, but I'll try. THANKS❤️
Sunny Qi Hey! If you ever need any help with English message me. I have been learning Chinese for about a year now so I am always looking for language partners
oh no :( I hope your experience in the US has gotten better since you have written this post.
I feel your pain. I am just starting to learn Chinese and with so many words that sound the same that are spelled differently but have different characters it is definitely going to be a challenge. I hope to be able to learn the language well enough that I will be able to read a menu in a Chinese restaurant. You have inspired me to try not to let other people's opinion of my feeble attempts at speaking to stop me from trying. I hope you have made a lot of progress learning English. Welcome to the U.S.A. We need more smart people. Cheers!
Good thing you found this video to show you that English speakers have no problem with foreign accents. I mean, there are some who do, but they are such bad people
that you should feel happy not to be friends with them.
Sunny Qi: Part of the issue is that you are in high school. That is a hard place to be and be different. High school kids are tough on each other to begin with so being different is really hard. Just remember, a couple of years out of high school and you won't even know where those kids are. In the grand scheme of things high school society is irrelevant. Keep going and maybe try to have lots of interactions with older English speakers.
Well done Benny, makes a alot of sense and you live your approach every day - I like that! From a Cork Sp&lang.therapist....boy:)
Hey Benny, great speech!
Thank you ;)
Very positive way of looking at language. Can't wait to do the Fluent in 3 months challenge! 😀
Hi This is Pankaj Joshi From India... I too Believe in your way of Learning a new Language... i too follow many points you brought out in learning new Language... Thanks a lot Benny Lewis keep inspiring us All...
Thank you for this amazing video, it's totally true, I am gonna try right now at work!
wow! I think this vid help me the most! I use to stutter when I spoke english and spanish(since I grewup hearing so many different accents on both), so my fam was very hard on me to get it right, I just became quiet. So now that I'm I frade of speaking the little french I know, I'm probably being harder on my self. Especialy because I gave up on german before, when I was 17...and now I'm french @ 26! But the motivition is there, though drifferent than yours. Thanks for the tips and motivation!
+la Ténia
Look, it all depends on the language, I spoke french as my second mother tongue (my first one being german) and I had a pretty good level in english. Now, I became almost fluent in italian in only 4 weeks, and it was not even in Italy! The thing is, like Benny said, if you learn a european language, you often already have tens of thousands of words in your language that are so similar to words in the language you're learning. Since french and italian are two latin languages, this is even more extreme, I'd say that easily 80% of the words of both of those languages at least sound somewhat the similar.
On the other hand, I would have big troubles learning some asian language in 3 month, since they have almost nothing in common with european languages, but I'm not saying it's impossible.
Great explanation of circumlocution -- my students will be watching this video next week! Merci, gracias, danke!
Just my luck! I just discovered this guy days ago and I missed him while he was in San Antonio.
Great speech benny. Thank you
very good speech! thanks
I loved that video! Amazing, congrats.
Often when I try to speak another language the person recognises that I'm an English speaker and switches to English. It would then be incredibly embarrassing for me to persist with speaking the foreign language when their English is so good and my foreign language skills are comparatively bad.
Perhaps you can explain that you're trying to learn their language and would appreciate if they would use their language. Or perhaps you can pretend you don't speak english (even if your accent betrays that) so their language is the only one you can communicate in. Worst case scenario, you find someone else instead.
I'm intending this to be just suggestions on ways that you can get around the problem. I understand your frustration, 'cause I deal with it myself, and it /is/ intimidating to be faced with that issue.
Good excuse. Then again, they're a dime a dozen. haha
Aubrey Lavigne Your only fail safe suggestion is to pretend that you don't speak English. The other suggestions, and all the alternatives I can think of, are likely to fail or just make people angry. For example, in Belgium, I was trying to improve my French, which was already pretty good, especially when speaking (although my dialect is from Louisiana and little-known in Europe), but almost *everyone* responded to me in English, even deep within Wallonie (French-only region). So, sure, I could ask them to continue in French or something, but often I was speaking to people in business settings (store clerks, workers at the train station, bartenders, etc.) where holding up the worker plus everyone waiting behind me just so I could continue to practice my French was not really practical unless I wanted to annoy everyone, because the exchange would be over in English within a fraction of the time. It was also not possible to go find someone else to speak with in these situations. That's not to say that this method is bad, or that it doesn't work, or that a lot of these things aren't just excuses, but sometimes native English speakers really are at a big disadvantage when it comes to attempting immersion learning.
Tom Stephenson Drop the rhotic "R" and the "L" and maybe try making your "V"s less noticeable (except when it's necessary in the language, of course)? These are some of the things I've heard a lot of people doing when they speak another language and it's incredibly obvious that they're English speakers.
Good luck :)
For a 17 minute video it would be very time consuming, but if you are willing to volunteer, I promise I'll upload it! You should use a service like captiontube to time it to create a captions file I can use. Unfortunately, just a translation of what I say is not something that I can use. So this would mean you'd have to 1. transcribe it in English, 2. translate it to Arabic and 3. Time the captions and create a properly formed captions file.
It's a lot of work! If you do it, let me know!
Amaising ,thank you ,i speak arabic,english,french ,and little of spanich ,now for my studies i need german !!!!,and li found my self in your speach
I found this very liberating! thank you, I will try speaking to some of my polish friends this weekend! peace
Haha, just busting your chops man. Really though, i completely agree with your methods. Though I got straight A's in French and Spanish in school, i always felt disappointed that i wasn't as fluent as i'd hoped to be. But i got a lot more confident by having conversations and making mistakes and learning from them. With regard to your point about people getting annoyed, I think it varies from language to language and culture to culture. Congratulations on traveler of the year!
So right Lewis. I'm just associating a lot from what you say. I speak 5 languages and I am also bad in remembering names. I believe too every one can learn any language.
COMPLETELY agree--time and money are NOT excuses to not learn a language, especially not now that Internet is around.
I have a very similar experience with learning English. When I was at a beginner to intermediate level I stated playing a lot of competitive game online. I played counterstrike which is a competitive 5 vs 5 team game. After hooking up with a few brits and swedes we formed a team and played together. I got a lot of speaking practice out of it under the umbrella of anonymity.
As somebody pointed out in the comments this technique is harder to use for introverts. But if you are playing online with a made up identity that doesnt come into play nearly as much. Apparently your brain also switches to different personalities when you speak in a different languages. So you might be less or more introverted in a different language. That's also something to keep in mind.
One week into learning Slovenian and I can say for certain, flashcards are heavily underrated!
I'd disagree I would say they are over used after 400 hours into Spanish learning. Especially for individual words.
Great speech! Sometimes starting with reading books can help a lot. I'm now reading Harry Potter in spanish and because I've read the books in dutch and english a thousand times it's pretty easy to figure out what everything means.
*****
Well, I would encourage anyone to read Harry Potter a thousand times:) But no, I was just commenting about my own experience. But since you apparently find this important enough to comment on it, so feel free to give me a certificate for it.
Bravo. I enjoyed your talk. I am learning Spanish the way I learned English. By watching TV. Among other things. You've encouraged me to keep going. Keep talking about yourself. No one will believe you if you talk about someone else's experience,
Ciao, sono Americana e sto imparando il Italiano! La mia prima lingua é il Spagnolo. I’ve been studying for about 2 weeks and I started off immediately by listening and reading out loud (despite not knowing what I was reading). I’m excited to reach fluency! I’m 21 years old and would like to know between 4 or 5 languages.
Love his shirt, the song tengo la camisa negra by Juanes
Great talk! I am actually looking for people with whom I could speak Gaeilge. But that's really hard outside Ireland. ;-)
This applies across all disciplines. Are you trying to learn economics, don't just study it, speak it! Great video.
I want to learn English .can we talk from skype ????
This guy is inspiring me I'm gonna be fluent I'm it's first I owe myself that
Mi recomendación para aprender un idioma es, hablar con nativos, tener cerca los libros de gramática para consultas e imitarles. No pensar en las palabras si no en los sonidos. Preguntar y copiar tratando de exagerar al máximo la pronunciación, los sonidos. Las palabras y la gramática para después. Imitar, copiar, sin vergüenza. Nunca lograremos sonar como un español o inglés nativo, así que cuanto más imitemos más rápido llegaremos a ser una imitación perfecta, hasta que se vuelve natural. Y de vez en cuando gramática, un libro, para no quedarnos en lenguaje de calle.
I moved to italy a month ago,I normally speak broken italian and am not scared of making a mistake.so far so good...... I just find myself speaking, I havent gone to school and not planning to...its happening naturally.people actually enjoy listening my broken italian
very inspiring. Thank you
Can you please share your exact daily method to do it? Like, i will try to speak the words first, or go directly to speak the daily greeting, or ask instructor to give me homework or... Because what i get from your videos is you try to speak, but i think it will be helpful if you tell us your daily activities regarding how to learn a language so fast
+randha bogawa Sure! I wrote a whole book about it. Otherwise dig through my blog posts for the first stages of my intensive projects. Thanks!
Awesome words, Benny. Keep on hacking language learning!