📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/2pukmbsc 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: tinyurl.com/mr26bvrx ❓Have you find any downsides to being multilingual? Share in the comments!
I do know some Qatari dialect in Gulf Arabic. I have looked at some apps and programs in Modern Standard Arabic, and found MSA to be very different. Emirati Arabic is quite similar to Qatari, and I have heard that overall Gulf countries share at least 80 % of their words. I am concerned that embarking on a course in MSA might make me “confused”, and my Qatari friends tell me that nobody actually speaks MSA, they all speak dialect. What is your opinion about the “risk” of embarking on a course in MSA in my case? My mother tongue is Norwegian.
I kind of speak French, and when I've been traveling through non French speaking countries in Europe this past year, I keep almost saying "bonjour!" to everyone. My brain thinks "foreign language? Must be French!" So I have to put a significant amount of effort into not speaking French!
@@хейтер-д4з this is true! But I try to just say "hello" so it's obvious that I speak English and I don't waste their time by having them ask me a question in their native language only for me to stare at them like a deer in the headlights and then say "... I'm sorry, English?" 😅
I only speak two languages, and I can imagine what the struggle for polyglots to maintain their level in several different languages in their brain is like. Becoming multilingual is not a quite realistic goal for me because it will likely be time-consuming, a super challenging task that I might not be comfortable with. No matter what language I could possibly decide to learn, it will mean significant hard work. Switching between many different languages would probably be a headache also. It's important to take up a new language journey by doing so slowly, I mean with bite-sized chunks, but it will take you a long time to get fluent in your target language, no matter how similar or vastly different it is compared to the languages you already know. I almost forgot that is essential to enjoy the learning process and be resilient as much as you can.
I think that's the most important thing, if you don't enjoy the process it's gonna be difficult to keep it up. It takes very long to learn a language well, even if you use the best methods, you'll have to spend a lot of time on it. But I also think it's valuable to learn a bit of many languages, it becomes so much more approachable, because there are less expectations... I started learning ukrainian thinking I'd just memorize a few words, now I know much more than that (and found tons of songs that I love) because it was fun and I kept learning. If I had thought " oh my god a new alphabet, difficult grammar, very few words I can recognise.. it's gonna take forever" then I would have never started. The way you approach things is so important!
Thanks for the "Takeaway" section, Steve. We need to be humble with these things. I share your thoughts. I speak English (native), Spanish (C2), Italian (B2), Finnish (B1), French (don't ask - work in progress)😁
Crossover was a problem for me. Thanks to two excellent teachers, I had a comfortable command of French after three years of study in high school. For my fourth year I switched to introductory German. Another excellent teacher, but we both were frustrated because my German kept lapsing into French in mid-sentence. That's as far as I got with German. I added one more year of French in college, then stopped as adult life intervened. Five decades on, I'm taking up language study again. I'm concentrating on Japanese, while reviewing French, re-starting German, and beginning Italian at ground zero. It's too early to tell how much of a crossover problem I'll have, but so far it hasn't been an issue.
This has been my experience so far, but I haven't done any research, I think we all have only one language. The more you use one of them, the stronger it gets in your brain, in terms of that one becomes the first to pop-up, but they are all there mixed as one. This is like talking to your mother, to your teacher or to your friends, even if you do all of that in the same language, you don't use the same nuances or even words, but they are all there and sometimes, inadvertedly, you use the more colloquial way in a context that wasn't supposed to.
Hey steve, you should make a video that teach us, ''learn how to learn'' ... or something like that, or even ''how to find partners to pratice your target language'' that's it! I love your videos
Interference bothers me quite a lot actually. I studied german in middle school 8 years ago and now I've been studying mandarin since about 3-4 years, now when I hear some german phrases i understand them quite well, however when i try to say anything, even the most basic of phrases in german, I somehow end up using words from mandarin very naturally, I don't even notice these unless someone points it out!
You are an important inspiration for me in learning languages. Unfortunately, I will only be able to watch your videos when I no longer need the subtitles to understand the video, as they are still out of sync (too far ahead of what is being said). Maybe one day I will be able to follow your tips, which are always very useful for those who are trying to learn other languages on their own. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
"But" and "only" can be used for each other, and Tok Pisin "tasol" (from "that's all") means both. A few weeks ago, during Sabbath school, I explained in Spanish the rite of pouring water three times on each hand, but I used French "verser" (conjugated as if it were Spanish "versar", which exists but means something else) instead of Spanish "verter". Turkish has plenty of French borrowings, so when you used a French word in Turkey someone probably understood.
Mr. Kaufmann, me encantó su programa, gracias de nuevo. For me the most important problem when studying more than 2 languages is time management. I can speak Spanish (my mother tongue), French (because I lived in France for several years as a child) and English (because I studied at university in the United States for several years) well. Then I started learning German, I passed the B2 level and went on to C1. I have been studying Japanese for six years and studying Hebrew for two years. The ideal thing for me is to study German in the morning and then Hebrew in the afternoon. Or Hebrew in the morning and Japanese in the afternoon. I love these 3 languages, but sometimes I find it difficult to study 3 in one day. I would like to, but it is difficult for me. No tengo, creo, la plasticidad neuronal necesaria para abrirme mentalmente a estas tres experiencias en un mismo día. Lo intento, lo disfruto muchísimo, pero a veces me cuesta. Por eso este programa me gustó tanto, porque toca problemas o asuntos que enfrento con los que me topo diariamente. Muchos saludos y gracias de nuevo! Ricardo
I think learning several languages can work, if you have some experience with these languages. Make one language as your main language and set your other languages in maintenance mode. Change your main language from time to time. You could even use one language you learn to learn another language. Although my English needs still improvement, I can already use it to learn Yiddish.
In my own experience, thinking of words of a different or having some interference, it’s more of an inconvenience. However, the brain seems to differentiate more overtime of what goes where. In my opinion, this can be a good or a bad thing but overconfidence bias in becoming efficient in one or more languages can give a feeling or more proficient in a language than one really is.
I will have my first experience studying abroad next year in china i been study language by my self but i think its time to take a new step in this beauty experience in languages
There's one thing that always strikes me, it's the fact that whenever I finish to talk in one language with one of my tutors, I start to speak in my native tongue (French) to me partner (who speaks English) without realising it 😆
I'm using a lot of my time in learning swedish lately and it's been very hard for me to speak in french and german because lots of swedish words are always coming into my mind... The only languages I don't get confused with and never forget any word is my mother tongue (brazilian portuguese), english and spanish, which I'm fluent in.
Well done good set of languages 👍 I think maybe you can give some time to those languages that are interfering just maybe the brain is giving you signal to revisit them 😂
@J87-k4c thank you! 😊 You're right! French and german are languages I stopped studying for a while... Cause now I have pretty nice goals to achieve after learning swedish, so I'm very focused!
In my opinion, learning is more effective when you see some results and benefits regardless to the sizes, and people usually learn more when they see a good result.
Hello Steve, You hit the nail on the head I always find myself suppressing my other languages. Although I'm not a polyglot I do speak fluent German and Spanish on top of my Canadian native english. I'm probably C-1 in German which was my first foreign language I learned in my early 20s. I am now 60 and started learning Spanish five years ago. I'm married to Colombian so I speak Spanish all day every day, however I still feel I am more fluent in German, but now oddly enough when I'm speaking German I have to continually fight to suppress Spanish words and structures that want to jump in and interrupt my German . So, "suppress" is a good word because I literally feel like I'm in a linguistic battle in my own head and it's not because I'm pausing and looking for words, it's because involuntarily there are Spanish words and structures jumping into my German conversation now. Oh well , there's worse things in life I know...lol..
I studied Russian at school (but I don't speak the language (anymore)). I came to Germany when I was 22 and learned German. Then I married a French woman and learned French for 15 years. I have been learning English intensively for 1.5 years and after that I don't want to learn another language. I think four languages are completely sufficient..
Hello Mr Kaufmann, I find your videos instructive. Currently, I am struggling with collocations in English, They are very tricky and easy to forget. Could you please give me some advice, as I cannot remember them.
Children learn and get good or bad grades for practicing their second language in school. The grade is a kind of challenge in their life. For an adult, the challenge would be to live in a second language environment with a second language that is already less well taught than the mother tongue, and to try to make a career in that country by moving there as an adult. With a third language that is even worse than the second language, it is much harder to reach the level of the native language to make a career in the third language country. Since you live in your own country, it is hard for me to say what the real problems are for a similar polyglot.
I've learn quite a few then you start to not know where you truly belong cuz you feel like you belong in all those cultures. Yet they don't see you as part of it-say wow you speak good, then never speak to you again.
I love LingQ and learning about Brazil 💚💛 Se houver algum brasileiro que gostaria de trocar idiomas ao fone por favor diga me eu tenho whatsapp e preciso de praticar português falada e eu sei tem brasileiros que tá aprendendo inglês. Por favor diga me se você quiser praticar ao fone comigo 💜
Untrue, it’s simply set on the back burner, it can be quickly brushed up on through immersion. Stop holding limiting beliefs and spreading that mentality to others.
@@itsrx870 Exactly right, I know people who are out of the immersive environment where they became fluent in a new language for decennia, and who don't use this language much or even at all day to day. This might make their skills appear rusty, even to themselves, but once they get back into the language for just a tiny bit of time (not even a day, often less than an hour) they are truly back at it again, almost just as fluent and it happens very quickly!
@@vanillex5882 Well Said Vanilla, thank You. I’m tired of UA-cam commenters leaving detrimental mindsets and belief systems for others who may be more vulnerable to ideas from others to absorb. Have a blessed day!
It sounds like a false assumption from someone that hasn't mastered more than one foreign language. With high proficiency, you won't lose it. Even if you want to forget it, you just can't prevent yourself from understanding it when you hear it. Acquired language is like the full integration that has forever reshaped your brain structure.
You often discuss languages from Middle Eastern countries, but you never mention Kurdish (+60 millions ). It feels as though you’re ignoring our existence, similar to the way dictators like those in Turkey and Iran have done. Could you please acknowledge Kurdish as well?
📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/2pukmbsc
🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: tinyurl.com/mr26bvrx
❓Have you find any downsides to being multilingual? Share in the comments!
You're the best polyglot I've ever seen 😊❤. Thanks for your instructive, advisable, and entertaining videos on language learning.
I do know some Qatari dialect in Gulf Arabic. I have looked at some apps and programs in Modern Standard Arabic, and found MSA to be very different. Emirati Arabic is quite similar to Qatari, and I have heard that overall Gulf countries share at least 80 % of their words. I am concerned that embarking on a course in MSA might make me “confused”, and my Qatari friends tell me that nobody actually speaks MSA, they all speak dialect. What is your opinion about the “risk” of embarking on a course in MSA in my case? My mother tongue is Norwegian.
NEVER too old to learn!
I am an Arab from Libya. The Arabic language is a very ancient and deep language with endless grammar rules. I congratulate you on learning it.🫶🏼🤝🏼💜
I kind of speak French, and when I've been traveling through non French speaking countries in Europe this past year, I keep almost saying "bonjour!" to everyone. My brain thinks "foreign language? Must be French!" So I have to put a significant amount of effort into not speaking French!
To be fair, probably in every European country people will understand "bonjour"
@@хейтер-д4з this is true! But I try to just say "hello" so it's obvious that I speak English and I don't waste their time by having them ask me a question in their native language only for me to stare at them like a deer in the headlights and then say "... I'm sorry, English?" 😅
I only speak two languages, and I can imagine what the struggle for polyglots to maintain their level in several different languages in their brain is like. Becoming multilingual is not a quite realistic goal for me because it will likely be time-consuming, a super challenging task that I might not be comfortable with. No matter what language I could possibly decide to learn, it will mean significant hard work. Switching between many different languages would probably be a headache also. It's important to take up a new language journey by doing so slowly, I mean with bite-sized chunks, but it will take you a long time to get fluent in your target language, no matter how similar or vastly different it is compared to the languages you already know. I almost forgot that is essential to enjoy the learning process and be resilient as much as you can.
I think that's the most important thing, if you don't enjoy the process it's gonna be difficult to keep it up. It takes very long to learn a language well, even if you use the best methods, you'll have to spend a lot of time on it. But I also think it's valuable to learn a bit of many languages, it becomes so much more approachable, because there are less expectations...
I started learning ukrainian thinking I'd just memorize a few words, now I know much more than that (and found tons of songs that I love) because it was fun and I kept learning. If I had thought " oh my god a new alphabet, difficult grammar, very few words I can recognise.. it's gonna take forever" then I would have never started. The way you approach things is so important!
Which languages do you speak?
@@blackmartini7684 Right, I speak English and Spanish. Thank you for reminding me of it.
Thanks for the "Takeaway" section, Steve. We need to be humble with these things. I share your thoughts. I speak English (native), Spanish (C2), Italian (B2), Finnish (B1), French (don't ask - work in progress)😁
Crossover was a problem for me.
Thanks to two excellent teachers, I had a comfortable command of French after three years of study in high school. For my fourth year I switched to introductory German. Another excellent teacher, but we both were frustrated because my German kept lapsing into French in mid-sentence. That's as far as I got with German. I added one more year of French in college, then stopped as adult life intervened.
Five decades on, I'm taking up language study again. I'm concentrating on Japanese, while reviewing French, re-starting German, and beginning Italian at ground zero. It's too early to tell how much of a crossover problem I'll have, but so far it hasn't been an issue.
This has been my experience so far, but I haven't done any research, I think we all have only one language. The more you use one of them, the stronger it gets in your brain, in terms of that one becomes the first to pop-up, but they are all there mixed as one. This is like talking to your mother, to your teacher or to your friends, even if you do all of that in the same language, you don't use the same nuances or even words, but they are all there and sometimes, inadvertedly, you use the more colloquial way in a context that wasn't supposed to.
Estou estudando inglês há 9 meses, a mudança na forma de pensar é muito grande...
A mudança é muito grande mesmo, eu acho incrivel e nao consigo me lembrar como foi antes de falar muitos idiomas
@@LanguageMaus sim. É outro nível..
Hey steve, you should make a video that teach us, ''learn how to learn'' ... or something like that, or even ''how to find partners to pratice your target language''
that's it!
I love your videos
Interference bothers me quite a lot actually. I studied german in middle school 8 years ago and now I've been studying mandarin since about 3-4 years, now when I hear some german phrases i understand them quite well, however when i try to say anything, even the most basic of phrases in german, I somehow end up using words from mandarin very naturally, I don't even notice these unless someone points it out!
You are an important inspiration for me in learning languages. Unfortunately, I will only be able to watch your videos when I no longer need the subtitles to understand the video, as they are still out of sync (too far ahead of what is being said). Maybe one day I will be able to follow your tips, which are always very useful for those who are trying to learn other languages on their own. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
"But" and "only" can be used for each other, and Tok Pisin "tasol" (from "that's all") means both.
A few weeks ago, during Sabbath school, I explained in Spanish the rite of pouring water three times on each hand, but I used French "verser" (conjugated as if it were Spanish "versar", which exists but means something else) instead of Spanish "verter".
Turkish has plenty of French borrowings, so when you used a French word in Turkey someone probably understood.
Mr. Kaufmann, me encantó su programa, gracias de nuevo. For me the most important problem when studying more than 2 languages is time management. I can speak Spanish (my mother tongue), French (because I lived in France for several years as a child) and English (because I studied at university in the United States for several years) well. Then I started learning German, I passed the B2 level and went on to C1. I have been studying Japanese for six years and studying Hebrew for two years. The ideal thing for me is to study German in the morning and then Hebrew in the afternoon. Or Hebrew in the morning and Japanese in the afternoon. I love these 3 languages, but sometimes I find it difficult to study 3 in one day. I would like to, but it is difficult for me. No tengo, creo, la plasticidad neuronal necesaria para abrirme mentalmente a estas tres experiencias en un mismo día. Lo intento, lo disfruto muchísimo, pero a veces me cuesta. Por eso este programa me gustó tanto, porque toca problemas o asuntos que enfrento con los que me topo diariamente. Muchos saludos y gracias de nuevo! Ricardo
Brother most people barely speak their own language well! Vas bien hermano!
I think learning several languages can work, if you have some experience with these languages. Make one language as your main language and set your other languages in maintenance mode.
Change your main language from time to time. You could even use one language you learn to learn another language. Although my English needs still improvement, I can already use it to learn Yiddish.
In my own experience, thinking of words of a different or having some interference, it’s more of an inconvenience. However, the brain seems to differentiate more overtime of what goes where. In my opinion, this can be a good or a bad thing but overconfidence bias in becoming efficient in one or more languages can give a feeling or more proficient in a language than one really is.
I will have my first experience studying abroad next year in china i been study language by my self but i think its time to take a new step in this beauty experience in languages
There's one thing that always strikes me, it's the fact that whenever I finish to talk in one language with one of my tutors, I start to speak in my native tongue (French) to me partner (who speaks English) without realising it 😆
Steve, eres un modelo a seguir 💪🏽
I'm using a lot of my time in learning swedish lately and it's been very hard for me to speak in french and german because lots of swedish words are always coming into my mind... The only languages I don't get confused with and never forget any word is my mother tongue (brazilian portuguese), english and spanish, which I'm fluent in.
Well done good set of languages 👍 I think maybe you can give some time to those languages that are interfering just maybe the brain is giving you signal to revisit them 😂
@J87-k4c thank you! 😊 You're right! French and german are languages I stopped studying for a while... Cause now I have pretty nice goals to achieve after learning swedish, so I'm very focused!
@@camilapalmeida de nada 👍
sometimes my brain mix japanese with russian (none are my native language)
That is Kaufmann of course!
In my opinion, learning is more effective when you see some results and benefits regardless to the sizes, and people usually learn more when they see a good result.
Hello Steve,
You hit the nail on the head I always find myself suppressing my other languages. Although I'm not a polyglot I do speak fluent German and Spanish on top of my Canadian native english.
I'm probably C-1 in German which was my first foreign language I learned in my early 20s. I am now 60 and started learning Spanish five years ago. I'm married to Colombian so I speak Spanish all day every day, however I still feel I am more fluent in German, but now oddly enough when I'm speaking German I have to continually fight to suppress Spanish words and structures that want to jump in and interrupt my German .
So, "suppress" is a good word because I literally feel like I'm in a linguistic battle in my own head and it's not because I'm pausing and looking for words, it's because involuntarily there are Spanish words and structures jumping into my German conversation now.
Oh well , there's worse things in life I know...lol..
I studied Russian at school (but I don't speak the language (anymore)). I came to Germany when I was 22 and learned German. Then I married a French woman and learned French for 15 years. I have been learning English intensively for 1.5 years and after that I don't want to learn another language. I think four languages are completely sufficient..
The more doors that open up, love that
Hello Mr Kaufmann, I find your videos instructive. Currently, I am struggling with collocations in English, They are very tricky and easy to forget. Could you please give me some advice, as I cannot remember them.
Are you taking textbook lessons? If you learn things with In context it will help you
@@J87-k4c yes, I learn English from textbooks. Thanks for your advice
Love the thumbnail 😂 Steve is a true hyperpolyglot gigachad alpha male, thank you for the content you bring us
Mr Kaufman’s brain must be a truly happy brain🎉🎉🎉
Children learn and get good or bad grades for practicing their second language in school. The grade is a kind of challenge in their life.
For an adult, the challenge would be to live in a second language environment with a second language that is already less well taught than the mother tongue, and to try to make a career in that country by moving there as an adult.
With a third language that is even worse than the second language, it is much harder to reach the level of the native language to make a career in the third language country.
Since you live in your own country, it is hard for me to say what the real problems are for a similar polyglot.
I have a question, not exactly about the topic, but what is the level a person needs to become, to be considered bilingual or even polyglot?
I've learn quite a few then you start to not know where you truly belong cuz you feel like you belong in all those cultures. Yet they don't see you as part of it-say wow you speak good, then never speak to you again.
Could you please re-enable Danish subtitles on your videos? I love importing it into LingQ to hoover up more phrases and vocabulary
I love LingQ and learning about Brazil 💚💛
Se houver algum brasileiro que gostaria de trocar idiomas ao fone por favor diga me eu tenho whatsapp e preciso de praticar português falada e eu sei tem brasileiros que tá aprendendo inglês. Por favor diga me se você quiser praticar ao fone comigo 💜
i found myself did a lot of unintentional code switching😅
If language learning gives us even a single extra year of living without dementia, that's _huge!_
I feel like I have watched Steve's videos before.
Do you think Steve that with "just" 10 languages you would gain more in depth than you'd lose in breadth?
Hello Steve how's it's going? Good thursday Sir, bye see you next.
No problems whatsoever
Not knowing how many languages you speak?
Did Steve just call himself a "polyglot"?
Is hard being a polyglot, can't keep all these women off me
A polyglot can achieve a high level in a language and then LOSE IT through neglect. Only takes a year or two.
Untrue, it’s simply set on the back burner, it can be quickly brushed up on through immersion. Stop holding limiting beliefs and spreading that mentality to others.
Not my experience. You can lose a little vocabulary but very quickly you can gain it right back, and your general level doesn’t really drop much
@@itsrx870 Exactly right, I know people who are out of the immersive environment where they became fluent in a new language for decennia, and who don't use this language much or even at all day to day. This might make their skills appear rusty, even to themselves, but once they get back into the language for just a tiny bit of time (not even a day, often less than an hour) they are truly back at it again, almost just as fluent and it happens very quickly!
@@vanillex5882 Well Said Vanilla, thank You. I’m tired of UA-cam commenters leaving detrimental mindsets and belief systems for others who may be more vulnerable to ideas from others to absorb. Have a blessed day!
It sounds like a false assumption from someone that hasn't mastered more than one foreign language. With high proficiency, you won't lose it. Even if you want to forget it, you just can't prevent yourself from understanding it when you hear it. Acquired language is like the full integration that has forever reshaped your brain structure.
can i get rp?
the embarrassing moment when you mix up two basic words that sounds similar in different languages....
A
You often discuss languages from Middle Eastern countries, but you never mention Kurdish (+60 millions ). It feels as though you’re ignoring our existence, similar to the way dictators like those in Turkey and Iran have done. Could you please acknowledge Kurdish as well?
5:30 False cognates can be a good mnemonic device as well.