I feel that I benefit from using a textbook, but going through a textbook is a hard work. Hence watching language learning videos or somethings similar is a way to avoid hard work, convincing yourself that you're doing useful thing
You could try language learning videos in your target language,that’s what I did when I started to feel that I was wasting time by spending hours watching them.thanks god there’s a huge amount of videos in English cause idk if I can just quit .there might be in your target language too as long as you are not learning Ongota or something like that
Re: Anki. Japanese learners were early adopters of Anki for language learning, and developing tools for grabbing content from popular media to create flashcards in it.
On the note of tools that integrate with anki, Yomitan is supporting more and more languages all the time. I didn't count how many it had last I looked, but it was probably at least a dozen different languages.
It worked for me. I believe the author's name was Raul d'Eca; the C has a cedilla mark on it. Listen to songs in Portuguese too. One recommendation is Cristian Araujo's "Voce mudou": 'E quando despertar...' I think that's the future subjunctive, which looks just like the infinitive in 1st and 3rd person singular. It could also be the personal infinitive. My personal example was: "Se tivesse bastante dinheiro, estaria morando no Brasil." However, most Brazilians are too nice to correct your mistakes. I think that people in Portugal would be different that way, but there are a lot fewer learning materials for European Portuguese, and they don't seem as impressed by foreigners learning their language as Brazilians tend to be. Boa sorte!
@@bhutchin1996 Thanks for the rec! And yeah I've been listening to plenty of music and trying to watch online comedy skits too. Porta dos Fundos is amazing.
You also need to change your approach depending on what languages you already know. I speak French and know its grammar well and now I’m learning Italian. I don’t need to study Italian grammar in the same way as I studied French grammar. I just need to learn where Italian grammar is different than French grammar. I also don’t need to spend much time on vocabulary that is very similar between the languages. I need to focus on the words that are completely different.
I think all of his videos are from the perspective of an English speaker trying to learn other languages. You, being a native speaker of a romance language, rightfully need to have a different approach to learning another romance language
@@canchero724 I am a native English speaker, and what @thedavidguy01 says is accurate. I started learning French in 6th grade, Spanish in 10th grade, and Italian in 12th grade. Spanish study was based on similarities and differences with French. Italian study was based on similarities and differences with French and with Spanish (similar/similar, different/similar, similar/different, different/different). It's a simplification, but I would often say that Italian was 49% French, 49% Spanish and 2% other. As a bonus, when I took German I as an undergrad, there were grad students in French, Spanish, and Italian taking German as a required second language. They each had trouble with some aspect of the language, and I was able to help all of them by drawing comparisons with their focus languages. Alas, I'm 3 decades removed from that time, though, and all 4 languages have atrophied to varying degrees.
@@canchero724 contrastive approach is universal, it means you contrast your native language with the language you wanna learn. French grammar is a tad bit different but you will know a lot of vocab, because of the French influence during Normans times. Pronunciation is totally different and you need to learn which sounds are approximates and you can go for there (unaccentuated e - sounds a bit like schwa) and which are new sounds (j - in jeune). By knowing what is easier and what is harder to learn and when you can be both prepared and shuffle around your schedule. Works for every language, even those very exotic ones. If everything is different you contrast: e.g. Chinese: speech - tones, need a lot of work with it, grammar -a bit easier, no tenses, there are words to clarify that, contextual, meaning unlike English it may be a bit more vague if translated directly (seriously, don't do that). etc. there will be always something easy about the language and something difficult.
Shanah tovah! Thanks for helping people avoid the common pitfalls of language learning. I was on my 4th language before I got these things down: 1. Learn the structure of the language and decide how to proceed through that structure most effectively 2. Match your learning process to how the language is actually used (read, listen to, write about, and speak about things like people who use that language already do) 3. Use tools for learning in a way that works (based on personal experience and research) rather than just taking for granted that how other have used it traditionally will work for you. Those tools included textbooks, free composition exercises, outside reading, listening to music, singing, Anki, and Duolingo. But I don't limit myself to those tools. I'm willing to use whatever works. Also, whatever makes it interesting and fun.
Pretty much my process for learning German. I did take classes at first, though. And I now have an italki tutor so that I can get some speaking practice.
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@@bhutchin1996 For learning Hebrew though - Living Language series is one of the best and I had a chance to look at tHebrew course they made - really decent although they keep the diacritics (?) to help with pronunciation for quite a long time :/ A friend tried to learn Hebrew and she showed me the book, since I've recommended her the series.
University language teacher here. A really good video, with really good helpers for learners! It made me think of when I was teaching Portuguese in a Chinese university and looking at how students in there would learn the vocabulary. They would simply write a word down 10-20 times. And it made me realised that that is the system they are used to because of learning their own language - Chinese characters need practice and repetition! So, my point is that the way we learn (and the way we should learn) languages also is bound to be more or less successful due to our geography. So, for example, it would be really interesting to counter the repetitive learning process of a Chinese student providing them with a different learning approach, to see how impactful (for better / worse) that would be.
My favorite Duolingo nonsense was when I tried learning Haitian Creole with it, and it would constantly give me those "fill in the missing word in this sentence" type quizzes where the blank word was the name of a person. So it would say "Andre loves his coffee" and the quiz would be "______ renmen kafe li".
It's surprisingly common in the Italian course too. I'm guessing it must be common across all their languages. It would be simple for them to change it I assume. I wonder why they dont
This sentence seems to be very silly, because the answer is most likely "Andre renmen kafe li." But if you take your time, you have a simple example for a correct word order. So the important part of the sentence is "kafe li", not "Andre".
@@Hofer2304 Yes, but all that was already done in the app. The only part it wanted me to fill in was the name. If it happened once, I'd get it, but it continued module after module. Not every single question, but usually more than once per exercise.
The only thing I’ve really stuck to in the long term is about 15-25 minutes of flash cards a day. Besides that, I sorta do whatever as long as it adds up to another 30 mins to an hour of study. Sometimes that means watching a movie, other times it means reading a book out loud, sometimes it means listening to an audiobook while reading along, sometimes it means listening to a true crime podcast. As long as I’m consistent with around an hour of what I find to be engaging and effective studies a day, I know I’ll get there eventually. Also it helps that I live in the country, so I get a ton of listening and speaking practice by just existing.
@@paulwalther5237 Yep, exactly. Trust me, I was basically just using apps and flashcards (along with living in the country) for about a year before I was really able to dive into books and movies. If you have any sort of audio streaming services, and if your language is large enough, I would really recommend m*rder mystery/serial k*ller/true crime podcasts in your TL. I know it sounds weird, but they're very easy to follow for some reason. I've just recently (within the last 6 months) reached the point where I can read and listen to engaging books while staying entertained and learning. Once you get over the hump it's worth it though.
I've been doing almost exactly the same for some months and I've gotten pretty accustomed to it I have lots of materials I'm interested in (books, short stories, light novels, series) and, thanks to the vocabulary sticking better thanks to that routine, in the long run it's making wonders I feel like all that's left is to trust the process and slowly pick up pieces of language along the way :-) Note: I should definitely mention that I can keep this up only because I have a decent knowleadge of vocabulary and understanding of grammar, or immersion would be quite harsh
I remember learning French in school, we heard a whole lesson, had to repeat the dialogue without any written clues and in the end got the text, I was anxious and felt like an idiot, .... I swore to not let that unpleasant experience deter me from learning French, so I went to a language course, read French novels, watched French films and visited France in order to have to speak French With other languages I also prefer to start with the grammar to get an idea how the language "works" Kaffee ist wirklich ein Lebensretter😂☕️ eine Wiener Melange
I teach German as a foreign language professionally and I agree with you concerning the grammar: All these colourful textbooks treat the grammar like a special surprise, only to be revealed step by tiny little step. That is ludicrous and it makes me furious.
How are you supposed to reveal the grammar all at once, instead of building knowledge step by step? Can you say a little bit more about what you mean? I'd love to learn more about your perspective and experiences.
I majored in German in university and took a course in Germany. But before that, I was using a German book from more than 100 years ago to learn the grammar! It was all in the Frakturschrift. But I liked the explanations and the many examples, which were different than what I saw in modern German textbooks.
@@mrkingsudo The "C-Grammatik" by Buscha et al. is very good (Schubert-Verlag). I am not sure whether you can get it in English though, which would be a good idea if your level is only A1/A2.
@@resourceress7 You... explain it with graphs and example phrases(?). I am not sure what kind of problems you see with this. Maybe you could elaborate a little.
I can definitely get behind learning the whole grammar first. I did that for Korean and it set me up to naturally learn vocabulary while listening, because I could more easily infer what parts were what. 커피 아예 안먹어요!
This is going to help as such an important start to studying a language that doesn't have many structural supports to be learned so far. I'm learning on the fly how to learn Sinama, which doesn't have many written grammars yet, but this overview is helping me understand how to make something more concrete about what I can explore and build around. I hope to speak with you someday about it but this is incredibly helpful, thank you for sharing so generously
The biggest language learning mistake I ever made in my life was listening to language teachers who said speak the other language in full sentences. If you don't know enough words, you can't practice. If you mix the language with your own language, then you can practice and say whatever you want. I try to do it this way now many years later, and I don't know if it will work, but I like being able to practice the language even if I don't know every word. In school, they teach too many words and rules too fast, so you can't really learn anything, except temporary memorization of rules and words. I would rather experiment and try wacky ideas than listen to experts who couldn't teach a dog to bark. If they tried to teach a dog to bark, it would probably end up meowing.
As a heritage spanish speaker who learned portuguese this is exactly what I did in my earliest stagest of learning. Obviously there is a ridiculous amount of overlap when learning portuguese as a spanish speaker so I was already reading and understanding so much. What was lacking was my vocabulary. I studied the phonology and almost immediately threw myself in to live conversations with portuguese speakers, often "inventing" words on the spot or guessing what they would be based on the spanish equivalent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but I would always look up the word I stumbled upon and add the portuguese to my anki deck later to study. Here 3 years later comfortably fluent in brazilian portuguese. It's a method that works.
Schools have to find ways to grade you, so of course they're going to have you learn as much vocabulary and grammar as possible. While that's important, it's more important to fail than "get it right" the first time everytime. Business entrepreneurs know this. They know that they will have failures on the way to success. On the other hand, schools teach us to be afraid to fail or even make mistakes.
@@luiscruz5556I learned Spanish first. When I started learning Brazilian Portuguese, I treated it as its own language rather than apply my knowledge of Spanish to it. I ignored Spanish for many years while learning and using Portuguese. However, learning Portuguese has taught me so much more Spanish. My approach was different, but it worked well for me too.
Helpful. One of my most prescient teachers said again and again: you’ll see all the grammar all the time. I’ve never regretted taking his classes. I was going crazy with my ignorance of Russian grammar.
I think its important to note that no one persons learning style is going to be the same, I had to learn that for myself learning Korean. I treated the language as if I were a 5 year old learning it at school, I started with the sounds and worked my way up. I had to develop this method and various others that work for me from watching 100s of UA-cam videos.
I like to write notes while reading French textbooks. Old fashioned. And I actually study these notes. I also make Pinterest grammar posts and use certain words in example sentences to teach myself the meanings.
☕☕ Taylor, you are not the first person to say some, many, or all of these observations, but you are certainly the first person to put together a comprehensive and cogent summary of these points. Bravo. I studied French (badly) for seven years beginning in middle school and although I could read Molière, I couldn't write a letter or order a cup of coffee. On the other hand, I began German study (after learning Ancient Greek and Latin) as a senior in college followed by a summer at the Middlebury College Summer Language Program. I then moved to German speaking Switzerland 35 years later (!) and tested at the B2 level on the CEFR scale. What I do now (for continued learning in German and French and new learning in Italian and modern Greek) is simple: mostly what you suggested. It works. I do a lot of listening, a lot of reading, a lot of writing, a bit of spaced repetition. For French I do the dreaded dictées. I transcribe native audio-nothing improves listening comprehension better than transcribing 30 seconds of real speech. Lastly, I prep myself as I need to. I make domain specific lists of words and phrases. For instance, I just did my Swiss tax returns (in German), so I studied tax, income, investment related vocabulary. Somewhat related, I also write out scripts. I needed a cabinet repaired in my apartment, so…I learned a lot of kitchen cabinetry words and ways you can break or damage the cabinets. Bravo, again!
I'm making a learn English course which uses spaced repetition and tries to put as much vocab review as possible into little stories while minimizing flashcard style repetition. Optimizing the administration is difficult and it isn't immediately obvious how to deal with users have inconsistent schedules. Part of the problem is that, especially in the beginning, new stories have NEW vocab, which is a review liability. The obvious solution is to re-read the same story, but that is boring, and I hated when Duolingo forced me to read stories I'd already done before. I'm part of the Awesome Coffee Club or whatever Hank Green renamed it to ☕
Overall generally good advice. I think something that was glossed over quickly was the emphasis that listening, comprehension, internal modeling, and speaking have to go through the existing brain structures, i.e., the fact that you declaratively know this information and the fact that it sits in your pre-frontal cortex is of little use to the motor neurons and other brain structure that will have to process this information in a real conversation. I think you’ve made the point in previous videos that iTalki and having real conversations is when you start to feel like actual process is being made. If you understand that these are the situations where all the brain structures are interacting, not just the explicit knowledge in the prefrontal cortex, it’s obvious why these methods are much more effective.
I'm studying an Anki deck for JLPT N5 that TokiniAndy made, and it's really interesting how it's done. It's got vocabulary and grammar. Recall cards only for vocabulary. Each vocabulary card has the English meaning of the word, the pitch accent, an example sentence in Japanese (no English translation), and audio of a native speaker saying the word and the sentence. Practical real world descriptions of grammar points with examples. New cards are presented in order, and each card introduces only one new word. The vocab card may introduce new grammar in the sentence that is then explained on the next card. So what happens is that as you bring new cards into your review, you learn one new thing per card. As you go through the deck, the example sentences become more complex, using only words and grammar points you've learned and providing reinforcement for those. You are left to figure out the meaning of the example sentence _without translating_, and I think that's a plus.
3:55 honestly so glad to hear this from another person, i dont even know *why* i hate them so much but i think their heavy usage in the class i was taking is what single-handedly turned me away from learning spanish
Just for you. Variations of coffee in Romanian 🇷🇴 🇲🇩 coffee = cafea ☕ the coffee = cafeaua ☕ of the coffee = cafelei ☕ coffees = cafele ☕☕☕ the coffees = cafelele ☕☕☕ of the coffees = cafelelor ☕☕☕
I never thought about learning feminine adjectives first in French until you just explained it. I’m L1 Spanish, and my mental map is that the masculine is the default and the feminine is the exception and assumed the same in French. I might be as wrong in Spanish as I was until ten minutes ago in French, but je n’ai eu pas encore assez de café pour penser aux adjectifs en espagnol
I'm also L1 in Spanish and I've learned French, Italian and Portuguese using masculine as the default and learned how to form the feminine so I can't think of it the other way around. Besides, you'll end up realizing the masculine should be taught as the default since in plural, you use masculine nouns and adjectives to describe a mixed or only male group of people.
It makes sense to do it that way just because there are fewer exceptions: take the feminine and remove the last consonant (phonetically that is). Doesn't always work (e.g. bretonne/breton, belle/beau, première/premier, etc.) but there are far fewer exceptions if you do it that way than if you try to derive the feminine from the masculine. If you're looking at it historically though, i.e. diachronically, in that case the masculine was (is?) the "default" form. Essentially, the masculine used to be pronounced more or less the same as the feminine is today, and the feminine was derived from the masculine by adding a schwa at the end. Then through a process of elision we ended up where we are today. It's a messy topic because of that disconnect between diachronic and synchronic analysis. For the practical purposes of learning the language, sure, it makes a whole lot of sense to start with the feminine. If we're talking linguistic theory though, I think you'll find that a lot of linguists would disagree that the masculine is "actually" derived from the feminine through substractive morphology. Well, not that it matters. It's not like linguists ever agree on anything tbh. ^^
I like all of the things you talk about.. and would add one more: context. Almost everything in learning is about building context. When you are trying to learn a new thing, and it fits into a hole in what you already know that makes everything else you know make even more sense, learning can be nearly effortless. Building up the context that makes that possible, however, is something that nowhere near enough is known about. I remember a day, probably in my first week of studying Russian, flipping through flashcards with my mother, as she was trying to come up with mnemonics, when she said "chitats me to read". This story is the embodiment of mnemonics for me: 40 years later I remember that. If I'd read it in a textbook, it would most likely have been as meaningless as all of the other mnemonics she came up with that day that I've forgotten. I remember another day, some years later having a two page long vocabulary list of words all related to reading, and essentially having it memorized after going through the list once. The difference wasn't that my memory got better. It was that the first time I had no context for the literally "foreign" word. By the time I had that list to memorize, I had enough context of the language that chitalnii, chitatelnii, chitavshii, chitaushchii, etc., etc. all had hooks that connected to things that I already knew, so they fit, and they made sense. I wish I knew shortcuts to building context to make the process easier. There are many approaches that certainly do not work: spoonfeeding vocabulary and grammar for example. No language makes sense one tense and gender at a time. Immersion learning works to the extent it works by flooding you with context, which is completely overwhelming and confusing at first, until you either give up, or it starts to stick. That, and making lots and lots of mistakes along the way.
"Why your language method is set up to fail" Probably because this video came up just as I finished work for the day and as I was about to sit down and study. I also had three bad French teachers at school (all for different reasons). The last was a native speaker who learned English at a young age. We'd have lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday and she expected us to memorise 30 new words and be able to recognise them in flowing speech and produce them the following day. I also don't remember anything from those French lessons except a few rude phrases.
They just don’t build in the time needed to develop recognition in isolation, recognition in regular speech, and production. It’s like they think teaching a new word is handing you a new object and now you have the object. It just doesn’t work that way!
My dream course would have you learn basic vocabulary and grammar, and then have a lot of minecraft videos using these words, and progressively adding more advanced vocabulary. this is how I learned english, my school has taught me simple grammar and vocab, then I watched a lot of english minecraft videos to actually learn the language.
Years ago, my wife developed an intolerance for the acid buildup in pre-ground filter coffee. It would cause her serious stomach and abdominal pain from only one cup. So we did some research and found that fresh ground coffee has far less acid than pre-ground, and that dark roast has even less on top of that. This was my long way of telling you that my favourite coffee is fresh ground dark roast filter coffee.
Paper filters definitely also get rid of some of the oils that can cause some stomach upset. I know people who make a French press and then pour it through a paper filter
There seems to be an almost left-right spectrum in regards to language learning theories; the "left" swearing upon the basis and purity of comprehensible input, immersion and static listening, and the "right" requiring what amounts to textbook work, flashcards, and grammar practice. UA-cam linguists tend to fall somewhere on it, amusingly. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, depending on the language component studied.
Yes, I knew I shouldn’t have used Spanish, which I’m just starting out in! I’ll be sure to say venimos at some point in my Spanish learning update video
Language-specific learning - in a logical order for the language - is vital. I teach Irish, but have developed my own method, because I’m sick of texts that simply don’t explain sound changes logically, and teach tenses in an order that makes sense for French or Spanish, but is illogical for Irish. My preferred order: imperative, preterite, continuous aspect, present, future, imperfect, conditional, past subjunctive, present subjunctive. It seems odd, but using this order, students build patterns from a logical framework - and the conversational patterns also move more logical from simple/common to complex/uncommon patterns. Of course, verbs and tenses come after we start on the most unique aspects of the language - sound mutations (knowing phonetics makes it simple) - and practise them by building phrases using the most common nouns with numbers, common adjectives and prepositions. Building a little ‘bank’ of phrases, helps you remember words (and their meanings) in context, but also illustrates grammatical rules - so you can use them as ‘templates’ instead of memorising rules (for gender, etc.). A bank of phrases using the most common nouns and adjectives in context also aids fluency.
@@vampyricon7026 I can, but it would probably require too much detail for a comment - especially if you’re unfamiliar with Gaelic or even other Celtic languages. But I’ll try to make it as concise as I can…. (I’ll be cutting a lot of corners and oversimplifying, so please bear that in mind.) There are, in effect, three forms of the verb, ‘to be’, in Irish: the Copula, ‘is’, a special present tense form, ‘tá’, which is only used for the present moment (that is, without ‘habitual’ meaning), and the fully conjugated verb: ‘bí’. From the very beginning, I introduce ‘tá’ (and its various forms) and ‘is’ (and some of its various forms). With the rule-of-thumb, “Tá describes; Is defines”, I get the students learning about nouns, numbers, adjectives and prepositions with (mainly) these two concepts (which many learners struggle to master). Since Irish is a very noun-centred language, you can say a lot with just the copula and ‘tá’ (and a few verbal nouns). [ed. See my other note, posted later, below.] Then to verbs…. 1. The Imperative mood (in its 2nd person singular) is simply the root of the verb. It’s the form you’ll find in the dictionary, and the basic form, from which you divine the ‘stem’ - which takes all the suffixes you’re about to learn. There’s a full conjugation of imperatives in Irish, but I mainly concentrate on the 2nd person singular and plural (which adds a suffix). 2. The Preterite (Past) tense, in most cases, simply requires the speaker to ‘lenite’ the first consonant of the root (change a plosive consonant to fricative) and add a subject (noun or pronoun). There’s a little more to it, but that’s the gist. Irish only has 11 irregular verbs, and they are most irregular in this tense, so we spend more time on them - and they’re the most common verbs, and very often used in conversation. (I’ve invented a board game based on Snakes and Ladders and ‘Truth and Dare’ to practise Imperative and Past tense constructions.) 3. Verbal nouns are next. They’re fairly diverse, you just have to learn them. And they are extremely commonly used in Irish conversation. With the verbal nouns, we learn the ‘continuous aspect’ with ‘tá’ and the preterite, and touch on the ‘active perfect aspect’, too. 4. The Present Tense in Irish is used much as in English - apart from with the senses, it generally has a ‘habititual’ meaning. As in English, then, it is not so commonly used in conversation, unless you’re discussing regular events, daily schedules, pastimes, etc. Tá and Is (the copula) with verbal nouns, etc. do much of the work in basic conversation, so there’s no need to start with the Present Tense (as in French or Italian). Unfortunately, most texts start with this tense probably out of habit from Latin, etc. However, here the students encounter (not only a more complex set of suffixes) but the ‘habitual present’ form of ‘to be’, and need to master it. 5. The Future Tense is quite a complex step, and it is next. It’s needed, not just for making appointments, but for understanding how the Conditional Mood is put together. 6. Most texts ignore the Imperfect (Habitual Past) Tense and plunge headlong into the Conditional Mood - which creates a nightmare for the poor student - not because of the new suffixes in Irish - but because English muddies the waters. (And remember, all Irish speakers also speak English - they are often learned together. ) Instead, I teach the Imperfect Tense first (often ignored by texts) so that the students familiarise themselves with the suffixes (which are the same in three tenses) but also come to grips with the vagaries of English ‘habitual past’ constructions, so that they don’t get muddled up when they learn the Conditional. In Irish and in English, the Conditional and the ‘habitual past’ (Imperfect) can often sound identical (but are written differently in Irish.) Without first learning the Imperfect tense (and the English ‘habitual past’ constructions), it’s no wonder that Irish students have floundered on what is actually a very straightforward framework (and often much simpler than English constructions). 7. Then, when students are comfortable with the Future and Imperfect tense, we join them together into the Future-in-the-Past tense we call the Conditional Mood. First, we learn it for polite requests, refusals and indirect speech. Then we tread carefully into hypothetical situations with subordinate clauses. 8. After the Conditional, the remaining Subjunctive tenses are a breeze. The Past Subjunctive (no longer used in colloquial Irish, having been replaced with the Conditional) is exactly the same as the Imperfect, but introduced with a subordinate conjunction, signalling a different ‘sound mutation’ (that is, ‘eclipsis’ - whereby a voiceless consonant becomes voiced, or a voiced consonant becomes nasal). 9. The Present Subjunctive is a breeze. And thanks to a bunch of set phrases, common in conversation, (like ‘thankyou’), the students are already familiar with many of its uses and forms. It only requires a quick review and a few more useful set phrases. 10. Throughout the introduction of each tense, there’s a quick look at other aspects, the ‘autonomous’ form of the verb in each tense, verbal adjectives, where appropriate. After covering all the tenses, I look at the implied difference between active, passive and autonomous constructions… bringing it all together. Then we go on to tie other bits over vocab together - such as a lesson on comparison of adjectives and related constructions, and a lesson tying together the 72 different directional words in Irish!
@@vampyricon7026 I should also note that Irish does not generally use specific verbs for the equivalents of the English verbs: have, like, prefer, love, want, need, must, should, can, ought, owe, cost, own, seem, mind, wear, hope, know, regret, wonder, hunger, thirst, desire, worry, fear, delight, work, talk, laugh, smile and study. These are most often expressed using ‘tá’ or ‘is’ in combination with a noun, adjective and/or preposition. So, by the time it comes to learning verb conjugations, the Present Tense (used chiefly in a habitual sense) is really not the first tense needed for conversation. Also, Irish has no specific equivalents for ‘yes’ or ‘no’. When answering a closed question, one must repeat the verb (or copula) in the appropriate tense or mood, in its affirmative or negative form. Which is one very important reason for learning verbs properly!
@@noelleggett5368I was about to mention that Irish and Scottish Gaelic don't have their own words for 'yes" and 'no'. While Portuguese does, speakers also use the verb instead of simply just saying 'yes' and 'no'. - "Do you speak Portuguese?" - "I speak, yes." Or simply... - "I speak." - "Do you live in a favela?" - "No, I live no." The Portuguese were a Celtic people before they became Latinized. As with French, they have more phonemes. The counting system in France is very Celtic.
@@bhutchin1996 Primitive Latin and the ancient Celtic languages were quite closely related. Latin originally had no words for yes or no, either. The Romance languages acquired them slightly differently, from disparate Latin dialects. French and German, for instance, have three words for yes/no: oui/si/non, ja/doch/nein. (I haven’t researched whether this is due to the influence of German as ‘Sprachbund’, evidence of the early influence of Germanic-speaking Franks, or a pre-existing Gaulish characteristic.)
This was 100% the process that my Latin teacher/textbook took in high school, which might explain why I learned that so much better than every other time I've tried learning a new language
Me gusta un poco de café con mi leche y azucar. Jejeje. I'm happy learning even one new word a day, regardless of how. Just don't try to throw me into complete immersion as an adult; never doing that again.
Teachers and self-study grammar resources tend to have me practice super simple sentences, limited to one new grammar point at a time. I recently started taking the (long ass amount of) time to translate my natural-in-English thoughts on x topic and write them out, only simplifying if something is confusing enough to be demotivating. It's forcing me to look up a lot of new vocab, differences between similar word choices, and new grammar patterns that are way above my level according to structured curricula but used commonly in basic convos. Ofc I'm not gonna remember everything after one long writing session or after having my writing corrected by a native speaker and having those first aha moments; *most* of it I'm not gonna be able to actively recall for a hot minute probably, but I'm already able to recognize and understand more when listening or reading. Brb, finna go preview all the grammar now.
Shana Tova! I admit I do procrastinate often when it comes to language learning, I go through a textbook and then want to start reading books or shows because otherwise I feel very bored and disinterested, but then doing that feels like slugging through vocab, so I tend to after an hour or so stop and take a break or if I got a headache just stop.
I study Latin. I've been concerned with language acquisition ever since I started with traditional grammar-translation methods in class (I actually studied law, but I got a semester of Latin). it was the usual routine of learning case and verb endings before attempting to translate sentences. although I'll admit I did learn all five declension patterns, I still couldn't get through an average sentence in Latin. fast-forward one year later and I am now aware of Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. yet, I did not properly use it for about three years. finally, I started following some instructions I was given by the most dedicated Latinist I know of. I used it for about four or five months, and I was amazed by the results: I was able to read through most of the «Historia Brittonum», an anonymous text in medieval Latin! although there were many parts I couldn't figure out at all, I still was able to get most of it. ever since, I've been close friends with the direct method for learning languages
Assimil has a good Latin course, but it's not available in English. It's available in French. Still, all the audio is in Latin. I think LLPSI also has separate audio for "Familia Romana".
Trying to not miss my daily Ukrainian exercises in Duolingo when waking up, what a stupid idea, when I need 3 espressi in the same cup with some cold milk to actually REALLY wake up. No wonder these words don't stick...
I was slowly plugging along with French after taking it in highschool, and I'm to the point where I can listen to some content in it. However, I now have a trip to Japan coming in May, so I'm gonna put my head down and try to learn enough that I can at least stumble my way through basic interactions ;)
The bit about getting learners directly into natural sentences is part of the way I'm trying to craft my system for teaching English vowel patterns. I figure that young learners (and foreign learners) will be able to grasp longer words faster so long as the syllabic structure stays simple (mostly open syllables, no consonant clusters), and getting straight into longer words feels like a better move. It's "taco" before "cat", and "We go to the rodeo & see Papa in the arena" seems like it would actually be easier to read than "Blake saw the black cat." (Yes, I'm cheating by using the ampersand. But in my defense, it's a normal English symbol in widespread use, it conveys the concept apart from the sound, it can be pronounced a few different ways (including just "n"), the word itself is core vocab that *should* be introduced early, and this way I don't have to delve into the lax primary sound of A (says, said, again, against, and) long before its key words would show up in my program.) Basically, I'm sticking to a minimalist, low-confusion set of graphemes and introducing them in an order that I haven't seen in any other system -- and putting off, for as long as possible, the more complicated details, such as most of the ambiguous combos (bead, bread, break). Then my color code makes clear the distinction between consonants and vowels, and makes clear which category of vowel rule is in play. One of the stretch words is "hypothermia" -- before the kid can read "spotted". P.S. I have some sort of sensitivity to caffeine -- it gives me headaches that can last for literally hours -- so I haven't a favorite coffee. But I do like Body Armor, which is my favorite way of staying hydrated ^_^
You're putting into words all my frustrations with learning/reviewing french. Speaking and sounding out words is fun but USELESS IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE WORDS MEAN! I'm using a berlitz book and the vocab is at the end of each chapter.
I also have a very vivid memory of trying to memorise a list of English words, but I don't remember the list itself. I really don't like word lists, spaced repetitions and such. I just want to watch YT videos, read stuff, talk to people and translate the words I need for what I'm doing at the moment. I find it way easier to remember a word, because I needed to figure it out when someone was wrong on the internet, or because it came up a lot a video.
I used anki to study Japanese a long time ago. It served its purpose as a way to enrich my vocabulary. It didn't do me good on doing actual conversation but it sufficed. Now that I'm fluent in Japanese I'm trying different way to learn new language (Spanish at the moment). I just simply listen to a lot of Spanish channlei onUA-cam and repeat what they say out loud. To be honest I enjoy it much better than using anki method.
I think anki is so useful for Japanese because the vocabulary is entirely new and can't be linked to anything you know. It's mucheasier in Spanish where at least some words look like English or french words and can be made sense of
@@RammusTheArmordillo Ah yes you do make sense. It's easier to learn Spanish if you know English given the many cognates. On the other hand, I feel like as I grow older I'm more patient listening to foreign contents than looking at flash cards 😁
@@bhutchin1996 Ooh that's nice. I wonder if I could learn Portuguese easily when my Spanish is at a good enough level. That's definitely another challenge in the future I'd like to do 😁
@@jerfareza Even native Spanish speakers have a hard time with Portuguese. When I was learning Portuguese, sure, Spanish helped, but I was treating Portuguese as its own language, which really it is. If you have Netflix, watch some Brazilian movies and TV shows to get an ear for the language, that's how I would start out with a new language. I don't know what kind of music you like, but if you like rap, there's Racionais MCs; if you like R&B, there's Ed Motta and Tim Maia. Sertanejo is Brazil's version of country music. Brazil has good rock and metal music too. It all depends on your tastes in music. Brazil is HUGE in the entertainment world, and that goes for its movies and TV shows too, so Netflix is a good language learning tool.
I've managed to teach myself to read and write Armenian using textbooks and online resources and by reading and translating books of poetry. I don't live near an Armenian community so speaking is more difficult to manage though when I went to LA this summer I found I understood it fairly well when I visited Glendale and Little Armenia.
I tried some Ethiopian coffee and it was pretty good. Just breaking into the coffeesphere myself. Thanks for the videos, you’ve quickly become my favorite language expert on the tube.
I learned French in college, and the teaching of it (at first by a linguist, no less) was excellent. The first course was conducted mostly in French, and the following semesters were 100% in French. All vocabulary was learned in context, and grammar was drilled by progressive transformations. One of the later courses consisted of eight hours a week of free conversation; others revolved around classical literature. And yes, we were told early on that the feminine singular form of an adjective was the critical one from which the other forms can usually be determined.
I’m almost finished the audiobook Learn Japanese with Paul Noble (he also has French and Spanish) and honestly he hits most of the techniques you suggest. Lots of spaced repetition, he specifically asks you *not* to try and remember vocabulary, and the focus is on grammar and learning 5-6 tenses with a very basic scaffolding of nouns and verbs. It feels slow but I suspect I’ll remember more of what he’s taught than any other past course. Kyou no gogo Jones to kouhi wo nomitaidesu! ☕️ (See, I remembered that even without looking it up except for spelling.)
I studied French for 8 years (high school then college) and learning the feminine first makes much more sense looking back. Though, I’m not sure if some teachers would want to adapt that given the severe emphasis sometimes put on the masculine as the “standard” with the whole le masculin l’emporte sur le féminin. I could be wrong but that’s the sense of the mentality I encountered when living in France
You mention learning the determiner with the noun. I began formally learning French when I was 11 in 1963. Although there was some audio-visual input, at that time the teaching was heavily grammar-based. Vocabulary always included the determiner so you didn’t have wonder about the gender. I was surprised when I started using apps to learn a language to find the determiner was no longer given. In some cases it will be obvious, especially in a language like Greek where each gender has specific endings. This is not the case in all languages: in French, for example, ‘piéton’ is masculine, but ‘maison’ is feminine. French nouns ending in ée are usually feminine, but ‘lycée’ and ‘musée’ are masculine. If you’ve learned the determiner with the noun, this presents no problem. I’m all in favour of audio-visual material, but grammar is an important part of any language
Most people can’t just read a grammar to get an orientation. I am helping my teenaged son with his personal goal of learning Modern Greek, and we have found the free “Language Transfer” recordings a good way of getting that overview. It doesn’t have much vocab or practice (though it does have some), but it’s an accessible intro to the structure.
I find that Duolingo does incorporate spaced repetition. It doesn't give choice about this process as it did a few years ago, but by following the vine (or tree or path or whatever they're calling it), it mixes old concepts in with the new. More recent old concepts show up more often. Older old concepts show up less frequently.
Yess ok ty for validation for doing the thing it feels like everyone says we shouldn't bother even looking at until xyz for fear of idk, our heads exploding or something. Not even acknowledging the existence of simple past and future tenses, much less anything else, for a whole (University level) semester is wild.
I think you miss something pretty major at the beginning. You say textbooks, classes are available, but these cost money. Not all of us have money, so the idea of learning by watching UA-cam videos is pretty appealing. I've been pretty successful doing this. Steve Kaufmann's method seems to work well for me, I watch French UA-camrs and whenever I watch English videos I learn new vocab by using autotranslate to get French subtitles (this is such a good trick btw!). The thing is you learn the most common words really quickly, because, well, they're common. It's effortless. I look up grammar when I don't understand something. I would say I'm pretty proficient in reading and listening now, but my speech is slow and I don't think anything will substitute for time spent talking with fluent speakers.
It's not based on any sort of analysis (including proper self-reflection), but I feel like weird approaches may be what we end up remembering. I mean, I know that watching science popular videos and listening to annoying songs wasn't the main reason I got to understand spoken English (which came after speaking some English for me, because post-Soviet system), and that classes made much more difference. But when I started watching these videos (after I had enough of crappy translations), and when after a few weeks I got used to them, I got an epiphany. And now I remember that I got to understand spoken English by watching UA-cam videos, even though it's only technically correct
@@stevencarr4002 Absolutely! Unless they are teachers or grammar nerds native speakers don’t know grammar and have forgotten whatever grammar they learned in school. In the worst case they will avoid saying that they don’t know and come up with some half baked explanation.
@@thedavidguy01 Or unless they speak two or more languages - which is true of a significant majority of non-English speakers in the world. So I guess it could be more accurately stated that ‘native English speakers are very bad at explaining their own language.’
アイスコーヒーは私の一番好きなコーヒー飲み物と思います。。。 I'm actually been working on a memorization app for Japanese for a year now, and I'm glad to say that the ideal version of that app follows what you describe almost pefectly. It's reasuring. It just takes a while to get there. I have radicals, kanji and words, and would ideally add grammar based on the words and kanji you know next. Like you said. It's not easy... Keep up the great work! I'm learning a lot.
W języku polskim, 'Coffee' to 'Kawa' - w tej chwili moja ulubiona kawa jest co robię w domu. Już kupiłem espresso machine, więc robię Latte z syrupem wanilowym As someone trying to learn this ^ mess of a language for the last few years btw, I wish I could have seen someone tell me what you've said in this video when I started. It took me a long time to work out on my own what you've said here Learning grammar piecemeal without introducing the rest in any way is madness. It kinda makes sense on paper but in practice means reading even the simplest 'wild' text in your TL is impossible to even attempt as you're always stumbling across things you have absolute no clue about and can't look up in a dictionary. Spending of time at the start to build a mental image of the whole of the language (even if you forget most of the details), is so useful. The only reason I worked out a lot of what you've said in this video, is through studying Latin for my masters - the course there was grammar and vocab heavy. When I tried buying Polish textbooks after they always spent chapters and chapters at the start getting you to say random real world stuff without any explanation behind it (I'm guessing because they didn't want to overwhelm the reader), but it meant I never really knew what I was doing at a more fundamental level which allows me to internalise and truly memorise the language. So I went out of my way to buy a grammar book that looked like my Latin one - no nonsense, cold and heartless, but to the point! Then combined this with other fun imput and methods mentioned in the video. (Anyone interested in, or currently learning, Polish - the book I got was Dana Bielec's routledge grammar and workbook Tldr: From my experience, this video will help you learn a language far, far better than most other UA-cam language learner channels, and is an absolute gem for those at the start of the journey who don't have to struggle to reach this conclusion years down the line!
Hey, I recognize your issue here as well. I am studying Macedonian, but textbooks that focus on grammar are usually the ones used in universities (in my case UToronto). Maybe this can help you find a good supportive book for studying Polish😊
First, kudos for learning Polish. Only crazy people, and Poles, do that. Second, very good attempt, but I believe it should be "W tej chwili moją ulubioną kawą jest ta, którą robię w domu. Kupiłem ekspres do kawy, więc robię latte z syropem waniliowym." Good luck with your Polish studies!
@@zerostrong3516 Rozumiem dlaczego powinienem użyć '... ta, którą...', ale czemu narzędnik kiedy chcę mowić 'moja ulubiona kawa'. Guessing the 'w tej chwili' is influencing it but 'tej chwili' isn't instrumental either?
I had studied a little Latin before studying Russian for 2 years at university, and that helped a lot with Russian grammar. Polish's "to have (something)" is more like English, whereas in Russian it's more like Latin's "Est mihi ___" and Gaelic's "Tha ___ agam".
@@MichaelH-h5u You could say "moja ulubiona kawa, to ta, którą robię w domu" or "moją ulubioną kawą jest ta, którą robię w domu", both have the same meaning. as to why you use instrumental in the second one, I can't tell you, i had to google what instrumental was. i have zero knowledge of grammatical concepts, that's why i'm not fluent in any language :(
I don't like mnemonics because then I remember the mnemonic first anytime I think of something related to it. It's useful in that I can't forget the thing the mnemonic is supposed to help me remember. It's annoying though because now that concept is forever entwined with an intrusive thought that necessarily always accompanies the concept.
Lately I've been craving tea. Specifically Foggy London Lattes. I think I might have an idea as to why language courses ask students to read/listen to a passage first and then introduce students to new vocabulary and grammar rather than the reverse (i.e. introduction to new vocabulary and grammar and then read the passage). Passage first does feel like putting the cart in front of the horse. But I think that's just those educators setting up their students for the real world. Teaching them to fish, so to say. When was the last time you read a standard, run-of-the-mill newspaper that included a vocabulary list with each article? I just think the teachers want to give their students a chance to infer what new words might be. Like, it's a quaint way to bridge the gap between "These are all of the words that you'll ever need to know 🌈" and "There's a lot of words out there, kid. Best of luck 🤷♂️".
I've just restarted my Māori learning and am using AnkiDroid for vocab and reading a slightly over-simplified introductory grammar called "Te Reo Māori - the Basics Explained" Its focus is very much on that "here's where the grammar is different from English" approach you mention. Which, given that it's Austronesian and not IE, is a lot of difference. Your video has bumped a more detailed grammar up my purchase list, thank you. Sorry I can't shout you a coffee this week (doppio ristretto ftw)
Fun coffee/language trivia: affogato coffee (with the icecream) means, in Italian, drowned. Like the ice cream drowned in the ocean of coffee. Pretty grim
For a good caffeine ride, black tea and matcha are options that limit the crash you get in the end. Also I wouldn't mind being a hot cup of coffee 😂😂 Very interesting video by the way.
If you haven't already, you should look into Lingua Latina per se Illustrata and the rest of the Nature method books. They are, in my opinion, some of the best language learning books ever devised
That was a pretty sweet subjunctive. It made me happy. I can't stand the bitterness of coffee, so I cling to sugar free energy drinks for my daily fix.
I feel like Practice Portuguese, a podcast/app put together by a first language Portuguese speaker and a first language English speaker achieves a lot of what you've outlined here.
Not a platform per se, but my Hebrew book (HaYesod) puts 20ish vocab words before each grammar lesson, then there's an on-level story and finally translation exercises.
10:58 Coffee favs. For festive occasions, con leche. Au lait, olé, olé, olé. More normally espresso or even more often allongé. That's like espresso but with more water and the extreme form is called americano (while French use "américain" considerably less). Alternative names for allongé are: * long * lungo. As you can see, Paris has some Italian patina to it (except patina is probably the wrong comparison).
I'll be honest. I am on 3 hours of sleep and I'm kind of only half catching things here. I know it was an example, but yes. I do wish I was coffee sometimes. ☕️
Here you go L.J. Your vicarious coffee boost as requested. I'm having a freshly brewed coffee mug of Folger's coffee that is just strong enough to peel the eyes open without eating the lining of the stomach. There's just enough sugar to smooth out the acidic taste without turning it into a cup of nauseating syrup. The smell is so enticing while I wait for the temperature of the coffee to drop below insta-scald levels. Ahhhh...... here we go! DELICIOUS! Would I want to be coffee? Naw, it just ends up in the sewer. I'd rather drink it!
Personally, I find the greetings, things like "do you speak English?", "where's the bathroom" to be best first. After those are down, then get the subject/objects and verbs down in the present, or a present, then branch into the past, a past, then a future. Leave the other moods for after getting a present, past, and future down.
I’ve met a German colleague at work yesterday. I’m trying to learn German. She asked me if I could speak German and I almost threw at her “Ich trinke Milch“ duolingo stuff, but I limited myself to say my name and where I’m from. I was so frustrated because I memorized a lot of words that I don’t use in most occasions.
Germans will just speak English with you if they know your German communication skills are basic. I don't really blame them, but it doesn't help the language learner. If you can afford it, you'd want to find a private tutor.
@@bhutchin1996 sure! We communicate in English most of the time, but I’m curious to try speaking more and more German and she is really kind to have some time to listen to me. I’m starting my German lessons in February.
The only people worried about how people learn language "efficiently" and "scientifically" are people who make UA-cam videos on how to learn languages efficiently and scientifically. I participate in a number of French conversation groups, and participants tend to do what they feel like doing to learn or re-learn French. From my unscientific studies, I conclude that the best way to learn is to what you feel like doing, do it often, and wing it in a conversation group (or several). You'll get feedback and force yourself to learn how to articulate what's in your head in real-time (the feedback sticks). The groups are fun and most people who come regularly improve a lot over time. Happy Rosh Hashanah!
@@bryan143 I have had a different experience with conversation groups. Most people don’t improve at all even after several years of trying. They mostly stay at exactly the same level and continue to make exactly the same mistakes. I don’t think it’s a question of methods but of not putting in enough effort and time to really learn. Learning a language is very time consuming even if you are doing it well.
I was in a conversation group in Montreal. It was dominated by a loud mouth who spoke French with an English Canadian accent and grammar. I do agree with your do what you enjoy approach.
@@thedavidguy01 That hasn't been my experience in two different languages (French and German). People who attend regularly and actively participate tend to improve over time. And that's the key: stick with it.
@@Emile.gorgonZola I haven't seen that among people who stick with it and participate. No doubt some don't improve, but they tend to give up and stop coming.
This is the video I am wholeheartedly agreeing with. Also, thanks for the tip about French. Learning will be much easier now. That is after I nail Japanese at some decent level. :P You asked for coffee? Unfortunately, impossible to send it via fibre cable, but here's the sentence in my native Polish: Lubię kawę. Kawusię (lil' coffee, dear coffer). Kawunię (also little coffee/dear coffee, just a variant of diminutive). Kaweczkę. Kaweczusię. Kaweczunię. Yes, if Polish does something well it's diminutives :P I am crap at my languages I learn now so I'll stick to my native one.
Lots of valuable points. I've learnt Swiss German with a small local language school who had an approach pretty close to what you describe. Nitpick: "give me an overview over the grammar first" is a craving specific to linguists and teachers. Most people are not linguists and thus not conscious of the grammatical structures in their native language. We learn our native language without grammar lessons. I dare say stories and books help - you can't reach full accuracy with all grammatical phenomena if some of them only exist in written language.
Teaching in the public school system, I had a principal who had done a French program in France that led to one word really sticking with him. He didn't know what the word "huitre" meant. When he asked the prof, rather than explaining, he just went on this tirade, "Imaginez! Il ne sait pas qu'est-ce que c'est un huitre! Imaginez!" I'm not suggesting this as a strategy, but it's a funny story, and it did work.
I feel that I benefit from using a textbook, but going through a textbook is a hard work. Hence watching language learning videos or somethings similar is a way to avoid hard work, convincing yourself that you're doing useful thing
the same!!
but it's better than nothing
though it is ok to stop and have fun.
Holy shit! Same! I have so many language textbooks just waiting for me to use lol
You could try language learning videos in your target language,that’s what I did when I started to feel that I was wasting time by spending hours watching them.thanks god there’s a huge amount of videos in English cause idk if I can just quit .there might be in your target language too as long as you are not learning Ongota or something like that
I feel attacked 😂 but totally agree
Re: Anki. Japanese learners were early adopters of Anki for language learning, and developing tools for grabbing content from popular media to create flashcards in it.
On the note of tools that integrate with anki, Yomitan is supporting more and more languages all the time. I didn't count how many it had last I looked, but it was probably at least a dozen different languages.
Not just early adopters, the program was developed to help study Japanese. The name Anki is the Japanese word 暗記 meaning memorization
Here’s to everyone learning another language!
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Hiiii
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The "stop just giving me a verb that I can only use in the simplest contexts" gripe is so real man. I gotta buy a portuguese grammar don't I.
It worked for me. I believe the author's name was Raul d'Eca; the C has a cedilla mark on it. Listen to songs in Portuguese too. One recommendation is Cristian Araujo's "Voce mudou": 'E quando despertar...' I think that's the future subjunctive, which looks just like the infinitive in 1st and 3rd person singular. It could also be the personal infinitive.
My personal example was: "Se tivesse bastante dinheiro, estaria morando no Brasil." However, most Brazilians are too nice to correct your mistakes. I think that people in Portugal would be different that way, but there are a lot fewer learning materials for European Portuguese, and they don't seem as impressed by foreigners learning their language as Brazilians tend to be. Boa sorte!
@@bhutchin1996 Thanks for the rec! And yeah I've been listening to plenty of music and trying to watch online comedy skits too. Porta dos Fundos is amazing.
Get John Whitlam’s Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar (assuming you want Brazilian dialect). Best $ you will ever spend.
You also need to change your approach depending on what languages you already know. I speak French and know its grammar well and now I’m learning Italian. I don’t need to study Italian grammar in the same way as I studied French grammar. I just need to learn where Italian grammar is different than French grammar. I also don’t need to spend much time on vocabulary that is very similar between the languages. I need to focus on the words that are completely different.
I think all of his videos are from the perspective of an English speaker trying to learn other languages. You, being a native speaker of a romance language, rightfully need to have a different approach to learning another romance language
@@canchero724 I am a native English speaker, and what @thedavidguy01 says is accurate. I started learning French in 6th grade, Spanish in 10th grade, and Italian in 12th grade. Spanish study was based on similarities and differences with French. Italian study was based on similarities and differences with French and with Spanish (similar/similar, different/similar, similar/different, different/different). It's a simplification, but I would often say that Italian was 49% French, 49% Spanish and 2% other.
As a bonus, when I took German I as an undergrad, there were grad students in French, Spanish, and Italian taking German as a required second language. They each had trouble with some aspect of the language, and I was able to help all of them by drawing comparisons with their focus languages.
Alas, I'm 3 decades removed from that time, though, and all 4 languages have atrophied to varying degrees.
comparative/contrastive approach, someone actually does this. Refreshing. :)
@@canchero724 contrastive approach is universal, it means you contrast your native language with the language you wanna learn. French grammar is a tad bit different but you will know a lot of vocab, because of the French influence during Normans times. Pronunciation is totally different and you need to learn which sounds are approximates and you can go for there (unaccentuated e - sounds a bit like schwa) and which are new sounds (j - in jeune). By knowing what is easier and what is harder to learn and when you can be both prepared and shuffle around your schedule. Works for every language, even those very exotic ones. If everything is different you contrast: e.g. Chinese: speech - tones, need a lot of work with it, grammar -a bit easier, no tenses, there are words to clarify that, contextual, meaning unlike English it may be a bit more vague if translated directly (seriously, don't do that). etc. there will be always something easy about the language and something difficult.
Shanah tovah! Thanks for helping people avoid the common pitfalls of language learning. I was on my 4th language before I got these things down: 1. Learn the structure of the language and decide how to proceed through that structure most effectively 2. Match your learning process to how the language is actually used (read, listen to, write about, and speak about things like people who use that language already do) 3. Use tools for learning in a way that works (based on personal experience and research) rather than just taking for granted that how other have used it traditionally will work for you. Those tools included textbooks, free composition exercises, outside reading, listening to music, singing, Anki, and Duolingo. But I don't limit myself to those tools. I'm willing to use whatever works. Also, whatever makes it interesting and fun.
This is the way
Netflix too, but they don't have a lot of movies or TV shows in Hebrew.
Pretty much my process for learning German. I did take classes at first, though. And I now have an italki tutor so that I can get some speaking practice.
@@languagejones6784bro, I have something valuable for you and your subscribers, I've mailed you regarding, check it out, Im sure that you would love it💯
@@bhutchin1996 For learning Hebrew though - Living Language series is one of the best and I had a chance to look at tHebrew course they made - really decent although they keep the diacritics (?) to help with pronunciation for quite a long time :/ A friend tried to learn Hebrew and she showed me the book, since I've recommended her the series.
Forgetting better for getting better. :)
Oh I like that
University language teacher here. A really good video, with really good helpers for learners! It made me think of when I was teaching Portuguese in a Chinese university and looking at how students in there would learn the vocabulary. They would simply write a word down 10-20 times. And it made me realised that that is the system they are used to because of learning their own language - Chinese characters need practice and repetition!
So, my point is that the way we learn (and the way we should learn) languages also is bound to be more or less successful due to our geography. So, for example, it would be really interesting to counter the repetitive learning process of a Chinese student providing them with a different learning approach, to see how impactful (for better / worse) that would be.
The Gold List Method could work for Chinese students like that. Tem mais de um jeito de quebrar um galho.
You can trust any man with an O'Reily UNIX book on his bookshelf.
Well spotted!🎉
Maybe he's a Linux user too.
Where is it?!
My favorite Duolingo nonsense was when I tried learning Haitian Creole with it, and it would constantly give me those "fill in the missing word in this sentence" type quizzes where the blank word was the name of a person. So it would say "Andre loves his coffee" and the quiz would be "______ renmen kafe li".
It's surprisingly common in the Italian course too. I'm guessing it must be common across all their languages. It would be simple for them to change it I assume. I wonder why they dont
This sentence seems to be very silly, because the answer is most likely "Andre renmen kafe li." But if you take your time, you have a simple example for a correct word order. So the important part of the sentence is "kafe li", not "Andre".
@@Hofer2304 Yes, but all that was already done in the app. The only part it wanted me to fill in was the name. If it happened once, I'd get it, but it continued module after module. Not every single question, but usually more than once per exercise.
@@NeverTheSame These simple tasks are also a kind of break.
In the French course it gave me sentences that weren't even missing words, so I just typed a single space and was marked correct.
The only thing I’ve really stuck to in the long term is about 15-25 minutes of flash cards a day. Besides that, I sorta do whatever as long as it adds up to another 30 mins to an hour of study. Sometimes that means watching a movie, other times it means reading a book out loud, sometimes it means listening to an audiobook while reading along, sometimes it means listening to a true crime podcast.
As long as I’m consistent with around an hour of what I find to be engaging and effective studies a day, I know I’ll get there eventually.
Also it helps that I live in the country, so I get a ton of listening and speaking practice by just existing.
The best method is the one you’re able to stick to. I keep trying to convince myself to read and do textbooks but I never last more than a day or so.
@@paulwalther5237 Yep, exactly. Trust me, I was basically just using apps and flashcards (along with living in the country) for about a year before I was really able to dive into books and movies. If you have any sort of audio streaming services, and if your language is large enough, I would really recommend m*rder mystery/serial k*ller/true crime podcasts in your TL. I know it sounds weird, but they're very easy to follow for some reason.
I've just recently (within the last 6 months) reached the point where I can read and listen to engaging books while staying entertained and learning. Once you get over the hump it's worth it though.
I've been doing almost exactly the same for some months and I've gotten pretty accustomed to it
I have lots of materials I'm interested in (books, short stories, light novels, series) and, thanks to the vocabulary sticking better thanks to that routine, in the long run it's making wonders
I feel like all that's left is to trust the process and slowly pick up pieces of language along the way :-)
Note: I should definitely mention that I can keep this up only because I have a decent knowleadge of vocabulary and understanding of grammar, or immersion would be quite harsh
I remember learning French in school, we heard a whole lesson, had to repeat the dialogue without any written clues and in the end got the text, I was anxious and felt like an idiot, ....
I swore to not let that unpleasant experience deter me from learning French, so I went to a language course, read French novels, watched French films and visited France in order to have to speak French
With other languages I also prefer to start with the grammar to get an idea how the language "works"
Kaffee ist wirklich ein Lebensretter😂☕️ eine Wiener Melange
I teach German as a foreign language professionally and I agree with you concerning the grammar: All these colourful textbooks treat the grammar like a special surprise, only to be revealed step by tiny little step. That is ludicrous and it makes me furious.
I'm learning German almost entirely on my own with youtube, do you have any recommendations for books about German grammar?
How are you supposed to reveal the grammar all at once, instead of building knowledge step by step? Can you say a little bit more about what you mean? I'd love to learn more about your perspective and experiences.
I majored in German in university and took a course in Germany. But before that, I was using a German book from more than 100 years ago to learn the grammar! It was all in the Frakturschrift. But I liked the explanations and the many examples, which were different than what I saw in modern German textbooks.
@@mrkingsudo The "C-Grammatik" by Buscha et al. is very good (Schubert-Verlag). I am not sure whether you can get it in English though, which would be a good idea if your level is only A1/A2.
@@resourceress7 You... explain it with graphs and example phrases(?). I am not sure what kind of problems you see with this. Maybe you could elaborate a little.
I can definitely get behind learning the whole grammar first. I did that for Korean and it set me up to naturally learn vocabulary while listening, because I could more easily infer what parts were what.
커피 아예 안먹어요!
This is going to help as such an important start to studying a language that doesn't have many structural supports to be learned so far. I'm learning on the fly how to learn Sinama, which doesn't have many written grammars yet, but this overview is helping me understand how to make something more concrete about what I can explore and build around. I hope to speak with you someday about it but this is incredibly helpful, thank you for sharing so generously
The biggest language learning mistake I ever made in my life was listening to language teachers who said speak the other language in full sentences. If you don't know enough words, you can't practice. If you mix the language with your own language, then you can practice and say whatever you want. I try to do it this way now many years later, and I don't know if it will work, but I like being able to practice the language even if I don't know every word. In school, they teach too many words and rules too fast, so you can't really learn anything, except temporary memorization of rules and words. I would rather experiment and try wacky ideas than listen to experts who couldn't teach a dog to bark. If they tried to teach a dog to bark, it would probably end up meowing.
You’re describing what is sometimes called “interlanguage” as a study method. You hit on exactly the best practice
As a heritage spanish speaker who learned portuguese this is exactly what I did in my earliest stagest of learning. Obviously there is a ridiculous amount of overlap when learning portuguese as a spanish speaker so I was already reading and understanding so much. What was lacking was my vocabulary. I studied the phonology and almost immediately threw myself in to live conversations with portuguese speakers, often "inventing" words on the spot or guessing what they would be based on the spanish equivalent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but I would always look up the word I stumbled upon and add the portuguese to my anki deck later to study. Here 3 years later comfortably fluent in brazilian portuguese. It's a method that works.
Schools have to find ways to grade you, so of course they're going to have you learn as much vocabulary and grammar as possible. While that's important, it's more important to fail than "get it right" the first time everytime. Business entrepreneurs know this. They know that they will have failures on the way to success. On the other hand, schools teach us to be afraid to fail or even make mistakes.
@@luiscruz5556I learned Spanish first. When I started learning Brazilian Portuguese, I treated it as its own language rather than apply my knowledge of Spanish to it. I ignored Spanish for many years while learning and using Portuguese. However, learning Portuguese has taught me so much more Spanish. My approach was different, but it worked well for me too.
Helpful. One of my most prescient teachers said again and again: you’ll see all the grammar all the time. I’ve never regretted taking his classes. I was going crazy with my ignorance of Russian grammar.
Sorry if this sounds a bit pedantic, but at 7:52 the correct 1st person plural form of venir is venimos, not venemos.
Happy rosh Hashanah Jones! Happy new year!
May you learn as many languages as you desire!
I think its important to note that no one persons learning style is going to be the same, I had to learn that for myself learning Korean. I treated the language as if I were a 5 year old learning it at school, I started with the sounds and worked my way up. I had to develop this method and various others that work for me from watching 100s of UA-cam videos.
I like to write notes while reading French textbooks. Old fashioned. And I actually study these notes.
I also make Pinterest grammar posts and use certain words in example sentences to teach myself the meanings.
☕☕ Taylor, you are not the first person to say some, many, or all of these observations, but you are certainly the first person to put together a comprehensive and cogent summary of these points. Bravo. I studied French (badly) for seven years beginning in middle school and although I could read Molière, I couldn't write a letter or order a cup of coffee. On the other hand, I began German study (after learning Ancient Greek and Latin) as a senior in college followed by a summer at the Middlebury College Summer Language Program. I then moved to German speaking Switzerland 35 years later (!) and tested at the B2 level on the CEFR scale. What I do now (for continued learning in German and French and new learning in Italian and modern Greek) is simple: mostly what you suggested. It works. I do a lot of listening, a lot of reading, a lot of writing, a bit of spaced repetition. For French I do the dreaded dictées. I transcribe native audio-nothing improves listening comprehension better than transcribing 30 seconds of real speech. Lastly, I prep myself as I need to. I make domain specific lists of words and phrases. For instance, I just did my Swiss tax returns (in German), so I studied tax, income, investment related vocabulary. Somewhat related, I also write out scripts. I needed a cabinet repaired in my apartment, so…I learned a lot of kitchen cabinetry words and ways you can break or damage the cabinets. Bravo, again!
I'm making a learn English course which uses spaced repetition and tries to put as much vocab review as possible into little stories while minimizing flashcard style repetition. Optimizing the administration is difficult and it isn't immediately obvious how to deal with users have inconsistent schedules.
Part of the problem is that, especially in the beginning, new stories have NEW vocab, which is a review liability. The obvious solution is to re-read the same story, but that is boring, and I hated when Duolingo forced me to read stories I'd already done before.
I'm part of the Awesome Coffee Club or whatever Hank Green renamed it to ☕
Overall generally good advice. I think something that was glossed over quickly was the emphasis that listening, comprehension, internal modeling, and speaking have to go through the existing brain structures, i.e., the fact that you declaratively know this information and the fact that it sits in your pre-frontal cortex is of little use to the motor neurons and other brain structure that will have to process this information in a real conversation.
I think you’ve made the point in previous videos that iTalki and having real conversations is when you start to feel like actual process is being made. If you understand that these are the situations where all the brain structures are interacting, not just the explicit knowledge in the prefrontal cortex, it’s obvious why these methods are much more effective.
I'm studying an Anki deck for JLPT N5 that TokiniAndy made, and it's really interesting how it's done. It's got vocabulary and grammar. Recall cards only for vocabulary. Each vocabulary card has the English meaning of the word, the pitch accent, an example sentence in Japanese (no English translation), and audio of a native speaker saying the word and the sentence. Practical real world descriptions of grammar points with examples.
New cards are presented in order, and each card introduces only one new word. The vocab card may introduce new grammar in the sentence that is then explained on the next card.
So what happens is that as you bring new cards into your review, you learn one new thing per card. As you go through the deck, the example sentences become more complex, using only words and grammar points you've learned and providing reinforcement for those. You are left to figure out the meaning of the example sentence _without translating_, and I think that's a plus.
I don't think I've ever caught one of these this early. Here goes a target language attempt.
私はコーヒーが好きです
僕もコーヒーが大好きですよ!
This might be the first time I read a japanese youtube comment and immidiately understand it. I like tea better though.
俺もコーヒーが好きだ
@@RasmusMolckso コーヒーより茶の方が好き
Oh~ a fellow Japanese learner!! BTW did you know coffee has a kanji!? it's 珈琲... though it's not used that often, most Japanese people can read it!
3:55 honestly so glad to hear this from another person, i dont even know *why* i hate them so much but i think their heavy usage in the class i was taking is what single-handedly turned me away from learning spanish
Just for you. Variations of coffee in Romanian 🇷🇴 🇲🇩
coffee = cafea ☕
the coffee = cafeaua ☕
of the coffee = cafelei ☕
coffees = cafele ☕☕☕
the coffees = cafelele ☕☕☕
of the coffees = cafelelor ☕☕☕
I never thought about learning feminine adjectives first in French until you just explained it. I’m L1 Spanish, and my mental map is that the masculine is the default and the feminine is the exception and assumed the same in French. I might be as wrong in Spanish as I was until ten minutes ago in French, but je n’ai eu pas encore assez de café pour penser aux adjectifs en espagnol
I learned French orally (before learning to write) and there's lots of these little ways I'm surprised French is taught normally.
I'm also L1 in Spanish and I've learned French, Italian and Portuguese using masculine as the default and learned how to form the feminine so I can't think of it the other way around. Besides, you'll end up realizing the masculine should be taught as the default since in plural, you use masculine nouns and adjectives to describe a mixed or only male group of people.
It makes sense to do it that way just because there are fewer exceptions: take the feminine and remove the last consonant (phonetically that is). Doesn't always work (e.g. bretonne/breton, belle/beau, première/premier, etc.) but there are far fewer exceptions if you do it that way than if you try to derive the feminine from the masculine.
If you're looking at it historically though, i.e. diachronically, in that case the masculine was (is?) the "default" form. Essentially, the masculine used to be pronounced more or less the same as the feminine is today, and the feminine was derived from the masculine by adding a schwa at the end. Then through a process of elision we ended up where we are today. It's a messy topic because of that disconnect between diachronic and synchronic analysis. For the practical purposes of learning the language, sure, it makes a whole lot of sense to start with the feminine. If we're talking linguistic theory though, I think you'll find that a lot of linguists would disagree that the masculine is "actually" derived from the feminine through substractive morphology. Well, not that it matters. It's not like linguists ever agree on anything tbh. ^^
I like all of the things you talk about.. and would add one more: context. Almost everything in learning is about building context. When you are trying to learn a new thing, and it fits into a hole in what you already know that makes everything else you know make even more sense, learning can be nearly effortless. Building up the context that makes that possible, however, is something that nowhere near enough is known about.
I remember a day, probably in my first week of studying Russian, flipping through flashcards with my mother, as she was trying to come up with mnemonics, when she said "chitats me to read". This story is the embodiment of mnemonics for me: 40 years later I remember that. If I'd read it in a textbook, it would most likely have been as meaningless as all of the other mnemonics she came up with that day that I've forgotten. I remember another day, some years later having a two page long vocabulary list of words all related to reading, and essentially having it memorized after going through the list once. The difference wasn't that my memory got better. It was that the first time I had no context for the literally "foreign" word. By the time I had that list to memorize, I had enough context of the language that chitalnii, chitatelnii, chitavshii, chitaushchii, etc., etc. all had hooks that connected to things that I already knew, so they fit, and they made sense.
I wish I knew shortcuts to building context to make the process easier. There are many approaches that certainly do not work: spoonfeeding vocabulary and grammar for example. No language makes sense one tense and gender at a time. Immersion learning works to the extent it works by flooding you with context, which is completely overwhelming and confusing at first, until you either give up, or it starts to stick. That, and making lots and lots of mistakes along the way.
I really appreciate having your authority on UA-cam. You are my go-to. ❤❤❤
カフェなどいたらコーヒーは大丈夫ですがお茶の方が好き。毎日飲みます
"Why your language method is set up to fail"
Probably because this video came up just as I finished work for the day and as I was about to sit down and study.
I also had three bad French teachers at school (all for different reasons). The last was a native speaker who learned English at a young age. We'd have lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday and she expected us to memorise 30 new words and be able to recognise them in flowing speech and produce them the following day.
I also don't remember anything from those French lessons except a few rude phrases.
They just don’t build in the time needed to develop recognition in isolation, recognition in regular speech, and production. It’s like they think teaching a new word is handing you a new object and now you have the object. It just doesn’t work that way!
Kaffee ist Leben! ☕️ Meine lieblings Kaffee ist Caramel Macchiato. Tolles Video.
(Moonwalking aus den Kommentaren...)
Ja, Kaffee ist Leben. Jetzt trinke ich schwarzen Kaffee. ☕
こうやって「時間を無駄にしない」ために文法を先に勉強することを勧めてるけど、日本人はおおむねそうやって英語を勉強してて結果は散々なんよね。ジョーンズさんが英語から離れた言語を平均的な人より短期間で習得できてるっていう証拠もないし、結局は「ぼくがかんがえたさいきょうの学習方法」の域を出てない
My dream course would have you learn basic vocabulary and grammar, and then have a lot of minecraft videos using these words, and progressively adding more advanced vocabulary. this is how I learned english, my school has taught me simple grammar and vocab, then I watched a lot of english minecraft videos to actually learn the language.
Years ago, my wife developed an intolerance for the acid buildup in pre-ground filter coffee. It would cause her serious stomach and abdominal pain from only one cup. So we did some research and found that fresh ground coffee has far less acid than pre-ground, and that dark roast has even less on top of that. This was my long way of telling you that my favourite coffee is fresh ground dark roast filter coffee.
Paper filters definitely also get rid of some of the oils that can cause some stomach upset. I know people who make a French press and then pour it through a paper filter
That’s wild. I was convinced I couldn’t taste the difference between freshly ground and pre ground coffee. Just between expensive and cheap beans.
There seems to be an almost left-right spectrum in regards to language learning theories; the "left" swearing upon the basis and purity of comprehensible input, immersion and static listening, and the "right" requiring what amounts to textbook work, flashcards, and grammar practice. UA-cam linguists tend to fall somewhere on it, amusingly. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, depending on the language component studied.
Cognitive bias making me "immerse" by rewatching my favourite shows to learn go brrrrr
Venemos is wrong! Venir: el viene - nosotros venimos - ustedes vienen - ellos vienen. Venemos doesn't exist in Spanish.
Yes, I knew I shouldn’t have used Spanish, which I’m just starting out in! I’ll be sure to say venimos at some point in my Spanish learning update video
Language-specific learning - in a logical order for the language - is vital. I teach Irish, but have developed my own method, because I’m sick of texts that simply don’t explain sound changes logically, and teach tenses in an order that makes sense for French or Spanish, but is illogical for Irish. My preferred order: imperative, preterite, continuous aspect, present, future, imperfect, conditional, past subjunctive, present subjunctive. It seems odd, but using this order, students build patterns from a logical framework - and the conversational patterns also move more logical from simple/common to complex/uncommon patterns.
Of course, verbs and tenses come after we start on the most unique aspects of the language - sound mutations (knowing phonetics makes it simple) - and practise them by building phrases using the most common nouns with numbers, common adjectives and prepositions. Building a little ‘bank’ of phrases, helps you remember words (and their meanings) in context, but also illustrates grammatical rules - so you can use them as ‘templates’ instead of memorising rules (for gender, etc.). A bank of phrases using the most common nouns and adjectives in context also aids fluency.
Can you explain why you're teaching the verbs in that order?
@@vampyricon7026 I can, but it would probably require too much detail for a comment - especially if you’re unfamiliar with Gaelic or even other Celtic languages. But I’ll try to make it as concise as I can…. (I’ll be cutting a lot of corners and oversimplifying, so please bear that in mind.)
There are, in effect, three forms of the verb, ‘to be’, in Irish: the Copula, ‘is’, a special present tense form, ‘tá’, which is only used for the present moment (that is, without ‘habitual’ meaning), and the fully conjugated verb: ‘bí’.
From the very beginning, I introduce ‘tá’ (and its various forms) and ‘is’ (and some of its various forms). With the rule-of-thumb, “Tá describes; Is defines”, I get the students learning about nouns, numbers, adjectives and prepositions with (mainly) these two concepts (which many learners struggle to master). Since Irish is a very noun-centred language, you can say a lot with just the copula and ‘tá’ (and a few verbal nouns). [ed. See my other note, posted later, below.]
Then to verbs….
1. The Imperative mood (in its 2nd person singular) is simply the root of the verb. It’s the form you’ll find in the dictionary, and the basic form, from which you divine the ‘stem’ - which takes all the suffixes you’re about to learn. There’s a full conjugation of imperatives in Irish, but I mainly concentrate on the 2nd person singular and plural (which adds a suffix).
2. The Preterite (Past) tense, in most cases, simply requires the speaker to ‘lenite’ the first consonant of the root (change a plosive consonant to fricative) and add a subject (noun or pronoun). There’s a little more to it, but that’s the gist. Irish only has 11 irregular verbs, and they are most irregular in this tense, so we spend more time on them - and they’re the most common verbs, and very often used in conversation. (I’ve invented a board game based on Snakes and Ladders and ‘Truth and Dare’ to practise Imperative and Past tense constructions.)
3. Verbal nouns are next. They’re fairly diverse, you just have to learn them. And they are extremely commonly used in Irish conversation. With the verbal nouns, we learn the ‘continuous aspect’ with ‘tá’ and the preterite, and touch on the ‘active perfect aspect’, too.
4. The Present Tense in Irish is used much as in English - apart from with the senses, it generally has a ‘habititual’ meaning. As in English, then, it is not so commonly used in conversation, unless you’re discussing regular events, daily schedules, pastimes, etc. Tá and Is (the copula) with verbal nouns, etc. do much of the work in basic conversation, so there’s no need to start with the Present Tense (as in French or Italian). Unfortunately, most texts start with this tense probably out of habit from Latin, etc. However, here the students encounter (not only a more complex set of suffixes) but the ‘habitual present’ form of ‘to be’, and need to master it.
5. The Future Tense is quite a complex step, and it is next. It’s needed, not just for making appointments, but for understanding how the Conditional Mood is put together.
6. Most texts ignore the Imperfect (Habitual Past) Tense and plunge headlong into the Conditional Mood - which creates a nightmare for the poor student - not because of the new suffixes in Irish - but because English muddies the waters. (And remember, all Irish speakers also speak English - they are often learned together. ) Instead, I teach the Imperfect Tense first (often ignored by texts) so that the students familiarise themselves with the suffixes (which are the same in three tenses) but also come to grips with the vagaries of English ‘habitual past’ constructions, so that they don’t get muddled up when they learn the Conditional. In Irish and in English, the Conditional and the ‘habitual past’ (Imperfect) can often sound identical (but are written differently in Irish.) Without first learning the Imperfect tense (and the English ‘habitual past’ constructions), it’s no wonder that Irish students have floundered on what is actually a very straightforward framework (and often much simpler than English constructions).
7. Then, when students are comfortable with the Future and Imperfect tense, we join them together into the Future-in-the-Past tense we call the Conditional Mood. First, we learn it for polite requests, refusals and indirect speech. Then we tread carefully into hypothetical situations with subordinate clauses.
8. After the Conditional, the remaining Subjunctive tenses are a breeze. The Past Subjunctive (no longer used in colloquial Irish, having been replaced with the Conditional) is exactly the same as the Imperfect, but introduced with a subordinate conjunction, signalling a different ‘sound mutation’ (that is, ‘eclipsis’ - whereby a voiceless consonant becomes voiced, or a voiced consonant becomes nasal).
9. The Present Subjunctive is a breeze. And thanks to a bunch of set phrases, common in conversation, (like ‘thankyou’), the students are already familiar with many of its uses and forms. It only requires a quick review and a few more useful set phrases.
10. Throughout the introduction of each tense, there’s a quick look at other aspects, the ‘autonomous’ form of the verb in each tense, verbal adjectives, where appropriate. After covering all the tenses, I look at the implied difference between active, passive and autonomous constructions… bringing it all together.
Then we go on to tie other bits over vocab together - such as a lesson on comparison of adjectives and related constructions, and a lesson tying together the 72 different directional words in Irish!
@@vampyricon7026 I should also note that Irish does not generally use specific verbs for the equivalents of the English verbs: have, like, prefer, love, want, need, must, should, can, ought, owe, cost, own, seem, mind, wear, hope, know, regret, wonder, hunger, thirst, desire, worry, fear, delight, work, talk, laugh, smile and study. These are most often expressed using ‘tá’ or ‘is’ in combination with a noun, adjective and/or preposition. So, by the time it comes to learning verb conjugations, the Present Tense (used chiefly in a habitual sense) is really not the first tense needed for conversation.
Also, Irish has no specific equivalents for ‘yes’ or ‘no’. When answering a closed question, one must repeat the verb (or copula) in the appropriate tense or mood, in its affirmative or negative form. Which is one very important reason for learning verbs properly!
@@noelleggett5368I was about to mention that Irish and Scottish Gaelic don't have their own words for 'yes" and 'no'. While Portuguese does, speakers also use the verb instead of simply just saying 'yes' and 'no'.
- "Do you speak Portuguese?"
- "I speak, yes." Or simply...
- "I speak."
- "Do you live in a favela?"
- "No, I live no."
The Portuguese were a Celtic people before they became Latinized. As with French, they have more phonemes. The counting system in France is very Celtic.
@@bhutchin1996 Primitive Latin and the ancient Celtic languages were quite closely related. Latin originally had no words for yes or no, either. The Romance languages acquired them slightly differently, from disparate Latin dialects. French and German, for instance, have three words for yes/no: oui/si/non, ja/doch/nein. (I haven’t researched whether this is due to the influence of German as ‘Sprachbund’, evidence of the early influence of Germanic-speaking Franks, or a pre-existing Gaulish characteristic.)
9:42 Thank you for not using the Australian 'Olympic' breakdancer
This was 100% the process that my Latin teacher/textbook took in high school, which might explain why I learned that so much better than every other time I've tried learning a new language
Me gusta un poco de café con mi leche y azucar. Jejeje. I'm happy learning even one new word a day, regardless of how. Just don't try to throw me into complete immersion as an adult; never doing that again.
Teachers and self-study grammar resources tend to have me practice super simple sentences, limited to one new grammar point at a time.
I recently started taking the (long ass amount of) time to translate my natural-in-English thoughts on x topic and write them out, only simplifying if something is confusing enough to be demotivating. It's forcing me to look up a lot of new vocab, differences between similar word choices, and new grammar patterns that are way above my level according to structured curricula but used commonly in basic convos. Ofc I'm not gonna remember everything after one long writing session or after having my writing corrected by a native speaker and having those first aha moments; *most* of it I'm not gonna be able to actively recall for a hot minute probably, but I'm already able to recognize and understand more when listening or reading. Brb, finna go preview all the grammar now.
§§
\_/> Take this steaming cup of coffee as a reward for your good work and advice!
Shana Tova! I admit I do procrastinate often when it comes to language learning, I go through a textbook and then want to start reading books or shows because otherwise I feel very bored and disinterested, but then doing that feels like slugging through vocab, so I tend to after an hour or so stop and take a break or if I got a headache just stop.
I study Latin. I've been concerned with language acquisition ever since
I started with traditional grammar-translation methods in class (I actually studied law, but I got a semester of Latin). it was the usual routine of learning case and verb endings before attempting to translate sentences. although I'll admit I did learn all five declension patterns, I still couldn't get through an average sentence in Latin. fast-forward one year later and I am now aware of Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. yet, I did not properly use it for about three years. finally, I started following some instructions I was given by the most dedicated Latinist I know of. I used it for about four or five months, and I was amazed by the results: I was able to read through most of the «Historia Brittonum», an anonymous text in medieval Latin! although there were many parts I couldn't figure out at all, I still was able to get most of it. ever since, I've been close friends with the direct method for learning languages
Assimil has a good Latin course, but it's not available in English. It's available in French. Still, all the audio is in Latin. I think LLPSI also has separate audio for "Familia Romana".
@@bhutchin1996 it does, actually. I just listen to Luke Ranieri's own voice acting for Familia Romana
Trying to not miss my daily Ukrainian exercises in Duolingo when waking up, what a stupid idea, when I need 3 espressi in the same cup with some cold milk to actually REALLY wake up. No wonder these words don't stick...
I was slowly plugging along with French after taking it in highschool, and I'm to the point where I can listen to some content in it. However, I now have a trip to Japan coming in May, so I'm gonna put my head down and try to learn enough that I can at least stumble my way through basic interactions ;)
The bit about getting learners directly into natural sentences is part of the way I'm trying to craft my system for teaching English vowel patterns. I figure that young learners (and foreign learners) will be able to grasp longer words faster so long as the syllabic structure stays simple (mostly open syllables, no consonant clusters), and getting straight into longer words feels like a better move. It's "taco" before "cat", and "We go to the rodeo & see Papa in the arena" seems like it would actually be easier to read than "Blake saw the black cat."
(Yes, I'm cheating by using the ampersand. But in my defense, it's a normal English symbol in widespread use, it conveys the concept apart from the sound, it can be pronounced a few different ways (including just "n"), the word itself is core vocab that *should* be introduced early, and this way I don't have to delve into the lax primary sound of A (says, said, again, against, and) long before its key words would show up in my program.)
Basically, I'm sticking to a minimalist, low-confusion set of graphemes and introducing them in an order that I haven't seen in any other system -- and putting off, for as long as possible, the more complicated details, such as most of the ambiguous combos (bead, bread, break). Then my color code makes clear the distinction between consonants and vowels, and makes clear which category of vowel rule is in play.
One of the stretch words is "hypothermia" -- before the kid can read "spotted".
P.S. I have some sort of sensitivity to caffeine -- it gives me headaches that can last for literally hours -- so I haven't a favorite coffee. But I do like Body Armor, which is my favorite way of staying hydrated ^_^
You're putting into words all my frustrations with learning/reviewing french. Speaking and sounding out words is fun but USELESS IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE WORDS MEAN!
I'm using a berlitz book and the vocab is at the end of each chapter.
Outwit your book and start reading chapters from the last pages 👁️👁️
A linguist with a Linear Algebra and Unix textbook on his bookshelf. This is my kind of guy…
Agus is aoibhinn liom caife…
I also have a very vivid memory of trying to memorise a list of English words, but I don't remember the list itself.
I really don't like word lists, spaced repetitions and such. I just want to watch YT videos, read stuff, talk to people and translate the words I need for what I'm doing at the moment. I find it way easier to remember a word, because I needed to figure it out when someone was wrong on the internet, or because it came up a lot a video.
I used anki to study Japanese a long time ago. It served its purpose as a way to enrich my vocabulary. It didn't do me good on doing actual conversation but it sufficed.
Now that I'm fluent in Japanese I'm trying different way to learn new language (Spanish at the moment). I just simply listen to a lot of Spanish channlei onUA-cam and repeat what they say out loud. To be honest I enjoy it much better than using anki method.
I had a co-worker who was fluent in both Japanese and Spanish. When he was in Brazil, he had a relatively easy time picking up Portuguese.
I think anki is so useful for Japanese because the vocabulary is entirely new and can't be linked to anything you know. It's mucheasier in Spanish where at least some words look like English or french words and can be made sense of
@@RammusTheArmordillo Ah yes you do make sense. It's easier to learn Spanish if you know English given the many cognates. On the other hand, I feel like as I grow older I'm more patient listening to foreign contents than looking at flash cards 😁
@@bhutchin1996 Ooh that's nice. I wonder if I could learn Portuguese easily when my Spanish is at a good enough level. That's definitely another challenge in the future I'd like to do 😁
@@jerfareza Even native Spanish speakers have a hard time with Portuguese. When I was learning Portuguese, sure, Spanish helped, but I was treating Portuguese as its own language, which really it is. If you have Netflix, watch some Brazilian movies and TV shows to get an ear for the language, that's how I would start out with a new language. I don't know what kind of music you like, but if you like rap, there's Racionais MCs; if you like R&B, there's Ed Motta and Tim Maia. Sertanejo is Brazil's version of country music. Brazil has good rock and metal music too. It all depends on your tastes in music. Brazil is HUGE in the entertainment world, and that goes for its movies and TV shows too, so Netflix is a good language learning tool.
I've managed to teach myself to read and write Armenian using textbooks and online resources and by reading and translating books of poetry. I don't live near an Armenian community so speaking is more difficult to manage though when I went to LA this summer I found I understood it fairly well when I visited Glendale and Little Armenia.
I tried some Ethiopian coffee and it was pretty good. Just breaking into the coffeesphere myself.
Thanks for the videos, you’ve quickly become my favorite language expert on the tube.
I learned French in college, and the teaching of it (at first by a linguist, no less) was excellent. The first course was conducted mostly in French, and the following semesters were 100% in French. All vocabulary was learned in context, and grammar was drilled by progressive transformations. One of the later courses consisted of eight hours a week of free conversation; others revolved around classical literature. And yes, we were told early on that the feminine singular form of an adjective was the critical one from which the other forms can usually be determined.
I’m almost finished the audiobook Learn Japanese with Paul Noble (he also has French and Spanish) and honestly he hits most of the techniques you suggest.
Lots of spaced repetition, he specifically asks you *not* to try and remember vocabulary, and the focus is on grammar and learning 5-6 tenses with a very basic scaffolding of nouns and verbs.
It feels slow but I suspect I’ll remember more of what he’s taught than any other past course.
Kyou no gogo Jones to kouhi wo nomitaidesu! ☕️ (See, I remembered that even without looking it up except for spelling.)
For me the best method has been the one I actually do. So I try to mix many different methods and tools and move between them before I get fed up.
I studied French for 8 years (high school then college) and learning the feminine first makes much more sense looking back. Though, I’m not sure if some teachers would want to adapt that given the severe emphasis sometimes put on the masculine as the “standard” with the whole le masculin l’emporte sur le féminin. I could be wrong but that’s the sense of the mentality I encountered when living in France
Write that down Write that down
You mention learning the determiner with the noun. I began formally learning French when I was 11 in 1963. Although there was some audio-visual input, at that time the teaching was heavily grammar-based. Vocabulary always included the determiner so you didn’t have wonder about the gender. I was surprised when I started using apps to learn a language to find the determiner was no longer given. In some cases it will be obvious, especially in a language like Greek where each gender has specific endings. This is not the case in all languages: in French, for example, ‘piéton’ is masculine, but ‘maison’ is feminine. French nouns ending in ée are usually feminine, but ‘lycée’ and ‘musée’ are masculine. If you’ve learned the determiner with the noun, this presents no problem. I’m all in favour of audio-visual material, but grammar is an important part of any language
Most people can’t just read a grammar to get an orientation.
I am helping my teenaged son with his personal goal of learning Modern Greek, and we have found the free “Language Transfer” recordings a good way of getting that overview. It doesn’t have much vocab or practice (though it does have some), but it’s an accessible intro to the structure.
I find that Duolingo does incorporate spaced repetition. It doesn't give choice about this process as it did a few years ago, but by following the vine (or tree or path or whatever they're calling it), it mixes old concepts in with the new. More recent old concepts show up more often. Older old concepts show up less frequently.
I’ve been self studying Korean for two years and this is the best I could come up with to answer your question.
저는 홍차이 좋아해요. 커피를 괜찮아는데 차 더 맛있어요.
Yess ok ty for validation for doing the thing it feels like everyone says we shouldn't bother even looking at until xyz for fear of idk, our heads exploding or something.
Not even acknowledging the existence of simple past and future tenses, much less anything else, for a whole (University level) semester is wild.
I think you miss something pretty major at the beginning. You say textbooks, classes are available, but these cost money. Not all of us have money, so the idea of learning by watching UA-cam videos is pretty appealing. I've been pretty successful doing this. Steve Kaufmann's method seems to work well for me, I watch French UA-camrs and whenever I watch English videos I learn new vocab by using autotranslate to get French subtitles (this is such a good trick btw!). The thing is you learn the most common words really quickly, because, well, they're common. It's effortless. I look up grammar when I don't understand something. I would say I'm pretty proficient in reading and listening now, but my speech is slow and I don't think anything will substitute for time spent talking with fluent speakers.
It's not based on any sort of analysis (including proper self-reflection), but I feel like weird approaches may be what we end up remembering. I mean, I know that watching science popular videos and listening to annoying songs wasn't the main reason I got to understand spoken English (which came after speaking some English for me, because post-Soviet system), and that classes made much more difference. But when I started watching these videos (after I had enough of crappy translations), and when after a few weeks I got used to them, I got an epiphany. And now I remember that I got to understand spoken English by watching UA-cam videos, even though it's only technically correct
Asking 'real' speakers about grammar? Native speakers are very bad at explaining their own language.
@@stevencarr4002 Absolutely! Unless they are teachers or grammar nerds native speakers don’t know grammar and have forgotten whatever grammar they learned in school. In the worst case they will avoid saying that they don’t know and come up with some half baked explanation.
@@thedavidguy01 Or unless they speak two or more languages - which is true of a significant majority of non-English speakers in the world. So I guess it could be more accurately stated that ‘native English speakers are very bad at explaining their own language.’
アイスコーヒーは私の一番好きなコーヒー飲み物と思います。。。
I'm actually been working on a memorization app for Japanese for a year now, and I'm glad to say that the ideal version of that app follows what you describe almost pefectly. It's reasuring. It just takes a while to get there. I have radicals, kanji and words, and would ideally add grammar based on the words and kanji you know next. Like you said. It's not easy...
Keep up the great work! I'm learning a lot.
anki has special coding for japanese that works great.
W języku polskim, 'Coffee' to 'Kawa' - w tej chwili moja ulubiona kawa jest co robię w domu. Już kupiłem espresso machine, więc robię Latte z syrupem wanilowym
As someone trying to learn this ^ mess of a language for the last few years btw, I wish I could have seen someone tell me what you've said in this video when I started. It took me a long time to work out on my own what you've said here
Learning grammar piecemeal without introducing the rest in any way is madness. It kinda makes sense on paper but in practice means reading even the simplest 'wild' text in your TL is impossible to even attempt as you're always stumbling across things you have absolute no clue about and can't look up in a dictionary. Spending of time at the start to build a mental image of the whole of the language (even if you forget most of the details), is so useful.
The only reason I worked out a lot of what you've said in this video, is through studying Latin for my masters - the course there was grammar and vocab heavy. When I tried buying Polish textbooks after they always spent chapters and chapters at the start getting you to say random real world stuff without any explanation behind it (I'm guessing because they didn't want to overwhelm the reader), but it meant I never really knew what I was doing at a more fundamental level which allows me to internalise and truly memorise the language. So I went out of my way to buy a grammar book that looked like my Latin one - no nonsense, cold and heartless, but to the point! Then combined this with other fun imput and methods mentioned in the video. (Anyone interested in, or currently learning, Polish - the book I got was Dana Bielec's routledge grammar and workbook
Tldr: From my experience, this video will help you learn a language far, far better than most other UA-cam language learner channels, and is an absolute gem for those at the start of the journey who don't have to struggle to reach this conclusion years down the line!
Hey, I recognize your issue here as well. I am studying Macedonian, but textbooks that focus on grammar are usually the ones used in universities (in my case UToronto). Maybe this can help you find a good supportive book for studying Polish😊
First, kudos for learning Polish. Only crazy people, and Poles, do that. Second, very good attempt, but I believe it should be "W tej chwili moją ulubioną kawą jest ta, którą robię w domu. Kupiłem ekspres do kawy, więc robię latte z syropem waniliowym." Good luck with your Polish studies!
@@zerostrong3516 Rozumiem dlaczego powinienem użyć '... ta, którą...', ale czemu narzędnik kiedy chcę mowić 'moja ulubiona kawa'. Guessing the 'w tej chwili' is influencing it but 'tej chwili' isn't instrumental either?
I had studied a little Latin before studying Russian for 2 years at university, and that helped a lot with Russian grammar. Polish's "to have (something)" is more like English, whereas in Russian it's more like Latin's "Est mihi ___" and Gaelic's "Tha ___ agam".
@@MichaelH-h5u You could say "moja ulubiona kawa, to ta, którą robię w domu" or "moją ulubioną kawą jest ta, którą robię w domu", both have the same meaning. as to why you use instrumental in the second one, I can't tell you, i had to google what instrumental was. i have zero knowledge of grammatical concepts, that's why i'm not fluent in any language :(
I don't like mnemonics because then I remember the mnemonic first anytime I think of something related to it. It's useful in that I can't forget the thing the mnemonic is supposed to help me remember. It's annoying though because now that concept is forever entwined with an intrusive thought that necessarily always accompanies the concept.
Lately I've been craving tea. Specifically Foggy London Lattes.
I think I might have an idea as to why language courses ask students to read/listen to a passage first and then introduce students to new vocabulary and grammar rather than the reverse (i.e. introduction to new vocabulary and grammar and then read the passage). Passage first does feel like putting the cart in front of the horse. But I think that's just those educators setting up their students for the real world. Teaching them to fish, so to say. When was the last time you read a standard, run-of-the-mill newspaper that included a vocabulary list with each article? I just think the teachers want to give their students a chance to infer what new words might be. Like, it's a quaint way to bridge the gap between "These are all of the words that you'll ever need to know 🌈" and "There's a lot of words out there, kid. Best of luck 🤷♂️".
Una pequeña corrección, la palabra es “venimos,” venemos no existe 👍 😉 ❤️
I've just restarted my Māori learning and am using AnkiDroid for vocab and reading a slightly over-simplified introductory grammar called "Te Reo Māori - the Basics Explained" Its focus is very much on that "here's where the grammar is different from English" approach you mention. Which, given that it's Austronesian and not IE, is a lot of difference. Your video has bumped a more detailed grammar up my purchase list, thank you. Sorry I can't shout you a coffee this week (doppio ristretto ftw)
Fun coffee/language trivia: affogato coffee (with the icecream) means, in Italian, drowned. Like the ice cream drowned in the ocean of coffee. Pretty grim
UA-cam's English CC is rendering "mneumonics" as "pneumonics"and I find it quite interesting :3
Pumping it aaaall in :P
Mein Lieblingskaffee ist Filterkaffee, wenn der Kaffee ist sehr gut. Sonst ist mir egal. ☕👍🏼
For a good caffeine ride, black tea and matcha are options that limit the crash you get in the end.
Also I wouldn't mind being a hot cup of coffee 😂😂
Very interesting video by the way.
If you haven't already, you should look into Lingua Latina per se Illustrata and the rest of the Nature method books. They are, in my opinion, some of the best language learning books ever devised
Half caff coffee. It never fills you up, never lets you down.
That was a pretty sweet subjunctive. It made me happy.
I can't stand the bitterness of coffee, so I cling to sugar free energy drinks for my daily fix.
I feel like Practice Portuguese, a podcast/app put together by a first language Portuguese speaker and a first language English speaker achieves a lot of what you've outlined here.
6:50 I'm shocked that's not what people do when learning a language. In italy that's the standard approach to learning a new language
Not a platform per se, but my Hebrew book (HaYesod) puts 20ish vocab words before each grammar lesson, then there's an on-level story and finally translation exercises.
10:58 Coffee favs.
For festive occasions, con leche. Au lait, olé, olé, olé.
More normally espresso or even more often allongé.
That's like espresso but with more water and the extreme form is called americano (while French use "américain" considerably less).
Alternative names for allongé are:
* long
* lungo.
As you can see, Paris has some Italian patina to it (except patina is probably the wrong comparison).
I was thinking how useful it would be to have an app to learn French Canadian.
The fact that I know the video you're referring to, I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing, it's probably both
I'll be honest. I am on 3 hours of sleep and I'm kind of only half catching things here. I know it was an example, but yes.
I do wish I was coffee sometimes. ☕️
Homeboy really said the “double u double u double u dot” in 2024 lmao
Here you go L.J. Your vicarious coffee boost as requested. I'm having a freshly brewed coffee mug of Folger's coffee that is just strong enough to peel the eyes open without eating the lining of the stomach. There's just enough sugar to smooth out the acidic taste without turning it into a cup of nauseating syrup. The smell is so enticing while I wait for the temperature of the coffee to drop below insta-scald levels. Ahhhh...... here we go! DELICIOUS! Would I want to be coffee? Naw, it just ends up in the sewer. I'd rather drink it!
Personally, I find the greetings, things like "do you speak English?", "where's the bathroom" to be best first. After those are down, then get the subject/objects and verbs down in the present, or a present, then branch into the past, a past, then a future.
Leave the other moods for after getting a present, past, and future down.
I’ve met a German colleague at work yesterday. I’m trying to learn German. She asked me if I could speak German and I almost threw at her “Ich trinke Milch“ duolingo stuff, but I limited myself to say my name and where I’m from. I was so frustrated because I memorized a lot of words that I don’t use in most occasions.
Germans will just speak English with you if they know your German communication skills are basic. I don't really blame them, but it doesn't help the language learner. If you can afford it, you'd want to find a private tutor.
@@bhutchin1996 sure! We communicate in English most of the time, but I’m curious to try speaking more and more German and she is really kind to have some time to listen to me. I’m starting my German lessons in February.
@@CaioCodes Das ist wunderbar für Dich. Ich wünsche Dir viel Glück!
The only people worried about how people learn language "efficiently" and "scientifically" are people who make UA-cam videos on how to learn languages efficiently and scientifically. I participate in a number of French conversation groups, and participants tend to do what they feel like doing to learn or re-learn French. From my unscientific studies, I conclude that the best way to learn is to what you feel like doing, do it often, and wing it in a conversation group (or several). You'll get feedback and force yourself to learn how to articulate what's in your head in real-time (the feedback sticks). The groups are fun and most people who come regularly improve a lot over time. Happy Rosh Hashanah!
@@bryan143 I have had a different experience with conversation groups. Most people don’t improve at all even after several years of trying. They mostly stay at exactly the same level and continue to make exactly the same mistakes. I don’t think it’s a question of methods but of not putting in enough effort and time to really learn. Learning a language is very time consuming even if you are doing it well.
But there are also tons of people in such conversation groups who never improve ....
I was in a conversation group in Montreal. It was dominated by a loud mouth who spoke French with an English Canadian accent and grammar. I do agree with your do what you enjoy approach.
@@thedavidguy01 That hasn't been my experience in two different languages (French and German). People who attend regularly and actively participate tend to improve over time. And that's the key: stick with it.
@@Emile.gorgonZola I haven't seen that among people who stick with it and participate. No doubt some don't improve, but they tend to give up and stop coming.
Class is back in session with Dr. Taylor Jones!
This is the video I am wholeheartedly agreeing with. Also, thanks for the tip about French. Learning will be much easier now. That is after I nail Japanese at some decent level. :P You asked for coffee? Unfortunately, impossible to send it via fibre cable, but here's the sentence in my native Polish: Lubię kawę. Kawusię (lil' coffee, dear coffer). Kawunię (also little coffee/dear coffee, just a variant of diminutive). Kaweczkę. Kaweczusię. Kaweczunię. Yes, if Polish does something well it's diminutives :P I am crap at my languages I learn now so I'll stick to my native one.
Lots of valuable points. I've learnt Swiss German with a small local language school who had an approach pretty close to what you describe.
Nitpick: "give me an overview over the grammar first" is a craving specific to linguists and teachers. Most people are not linguists and thus not conscious of the grammatical structures in their native language. We learn our native language without grammar lessons. I dare say stories and books help - you can't reach full accuracy with all grammatical phenomena if some of them only exist in written language.
I like how you make so many assumptions in such a short text. :)
thank you. good touchstone and a reminder of how to do it better. i prefer lavazza by the bye.
Teaching in the public school system, I had a principal who had done a French program in France that led to one word really sticking with him. He didn't know what the word "huitre" meant. When he asked the prof, rather than explaining, he just went on this tirade, "Imaginez! Il ne sait pas qu'est-ce que c'est un huitre! Imaginez!"
I'm not suggesting this as a strategy, but it's a funny story, and it did work.