1. Watch UA-cam videos on how to learn target language Search how to learn X on UA-cam on watch videos so you can at least be familiar with the concepts you must know to be fluent in that language. 2. Start prononciation practice immersion Learn alphabet of language, and learn the tongue and mouth movements. don’t go in pronouncing words of target language in native language (that sets you up for an accent). 3. Learn the first 300-500 words sorted by frequency (the most commonly used words) Do not just memorize by reading, instead use visualization and mnemonics. (Example: agitāre means to stir in Latin, sounds like guitar, so picture stirring soup with a guitar. Another one: ita means so, and he remembers this by the sentence so you cook ITAlien 4. Consume content in target language (input) along with grammar points Actively and consciously listen, watch, or read pieces of media in your target language, this way you will hear words over and over and eventually you will catch on. Search up words you don’t know, repeat phrases you hear to get as close to speaker’s pronunciation as possible, and most importantly listen or read anywhere in any position you like. Consume media based on your language level. If you are beginning, you can search 1000 basic target language sentences and listen to those videos multiple times, then go on to advanced and short etories. Look at the literal translations of these sentences to understand grammar concepts of your language. For grammar points, you can search up “A1 target language grammar requirements”. Relate words you have learned to real life situations so it will stick more. 5. Practice reducing the time you need to comprehend and process sentences you hear, and also reducing the time you need to speak what you intend to say. With fluency, you can simply comprehend a sentence in your target language without thinking about it and speak in your target language without thinking about it. Have a bridge between what you hear and what you understand, and what you intend to say and what you put into words. 6. After having learned the language for a few months, stop translating. Every language has a different logical and grammatical structure, so translating will not benefit. Become familiar with idioms and figurative phrases. 7. Be confident. Speak, even with the knowledge that you may make mistakes. 8. Learn in context. Don’t learn isolated words, but instead entire sentences and sentence patterns. (Ex. Not only.. or although…) 9. Speaking practice: you can do something as simple as talking to a camera for 10-15 minutes. With this, you can bridge the gap between saying what you intend to say and speaking. Summary: 1. Language acquisition = sponge 2. No shortcuts, it takes time 3. Habit for consistency 4. Listen and observe (so mimic like your a baby) 5. Passive learning
Thank you so much - I moved to France two years ago with my also English speaking husband . We both studied French at school a LONG time ago . We are both retired and are just the two of us at home most of the time . We speak French with neighbours and friends and we have definitely improved but progress is slow - the biggest hurdle for me was to get over the fear of making mistakes - but you know what ? People don’t care!!! They just want to know what you want to say and it does not bother them if you use the wrong verb ending - some people correct you ( I’m fine with that ) and some people don’t ( fine with that too) because in the end with more INPUT you will get the right ending eventually ! ( I’m talking about conversation, not about sitting a French language exam ) My husband speaks near perfect English without any accent -it’s his second language - and is much braver with speaking French than I am ! I spend hours looking at online AI lessons but he will read online or paper articles for info on his hobbies - I think you need as many different sources of input as possible - just don’t stick to one . Brilliant video - thank you
I actually try to stop translating much sooner, and for my Swedish and Spanish it's really helped. Once I get one month into properly learning a language (so being semi consistent for said month), I stop translating.
Research tells us that it's a myth that adults learn languages at a slower pace. Actually adults learn faster. Children acquire a language in a shorter span of time due to the enormous number of hours they engage with the language. IF an adult engaged with a language as much they would learn faster. Research also tells us that just being immersed with a language works, but that it's not the most efficient way.
As long as it is not so thick that it becomes a chore for people to understand you. Effort should definitely be made to mimic the precise sounds involved, for your own sake. Not to "lose" your accent, but so that you are clearly understood. My father in law used to say "whore" instead of "hour" and my mom in law would say "head itch" instead of "head ache." It is charming, undoubtedly......and adorable. But not good if you enjoy actual communication.
the part mentioned in the video is talking more about the way someone would speak a language which has been converted to the closest approximant in the native language, which can be quite dramatic if target language and mother tongue just have too little relation. Simplest example is probably japanese people speaking engrish, unable to mimic most diphthongs, missing v, exasperated f, being forced to divide consonant clusters into multiple syllables, often using ts/sh/ch/j instead of t/s/t/d or the other way around. It's basically unintelligible to english speakers unless they know enough japanese to understand the underlying sound changes. Example: fold -> [F/H]oorudo, note that the diphthong /oʊ/ (or other depending on the english accent) will also be turned into just a double length o. Overall that's 2 sound being almost the same, 3 changed, and 2 being added that weren't there before. For most english speakers this is not intelligible, especially if a sentence is full of such words.
Agree. it just more authentic and shows that you have other culture unrelated to this language you speak, rather than cultureless monolingual westards. But, still also as long the pronouncuation is still recognizable.
in bireif: The video covers a comprehensive approach to language learning. 1. **Natural Language Acquisition**: Emphasizes learning languages naturally, like a child, through exposure and immersion rather than through traditional study methods. 2. **Input and Output**: Stresses the importance of both consuming the language (input) and using it (output). Recommends starting with slow, easy sentences and gradually increasing complexity. 3. **Understanding Over Translation**: Advises learning the meaning and use of words in context, rather than direct translation. 4. **Starting from Scratch**: Suggests beginning language learning by watching UA-cam videos about the language to familiarize oneself with basic concepts and technical terms. 5. **Pronunciation and Vocabulary**: Highlights the importance of correct pronunciation and learning the most frequent words in the target language using mnemonics. 6. **Content Consumption**: Recommends consuming content in the target language, starting with simple sentences and progressing to more complex material. For advanced learners, watching TV shows and movies in the target language is suggested. 7. **Active Engagement**: Encourages actively questioning the language and accepting corrections to improve. 8. **Real-Life Application**: Stresses the importance of applying language skills in real-life situations and learning from native speakers. 9. **Building Confidence**: Points out that confidence is key in language learning. Encourages speaking and making mistakes as part of the learning process. 10. **Learning Patterns and Context**: Advises learning sentence patterns and understanding the context in which words are used. 11. **Tools and Techniques**: Recommends using spaced repetition software for vocabulary, engaging in speaking practice, and writing in a diary in the target language. 12. **Consistency and Habit**: Emphasizes the importance of making language learning a daily habit and not getting discouraged by initial difficulties. 13. **Final Thoughts**: Concludes that there are no shortcuts to language fluency and that consistent effort and relaxed, stress-free learning are crucial. The video provides a holistic view of language learning, combining practical tips with a focus on natural acquisition and the importance of understanding context and culture.gpt4
I have been learning Deutsch since 2017. I went to Germany last year and I surprised myself because I can understand people. 😮😊 I have a lot to learn, though but I am happy about my progress. Thank you for this useful video. I am inspired to learn even more.
At around 04:17, I was caught off guard when you said that learning is subconscious process. Not that this was not true (it is true all along), not that others had not mentioned it before (mentioning and giving substantial weightage is two different approaches). It felt like being offered an ice-cold glass of water after being in the Sahara for a long time. From the list of 13 subtopics that you wrote, I'm glad that it is pedagogist-learning-oriented, not education-being taught, teach yourself-oriented. Allowed me to share a bit of what I'd experienced (I will only share the first three that comes into my mind): I. Write a journey manifest before you journey. If you’d aced in topics like product engineering specification requirements, then writing the specifications for your new endeavor should be a piece of cake. For others, actually you do not need to have a detailed one. I know proper specifications requirements engineering, and I had defined my specifications for Latin learning on paper (but never bother to re-read it after I wrote it). Still, I felt that this it is very important. It makes me feel safe. I know exactly at what condition that I need to bail, at all times. It provides clarity to the goal-in-mind when things looked foggy and hazy, at all times. Therefore, here's a starter pack for everyone to use: SEED { 1. Must have fun learning. TAM ; 2. Must be somewhat useful. TAM ; 3. Must Not break the bank. TAM } Note that TAM means "to a certain degree" or "to what extent" in Latin. It is up to the owner to decide what kind of relationship he or she wants to form with his own requirements, wants, and needs. [The relationships that he forms is his and uniquely his alone, be it a pious, a good faith, or a cheating type; he alone knows how to make it work] You can also modify, add, or remove specifications; the only thing is that you probably shouldn't do is has less than 3 because 3 in a set provides a form of auto-structure in math and in the real world (this is theory is not attested, it is just a hunch. Also, the other language that I am learning is relational mathematics). Coincidentally, learning a new language is also the act of defining relationship between new foreign set of words, subconsciously. Which leads us to the next topic… 2. Your brain cannot absorb more sets of information if it cannot form meaningful relationship between sets inside the brain. Grammar rules are hard to understand, not because you are not smart, or you don't have enough base knowledge (we know English, for God sakes! That qualifies us to learn any other language, given enough time and resources. You don't need a PhD to learn a language when a 10-year-old can do better than you, from scratch) Of course, some have argued that adult-learning is different from child-learning which I agree. However, the counter-arguments are well-established: that we have not exhausted all methods of learning yet, that the science of learning is still in its infancy, and that children themselves are underrepresented in the initial assumption against adult-learning. As a child, I am equally as inquisitive as now and yet when my teacher asked me to shut up and memorize, I'd do just that. Not because I am some dry sponges ready to absorbs the dad-level explanations given by some educators; it is because I was young, and a child's one and only skill that he needed to become older successfully is to have the ability to shut up. So, I didn't press for those satisfactory synapse-linking explanations because the priority is to learn what is needed first, the explanation can wait until I am older. Now that I am older, I require those explanations. Not because I want to get a linguist PHD, but just to understand how the world works and relates to me, those simple Whys that pop up in my head. Those Whys are important. It is our prime method of dealing with scammers, fraudsters, and con-artists. Which is why sometimes, the problem is not because there is no explanations, it is because the explanation itself is the created the conflict. In this case, we have a cheating relationship. Sometimes, the explanation of "Sorry, this is wrong, we don't really have a good answer." is all there need to be said in order for our brain to start accepting new sets of data again. 3. Now, everyone know that you can't just add new codes into a computer program and expects the computer to compile the program correctly. Ditto grammar rules. Computer codes are organized into class, class organized into whatever complex structure that you want (think of class as the blueprint to manifest different components in a car. Typical car has around 30,000 parts. To build a car, different components are used at different stages of processes.) Actually, the language acquisition process of a brain doesn't work the same way like a computer program. For me and Socrates, the more we learn, the more we don't know. Almost every point has a counter-arguments, and is just a version of the truth, which is another version of the truth, in contrast to the absence of not true. [BTW, I am talking about the mechanism of human logic] Any sufficiently advanced formal system, just like our computer program, languages, and mathematics can have its logic be in the wrong and it will still work consistently per specifications. It is all the matter of understanding the flexibility, the floatability, and morphology of the systems themselves. Which is why we might end up with 10-year-old level of explanations at the end of our language acquisition journey. Does anyone who had stopped taking English lesson for more than 10 years knows how to explain the advanced grammatical concepts in English like gerund and participle? It is likely that we can still use the grammatical concepts just fine even if we can remember a single thing about its grammatical rules. END
One thing that has helped me stay encouraged is I don’t say I’m “learning” Spanish but that Spanish IS my second language, even though I’m nowhere near fluent. Yet.
Then I wouldn't say it is your second language, rather your goal is to make it your second language 😊 I would only dare call a language my second, third, fourth etc, when I can already think in the language and can carry a conversation naturally. But it's good to stay motivated, attainable goals help a bunch, good luck, keep going! ☺️
Great motivation, but the reality is that you (one) will never become fluent if one learns a language as an adult. My second language is English, and even though I studied, work and have lived in the US for a thousand years, I still speak with an accent, consequently I am not considered fluent. Español es mi lengua madre e studio italiano da cinque anni. Lo parlo abbastanza bene. Buena suerte con tu español. Saludos!
@@lupebutterfly9161 you seem like you speak very good English here & I’m not worried about having an accent. Everyone has an accent in their second language, fluent or not. Es verdad, mi español es lamentable ahora pero no siempre.
I learned english by pure exposure, watching yt content of things I liked with subtitles so I could translate if I didn't understand something. It took almost 4 years, I don't have perfect grammar or vocabulary but I can definitely communicate and understand in english well
@@mlake4725 I would say 8 hours, but it wasn't a chore for me. My interest was on what I was watching or reading not in the language. For example watching a TV series on the language with subtitles on
@@user-nu4be8qx1pEnglish was not created from French. The origins are Germanic Anglo-Saxon with some Latin influence. The French influence came later after the Norman conquest.
3:20 I agree 100%, I see language learning as running a marathon, it's a "simple" (but not easy) task, but it takes time so you need to believe in the process and have patience, the hardest part is not giving up.
to anyone learning german, theres a podcast called The Slow German Podcast for Beginners A1-B1. Has nearly 100 clips of him speaking slow german about a wide range of topics. Only just started german again recently but I can vaguely make out what he is saying based on the limited vocab I already have.Then at the end he has the english translation of some of the words he used a lot within that episode. Very good podcast, definitely takes me quite a bit of concentration to understand Edit : although in hindsight I’d probably start off full speed. it was still helpful, but I think it’s important to move to quicker speaking as fast as you can because no one ever speaks slowly like that in real life. Easy German I'd definitely recommend because they have heaps of videos and also a podcast
nicos weg is also a good resource for german learners I reached a reasonable level of competence in my german but I want to become more fluent Viel Glück
Accents are fine. In America damn near everyone has an accent since we have so many foreigners that are first or second generation Americans. English as a language is very forgiving of accents. We can still understand you just fine.
Yes! My first French teacher said that when we were babies, our parents didn’t sit us down with a textbook to learn English! I watched Korean movies for years with no desire to even learn the language, but I picked up many words and intonations, which made it easier decades later when I actually wanted to learn Korean!
The point is, we are no babies no more. You watched these series for years, picking up just some words. Doesn't sound that usefull to me. Then you decided to learn, means you changed something but didn't just listen to movies no more. Why? Because it wasn't effective, so in fact you learned it by learning vocab/grammar, movies would only make things little easier. So, no we don't learn languages like kids do. We learn like adults which includes grammar rules and vocab as much as listening and acquiring.
10:04 The best way to make sure new vocabulary isn't forgotten is first and foremost to learn words within sentences that have meaning This way the word has attachment points over an entire sentence, it has context to support it
on an 18 wheel truck there is a bed in the cab which probably comes from the word cabin. Agricultural Tractors can also have a cab but no bed of course, just an air conditioned and heated cab where the driver sits
It's like 'watcha doing' you know the way to say it and it meaning but you don't know the words used to make it (what do you do) well you probably do since ur native to English haha @wahfls.
Literally, context is everything. I was at my class, and my teacher said a slang word in Spanish. I could kind of understand from the context, and I just started using it now. It's a part of my vocabulary now. The word is Neta.
Hi, I'm from Mexico, and that word is used when you ask someone if what he/she's just said is real. it's like when you say in English: "Are you serious?".On the other hand, if you say "la neta..." in an affirmative sentence, it kinda means "to tell ou the truth..." Example: "La neta, se me acabó el dinero" - "To tell you the truth, I've run out of money". You must take into account that this slang word is only used in México, with this meaning of course.
@gerlautamr.656 I know I understand that in different places like Spain and Portugal, they have different names and words for things, but yeah, I understand that and I already know the meaning of the word just didn't know how to phrase it as well as you did lol
I can hear your Australian accent, it's almost like native... but then sometimes hear your German accent. Great advice in this video. I want to go back and continue learning Japanese.
Ахахха, я тоже не ожидал вообще услышать это после получаса иноязычного видео;)) я в шоке как именно вот эти советы из видоса помогают. Я так Английский апнул, вот осенью захотелось мандарин и немецкий тоже начать (немецкий оч легко учится когда уже знаешь английский, у меня в школе год был немецкий экспериментально, я там дуб дубом был пхахах, а сейчас понимаю много довольно если с субтитрами , говорить конечно очень тяжело все равно. Хочу выучить эти языки а потом жаловаться что родного татарского толком не знаю 😂
No matter what, everyone is smart enough to figure out what they need to improve. The only real key is consistency. I became fluent at 40 in just twenty months without ever going to school. I simply made sure to dedicate at least two focused hours every day. Speaking practice is essential
To all the language learners, don't focus on the accent you have so much just focus on being able to communicate. Too many people get stuck trying to perfect their pronunciation to a native level and it's really something you can easily fix at the end when you have complete understanding of the language.
Complete understand of the language is a very high bar. Hardly anybody has a complete understanding of any language so I think you maybe should say a good understanding.
This is one of the best videos about learning foreign languages! Love that you have concrete points, tips and recommendations. This video really inspires, thank you!
BEST foreign-language-learning video I've seen. And I've seen many. I've studied 5 languages, and am intermediate in 3 of them, but I still took notes and will use some of your ideas. Thank you!. 谢谢你这个很好的视频。
As an Australia, I have only heard the word ‘cheeky’ as being playful with someone. Unless someone said, you cheeky bastard…perhaps it might be not so nice, but then even then using the word cheeky takes it down a notch from being harsh. lol I am learning French and listening a lot and have some adolescent books from the library in French.
“Cheeky” simply means impudent but in a non-serious way. This is the literal definition btw not just how it is used in real life. I don’t know who told you that it was a serious word with a negative connotation, because in reality it almost never is. Of course it depends on the context as well.
As an American, I hear cheeky in a lighthearted way like you describe. We hear English people say things like “cheeky bastard,” so maybe it’s harsher there. Not sure about Australia…
Cheeky bastard is definitely lighthearted, you say it to a friend. Like maybe they were jokingly making fun of you. Then you call them a cheeky bastard!
Well I think it depends on how close you are to that person. If you're not close at all, depending on context I can see how it can come across as slightly offensive
Thanks for sharing! I am 100% agree with what you have stated. I was blessed with a chance to learn 5 languages almost quite well😂 at least in terms of speaking. My mother tongue is Ukrainian. Just recently I started Mandarin and Frеnch. That is actually only one other point I would like to add...do two at the same time. When I get disappointed in my progress in one of them , it is crazy but progress in another languages gives me a boost to keep going.
It's amazing how your mindset and overall approach towards this language learning thing are both the same, I mean man! Learning can be a pain in the throat sometimes but you just gotta give it all what you got
Thank you so much for this video man, I’ve been searching for a video to help me combine immersion as well as literal study for so long and this helped me a lot especially because you’re living my dream of moving to a different country that speaks your target language 🙏
You're absolutely right that the word "cheeky" depends on context. It could be an extremely flirty thing to say to a girl if said right. It could also be used to tease her. Honestly, I can't say how much I've enjoyed watching your video because it's sooooo thoughtful.
Everything you're telling us is absolutely true. It is what I have been telling my English students at school all the time and what I'm using while learning Spanish and Chinese. And what a coincidence, I also brushed up the English I had learned at school while being in Australia 45 years ago. 😂
Its been informative listening to you. I always considered the baby that listens, absorbs and naturally exudes speech, it is the most beautiful thing to watch a child do, it makes me very emotional watching them articulate language and even ideas ...
Excellent video. Thank you for sharing these tips. I have been acquiring Portuguese (Brasileiro) for about a year now. I am a Native English ( 🇺🇸 American) speaker.
You helped me so much with your tips, when you said about the "1000 common words" its so important and i will do this right now and training with. Thank you buddy!
Thank you for this upload. I was half hesitant going in, since this is a basically a video saying my methods are wrong. There's definitely a truth to inflated flash card learning and "translating." I don't think it's necessarily bad to flash card study vocabulary or use apps. What is encouraging about this video is that it's more about efficiency - taking advantage of many free resources on youtube, identify commonly used words. I'm going to try doing things in parallel, the textbook way, and the fun/immersive way. I think it's a bit like painting and art. You absolutely need the foundation/basics and color theory to paint. But you do not need 2-3 years of courses to get started. You just need basic understanding of colors, methods, and a few references to mimic. That's why I think it's good to learn with traditional methods as the base, while immersing and just learning with repetition and trying. So I would try painting something, see how far I can go, and then look up how to - for example - render this tree or grass. You learn with curiosity and just experimenting (i.e. trying to talk about your day in the target language), but you also can apply some of the techniques (such as grammar) you learned from textbook methods.
Most of what you do is what I've been doing. Just amazing brother. I listen to a lot of sermons also. I found that listening to a good preacher who learned the language and pronounces it well, was the most helpful, because they use simpler words, and are repetitive. Paul Washer is excellent for Spanish and he's a good preacher as well.
This is one of the best videos that I have seen about consuming and recalling knowledge. I have read at least 12 books about how the mind works and the operation of mastering knowledge, you are right on the money. The Bible says in Jeremiah 15:16 “thy Words were found and I did EAT them”.
I would add have extensive contact with native speakers during the process. They don’t have to be teachers but just any person who can help you. It’ll save you trouble in the long run. I was about to commit to learning Standard Arabic only to learn that it is usually only written and that regular people use a non-mutually intelligible dialect on a daily basis. This is something I couldn’t even fathom would exist before learning Arabic. They also helped me from not sounding weird and correcting things from the get-go. Thank god I knew ppl who actually speak the language.
An awesome video, thank you for this. As a British student studying French at uni, I agree with everything said here! Also using "dodgy" as the example for the idea of not learning translations of words - but instead learning their meaning and context was beautifully elegant and hilarious at the same time. I must admit though, hearing someone who has learnt English as a secondary language discover our weird words always reminds me of quite how silly my language is😂😂. So I guess my message to you (as a German Australian) is - vielen Dank mate!
Thank you for acknowledging the idea of comprehensible input and how trying to immerse yourself in a language's media without knowing anything to begin with is useless because the non-baby brain can't work with "meaningless" sounds. So many people preach immersion without mentioning this caveat. You need to look up some basic things so you have somewhere to start.
As a Christian missionary I've found this video inspiring. One of my life long goals is to become a polyglot to share Jesus. Much of my Spanish came from time in church and videos like Kendras language school and 21 languages and fun conversation with patient natives. Great tips! Did you have a "light switch" moment where it all just clicked in your target language? Haha that bird wanted to be internet famous.
This was the best video about language I've ever watched! My mother tongue is Portuguese and I speak english too. Recently I started to learn German, it has been a challenge for me. Your tips will help me a lot on my language learning journey. Thanks for sharing this video!
Just stumbled across your channel, very informative from a learner prospective. Thank you so much please make more videos, mandarin is my target language. It would be nice to hear more about your language journey struggles.
Hey, this video is amazing. It's super inspiring to see you learning all these languages while you are younger than me. When I was your age, I just played videogames all day. Keep it up, that's amazing. If I may give you a tip for your English pronunciation: don't do glottal stops in between words, but rather connect the words as one flow. As a fellow German native speaker, I had the same issue. But I studied English at university and once I learned this tip, my pronunciation immediately improved. Try to read everything as one word. In German, we do a small pause between words. In English people don't do that. So for example "Du / bist." Would be "You /are" BUT people pronounce it "YouWare". There is a small, subtle w sound between those words. Same for "I/am". "IYam". Small y sound. And for "Die/Kobra/ist" it would be "ThecobraRis". Connecting R sound. Even native speakers are often mind blown when I tell them because they do this unconsciously and never notice it. It's a bit complicated to explain over text, but there's probably videos covering this topic. Hope this helps! Du kannst echt stolz auf dich sein man, mach weiter so. Mein Abo hast du. Love from Germany
的 - for possession (of object, qualities, etc.); e.g. 他的书，我的想象力 (his book, my imagination) 地 - before a verb to explain HOW the action was done; e.g. 路面滑，他慢慢地走过去了 (the road surface is slippery, he walked by slowly) 得 - after a verb to explain HOW the action was done; e.g. 路面滑，走路走得慢一点 (the road surface is slippery, walk slowly)
Yes, you are talking about phonetics (mouth and tongue movements) and sadly many teachers have no idea of that, therefore they pronunce badly and can't teach others how to pronounce correctly. Phonetics are great. It's not about having an accent, accent is good but it's about being able to pronounce every letter as the natives. Good video. Cheers from Mexico.
Excellent video. You made a comment about keeping a diary. Great idea, write down simple phrases in target language about daily your life and repeat every day in the diary until they are automatic. I've started mine, I know it's going to be a huge help to me. muchas gracias!
Thanks for your video, Thomas. Having learnt a few languages myself, I think you gave very good advice. I'm going to try recording myself speaking in Greek each day, as that's something I haven't tried much before.
Loved the video, completely agree with everything you listed and can't wait for your next video :) Ещё как старый гимнаст, я хочу добавить что ваши сальто просто класс
I hear “input” and “output” all the time but this is the first time I heard “comprehensible input” and it definitely made something click for me, thank you! I surround myself with input constantly but a lot of it is not comprehensible to me yet, I just pick out what I can understand, I think that’s still good but I need to focus more on finding input sources at my level to look at on a more frequent basis too.
I got into language learning about 9 years ago. I've seen a whole lot of language learning videos. This video on language learning is by far the best I've ever seen!
@@sensibility1174the video covers all the techniques we should follow to achieve our language learning goals, I don't know why you say it's just hearing what we want to hear, he made a top notch video
I’m trying to learn Finnish, after having settled down here one and a half years ago, I keep my expectations high to manage to read a book in five years by the time I turn 30, kinda considering it a threshold in my language learning journey
This is great. Thank You ever so much. It is about time someone put a more honest video up about how to learn a new language realistically. Most of what you suggest makes a lot more sense than so many of the other polyglot professionals say, who are all trying to get income from their self-proclaimed secrets. I find some languages like Vietnamese challenging to learn via apps and online programs, and the more I have tried, the less I recall. However, when I speak to people online or in person, or I must admit listening to UA-cam sections over and over and saying what is taught, I seem to be able to concentrate more and retain the information better, thus the language more efficiently over time. I believe now that most language learning is not learning at all but “absorbing,” like you suggest, just as young children do, especially for the sake of speaking fluency and building accuracy after that over time. Young children do not learn their home language; they are constantly exposed to the language and hearing it all the time they start connecting certain things and saying with vocabulary words and phrases, and start speaking. The listening comprehension of a language seems to evolve faster than the speaking - reading and writing can come later. Most children can understand and speak relatively fluently, again accuracy evolves with practice over time, in their home language by the age of 5-6 years old, but they may not know how to read or write, which they learn later at school...the main reason most children in the world go to school...to learn to read and write and adapt critical thinking skills. The only thing you could suggest further is some sort of logistical schedule on learning events; e.g., Week 1: Day 1 this, Day 2 that, etc.; Week 2, a repeat of week 1 + additional information; and so on. Yes, of course, some videos suggest offering this but at a high price through capitalistic greed. Cheers!!!
i have reaad about a person who was a traveller in like 1940's or something, he could speak more than 45 languages fluently that no one could guess his mother tongue
I recommend learning sentence structure because if a German doesnt and speaks English, he may say something grammatically like "I love by the river to paint" and vice-versa
Everyone has an accent, influenced by either geography or first language. Many countries have several accents, depending on the region. You, being a first language German speaker living in Australia, have a unique, but pleasing accent, so never apologize for it. If you lived in the UK or North America, it would be different, but all accents all fine, as long as they don’t create confusion.
As someone who has years of formal language learning in Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, and French; I learned more from Duolingo than any year in the classroom. As an educator with a M.Ed., I can assure you that is because gamification absolutely works as an educational tool. So, anyways, if you're reading this comment rest assured that apps are an excellent place to start for learning languages.
I don’t think your English accent is that bad, but I’m American and have only been to Australia once so I don’t have that good of a grasp of the accent you’re going for. I did spend this summer in Germany and the one thing that would make me immediately know that you’re German is the way you pronounce “s” and “t”. It sounds like you actually touch your front teeth together when you say them. I’ve never met a German who didn’t pronounce “s” and “t” like you. At the same time though as long as it doesn’t get too whistle-like I don’t see any problem with it. Your English is good either way, and at least where I live in the US tons of people have foreign accents so it’s normal.
Love the video, I’m a Brazilian who speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese and I’m learning Mandarin has been a little more than 2 years but only this year I’m taking it seriously and I hope to be fluent in 5 from know. From what I heard in your video I’m in the right track, 谢谢 你 的帮助 ☺️
That's a very good advice. I remember when I was a teen, I used to watch stuff like cartoons (my little pony, adventure time, etc) with english subs to get used to listening to and understanding the english language. You have a very good accent for a german, you would pass as a native speaker easily. Also, that's a lovely looking background!
I love accents. As a linguist, I have found very little correlation between how heavy someone’s foreign accent is and how well they speak a language. Many foreigners speak English better than native speakers while still having accents. @linguaholic is a perfect example of this. Never be ashamed of your accent. Accents are beautiful.
Absolutely true. As a doctor who works in the emergency department, it’s always shocking to me how many native born Americans have such terrible language skills, in their own language! I can barely understand them! But they are very uneducated and live in the back country, or inner city, etc. I feel terrible for my foreign-born doctors who have to take a history from them.
I need to stop working to find the time necessary to do all this 😂, but it's all very interesting and I want to give it a try. Acquiring Irish is my goal! Thank you.
I'm learning Japanese, and what has really helped with the input was listening to Awakening Asia Church. Their sermons have an English speaker and a Japanese translator, making it both really dope (just growing in faith) and super easy for the acquisition of it :)
Great video! I have seen many others covering “learning” or acquisition but they tend to be quite vague and it usually seems as if they don’t have a real answer
As a teacher of students in the developing world, who has made at least modest progress in communicating with students using their Mother Tongue, i have to recognise that i will never understand what my "American English accent" sounds like to the ears of my students, but i know they find it amusing, very politely and cheerfully. 😊🙃
How interesting! I’m a native English speaker and never heard the word dodgy. I had to look it up. You just taught me a new word in my own language I never heard used before. Now if I hear it again in context I’ll understand what it means.
Wow! I am impressed your capability to speak English on camera. For me it takes many rehearsals before I would record something that sounds appropriate for spectators. If it wasn't memorized as a script and was pure improvisation, I would be inspired and motivated. I hope you will reveal your secret😊
True! In my case, I can not record a good video even in my native language...hahaha... Anyway, he occasionally looks down to check some notes, probably a list of topics to cover in the video. But it probably required some rehearsal and there are some edits in the video. Certainly he had to re-record or cut some parts, it was not a single take. But it is an awesome job to record a video in a language that is not your native one. He did great and gave us very useful information.
@AlexandreBlois Thanks for sharing your observations. 👍 I had some assignments in my college related to recording vlogs, 'news', stories. It always takes time. I write script and try to memorise it through multiple rehearsal. I spend 3 days for 2 minutes video average.
1. Watch UA-cam videos on how to learn target language
Search how to learn X on UA-cam on watch videos so you can at least be familiar with the concepts you must know to be fluent in that language.
2. Start prononciation practice immersion
Learn alphabet of language, and learn the tongue and mouth movements. don’t go in pronouncing words of target language in native language (that sets you up for an accent).
3. Learn the first 300-500 words sorted by frequency (the most commonly used words)
Do not just memorize by reading, instead use visualization and mnemonics. (Example: agitāre means to stir in Latin, sounds like guitar, so picture stirring soup with a guitar. Another one: ita means so, and he remembers this by the sentence so you cook ITAlien
4. Consume content in target language (input) along with grammar points
Actively and consciously listen, watch, or read pieces of media in your target language, this way you will hear words over and over and eventually you will catch on. Search up words you don’t know, repeat phrases you hear to get as close to speaker’s pronunciation as possible, and most importantly listen or read anywhere in any position you like. Consume media based on your language level. If you are beginning, you can search 1000 basic target language sentences and listen to those videos multiple times, then go on to advanced and short etories. Look at the literal translations of these sentences to understand grammar concepts of your language.
For grammar points, you can search up “A1 target language grammar requirements”. Relate words you have learned to real life situations so it will stick more.
5. Practice reducing the time you need to comprehend and process sentences you hear, and also reducing the time you need to speak what you intend to say.
With fluency, you can simply comprehend a sentence in your target language without thinking about it and speak in your target language without thinking about it. Have a bridge between what you hear and what you understand, and what you intend to say and what you put into words.
6. After having learned the language for a few months, stop translating. Every language has a different logical and grammatical structure, so translating will not benefit. Become familiar with idioms and figurative phrases.
7. Be confident. Speak, even with the knowledge that you may make mistakes.
8. Learn in context. Don’t learn isolated words, but instead entire sentences and sentence patterns. (Ex. Not only.. or although…)
9. Speaking practice: you can do something as simple as talking to a camera for 10-15 minutes. With this, you can bridge the gap between saying what you intend to say and speaking.
Summary:
1. Language acquisition = sponge
2. No shortcuts, it takes time
3. Habit for consistency
4. Listen and observe (so mimic like your a baby)
5. Passive learning
Thanks :)
I thank you too. I enjoyed listening to the teacher's whole talk too.
Thank you so much - I moved to France two years ago with my also English speaking husband . We both studied French at school a LONG time ago . We are both retired and are just the two of us at home most of the time . We speak French with neighbours and friends and we have definitely improved but progress is slow - the biggest hurdle for me was to get over the fear of making mistakes - but you know what ? People don’t care!!! They just want to know what you want to say and it does not bother them if you use the wrong verb ending - some people correct you ( I’m fine with that ) and some people don’t ( fine with that too) because in the end with more INPUT you will get the right ending eventually ! ( I’m talking about conversation, not about sitting a French language exam )
My husband speaks near perfect English without any accent -it’s his second language - and is much braver with speaking French than I am ! I spend hours looking at online AI lessons but he will read online or paper articles for info on his hobbies - I think you need as many different sources of input as possible - just don’t stick to one .
Brilliant video - thank you
I actually try to stop translating much sooner, and for my Swedish and Spanish it's really helped. Once I get one month into properly learning a language (so being semi consistent for said month), I stop translating.
Maybe babies would start speaking sooner if they’d actually do some studying instead of laying around crying all day!
Haha!
@@mikesphotography mike smith, the security guard from fnaf 💀
😂😂😂! bravo!
Exactly. They are to childish
Lazy bums.
Research tells us that it's a myth that adults learn languages at a slower pace. Actually adults learn faster. Children acquire a language in a shorter span of time due to the enormous number of hours they engage with the language. IF an adult engaged with a language as much they would learn faster. Research also tells us that just being immersed with a language works, but that it's not the most efficient way.
What is
@@AndrewGarcia-nv7qj ?
@stefanhansen5882 "what is [the most efficient way]", I believe. At least that's how I read it
@@Themonkeyscientist I don't understand.
i think it depends on the person, for me personally it has been the most efficient way
There's nothing annoying about an accent! It's what makes you unique, and it's a symbol of your journey as a student of language.
As long as it is not so thick that it becomes a chore for people to understand you. Effort should definitely be made to mimic the precise sounds involved, for your own sake. Not to "lose" your accent, but so that you are clearly understood.
My father in law used to say "whore" instead of "hour" and my mom in law would say "head itch" instead of "head ache." It is charming, undoubtedly......and adorable.
But not good if you enjoy actual communication.
What did you say? your accent is pretty thick.
the part mentioned in the video is talking more about the way someone would speak a language which has been converted to the closest approximant in the native language, which can be quite dramatic if target language and mother tongue just have too little relation.
Simplest example is probably japanese people speaking engrish, unable to mimic most diphthongs, missing v, exasperated f, being forced to divide consonant clusters into multiple syllables, often using ts/sh/ch/j instead of t/s/t/d or the other way around. It's basically unintelligible to english speakers unless they know enough japanese to understand the underlying sound changes.
Example: fold -> [F/H]oorudo, note that the diphthong /oʊ/ (or other depending on the english accent) will also be turned into just a double length o. Overall that's 2 sound being almost the same, 3 changed, and 2 being added that weren't there before. For most english speakers this is not intelligible, especially if a sentence is full of such words.
accents are so cool
Agree. it just more authentic and shows that you have other culture unrelated to this language you speak, rather than cultureless monolingual westards.
But, still also as long the pronouncuation is still recognizable.
It’s so funny because I thought the bird was part of the dubbed in background noise so it was surprising when you told it to shut up 😂
Beautiful surroundings though 😂
in bireif: The video covers a comprehensive approach to language learning.
1. **Natural Language Acquisition**: Emphasizes learning languages naturally, like a child, through exposure and immersion rather than through traditional study methods.
2. **Input and Output**: Stresses the importance of both consuming the language (input) and using it (output). Recommends starting with slow, easy sentences and gradually increasing complexity.
3. **Understanding Over Translation**: Advises learning the meaning and use of words in context, rather than direct translation.
4. **Starting from Scratch**: Suggests beginning language learning by watching UA-cam videos about the language to familiarize oneself with basic concepts and technical terms.
5. **Pronunciation and Vocabulary**: Highlights the importance of correct pronunciation and learning the most frequent words in the target language using mnemonics.
6. **Content Consumption**: Recommends consuming content in the target language, starting with simple sentences and progressing to more complex material. For advanced learners, watching TV shows and movies in the target language is suggested.
7. **Active Engagement**: Encourages actively questioning the language and accepting corrections to improve.
8. **Real-Life Application**: Stresses the importance of applying language skills in real-life situations and learning from native speakers.
9. **Building Confidence**: Points out that confidence is key in language learning. Encourages speaking and making mistakes as part of the learning process.
10. **Learning Patterns and Context**: Advises learning sentence patterns and understanding the context in which words are used.
11. **Tools and Techniques**: Recommends using spaced repetition software for vocabulary, engaging in speaking practice, and writing in a diary in the target language.
12. **Consistency and Habit**: Emphasizes the importance of making language learning a daily habit and not getting discouraged by initial difficulties.
13. **Final Thoughts**: Concludes that there are no shortcuts to language fluency and that consistent effort and relaxed, stress-free learning are crucial.
The video provides a holistic view of language learning, combining practical tips with a focus on natural acquisition and the importance of understanding context and culture.gpt4
I have been learning Deutsch since 2017. I went to Germany last year and I surprised myself because I can understand people. 😮😊 I have a lot to learn, though but I am happy about my progress. Thank you for this useful video. I am inspired to learn even more.
At around 04:17, I was caught off guard when you said that learning is subconscious process. Not that this was not true (it is true all along), not that others had not mentioned it before (mentioning and giving substantial weightage is two different approaches). It felt like being offered an ice-cold glass of water after being in the Sahara for a long time.
From the list of 13 subtopics that you wrote, I'm glad that it is pedagogist-learning-oriented, not education-being taught, teach yourself-oriented. Allowed me to share a bit of what I'd experienced (I will only share the first three that comes into my mind):
I. Write a journey manifest before you journey. If you’d aced in topics like product engineering specification requirements, then writing the
specifications for your new endeavor should be a piece of cake. For others, actually you do not need to have a detailed one. I know proper specifications requirements engineering, and I had defined my specifications for Latin learning on paper (but never bother to re-read it after I wrote it). Still, I felt that this it is very important. It makes me feel safe. I know exactly at what condition that I need to bail, at all times. It provides clarity to the goal-in-mind when things looked foggy and hazy, at all times. Therefore, here's a starter pack for everyone to use:
SEED { 1. Must have fun learning. TAM ; 2. Must be somewhat useful. TAM ; 3. Must Not break the bank. TAM }
Note that TAM means "to a certain degree" or "to what extent" in Latin. It is up to the owner to decide what kind of relationship he or she wants to form with his own requirements, wants, and needs. [The relationships that he forms is his and uniquely his alone, be it a pious, a good faith, or a cheating type; he alone knows how to make it work] You can also modify, add, or remove specifications; the only thing is that you probably shouldn't do is has less than 3 because 3 in a set provides a form of auto-structure in math and in the real world (this is theory is not attested, it is just a hunch. Also, the other language that I am learning is relational mathematics).
Coincidentally, learning a new language is also the act of defining relationship between new foreign set of words, subconsciously. Which leads us to the next topic…
2. Your brain cannot absorb more sets of information if it cannot form meaningful relationship between sets inside the brain. Grammar rules are hard to understand, not because you are not smart, or you don't have enough base knowledge (we know English, for God sakes! That qualifies us to learn any other language, given enough time and resources. You don't need a PhD to learn a language when a 10-year-old can do better than you, from scratch) Of course, some have argued that adult-learning is different from child-learning which I agree. However, the counter-arguments are well-established: that we have not exhausted all methods of learning yet, that the science of learning is still in its infancy, and that children themselves are underrepresented in the initial assumption against adult-learning.
As a child, I am equally as inquisitive as now and yet when my teacher asked me to shut up and memorize, I'd do just that. Not because I am some dry sponges ready to absorbs the dad-level explanations given by some educators; it is because I was young, and a child's one and only skill that he needed to become older successfully is to have the ability to shut up. So, I didn't press for those satisfactory synapse-linking explanations because the priority is to learn what is needed first, the explanation can wait until I am older.
Now that I am older, I require those explanations. Not because I want to get a linguist PHD, but just to understand how the world works and relates to me, those simple Whys that pop up in my head.
Those Whys are important. It is our prime method of dealing with scammers, fraudsters, and con-artists. Which is why sometimes, the problem is not because there is no explanations, it is because the explanation itself is the created the conflict. In this case, we have a cheating relationship. Sometimes, the explanation of "Sorry, this is wrong, we don't really have a good answer." is all there need to be said in order for our brain to start accepting new sets of data again.
3. Now, everyone know that you can't just add new codes into a computer program and expects the computer to compile the program correctly. Ditto grammar rules. Computer codes are organized into class, class organized into whatever complex structure that you want (think of class as the blueprint to manifest different components in a car. Typical car has around 30,000 parts. To build a car, different components are used at different stages of processes.)
Actually, the language acquisition process of a brain doesn't work the same way like a computer program. For me and Socrates, the more we learn, the more we don't know. Almost every point has a counter-arguments, and is just a version of the truth, which is another version of the truth, in contrast to the absence of not true. [BTW, I am talking about the mechanism of human logic]
Any sufficiently advanced formal system, just like our computer program, languages, and mathematics can have its logic be in the wrong and it will still work consistently per specifications. It is all the matter of understanding the flexibility, the floatability, and morphology of the systems themselves.
Which is why we might end up with 10-year-old level of explanations at the end of our language acquisition journey. Does anyone who had stopped taking English lesson for more than 10 years knows how to explain the advanced grammatical concepts in English like gerund and participle? It is likely that we can still use the grammatical concepts just fine even if we can remember a single thing about its grammatical rules.
END
Thank you for taking notes for your own video ❤❤
@@beebee3871 I don't do video. Looking back, a lot have changed. Now, I prefer to break it sonnet to sling my point of course hit marks.
@@chamorvenigo sorry, I don’t know how to read well clearly!! Hahaha
One thing that has helped me stay encouraged is I don’t say I’m “learning” Spanish but that Spanish IS my second language, even though I’m nowhere near fluent. Yet.
Yet
Yet!
Then I wouldn't say it is your second language, rather your goal is to make it your second language 😊 I would only dare call a language my second, third, fourth etc, when I can already think in the language and can carry a conversation naturally. But it's good to stay motivated, attainable goals help a bunch, good luck, keep going! ☺️
Great motivation, but the reality is that you (one) will never become fluent if one learns a language as an adult. My second language is English, and even though I studied, work and have lived in the US for a thousand years, I still speak with an accent, consequently I am not considered fluent. Español es mi lengua madre e studio italiano da cinque anni. Lo parlo abbastanza bene. Buena suerte con tu español. Saludos!
@@lupebutterfly9161 you seem like you speak very good English here & I’m not worried about having an accent. Everyone has an accent in their second language, fluent or not. Es verdad, mi español es lamentable ahora pero no siempre.
I learned english by pure exposure, watching yt content of things I liked with subtitles so I could translate if I didn't understand something. It took almost 4 years, I don't have perfect grammar or vocabulary but I can definitely communicate and understand in english well
Me too but it was very easy since english was created from french
How much time per day would you say that you spent doing this?
@@mlake4725 I would say 8 hours, but it wasn't a chore for me. My interest was on what I was watching or reading not in the language. For example watching a TV series on the language with subtitles on
@@denzelnatha9075 thanks. I'm going to try this
@@user-nu4be8qx1pEnglish was not created from French. The origins are Germanic Anglo-Saxon with some Latin influence. The French influence came later after the Norman conquest.
3:20 I agree 100%, I see language learning as running a marathon, it's a "simple" (but not easy) task, but it takes time so you need to believe in the process and have patience, the hardest part is not giving up.
🎉
to anyone learning german, theres a podcast called The Slow German Podcast for Beginners A1-B1. Has nearly 100 clips of him speaking slow german about a wide range of topics. Only just started german again recently but I can vaguely make out what he is saying based on the limited vocab I already have.Then at the end he has the english translation of some of the words he used a lot within that episode. Very good podcast, definitely takes me quite a bit of concentration to understand
Edit : although in hindsight I’d probably start off full speed. it was still helpful, but I think it’s important to move to quicker speaking as fast as you can because no one ever speaks slowly like that in real life. Easy German I'd definitely recommend because they have heaps of videos and also a podcast
nicos weg is also a good resource for german learners I reached a reasonable level of competence in my german but I want to become more fluent Viel Glück
Hey, I'm learning English and liked your ideia. does someone knows any podcast like this, but in english? I would love to know. thanks everyone
@@adrianopinheiro3804 I think there would be some podcasts like that for sure. I don't know the names of them though but they should be easy to find
@@banana53358extr@ Deutch is good too.
Thx bro 🫂
Accents are fine. In America damn near everyone has an accent since we have so many foreigners that are first or second generation Americans.
English as a language is very forgiving of accents. We can still understand you just fine.
TRUE esp folks in cities, we understand various acccents in English.
ALL languages are forgiving of accents, IF that language is your native.
I've watched a lot of videos about learning languages. This is the best single video I've seen. Well done! Really excellent insights.
Yes! My first French teacher said that when we were babies, our parents didn’t sit us down with a textbook to learn English! I watched Korean movies for years with no desire to even learn the language, but I picked up many words and intonations, which made it easier decades later when I actually wanted to learn Korean!
You learned Korean with a teacher who explained you the grammar and the alphabet. Don't lie to yourself
The point is, we are no babies no more. You watched these series for years, picking up just some words. Doesn't sound that usefull to me. Then you decided to learn, means you changed something but didn't just listen to movies no more. Why? Because it wasn't effective, so in fact you learned it by learning vocab/grammar, movies would only make things little easier.
So, no we don't learn languages like kids do. We learn like adults which includes grammar rules and vocab as much as listening and acquiring.
@@H-DA BS.
Actually yes very young kids get books and learn English. Lol.
@@ronaldgmaster5782 1-year-olds who are just learning to babble don’t, LOL! 🙄
10:04 The best way to make sure new vocabulary isn't forgotten is first and foremost to learn words within sentences that have meaning
This way the word has attachment points over an entire sentence, it has context to support it
yeah but don't fall into the trap of thinking you know the word but actually you just know the sentence by heart
on an 18 wheel truck there is a bed in the cab which probably comes from the word cabin. Agricultural Tractors can also have a cab but no bed of course, just an air conditioned and heated cab where the driver sits
It's like 'watcha doing' you know the way to say it and it meaning but you don't know the words used to make it (what do you do) well you probably do since ur native to English haha @wahfls.
@@billkenner6204 Goes for any pickup truck as well, though it's rarely used.
Literally, context is everything. I was at my class, and my teacher said a slang word in Spanish. I could kind of understand from the context, and I just started using it now. It's a part of my vocabulary now. The word is Neta.
Hi, I'm from Mexico, and that word is used when you ask someone if what he/she's just said is real. it's like when you say in English: "Are you serious?".On the other hand, if you say "la neta..." in an affirmative sentence, it kinda means "to tell ou the truth..."
Example: "La neta, se me acabó el dinero" - "To tell you the truth, I've run out of money".
You must take into account that this slang word is only used in México, with this meaning of course.
@gerlautamr.656 I know I understand that in different places like Spain and Portugal, they have different names and words for things, but yeah, I understand that and I already know the meaning of the word just didn't know how to phrase it as well as you did lol
😂
I can hear your Australian accent, it's almost like native... but then sometimes hear your German accent. Great advice in this video. I want to go back and continue learning Japanese.
Such a good point about not translating one language directly to another. That gets me more than anything it seems.
listening to all your thoughts and ideas of how to learn a new language and all of a sudden hearing "надоел" is somthing that touched my heart
Ахахха, я тоже не ожидал вообще услышать это после получаса иноязычного видео;)) я в шоке как именно вот эти советы из видоса помогают. Я так Английский апнул, вот осенью захотелось мандарин и немецкий тоже начать (немецкий оч легко учится когда уже знаешь английский, у меня в школе год был немецкий экспериментально, я там дуб дубом был пхахах, а сейчас понимаю много довольно если с субтитрами , говорить конечно очень тяжело все равно. Хочу выучить эти языки а потом жаловаться что родного татарского толком не знаю 😂
No matter what, everyone is smart enough to figure out what they need to improve. The only real key is consistency. I became fluent at 40 in just twenty months without ever going to school. I simply made sure to dedicate at least two focused hours every day. Speaking practice is essential
To all the language learners, don't focus on the accent you have so much just focus on being able to communicate. Too many people get stuck trying to perfect their pronunciation to a native level and it's really something you can easily fix at the end when you have complete understanding of the language.
Complete understand of the language is a very high bar. Hardly anybody has a complete understanding of any language so I think you maybe should say a good understanding.
actually accent is important from START or you get ingrained with wrong habits VERY HARD TO CHANGE later.
This is one of the best videos about learning foreign languages! Love that you have concrete points, tips and recommendations. This video really inspires, thank you!
Great having bird sounds in the background. It gives a laidback, relax mood to the video, and it sounds more like a friendly conversation.
Genuinely a HELPFUL video!!! Thank you!!!
The bird served as your video's ambient sound effect.😅
BEST foreign-language-learning video I've seen. And I've seen many. I've studied 5 languages, and am intermediate in 3 of them, but I still took notes and will use some of your ideas. Thank you!. 谢谢你这个很好的视频。
As an Australia, I have only heard the word ‘cheeky’ as being playful with someone. Unless someone said, you cheeky bastard…perhaps it might be not so nice, but then even then using the word cheeky takes it down a notch from being harsh. lol I am learning French and listening a lot and have some adolescent books from the library in French.
Eines der besten Videos über das Lernen von Fremdsprachen überhaupt!!! Großartig ! Danke und alles Gute
“Cheeky” simply means impudent but in a non-serious way. This is the literal definition btw not just how it is used in real life. I don’t know who told you that it was a serious word with a negative connotation, because in reality it almost never is. Of course it depends on the context as well.
As an American, I hear cheeky in a lighthearted way like you describe. We hear English people say things like “cheeky bastard,” so maybe it’s harsher there. Not sure about Australia…
Cheeky bastard is definitely lighthearted, you say it to a friend. Like maybe they were jokingly making fun of you. Then you call them a cheeky bastard!
@@jdprettynails maybe but there’s no reason to assume they were joking
@@maxhatush5918 then you hit them with
“What did you bloody mean by that, knobhead??”
Well I think it depends on how close you are to that person. If you're not close at all, depending on context I can see how it can come across as slightly offensive
Thanks for sharing! I am 100% agree with what you have stated. I was blessed with a chance to learn 5 languages almost quite well😂 at least in terms of speaking. My mother tongue is Ukrainian. Just recently I started Mandarin and Frеnch. That is actually only one other point I would like to add...do two at the same time. When I get disappointed in my progress in one of them , it is crazy but progress in another languages gives me a boost to keep going.
Chinese: it took me around 2 years, but now I can hear the sounds native speakers make (full-speed). Great video! So much useful information!
the vibe in this video is unmatched, very calming and informative
This is the best advice I’ve seen about acquiring a language. Thank you so much for the content.
It was so funny, when you suddenly said Russian word надоел! 😂 Thanks for your video ❤
It's amazing how your mindset and overall approach towards this language learning thing are both the same, I mean man! Learning can be a pain in the throat sometimes but you just gotta give it all what you got
Thank you so much for this video man, I’ve been searching for a video to help me combine immersion as well as literal study for so long and this helped me a lot especially because you’re living my dream of moving to a different country that speaks your target language 🙏
What a video, i want to learn a 3rd language and i choose german, and i was looking for a solid plan to study. And your video is incredible. 🎉🎉
You're absolutely right that the word "cheeky" depends on context. It could be an extremely flirty thing to say to a girl if said right. It could also be used to tease her. Honestly, I can't say how much I've enjoyed watching your video because it's sooooo thoughtful.
They say autism makes the brain take 10 years longer to finish growing. I’m hopeful that I’ll help me
Everything you're telling us is absolutely true. It is what I have been telling my English students at school all the time and what I'm using while learning Spanish and Chinese.
And what a coincidence, I also brushed up the English I had learned at school while being in Australia 45 years ago. 😂
Its been informative listening to you. I always considered the baby that listens, absorbs and naturally exudes speech, it is the most beautiful thing to watch a child do, it makes me very emotional watching them articulate language and even ideas ...
I've learned English that way, lived for 5 years in Australia. Shalom to you
Excellent video. Thank you for sharing these tips. I have been acquiring Portuguese (Brasileiro) for about a year now. I am a Native English ( 🇺🇸 American) speaker.
Thank you so much for giving us how to best way to learn english, Immersion is the key to learn any languages
My mum is Russian but has lived in the UK for most of her life. When she goes back to visit Russia now, people say she sounds like a foreigner!
You helped me so much with your tips, when you said about the "1000 common words" its so important and i will do this right now and training with. Thank you buddy!
Thank you for this upload. I was half hesitant going in, since this is a basically a video saying my methods are wrong. There's definitely a truth to inflated flash card learning and "translating." I don't think it's necessarily bad to flash card study vocabulary or use apps. What is encouraging about this video is that it's more about efficiency - taking advantage of many free resources on youtube, identify commonly used words. I'm going to try doing things in parallel, the textbook way, and the fun/immersive way.
I think it's a bit like painting and art. You absolutely need the foundation/basics and color theory to paint. But you do not need 2-3 years of courses to get started. You just need basic understanding of colors, methods, and a few references to mimic. That's why I think it's good to learn with traditional methods as the base, while immersing and just learning with repetition and trying. So I would try painting something, see how far I can go, and then look up how to - for example - render this tree or grass. You learn with curiosity and just experimenting (i.e. trying to talk about your day in the target language), but you also can apply some of the techniques (such as grammar) you learned from textbook methods.
Most of what you do is what I've been doing. Just amazing brother. I listen to a lot of sermons also. I found that listening to a good preacher who learned the language and pronounces it well, was the most helpful, because they use simpler words, and are repetitive. Paul Washer is excellent for Spanish and he's a good preacher as well.
These are Stephen Krashen's Teories. You should mention him. He's the Father of language acquasition.
@praywithoutceasing4939 Good. I'm glad they disagree. Let's stop pretending these people know all there is.
true
i learn english mostly by immersion when i was a kid, didn't even know who krashen is
ill definitely give these tips a go, thanks for the vid!
This is one of the best and most concise language learning videos I have ever watched. Great work 👍
This is one of the best videos that I have seen about consuming and recalling knowledge. I have read at least 12 books about how the mind works and the operation of mastering knowledge, you are right on the money. The Bible says in Jeremiah 15:16 “thy Words were found and I did EAT them”.
I would add have extensive contact with native speakers during the process. They don’t have to be teachers but just any person who can help you. It’ll save you trouble in the long run. I was about to commit to learning Standard Arabic only to learn that it is usually only written and that regular people use a non-mutually intelligible dialect on a daily basis. This is something I couldn’t even fathom would exist before learning Arabic. They also helped me from not sounding weird and correcting things from the get-go. Thank god I knew ppl who actually speak the language.
You are young but very wise, thank you i learned more in this video than many other “pro” language courses, muchas gracias
An awesome video, thank you for this. As a British student studying French at uni, I agree with everything said here!
Also using "dodgy" as the example for the idea of not learning translations of words - but instead learning their meaning and context was beautifully elegant and hilarious at the same time. I must admit though, hearing someone who has learnt English as a secondary language discover our weird words always reminds me of quite how silly my language is😂😂.
So I guess my message to you (as a German Australian) is - vielen Dank mate!
Thank you for acknowledging the idea of comprehensible input and how trying to immerse yourself in a language's media without knowing anything to begin with is useless because the non-baby brain can't work with "meaningless" sounds. So many people preach immersion without mentioning this caveat. You need to look up some basic things so you have somewhere to start.
As a Christian missionary I've found this video inspiring. One of my life long goals is to become a polyglot to share Jesus. Much of my Spanish came from time in church and videos like Kendras language school and 21 languages and fun conversation with patient natives. Great tips! Did you have a "light switch" moment where it all just clicked in your target language? Haha that bird wanted to be internet famous.
Great video! Thank you for sharing the knowledge to us. Greetings from El Salvador 🇸🇻
you blew my mind when said "nadoel" to the bird ahhaahah you are incredible
This was the best video about language I've ever watched!
My mother tongue is Portuguese and I speak english too. Recently I started to learn German, it has been a challenge for me. Your tips will help me a lot on my language learning journey. Thanks for sharing this video!
dale meu to na mesma q tu. Viel Glück!
Just stumbled across your channel, very informative from a learner prospective. Thank you so much please make more videos, mandarin is my target language. It would be nice to hear more about your language journey struggles.
man, you're a complete genius, thank you so much for the valuable information you shared
I'm not looking for ways to learn English, you're already one of the videos I include to practice my listening skills.
Hey, this video is amazing. It's super inspiring to see you learning all these languages while you are younger than me. When I was your age, I just played videogames all day. Keep it up, that's amazing.
If I may give you a tip for your English pronunciation: don't do glottal stops in between words, but rather connect the words as one flow. As a fellow German native speaker, I had the same issue. But I studied English at university and once I learned this tip, my pronunciation immediately improved.
Try to read everything as one word. In German, we do a small pause between words. In English people don't do that.
So for example "Du / bist."
Would be "You /are" BUT people pronounce it "YouWare". There is a small, subtle w sound between those words.
Same for "I/am". "IYam". Small y sound.
And for "Die/Kobra/ist" it would be "ThecobraRis". Connecting R sound.
Even native speakers are often mind blown when I tell them because they do this unconsciously and never notice it.
It's a bit complicated to explain over text, but there's probably videos covering this topic. Hope this helps!
Du kannst echt stolz auf dich sein man, mach weiter so. Mein Abo hast du.
Love from Germany
的 - for possession (of object, qualities, etc.); e.g. 他的书，我的想象力 (his book, my imagination)
地 - before a verb to explain HOW the action was done; e.g. 路面滑，他慢慢地走过去了 (the road surface is slippery, he walked by slowly)
得 - after a verb to explain HOW the action was done; e.g. 路面滑，走路走得慢一点 (the road surface is slippery, walk slowly)
Yes, you are talking about phonetics (mouth and tongue movements) and sadly many teachers have no idea of that, therefore they pronunce badly and can't teach others how to pronounce correctly.
Phonetics are great. It's not about having an accent, accent is good but it's about being able to pronounce every letter as the natives.
Good video. Cheers from Mexico.
Excellent video.
You made a comment about keeping a diary.
Great idea, write down simple phrases in target language about daily your life and repeat every day in the diary until they are automatic.
I've started mine, I know it's going to be a huge help to me.
muchas gracias!
Your English is coming along swimmingly, thanks for recording in English. I learned and enjoyed this very much 👌🏾
This is brilliant! Thanks! I study several languages. I do some of these things but most of these methods are new to me. I’m gonna try them.
I totally agree. It happened to me as well. Bless you from south Italy
I find this video so so helpful. Thank you very much!
this video is incredible bro. dropping knowledge bombs
Thanks for your video, Thomas. Having learnt a few languages myself, I think you gave very good advice. I'm going to try recording myself speaking in Greek each day, as that's something I haven't tried much before.
Loved the video, completely agree with everything you listed and can't wait for your next video :)
Ещё как старый гимнаст, я хочу добавить что ваши сальто просто класс
haha спасибо большое братан!
I hear “input” and “output” all the time but this is the first time I heard “comprehensible input” and it definitely made something click for me, thank you!
I surround myself with input constantly but a lot of it is not comprehensible to me yet, I just pick out what I can understand, I think that’s still good but I need to focus more on finding input sources at my level to look at on a more frequent basis too.
Dreaming Spanish has been talking about comprehensive input for years
This is extremely helpful! Most videos about language acquisition are vague and don't describe how to begin this process.
I got into language learning about 9 years ago. I've seen a whole lot of language learning videos. This video on language learning is by far the best I've ever seen!
@@sensibility1174the video covers all the techniques we should follow to achieve our language learning goals, I don't know why you say it's just hearing what we want to hear, he made a top notch video
I’m trying to learn Finnish, after having settled down here one and a half years ago, I keep my expectations high to manage to read a book in five years by the time I turn 30, kinda considering it a threshold in my language learning journey
Rakastan Suomea ja suomen kieltä, se on niin kaunista. Siitä on aikoja, kun viimeksi kävin, on kova ikävä sitä.
This is great. Thank You ever so much. It is about time someone put a more honest video up about how to learn a new language realistically. Most of what you suggest makes a lot more sense than so many of the other polyglot professionals say, who are all trying to get income from their self-proclaimed secrets. I find some languages like Vietnamese challenging to learn via apps and online programs, and the more I have tried, the less I recall. However, when I speak to people online or in person, or I must admit listening to UA-cam sections over and over and saying what is taught, I seem to be able to concentrate more and retain the information better, thus the language more efficiently over time. I believe now that most language learning is not learning at all but “absorbing,” like you suggest, just as young children do, especially for the sake of speaking fluency and building accuracy after that over time. Young children do not learn their home language; they are constantly exposed to the language and hearing it all the time they start connecting certain things and saying with vocabulary words and phrases, and start speaking. The listening comprehension of a language seems to evolve faster than the speaking - reading and writing can come later. Most children can understand and speak relatively fluently, again accuracy evolves with practice over time, in their home language by the age of 5-6 years old, but they may not know how to read or write, which they learn later at school...the main reason most children in the world go to school...to learn to read and write and adapt critical thinking skills. The only thing you could suggest further is some sort of logistical schedule on learning events; e.g., Week 1: Day 1 this, Day 2 that, etc.; Week 2, a repeat of week 1 + additional information; and so on. Yes, of course, some videos suggest offering this but at a high price through capitalistic greed. Cheers!!!
i have reaad about a person who was a traveller in like 1940's or something, he could speak more than 45 languages fluently that no one could guess his mother tongue
I recommend learning sentence structure because if a German doesnt and speaks English, he may say something grammatically like "I love by the river to paint" and vice-versa
Everyone has an accent, influenced by either geography or first language. Many countries have several accents, depending on the region. You, being a first language German speaker living in Australia, have a unique, but pleasing accent, so never apologize for it. If you lived in the UK or North America, it would be different, but all accents all fine, as long as they don’t create confusion.
As someone who has years of formal language learning in Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, and French; I learned more from Duolingo than any year in the classroom. As an educator with a M.Ed., I can assure you that is because gamification absolutely works as an educational tool. So, anyways, if you're reading this comment rest assured that apps are an excellent place to start for learning languages.
I’ve learned and maintained so many Portuguese words, even when taking months/years off from even opening the app
I don’t think your English accent is that bad, but I’m American and have only been to Australia once so I don’t have that good of a grasp of the accent you’re going for. I did spend this summer in Germany and the one thing that would make me immediately know that you’re German is the way you pronounce “s” and “t”. It sounds like you actually touch your front teeth together when you say them. I’ve never met a German who didn’t pronounce “s” and “t” like you. At the same time though as long as it doesn’t get too whistle-like I don’t see any problem with it. Your English is good either way, and at least where I live in the US tons of people have foreign accents so it’s normal.
Love the video, I’m a Brazilian who speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese and I’m learning Mandarin has been a little more than 2 years but only this year I’m taking it seriously and I hope to be fluent in 5 from know. From what I heard in your video I’m in the right track, 谢谢 你 的帮助 ☺️
That's a very good advice. I remember when I was a teen, I used to watch stuff like cartoons (my little pony, adventure time, etc) with english subs to get used to listening to and understanding the english language. You have a very good accent for a german, you would pass as a native speaker easily. Also, that's a lovely looking background!
I love accents. As a linguist, I have found very little correlation between how heavy someone’s foreign accent is and how well they speak a language. Many foreigners speak English better than native speakers while still having accents. @linguaholic is a perfect example of this. Never be ashamed of your accent. Accents are beautiful.
Absolutely true. As a doctor who works in the emergency department, it’s always shocking to me how many native born Americans have such terrible language skills, in their own language! I can barely understand them! But they are very uneducated and live in the back country, or inner city, etc. I feel terrible for my foreign-born doctors who have to take a history from them.
I need to stop working to find the time necessary to do all this 😂, but it's all very interesting and I want to give it a try. Acquiring Irish is my goal! Thank you.
I love that owl or bird sound on the back ground jaja perfect xD
many practical technicals can be apply soonly you can learn from this video!!
that's basically how i've learned english, thank you for this video
You said "надоел" in a moment with bird)) it was totally unexpectedly 😂
This is kinda how LLMs learn as well. memorising patterns and predict what to output next from those memories.
I'm learning Japanese, and what has really helped with the input was listening to Awakening Asia Church. Their sermons have an English speaker and a Japanese translator, making it both really dope (just growing in faith) and super easy for the acquisition of it :)
Qualität ist Top! Viel besser als die alten Videos
Great video! I have seen many others covering “learning” or acquisition but they tend to be quite vague and it usually seems as if they don’t have a real answer
As a teacher of students in the developing world, who has made at least modest progress in communicating with students using their Mother Tongue, i have to recognise that i will never understand what my "American English accent" sounds like to the ears of my students, but i know they find it amusing, very politely and cheerfully. 😊🙃
How interesting! I’m a native English speaker and never heard the word dodgy. I had to look it up. You just taught me a new word in my own language I never heard used before. Now if I hear it again in context I’ll understand what it means.
Wow! I am impressed your capability to speak English on camera. For me it takes many rehearsals before I would record something that sounds appropriate for spectators.
If it wasn't memorized as a script and was pure improvisation, I would be inspired and motivated.
I hope you will reveal your secret😊
he even has an australian accent as well
True! In my case, I can not record a good video even in my native language...hahaha... Anyway, he occasionally looks down to check some notes, probably a list of topics to cover in the video. But it probably required some rehearsal and there are some edits in the video. Certainly he had to re-record or cut some parts, it was not a single take. But it is an awesome job to record a video in a language that is not your native one. He did great and gave us very useful information.
@AlexandreBlois Thanks for sharing your observations. 👍 I had some assignments in my college related to recording vlogs, 'news', stories. It always takes time. I write script and try to memorise it through multiple rehearsal. I spend 3 days for 2 minutes video average.
Really nice video, бро! Вдохновляет! Спасибо!
Very interesting approach. Thanks.