Thank you for telling us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. Of all the language learning youtubers, your content has motivated me the most.
I am almost conversational in Italian and I got here almost exclusively with Anki and Netflix. Maybe five to one percent of my language learning time was spent reading about Italian grammar in English.
@sparklytea222 - it's funny how everyone who has never learned a foreign language (English speaking monolinguals) are so knowledgable on what will and won't work for learning a foreign language.
I still try to learn a word every day in English, my native language. I have no plans to ever be finished. Learning new words in English eventually expands my vocabulary in other languages. Thanks for another great video.
This is *so* timely. The last two days, I've been searching for videos that critically examine popular language learning apps and their efficacy. I'm trying to focus primarily on input, but it's more painful and difficult. However, I have to remind myself that apps like Duolingo are like busywork that lull you into thinking you're learning more than you actually are. Instant gratification is tempting, but in the long run I'll be better served doing deliberate practice with content in my target language.
Not being done with a language. This is what’s different from all the UA-cam polyglots out there. They hit B2, call it a day, then start over. As always, appreciate you, Lamont. I’d rather be very good at one additional language than “okay” at a bunch.
I started my English learning almost 50 years ago, but I still try and improve. I think that's the most important step, to never stop learning. I also tried to learn German in school, but wasn't that motivated then, and never really used it after. However your video inspired me a bit, about how you worked on Swedish, so maybe I will try again with a language I am attracted to....The idea of an audiobook in a language was interesting, I often leave the telly on some show I have seen over and over again as background noise when at the computer.. :)
Never be finished is honestly great advice, To me language is like an art form, And like any other form of art the more you do it the better you get at it, Even if something is your native language, you'll still get better if you keep doing it, and get worse if you stop doing it. For most languages it'd be nigh impossible to know every single word, every grammatical feature, every way intonation is used, et cetera, even if you've been speaking a language for 50 years you can still come across new words, especially as languages are always changing, and if you don't learn the new stuff you'll sound like you come from the past when you speak it. Basically you can always get better at a language, even if it's your native language, because there's no "best" you can be at a language (or at the least, if there is, it's not humanly possible to achieve).
Hi, what's up, people? As a native Spanish speaker, I had been studying English on my own during my free time until I figured out that I didn't need to do anymore. I love this language (English, obviously).... The whole English grammar that I know I've learned through my mother language. It is fun how these ones are very similar themselves. My writing sucks I know. However, I write no essays at all or talk to anybody. Like, I am able to understand my favorite series, which is enough for me. Now I started to learn German, hahaha, a beautiful headache when it comes to accusative and dative in German. That's all. Love from colombia, I am going to go to Australia any minute now.
This is the one I was waiting for! "As an adult, you can learn whatever you want to if you just put in the time". This is my main takeaway from learning Japanese. Language learning has taught me that I can do anything if I just put in the time. Sure, understanding Japanese TV and literature is cool, sure being able to chat in Japanese is swell, but you know what's more cool? Looking at a new hobby, skill, or craft and thinking "hmm, I could do that if I did X and Y". I used to view new things as being too far off, like there was no way in hell I'd be able to do them. "I haven't been playing the Violin since I was 6 so I'd never be any good, right?" The long slog has shown me that it is, in fact, possible for every single person and honestly, it's like a superpower. Just suck it up and start right now!
"hmm, I could do that if I did X and Y". Yes. In fact I've found this strange, as an adult... to realise that I could be an expert at something by the age of 44... and it's made me wonder what it should be.
The not being finished is a good one. I think it's ok for people to be finished with the learning stage of a language but there's a difference between people who are and those that aren't. Most people that moved to the US I think are finished with English at a certain point. They're not language nerds like us and so this makes perfect sense. And it also explains why they keep making the same simple grammatical mistakes or their pronunciation fossilizes. But if you're a language nerd and you're never happy and you're always looking to improve even if you're not necessarily cracking the books or flash cards you probably will keep making small improvements over time and things won't fossilize as they say in the teaching community. This is also why I'm not afraid to output early on (if I want to) or listen and speak to other language learners or people who speak an accent I'm not studying. I'm not worried about getting stuck with a habit that won't fix itself later.
oh god yes! the real advice for 'how did you get so good at [this language]/making conversation/public speaking' sounds like a new-agey platitude but it is true! the event of me getting so good happened a moment ago, hopefully the next i will become even better at it, as i never stopped learning i am learning from you right now! whether you want it or not!!! while i don't expect anyone to become as obsessed with languages as i am, there is always a benefit to keeping a corner of your mind open to the way someone is saying something even when they bore you! maybe especially then, as you are so caught up with the details of what they are saying, you can dedicate yourself to how it is put together, maybe of how you would phrase it to someone else
5:00 i love that you talk about the difference between wanting to check off "learning a foreign language" and actually being able ot speak in one as a goal. It's also interesting that you state that "no amount is too much" for learning a language. It def holds true for any type of learning but for some reason (I believe out of fear of burning out?) I tend to hold myself back when I get too invested in one language and start delving too deep into grammar and origins and such. I should def change my mindset for this one.
Thanks for the video. One thing to keep in mind for your trip to Sweden is that the capital probably has more “default” English speakers than other cities. I also notice this in my country (The Netherlands) that people in Amsterdam are more likely to speak English even when we’re both Dutch. So you might want to go to a smaller city/town.
Well that's fine and everything but I actually have stuff to get done there, so if it needs to be in Stockholm, it'll be in Stockholm... but I haven't needed English for the last 10 or parties I've been at so I can't think I'd need it in Stockholm. My "defaulting" to Swedish has proven a lot stronger than their resolve to stick to English. 😆 Edit: Although, I might possibly stay with friends who live a bit outside of Stockholm, so we'll see.
Spanish is my first language and I'm basically bilingual in English since I was exposed to it a lot as a kid. I'm in my mid-20s now and started learning French (a language I hate lol) for immigration purposes. It's been like pulling teeth, objectively I'm quite good at it but will never love it, and it just feels so unnatural to learn it compared with English. I used to think I could never master French because I'm an adult now, and our quality of learning isn't the same as kids'. You gave me hope! I'm going to get a C1 French certificate if it kills me, and after I'll take it easier and try to appreciate the language and look for media I enjoy in it. Oh and I also gift you with an Argentinian phrase: "remar en dulce de leche", to row on dulce de leche. It means something's very hard and you're doing your very best to achieve it. Estoy remando en dulce de leche para aprender francés, but your videos keep me going :) (and they made me ditch duolingo)
Buenas maestro, leí tu comentario y me imagino que a mi me pasaría algo similar. Actualmente estoy aprendiendo un tercer lenguaje, alemán. Mi situación es como la del hombre del vídeo, simplemente quería aprender otro lenguaje y no particularmente alemán, de hecho estaba entre ese idioma y francés, pero como del Inglés me molestaba que no sea fonéticamente constante me tiré más por el alemán. ¿Cómo estudiaste el francés? Sé del caso de una youtuber, que es políglota, y decía que una vez que aprendió francés se le hizo mucho más fácil aprender italiano y español. En tu caso ¿notas la similitud con el español? Quizás ya lo conoces, pero, te recomiendo a Lucas Lampariello, un italiano que aprendió a hablar español a nivel nativo, también habla otros lenguajes, y tiene unos consejos que valen oro. Pd: antes tuve un intento de aprender finés, me resultaba melodía para mis oídos, pero, es un lenguaje poco conocido que solo se habla en Finlandia (5 millones de habitantes) y hay muy poco contenido en línea, así que no llegué muy lejos. Una vez que apliqué distintos consejos de varias personas políglotas, fue un antes y un después. Siento que ahora sé cuál es el camino, y puedo andar sobre él sin perderme y gastando poca energía. Más que nada porque sé qué es lo que genera más progreso y también lo que me desgasta mucho más rapido sin ser redituable. La edad no es un problema, lo que es un problema es la cantidad de tiempo que le puedas dedicar, mientras más responsabilidades menos tiempo. Steve Kaufman, el creador de LinQ, aprendió varios idiomas, y hasta los cincuenta y tantos solo hablaba Inglés.
@@dogetge7544 el primer año y el tercero que estudié francés lo hice con clases en un instituto. A mí me sirve porque soy muy mala autodidacta, tenía poca motivación para aprenderlo porque no me gusta jajajaja. Para mí el francés es un punto medio entre el español y el inglés. Sí encuentro (mucha) similitud con el español, pero mi experiencia aprendiendo inglés en institutos también me está sirviendo mucho. El año pasado, que no tomé clases, lo único que hice fue MANTENER mi nivel, no aprender cosas nuevas, usando apps. Tenía un nivel muy bajo (entre A1 y A2) y no habría podido retener mucho de lo nuevo que aprendiese. Ahora estoy probando todos los días hacer media hora de práctica de francés por fuera de mis dos horas semanales de clase. Agarro un cuaderno y me pongo un video, serie o canción con subtítulos en francés y voy anotando las frases que me llaman la atención gramáticamente, palabras nuevas, etc pero sin volverme loca. No pongo pausa para anotar, y si no entiendo algo no suelo buscar qué significa. Mucho input en vez de output.
Haha, yeah I go between sitting weirdly still and keeping my left arm particularly very close to my side (in other videos) and moving them around way too much. I did do a music degree at uni though so your way of putting it is appreciated haha, thanks for the comment!
Hejsan, jag tänkte bara säga att du är en inspiration till mig och du fick mig att börja studera finska samt ge mig motivation att öva mer, dina videos är jättebra och fortsätt att insperera och underhålla andra👍❤️
INSANE pace and quality! very cool, Lamont!!! especially while also taking care of a child! your videos really motivate me to continue studying mandarin with their honest and candid reviews and description cheers!
I'm really trying to do this now. I'm listening to some podcasts and just replaying them. I've noticed that I'm hearing more of the words. Either I'm parsing them better or I'm able to focus more on the words so that I'm catching more of them. It's a nice change. Like real progress. Weird progress.
"weird progress" is DEFINITELY a thing. One day I want to put ALL of this in a 2 hour long video, but the night I went from "Oh yeah, Swedish is a language is kind of understand" to "Not only do I understand this, but I can tell how you're going to finish this sentence" was a strange one. It would be like being 110kg, eating healthily for 2 years and then losing 40kg in an hour.
Thank you for making this video. It confirms one of my suspicions (one is never done). Also, I like the idea of getting better all the time. Thank you!
As a follower of both Lamont and Evan, I have a lot of time for both. I didn’t see any malice in your video, he is seen as a figurehead of the duolingo community, and you were just using him as an example to illustrate your point. Sure, you don’t have to learn a language in the most effective way, but it is also important to recognise the fact that duolingo alone will not bring you fluency, with very few exceptions. And regarding the plane analogy, I resonated with it. There are other ways you could get to the airport, like taking the car or getting a taxi or by train. So I for one did not see the reason for such a big criticism of Lamont, perhaps a one on one conversation would be better? :) ❤
English came to me naturally as a kid since basically all media and music, videogames were in English, it was the "cool" language to a young boy, never struggled being interested in it. Became somewhat fluent in thai after living there for over 6 years and had a period of becoming obsessed with the alphabet, which is the only way to understand the language remotely at all. I feel a huge attraction to Arabic and Spanish because they sound awesome to me. I started Spanish a couple of months ago being much harder than i expected. Hope to reach basic conversational level one day and then learn Arabic
I've been doing Norwegian via DuoLingo, whilst being incredibly frustrated with the app for all the reasons you stated in the previous video but also, it's in American English which adds another few barriers for Aust English speakers. My language frustration is similar to yours - I was brought up monolingual and school French lessons didn't help. Anyway, what has been more helpful than DuoLingo is actually watching a bunch of content from Scandinavian countries. Some shows, I have watched ten times over, and each time, I find I have caught more of the "flow" of what's being said. I have visited all three countries over the years and have friends in each one, and via watching Scandinavian stuff over and over, I am not only contextualising stuff, but I am also gaining a slight grasp of the quirks of each language. I get, for example, why it is that when Norwegians and Danes share more in common word-wise, yet Norwegians and Swedes understand each other better than either understand the Danes. I have also trained my ear better for German, just by extension. Anyway, thanks for the story learning reco. Norsk isn't available yet, but I'm on the waiting list now.
This is so cool! I am Swedish and I find it interesting that you chose Swedish first because most people do not! I really like learning English at school and at home sometimes! Hej från Sverige!🇸🇪
Im trying to find good books and movies in Swedish, but most places will not ship to the US. It's so frustrating. If you could recommend any Swedish websites or bookstores that are willing to ship to the US, I would really appreciate that. I will also happily hear your favorite books and movies. I would have said all of this in Swedish, but I just finished the Swedish Duolingo course and it is as inadequate as he claims.😢 Skål från Utah!
@MN-zh2vd - so, a few things: 1. I'm 90% sure that Bokus ships to the USA. They ship to Australia, so I don't know why they wouldn't ship the USA. 2. I made a video about the service I use for audiobooks... in my opinion it's basically the best service in the world: ua-cam.com/video/KFVHsA-_lRg/v-deo.html 3. SVT Play has some good stuff on and off, for free, or on Netflix, my favourite series would be Kalifat. On TV4 Play, there's one called Knutby that is also good. Both series are very dark so just watch out for that haha.
@@daysandwords I tried to purchase Himmelstrand, Rörelsen, and X off of Bokus and they would not ship to me. Twas a big bummer because they've got so many fun things. I'll check out the other sites, though. Tack så mycket! 🧡
@@daysandwords This is probably too heavy, but meh, I'll say it anyway because why not: To be fair, if I lived in a first-world society-centric country, I wouldn't ship to a capitalist dystopian hellscape like the US either. It sucks for me, but bokus is probably making the right call. I'm proud of Swedish workers for striking against Tesla too. FTUS. Occasionally I find Swedish books on Amazon UK. I just found STV. At some point I'll get a VPN. It'll work out. Thank you for the suggestions regardless! 😊
Just a quick fun Swedish movie recommendation for you that was a delightful surprise for me, "Tillsammens". It's a Swedish comedy that takes place in a Commune in the 70's.
@@daysandwords I saw it at a film festival because the other film hadn't arrived and they ran it as a stopgap. Always nice to be surprised like that. If I remember I wasn't as thrilled with the film I came for which looked gorgeous but the action scenes were offputting.
To extend your metaphor kind of like you did, there isn't really a "destination" in language learning. Once you get on the plane you are can either continue crossing the endless ocean or you can stop and begin a slow descent back.
Well... I think the plane metaphor probably works better if you see the destination country (in my example, the USA) as the point at which you become experienced enough in that language to just enjoy it... So that is like BEING in the country. You wouldn't land in San Francisco after a 16 hour flight and say "OK well, time to head back!" - You'd want to explore the place. That's Swedish for me... I've been in the proverbial country for a bit but there's still a lot more to see.
@@daysandwords I see what you're saying, but I see it a little differently. I kind of see the destinations people are sold or have in their heads being vague concepts like "Sweden" or "fluency" and they buy their plane tickets. Then they grind through rush hour traffic to get to the airport, take off their shoes at the security checkpoint, sit in a chair and use a sketchy phone charger. Finally their plane starts boarding and they are in group C. After all that time and discomfort they are *finally* in their seat and on their way! As the plane takes off they shout skål, but notice all the on-flight media is in Swedish. They choose something in Swedish and understand very little of it, but are happy that soon it will be easy. After 10 hours they do not really see much of place they left, mostly ocean, and it has gotten a little easier. They start talking to their seatmate who is visiting the "homeland" and they say Jag-ska-resa-till-Sverige. They are getting a little more out of the show they started watching and it keeps them going further. 100 hours pass and they notice many people went to the bathroom and seemingly never returned to their seats. They start to notice a lot of the people on the plane seem to be Swedish and must be going home. They try to talk to them. The Swedes are so polite and say how good their Swedish is! (in English) 1.000 hours pass and they are getting the hang of things. They understand most of everything they have heard in the movie they just watched and even found some books in the seat pocket and were able to read them. They talk to another group of Swedes who ask where they live in Norway. 10.000 hours pass and they are singing Helan går with a group of people and they ask someone else in the group, "När ska vi landa?" and one of them says back "Va pratar du om kompis?"
As impressed as I was the first time I heard Krashen speak in a UA-cam video (I know he's had practice giving a speech or two and it shows), I don't know if I agree with his idea that we only learn when we understand and he goes on to give demonstrations on how if you use the language while acting out it works but if you just speak the language without providing context it doesn't do anything. But I think both help, just the former is more effective and for obvious reasons. So listening to an audio book repeatedly or watching one show repeatedly even though you're not understanding anything does work - the understanding can come later.
I'm living in poland, I don't have lessons and I have a very small amount of time so I mainly learn through working but after 1.5 years I can have a conversation but my polish is very bad! But I have brought a book (short stories with MP3) so fingers crossed this will help
duolingo has been helping me understand the grammar better though but I learn a lot more by talking to people who speak the language. It's pretty good for grammar but terrible for vocabulary and it's better to skip lessons with the progress test whenever you can
I just watched his response to your video and it's a shame he took everything you said as a personal offense. You just respectfully expressed your *opinion* that Duolingo alone isn't enough and used his experience as an example, since in your *opinion* what he showed during that live stream is not fluency. But it's just an *opinion*. I'm sorry he wasn't able to understand that, and that he didn't treat you as respectfully as you treated him. At least you'll get more views from all this 🙏
Yeah... I mean, I thought it would be more sensible of him to go down the "OK I wasn't fluent then but I am NOW and look, it's Duolingo that go me started" route. That would still leave his argument open to attack, but it would at least be stronger than "No actually, I WAS fluent in that livestream." One only needs to check the livestream to see that that's wrong (in 99% of people's opinions).
Of all the language learning UA-cam channels the algorithms have thrown at me, yours is by far the most helpful and relatable. I felt bad about being a monolingual American all my life, since the Spanish and Latin I got in school didn’t amount to much. I always intended to eventually get serious about learning another language, and I figured it would be Spanish or German, since those were the ones I knew a little about. But I was always busy with work and kids and there was no intrinsic motivation. On principle, I also thought it would be good to learn Chinese, but that seemed too daunting. Anyway, I never did anything about any of it and assumed I’d go on like that until retirement. But when I was 40, I woke up one day with burning desire to learn Korean - which I’d never even thought of before - and I’ve been working on it semi-psychotically everyday since. At the beginning, I assumed I’d never get anywhere, now I want to REALLY speak, read, and write it. I’ve got a long long long way to go to have conversations beyond ordering food and finding bathrooms and getting on trains, but since I’m not done learning English, it’s ok to settle into not being done learning Korean ever. It’s so helpful l to hear similar thoughts from another adult language learner with a job and kids. I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t been able to make progress in my grammar textbooks. I’ve had to settle for listening to the same audiobook over and over and podcasts. It’s so encouraging to hear this is worthwhile eventually. Thank you! 화이팅!
Yep, I wasted so much time in my early 20s trying to learn some popular languages trying to scratch that language itch, but I never really settled on one that I really loved until I tried Japanese one day. I was surprised at how much more I enjoyed spending time learning the language even though at first I understood very little. A lot of times, we don't pick a language a language picks us so I don't think there's any shame trying out lots of different languages to see the ones that fit us the best.
I'm watching your videos to get better in English (and because I enjoy it), as well as other UA-cam content matching my interests (about 1-2 hours daily), I literally consigned to oblivion my native language (Russian) but I've got no feeling of any progress for a long time. I also read and write quite a lot in English (tech topics), and speak sometimes. So today I've decided to give a chance to Anki. I wanna create my own "deck" with extended word definitions. My vocab now is about 6000 words and I learn just because I love it!
In my 20's I got a thing for German a lot like you described with Swedish. I will say that having distant German relatives and my dad had studied German in school helped me choose German over other languages but to this day I've never spoken more than a couple sentences in German to my dad (he always said my accent sucked) and those German relatives are really distant. But I had the weird inexplicable passion to just study and learn German in my 20's. Then in my mid 30's I got into Japanese. Not going to lie. It was the hot girls and weird video game cartoon culture that hooked me. I figured even if I hated the language itself this would be enough to keep me going.
Thanks so much for this, useful as always. I look forward to you going into more detail about why Duolingo is so badly flawed. My suspicion is that its not just Duolingo - i think there is a real issue with the idea (common in so many apps and courses) that you can learn a language well by using tricks to memorise component parts of a language (words, rules). It’s like trying to learn tennis by doing nothing but practicing serving, backhand and forehand, without actually playing the game. You are practising the components without the ‘glue’ that makes it all work. I think Matt vs Japan put it well recently, when he described memory tricks such as Anki, etc as the seasoning on language learning. They can improve it at the margins, but can’t alter the fundamental recipe.
The one I saw most recently (I see it’s 4 months old) is with YTer ‘Kevin Abroad’. It’s long and detailed and he goes through his current thinking.@@daysandwords
I'm glad it looks like that from the outside. In truth, I got way behind on editing and had to catch up because I've got stuff to do this week and didn't want unfinished videos on my mind. 😂
I also learned German in high school in Australia. It was largely based on what random language teacher happened to be around. I wasn't bad at it (at the time), but I never really got into it. Hahaha I used to blast ChinesePod while driving. I shadowed the mp3s, and my pronunciation is still a bit similar to Jenny Zhu.
I can relate so much to the first reason. For me it is Japanese…people always assume I learned it because of Animes…no…not really…..I just really like the sound of language! Also….languages are a slow process! I think that is super important. And the fact that languages are never done is also something I agree with. I jokingly say, that I will learn Japanese until the day I pass I away. (And whatever other active language I have until then)
Hello im learning English. Your English is quite clear and easy to understand. i enjoy watching your videos as comprehensible input thanks for your motivational and interesting videos! I hope you wll keep doing great jobs!
I am slightly older than you are and a native speaker of English, and I'm still not done with English. I've got the grammar down, but there are always new words and expressions for me to learn. Learning. Never. Stops. I use Duolingo, but I also hunt down other sources of input and grammar to explain what Duo isn't doing for me.
Ha, "I could have done it, but didn't do my work" pretty much describes my high school and college experience with my unchecked ADHD. It wasn't until my 30's when I took a college German class for fun, since the University offered a discount to employees, that I realized I can actually do really well in class...if I do the work, take my medication and put in more effort than just taking the tests. Instead of being a D to F, maybe a C- student, I was consistently in a place among the top students in the class. If only I knew back when I was paying full price and needed the degree.
I have diagnosed ADHD too, but I've rarely taken anything for it. Sometimes these days I take Ritalin... and yeah it's awesome, but as my son's paediatrician pointed out, EVERYONE does better on Ritalin... same as everyone does better on small amounts of crystal. It's not really an ADHD treatment as it is just an awesome concentration pill... so it brings ADHD brains up to and possibly above normal ones. I'm not hating on it... I kind of wish I could be prescribed it again now, I just think that there's a lot of "Oh but this doesn't work for me, I have ADHD" out there, especially in my comments section... which is funny, because I was diagnosed before most of these people haha.
I also started my language learning journey believing that fluency was impossible! But then, I am learning Mandarin so I may well be right! 😄 But I am enjoying it, and I know more than I ever thought possible. One day, I may even get to grips with the tones😂
Good luck with your journey of chinese learning. When you get to languages that doesn't use the same alphabet you've been using your whole life it gets rough. You have a steeper curve of learning to even be able to start reading in that language and that is leaving aside comprehension.
@@dogetge7544 Thank you! I think the difference is one of the things that attracts me so much to the language. But 'impossible' has its advantages - any small step forward is something to celebrate! 😊
@@kikigem6290 For Mandarin, I started with Duolingo and another app - I found their different approaches useful. I have also consumed a massive amount of passive input through UA-cam/TV programmes. Next big leap will be talking to native speakers. My advice would be to try out all the available methods and find which work best for you. Good luck! 🙂
Tack för väldigt fina tips och kul att du valt just svenska som språk 😃 Hoppas du snart får möjlighet att komma hit och uppleva Sverige. Finns så mycket att välja på bara… 😅
@@firewall8095 For some people, time/efficiency is a factor. But for your average hobbyist language learner, the value of Duolingo is that it helps build a habit. It's the habit formation that ultimately will carry you far. And habit to me is far far more important than efficiency (in the early stages of learning a language). Get the habit formation under your belt; and you will eventually learn the language. Get off to a fast start, and .... who knows if you'll keep it up?
So, so, SO many people are hearing me saying something I'm not. I am NOT saying that you can't, shouldn't, won't or any negation word use Duolingo to get started. It would be helpful if I also had a 5 year old video saying that I got going on Swedish with Duolingo... OH WAIT, I DO. So DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE to get started and you have my full support. What I am debating is the USEFULNESS of Duolingo AFTER THAT. It doesn't matter how much you use it, you're not getting fluent with it (and yes, since a lot of people have tried this BS too: PEOPLE DO THINK THAT IT MAKES YOU FLUENT.) My issue can be boiled down to this: People think it makes you fluent. People like to "show" that it made them fluent. This is BS. It didn't make you fluent, and it won't. That's all.
@@daysandwords Agree with you 100%, Lamont. Anyone who’s actually taken a language all the way to B2, C1 or C2 knows the limitations of Duolingo. Duo simply gets you started, and helps you build a habit. (Very worthy things.) At best Duo takes you to A1, perhaps a little further. Thereafter, you’re going to need to look elsewhere for a boatload of comprehensible input. Mountains of comprehensible input. Oceans of it. I have no idea why people misunderstand your words. It’s really ironic. Maybe they should devote more time to mastering the nuances of English before moving onto a foreign language.
What worked for Lamont: 1 - Pick up a language you're really attracted to or you're on fire for. 2 - Treat anything that is in your target language. Anything in any shaped perform as being there to help you to learn it. 3 - Adopt a no amount is too much attitude. 4 - Never to be finished. Don't stop, just keep getting better.
Hey Lamonte, a big off topic, but I recently read a good crime-book from a swedish writer: It's called Offermarkaren in swedish and is written by viveca sten. I read it in german and really enjoyed it :) Maybe you can give it a go. (It is book one in a new series from her.) Have a great day! :)
I've been studying Japanese for about 8 months now. For that entire time, I've used Duolingo once a day. For about 6-7 months, I also have been using a dedicated kanji platform and a grammar textbook. Duolingo, after completing the first unit of their Japanese course, exposes you to about 40 kanji. In less time than that, the kanji platform teaches you 170 kanji. The difference is staggering.
I will never be done learning Spanish and French. Lately I been comparing them to Portuguese and Italian. My Senior Center has Italian lessons, so I’ll probably start going to those with the New Year.Catalan is available on Drops. So many choices and so little time. Everyday I get 2 word a day notices in English, one I basically know the word and the other has more obscure words that are sometimes new to me. As a child when I heard a foreign word, I always wanted to know the meaning. So I have a smattering of many languages.
I will try! Currently we're trying to work out whether it's better for me to just go by myself for about 9 days which would mean I'd probably only have time for Sweden, or for us all to go for much longer, which would have to include Finland as well, since this whole thing started with my wife's friend who is from there (and invited us to stay with her in Finland).
1. Get a language that your are on fire for. 2. Treat everything of that language as your resource 3. No amount is too much atitude 4. Never feel like you are done.
Your previous video was pretty confrontational. I have spent six years learning Spanish on Duolingo and I think it used to be pretty good but nearly every "upgrade" made it worse. I am now able to converse in Spanish but I really struggle with understanding others. Having thought over your previous video I do think it is similar to an addiction. I am very lost right now though. I have tried basically every other Spanish method you mentioned and I considered them all worse than Duolingo. I hate learning languages and Duolingo worked pretty well because I could just push through it for 10-15 minutes and then be done with it. I have absolutely no clue how to continue with Spanish now and will probably stay with Duolingo cause I don't know what else to do.
I think you've actually summarised the "problem" that a lot of people have quite nicely here. I might even like to make a video response to this. But it will take a while so for now, let me say this: So, Duolingo has got you into the habit of doing it (or something) every day. And that's great. The reason (I think) that you feel the other things are "worse" is that you can't feel your progress as directly. Duolingo was very good at showing you "HEY! You've done X amount... you're doing great!" Unfortunately, it doesn't make you very good at the language. So you need to embrace the fact that in doing something that's more effective at teaching you the language, it will be LESS effective at making you feel like you've progressed. For example, watching 20 minutes of Dreaming Spanish every day. I am not an affiliate for Dreaming Spanish and have never worked with them... so please take it from me that $8 US a month for a Dreaming Spanish subscription is a BARGAIN. You can choose the dialect of Spanish that you want to listen to and watch just a few videos every day. Remember that at first, it won't feel like you're getting anywhere. But every hour of Spanish you listen to counts. So you should count total hours (Dreaming Spanish actually does it for you on the website). You've done enough Duolingo (learned enough words) that after 300 hours (40 minutes every day for 14 months or so), you'll understand a LOT. Like a LOT A LOT. And you'll be able to speak very well; much better than you can now. But in that 300 hours, remember that each hour won't seem to do anything. Like walking 1km every day towards a place 300km away... you don't feel any closer until you've done about 200 days. I think THIS is what Duolingo did well... They took something that people had to just have blind faith in, and gave it a metric that we could see.
@@daysandwordsThanks! After your video I decided to just bite the bullet and I bought the Spanish course from storylistening. It is quite the upfront cost but if it saves me hours a year by actually progressing and a lot of frustration it might be actually worth it.
Someone recently introduced me to an app called language transfer, it’s an audio based app where all you need to do is just sit and listen to what they say (they have you pause and repeat stuff). Now that I think about it it’s kind of like pimsleur. But I started using it recently and learned more of the target language on there then I have on duolingo. They have Spanish on there as well. (Sorry if this sounds confusing)
im 29 also so this gives me hope lol i have so many languages i wanna do but i start them, learns a couple hundred words and stop been going fairly okay with italian but i need more input i think. posso parlare come un uomo di caverne, but its a start LOL... fuck verbs though
Love this video! I am so torn between Norwegian and Spanish. Mainly because I understand bits from both but our son has picked up a few Spanish words so I’m torn between investing in Norwegian and boosting my confidence in language learning… which unfortunately Spanish verb conjugations caused 🙈 or using all the great Spanish resources I have and ploughing on to get us both to a solid lower intermediate level. ⁉️⁉️⁉️ and I just can’t make a decision but I’ll keep watching your video while I mull it over because I do agree I feel something for Scandinavia (the language, culture, food etc)
I was torn between Japanese and Norwegian for the reasons of being really interested in their respective cultures and how fun each language was to listen to. I live in the US, where neither language is spoken commonly so both are pretty weird options for me but I hope to go to both countries one day and have some level of understanding their languages. I also find language learning to be a fun hobby. Anyway, context aside I ultimately chose Norwegian since its way easier and its the first time Im taking language learning seriously (and not forced textbook reading in school). It has helped me learn a lot on HOW to acquire a new language, which I know will help in any future languages I choose to learn. Now that Ive learned Norwegian for about a year now, I started to actually try out Japanese on the side. I was tired of feeling like I need to master Norwegian before I can move on to another language. I know it helps that they're completely separate alphabets, so maybe it would be harder to learn something more similar. However, the reason Im typing all of this is because it felt very freeing to just say "Why not try both at the same time". Because ultimately (for me at least) learning a language needs to be fun and engaging or its not gonna stick. Im sorry for this wall of text you didnt ask for, but I guess what Im trying to say is that maybe its not too bad to try both Spanish AND Norwegian instead of picking just one? Ive heard polyglots both recommend and NOT recommend learning multiple languages at once, but to that I say: Just do what feels right to you. Anyway thats my two cents, I hope it helps in some way :) Lykke til!
@@Yeliad Hej! Tusen takk! No need to apologise, it was lovely to read your comment and experience. I know lots of people have this conflict between 2 or more languages but we don't often get to 'meet' so it's a lonely agony most of the time :) You are right I could use one language to gain experience of how to learn a language and the other just dabble and not lose any ground on, so past efforts have not been wasted but maintained until I feel in a good place (like you) to take on both knowing I can commit and be consistent. Lykke til med norsk og japansk!
For anyone learning Japanese I can’t recommend Wanikani enough. Duolingo is so disappointing and has gotten even worse when it comes to learning kanji which is a VERY important part of the language. And for grammar a Genki textbook or even people explaining it on UA-cam have made my progress the past 4 or 5 months way more efficient than half a year of just duolingo.
'Picked a language I was attracted to' Who will do more exercise? People who exercise because it feels great, or people who exercise because they want to lose 5 pounds? Who will learn more? People who learn because they enjoy learning the language or people who want to reach a certain streak on an app?
Right now I have a B2 English level, nevertheless, I'm struggling because I feel like I'm not improving at all. I've been reading some books and I'm quite disappointed because I can not understand 100% of the things I read. I don't know what kind of vocabulary should I be learning. I was thinking about taking the B2 Cambridge certification, but now I'm not sure about it. As I said, I feel demotivated. Do you have any advice for me?
I'm slightly surprised that a school in Australia would teach German over an Asian language. Why not Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesian? Is it that German would be better for a career?
There are many, many things to consider here. The biggest one is that schools that offer teaching a language directly in the school, during school hours and on school grounds (as opposed to the kid having their lessons after school hours in a nearby campus, or remotely) are normally only offering that language because they have that teacher, and nothing more. I have heard of a school offering Finnish because their art teacher happened to be a Finnish woman... So now the school can offer Art as well as Finnish. My school at the time offered French, German and Japanese. In years 11 and 12 (last 2 years of school), if you wanted to do something different, you would have to do that as a special subject where you go to a teacher online or something. It's the same now - my son could do Swedish at his school in yrs 11 and 12, but it would be the school approving that as a "non-school standard subject". The school has to agree to it, but generally it can be arranged. So that's the biggest thing... it might sound great to offer Indonesian but then you've got to find a certified teacher (already not the easiest job in the world) who can speak Indonesian, AND English. It sounds like it would be common but once you ad the teacher part in there, the pool narrows significantly. THEN... and this is another big factor... remember that this is in 2004, and at that point Australia was 103 years old as its own country. We're far more "British" than the USA is. So we adopt a lot of our attitudes from the British, and what do the British learn? German and French. It's slowly changing, but a lot of the people my age still have parents who wanted to or did learn one of those European languages. It's not really a racism thing... it's just, kinda what people do. Then there's just the fact that school is pretty garbage at teaching languages as it is... Throw into the mix the fact that all of the languages you named are far removed from English, and it becomes a nightmare. And lastly - it really depends where you are. There are hundreds of schools in Sydney where Arabic is essentially the default language and the kids go to school to learn English. There'd be a riot if you announced one of those four languages was to be taught rather than MSA. In fact, with the exception of Indonesian, I don't really "recognise" any of those languages as particularly good choices for modern Australia. I would be going with Mandarin, Arabic, maybe Indonesian... and Turkish. There are also massive Jewish communities so Hebrew wouldn't be out of the question, but I think the most useful one to learn for the majority of situations in most cities in Australia would be Mandarin.
@@daysandwords Thanks very much for explaining all of that to me. It's certainly interesting, and I am honoured that you took the time to write it. What you wrote could almost make the script of a video in itself.
So I’m learning Tagalog which doesn’t have a lot of written resources (including books, subtitles, transcripts etc.) and I’m watching UA-cam videos and I’ve found articles to read and uploading to LingQ, but I’m wondering you would recommend for learning a language like Tagalog?
I didn't want to be crass in the video but I'd describe it more as an infatuation or just sexual attraction to someone. In high school there were girls I had the hots for that I certainly wasn't in love with (but I kinda thought I was, for a while). I didn't know anything about Swedish, I had to get to know it a bit before I decided if I liked it. I did.
04:50 - I relate to this so much! And funnily enough, for the same language! (Long soppy rambling below, feel free to ignore lol) ---------- Your channel in particular has really changed how I approach language-learning. I used to be satisfied with a B1-B2 level but I now appreciate thanks to your videos that there's so much more to gain in climbing that mountain even all the way up to C2. But I'm not at a C2 for any of the languages which I've learned to a point where I can watch TV in them (all the major Romance, Germanic and Hellenic languages). And I know from personal experience how spaced repetition can make language-learning so much faster. Luckily, I enjoy reviewing flashcards (the number goes up and there are pretty colours & sounds 🥺). And, there's a deck on the spaced repetition system I favour - Memrise - with 15k of the most common words in German. So for a while my goal for 2024 had been to review all of those fifteen thousand German flashcards, and get to a high C1 or low C2 in German (at least, for reading). But what you said at 04:50 helped me shift my mentality. Sure, I could learn the cards, but I'd still need to *do* a lot of reading to reach a C2 in German. And, do I want to? Not really: I'm not super interested in German-speaking cultures. They don't have that 'ness' about them. Whereas, there's books I really want to read in the modern Scandinavian languages (eg, by Mustafa Panshiri), but which are more difficult for me due to a lack of immersion time and vocab. The flashcard decks which I review a little of each day, cover about 10k in Icelandic, 5k in Danish & Norwegian respectively, and 8k in Swedish. Meaning, the jetpack of spaced-repetition won't get me as far in the Nordic languages as it will for German, so I'll have to walk the rest of the distance. But that's a walk I'll enjoy much more than trudging through German just because it's the language where I have the easiest means of reaching a C2 faster. Rather than pushing myself to C2 in German just for the sake of it, I've decided to make 2024 a year where I focus on immersing in Scandinavian content that I love, starting on the long but fun journey to C2. Your videos and advice have not only helped me learn the Nordic languages much more efficiently, but thereby have also given me greater access to these cultures which I've been fascinated by since adolescence. So, thank you so much Lamont and all the best for your travels on the same path in 2024! 🙏
Duolingo got me over the first hurdle with Japanese. Everything else claiming to be "beginner" was completely overwhelming. The constant repetition on basic, common words was enough to get me to understand slow podcasts and stories. I think everyone realises Duolingo alone isn't going to make you fluent. But its a great, fun tool to get started. I find the continuous production of duolingo-bashing content pretty pathetic.
@synt3897 - my second last video was studying a guy who says time and time again that Duolingo made him fluent... you'll never guess what happens next! ua-cam.com/video/R6jml0BeAvo/v-deo.html
So, I have no knowledge of this whatsoever, but my overall tips are: 1. There's a lot more than you think. I thought Swedish would be light on for resources... LOL, there's TOO much. 2. Check stuff from the country itself, like, meant for the citizens of that country. e.g. in Australia we have ABC iview (free broadcast service). In Sweden it's Sveriges Television, in Portugual, there is most likely something. 3. Search for as much as can IN Portuguese, and you can switch Google to only show you results from Portugual.
If you are up for plenty of reading, lingq has plenty of European Portuguese articles from news sites and elsewhere. I say this as someone learning the other and being frustrated at times when a lot of European Portuguese would invade my feed there. Hope this helps.
I don’t get the end greeting though. What did you want? I heard (probably wrongly) “yo quiero” which means “I want”. Or it could be “lo quiero” which means “I want it”
depends witch langedge bc for japanese/korean or langedges with hard grammar or very diffrent from english I dont reccomend dulingo but for more similar like german etc. you can maybe use duolingo just be carefull to use other main resource :)
There are better ways for everything, but for languages with weird scripts it can be a fine way to learn the writing system, for example. But really, even for very foreign stuff like Korean, you could just watch comprehensible input channels like 태웅쌤 or Choi Susu. You want to find new resources first, of course. Duolingo is still better than nothing at all.
So often people are extremely suspicious of me learning their language, especially when I do it online. I guess there are a lot of fraudsters out there.
My problem is get a comprehension from complex sentences and the sentences full of relative clauses i know subject i know verb etc but the sentences get extended with these i forgot what i knew too 😢
AI will totally change this landscape. Now that it can hear you, it will serve as a personal tutor. The translations being done by eleven labs is amazing.
"Now that it can hear you." Yep... and it will of course only ever listen to the things it's supposed to, and never ever be controlled by people with dark intentions.
Never finished learning your native language? Too right! As you get older, you start to learn medical terms that you had no need to know when you were young.
Gaaahhh... I dunno. I've been on holidays, and honestly the first couple of minutes of his video is so immature that I think it's probably best left alone... on the other hand, there's a lot to clear up that has either been misunderstood or is just very wrong, plus a few things I do actually wanna apologise for some (that I got wrong or came across wrong in my original video...) so, yeah it's kind 50-50 at this point.
Thank you for telling us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. Of all the language learning youtubers, your content has motivated me the most.
Thank you!
That is because it feels realistic and possible
Hahahahaha... You've read my mind.
I got a Duolingo ad in the middle of the video…
I got it at the beginning of
"You have to understand a lot of 1 thing before you can understand a lot of everything."
Well said
I am almost conversational in Italian and I got here almost exclusively with Anki and Netflix. Maybe five to one percent of my language learning time was spent reading about Italian grammar in English.
Me too but with Spanish, everyone told me it wouldn't work 💀
@sparklytea222 - it's funny how everyone who has never learned a foreign language (English speaking monolinguals) are so knowledgable on what will and won't work for learning a foreign language.
How did you use Netflix?
@@reverse-grip For immersion. Find a show in your target language or a show dubbed in your target language.
How long did it take you
I still try to learn a word every day in English, my native language. I have no plans to ever be finished. Learning new words in English eventually expands my vocabulary in other languages. Thanks for another great video.
This is *so* timely. The last two days, I've been searching for videos that critically examine popular language learning apps and their efficacy.
I'm trying to focus primarily on input, but it's more painful and difficult. However, I have to remind myself that apps like Duolingo are like busywork that lull you into thinking you're learning more than you actually are. Instant gratification is tempting, but in the long run I'll be better served doing deliberate practice with content in my target language.
Not being done with a language. This is what’s different from all the UA-cam polyglots out there. They hit B2, call it a day, then start over.
As always, appreciate you, Lamont. I’d rather be very good at one additional language than “okay” at a bunch.
I like the mindset of using every scrap of the language you see or hear as content.
I started my English learning almost 50 years ago, but I still try and improve. I think that's the most important step, to never stop learning. I also tried to learn German in school, but wasn't that motivated then, and never really used it after. However your video inspired me a bit, about how you worked on Swedish, so maybe I will try again with a language I am attracted to....The idea of an audiobook in a language was interesting, I often leave the telly on some show I have seen over and over again as background noise when at the computer.. :)
I also do the same thing
Never be finished is honestly great advice, To me language is like an art form, And like any other form of art the more you do it the better you get at it, Even if something is your native language, you'll still get better if you keep doing it, and get worse if you stop doing it. For most languages it'd be nigh impossible to know every single word, every grammatical feature, every way intonation is used, et cetera, even if you've been speaking a language for 50 years you can still come across new words, especially as languages are always changing, and if you don't learn the new stuff you'll sound like you come from the past when you speak it. Basically you can always get better at a language, even if it's your native language, because there's no "best" you can be at a language (or at the least, if there is, it's not humanly possible to achieve).
Hi, what's up, people? As a native Spanish speaker, I had been studying English on my own during my free time until I figured out that I didn't need to do anymore. I love this language (English, obviously).... The whole English grammar that I know I've learned through my mother language. It is fun how these ones are very similar themselves. My writing sucks I know. However, I write no essays at all or talk to anybody. Like, I am able to understand my favorite series, which is enough for me. Now I started to learn German, hahaha, a beautiful headache when it comes to accusative and dative in German. That's all. Love from colombia, I am going to go to Australia any minute now.
You write English better than most native speakers
This is the one I was waiting for!
"As an adult, you can learn whatever you want to if you just put in the time".
This is my main takeaway from learning Japanese. Language learning has taught me that I can do anything if I just put in the time. Sure, understanding Japanese TV and literature is cool, sure being able to chat in Japanese is swell, but you know what's more cool? Looking at a new hobby, skill, or craft and thinking "hmm, I could do that if I did X and Y".
I used to view new things as being too far off, like there was no way in hell I'd be able to do them. "I haven't been playing the Violin since I was 6 so I'd never be any good, right?" The long slog has shown me that it is, in fact, possible for every single person and honestly, it's like a superpower. Just suck it up and start right now!
"hmm, I could do that if I did X and Y".
Yes. In fact I've found this strange, as an adult... to realise that I could be an expert at something by the age of 44... and it's made me wonder what it should be.
The not being finished is a good one. I think it's ok for people to be finished with the learning stage of a language but there's a difference between people who are and those that aren't. Most people that moved to the US I think are finished with English at a certain point. They're not language nerds like us and so this makes perfect sense. And it also explains why they keep making the same simple grammatical mistakes or their pronunciation fossilizes. But if you're a language nerd and you're never happy and you're always looking to improve even if you're not necessarily cracking the books or flash cards you probably will keep making small improvements over time and things won't fossilize as they say in the teaching community. This is also why I'm not afraid to output early on (if I want to) or listen and speak to other language learners or people who speak an accent I'm not studying. I'm not worried about getting stuck with a habit that won't fix itself later.
oh god yes!
the real advice for 'how did you get so good at [this language]/making conversation/public speaking' sounds like a new-agey platitude but it is true!
the event of me getting so good happened a moment ago, hopefully the next i will become even better at it, as i never stopped learning
i am learning from you right now! whether you want it or not!!!
while i don't expect anyone to become as obsessed with languages as i am, there is always a benefit to keeping a corner of your mind open to the way someone is saying something
even when they bore you! maybe especially then, as you are so caught up with the details of what they are saying, you can dedicate yourself to how it is put together, maybe of how you would phrase it to someone else
5:00 i love that you talk about the difference between wanting to check off "learning a foreign language" and actually being able ot speak in one as a goal. It's also interesting that you state that "no amount is too much" for learning a language. It def holds true for any type of learning but for some reason (I believe out of fear of burning out?) I tend to hold myself back when I get too invested in one language and start delving too deep into grammar and origins and such. I should def change my mindset for this one.
Thanks for the video. One thing to keep in mind for your trip to Sweden is that the capital probably has more “default” English speakers than other cities. I also notice this in my country (The Netherlands) that people in Amsterdam are more likely to speak English even when we’re both Dutch. So you might want to go to a smaller city/town.
Well that's fine and everything but I actually have stuff to get done there, so if it needs to be in Stockholm, it'll be in Stockholm... but I haven't needed English for the last 10 or parties I've been at so I can't think I'd need it in Stockholm. My "defaulting" to Swedish has proven a lot stronger than their resolve to stick to English. 😆
Edit: Although, I might possibly stay with friends who live a bit outside of Stockholm, so we'll see.
That's nice and all until later generations want to learn their heritage language @@Corioli
Spanish is my first language and I'm basically bilingual in English since I was exposed to it a lot as a kid. I'm in my mid-20s now and started learning French (a language I hate lol) for immigration purposes. It's been like pulling teeth, objectively I'm quite good at it but will never love it, and it just feels so unnatural to learn it compared with English. I used to think I could never master French because I'm an adult now, and our quality of learning isn't the same as kids'. You gave me hope! I'm going to get a C1 French certificate if it kills me, and after I'll take it easier and try to appreciate the language and look for media I enjoy in it. Oh and I also gift you with an Argentinian phrase: "remar en dulce de leche", to row on dulce de leche. It means something's very hard and you're doing your very best to achieve it. Estoy remando en dulce de leche para aprender francés, but your videos keep me going :) (and they made me ditch duolingo)
Buenas maestro, leí tu comentario y me imagino que a mi me pasaría algo similar. Actualmente estoy aprendiendo un tercer lenguaje, alemán.
Mi situación es como la del hombre del vídeo, simplemente quería aprender otro lenguaje y no particularmente alemán, de hecho estaba entre ese idioma y francés, pero como del Inglés me molestaba que no sea fonéticamente constante me tiré más por el alemán.
¿Cómo estudiaste el francés? Sé del caso de una youtuber, que es políglota, y decía que una vez que aprendió francés se le hizo mucho más fácil aprender italiano y español. En tu caso ¿notas la similitud con el español?
Quizás ya lo conoces, pero, te recomiendo a Lucas Lampariello, un italiano que aprendió a hablar español a nivel nativo, también habla otros lenguajes, y tiene unos consejos que valen oro.
Pd: antes tuve un intento de aprender finés, me resultaba melodía para mis oídos, pero, es un lenguaje poco conocido que solo se habla en Finlandia (5 millones de habitantes) y hay muy poco contenido en línea, así que no llegué muy lejos.
Una vez que apliqué distintos consejos de varias personas políglotas, fue un antes y un después. Siento que ahora sé cuál es el camino, y puedo andar sobre él sin perderme y gastando poca energía. Más que nada porque sé qué es lo que genera más progreso y también lo que me desgasta mucho más rapido sin ser redituable.
La edad no es un problema, lo que es un problema es la cantidad de tiempo que le puedas dedicar, mientras más responsabilidades menos tiempo. Steve Kaufman, el creador de LinQ, aprendió varios idiomas, y hasta los cincuenta y tantos solo hablaba Inglés.
@@dogetge7544 el primer año y el tercero que estudié francés lo hice con clases en un instituto. A mí me sirve porque soy muy mala autodidacta, tenía poca motivación para aprenderlo porque no me gusta jajajaja.
Para mí el francés es un punto medio entre el español y el inglés. Sí encuentro (mucha) similitud con el español, pero mi experiencia aprendiendo inglés en institutos también me está sirviendo mucho.
El año pasado, que no tomé clases, lo único que hice fue MANTENER mi nivel, no aprender cosas nuevas, usando apps. Tenía un nivel muy bajo (entre A1 y A2) y no habría podido retener mucho de lo nuevo que aprendiese. Ahora estoy probando todos los días hacer media hora de práctica de francés por fuera de mis dos horas semanales de clase. Agarro un cuaderno y me pongo un video, serie o canción con subtítulos en francés y voy anotando las frases que me llaman la atención gramáticamente, palabras nuevas, etc pero sin volverme loca. No pongo pausa para anotar, y si no entiendo algo no suelo buscar qué significa. Mucho input en vez de output.
nobody wants to hear it, but insane amounts of repetition listening to the same thing is really the key!
You're a maestro with your hands. Hit every beat, haha. I really appreciated this video. Merci.
Haha, yeah I go between sitting weirdly still and keeping my left arm particularly very close to my side (in other videos) and moving them around way too much.
I did do a music degree at uni though so your way of putting it is appreciated haha, thanks for the comment!
@@daysandwords right on brother. You've set me on the right track to finishing my French from school. À bientôt!
Hejsan, jag tänkte bara säga att du är en inspiration till mig och du fick mig att börja studera finska samt ge mig motivation att öva mer, dina videos är jättebra och fortsätt att insperera och underhålla andra👍❤️
INSANE pace and quality! very cool, Lamont!!! especially while also taking care of a child!
your videos really motivate me to continue studying mandarin with their honest and candid reviews and description
cheers!
I'm really trying to do this now. I'm listening to some podcasts and just replaying them. I've noticed that I'm hearing more of the words. Either I'm parsing them better or I'm able to focus more on the words so that I'm catching more of them. It's a nice change. Like real progress. Weird progress.
"weird progress" is DEFINITELY a thing.
One day I want to put ALL of this in a 2 hour long video, but the night I went from "Oh yeah, Swedish is a language is kind of understand" to "Not only do I understand this, but I can tell how you're going to finish this sentence" was a strange one. It would be like being 110kg, eating healthily for 2 years and then losing 40kg in an hour.
Thank you for making this video. It confirms one of my suspicions (one is never done). Also, I like the idea of getting better all the time. Thank you!
As a follower of both Lamont and Evan, I have a lot of time for both. I didn’t see any malice in your video, he is seen as a figurehead of the duolingo community, and you were just using him as an example to illustrate your point. Sure, you don’t have to learn a language in the most effective way, but it is also important to recognise the fact that duolingo alone will not bring you fluency, with very few exceptions.
And regarding the plane analogy, I resonated with it. There are other ways you could get to the airport, like taking the car or getting a taxi or by train.
So I for one did not see the reason for such a big criticism of Lamont, perhaps a one on one conversation would be better? :) ❤
English came to me naturally as a kid since basically all media and music, videogames were in English, it was the "cool" language to a young boy, never struggled being interested in it. Became somewhat fluent in thai after living there for over 6 years and had a period of becoming obsessed with the alphabet, which is the only way to understand the language remotely at all.
I feel a huge attraction to Arabic and Spanish because they sound awesome to me. I started Spanish a couple of months ago being much harder than i expected. Hope to reach basic conversational level one day and then learn Arabic
I've been doing Norwegian via DuoLingo, whilst being incredibly frustrated with the app for all the reasons you stated in the previous video but also, it's in American English which adds another few barriers for Aust English speakers. My language frustration is similar to yours - I was brought up monolingual and school French lessons didn't help. Anyway, what has been more helpful than DuoLingo is actually watching a bunch of content from Scandinavian countries. Some shows, I have watched ten times over, and each time, I find I have caught more of the "flow" of what's being said. I have visited all three countries over the years and have friends in each one, and via watching Scandinavian stuff over and over, I am not only contextualising stuff, but I am also gaining a slight grasp of the quirks of each language. I get, for example, why it is that when Norwegians and Danes share more in common word-wise, yet Norwegians and Swedes understand each other better than either understand the Danes. I have also trained my ear better for German, just by extension.
Anyway, thanks for the story learning reco. Norsk isn't available yet, but I'm on the waiting list now.
This is so cool! I am Swedish and I find it interesting that you chose Swedish first because most people do not! I really like learning English at school and at home sometimes! Hej från Sverige!🇸🇪
Im trying to find good books and movies in Swedish, but most places will not ship to the US. It's so frustrating. If you could recommend any Swedish websites or bookstores that are willing to ship to the US, I would really appreciate that. I will also happily hear your favorite books and movies. I would have said all of this in Swedish, but I just finished the Swedish Duolingo course and it is as inadequate as he claims.😢 Skål från Utah!
@MN-zh2vd - so, a few things:
1. I'm 90% sure that Bokus ships to the USA. They ship to Australia, so I don't know why they wouldn't ship the USA.
2. I made a video about the service I use for audiobooks... in my opinion it's basically the best service in the world:
ua-cam.com/video/KFVHsA-_lRg/v-deo.html
3. SVT Play has some good stuff on and off, for free, or on Netflix, my favourite series would be Kalifat. On TV4 Play, there's one called Knutby that is also good. Both series are very dark so just watch out for that haha.
@@daysandwords I tried to purchase Himmelstrand, Rörelsen, and X off of Bokus and they would not ship to me. Twas a big bummer because they've got so many fun things. I'll check out the other sites, though. Tack så mycket! 🧡
Really weird. They only ever wouldn't ship to me at the end of 2020 in the middle of covid.
@@daysandwords This is probably too heavy, but meh, I'll say it anyway because why not: To be fair, if I lived in a first-world society-centric country, I wouldn't ship to a capitalist dystopian hellscape like the US either. It sucks for me, but bokus is probably making the right call. I'm proud of Swedish workers for striking against Tesla too. FTUS. Occasionally I find Swedish books on Amazon UK. I just found STV. At some point I'll get a VPN. It'll work out. Thank you for the suggestions regardless! 😊
I’ve been applying the same methods in my Spanish learning. I told people I’m going to be learning Spanish forever. 😅
"I'm kind of a big deal" will be my new tag
Always a good day when a new DFS video drops
Just a quick fun Swedish movie recommendation for you that was a delightful surprise for me, "Tillsammens". It's a Swedish comedy that takes place in a Commune in the 70's.
Tack. Jag tror inte att jag har sett den... Tillsammans, skulle jag tro.
@@daysandwords I saw it at a film festival because the other film hadn't arrived and they ran it as a stopgap. Always nice to be surprised like that. If I remember I wasn't as thrilled with the film I came for which looked gorgeous but the action scenes were offputting.
“My first second language” 😊😊
I find my motivation really comes and goes like waves so actually duo is handy for when I don't have the motivation to still be doing something
To extend your metaphor kind of like you did, there isn't really a "destination" in language learning. Once you get on the plane you are can either continue crossing the endless ocean or you can stop and begin a slow descent back.
Well... I think the plane metaphor probably works better if you see the destination country (in my example, the USA) as the point at which you become experienced enough in that language to just enjoy it... So that is like BEING in the country. You wouldn't land in San Francisco after a 16 hour flight and say "OK well, time to head back!" - You'd want to explore the place. That's Swedish for me... I've been in the proverbial country for a bit but there's still a lot more to see.
@@daysandwords I see what you're saying, but I see it a little differently. I kind of see the destinations people are sold or have in their heads being vague concepts like "Sweden" or "fluency" and they buy their plane tickets.
Then they grind through rush hour traffic to get to the airport, take off their shoes at the security checkpoint, sit in a chair and use a sketchy phone charger. Finally their plane starts boarding and they are in group C. After all that time and discomfort they are *finally* in their seat and on their way!
As the plane takes off they shout skål, but notice all the on-flight media is in Swedish. They choose something in Swedish and understand very little of it, but are happy that soon it will be easy.
After 10 hours they do not really see much of place they left, mostly ocean, and it has gotten a little easier. They start talking to their seatmate who is visiting the "homeland" and they say Jag-ska-resa-till-Sverige. They are getting a little more out of the show they started watching and it keeps them going further.
100 hours pass and they notice many people went to the bathroom and seemingly never returned to their seats. They start to notice a lot of the people on the plane seem to be Swedish and must be going home. They try to talk to them. The Swedes are so polite and say how good their Swedish is! (in English)
1.000 hours pass and they are getting the hang of things. They understand most of everything they have heard in the movie they just watched and even found some books in the seat pocket and were able to read them. They talk to another group of Swedes who ask where they live in Norway.
10.000 hours pass and they are singing Helan går with a group of people and they ask someone else in the group, "När ska vi landa?" and one of them says back "Va pratar du om kompis?"
As impressed as I was the first time I heard Krashen speak in a UA-cam video (I know he's had practice giving a speech or two and it shows), I don't know if I agree with his idea that we only learn when we understand and he goes on to give demonstrations on how if you use the language while acting out it works but if you just speak the language without providing context it doesn't do anything. But I think both help, just the former is more effective and for obvious reasons. So listening to an audio book repeatedly or watching one show repeatedly even though you're not understanding anything does work - the understanding can come later.
Considering his backstory its very cool to see where he is now. Its very motivating to know its possible
That's nice of you to say, thanks!
It was one of your OG Duolingo videos that made me find your channel! It's exciting to see how it's grown and changed.
I'm living in poland, I don't have lessons and I have a very small amount of time so I mainly learn through working but after 1.5 years I can have a conversation but my polish is very bad! But I have brought a book (short stories with MP3) so fingers crossed this will help
2 video in 2 days, amazing
Yeah they were supposed to be more spaced out, but that Duolingo one a week ago almost killed me and I had to take a recovery day haha.
duolingo has been helping me understand the grammar better though but I learn a lot more by talking to people who speak the language. It's pretty good for grammar but terrible for vocabulary and it's better to skip lessons with the progress test whenever you can
I just watched his response to your video and it's a shame he took everything you said as a personal offense. You just respectfully expressed your *opinion* that Duolingo alone isn't enough and used his experience as an example, since in your *opinion* what he showed during that live stream is not fluency. But it's just an *opinion*. I'm sorry he wasn't able to understand that, and that he didn't treat you as respectfully as you treated him. At least you'll get more views from all this 🙏
Yeah... I mean, I thought it would be more sensible of him to go down the "OK I wasn't fluent then but I am NOW and look, it's Duolingo that go me started" route. That would still leave his argument open to attack, but it would at least be stronger than "No actually, I WAS fluent in that livestream." One only needs to check the livestream to see that that's wrong (in 99% of people's opinions).
Of all the language learning UA-cam channels the algorithms have thrown at me, yours is by far the most helpful and relatable. I felt bad about being a monolingual American all my life, since the Spanish and Latin I got in school didn’t amount to much. I always intended to eventually get serious about learning another language, and I figured it would be Spanish or German, since those were the ones I knew a little about. But I was always busy with work and kids and there was no intrinsic motivation. On principle, I also thought it would be good to learn Chinese, but that seemed too daunting. Anyway, I never did anything about any of it and assumed I’d go on like that until retirement. But when I was 40, I woke up one day with burning desire to learn Korean - which I’d never even thought of before - and I’ve been working on it semi-psychotically everyday since. At the beginning, I assumed I’d never get anywhere, now I want to REALLY speak, read, and write it. I’ve got a long long long way to go to have conversations beyond ordering food and finding bathrooms and getting on trains, but since I’m not done learning English, it’s ok to settle into not being done learning Korean ever. It’s so helpful l to hear similar thoughts from another adult language learner with a job and kids. I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t been able to make progress in my grammar textbooks. I’ve had to settle for listening to the same audiobook over and over and podcasts. It’s so encouraging to hear this is worthwhile eventually. Thank you! 화이팅!
As usual, solid advice ❤ keep going and never stop is the best advice.
Yep, I wasted so much time in my early 20s trying to learn some popular languages trying to scratch that language itch, but I never really settled on one that I really loved until I tried Japanese one day. I was surprised at how much more I enjoyed spending time learning the language even though at first I understood very little. A lot of times, we don't pick a language a language picks us so I don't think there's any shame trying out lots of different languages to see the ones that fit us the best.
I'm watching your videos to get better in English (and because I enjoy it), as well as other UA-cam content matching my interests (about 1-2 hours daily), I literally consigned to oblivion my native language (Russian) but I've got no feeling of any progress for a long time. I also read and write quite a lot in English (tech topics), and speak sometimes. So today I've decided to give a chance to Anki. I wanna create my own "deck" with extended word definitions. My vocab now is about 6000 words and I learn just because I love it!
In my 20's I got a thing for German a lot like you described with Swedish. I will say that having distant German relatives and my dad had studied German in school helped me choose German over other languages but to this day I've never spoken more than a couple sentences in German to my dad (he always said my accent sucked) and those German relatives are really distant. But I had the weird inexplicable passion to just study and learn German in my 20's. Then in my mid 30's I got into Japanese. Not going to lie. It was the hot girls and weird video game cartoon culture that hooked me. I figured even if I hated the language itself this would be enough to keep me going.
Thanks so much for this, useful as always. I look forward to you going into more detail about why Duolingo is so badly flawed. My suspicion is that its not just Duolingo - i think there is a real issue with the idea (common in so many apps and courses) that you can learn a language well by using tricks to memorise component parts of a language (words, rules). It’s like trying to learn tennis by doing nothing but practicing serving, backhand and forehand, without actually playing the game. You are practising the components without the ‘glue’ that makes it all work. I think Matt vs Japan put it well recently, when he described memory tricks such as Anki, etc as the seasoning on language learning. They can improve it at the margins, but can’t alter the fundamental recipe.
Recently? The only thing I've seen from him in over a year is his mailing list stuff.
He has done a few interviews recently with other language UA-camrs in Japan.@@daysandwords
The one I saw most recently (I see it’s 4 months old) is with YTer ‘Kevin Abroad’. It’s long and detailed and he goes through his current thinking.@@daysandwords
Another great video. You’re on a roll!
I'm glad it looks like that from the outside. In truth, I got way behind on editing and had to catch up because I've got stuff to do this week and didn't want unfinished videos on my mind. 😂
I also learned German in high school in Australia. It was largely based on what random language teacher happened to be around. I wasn't bad at it (at the time), but I never really got into it. Hahaha I used to blast ChinesePod while driving. I shadowed the mp3s, and my pronunciation is still a bit similar to Jenny Zhu.
I learned from a French teacher who's a friend of mine that schools normally just teach whatever language they happen to have a teacher for.
I can relate so much to the first reason. For me it is Japanese…people always assume I learned it because of Animes…no…not really…..I just really like the sound of language!
Also….languages are a slow process! I think that is super important. And the fact that languages are never done is also something I agree with. I jokingly say, that I will learn Japanese until the day I pass I away. (And whatever other active language I have until then)
Yeah I still learn new things about English and it's my native language haha
Hello
im learning English.
Your English is quite clear and easy to understand.
i enjoy watching your videos as comprehensible input
thanks for your motivational and interesting videos!
I hope you wll keep doing great jobs!
I am slightly older than you are and a native speaker of English, and I'm still not done with English. I've got the grammar down, but there are always new words and expressions for me to learn. Learning. Never. Stops. I use Duolingo, but I also hunt down other sources of input and grammar to explain what Duo isn't doing for me.
Ha, "I could have done it, but didn't do my work" pretty much describes my high school and college experience with my unchecked ADHD.
It wasn't until my 30's when I took a college German class for fun, since the University offered a discount to employees, that I realized I can actually do really well in class...if I do the work, take my medication and put in more effort than just taking the tests.
Instead of being a D to F, maybe a C- student, I was consistently in a place among the top students in the class. If only I knew back when I was paying full price and needed the degree.
I have diagnosed ADHD too, but I've rarely taken anything for it.
Sometimes these days I take Ritalin... and yeah it's awesome, but as my son's paediatrician pointed out, EVERYONE does better on Ritalin... same as everyone does better on small amounts of crystal.
It's not really an ADHD treatment as it is just an awesome concentration pill... so it brings ADHD brains up to and possibly above normal ones. I'm not hating on it... I kind of wish I could be prescribed it again now, I just think that there's a lot of "Oh but this doesn't work for me, I have ADHD" out there, especially in my comments section... which is funny, because I was diagnosed before most of these people haha.
I also started my language learning journey believing that fluency was impossible! But then, I am learning Mandarin so I may well be right! 😄 But I am enjoying it, and I know more than I ever thought possible. One day, I may even get to grips with the tones😂
Good luck with your journey of chinese learning.
When you get to languages that doesn't use the same alphabet you've been using your whole life it gets rough. You have a steeper curve of learning to even be able to start reading in that language and that is leaving aside comprehension.
I just started duolingo. But I need more then this.i leaving to Japan next year.
@@dogetge7544 Thank you! I think the difference is one of the things that attracts me so much to the language. But 'impossible' has its advantages - any small step forward is something to celebrate! 😊
@@kikigem6290 For Mandarin, I started with Duolingo and another app - I found their different approaches useful. I have also consumed a massive amount of passive input through UA-cam/TV programmes. Next big leap will be talking to native speakers. My advice would be to try out all the available methods and find which work best for you. Good luck! 🙂
@@kikigem6290use Anki and immerse a lot. It really just comes down to that. I am also leaving for Japan next year.
Tack för väldigt fina tips och kul att du valt just svenska som språk 😃 Hoppas du snart får möjlighet att komma hit och uppleva Sverige. Finns så mycket att välja på bara… 😅
Duolingo is about learning languages it's not meant to teach you language fluency
It's a stone in the path
The issue with Duolingo though is that the time spent on the app is not worth it when you could be doing other things more worth your time
There are many better stones to be stepping on
@@firewall8095 For some people, time/efficiency is a factor. But for your average hobbyist language learner, the value of Duolingo is that it helps build a habit. It's the habit formation that ultimately will carry you far. And habit to me is far far more important than efficiency (in the early stages of learning a language). Get the habit formation under your belt; and you will eventually learn the language. Get off to a fast start, and .... who knows if you'll keep it up?
So, so, SO many people are hearing me saying something I'm not.
I am NOT saying that you can't, shouldn't, won't or any negation word use Duolingo to get started. It would be helpful if I also had a 5 year old video saying that I got going on Swedish with Duolingo... OH WAIT, I DO.
So DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE to get started and you have my full support. What I am debating is the USEFULNESS of Duolingo AFTER THAT.
It doesn't matter how much you use it, you're not getting fluent with it (and yes, since a lot of people have tried this BS too: PEOPLE DO THINK THAT IT MAKES YOU FLUENT.)
My issue can be boiled down to this:
People think it makes you fluent. People like to "show" that it made them fluent. This is BS. It didn't make you fluent, and it won't.
That's all.
@@daysandwords Agree with you 100%, Lamont. Anyone who’s actually taken a language all the way to B2, C1 or C2 knows the limitations of Duolingo. Duo simply gets you started, and helps you build a habit. (Very worthy things.) At best Duo takes you to A1, perhaps a little further. Thereafter, you’re going to need to look elsewhere for a boatload of comprehensible input. Mountains of comprehensible input. Oceans of it. I have no idea why people misunderstand your words. It’s really ironic. Maybe they should devote more time to mastering the nuances of English before moving onto a foreign language.
My first language is arabic i'am suffering to understand ur videos because u speak fast MashaAllah someday inshallah i will speak like u
Keep on😊😊😊
"if you don't know who I am, I'm kind of a big deal" with a detached tone... If I wasn't already I would have subscribed right there
Dude, from watching so many of your videos, as an American, I think the Australian accent is my favorite English accent.
😂 Love this!
Although my own Australian accent is a bit different to the most common one. So you might not like all of them. 😅
What worked for Lamont:
1 - Pick up a language you're really attracted to or you're on fire for.
2 - Treat anything that is in your target language. Anything in any shaped perform as being there to help you to learn it.
3 - Adopt a no amount is too much attitude.
4 - Never to be finished. Don't stop, just keep getting better.
My current favorite channel
Thank you!
Hey Lamonte, a big off topic, but I recently read a good crime-book from a swedish writer: It's called Offermarkaren in swedish and is written by viveca sten. I read it in german and really enjoyed it :) Maybe you can give it a go. (It is book one in a new series from her.) Have a great day! :)
I've been studying Japanese for about 8 months now. For that entire time, I've used Duolingo once a day. For about 6-7 months, I also have been using a dedicated kanji platform and a grammar textbook. Duolingo, after completing the first unit of their Japanese course, exposes you to about 40 kanji. In less time than that, the kanji platform teaches you 170 kanji. The difference is staggering.
I will never be done learning Spanish and French. Lately I been comparing them to Portuguese and Italian. My Senior Center has Italian lessons, so I’ll probably start going to those with the New Year.Catalan is available on Drops. So many choices and so little time. Everyday I get 2 word a day notices in English, one I basically know the word and the other has more obscure words that are sometimes new to me. As a child when I heard a foreign word, I always wanted to know the meaning. So I have a smattering of many languages.
Please swing by Denmark if you ever venture towards Sweden
I will try!
Currently we're trying to work out whether it's better for me to just go by myself for about 9 days which would mean I'd probably only have time for Sweden, or for us all to go for much longer, which would have to include Finland as well, since this whole thing started with my wife's friend who is from there (and invited us to stay with her in Finland).
1. Get a language that your are on fire for.
2. Treat everything of that language as your resource
3. No amount is too much atitude
4. Never feel like you are done.
I HATE ikea.... That is why i bought two office chairs there on Friday. I like making myself suffer 🤣
Realllly wanting to learn French. Duo Lingo has been quite helpful for the first two weeks, not sure if it will stay this useful
It won't (and I'm not just being a tool, I've drawn on thousands of comments).
Try FrenchPod101 and InnerFrench.
Your previous video was pretty confrontational.
I have spent six years learning Spanish on Duolingo and I think it used to be pretty good but nearly every "upgrade" made it worse.
I am now able to converse in Spanish but I really struggle with understanding others.
Having thought over your previous video I do think it is similar to an addiction.
I am very lost right now though.
I have tried basically every other Spanish method you mentioned and I considered them all worse than Duolingo. I hate learning languages and Duolingo worked pretty well because I could just push through it for 10-15 minutes and then be done with it.
I have absolutely no clue how to continue with Spanish now and will probably stay with Duolingo cause I don't know what else to do.
I think you've actually summarised the "problem" that a lot of people have quite nicely here. I might even like to make a video response to this.
But it will take a while so for now, let me say this:
So, Duolingo has got you into the habit of doing it (or something) every day. And that's great.
The reason (I think) that you feel the other things are "worse" is that you can't feel your progress as directly. Duolingo was very good at showing you "HEY! You've done X amount... you're doing great!" Unfortunately, it doesn't make you very good at the language.
So you need to embrace the fact that in doing something that's more effective at teaching you the language, it will be LESS effective at making you feel like you've progressed. For example, watching 20 minutes of Dreaming Spanish every day. I am not an affiliate for Dreaming Spanish and have never worked with them... so please take it from me that $8 US a month for a Dreaming Spanish subscription is a BARGAIN. You can choose the dialect of Spanish that you want to listen to and watch just a few videos every day.
Remember that at first, it won't feel like you're getting anywhere. But every hour of Spanish you listen to counts. So you should count total hours (Dreaming Spanish actually does it for you on the website). You've done enough Duolingo (learned enough words) that after 300 hours (40 minutes every day for 14 months or so), you'll understand a LOT. Like a LOT A LOT. And you'll be able to speak very well; much better than you can now.
But in that 300 hours, remember that each hour won't seem to do anything. Like walking 1km every day towards a place 300km away... you don't feel any closer until you've done about 200 days.
I think THIS is what Duolingo did well... They took something that people had to just have blind faith in, and gave it a metric that we could see.
@@daysandwordsThanks! After your video I decided to just bite the bullet and I bought the Spanish course from storylistening. It is quite the upfront cost but if it saves me hours a year by actually progressing and a lot of frustration it might be actually worth it.
Yes, I think so too - but obviously it depends on the person and their finances etc. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who only had $100 to spend.
Someone recently introduced me to an app called language transfer, it’s an audio based app where all you need to do is just sit and listen to what they say (they have you pause and repeat stuff). Now that I think about it it’s kind of like pimsleur. But I started using it recently and learned more of the target language on there then I have on duolingo. They have Spanish on there as well. (Sorry if this sounds confusing)
im 29 also so this gives me hope lol
i have so many languages i wanna do but i start them, learns a couple hundred words and stop
been going fairly okay with italian but i need more input i think. posso parlare come un uomo di caverne, but its a start LOL... fuck verbs though
Love this video! I am so torn between Norwegian and Spanish. Mainly because I understand bits from both but our son has picked up a few Spanish words so I’m torn between investing in Norwegian and boosting my confidence in language learning… which unfortunately Spanish verb conjugations caused 🙈 or using all the great Spanish resources I have and ploughing on to get us both to a solid lower intermediate level. ⁉️⁉️⁉️ and I just can’t make a decision but I’ll keep watching your video while I mull it over because I do agree I feel something for Scandinavia (the language, culture, food etc)
I was torn between Japanese and Norwegian for the reasons of being really interested in their respective cultures and how fun each language was to listen to. I live in the US, where neither language is spoken commonly so both are pretty weird options for me but I hope to go to both countries one day and have some level of understanding their languages. I also find language learning to be a fun hobby.
Anyway, context aside I ultimately chose Norwegian since its way easier and its the first time Im taking language learning seriously (and not forced textbook reading in school). It has helped me learn a lot on HOW to acquire a new language, which I know will help in any future languages I choose to learn.
Now that Ive learned Norwegian for about a year now, I started to actually try out Japanese on the side. I was tired of feeling like I need to master Norwegian before I can move on to another language. I know it helps that they're completely separate alphabets, so maybe it would be harder to learn something more similar. However, the reason Im typing all of this is because it felt very freeing to just say "Why not try both at the same time". Because ultimately (for me at least) learning a language needs to be fun and engaging or its not gonna stick.
Im sorry for this wall of text you didnt ask for, but I guess what Im trying to say is that maybe its not too bad to try both Spanish AND Norwegian instead of picking just one? Ive heard polyglots both recommend and NOT recommend learning multiple languages at once, but to that I say: Just do what feels right to you.
Anyway thats my two cents, I hope it helps in some way :) Lykke til!
@@Yeliad Hej! Tusen takk! No need to apologise, it was lovely to read your comment and experience. I know lots of people have this conflict between 2 or more languages but we don't often get to 'meet' so it's a lonely agony most of the time :)
You are right I could use one language to gain experience of how to learn a language and the other just dabble and not lose any ground on, so past efforts have not been wasted but maintained until I feel in a good place (like you) to take on both knowing I can commit and be consistent. Lykke til med norsk og japansk!
That's one upside of French. Zero risk that anyone would speak English with you when visiting France. 😂
Jarrå! Kom till Sverige under sommaren typ i juli och vlogga lite, då är det som vackrast
Tycker det är vackert precis just nu
Tip 1: don't get distracted.
Me: OK but ADHD it's gonna be OOH A NEW CAFE
For anyone learning Japanese I can’t recommend Wanikani enough. Duolingo is so disappointing and has gotten even worse when it comes to learning kanji which is a VERY important part of the language. And for grammar a Genki textbook or even people explaining it on UA-cam have made my progress the past 4 or 5 months way more efficient than half a year of just duolingo.
Duolingo + my swahili speaking mom and uncle = great success for me
'Picked a language I was attracted to'
Who will do more exercise? People who exercise because it feels great, or people who exercise because they want to lose 5 pounds?
Who will learn more? People who learn because they enjoy learning the language or people who want to reach a certain streak on an app?
Video Idea: Go to Mariehamn, and try to Understand their Dialect of Swedish.
Right now I have a B2 English level, nevertheless, I'm struggling because I feel like I'm not improving at all. I've been reading some books and I'm quite disappointed because I can not understand 100% of the things I read.
I don't know what kind of vocabulary should I be learning.
I was thinking about taking the B2 Cambridge certification, but now I'm not sure about it. As I said, I feel demotivated.
Do you have any advice for me?
Im American and starting to learn hebrew as my first language on duo. So far its been great but not sure about the long term
6:25 gold
yeeah, Mongolian! энэ видеон дээр таны хэлсэн бүх зүйлтэй би үндсэндээ санал нийлж байна. мөн таны ажилд маш их баярлалаа)
I'm slightly surprised that a school in Australia would teach German over an Asian language.
Why not Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesian?
Is it that German would be better for a career?
There are many, many things to consider here.
The biggest one is that schools that offer teaching a language directly in the school, during school hours and on school grounds (as opposed to the kid having their lessons after school hours in a nearby campus, or remotely) are normally only offering that language because they have that teacher, and nothing more.
I have heard of a school offering Finnish because their art teacher happened to be a Finnish woman... So now the school can offer Art as well as Finnish.
My school at the time offered French, German and Japanese. In years 11 and 12 (last 2 years of school), if you wanted to do something different, you would have to do that as a special subject where you go to a teacher online or something. It's the same now - my son could do Swedish at his school in yrs 11 and 12, but it would be the school approving that as a "non-school standard subject". The school has to agree to it, but generally it can be arranged.
So that's the biggest thing... it might sound great to offer Indonesian but then you've got to find a certified teacher (already not the easiest job in the world) who can speak Indonesian, AND English. It sounds like it would be common but once you ad the teacher part in there, the pool narrows significantly.
THEN... and this is another big factor... remember that this is in 2004, and at that point Australia was 103 years old as its own country. We're far more "British" than the USA is. So we adopt a lot of our attitudes from the British, and what do the British learn? German and French.
It's slowly changing, but a lot of the people my age still have parents who wanted to or did learn one of those European languages. It's not really a racism thing... it's just, kinda what people do.
Then there's just the fact that school is pretty garbage at teaching languages as it is... Throw into the mix the fact that all of the languages you named are far removed from English, and it becomes a nightmare.
And lastly - it really depends where you are. There are hundreds of schools in Sydney where Arabic is essentially the default language and the kids go to school to learn English. There'd be a riot if you announced one of those four languages was to be taught rather than MSA.
In fact, with the exception of Indonesian, I don't really "recognise" any of those languages as particularly good choices for modern Australia. I would be going with Mandarin, Arabic, maybe Indonesian... and Turkish. There are also massive Jewish communities so Hebrew wouldn't be out of the question, but I think the most useful one to learn for the majority of situations in most cities in Australia would be Mandarin.
@@daysandwords Thanks very much for explaining all of that to me. It's certainly interesting, and I am honoured that you took the time to write it. What you wrote could almost make the script of a video in itself.
So I’m learning Tagalog which doesn’t have a lot of written resources (including books, subtitles, transcripts etc.) and I’m watching UA-cam videos and I’ve found articles to read and uploading to LingQ, but I’m wondering you would recommend for learning a language like Tagalog?
Mange tak!
Sometimes too many sources can be very distracting.
Yes! That's very true...
But I just meant to not think that only stuff made for learners would work.
4:15 you're literally describing love at first sight.
I didn't want to be crass in the video but I'd describe it more as an infatuation or just sexual attraction to someone. In high school there were girls I had the hots for that I certainly wasn't in love with (but I kinda thought I was, for a while).
I didn't know anything about Swedish, I had to get to know it a bit before I decided if I liked it. I did.
04:50 - I relate to this so much! And funnily enough, for the same language! (Long soppy rambling below, feel free to ignore lol)
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Your channel in particular has really changed how I approach language-learning. I used to be satisfied with a B1-B2 level but I now appreciate thanks to your videos that there's so much more to gain in climbing that mountain even all the way up to C2.
But I'm not at a C2 for any of the languages which I've learned to a point where I can watch TV in them (all the major Romance, Germanic and Hellenic languages). And I know from personal experience how spaced repetition can make language-learning so much faster.
Luckily, I enjoy reviewing flashcards (the number goes up and there are pretty colours & sounds 🥺). And, there's a deck on the spaced repetition system I favour - Memrise - with 15k of the most common words in German.
So for a while my goal for 2024 had been to review all of those fifteen thousand German flashcards, and get to a high C1 or low C2 in German (at least, for reading). But what you said at 04:50 helped me shift my mentality. Sure, I could learn the cards, but I'd still need to *do* a lot of reading to reach a C2 in German. And, do I want to?
Not really: I'm not super interested in German-speaking cultures. They don't have that 'ness' about them. Whereas, there's books I really want to read in the modern Scandinavian languages (eg, by Mustafa Panshiri), but which are more difficult for me due to a lack of immersion time and vocab.
The flashcard decks which I review a little of each day, cover about 10k in Icelandic, 5k in Danish & Norwegian respectively, and 8k in Swedish. Meaning, the jetpack of spaced-repetition won't get me as far in the Nordic languages as it will for German, so I'll have to walk the rest of the distance. But that's a walk I'll enjoy much more than trudging through German just because it's the language where I have the easiest means of reaching a C2 faster.
Rather than pushing myself to C2 in German just for the sake of it, I've decided to make 2024 a year where I focus on immersing in Scandinavian content that I love, starting on the long but fun journey to C2.
Your videos and advice have not only helped me learn the Nordic languages much more efficiently, but thereby have also given me greater access to these cultures which I've been fascinated by since adolescence. So, thank you so much Lamont and all the best for your travels on the same path in 2024! 🙏
Duolingo got me over the first hurdle with Japanese. Everything else claiming to be "beginner" was completely overwhelming. The constant repetition on basic, common words was enough to get me to understand slow podcasts and stories. I think everyone realises Duolingo alone isn't going to make you fluent. But its a great, fun tool to get started. I find the continuous production of duolingo-bashing content pretty pathetic.
I've seen a lot of people argue that you can get fluent with duolingo, too many die on that hill
@synt3897 - my second last video was studying a guy who says time and time again that Duolingo made him fluent... you'll never guess what happens next!
ua-cam.com/video/R6jml0BeAvo/v-deo.html
@daysandwords Do you have any advice for ways to obtain European Portuguese resources? as Brazilian PT dominates the immersion content online :/
So, I have no knowledge of this whatsoever, but my overall tips are:
1. There's a lot more than you think. I thought Swedish would be light on for resources... LOL, there's TOO much.
2. Check stuff from the country itself, like, meant for the citizens of that country. e.g. in Australia we have ABC iview (free broadcast service). In Sweden it's Sveriges Television, in Portugual, there is most likely something.
3. Search for as much as can IN Portuguese, and you can switch Google to only show you results from Portugual.
If you are up for plenty of reading, lingq has plenty of European Portuguese articles from news sites and elsewhere. I say this as someone learning the other and being frustrated at times when a lot of European Portuguese would invade my feed there.
Hope this helps.
Portuguese With Leo is great for european PT content
I don’t get the end greeting though. What did you want? I heard (probably wrongly) “yo quiero” which means “I want”. Or it could be “lo quiero” which means “I want it”
Nah I always say "Lo quiero", it's deliberate.
@@daysandwords Google translate tells me there’s a third translation: “I love you”.
Exactly.
It's from "Into the Spider-verse" (as in, that's why I say it).
so should i ditch duolingo?
depends witch langedge bc for japanese/korean or langedges with hard grammar or very diffrent from english I dont reccomend dulingo but for more similar like german etc. you can maybe use duolingo just be carefull to use other main resource :)
There are better ways for everything, but for languages with weird scripts it can be a fine way to learn the writing system, for example. But really, even for very foreign stuff like Korean, you could just watch comprehensible input channels like 태웅쌤 or Choi Susu.
You want to find new resources first, of course. Duolingo is still better than nothing at all.
So often people are extremely suspicious of me learning their language, especially when I do it online. I guess there are a lot of fraudsters out there.
My problem is get a comprehension from complex sentences and the sentences full of relative clauses i know subject i know verb etc but the sentences get extended with these i forgot what i knew too 😢
duolingo is coming for you instantly
I think you need to make that DL video 😂
I will, it will just be really long.
I wanna know why duolingo doesn't work, that's an interesting topic
AI will totally change this landscape. Now that it can hear you, it will serve as a personal tutor. The translations being done by eleven labs is amazing.
"Now that it can hear you."
Yep... and it will of course only ever listen to the things it's supposed to, and never ever be controlled by people with dark intentions.
8:28 When you listened to this audiobook repeatedly, did you ever have access to a transcript?
Nah, I was too cheap to pay the 100kr or so for the book itself. 😂
Never finished learning your native language?
Too right!
As you get older, you start to learn medical terms that you had no need to know when you were young.
😂
Are you going to make a video replying to Evan's video on your video?
Gaaahhh... I dunno.
I've been on holidays, and honestly the first couple of minutes of his video is so immature that I think it's probably best left alone... on the other hand, there's a lot to clear up that has either been misunderstood or is just very wrong, plus a few things I do actually wanna apologise for some (that I got wrong or came across wrong in my original video...) so, yeah it's kind 50-50 at this point.
@@daysandwords I found it pretty immature myself... It's up to you, either way I'll be waiting for your newest video 😄