I use a method where I pick a TV series with English subs, and I'm looking at the subs, I pause and translate it into the target language out loud. I find this method awesome because it solves the boredom problem. I'm not translating some boring text written on a piece of paper, I'm watching a fun TV show. I usually translate 10 to 20 minutes of the episode per day, depending on how tired I get. There's absolute no burning out because it's a lot of fun to speak like the characters in your favorite shows.
As a native french speaker, I definitely saw the difference between the two recording. Definitely there was mistakes and hesitation but I found you had a better flow. I'm learning filipino right now, I think I now reached this plateau you're speaking about, so I'm gonna give a try to this method
@Matt-jc2ml I'm not french, I'm from Switzerland, where we also speak french. Not all french speakers are french, and actually I'm not even sure that this stereotype has any reality, even in France.
@@smith-qk5xz ah that makes sense then. I forgot about Switzerland. And belgium and Africa too for that matter. And idk that's what I hear about france and Quebec from everyone who goes there. I don't think they get that people learn english as a second language just for travel and don't want to learn a 3rd language just to visit france
If I may, from hearing you speak, with French being one of my native languages, my advice to you would be to work on your pronunciation very seriously. That's a thing I personally do first. One of the reasons being that I want to feel confident about how I sound and not let bad habits fossilize. Learn that "ou" and "eu" once and for all, be hard on yourself. I hear you mispronounce a lot of the same phonemes. You also don't do the colloquial elisions that every French speaker does. There's also the issue of prosody and colocations/idioms. When you speak a language fluently you chain many words together without using your brain, they just come out as they must. It is related to pronunciation itself in that muscle memory plays a big role, your mouth knows better and does its thing. So, maybe reading/repeating aloud, recording yourself sometimes to compare, is a good idea. You know a lot of French, you lack automatisms.
ok, im a lot curious to see what your results were, but 1 minute in the video, i had to pause and say, that this method, relying so much in translation, maybe its a good method if you intend to work with translation, but if your focus its improve your understanding of the language, i sugest you focus on practicing the understanding of the language, translation its only a tool to help you understand what is been said, but each word, has sometimes, in each language, a unique meaning, that you can only learn by seeing the same word in a lot of different contexts. but this take a lot of time and I can understand the struggle to find enough content interesting enough for you to have a grasp of the real unique meaning of each word. edit: ok i see how translating something from your native language to your study language can be a exercise to train your recall skills and since the text you were translating were originaly in your target language, you have something to compare as what a "perfect" translation would be. that said, now i think that bidirectional translation is one of the best exercices you can do to train your recall skills... if you dont have anyone to talk to, but ultimately, the best way to train your recall skills, is talking with someone. edit 2: For most English Native Speakers, when they are learning a new language, i feel that their final goal in the language is to speak in the language, so I see how this Bidirectional Translation Method can be very powerful, especialy for someone in the B1-B2 level. but for me, a non native English "Speaker", living in a Country that dont speaks english, i am Happy just for understanding everything i need so i can study, and even before i learned english, i was used to read and listen to english daily, in movies, musics and games, so learning english was useful for me right from the begining, and since i never saw anyone who speaks native english, i never really had the opportunity or the need to speak in english, but of course, its something i'll eventually focus, but until then, i just enjoy the language. edit 3: if i can understand and speak more than one language, doesnt means that i am smart, just means that i can be dumb in more than one language, i barely even know how to properly write and speak in my native language, imagine with the languages tha i'm only having fun.
Interesting video. But I did have to use subtitles because the music/voice mix was a bit mushed, especially at the start. Music seemed really loud but also distorted. I’m on iOS. Not sure if that’s relevant. It cleared up later on.
good video Marcus. This is the exact same way I learned French & am currently helping my students learn French. If we already know English, why wouldn't we use all of that English knowledge to best learn French? Looking forward to your future videos!
I'm a French speaker. You are doing very well in French for the time you spent at it. Even at intermediate level, you have a good accent. already (My accent is very bad... so I am a bit jealous! 🙂) When learners first try to speak in their target language, they often worry about natives' reactions. Some of my students had bad experience with a native French speaker over correcting them, or criticizing their attempts. I don't get why anyone would do that. It's rude! I tell my students to forget the few jerks; they don't matter. Most people are happy we are trying to learn their language. Keep that in mind to maintain your motivation. Hats off to you for trying Luca Lampariello's bidirectional translation method. I admire Luca (who doesn't?) ... but his approach seems overwhelming to me. Good luck with your learning.
I do something similar sometimes, but I skip the translation to familiar language part, because I find understanding a language way easier than producing it. I just use text that either comes with a translation, or I translate it with DeepL, then translate that translation back to compare it with the original text. I think a more efficient way of this could be that I translate the original to another language I'm learning, then back, but that probably requires more patience and discipline than what I have.
Theres a difference. You speak a bit more fluently. Congrats! I dont think id try this method but i eas thiking of copying kids books or short stories. For writing practice.
Marcus, when you hear a sentence in a foreign language, what is the bit of information among all the words you recognized as an independent semantic unit that you consider to be the pivot of the whole sentence to be understood?
Thanks for sharing. I might give this method a try. I generally load myself up with different resources and methods, and then just do what I feel motivated by the most on any given day rather than forcing myself to do anything in particular. On a day that I feel particularly unmotivated to spend much time with French I might only do a quick word match or speaking practice on Duolingo for 1 minute so I've at least thought about French for the day (I would argue this a benefit of paying for Super - having control over how much you learn, whether it be more or less than with the free version), and then find content in English that is about language learning, or French culture, or a TV show In English that I'm simultaneously watching in French. It really helps taking the pressure off. But then there are other days I might seem like a crazy person spending the majority of my day immersed in French while living in an English speaking country. I think ultimately you have to enjoy the process, so as much as some people swear by a particular method, I doubt there is a single method that would be effective for everyone. Not to say it wouldn't work at all, but I don't think it's effective if it demotivates you in the process.
Adding onto what I wrote already… I think this AI would be a great combination to the bidirectional translation. Once in a while, the person you choose to do the AI translation will pronounce some things wrong but if you have that basic knowledge of how to pronounce things you catch it right away and sometimes I will even tell it that it pronounced it wrong and tell it the correct way, and then it will fix it so I’m not sure about the other languages. They continue working on the little bugs and I see it improving all the time. It’s almost scary how good it is.
I've largely been agaisnt translating over the last 10 years of language study. In the very beginning stages it's necessary. But as soon as possible I avoided translating as much as possible. I think this may be best for intermediate students, but as an advanced learner, I've started to incorporate some native to foreign translation into my studies (inspired by Luca). And it certainly can be helpful. Personally, I find just reading in the target language helps the most with understanding, but it doesn't help me with production. I'm incorporating translation mainly to help with speaking, producing the foreign language. I love your analytical approach.
Obviously, Lampariello knows a bit of what he’s talking about, but I must admit to being very sceptical about this method. It seems to me that all it will do is reinforce what you already know (and potentially reinforce errors) through active recall. Focusing for an hour on the language clearly helps, but I really wonder if this is any better than just spending an hour reading an interesting story in your target language.
It’s funny you say that, there’s a section of the video that I cut out where I ramble about how it didn’t make sense to wait a day or two to correct your errors (as was the original suggestion) for this exact reason. I cut it out because it was a disjointed ramble, but in it I mentioned that I advocate for correcting whenever you want, or even looking for the correct phrase if you’re stumped so you don’t reinforce something that you incorrectly made up.
@@MethodMarcusMaybe it would be better to do it all on the same day, but in smaller chucks? So, work for the same amount of time, but translate a much smaller portion of the text. That way, you're getting immediate feedback and can immediately start using what you've learned when you translate another section the next day. The same words and grammar structures are likely to reappear in the same material, so you can start reinforcing what you've learned right away.
Actually Lampariello uses this Bidirectional method when he starts a new language only. Long before he reaches intermediate level he uses other methods. Also he always uses a textbook with short grammatical notes.
I use association and island. Read book in a field that interest in record few sentences afterwards and listening my record as a dictation and writing down.
@@MethodMarcus learn on your interest help you to commit in the learning language process. I have bought ten books on Vinted in the art field that make the learning more pleasant and improve both thing at once.
Thanks for the video, you explained it well. I've been noticing lately that people who have a strong trailing vocal fry while speaking English often don't have it when they speak French, or some other languages. You spoke clearer when speaking French. Much less croaking at the end of your sentence. While I'm not a fan of the affectation, I know some are, or at least don't mind it. Just thought I'd share my observation. Cheers.
@@sycration It's an affectation that's irritating to some people, myself included. I mention it in an attempt to be helpful on the off chance that someone may be currently unaware.
I just started to learn French and for me, as for beginner, you're french is great. Thanks for a video, I think, i can try this method myself. And thanks again.
New subscriber and big fan! I find that my language-learning context mirrors yours to a surprising degree: I have tried and failed to learn one of my parents' native languages, and now, in my late 20s, find myself rather randomly two months into learning French. I found your video on your relationship with Vietnamese fascinating and well-spoken. Would love to connect sometime if you're up for it.
Pls don't upload that kind of background music😒
I use a method where I pick a TV series with English subs, and I'm looking at the subs, I pause and translate it into the target language out loud. I find this method awesome because it solves the boredom problem. I'm not translating some boring text written on a piece of paper, I'm watching a fun TV show. I usually translate 10 to 20 minutes of the episode per day, depending on how tired I get. There's absolute no burning out because it's a lot of fun to speak like the characters in your favorite shows.
As a native french speaker, I definitely saw the difference between the two recording. Definitely there was mistakes and hesitation but I found you had a better flow.
I'm learning filipino right now, I think I now reached this plateau you're speaking about, so I'm gonna give a try to this method
Great to hear!
I heard you guys get very angry when hearing English or less than perfect french. Surprised you managed to watch the whole video
@Matt-jc2ml I'm not french, I'm from Switzerland, where we also speak french. Not all french speakers are french, and actually I'm not even sure that this stereotype has any reality, even in France.
@@smith-qk5xz ah that makes sense then. I forgot about Switzerland. And belgium and Africa too for that matter. And idk that's what I hear about france and Quebec from everyone who goes there. I don't think they get that people learn english as a second language just for travel and don't want to learn a 3rd language just to visit france
Galing! Im learning French, Im a native Filipino speaker 🎉
If I may, from hearing you speak, with French being one of my native languages, my advice to you would be to work on your pronunciation very seriously. That's a thing I personally do first. One of the reasons being that I want to feel confident about how I sound and not let bad habits fossilize. Learn that "ou" and "eu" once and for all, be hard on yourself.
I hear you mispronounce a lot of the same phonemes. You also don't do the colloquial elisions that every French speaker does.
There's also the issue of prosody and colocations/idioms. When you speak a language fluently you chain many words together without using your brain, they just come out as they must. It is related to pronunciation itself in that muscle memory plays a big role, your mouth knows better and does its thing.
So, maybe reading/repeating aloud, recording yourself sometimes to compare, is a good idea.
You know a lot of French, you lack automatisms.
ok, im a lot curious to see what your results were, but 1 minute in the video, i had to pause and say, that this method, relying so much in translation, maybe its a good method if you intend to work with translation, but if your focus its improve your understanding of the language, i sugest you focus on practicing the understanding of the language, translation its only a tool to help you understand what is been said, but each word, has sometimes, in each language, a unique meaning, that you can only learn by seeing the same word in a lot of different contexts.
but this take a lot of time and I can understand the struggle to find enough content interesting enough for you to have a grasp of the real unique meaning of each word.
edit: ok i see how translating something from your native language to your study language can be a exercise to train your recall skills and since the text you were translating were originaly in your target language, you have something to compare as what a "perfect" translation would be. that said, now i think that bidirectional translation is one of the best exercices you can do to train your recall skills... if you dont have anyone to talk to, but ultimately, the best way to train your recall skills, is talking with someone.
edit 2: For most English Native Speakers, when they are learning a new language, i feel that their final goal in the language is to speak in the language, so I see how this Bidirectional Translation Method can be very powerful, especialy for someone in the B1-B2 level. but for me, a non native English "Speaker", living in a Country that dont speaks english, i am Happy just for understanding everything i need so i can study, and even before i learned english, i was used to read and listen to english daily, in movies, musics and games, so learning english was useful for me right from the begining, and since i never saw anyone who speaks native english, i never really had the opportunity or the need to speak in english, but of course, its something i'll eventually focus, but until then, i just enjoy the language.
edit 3: if i can understand and speak more than one language, doesnt means that i am smart, just means that i can be dumb in more than one language, i barely even know how to properly write and speak in my native language, imagine with the languages tha i'm only having fun.
Interesting video. But I did have to use subtitles because the music/voice mix was a bit mushed, especially at the start. Music seemed really loud but also distorted. I’m on iOS. Not sure if that’s relevant. It cleared up later on.
good video Marcus. This is the exact same way I learned French & am currently helping my students learn French. If we already know English, why wouldn't we use all of that English knowledge to best learn French? Looking forward to your future videos!
I'm a French speaker. You are doing very well in French for the time you spent at it. Even at intermediate level, you have a good accent. already (My accent is very bad... so I am a bit jealous! 🙂) When learners first try to speak in their target language, they often worry about natives' reactions. Some of my students had bad experience with a native French speaker over correcting them, or criticizing their attempts. I don't get why anyone would do that. It's rude! I tell my students to forget the few jerks; they don't matter. Most people are happy we are trying to learn their language. Keep that in mind to maintain your motivation. Hats off to you for trying Luca Lampariello's bidirectional translation method. I admire Luca (who doesn't?) ... but his approach seems overwhelming to me. Good luck with your learning.
Thank you! Good advice to your students!
I think Luca says that he uses the BdT method at the early stage of his learning, so it is aimed for beginners.
I do something similar sometimes, but I skip the translation to familiar language part, because I find understanding a language way easier than producing it. I just use text that either comes with a translation, or I translate it with DeepL, then translate that translation back to compare it with the original text.
I think a more efficient way of this could be that I translate the original to another language I'm learning, then back, but that probably requires more patience and discipline than what I have.
Theres a difference. You speak a bit more fluently. Congrats!
I dont think id try this method but i eas thiking of copying kids books or short stories. For writing practice.
I think you need to give it more time, and for this to be a fairer review, using his material would have been better to truly evaluate the process.
Marcus, when you hear a sentence in a foreign language, what is the bit of information among all the words you recognized as an independent semantic unit that you consider to be the pivot of the whole sentence to be understood?
Thanks for sharing. I might give this method a try. I generally load myself up with different resources and methods, and then just do what I feel motivated by the most on any given day rather than forcing myself to do anything in particular. On a day that I feel particularly unmotivated to spend much time with French I might only do a quick word match or speaking practice on Duolingo for 1 minute so I've at least thought about French for the day (I would argue this a benefit of paying for Super - having control over how much you learn, whether it be more or less than with the free version), and then find content in English that is about language learning, or French culture, or a TV show In English that I'm simultaneously watching in French. It really helps taking the pressure off. But then there are other days I might seem like a crazy person spending the majority of my day immersed in French while living in an English speaking country. I think ultimately you have to enjoy the process, so as much as some people swear by a particular method, I doubt there is a single method that would be effective for everyone. Not to say it wouldn't work at all, but I don't think it's effective if it demotivates you in the process.
"living like a crazy person" just sounds like dedication and immersion!
Adding onto what I wrote already… I think this AI would be a great combination to the bidirectional translation.
Once in a while, the person you choose to do the AI translation will pronounce some things wrong but if you have that basic knowledge of how to pronounce things you catch it right away and sometimes I will even tell it that it pronounced it wrong and tell it the correct way, and then it will fix it so I’m not sure about the other languages. They continue working on the little bugs and I see it improving all the time. It’s almost scary how good it is.
It is nice that you can choose different teachers with different voices for a variety
The intermediate plateau…… I feel like I’ve been there forever.
We will climb out…eventually
I'm not even French & yeah you offended even ME.
>>>
I'm totally kidding. Love your channel & videos.
I've largely been agaisnt translating over the last 10 years of language study. In the very beginning stages it's necessary. But as soon as possible I avoided translating as much as possible.
I think this may be best for intermediate students, but as an advanced learner, I've started to incorporate some native to foreign translation into my studies (inspired by Luca). And it certainly can be helpful.
Personally, I find just reading in the target language helps the most with understanding, but it doesn't help me with production. I'm incorporating translation mainly to help with speaking, producing the foreign language.
I love your analytical approach.
You killing me with this background music
" i like to experiment with different methods for learning languages.." got me subscribed to your channel
Same! Always looking for good experiments to change up my language learning routines
Wooo!
Obviously, Lampariello knows a bit of what he’s talking about, but I must admit to being very sceptical about this method. It seems to me that all it will do is reinforce what you already know (and potentially reinforce errors) through active recall. Focusing for an hour on the language clearly helps, but I really wonder if this is any better than just spending an hour reading an interesting story in your target language.
It’s funny you say that, there’s a section of the video that I cut out where I ramble about how it didn’t make sense to wait a day or two to correct your errors (as was the original suggestion) for this exact reason. I cut it out because it was a disjointed ramble, but in it I mentioned that I advocate for correcting whenever you want, or even looking for the correct phrase if you’re stumped so you don’t reinforce something that you incorrectly made up.
@@MethodMarcusMaybe it would be better to do it all on the same day, but in smaller chucks? So, work for the same amount of time, but translate a much smaller portion of the text. That way, you're getting immediate feedback and can immediately start using what you've learned when you translate another section the next day. The same words and grammar structures are likely to reappear in the same material, so you can start reinforcing what you've learned right away.
Actually Lampariello uses this Bidirectional method when he starts a new language only. Long before he reaches intermediate level he uses other methods. Also he always uses a textbook with short grammatical notes.
@@matseklof2250correct. A bilingual textbook, Assimil. And it's not the first step of his routine.
Start with how many languages you're fluent in, otherwise nobody's interested in your opinion
man i respect you !
I use association and island. Read book in a field that interest in record few sentences afterwards and listening my record as a dictation and writing down.
Very cool, love the focus on your interests!
@@MethodMarcus learn on your interest help you to commit in the learning language process. I have bought ten books on Vinted in the art field that make the learning more pleasant and improve both thing at once.
Thanks for the video, you explained it well. I've been noticing lately that people who have a strong trailing vocal fry while speaking English often don't have it when they speak French, or some other languages. You spoke clearer when speaking French. Much less croaking at the end of your sentence. While I'm not a fan of the affectation, I know some are, or at least don't mind it. Just thought I'd share my observation. Cheers.
Interesting lol
Vocal fry is not phonemic but it is an important part of some English accents
@@sycration It's an affectation that's irritating to some people, myself included. I mention it in an attempt to be helpful on the off chance that someone may be currently unaware.
Great experiment, thank you for sharing!
Thank YOU!
music you use is fire
I just started to learn French and for me, as for beginner, you're french is great. Thanks for a video, I think, i can try this method myself. And thanks again.
Thank you! Good luck!
New subscriber and big fan! I find that my language-learning context mirrors yours to a surprising degree: I have tried and failed to learn one of my parents' native languages, and now, in my late 20s, find myself rather randomly two months into learning French. I found your video on your relationship with Vietnamese fascinating and well-spoken. Would love to connect sometime if you're up for it.
I’m flattered! Yup, there’s something intimidating about learning my family language!
I'm french and it was good bro
Thank you!
I definitely heard a difference between the two recordings that I am inspired to add this to my acquiring the french language. Thank you.
Love to hear it, thank you!
What's the point in overpowering what you say with such a disturbing and loud music?