Can you get fluent just by reading?
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- If you've watched some of my videos, you may be thinking to yourself: "Wait a minute... Olly's method seems to be ALL ABOUT READING! What about listening and speaking? Does this guy think you can get fluent by reading alone?!" In this video, I answer this exact question.
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:25 - StoryLearning® = Reading only?
0:58 - Why speaking is a PHYSICAL skill
2:12 - How reading helps you learn to speak
3:25 - Input-based learning vs. speak from day one
Curious about how to learn a language through stories? Get the full scoop on my StoryLearning method here 👉🏼 ua-cam.com/video/dPqWN2dlsBg/v-deo.html
Hey Olly I'm curious about how you would become fluent in a language that DOESN'T have stories or songs or anything like that.
There are multiple complete conlangs which do not have any stories or anything. Na'avi, Trigedasleng, Sindarin, etc.
Does your method apply only to "real" languages such as Mandarin or Russian??
If you wrote on your whiteboard in sharpie, just use sharpie to color over it again, and then immediately wipe it off with a dry magic eraser sponge
I’m curious about learning styles, did u cover this topic already? Visual, auditory, kinetic. Thank you
Olly, about your permanent marker on the white board: just use a white board marker to write over it many times and it will dissolve. Alcohol will also work.
Cheers.
❤❤
I started reading books in English when I was 12 years old in order to improve my grades. Within a year I went from the bottom of my class to the top of my class. After about two years my grammar was flawless and my vocabulary was much more advanced than that of my peers. I think the biggest benefit I gained from reading was an intuitive understanding of the language, close to that of a native speaker.
*cries in no German books and a 12 year old*
@@user-is6ux3sj2t exactly same bro. It helps that English is absolutely everywhere. I speak English fluently but I wouldn't be able to explain even the easiest grammar rule
i can tell your grammar is great bc you used the right "than"
@@richardharvey7631 lol
I learned Spanish to fluency and reading a LOT really gave me that intuitive understanding as well
The second graph is exactly what happened with my English. What's funny is that it happened by chance. I didn't care nor think about learning/improving my English or talking to English native speakers when I first started reading books. I just found super cool novel genres that happened to be originally written in this language. However, when I did start using it to communicate, I wouldn't say I spoke fluently from day one but I was definitely at an advantage and it didn't take me long to reach fluency in speech.
That’s brilliant
Were you really able to learn grammar just by reading? Like verb conjugation, punctuation, and sentence structure?
What is your native language if you don't mind me asking
its the same with me, i mostly enjoys english novels rather than my native lang ones..it does help, though had to practice a lot as well
@@cevcena6692 I don't think that you can learn grammar just by reading, but it helps you a lot, because when you're reading, you'll pay attention to all of those grammar structure of English and will be able to replicate on your own eventually
I learned english by reading smut on wattpad and I'm gonna do the same with french🧚♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
Love your game plan 🤣🤣
Damn imma have to do that
I learnt everything I know about english by reading the Harry Potter series lol. And when I'll try german again, I'll do the same ;) Not gonna change a winning team are we ? ^^
Dont do that with French because Spoken French is different from written French, further normal spoken french is not the same as fast spoken french
@@MegaSwapnill ofc wattpad is not my only source of input, but thanks for clarifying it :))
İ don't remember where, but İ came across an interesting statement:
"İt's impossible for someone, who understands almost everything he hears (direct speech, News, Movies and passerbys conversation), not to be able to speak fluently. İt might be awkward and slow at the beginning, but in no time fluency will come"
You are absolutely right.
Steve Kaufmann talks about it. Considering you have the amount of exposure that allows you to understand kind of everything you're doing, either listening or reading; when it comes to speaking you'll be able to find the words. But I dunno, I really believe to get better at something you have to practice and put a considerable amount of effort to increase your skills. Probably because the process that occurred in the brain when you're speaking is a bit different than reading
Steven Krashen said it I think. It's true, but it still needs some effort. I discovered by chance that I can understand almost everything in Spanish (not technical stuff) based on years of watching soap operas. So I tried to listen to things in SP and tried to speak. I'm sure that of I put some effort I will speak very well in a short amount of time.
When I came to California when I was like 9 all I did for about from December to August before I first went to elementary school for the first time in the USA was watch cartoons. I lost my mexican accent within a year and by middle school people thought I was born hear because I don't have a distinct mexican accent. Weirdly I learned to read advanced Spanish was to go to catechism classes.
You listen , you understand -then you speak If your responses are slow and halting you have not listened enough .Fluent understanding always becomes before fluent expression As a child you probably spend 2 years listening before you are able to begin to speak fluently in sentences.
I delayed speaking for a long time for the very practical reason that no matter how well you speak, you can't have a conversation if you don't understand the other person. I waited until I had about a B1 level of comprehension, which was probably later than necessary. Since then, I've become completely convinced that an input heavy method is the only way to achieve a very high level in a language for all the reasons you mention.
Yup
I don't see any reason for delaying to speak a foreign language. It has always been the first thing I've been aiming at. For this reason, I find it easier to speak a foreign language than to understand one, but , of course, they complement each other.
100% agree. I discovered this purely by accident in that I was working shifts and wasn’t able to speak to people. When I did speak I was amazed at how much I understood. Lightbulb moment for me. In future, when I’m learning future languages, I will actively be waiting to speak.
@@hannofranz7973 My personal reason for delaying this third language is that in my first foreign language I did speak from the start and I studied X means Y and Y means X and all that all the way to fluency but it was all the way deep into fluency where I still had to translate everything in my head because it became how I had attached the language to my first language so that everything had to be bypassed through the first language. It became very mentally draining after long conversations of having this habit and it was so hard to unlearn the head translation that by saving speaking this time around and attaching new vocab to images instead of words I already know, I can now prevent this habit. I'm slowing myself down to save back tracking and undoing stuff later, plus it saves me from muscle memory bad habits in pronunciation because now when my brain knows better what correct sounds like I am less unaware of my errors. I just want to save myself from having to do more work later.
Thing is if you're nervous about speaking you don't actually have to start by actually speaking, you can communicate by typing on social media sites and later on in chat rooms. You have way more time to write a comment and you can be anonymous, so a lot of the pressures associated with outputting are no longer there. Not to mention you can check if you're correct in whatever phrase you're saying, so you'll avoid getting some bad habits that way. Also, being able to write well in your target langue is an useful skill, maybe even more useful than being able to speak in it, so this will be useful and kind of necessary anyways.
You are 100% right. I started learning English in the early seventies during my school days. No social media or even computer existed at that time. I had only access to books and a shortwave radio. I continued with reading, occasionally listening to English news on the radio. Almost no speaking at that time. But I read thoroughly including many English classics like Charles Dickens, Robert L. Stevenson, and Agatha Christie. But later on when I attempted speaking my background knowledge of what I read gave me a tremendous boost. However, I must point out that listening to dialogues is also very important, specially for those languages where the gap between the written and the spoken is large.
I started 4 years ago by reading manga in english using google translate and I just did it because i couldnt find what I wanted to read in spanish. i never thought Id learn english that way but after some time I realized i could remember a lot of common words and that I needed the translator just every once in a while.
Them just watching some tv shows and now i can understand everthing this dude said in the video.
@@juantamayo5295 That's fascinating and inspirational, Juan!
Very well said, Olly. I am a 78-year-old native speaker of English, I am still learning and absorbing the language.
Congratulations on your eagerness. My uncle, who is just a little younger than you are, is studying German these days. I like teasing him with"you can't teach an old dog new tricks". No disrespect intended in this. Greetings from Spain
I believe that one is able to learn new things at every age as we as human beings we were created to evolve and keep on evolving. 💖💖💖
"Can you get fluent just by reading?" "Yes, you can!". But that's my fluency experience. Now I am going to listen to you carefully, because you are never too old to learn.
My Mandarin went like the Story graph. I did Duolingo, textbook and then watched tv for 5 months. And then I tried speaking and BOOM!!!
I think Speak from Day 1 can work as long as you add something when you start to plateau.
Good point on the physical tiredness. A lot of people don't realise that making new mouth shapes is hard. Also, the amount of concentration to produce language and sounds you never made before exhausts your brain.
Welcome to learning and using Chinese / Mandarin. Chinese is my mother tongue. I learned it naturally with no sweat. However learning English has been tough for me. I spent 3 times more time to learn English compared to Chinese.
Excellent video.
To get rid of the shopping list: scribble over it with your dry erase marker and then erase both. It should come right off!
Really? If it does, I’ll eat my hat 🎩
Yes - it works great!
Rubbing Alcohol on some sort of pad and then wiped on your board, using a little pressure encouragement if necessary, will make it look brand new
Oh wow, I suddenly remember that hack from my high school teacher and yes, +1 to this technique
Try alcohol
Reading stories helps, but it is not a panacea. I would also read other things like poetry, newspapers, scientific papers, books, magazines, and so on. Listening is also important and people should do a variety of things like radio, podcast, movies, music, television and so on. Reviewing the grammar without obsessing about it could also be beneficial. Doing exercises for the mouth, reading outloud, shadowing, accent reduction, listening and repeating also can have a positive impact on the physicality aspect. Once you have developed an intuition so you do not make mistakes, have already had a ton of input so you understand pretty much anything you hear, then you can start outputting and doing a lot of it would make you better each time at speaking the language. In the end it is not about one thing but a combination of things and a lot of time.
Well said!
In my experience reading stories you like is the most important thing to do because even if its somewhat difficult to read if its something you are interested in it isnt going to be boring
Isn't most literature telling a story? Fiction, biographies, news, poetry - non-fiction and scientific papers have the largest potential to not focus on story telling. Anyways, as long as you enjoy what you're doing, go for it, variety is nice.
Well said, Olly!
Listening is not enough.
Reading is not enough.
In order to be fluent in a new language, we need to combine input and output to produce a highly effective level of fluency!
It took me years to reach a very decent command of the English language.
i live in austria and have some friends who came from other countries because of work. they took their children with them. the children went to kindergarden and were exposed to the german language a lot. of course just listening. but none of them would talk from day one, though they seemed to enjoy their time with the other kids. after about 4-8 months they would start talking.....whole sentences, no accent, almost like a native child of the same age. i don`t remember the name of the linguist who said that their is a silent period of language learning in children. be it their first or second language. i can remember a boy of 8years. he spoke 4 languages.....dutch(mother), spanish(father), german(living in austria)......i had them and some other friends over for dinner and we were talking in english. the boy was bored and suddenly burst into the conversation . his mother was surprised. they never tried to teach him english because they thaught he would be overwhelmed with too many languages but she and her husband mostly talk in english because that was their language when they met. so the boy must have been listening for years before he was ready to speak.
You are correct I have heard several polyglots and linguist that teadh this. I don't remember their names though. It makes a lot of snese. I worked in pediatrics for seven and a half years and I believe after being around many babies and small children eight to nine hours a day there is a silent period.
@@xianwuxing i think that the silent period wuld also be helpful in adult learners. because of a love for chinese phantasy dramas i started to watch and listen.... and after many episodes i realised that i would understand without subtitles.........so this might be the way a child learns a language.....nobody forces a child to speak. it will start talking naturally.......unfortuanetly in common language lessons, we are forced to speak from day one. i prefere the methode that goes slow in the beginning but raises exponentially after some month
I speak English with my wife as well and she speaks her native language to our kids and I speak my language to them as well and they started to understand English from very early age and they could communicate with it without ever studying it. We never spoke English to our kids but they still learned it. When I was a teenager I had a friend from Lebanon and I used to go over to his house for a couple of hours everyday. I just heard my friend and his family talking to each others in Levantine Arabic dialect and after some time I realized that I can understand their conversations because of all that immersion. They were shocked when I just suddenly replied or started to talk in their language since they didn't know that I could understand them. Later I improved more and became functional in daily matters in Lebanese dialect. So yeah I believe that you can learn a language to some level just by listening or hearing it.
"Pronunciation is a motor skill." - I'm glad I found this idea in your video, formulated in other words, but it's there :). For each language we must do different things with ourselves, with our articulators to train them for that specific language. I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of "articulatory setting".
My students love your books; I use the ones for German & English with them.
Thanks for sharing!
I can actually confirm that it helps a lot. I had mediocre english, but since I listened and read... man, I suddenly aced my tests, without actively learning
Hi, I bought your book Korean Short Stories for intermediate level. At first I glossed over the how to read section because I thought I knew how to understand written Korean but the first chapter felt so dense. I got the audio file and reread the section on the way Korean sentences work. I have to thank you because once I started really paying attention to the particles and subject markers, not only was I understanding ch.1 better and reading it out loud faster, I also was able to under a Korean webtoon I was reading too!
Dude - I wish I had seen this video a year ago when I started ;_; also maybe this video could be titled something else like "How to actually understand and start speaking a foreign language"... or "Feeling stuck? This is why you can't speak the language you are learning". I've seen your videos floating around but I decided to watch this one and I'm so glad. I'm 1000% on the comprehensive input but I always battle with how much should I be speaking. You are completely right about the dotted line bc I've done that and it's a monster to try to speak in a real conversation when you only understand a bit of grammar and some vocab or phrases you basically memorized. what you say at 7:03 man! okay. exact.
Glad it helped!
I'm half way through reading your short stories in Italian book and I'm loving it! I never thought to read stories. After months of learning grammar, its super satisfying to understand full sentences, notice familiar vocab in use, and notice grammar patterns too. Thanks Olly!
Reading OUT LOUD is extremely helpful
Really? How about the mistakes pronunciation that everybody does.... So, worse remedy than disease. For me, it didn't work at all. Glad to hear for you it worked
@@josebenito15 the easy way to learn a language is to marry a woman that speak your target language
@@ammarif618 jajaja.. Thanks so much for your very wise advice. I'll follow it.. The sooner the better
When reading, try read out loud. You might not be able to understand, but you'll train your mouth to make the sounds required for the language, partially taking care of the physical aspect of speaking.
I love reading and listening to your books and the StoryLearning podcast. I go through a story usually 3-4 times. Once with listening and reading at 3/4x speed for gist. Then, I will usually read and listen again at 1x speed again after reviewing the vocabulary list at the end of the chapter. Then I usually listen to the story without reading to focus on my listening comprehension. Then, I usually read it a forth time and make ANKI cards for any useful phrases/idioms phrases that I still didn’t know very well. I love it! The stories is are interesting and the characters start feeling like “friends”, and I can’t wait to “check-in” with them to see what happens next in the story. Very engaging.
Me encanta leer, me da mucha información: el contexto para aprender nuevas palabras, la habilidad para tener experiencia con la gramática y también la oportunidad así que puedo desarrollar la fortaleza para hablar. Yo leo en voz alta y creo que me ayuda mucho con el aspecto físico de hablar.
I just realized I know Spanish by reading your comment and understanding 90% of what you said. I thought I only knew a few basic words but you proved me wrong 😂
Hola Kira que libros me recomendarías para leer? No soy avanzado.
I'm a language teacher and enthusiast and I wholeheartedly agree with you!
*CC: [ancient language learner simultaneously laughs and cries in the distance]*
Thanks to Scorpio Martianus and various other you tubers we now have a large easily accessible collection of Latin and Ancient Greek online!
@@omegacardboard5834 Vērum dīcis! I'm a great big fan of Luke's teaching material and go through his LLPSI playlist with my books.
@@ThenameisAntti Verum dicis? I think you mean "you are right" Sounds like "verdad dices" or "vero dici"
@@juantamayo5295 "Verum dicis" quite literally means "you are telling the truth" (Vērum = noun, 'truth'). People often seem to assume you mean to express your thought with an absolute ablative ('vērō', 'rēctē etc.), but "vērum dīcis" is a real Latin colloquialism.
But if you were simply guessing the general sentiment of the sentence, you got the gist of it. 😄
I've learnt the majority of my English through reading, and I started with this early. In my teens, and even though I definitely didn't understand what every single word meant the stories were still enjoyable enough from what I could understand. I even remember re-visiting books I've read previous, like a year or two later, and it was even better that time around. Almost like a whole new experience, and you can also feel how much you've actually improved then too.
I definitely feel that speaking is a separate beast, you need to practice that too. Not only because of muscle memory, and learn how to physically pronounce words easily, but also to make your brain used to it.
I can freely think in English, no problem there, but I can't speak it as smoothly and effortlessly as I can comprehend it, read it, type it and think in the language. I don't get to speak it with natives or other people a lot. So, to get some type of practice in more frequently, I can read out loud, talk to myself in English, and deliberately go to online dictionaries and practice the correct pronunciation of words I encountered during reading that was hard for me to say.
Gladly I consume a lot of entertainment in English so I sort of already instinctively know if it sound off when I speak.
I agree so much with you... When you acquire just enough level to begin reading meaningful information, you reach the leveraging point to push you ahead, motivated and in a self-fulfilling state of mind... Great video. Thank you Ollie.
I love your input man! Language wizard 🤺
Thank you Olly! I recently found you channel and I love your content. It's very informative and I feel inspired to keep going on my Language learning journey. For a few months I've been ramping up my German input through reading and audio books and it's so much fun :) thanks again for making such fantastic videos!
Awesome! Thank you!
I learned English in pretty much two years by just reading a lot. I live in Brazil and at that point I didn't travel or talk to anybody in English. I didn't even use UA-cam or things like that because I actually didn't want to learn the language. I just wanted to read good stories. Lol And then I landed an amazing job in a pretty huge American company where I needed to talk right away, nonstop, with fluency. I didn't have any problems whatsoever. ETA: I think this was possible just because English is incredibly easy to learn. Trying the same approach with German or Arabic, for example, would be crazy and a waste of time, imo. But I do know somebody who was successful doing exactly that with Russian. LOL
new to your channel, and your books. I bought two of your books to try them out. I was reading along, and then the second read through, I read it out loud. I felt that would help me get used to speaking as well as reading. I am enjoying the stories so far, though, I think I am a bit past the beginner, as only a handful of words were unknown to me. But I got that set of books ordered for later delivery.
Great video! I've been trying for a while now with the most popular 'speak from day one' course and it is just as you describe - I have plateaued and I think what you've made me conscious of is that I am fundamentally bored by the idea of parroting these bland stock phrases. It's no wonder I've been struggling with my motivation.
What I need is a narrative! What I don't need to know is how to ask someone 'Where is Saint Jaques street?' 😂
Hey Olly. Great video!! After studying Spanish seriously for 3 to 4 years now using varios methods I have finally found one that works and it is the listening, reading speaking method you describe here. I’ve purchased your Spanish short story books along with the audiobooks and have been meeting on italki 2-3x per week (listening/reading separately and together) . This method is by far the most successful I have utilized and I feel that I am getting to a point where I can simply enjoy the book rather than trying to study it. I reread chapters and re-listen to stories to ensure that I am getting all I can out of it. More than a couple of times I feel I have gotten into a state where the listening, reading and speaking was almost effortless, it was magical! Thanks Again Olly.
Makes me very happy to read this!
I find these videos so validating! I'm from Finland, so my own language was never going to help me communicate with anyone except other Finns. On top of that there wasn't a huge number of interesting new books to read, series to watch or even music to listen to in Finnish. I started studying English in school when I was 9 and after six years still felt I knew nothing. At that point I started reading books in English and it opened the language on a totally new level! Later on I started watching series and movies without subtitles, which also helped. Now I live in England and use the language for everything without a struggle. (Although I still frequently bump into words I can't pronounce having only learned them from books 😄)
When learning other languages later on I've started reading from a much earlier point. I like to start with translated stories I already know, especially murder mysteries, because they hold my interest for long enough, and having read it in another language before helps so much. I've playfully called it Agatha Christie method, because her books have been translated into so many different languages, there's loads of them, and I can read them over and over again (even after I know who did it). The downside of my choice of study material is that my early vocabulary leans heavily towards words I rarely need, like murder, death, poison, weapons etc. 😆
I'm the same way, mysteries and thrillers are great for language learning and often have a mix of legal vocab mixed with very physical vocabulary
Hi durabelle, i'm on the learning path of english languague , are you saying that you learned it just by reading extensive books?, i mean specifically vocabulary , how did you learn to expel your words out loud without forgetting them ?, i'm very well at reading but i am very bad talking :C. could you give me some advices please?, i'm gonna start reading books to see if it is posible becaause i am not even b1 and it's a dream to be fluent in english , it would be my first goal in my life academically .
@@ChristoChristo03 Hi, that's not what I'm saying at all 😊 If you read my original comment again I mention studying the language in school for years before I started to read books. I learned all the basics there, but didn't enjoy learning like that, so I extended it to new areas.
Reading books is very beneficial and can teach you to understand loads of new words in an interesting way, but for pronunciation you need to hear them too.
I watch a lot of TV without subtitles, forcing myself to listen to the words.
You could also try audio books, maybe with a physical copy to read along while listening. Maybe listen to music while reading the lyrics (Spotify provides the lyrics to many songs these days, so that's an easy tool to use).
UA-cam of course is a great resource. Here's lots of channels like this one. Also ones specifically targeted for beginner language learners, English with Lucy is one of my favourites.
Listening to podcasts is another option. There's podcasts about pretty much anything these days, so find a subject you're interested in to make it more fun.
When it comes to actually talking, you just have to practise a lot. If you don't have anyone to speak English with, you can at least read aloud, or pause and repeat sentences from anything you're listening to, or sing along to different songs etc. Good luck!
@@durabelle thank you very much , yeah that's a great way to aquire vocabulary thank you answering me 🥳💪💪
Richard, your video always brought me the new awareness of language! Through this video I do think the reading can really help people complete the fluent conversation. There are various reading methods.The key issue I guess is sounds activated unconsciously when "reading" processing by sight. Without correct sounds, it's impossible to get fluent communication
I agree... to reach the high level you got to read and learn the language in different topics and register.
I am using a method like this for Latin. My progress has been amazing.
Great point video.
No (physical) pain, no gain.
First the INPUT and after the OUTPUT. Great video.
I like the story idea since it is one more input and isn’t that what it is about in the end? Immersive multiple inputs over and over again? I do enjoy the reading in another language because it gives me a greatly diverse input that I can control the flow. But also it allows me to quickly review anything new or interesting and I can review it as many times as I want on the spot. Great video btw. To the point and helpful to the point of being transformative.
Krashen says that you can only acquire language by input. But seems to me that people are afraid to defend this hypothesis. While I spend almost zero percent of my time speaking. Every opportunity I have to use my English. It becomes better in each occasion. I've study for almost 3 years, and In my opinion you acquire language only by input listening and reading. Speaking is not mandatory
Yea tbh, just by listening you kind of get the sense of how words are supposed to be pronounced. So even if you haven't practiced speaking, when you try it you'll quickly notice whether your saying it right or not and be able to fix it.
Input I thought is just reading and listening anyway. Speaking / writing you can do easily once you do gain fluency, and it seems like many people are becoming aware of this theory lately and it's getting used a lot more imo.
This has to be one of the best language learning videos on youtube. The whole section on "input" vs "speak from day one" approaches was the simplest and best explanations I've heard so far.
Glad it was helpful!
I've tried learning different languages to see what they were like. I've tried learning from just reading, and just listening. Neither worked out, at all. I've found that everything sticks better when I can both hear and see it at the same time. It's why I like the short stories on duolingo. I have a nice mental feature where I can remember the spelling of every word I see, after a few times of reading it over and over. This benefits also with speech, since I instantly associate the word with specific sounds, which is an obvious thing.
It's unfortunate no schools when I was growing up really taught a language until you got into later grades (in the US), I feel like I could've known a few by now being almost 30.
currently learning my 4th language and i 100% agree with everything in this video
Thanks for this. I've been using listening/speaking and am picking up a book of short stories to start reading adventure. FYI: if you cover the permanent marks with dry erase marker it will erase.
I had that experience. I learned some English in school, but mainly through reading. I am quite comfortable writing and reading, but often struggle to find words when I am talking in English. Understanding spoken English is also no problem, but that's because I consume mainly videos and shows in English.
Thanks for answering my question ☺️
Olly, I watched the video where you sing Saudade de Bahia. How wonderful. Would you consider posting more music in various languages?
Awesome video. Also, please make a video speaking you're Castillian Spanish! It'd be motivating and fun.
What I find is if I start speaking but I can’t grasp the words I find it daunting and lowers my motivation
Lucky you, I can’t even push myself to start speaking
@@limonlabr I don’t really like doing it eithere
Grab yourself a handy dandy thesaurus
Great vid Olly! Would you ever be doing a Swedish or any other nordic language course on your website?
so far, olly richard's tips have been the most helpful to me.
i've been doing;
-watching tv and youtube videos in my target language with the target language's subtitles
-listening to audio books and reading text in target language
-vocab study
- practice with people who speak target language (today one of them said they noticed that my pronounciation and grammer got better recently)
i'm doing both at the same time; the speak from day one, and the immersion until it clicks. the speaking from the beginner aspect is to give me anchors to help me with my input based learning. like, if I know x amount of words, then that helps me make faster progress with input learning, where the real shit happens
keep failing and keep trying until it clicks in your head.
having spanish words that i dont have to translate are slowly growing, which means that the language is being internalized piece by piece, bit by bit.
then there are a few other languages when i plan on learning next, and those i'll just occasionally immerse myself or study them, but i'm only practicing my MAIN 2nd language, and then giving less and less percentages of my time to the languages that i'm not ready to learn yet. i'm not gonna hit the other languages until i've become a solid speaker and communicator in my soon to be 2nd language
Reading improves command of a language, fancy that. No wonder even our native language improves after so much reading from school.
Draw over (black out) the permanent marker with regular whiteboard marker and THEN use the eraser. Works like a charm
I had read all 25 LN VOLs of mushoku tensei back in the day and get approved on a conversational course that I did at the same time , in 6 months i got rid of the blockage , So yeah I book a week and lessons are a great combo
your words seem to me like a form of my thoughts, it makes sense. what counts is the end game
Your method of learning English is excellent.
the "reading your way to fluency" method is actually how i learnt english (how many of us learnt english, reading the comments) but my fear is that the process of 'learning' was easier than other languages (in my case, at least) because english and english-based media is absolutely everywhere. it's impossible to escape it and so you're passively . listening to english basically all your life. so when i try to mix my way into learning korean how i did english, i quickly ran out of beginner material i understood. and i had not enough vocab as though to jump into reading books and filling new words by context. anyways, i think i'll check out your other videos about your method, and hopefully something will click for me...
I get what you mean about speaking with different parts of the mouth with different languages. I've been learning Italian and it took me months to realise that I need to use the front of my mouth more than in English, in order to manage the pronunciation correctly, otherwise there are too many unfamiliar syllables. Also, I have several of your books and didn't make the connection between them and you until I'd watched quite a few videos!
I hear that a lot! Glad you found me eventually 😅
Great explanation!
Olly, I need your story book in Tagalog please!! I learned Spanish up to intermediate level only with short texts. The method is great. I graduated in Spanish Studies, my native language is Polish. A few years ago I got the third place award in Poland in a competition on national level, for young translators, for my translation of a classic Portuguese song "cantar de emigracao" into Polish. Not to mention that I live in Thailand and use this language on a daily basis. Meaning... I love languages but i don't like traditional manuals for learning. I would love to be able to learn Tagalog from your books. And btw if you ever want to teach Polish, here I am haha. Thanks for your great work!! Greetings from Thailand!
thank you again for info
YMMV, I learned japanese purely by reading/listening and no speaking for a year (even got to JLPT N2) and yet at that point my speaking skills are nonexistent.
I would say both are equally important to train (atleast for me).
As someone who is still a beginner in my language (Norwegian) but has actually just moved to that country (to study), I have to agree that speaking from day 1 is probably not the best approach. I'm in a position desired by many beginner language learners where I'm surrounded by loads of native speakers who I could try to talk to, but I actually find it very discouraging at the moment when I try to speak and can't get my words out. I find myself thinking, "I've been here two weeks, why couldn't I even get through the checkout at the grocery store by now without having to switch to English?" But my comprehension and ability to get the words out is just not there yet! Luckily I'm in a great position to absorb as much as I can via input and find myself reading every sign and poster I see in the street and (a bit cheekily) trying to listen to any conversations I overhear in my vicinity, along with my at-home input study. I'll also be taking classes at my uni where I will be able to practice speaking a bit more in a less-pressured way where I don't feel as bad making mistakes because I'm not just out in the wild trying to prove I can hold a conversation, it's a dedicated "practice" environment. I'm also working through your stories in Norwegian book and it's been very helpful so far, so tusen takk Olly!
Very cool insight, My Mentor😊
I agree with much of what you say in this video. However, below is my system, which adds ear tuning exercises to get the student to hear the language well on an immediate basis, as well as a strategy to absorb language the quickest. (which includes large amounts of passive listening to stories you are learning in the target language.)
To learn a language fast, you need to get into three habits, listening passively is one of those habits. This habit takes no time at all. Specifically, you have a story playing in the background, in the target language, but totally ignore it. Study math, watch your tv shows, eat, do chores, browse the internet, play games, all while having the target language playing lightly in the background, not interfering with any of your normal day.
Habit two is ear tuning exercises. This is an invention of mine, something I basically stumbled into really. The first time I did ear tuning exercises, I did not know I was doing them -my ear tuned into Spanish at full speed speech. I examined what I had been doing, then repeated it with German then French. It worked. But, it took me another several months working with this method before I fully understood how it all works. Ear tuning exercises go like this: You tell your student to do the impossible, or well, actually, keep attempting to do what seems impossible. You provide the student with a string of about 70 ear tuning syllables, written in english letters. These syllables represent the sounds, syllable by syllable, of a native speaker's voice, in their target language. The student is told to repeatedly play that thirty seconds or so of speech, from the audiobook that has the story they are learning, that correspond to these 70 ear tuning syllables. The student is told to attempt to always keep their eye on the ear tuning syllable that is being spoken at each exact moment. This is of course impossible to actually do, since the student's ear is not tuned to the target language yet. But the student is told to keep struggling to catch up to the voice. For most languages, just an hour a day, for two days, is enough to where the student's speech center will click into the pattern of the target language. Though now the student can follow those ear tuning syllables, they are told to keep doing the ear tuning exercises - because a tuned in ear is not a native ear and its a native ear that you always strive for. (one additional instruction, use this pattern: 5 times trying to follow the ear tuning syllables, then 5 times close your eyes and just listen carefully. keep repeating until a half hour is done)
(ear tuning exercises is not training as such, but rather feeding your speech center data that it needs to tune into the language. Note, you are always continuing hours per day of passive listening, along with daily ear tuning exercises. Ear tuning exercises should always be an hour per day for the first week, but then you do less and less; but never less than 40 minutes per week.)
In all, these first two habits take very little time.
The third habit can take some time daily - associating the target language with a known language. The associations can be written for the known language end, but must be both written, and spoken, for the target language end. Specifically, you read (or listen to) the translations / explanations, given in your known language, then listen and read that story you are learning from the audiobook in your target language.
This 3rd habit, associations, is done most efficiently by having two audiobooks open. One is explaining / translating the story, while the other is just the story in the target language (with text). Depending on your level, you work with anywhere from one sentence at a time, to an hour of story at a time. Lets say you are just beginning:
Listen to the translation / explanation for the first sentence from the first audiobook. Now go to the second audiobook, the one with just the story. Play that first sentence up to 12 times - in this pattern: read while listening 3 times, then just listen with your eyes closed 3 times. Repeat 1 to 3 more times. Move onto the next sentence. This is not studying - but rather feeding data to your speech center. Let your speech center do the real work, as you sleep each night.
Association work each day should be done on new material half the time, and on old material half the time. Its the repeated revisiting of old material that eventually really teaches you it.
This method may sound slow - but is actually very, very fast - your level continually goes up, in a constantly accelerated fashion. The more target language words you know, the quicker new words stick. And your ear is always going more toward native, helping to further accelerate the absorption of the language. That passive listening you are doing is more and more fully understood by you, helping to boost the learning rate even further. By the 14th audiobook, just listening to the explanations once, followed by listening to while reading the one hour audiobook just once, and you know that audiobook. By the17th audiobook (one hour long each), you just already know the audiobook, just by listening to it. (yes, some new words - but we all read novels, and enjoy them, without looking up the occasional word we don't know. And yes, if you come across an audiobook on totally unfamiliar subject matter, of course you will need to look some stuff up.)
Now, notice, I said nothing about speaking. My method has you soaking up the language fast, has your ear native, and automatically the ability to speak it correctly - that is a function of speech center. But to get fluent, you have to actually start speaking. Find a language partner, or if on your own find audiobooks with lots of conversation; and speak all the parts yourself. There are also methods, such as the "short story method" you can look up and try. Regardless of how you go about getting yourself to speak the language, you should be using my method to soak up the language. And I strongly suggest using my method for a month (which is listening / reading only) before making much attempts at speaking. (so to avoid speaking with any accent from your native language.)
My name is Lee Sohlden. I am learning, and teach what I know, 19 languages. My method is born of two things. One, stumbling across parts of "natural language acquisition" in the course of my studies, and two, experimenting to optimize each thing I stumbled upon. This process had me stumbling upon more of my program, as a result of the experimentation to optimize the first "discovery". Most of my system was "discovered" and optimized from mid December 2018 to mid March 2019 at which time I switched all my students to this new method. The method works across all 19 languages I teach. No way I would ever go back to telling anyone to "study" a language to learn it. Kids never study to learn their native language, so why should you. As an adult, you have an amazingly strong speech center, that already knows a complete language. My system basically just teaches you how to operate this language super computer you are born with. PS, anyone can contact me on facebook messenger if they have any question on my system, or help in learning a language. No, I do not charge anyone for help. Languages are just my hobby, here in retirement. People have always taught me freely, in language exchanges - and I still do language exchanges.
One more thing about me , over 50 years of language learning, and teaching means that I have tried a myriad of ways to go about learning languages. Lots of ways can be fun, and I'd never discourage anyone from using what gives them joy in learning a language. But, I'd suggest my method does not take much time - you can continue what you are doing, and add in my system. Everyone have a great day.
And if you have read this far, one more thing, hinted at above. Habit 3, associations, can be done with almost zero time. Indeed, that is the very first "accidental discovery" which led to my whole system. Lightly going over something, then putting it on loop for passive listening, can teach you an audiobook full of associations between the target and known languages. Cutting out almost any active listening will slow the process down of absorbing a language - but it does work, over time. And its a good option for those who do not want to invest much of their time on learning a language. Now, its not magic. You still have to do the ear tuning exercises regularly, and you still have to loop the actual story you are learning a lot, as part of your passive listening. And you do have to carefully listen once to the video giving you the associations; and maybe a few more times - but you can let passive listening to the associations do most of the association work. Discovering how powerful the speech center is in picking up a language in this fashion, was again, my very first discovery leading to my system.
Hi, Lee Sohlden here. Here is a brief history of how I developed / stumbled into my system.
First, I was studying, actively, about seven languages in December 2018. One of those languages was Greek. For Greek, I was very seldom doing a lesson. I started studying Greek in September 2018. Over about 4 months, I looked up all the Greek words in a common phrase video. (Greek with Lina, common phrases for beginners and tourists.) I did not listen to the video. I did not try to memorize the words. My lessons were so far apart, I had to relearn the Greek alphabet a few times. Basically, the very definition of studying something "lightly." About December 10, 2018, I had looked up the last word - then decided to loop the audiobook in the background, to hopefully start getting an ear for Greek. So, for a week, I just kept this audiobook playing, ignoring it totally, as I studied Hindi script. On December 17, I noticed something odd: I knew 85% of the Greek words I was hearing on that english to Greek common phrase video.
I dropped all studies of other languages for the next week, and just spent my time looking up all the words in a second audiobook (Greek with Lina, common verbs). Now I had both videos looping for passive listening the next week, as I studied Russian. Sure enough, now I knew both audiobooks, the first one better than ever.
I then changed all my language learning to lightly studying common phrase videos, then putting them on for passive listening. Then I began experimenting, to find what works to absorb the material the fastest. This is where I came up with "readthrus". I'd look over my notes on what a common phrase meant, then go back and forth between reading and listening a few times, then just listening a few times.
I was working with 12 languages. My main concentration was on Hindi and Mandarin, with Arabic, Russian, and Korean being secondary studies. The other languages I put less emphasis on - Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Greek.
I was going along well. In a couple of months I knew 400 phrases of Hindi, 130 phrases of Mandarin, and at least 40 phrases in each of the other languages. But then came another discovery.
My Brazilian Portuguese language partner had been traveling, and out of communication with me. On March 1, 2019, I repeated my common phrases to him in Brazilian Portuguese. He said my pronunciation was perfect, just a hint of an american accent. This was odd, because I had not spoken a word of Brazilian Portuguese for the two months he was traveling; and my pronunciation previously was pretty horrible.
I had an insight. My ear must of tuned into those common phrases in Brazilian Portuguese. How else could I now be speaking it so correctly? I examined what happened. I had been using common phrase videos that went from Brazilian Portuguese to Arabic, to Russian, and to Korean.
At that point, I could hear all the common phrases well, except for 3 languages: Arabic, Russian, and Korean. So, time to experiment. I had been listening and reading Brazilian Portuguese much of the day, since Brazilian Portuguese was introducing each of my secondary study languages, Arabic, Russian, and Korean. And my ear tuned into Brazilian Portuguese. So, I started with Russian, listening passively to, and doing read thrus, for Russian, much of the day. Two days later, the Russia all the sudden went from sounding very "fuzzy" to crystal clear. Then I did the same for Arabic then Korean. Wow, I thought I was all set. I was about to dive in to learning a 750 common phrase video for Mandarin when...
A friend / language partner sent me a full speed video in Spanish. I looked at it with little interest. I had switched all my learning to common phrase videos, and Spanish was no priority for me. But, a friend had sent it, so I started listening to it. I could not understand much at all, going way to fast for me. I decided to apply what had worked for common phrase videos, hoping to be able to improve my listening skills a bit. I was pretty good at reading Spanish, but I did look up about 30 words, in a half hour stretch, to make sure I knew exactly what the Spanish meant. Then I did readthrus. Reading that half hour while listenig, then just listening. Then repeating that two more times. And, if not actively listening to the Spanish, I'd have it on for passive listening.
I was totally surprised when, after 2 days of this, my ear tuned into Spanish, at full speed. I now could fully understand the Spanish just by listening to it. This is the first time, for any language, I could hear it well at full speed. (I could already, if the speaker slowed it down a bit for me, understand German, Spanish, and French.)
I turned my new found method to French next, then German. It worked. Further, both Italian and Brazilian Portuguese tuned in for me greatly by having tuned in to Spanish, while Dutch tuned in greatly from tuning into German.
Later, I learned that one had to tune into each language individually with ear tuning exercises- that getting a good ear for something, then depending on just further listening was a dead end. That took me months to figure out, from continually trying it, especially with Russian. Two days of ear tuning exercises is better than months of listening to something - far and away better.
Now, the first three languages I tuned into, I could already read well - Spanish, German, and French. I thought, incorrectly, that my ability to read them was why I could ear tune to them. So, I decided to really, really concentrate on improving my ability to read Hindi, and then do ear tuning to Hindi.
But, then, another insight: What if reading was not required? I had my language partner for Hindi write the world's very first ear tuning syllables. I could already read his english letter version of Hindi. He always wrote phonetically. He wrote out for me a thirty second stretch of Hindi from an audiobook, in english letters. I could make out almost nothing from that 30 seconds (reading or listening). I did my ear tuning exercises - it took 9 days, but it worked. (I had the audiobook in Hindi playing for passive listening several hours per day. I later learned that Hindi simply has a more complex pattern, so does not often get tuned into in two days, like most languages.)
Learning with you from Canary Islands 🇮🇨 to improve Deutsch 🇩🇪
Almost 100K 🎉
It’s coming!
You made me realize I was not subscribed!
@@storylearning dats wat she sed hehehe
you mean 200K?
Hey Ollie! Great video as usual. Question! I bought one of your Spanish books(orange cover) a few months ago, but i never seeked out the audio part. Is it still possible to get it at this point? Thanks in advance!
Sometimes you can get permanent marker off by scribbling over it with whiteboard marker and erasing that (kindergarten teacher here...)
Amazing and makes sense. i hate those adds "learn english speaking from day one"
Great video!
I'm starting to try to talk to myself in French and holy hell, it sounds like I'm choking on a mouthful of feathers. It's those damn RRRRRRRRRRRR
Great explaining
A better way to ask that question would be "Can reading make a huge contribution to your language skills?" I've heard complaints about a variety of methods that supposedly don't work. When people start to describe what the specific shortcoming are it becomes clear that they came to it with the expectation that they would become fluent using this one method exclusively, whatever that method may be, and are always disappointed. We didn't even learn our own native language by relying on one single form of input so why should we expect it to be enough to pick up a second?
Thank you so mush, for that helpfull video 💞
i have bought 15 Books all in English, and i have decided that Before we Hit 2024 i must complete all of the books. To develop my English.
Btw i have started from 1/1/2023 and i am keep going ✨
This video just helped me a tons!
It's so interesting what you say...
the first graph is literally what my french is like and the second graph is what my japanese is like/will be
BECAUSE japanese is a language I actually want to be able to understand so I am learning it by myself (kinda like self study) and the french I am learning at school where I just have those set phrases and set things I can understand but I cannot hold a conversation and this is even though I have had french classes since about 8 years (I only learn french in school and am not motivated at all to learn it)
I also feel ache when I speak in several foreign languages for a long time😄👌🏻
Very informative, thank you. Have a read about Theodor Kaluza, he learnt to swim on his first attempt by reading a book about it.
Exactly, I prefer to read and learn and level up my English knowledge as much as I can, and then, of course I can speak about any topic I want. Actually, I didn't practice much for my listening skill, but I've read a lot about grammar and at the moment I'm reading about collocations and after that, I'm going to read about phrasal and idioms. I'm still beginner because I have a lot to do, but I can listen an understand the words and grammatical order when I listen to some English. So, the point is reading is so much important than speaking or even listening, in my opinion. Anyway, thank a lot for this video.
I'm starting to use satori reader and I don't know a lot of gramatical rules still but I learn more by reading than focusing on grammar.
THANK YOU
2 things, 1) if you were to try to learn a signed language, how do you think you'd go about it? Since your focus is on reading stories, I'm curious if you've ever considered it. And 2) if you use some rubbing alcohol you can wipe off the shopping list from your white board 😋
You can also color over with a dry erase marker and it will probably come off too. I did that to fix mine when I accidently used a sharpie.
Thanks for the question. I think the answer still lies in immersion, just that it would have to be visual immersion rather than reading. In other words… watch a lot of signing content!
@@storylearning Absolutely! Immersion learning is excellent as long as you have patient people signing with you! Learning sign languages involves different modes compared to spoken languages. Signing is received visually and expressed through physical motions of the upper body, head, arms and hands, along with grammar that is presented on the face (not just "facial expressions" and not "lipreading" but motions of the eyebrows, lips, cheeks and nose that have grammatical purposes in the signed language). Much information is received simultaneously through the eyes, using both a central focus and peripheral perception. Signed languages are multi-layered, with a lot of information given in a dynamic way, using handshapes and motions to indicate plurals, time-related info, pronouns, and more all at once. Reading is completely different, as written material represents graphic codes for spoken language. Signed languages are not codes for spoken languages.
Yep, I totally agree, to speak is a physical issue. Therefore, the older we get, more difficult is to become fluent in a foreign language.
The key to learn a language, in my opinion, is never to surrender. It is a very long time's work, it can take you years to grasp the real gist of the language, the soul of it. Reading is the most useful tool I have to accomplish this, so much that I sometimes think that even if I never get to be a good speaker, reading is so enriching that for me that is worthy enough.
Excellent video
Internet is a great invention not only for getting information and communicating with other people, it is now also a new and very efficient way to learn a language, particularly English. It has articles and reports of the whole world for anyone to read, and it has videos and audios for learners of any language to listen to and understand the contents. Learners of English can search for any word in online dictionaries very quickly without flipping the pages of the dictionaries, and can listen to how words are pronounced without even learning the phonetic symbols. Learners should make full use of internet. I have been learning English in the old ways when there was no internet and it was difficult.
I have a system to learn any new language in as short time as possible. First you learn the 120 most used words in that language. Then you start reading Harry Potter 1 out loud, looking up words you don't understand (about 90% in the beginning) Then you go on HP2, and so on. By HP7 you'll understand 90% of words. Harry Potter is great for this, because it's written in easy to understand language, it's fun, and most people have read it at least once and know what's going on.
I wish there was an app for the phone where you can read short stories on and the big key would be that each word is clickable to see what it means. Other features could probably be added as well like translated the sentence as a whole or added audio for sounding out difficult words (for beginners).
If you Google it you will find that this app already exist 🙄😒
Then you are looking for lingQ
@@facundoalvarez9267 Thank you!!!!
I found that once you reach about B1 level native content becomes verry atractive.
What's the watch your wearing Olly looks a good one.i love your approach to learning I read your book s level 1
I honestly think yes, I'm learning Japanese but I have no friends who speak it. The only benefit is understanding media natively, which I mostly do through reading, so there couldn't be a more suitable way to become fluent for me ^^
i don’t know if i could full agree bc this implies mutes could never be considered fluent which doesn’t make much sense. And of course listening is important. But also to consider someone with bad hearing or auditory perception issues, i feel in all cases input will always the most important aid to fluency.
I learned English to like intermediate without listening. My English was broken but I could communicate in online games. I had to spend thousands of hours of listening practice to fix my broken English. But I would say it's possible to get some kind of fluency on written communication.
Completely agree
I can say that watching videos of memes in English helped me a lot to learn English, but I am also doing the same with the Russian language :)
Really like this