There's a lot of good advice so I took notes for my reference, everyone enjoy. Preparation: a) Find motivation Have a goal in mind to help you keep up motivation b) make a plan based on your motivation and goal Because her goal was to speak Norwegian like a native, she decided to learn Norwegian the way a child would and approached all of her language learning from that perspective. 1) Listen as much as possible to Norwegian Because children spend the first few years of life just listening, she decided to listen to Norwegian as much as possible. She found many random podcasts to listen to at every possible opportunity, like while cleaning her room, playing mindless video games, and before bed. She did not understand what was being said so she wasn't picky about content. 2) Read things many times Kids don't learn grammar, but they do learn books by heart by reading books over and over again. She found text messages sent between characters in a TV show that she liked, wrote down the messages, figured out what all the words meant, and then read the sentences over and over out loud. She used Google translate to have it read the sentences to her and also sent the sentences to friends in Norway to get voice recordings by native speakers. 3) Learn simple words She made a list of words she thought would be useful, like "alone" "together" "to be" "to have" "before/after" "but" "already" etc. Any time she saw a sentence with one of her words, she wrote the sentence and then read it once a day. She includes pronunciation notes in her notebook. This method helps you internalize different sentence structures so you can create new similar sentences automatically. She didn't spend time on grammar initially, but learned grammar rules later in the process and thinks it would have helped to learn grammar sooner. 4) Write your own personal texts (e.g. journal or stories) When she started trying to write her own journal entries in Norwegian, she didn't know how to write anything at first so she used Google translate to type in 5 sentences about her day in English and get the Norwegian translation. She wrote down the Norwegian translation and then read it out loud many times. She got pronunciation help from Google translate audio. 4b) Adapt your method as you get better As she learned how to put together sentences on her own, she moved to writing her sentences in Norwegian, then writing the sentences in English in Google translate and comparing what she wrote to what Google provided to learn what her mistakes were. 5) Buy and read books She wanted to read adult level books even though they were too difficult and she couldn't read them at all. She treated like she had no choice and she had to figure it out on her own. She took a book with her everywhere, opened to a random page, and looked to see if there were any words she knew or sentences she understood. Her goal became to read the book she had chosen and it was highly motivating to her when she was able to understand parts of it. 6. Listen to audiobooks She often would read a book and listen to the audiobook at the same time. Sometimes she would listen to a chapter first and try to understand as much as possible just by listening and then she would pick up the book and read along as she listened to the audiobook again. 7. Use series and movies She would watch an episode of a series and then watch it again and copy down some sentences she thought were useful. She would watch a 2-5 minute scene the first time without subtitles to see what she could understand, then watch with Norwegian subtitles, then watch with English subtitles, then watch another time with Norwegian subtitles, copying down her sentences for something easy to read. 8. Make stories using the vocabulary you want to learn She had lists of vocabulary that she wanted to learn. She wrote stories in English using that vocabulary and then sent the stories to a Norwegian friend to get a translation and a voice recording. She read and listened to the Norwegian story until she knew it by heart, spending 1-2 weeks on a story. To work on listening and writing she would listen to the recording without reading and then try to write all the words that she heard. 9. Learn sentences by heart Learning stories and sentences by heart enabled her to speak without needing to stop and think about what she was saying so she could focus more on accent. This is how she speaks quickly and sounds native. 10. Speak to yourself From the beginning she would talk to herself in Norwegian. She got over discomfort by pretending that she is the best Norwegian speaker in the world. You can speak to yourself about your day, about a movie you saw or a book you want to read, or pick a picture and try to describe it, imagining the story behind it and telling the story. Conclusion: Don't give up Even if you feel like you haven't made progress in weeks, you still have made progress.
It's crazy! She even fucks up things that us natives fuck up (such as da/når) and other grammatical rules that some teacher just made up to have a reason to fault you in school
@@romailto9299 Yeah, it's messy. In school we were taught a rule to remember. "Den gang da, hver gang når" - although linguists don't really like that rule as they've more or less concluded it's more of a dialect thing
She's not just fluent, but pretty close to native level. A native Norwegian might notice some odd intonation now and then, but that's about it. Simply amazing.
@heroe1486 No, not exactly. While native speakers are more nuanced and have more experience, it doesn't always mean they have better vocabulary. They don't all read and understand literature. They don't always speak flawlessly. Or even clearly. They might not know too many idioms or use them in their day to day lives. It depends on whether or not you're a person who likes languages, your learning abilities and your motivation. In short. I think natives have more experience and easily gained nuance from growing up with the language. However, very motivated language learners can aquire a large vocabulary and nuance. If they are motivated enough, they might learn more words than some natives care to learn. The key is to learn enough Norwegian to build upon continuously -> because now you understand it well enough to continue learning it like a native.
1) What is your motivation to learn (in my case) French and Portuguese? 2) Make a plan that reflects your motivation. a) Learn like a child b) Listen a lot to podcasts in 🇫🇷/🇵🇹 c) Children don't learn a language by doing Grammar exercises in the beginning. d. Listen to the same book over and over again. e. Listen/Read an excerpt and learn the content (eg. Vocabulary, grammar, conjugation, and pronounciation) then apply it. f. Make a list of often used/useful words. g. When reading/watching something, if you find that word, write down the sentence on paper. Add to a list. h. To learn a word, find it in context then write it on another piece of paper. Read once a day. (Write how you would read it in English and show where the accent is). i. Write daily journal. Use translator if needed. No shame. j. Change method eventually to writing first in target language, then translating it and comparing it with the correct translation. k. Buy books: my goal is to read this book one day and be able to understand everything. l. Listen to an audio book x1 then listen to it again with a text. m. Series and movies: watch a scene 2-5 minutes, then copy the sentences. Add to list of sentences. n. With your vocab lists: write stories, get them corrected and also ask that person to also record a message reading your story. o. Learn your stories and sentences by heart. p. Speak to YOURSELF. Imagine you are the best at speaking the language you are learning. q. Find photos with a lot going on. Describe what you see and make a story about it. r. You will get better!! Persevere xx
Sat here listening to a French person, explaining her method for learning Norwegian to an amazing level of fluency, in native level English... Amazing work Ilys!
Same! Forget about telling us how you learned Norwegian, tell us how you learned English lol. No, seriously, there's something else going on here besides reading and watching TV shows. I've been living in an anglophone country for quite a while now. If listening to podcasts, talking to people and reading books did it, I'd be at her level by now. I'm very much not. My English is still clunky and I sound like Esther Duflo (sans Nobel prize)
I'm from Days and Words. He made an entire video about you. I'm now excited to watch the original. Your method seems very close to what I decided to do once I started learning languages on my own.
I can see why he was impressed. Pretty intuitive and genius methods for learning a language. Writing stories for oneself to learn vocabulary is something I wanted to do for ages but never got around to it because I know it'll be time consuming. And as she stated, with spell checks and getting audio recorded, it took 1-2 weeks depending (imagine) on the number of vocabulary but it was clearly worth it. I really liked the idea of having a personal word list containing words one frequently says. I think it really helps to prime the mind to hear and read those words in media which signals to the brain its importance. Seriously awesome stuff. ❤ ❤
this point she makes about "you only listen for the first 2 years, you dont speak", is so true. when i moved to england that's exactly what I did, people thought I was weird cuz I never talked, but I eventually started speaking fluently this way.
That’s exactly how comprehensible input works, great job! Despite humans doing natural comprehensible input, it isn’t the norm in language learning circles yet.
So many people on youtube talk about the scandinavian languages as being weird and difficult to pronounce. as a native danish speaker, who also speaks mandarin, dutch, and english obviously, i am absolutely blown away. so many language videos on youtube aren't actually fluent. i am speechless at how fluent this sounds. i legitimately wouldn't be able to tell this wasn't a norwegian.
Oh waw thank you so much! There are still things that I struggle saying and I still make mistakes now and then though! But I do try my best to get better every day, thank you for this kind comment!:)
And Danish is the only Scandinavian language that's honest about it, whereas Norwegian and Swedish text-to-speech sound nothing like real native speakers.
How do you able to differentiate the tone in Mandarin? I know that Mandarin has 4 tones but to differentiate them while listening to news, conversation and any media without pinyin subtitle is just so hard.
in brief: **Introduction:** - Ilys, originally from France, has been living in Norway for 3 years. - She learned Norwegian on her own and is now fluent. - The video aims to answer questions about her learning journey and provide recommendations for learning resources. **Learning Approach:** 1. **Motivation:** The key difference between learning a language in school and learning it on your own is motivation. Ilys' goal was to speak Norwegian fluently, like a native. 2. **Listening:** Ilys began by listening to Norwegian as much as possible, using podcasts and other audio resources. 3. **Learning Like a Child:** She aimed to learn Norwegian as if she were a child, focusing on listening and repetition. 4. **Using Context:** Instead of isolated vocabulary, Ilys focused on learning words and phrases in context. She would write down sentences from movies or shows and practice them. 5. **Grammar:** While she initially avoided traditional grammar exercises, she later found value in understanding some grammar rules to enhance her fluency. 6. **Reading:** Ilys read books in Norwegian, even if they were challenging. She would also listen to audiobooks while following along with the text. 7. **Speaking:** Speaking to oneself is crucial. Ilys would often talk to herself in Norwegian, imagining different scenarios or describing pictures. 8. **Consistency:** Progress in language learning might not always be immediately visible, but consistent effort will lead to improvement. **Conclusion:** - Ilys emphasizes the importance of finding a method that works for you and staying motivated. - She hopes her journey and tips will inspire others in their language learning endeavors.
This is SO affirming, because it is almost exactly how I have always approached learning languages. I remember back when I was learning Spanish, I would watch videos from my favourite Spanish UA-camrs and repeat them so many times that I could recite the entire video by heart. I would copy intonation, regional accents, pauses, absolutely everything, until I sounded exactly like the person in the video. Learning to say entire sentences, paragraphs, speeches, etc., is incredibly useful because - like you said - it helps you learn pronunciation and rhythm and speaking at a normal pace. Also, you will just start using whole sentences you've learned by heart, and then instead of piecing together sentences with words, you're piecing together whole speeches with sentences!
Your Norwegian pronunciation is fantastic. And I think it's fascinating that your native accent is much less noticeable when you speak Norwegian than when you speak English.
@@coversine479 I thought the same thing! My guess is that since English and Norwegian are more closely related than English and French, her brain subconsciously started applying Norwegian phonetic rules to her English. I speak both Serbian and Russian as a second language, and I've been told that my Russian sounds more like a Serbian speaking Russian than an American speaking Russian.
I am French and I also don’t notice the French accent at all ! But I am surprised that I also really understand her much easier than many people speaking in English so I think being French help me to understand her so clearly !
A channel called: ‘Days and Words’ posted a video about you Ilys, called: ‘You missed the best language learning video ever.’ I left the following comment, and then realized that I ought to share it with you as well: “I agree! I came across Ilys’ video about a month ago, and was quickly stunned by her depth of insight and the practicality of her suggestions! Though she likely shares here a few things, gleaned from others, I strongly sense that the majority of her tips are born of her natural intuition and her ability to quickly profit from her own experience of trial and error, as if feeling her way through the new tongue, trusting her perfect blend of instinct and intellect. Her video distills all of the web’s best language-learning advice into some twenty minutes of pure gold. Anyone committed to learning a foreign language needs to follow her lead. And every poster of language-learning content should be recommending her, passionately!”
One of the reasons young kids learn languages fast is that they have close to no shame, and will just try, and eventually learn it. As adults we have a higher tendency to be scared of doing something wrong.
True. But the far, far bigger reason is that children's brains have a special ability to learn languages fast and at a native level merely from exposure, which then gets lost as they age.
@@Visstnokthe reason children learn fast is because of neuroplasticity. Learning new skills is a skill in itself and the more you do it the better you become at it. Children are CONSTANTLY learning new things because everything is new to them. If adults did the same they would have that same level of neuroplasticity. Never stop learning and your brain will stay in shape. It's also funny when people say that they have studied for months and still speak like a two year old. How long do you think it took for the two year old?
@@alexkarlsson660Yes, isn't it interesting how the "cognitive decline" supposedly sets off right around the time most people in our culture finish their education and start a career? From then on they (at best) improve at the narrow skill-set needed for their job, which they are already comfortable with. Learning one thing makes you better at this one thing and learning new things makes you better at learning new things. My hypothesis, at least. If you think about it, being initially bad at something is a very distinct experience that we adults tend to avoid, but kids deal with ALL THE TIME. Being good at being bad is also a skill, it seems.
I'm from Russia. I'm trying to learn English. Actually I have learning English for many years, but passively. I have been watching and listening. Yes, my English become better, but still not enough for. Now I finally realized my real goal, that I REALLY need it. I started to learn actively by talking, writing a diary, stories, grammar (not only learn , BUT USE IT EVERY DAY), read with audio). So yes, how you prepare, decides where you will) Try to REALLY UNDERSTAND why you need this first.
У меня проблема в том, что я дошла в Английском до определяемого уровня и словно не могу его перешагнуть.. вычистить до блеска. Мне даже кажется, что весомый шаг от 0 до Intermediate намного легче, чем все после.. Там бесконечность. Словно ты никогда не «возьмешь» язык на уровне носителя.. и даже не понятно, как добраться до Advanced.
What a brilliant description of a brilliant process. I’m 81 years old. I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. I didn’t learn much Spanish. I’ve tried to learn the language by myself a few times since. I gave up each time because of the lack of success. I never used any of the techniques that you described. NONE. This is the first time that I think that there might be hope to actually learn the language. I have to develop my plan on how I’m going to implement my version of your process. Somebody else wrote some notes of their interpretation of your process. I’m going to use that as the starting place for writing my own. I would rather use the book that you must write about your process but I’m too excited now to wait for that. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance with the world.
That is quite genuinely, some of the best advice I've heard, when It comes to learning another language. I love the fact that you didn't want to just 'get-by' in Norwegian, you wanted to be fully conversive. That's what I'm aiming for. Your advice is bloody brilliant. Takk.
Ohh I just saw that you had written two comments:) Thank you for such a nice comment, it makes me really glad to hear that you got inspired by my video!
I learned Norwegian when I was 12, I did it exactly as you did. However, as I lived in Mexico I couldn't travel to Norway, so my only practice was through MSN and later while working as a tour manager for Norwegian bands touring Mexico. Then I used this exact method to learn Polish. Now I'm learning Chinese :) Great job, your pronunciation is awesome!
I'm from England and also learnt Norwegian and Polish, but at a later time in life than you. I started both languages when I was around 23. Now I'm 37 and trying to learn Arabic. Good luck with Chinese!
I’m not Norwegian but the way you pronounce words like “book” or “stuck” is like I was listening to my Scandinavian friends! You already have a Norwegian accent
FRANÇAIS: Je suis vraiment surpris de votre qualité de prononciation en anglais parce que la grande majorité des français qui parlent anglais ont un accent natif très marqué et donc très facile à reconnaître. En fait, au départ, je croyais que vous étiez québécoise (je vis au Québec) car ici, étant innondé constamment dans un monde anglophone en Amérique, notre prononciation de l'anglais est en général plus aiguisée par défaut, comme une sorte de démonstration que nous sommes capables de parler en anglais avec le moins d'accent possible - hi hi! Je constate que vous avez un grand respect pour les langues que vous apprenez, ce qui est admirable. En passant, j'apprends présentement l'allemand, mais cette vidéo-ci de vous m'a donné envie d'apprendre le Norvégien par la suite. Merci de votre générosité, authenticité et accessibilité. ENGLISH: I am really surprised by your quality of pronunciation in English because the vast majority of French people who speak English have a very strong native accent and therefore very easy to recognize. Actually, at first, I thought you were from Quebec (I live in Quebec) because here, being constantly inundated in an English-speaking world in America, our pronunciation of English is generally sharper by default, as a sort of demonstration that we are able to speak in English with as little accent as possible - hee hee! I see that you have great respect for the languages you learn, which is admirable. By the way, I'm currently learning German, but this video from you made me want to learn Norwegian later. Thank you for your generosity, authenticity and accessibility.
I spent four years learning Norwegian through Duolingo and talking to myself an embarrassing amount, and I got to the point where, when I visited, I could communicate decently well with people from Østlandet (they might say otherwise). But now that I've stopped, and am not practicing it very much anymore, I really feel like I should employ some of your tips just so I don't forget it all. So thank you, and it's really nice to hear about someone else's experience.
@@DwightZZZ The grammar is alot harder than speaking. I'm impressed though, that the both of you have taken the time to learn Norwegian. Learning Norwegian is like playing Icy Tower. You'll get the hang of bokmål just to learn that the dialect changes 10 minutes outside of Oslo. Even Oslo itself has different dialects depending on East - West.
Girl, this is probably the best and most effective tutorial on how to learn any language! So many valuable tips! Thanks for this video and I truly adore your determination! I also have been a huge fan of Norwegian language, culture and the whole lifestyle of people overall. But since, now in uni I study Spanish (sadly Norwegian was not on the list), I gotta focus on Spanish and hopefully, when I learn it on a decent level, I jump on learning Norwegian)
As a Swede, with Norway as our closest neighbor, I would never think from the little I heard, that she’s not a native Norwegian. Her pronunciation is great!
Fantastic work Ilys. Thank you so much. I was hopeless at French in school. Later, my girlfriend got me a job in a hospital in Germany. I studied hard, using old-fashioned books with lots of English-German translation exercises (nowadays forbidden by teachers). Learning by heart is also forbidden by teachers, but this gives you a template you can reuse in different circumstances ( and, teachers, this is an area where children can excel!) In my hospital job, I was surrounded by conversation. Everyday I felt improvements in my understanding. Important: I liked the people I worked with, and found myself unconsciously imitating them (as children do). Eventually, after two years, it was as though I could invoke friends to speak for me. Whatever I wanted to say, the expression was there in my head, often with the intonation and gesture of a remembered friend. Nowadays I enjoy speaking French, and enjoy struggling with Spanish. Summary: to learn a language, go to the country and get a job. But bear in mind it’s a life-long pursuit, not something that you ever finish.
i am knew here. i am a young teenager and i have decided to start learning Norwegian. I would say i’m excelling pretty fast, but your tips are very helpful. Norwegian is the first language i felt dedicated to learn. with that dedication mixed with your tips I’m sure I can reach my goal faster than I would before! thank you SO much for this! have a great 2025!❤😊
I think this is the first comment I've ever left on a UA-cam video, but when you mentioned how you enjoy hearing people speak Norwegian and that it feels like home, that resonated with me in a way not many other things have (albeit for a different language). It feels like that's the language you should be speaking, and I have exactly the same goals as you in my learning process. I also think it's hard for people who don't care about learning languages to understand how it drives us. Thanks for articulating your motivation in a way I couldn't until now!
Are you able to change the title of this video to how to learn any language? It would go viral. Incredibly useful information. I saw another video by someone who learned Spanish in a similar way using TED talks. Immersion, Repetition, memorization. Why do we think there is any other way? This is totally comprehensive! Thank you so much!
I am Russian and learned English at a foreign language school. I communicated a lot with foreigners and noticed that understanding people who have learned English is easier than understanding a native speaker. Ilys, I really enjoyed listening to you. You are close to me in spirit in learning languages. Thanks for this video!
you can just tell that this person feels happier and happier the more they learn norwegian, i wish that never dwindles and that i also fall more and more in love with the language im learning too
As someone who taught myself Korean and my pronunciation sounding like a native (Seoul accent) being the biggest compliment I get, speaking to yourself and imitating what you hear from native people is so so so important! Vocabulary is (in my opinion) more important than grammar because grammar ends up coming pretty naturally to you kind of quickly! This video is genuinely the best langauge learning tip video I have ever seen and I will be using the tips for my French and Spanish learning journeys (sister-in-law is French and my bestie is half Peruvian half Mexican😅)
As a native Norwegian, I can confirm that Google Translate is amazing for Norwegian. I'm surprised how great the pronunciation is. Your Norwegian pronunciation is great. I literally couldn't detect a foreign accent at all. It makes me happy that you wanted to learn my language.
I loved the introduction of your video explaining why you are in Norway. I think it is something very personal and special ,to have the interest and motivation in moving to another country because there is something about the place that makes you feel good and happy. I think we all have the right to choose where to live even though we weren’t born there. I also left my country to move to another one and learned the language and learned about their culture.
Ilys... I'm only half way through but already you've said SO many things that resonate with my experience and said so many things that most people don't seem to think of, it's EXCELLENT advice. My channel is about language learning, and watching this, I almost can't help myself but to make a response video to this. Would you mind if I did?
Hi ! Thank you so much for this nice comment, I'm so happy that my video inspired you even though you already know a lot about learning languages!!:) Yess, of course, go ahead and use this video as you please, if it can help people, that's what we want:)
I've started learning norwegian about 2 months ago. At first, YT algorithm brought me here. Then Days and Words brought me here again, and I don't why it didn't struck me in the first time how many useful advices are in this video that I can already incorporate into the way I'm learning. 👌😎
I'm here from daysandwords recommendation and this is FANTASTIC. So much very, very specific advice. Thank you, for this! I just downloaded an audiobook from my local library based on your advice. Bookmarking this video for further re-watches!@@norwegianwithilys
I always tell to my students that the key to learn any language is motivation. But I also have to say that some people have it easier with languages than others, some speak fluently without working too much and some put a lot of effort but will never be accent free. She is definitely talented. Great job!
This is so inspirational!!! I’ve been working on my Spanish and Japanese for years. (Native English and Vietnamese ) . It wasn’t until I traveled to Japan recently that I saw my shortcomings but improved so much when I just did so much input and accepted the language that way that it is without overthinking it. Thank you for this video . I’m going to use this as the backbone to really boost my proficiency !
I got crazy goosebumps in the beginning, I felt so calm and relaxed listening to you explain your reason to why. I've always found norwegian quite nice to listen to. "Jeg ville bli en del av Norge och att Norge skulle bli en del av meg" was so beautiful :)
Je voulais sincerement te remercier. J’ai regardé ta video il y a quelques mois et ça a eu l’effet d’un declic sur moi. J’ai trouve ton approche de l’apprentissage du Norvégien très logique! Apprendre comme un enfant, ça fait tellement sens. Ça fait des annees que j’ai une profonde envie d’apprendre des langues mais je ne me lançais pas. Et grace a toi je me suis lancé. J’apprends le turc et l’italien depuis deux mois et je fais pas mal de progrès et je suis motivé. En tout cas bravo pour ton parcours!
Wow this video was so good. I love how you "romanticized" the process, basically saying stuff like "i love getting lost in the words" or how you wanted norwegian to "become a part of you", that was really touching to watch. Im not particularly interested in norwegian but i come from the daysandwords video and ill probably apply some of the tips to the ones i'm actually learning.
All I can say is..This video is the best video I've ever seen of learning languages, I loved how determined you were to learn the language like a native speaker.The video is really motivating and you explained everything, no more distraction. Thank you ❤️
Very good advices here. A language expert here on UA-cam said the same thing about grammar; that one should not emphasize it to much, or get stuch because of it, that it will come automatically by time if one just keep on learning. He said it was the best advice he could give, and I think so too. Myself I am a retired Norwegian, 65 years living on this planet, and I keep learning Italian. I mainly use the Mondly app which suits me fine. However there was advice here for me too, thanks for that. I have never been to France, but I would presumably love it. I just know that I love Norway and I also love Italy which I have visited many times, and I love that you have become Norwegian by heart. Velkommen skal du være.
Du er utrolig dyktig, og vi nordmenn er heldige som har fått deg som en del av befolkningen! Jeg håper du får et skikkelig godt liv her i Norge, og at alle behandler deg bra ❤
Your comment is so sweet and honest, that it almost made me shed a tear. It's because I also started to learn norwegian, and although I would still count me a beginner, I understood enough of your text to get the meaning and see that it came straight from your heart! 😊 Jeg elsker Norge og å lære norsk, og jeg håpe at hun leste kommentaren din 😉 Hjertelig hilsen fra tyskland
This is quickly becoming one of the most valuable language learning videos on UA-cam. I love how you made stories and had your friends translate them. They are literally your own words and so they would be close to your heart and that gives confidence also. Thank you so much for sharing!
Ilys thanks so much for this video! I used tips from this video to learn italian and I progressed from 0 to a B1! Thanks so much for uploading these tips.
Considering how English and Norwegian are not her native languages, she does an incredible job with both Norwegian and English. If we had to speak perfectly to be accepted, the vast majority of us would never open our mouths. Well done!
As a 18 year-old Frenchman who's been learning Finnish pretty intensively for over two years (after a first failed attempt at Russian), I find this video both very relatable and very motivating. I also chose a method focusing heavily on input, and I'm very satisfied with my level, although I'm still far from native-like. I can understand most TV shows and UA-cam videos, especially with Finnish subtitles, and my speaking skills have improved since I moved to study in Finland 3 months ago. However I still struggle especially with reading, which easily gets very arduous. So it's good to know that someone who's several years ahead of me has reached such a high level. Congrats!
As a 23 year-old Finn who's been self-studying French (not so intensely) for the last couple of years, I can totally relate. Though, I kinda have the opposite problem of not comprehending as much as I can while reading. I have heard that learning Finnish can be quite hard for foreigners as we can be quite shy towards new people, so honestly if you need any help with your Finnish I can at least try😎
To understand TV shows after only 2 years of learning is quite astonishing to me. I still cannot understand almost no real life speech. However reading I find much easier on the other hand. I can even understand most newspapers.
@@TheWandererTiles I don't understad french people when I listen to videos/podcasts but I do understand french in real life, face to face, because I can read their lips to know what they're saying and because they're close enough to me so I can make out words
@@jarbincks6715 with all due respect I do not see how that can be the case for anything more than rudimentary communication. Yes with the aid of sign language and body language we can all "sort of" understand a lot of immediate needs type of circumstances, but if you are listening into a native to native conversation how much can you actually understand?
I’ve only been learning languages organically without the textbook work and flooding my ears with audio of the languages I’m learning. It’s always worked for me, but always felt that I’m not learning ‘quite in the right way’ since the language learning sphere is worlds away from my methods.. but listening to your way of learning was such a reassuring and confidence boosting video in following all the curious moments you find about the language you want to sound like a native in, and just run with the immersion in those moments :D
Impressive work in not only English but Norwegian as well. I am a native English speaker and I'm intermediate in French and Japanese, and beginner in Russian and Spanish. Right now my focus is refreshing on French and Japanese, but I've always liked the idea of travel to Norway and being able to speak to people. The fact that you were able to get so good so quickly is an inspiration.
Je suis à moitié norvégienne et à moitié française, mais mon père ne m'a jamais appris de parler français quand j'étais jeune. J'ai toujours voulu être capable de le parler comme si c'était ma langue maternelle aussi à côté de norvégien. Et maintenant je vis à Paris depuis 4 mois et je prends des cours de français ! Je peux résonner avec les difficultés de déménager dans un pays étranger et apprendre le langue, donc merci bcp pour cet vidéo !
Ohh mais c'est incroyable que tu vives la même chose que moi à l'envers!! J'ai envie de faire des interviews sur ma chaine, est-ce que tu serais intéressée qu'on se rencontre et peut-être qu'on filme une petite vidéo où je te pose des questions sur ton histoire? Intervjuet ville vært på norsk:) Gjerne si ifra, jeg hadde elsket å prate med deg uansett ! Du må gjerne sende meg melding på Instagram, kontoen min er @norwegian.with.ilys 🌸
J’ai déménagé en Norvège il y a quelques mois, je galère encore pas mal mais rien que le fait de regarder mes films favoris avec les sous titres norvégiens ça m’a vachement aidé ! Merci pour ta vidéo d’ailleurs, elle m’est très utile 😊
Your video really motivated me to pick up my Swedish learning properly again! I've been learning for about 1,5 years now, mostly through duolingo. When I was in Sweden in 2022 I bought a book as well, one that I had read in my own language already so that I would understand the story, and I just started reading it. For me it really helped to write the translation above the word/part that I didn't understand yet. I also watched some series in Swedish, and it helps a lot to get a feel for the language! You gave some good tips that I'm definitely going to try! Thanks!
Yess, it's such a nice thing to do! I don't know why I didn't speak about it in this video, I just forgot, but I did exactly the same as you. I had bought Blå (that I talk about in the video) which is a Norwegian book, and then I found it in French so I bought it, and it helped me so much! Instead of having to translate the words one by one you get to understand the real meaning of the text with a verified translation, and it's really motivating! Thanks for sharing your advise, I hope that you're gonna get back to learning Swedish!:)
Du snakker med en imponerende god uttale! Nesten umulig å høre at du ikke er født og oppvokst her! I'm so impressed! Thanks for sharing these tips, perfect to learn other languages as well! You're an inspiration! Greetings from Norway! 😊
Your approach to grammar is so true. When I started teaching English, it made me realise how much I didn't understand the rules of construction, we just know from listening, repeating, and knowing what sounds correct and what isn't, it becomes natural. I'm learning Turkish now and listening to the same words and their differences allows you to make the connections yourself, not needing to do gap fills
The main thing I noticed ius how patient and non-judgemental you are. You were very positive about what you COULD do and not beat yourself up about what you couldn't... I need to get back to that place cause I had that when I first started learning Polish.
A year and a half ago I started my way of mastering English. And you know what? My method of learning it was (and is) almost the same as yours in Norwegian. Now I need to learn Norwegian. I'm so happy to find out that different people come up with the "child" method separately, and that it actually works. The only differences that we have is that I don't like watching movies, but I am a music nerd. So I listened a lot to one single song for a few days, and that's how I get vocabulary and pronunciation. Also I want to add one magic thing. Learning something (for example history or math) in foreign language when you stack somewhere at A2 language level helps to sift your attention from language learning to understanding the subject. Firstly it is very difficult but keep going, and you will see how from "hmm I am learning a new language" to "oh wow, now I could add it to my list of native languages" just in half of the year. (Ppl I know that I may make mistakes that native would never do, but if I can live my life by using only this language and do not feel limited I wold count such as my new native :) )
Pretty good advice! I've started norwegian recently, but the method you described is very similar to what I did with Italian. Increasing exposure without focusing on grammar at the beginning is a good way to develop a more "natural" feel to the language, and afterwards, when it's necessary, you can reach the next level with grammar more easily and much more motivated. This is way better than what you would do in most language school systems.
Impressive! I'm learning Czech from the US and it's tough! I have never been good at language learning but I'm pushing myself to get this done. I have a lot of respect for people who learn a new languages. Thank you for the video!
i love languages. doing French and Spanish in school obvs but also learning German and Polish. my brain is just built in a way that it can take it all in but I've tried Duolingo and all that stuff and it never works, maybe a bit but not enough for the amount of time. so I gave up on German and polish but my best friends family is polish and I'm going there in the summer and that's given me new motivation. Thanks for making this and giving out tips. hopefully this time I actually do more
The method that most naturally applies the advantages of passive language acquisition to deliberate language learning! Methode d’Ilys 1) Find genuine motivation - as a native speaker does 2) Listen, listen, listen - as a pre-linguistic infant does 3) Read while listening (& repeat) - as a toddler, while being read to, does 4) Learn vocab by writing sentences - as a grammar school pupil does 5) Keep a journal - as an thoughtful young adult does 6) Read & re-read books - as a self-motivated learner does 7) Listen to audio books & read along - as a thorough language learner does 8) Watch series & films repeatedly - as a student prepping for uni does 9) Write stories with target vocab - as a Literature major does 10) Learn & recite sentences by heart - as a committed world traveler does 11) Speak to yourself - as an immersive learner does 12) Don’t give up! - as an underachiever does
@norwegian.withilys I even showed this video to my parents (one of which was a Swedish teacher all his life) and they were super impressed too. They thought you were norwegian.
I've been learning German for almost 8 years and just now started getting interested in Norwegian too! Your ideas related to Writing and Translations are very good and also the heavy focus on input is just genuinely incredible advice. Thanks for the amazing work you're putting on your videos! 🙂
These are all great methods that I'm definitely going to try in my journey of learning Norwegian. My girlfriend is Norwegian, and we are spending the summer in Norway working, so I'm going to try and make the most out of the time when I'm here to improve. I think that, as you said, listening a lot is great and makes it very natural to learn. I'm lucky to be surrounded by Norwegian people every day, and everywhere I go and so I already keep noticing that I memorise words simply because I hear them being repeated a lot by others. Wish me luck 😅
Hei, thank you so much for sharing your story! That's so cool that you're learning your girlfriend's language, and that you get to spend time in Norway! It is so motivating to recognize some words now and then:) You wrote you comment a month ago (omg I have to get better at answering comments), so I hope that you have improved since;) Lykke til videre
Lemont (Days & words) really didn’t overestimated this video. This is the best video on language learning I’ve seen in a long time. It made me think about my language journey and how I want to move on - even questioning my journey itself. This video made me think for days now. Honestly, thank you for this great video, Ilys! ❤
Thank you!!! I can’t wait to try your advice! If anyone is curious these are some small things I found helpful learning french. - As soon as I could I stopped using english translations to learn new words and I began using a normal french dictionary. This meant I learnt my french vocabulary in a french context. Sometimes I had to look up multiple other words to understand the definition of the word I was originally trying to learn, but this helped me learn more words than I would have otherwise and it got rid of the difficulties that happen when a word doesn’t translate exactly. It also really helped my confidence! - Music was helpful for intuitively learning the rhythm of the language - As a beginner I started using french words when talking to myself in english, and then transitioned to occasionally using english words while speaking french. When I spoke or wrote if I didn’t know a word I would either try to define it in french or just fill in the word with english. Then I would look up the words I didn’t know later! This made mistakes less scary and let me practice other aspects of the language without interruption or frustration. One of my friends and I had conversations like this all the time as beginners :) - learning vocables, words that aren’t really words like um or ouch, is much more important than I expected! - you can do a lot of things to immerse yourself more like change your phones language or download the keyboard in the language you’re learning. I swear those little things add up!
This has definitely been my experience with Spanish and Korean. I did study Spanish in school but it didn’t become good until I decided I wanted to study abroad in a Spanish speaking country. With Korean I listened to a lot of K-pop and after moving to Korea that’s when I became motivated to study it. I actually applied a lot of similar techniques to the ones you mentioned to Korean and it helped a lot
I loooooved every second of this video, such solid advice! I realize I had intuitively used a lot of these techniques when I had to improve my French before moving to Montréal, 5 years ago. I had taken some French classes as a kid in school but, without practice, I had forgotten so much. Audiobooks were my best friends. I just drowned myself in audio content any moment that I could spare. I picked a couple of Camus books that I had read maybe 4-5 times before (in my native Romanian and English) and I'd alternate between consuming the audio alone and reading while listening. Before I landed here, I must have consumed ~200 hours of audio (the same books, over and over again.) I was starting to feel optimistic about how clearly I was distinguishing the words and the deductions I was making. After landing here, I took a huge nosedive in regards to my confidence. I wasn't expecting the québécois accent to be as strong as it turned out to be. I went from "I understand so much" to "I don't understand ANYTHING." I felt so defeated. Even if it wasn't the case, in the moment, it felt like I had spent all those hours, listening, for nothing. It took me a chance encounter with a French girl to snap out of it. She made a funny comment about how hard it can be to understand what some French Canadians are saying and my mind went: "if it's hard for HER, I give myself permission to struggle as well." It was onwards from there. I'm still bothered by the limited breadth of my vocabulary, especially local jargon, but I just keep listening 😊
Hey, amazing video! I'm not actually a language-learner but I really enjoy consuming various content and finding interesting connections, metaphors and lessons. Here's what I came up with for learning in general from your video 1. Know Your Why - You may not need a strong "why?" to start, but for long-term projects motivation and precise goals are essential to figure out "how?", "when?" and "what if?". 2. Practice Things in the Context You Want to Use Them - Want to ace the exam? - Do test exams! Want to learn the language? - Use the language! Want to learn programming? - Write an actual program you need! You will need some memorization sooner or later, but it's way better to learn it when you understand why you're learning it. It also fits really well with all other points. 3. Immerse Yourself in the Content You're Learning - Developing a habit of doing something everyday is a good start, but for a stellar result you need to warp you life around the content you're consuming. Consume a lot, and most importantly... 4. Make it Fun! - Grand projects require a lot of time and effort and there is only so much you can push yourself to do the things you don't enjoy. Spend a decent amount of time figuring out how to make things fun, it's way more important than making it efficient. Joy brings excellence. 5. Practice Being Confident - Repeat stuff a lot until the knowledge you're acquiring becomes a second nature. Doing difficult things with ease is a true marker of a mastery. 6. Get Lost in the Forest and Find Your Way Back - there is something magical in plunging into deep water, taking a difficult content you're not "supposed to" do at your stage and finding a way to make it happen. It will bring you a deep sense of joy and accomplishment and help to develop a truly remarkable skills. 7. Trust the process - Progress isn't linear and the FEELING of progress is actually all around the place. Appreciate the effort you're putting into the thing you care about, that's all you have control of, and that's something you should be proud of.
Wow, native here, and its almost perfect in regards to grammar, intonation and pronunciation. Best I have ever heard from a non-native. I probably would not have noticed if I didnt know you are French. Its really impressive! Godt jobbet!
I am very impressed with you. You know yourself so well and are very insightful. The motivation and bravery you have shown is stunning. On top of that, you have the maturity above your years. I am glad you are living the life you want. This video is helpful and motivating. Luke Raneri over at polymathy just had a video describing much of what you have done here. Thanks for sharing
This is how I learned to speak fluent Danish as a 24-year-old Brit. When I moved to Copenhagen I listened to the radio all day long even though I didn't understand a word; read and listened to (lydbøger) the same children's books over and over; watched the movie _'Babette's Feast'_ (Babettes Gæstebud) over and over again. I used to add to a notebook Danish phrases that I wanted be able to use. I really threw myself at it. Never touched much grammar until later on. Det dejlige er, at jeg af den grund også forstår en del norsk, da sprogene har meget til fælles 😊 Now, I'm learning Spanish for fun 🤗
I love this video and your channel, Ilys. Thank you so much. You mentioned sharing stories you wrote. I would love to read them and learn more Norwegian through them. ❤
When I started learning Russian, I listened to Kino on repeat for months while I was taking Russian classes. It still took me a month to hear the difference between ш and щ, but yeah, listening is so, so, so important. I'm commenting early on my first watch, but when you've really paid attention to how a language sounds it makes later mimicry much easier.
I started learning Russian because of Kino 😊. I'm not yet good enough to understand the lyrics without translation but they helped me to understand how words are pronounced and helped reading cyrillic.
@@flachlappen That's how it starts! I used to commute to university for about an hour, sometimes up to an hour and a half and just started singing along with the songs (even if I wasn't 100% sure that I had the words right).
I’m impressed. But, more importantly, your explanations are very helpful. I gave up on Norwegian after learning a few simple things. I’m now inspired to attempt Norwegian again. Thank you.
This is the best language learning video I have watched! I’m learning French this way and it almost feels effortless compared to the traditional language learning I’ve done before. You’re great!
To be honest it was the best video on how to learn a new language Ive ever seen. And so many useful tips. Ive never thought about reading the book while listening to it on audio! Thank you!
❤ in her 70s, my mother in law decided to learn Spanish so she could read books by a favorite author - and she did! This spring, I decided to learn Cherokee, and was excited to find online lessons with a first language speaker, and am in the second 10 week class - Tsalagi dideloquasdi (Cherokee school/ lessons) I've been incorporating some of the things you have, and appreciate your tips. I've ordered several books and listen to music and stories, and make copious notes. Love the idea of writing out stories. There's a weekend 'outreach' class coming up so I'll be around other learners and speakers, nervous and excited!!
Exactly, I was intrigued but I didn't like his style - the piggybacking and sensationalizing - so I stopped immediately and came to the original 😊 So smart and helpful 🙌
I was born in Norway so obviously I learned my language growing up. And why I watched this video, is because I always wondered what it’s like learning it as a second language. It’s cool to see how she approached as a kid in school. I may use this to learn a different language my self one day😃
Absolutely fine to use translator apps. DeepL I think is a little bit more natural than google translate but you can also compare translator results for phrases. They’re also even better once you’re intermediate in language learning because you can spot mistakes.
Hi Ilys, first of this is one of my favourite videos ever, I have watched it sooo many times. So thank you for making it! I just wanted to share another tip to learn languages that I think may be useful for people, and that is to focus a lot on translations. I did a lot of Old English classes in my MA degree and I never had a proper "OE language course" - with my supervisor we would just take a piece of text (Beowulf, for example) and we would just translate it together by searching for familiar words (meaning, words that are still recognizable in contemporary English or maybe in German) and then we would implement the translation with an online dictionary. I am applying the same method, alongside some old fashioned grammar notions, to learn Old Norse. Now, I know that these are all dead languages, but I think it could be helpful also for modern languages - I intend to do the same with Norwegian as well, maybe with an easier text (I am thinking Harry Potter maybe?). I hope this may help! 🎀♥️
Gal❤❤❤❤ truly you are among the best.... not feeling the pressure to be perfect as most polyglots emphasis this aspect without even knowing. Merci beaucoup pour votre aide ❤❤
I'm French and I'm learning Danish. I was surprised to see that I could understand some of your Norwegian without looking at the subtitles haha! Thank you so much for your video, you really gave me some good advice! I was lacking motivation because of the difficulty of pronunciation, especially with the "soft d" in Danish, but hearing you speak Norwegian made me want to continue learning Danish with even more passion until I speak it fluently :D
@@ximono Haha, I agree, I prefer the way Norwegian sounds, but I choose the country first and then enjoy the Danish language 😆 I would love to go to Norway one day day though 🇳🇴Can you explain what a bokmål is? Thanks! 🙏
@@alix3116Fair enough, Denmark is a lovely country :) Bokmål is the main written form of Norwegian, and is based on Danish, from the time they ruled us. It is relatively similar to Danish when written, but is pronounced very differently. Curiously, Danish people prefer to speak English to us. We also have Nynorsk (new Norwegian), a sort of conlang made in 1848 by combining features of various Norwegian dialects into one common written language. It's easier to understand for Swedish people. And we also have Sámi.
I'm learning French and this is all VERY helpful. I'm already rethinking my approach and trying some of your ideas and I can see straight away that a lot of your ideas will definitely speed up my learning. I love the idea of teaching yourself and working out your own language learning approach rather than following someones course, having lessons or using apps. Thanks so much!
Dear Ilys, this is so helpful 😊 I am teaching myself Norwegian too and am enjoying it so much. Your tips and tricks will help so much on the road to fluency and confidence down the line. All the best with your language learning journey!
There's a lot of good advice so I took notes for my reference, everyone enjoy.
Preparation:
a) Find motivation
Have a goal in mind to help you keep up motivation
b) make a plan based on your motivation and goal
Because her goal was to speak Norwegian like a native, she decided to learn Norwegian the way a child would and approached all of her language learning from that perspective.
1) Listen as much as possible to Norwegian
Because children spend the first few years of life just listening, she decided to listen to Norwegian as much as possible. She found many random podcasts to listen to at every possible opportunity, like while cleaning her room, playing mindless video games, and before bed. She did not understand what was being said so she wasn't picky about content.
2) Read things many times
Kids don't learn grammar, but they do learn books by heart by reading books over and over again. She found text messages sent between characters in a TV show that she liked, wrote down the messages, figured out what all the words meant, and then read the sentences over and over out loud. She used Google translate to have it read the sentences to her and also sent the sentences to friends in Norway to get voice recordings by native speakers.
3) Learn simple words
She made a list of words she thought would be useful, like "alone" "together" "to be" "to have" "before/after" "but" "already" etc. Any time she saw a sentence with one of her words, she wrote the sentence and then read it once a day. She includes pronunciation notes in her notebook. This method helps you internalize different sentence structures so you can create new similar sentences automatically.
She didn't spend time on grammar initially, but learned grammar rules later in the process and thinks it would have helped to learn grammar sooner.
4) Write your own personal texts (e.g. journal or stories)
When she started trying to write her own journal entries in Norwegian, she didn't know how to write anything at first so she used Google translate to type in 5 sentences about her day in English and get the Norwegian translation. She wrote down the Norwegian translation and then read it out loud many times. She got pronunciation help from Google translate audio.
4b) Adapt your method as you get better
As she learned how to put together sentences on her own, she moved to writing her sentences in Norwegian, then writing the sentences in English in Google translate and comparing what she wrote to what Google provided to learn what her mistakes were.
5) Buy and read books
She wanted to read adult level books even though they were too difficult and she couldn't read them at all. She treated like she had no choice and she had to figure it out on her own. She took a book with her everywhere, opened to a random page, and looked to see if there were any words she knew or sentences she understood. Her goal became to read the book she had chosen and it was highly motivating to her when she was able to understand parts of it.
6. Listen to audiobooks
She often would read a book and listen to the audiobook at the same time. Sometimes she would listen to a chapter first and try to understand as much as possible just by listening and then she would pick up the book and read along as she listened to the audiobook again.
7. Use series and movies
She would watch an episode of a series and then watch it again and copy down some sentences she thought were useful. She would watch a 2-5 minute scene the first time without subtitles to see what she could understand, then watch with Norwegian subtitles, then watch with English subtitles, then watch another time with Norwegian subtitles, copying down her sentences for something easy to read.
8. Make stories using the vocabulary you want to learn
She had lists of vocabulary that she wanted to learn. She wrote stories in English using that vocabulary and then sent the stories to a Norwegian friend to get a translation and a voice recording. She read and listened to the Norwegian story until she knew it by heart, spending 1-2 weeks on a story. To work on listening and writing she would listen to the recording without reading and then try to write all the words that she heard.
9. Learn sentences by heart
Learning stories and sentences by heart enabled her to speak without needing to stop and think about what she was saying so she could focus more on accent. This is how she speaks quickly and sounds native.
10. Speak to yourself
From the beginning she would talk to herself in Norwegian. She got over discomfort by pretending that she is the best Norwegian speaker in the world. You can speak to yourself about your day, about a movie you saw or a book you want to read, or pick a picture and try to describe it, imagining the story behind it and telling the story.
Conclusion: Don't give up
Even if you feel like you haven't made progress in weeks, you still have made progress.
Takk/thanks
tusen takk😄
Thanks for the summary!
Thank you for sharing this!
شكرا
To anyone wondering. Yeah, she is pretty much fluent. No way I would be able to learn french this fast. This is impressive!
It's crazy! She even fucks up things that us natives fuck up (such as da/når) and other grammatical rules that some teacher just made up to have a reason to fault you in school
@@Henoik really? Dere blander ogsa disse to tingene? Duolingo is merciless with me when i do it!
@@romailto9299 Yeah, it's messy. In school we were taught a rule to remember. "Den gang da, hver gang når" - although linguists don't really like that rule as they've more or less concluded it's more of a dialect thing
She’s pretty much fluent and I’m over here saying: jeg er vann 💀
@@Maxwell54777 here something more complex. Jeg er seksti prosent vann - det betyr at jeg består i stor grad av vann
She's not just fluent, but pretty close to native level. A native Norwegian might notice some odd intonation now and then, but that's about it. Simply amazing.
And her English is native level too. Incroyable.
Not native, but close enough@@alexheslop2917
@@alexheslop2917 pettyr muks minebogglind
@@alexheslop2917 Isn't native way more than casually speaking and thus being able to read complex literature, knowing idioms etc ?
@heroe1486 No, not exactly. While native speakers are more nuanced and have more experience, it doesn't always mean they have better vocabulary. They don't all read and understand literature. They don't always speak flawlessly. Or even clearly. They might not know too many idioms or use them in their day to day lives. It depends on whether or not you're a person who likes languages, your learning abilities and your motivation.
In short. I think natives have more experience and easily gained nuance from growing up with the language. However, very motivated language learners can aquire a large vocabulary and nuance. If they are motivated enough, they might learn more words than some natives care to learn. The key is to learn enough Norwegian to build upon continuously -> because now you understand it well enough to continue learning it like a native.
Honest tips. No marketing. No click bait. I love it. I learned English pretty much the same way. Now, I'm thinking of learning French
Right, her "Marketing" is "B2" level in the title, but she is actually nearly "C2."
1) What is your motivation to learn (in my case) French and Portuguese?
2) Make a plan that reflects your motivation.
a) Learn like a child
b) Listen a lot to podcasts in 🇫🇷/🇵🇹
c) Children don't learn a language by doing Grammar exercises in the beginning.
d. Listen to the same book over and over again.
e. Listen/Read an excerpt and learn the content (eg. Vocabulary, grammar, conjugation, and pronounciation) then apply it.
f. Make a list of often used/useful words.
g. When reading/watching something, if you find that word, write down the sentence on paper. Add to a list.
h. To learn a word, find it in context then write it on another piece of paper. Read once a day. (Write how you would read it in English and show where the accent is).
i. Write daily journal. Use translator if needed. No shame.
j. Change method eventually to writing first in target language, then translating it and comparing it with the correct translation.
k. Buy books: my goal is to read this book one day and be able to understand everything.
l. Listen to an audio book x1 then listen to it again with a text.
m. Series and movies: watch a scene 2-5 minutes, then copy the sentences. Add to list of sentences.
n. With your vocab lists: write stories, get them corrected and also ask that person to also record a message reading your story.
o. Learn your stories and sentences by heart.
p. Speak to YOURSELF. Imagine you are the best at speaking the language you are learning.
q. Find photos with a lot going on. Describe what you see and make a story about it.
r. You will get better!! Persevere xx
All that self doubt at the beginning and a polyglot called it the best language learning video ever made
Sat here listening to a French person, explaining her method for learning Norwegian to an amazing level of fluency, in native level English... Amazing work Ilys!
This! I was thinking the same thing! Amazing!
Same! Forget about telling us how you learned Norwegian, tell us how you learned English lol.
No, seriously, there's something else going on here besides reading and watching TV shows. I've been living in an anglophone country for quite a while now. If listening to podcasts, talking to people and reading books did it, I'd be at her level by now. I'm very much not. My English is still clunky and I sound like Esther Duflo (sans Nobel prize)
Exactly 💯
Was searching for if somebody has put this message 😊
And I also think, she might have improved her English while learning Norwegian too.
I could do exactly the same… so what is so special about that?
@@maikelmolto8986 gold star for you too Maikel, you're special as well
I'm from Days and Words. He made an entire video about you. I'm now excited to watch the original.
Your method seems very close to what I decided to do once I started learning languages on my own.
Same. I'm from there
I can see why he was impressed. Pretty intuitive and genius methods for learning a language.
Writing stories for oneself to learn vocabulary is something I wanted to do for ages but never got around to it because I know it'll be time consuming. And as she stated, with spell checks and getting audio recorded, it took 1-2 weeks depending (imagine) on the number of vocabulary but it was clearly worth it.
I really liked the idea of having a personal word list containing words one frequently says. I think it really helps to prime the mind to hear and read those words in media which signals to the brain its importance.
Seriously awesome stuff. ❤ ❤
same
Yo también llegué a este video gracias a él y me alegra haberlo hecho. Excelentes consejos, de verdad.
Yep, also got referred here from Days and Words
This doesnt even have a million views. I come back regularly and watch this video to motivate me to keep going with japanese
I'm not leaning Norwegian but this video gives me a confidence to continue leaning English.i thoroughly enjoyed ❤
this point she makes about "you only listen for the first 2 years, you dont speak", is so true. when i moved to england that's exactly what I did, people thought I was weird cuz I never talked, but I eventually started speaking fluently this way.
That’s exactly how comprehensible input works, great job! Despite humans doing natural comprehensible input, it isn’t the norm in language learning circles yet.
So many people on youtube talk about the scandinavian languages as being weird and difficult to pronounce. as a native danish speaker, who also speaks mandarin, dutch, and english obviously, i am absolutely blown away. so many language videos on youtube aren't actually fluent. i am speechless at how fluent this sounds. i legitimately wouldn't be able to tell this wasn't a norwegian.
Oh waw thank you so much! There are still things that I struggle saying and I still make mistakes now and then though! But I do try my best to get better every day, thank you for this kind comment!:)
And Danish is the only Scandinavian language that's honest about it, whereas Norwegian and Swedish text-to-speech sound nothing like real native speakers.
How do you able to differentiate the tone in Mandarin? I know that Mandarin has 4 tones but to differentiate them while listening to news, conversation and any media without pinyin subtitle is just so hard.
"I"!
YESS SO MANY AREN'T TRULY FLUENT
in brief:
**Introduction:**
- Ilys, originally from France, has been living in Norway for 3 years.
- She learned Norwegian on her own and is now fluent.
- The video aims to answer questions about her learning journey and provide recommendations for learning resources.
**Learning Approach:**
1. **Motivation:** The key difference between learning a language in school and learning it on your own is motivation. Ilys' goal was to speak Norwegian fluently, like a native.
2. **Listening:** Ilys began by listening to Norwegian as much as possible, using podcasts and other audio resources.
3. **Learning Like a Child:** She aimed to learn Norwegian as if she were a child, focusing on listening and repetition.
4. **Using Context:** Instead of isolated vocabulary, Ilys focused on learning words and phrases in context. She would write down sentences from movies or shows and practice them.
5. **Grammar:** While she initially avoided traditional grammar exercises, she later found value in understanding some grammar rules to enhance her fluency.
6. **Reading:** Ilys read books in Norwegian, even if they were challenging. She would also listen to audiobooks while following along with the text.
7. **Speaking:** Speaking to oneself is crucial. Ilys would often talk to herself in Norwegian, imagining different scenarios or describing pictures.
8. **Consistency:** Progress in language learning might not always be immediately visible, but consistent effort will lead to improvement.
**Conclusion:**
- Ilys emphasizes the importance of finding a method that works for you and staying motivated.
- She hopes her journey and tips will inspire others in their language learning endeavors.
Was this comment made with the help of AI?
@@sophialyudova7647 of course, with GPT4
@@e-genieclimatique how does the AI know what to put? Does it 'watch' the video?
You left out nine and ten.
@@WisdomTrad what were they?
This is SO affirming, because it is almost exactly how I have always approached learning languages. I remember back when I was learning Spanish, I would watch videos from my favourite Spanish UA-camrs and repeat them so many times that I could recite the entire video by heart. I would copy intonation, regional accents, pauses, absolutely everything, until I sounded exactly like the person in the video.
Learning to say entire sentences, paragraphs, speeches, etc., is incredibly useful because - like you said - it helps you learn pronunciation and rhythm and speaking at a normal pace. Also, you will just start using whole sentences you've learned by heart, and then instead of piecing together sentences with words, you're piecing together whole speeches with sentences!
Cómo persona de habla hispana tengo curiosidad de saber cuales eran los UA-camrs de los que te memorizabas los vídeos :D
You have no idea how many times I've watched this video, it changed the way I see languages sooooo much. Ty
Your Norwegian pronunciation is fantastic. And I think it's fascinating that your native accent is much less noticeable when you speak Norwegian than when you speak English.
To me as an American her accent in English actually sounds more Norwegian than French
@@coversine479 I agree with you! I don't detect a French accent from her at all.
@@coversine479 I thought the same thing! My guess is that since English and Norwegian are more closely related than English and French, her brain subconsciously started applying Norwegian phonetic rules to her English. I speak both Serbian and Russian as a second language, and I've been told that my Russian sounds more like a Serbian speaking Russian than an American speaking Russian.
I am French and I also don’t notice the French accent at all ! But I am surprised that I also really understand her much easier than many people speaking in English so I think being French help me to understand her so clearly !
Yes amazing
A channel called: ‘Days and Words’ posted a video about you Ilys, called: ‘You missed the best language learning video ever.’ I left the following comment, and then realized that I ought to share it with you as well: “I agree! I came across Ilys’ video about a month ago, and was quickly stunned by her depth of insight and the practicality of her suggestions! Though she likely shares here a few things, gleaned from others, I strongly sense that the majority of her tips are born of her natural intuition and her ability to quickly profit from her own experience of trial and error, as if feeling her way through the new tongue, trusting her perfect blend of instinct and intellect. Her video distills all of the web’s best language-learning advice into some twenty minutes of pure gold. Anyone committed to learning a foreign language needs to follow her lead. And every poster of language-learning content should be recommending her, passionately!”
Just came from that channel!
Me too!
@@johannespihlme too
Same here
If you scroll down in the comment section you'll actually see that he posted a comment asking for permission to give a response to her video :)
One of the reasons young kids learn languages fast is that they have close to no shame, and will just try, and eventually learn it.
As adults we have a higher tendency to be scared of doing something wrong.
@m4rt_ that's so true!
True. But the far, far bigger reason is that children's brains have a special ability to learn languages fast and at a native level merely from exposure, which then gets lost as they age.
@@Visstnokthe reason children learn fast is because of neuroplasticity. Learning new skills is a skill in itself and the more you do it the better you become at it. Children are CONSTANTLY learning new things because everything is new to them. If adults did the same they would have that same level of neuroplasticity. Never stop learning and your brain will stay in shape.
It's also funny when people say that they have studied for months and still speak like a two year old. How long do you think it took for the two year old?
@@alexkarlsson660Yes, isn't it interesting how the "cognitive decline" supposedly sets off right around the time most people in our culture finish their education and start a career? From then on they (at best) improve at the narrow skill-set needed for their job, which they are already comfortable with. Learning one thing makes you better at this one thing and learning new things makes you better at learning new things. My hypothesis, at least. If you think about it, being initially bad at something is a very distinct experience that we adults tend to avoid, but kids deal with ALL THE TIME. Being good at being bad is also a skill, it seems.
Totally agree. And this is not for languages only!
I'm from Russia. I'm trying to learn English. Actually I have learning English for many years, but passively. I have been watching and listening. Yes, my English become better, but still not enough for. Now I finally realized my real goal, that I REALLY need it. I started to learn actively by talking, writing a diary, stories, grammar (not only learn , BUT USE IT EVERY DAY), read with audio). So yes, how you prepare, decides where you will) Try to REALLY UNDERSTAND why you need this first.
Heyyy keep it up girlll! I’m also a russian speaker who learns english :)
@@tonprofesseur1733 what's your city?)
Привет Марина, удачи в дальнейшем изучении!)))
I've been*
У меня проблема в том, что я дошла в Английском до определяемого уровня и словно не могу его перешагнуть.. вычистить до блеска. Мне даже кажется, что весомый шаг от 0 до Intermediate намного легче, чем все после.. Там бесконечность. Словно ты никогда не «возьмешь» язык на уровне носителя.. и даже не понятно, как добраться до Advanced.
What a brilliant description of a brilliant process. I’m 81 years old. I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. I didn’t learn much Spanish. I’ve tried to learn the language by myself a few times since. I gave up each time because of the lack of success. I never used any of the techniques that you described. NONE. This is the first time that I think that there might be hope to actually learn the language. I have to develop my plan on how I’m going to implement my version of your process. Somebody else wrote some notes of their interpretation of your process. I’m going to use that as the starting place for writing my own. I would rather use the book that you must write about your process but I’m too excited now to wait for that. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance with the world.
That is quite genuinely, some of the best advice I've heard, when It comes to learning another language. I love the fact that you didn't want to just 'get-by' in Norwegian, you wanted to be fully conversive. That's what I'm aiming for. Your advice is bloody brilliant. Takk.
Ohh I just saw that you had written two comments:) Thank you for such a nice comment, it makes me really glad to hear that you got inspired by my video!
I 100% agree with this. This is great and I'm going to use this advice to enhance my Korean study.
@@RobinLeaFritchehow did you start your korean study? And wt what age did you start
I learned Norwegian when I was 12, I did it exactly as you did. However, as I lived in Mexico I couldn't travel to Norway, so my only practice was through MSN and later while working as a tour manager for Norwegian bands touring Mexico. Then I used this exact method to learn Polish. Now I'm learning Chinese :) Great job, your pronunciation is awesome!
I'm from England and also learnt Norwegian and Polish, but at a later time in life than you. I started both languages when I was around 23. Now I'm 37 and trying to learn Arabic. Good luck with Chinese!
Wow, Dobra robota! ❤
I'm gonna learn Portuguese and Spanish at the same time so.....
What made you study Norwegian at the age of 12 in Mexico? :)
@@annadl8637 music, I love black metal
I’m not Norwegian but the way you pronounce words like “book” or “stuck” is like I was listening to my Scandinavian friends! You already have a Norwegian accent
I was thinking the same thing! The way she says book in english sounds just like bok in norsk!
FRANÇAIS:
Je suis vraiment surpris de votre qualité de prononciation en anglais parce que la grande majorité des français qui parlent anglais ont un accent natif très marqué et donc très facile à reconnaître. En fait, au départ, je croyais que vous étiez québécoise (je vis au Québec) car ici, étant innondé constamment dans un monde anglophone en Amérique, notre prononciation de l'anglais est en général plus aiguisée par défaut, comme une sorte de démonstration que nous sommes capables de parler en anglais avec le moins d'accent possible - hi hi! Je constate que vous avez un grand respect pour les langues que vous apprenez, ce qui est admirable. En passant, j'apprends présentement l'allemand, mais cette vidéo-ci de vous m'a donné envie d'apprendre le Norvégien par la suite. Merci de votre générosité, authenticité et accessibilité.
ENGLISH:
I am really surprised by your quality of pronunciation in English because the vast majority of French people who speak English have a very strong native accent and therefore very easy to recognize. Actually, at first, I thought you were from Quebec (I live in Quebec) because here, being constantly inundated in an English-speaking world in America, our pronunciation of English is generally sharper by default, as a sort of demonstration that we are able to speak in English with as little accent as possible - hee hee! I see that you have great respect for the languages you learn, which is admirable. By the way, I'm currently learning German, but this video from you made me want to learn Norwegian later. Thank you for your generosity, authenticity and accessibility.
I spent four years learning Norwegian through Duolingo and talking to myself an embarrassing amount, and I got to the point where, when I visited, I could communicate decently well with people from Østlandet (they might say otherwise). But now that I've stopped, and am not practicing it very much anymore, I really feel like I should employ some of your tips just so I don't forget it all.
So thank you, and it's really nice to hear about someone else's experience.
@@DwightZZZ The grammar is alot harder than speaking. I'm impressed though, that the both of you have taken the time to learn Norwegian. Learning Norwegian is like playing Icy Tower. You'll get the hang of bokmål just to learn that the dialect changes 10 minutes outside of Oslo. Even Oslo itself has different dialects depending on East - West.
@@DwightZZZ Where are you from, if you dont mind me asking?
Duolingo is wasting of time. U should've taken private lessons or langue courses instead.
@@dukebubblebutt5256 I don't know where to find either of those things. Duolingo is accessible and dare I say fun sometimes
I don't recommend Duolingo either. I recommend Pimsleur, then The Mystery of Nils.
Girl, this is probably the best and most effective tutorial on how to learn any language! So many valuable tips! Thanks for this video and I truly adore your determination!
I also have been a huge fan of Norwegian language, culture and the whole lifestyle of people overall. But since, now in uni I study Spanish (sadly Norwegian was not on the list), I gotta focus on Spanish and hopefully, when I learn it on a decent level, I jump on learning Norwegian)
As a Swede, with Norway as our closest neighbor, I would never think from the little I heard, that she’s not a native Norwegian. Her pronunciation is great!
Only native Norwegian speakers will pick up a few accentuation errors here and there, otherwise she sounds completely Norwegian. I'm deeply impressed!
@@ximonojag hörde felen som svensk 😛
Fantastic work Ilys. Thank you so much. I was hopeless at French in school. Later, my girlfriend got me a job in a hospital in Germany. I studied hard, using old-fashioned books with lots of English-German translation exercises (nowadays forbidden by teachers).
Learning by heart is also forbidden by teachers, but this gives you a template you can reuse in different circumstances ( and, teachers, this is an area where children can excel!)
In my hospital job, I was surrounded by conversation. Everyday I felt improvements in my understanding. Important: I liked the people I worked with, and found myself unconsciously imitating them (as children do). Eventually, after two years, it was as though I could invoke friends to speak for me. Whatever I wanted to say, the expression was there in my head, often with the intonation and gesture of a remembered friend.
Nowadays I enjoy speaking French, and enjoy struggling with Spanish.
Summary: to learn a language, go to the country and get a job. But bear in mind it’s a life-long pursuit, not something that you ever finish.
i am knew here. i am a young teenager and i have decided to start learning Norwegian. I would say i’m excelling pretty fast, but your tips are very helpful. Norwegian is the first language i felt dedicated to learn. with that dedication mixed with your tips I’m sure I can reach my goal faster than I would before! thank you SO much for this! have a great 2025!❤😊
I think this is the first comment I've ever left on a UA-cam video, but when you mentioned how you enjoy hearing people speak Norwegian and that it feels like home, that resonated with me in a way not many other things have (albeit for a different language). It feels like that's the language you should be speaking, and I have exactly the same goals as you in my learning process. I also think it's hard for people who don't care about learning languages to understand how it drives us. Thanks for articulating your motivation in a way I couldn't until now!
Are you able to change the title of this video to how to learn any language? It would go viral. Incredibly useful information. I saw another video by someone who learned Spanish in a similar way using TED talks. Immersion, Repetition, memorization. Why do we think there is any other way? This is totally comprehensive! Thank you so much!
What is the name of that person's channel please? ❤
That person didn’t use comprehensible input though, which was Ilys’ key to success.
I am Russian and learned English at a foreign language school. I communicated a lot with foreigners and noticed that understanding people who have learned English is easier than understanding a native speaker. Ilys, I really enjoyed listening to you. You are close to me in spirit in learning languages. Thanks for this video!
Im Russian too! my English level is B1)
you can just tell that this person feels happier and happier the more they learn norwegian, i wish that never dwindles and that i also fall more and more in love with the language im learning too
As someone who taught myself Korean and my pronunciation sounding like a native (Seoul accent) being the biggest compliment I get, speaking to yourself and imitating what you hear from native people is so so so important! Vocabulary is (in my opinion) more important than grammar because grammar ends up coming pretty naturally to you kind of quickly! This video is genuinely the best langauge learning tip video I have ever seen and I will be using the tips for my French and Spanish learning journeys (sister-in-law is French and my bestie is half Peruvian half Mexican😅)
As a native Norwegian, I can confirm that Google Translate is amazing for Norwegian. I'm surprised how great the pronunciation is.
Your Norwegian pronunciation is great. I literally couldn't detect a foreign accent at all. It makes me happy that you wanted to learn my language.
ingen bryr seg flintskalle
❤
It makes me happy that you used the word happy and not pride.
@@bl8de3what
I just think national pride is a bad thing.
I loved the introduction of your video explaining why you are in Norway.
I think it is something very personal and special ,to have the interest and motivation in moving to another country because there is something about the place that makes you feel good and happy. I think we all have the right to choose where to live even though we weren’t born there. I also left my country to move to another one and learned the language and learned about their culture.
That's wonderful! Where did you move to if I may ask?~
@@Emma-Maze Switzerland :)
Ilys... I'm only half way through but already you've said SO many things that resonate with my experience and said so many things that most people don't seem to think of, it's EXCELLENT advice.
My channel is about language learning, and watching this, I almost can't help myself but to make a response video to this. Would you mind if I did?
Hi ! Thank you so much for this nice comment, I'm so happy that my video inspired you even though you already know a lot about learning languages!!:) Yess, of course, go ahead and use this video as you please, if it can help people, that's what we want:)
I've started learning norwegian about 2 months ago. At first, YT algorithm brought me here. Then Days and Words brought me here again, and I don't why it didn't struck me in the first time how many useful advices are in this video that I can already incorporate into the way I'm learning. 👌😎
I'm here from daysandwords recommendation and this is FANTASTIC. So much very, very specific advice. Thank you, for this! I just downloaded an audiobook from my local library based on your advice. Bookmarking this video for further re-watches!@@norwegianwithilys
@@norwegianwithilys I'm sorry for asking you how they say the dish in Norwegian
@@norwegianwithilys Can I ask how long it took you to become this fluent?
I always tell to my students that the key to learn any language is motivation. But I also have to say that some people have it easier with languages than others, some speak fluently without working too much and some put a lot of effort but will never be accent free. She is definitely talented. Great job!
She seems very able to learn accents... I have meet a few that fooled me like her but they are very in the minority!!
This is so inspirational!!! I’ve been working on my Spanish and Japanese for years. (Native English and Vietnamese ) . It wasn’t until I traveled to Japan recently that I saw my shortcomings but improved so much when I just did so much input and accepted the language that way that it is without overthinking it. Thank you for this video . I’m going to use this as the backbone to really boost my proficiency !
I got crazy goosebumps in the beginning, I felt so calm and relaxed listening to you explain your reason to why. I've always found norwegian quite nice to listen to. "Jeg ville bli en del av Norge och att Norge skulle bli en del av meg" was so beautiful :)
Je voulais sincerement te remercier. J’ai regardé ta video il y a quelques mois et ça a eu l’effet d’un declic sur moi. J’ai trouve ton approche de l’apprentissage du Norvégien très logique! Apprendre comme un enfant, ça fait tellement sens. Ça fait des annees que j’ai une profonde envie d’apprendre des langues mais je ne me lançais pas. Et grace a toi je me suis lancé. J’apprends le turc et l’italien depuis deux mois et je fais pas mal de progrès et je suis motivé. En tout cas bravo pour ton parcours!
Wow this video was so good. I love how you "romanticized" the process, basically saying stuff like "i love getting lost in the words" or how you wanted norwegian to "become a part of you", that was really touching to watch. Im not particularly interested in norwegian but i come from the daysandwords video and ill probably apply some of the tips to the ones i'm actually learning.
All I can say is..This video is the best video I've ever seen of learning languages, I loved how determined you were to learn the language like a native speaker.The video is really motivating and you explained everything, no more distraction. Thank you ❤️
Very good advices here. A language expert here on UA-cam said the same thing about grammar; that one should not emphasize it to much, or get stuch because of it, that it will come automatically by time if one just keep on learning. He said it was the best advice he could give, and I think so too. Myself I am a retired Norwegian, 65 years living on this planet, and I keep learning Italian. I mainly use the Mondly app which suits me fine. However there was advice here for me too, thanks for that. I have never been to France, but I would presumably love it. I just know that I love Norway and I also love Italy which I have visited many times, and I love that you have become Norwegian by heart. Velkommen skal du være.
This is the BEST language learning video I have ever seen. Thank you from the bottom of my heart
Du er utrolig dyktig, og vi nordmenn er heldige som har fått deg som en del av befolkningen! Jeg håper du får et skikkelig godt liv her i Norge, og at alle behandler deg bra ❤
Your comment is so sweet and honest, that it almost made me shed a tear. It's because I also started to learn norwegian, and although I would still count me a beginner, I understood enough of your text to get the meaning and see that it came straight from your heart! 😊
Jeg elsker Norge og å lære norsk, og jeg håpe at hun leste kommentaren din 😉
Hjertelig hilsen fra tyskland
This is quickly becoming one of the most valuable language learning videos on UA-cam. I love how you made stories and had your friends translate them. They are literally your own words and so they would be close to your heart and that gives confidence also. Thank you so much for sharing!
Ilys thanks so much for this video! I used tips from this video to learn italian and I progressed from 0 to a B1! Thanks so much for uploading these tips.
I see in your eyes how much you like Norwegian language and it's nice to see. Thank you for your tips, I will follow them. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
This is the most important, definitive, explanatory video about learning a language that I have ever seen. Your work is truly appreciated. Thank you!
Considering how English and Norwegian are not her native languages, she does an incredible job with both Norwegian and English. If we had to speak perfectly to be accepted, the vast majority of us would never open our mouths. Well done!
As a 18 year-old Frenchman who's been learning Finnish pretty intensively for over two years (after a first failed attempt at Russian), I find this video both very relatable and very motivating. I also chose a method focusing heavily on input, and I'm very satisfied with my level, although I'm still far from native-like. I can understand most TV shows and UA-cam videos, especially with Finnish subtitles, and my speaking skills have improved since I moved to study in Finland 3 months ago. However I still struggle especially with reading, which easily gets very arduous. So it's good to know that someone who's several years ahead of me has reached such a high level. Congrats!
As a 23 year-old Finn who's been self-studying French (not so intensely) for the last couple of years, I can totally relate. Though, I kinda have the opposite problem of not comprehending as much as I can while reading. I have heard that learning Finnish can be quite hard for foreigners as we can be quite shy towards new people, so honestly if you need any help with your Finnish I can at least try😎
Suomi mainittu!
To understand TV shows after only 2 years of learning is quite astonishing to me. I still cannot understand almost no real life speech. However reading I find much easier on the other hand. I can even understand most newspapers.
@@TheWandererTiles I don't understad french people when I listen to videos/podcasts but I do understand french in real life, face to face, because I can read their lips to know what they're saying and because they're close enough to me so I can make out words
@@jarbincks6715 with all due respect I do not see how that can be the case for anything more than rudimentary communication. Yes with the aid of sign language and body language we can all "sort of" understand a lot of immediate needs type of circumstances, but if you are listening into a native to native conversation how much can you actually understand?
I’ve only been learning languages organically without the textbook work and flooding my ears with audio of the languages I’m learning. It’s always worked for me, but always felt that I’m not learning ‘quite in the right way’ since the language learning sphere is worlds away from my methods.. but listening to your way of learning was such a reassuring and confidence boosting video in following all the curious moments you find about the language you want to sound like a native in, and just run with the immersion in those moments :D
Impressive work in not only English but Norwegian as well. I am a native English speaker and I'm intermediate in French and Japanese, and beginner in Russian and Spanish. Right now my focus is refreshing on French and Japanese, but I've always liked the idea of travel to Norway and being able to speak to people. The fact that you were able to get so good so quickly is an inspiration.
🌸 💙
Je suis à moitié norvégienne et à moitié française, mais mon père ne m'a jamais appris de parler français quand j'étais jeune. J'ai toujours voulu être capable de le parler comme si c'était ma langue maternelle aussi à côté de norvégien. Et maintenant je vis à Paris depuis 4 mois et je prends des cours de français ! Je peux résonner avec les difficultés de déménager dans un pays étranger et apprendre le langue, donc merci bcp pour cet vidéo !
Ohh mais c'est incroyable que tu vives la même chose que moi à l'envers!! J'ai envie de faire des interviews sur ma chaine, est-ce que tu serais intéressée qu'on se rencontre et peut-être qu'on filme une petite vidéo où je te pose des questions sur ton histoire? Intervjuet ville vært på norsk:) Gjerne si ifra, jeg hadde elsket å prate med deg uansett ! Du må gjerne sende meg melding på Instagram, kontoen min er @norwegian.with.ilys 🌸
J’ai déménagé en Norvège il y a quelques mois, je galère encore pas mal mais rien que le fait de regarder mes films favoris avec les sous titres norvégiens ça m’a vachement aidé ! Merci pour ta vidéo d’ailleurs, elle m’est très utile 😊
Your video really motivated me to pick up my Swedish learning properly again! I've been learning for about 1,5 years now, mostly through duolingo. When I was in Sweden in 2022 I bought a book as well, one that I had read in my own language already so that I would understand the story, and I just started reading it. For me it really helped to write the translation above the word/part that I didn't understand yet. I also watched some series in Swedish, and it helps a lot to get a feel for the language! You gave some good tips that I'm definitely going to try! Thanks!
Yess, it's such a nice thing to do! I don't know why I didn't speak about it in this video, I just forgot, but I did exactly the same as you. I had bought Blå (that I talk about in the video) which is a Norwegian book, and then I found it in French so I bought it, and it helped me so much! Instead of having to translate the words one by one you get to understand the real meaning of the text with a verified translation, and it's really motivating! Thanks for sharing your advise, I hope that you're gonna get back to learning Swedish!:)
Du snakker med en imponerende god uttale! Nesten umulig å høre at du ikke er født og oppvokst her! I'm so impressed! Thanks for sharing these tips, perfect to learn other languages as well! You're an inspiration! Greetings from Norway! 😊
Your approach to grammar is so true. When I started teaching English, it made me realise how much I didn't understand the rules of construction, we just know from listening, repeating, and knowing what sounds correct and what isn't, it becomes natural.
I'm learning Turkish now and listening to the same words and their differences allows you to make the connections yourself, not needing to do gap fills
The main thing I noticed ius how patient and non-judgemental you are. You were very positive about what you COULD do and not beat yourself up about what you couldn't... I need to get back to that place cause I had that when I first started learning Polish.
A year and a half ago I started my way of mastering English. And you know what? My method of learning it was (and is) almost the same as yours in Norwegian. Now I need to learn Norwegian. I'm so happy to find out that different people come up with the "child" method separately, and that it actually works. The only differences that we have is that I don't like watching movies, but I am a music nerd. So I listened a lot to one single song for a few days, and that's how I get vocabulary and pronunciation. Also I want to add one magic thing. Learning something (for example history or math) in foreign language when you stack somewhere at A2 language level helps to sift your attention from language learning to understanding the subject. Firstly it is very difficult but keep going, and you will see how from "hmm I am learning a new language" to "oh wow, now I could add it to my list of native languages" just in half of the year. (Ppl I know that I may make mistakes that native would never do, but if I can live my life by using only this language and do not feel limited I wold count such as my new native :) )
Pretty good advice! I've started norwegian recently, but the method you described is very similar to what I did with Italian. Increasing exposure without focusing on grammar at the beginning is a good way to develop a more "natural" feel to the language, and afterwards, when it's necessary, you can reach the next level with grammar more easily and much more motivated. This is way better than what you would do in most language school systems.
Impressive! I'm learning Czech from the US and it's tough! I have never been good at language learning but I'm pushing myself to get this done. I have a lot of respect for people who learn a new languages. Thank you for the video!
Držím palce a posílám pozdrav z Prahy :-)
Dekuji! @@vasekbrezina2801
i love languages. doing French and Spanish in school obvs but also learning German and Polish. my brain is just built in a way that it can take it all in but I've tried Duolingo and all that stuff and it never works, maybe a bit but not enough for the amount of time. so I gave up on German and polish but my best friends family is polish and I'm going there in the summer and that's given me new motivation. Thanks for making this and giving out tips. hopefully this time I actually do more
The method that most naturally applies the advantages of passive language acquisition to deliberate language learning!
Methode d’Ilys
1) Find genuine motivation
- as a native speaker does
2) Listen, listen, listen
- as a pre-linguistic infant does
3) Read while listening (& repeat)
- as a toddler, while being read to, does
4) Learn vocab by writing sentences
- as a grammar school pupil does
5) Keep a journal
- as an thoughtful young adult does
6) Read & re-read books
- as a self-motivated learner does
7) Listen to audio books & read along
- as a thorough language learner does
8) Watch series & films repeatedly
- as a student prepping for uni does
9) Write stories with target vocab
- as a Literature major does
10) Learn & recite sentences by heart
- as a committed world traveler does
11) Speak to yourself
- as an immersive learner does
12) Don’t give up!
- as an underachiever does
Swede here - damn i wasnt expecting you to be THIS good. Truly impressive.
thank you so much:)
@norwegian.withilys I even showed this video to my parents (one of which was a Swedish teacher all his life) and they were super impressed too. They thought you were norwegian.
Jeg er sinnsykt imponert! Vanvittig bra gjort å få til på så kort tid! Helt rått! 😲
Er det deg på bilde?
ka e d for et spørsmål?😂@@Metalmassacre07
Ja, jeg er helt sjokkert over at det går an å bli så god på så kort tid.
Aksenten hennes er nesten ikke merkbar.
I've been learning German for almost 8 years and just now started getting interested in Norwegian too! Your ideas related to Writing and Translations are very good and also the heavy focus on input is just genuinely incredible advice. Thanks for the amazing work you're putting on your videos! 🙂
Oha voll schön dass du deutsch lernst
A good website to translate words is word reference! It’s great because it also gives you the context it can be used in and synonyms of the word !
Forcing yourself to speak to yourself and think in the language is brilliant advice. So is the daily journaling and story-writing.
These are all great methods that I'm definitely going to try in my journey of learning Norwegian. My girlfriend is Norwegian, and we are spending the summer in Norway working, so I'm going to try and make the most out of the time when I'm here to improve. I think that, as you said, listening a lot is great and makes it very natural to learn. I'm lucky to be surrounded by Norwegian people every day, and everywhere I go and so I already keep noticing that I memorise words simply because I hear them being repeated a lot by others. Wish me luck 😅
Hei, thank you so much for sharing your story! That's so cool that you're learning your girlfriend's language, and that you get to spend time in Norway! It is so motivating to recognize some words now and then:) You wrote you comment a month ago (omg I have to get better at answering comments), so I hope that you have improved since;) Lykke til videre
Lemont (Days & words) really didn’t overestimated this video. This is the best video on language learning I’ve seen in a long time. It made me think about my language journey and how I want to move on - even questioning my journey itself. This video made me think for days now. Honestly, thank you for this great video, Ilys! ❤
Thank you!!! I can’t wait to try your advice!
If anyone is curious these are some small things I found helpful learning french.
- As soon as I could I stopped using english translations to learn new words and I began using a normal french dictionary. This meant I learnt my french vocabulary in a french context. Sometimes I had to look up multiple other words to understand the definition of the word I was originally trying to learn, but this helped me learn more words than I would have otherwise and it got rid of the difficulties that happen when a word doesn’t translate exactly. It also really helped my confidence!
- Music was helpful for intuitively learning the rhythm of the language
- As a beginner I started using french words when talking to myself in english, and then transitioned to occasionally using english words while speaking french. When I spoke or wrote if I didn’t know a word I would either try to define it in french or just fill in the word with english. Then I would look up the words I didn’t know later! This made mistakes less scary and let me practice other aspects of the language without interruption or frustration. One of my friends and I had conversations like this all the time as beginners :)
- learning vocables, words that aren’t really words like um or ouch, is much more important than I expected!
- you can do a lot of things to immerse yourself more like change your phones language or download the keyboard in the language you’re learning. I swear those little things add up!
Thank for the video. I had to move to France and trying to learn French. Despite I love this country, but my gosh how hard it is.
I saw you on one of the Russian channels where they praised and talked about your language learning method and here is your video)
This has definitely been my experience with Spanish and Korean. I did study Spanish in school but it didn’t become good until I decided I wanted to study abroad in a Spanish speaking country. With Korean I listened to a lot of K-pop and after moving to Korea that’s when I became motivated to study it. I actually applied a lot of similar techniques to the ones you mentioned to Korean and it helped a lot
I loooooved every second of this video, such solid advice!
I realize I had intuitively used a lot of these techniques when I had to improve my French before moving to Montréal, 5 years ago.
I had taken some French classes as a kid in school but, without practice, I had forgotten so much.
Audiobooks were my best friends. I just drowned myself in audio content any moment that I could spare.
I picked a couple of Camus books that I had read maybe 4-5 times before (in my native Romanian and English) and I'd alternate between consuming the audio alone and reading while listening.
Before I landed here, I must have consumed ~200 hours of audio (the same books, over and over again.) I was starting to feel optimistic about how clearly I was distinguishing the words and the deductions I was making.
After landing here, I took a huge nosedive in regards to my confidence. I wasn't expecting the québécois accent to be as strong as it turned out to be. I went from "I understand so much" to "I don't understand ANYTHING."
I felt so defeated. Even if it wasn't the case, in the moment, it felt like I had spent all those hours, listening, for nothing.
It took me a chance encounter with a French girl to snap out of it. She made a funny comment about how hard it can be to understand what some French Canadians are saying and my mind went: "if it's hard for HER, I give myself permission to struggle as well."
It was onwards from there.
I'm still bothered by the limited breadth of my vocabulary, especially local jargon, but I just keep listening 😊
Oh yeah, Canadian French is really hard to understand, even for native speakers lol
Hey, amazing video! I'm not actually a language-learner but I really enjoy consuming various content and finding interesting connections, metaphors and lessons.
Here's what I came up with for learning in general from your video
1. Know Your Why - You may not need a strong "why?" to start, but for long-term projects motivation and precise goals are essential to figure out "how?", "when?" and "what if?".
2. Practice Things in the Context You Want to Use Them - Want to ace the exam? - Do test exams! Want to learn the language? - Use the language! Want to learn programming? - Write an actual program you need! You will need some memorization sooner or later, but it's way better to learn it when you understand why you're learning it. It also fits really well with all other points.
3. Immerse Yourself in the Content You're Learning - Developing a habit of doing something everyday is a good start, but for a stellar result you need to warp you life around the content you're consuming. Consume a lot, and most importantly...
4. Make it Fun! - Grand projects require a lot of time and effort and there is only so much you can push yourself to do the things you don't enjoy. Spend a decent amount of time figuring out how to make things fun, it's way more important than making it efficient. Joy brings excellence.
5. Practice Being Confident - Repeat stuff a lot until the knowledge you're acquiring becomes a second nature. Doing difficult things with ease is a true marker of a mastery.
6. Get Lost in the Forest and Find Your Way Back - there is something magical in plunging into deep water, taking a difficult content you're not "supposed to" do at your stage and finding a way to make it happen. It will bring you a deep sense of joy and accomplishment and help to develop a truly remarkable skills.
7. Trust the process - Progress isn't linear and the FEELING of progress is actually all around the place. Appreciate the effort you're putting into the thing you care about, that's all you have control of, and that's something you should be proud of.
So I'm Swedish so I can't really give a 100% accurate rating but to me you sound just like a native Norwegian. I am thoroughly impressed!
thank you ssssso much you gave me more motivation to keep learning norwegian
Woah, you speak Norwegian incredibly well.
Greetings from Oslo :)
tusen takk!:)
Wow, native here, and its almost perfect in regards to grammar, intonation and pronunciation. Best I have ever heard from a non-native. I probably would not have noticed if I didnt know you are French.
Its really impressive!
Godt jobbet!
All denne rævsleikingen, tror du hun vil liggge med deg nå?
I am very impressed with you. You know yourself so well and are very insightful. The motivation and bravery you have shown is stunning. On top of that, you have the maturity above your years. I am glad you are living the life you want. This video is helpful and motivating.
Luke Raneri over at polymathy just had a video describing much of what you have done here. Thanks for sharing
This is how I learned to speak fluent Danish as a 24-year-old Brit. When I moved to Copenhagen I listened to the radio all day long even though I didn't understand a word; read and listened to (lydbøger) the same children's books over and over; watched the movie _'Babette's Feast'_ (Babettes Gæstebud) over and over again. I used to add to a notebook Danish phrases that I wanted be able to use. I really threw myself at it. Never touched much grammar until later on.
Det dejlige er, at jeg af den grund også forstår en del norsk, da sprogene har meget til fælles 😊
Now, I'm learning Spanish for fun 🤗
I love this video and your channel, Ilys. Thank you so much. You mentioned sharing stories you wrote. I would love to read them and learn more Norwegian through them. ❤
When I started learning Russian, I listened to Kino on repeat for months while I was taking Russian classes. It still took me a month to hear the difference between ш and щ, but yeah, listening is so, so, so important. I'm commenting early on my first watch, but when you've really paid attention to how a language sounds it makes later mimicry much easier.
Hey, i am learning russian for the first time right now, do you have any other suggestions of music/podcast to listen to please?
I started learning Russian because of Kino 😊. I'm not yet good enough to understand the lyrics without translation but they helped me to understand how words are pronounced and helped reading cyrillic.
@@flachlappen That's how it starts! I used to commute to university for about an hour, sometimes up to an hour and a half and just started singing along with the songs (even if I wasn't 100% sure that I had the words right).
@@flachlappen okay, it's a nice way to start! Thank you still
@nine.b22 have you seen Nastya videos, her 365 series or 10,000 vocab, or 5000 phrases
I’m impressed. But, more importantly, your explanations are very helpful. I gave up on Norwegian after learning a few simple things. I’m now inspired to attempt Norwegian again. Thank you.
This is the best language learning video I have watched! I’m learning French this way and it almost feels effortless compared to the traditional language learning I’ve done before. You’re great!
To be honest it was the best video on how to learn a new language Ive ever seen. And so many useful tips. Ive never thought about reading the book while listening to it on audio! Thank you!
❤ in her 70s, my mother in law decided to learn Spanish so she could read books by a favorite author - and she did!
This spring, I decided to learn Cherokee, and was excited to find online lessons with a first language speaker, and am in the second 10 week class - Tsalagi dideloquasdi (Cherokee school/ lessons) I've been incorporating some of the things you have, and appreciate your tips. I've ordered several books and listen to music and stories, and make copious notes.
Love the idea of writing out stories.
There's a weekend 'outreach' class coming up so I'll be around other learners and speakers, nervous and excited!!
Came from days and words video, didn’t want to miss this video❤
Exactly, I was intrigued but I didn't like his style - the piggybacking and sensationalizing - so I stopped immediately and came to the original 😊 So smart and helpful 🙌
I was born in Norway so obviously I learned my language growing up. And why I watched this video, is because I always wondered what it’s like learning it as a second language. It’s cool to see how she approached as a kid in school. I may use this to learn a different language my self one day😃
Absolutely fine to use translator apps. DeepL I think is a little bit more natural than google translate but you can also compare translator results for phrases. They’re also even better once you’re intermediate in language learning because you can spot mistakes.
thanks for the tip!;)
Yep DeepL is better I tested it on same passage and it understands nuance better! @@norwegianwithilys
Hi Ilys, first of this is one of my favourite videos ever, I have watched it sooo many times. So thank you for making it! I just wanted to share another tip to learn languages that I think may be useful for people, and that is to focus a lot on translations. I did a lot of Old English classes in my MA degree and I never had a proper "OE language course" - with my supervisor we would just take a piece of text (Beowulf, for example) and we would just translate it together by searching for familiar words (meaning, words that are still recognizable in contemporary English or maybe in German) and then we would implement the translation with an online dictionary. I am applying the same method, alongside some old fashioned grammar notions, to learn Old Norse. Now, I know that these are all dead languages, but I think it could be helpful also for modern languages - I intend to do the same with Norwegian as well, maybe with an easier text (I am thinking Harry Potter maybe?). I hope this may help! 🎀♥️
Gal❤❤❤❤ truly you are among the best.... not feeling the pressure to be perfect as most polyglots emphasis this aspect without even knowing. Merci beaucoup pour votre aide ❤❤
I'm French and I'm learning Danish. I was surprised to see that I could understand some of your Norwegian without looking at the subtitles haha! Thank you so much for your video, you really gave me some good advice! I was lacking motivation because of the difficulty of pronunciation, especially with the "soft d" in Danish, but hearing you speak Norwegian made me want to continue learning Danish with even more passion until I speak it fluently :D
We Norwegians like to say that Danish is not a language but a throat disease, or that Norwegian Bokmål is Danish pronounced correctly 😛
@@ximonolol this is what dutch people say about german
@@ximono Haha, I agree, I prefer the way Norwegian sounds, but I choose the country first and then enjoy the Danish language 😆 I would love to go to Norway one day day though 🇳🇴Can you explain what a bokmål is? Thanks! 🙏
@@alix3116Fair enough, Denmark is a lovely country :)
Bokmål is the main written form of Norwegian, and is based on Danish, from the time they ruled us. It is relatively similar to Danish when written, but is pronounced very differently. Curiously, Danish people prefer to speak English to us.
We also have Nynorsk (new Norwegian), a sort of conlang made in 1848 by combining features of various Norwegian dialects into one common written language. It's easier to understand for Swedish people. And we also have Sámi.
I'm learning French and this is all VERY helpful. I'm already rethinking my approach and trying some of your ideas and I can see straight away that a lot of your ideas will definitely speed up my learning. I love the idea of teaching yourself and working out your own language learning approach rather than following someones course, having lessons or using apps. Thanks so much!
Dear Ilys, this is so helpful 😊 I am teaching myself Norwegian too and am enjoying it so much. Your tips and tricks will help so much on the road to fluency and confidence down the line. All the best with your language learning journey!
Also what is the backing song behind your introduction segment? And also at the beginning of each section? It's super pretty 😊
I think you demonstrate commitment, discipline and hard work. The techniques are kind of common sense. It’s great that you got to move to Norway.
Excellent approach. I speak some Norwegian. I'm going to go back and apply your learning insights. I would LOVE to have start a series on French too.