Totally agree with this approach. My vocab in the languages I have learnt is quite small but I use it very well and people don’t often believe that I have never lived in the country or studied for an extended period of time. Specialising in an area is a great way to learn vocab relevant to YOU. I was able to personal train people in Portuguese as I learned that specific vocabulary but I still wouldn’t consider myself fluent. Great video 👍🏻💪🏻
Hey Will, Great video. And I SO agree. After 8 months of Swedish (much easier of course), I was good at talking about two things. 1: How I came to be learning Swedish 2: Language learning as a hobby Funnily enough, I didn't know much about language learning so most of the things I said about it were wrong... but the Swedish was correct (mostly). Refold calls this concept "domain", as in you choose a "domain" to become micro-fluent in. I think micro-fluent is a smoother term but to me it SOUNDS like it refers to something else. To me, micro-fluency sounds like it would be all those tiny things you say on a daily basis but that require almost no language, but very high fluency, e.g. Australians walking into a shop and saying "Aymatehowsyaday..." with no enquiring intonation at all. Only fluent speakers know how to respond to that, which is basically to just say "Yeah good thanks." without actually even thinking about it. I remember early on in my Swedish, I would assume everything said was super important because I didn't have the linguistic ability to realise that they say all the same stupid meaningless stuff that we do. So... basically what I'm saying is, I need to come up with a term to refer to this concept because "micro-fluency" is obviously taken.
Thanks so much, really interesting to hear your Swedish story. I didn't realise refold have this concept as well that's cool. I see what you mean about how 'micro-fluency' might be slightly misleading now that you've said that. But I'm looking forward to hearing your term for the 'aymatehowsyaday' kind of interactions. Now that you've said that I can definitely think of a few examples of this in both English and Mandarin.
Speaking as an English teacher, I very much agree with this concept! A lot of this boils down to specialising the vocabulary and patterns you're learning to your interests - much like the average native speaker. I'm sure very few native English speakers would know what, say, glocalisation (yes, glocal) is, without being versed in politics. Same principle here, only you're going straight there. This concept is why there are specialised courses for given topics - English for Academic Purposes, Business English, English for Medical Science, and so on. You will result in being lopsided, but that's ok, because you're building the basic foundations as you continue to **use** the language. You're building those little building blocks, those islands, to continue talking with others. Fluency simply means "this has been burned into your schemas". You've memorised your words so much that they're just instantly recalled. Memory is built through constantly using that same information, over and over. If it helps, idioms are, in a sense, just as much words as the letters I and A are. Given this, fluency is chiefly achieved through usage, so having your favourite hobbies and topics memorised, and, most of all, used in conversation, is key! I love your channel, introducing me to Anki really helped me break into learning Mandarin! Being on the other end of the class has been eye-opening! 感谢你！
this video might be the video that i desperately need. i've been trying to find reality shows that i can watch to immerse myself in the language. and while watching this, it just dawned on me. i play video games frequently as a hobby and there i met some chinese online friends as well. then why not watch esport pro games in china? like the valorant currently has VCT CN and am very much interested in the game and the players are fun to watch anyway. might as well focus on daily conversation as well as gaming terms and online conversations. thank you for this video! hope it works for me.
Excellent. This has been clear to me for a while. I actually didn't know that language testing even worked that way. 1000 words is perfect way to start. It's much easier to learn new words after becoming functional.
Will, this video comes to me with perfect timing - after a few years of basics, and starting to MASTER HSK1 (beginning with Lesson 8) and HSK2 Dialogues, Grammar sentences, Exercises and Vocabulary (over and over) until I know it and can speak it out "skillfully" combined with starting today (April 1, 2024) with Danyo's "Speak Chinese Program" and having learned from one of your Master Classes Will about using using HelloTalk "Live" as the key to engage in real Mandarin conversations with native Mandarin speakers, I really feel I'm on the "cusp" of a 'breakthrough'. It's very exciting!
Hi Will Do you have any suggestions on how best to find some native speakers who can help me have basic conversations? (Language buddy) It seems from your videos that being able to speak with your chinese friends on a daily basis was a vital component in your learning.
Your best bet is going to be to find language exchange partners online through apps like tandem and hellotalk or to find them in person in language exchange events
Huh I watched that video the other day and figured that was the case, since I only know about 1200 words but had 90% comprehension of the subtitles! (Although I can't follow you speaking at all.) That doesn't happen to me with native speakers. I was surprised to see people in the comments saying you had a large vocabulary! My biggest goal is to read books, though, so this might not be the right method for me. Still very impressive.
Great idea, I actually came up with it myself even though I've read about it elsewhere. Its a good start point to aim for, the first major goal. Of course its kind of cheating and a hack and you will want larger goals after.
how funny I took my HSK-2 and went through it 3-4 times as well as 1 my vocab is low but im really good with these words I can remember almost all of them and speak them well
Totally agree with this approach. My vocab in the languages I have learnt is quite small but I use it very well and people don’t often believe that I have never lived in the country or studied for an extended period of time. Specialising in an area is a great way to learn vocab relevant to YOU. I was able to personal train people in Portuguese as I learned that specific vocabulary but I still wouldn’t consider myself fluent. Great video 👍🏻💪🏻
Great to hear your story! Yes I totally agree that vocab relevant to you is the most important!
Hey Will,
Great video. And I SO agree. After 8 months of Swedish (much easier of course), I was good at talking about two things.
1: How I came to be learning Swedish
2: Language learning as a hobby
Funnily enough, I didn't know much about language learning so most of the things I said about it were wrong... but the Swedish was correct (mostly).
Refold calls this concept "domain", as in you choose a "domain" to become micro-fluent in. I think micro-fluent is a smoother term but to me it SOUNDS like it refers to something else. To me, micro-fluency sounds like it would be all those tiny things you say on a daily basis but that require almost no language, but very high fluency, e.g. Australians walking into a shop and saying "Aymatehowsyaday..." with no enquiring intonation at all. Only fluent speakers know how to respond to that, which is basically to just say "Yeah good thanks." without actually even thinking about it. I remember early on in my Swedish, I would assume everything said was super important because I didn't have the linguistic ability to realise that they say all the same stupid meaningless stuff that we do.
So... basically what I'm saying is, I need to come up with a term to refer to this concept because "micro-fluency" is obviously taken.
Thanks so much, really interesting to hear your Swedish story. I didn't realise refold have this concept as well that's cool. I see what you mean about how 'micro-fluency' might be slightly misleading now that you've said that. But I'm looking forward to hearing your term for the 'aymatehowsyaday' kind of interactions. Now that you've said that I can definitely think of a few examples of this in both English and Mandarin.
Speaking as an English teacher, I very much agree with this concept!
A lot of this boils down to specialising the vocabulary and patterns you're learning to your interests - much like the average native speaker. I'm sure very few native English speakers would know what, say, glocalisation (yes, glocal) is, without being versed in politics. Same principle here, only you're going straight there.
This concept is why there are specialised courses for given topics - English for Academic Purposes, Business English, English for Medical Science, and so on. You will result in being lopsided, but that's ok, because you're building the basic foundations as you continue to **use** the language. You're building those little building blocks, those islands, to continue talking with others.
Fluency simply means "this has been burned into your schemas". You've memorised your words so much that they're just instantly recalled. Memory is built through constantly using that same information, over and over. If it helps, idioms are, in a sense, just as much words as the letters I and A are. Given this, fluency is chiefly achieved through usage, so having your favourite hobbies and topics memorised, and, most of all, used in conversation, is key!
I love your channel, introducing me to Anki really helped me break into learning Mandarin! Being on the other end of the class has been eye-opening!
感谢你！
I really enjoyed reading your comment and couldn't agree more! Thanks so much for sharing!
this video might be the video that i desperately need. i've been trying to find reality shows that i can watch to immerse myself in the language. and while watching this, it just dawned on me. i play video games frequently as a hobby and there i met some chinese online friends as well. then why not watch esport pro games in china? like the valorant currently has VCT CN and am very much interested in the game and the players are fun to watch anyway. might as well focus on daily conversation as well as gaming terms and online conversations. thank you for this video! hope it works for me.
Excellent. This has been clear to me for a while. I actually didn't know that language testing even worked that way. 1000 words is perfect way to start. It's much easier to learn new words after becoming functional.
Glad it helped!
Always insightful!
Thanks!
我跟这个看法同意。现在我的重点不是增加我的词语量，是巩固我的词汇。
Fascinating concept 🤩🤓
I am micro fluent in understanding the vlogs, ed videos and podcasts of Japanese language teachers but not so in understanding movies and anime. 😁😅
Good stuff!
Will, this video comes to me with perfect timing - after a few years of basics, and starting to MASTER HSK1 (beginning with Lesson 8) and HSK2 Dialogues, Grammar sentences, Exercises and Vocabulary (over and over) until I know it and can speak it out "skillfully" combined with starting today (April 1, 2024) with Danyo's "Speak Chinese Program" and having learned from one of your Master Classes Will about using using HelloTalk "Live" as the key to engage in real Mandarin conversations with native Mandarin speakers, I really feel I'm on the "cusp" of a 'breakthrough'. It's very exciting!
Great to hear Daniel! I'm looking forward to hearing your breakthrough story!
Hi Will
Do you have any suggestions on how best to find some native speakers who can help me have basic conversations? (Language buddy) It seems from your videos that being able to speak with your chinese friends on a daily basis was a vital component in your learning.
Your best bet is going to be to find language exchange partners online through apps like tandem and hellotalk or to find them in person in language exchange events
Huh I watched that video the other day and figured that was the case, since I only know about 1200 words but had 90% comprehension of the subtitles! (Although I can't follow you speaking at all.) That doesn't happen to me with native speakers. I was surprised to see people in the comments saying you had a large vocabulary!
My biggest goal is to read books, though, so this might not be the right method for me. Still very impressive.
Great idea, I actually came up with it myself even though I've read about it elsewhere. Its a good start point to aim for, the first major goal. Of course its kind of cheating and a hack and you will want larger goals after.
how funny I took my HSK-2 and went through it 3-4 times as well as 1 my vocab is low but im really good with these words I can remember almost all of them and speak them well
Awesome!
何威你好啊！我很喜欢你的关于学习语言的视频！👍👍我自己也正在学习德语。但我想问一下，不知道为什么你的这期视频的字幕功能无法打开，或者说字幕功能没能正常使用... 你知道是怎么回事吗？谢谢！
你好呀，我这次没有加英文字幕，但一般油管会有自动字幕，所以不知道为啥你打不开，我帮你看看去。
何威同学，另外我还有一个小的建议或者说想法，不知你是否愿意做一期关于你是如何具体使用Anki这个软件的？比如，你可以从你自己的亲身经历和经验出发来讲的具体一点，你是怎么使用Anki的，以及Anki的使用是如何和你其他的学中文所用到的方法想结合起来的？这个话题挺“干货”的😉😊，我也很感兴趣啊！再次谢谢你！你的中文真的很不错！你很优秀！加油！！🙂
我正打算拍一个更系统性更具体的视频来讲一下anki这事！还没想好啥时候发布。