My spanish skyrocketed in 2020 when I switched to comprehensible input. Now that I speak at an advanced level, getting nerdy about grammar and moods makes more sense. If you’re a beginner in a language, don’t force yourself to speak. Shutting up was one of the best things I ever did for my language learning.
Yeah that's the same for my Swedish! It was kind of an 8-12 month journey from hearing about comprehensible input to actually accepting that it was a real thing.
As a chronic procrastinator about the actually learning the language bit, getting nerdy about grammar is a _wonderful_ distraction from doing something actually useful, let me assure you.
@@daysandwords you say that luke I havent been doing that with your videos. I mean the best, I love your content and have for a while. As a job for you, I understand the need to crush content and follow some trends, but your stuff is my favorite. Thank you for your service 🫡
#1 Delete social media #2 Watch a movie #3 Stop talking #4 Anki #5 Search in the target language #6 Research an in-depth topic #7 Read a book #8 Listen to audiobooks while you read #9 Use AI #10 Use AI... again #11 Have a sentence of the day #12 Write a song #13 Go for a walk #14 Do language sprints #15 Create a new (target language) UA-cam account #16 Repetition, repetition, repetition #17 More repetition... but with TV #18 Change what you pay attention to #19 Buy a physical dictionary #20 Word hunting #21 Reward yourself for doing the bare minimum #22 Record yourself #23 Get a teacher #24 Listen to your target language in downtime
On a completely unrelated note, this channel really helped inspire me to get into starting my own, haven’t posted in a year, editing new videos as we speak. So cool to see the production value in these videos skyrocket. Thanks for all the advice for the years, and all the best to you in 2024!
I agree with walking. When I listen to Pimsleur, Podcasts, or anything, I get restless and need to do something (or I get a bit sleepy). So I take a 30 minute walk or do chores while listening to my target language and saying the phrases in my target language out loud. Because I'm moving, my brain and body just feels healthier, and the sun makes me happier as well!
Goated tips: #5, 2:33 #6, 4:43 #13, 10:27 #14, 11:09 -- I love the idea of this. When you have those "sprints", you also look back to them with feelings of accomplishment and happiness, going at it with your passion. It's both enjoying the process of those "intense" periods and also gaining skills for the long term that are great about it.
Hands down best VPN ad I've ever seen. Actual video also top notch as always, your production quality, humor, information provided - just all around probably the best language learning channel out there ❤
Thank you! The editor is to thank for the quality of the edit (obviously), but also the little Batman bit in the VPN part was his idea. Did you see my "I found an audiobook app for language learners" video? It had a very different kind of Surfshark ad in it haha.
A lot of great tips here, but I’ll add another one which I personally use: there’s an accessibility feature on iPhones where (if enabled) it can read highlighted sentences to you, it has quite a few languages available for the Siri that reads the highlighted sentences to you (and a few speakers per language) and there’s not really a limit on how much you can highlight and request the Siri to speak. I’ve found it very reliable for my TL (Italian) and anytime I’m confused at how something is pronounced or I’ve forgotten, I’ll highlight and request the “speak” option and after a few times of listening and imitating the highlighted area I feel just a bit more confident in saying that word or phrase going forward. Hope that helps somebody, it’s been a big help to me 😊
Yeah I know, you're not a native speaker and all that, but like... it's a pretty common word. I mean, I think it's just as common as "useful" in English.
@@daysandwords Yeah, I was surprised myself. I think it comes down to not using the language: I just did my school courses, listened to Kent and read packaging labels. Of those, only the school courses are the kind of stuff that'd use the word, and apparently they didn't, at least in any way that stuck even in my passive vocabulary.
Thank you for introducing me to the idea of reading a book and listening to its audiobook at the same time. Not only does it make reading easier and more enjoyable it also has given me a very effective way of improving my upper intermediate Spanish. I will definitely be coming back to this video when I start learning German!
I started doing copywork a couple of weeks ago. By "doing copywork" I mean picking up some text in any form and style that I like and just copying it by hand on the paper, daily. I know that what kids do when they learn to write in their native language. For someone it might seem like a pointless activity, but for me it's a huge step forward. I become more and more familiar with producing something, rather than Just consuming (what I did several years before that, and now get fed up of this approach).
I did a fairly in-depth dive into Silbo Gomero, which is a whistled language used in the Canaries. I originally was just really curious, but a lot of the articles/videos about it were actually in Spanish. I got a nice refresher from it and also learnt some Silbo Gomero. Great vid!
It's amazing how much of your advice aligns with my own observations and conclusions that I've come to over several years. A few of them are: quit social media (I deactivated my FB account) change subjects regularly while studying (I read books and watch videos on UA-cam in the language I'm learning, but I occasionally change the topics to expand my vocabulary) My own way to master a language faster is: wake up 1-2 hours earlier and dedicate this time in the morning to language learning I have the luxury of starting work at 9 AM and working remotely. So, I used to wake up at 8 AM, take a shower, eat breakfast, and start work at 9. Now, I do it differently, I wake up at 6 AM, spend 1.5 hours learning English, 30 minutes learning Italian, and by the time I start work at 9, I've already "completed" my foreign language study for the day.
nicely done, sir! but given that you had to wake up at 6am every day, is it not a huge sacrifice already? the life routine is highly a personal thing, but especially for myself, i can't get my brain function properly at early hours. still, congrats on sticking your language goals, i'm pretty sure you'll get to a place you want in no time.
I'm also a try believer in the get it done as soon as you wake up methodology. I don't have as much time as you and I still do some stuff in the evening but language learning is the first thing I do when I get out of bed before I start my day.
I kinda found an in-between solution to that, I still watch them but in my target language ; at first on channels made for those who learn the language, where it's spoken clearly and slower, and then on channels targeted to native speakers, where the language is spoken naturally. It's a great way to get gradually at ease with listening comprehension in so far as the same words, expressions and topics keep coming up which makes it easier but as there are hundreds of them you can still learn a lot from it, as everyone you'll watch will have different speech patterns, accents or even voices. That's my usual way of starting with comprehensible input, because afterwards I feel way more comfortable and used to the language and can start watching things on other topics of my interest !
Thanks for including ‘not speaking’. It’s so counterintuitive that talking early is not helpful (and is arguably counterproductive) that it’s very hard to persuade people to drop it as part of their studies, especially in the early stage. It particularly annoys me that so many language classes insist on speaking exercises for beginners. They are very stressful for those who are shy and they have no merit whatever. Somehow, everyone seems to assume this is what you have to do.
@@mcmerry2846 If you don’t force yourself to speak early, you remove a huge burden and can effectively filter your experience of the language to consist of 100% native input, so you avoid inventing your own version of the language in your head. Now, I have spoken spanish throughout my whole learning journey, but if I could go back to day 1, I would intentionally delay the speaking by about 3 months because of the impact that switching to input-centric learning had on me. Maybe that’s still “early.”
@@citygirljace I speak English, Spanish and German. It is impressive how fast I learnt German compared to English just because I had more opportunities to talk.
@@mcmerry2846Attribution error. If you had more opportunities to speak German, then you would also have heard it a lot more. You learned it by hearing it, not by speaking it.
@@daysandwords My friend has been doing what you're doing, and it's really good for comprehension, he understands a lot. His speaking is bad though, because he never speaks, and he lacks confidence from not speaking. Just because it works for you and a lot of other people, doesn't mean it's best for everyone
I thought Evan's video was aggressive, cultish, and condescending. If that is how he takes criticism of an app for a community he claims to not even be a part of, he needs therapy. Your channel genuinely is helpful. I'm on my third book in my TL and even without the audiobook (I plan to listen to them a bit later), my listening comprehension has markedly improved. People can cry about comprehensible input and immersion all they want but they are the ones holding themselves back because certain ideas are unfashionable (maybe because input theory is heavily associated with Japanese?). While I don't personally find all of the tips in this video applicable to me, I think its one of the best videos on language learning for serious learners. Thanks for staying strong despite the hate and negativity thrown at you by a much larger creator. This channel was a big motivation in me finally buying TL books and actually sitting down to read. I want more people to have good and effective tips like this.
Oh, thanks for that. When I started reading your comment, for a second I wondered if you'd posted it on the right video because I was like "This wasn't anything to do with Evan's video?" but I can see what you mean (my saying that I'm not a gatekeeper I guess). Cheers for that, happy new year!
5:37 when I started learning Spanish, I decided to try and read Bilbo: an unexpected journey. It was a book I was quite familiar with, had read it many times. Was quite surprising how much I understood just from the context of the story, even if most of the words where new to me and I didn't understand them.
The "it's like putting new tyres on a car when it hasn't got a working engine" comparison is 10/10 and I will steal it from you and give you the credits only most of the time!
I was zero output at first, but I added just one sentence a day of output to Anki to hedge. It's not just any output, I really focused on tones and precision and hard sounds across complete sentences. Immediately saw big benefits. By just dabbling, I must have picked up a lot of low hanging fruit, it directly improved my input too. I can hear tricky sounds much more quickly and easily now that I've drilled making them. I still agree output should be deemphasized generally and CI is the key, but limited high quality output (not conversations but drilling) helped me map phonemes and made key constructs stickier. Kinda inspired by your early motivational videos, it's ok to use 5% of your study time to try something out, then reassess after a month. Paid off in this case for me.
I agree with the sentence a day advice. I've been doing this with sentences I know for certain I would use with repetition, and it's less overwhelming then learnings apps that throw a ton of dialogue at you. I feel as if it's easier for me to learn what I want to learn, and it helps.
I've been teaching languages English, Spanish and Portuguese for decades. Listening and learning language cadences is imperative. But accumulating, memorizing and storing words is counter productive. Extremes aren't good, a happy medium is always the best policy. There's no magic potions, you have to put the work in, for whichever technique or methodology you choose.
I actually have tricked TikTok into thinking that I don't speak English, and instagram now serves me near-exclusive foreign language content in my target languages, based on my viewing patterns and interactions with the content. UA-cam I still watch some English content on (clearly), but at least half of what I'm suggested here is in my target languages as well. I would say that social media apps have actually been hugely instrumental in increasing my language proficiency: familiarizing me with new vocabulary, teaching me new grammar structures or making difficult ones feel more accessible via the comprehensible input I am interacting with, and allowing me to hear real, native speakers in all environments.
Yes, obviously I am not talking about social media in your target language. Since I specifically mentioned the thing that I've mentioned several times before about putting UA-cam into your target language, it's pretty clear that I was ONLY talking about social media that's in English or a language you already speak fluently.
Love the presentation style you have in these videos, very similar sense of humour to myself and how I aspire to come across in videos I create. Great job as always! Best wishes for the new year
About 6: I am learning french and I am interested in traveling to France. Guess what: Best Wikipedia articles about places and cities in France are in the french Wikipedia. Surprise surprise. Information about France in french. Perfect comprehensible input. About 14, sprints. I second that. I try to get every Saturday or Sunday as much French into my brain as possible. So even a one day sprint is effektive. (For me.)
I am a Duolingo fanboy. I will keep doing my Duolingo lessons, because I love gamification. That said, I now follow your channel. Sorry for that. Your content is just too good! :D
So I've been watching ur vids a lot lately and i have to say u have improved a lot! They are much more entertaining and engaging than they were a year ago. I can see u have practiced ur video making just as much as ur languages hahaha❤
@@daysandwords oh yes that one is really good too, maybe i should have said they are better than they were a few years ago hahah. Anyways the bottom line is that i really like them!
How repetition helps - After watching him for quite a while, Lamont finally got me motivated to do 7 days of intense language input. 35 hours a week seem like more than I can handle (considering I do have other responsibilities and deadlines coming up), so I will do 28 hours in 7 days, starting tomorrow (31st of January). Because I know that if I wait until the 2nd of January, all motivation will leave me again. Feel free to join me :)
2nd day finished. Yesterday, I was a fair bit below the 4 hours a day I planned. Today, I could exceed them slightly, so that's great. However, I quickly lose focus when passages are too challenging, and it seems like the material I used the past two days contains too many words I don't know. Wish there was more (or any) intermediate material for language learners accessible in my TL, as the only stuff I can easily find is for native speakers. Maybe I'll manage to find a nice kids show tomorrow. Or at least something with decent subtitles/a transcript.
Great ideas. I really enjoy your content. I agree about physical dictionaries. Got my Turkish - English dictionary in a small mom and pop shop in İstanbul for 7.5 lira which is about 25 cents USD! Some days I simply flip through it randomly reading words or I will challenge myself to "read all the Turkish words that start with Ç", etc. I am a bit old school anyway.
Hoi man, love your videos! My last language learning find: Interactive fiction (for my french learning). Both in books (La Forteresse du Chaudron Noir or so) or on computer (feels like being a kid and playing Zork again). Gets me involved in the story, and has me rereading the book over and over to get the various endings and so.
I really like the sentence of the day thing. I actually keep a deck in Anki with really difficult sentences. Often 20+ words with 2-3 unknown words in them, but I take them either from difficult shows or from books in which I also own the audiobook. I don't learn many of these per day, but it is definitely a big confidence boost when trying to speak longer passages more quickly, and for sure makes longer sentences easier to understand over time (In conjunction with everything else obviously). Nice suggestion! Didn't necessarily notice that something like this was so impactful. I suppose that's why spending small amounts of time dissecting difficult passages has made such a big difference in my abilities. Doesn't have to be much time, but if you spend a little bit of time really trying to understand harder stuff, it for sure helps *more efficiently* than just spending that same time doing something more relaxed. (Provided you have the energy of course). Nice video again Mr 'Stralia!
Around 16:20 #20 I was thinking, for complete beginners, maybe it could work to do the inverted version where you highlight the words you actually know and recognise.. then you could print out a paragraph of info on a topic you want to understand and once the entire chunk of text is like glowing in highlighter, you've succeeded :)
one additional Tip : 1. Once you are at a certain level in your T language, leave a comment, in your target language ofcourse, on 1 or 2 pieces of content you watch during the day Once I had completed all the easy parts of learning English i.e. I could understand 98 percent of english content ,but was not able express myself even at some basic level, I convinced myself I had learned all the english I needed and Now it was time to move on to Learning German Because Continuing learning and improvng english was hard now and needed much more effort than I did not want to put. Oh Man, How Stupid I was at that time.
I haven't watched the video yet but I'm hoping he will say "new research is in, apparently you can make just as much progress if you intersperse comprehensible input of your target language with extensive procrastination".
On the topic of working with a language teacher: I work with a phonetics coach rather than a language teacher. A language teacher can't help you (not much anyway) with vocabulary acquisition but a phonetics coach can help with pronunciation and prosody.
11:10 - In my personal experience you can get at least a useful capacity to understand a foreign language by just studying 15 minutes a day, though as a rule of thumb I agree it's not gonna work. I've done this with ancient Greek (specifically, Koine): over the last three years I finished a Memrise course containing all the words in the New Testament (about 5,500), and another for all the words in the Old Testament. And, I've maintained a daily streak in both these courses. Most days I only do about 5 minutes per day, but I've also done *some* reading in Greek (no more than ten texts and one movie) and other grammar study in the past, so I'd guess that it averages out to around 15 minutes a day. And nowadays, I find I can read the New Testament and Byzantine hagiographies without too much difficulty. There are some factors which help me, like I already speak fluent Latin which has a very similar grammar and lots of shared vocab. But, apply this to say a native English speaker learning Dutch, Afrikaans or even Swedish, and the same principle may apply. Obviously, I'd be useless if I had to hold a conversation in ancient Greek presently. But, I'm at a point now where reading Greek isn't burdensome, and for only 15 minutes a day I'd say that's worth it IMO.
So, to be clear, I'm not saying that one should never expect to make progress in 15 minutes a day. I'm saying that full fluency requires A PERIOD at SOME POINT that is more than that. It's like flying to the moon... they don't accelerate the whole way there. After they're about 200km from the Earth's surface, they just cruise. But if they don't have insane acceleration at the start (our analogy doesn't require it to be at the start, just at some point), then they'll never get there.
@@daysandwords It's a bit weird to suddenly remember this now but, I rescind what I said. Recently have been doing a project that actually requires a solid grasp of Koiné Greek and am seeing I don't quite have it even after a 1000+ day streak of Memrise (but little immersion). I can make my way through most of the gospels but not easily enough. So yeah, probably need a period of intense immersion to acquire that too, I no longer think even with flashcards that one can acquire a useful level in a language by studying for only 5-15 minutes per day. 😅
I’m learning Japanese and I have looked up 日本語を勉強. It means “study Japanese” in Japanese. Pretty solid! But it’s harder to do in Japanese because of kanji. Thankfully I know hiragana and katakana.
Point #13: yes, true, moving helps thinking and memorizing and sort of "embody" the thought process. I've recently started getting up and pacing the right and moving my right arm like an orchestra conductor to mark the stresses in the German dialogues that I try to memorize, and it feels so efficient! Now is it really? That should be put to the test, but at least it feels so.
Listening to podcasts in your target language is a great one. There are a few Hindi podcasts I listen to that really nail a lot of these tips for me. I can listen doing chores at home, driving, even at work sometimes, there are a lot of words I understand, there are a lot of English words in common Hindi daily use which adds context, and I get content I’m interested in as well as trips into other types of content depending on guests and things like that. Some science, some linguistics, some history, some spirituality, lots of input.
The Little Prince is a good book for practicing target language reading, because it's a classic which has been translated into every fucking language on the planet
Ah Lamont! I already did the Surfshark through another YTer. Ah well, maybe in three years. Good post, solid, and you're staying classy. I appreciate that ^_^ Happy New Year!
That's fine! Even if it were an affiliate link, it wouldn't be a problem but yeah, it's not. So even if like 100,000 people use it, I don't get paid any more haha. Happy New Year to you too!
The tip I am going to try to implement first is sentence of the day. I tried 2 sentences of the day before and did for maybe two days. I think 2 is doable but since I failed at it I’m gong to knock it down to one.
I used screen time on my iPhone to block Facebook and Reddit. Those were the two websites I was having issues with and blocking them that way made it so annoying to unblock it’s super easy to just do something else instead. Now I just wish I could get rid of UA-cam shorts 😂
I’m Spanish with a native level (C1) in English and Portuguese, I used to practise French too but I didn’t like it at all. I’ve been years wanting to learn Swedish but in Spain and more focused in my area (Cádiz) it is impossible to find an academy of this language so if u could give me some advice f where or how to learn Swedish… I would be so grateful. Thanks a lot! Amazing channel!
Regarding Wen's prompt, am I giving a written response to the prompt(s), or oral? Oral seems like the right answer, but how do I use chaptgpt (or, ?) to speak?
've been watching your videos, love the humor, really adds a sprinkle of joy to the language-learning torture :) Anyhoo, let me tell you, I've landed in this francophone part of Canada, and it's like a linguistic minefield. I mean, I’ve got a Parisian accent - chic, sophisticated, you know, the whole Eiffel Tower vibe. But here they’ve got this thing called the 'Acadian' accent, and let me tell you, it’s like trying to understand French from another planet. So, I'm going for a job, thinking my C1 French will open doors. But nope, apparently, unless your last name is LeBlanc and you can do the Acadian 'j'étions' and 'puis instead of et', your French is as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I'm there, confidently presenting enormeous effort of 2 years, speaking, and they're like, "Sorry, honey, you don't speak French." I'm like, "Excusez-moi? Last time I checked, I'm not ordering croissants on Mars. This is French, right?" Apparently not, because if it ain't Acadian. So, here I am, caught in the linguistic Bermuda Triangle, where my French is lost at sea because it doesn't come with an Acadian passport. Who knew speaking French in Canada was like navigating a culinary obstacle course? Sacré bleu!
Great video Lamont! There are extremely few language learners that hit all those "metalearning" boxes that you checked/hit in this video (as such you are one of the few language UA-camrs I still follow). Walk-watching, read-listening-walking etc. is next level stuff lol, I never see anyone else do it xD It was fun to hear to you do it too (at least the walk-watching) :D
Yeah, just like any field, it's easy to talk about the most surface level stuff... because, well, it's on the surface. Like videography/photography channels that talk about gear. Gear matters less and less now that everything is amazing, but it's still the easiest thing to talk about.
@@daysandwords Keep up the good work! How do you generally advance your knowledge of language learning tactics/strategy? Does it happen organically or do you have a systematic approach that gives you a good chance of improving on your knowledge base? Cheers.
Oh mainly I just try to do the stuff that will help... I do try to read some books and watch some videos from people more knowledgable than myself but who don't make the fancy looking videos. I'm essentially trying to bring boring language stuff to the masses with these intense edits and stupid titles/thumbnails etc., but it's not particularly easy because there isn't a lot of time to a) learn languages b) watch the more in-depth videos/read books c) make the videos about it
@@daysandwords yea you end up spending more time learning how to learn than actually learning languages, right? My french definitely plateaued for a long time despite being in France because my days and nights I was coaching and building the business and speaking with other learners.
Related tip regarding social media that I should apply to myself: don't use UA-cam. If you *know* that there are a lot of resources in the target language, yet never use them. Then even using UA-cam is not gonna work, and is gonna be a whole other rabbit hole. Now if only I could kick my own butt into gear with that tip as well Edit: scubadiving videogames. Target language voice, target language subtitle. Optionally: UI in target language too.
Awesome video! I'm excited to make some very unrealistic language learning plans for 2024, and will use this as an inspiration 😊😂 (step one would be getting back into daily studying)
Where is the best place to find out in which audio languages a certain movie has been released on preferably DVD (or maybe also Blue-Ray) all around the world? PAL vs. NTSC or Region Code isn’t at issue here, just how many different audio dubs are available in general. Let’s say I wanted to know which languages “The Devil wears Prada” is available in. Searching through e.g. the Amazon stores I found versions in English, Polish, Czech, French. But there should be at least another version in German and Spanish, I assume… What is a more streamlined way to find out without the hassle of consulting different incomplete sources and missing out on some valid results? Any ideas or experiences to share on that topic?
Well, for DVDs: www.dvdcompare.net/ As for somewhere that lists the streaming services and the languages they offer, that's a much tougher ask, because they actually block certain languages in certain countries, even though they offer it, so using a VPN actually turns certain languages on.
@@daysandwords Thanks. Yeah I already got that from your videos with the streaming services. But I am only interested in hardware - DVD (Blue-Ray) - and not in SaS (Software as Service). Bye the way, for quite some time now I was planning to get in contact with you, I think I’ve got something that will blow your mind. Do you have some website with a contact e-mail address or an Apple-ID to iMessage you?
It'll be a bit unrelated and only be connected to a little part of this video but, UA-cam's algorithm can make one interested in topics that previously were not under one's radar. I wouldn't even think about this, but now I have been watching hoof trimming videos, where some guys carve away cows' hooves, shaping them, fixing small problems that don't require vets. "Digital dermatitis", "white line defect" and "detached hoof horn" have become terms I am familiar with.
duolingo helped me learn the basics of french and a few grammatical parts.. but when i listened or tried speaking french i was HORRIBLE. until i started listening daily and speaking to myself in french
What if you don't understand the language very much yet? Wouldn't watching a movie or reading a book in that language just sound like total gibberish for a long time? Should you always include English subtitles if you're new at a language?
When I'm flipping through a physical dictionary to look up a word, there's always an entry or two that catch my eye that aren't related to the word I'm looking up. So I pause and read. It takes longer than an online dictionary, but I get more out of it.
Hey Lamont, I was wondering whether you've considered making language learning videos for high-level learners. I think a lot of people (mainly young L2 English speakers who were brought up by the TV or the internet) find themselves in the situation where they can't expect all that much improvement anymore from inputting alone (I must be at 10k+ hours of English by now and it certainly feels this way to me) but are still clearly non-native (almost always due to pronunciation). The target audience for such content is much more limited but so is the competition i.e. the other content available. While there are some videos that explain the different methods (it's always one or more of the following: study the TL's phonology, do shadowing, do coursing, get corrections by natives, listen back to yourself), there's still a lot left to be desired in terms of content. Some interesting topics off the top of my head: How long do you have to do these before you can expect to see improvement? Is there anything special to know or to look out for for languages as heterogeneous as English or Spanish? How much improvement can you expect from an accent coach? How can you best utilize an untrained native speaker? What does the current body of scientific evidence say? I thought you'd be in a good position to do content in this direction because you speak a language to a high but non-native level.
I'm a native speaker and if you hadn't said that you weren't native, I would've assumed you were from this comment. At least in writing, I think you're there buddy - and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be optained without growing up in the language as a little kid.
@@daniellemillerart Thanks. Yeah, my main weakness is pronunciation, you'd be able to tell that I'm not a native speaker within like 5 seconds of listening to me. As for the last part of your comment, Lamont himself actually argued for the opposite position in another video, namely that it is possible to obtain that level (given hard work and talent).
"and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be obtained without growing up in the language as a little kid." Indeed I did argue, with examples, that there are people who sound as native as native speakers. It's extremely rare but it does happen. I want to do another video on this soon and prove it conclusively by putting in about 20 examples which will throw everyone off.
@@daniellemillerart Nah, it's not that. You want to get to a tip top level in a foreign language, it's less about learning the language, per se, and more that you need to study decently high-level topics in that language and learn to talk about them in that language, much as natives do. Native English speakers had to learn the academic vocabulary of psychology just as much as I did when I wanted to delve into it. Language learning proper is to get you to where you can exist in the language, actually existing in the language and pursuing your interests in it is what will do the rest to raise you to the highest levels.
This might be due to early output. If you start speaking before you’ve gotten hundreds to thousands of hours of input (depending on the language) you’ll probably have a notable accent. I’ve experienced this a bit with Spanish, but it’s difficult to reverse. You can try shadowing, or maybe only listening to an accent you want to have.
Please tell me more about doing deep research on something in the target language. This is worth its own video imo. I'm studying an Asian language, and have taken a deep dive into folk religion/witchcraft/animism in this culture..thx.
Thank you for this! Very informative - and funny = motivational. (I've actually got the confidence that I will learn Russian in 2024...finally - but I'm also convinced that I need to return to this video quite frequently.)
What should I use for Spanish comprehensible input because I already made a new yt account just for Spanish which is this account but what else should I use besides yt
Do you play video games? I have my xbox in spanish and playing video games, especially the campaign modes for open world games, has been the single greatest language learning tool for me so far. There is a ton of repetitive vocabulary, dialogue, mini-stories, input with subtitles, input without subtitles, exploration, many one-word commands if it's a military game. It's perfect.
Well, it ended because it was over. After learning Norwegian, the easiest language would be Swedish, but that's because you've learnt Norwegian, not because you're an English native speaker. Learning Swedish after learning Norwegian doesn't really get you very far though... You should just learn whatever you feel like learning.
Bokmål and Nynorsk are almost like a formal distinction between the "official" language and the spoken language... but it's more complex than just that because there are obviously different dialects within both of those as well. In reality, Norwegian is just as "many languages under one banner" as most other languages, except it happens to have two titles.
Great edit Lamont. Guessing you filmed the script twice? Only looks like one possible green screen scene. The little actions that can become habits the quickest are definitely the way toward massive progress in the shortest time. However, a lot of that is based on theory at this point. As you point out, we are all guilty of not doing the things we are sure can help us! Have you got a video on the top comprehensible input activities? I'm gonna make sure i get more Danish series and films into my day to day, but they are definitely not going to be comprehensible for the most part. Hmm i need to go back to your previous reply about getting CI.
This edit was actually by Makai, that guy who remixed my Spanish into a beat haha. He said he was looking to do some editing for clients, and he knows language learning stuff so we had a chat and here we are. Oh, there are no green screens. I guess you're talking about when I was on the TV, like about the AI part or the Batman part? Makai just made that happen without green screen... Unless you're doing it for an actual movie, greenscreen isn't really necessary these days. Nah I actually only filmed the bits at the desk that you saw... if you get me, like, I didn't film the whole script twice - I had certain parts highlighted so that I knew to do them at the desk rather than sitting in front of the lights. This actually speeds filming up a lot. Hmm, best video I've got on that is probably here: ua-cam.com/video/edISMCPCfwY/v-deo.html But a quick top 5 comprehensible input activities: - Scuba diving (reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time... check out Mobify or whatever the Danish version of Storytel is called) - Watching things you've watched before, particularly favourites - Watching things where the exact outcome doesn't matter but the general outcome is obvious (e.g. gameshows) - Short things (UA-cam vlogs etc... you'd be surprised how addictive 10 minute videos can be) - Watching things in French or English with Danish subs? This can be really relaxing, whilst still showing you just a bit of Danish. The progress rate is probably about 5% of full Danish immersion but it's really not hard to do at all.
@@daysandwords Cheers. Yea, so you filmed it once but in 2 places: desk and lights. That's what I do. But when I see creators sometimes changing location between sentences or even mid-sentence so seamlessly, I feel they must be filming twice and making sure they pronounce everything identically. Anyways, great job Makai. And yes, I read the video description before my comment. Thanks for the tips. I know you love audio books as a resource. I've never got into them so it's gonna take some more time to get into that habit. I already listen to the radio and music, but, since I'm not expecting to see immediate progress from these sources, it's worth seeing if I could put my time elsewhere for more results. I'm gonna be more disciplined when it comes to using my Danish YT account. I think that's a great way to immerse with just a little daily effort, since we can make the addictive quality of infinite scrolling into something positive. It'll likely actually make me use YT less overall, but more for Danish. Win win ;). As for watching in English, and reading Danish subs: I do that. I don't think it does much unless you're really focusing on reading, and for that level of effort, you might as well get something with Danish audio.
Can anyone tell me why on Anki even after completing the full deck (having 0 new cards left) and easily recalling hundreds of words I still have no words classified in the A classification and only in the other classes? Due to this I repeatedly get the same easily-recalled words when there is a smaller daily limit of flashcards now?
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
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Thank you so much!
Awesome, thanx!
My spanish skyrocketed in 2020 when I switched to comprehensible input. Now that I speak at an advanced level, getting nerdy about grammar and moods makes more sense. If you’re a beginner in a language, don’t force yourself to speak. Shutting up was one of the best things I ever did for my language learning.
Yeah that's the same for my Swedish! It was kind of an 8-12 month journey from hearing about comprehensible input to actually accepting that it was a real thing.
This 100%
Cobero
Same. It’s not like I could talk to anyone during the pandemic anyway though 😂
As a chronic procrastinator about the actually learning the language bit, getting nerdy about grammar is a _wonderful_ distraction from doing something actually useful, let me assure you.
I love this time of year. I get all the "how to learn a language in XXXX year" videos together and I can get the algorithm back on language learning.
You can really tell the algorithm that you love LL by putting this video on loop and then go to bed. 😆
@@daysandwords you say that luke I havent been doing that with your videos.
I mean the best, I love your content and have for a while. As a job for you, I understand the need to crush content and follow some trends, but your stuff is my favorite.
Thank you for your service 🫡
@@daysandwords Does this work if the tab is not open? Like, can I mute the video, let it play, and just do stuff on another tab or even window?
I love that the fist step is "get out of social media", after I uninstall social media apps I stay much more consistent at my learning routine
as soon as he said thhat, i pressed the like button
I wish I didn't have to use it for work, as it's much harder to control the addiction than just deleting it everywhere.
#1 Delete social media
#2 Watch a movie
#3 Stop talking
#4 Anki
#5 Search in the target language
#6 Research an in-depth topic
#7 Read a book
#8 Listen to audiobooks while you read
#9 Use AI
#10 Use AI... again
#11 Have a sentence of the day
#12 Write a song
#13 Go for a walk
#14 Do language sprints
#15 Create a new (target language) UA-cam account
#16 Repetition, repetition, repetition
#17 More repetition... but with TV
#18 Change what you pay attention to
#19 Buy a physical dictionary
#20 Word hunting
#21 Reward yourself for doing the bare minimum
#22 Record yourself
#23 Get a teacher
#24 Listen to your target language in downtime
YESSS, comprehensible input is exactly how i learned English, and i didn't even know i was doing it at the time!
Soooo many good tips here it’s crazy! Proud I got to edit this ☺️
Fantastic job.
On a completely unrelated note, this channel really helped inspire me to get into starting my own, haven’t posted in a year, editing new videos as we speak.
So cool to see the production value in these videos skyrocket. Thanks for all the advice for the years, and all the best to you in 2024!
Thanks!
This video had an editor so that's why all the fancy editing, but yeah, I've been trying to improve the level with every video.
I agree with walking. When I listen to Pimsleur, Podcasts, or anything, I get restless and need to do something (or I get a bit sleepy). So I take a 30 minute walk or do chores while listening to my target language and saying the phrases in my target language out loud. Because I'm moving, my brain and body just feels healthier, and the sun makes me happier as well!
Goated tips:
#5, 2:33
#6, 4:43
#13, 10:27
#14, 11:09 -- I love the idea of this. When you have those "sprints", you also look back to them with feelings of accomplishment and happiness, going at it with your passion. It's both enjoying the process of those "intense" periods and also gaining skills for the long term that are great about it.
Hands down best VPN ad I've ever seen. Actual video also top notch as always, your production quality, humor, information provided - just all around probably the best language learning channel out there ❤
Thank you!
The editor is to thank for the quality of the edit (obviously), but also the little Batman bit in the VPN part was his idea. Did you see my "I found an audiobook app for language learners" video? It had a very different kind of Surfshark ad in it haha.
A lot of great tips here, but I’ll add another one which I personally use: there’s an accessibility feature on iPhones where (if enabled) it can read highlighted sentences to you, it has quite a few languages available for the Siri that reads the highlighted sentences to you (and a few speakers per language) and there’s not really a limit on how much you can highlight and request the Siri to speak. I’ve found it very reliable for my TL (Italian) and anytime I’m confused at how something is pronounced or I’ve forgotten, I’ll highlight and request the “speak” option and after a few times of listening and imitating the highlighted area I feel just a bit more confident in saying that word or phrase going forward. Hope that helps somebody, it’s been a big help to me 😊
Omg I’m using that immediately, great tip!
@@MakaiLegister happy to help 😁
Thanks, gonna try!
Schysst att du är tillbaka, tipsen är bra och kommer säkert vara bra och användbara för andra, tack och bra jobbat!
First time in my life that I ever saw andvändbara, I think. New word acquired!
Va? Seriöst? I see it all the time (ok, not THAT much if we only count the plural conjugation, "användbarA" of it, but "användbart"... All the time!
@@daysandwords Seriöst. Jag har berättat hur jag lärde mig svenska i skolan och har inte använt den efter. Och det var över tio år sedan.
Yeah I know, you're not a native speaker and all that, but like... it's a pretty common word. I mean, I think it's just as common as "useful" in English.
@@daysandwords Yeah, I was surprised myself. I think it comes down to not using the language: I just did my school courses, listened to Kent and read packaging labels. Of those, only the school courses are the kind of stuff that'd use the word, and apparently they didn't, at least in any way that stuck even in my passive vocabulary.
Thank you for introducing me to the idea of reading a book and listening to its audiobook at the same time. Not only does it make reading easier and more enjoyable it also has given me a very effective way of improving my upper intermediate Spanish. I will definitely be coming back to this video when I start learning German!
I started doing copywork a couple of weeks ago. By "doing copywork" I mean picking up some text in any form and style that I like and just copying it by hand on the paper, daily. I know that what kids do when they learn to write in their native language. For someone it might seem like a pointless activity, but for me it's a huge step forward. I become more and more familiar with producing something, rather than Just consuming (what I did several years before that, and now get fed up of this approach).
The video's length is just perfect.
Thank you! The editor had to make quite a few changes to get it to that. It started over 21 and I was like "Let's remove XYZ and get it to 20:24!"
I did a fairly in-depth dive into Silbo Gomero, which is a whistled language used in the Canaries. I originally was just really curious, but a lot of the articles/videos about it were actually in Spanish. I got a nice refresher from it and also learnt some Silbo Gomero.
Great vid!
It's amazing how much of your advice aligns with my own observations and conclusions that I've come to over several years. A few of them are:
quit social media (I deactivated my FB account)
change subjects regularly while studying (I read books and watch videos on UA-cam in the language I'm learning, but I occasionally change the topics to expand my vocabulary)
My own way to master a language faster is:
wake up 1-2 hours earlier and dedicate this time in the morning to language learning
I have the luxury of starting work at 9 AM and working remotely. So, I used to wake up at 8 AM, take a shower, eat breakfast, and start work at 9.
Now, I do it differently, I wake up at 6 AM, spend 1.5 hours learning English, 30 minutes learning Italian, and by the time I start work at 9, I've already "completed" my foreign language study for the day.
nicely done, sir! but given that you had to wake up at 6am every day, is it not a huge sacrifice already? the life routine is highly a personal thing, but especially for myself, i can't get my brain function properly at early hours. still, congrats on sticking your language goals, i'm pretty sure you'll get to a place you want in no time.
I'm also a try believer in the get it done as soon as you wake up methodology. I don't have as much time as you and I still do some stuff in the evening but language learning is the first thing I do when I get out of bed before I start my day.
But, you didn't mention watching hundreds of videos on UA-cam about how to learn a new language.
I actually did mention that. Tip no 24 is just do it and stop watching my awesome video 😂
I kinda found an in-between solution to that, I still watch them but in my target language ; at first on channels made for those who learn the language, where it's spoken clearly and slower, and then on channels targeted to native speakers, where the language is spoken naturally. It's a great way to get gradually at ease with listening comprehension in so far as the same words, expressions and topics keep coming up which makes it easier but as there are hundreds of them you can still learn a lot from it, as everyone you'll watch will have different speech patterns, accents or even voices. That's my usual way of starting with comprehensible input, because afterwards I feel way more comfortable and used to the language and can start watching things on other topics of my interest !
We are SO BACK. Love it.
Thanks for including ‘not speaking’. It’s so counterintuitive that talking early is not helpful (and is arguably counterproductive) that it’s very hard to persuade people to drop it as part of their studies, especially in the early stage. It particularly annoys me that so many language classes insist on speaking exercises for beginners. They are very stressful for those who are shy and they have no merit whatever. Somehow, everyone seems to assume this is what you have to do.
Of you speak early, you advance on your speaking faster... 🤡
@@mcmerry2846 If you don’t force yourself to speak early, you remove a huge burden and can effectively filter your experience of the language to consist of 100% native input, so you avoid inventing your own version of the language in your head. Now, I have spoken spanish throughout my whole learning journey, but if I could go back to day 1, I would intentionally delay the speaking by about 3 months because of the impact that switching to input-centric learning had on me. Maybe that’s still “early.”
@@citygirljace I speak English, Spanish and German. It is impressive how fast I learnt German compared to English just because I had more opportunities to talk.
@@mcmerry2846Attribution error. If you had more opportunities to speak German, then you would also have heard it a lot more. You learned it by hearing it, not by speaking it.
@@daysandwords My friend has been doing what you're doing, and it's really good for comprehension, he understands a lot. His speaking is bad though, because he never speaks, and he lacks confidence from not speaking. Just because it works for you and a lot of other people, doesn't mean it's best for everyone
I thought Evan's video was aggressive, cultish, and condescending. If that is how he takes criticism of an app for a community he claims to not even be a part of, he needs therapy. Your channel genuinely is helpful. I'm on my third book in my TL and even without the audiobook (I plan to listen to them a bit later), my listening comprehension has markedly improved. People can cry about comprehensible input and immersion all they want but they are the ones holding themselves back because certain ideas are unfashionable (maybe because input theory is heavily associated with Japanese?). While I don't personally find all of the tips in this video applicable to me, I think its one of the best videos on language learning for serious learners. Thanks for staying strong despite the hate and negativity thrown at you by a much larger creator. This channel was a big motivation in me finally buying TL books and actually sitting down to read. I want more people to have good and effective tips like this.
Oh, thanks for that.
When I started reading your comment, for a second I wondered if you'd posted it on the right video because I was like "This wasn't anything to do with Evan's video?" but I can see what you mean (my saying that I'm not a gatekeeper I guess).
Cheers for that, happy new year!
What did Evan do? You got me curious lol
What’s TL?
@@mrphyz4674 target language
5:37 when I started learning Spanish, I decided to try and read Bilbo: an unexpected journey. It was a book I was quite familiar with, had read it many times. Was quite surprising how much I understood just from the context of the story, even if most of the words where new to me and I didn't understand them.
Preach!
The "it's like putting new tyres on a car when it hasn't got a working engine" comparison is 10/10 and I will steal it from you and give you the credits only most of the time!
The editing and jump cuts in this video were fantastic, great stuff
That was Makai! Check out Makai Legister for his personal channel.
I was zero output at first, but I added just one sentence a day of output to Anki to hedge. It's not just any output, I really focused on tones and precision and hard sounds across complete sentences. Immediately saw big benefits. By just dabbling, I must have picked up a lot of low hanging fruit, it directly improved my input too. I can hear tricky sounds much more quickly and easily now that I've drilled making them. I still agree output should be deemphasized generally and CI is the key, but limited high quality output (not conversations but drilling) helped me map phonemes and made key constructs stickier. Kinda inspired by your early motivational videos, it's ok to use 5% of your study time to try something out, then reassess after a month. Paid off in this case for me.
I agree with the sentence a day advice. I've been doing this with sentences I know for certain I would use with repetition, and it's less overwhelming then learnings apps that throw a ton of dialogue at you. I feel as if it's easier for me to learn what I want to learn, and it helps.
I've been teaching languages English, Spanish and Portuguese for decades. Listening and learning language cadences is imperative. But accumulating, memorizing and storing words is counter productive. Extremes aren't good, a happy medium is always the best policy. There's no magic potions, you have to put the work in, for whichever technique or methodology you choose.
I actually have tricked TikTok into thinking that I don't speak English, and instagram now serves me near-exclusive foreign language content in my target languages, based on my viewing patterns and interactions with the content. UA-cam I still watch some English content on (clearly), but at least half of what I'm suggested here is in my target languages as well. I would say that social media apps have actually been hugely instrumental in increasing my language proficiency: familiarizing me with new vocabulary, teaching me new grammar structures or making difficult ones feel more accessible via the comprehensible input I am interacting with, and allowing me to hear real, native speakers in all environments.
Yes, obviously I am not talking about social media in your target language. Since I specifically mentioned the thing that I've mentioned several times before about putting UA-cam into your target language, it's pretty clear that I was ONLY talking about social media that's in English or a language you already speak fluently.
Love the presentation style you have in these videos, very similar sense of humour to myself and how I aspire to come across in videos I create. Great job as always! Best wishes for the new year
About 6: I am learning french and I am interested in traveling to France. Guess what: Best Wikipedia articles about places and cities in France are in the french Wikipedia. Surprise surprise. Information about France in french. Perfect comprehensible input.
About 14, sprints. I second that. I try to get every Saturday or Sunday as much French into my brain as possible. So even a one day sprint is effektive. (For me.)
I am a Duolingo fanboy. I will keep doing my Duolingo lessons, because I love gamification.
That said, I now follow your channel. Sorry for that. Your content is just too good! :D
Haha well my channel wouldn't be here without Duolingo.
That prompt is solid gold, I've been doing tons more output practice using it 👍
When I saw the thumbnail say, "A0 C1," at first I thought you meant piano notes. 💀
Minor third plus an octave haha. I guess it's... a minor 10th?
So I've been watching ur vids a lot lately and i have to say u have improved a lot! They are much more entertaining and engaging than they were a year ago. I can see u have practiced ur video making just as much as ur languages hahaha❤
In some ways yes. It depends what video/s you're comparing. I doubt you've seen all of my videos:
ua-cam.com/video/6vkEHdPAcgA/v-deo.html
@@daysandwords oh yes that one is really good too, maybe i should have said they are better than they were a few years ago hahah. Anyways the bottom line is that i really like them!
How repetition helps - After watching him for quite a while, Lamont finally got me motivated to do 7 days of intense language input. 35 hours a week seem like more than I can handle (considering I do have other responsibilities and deadlines coming up), so I will do 28 hours in 7 days, starting tomorrow (31st of January). Because I know that if I wait until the 2nd of January, all motivation will leave me again. Feel free to join me :)
2nd day finished. Yesterday, I was a fair bit below the 4 hours a day I planned. Today, I could exceed them slightly, so that's great. However, I quickly lose focus when passages are too challenging, and it seems like the material I used the past two days contains too many words I don't know. Wish there was more (or any) intermediate material for language learners accessible in my TL, as the only stuff I can easily find is for native speakers. Maybe I'll manage to find a nice kids show tomorrow. Or at least something with decent subtitles/a transcript.
Merci, so many good tips! I really enjoy listening to your advice, now I’m off to listen to an audiobook!
Great ideas. I really enjoy your content. I agree about physical dictionaries. Got my Turkish - English dictionary in a small mom and pop shop in İstanbul for 7.5 lira which is about 25 cents USD! Some days I simply flip through it randomly reading words or I will challenge myself to "read all the Turkish words that start with Ç", etc. I am a bit old school anyway.
Hoi man, love your videos!
My last language learning find: Interactive fiction (for my french learning). Both in books (La Forteresse du Chaudron Noir or so) or on computer (feels like being a kid and playing Zork again).
Gets me involved in the story, and has me rereading the book over and over to get the various endings and so.
where are you getting your digital interactive stories from?
@@petercerro same question
Would like to know what website or program that you used as well seems to be a lot of options but not all are good.
Examples please!
Thanks!
I really like the sentence of the day thing. I actually keep a deck in Anki with really difficult sentences. Often 20+ words with 2-3 unknown words in them, but I take them either from difficult shows or from books in which I also own the audiobook. I don't learn many of these per day, but it is definitely a big confidence boost when trying to speak longer passages more quickly, and for sure makes longer sentences easier to understand over time (In conjunction with everything else obviously). Nice suggestion! Didn't necessarily notice that something like this was so impactful.
I suppose that's why spending small amounts of time dissecting difficult passages has made such a big difference in my abilities. Doesn't have to be much time, but if you spend a little bit of time really trying to understand harder stuff, it for sure helps *more efficiently* than just spending that same time doing something more relaxed. (Provided you have the energy of course).
Nice video again Mr 'Stralia!
Around 16:20 #20 I was thinking, for complete beginners, maybe it could work to do the inverted version where you highlight the words you actually know and recognise.. then you could print out a paragraph of info on a topic you want to understand and once the entire chunk of text is like glowing in highlighter, you've succeeded :)
Basically a word search subcategory I guess lol
Social media and screen time in general is huge. I'd add for those that do watch a movie, or do any immersion, have your phone in the other room.
one additional Tip :
1. Once you are at a certain level in your T language, leave a comment, in your target language ofcourse, on 1 or 2 pieces of content you watch during the day
Once I had completed all the easy parts of learning English i.e. I could understand 98 percent of english content ,but was not able express myself even at some basic level, I convinced myself I had learned all the english I needed and Now it was time to move on to Learning German Because Continuing learning and improvng english was hard now and needed much more effort than I did not want to put. Oh Man, How Stupid I was at that time.
I haven't watched the video yet but I'm hoping he will say "new research is in, apparently you can make just as much progress if you intersperse comprehensible input of your target language with extensive procrastination".
Just watched and disappointingly he did not say that. In fact, the last rule felt very targeted at me.
On the topic of working with a language teacher: I work with a phonetics coach rather than a language teacher. A language teacher can't help you (not much anyway) with vocabulary acquisition but a phonetics coach can help with pronunciation and prosody.
11:10 - In my personal experience you can get at least a useful capacity to understand a foreign language by just studying 15 minutes a day, though as a rule of thumb I agree it's not gonna work.
I've done this with ancient Greek (specifically, Koine): over the last three years I finished a Memrise course containing all the words in the New Testament (about 5,500), and another for all the words in the Old Testament. And, I've maintained a daily streak in both these courses. Most days I only do about 5 minutes per day, but I've also done *some* reading in Greek (no more than ten texts and one movie) and other grammar study in the past, so I'd guess that it averages out to around 15 minutes a day.
And nowadays, I find I can read the New Testament and Byzantine hagiographies without too much difficulty. There are some factors which help me, like I already speak fluent Latin which has a very similar grammar and lots of shared vocab.
But, apply this to say a native English speaker learning Dutch, Afrikaans or even Swedish, and the same principle may apply.
Obviously, I'd be useless if I had to hold a conversation in ancient Greek presently. But, I'm at a point now where reading Greek isn't burdensome, and for only 15 minutes a day I'd say that's worth it IMO.
So, to be clear, I'm not saying that one should never expect to make progress in 15 minutes a day. I'm saying that full fluency requires A PERIOD at SOME POINT that is more than that. It's like flying to the moon... they don't accelerate the whole way there. After they're about 200km from the Earth's surface, they just cruise. But if they don't have insane acceleration at the start (our analogy doesn't require it to be at the start, just at some point), then they'll never get there.
@@daysandwords It's a bit weird to suddenly remember this now but, I rescind what I said. Recently have been doing a project that actually requires a solid grasp of Koiné Greek and am seeing I don't quite have it even after a 1000+ day streak of Memrise (but little immersion). I can make my way through most of the gospels but not easily enough. So yeah, probably need a period of intense immersion to acquire that too, I no longer think even with flashcards that one can acquire a useful level in a language by studying for only 5-15 minutes per day. 😅
I’m learning Japanese and I have looked up 日本語を勉強. It means “study Japanese” in Japanese. Pretty solid! But it’s harder to do in Japanese because of kanji. Thankfully I know hiragana and katakana.
14. could be “Do language Spritz”. I remember learning Italian by meeting students in Rome who drank as many cocktails as possible.
Point #13: yes, true, moving helps thinking and memorizing and sort of "embody" the thought process. I've recently started getting up and pacing the right and moving my right arm like an orchestra conductor to mark the stresses in the German dialogues that I try to memorize, and it feels so efficient! Now is it really? That should be put to the test, but at least it feels so.
24 solutions to everyone's excuses. Love it! HNY Lamont.
Listening to podcasts in your target language is a great one. There are a few Hindi podcasts I listen to that really nail a lot of these tips for me. I can listen doing chores at home, driving, even at work sometimes, there are a lot of words I understand, there are a lot of English words in common Hindi daily use which adds context, and I get content I’m interested in as well as trips into other types of content depending on guests and things like that. Some science, some linguistics, some history, some spirituality, lots of input.
The Little Prince is a good book for practicing target language reading, because it's a classic which has been translated into every fucking language on the planet
bro has gotten funnier ! Love the vid
I had Makai's help (he edited this one). It was only kinda funny before his touches.
Great job by Makai on the editing.
Thank you!
Ah Lamont! I already did the Surfshark through another YTer. Ah well, maybe in three years. Good post, solid, and you're staying classy. I appreciate that ^_^ Happy New Year!
That's fine! Even if it were an affiliate link, it wouldn't be a problem but yeah, it's not. So even if like 100,000 people use it, I don't get paid any more haha.
Happy New Year to you too!
As a swedish person, I look forward to hear your song
Dude took 2024 serious making the video 20 min and 24 seconds. Well played @daysandwords
The quality is insane ❄️
Add, phonetics and pronunciation for early and effective speaking
Something that is working for me, listen to music in the target language.
The tip I am going to try to implement first is sentence of the day. I tried 2 sentences of the day before and did for maybe two days. I think 2 is doable but since I failed at it I’m gong to knock it down to one.
I used screen time on my iPhone to block Facebook and Reddit. Those were the two websites I was having issues with and blocking them that way made it so annoying to unblock it’s super easy to just do something else instead.
Now I just wish I could get rid of UA-cam shorts 😂
the prompt is really helpful, thanks for sharing.
I’m Spanish with a native level (C1) in English and Portuguese, I used to practise French too but I didn’t like it at all. I’ve been years wanting to learn Swedish but in Spain and more focused in my area (Cádiz) it is impossible to find an academy of this language so if u could give me some advice f where or how to learn Swedish… I would be so grateful. Thanks a lot! Amazing channel!
cool new editing! love the new style
Yeah Makai did this one, he nailed it!
Great video mate!
can u do a video of your set up, what camera and mic do you use? they are really good
Honestly no one would be interested, it would get like 200 views.
Oh yes, the just listen and read technique. That's really good for getting to grips with speaking the language naturally.
Regarding Wen's prompt, am I giving a written response to the prompt(s), or oral? Oral seems like the right answer, but how do I use chaptgpt (or, ?) to speak?
've been watching your videos, love the humor, really adds a sprinkle of joy to the language-learning torture :)
Anyhoo, let me tell you, I've landed in this francophone part of Canada, and it's like a linguistic minefield. I mean, I’ve got a Parisian accent - chic, sophisticated, you know, the whole Eiffel Tower vibe. But here they’ve got this thing called the 'Acadian' accent, and let me tell you, it’s like trying to understand French from another planet.
So, I'm going for a job, thinking my C1 French will open doors. But nope, apparently, unless your last name is LeBlanc and you can do the Acadian 'j'étions' and 'puis instead of et', your French is as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
I'm there, confidently presenting enormeous effort of 2 years, speaking, and they're like, "Sorry, honey, you don't speak French." I'm like, "Excusez-moi? Last time I checked, I'm not ordering croissants on Mars. This is French, right?" Apparently not, because if it ain't Acadian.
So, here I am, caught in the linguistic Bermuda Triangle, where my French is lost at sea because it doesn't come with an Acadian passport. Who knew speaking French in Canada was like navigating a culinary obstacle course? Sacré bleu!
Thank you so much for the ideas.
i mean the solution to almost everything is really just to delete social media
What are the best resources for me to learn Swedish and an English speaker, any recommended books, work sheets, websites?
Great video Lamont! There are extremely few language learners that hit all those "metalearning" boxes that you checked/hit in this video (as such you are one of the few language UA-camrs I still follow). Walk-watching, read-listening-walking etc. is next level stuff lol, I never see anyone else do it xD It was fun to hear to you do it too (at least the walk-watching) :D
Yeah, just like any field, it's easy to talk about the most surface level stuff... because, well, it's on the surface. Like videography/photography channels that talk about gear. Gear matters less and less now that everything is amazing, but it's still the easiest thing to talk about.
@@daysandwords Keep up the good work! How do you generally advance your knowledge of language learning tactics/strategy? Does it happen organically or do you have a systematic approach that gives you a good chance of improving on your knowledge base? Cheers.
Oh mainly I just try to do the stuff that will help... I do try to read some books and watch some videos from people more knowledgable than myself but who don't make the fancy looking videos. I'm essentially trying to bring boring language stuff to the masses with these intense edits and stupid titles/thumbnails etc., but it's not particularly easy because there isn't a lot of time to
a) learn languages
b) watch the more in-depth videos/read books
c) make the videos about it
@@daysandwords yea you end up spending more time learning how to learn than actually learning languages, right?
My french definitely plateaued for a long time despite being in France because my days and nights I was coaching and building the business and speaking with other learners.
Love you broo , eres fantástico. Estoy aprendiendo inglés y puedo comprender todo lo q dices 🎉🎉
if you haven't read "Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann" then I seriously recommend it!!
Ja asså min fru har ju läst den.
Im learning language by reading now. I just was AI to make stories that i can read that teach me a new word every paragraph or 2.
Related tip regarding social media that I should apply to myself: don't use UA-cam.
If you *know* that there are a lot of resources in the target language, yet never use them.
Then even using UA-cam is not gonna work, and is gonna be a whole other rabbit hole.
Now if only I could kick my own butt into gear with that tip as well
Edit: scubadiving videogames. Target language voice, target language subtitle. Optionally: UI in target language too.
Awesome video! I'm excited to make some very unrealistic language learning plans for 2024, and will use this as an inspiration 😊😂 (step one would be getting back into daily studying)
As usual, solid advice!
The number 13 is a little bit hard to do as I live in Brazil, but it is a good point to tell
Where is the best place to find out in which audio languages a certain movie has been released on preferably DVD (or maybe also Blue-Ray) all around the world? PAL vs. NTSC or Region Code isn’t at issue here, just how many different audio dubs are available in general.
Let’s say I wanted to know which languages “The Devil wears Prada” is available in. Searching through e.g. the Amazon stores I found versions in English, Polish, Czech, French. But there should be at least another version in German and Spanish, I assume…
What is a more streamlined way to find out without the hassle of consulting different incomplete sources and missing out on some valid results?
Any ideas or experiences to share on that topic?
Well, for DVDs:
www.dvdcompare.net/
As for somewhere that lists the streaming services and the languages they offer, that's a much tougher ask, because they actually block certain languages in certain countries, even though they offer it, so using a VPN actually turns certain languages on.
@@daysandwords Thanks. Yeah I already got that from your videos with the streaming services. But I am only interested in hardware - DVD (Blue-Ray) - and not in SaS (Software as Service).
Bye the way, for quite some time now I was planning to get in contact with you, I think I’ve got something that will blow your mind. Do you have some website with a contact e-mail address or an Apple-ID to iMessage you?
I can only find your Instagram handle but no website, e-mail or any other contact address for that matter. So how do we do that?
There's an email address in the "about" or "more info" or whatever section of UA-cam.
It'll be a bit unrelated and only be connected to a little part of this video but, UA-cam's algorithm can make one interested in topics that previously were not under one's radar. I wouldn't even think about this, but now I have been watching hoof trimming videos, where some guys carve away cows' hooves, shaping them, fixing small problems that don't require vets. "Digital dermatitis", "white line defect" and "detached hoof horn" have become terms I am familiar with.
Oh dear, you clearly fell down the same algorithmic rabbit hole I did. Graham has sucked us all in to watching us care for his ‘coooos’ . So much mud.
@@dees3179 and also Nate.
“Web cam turner-offer” lmaooo
duolingo helped me learn the basics of french and a few grammatical parts.. but when i listened or tried speaking french i was HORRIBLE. until i started listening daily and speaking to myself in french
What if you don't understand the language very much yet? Wouldn't watching a movie or reading a book in that language just sound like total gibberish for a long time? Should you always include English subtitles if you're new at a language?
When I'm flipping through a physical dictionary to look up a word, there's always an entry or two that catch my eye that aren't related to the word I'm looking up. So I pause and read.
It takes longer than an online dictionary, but I get more out of it.
Hey Lamont, I was wondering whether you've considered making language learning videos for high-level learners. I think a lot of people (mainly young L2 English speakers who were brought up by the TV or the internet) find themselves in the situation where they can't expect all that much improvement anymore from inputting alone (I must be at 10k+ hours of English by now and it certainly feels this way to me) but are still clearly non-native (almost always due to pronunciation).
The target audience for such content is much more limited but so is the competition i.e. the other content available. While there are some videos that explain the different methods (it's always one or more of the following: study the TL's phonology, do shadowing, do coursing, get corrections by natives, listen back to yourself), there's still a lot left to be desired in terms of content. Some interesting topics off the top of my head: How long do you have to do these before you can expect to see improvement? Is there anything special to know or to look out for for languages as heterogeneous as English or Spanish? How much improvement can you expect from an accent coach? How can you best utilize an untrained native speaker? What does the current body of scientific evidence say?
I thought you'd be in a good position to do content in this direction because you speak a language to a high but non-native level.
I'm a native speaker and if you hadn't said that you weren't native, I would've assumed you were from this comment. At least in writing, I think you're there buddy - and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be optained without growing up in the language as a little kid.
@@daniellemillerart Thanks. Yeah, my main weakness is pronunciation, you'd be able to tell that I'm not a native speaker within like 5 seconds of listening to me. As for the last part of your comment, Lamont himself actually argued for the opposite position in another video, namely that it is possible to obtain that level (given hard work and talent).
"and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be obtained without growing up in the language as a little kid."
Indeed I did argue, with examples, that there are people who sound as native as native speakers. It's extremely rare but it does happen. I want to do another video on this soon and prove it conclusively by putting in about 20 examples which will throw everyone off.
@@daniellemillerart Nah, it's not that. You want to get to a tip top level in a foreign language, it's less about learning the language, per se, and more that you need to study decently high-level topics in that language and learn to talk about them in that language, much as natives do. Native English speakers had to learn the academic vocabulary of psychology just as much as I did when I wanted to delve into it. Language learning proper is to get you to where you can exist in the language, actually existing in the language and pursuing your interests in it is what will do the rest to raise you to the highest levels.
This might be due to early output. If you start speaking before you’ve gotten hundreds to thousands of hours of input (depending on the language) you’ll probably have a notable accent. I’ve experienced this a bit with Spanish, but it’s difficult to reverse. You can try shadowing, or maybe only listening to an accent you want to have.
I was really bad at Japanese just a year ago.
I still am, but I used to be, too.
And that's ok.
I find Teacher AI is also a great resource, even though it’s in its infancy. I improve daily.
Please tell me more about doing deep research on something in the target language. This is worth its own video imo. I'm studying an Asian language, and have taken a deep dive into folk religion/witchcraft/animism in this culture..thx.
Well... I mean, I can't really tell what else you need to know.
Thank you for this! Very informative - and funny = motivational. (I've actually got the confidence that I will learn Russian in 2024...finally - but I'm also convinced that I need to return to this video quite frequently.)
What should I use for Spanish comprehensible input because I already made a new yt account just for Spanish which is this account but what else should I use besides yt
Do you play video games? I have my xbox in spanish and playing video games, especially the campaign modes for open world games, has been the single greatest language learning tool for me so far. There is a ton of repetitive vocabulary, dialogue, mini-stories, input with subtitles, input without subtitles, exploration, many one-word commands if it's a military game. It's perfect.
Did this video abruptly end? On another note, after learning Norwegian which Scandinavian language would be easiest for a native English speaker?
Well, it ended because it was over.
After learning Norwegian, the easiest language would be Swedish, but that's because you've learnt Norwegian, not because you're an English native speaker. Learning Swedish after learning Norwegian doesn't really get you very far though... You should just learn whatever you feel like learning.
@@daysandwords I'm confused. Does Norwegian have two languages - Bokmål and Nynorsk? Or are they basically the same thing?
Bokmål and Nynorsk are almost like a formal distinction between the "official" language and the spoken language... but it's more complex than just that because there are obviously different dialects within both of those as well. In reality, Norwegian is just as "many languages under one banner" as most other languages, except it happens to have two titles.
Hi, I looking for partner for learning English on the book English file A2 Pre-Intermediate
Great edit Lamont. Guessing you filmed the script twice? Only looks like one possible green screen scene.
The little actions that can become habits the quickest are definitely the way toward massive progress in the shortest time. However, a lot of that is based on theory at this point. As you point out, we are all guilty of not doing the things we are sure can help us!
Have you got a video on the top comprehensible input activities? I'm gonna make sure i get more Danish series and films into my day to day, but they are definitely not going to be comprehensible for the most part.
Hmm i need to go back to your previous reply about getting CI.
This edit was actually by Makai, that guy who remixed my Spanish into a beat haha. He said he was looking to do some editing for clients, and he knows language learning stuff so we had a chat and here we are. Oh, there are no green screens. I guess you're talking about when I was on the TV, like about the AI part or the Batman part? Makai just made that happen without green screen... Unless you're doing it for an actual movie, greenscreen isn't really necessary these days.
Nah I actually only filmed the bits at the desk that you saw... if you get me, like, I didn't film the whole script twice - I had certain parts highlighted so that I knew to do them at the desk rather than sitting in front of the lights. This actually speeds filming up a lot.
Hmm, best video I've got on that is probably here:
ua-cam.com/video/edISMCPCfwY/v-deo.html
But a quick top 5 comprehensible input activities:
- Scuba diving (reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time... check out Mobify or whatever the Danish version of Storytel is called)
- Watching things you've watched before, particularly favourites
- Watching things where the exact outcome doesn't matter but the general outcome is obvious (e.g. gameshows)
- Short things (UA-cam vlogs etc... you'd be surprised how addictive 10 minute videos can be)
- Watching things in French or English with Danish subs? This can be really relaxing, whilst still showing you just a bit of Danish. The progress rate is probably about 5% of full Danish immersion but it's really not hard to do at all.
@@daysandwords Cheers. Yea, so you filmed it once but in 2 places: desk and lights. That's what I do. But when I see creators sometimes changing location between sentences or even mid-sentence so seamlessly, I feel they must be filming twice and making sure they pronounce everything identically. Anyways, great job Makai. And yes, I read the video description before my comment.
Thanks for the tips. I know you love audio books as a resource. I've never got into them so it's gonna take some more time to get into that habit.
I already listen to the radio and music, but, since I'm not expecting to see immediate progress from these sources, it's worth seeing if I could put my time elsewhere for more results.
I'm gonna be more disciplined when it comes to using my Danish YT account. I think that's a great way to immerse with just a little daily effort, since we can make the addictive quality of infinite scrolling into something positive. It'll likely actually make me use YT less overall, but more for Danish. Win win ;).
As for watching in English, and reading Danish subs: I do that. I don't think it does much unless you're really focusing on reading, and for that level of effort, you might as well get something with Danish audio.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Can anyone tell me why on Anki even after completing the full deck (having 0 new cards left) and easily recalling hundreds of words I still have no words classified in the A classification and only in the other classes? Due to this I repeatedly get the same easily-recalled words when there is a smaller daily limit of flashcards now?
Prof Arguielles who is an amazing polyglot--walks while practicing out loud.