This is really short and sweet. thank you!

Tell me about what you did this week, and receive copious praise!

Thanks very much for this. Justified passion there!

Great encouragement not just for language learners, but in anything we set out to do. We are not alone in our struggles, there will be resistance, but stick with it and you will have that lightbulb moment. Have faith in yourself, the process, and it will get you there. Thanks!

This is a serious question: is it okay if I journal about my stuffed animals’ adventures in my home? They’ve had some quite interesting experiences since moving from Japan more than a decade ago. I want Portuguese speakers to learn more about them.

The analysis of the 90s era montage was insightful

My problem is - Learning a language takes x time With x being highly affected by how much attention and work you bring to the task So being that I do NOT want this process to go on for years I find myself stuck in doing a helluva lot now so that I can end the intentional study (and rely instead just on conversations with my girlfriend and her family + books and shows that I'm interested in) Its like a catch 22 do the mass work now or be doing the work for years to come. Help me to understand

I enjoyed the video. Nice job.

I feel that if we beat ourselves up because we haven’t made a lot of progress in our language journeys, it is definitely because we have based our self-worth on getting to higher level. Perhaps we feel more people will like us or we get other monetary or professional rewards. Those aren’t bad motivators. But we have stop and remember that we have value outside of what we do.

I’ve been listening to German radio and music and TV for 2 years, and I am still not anywhere close to fluent. The only things I learn is the stuff I actively study.

I love these bright colours on the picture behind and on her hoodie))

Thank you for your lovely words

I definitely agree that we need to refrain from comparing ourselves to others. We need to constantly remind ourselves of why we undertook language(s) that we enjoy. Steve Kauffman’s advice to focus on enjoying the language learning process has helped me immensely. Even if we want to rush the process, our brains are eventually going to tell all of us to go take a hike anyway. Our brains will say, “Hey! Just chill! I need some time for this to marinate.”

Such a fun and encouraging video! Thanks so much for this :D

Thank you for this! I never thought about commenting on videos or posts in the language I'm learning. I have several friends who are native speakers in other languages, but I don't know any beginners in English. Any suggestions on how to safely find others on the same language journey?

I've known for so long that creating something in the language I'm learning is how I learn best, but no language learning that I've come across has addressed it. When I was taking French in college, what was the most impactful way for me to learn and understand the language was to write in French or do translation work from English to French. One of my favorite school projects was that we had to pick a French song and talk about it in class. I chose a Medieval song and compared old French with modern French. My professor loved it, but most importantly, I had fun and learned so much because I had to understand enough about the French language to understand the differences between modern and old French. I'd like to brush up on my French and become fluent, so I guess it's back to writing and translating!

Mmm... it kind of does matter. The content needs to be meaningful to make the transition to active learning.

"For the past five years, I've been immersing myself in the English language. I thought consuming enough material alone would make me fluent in English. I spent more than six hours almost every single day listening to native English speakers on KZbin. Unfortunately, I still find it difficult to speak in English. I couldn't agree more with your advice: you must produce something in your target language if you want to speak it, period!"

During the 1980s, while In high school and college, I studied French. I did very well and advanced year after year. From the get go in French 1 we were taught basic grammer rules which later grew in French 2 and 3. We were also taught verbs and thier conjegations and the basic rules of each verb form .. the ir, er and re verbs! We were also taught nouns and pro-nouns and how gender was used in correlation to these nouns. These new nouns we would learn also had a direct relationship to the verbs we learned. Quickly, French was making sense and year after year I excelled in the language. In French 1 we were first taught the basics of how the language worked and the principles of French students needed to understand in order to progress year after year. The courses were taught to us in English which lessened as one advanced year after year. Interpretations were provided. We were taught maison mean house. There wasn't a picture of a house on a page forcing me to conclude presumptively and possibly incorrectly that maison meant house. I knew wihtout any doubt that maison meant house becasue a native French speaker told me as fact. Soon, I learned how to used these new words in gramatical exercises which was great becaue as my French became more sophisticated, I started understanding context. I was told that maison meant house and that it was feminine, therefore the adverb used to describe the house had to also be femine, but I was told that blanche was the feminine form of white. I never had to somehow figure it out on my own through deduction or second guessing. The rules were explained and then I started applyig them because I understaood them and the more I learned about the nuances of the rules and grammer that dictates teh languge the great my French abilites became. Had I never been told concretely by the French teacher that maison means house, how would I be able to identifying the picture of a house with certainty and absolute accuracy? Also, how would an Englsih speaker know "manger" means to eat or that all Fench verbs end in ir, er or re and follow a specific conjugation structure if not instructed in English? I still speak decent French all these years later, and attribute this long lasting knowledge to the way I was taught ... methodically and explained to me in English. You can't imagine how my world was rocked when I went to Barcelona to learn Catalan in 2021, a place which uses this stupid immersion technique as the paradigm of " instruction", and, I use the term instruction very loosly because there was never any instruction. I was never taught the things I needed to know about Catalan as a first year learner. Catalan language foundations were never established via instruction, therefor I had no way to even develop an elementary grasp of the fundimentals needed to learn the language. From day one I was literally just spoken at by the instructer in Catalan. Instructions about how the rules governing the language was never provided yet I was expected to somehow make sense of it all. Little made sense to me and nothgn was ever explained-one of the reasons why 70% of the students in my class dropped out. There was no actual teaching of Catalan using any methodology that slowly built upon itself, like the way I was taught and learned French. The onus to learn and understand is palced soley upon the student with little guidance from the teacher who is absolved of actually teaching the necessary building blocks of material needed to learn, understand and use the new language. Immersion failed the majority of my fellow classmates but me too. Depsite sticking it out to the end I fail the final exam and the course. Immersion is BS and it doesn't work. If it did, 70% of my class wouldn't have dropped out and I wouldn't have failed. It also robs you of any desires you once had at leanring a foreign language. It sucks, I hate it and will likely never learn Catalan if this BS paradigm remains in place.

Thank you for your videos. It's very inspiring

According to my learning experience, reading, listening, writing and speaking go together. None of them should go without the others. Every second language learner has to develop all four in a coordinated and balanced way. None can be left behind. How to achieve this? Thinking is the key. Being knowledgeable AND being articulate are the means. Reading, listening, writing and speaking are the necessary practical competences. Paraphrasing Benny Goodman's and Luis Prima's classic standard, I want to say: "Think, Think, Think. Everybody starts to think. Now you think 'bout everything". 🙂

You simply have to let go, be comfortable you don't understand a single particle, or unit. Chomsky said, birds fly, fish swim, and humans have language. You will slowly find yourself sorting things out. In Mandarin just follow the tone, semantically, literally and performance wise. And you must find content to your taste. I like poetry so I have zero interest in popular mechanics, whether in English, Chinese or Martian.

Background music is so annoying!

❤😂🎉😊

If we listen to how we speak to others, that is usually how we speak to ourselves. Thank you for the great reminder today.

How would you like to feel at the end of your work day today?

What was something a great teacher did for you, that you're determined to bring into your self-teaching?

Yes I agree speaking it’s important that’s why I signed up for tutoring speaking lessons

The success you’re talking about is true not just for language learners, but for everyone doing/learning something new. Great words!

Each day I like your videos more. Not only do you provide us with food for thought, but also good vocabulary to implement in our repertoire. One thing is crystal clear to me, learning success is difficult to drive and feel, but even more complex to achieve.👍👍

Thanks for giving people support or motivation!

Thanks awfully. That's a huge help.

Just found your channel Emily, very interesting topic. I agree with you 100%. I think passive listening is great but you are right, you have to follow up with some dedicated homework or study related to the piece you are listening to. Repetitive listening works for me too. Keep up the good work! You post every day??? Wow. Don't burn out, just keep in touch. Well done. Richard from Ireland 😊

good stuff

There is nothing embarrassing, every fault counts (towards fluency). Absolutely agree with your video!

Absolutely agree!

Something isnt right.. I find my language journey has removed a lot of fun from my life. I cant wait for it to be over. But if i slow down or take a break it will take longer for me to reach that end point😢

I've felt its both for me - the struggle and the challenge. I don't "think" that labeling it a struggle has been an additional negative/Obstacle for me... But maybe it actually has impacted me

I've found in my journey language is at base just a bunch of patterns that your brain gets exposed to and accustomed to. Then when you speak your native language its a super solidified set of patterns that you can't help but attempt to graft new words onto. But doing that with a new language which has new patterns is technically not what you should be doing but its hard not to

Have I missed anything off the list? What else might we be guessing about?

Look we do not know how chaotic systems work. Take a nursery of children born tomorrow. Give them all the exact same stimulus and environment. Then tell is the exact hour that each child will speak the language introduced to them at birth to the PhD level in exactly the same discipline. No one can make such a prediction. Just because I have a sense of self even I cannot know how much exposure to a language I require to achieve any given goal. The only thing we do know is that 67 percent of the people on earth speak at least two languages. That tells me that the monolinguals are monolingual because of policy not because of ability.

I’ve fallen into that trap so much! thank you for helping me see where I should really be focusing my time 💗

Why are you learning your language? Or, what can it bring you that you're excited about?

Merci beaucoup! Je suis nervaux quand je parle en français, mais oui. Je dois parler!

Hey there, this was pretty interesting, I’m learning Thai at the moment (on amd off for a while but only seriously for the last 2-3 months) and I see a lot of people recommending loads of input. Yet some of them have done 1000+ hours and while their comprehension is good, they basically can’t speak. So I definitely think engagement with the target language is needed. Obviously I have a similar challenge to that which one of your other commenters mentioned (guy who is learning Korean) in that it’s a whole new character system which I’m just starting to get to grips with. I agree with your comments on active / passive learning. I find when I do exercises which have quizzes to review things or if I try to write a word, I tend to remember it a lot better than if I randomly just watch somethjng on KZbin or TikTok.

Thanks for your tips, I'll try to use it.

Thanks for your tips, I'll try to do it.

Having experienced language instruction for French, Latin, German and Cantonese, I find listening is a far far more important skill to concentrate on than speaking. My experience with learning Spanish here in Ecuador as an ex-pat is thinking about it as a form of singing and listening to Spanish music and singing along with understanding greatly increases your facility in the use of the language. You really need to love the language to learn it. ----that explains why the first things that usually stick with you is how to swear with venom (and delight) in the new language! Once you get a sense of the native rhythms, meter and phrasing and enunciations, only then can you process almost intuitively what is being communicated. Also, total immersion is necessary for quick assimilation, when necessity spurs marvelous linguistic invention . I found arguing over suspiciously smelly tuna at the local fish market with all its bedlam and anarchy advanced my Spanish in 30 minutes more than 300 hours of silly "Learn while you sleep" videos on KZbin. And one last point. Reading, reading, and reading. I presently write out line for line a Spanish novel, double-spaced and then write out my translation without any aids, and then go to the official English translation of the book to compare and correct my initial take. You then get a sense of the idiom and their use of metaphor and expression that defies strict translation word for word but gets you inside the mind of the speaker to get an intimate familiarity with how they think and see the world. Okay, okay, last last point. Adopt the a personality of a native speaker to get the intonation and enthusiasm necessary to speak fluently. Here in Spanish Ecuador, i try to mimic the bandit in the movie, Treasure of SIerra Madre, who famously yelled ......I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!

Thank you! Your short video is so inspiring!