Can You Really Learn a Language Without Speaking It?

[@LucaLampariello]

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[@hermanstreltsov]

Is it worth practicing writing to improve speaking?

[@AlonsoGAlonsoG]

​@@hermanstreltsov Yeah if you say it in your mind.

[@Nhamilton3991]

I think it’s important for people to remember that a good conversationalist is someone who listens and asks questions, not the person who does all the talking. People find you much easier to talk to when you aren’t just waiting for your turn to speak. For this reason, input is the most valuable IMO. There is no point asking a question if you can’t understand the answer!

[@thedavidguy01]

In my experience many language learners whose primary goal is to have conversations focus almost exclusively or at least very heavily on speaking. A common result is that they can speak reasonably well but they can’t understand well. It’s frustrating to have a conversation with them because you’re forced to repeat yourself and speak unnaturally slowly. So, I agree that you must speak a lot in order to speak well, but input is always fundamental. In any language, including ones native language, listening is underrated.

[@agatastaniak7459]

Sometimes it does not depend on the goal but on your "liguustic circumstances". In my case foreing languages would normally start being present due to the life circumstances and more input than putput resulted from me being a student, being a child, being a friend or being a relative or being a younger child care-giver. And this is when one naturally becomes more input heavy learner. Naturally I am a perfect listener and reader type but my experience was not always aligned with this and it never really was up to my own choice. Rather dependent on outer circumstances. Maybe now when for the first time I'm trying to learn the langauge that I do not have to learn which is German I will experiment with the process depending on my own prefrences but the truth is I already know what works in my case and what does not work at all due to all other life situations in which I had little to say when it comes to how I learn languages.

[@Kitiwake]

They're on a trajectory though. Their comprehension will improve with persistence.

[@thedavidguy01]

@@Kitiwake Only if someone will talk with them because sometimes they refuse to get other input. This seems to apply to people who are very extroverted. They find passive listening boring.

[@一本のうんち]

@@Kitiwake comprehension should come first. nobody wants talking to somebody who's only talking to themselves.

[@quantus5875]

@@Kitiwake You can gain vocabulary by speaking, but many would argue it is much more efficient to gain vocabulary through reading and listening. The reality is you have to do both, and early on -- you are more "efficient" -- or at least most people are by spending more time on input.

[@Aadrian7]

As someone who learnt English entirely by listening to a massive amount of cartoons, KZbin videos, movies, etc. I can attest to this. When I first spoke English, 5-6 years after considering myself fluent (input-wise), my accent was really noticeable and it felt like I couldn't use my full knowledge of the language. Luckily, if you already know the language like I did, adapting yourself to be able to speak happens really fast in comparison to learning the actual language. I was forced to use English at my workplace and started being more confident and a lot less rigid in 2-3 months. That's why, I consider speaking sort of like the icing on the cake; the cake itself takes years to prepare.

[@Mariahmeuamor]

This is a great analogy!

[@andreab616]

Thank you for this, very encouraging! I'm learning Spanish through CI only and I really appreciate you sharing your time frame between knowing the language well through input and being able to talk like you know the language.

[@iclicklike3397]

@@andreab616 I grew up in a Soviet country, it collapsed when I was 7. Never tried to learn Russian, never bothered. Though with the sheer amount of exposure to it through media even after the collapse I had full comprehension by the time I graduated from high school. No input other than from TV/internet. Only had a chance to talk in Russian maybe once every 1-2 years. It is a bit hard at the beginning of a conversation but your brain soon switches over. Sometimes it takes a few moments to remember how to say a word, but it is there in the head.

[@andreab616]

@@iclicklike3397 Thank you for sharing your Russian language experience and the encouragement.

[@LifeRacerMe]

That's very well said and so true

[@DaiNghia-is3ov]

Combine them. Massive input helps you get the language faster. Nobody can speak without input. Spend almost your time on input, then practice speaking. That’s my opinion

[@Luna________]

The biggest factor for me is that getting a lot of imput before speaking just makes the learning curve when you actually practice speaking sooo much quicker and smoother. I basically had never had a full a conversation in english even though i was completely able to understand every type of media i consumed. So when i first started speaking regularly it only took me a few weeks to get to a comfortable conversational level about all topics

[@helenivanova5440]

I pay so little attention to a speaking skill, while spending pretty much time watching or hearing something. As a result, my input skills are not that bad, but as to speaking - i feel numb. Recently i started learning German, so i try to use a quite different approach with it and start speak from the very beginning, if even these are phrases made of 3 words.

[@btlim4316]

Do you speak to yourself though in your mind? Maybe you were capable already speaking to yourself in your head.

[@Luna________]

@@btlim4316 I don't know if I'd call it talking to myself in my head, but i was definitely able to quickly form english sentences when i had an idea. I think this just happens to anyone after having enough exposure to the language. I already do it to an extend in Spanish as well but not in a way that i can do it in every situation, so holding a conversation is a struggle because of it

[@quantus5875]

Yep, the same. I argue like Steve Kaufman does, that input is king. Everyone including Steve will tell you that you have to speak if you want to learn how to speak (no one in IMO that I know ever has said you can learn to speak through input alone), however what Steve argues that it's more efficient to focus on input first -- build that vocabulary to a decent level first -- and then speaking will be much easier. It's also a really good strategy if you're not living in a country that speak your target language. Interesting story with that interpreter -- I'd just argue if she wanted to learn to speak -- she could probably be speaking at a basic conversational level in weeks. What I actually find weird is that she apparently just doesn't want to learn to speak, even though she must have a 20K+ word vocabulary if her listening skills are perfect.

[@diegofiumarella2110]

My method is the following: 1. Listening webradios and watching KZbin videos 2. Enriching my vocabulary through reading and translating texts from the language I want to learn into my mother tongue 3. Writing a diary directly in the language I want to learn 4. Catching every possible chance to speak in conversations (travels, phone calls, friends and relatives that already know that language, and so on)

[@El_Soldado]

Wow. This is what I've been doing without putting it into words or steps like this... interesting.

[@Gorboduc]

Writing a diary is a really good idea!

[@nidaimeotokage8207]

Just realized your channel and lemme tell you that I admire people like you who speak at least 7-8 languages at least in intermediate level. I am writing this comment about my experience regarding the input method. The input method was always my biggest instrument in language learning. I love making experiences on myself when it comes to language learning and wanna share my last experience. Bulgarian is the last language I have learned and after getting to intermediate level with the grammar books, chats and then watching Indian series with Bulgarian audio in the Bulgarian TV channels for a while, I have decided to devote myself to the input method fully with reading. So I have started reading books(novels and historical/political books) and that made me speak in the language both fluently and academically. So far I have read 107 books(more than 25k pages totally) in Bulgarian(some of them are written even in old Bulgarian and include lots of archaic Bulgarian words), I haven't pay any attention to the output method and still I can speak in the language fluently. Besides Bulgarians are usually shocked when they see the way I am using the language. All I want to say is, it's quite possible to speak in the language well only with the input method. But the thing is, you have to do tons of input to get to this level.

[@tullochgorum6323]

My high-school French course was very traditional and input-oriented. By the time I left I could read Proust in the original, but I could barely order a coffee. The mass-input zealots argue that your input will somehow magically activate at some point, but that certainly doesn't apply to me. To speak with any fluency I need to drill and practice speaking.

[@davidcarrasco2344]

This has not been my experience... My native language is Spanish. I learnt English "by accident" (by watching KZbin videos, TV shows, movies, etc.), and after many years, I had a job interview where they wanted to check if I knew English, so they asked me a few questions in that language. I was able to answer as easily as if I was using Spanish (but with bad pronunciation). I realized after the interview that it was the first time that I had spoken in English. So in my experience, speaking a language is not necessary to learn to speak it; although it helps with pronunciation, but I find pronunciation mostly unimportant, as long as they understand what you say.

[@tommyriam8320]

You're ignoring the qualifies that Luca has used in assessing the quality of the spoken form eg. 'well' , _'in order to speak well or proficiently'_ etc.

[@rafaelpierre6930]

For me as well I'm Brazilian, my native language is Portuguese , learned French in 6 months just reading and listening, when I went on omegle to talk they even thought I was from Africa cuz in Brasil we don't speak French!

[@mcmerry2846]

​@@tommyriam8320exactly...homeless people under a bridge can speak English...but how good is their English??

[@binabina4445]

That’s fascinating and also encouraging.

[@jeffrichard5740]

I understand intermediate french podcast, but can not speak one sentence straight. My active verb-vocabulary is around 5, though I heard and understand many many verbs during months of listening.

[@RadicalPersonalFinance]

Your points are well-made and I agree with it. There's a more interesting corollary to this question that relates to the "Activation Hypothesis." My question is this: is extensive reading and listening without any significant effort to speak/write a more efficient pathway to full fluency (with all input/output skills) than trying to practice input and output from the very beginning? My hypothesis is that yes, it's a more efficient process. I tested this with my French skills. I read 1 million words from books while simultaneously listening to the audiobooks and using LingQ to look up unknown words over a 3-month period. I did not speak or write the language. Then I hired a French tutor to spend 3 days with me to practice conversation. After a few hours it seemed like my brain "activated" the language and I was able to converse comfortably with him. (Obviously I made many mistakes; I was also already fluent in Spanish.) After 3 days I took an official language exam and scored B2 on my speaking ability and B1 on my writing ability. This persuaded me that there's something to the "activation hypothesis." But more importantly for me is simply that I was able to do the language activities I wanted do (listening and reading) rather than the ones I didn't want to do (conversation and writing). This helped me spend more time with the language, which is obviously the fundamental metric to track. Great video! I'd love to hear from anyone else who has tested this "Activation Hypothesis."

[@LucaLampariello]

Right on the money =) "is extensive reading and listening without any significant effort to speak/write a more efficient pathway to full fluency (with all input/output skills) than trying to practice input and output from the very beginning?" Fully agreed!

[@muhilan8540]

This is also essentially what Matt vs. Japan did

[@leozeld_nb]

What if someone wants to do all four, what would you suggest? 🤔

[@mairovergara]

Great vid! At the end of the day, learning languages is a matter of putting in the hours in the specific abilities you want to develop. Want to read well? Read a lot. Want to speak well? Speak a lot. It really is a lot of work when you think that you need to read + listen + speak every day to become good at a language.

[@LucaLampariello]

Glad you like the video Mairo! You da man, as always ☺

[@musashi542]

you cant speak if u dont have enough words for that , so listening and reading are more important

[@guilhermefigueiredo766]

Legal, um brasileiro por aqui

[@AndreLuiz-eu8zx]

Manda um salve

[@listeningprofano]

Salve Mairo, você foi o cara mais importante na minha jornada do aprendizado do inglês. Suas lives fizeram eu realmente entender como o aprendizado de idiomas funciona. Abraço.

[@ammini999]

You know what I truly believe, that reading and listening can it be made completely for free, on the other hand to improve speaking, there is no way if you don’t live in the targeted language country, or you must pay loads of money per hour to practice it “properly”. Someone could say, you can find a speaking partner but if this person has got my level or a bit higher and they make mistakes I’ll pick those mistakes and learn them all, that’s why it is important to practice it with a proper English teacher or at least with a native with good knowledge, in that case you can improve it seriously. I cannot see any way out. This is my case, anyway, I read a lot out loud to improve my pronunciation, I like it and it works, and I listen to radios, podcasts, YT learning videos and many more. I don’t speak the language at all, unfortunately, the little English I can speak is thanks to the full immersion made in 2010 in London. But if I had more money I would invest them in speaking with teachers. I admire you Luca, I tried to get close to learning Spanish but I get confuse, 1 foreign language is enough for my brain, that’s why I see polyglots like you as aliens. 😂 una good sense of course.

[@Maidaseu]

The benefit of loads of input first will make speaking less frustrating as you'll perfectly understand the conversation and only have to focus on the actual speaking.

[@qazsedcft2162]

FINALLY someone who presents a reasonable point of view! I'm sick and tired of this whole "it's just input" bandwagon on KZbin. No. You don't just magically learn to speak without ever speaking.

[@marceloprevedi5092]

Totalmente de acuerdo Luca !!! Se que hablas un excelente castellano. Yo hablo 8 idiomas ( quizás 9 o 10, depende de cómo los contamos). Cuando necesito un alto nivel en determinado idioma trabajo sobre los cuatro fundamentos : leer, escribir, escuchar y hablar. Cuando no necesito hablar muy fluidamente y lo fundamental es poder leer con eficiencia y entender muy bien lo que se dice en televisión o en un vídeo de KZbin ( y eso es suficiente para el momento), trabajo muy duro en lectura y listening. Es por ello que logré avanzar muy rápido en lectura y listening en portugués, valenciano, catalán y gallego. Mi nivel allí es muy bueno, pero aún hablando catalán y valenciano reconozco que en ese punto mi nivel es muy inferior. Actualmente estoy estudiando ruso y Lengua argentina de señas para sordomudos y si consigo un buen material quiero ver algo de occitano , el único idioma que aparece en La divina comedia del gran DANTE ( Aparte del italiano por supuesto). Como siempre, haces un excelente trabajo.Un enorme saludo Italo - argentino .

[@Ari3870]

Hi Luca! Thanks! Fantastic tips!

[@LucaLampariello]

Glad you like the video and find it useful!

[@thiagoelav633]

i think that for someone that only read, its impossible to speak the language. for those that read little, and listen a lot, with considerable amount of practice are able to speak. for those that both read a lot and listen a lot, i think its way easier to make the transition to speaking, because if you listen a lot you know the sounds of the words, when we are listening, we are only focused in understanding but when we are reading we "produce" the sound of each word we are reading, even if its not outloud, so its like a guided speak training each time we read, but if you dont read outload, when you do decide to start to speak, there are going to be problems with pronunciation, because you dont have the "muscle memory" to produce the sounds, and some recall problems at first, but its not like you have to learn something completly difficult, for the "muscle memory" part you can take especific classes/tutoring(i had to do it in my own native language, lol), and for the recall part, you can practice by thinking in the language or writing, but ultimately to start to speak, you will have to speak, but it will only take you(i believe) just a couple of days to get used to.( if had previous listened and read a lot, practiced some sounds of the language and recall skills)

[@topcat2001]

I learnt Hindi solely by watching movies/tv shows and music videos over a period of 6-8 years when I was growing up in India and this was all before the Internet so everything was from TV. Where I grew up there was literally no other content in Hindi and no one else spoke the language.

[@RhillEnglish]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🗣️ There are two main ways to practice a language: input (listening and reading) and output (speaking and writing). 01:09 🎯 Your language learning goals determine whether you can learn a language solely through input practice. 02:18 🤯 Skilled inputters may not necessarily be skilled outputters; you can have perfect input skills but zero output skills. 03:52 🔄 You will only develop the language skills you actively practice; you can't rely on one or two skills to magically develop the others. 05:02 📚 Readers, who focus on written language, can effectively learn a language through input practice without the need for speaking. 06:09 👂 Listeners, primarily interested in spoken language, benefit from a balance of reading and listening to improve language comprehension. 07:05 💬 Speakers, aiming for conversational skills, must practice both input and output skills to become comfortable and confident in speaking. 08:16 📖🎧 While it's possible to learn through listening and reading alone, it depends on your language goals; speaking requires a combination of input and output practice.

[@clysen8234]

In my expierience, this is totally true. Because, I am able communicate easily on the internet wia comments, but when it comes to speaking it, somehow I stumble.

[@LouvoresPauloRicardo]

Thanks, Luca! First, I learned English reading, but I didn't develop my listening, writing, and speaking skills. So, after that, I improved my listening. Today, I can read and listen, but I can't speak/write fluently. So, I am taking classes and practicing speech, but I don't have the confidence to do so. This is my current challenge! The brain seems to have different compartments for each of these skills.

[@maicidiecagem]

I think you are absolutely right, we need to pratice both skills, input and output. I am from Brazil and i speak portuguese, one of my ways to be motivated with my English progress is to choose some text or some audio/video in a language that i know absolutely nothing (German, French, Russian, Chinese for example) and listen or read and compare with my compreension in English. Doing it you can see you are understanding very well if you compare to the other languages, because when you are in a intermediate-advanced level the progress will be slow and chances are you get unmotivated.

[@Rudolphhhhhh]

Since there are people learning extinct languages, yes, it is possible to learn languages without speaking (although I think it is far from ideal). In my case, I learn languages essentially in order to read, but I try my best to develop the four skills. But I think writing is a skill that we should not underestimate, especially if we want to speak. Indeed, by writing, we have all the time we need to think about what we want to say, so that it is a good output training. By doing that, it helps the learner to learn how to use what he had read or listened to, before being able to use it directly without thinking when speaking.

[@helenivanova5440]

I know i must apply myself to output skills, but tome by time i fall for temptation to watch one more video and to read comments below or a book maybe. So now my input skills are b2 or even c1 sometimes, but my speaking skill is hardly a2 , i guess. It feels very uncomfortable, i would advise nobody to follow my way.

[@belle_pomme]

Not extinct, but dead languages. They are not the same. Latin and ancient Greek are dead while Sumerian and ancient Egyptian are extinct.

[@Rudolphhhhhh]

@@belle_pomme Since I gave no examples of extinct languages in my first comment (so I didn't talk about Latin or ancient Greek), I don't understand your comment. Besides, Latin is not really a dead language because it is an official language of Vatican City.

[@belle_pomme]

@@Rudolphhhhhh So are you saying there are people learning extinct languages?

[@Rudolphhhhhh]

@@belle_pomme Yes. For example, ancient Egyptian with hieroglyphic script.

[@Nikita35485]

I have to learn English vastly through the videos and papers because I have the Internet access and no natives around me. Though there are some people who want to practice the language in my city, I still should go to the place where we can speak eye to eye, and I'm lazy. But online calls are a really good solution of the problem.

[@RicardoSilvaTripcall]

I usually read and listen a lot, but have neglected my writing and speaking skills for several years, but I'm working on it right now.

[@LucaLampariello]

Glad to hear Ricardo =)

[@tonylanguagehd1050]

That woman, Luca Lampariello , who you met, said she didn't speak a word of German. She either lied to you or didn't want to talk. That's my point of view because I'm studying German myself, and I've been learning grammar from all sources. Well, well, well. So, I don't speak German, but I can form sentences. If you ask me a question, I can answer in German, with difficulties, but I can do it. I have conversations, I know how to introduce myself. I can go to a supermarket or any place and ask for whatever I need and hold a conversation with a second person, not fluently, but at least I'm doing something. Because comprehensible input helps you form sentences and helps you converse. How do you have enough words? Can you already form your sentences? You will make mistakes, but you will form them. I understand that comprehensible input helps because when children are learning a language, they don't speak at first, they understand and gradually start speaking, saying "papa," "mama," they learn. And they don't focus on speaking, but the impulse helps with production to be able to speak.

[@LucaLampariello]

I have a lot of friends who work as conference interpreters. This is why they have "passive" and "active" languages (for interpretation purposes). In particular, another glaring example of this is my Australian friend. He works at the UN, interprets from Spanish into English, but barely speaks the language

[@DevlogBill]

Wow, that was a great explanation. I've always assumed if you knew a language, you were well versed in that particular language.

[@undekagon2264]

I am a reader, very much and mainly. a copyist monk. loving to see and feel language on paper. speaking and writing skills only went up in english out of necesity to use it as a reference language for learning other languages. it took me 20 years or more to get my mouth open, in all other languages I more or less plainly refuse to have spoken conversations at all.

[@giovannidecristofaro8905]

In China there’s a lot of people (I call them ENS, “English Ninja Speakers”) who seem to be absolutely unable to speak English, but they do understand everything you say and answer you in Chinese

[@SlimerGame]

I'm from Brazil, and I've started learning English about almost 8 months, I truly don't know where I could fit myself in whether I'm a listener, reader or even a speaker what I really doubt, however I'd like to throw myself in the middle of it as a learner I'm trying to do all of it, as a learner I'm putting the most part of my efforts on listening and reading because to me it is the most important thing we can do at the beginning, when we talk about learning a language we need to have an almost perfect listening it is the pivotal column to shortly after start to speak, if you understand the spoken language you can speak it as well, however, you're not able to speak it perfectly without trained before, but I truly say to you that you can speak it with some mistakes but could still functional, otherwise it couldn't be possible, you need to have a natural listening almost close to your native language to can practice a good output so, my tip for those learning a foreign language right now is, put your efforts in listening and reading at least for 1 year, you can also speak if you want but remember as much as you listening more your brain will be used to the language, and you'll be close to the natural listening what will be the pivotal column as aforementioned, ever remember if you understand you can reply otherwise it's impossible, btw sorry about my mistakes I'm learning, I hope every one of you guys enjoy your language learning journey and have fun on the way :D

[@Nico97fr]

I have learnt english through reading and listening 90% of the time, and at some point, through writting on online forums, social networks like youtube, and through text conversations with some acquaintances made along the way online. As long as you can read (if you do it out loud, you will train your accent), that you understand speech and are able to produce your own sentences (which can be trained through writing), speaking is not really necessary (or at least, it can be practiced alone, together with reading). It's not always easy to find people who have time and motivation to talk to you, unless if you pay a tutor. I rarely even find people on dedicated language exchange apps who will stick to the conversation after barely introducing themselves: some of them quickly losing focus & motivation, while the others didn't have the basics of their target language in the first place and were only able to write a few words with google translate before giving up out of frustration.

[@MovieRiotHD]

I learned English without speaking it, just with massive input (as you naturally get living in the Netherlands).

[@morriscolenbrander1395]

Actually i do notice that a lot of us dutchies understand English very well but start to struggle when they are unexpectedly put in a situation where they have to speak it

[@nicolecaldas6597]

Thank you. I learn faster with listening and then practicing and some how I have learned how to write it. I learned Spanish without 1 day of formal schooling. Yet I can read, write and speak it. Well enough to translate it both ways. English to Spanish and vice a versa.

[@Lis-qz7qo]

I think it depends a lot on where your focus is. There were years when I watched a lot of English content, focusing only on understanding. Sometimes, when I’m tired or relaxed, I just watch without really thinking about it. But there have been, and still are, many times when I actively watch something and reflect on patterns, idiomatic structures, or new words I didn’t know before. Sometimes, I focus more on the sounds, particularly on words that I already know how to write but not pronounce. Sometimes, I repeat the melody of the language in my head. So, in my opinion, it all depends on where your focus is (also subconsciously). I don’t think you automatically learn how to pronounce words, especially in more difficult languages or those that are very different from your own. The same applies to your mother tongue. In school, some of our teachers were convinced that people who read a lot write better essays. This idea always bothered me. Just because you read a lot doesn’t mean you’re a good writer. I mean, yes, it *can* help your skills, but it depends on your focus while reading, your general level of concentration, and your specific attention to words, structures, patterns, etc. I believe that the subconscious mind does a LOT of the work while passively absorbing a new language, but it will reach a limit.

[@fridays_are_awesome]

I just skimmed through comments here from the top, and it makes me even more certain that every part of studying another language is so necessary that you want to put in effort into listening, reading, writing and speaking all around. It looks very time-consuming but also it is worth all that effort considering we are all interconnected in the world. Power through !!

[@MatPete]

Anyways, it seems learning a language always starts with input, not even with simultaneous input and output, and output is optional depending on your goals. So, the comprehensive input theory is quite correct and in conclusion beginners shouldn’t be forced to start speaking too early before they accumulate certain level of passive skills.

[@AristoteMakabu]

My goal has always been speaking the language that I'm learning. So combining input and output is critically important to get me hitting that goal. Thank you for your insightful suggestions.

[@Glennn7]

0:41 It should be "writing".

[@thiagoelav633]

3:15 honestly, she probably could talk, but probably its better to give this explanation, instead of trying to speak a language she is not used to speak frequently, make a mistake and then make you question her ability in the language as a whole, or just because it was a professional meeting and she wouldnt feel confortable to struggle her way through a conversation. in other words her definition of "speak" a language is probably higher than for most people.

[@Daniel-qi1ld]

Hi, Luka, long time no see you!

[@philippe-lebel]

I'm a listener but when someone ask me if I speak english I my answer is : no (or under torture maybe). I started learning with app allowing to memorize vocabulary with "spaced repetitions" technique and I continue with the huge amount of content the internet provide. I'm not a speaker because everybody around me speak my native language and I have no opportunities or reason to practice english. So I'm able to writte some simples sentences but I have difficulties to find the accurate word and I don't master the grammar and the "connotations" of somme words or "idioms". I'm not talking about "identified" idioms but the fact that some words always go together and other not even the meaning is correct. It's always make weird phrases that only you aren't aware.

[@glottalmoves]

Obviously I fall into INPUTTERS category because I haven't been practicing speaking English and German with others. Well, this video triggers me to move on to the other side which might bring me some exhilarating experience in the near future for sure. My hearty appreciations to you Luca and am looking forward to meet you in Budapest soon🇮🇳

[@evancolby2274]

I think you definitely need to practice speaking to become highly proficient, but, in my experience, just listening and reading can take you to an intermediate level in speaking. I taught myself Greek for a year on my own and did almost no speaking practice. Then, I went to Greece for a month and found that I could speak Greek reasonably well. It improved with practice of course, but I was already able to communicate effectively from day one.

[@beanpasteposts]

Nah, you really don’t. I can read pretty much anything in Japanese I come across, including older texts, but my speaking is conversational level at best. I’m in my thirties now and first started learning to read it in my teens (I wanted to read manga lol). Even though I don’t use it for speaking, I was still able to communicate and make my way around Japan when I visited.

[@DANGJOS]

​@@beanpasteposts You sound like me, except I started learning Japanese later and probably can't read nearly as well. But still, I'm currently reading a novel yet can barely speak at all

[@habit_of_studying]

That's something I listened to as a beginner but never properly heard. Most of the videos about language learning start with "set your goals," and I was always like, "Oh, my goal is to learn the language you're talking about in this video, let's skip this part" :D But now, with 7 languages behind me, I can say that setting a goal is the most important part because, as you said, it defines how you should learn a language. I absolutely agree with you!

[@terencecole980]

I totally agree with everything he is saying! I worked hard to get my Spanish to a solid level, and the skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking are four distinct skills.

[@a5dr3]

I learned french without being able to speak it hardly at all. Speaking does help me though when I get the chance. - I just have conversations with myself.

[@stephencindrich6787]

These are very helpful and surprising anecdotes! Terrific work, Luca! Thanks so much.

[@alexandregb566]

It's an interesting point that you pointed out. The goal of learning a language is a really important topic. Everything about language learning depends on your goals. For example, my goal is to be a translator. I want to translate from English to Brazilian Portuguese (my native tongue). I have to learn the grammar rules of my own language thoroughly in order to make a competent translation. And I don't have to do the same in English because I won't translate from Portuguese to English. I don't have to have output skills in English to achieve my goal. But if my goal were to translate from any language to English, I would have to learn the grammar rules in English deeply in order to write in a competent way.

[@DLusby]

Thanks for the video! A few thoughts... Although I defer to your experience and impressive accomplishments with language learning, I did find it curious that the German interpreter couldn't speak a word. In my experience, I have never encountered anyone like this. I could readily believe that she said that, that maybe she even believed that, and if forced to speak she might make errors and feel uncomfortable, though... I'm just quite surprised to have heard that. Also, I would love it if we stopped referring to input activities in general as 'passive'. This is so common, it's not a criticism at all or of your video (just an observation). Input activities are often still looked down on by some and the first negative criticism I'll hear is that they are 'passive'. Passive in the the sense not opening one's mouth...? Yes. But otherwise, for me at least, if I'm actually really listening and engaged, I'm actively listening. It's probably the most cognitively focused and demanding language task for me. I'm late-diagnosed with ADHD though, so maybe other people are different. I get that most people mean 'not speaking' when they say 'passive', but I thought it would add to the conversation by saying that.

[@christopherfleming7505]

Very interesting video. I am learning Polish, and am struggling with the output. I can listen to podcasts and read most news articles without too much difficulty, but the moment I open my mouth it's like my brain shuts down. I have an Italki tutour, so I'm working on it, but Luca is 100% right; if you don't consciously work on your speaking skills, you won't be able to speak. However, I believe that without all the hours I have put into listening and reading, I would never be able to speak properly.

[@smsflemingsf]

Dawu temu nauczyłem się języka polskiego ale się poddałem bo to jest język bardzo trudny. Zdecydowałem nauzyć się jęzka hiszpańskiego. Życzę ci powodzenia!

[@christopherfleming7505]

@@smsflemingsf Musimy uzbroić się w cierpliwość. Z czasem wszystko jest możliwe. Pozdrowienia z Hiszpanii!

[@1989jedinight]

It depends on how much exposure and time you had building your input passive vocabulary. I learned spanish by myself, wtihout ever spoken a word of it, but I was learning like hell for 4 years through reading and listening and at the end I could just speak because I had 10 000 words in my head. I just had to use them. So I needed two weeks to speak without efforts.

[@mlocascio656]

Glad I watched the video, thank you. I knew a little French from school. I wanted to learn Spanish on my own. I started reading easy stuff but realized that I couldn't read because I didn't know how to pronounce the words. So, I learned basic pronunciation and listened to some podcasts and audio-books, which helped. I also tried an app or two. Next, I learned that I needed more vocabulary. Then I needed to study verbs, along with their conjugations. I'm still trying to read, listen, and learn. It will take me years but I enjoy it, and maybe that's important too!

[@mlocascio656]

Wow, thanks so much for the heart ❤😊!

[@ldg1414]

It really says how much of an introvert I am that I can't really understand why I would wanna learn to speak in another language, I already have trouble speaking in my native language as it is. But exploring content in another language is just so satisfying.

[@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig]

Hi Luca, thanks for this great video and especially for this very interesting story about your conversation with the interpreter. I really thought that interpreters also had to translate into their target languages, at least sometimes. What you describe is absolutely possible for translators who (normally) always translate (written texts) into their mother tongue (you know that, but not everybody does). This means perfect knowledge of the target language including in very specific fields of expertise, but absolutely no need to speak the language.

[@FrankKendralla]

Excellent - After studying Spanish for a few months, with minimal speaking, I agree with you. I continue to gain reading and listening skills, but my speaking skills are minimal, which I am aggressively working on as my goal is to be able to converse as I travel. Great video!

[@leticia5562]

Same

[@olg-ud8vz]

Огромное Вам спасибо! Это то, что я давно хотел услышать.

[@jaehwan123]

This was incredibly informative. I especially liked your story about the interpreter.

[@LucaLampariello]

Glad you liked it and found it useful! :-)

[@Tehui1974]

Another great video. All the best Luca from New Zealand.

[@LucaLampariello]

Thanks! New Zealand! I'd love go there sooner or later, one of my dreams!

[@Tehui1974]

@@LucaLampariello I'm sure you hear this sort of thing all the time, but you're welcome to stay at my place in Wellington if you visit.

[@davidbrisbane7206]

Leaned an unfamiliar middleware scripting language by reading it and reading about what the script should do in the design documents, which had logics and objects described in a sort of meta language that humans could easily understand. After a few months, I was able to follow consequences of the logic in the middlleware script and this made me a much better designer. Could I write in the script language ... No chance!

[@andreab616]

In my limited experience (learning Spanish as a second language), the word separation issue wasn't a big deal because I started with super easy comprehensible input (shout out to Dreaming Spanish). So, I didn't do the reading early on to address that. Though I LOVE reading, I was repelled by reading in Spanish (because it was too hard to be fun) until about 1000 hours of comprehensible input. Still, it took me four months to read three Captain Underpants books, ha. But now I'm onto "chapter books" for kids and I've got that zest for reading in Spanish, I think because I found a good fit. Also, I just met a Mexican guy who told me he learned English 98% through Netflix and KZbin and now he does simultaneous translation for 911 calls. Wow! Thank you, Luca, for this great video. Only shame is it's not in Spanish, ha ha. I'd love it if you make more Spanish videos, I think I've seen them all so far!

[@stacey7529]

I started learning Spanish 10 months ago. I changed my phone, computer, search engines and all social media to Spanish about 4 months ago. I was told to read as much as possible in Spanish to learn it. Well it worked for reading. I started to focus on listening by listening to short stories, music and random KZbin videos in Spanish. I'm doing ok with comprehension. When it comes to actually speaking, I pretty much can't speak a word. I'm advanced in reading, I'm A2-B1 in comprehension, depending on the context and how clearly someone speaks. I'm a beginner in actually speaking. 🤦‍♀️ I'm starting with a tutor to help me with my speaking.

[@sulye4277]

Puedes intentar "pensar" en español.lo que para mi esta mal dicho por que enrealidad no hay diferencia con el hablar.hablar o pensar en español es lo mismo.intenta resolver problemas o hacerte preguntas a ti misma en español te va a servir bastante

[@acmfloripa5877]

Great video. Learning about comprehensible input gives the impression that conversation does not play a role in language learning. But my experience also shows that speaking is very important for the ability to talk. It is very difficult to talk if you have only comprehensible input by listening and reading.

[@ponta1162]

I am focusing on input because now my goal is to enjoy the contents of KZbin​, movies and dramas. So currently i can understand, read and write in 11 languages but I just can speak 6 languages, i don't know if i can speak the rest 5 languages since i've never tried to speak them. But eventually i would like to improve my speaking skill too. 😸

[@djfearross4144]

I actually agree. I was learning Spanish through watching videos, Spanish books etc. However , although i did practice speaking a bit, speaking was never a priority. I had 3 job interviews in Spanish and got the job. But once in actual office, when memorized phrases wouldn't cut it, my Spanish failed me. Now i do language exchanges, with different people every week and it was the single biggest thing i did to learn Spanish.

[@MandyCaputo]

I defo am a listener. I actually can understand a lot more languages than the number I do speak. I even have a bunch of friends with whom I only converse in parallel mode; meaning both using our native language without switching

[@ad2894]

Interesting stuff! One thing I'm a bit skeptical about thing is that idea that reading is mandatory for learning to speak a language. I have to disagree with this. There's no shortage of people who can't read but speak their language just fine

[@Romancelanguagespassion]

Creo que es el mejor vídeo que he visto en tu canal, muy interesante. Gracias!

[@Dan.50]

I have a young cousin that learned Hindi from her dad, English from her mom and Spanish from her nanny before she was 10 years old.

[@juan_salvador_gaviota]

My goal is to be strong in all 4 areas, but my weakness has always been with listening. So for my next language I’ll be focusing 90% of my time listening.

[@LucaLampariello]

Great decision ;-) Listening is, in my opinion a pivotal skill in language learning

[@SuperMeatyhead]

I think if you live in uk or us you will have great difficulty ever being able to speak another language. I mean by this that in normal everything day life you never would have an opportunity to speak French in my instance. I never hear French and I do not know a single person who would know even one word of French. Now this doesn’t put me off learning it. I listen to podcasts. I use LingQ for all my input. But to tell you the truth I don’t really bother to make a conversation with anyone else. I speak with myself and I do shadowing a lot and enjoy it. But when I join a site for speaking it’s the same tale. What the hell am I doing here! I really have no wish to speak with strangers on subjects that I have no interest. It’s stressful too and my job is already enough of that! I mean really I already speak the international language so no bother needing to say anything else in another. I think with your podcast Luca you hit the nail on the head. I think in language learning you have to enjoy what you are doing and that’s not necessarily speaking it.

[@mariorestrepojcg]

Lucca, you're the Jedi Skywalker of languages. I hope to become your Padawan.

[@mariajosepereaayuso4065]

😂

[@konyvnyelv.]

His name is Luca. Lucca is a city in Tuscany

[@rickinho99h]

😂😂😂😂

[@amandaferreira7536]

excelente, voce fala bem claramente . muito bom pro meu entendimento.

[@pierangelosaponaro2658]

Hi, ciao. I am Italian America. Born in Italy, raised in the United States. I admire your videos. You, along with a few other Italian KZbinrs speak great English, that is an understatement. You speak many languages. You showcase that. I want to say that I like languages. I can use several. Italian has always been my goal. I am always trying to maintain and improve it. Because of my knowledge of Italian, it helps me with other Romance languages, as well as other Indo-European languages. It is the bridge, I believe.

[@nadinerose101]

Absolutely, we are what we do - our abilities are just the sum of what we've practiced, and with languages improving one skill can help other skills develop too. I especially appreciated the example you gave of reading and listening skills - I think reading is too often neglected, when it's incredibly helpful for boosting your overall competency. I have a funny example of someone who was a "writer" - I knew someone who took French for 4 years in high school. He told me he literally could not speak a word of it and couldn't understand it spoken at all. Because of the way our school taught French, he could only read and write! He joked he'd just have to carry around post it notes to write on to communicate with native speakers when traveling, lol

[@naseeha101]

Such an interesting story!

[@heinerrojasmckenzie5081]

Fabulous video, full of insights. Thank you very much for this great content.

[@anitawaters4745]

Merci Luca! Une vidéo très informative et intéressante. Merci pour la clarification, moi, mon but c’est parler mais j’écoute et je lis beaucoup plus!!!!

[@szk2024]

Let’s say I’d like to learn your beautiful mother tongue, Italian. It’s important for me because I have Italian heritage, but more importantly, I’m in love with it; it’s been my childhood dream. How should I start? (And I do want to speak it properly.) I understand that video is about “without speaking it”, but we can make a compromissum: give me a hint (a book, another language teacher…) about Venetian dialect. Grazie!

[@barbivanblijwenen2263]

Reader and listener here!! ( B 2 level in Dutch ) . Since February I have been concentrating on speaking and writing.

[@miroslavpetrov8933]

Incredible! Thank you, Luca, for sharing this experience and knowledge!

[@patrick32]

I'm definitely a reader because it aligns best with my deep interest in the history of other countries. But I also think that the transfer from other related languages is easier in reading because you have more time to reflect while doing it. The other day I returned from a vacation in Danmark, where I bought about six books, that I can read with some effort. But I couldn't say more than "Hello" and "Thank you" and my listening skills aren't much better. The reason for this is, that I have a good level of Swedish and some or even good knowledge in all other major Germanic languages besides Islandic (In Norwegian and Dutch, my reading skills are also by far the best-developed skills). Therefore I find plenty of hints when I have to decipher an unknown Danish word, even if I have to spend a second thinking about it.

[@Vinicius-kg2ml]

I've been a speaker since day 1. I remember it being so frustrating at the start but it paid off.

[@AlonsoAndreGS]

Ciao Luca mi mancano tanto i video en francais, italien, etc J'espère que vous pourrez enregistrer plus de vidéos dans d'autres langues. Tysm, gracias por este gran video!

[@LucaLampariello]

Sarà fatto =)

[@dwaalling95]

This an excellent explaination and so true. I see so many people in the language learning community becoming more and more "input only" extremists. Believing that output will somehow ruin language learning for them entirely. I think this is because the input only method is easy to sell. "just watch moovies all the time". This is hugely flawed especially with languages like Chinese (my target language) where sooooo many words are pronounced exactly the same. It would be impossible to learn it to a high level with input only and no deliberate practice or at least some skills building (especially if you'd like to be able to read characters). Balance is key, a decent amount of input, but at some point if you want to speak well you'd have to speak. Precisely what you said, you get good at the language skills you actually practice.

[@franciscpitthan]

Thank you very much Luca, that's a video I needed! I've been a passive learner of italian for the past months (most through listening), and I find that I can understand mostly everything, but I still struggle with speaking. I should indeed start having more direct practice!

[@samiahmood4988]

I think you are right. I'm the living example of this kind of learners. I've been learning Urdu for three years passively so to speak ie reading and listening because my goal is to be able to understand the language, its music and movies. I had no need to develop my conversational skills in that language simply because speaking was not a part of my plan .

[@manfredneilmann4305]

Thanks for this very informative video! I would put myself into the "reader" and "listener" categories. I've been trying to learn some French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese by using text books and grammars, and by listening to songs, interviews and movies in those languages. But, except for English which I started to learn in secondary school, it's difficult for me to speak those languages.

[@pepsicolla123]

Because you don't use it actively, listening and reading are more passive skills than speaking and writing:)

[@Kitiwake]

Input is great You can gain good comprehension. At my own stage I've gained some live sympathetic native speakers and am advancing my comprehension and speaking abilities rapidly.

[@sergiorodrigues6694]

The ultimate goal any language learning process is comunicate and for that purpose speaking is fundamental. So I think just reading and listening, whithout speaking, definetely is not enougj!

[@josebenito15]

Keep on listening.. Always. Babies learn from listening the words pronounced around them.. And don't worry too much if you don't have many opportunities to speak.. One week ago I went to Dublin, my first trip after Covid Pandemic, and my English spoken was the same after 3 long years without speaking . I need to say, my English speaking Skills aren't BBC speakers standard but good enough for getting my message across... So, who could ask for anything more? Greetings from Spain and keep on listening.. Always!! 🏖️

[@JoseNobregaN]

Good video, i'm trying to learn the three, listening, writing and speaking without course, just alone, it's hard don't have anyone to talk but it's ok, i'm going to get.

[@harrygyles3113]

brilliant, Luca! Will be passing this on to students of mine!

[@pierangelosaponaro2658]

Also, regarding the content of this video, I agree with you a lot. My opinion is reading will help all areas, especially eventually with deeper knowledge. When we read, we help our writing abilities. We also see words that we can potentially pronounce to help us speak and when we hear words, which we can get from reading. While we read, we should read aloud, which is speaking to ourselves, or as if we are conversing with someone else.

[@pumaroger75]

Spot on regarding the fact that not all vocabulary we learn gets automatically active. Learning Italian as my fourth language makes me a testimony of such fact as I had quite a hard time skeaking it even after reading bunches of books and watching lots of videos and films in Italian. Che palle!

[@meine.wenigkeit]

When you hit the refresh button and see a freshly uploaded video from Luca Lampariello - 😌😏

[@STREAMINGACCESS]

Luv the tight shirt 😋

[@circulodedionisio4713]

Excellent video. Since I started studying English, I have improved my abilities in all aspects of learning a language, speaking, listening, writing, and reading. But I am better at listening and reading, than writing and speaking. Actually, my worst ability is to speak. I can write a little better than I speak. Hope I will be able to speak fluently one day.

[@tedcrowley6080]

Super-interesting and informative video! I'm definitely an input language learner. I get to B1 or B2 level (input) and then start another language. I'm only fluent (speaking) in English. I can write in others (with many stops to look up words), but I don't know enough words to speak. Like I said to someone recently, "Yo tengo solamente un mil, dos mil palabras. Tu tienes trente mil."

[@Limemill]

It is reeeealy rare for a high-level conference interpreter to not speak their L2 fluently. In fact, having a background in conference interpreting myself, I doubt it's even possible. Yes, you should be first and foremost extra proficient in your L1, a notch above even some of the best native speakers of your mother tongue, but you must have a very decent level in L2, including in speaking, since how can you render a message in it if you can't speak it?

[@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig]

Thanks for your comment, that's what I thought. But I don't know any conference interpreter and I don't know how you guys work. It would be very interesting to get more comments about this topic.

[@Limemill]

@@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig What would you want to know?

[@Limemill]

@@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig My assumption is that this lady only ever interpreted from German into French (which is rare unless we're talking about the UN, where you are only supposed to interpret into your mother tongue). So her speaking skills in German may have been somewhat rusty, but I would never believe her level was really bad. It has to be at least around C1

[@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig]

@@Limemill I wanted to know exactly that. Translators are supposed to translate only into their mother tongue. I thought that interpreters always had to interpret into the foreign language, too. Perhaps she didn't want to speak German with Luca because her German was a bit rusty or because of her possible French accent. As a director one has to be "perfect".

[@Limemill]

@@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig It's a hard rule in the UN mostly. In the Council of Europe, for example, you will often be working in both directions. Then again, if you make a living as a conference interpreter, you probably attend a lot of international forums, business meetings, etc., where you will also find yourself working in both directions. A rule that is far more prevalent among simultaneous interpreters is to always work in pairs and switch every 30 minutes or so (I think it's 20 in the UN). Sometimes people forego this rule and accept solo jobs, but that is really bad for your health (both for your heart and your brain), at least this is the street wisdom / hearsay. Also, it's not mandatory, but the resting peer can do some prep work for themselves and their colleague, such as obtain documents for the upcoming address, maybe find all the acronyms in them and Google them ahead of time, etc., so that both interpreters are better prepared for whatever comes next. In an ideal world, all the presentations are provided in advance, but in reality very often you either get nothing at all or only some docs, and at the last minute at that.

[@RamCasel]

i need the four. Thanks for the video