Day 26: Assimil - Challenging Korean

[@philtrem]

You're right, it's easy to get distracted. I was supposed to be watching math lectures, and instead I'm watching your videos.

[@philtrem]

Assimil does give the individual translations of the words. I notice you have the old version of the book, maybe that's different, but I know that in my assimil books you have both proper translations and literal translations which break down what every single word means.

[@pesahson]

Loved the beginning! It seems like you have a lot of fun with these videos. Keep it up. And of course, as usual, it was informative.

[@nicoleraheem1195]

Camera moves upward 0:06 Me: "Oh, hi there. I didn't see you. I'm Steve Kaufman and today I'd like to talk to you about Korean Language learning. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor would you mine? Could you be mine." I really thought he would say something like this 😂

[@davidlangellotti4668]

Before finding Lingq, I used Assimil to get my French from tourist level to a decent intermediate level. I estimate that I got about 200 hours of input from looping the CDs. That being said, the French edition is phenomenally well written - and this makes sense being that their French/English and English/French editions are their flagships. Maybe after another couple of generations Assimil Korean will be just as good.

[@Thelinguist]

I prefer to cover more ground, more new words, more different contexts, rather than just looping the same content. To each his own. You can't argue with Luca's results.

[@ValentinaSagunova]

I wish my husband would be interested in language learning using your methods! :)))))

[@nubemuffin]

The Chinese Assimil gives you a literal definition for each word. On top it has the translation Below it has the literal meaning

[@KevJYT]

Best start for a language learning video ever! Very true as well.

[@LD-ui9kf]

I use Assimil for every language I study, and I think that completion of a book results in a large vocabulary for the learner, and these books ease the reader well into a LingQ Intermediate series. I love how Assimil repeats words through context, and the overall quality of the audio/dialogue sets the standard for any other language book. For me, Teach Yourself used on it's own, then halfway through start combining it with Assimil and using LingQ, is a great way to absorb a large vocabulary which can be used both passively and actively, when Speaking/Writing and when Listening/Reading native content. It's also great that me and Luca share names, because when you speak, I think Steve is talking about me! :D Thanks, Luca.

[@Thelinguist]

Luca means polyglot in some languages.

[@estrafalario5612]

I'm using the Assimil Portuguese for Spaniards and, well...thanks God this is my second starter course and the first explained properly the sounds and how to read in Portuguese! Thanks to that I don't have to deal with the pronunciation "aid", which is actually more complex than the real Portuguese. Better not to talk about the grammar explanations... It has some good points (at the end, I'm using it), but you need about 4-8 times more content on top of it, in order to keep the track, otherwise you're lost, because it tries to cover from 0 to B2 (text, explanations and exercises) all in 125 pages of pocket-book size (I don't count the translation as content)

[@Kines332]

Really admire your achievement Steve. However, thinking how you would say something in your target language is useful as long as you get immediate feedback by seeing the correct way. Translation is part of very interesting methods of Michel Thomas and Paul Noble. Words are not the basic units of language. Chunks are. It is easier to break sentences down into chunks than build chunks up from individual words. That is the superiority of Assimil. Your passive reading and listening phase is your comfort zone and it has served you well. However if you focused on chunks rather than words and spent some active effort in translation I'm sure you would learn even faster.

[@pianobreath]

Good to see a foreigner trying to learn our Korean :) If anyone needs help, I can help you through Skype I guess ^^ ㅋㅋㅋ

[@d7moon789]

해피해피 I wish I saw your comment 5 years ago hhhh thank you for being good person :)

[@EasyFinnish]

Awesome Steve!

[@floodland99]

Really like your kitchen & the kitchen cabinets have a nice finish to them. In one of Felix's(loki) old videos he says he listens to an Assimil dialogue 15 times and then reads & listens 15 times. It seems each polyglot has their own way(s) of working with content. My eyes glaze over & I start to drift after the 4th listen of just about anything.

[@Jessyidiomas]

Great videos, watching them from my awesome country COLOMBIA☺

[@hajimesenpai7996]

It would be nice to have a full Assimil Korean course but the sad part is.....it's only in French which i can't understand at all. I'll have to find something else for Korean....

[@GoodMorningButch]

C'est vraiment intéressant à quel point les gens sont différents dans leur étude des langues. Moi, j'aime bien varier énormément ce que je fais, mais apprendre par cœur, ou apprendre de la grammaire, ça marche très bien pour moi. LingQ fonctionne aussi bien pour moi, mais je n'ai pas besoin de texte+audio nécessairement tout le temps.

[@Thelinguist]

Je suis surtout motive par l'intérêt du contenu, et par le désir d'accumuler un vocabulaire qui me permettra de mieux comprendre. La grammaire ou la precision viendra après . Mais l'important c'est de faire ce que nous trouvons agréable. Comme cela nous y mettrons le temps nécessaire .

Bonjour :D I stumbled on your video because Assimil and Korean and 1) Je suis surprise par votre âge mais mais waouh !! that is friggin' awesome!! I admire you for still being curious and passionate about learning languages :D gives me hope for myself because I want to learn Japanese after i sort of master Korean and maybe Mongolian in my later years :D Merci pour cette vid et je vais probablement regarder les autres aussi :D ps : j,ai adorée le "romanization was hopeless" et oh mon dieu je suis tellement d'accord !! les livres qui enseignent le coréen devraient limiter cette torture au premier chapitre, le temps que l'étudiant assimile les sons et on s'en débarasse après ! De un c'est extrèment distrayant et ca ne force pas le lecteur à lire les lettres coréennes, mais par automatisme a sauter directement sur les lettres familières occidentales

[@Thelinguist]

Merci pour votre commentaire et bon courage!

merci merci :D ca va etre une belle aventure :D

[@nathanpiazza9644]

MONGOLIAN!!!!!!!!!

[@lextube]

I've found myself picking up Korean through all the Korean music and television I watch but want to now use the words I've picked up and start making sentences. I tried some online things but they seem slow or take ages covering greetings and things I already know. Do you have any advice? Thanks Steve! :)

[@Thelinguist]

I am learning at LingQ.

[@bondbert]

I think for the complete beginner two hours of dialogue is really great. When one's ear is not attuned to the language it really helps, I feel, to go over and over the sounds of the dialogue and compare that with what is on the page. I agree that one source alone is likely not sufficient but it is hardly not worth while either (not that you inferred as much in your video).

[@BrahimHASSANI]

Je voulais toujours vous poser la question suivante : est ce que vous conseillez pimsleur ou assimil comme méthode d'apprentissage de langues ?

[@Thelinguist]

ni l'un, ni l'autre...je vous conseille d'utiliser LingQ.

[@basiblue6039]

assimil est une trés trés bonne methode, pimsleur est trop limité en vocabulaire et defois le son n est pas excellent ,pour moi assimil est la meilleue methode ,moi j ai appris l'armenien grace a assimil ,et le je me suis mis au russe c'est vraiment la meilleure methode sans aucun doute

[@basiblue6039]

et en plus pimsleur methode sont vraiment cheres

[@Lucas-sg6ct]

+Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve I`d prefer to use Assimil first and then Lingq. It is hard to find a good content to read (And I really think LingQ is all about it) when you don`t know the basics.

[@fivantvcs9055]

+basiblue Personnellement avec Assimil, sauf pour les langues proches (romanes), je n'y arrive pas. Je préfère Teach yourself car mon approche est plus grammaticale.

[@RaoneiReiku]

From your review I think I'll just go with assimil doesn't matter if my French isn't perfect...you're right audio and text is the only thing that matters

[@nathanpiazza9644]

"Had my bath, had some chicken liver..." hmmmm please stay on topic Steve :)

[@RaoneiReiku]

Tienes que probar vinos de Chile!!! que bueno que estuviste en nuestro país :D saludos. Estoy tratando de seguir to ejemplo con el Coreano :D

[@chriswilcocks8485]

If you want to run a marathon dont get a training plan off of a elite athlete. If you want to learn a language polyglots are on a diferent planet. Asimil is a good resource for most language learners. It will get most people where they want to go Please be assured I respect steve but dont think he can understand lesser mortals.

[@Spitfireseven]

You got a good deal on the ASSIMIL. Phrazebook $19. Cheapest. Most $40 to $185. WOW!!!

[@0034383]

Is the Assimil the better method to learn a new lenguage.. Please answer me Imma frustated spend spend... And nothing...

[@Lucas-sg6ct]

+Lord Shine I just got started with Assimil. In order to learn a language you will need a lot of content. I think Assimil is good to get you from scratch to intermediate or high basic and enable you to understand a litte bit about the language, then you have to continue your studying with other things. There is not the best method also. You have to be consistent and do what you like doing. When you reach a level that you can understand things, just read something every day, watch movies, youtube videos etc... What language do you want to learn? I am learning french. It has been 38 days so far, I completed Duolingo (which is far from best, but it is free, easy to use, and will show you more than 2000 words) and I`ve done 32 lessons of Assimil (moving forward only when I can understand the whole conversation by listening, and listening everything from lesson 1 when I have time). I feel that I am getting better every day. Good Luck.

[@0034383]

+Lucas Wagner Lourenco Imma studying french too man.... I AM studying for 2 months now with Assim il and I can understand a little bit of french with french youtubers... Good luck for you and for me... Au revoir.

[@nothuman100]

Where did you get that hangul chart poster?

[@DanielLeoSimpson]

Great video Steve! I think my epiphany moment on this video is 9:25 where you point out how many hours you listen to compared to the "mere" 2 hours of Assimil. You pointed out that's when you're at a stage where you don't have to read everything you listen to." So what percent do you think a person should be able to understand while listening of what you're listening to in order to make it worthwhile? (20% for example? 60%?) Because I always hear you say when you start a new language you do "a lot of listening." Ok, that's good to get the rhythm of the new language but I've tried it (Mandarin, which is what I'm working on now) and have no idea what they're saying LOL ;). So do you do this intense immersion while also working on the basics? And thank you! (Long-time LingQ subscriber) Daniel Léo Simpson Composer San Francisco

[@Thelinguist]

I listen to what I have a chance of understanding, at least up to 50-60%. This means short material with transcripts that I can work at LingQ, in the beginning.

[@DanielLeoSimpson]

I get it - I'll try that. I feel I've been "studying" the language with choppy isolated sentences (like "studying" how to play the piano by learning it's history and construction) rather than "learning" the language with dialogues of listening and reading (like "playing" the piano by putting your hands ON the keys and actually PLAYING ;). I'll go to LingQ for more Manderin content. Thanks Steve. Daniel Léo Simpson Composer San Francisco

[@litlos1994]

Polish With Ease? The material must have been in French because I don't see it for English speakers on Assimil. XD

[@ChiLaoshi]

Steve, around 9:30, you mentioned in passing a stage when you have to read everything that you listen to. I was under the impression that if you read while you listen, it is not as effective as if you can simply listen and understand. Is that true? What is the place of reading what you listen to? (I've been straining to understand some Intermediate 2 level things on Lingq in Spanish with some success, and am wondering if my time would be better spent just following along with them as I listen.)

[@Thelinguist]

I usually read first and then listen while doing other things. But sometimes I read and understand, and then listen and don't understand. In those cases, I will often read and listen at the same time to get the gist of the areas that I keep missing. I think we are best to vary things and experiment. Good luck.

[@medhidangelo735]

Hello, I have a question. How many languages do you speak and how long did you work to learn all of these languages put together? I'm trying to learn multiple languages, I've learned Italian and I'm learning Spanish right now :D

[@mikemer79]

17 ; 50 years

[@babylongate]

it says to listen to one lesson every day not all 100 lessons a day to be effective you listen to 1 lesson one mp3 every day as in the instruction explained how, so you bored up by doing it all, that's why you don't like it much now

[@edresmn7869]

Mr.Kaufmann, I heard you got a company, I mean it seems you are not working there! or how :)

[@futurez12]

There's something that bugs me a little about your language learning experiences Steve. I think it's fair to say that you favor self-directed learning over taking classes. It also appears that you believe one doesn't need to go to the country to learn the language well, and that age doesn't play much of a factor. However, in this video you say that you're a solid intermediate in all your languages except one: French, where you're advanced (C1-2). I think I'm correct in saying that you first studied French at school (in class), then you moved to France (to the country) to study it at university (in class)? You did this at a younger age than the ages at which you've since learned your other languages. I'm wondering if this is a bit contradictory about what you've said about language learning. Or perhaps you have another explanation about how it is that you know French so well in comparison to your other languages? Have you spent a lot more time on French? I love your videos BTW.

[@Thelinguist]

good questions. I guess I speak French the best followed by Japanese then Mandarin then Spanish. I had French at school but Really became fluent when I got interested in the language and ultimately went to France where I studied for three years. That meant I did my schooling, sat through lectures, read, sat in workshops, wrote essays did all exams all in French. I lived surrounded by French. I lived in Japan for nine years. I didn’t go to school except for one wasted month, the first month in a very low-key school where I didn’t learn much. Essentially learned on my own. But I was surrounded by Japanese and spoke at an awful lot. I studied mandarin full-time with teachers but I was living in a non-Mandarin speaking environment, Hong Kong. I learned faster than my fellow students because of the amount of listening and reading that I did. I have spoken a fair amount of Spanish German and Swedish. In the end the language as we speak the best are the ones we have spoken the most. Yet because of my reading in Russian, I probably have a bigger vocabulary in Russian then in German or Swedish. I am not against going to the country with the language is spoken. I just don’t think you should start with that. Certainly once you have achieved a certain level of comprehension and vocabulary it’s a great way to improve your language skills. It is not always available to learners so there is lots you can do on your own. Please forgive any errors created by the dictation software.

[@futurez12]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thanks for such a detailed answer Steve. I guess although you lived in France, and went to classes there, you were also exposed to dense reading/listening materials, coupled with motivation to obtain qualifications. That makes sense. If you used dictation for that I'm shocked! My mom does that and at times, trying to understand what she's saying is like trying to decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Haha. Thanks again for the reply.

[@treiscuarenta]

Great video, very funny :) I think my wife would enjoy it too!

[@pafsilipoclub]

Good morning!

[@cubpolkid]

Hey Steve, Do you ever think there is such a thing as TOO MUCH studying a language (in one day)?

[@rapid2move]

It could be ineteresting talk about overloading or something like that.. how much is too much? Steve could you make video about this topic... do you have any experience s with when you study so much that eventually you felt like overloaded of language... or how to avoid exhaustion of language, how can you define how much is to much if you are very motivated and passionate learner.

[@Thelinguist]

Rapid2Move I will try to a video on this today.

[@rapid2move]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve great. Looking forward ... greeting from Bratislava ;) Radko

[@CuriousTico]

I always thought that Hangul was phonemic, not phonetic.

[@AntonioMontero1]

Look up Tim Doner. He'a a teenage (now yound adult) hyperpolyglot who I think is better than Luca. Even though I greatly admire Luca, I still think he's better.

[@DanielLeoSimpson]

Do or do not - there is no "better"

[@AlinefromToulouse]

Steve said the best of 'KZbin' polyglots.

[@jaesungleekorea]

한글!!!!