How to actually learn a language in a month

How to really learn a language in a month with this insane method. Pain is guaranteed. Success is not.
Disclaimers:
Watch the video. All of it.
All of the things listed below can be of benefit to you as well as helping me make these videos. You're more awesome than learning a language in 40 days.
PATREON: Get extra videos which explain my thoughts on specific things (you ask the questions), articles and interviews with successful language learners:
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REFOLD:
Refold is a no nonsense, real world approach to obtaining high level fluency in any foreign language. It's not at all like this video, in that you can actually follow Refold's method and survive:
refold.la/join/?partnerId=lamont
One of my favourite language learning apps is called SPEAKLY. Get 40% off any premium membership and help me make better videos by using the appropriate code (6 months or more include all languages no matter which you choose, though you still need to use the appropriate code to the language you click on):
ENGLISH: FNS1
SPANISH: FNS2
FRENCH: FNS3
GERMAN: FNS4
ITALIAN: FNS5
RUSSIAN: FNS6
ESTONIAN: FNS7
FINNISH: FNS8
Find Speakly for ANDROID here:
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Speakly for APPLE here:
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Another one of my favourite apps is called Drops. It won't teach you a language but it will definitely add some interesting vocabulary to your repertoire.
Use this link to get 50% OFF DROPS! (It also helps me keep making my amazingly good videos... jokes. But it does.)
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The native speaker tutoring shown in my videos is through iTalki. You can get $10 credit applied to your account when you make your first purchase, or you can just check it out for free using this link, which also helps me out by allowing me to take more language lessons:
www.italki.com/i/CHfEEb?hl=en-us
Do you like foreign language TV shows and movies? Check out the channel on which I review ONLY those shows:
/ @lamontmcleod2
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Language learning videos, tips and techniques!
• How To Learn Languages
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Good News and Bad News
04:30 Let's make it simple
07:43 The Unwashed Masses
09:49 The conversations and audiobooks
11:52 The Spike
13:26 Why you're practicing speaking wrong
16:00 The epic test
17:56 You can actually do much better
FIRST CORRECT ANSWER GETS PINNED!
Not including KZbin videos, my own footage (of which there is only one piece) or stock footage (again, one piece) - how many separate films and TV shows are included in this video? All episodes of a TV show count as one show, but sequels etc of a film count separately. In other words, how many mainstream TITLES are included in this video?
Use a few words in your comment so that I know what you're referring to and you don't get filtered. First correct answer gets pinned.

[@austin4768]

For the question in the description, I don't want to spend the time trying to count each time a clip is shown (not to mention trying to tell shows/films apart) so I'll just guess 40 - one unique title for every day of the month. Am I anywhere close?

[@daysandwords]

I'm gonna come back to this because guess what... I don't even know. I haven't actually checked but it must be somewhere close to that, so if it is... then that's amazing. I was thinking about running a competition with an actual prize, but the practicality of actually delivering the prize was tricky so maybe sometime in the future.

[@daysandwords]

UPDATE: So, I have pinned this, even though, it is (annoyingly for me) ONE off being correct. The answer is 39... and if I'd considered the 40 thing you mentioned, I would have intentionally made it that. But you were closer than ME with your guess! Because when I read 40 I was like "Nah it's like 25 or something..." Even I didn't realise that I'd included 39 movies here haha. EDIT: It's still technically 39 but Ryan George is almost big enough to be considered "mainstream". I said KZbin videos didn't count but yeah... I want to find that extra one haha. Amazing guess!

[@Howtogetfluent]

@@daysandwords informative and entertaining vid as always, Lamont. Can only begin to think how much work went into the editing alone. Is there one place you source the TV and film clips?

[@austin4768]

​@@daysandwords Yeah that's pretty funny, you really should have just added another film in there to make 40. Also it appears I'm the only one who read the description - maybe more people would have seen it if you put it above all the affiliate links?

[@daysandwords]

@@austin4768 "The Gentlemen" was supposed to be in there but the file wasn't working. So it's kind of amazing that without even counting, I actually did have 40.

[@ntatenarin]

I agree with what you said about the length of a month. We aren't good at it. That's why my month is 2 years long. I'm learning Spanish and in a month, I hope to be fluent!

[@daysandwords]

Maybe that's where my mate Nathaniel got his idea too. "My calendar has these two different years right next to each other..."

[@nsevv]

Time is relative.

[@rogueronald22]

@@daysandwords Have you seen how Ikenna says he has been learning a language (like Spanish) for a couple months, when in reality he uploaded his first Spanish video years ago? But of course, he is actually talking about "active learning", a really neat trick to lie and get away with it.

[@AfroLinguo]

😂😂😂 I love this haha.

[@manuelcruz836]

I'm a native Spanish speaker and... I understood everything you said!!!! You are pretty much there! Good job!

[@nickbowerman4028]

Sadly there's fairly strong evidence that the brain actually takes time outside of your learning time to think and re-think what you have learned...for example if you only do 1 hour per day..and so reach 600 hours in 600 days, every night your brain has time to think, re-process, re-think, even dream about what you have encountered for example, so i'd be very surprised if the results from a 40 day brain cramming binge where you flood your brain with say 6-8000 new words were anything similar to a 600 1hr day accumulation

[@kurthellis]

learning and forgetting and then relearning. its all part of the cycle. how the brain is able to encode information into long term memory is important for language learning i think. 30 or 40 days is not enough to encode enough words to have them have instant recognition and recall in LTM

[@YnEoS10]

Wasn’t that his whole point at the end? It seemed like to me he was trying to attract people who click the “learn a language in a month” videos and slowly persuade them why it’s a silly idea.

[@michellesmirnova4471]

Exactly! Personally I don’t see why some people want to rush language learning. It’s a long and difficult process, and the process is the fun part of it, not actually knowing the language. Unless you have a deadline of some sort, most of us can afford spending years on it, I guess it just seems like a scary commitment.

[@nickbowerman4028]

@@YnEoS10 At the end, he said that it would be possible to achieve a level around B2...which is what i was implying

[@joannawentworth9519]

@@nickbowerman4028 Lamont said it was 'possible, but not probable' to acihieve a B2 level in 40 days, but he also said that using fewer hours per day, and a longer period of time, your knowledge would be higher than the 'technical B2' level. He clearly stated that the 'quick fixes' for learning a language aren't ideal. Who has 15 hours a day to spend learning a language, anyway? He said that four hours a day in a 100 days will probably get you further than 15 hours for 40 days, even though it's less hours total. The first thing Lamont told us in this video was the difference between 'possible' and 'probable'. It's possible for me to climb Mount Everest, but it sure as heck isn't probable that it'll happen!

[@johnoneill2084]

There is an obsession with learning a language perfectly and quickly. Languages should be enjoyed for themselves and part of embracing a culture and way of life for that country. Each time I go to my language study it is like visiting an old friend. It should be enjoyable. Lets not forget that. That could mean 1 hour or 10 hours( if the latter is for you but not for many). Stop comparing ourselves to others online. I suppose that is social media all over though.

[@Wandering.Homebody]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 ha ha, wow you sound completely un hinged, good grief. I just checked out one of your videos, and what is any of it to you? Literally MOST people who charge money for their efforts are helping others, in some way, while ALSO receiving money for it. The two are not mutually exclusive. My teachers do, my cleaning lady does, the guy whose cafe I go to, and so do polyglots who have created websites/teaching materials/apps. If somebody purports to speak 20 languages, they will OBVIOUSLY be at different levels of proficiency, that goes without saying, only a brain dead moron would assume otherwise.

[@AfroLinguo]

Definitely. Life in itself is a journey and most of the things we do in our lives are in order to reach a particular goal. The best thing we can do is make sure that we are enjoying the journey to reach that goal.

[@daysandwords]

@@Wandering.Homebody "only a brain dead moron would assume otherwise". Well, meet "Exposing Fake Polyglots", the most brain dead moron in the history of brain dead morons. His response when he found my two hour livestream with Svenska med Kalle was to argue ON VIDEO that we had scripted the whole thing. Oh he also says that Luca Lampariello is American. 🤣

[@Nikelaos_Khristianos]

Polish makes a pretty strong distinction between "knowing" a language, like "znam język polski" (I know the Polish language (tongue)) and "speaking" in the sense of "mówić po polsku" (lit. to speak after a Polish manner). Essentially, you don't speak a language ("język" is actually also the word of tongue) but you can know a language and speak in the manner of someone who knows the language. This is the literal sense of it. The difference sounds arbitrary in English, but it makes a world of difference in Polish.

[@seramer8752]

Similar in Norwegian. We say e.g. "kan du fransk?" - Can you French?. "kan du engelsk?" - Can you English? I can German, but I don't speak it. I can run, but I don't do it(unless emergency).

[@daysandwords]

In Swedish, when you say "Kan du svenska?" you mean, do you speak it... like can I just speak Swedish or do you need me to switch.

[@seramer8752]

@@daysandwords ask me if I speak German and the answer is no. I'm a fluent reader and listener, but not a speaker. The grammar and sounds are too complex, but I understand them, just can't reproduce them.

[@daysandwords]

@@seramer8752 But it wouldn't take very much practice to get from that to speaking it fluently. Like, could you tell if something was off? For example if a certain noun should have been dative or something, would you know immediately? Because if you would, then it would only take a few days of producing German and you'd probably be able to speak quite fluently. People mistake "being able to read it" with TRULY KNOWING it. I can read Mozart music on the page. But I wouldn't know if a note was changed by a pleasing interval and therefore I don't KNOW it. I KNOW Beethoven to the point that I barely need the music.

[@seramer8752]

@@daysandwords I think I can speak it until I'm put on the spot and then I can't. Can't find the words and can't produce the cases, genders and correct grammar. The passive comprehension is a lot higher than the active reproducability. Me being fluent in Norwegian and English is why I understand it since it is so similar. For example I'm a fluent Swedish reader and listener but I can't speak it, even though I understand it. Can I Swedish? Tja...

[@yoru900]

Maybe I'll do a 40 day 12 hour challenge and see if I go insane

[@istheresauce767]

Please let me know how it goes

[@nsevv]

How it is coming along its 17 hrs already.

[@gabigabi9248]

I'm equally tempted

[@expresspanish5648]

it is impossible in my opinion, or shall I say unlikely.

[@jamiejamie9549]

Did you survive

[@rashidah9307]

This is definitely one of your best videos yet! As a working, married parent, I often fantasize about how much faster I could learn my target language if I had more time and fewer responsibilities. I love how you take this absurd goal of learning a language in a month and break down the process that it would take to come close to achieving it. By the end, you've convinced, I think, most of us that it wouldn't be very much fun after all! Lol. We certainly wouldn't have time to watch your entertaining, thought-provoking videos! 😄I do wish I could find 4 hours per day, though. 🙃

[@NessunDormaIA]

One of your better videos. Thanks! I hit 355 hours studying and 106 Hours passive (movies/audiobooks) in German last year and got to B1. I didn't start doing the passive listening until later in the year and it really helped me like turn on a switch in my brain I swear. I did the audio books and movies I already knew well and repeated. i think people get to wrapped up precisiously in the how but once I started finding little enjoyable books and movies, it changed up the game and my approach.

[@icaroguimaraessantos8979]

that's awesome. I study a bit german everyday. Been doing it for almost 2 years or so. Since i never really study more than 20 minutes a day, you just gave me the idea to maybe during vacation work harder on learning german. Maybe study many, many hours so that I can learn the language faster. I really don't wanna be a b1 forever so I'll try to work harder during vacation so I can learn the language faster.

[@kankercutie]

update

[@Livakivi]

If people only put as much effort and as many hours into learning a language as they put into reducing xp-waste in RuneScape, everyone would be fluent by now. 0:53 Livakivi reference 😎

[@Eydur397]

Hello fellow livakivi,it is a rather rare thing to see you in any comment section other than yours.

[@nicolopajdlhauser2354]

Glad to see you here, motivation-sensei 👋🏻

[@daysandwords]

You asked me about whether it takes a long time to set up the camera etc and film talking head A-roll and I think I said it evens out, or that it takes quite a while... but having just done my first Livakivi style video (all movie clips etc.)... ooof, filming A roll is faster haha.

[@Livakivi]

@@daysandwords I know what you mean haha, seeing how many different clips you used, I did wonder how long it took to find all the relevant background footage. Great video btw!

[@Ph34rNoB33r]

11:06 is another Livakivi clip. Being able to name all those sources tells me I should invest more time in actual reading...

[@tori3920]

Luv how real you are in all of your videos, brutally honest, no bs :))

[@daysandwords]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 Hey Sam, Here is something adventurous for you, you swashbuckling kingslayer you! Since your ultra vires has brought you here, to lay waste to my onlookers with your intellectual prowess, I challenge you to a dual! Your feeble mind and shaky grasp of the English language versus me using a keyboard to type words hitherto unbeknowst to the likes of you. Now tread carefully my dear man, lest you expose he who looks on in the mirror!

[@uchuuseijin]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 ... There's a conference where several of the people you mentioned meet up and do exactly that every year you idiot

[@daysandwords]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 I've already done that. According to you, I get together with Swedish people to script out two hours of conversation. So when I speak Swedish in person with someone, what's to stop you saying I did the same thing? You are not a liar, you are just deeply unintelligent and therefore do not know how stupid what you are saying is.

[@daysandwords]

@@uchuuseijin This guy is basically a flat earther. All evidence he is shown to the contrary just reinforces his belief that it's a conspiracy. He made a video in which he said that in my livestream (note: 2 HOUR LIVESTREAM) with Svenska med Kalle, we had SCRIPTED the whole thing. Yep, we scripted a 2 hour livestream... he not only had that thought, but recorded himself saying it and uploaded it.

[@mle3699]

This is a great video, Lamont! I'm in the long slog from B2 to C1 in Spanish. This has inspired me to attempt and track 2 hours per day in order to get there in a year.

[@esatakbas1762]

Great video as always! Input based language learning community did a great job of showing the importance of immersion. But what I believe is, neglecting the output could be even "damaging" after a certain point. Take me as an example, I am C1 at English with years of immersion and yet I have been struggling to write this basic comment. I know people who speak more fluently and write much better than me with less immersion time compared to mine. The thing is I never practice output, I don't even want to practice output and that is the result. I think, more detailed videos, strategies on output practice could bring so much value and motivation for the learners. This is what we are lacking.

[@mcmerry2846]

it's learning to read without learning to write...

[@whatever1068]

Great video, as always! Watching it made me realize not only how much I love your content, but how much I love your sense of humor aswell haha

[@norma94]

😂😂the patreon plug, the month tweak, the ending🔥😎 . This video is gold! Haha I hope more ppl coming into learning a language realize it takes time and consistent effort.

[@nathanmcgarvey6613]

Wow Lamont! Very well thought out and brilliantly produced! After a pretty difficult breakup March last year, I dropped language learning altogether. 2 weeks ago, I started with French and been catching up on all your vids. Getting right back into it. Might be a fun idea to breakdown some of films you had clips of here and breakdown their core message(s) and how they can be applied to language learning maybe? Like Limitless, or how they don't apply and give a false narrative on learning/acquisition. Anyway loved to hear Glasgow being namedropped, we are eternally salty for not being the official capital. Much love. Gaun' yersel'

[@TheCudlitz]

I want to congratulate you on the video references which you did a great job with, but if I do it, I'll be neglecting the whole speech and the ideas you though for this video, which are absolutely great and correct. As I watch this, I'm half agreeing with things and half learning from what I didn't know. Good job on the video.

[@Stephanie-gv8rh]

This is an awesome video with some great advice. 👏🏻

[@estrafalario5612]

The main problem with the FSI numbers, if you want to generalize out of English, is that English doesn't have any SISTER language (with maybe the exception of Scots). The closer languages, like Dutch, French, Danish or German are cousins (maybe of second grade). With other cluster of actual SISTER languages, is it possible to learn a language 0-B2 in just a 40 days' month if you spend over 6 hours every day (better if you do about 10). I've done it and saw many people doing it while I was in an Erasmus exchange and with foreign students, as long as Mother and target language were romance languages. I bet this also happens with the western Slavic languages or among the eastern Slavic languages.

[@puccarts]

Great video, Lamont!

[@bensomes7662]

Great video! One factor that you briefly touched on is enjoyment. Doing 6+ hours of a language will likely lead to burnout or at least lack of motivation, in my opinion. You can learn a language in a month, but why would you want to, knowing how gruelling and unenjoyable it will get doing doing so many painful hours in one day? Plus these kind of efforts would affect sustainability and long term consistency. The long, slow, normal route (1-2 hours a day) over months and years will most likely give you a healthier mindset, a stronger drive to learn and can produce much better results than the super intense challenge of cramming it in one month. Like you said, it's POSSIBLE to learn a language in a month, but SHOULD you, is the question.

[@kmradosevich]

i think 6+ hours is possible but only once you are fluent or nearly fluent

[@amerikanskdansker8771]

One of your best videos to date Lamont! Your channel is a hidden gem on KZbin, thanks for making content like this...this is the inspiring "rah-rah" stuff I love!

[@languageprogressthroughinp7912]

These are exactly my thoughts. Many people on Facebook in these groups dedicated to language learning regurgitate that old idea that the main purpose of a language is to make yourself understood and once you can do that everything is fine and there is no need to strive for anything greater. There are a lot of people making that point daily, encouraging learners only to learn pronunciation to the point where people understand your point and never go further. They think it is fine to reach this level and keep it for, say, twenty years. Yes, I find this pretty boring as then I can simply say mission accomplish about my German and never touch it again. The thing is, your language skills are pretty shitty at that point as it turns out you truly need very little to be able to express your thoughts, but to sound comfortable for others requires a little more effort.

[@sheep4483]

I've always kind of held this belief but I've never been able to figure out how to clearly express it, thank you for your indirect aid 😂 for the language I'm learning (korean) I've also conversely felt like a lot of people push people to sway the other way, but there's also the group of people that want to push people to just get the language out, and that they'll never phrase or pronounce anything anywhere even close to what a native sounds like so just don't bother, just get your thoughts out, but it just feels straight up toxic to suggest that to someone, if they want to learn it deeper then they can and should, neither is the single only way to do it what I've always wondered is some of these people even constantly use the language daily for years, and still stay at that level and it's almost more surprising how they manage to go out of their way to avoid improving for that long just because they think they can't

[@Neo_Nomad.]

Your videos always make a detailed, interesting and concise point, Lamont. But this one was outstanding, the editing, the pace, all of it. I enjoy your pragmatic and logical approach and this time you used it inspirationally. Thanks mate. The question is are you going to give this a shot? A video or series where you test this out? I've spent the morning trying to convince my girlfriend that we should both try this wit Esperanto as an experiment. Thanks for the content.

[@DustinSchermaul]

Man... You really deserve more subscribers... What a crazy effort that video must have been to make. Thanks again for the content I really know to appreciate that, just became a patreon supporter.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks very much Dustin! Yeah, this video was massive to make, so it's nice to have people acknowledge it!

[@mouvonne]

what a joy to watch and feel the movie references... you know a way with a cinematic language too, sir! i just found your channel, but i love it already

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@orcasquall]

Agree with the points presented. Also, the hair in screenshot is on point.

[@carmencampeanu7810]

I hope you come back with more.videos, I have really missed them! 😢

[@johanfahlgrenhowell488]

Super bra jobbat! Mycket intressant klipp! :D

[@genegroover3721]

Great job. Enjoyed it. Peace!

[@SassyStudies]

Excellent video that really highlights the two single most important things in language learning: dedication and consistency. Wish I could spend as many hours learning languages as I do working in a job I don’t like. I would definitely look forward to every rewarding, fulfilling day… The math suggests one should still be able to do this while working - if only the math was the only factor… Thank you for this very well-produced and inspiring video!

[@AfroLinguo]

OMG!!! This video is so captivating. It is like a movie. How do you come up with such different and interesting ways of storytelling through video?

[@RocketBoyGames]

Awesome vid, Lamont. I wish I could afford to commit the 40 days to test this. But either way I'm pretty sure it would go exactly as you predict.

[@dw5472]

Everything in this video is just amazing, I really enjoyed it, gj man👌

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! Appreciate the encouragement!

[@mjinhamburg]

This is such a fun video! I almost couldn't listen to your message as I was too busy enjoying all the clips. But you've reasonably distilled modern self-language-learning ! I also enjoy experimenting with different methods and techniques for the different languages i learn. And of course a sensible conclusion. Great stuff!!

[@AfroLinguo]

For real.I felt like I was in a movie theater. It was really interesting

[@SomedayKorean]

Aaaaaand this is why nobody has actually learned a language in a month.

[@daysandwords]

Very true!

[@lilmamajaiteh]

This was a great video !!!

[@ADHDlanguages]

Dude this video was so freaking good. You can really tell how much work went into it.

[@daysandwords]

That is a very nice comment to read because YES, a lot of work went into it haha.

[@k.5425]

Yess

[@philipdavis7521]

Wow, this is great. I've been pondering lately what I could do if I had the time to completely immerse in a language (i.e. not having to work for a living). I'd doing lots of immersion in Japanese but its excruciatingly slow (for me), and I keep wondering if I'd do so much better in an 'easier' language. But anyway, lots of good food for thought in this.

[@philipdavis7521]

@@gluehfunke1547 I agree - Japanese is so fundamentally different from European languages that it really needs a different approach. Trying to break it down to grammar components just won't work - really intense immersion is needed to be able to speak even quite simple 'natural' Japanese. And of course immersion is very hard when you need to learn all those alphabets. I calculate that I've done about 1000 hours with the language but I'm nowhere near a comfortable intermediate level yet. I guess the good news is that every language will seem simple after this. If I survive it!

[@philipdavis7521]

@@gluehfunke1547 Yes, I know what you meant, I just expressed myself badly. My experience so far is that you need both - grammar and kanji with lots of immersion of very specifically relevant material to what you are learning.

[@Ronlawhouston]

I am not a big fan of Anki, but I understand the value of spaced repetition. One problem I always have is knowing a word but being unable to recall it. So, yes, learning is hard to define.

[@Tighris]

for me, anki is more of a tool to keep uselful vocab in my subconscious. when the word actually comes up in my immersion and I know I should know the word but are not able to recall it, the real learning takes place when I look it up again and then go "AHHH YEAHHH RIGHT". After that, I most likely acquired it

[@nsevv]

Anki is good to have around for vocab and considering it is free.

[@englishlearning2160]

Well, there are others spaced repetition apps like quizlet, Ulangi, Flashcards...

[@Spandex08]

That's why you don't do Native Language to Target Language cards. Only target language to native language cards - if you know the word you just move on, if not or if you hesitate, you press again, don't use any other buttons except "1" or "space"

[@TripleSomething]

I knew all of this already, its exactly how I learned Korean. But I enjoyed hearing it restated, good video well done.

[@MBurnsy]

Great video Lamont. As a native Swede it's fun to see how many Swedish resources I can recognise in your b-roll

[@RocketBoyGames]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 There are definitely a lot of dishonest language channels on KZbin. But I'm not sure why you would consider this to be one of them.

[@daysandwords]

@@RocketBoyGames This guy has some serious issues. High anger and low intelligence are among them. Watch his videos and you will see that in 45 minutes he just says "liar fake polyglot scammer" like 170 times and THAT is his argument. (BTW: to give you a quick idea of the IQ we are talking about - he said that my TWO HOUR livestream with Svenska med Kalle was scripted. Like, yep, we wrote a script for a 2 hour chat in which there were bits that I said "Hmm, not sure if that Swedish is right..." and then Kalle said "Um, it sounds better to say this..." HAHAHA. Why would we script that part? THAT's how stupid this guy is. Also his English is hilariously bad, yet it is ME who is faking this whole thing...) Oh and he doesn't allow comments on his channel because then he might have to face reality.

[@daysandwords]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 Threaten your life? That was YOU who did that. Holy crap your memory is bad too. Remember how you dressed up in an ape suit and waved a knife around and said you were going to hunt us down? But then KZbin doesn't allow death threats so the videos got taken down? Yeah... I remember it. In fact I saved the videos... You're a loser dude. Keep making your stupid videos. Just don't hurt anyone.

[@daysandwords]

@@exposingfakepolyglotyoutub5007 "You cried about it and made a drama about it". When? Where? Show me this evidence of me making a drama about something? I did not do any of that. So you know what you are? A liar. You have become everything you said you would destroy: A fake liar and scammer. The only thing that you'll never become is a polyglot because you suck at languages so much.

[@veroniqueblais5858]

Since I commented on your last video, the algorithme hit me with all the learning languages channels and I must say that yours is truly the best 👏

[@daysandwords]

Cheers!

[@attaotigba]

The attention to detail in this video is ridiculous. Right down to the flippant way you reeled off your name at the end. Feels a bit like listening to an intricately designed symphony, watching this. Always a treat watching your stuff. Thank you.

[@daysandwords]

Haha thank you!

[@TopSpinWilly]

Well done mate.🎉

[@nekilik9214]

Great video, great edit

[@daysandwords]

Thanks!

[@grafinvonhohenembs]

This is an amazing video. Just out of curiosity, I would seriously try this if I could, but until I retire, it probably won't happen. Lol! But yeah, disciplning oneself to study daily/regularly while being able to enjoy the learning process and rest enough in between lessons is definitely the better way to go.

[@akilis9449]

What a video! Great job brother

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@ardordeleon]

I loved this video. The choice of music and the frantic pace really convey the urgency and sense of desperation of trying to learn a language in 40 days. I listened the video without watching it and it seriously reminded me of the monologues in Fight Club, the first one especially, and when I went to re-watch it, sure enough, Ed Norton was there. Well done, sir.

[@daysandwords]

It hadn't occurred to me that it is like those fast paced monologues, "lose an hour, gain an hour..." - but yeah haha. Thank you!

[@dezukaful]

great vid!

[@sandwichbreath0]

Great vid, man!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@kamronbekrahmatullayev]

I'm happy somehow you mentioned Uzbek is hard to learn in a month. I agree with you, we have a little bit of a tricky language but I can assure you that if you understand Turkish, you definitely understand Uzbek. Informative video though, thank you. Keep it up.

[@MagnaAnima]

Taking the concept of periodization of training but applying it to Language Learning. Basically ensuring you get a sufficient amount of volume over a defined period of time. It would really be interesting to compare the results of 600 hours compressed in different time frames like 3 or 6 months.

[@frogskocinq]

This. Sprint, endurance, intervals, and rest. In the rest cycle right now to let things gel.

[@Keldor314]

I can actually see this being possible *under certain conditions*. The most important one being that the language you're trying to learn is very similar to one you already know. The other condition is that you basically spend your entire life focused on learning, 8 hours a day, like a full time job. To give an example of a case where a language can be learned much more rapidly than normal, I'll point to my personal experience with the entire family of Romance languages. For the last year and a half, I've been studying Spanish, but in the last three or so months, I've started putting time into other related languages. To my surprise, I was able to understand both Italian and Catalan at a low intermediate level after only a few hours of listening input! Portuguese and French were a bit harder to get to this point, but still much, much easier than my original experience with Spanish. The reason this worked like this isn't some great breakthrough in learning technique or prodigious ability, but simply a reflection on how closely related this family of languages is. With the partial exception of French, they're very nearly all the same language, just with very strong regional dialects. We native English-speakers don't really have a good comparison, since there simply aren't any other languages suffiently close to English. But to get a good impression of what an Italian speaker sounds like to a Spanish speaker, we might look at the Middle English used by Chaucer, or listen to some rural Scottish accent that's so strong that you can barely understand them. Mangled, but ultimately recognizable.

[@laurencetaylor5046]

This was a fantastic (albeit slightly passive aggressive) video essay haha. Are you doing a less insane version of this process for all the languages your dabbling in? Would be great to get an update!

[@daysandwords]

I am not. The most hardcore I've ever gone was 57 hours in 7 days.

[@laurencetaylor5046]

@@daysandwords that’s still pretty insane. Are you planning on doing a video on which languages your dabbling in and how it’s going anytime soon?

[@objectivistathlete]

Yeah, I think B1 might be achievable in a month with an easy language like Spanish, but no way could you reach B2. But I'd be glad to see you prove me wrong. Put your plan into action and achieve B2 in a Romance language (but not French) in 40 days.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, so, I said passing a B2 test, and many people take issue with me on this because they think "HEY YOU SAID B2!" but tests will show a whole level higher than you actually are. At the risk of sounding cocky, I am actually pretty darn sure that if I did anything like this (even 10 hours a day) in Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian, I would pass a B2 exam. Would I be B2? No. But I have passed a French C1 test (not a really proper one like the DELF, but a very very in depth online one) and my French was B1 at the time. So that's what I mean. I would walk it in in any of: German, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and maybe even Icelandic. But German, Danish and Norwegian arguably don't count because I've officially studied German in school and Danish and Norwegian are almost dialects of Swedish. Dutch counts and yeah I am pretty sure I would pass B2 in Dutch after even 400 hours, as long as I did the exam on day 41. Icelandic, Romanian, Romansh, Latin... these would be a tougher prospect but I still think it's possible.

[@woodsy424]

Best video on this topic yet.

[@vbph2011]

Hahaha i love limitless, but it is definitely "simplistic" (i saw joke). Man this is great stuff. You're so realistic about "yeah it takes FOREVER and a lot of work, but you can do it". Also, great editing and especially great choice of movies. Also nice dramatic way to say "sleep 7 hours a day", assuming theres no "language" in dreams.

I was looking at this on stream this arvo, and it seemed to me, having never actually considered how I'd go about speedrunning a language, that this probably would have reasonable chances of success. Now you've got me considering actually giving it a go, perhaps as some sort of reward/challenge in the event my Patreon should make it up to the point where I could actually seriously consider doing nothing but working on, say, Cambodian, for 40 consecutive days. If that should happen, I'd be doing some sort of video diary on the experience, and I'd definitely let you know how it turns out.

[@DavidDayMusic]

This channel is great

[@CouchPolyglot]

I would love to have the time to try it out, I think I would struggle with the "repeting sentences" part though, this sounds quite boring. I really loved the editing btw, awesome video!!! 😎

[@daysandwords]

Did you see your tiny little cameo right at the end? 😀

[@CouchPolyglot]

@@daysandwords LOL, no, I watched it almost all but not til the very end, let me check!!

[@CouchPolyglot]

hehehe that is pretty cool :D btw, I participated in two episodes with Oskar at his podcast recently, it was pretty cool! Now I really want to focus on entonation and pronounciation :). Swedish is so much fun!!!

[@redanwrong]

Tried to do this for Russian. Day 12 I started getting migraines (probably because Cyrillic is like trying to read small print in English or something. ( Even though I learned the script 8 yrs ago the first time I tried to learn Russian.)) Now doing about 6 hrs a day, and honestly, I am getting a lot farther then I thought. Understood an easy KZbin video today (didn't know all the words, but enough to get the gist). Currently 20 days in and ( yeah, already failed, but) honestly starting to actually enjoy it. Don't know if I'll be talking to a native speaker for a while (not like I do that in English much anyways 😅) but I am curious what I'll be able to understand.

[@afonsoscrinn]

How is your progress so far?

[@39ridge]

Another great vid. Speaking the truth again and I like the math component. My Spanish "being comfortably understood while understanding" percentage is close to 60 and I've recently started to stack French. As you state, got to learn more of the language first. I tried a couple of conversations with native French speakers and essentially locked up. One gent "LanguageLords" has posted 3 vids on the immersive approach he took over the course of a month to achieve a decent level of fluency in French and then 1 vid for Spanish (same but in 44 days). They're worth a look, again, no BS, just show the grind....

[@daysandwords]

Unfortunately they are actually BS. I could show my evidence as to why (in a video) but it basically comes down to him disappearing for 6 months and then saying "I learned Spanish in 44 days". 44 days or 180 days?

[@39ridge]

@@daysandwords Yes, I did catch that as well, and odd that he hasn't posted anything else demonstrating his retention of or progress in either language. What I meant by no BS was that the vids showed the time and effort involved. I do think the process he demonstrated was decent, but agree that the cited timeframe and his level of proficiency were off. It's one thing to be able to recall and recite one's own story, a parlor trick of sorts. Now try holding a conversation with a native speaker about various past, present, and future events, not so easy for the one-trick-ponies..........

[@franciscafarfallina]

What a fantastic video, Lamont, sur la forme Et le fond... on dirait une symphonie en format vidéo essay.. Speaking of music, I assume you yourself applied twosetviolin's ling ling 40 hours a day practice method to produce such an oeuvre ? Art, humour and a coherent sense of logic.. worth rewatching for sure

[@MaxLearnsPersian]

Epic video!

[@CollieNike3]

Jeez Louise. You’re funny, man🙌😂

[@mwunsy2422]

this is literally one of lamonts best videos information wise (especially the ending) and production/editing wise , the overall quality is amazing this should blow up

[@daysandwords]

Thank you very much! Unfortunately I think I got a few things wrong tactically in terms of getting it to blow up, and I'm still thinking about what to make the thumbnail to give me a second shot at that.

[@stevencarr4002]

The Spike - the speed at which you learn increases greatly. Absolutely true, but you still hit an intermediate plateau, which lasts different times for different people. How does that work? At 14:20 'At this stage you're not going for a perfectionist accent', and Steve Kaufman gets edited into the video. A bit mean?? There is a huge amount of gold in this video I will have to watch it several times to catch it all.

[@Narpil]

This is probably one of your best videos. And the average video on your channel is already very good. I feel like Lingvist would be a very suitable resource for this kind of challenge. It's time-effective, and from my experience, using it really feels like "grinding". I have not used it intensively, though.

[@daysandwords]

Yes Lingvist would be good, that's true.

[@frogskocinq]

Bump. LaMont, we need a fix! Seriously, hope you are okay. Just had my first italki lesson today and I wanted to say thanks for all your tips over many videos, it was really helpful.

[@daysandwords]

Ha, yeah, I address my absence in my next video. Thanks for the support!

[@jmanhellhoundkiller]

This is inspiring; not in that I would attempt to to do all of this in 40 days but it makes me want to do something like 100 hours in 35 days. While 1-2 years of work in 40 days is ridiculous, I bet I could get 3 months in one

[@ashleykumar6341]

Thanks for laying this out so clearly. What do you recommend for finding comprehensible input for languages where it’s not readily available? I’m struggling to find it for my target language (Tamil). I’ve found some children’s videos but it’s very limited outside of India. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

[@madhuryab.6997]

Watch youtubers like Madan Gowri and for standard Tamil, listen to BBC Tamil, Puthiyathalaimurai etc.

[@ashleykumar6341]

@@madhuryab.6997 Thank you! I will definitely check these out.

[@Anastasia-vm4te]

love this video! thank you! 5:10, 16:52, where are these pics from? some video or a web site?

[@Tighris]

awesome video, great editing, presentation and story telling. Knowing you and your content, I guess this was more of a thought experiment rather than an acutal guide (and you kind of said so at the end by pointing out that this is not a realistic thing to do), but I think its good to say to the "language-noobs" out there that wanting to learn a language in a month is the wrong approach. After a month like that, you will most likely hate your target language and, as a consequent, stop learning. Think about the long run, take your time, enjoy the process, dont burn out by overdoing it (I tend to do that myself tho). But dont go too mediocre either, you will never reach a pleasant niveau with 10 minutes a day.

[@kurthellis]

great video... as for the editing... too many cuts. its discombobulating like watching tv adverts

[@daysandwords]

@Kurt - the cuts have to be so frequent or it'll get CR "stricken".

[@optimizing_fitness]

These videos are awesome

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@nsevv]

So is this a good plan for a 4 hrs/day learning. Broke it up into 1hr chunks since learning happens in the brain during breaks. 1hr (Speakly/practice/learn) --- [ 8hrs job ] --- 1hr (practice/learn) --- [2hrs break] ---- 1hr (practice/learn) ---- [ 2hrs break] ---- 1hr (practice/learn) ---- 8hrs (sleep) Repeat everyday for 5-6 months. Maybe can do more on weekends.

[@diariosdelextranjero]

The time invested in learning a language should always be counted in the number of hours and the learner needs to see whether he or she is being consistent

[@ShadowSerpent9797]

Group 1 language? Haha I guess since I'm going for C1 tier level in a group 5 language (Japanese) I will need what, another week? :) Loved the video!

[@alicedelarge]

Just here to say I love your videos and also, your humor is 👌 .

[@Algazhan]

Like always Brilliant!

[@KSLAMB-uz4it]

I've had to watch this 3 times. I kept getting distracted by the scenes. I did enjoy it though.

[@MarlonOwnsYourCake]

You just made me not sure if i can even call myself fluent in English which is the only language i can actually "speak"

[@Alex-my4ir]

First comment, love the content Lamont!

[@nsevv]

Well done !

[@Eighteen87]

Hello, Mr swedish man. I'm trying to learn French because I'm going to have a couple of French students this summer at my job. What is your advice for someone trying to learn French?

[@MyNameIsCalledLikeMe]

Learning a new language at first (when adult) means a lot of connections are being made - by comparisons/translations - to your native language. so my definition of fluency is understanding something in a language while not being able to immediately translate it into your native language as in - or at least it's a good indication.

[@TheStickCollector]

I will use this when I start

[@cakeisyummy5755]

In Serbo-Croatian, The word for "Month" and "Moon" are the Same.

[@thomi_hilfigner]

I don't know if you have made a video about it yet. I'm debating if I should try to learn at the same time two relative similar languages or if it's better learning one and then the other. What do you think about it?

[@daysandwords]

Absolutely better to learn one then the other. Check Matt vs Japan "The fastest way to learn two languages".

[@thomi_hilfigner]

@@daysandwords I will do that. Thanks!

[@LibraMakeup]

Despite being a fun topic and interestingly presented, the rapid changes in the video and constant, fast paced speech is a bit overwhelming, feels 'noisy'. I would rather just look at the speaker and let the message, joke, whatever... sink in a bit. Like in music, a bit of silence just adds to the piece! Please consider this. Keep going!

[@stevencarr4002]

Yes, a dramatic pause is an effective tool.

[@daysandwords]

There is silence? At normal speed there are decent moments of silence, but if you watch at 1.25x then they might be a bit lost.

[@austin4768]

Congrats on the amazing video - easily in the top 3 most impressive vids I've seen on this channel! The premise of the video is obviously pretty gimmicky (not judging just saying), and while this is very entertaining and makes for great clickbait, I do feel there's real value in asking a question like "how fast could someone learn a language operating at the absolute limits of human ability", even when doing so is utterly unrealistic, but I'm struggling to articulate it. Maybe it's just that it's inspiring to think "if a superhuman with no other responsibilities could get fluent in a (lamont) month, then if I can just do 25 percent of what the superhuman does, then I'll be fluent in four (lamont) months". Thoughts anyone?

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I mean you nailed it when you guessed the intention. Basically, I think a percentage of people are going to click on videos with stupid titles like this, so there might as well be some of those videos that are actually good.

[@johndocherty7173]

I just wish could have someone like you to help me learn Scottish Gaelic. If you taught i would sign up straight away

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, unfortunately there are none on italki either. This is one of the few occasions that I could recommend Glossika. Scots Gaelic is free there.

[@tomate3391]

Great video, which I watched with a smile on my face. And after the video I saw a thumbnail of a 1 month challenge in Spanisch. I smiled because despite nearly all of what you have said is questionable, except the 40 day/month of course, but the thing is: if you are wrong, in the most cases it get's worse and not better for the people who wants to be fluent in one month. I only critizise your photo of day 32. You look way to fresh and well rested after 31 15h study days . :D I also use B2 as rule of thumb for fluency. But as any other rules of thumb, it has its exceptions.

[@richarddonnelly7242]

Looking at some recent interviews with you, you seem very, very relaxed with Swedish now. I think you mentioned that there is very little difference between reading or watching things in English or Swedish. How many hours do you think you've completed now?

[@daysandwords]

Hmmm, not exactly sure, it depends what you count. But I would say no less than 1400 and no more than 1900. I would say it for it to really really be embedded in the subconscious, like basically the normally way of saying EVERYTHING, I would need another 3000 hours or so. (Not saying I'm going to DO that... that's just what it would take before I basically felt Swedish or near to it.)

[@richarddonnelly7242]

@@daysandwords the equivalent of living in Sweden for a year then!

[@sharonoddlyenough]

12 hours a day sounds like a hard grind. I have all the hours I wish over the winter, and I find it hard to push past 5 or 6 hours in a day. On a lighter note, I finally had my first italki lesson and immediately booked a couple more, then found an språkcafe session to join. I mostly just need real practice now!

[@kurthellis]

i think 12 hours is doable for a day, maybe two, but at some point cramming without any joy or pleasure causes such a dopamine depletion that i can feel depressed and angsty. the idea that you only do one non pleasurable thing like studying new knowledge per day is only possible if its a Saw situation where you die if you fail at the task.

[@dogestep64]

Even in this perfect world that Lamont setup learning a language in 30 days seems near impossible in reality I think it would be almost impossible just because of the mental drain it would put on you

[@DaVinc-hi7hd]

can someone please elaborate on the idea conveyed from 10:00 I didn't get the how to practice the 100 conversations. Like what does "memorising the Spanish" means here ? Can someone give a good example of how can we do this ? The only thing I understood was to listen to a conversation in target language with English ( or known language ) translation of that conversation , then reading/listening it only in target language. But what comes after this is not understood by my dumb ass. It would be great if some kind soul helps me out on this

[@sjf96]

What is that audiobook app? It looks amazing, with such a multilingual library

[@daysandwords]

Well I think you mean Nextory but it's not very multilingual, they only have Swedish, English and Finnish. Storytel really is very multilingual. The language to sign up in that gives you the most OTHER languages in Finnish. It gives you 6: Finnish, English, Swedish, Russian, Spanish, Italian.

[@nsevv]

You don't measure time, you measure the vibration of atom or vibration of a quartz crystal or the earth rotation around the sun.

[@danielsalloum3006]

Flippin awesome

[@apollothefirst]

I just started watching and it devolved into a video on the definition of ‘month’

3:23 I litterarly died when I saw Ha det su kult på restaurangen-killen 😂

[@daysandwords]

Hoppas att du snart känna dig bättre! 😆