Don’t memorize vocabulary. Do this instead

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CC subtitles available in multiple languages.
In this video I discuss some common misconceptions about language and vocabulary acquisition and share my strategy for learning vocabulary in a new language.
⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 learning vocabulary
0:44 the importance of vocabulary acquisition
2:28 myth 1: home environment
4:01 myth 2: being corrected
5:40 myth 3: Chomsky's universal grammar theory
8:07 how much time should we spend on deliberate learning?
10:57 the best way to acquire vocabulary
📺 WATCH NEXT:
• Learn Vocabulary Fast
• How to Learn Vocabulary
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[@Thelinguist]

📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/2yybxh88 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: bit.ly/3TTswWm ❓How do you like to learn vocabulary? Let me know in the comments!

[@ozodbek997]

😅😮😮😅😅

[@TV-bw9kg]

😅😊Z,

[@michelpetrus]

1- Learn whole sentences instead of words 2 - Study conversations about your domain of interest and if possible try to recite them (it don’t have to be perfect) Words learnt this way cannot be forgotten, and you will sound much more natural by mimicking natives sentences.

[@klx15]

It makes sense

[@greyLeicester]

Yeah, and then somebody comes along, strikes a conversation with you, changes a line different to the conversations youd ve listening to and they will throw you away 😂😂😂😂

[@michelpetrus]

@@greyLeicester You need to know what’s in the sentence, that’s obvious. Knowing idiomatic turns , will make you anticipate what they will say, being more aware of any deviation. And for Japanese for instance, they have very standardized questions/answers, unless you are a close friend. So it’s really relevant for this language to have those core conversations known by heart.

[@LuanFranca_]

I'm a police officer in Brasil, and hope to learn other languages to visit more countries and know many cultures. This channel helps me to understand how I can improve my english, thanks!

[@nandomax3]

Boa sorte, obrigado pelo seu serviço no nosso país 🙏

[@Eduardo-gi8ex]

me too

[@whoopty2034]

Nice, I am learning Portuguese! Foda se nego😅🤙

[@heyhey6821]

Advice: 1. Study throughout the day and not all at once. 2. If you are not mentally able to study for more than an hour, then study that one hour and spend some time watching a series (like an anime) in the target language. The latter will improve your listening skills and familiarize you with more vocabulary and expressions.

[@heyhey6821]

This has worked for me. Imagine you're watching 6 months 1 hour a day in the language you learn and imagine you're not doing it. The former has lots of hours of listening compared to the latter and is accustomed to listening to it

[@NeonBeeCat]

True but isn't language learning about comprehensible input? What if I just don't understand anything while watching the series?

[@heyhey6821]

@@NeonBeeCat that's the whole point! Children learn a lot of vocabulary through series even though they don't understand the bulk of it. You could use a second phone to note the words but subtitles will distract you from actively listening. Further advice: watch a series that you already watched in your language. You knowing the plot and some scenes allow to extrapolate the meaning of a said word.

[@GETURHANDSUP916]

⁠@@NeonBeeCatRight, and to make it comprehensible learn some vocab along with everything else. You aren’t guaranteed to figure out everything just by watching. Children with their native language have an advantage because they have people showing them the things they listen to each day, interacting with them,…etc. If they see a “burger” on TV, most likely their parents will hand them a “burger” and call it a “burger” too. That is comprehensible input. When you watch some foreign language video you might not notice what the word for “burger” is and that will be your only chance for a reminder unless you have people to speak with as random reminders or you already learned the meaning before hand.

[@teacherchristianfigueiredo]

Yes man. I totally agree with you. And I recomend studying using material that you love. This will help to keep you motivated during the process.

[@Yarmak24]

Thanks man for your work! You really make me inspired. Sometimes when I'm frustrated and hopeless because of my failures I just watch your videos and understand it's just part of learning process which I need to accept.

[@cooperdraw]

You're the best Steve! Thank you so much for all of your videos and advice. You've helped me so much on my language learning journey.

[@BrettVano]

I deeply appreciate your contribution to these conversations, Steve. I'm both a language learner and a music teacher, and your thoughts have benefitted both of those pursuits for me. Thank you!

[@wrathofcorn]

These videos always encourage and inspire me, thanks Steve! I recently increased the intensity of my Japanese study, I have a 2-3 hour-long conversations a day in Japanese. And outside of that, I'm reading and watching things in Japanese. It's a lot of fun but burnout feels like it's on the horizon. After watching these videos about language learning, it always reinvigorates me and pushes that horizon further away.

[@nell7z]

J'ai 69 ans et j ai commencé l'etude du russe. Merci pour vos précieux conseils qui me permettent de trouver les bonnes stratégies d'apprentissage.

[@KnightOfEternity13]

Успехов

[@luisgustavo6117]

Удачи!

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

Вы молодец! Привет из Кыргызстана 🇰🇬

[@candidfellow]

les dents non peut souvire, le borleaux des les l'ouilles dans poulez

[@Lada_Ukrayina]

Comme c'est dommage que vous ayez choisi la langue d'un pays qui sème la terreur de par le monde. Le russe vous engouffrera dans un monde de mensonges, de violence et de tueries

[@jans724]

This is an amazing channel!! And you're work is very encouraging!!

[@ibrahimbyrakceken8779]

I feel frustrated and hopeless sometimes but watching you gives me hope. thank you

[@sjeangilles1]

Rule #1: Don't quit.

[@amgwireless3610]

you learned english and it was much more difficult than you remember

[@xdarie0]

Is very difficult learn a new language however we should to study every day for improve our skills in this language is very important the dedication and our motivation

[@amgwireless3610]

@@xdarie0 IT is very difficult to learn a new language; however, we should -to- study everyday -for- TO improve our skills in this language. Motivation and dedication is very important

[@amgwireless3610]

@@xdarie0 I fixed it for you. The last part you wrote was a run on sentence/ unintelligible

[@juanitotucupei]

Above and beyond the great advice, Steve just inspires me to keep going. That's why I keep coming back to his channel.

[@gabrielbarbosa4091]

Same. Steve is a big influence in my journey to acquire languages

[@Tehui1974]

Another great video. The person who supports your videos with the graphics does a good job. Ngā mihi ki a koe! All the best from New Zealand.

[@bulenthide9129]

You are inspiring people. This is very precious. Thsnk you.

[@user-zb9tt7mo3t]

Steve tou are the reason I have loved language learning and I am learning French now

[@theonewhogiveslikes9390]

I learn faster by experience than studying

[@wnildsongomes7984]

The faster or the most efficient method to acquire a new language is living with native speakers 😊 The 2nd one is reading. See the kids example, they learn naturaly, without studying. Only listening and seeing adults speaking and their behavior. In other words associating the object/image to the concept/word

[@saiminayatullah6620]

You’d learn even faster by combining experience with studying

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

⁠@@wnildsongomes7984Not necessarily. I lived for two years with native speakers in Montreal. 30 years later my French improved far more in England with self study.

[@lucassantossj]

​@@StillAliveAndKicking_looks like most people are this way if you look how many are in other countries for years and know just a little of the local language. I think the focus is the key point. Even when doing the "field job" we need to put effort on understand and imitate.

[@jackduane5555]

No you don't

[@MrBritto1]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Steve!

[@theblacksun2355]

Thank you so much Steve! You are literally the source of endless inspiration for me and I’m sure for others🙏❤

[@antonomaseapophasis5142]

Very comprehensive presentation! I received it in the context of a person who is functionally fluent in a second.language that was haphazardly acquired, and acquired through a personal relationship. Your discussion resonated with my experience and clarified my plans to learn German and Arabic, and improve my Italian. I would add that in my relatively strong second language (French), writing has been an important means of actually situating myself in the language. My greatest obstacle in French is speaking English with French words. Writing about various topics in French is an opportunity to enter into the idiomatic nuance of the language.

[@biiauchann1736]

Always a pleasure to listen to Steve

[@puhistagram]

Thanks for your great video Steve. Kiitos.

[@mijo3642]

Just found your channel Steve, very interesting. I am learning Spanish for work and I am moving from the uSA to the Dominican this year. When I was at university studying music we use NASA accelerated learning techniques (used when a complex series of events or procedures are needed ) where you practice for 1 minute, break 30 seconds practice the next phrase for 1 minute break 30 secs etc. then after 45 mins complete break for 15 minutes. Doing that for every scale, song, riff , technique in all the different styles keeps the brain in positive learning mode. (the first and last minute of your practice, in between that does nothing) That deals with the brain needing repetition but also novelty.. Repeated every day you suddenly found you had learned.

[@Patrick-sh9tt]

Incredible video. Even at Master´s and PhD levels, and definitely across the language learning world, many of these accepted ideas continue to persist.

[@donaldsouillet2307]

Your knowledge is well articulated, I gave you a thumbs up. I would suggest you present each ideal with a transition of silence, or another type of separator to prevent the run-on effect.

[@visulino]

I memorize some vocabulary and it works for me. Thanks.

[@chibaneyoucef3248]

Thank you for this great advice

[@lillianbarker4292]

Thank you! In my lifelong effort to learn Spanish and a recent trip to Mexico I noticed that I can clearly remember situations from decades ago when I learned phrases (buying tickets when my friend said “somos tres” for example). If I had to sort through my old grammar lesson memory I’d never get there. And now I can easily use somos in other situations.

[@rafalkaminski6389]

Knowing words helps to improve pronounce them simply by detecting while hearing them.

[@paulwalther5237]

Great video. Now back to immersing.

[@modalmixture]

The learning vs acquisition divide is similar to how we taught AIs to use language. At first we tried to teach computers explicit grammar rules and lists of vocabulary. But language is too complicated and contextual and that approach didn’t work very well. Now we have far more complex neural networks that cannot be directly programmed - they must learn language iteratively by repeated exposure to vast quantities of training material from the real world: Input. During the training they encounter a word like “love” used in millions of different contexts, and somewhere in the network a cluster of neurons begins to ‘acquire’ the concept of “love”, linking it to related words and concepts. Each training pass shapes the model ever so subtlely, until something like understanding emerges. Every time I do some focused listening in my target language, I imagine something similar happening in my brain.

[@maijapapaya5297]

That’s really interesting!

[@lucassantossj]

I think this is the main difference between a machine translator and LLMs.

[@sayturn8510]

This is how I was taught Spanish with people around me vs when I was shoved with grammar taking French. Despite not speaking Spanish for 5 years my sentences followed much better than I did in france

[@ladybluelotus]

Agreed 💯 I have discovered this as well. And I really enjoy starting with a rather complex text and watching my brain adapt and learn through repeated exposure to the same material. It's mesmerizing.

[@benverret7968]

Sometimes, I notice a word in Arabic that I never noticed before but I don't have enough context to guess the meaning. Later, I encounter that same word in different contexts and I remember where I heard it first. If I've heard the word in three different contexts, I can start triangulating the meaning. I know it is within the confines of that triangle.

[@Spoken_Practice]

Thanks for sharing tips and tricks about English Language

[@coolbrotherf127]

I think some deliberate vocabulary practice is really helpful for complete beginners. Learning common nouns and verbs with some flash cards can be really helpful to get started with basic reading.

[@benverret7968]

I also bought Lingualism's Levantine Arabic audiobooks and ebooks (I don't have the paper versions). I don't just listen and read them but I also write one sentence per day from the ebooks. I do it like a dictation. I use the ebooks to correct my mistakes. I find that by carefully writing down every sentence, I really “dig” the meaning (“dig” for the lack of a better word). Also, it has the added advantage of making a physical paper copy in my own handwriting. I read from it instead of reading the ebooks.

[@waziammm]

Great video and tips! I would be interested in your tips when first starting on getting to a point where you have enough of a base learning to start more enjoyable activities to reinforce passive learning, or even when you have an early understanding ways to get to a better understanding so i can engage in more enjoyable activities. I'd also be interested in ideas of these more enjoyable activities, thanks.

[@fatimahmakgatho8968]

Thank you for the guidance

[@brancofuller9878]

this video changed me in a positive way :)

[@RichardCoombes-zt1py]

Yes - I like the idea of reading a variety of content to increase exposure to the same or related words, and approaching either a given text or the language learning process generally in a variety of ways. I like to listen both with and without the text in front of me, read slowly on LingQ, listen to audio at full speed, speak with natives, write messages on social media. I also really like Steve's comment about finding it harder to read non-Arabic words in Arabic script. I still trip over non-Russian or non-Ukrainian words in Cyrillic, and conversely, I just sit and stare at Russian or Ukrainian written in something other than Cyrillic.

[@eavesdropenglish]

Oh my gosh, I'm an English language teacher who grew up in an environment where people said, "Would have went." and "Should have went." I love that you used that example. My partner is also a language teacher and despite frequent corrections and my knowledge of grammar and modals, I STILL slip into this regional grammar usage.

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

I don't know who needs to hear this today but Duolingo teaches scripts in Arabic Chinese and Hebrew. This is essential.

[@AdoreLanguage]

This is probably the thing about Duolingo everyone can agree on.

[@user-um3rq5sk3j]

Korean, Russian, Japanese too

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

@@user-um3rq5sk3j This is good! For me the simplest way to get any kind of word base in a language is to play on the Drops application. I knew it was a child that someday I'd be a world traveler but I had no idea that learning Russian scripts Russian words would be so easy. After that step Clozemaster gets your next through the door. Right here I would include links to Drops and Clozemaster but KZbin SHADOW BLOCKS LINKS DOESNT ALLOW STICKER OR GIF KZbin NEEDS TO GET WITH THE TIMES AND ALLOW US TO POST SCREENSHOTS!!

[@KS-zb2yq]

I do not know how about the other languages, but when it comes to arabic learning with doulingo- a lot of things there are not correct, especially when it comes to pronunciation. So don’t start with doulingo, you will learn the non correct things (I guess referring to Chinese and other languages the same problem ) - I would prefer other tools - especially for beginners

[@lucassantossj]

I'd not recommend it for Chinese script.

[@user-bh3wz2sc9e]

Мое почтение, уважаемый Стив! Дай Вам Бог здоровья!

[@jimmyxflare7347]

well said as always

[@thiagoxaviersoutricolor8260]

Hello Stive it's sensational your video and i gonna learning more languages.

[@PhysiKarlz]

Corrected: Hello Steve, your video is sensational and I am going to learn more languages.

[@heisenbergwalter3363]

it’s easier to learn vocabulary directly than to continually look for ways to learn vocabulary

[@somehilarious]

Feel the same, i don't understand correctly what this video is about

[@somehilarious]

There are plenty videos with the same title on Steve's channel

[@naclaski99]

It may seem easier, but it's not as useful as a constant stream of new material. I struggled with German by learning lists of vocabulary and never acquired much fluency, whereas with French I've taken a completely different approach, watching lots of videos and reading online news. Although it's messier and does not provide the same sense of clear-cut targets, progress is swifter.

[@somehilarious]

@@naclaski99 Did you translate every unknown word or just without adding it into Anki or similar apps? Could you say more about this approach?

[@somehilarious]

@@naclaski99 I don't add every word in Anki just the most 5 interested that I encountered during the day

[@Joseph_Hovsep]

Thank you Mr Steve

[@LA-wv6jo]

I wasn't an emigrant but I learned English and my native language together because of the English courses, games and films. To this day, I remember the English alphabet better than in my language😅. And yes, I received many compliments about my reading skills.

[@TIG2MAN0]

This is great advice, I'm currently working on Arabic. I'm learning classical so I can speak to anyone then I will work on local dialect depending on where I'm at in the world. So if learning has a lot to do with exposure would it be beneficial to learn words and phrases and listen to podcasts in Arabic to increase my exposure?

[@spicekai4486]

Congrats on your progress in the Arabic language!

[@omarochoa5029]

Hey Steve you are a great person

[@josephstar6728]

Love from Pakistan🇵🇰! Sir, I highly admire your patience and consistency with the languages. Can't wait to see you start hindi. Learning hindi will give you extra advantage to understand my native language urdu, since both languages are mutually intelligible and both pakistanis and Indians can communicate with each other without any difficulty.

[@candidfellow]

you should learn Chinese because China Pakistan Zindabad

[@JustIzzan]

this makes so much sense

[@user-ni4xq9zh7k]

Good morning Steve, I really enjoyed your talk, and I shared it with my wife, a former pre-school teacher who is always interested in language formation in young children. I was drawn to your content because I am almost 72 years old and I'm trying to learn German. I recently watched a German language show on Netflix, once with subtitles in German and once with subtitles in English. I was planning to watch it again, maybe a couple of times (as well as watching other German language shows). I was wondering if you had any suggestions re: using subtitles? Thanks in advance, Mike

[@PhysiKarlz]

Try to listen as much as possible without subtitles in the original language. Rewind and turn subtitles on if you missed something. Once you have understood, turn subtitles back off.

[@smoothbanana]

I've always been a good speller, but I always had to write it down first. I would then look at it and know if it was right or wrong. I'm sure many people have similar experiences, whether it be music or dress sense. Once you've had enough meaningful interaction with something, you just know when something is off.

[@GenkoKenja]

“It is far more difficult for me to read a word written in the Arabic alphabet which is not a word…it might be a foreign word….” I can definitely relate to this with Japanese. Reading words in Katakana is sometimes a pain and I find it kind of a drag…it’s not because I don’t know Japanese, but it just clearly feels like borrowed words don’t belong to the language….because they don’t…they feel, no pun intended, foreign…. (Of course, Katakana is used for more than just borrowed words like onomatopoeias and emphasis) As far as low vs high frequency vocab, also feel high frequency is just as important as low frequency vocab…the way I see it is: if I find it in my reading or listening, chances are I’ll see it again. Exposure is always more important than rot memorization…but when you’re a beginner in a language that is extremely different to your own, anki just becomes a necessity to do it at least for very few words daily….but a learner has to be conscious enough to know when anki isn’t effective anymore…as nobody can learn an entire language, at some point anki needs to be dropped. After you’re advanced enough, you will pick up new words from context and sometimes you can even infer the meaning based on the context and won’t even need to look it up.

[@paulwalther5237]

At least the katakana kind of clues you in that it's a loan word.

[@GenkoKenja]

@@paulwalther5237 True, but that’s only the case with Katakana… I also read and watch a lot of stuff with Sino Japanese in it since I also like the chinese culture……in there they have nouns made up of just kanji which when you read it it just feels weird, and sometimes some nouns just appear in the dictionary as the way you refer to something in the chinese culture..so it’s very specific…but my point is that it’s not just Katakana used to describe things of different cultures. a lot of times such content does have furigana…but not always…also sometimes you see kanji used for names of people but in “furigana” they have an entirely different pronunciation in katakana that would not be how you would read that character at all…at least it’s not common onyomi for that character, but instead it’s the actual chinese pronunciation of that character or group of characters (I know as I watch donghua/CDramas with Chinese audio and Japanese subs so when they say the name it matches what the reading is in the subs for that kanji) I do think katakana is a blessing because while I was a beginner it made it easier to remember a lot of words that sounded similar to english…I didn’t really have to use anki for such words. But now I honestly just wish Japanese had less borrowed words (like, say, Chinese…..where they have a word for everything. It’s more to memorize, but in the end all words feel like they belong to the language)

[@ekaptsv]

the same story with Thai language 😅

[@ridleyroid9060]

I am just starting to learn Japanese and knowing when I have enough to try and expose myself to Japanese media without being overwhelmed is a balancing act. I opened up monster hunter portable 3rd for example and found tons of Kanji I dont recognize, overall, fairly overwhelming! I guess I should start with basic graded reader stories, or an anki vocab deck first.

[@paulwalther5237]

@@ridleyroid9060 Japanese was painfully slow for me but my addiction to anime saw me through 😂. I think both the graded reader and Anki are good ideas. I hear good things about Satori reader. I got started by taking classes.

[@VULCAN1135]

Very good video Steve

[@inglesbrasuca]

But Chomsky has never said we don't need to learn. The idea of instinct and innate ability we all have seems quite solid. Of course, we need to learn and expose ourselves. I think you're approaching different concepts.

[@kombathistory3260]

Very helpful, thanks

[@federicosolanocon3068]

la disciplina y disfrutar un nuevo idioma me han ayudado más que la técnica. Algo cierto es que me gusta escuchar el nuevo idioma mucho aunque no lo entienda todavía.

[@rlevy2010]

Steve, u are really the best! My life studying languages became thousands better after I started to apply your advice. Thank u so much!

[@xdarie0]

I feel a motivated for learn more words and improve my skills in this language I to consume more videos in english , podcast and I listen many songs

[@renannv912]

Thanks Steve 👏

[@user-gy4qp3nf1s]

Thank U. Steve

[@mike12489]

This is wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing. I consider myself lucky to do well in many subjects, but despite many years of language-learning as a hobby, I've never reached a level of success I could be proud of -- or rather, I've found that measurable success only occurs over very long periods of time. I'm increasingly convinced of what you said here, that exposure (over a period of time) is a more effective component than lessons and drills. Thank you so much for the wisdom and encouraging words.

[@dimitrispetrovas9381]

Amazing advices! Insightful and open-minding. Learning from Steve Kaufmann about language learning is probably similar to learn about physics from Einstein.

[@JeanWashington-cb5ph]

INTERESTING about difficulty reading non-Arabic words written in Arabic. I find the same thing with Greek. A word like cellotape( on Hary Potter's glasses). written in Greek letters totally stumped me, whereas I can read real Greek words with ease, even if I don't know what they mean.

[@user-nu4be8qx1p]

6:31 The dominant hemisphere processes language, it is the left hemisphere in 97% of cases. Visuospatial skills such as mental rotation or perception of faces seem more linked to the right hemisphere, while processes involved in numbering involve the left hemisphere more than the right.

[@Dan.50]

What's that got to do with price of Kangaroos in Madagascar??

[@user-nu4be8qx1p]

@@Dan.50 everything

[@Garow-ur7gz]

Absolutely true , master,the goat , great video Steve

[@gerardopc1]

Looking forward to learning Russian and German ❤🇷🇺🇩🇪

[@Kender591]

Beautiful languages

[@BlackCodeMath]

A very rich discussion of this.

[@thomasde4573]

I think what you said about consuming a great variety of content to make learning languages effective and enjoyable is correct. But I think that is only true once you have reached a certain level, e.g. B1. When I only have A1 or A2 level in a language, I find vocabulary drills a necessary and efficient duty to learn the basic vocabulary. I find example sentences related to the vocabularies also very useful. Furthermore, pronunciation audio and possibly images for each vocabulary are useful in my opinion.

[@shazzbotz]

Reading Loanwords in korean is also extremely challenging. Once I realize this probably isn't a korean word I have to verbalize it for my ears to recognize what the word is!

[@hamishmackinnon2231]

I've been studying Dutch for almost six years, and have just started learning German. I also have a very limited knowledge of some other foreign languages. If you want to acquire the essential vocabulary in a foreign language, I can give you the following advice - Everyone has a very good audio memory, as you know all the words to a number of your favourite songs. So you can pick up the basics of a foreign language, by repeatedly watching youtube videos. But what youtube videos should you watch? - If you want to learn a romance language (French, Spanish, etc) or a Germanic language (Dutch, German, etc) it'll have a number of 'false friends', words that appear to have the same meaning as in English, but actually means something completely different. So you should start learning your preferred language, by watching youtube videos, on the subject of false friends. - To ensure that you don't cause offence, the next youtube videos I'd advise you to study, should be on the subject of swearwords, so you know the words that you shouldn't use. - Then you should watch youtube videos about the alphabet of the language you want to learn, so you know how to pronounce it properly. - There are six levels of language learning, from A1 to C2. If you're starting to learn a foreign language, you should be focused on the A1 and A2 level. Learning a language to A2 level requires a vocabulary of only 1, 500 words. If you've been watching videos about false friends, swearwords and the alphabet, you'll have acquired some of this essential vocabulary. Then you should watch youtube videos on the subject of A1/A2 vocabulary in general, to learn all the other words that are essential, for basic communication. - Studying grammar is also important, for learning a new language. But if you already have learnt the essential vocabulary, then learning the grammar will obviously be a lot easier.

[@assaourimouhmed6776]

Love ❤from morocco

[@Rudolphhhhhh]

Dear Mr. Kaufman. I think I read a mistake in French subtitles at 12:32. I think the translation of "eventually" is not "éventuellement", but "finalement". But I may be wrong myself.

[@mercedestamayomoreno9198]

Totally agree.

[@wilsonlv137]

Makes a lot of sense. The LLM like GPT is trained just by predicting next word with given context. They don't know any grammar and yet they can master language like any human being. Maybe our brain works the same way? I don't know but this is definitely intriguing.

[@PhysiKarlz]

That is how the brain and ChatGPT start to work after repeating the learning exercises.

[@sherlockhomeless7138]

4:23 My dutch niece still does this. She says 'valde' instead of 'viel' ('falled' instead of 'fell')

[@hhachatz]

Thanks!

[@josephm3966]

How do you immerse yourself in the language to begin with though? If you only know a few phrases and words how can you watch TV etc in that language and get anything from it? I'm learning arabic as well BTW

[@krusriyad8267]

Thank you so much

[@richardshepler2047]

That does it! I’ve quit learning the seven languages I was working on….. is it still April 1?

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

This is a very interesting and informative video. It does raise some questions. For example, Steven Kaufmann is the language equivalent of a star NHL player. Would a beginner skater wish to copy the methods used by a star NHL player?

[@mellamanborrego8299]

Trying to play like a pro right away isn't smart. Following a pro's advice for beginners might be. Especially when the pro is furnishing science that seems to apply generally to all humans, not just pros.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

@@mellamanborrego8299 There are many that claim that Chomsky’s ideas are science. I do happen to believe, based on reading about the subject, that Stephen Krashen is on the right track, though I’m not sure how convincing the evidence is.

[@jinxie712]

Been watching shows/movies with Spanish subtitles. Only thing is that you might get the same phrase subtitled different ways. Was thinking okay it’s context. But then you’d get it when a person repeats themself.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

Even when I do have the words I sometimes can't understand. Often.. actually

[@tulpetwo]

Thank you for this video. But I have a question, what is meant by low and high frequency words? I've never heard that term before. Maybe someone can give me an answer. Greetings from Germany

[@carvalhoquibato2084]

Big steve👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[@user-nk6pf3hk6k]

I use flashcards, when I meet completely new words for me. When I watched this video, I did't meet such words at all. There might be videos with a lot of rare words and idioms.

[@CDRKto]

Is it possible, to find Monsieur Botilieaú??

[@greyLeicester]

The problem is that learning vocabulary takes time and effort and most studenta these days lack the time and the methods to learn/memorise new words...

[@hongzexia7142]

I can really concur that LLM works the same way. Thanks for the insight. If you think deeply into this topic you may find humans aren’t more special than an LLM. 😂 I meant yes there is some uniqueness about human but I am afraid the gaps are getting smaller.

[@randomenia]

I'm speak spanish for if someone wanna learn and I wanna learn English , Say for practice , sorry for my mistake

[@M0du5Pwn3n5]

The second myth is not actually a myth. It is absolutely true that the huge amount of language data children acquire drives most of language acquisition, but correction is actually very common. The idea that correction is uncommon has been taken basically for granted in linguistics for decades (ironically mostly to support Chomsky's arguments about universal grammar), but more recent research that actually collected large corpora of child-directed speech discovered that correction is actually pervasive. It's so common and normalized that people don't even realize how often they do it. That said, Chomsky's universal grammar theory is not so stupid that he didn't realize that certain things are correct in some languages and not others.

[@Thelinguist]

How do you explain that children of immigrants, if they are young enough, just naturally learn from their peers,. You think all of their errors can be corrected by teachers?

[@M0du5Pwn3n5]

@@Thelinguist Definitely not. The point isn't that correction is necessary. It clearly isn't. And Chomsky's argument about "poverty of the stimulus" has always been very silly. It's easy to explain how data leads children to expectations that are subverted by further data - no correction necessary to obtain negative evidence. BUT it is just a fact that correction is also pretty common. Actual data collection shows it is substantially more common than Chomsky et al insisted.

[@Deutsch-um6rt]

lol I’ll go ahead and tell you that my parents are Turks and I grew up in Russia since the age 1 and ironically me and my siblings were the ones to correct our parents and get pissed when they mispronounced words when reading us fairytales in Russian. Now looking back I think of that moment when teachers would praise me for writing waaay more correct than other (Russian) kids, although my 2 other siblings were more like other kids in the class. And then I used to read our Russian literature textbook at home about poets and their brief bio (2 pages) and then to my and my Russian teacher’s surprise I started reciting them by heart word for word(!). She’d knock on the door whenever I had another class and take me to parallel classes, put me in front of a whole class and have me recite any bio kids would select from the book and I’d recite it. Funny thing is, that was the case when I learned effortlessly but after I was pleased by all these applause, I wanted to do the same with other textbooks, like history for example, since I loved this subject too. And it didn’t work! What worked many time on its own did NOT work when I was trying to learn the texts deliberately. But I digressed. So, yes, I am someone who wasn’t exposed to the language at home and still managed to learn it better than my “native” peers. So, there was no way my mom or dad would correct us 😅

[@klarailyass]

Я получила ответ из данного видео материала на свой вопрос, "как Вы запоминаете слова?" Спасибо

[@saiminayatullah6620]

Studying words in isolation does work, though. This is widely known and accepted among experienced language learners. You learn incomparably faster when you combine deliberate learning with naturalistic methods.

[@KnightOfEternity13]

Does work? Yes. More effective? Here I have to disagree though.

[@saiminayatullah6620]

@@KnightOfEternity13 People who use purely naturalistic methods consistently get worse results than people who mix it with deliberate learning strategies. Even Kaufmann himself used a more balanced approach when he learned his core languages that he is fluent in.

[@PowerfulRift]

I’m currently learning Brazilian Portuguese. 🇧🇷

[@rl3730]

Aí sim companheiro That's good decision

[@lucassantossj]

Bons estudos e boa sorte!

[@candidfellow]

Portugal Portuguese is better and official

[@lucassantossj]

@@candidfellow my brother in Christ, just no... And the only official thing is the writing, which is shared, not the speech.

[@senshtatulo]

Steve, I think you have misunderstood Chomsky's universal grammar. It's not that every child automatically knows what's correct or not (which is obviously false), but rather that every child has an innate set of grammatical possibilities from which to choose those that are most likely to fit the language he is learning. This means that he has a very restricted set of options from which to build his own internal grammar. Something I discovered is that everybody reinvents the language he is learning, whether it's his first or not. He creates a version of the language which is unique to himself, although extremely similar to those of other speakers of the same language. I accept as evidence of this reinvention the rebracketing of some words, e.g., "a napron" to "an apron" or "a nadder" to "an adder".

[@thefunbunns]

If each child creates Grammer that is completely unique, as you stated, similar but different, then it means that there are no predetermined grammatical rules. If such rules were in place then the grammatical understandings would be identical or nearly impossible to differentiate.

[@Gigatrain0]

السلام عليكم يا ستيف، إذا يمكنك قرأت هذه العبارة إعتبر نفسك ممتاز في اللغة العربية.

[@HusseinNAhmad]

صحيح معك حق

[@MrbK-si5gk]

قراءة* وليست قرأت

[@KacperMazur-fn7gv]

Can recommend channels like this?

[@patfromamboy]

I’ve been studying Portuguese for 9.5 years now and I’ve visited Brasil 18 times but I can’t read or converse yet and I have to translate everything into English to understand. Even basic words that I’ve known for years don’t mean anything to me until I translate them one at a time. It prevents me from understanding and conversing. I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been practicing for 6.5 years now but I can only make out an occasional word which I then have to translate. I need to find a way to learn and understand Portuguese without translating everything. Tests show that I know over 20,000 words but they all need to be translated.

[@Personaje123]

Stop translating and start understanding the concepts in the language

[@patfromamboy]

@@Personaje123 when I don’t translate I can’t understand anything. How would I understand without translating? Thanks

[@lucassantossj]

​@@patfromamboyYou need to train it, like watching Brazilian videos without making the effort to understanding, only to recognize the words. For example, you hear "gato" and, instead of thinking "gato = cat", just think "gato"(maybe also 🐈, but not the English word).

[@patfromamboy]

@@lucassantossj I’ve already been watching videos. Some with subtitles and some just watching. For years but I still can’t understand what people are saying. I study and practice every day and have for 9.5 years now but I can’t understand what people are saying. I’ve visited Brasil 18 times. Thanks for the help!

[@brentwarren6788]

Learning Thai is very difficult because Thai teachers rarely correct a students pronunciation. I learn and know a lot of words but I don't pick them up when Thais are speaking and using the same word. It's frustrating, for sure.

[@salamsalamo9944]

🧐 I think ,there are three stages to learn vocabularies easily: 1: noting a new vocabulary in a notpad and review it while period of time until you can remember it after a week(approximately) . 2: Read listen and write maximum contents(which please you), to meet again these vocabularies . 3: Try to use these vocabularies while speaking. Thank you steve👍.