Don't Take Language Learning Advice From Native Speakers

[@mattvsjapan]

TIMESTAMPS: 01:35 - Language learning advice vs. language-specific information 03:06 - Language learning is a skill (which most natives don't have) 06:19 - Why there’s so much bad advice 08:10 - Even professional teachers often don’t understand language acquisition 12:12 - Rebuttal: “But top sports coaches often were never top athletes” 13:44 - Most natives are bad at articulating how their language works 15:29 - Natives will often give you false information 19:46 - How to properly utilize feedback from natives 22:16 - Conclusion Sorry if the audio seems out of sync at times…… While editing, it’s hard to know when the audio’s out of sync and when my computer’s simply lagging.

[@mattvsjapan]

WanderingDoc I write an outline, then speak off the top of my head while filming. I usually film many takes for each section, and then edit them together in post.

[@niltonkenneph3538]

Matt, I'd Like to learn Japanese and as far as I know your channel It seems to be one of the or the single one who really could help me learning it effectively cause you know a lot about it, learn Japanese. I remember of got watched a video of yours with Steve Kaufmann and you said that you're almost 6 years on your journey. What I'm trying to ask you is... Is there a video on your channel where you explain how you began to learn it? A detailed video? I Like pretty much of watch your videos and it'd be wonderful for me if you answer me!! I know that you're probably busy but, I also would like to share you that I learned English with you... I'm gonna explain you that if you're with free time... Thank you so much for your patient to read it. It's important for me.

[@shoogeveen]

@@niltonkenneph3538 look up 'my ajatt journey' on his channel

[@niltonkenneph3538]

@@shoogeveen Thank you so much bro... You helped me a lot!!

[@EasyFinnish]

Very well explained thanks. Btw, first time here. Subbed! I like languages and learning them.

[@zdennnis]

It's more like asking a person born rich how to get rich.

[@babygorl9541]

exactly since they don't remember how they actually learned they might as well have been born fluent that's the way i feel about my english ability tbh

[@delta6244]

In knowledge about the language? Yes. In language learning knowledge? Not at all.

[@vio3366]

yup cannot agree more native speakers just absorbed their native language

[@shotaroyamada9892]

you said it

[@naineko8989]

@@babygorl9541 some people have different beliefs but I think that people aren't born fluently, because first, I'm not American but I speak English very fluently ;v;

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

Couldn't agree more. As a native Japanese speaker I can articulate every fine difference in use as to when to use は and が as minutely and precisely as an average native English speaker can explain the adjective order in English or which of a(n)/the/ø one should use in a particular sentence. The answer is always "Yes" or "It just works."

[@pepperdayjackpac4521]

Nomadicmonkey what is the difference between が and は? How do I know when to use them?

[@martinet1985]

that's true of any educated native speaker.

[@JapanWalkerJJ]

Learned Japanese for 7 years and I still fuck up when it comes to "Wa" and "Ga."

[@b.s1505]

ah, really. I really hate Japanese people being such a arrogant like that, as a native Japanese speaker You know I can tell when to use wa/ga of course but could NEVER tell their difference by 100% clear/logical explanation and reaching to the level that the non-native speakers are actually able to understand its logic perfectly... until Ive been told by one of my foreign friends who can speak 90% accurate Japanese("almost native" level), the best way to explain it for non-native speaker which I had never heard before but I literary surprised so much that how logical and sophisticated the explanation was and nodded a lot.

[@coconutpineapple2489]

@PepperDayJack pac 買い物が好き I like shopping. 買い物は好き Basically I like staying at home. But I like shopping. チョコレートが好き。 I like chocolate. チョコレートは好き。 I don't like sweets except chocolate.

[@servbotz]

Damn. This makes so much sense to me. It's abundantly clear to me why I'm not really qualified to "teach" English acquisition. I've been using various apps like HelloTalk or Busuu and correcting a learner's English. But virtually 80%+ of the time, I find myself looking up English grammar rules because I have no idea why some things sound strange or weird. (Now Google shows me English language learning ads 😂) And I end up second-guessing myself on what is the proper grammar of the sentence. I'm pretty sure I gave out some B.S. answers more than once. Thanks for pointing this out!

[@co_obs]

Man I can relate to looking up english grammar after correcting somebody's english. Matt did a great job articulating what ive been feeling recently about native speakers helping learners.

[@superelectrasuperheroe4079]

Well same here lol. I really became conscious of constructing sentences 😭

[@jankoszuta9835]

Me too! Got myself a copy of English Grammar for Dummies and learning so much

[@MrTripsJ]

Yeah my Japanese friends can’t really explain things, they’re just like “I kinda just know this...”

[@KuroDeresu]

Paul Denino my friends is japanese and speak 11 other languages XD but the problem is he can’t do anything when he is drunk at night

[@M_SC]

your friends are excellent people. they are aware of what they know and dont know. so many people dont know the difference. they therefore contsantly lie and mislead. to themselves, even, which is a vicious circle leading to them getting even dumber.

[@clay2889]

Fancy seeing a Cx member here

[@seherling207]

I felt this. Usually they give me so many examples and I just politely tell them I get it now - sometimes I actually understand it

[@foxylion9200]

@@KuroDeresu Is that the only time he'll give you "language lessons?"

[@eigonodo]

You have a lot of Japanese books!

[@Legendary_Detective-Wobbuffet]

My six full bookshelves laugh.

[@luigiconvertini2822]

@@Legendary_Detective-Wobbuffet wow you're so cool

[@123agent5]

@@Legendary_Detective-Wobbuffet wow you're legendary man

[@sergio4660]

@@Legendary_Detective-Wobbuffet based

[@baronvonbeandip]

Everyone other than the first dude (not OP; Kaz is a baller) is a legend. I love you guys.

[@daysandwords]

This first point is so true. As an iTalki teacher, I had one student who booked about 80% of my lessons. She was Chinese and her English was good (better than my best foreign language at the time) and she sometimes asked me stuff and I had to say "Your English is better than my Swedish, so you actually know more about this than I do." - and then there was the fact that Swedish is very near to English, versus English for her (being a long way from Chinese obviously). Another thing to watch out for is what I call "hyper correction" which is when the native speaker feels that if one is being strict about their language, then it should be pronounced or should be written in a certain way that is in fact wrong. One example is in Swedish, when R and S occur together (which they do all the time), then 90% of Swedes will pronounce it "shh" and this is considered correct, and is written in text books, but I came across a teacher who tried to insist that I should say "rrr" and "sss" as separate sounds, which sounds freakin' crazy unless you are Finno-Swedish. An equivalent in English would be those people who think that "who" doesn't exist and it must always be "whom", when they actually have no idea how to use "whom" correctly.

[@j5679]

I fell into this trap (which you call "hyper correction") myself before. I was trying to help a friend who is learning my native language and she repeatedly asked me which among a couple of choices sounded best. This is pretty trivial to answer as a native speaker and most of the times it was, but sometimes when there were multiple options that sounded fine to me, I would for some reason start to doubt my intuition and instead "think in terms of rules" (which, obviously, never works). If you're the native in such a situation, I think it's a good rule to set for yourself to only rely on your intuition and nothing else. Consciousness and language don't go well together.

[@kyliejenner6059]

My native language is italian. A friend asked me when to use “l’imperfetto” and when to use “il passato prossimo” (both are past tenses) I was like... uuuhhhmmm i don’t know... But then she showed me her worksheets and i could of course solve it without problems... and she got angry because i told her idk but could use it the right way... 😬

[@csigirl12]

This is exactly like my boyfriend, he is Russian and moved to England when he was young and I am learning Russian. I know how your friend feels it's frustrating. >_

[@reedmk]

Esattamente!

[@JapanWalkerJJ]

Mama Mia Spaghetti Mario!

[@Neverwas]

Le regole ci sono, semplicemente sono legate al contesto e non ad una regola logica. Se ti mettessi a riflettere sulla "regola" probabilmente ci arriveresti (non saresti precisa magari). Come Matt insegna, in lingua madre la grammatica suona come un "aaaah, ora capisco" e non un "ah, quindi usando l'imperfetto mi posso riferire ad azioni che ero solito fare con frequenza".

[@killerbuzzit347]

I feel that. My girlfriend is Filipina and they have at least 3 different ways to say "you" (ikaw, ka, and mo) and when i ask her when to use which one, shes like "idk it just sounds right" (facepalm)

[@necroskillz]

Tbh, I also don’t remember how I learned the second language. Other than consuming content for 1000s of hours, it’s hard to evaluate what of what I did made how much of a difference, and it was a long time ago. That is to say that even if someone was successful at learning a language, they probably also won’t be correct about a lot of stuff. For example I can tell if something sounds wrong in english (my second language), but often I can’t explain exactly why.

[@martinet1985]

Yeah, exactly. I have the same problem. English is my second language and there are a lot of things I can't explain because I never truly "learned" those things. Something might sound right or wrong but I can't tell why.

[@goncalomedeiros1589]

Was literally just thinking of this, I don't really remember how I learned english, It had to be from the countless hours of exposure to the language on the internet and other types of media. I'm currently learning a new language and I'm struggling, knowing english and my native language helps with the vocabulary but besides that, it feels like learning a new language for the first time

[@zuzu6864]

Same, English is my second language, but I suck at explaining things like tenses because I actually never used any of that while learning it. I kinda just learned it by listening to it.

[@reyhanoct]

In the process of us learning a 2nd language lets say “english”, Most of us probably aren’t being serious on learning it. We might be learning like the words and stuff. But for the grammar we indirectly learn it from other people speaking english. So when we heard someone speak wrong english we can feel that the word is grammarly wrong but we don’t know how to explain it to anyone about their incorrect grammar because we barely studied anything about grammar in english (at least thats the case with me) Hope that answers the question :) Sorry for bad english ^_^

[@janabroflovski2572]

Same, I learned english through exposure, and I can speak it fluently, but in class, everyone expects me to get the best grades in English, but I can't score the best grade (a 10 in my country) because I don't know what are past tenses and shit like that, it's frustrating.

[@corynicolas3175]

I've always said the same thing. Natives are good for pointing out what sounds right or wrong to them and what a native typically says or what they call something, but not language specific learning techniques. Ask a native Spanish-speaker how to form the imperfect subjunctive and they most likely won't even know what that is, although they use it naturally. I learned about how English worked (my native language) after studying other languages. Language learning (self study) is all about creating a continuous language learning environment and becoming obsessed with the language. You have to want to become part of the culture and community of those who speak the language. People don't realize all of the hours and experiences that native speakers have in their language. They have private tutors for years (mom, dad and siblings constantly talking around them and to them) and are sent to school for seven hours a day for 12 years (at least in the U.S.) where they hear and use the language in every class. They have to read, write, listen, speak and take tests constantly. Even in classes like P.E. and Math, they're learning and using the language. Adults don't invest that time in a foreign language. They also rarely completely stop speaking their native language. Adults also already have way more general knowledge than children so we obviously can learn some things much more quickly. The proof is always in the pudding. Listen to language learners who have reached high levels of fluency in the language. Each person's path is unique, but there are certain things we all had to do in order to learn, develop and master a foreign language.

[@anjuro]

I'm hesitant to throw all language teaching etiquette under the bus but certainly in my experience there are a lot of misconceptions as you say. I unwittingly achieved an effectively native level of fluency in two languages growing up (in addition to my native language) and I can with confirm the common factor was definitely mass immersion (absolutely focus on immersion guys!). Strangely enough no teacher ever seemed to be aware of this. I can only imagine what they were telling their other students.

[@HlewagastizHoltijaz]

When I studied language didactics we were taught that input is crucial to learning a language. Ideally you should learn the language by staying in a country where it is spoken. But if you teach a language for, say, three hours a week to a class of fifteen year-olds, how much input can you actually submit them to? Not a lot. So teaching grammar is a great shortcut. How many kids will learn German verb conjugation without formal grammar instruction? It also doesn't help that most of them aren't that interested in learning the language to begin with. And the kids that actually are interested seek out the language in their spare time so they get both instruction and input.

[@martinet1985]

@@HlewagastizHoltijaz Exactly! It's obvious that immersion is crucial. The more you're immersed in the language the easier the learning process (most of it happens subcounsciously). The problem is, not everybody has the same opportunity to expose themselves to the language but they still want to learn languages and communicate.

[@joegriffithsmusic]

There are definitely occasions where I'll ask my Japanese teacher (who is, in my opinion, extremely fluent in English, even accent and pronunciation wise) why something is the way it is in Japanese, and if he genuinely doesn't know the answer he'll say that he doesn't know why, which I appreciate way more than him telling me some made up thing on the spot.

[@Madchemist002]

My German Teacher does this as well. It's refreshing when you know the teacher will be honest with you.

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

I'm trying to imagine a traditional language teacher watching this video and going crazy about your ideas, which doesn't make any sense to their previous experience. I don't know why they think that shit they teach at school is supposed to work. That doesn't make sense!

[@chilael6892]

Portuguese name in a Brazilian meme, about the Russian language, speaking English in a video about learning languages. Mr Worldwide himself.

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

@@chilael6892 lmao

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

@@robertleger4986 Yeah, man. I see what you mean

[@Theyoutuberpolyglot]

They think just by learning grammar, you will master a language. The thing is you want to acquire the language naturally, not to analyse the language while you're speaking. I hate grammar- Grammar doesn't let me speak naturally.

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

@@Theyoutuberpolyglot I also hate it

[@RobertKaucher]

I want to drive something home from your video: being attentive to how native speakers speak is really the key to all of this. An immersive approach to learning will do no more for you than many other approaches to learning if you don't pay attention. You may be able to get to the point where you have good comprehension but if you are not thinking about and paying attention to how natives speak and write and how you speak and write in comparison, you are just going to get stuck.

[@martinet1985]

yes!

[@Ryosuke1208]

Yes, I've seen people that their comprehension is good, but their accent and pronunciation is just shit. Lingüistic narcicism is a thing (The idea that a person learning a foreign language has no accent at all when he obviously has, and thus preventing him from improving.

[@kalenburns4190]

This video is spot on. A hard pill to swallow for heavily viewed KZbin language “teachers”.

[@redbrows3225]

Asking a native for language advice is kind of like asking a tall person how to be tall.

[@babygorl9541]

bingo

[@brendan1529]

lol loooool

[@lucassantossj]

More realistic: asking a person who was always skinny how to lose weight.

[@redbrows3225]

​@@lucassantossj no lol

[@dovecat]

Redbrows in a way it is, since you can’t become tall, but you can learn a language even if you aren’t a native speaker

[@leonardodavinci4259]

Indeed. I'd also like to add that knowing a language and teaching it are completely different sets of skills. To teach a language effectively, you don't only need an intuitive understanding of how it works, but the ability to spot differences between it and your students' native tongue in order to draw conclusions about the reasons behind the mistakes they make. Because a lot of the beginner and intermediate level mistakes learners of foreign languages make can be explained by examining the structure of their native tongues. My native tongue is Arabic. The syntax is almost opposite to that of Japanese to the extent that you can sometimes translate back and forth between the two by simply starting from the end and working your way back up. This means that although I've had a broad understanding of Japanese grammar for the longest time, I struggled with spontaneous speech because the longer the sentence was the harder it became for me to forsee how its structure is ought to be because that's simply not the way my brain was trained to work. This also meant that in order for me to truly have a great command of the language, I didn't only need to study grammar points and memorize vocabulary lists, but change the very lense through which I see the world. Right now I'm still stuck at the phase where I have to either form the complete thought inside my head before expressing it, or talking in bits and bytes while going back to make amendments as I speak. However, ever since I've became aware of what was really holding me back, progress became regular.

[@mr.sushi2221]

Personally I’ve found it a big help to talk to my teacher. He speaks Korean, Japanese and English, and is also learning Spanish. Sometimes it’s hard for him to explain things but I do find him a massive help.

[@Hadrianus01]

Great tips. I'm a native English speaker and a language enthusiast myself. Learners of English ask me all kinds of questions about English which I often have no idea how to answer!!

[@jasonbrenagan7930]

I’ve only ever studied with native speakers who are certified tutors. Most know their language really well and are actually trained to teach. They also have unmatched intuitive knowledge of their language. Sometimes it’s more important to sound natural rather than correct.

[@PsLLinguas]

I agree 100% what you said, teachers try to give advice about learning foreign languages but they didn't even master one, and if they know more than one language, it's just in a basic level. So they don't have the experience and the struggle of learning foreign languages.

[@Theyoutuberpolyglot]

Teachers should provide tools for students to learn their target languages rather than teaching them grammar. I mean, you write an essay and your teacher can correct it. The teacher will give you some feedback, but remember this the student wants to learn the language, the student has to make an effort and no-one can speak the language for you. Teachers can come in handy to a certain extent: Correct your mistakes, explain to you something unclear, but the most part is on you. I am talking about good teachers, not those who teach you a language in the traditional way. Fill the gaps - that is boring.

[@HlewagastizHoltijaz]

@@Theyoutuberpolyglot If you want to study the language by yourself, a basic understanding of grammar will come in handy.

[@Arctagon]

17:26 Fun fact: The Japanese name for 'pitch accent' is 高低アクセント, which literally means 'high-low accent'.

[@Ryosuke1208]

So it's like spanish?

[@Arctagon]

According to Wikipedia, 'pitch-accent' in Spanish seems to translate literally to 'tonal accent' and 'musical accent'.

[@Ryosuke1208]

@@Arctagon Well in spanish we call it intonation, that can go up and down and change the meaning of words. I don't know if it's similar in japanese. This video illustrates a little bit. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmaaaKaiipVklbM

[@Arctagon]

I see what you mean now. Pitch-accent and intonation are two different concepts. Intonation is the way in which pitch changes over the course of a sentence, and, as far as I know, a universal trait in human languages. Pitch-accent, on the other hand, is a system of pitch patterns limited to individual words which is used to distinguish them semantically, and, as far as I know, a concept that only exists in a handful of languages.

[@EntropyOfChaos]

From my experience, the best tutors are the ones willing to say when they aren't sure or will look it up. I have a tutor who does just that. I also know he's a language learner who is still trying to master English himself. So I think having a teacher like that helps in that he understands the struggle of language learning. I personally do the same thing for my Japanese friend who is trying to learn English. I learned long ago I know English but don't usually understand why I say things the way I do. So anytime I am asked a question, I always look up the grammatical reason why and then try to re-explain it to her in a simpler way.

[@caller145]

My mom is a teacher. She has to teach english and swedish. She can have basic conversations in english but she is not as fluent as I am. I tried talking with her about good ways to learn languages but she doesn't listen... she has the traditional teacher approach with little word tests and extensive grammar reading. I beliebe that with that approach you can get on a basic conversation level but you won't ever get fluent that way and it takes a lot more time and energy. I'm now learning german and really so far the best thing I have done in order to learn has been playing minecraft with a 9 years old german girl. And also reading a book. Though with the book my mom always teases me like: "how come you say you are not good in german, yet you read a book?"

[@ad-spiritus]

Great video, man 👍 I’ve studied languages for years and while language exchange with native speakers has been one of the most useful tools ever in developing my fluency after learning the basics, I can definitely confirm that *most* native speakers do not actually understand the details of their own language and, well, basically everything you said in the video had some truth to it! In fact, I have learned so much about my own native language from talking to so many foreigners, being asked questions I’d never thought about and thinking a lot and/or looking up answers, watching English-teaching videos in order to pass on good ones to friends learning it, etc. We just speak our own language. We don’t intimately “get” it. I don’t find much like this out there. I think a lot of teachers tend to be too optimistic thinking that warnings of negative aspects of learning will demotivate people. I think you gave valuable, honest advice. 👍

[@catsquad9830]

I have a best friend from Spain that moved to Norway for 4 years ago and I teach her Norwegian and she teaches me Spanish, it helps us both❤️ I learnt English from when I was 6 till 18 so of course I can already speak it, but my friend knows it was hard learning Norwegian and I know it was hard learning Spanish, and now we are both helping each other and speak relatively well, of course she speaks better Norwegian than I speak Spanish because we live in Norway but I can keep a conversation without problems❤️

[@moisesgomes6191]

Wait, there's a language youtuber who is not endorsed by Italki?

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

Yep. And I'm another one

[@moisesgomes6191]

@@vemamimlinguarussa hahah I just browsed your channel and it's pretty interesting. You got one more subscriber. Eu escrevi em inglês pra galera se interessar tbm kkk. Bom trabalho!

[@vemamimlinguarussa]

@@moisesgomes6191 Ué, tu é BR? Kkk, nossa!

[@gabrielmoreno9455]

um fato notável realmente

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@vemamimlinguarussa uP

[@Radescha]

Matt I have a specific but in my opinion "hot" question which most of us would find interesting. Me and a lot of MIA viewers are at least almost fluent in English. For me understanding is a no-brainer, even if I watch science, politics or law stuff I almost never have problems. Now the thing: My accent sucks terribly... I am not happy at all with the way I pronounce words, vocab choice, etc... I think this developed at school and work, where I was/am regularly forced to output in Englisch. I mean everyone can understand me but as you said: "being understood and sounding native are different things". Really hope you could make a VOD regarding this topic, since I think a lot of people would benefit from that.

[@fgv3357]

my pronounciation is shit too.

[@_console]

unfortunately I can relate XD

[@khajitt]

This is very true, most people sound not native probably because people tell that it is not important, the same way people tell japanese pitch accent is not important aka flat. I think the only way to correct this is by reading aloud properly, and i mean lots of reading, starting from the most beginner level like pronouncing alphabet. It's a tough work, most people won't even bother to, learning all over again, who's up for that?

[@allesindwillkommen]

Adults are often not very good at imitating sounds like children. That's why becoming intimately familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet is a must for any serious adult learner. Always check IPA transcription in a dictionary, even if you think you know the pronunciation of a particular word. You're going to be surprised quite often. For example, words like "off" and "of" may look very similar, but they usually sound very different like /ɔf/ and /əv/. If you know the IPA, you can also find good articles about each sound on Wikipedia with comprehensive explanations and language comparison tables. It may look intimidating at first, but you'll get used to it quickly and it will help you improve your accent in any language because it's universal. And always stick to one dialect/accent until you're good at it. For example, if you try to learn American English, always use American English dictionaries to avoid mixing things up with British English and vice versa.

[@khajitt]

@ロマン I don't agree with the second one. I've met people who learned english around 20's and be fluent after about 5 years, also the guy said that he started thinking in english, even had a dream in english. So yeah, no..

[@AConnorDN38416]

I took a Japanese class at my university a few years ago taught by a Japanese woman and she had some frustrating policies about learning Japanese. My Japanese level was much higher than the class so I was always wanting to use the more advanced grammar and vocabulary that I knew but she would scold me for veering outside of the confines of the material we were studying. She told students not to learn Japanese from material outside of class because it would corrupt our knowledge. Somehow it doesnt occur to people how many hundreds of years it would take to become fluent sticking the couple hundred words or so we would learn in a semester

[@Emi-eh1et]

Omg I know exactly what you mean.... 😖 It's just frustration on a different level 😂

[@RoeiRo]

This is an amazing video. I've been studying several languages, and have a lingusitics degree, and I've noticed many times that native speaker answer without knowledge of language learning or the grammar of their language, or out of agenda (how things SHOULD be said according to the academy vs how people actually speak). Thank you for this clarifying, enlightening video

[@Ryosuke1208]

Key point here: 0:45 He's specifically saying the native speakers that *have not* mastered a second language. I can confirm this because the advice that has helped me a lot is from native speakers that have mastered a 2nd or 3rd language, so they know all the struggles and the process of learning a new language.

[@buxy9194]

Your comment about seeking language advice from native speakers is very inspiring. I think most language learners, including me, tend to believe that native speakers are 'authority' in the language they are good at and there is no way that we can challenge them because we can never be a native like they are. I have been asked questions about my native language and I could not explain well enough because there are so many things come so natural to me and I have never thought of why I spoke or use certain words in certain ways until I met a person asking me to tell him/her why. Since I could not give him/her a satisfactory answer, I kind of 'more understanding' when some teacher told me 'Well, native tend to speak it in this way, no reason' but in fact there is a reason, he just doesn't know.

[@themelody_minded]

The BEST use of Native speakers (from places like iTalki) is for conversation practice. To learn the language itself, apart from conversation (which is like over 50%), you should learn from people who have learned multiple languages AND it's their native language. So if you want to learn Japanese, take lessons from a Japanese native speaker who also has learned English and/or Spanish and/or whatever language.

[@dianas7429]

Not really. For example, I'm Italian, I've learned German and English and therefore I'm perfectly able to explain those grammars, as I've been studying them for years. However, I haven't touched an Italian grammar book since school. I wouldn't be able to explain WHy we use one verb or the other, or even some article rules and exceptions. I could do that in English or German, but not in my mother language. The only way to teach something is to study it beforehand, even if it's the grammar of your native language.

[@melaniesyx]

@@dianas7429 Exactly. I've learned English and French but I still have zero idea how to teach Chinese, which is my native language. Teaching a language to foreigners requires proper training.

[@ok-B]

Just got done with my first iTalki lessons today, go to KZbin, and then I see that thumbnail lmao I'll definitely keep this in mind going forward, though. Really good vid

[@kevinnieves3897]

I just found your KZbin channel few days ago and after watching one single video, immediately, knew I had to be subscribed! What and AWESOME work you're doing, Matt. I'm a English learner and after 6 months really focused on English I'm feeling lost. I'm full of motivation, however, lack of guidance sort of discourage me and pushes me out of road, feeling like I don't know where to going. Matt, I'll appreciate if you give me some guide I can follow or in which order I should watch your videos and then I'll try to figure out how to apply everything onto English. Thank you for everything you are giving to this community.

[@mattvsjapan]

I recommend starting with the overview on the site; it functions as a bird-eye's view of all my ideas: massimmersionapproach.com/table-of-contents/stage-0/overview/

[@kevinnieves3897]

@@mattvsjapan I'll give it a try, of course! Thank you, Matt.

[@wyattwahlgren8883]

I remember when I visited my host family in France, I was asked about how to pronounce "cicada." There are lots of cicadas in France and not any in the state of WA. I never actually heard the word, but I've read it before. So I told him it was pronounced "Ky-cada," but he had the correct pronunciation, "Si-cada." Now there's someone who thinks that "cicada" is pronounced differently than it is, perhaps even correcting his fellow French friends because a native speaker told him it was pronounced a different way.

[@Guyomar]

Excellent analysis. I'm glad you mentioned that it's not just the average native speaker who is the problem, but also so-called "professionals" who are monolingual and have no real knowledge about how we acquire languages.

[@kaeyeet]

This video is so meaningful for me considering I also have just finished my first year in univeristy taking "language" classes and assuming that a native speaker is the most "trustworthy" or "valuable" source to learn from. Thank you so much! This is such a mindset switch for me, but it makes so much sense and also gives me a lot of relief.

[@lilyrudnytska5421]

Interesting point and I've got to admit it makes sense. In my experience as a non native English teacher naitives are invaluable in helping students overcome their speaking barrier. There's some kind of magic to them :))) For me that's probably the main reason why it's worth hiring a native English speaker trained in ELT.

[@paulwalther5237]

This reminds me of when I was teaching English for Berlitz in Japan. Students mostly followed a curriculum and when they hit the halfway point or completed a book, we had to take five minutes to recommend ways to self study for that student based on their individual needs. As a language nerd who had studied languages for almost 20 years on and off but more on, I was totally up for it. But apparently most teachers felt totally unqualified and had no idea what to say. But they’re told that’s not an option they have to just make something up and sound authoritative. A perfect example of when you shouldn’t listen to the native speaker. I’m sure it happens all the time in other language programs too.

[@almor2445]

I've been learning Spanish for about 20 years and my GF is a native speaker of both English and Spanish. I can explain Spanish grammar far better than she can because I had to learn it. She is infinitely better than me at speaking and listening to the language and is pretty much 100% fluent. She just doesn't know WHY things are the way they are. So yes, your video is right.

[@mypartyisprivate8693]

"Japanese is flat." How many times have I heard this from Japanese teachers? Hahaha

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

Seriously? I saw this myth addressed in Dogen's video the other day and kinda thought he could've been exaggerating in order to draw attention to the importance of accent, which certainly seems to be neglected. What these teachers meant when they said that? Did they imply Japanese lacks any accent whatsoever, pitch or stress?

[@babygorl9541]

i remember when i first realized this was a lie and then got really pissed off at my teacher for telling me that.......

[@Primalxbeast]

I took a few private lessons and even though I was just starting to learn Japanese, I remember the teacher spending time trying to teach me the difference in the pronunciation between bridge and chopsticks. I had a hard time telling the difference between hashi and hashi. I also remember spending lots of time saying ra ri ru re ro.

[@unixtreme]

@@nomadicmonkey3186 everybody here, my wife used to say this until I convinced her that it's nonsense.

[@aliasjon8320]

@@nomadicmonkey3186 The truth is a lot more innocent. Explanation of pitch accent is just different in Japanese. For e.g. according to them the "accent" on the word is when the pitch goes from high to low. If you do some wierd illegal stuff like go from high to low to high again to them it sounds like you're deliberately singing out your words or something in stead of naturally saying it in a "flat" manner ( If you've seen dogen's lessens you'll notice for 4 mora words and beyond the longest part of the pitch accent would be the flat part, since the 4 patterns are mostly defined by when is there an upstep and a down step. If you're fluctuating in a wierd manner instead of going high and staying high when you should or going low and staying low , or downstepping to early in the odaka pattern it sounds like you're not being "flat" to them)

[@JamesWongLife]

This is so true, I used to teach English in Taiwan and certain questions I couldn’t answer and had to ask the Taiwanese teacher why the grammar was the way it is, she knew cause she had learned it as an adult, I didn’t cause it’s my native language. I think there’s a similar problem with getting advice from someone who’s learned a language very easily, because they are talented they could have leaned in any way and still have been successful. I’ve just uploaded a video talking about this also, and how I learned Chinese as a deaf person.

[@neutrino109]

My [Vietnamese] wife asks me questions about English. I can for sure tell her the answer, often answer why, sometimes I can even track the gut feeling to a rule, but often enough I don't why it is the way it is. Also as a music teacher I can relate to the music analogy. I feel like you can really only teach what you had trouble learning (maybe that's an exaggeration). The problems I had to battle and struggle and fight to overcome I already know the best and quickest way to help my students as I was very deliberate in that process. Something that came easy, it's a matter of looking and seeing what I'm doing and then teaching that. They're definitely different processes.

[@alwaysjazzyful]

Omg Thank you!!! I had to learn the hard way with Chinese. Now, I see why we don't actually learn a language in school because we only learn from a textbook. I'm not fluent yet but I am at an intermediate level. I truly started learning Chinese at 21 so age does not matter.

[@dogestep64]

Dude how are you not at atleast 500k subs

[@jintz2]

Doge Step I know why. Been thinking about telling Matt one day but not sure how to contact him lol

[@daysandwords]

KZbin is like The Shawshank Redemption: pressure and time. Making really good videos is like using your rock hammer with more force: yes it works a bit better, but it's still not as effective as just having been around longer and making more videos. Look at Steve Kaufmann - very little effort in his videos; he just spends like 5 minutes making a one minute point, but he has been putting out 2 videos a week for like 10 years haha, and he's got 200K subs. Luca: much better videos (IMO) but far less of the them: 100K subs. Matt vs Japan: Great videos, a lot of them but only been putting out regular content for 2 years: 17K subs.

[@DewHope]

If I were to venture a guess, it might be due to the fact that Matt's material is quite high-level and not really geared towards the traditional mass consumption. People are always going to be interested in flashy, shorter videos and much fewer would go for anything that requires a longer attention span to absorb. I devour Matt's every explanation and analogy and think he's great. He articulates my own thoughts so eloquently. I teach English to Thai learners (without any formal teaching qualification whatsoever) and I'm always thinking about the most effective way of teaching them or demonstrating a point. Matt's videos organise my random thoughts into something much more structured and tangible/applicable. I don't wish I'd come across him sooner, because at the point where I am now, I can understand him fully and do not mind sitting through his long videos for they make complete sense to me.

[@rxmth9242]

@@daysandwords Great point. Another factor to add is whether the KZbinr has any viral videos reaching millions of views, which could rack up the number of subscribers. An example is Polyglot Stories. She only has 10 videos as of this writing, but she has 240k subs.

[@Ryosuke1208]

@@rxmth9242 I guess you have to mix your videos with something that can go viral. IDK honestly, besides youtube algoritm changes so much.

[@hamzakarabag6786]

That's something I learned hard way while learning German from natives. They have their obsolete ways of teaching and no thought about how foreigners think

[@vs9400]

Right? I'm trying to learn German too. Man, it's so confusing sometimes. So many words that mean the same but must be used in different contexts. For example, entscheiden, entschließen, wählen, auswählen... Everything can be translated as "to choose" 🤷‍♀️ I'm married to a German and very often he can't really explain those differences. When it comes to grammar, they also don't know that much from level B2 on.

[@Theyoutuberpolyglot]

@@vs9400 I passed the B2 German exam. My best advice is not to think in English much. Try to figure out for yourself when to use those words. Ausswählen/aussuchen- Ja die Nuancen. Let me recommend an app to you- Reverso in context- This app might help you. Sentences in context. There are some videos on KZbin explaining the meaning of these four words. learn them by reading german definitions and not English definitions. Well, Reverso is a good option because you can read sentences in two languages.

[@Theyoutuberpolyglot]

I went to school and then I gave up. I decided to study the language on my own. They don't know how to teach the language well

[@kyliejenner6059]

But it’s germans in general. Not only when teaching languages

[@allesindwillkommen]

@@Theyoutuberpolyglot " _learn them by reading german definitions and not English definitions._ " Very good advice. I've noticed that a lot of people don't realize that there's often no direct translation for many words in different languages. What you see in bilingual dictionaries are often just approximate translations taken out of context. As soon as your vocabulary is good enough to roughly navigate through written text in a foreign language, you should immediately switch to monolingual dictionaries in that language. For German, _Langenscheidt Wörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache_ is a good start.

[@gregorybrian]

Absolutely on point. Teaching is a skill. I had a guitar teacher earlier in life and a French teacher later in life and I didn’t gel with them and (incorrectly) concluded that I was just incapable of learning either of the things they were masters of. When I realized that they were “native“ to their areas of expertise but not “native” to teaching, I ceased believing I was “dumb.”

[@LetsLanguageTogether]

This was really interesting! I wasn’t sure what kind of things you were going to say to back up your statement because I’ve heard this same statement but not with any reasons behind it. I really agree with you. Sometimes I think learning from someone who learned the languages really well is better at the beginning and learning from a native is better later on. Depending on their own experience with language learning.

[@jvu2ilj26]

It's funny how "iTalki" is crossed out in the thumbnail and I have an iTalki lesson in one hour... lol

[@babygorl9541]

make sure you take their advice with a grain of salt ;)

[@jvu2ilj26]

@@babygorl9541 Actually, I never really ask for any advice. It's just conversation practice ^^

[@PrinceDolos]

Tbh, I don't find any point in using iTalki. I can always speak to native language speakers through Discord and online/co-op games. We talk for hours, sometimes for over 12 hours, while playing a game and having fun. Completely free of charge. That's how I practised my English speaking skills and how I plan to practise my Japanese speaking.

[@MrBlack156]

@@PrinceDolos if you dont mind what discord server?

[@PrinceDolos]

@@MrBlack156 I'm not referring to one particular Discord server. I'm talking any Japanese server relating to any co-op game. Terraria, Minecraft, etc. Make a google search (in Japanese) looking for a server of a co-op game that you have an interest in playing with natives.

[@SM-ok3sz]

I think it’s funny how much effort we put into sounding native in Japanese when I’ve never heard a Japanese person speak without a noticeable accent.

[@jeneanw.9791]

I think it’s because a lot of people that learn Japanese absolutely love the language and the culture, while many people that learn English do it as a necessity or because it is a globalized language. Less passion= less effort in their accent. Many people that learn English just want to be understood rather than being native level.

[@anawkwardsweetpotato4728]

Agreed. As a native English speaker, I've had so many "good questions" from L2 learners of English. It's made me more observant of English and why I say what I say the way I say it for sure. Also, I've had many questions about other languages that couldn't quite be answered with ease if at all. Most of my foreign language acquisition has been self-taught, and it has only gotten better by having native speakers around me to strengthen my skills.

[@bendunham9742]

I have a rebuttal of your rebuttal of the rebuttal: athletes can improved drastically working with biomedical engineers (who themselves are rarely even elite amateur athletes) on aspects of their sports that don't require much athleticism (i.e. free throws, breathing, getting up after knocked down). This is why we should be able to rely on monolingual researchers who do really interesting research on language acquisition and how to apply that information to a classroom. But I get it. You're saying, the whole field in filled with people who have neither experience nor evidence and since evidence is harder to come by, let's bet on the people with experience. I think the bigger problem might be that language teachers are trained in 'presenting information in a classroom-setting' rather than language acquisition. Their certificates, master's, and Ph.Ds do give them a false sense of authority which is a disease.

[@alessandrofacciani7209]

Matt is a skilled guy..He has been teaching many people how to tackle language learning for years..and he has been doing it intelligently and honestly

[@nomius10]

That anecdote about the native japanese college teacher was really eye opening!

[@barilian]

Actually I had a very interesting experience with this. Spanish is my native language (and as you can see I'm learning English), and in Tiktok there is this American guy that had to learn spanish and makes some funny videos about it. One of these videos is about how the word "agua" (water, in spanish), is "feminine" and in spanish you need to know this because the article may change depending of the "sex" of the word, and I say "may", because with "agua" you use the article "El" that is supposed to be use with "male" nouns even though "agua" is "feminine". As you might guess, this has to be with a rule that I know since I study languages, but most native speakers don't. In comments everyone was confused, and it surprised me that when I wrote the explanation about this rule, most of them not only didn't believed me, but some even said "i was wrong" and tried to debate about it. I can totally see this hapening in a classroom.

[@JapanischErfahren]

100% true. People almost react like it's blasphemy to say this. But it's simply true. Also, not only on italki and HelloTalk and so on, but that's also one of the reason why most Japanese classes you can take freaking suck. The teacher is generally a random Japanese person (mostly a woman) who absolutely doesn't have any deeper understanding of her native tongue. (Which is in itself totally fine, I also couldn't teach German, my native language - but don't become a 'teacher' then)

[@Radescha]

Dass man dich hier sieht... Wusste nicht, dass du MIA gemacht hast 😅

[@JapanischErfahren]

@@Radescha Hab ich nicht. :-) Ich treibe mich auf allen möglichen Channels rum, die irgendwas mit Lernen im Allgemeinen und Sprachen lernen im Speziellen zu tun haben. ^^ Neue Inspirationen sind immer schön.

[@LeoSkyro]

I dont know how it works in germany but where I'm from in order to teach classes at a reputable institution or a school/uni, you need a degree, specialization, qualification etc. They dont just wander around town and pick up the first Japanese person they find and go "You wanna make 100 bucks mate?"

[@JapanischErfahren]

@@LeoSkyro Are you sure? From what I've heard, it's not that much different on the other side of the pond. In the Volkshochschule (I don't think a word for that exists, it's a school for continuing non-credit education of adults in Germany and other countries), literally 9 out of 10 teachers have 0 background except being a native speaker. And even at my university, while we had two professors, other courses were held by, in all honesty, rather random native speakers. They did have some degree I guess, but either not anything relevant like Japanese as a foreign language, or if they did, it sure as hell didn't show.

[@LeoSkyro]

@@JapanischErfahren I dont live in the US. And I guess the German education system has really weird standards when it comes to linguistic subjects

[@lastofusclips5291]

agreed. we live our whole lives being immersed in our native language. we just can't help but learn simply through experience. language learning is a skill and requires specific info that lets lets you learn faster and more explicitly.

[@HeDoesWhatHeWants]

As an ESL teacher, I fully agree with your comment about teachers and teaching methods. I think teaching random words from random contexts and then testing on them is a terrible way to teach. In my opinion, if you truly want to get a “teacher”, get a tutor with whom you can practice what you’ve learned independently instead. The pressure of learning from a set curriculum or in a college class in order to get a grade hinders your learning experience and can be detrimental to your self-esteem as a language learning. To me, college courses are just a means to end, the end being getting your degree or earning language credits. If learning happens, that’s a plus.

[@Jkw211]

So, just find a native speaker of your target language who has also learned other languages💁‍♂️

[@mejia81004]

AGREED! I cannot get over how much I learned about how English works, by learning a different language. Learning a second language really increases your understanding of you L1

[@futurez12]

Hmmm. I don't think the video is specifically talking about language learning in general, but rather the workings of said language that come naturally to native speakers but can't be explained by them. Edit: Okay, so I've just listened to more of the video and it _is_ in fact talking about language learning in general, that said, I do think that needing to work at understand the workings of a language will equip a teacher with more skill to teach that language.

[@themelody_minded]

Exactly! They have experience and can pass that on to you.

[@PrinceDolos]

Or even better: a non-native speaker who has achieved fluency.

[@Ryosuke1208]

That's what I do with french with channels like Innerfrench who is a native speaker and also learned 2 foreign languages.

[@ruffy7308]

I agree with the title 1000%. My wife is Japanese native, English fluent. She doesn't even correct me when I speak incorrect Japanese to her. She just says "so cute", "its always correct when you say it". Also when I try to practice conversation with her she'll use grammar + vocab way out of my current level (N3) and explaining things pretty poorly. Shes still helpful but I learned way more on my own than from her.

[@toyoashihara6242]

ちょっとバカにされていますね

[@DLusby]

Good video, again... :) I think you are right about the sports coach analogy. True there are some great sports coaches (martial arts instructors, etc.) that may not be the most talented athletes. However there are other key differences: (1) coaching methodology tends to follow what has produced results in the past and (2) even coaches who are not the most talented athletes have 'made the journey'. They know what it's like to train themselves. A professional ice hockey coach, for example, probably hasn't taken a class at university telling him 'this is how players get better' and then walks into his job never having played hockey before or never having experienced training himself.

[@Pedro-ds3cq]

Great video! I'm both a native and non-native speaker teacher. I teach English, which is my second language, and Portuguese, which is my native language. And I can say that I can teach both languages very well. I also hold a B.A in Tesol and a M.S in Linguistics, and it is exactly this that makes me a good teacher. It is the knowledge of what a language consists of and how to teach it that makes me stand out. In addition, tbh sometimes I find it harder to teach Portuguese because words that are quite mundane for me might have never been heard by my students. And sometimes Im unaware of that, so I use vocabulary in my lessons that is inappropriate for their level.On top of all that, there is the obvious fact that your students, by definition, will never be native speakers of the language they are learning, so why is it so important that they learn it from a native speaker? Overall, the quality of a teacher is measured by how good he is at several criteria: methodology, proficiency, knowledge of grammar, etc. Of course you cant be a non-native teacher of English, e.g, with intermediate English skills. But if you are a highly proficient teacher who knows how to teach the language, you will do a great job! Trust me

[@AbominableDr.Phibes]

I'm so glad I came across your videos early on in my journey of learning Japanese! Before that I was sooooo lost I was all over the place どうもありがとう

[@DREIKVENONW]

It's incredible that I have come to this conclusion a while ago. I tend to spend most of my time thinking things over and over, and it was one of those things that made question native speakers abilities to understand what learning a new language actually feels like.

[@VincentDevereaux]

I'd actually go even further and look for a native speaker who's already managed to learn a third or fourth foreign language in their adult life. L2 is often acquired through years of exposure that begins in childhood. Consequently, millions of non-native English speakers have absolutely no idea how to learn a foreign language because they learned it from practice while being forced to attend a class at school, playing games, watching Hollywood movies and interacting online. Sure, their results may vary greatly because of talent, intelligence or dedication but still their learning path may remain unknown. I learned the most about acquiring foreign languages when I decided to learn Italian (my 4th foreign language) at home without classes because I was completely on my own and had to self motivate and find ways to move forward. Made lots of errors on the way and wasted tens of hours but learned a lot about the process and applied it to the next foreign language with ease. Great content Matt!

[@gnowra]

There is also sometimes a problem with "grammar nerds" which is that they can tend to focus too much on specific details of the language you are learning because it's interesting to them. Grammar nerd advice tends to put off beginner first-time language learners by swamping them with information while simultaneously not having any idea about how a learner should focus their effort, essentially giving too much of the wrong information at the wrong time.

[@Amro_Dubai]

That's a very good point and it applies to bilinguals as well. growing up as a bilingual, when I moved to Europe I didn't learn the language for 5 years! Thankfully, now I'm able to speak 4 languages. Acquired language is different than native learned language(s).

[@SelphieFairy]

Jfc I’m so glad someone said this lmaoo. All I had to do was think about native English speakers and how many of them don’t even know English that well. 😂 unless they also learned a different language or a linguist I realized they rarely think about their language or why they say what they do. A lot of esoteric grammar is also just intuitive if they’re a native speaker, you can’t expect them to explain a lot of stuff that makes sense. The flat thing has also really annoyed me, because I grew up speaking Vietnamese so i can hear pitches in speech VERY easily. I never heard Japanese as flat in tone. Very even but not flat. I think what they *mean* is that they don’t usually stress syllables. Either they don’t recognize there is a difference between the pitch/strength or they dont realize that pitch is a part of the definition of evenness to English speakers.

[@radfue]

I totally agree on the unconcious part. I had a lot of times where my teacher couldn't quite explain something with words, so he resorted to using different usage examples to explain. And I mean, even I having learn English as a second language find myself only knowing some things by instinct, so it isn't that rare. That's why studying words and such in context is so important.

[@naofg]

I can definitely attest to this. I teach English as a foreign language, which I started really learning when I was 15, and I feel quite confident in my teaching abilities. On the other hand, I've had the experience of teaching my own native language, Portuguese, to foreigners, and I basically sucked. (Take into account that I have a college degree in both languages.)

[@GeorgiosMichalopoulos]

I agree with a lot of what you have to say, but with one caveat. Having learned one (or even more) foreign languages yourself is not a 100% proof method that a) you know what led to your success and b) you can transmit this knowledge to others. That said, I definitely agree that being a passionate language learner helps a lot in teaching languages to others and it can make a huge difference.

[@AlexG-wk3nh]

im not even learning japanese but youre content is some of the best ive found on youtube, keep up the great work!

[@andrestrigo4618]

Ok, so first of all, and this is coming from my perspective as a multiple-language learner and native language teacher myself (Spanish), I think this whole idea about natives (and here I'm talking about native trained teachers) not being good teachers is simply misleading. There are great non-native teachers, and there great native teachers as well, one does not exclude the other. Second of all, there are as many types of students as there are types of teachers, so the debate about whether we are able to learn a second or third language in the same way we did our first one, would have to take into account many, many different variables, ultimately this comes down to what your experience has been regarding language learning, and yes, there are many lousy teachers all around the world, and yes, I do think it comes as an asset to me, to have mastered other languages when teaching my native language. That being said, I also know great teachers who've never mastered a second language, and, depending on the type of student you are, I'm sure they could fit your needs I do agree that for the most part, students (mostly those who attend group lessons) tend to be very passive in their approach to languages, they just expect information to be fed to them and so this process does, very much indeed, differ from the far more natural process of learning acquisition as a child. Now, once you feel comfortable with your own learning process and you've managed to turn it into a much more active thing, it's so much easier to rely on, in fact, not only trained language native teachers (which to be is imperative, intonation and accent-wise) but also just native speakers, because this time you're not expecting everything to be handed out to you, it's you picking up the pieces, putting the puzzle together, making assumptions, experimenting, listening closely, etc. That to me, is the beauty of language learning, and it's, not only the most satisfying way of doing it, but also, the most effective, that is of course, for me.

[@SamDuha-w5l]

My favourite German teacher is from Iran. She obviously has mastered German but also my native language (English). She has an amazing ability to articulate concepts in the German language. I 100% agree that native speakers generally can't tell you why things are the way they are.

[@reeflarkin1919]

I relate to your uni/college story. I did Spanish at uni (just for one semester, I wanted a language elective and it was the only one they offered). I love languages and spent easily 6hrs a day either directly learning or immersing. I also speak French which helped. I am dyslexic and I was entitled to extra support but my teacher literally accused me of not being dyslexic because I was (not surprisingly) doing better than everyone else in my class (except for a girl whose mother was Equadorian), who were probably only doing Spanish for the 2hrs a week that we had class. She had no conception of the work that I put in and the fact that this was not my first additional language, just acted like my 2x diagnoses (I had to get another one when moving countries) were not true and refused to allow me extra time on assessment, completely ignoring all the times I would randomly mix up words and letters- not forgetting M/F but literally just forgetting letters or putting them in the wrong place, and would never be able to finish extended written response in the given time. Her English was terrible which made it harder to explain tbh. Other students said it was hard to communicate with her as well. Glad I only had one semester with her.

[@WeirdAlSuperFan]

Based on my experience talking to Japanese people about learning English, and a few English speaking friends about learning languages, I think another reason people give advice with confidence despite not knowing anything is because they've had language learning classes and know about certain apps and stuff, and just assume that this stuff must work (even if it didn't get them fluent for whatever reason they don't really understand)...which I guess you touched on later in the video

[@daniel_097]

Finally, someone who knows what he's talking about.

[@DewHope]

That's exactly what I thought when I first watched one of Matt's videos.

[@littlemissyuki9940]

Hi, Matt-san I've just started to be a tutor on italki and I thought 'oh no am I not supporting students at all ?' when I found this video though Dôgen-san's channel this morning. But, I'm so relieved, I am okay enough to be a tutor 😊 according to this( I mean, my skill is to be sharpen of course! ) Thank you for making this video :))

[@anna-ss2gp]

後ろのポスターがかっこよすぎるのと、どんな本を読んでいらっしゃるのか気になって話に集中できない笑 日本語教師で英語学習者です。マットさんのおっしゃる通りで、日本語教師でも学習者へのアドバイスは簡単ではないと思います。

[@redshots5275]

I remember Joey (The Anime Man) talking about how hard it is to handle all the, "What's the best way to learn Japanese?" or "How do I learn Japanese?" from viewers. He was raised bilingual. Asking a native speaker how to speak their language is like asking a bird how to fly a plane. The way they reached fluency, or flight in this case and the way you are going to achieve flight are so radically different that there are myriad pitfalls when asking for advice.

[@SchipperkeBayan]

This has nothing to do with foreign language learning, but I'm excited to find that old version of 古文研究法 (Kobun Kenkyuhou) by Dr. Jin-ichi Konishi right behind you ! You sure must be a conoisseur of great books😊 I was terrible at classical Japanese when I was in high school but somehow decided to keep all the books by Dr. Konishi. I'm so glad I did. Now, in my fifties, I am re-learning Classical Japanese grammar from (almost) ground zero and have slowly come to appreciate our cultural heritage in its original text. Language learning can be a great hobby; it costs very little if you choose your tools wisely. And the joy it gives us will be tremendous!

[@maximofernandez4957]

Man, this is the second video I saw of your channel. I love your tips! I remember a lot of tips from my english teacher which were really bad, even though she learnt the language. It's probably a "chain" of bad advices that started from their teacher, or even before, idk. Anyway, I'm starting to learn french and your videos are really helpful. I know my English is not good enough, but I've never really enjoyed to learn it, although it's useful (and your videos are an actual proof of it).

[@Rilows]

Thanks! Great video. I just want to add that while it’s true that monolingual natives will most probably not be able to help you, it doesn’t mean that billingual natives neceseraly will. Having had success learning another language doesn’t instantly make you a good teacher, but NOT having learned a foreign language definetly is an obstacle to being a one. Cheers

[@diariosdelextranjero]

When I began to learn Spanish, I took classes. The head teacher was a native Spaniard and she had tought the Indian teachers how to teach Spanish. My Indian teachers indeed tought some really important concepts.

[@zombiedude347]

I live in an area with both native english and spanish speakers. A significant number of people here learn a mix of both (Spanglish) as young children, and these are the same people who end up teaching spanish classes in the schools.

[@Mia-yk1sb]

I learnt English from a native person(British) and I was able to speak in about 7 months so I generally think that it depends on people.

[@MrsLPAmy]

I think Native Speakers are really great for learning the correct pronounciation or just to speak to to improve. But, as a native German and C1 English person, I would way too often say "It's just a feeling" because even though I have learned the grammar at some point, now it just comes natrually and I have forgotten the rules as to why it is the way it is.

[@FunOrange42]

I learned ぼく as being high to low and I forced myself to say it that way, but recently I've had a strange feeling that something was off about that pronunciation. The more I got better at the language the more my intuition would tell me I sounded like an anime character or something by pronouncing it that way. Your explanation perfectly cleared up all my suspicions. I will pronounce it low to high from now on :)

[@futurez12]

This is 100% true. I've often thought that people who don't listen to audio in their target langauge are the ones advocating a native teacher. It's because they're not getting enough native audio input from their studies. If you're spending the majority of your study time listening to the language there is really no need at all for a native tutor to provide you with listening practice; and since they struggle to explain concepts of their own language (because they got it for free), and they don't have your native language reference (like a native of your own language would), they're probably less effective than a non-native speaking teacher would be.

[@goukeban6197]

I tried native speakers twice and then went "Alright, let's try a different approach". Now my tutor is an Ukranian. No regrets.

[@junsato6117]

This. I know some expats in Japan who speak English perfectly as a foreign language but have limited options on doing short-term English teaching jobs and tutoring because it's not their mother tongue. Meanwhile British, Australian, American people etc. are getting these jobs instantly because it's the easiest way to verify that they can speak the language. Conversations and pronunciation is fine, but seeing as they've never studied their own language they have limited capacities when it comes to explaining how things are and therefore can't teach it properly to whatever high school students they are teaching. Surely when the job doesn't require any language teaching education/experience, fluent, non-native speakers of the language would be preferable.

[@sigalius]

In terms of native speakers who haven't mastered a second language and who haven't studied language learning, the only thing they're good for is pretty much a monitor to observe the way the learner makes language output and say whether or not it sounds right to them.

[@mavsworld1733]

I don't know about America, but from my experience in the UK, the TEFL courses are based off of Developmental and linguistic psychology, which in the large part follows the advice you give and the Eijatt style of learning. Japan in general is just really far behind, and there is a base of teachers that learned a long time ago and don't know the new methods. Further, most people taking a TEFL course and not linguists or developmental psychologists, so they don't really properly comprehend the stuff they are learning. Another rebuttal I would make is that there are many people that misattribute how they learn a language. Conversely native speakers are aware of school system's teaching of their native language. Children with no schooling would speak very differently to someone with education, and even among the different levels of education there are different styles of talking. As long as this is understood, and the student takes control of the learning process, a native speaker can work as an acceptable teacher

[@reygiez.remando8429]

Wow, very well said by Matt. Actually it happens to me. I have this friend in tandem(language exchange app) he is a Portuguese and he is learning Tagalog(Filipino). He asked me something about our language. It's about the Possessive Pronouns which is really easy of course. I answered him and realized that there's something, inaccurate or missing of what I have answered to him and I just ended up searching in KZbin for an answer (of my own language, kinda funny to think) and sent him the link. In conclusion is that, It's kinda hard to explain the linguistic aspect of your native language because you just simply know how to speak it. But you didn't really give a shit of how it works cuz it's your native language, the only thing you know, is that, that is just how it works, but you don't really know why it works like that to be exact.

[@Alec72HD]

A lot of ESL teaching methodology resonates with YOUR theory, Matt. ESL teaching community even created super helpful monolingual dictionaries like the Longman dictionary for learners of English. Something you yourself want to replicate for learning Japanese.

[@kaylaautry5348]

Before even watching the video, i noticed tag 13:44 on the pinned comment. I don't know about anyone else but where i live, we're literally forced to learn English grammar In depth, even the root words, prefixes and suffixes that were derived from latin. Starting from freshman year, we've had to break down sentences word by word, each day going from generally labeling everything on Monday, verbs, direct objects, phrases, objects of those phrases and subjects on Tuesday, clauses and sentence types on Wednesday, sentence corrections on Thursday, and sentence diagramming on Friday. The English teachers take DGP so seriously that getting one thing wrong will 100% of the time cause you to get the entirety of that day's section wrong. Disclaimer; I'm not upset, I'm not trying to flEx, I'm literally just saying. I'm sure our dearest Matt means 13:44 from a general stance with the exception of native language teachers and such, which few language learners will bust their ass to find when going on hellotalk and asking for a correction then popping that corrected sentence into anki is the easiest way to go, lol

[@indochinajames3372]

In other words, always pick a tutor who has other languages in common that are similar to what you are learning. For instance, I am currently learning Vietnamese, and am fluent in Thai, luckily for me, there was a Vietnamese tutor on iTalki who was fluent in Thai. It's made learning Vietnamese so much easier. As Thai and Vietnamese are so similar.

[@33Jenesis]

Taking like a native is different than talking like a language textbook. It takes a lot of immersion to emulate native talking. We are not even addressing the thorny issue of accent.

[@HiroEnglishClass]

大賛成です！（英訳をあとで書きます）I will write my opinion both in Japanese and English. 「外国語を習得していないネイティヴ」は，無意識に母語を話しています。 学習法や，なぜそう言うのかなど，分析的な解答は得られません。 ですが状況に応じた自然な表現など，ネイティヴだから分かることもあります。 知りたい内容に応じて，アドバイスを求める相手を選ぶことが必要だと思います。 「ぼく(僕)」には自分を指す場合と，小さな男の子を指す場合があります。 頭高アクセントの僕は，小さな男の子を表すと思います。 たとえば小学１先生ぐらいの男の子は，自分のことを頭高アクセントで僕と言います。 その子に対して「僕，いくつ？」と聞くような場合も，頭高アクセントです。 年齢が高くなるにつれて平板，もしくは尾高になるのではないでしょうか。 I totally agree with you, Matt! Native speakers who haven't mastered a foreign language speak their own language only unconsciously. They can't give you analytical answers to questions such as "How can I learn Japanese?" or "Why do you use the expression?". But they can tell whether what you say sounds natural to them. So you need to think who you are going to ask according to what you want to know. I think "Boku" has two different meanings. One is to refer to a young boy and the other to refer to yourself (male). If you say "Boku" in the atamadaka accent, you are talking about a small boy. A first grade boy would call himself "Boku" in the atamadaka accent. You would call him "Boku" in the atamadake accent when you ask him, "How old are you?" I think as a boy grows up, he calls himself "Boku" in the odaka (tail-pitched) accent.

[@DDA_TRAD]

Over 10 years of saying boku in the wrong way and no one pointed it out, omg. This is the first time I hear about this. Thank you!