How I study languages 📚🎧 (My current self study approach)

[@robertchitty3603]

For all that it's worth, Duolingo has taught me how to say "the bear drinks beer" in four different languages 😎

[@karunakar2229]

El oso bebe cerveza.

[@felipearaujo9211]

L’orso beve birraaaaa

[@josegabrielsolanopaniagua5395]

@@karunakar2229 oso*

[@karunakar2229]

@@josegabrielsolanopaniagua5395 Sí. Gracias .

[@lea-ko7uv1ou7w]

L'ours boit de la bière

[@loriemartinez3468]

“Male model speaks 75 Languages” LMFAOOOO THE SHADE

[@jesusrodriguez2533]

@Sander Skovly OMG, sarcasm?

[@ryang1992]

Sander Skovly r/whoooosh

[@lyn1114]

Who's he shading?

[@madlarkin8]

He does not speak every language he makes vids about. Many are just introductory lessons or lingual history.

[@mikatu]

well, that is a joke, of course, he doesn't speak 75 languages. no one should be able to speak that many languages..... or by speaking he means he knows two or three words

[@Neon8787]

NEVER STOP INTRODUCING YOURSELF BY NAME!!!!

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

I spend most of my time talking in Chinese saying that I don't know Chinese.

[@eundongpark1672]

Yep. In both of the languages I’ve learned/ am learning, it’s my most available sentence (or to say that I don’t speak it well)

[@formeraccount1529]

He is Paul

[@kinarast]

日本語を分かりません

[@seid3366]

His videos 2021 onwards: Your Intro is no longer needed

[@the_major]

My language learning process these days can be summed up in this phrase: "What new German shows are on Netflix?"

[@Langfocus]

Is that the US version of Netflix?

[@the_major]

Yup! There's actually more German programming than you would expect. (Babylon Berlin, The Heavy Water War, Dark and Charite are the big ones I've come across.) I always watch them in German with English subtitles and try to ignore the subtitles when I can. However, I can't say how well other languages are represented in the Netflix catalog. Hopefully you'll find something you like.

[@the_major]

Actually, my wife watches a lot of Chinese and Korean shows on Netflix so I can say that there are a fair amount of shows in those languages.

[@Monkeywe]

I'd kill for more french programming on netflix 😢 (btw, Mexican netflix here)

[@blackoutgo2597]

@@Monkeywe you can find a french show called mafiosa on youtube. I watch friends in french now a days

[@MohammadALObaidi]

When you hear him with the background music you feel like he's rapping 😂

[@dianacountry]

Lol thanks for that. Now that is all I think when he talks 😂

[@wewewewewewewewwewe]

😂😂😂

[@SrNeoxNGT1kk]

That's true, I don't notice it before.

[@itsabuscus1619]

NO!!!! You’ve ruined me!!

[@maryamalenizi9845]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@charlesd3]

"I whisper the sentences to myself, and everyone around me probably thinks that I'm crazy" ... I feel ya man 😂😂😂

[@ThePlanetProject]

Charles Denney people think I’m possessed hahaha

[@hhmaster789]

Haha I’m like Paul, I don’t care

[@PainterVierax]

It's already a bit weird for western people but imagine that in Japan where people have the mentality of not acting strange and ashamed themselves in public ^^

[@konradhalman5104]

for a better effect try it with Latin :)

[@smersmer1855]

My mom when I try to speak French. She gets so damn mad and idk why XD

[@bartoszbondzior2617]

This video motivated me to try shadowing. I'm beginner in Portuguese, so I found a short (under 1 min) audio dialogue with transcription. I slowed down the audio (0.6x), because it was to fast for me, and I began to repeat the words. I spend nearly an hour to master the dialogue, so I didn't stutter or get lost. I pretty much have learned it by heart. After about an hour I tried to demostrate to my SO what I've accomplished and it didn't go so well as an hour before. Till the evening I basically forgot the whole dialogue. And now the twist: the next morning I woke up and spoke out the whole dialogue by heart, with the intonation and all, without stuttering, fully automatically. I would really appreciate, Paul, if you elaborated on the topic of shadowing in a separate video, because I got excited to discover this technique and all the instant benefits of it.

[@Rb5241]

Interesting.

[@RenzoGualberto]

Are you learning brazilian portuguese or portuguese from Portugal?

[@rafa-ep1ps]

@@RenzoGualberto I'm learning Portuguese from Brazil, are u learning Portuguese?

[@RenzoGualberto]

KZbin oficial I’m brazilian, brazilian portuguese is my mother language haha. Actually, I’m learning russian

[@RenzoGualberto]

KZbin oficial I really wish you good luck! You can be sure of this: brazilians think is amazing when a foreigner learns portuguese. Vá em frente que você vai conseguir!

[@teresajadia3291]

"I whisper sentences to myself and everyone around thinks I'm crazy." Been studying russian for awhile now and this I can relate in so many levels. My co-workers would often find me whispering random russian words and they think I'm summoning some demon from other realms 😂😂😂

[@cvspvr]

how's your russian studies going?

[@ProfesionalAP]

Jajajaa

[@lamueldagon7618]

Very funny!

[@Ma-oh6xo]

I have the same situation in metro.

[@vietnamesemadeeasy9869]

2:22 Go to the vocabulary list for the lesson, and make a flashcard for every word 3:22 Listen to the audio recording of the lesson dialogue and try to shadow the speakers' voices 5:32 Make flashcards for every sentence in the dialogue 6:25 Do the Q&A drills (and other types of drills) on the audio recording This method of self-learning a new language is very useful. I am trying to practice it myself. Thank you for your sharing!

[@MrBkbnk]

Read the Wikipedia page on your languages phonology before starting it, really helps give your pronunciation a bit of accuracy from the get go

[@Hwyadylaw]

Just combine it with listening to understand what it should sound like. It's very obvious when someone has learned the pronunciation from IPA transcription but little to no listening.

[@Matheus_Braz]

@@Hwyadylaw I think both listening to lots of audio and being aware of some troublesome aspects of the language's phonology are crucial.

[@Joy-wd9ez]

I started doing this with french to get a firm base to start Its very interesting

[@anneonymous4884]

Omniglot is another good resource.

[@ankskwk1980]

Twenty two years ago, the first foreign language I learned was French. At that time, all the technological tools we have available today did not exist. The learning methodology was very “academic”: a French teacher in a classroom before two dozens of students; taking lot of notes from what she wrote on the blackboard; passing daily written tests in grammar, vocabulary, spelling, reading comprehension, essays; watching VHS movies and hearing recordings in magnetic cassettes... All of that took 20 hours a week plus homework. That intense “training” was a compulsory requirement to be admitted at the French High School of Mexico City! Later on, I could improve my French written skills as all the subjects in that High School were taught by French teachers. Definitely, the biggest improvement happened when I studied mechanical engineering in France for six years: communicating every day with native speakers and being fully immersed in the French culture was an invaluable experience! The second foreign language I tried to learn was English. I considered I did not have any formal tuition. Even though I had a certain knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary, what really helped me to develop some fluency was working with American engineers in the first job position I ever had after graduating from university. Although it may have seemed tough at the beginning, that was a very enriching experience that got me used to a wide variety of accents and ways of thinking in English. Nowadays, I continue practicing by watching a lot videos in English (e.g. Langfocus channel), as well as series and films on streaming services, avoiding as much as possible any subtitling. I will seriously consider shadowing for further improvement! Thank you Paul for your amazing videos! For foreign languages lovers, they encourage us to keep learning and enhance our communication skills!

[@ankskwk1980]

Husarz Thank you for your message. Actually, I am from Mexico! Thus, it would have seemed natural for me to learn English before French, given the proximity and cultural influence of the USA. My first contact with the English language was at the equivalent of Junior High School, but it was limited to basic words and sentences. When I completed Junior High School with “honors” (I do not really know if such words are appropriate at that education level), I was awarded a scholarship to join the French High School of Mexico City, which followed the same curricula as the High Schools in France. It was a four-year program whose first year consisted in an intensive course (20~25 hours per week) to learn French. The other three years were those of the French High School. After that, the French Government awarded me a scholarship to study mechanical engineering in France. I think this may explain why I learned French before English! Needless to say I am more fluent in French than in English!

[@cazgerald9471]

I saw a video recently stating that subtitles in the language you're trying to learn, for example watching a movie in English with English subtitles, is more beneficial than no subtitles. But having subtitles in your native language does not increase learning at all. Here's a link to that portion of the video if you're interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJCogneqpb6GhK8 BTW if you keep watching the video a little longer, the host discusses shadowing.

[@vaneenusa1776]

Omar Ivan Rivas Miranda Omar if you are more fluent in French than in English than your French must be at the highest level possible since your English at least in written form already is impeccable! My native language also is Spanish, I am Colombian, and I was raised in the USA.

[@zakme5638]

I learned French as second language since 4th grade up till high school, but I didn't get full grasp of it as the method used in teaching was fultie, All those years I had no idea about English till I got to uni and I was selected to study it as a major ,I grabed the opportunity, And here I am after 3years of full time learning at college and self-studying approach I can speak, understand and wield the language very well. However, my French language got rusty cuz I put all the efforts into English and I'm still dedicated to it. Till now,I feel blessed to learn a language that everyone in ma country wish to study.Also,the most spoken language worldwide which I had no idea of👨‍🔧.All in all ,my admission into the faculty of languages was a bolt out of the blue ,and my efforts put into learning paid off eventually.

[@Rb5241]

@@ankskwk1980 I had never heard of such a program. It seems it opened doors for you and you took full advantage of it. Congratulations!

[@TioDeive]

Duolingo taught me to say 'The horse eats rice". Now I am fluent!

[@Langfocus]

Yeah, that’s all you need! 😄

[@danial9864]

El caballo come arroz.

[@kimaya.3563]

​@@danial9864 Sí, es verdad, a los caballos les gusta mucho el arroz.

[@danial9864]

@@kimaya.3563 jajaja gracias para la repily

[@tompeled6193]

הסוס אוכל אורז.

[@encyklop]

The shadowing technique seems pretty interesting to me, I've never heard about it before. But I think that I'll have problems using it even in my mother tongue xD It's extremely hard for me to concentrate on two activities (speaking and listening) simultaneously without getting lost and confused in all these words and sounds, though I understand that it must be a very useful skill.

[@vladthemagnificent9052]

agreed! I would've thought that it is ipossible but apparently some people have such a skill. but maybe I should give it a shot. One friend of mine once told me that he was able to communicate in two different ways e.g. speaking + reading, writing + listening, etc if it is different languages, as though that languages are just different channels for the information. he said he could easily read an English text and listen to some russian speach and understand everything perfectly, but if the same language he would get stuck. for me it's even worse - it always takes a couple of seconds to switch the languages in my brain and parallel processing in different languages seems impossible :)

[@vladthemagnificent9052]

забавное совпадение что вы выпустили видео почти на одну тему - странные способы изучения языка - с перерывом в день :)

[@duckdialectics8810]

With support from the transcript it is less difficult than it sounds, keep in mind it is a repetition exercise, you will take over two dozen tries to get to a 100%, if you ever do, and that is ok, you are not trying to be a ventriloquist, you are trying to learn a language.

[@AlexeiKremliovsky]

@@vladthemagnificent9052 Тоже заметил)

[@FordyHunt]

Look up Alexander Arguelles for more information

[@NiksWickOfficial]

i know this video is old now but as a language lover ive learnt how to speak 4 languages, my approach is firstly learning at least 300 words and then slowly ease into grammar and how to form sentences, then after a get a good grasp of the nature (that what i like to call it) i then spend time everyday learning 2 new verbs, 2 new complex sentences and 10 words! after 50 days of doing that you can effectively say 100 verbs, over 500 complex sentences (due to mix and match) and 500 nouns and of course while you're doing all of this i tend to listen to songs in that language and translate them, this helps train your ears to recognise sounds and keep up in speech, as well as learning new words and slang in said songs, and lastly i use you tube a lot to make sure what i am learning is correct if its available on KZbin! i hope this helps you guys master languages like i did!

[@NiksWickOfficial]

@Profit Tracker I'm glad! I'm curious tho, what language are u learning?!

[@randomguy6843]

The Number1 your comment inspired me to learn Spanish

[@NiksWickOfficial]

@@randomguy6843 ohhh wow I'm so glad I have :) please update on how it goes :)

[@jonathantavitian7283]

Thanks so much for sharing with us your journey! I’ll definitely be trying this for my language learning

[@pedromiguel709]

@thenumber1 how do you chose which words and verbs you want to start from and learn next

[@aharris206]

Paul, thank you SO MUCH for introducing me to Anki! A little context here, I am learning Romanian with Duolingo and some other side resources since it's my Mother and her family's native language, but was never spoken with me growing up. Anki has been SO helpful learning new vocabulary so I can go through the lessons with ease! I even record myself saying the words, so I make sure I am putting the right emphasis on the correct syllables. I never new this free resource existed, and it has made my language learning journey so much easier! Mulțumesc foarte mult! (Thank you very much!)

[@Langfocus]

My pleasure! I’m glad it helped!

[@JohnnyLynnLee]

I've found that the approach of Stephen Krashen about massive input and comprehensible input, and about ACQUIRING a language rather than LEARNING a language was quite usefull to me and improved A LOT my process of learning language. I strongly recomend you all to watch one of his videos. HEAR (and read), passively is more important than everything. Don't focus on try to reproduce the language, as he says. This will come NATRUALLY as soon as you are exposed to enough comprehensible input.

[@bafouilleetcharabia1814]

this word "passive" is to experiment. This something subtile, too much passive, you never get it, to much active, you loose energy and maby time. Actually, i try to find the balance, when I learn as passive as possible, it's more comfortable, but I learn faster being active. More you are attentive how you learn, time after time, you can feel the balance between active / and passive and use both as best as possible. Also we are not equal in languages. But for sure : put an audio on of a 5 seconds sentence. At the first listening, it's maybe for you only "whale speaking", you've catched nohting. But listen this phrase, just listening, not thinking, 3 times, 10 times, 15 times and you'll repeat it automatically. (sorry for unperfect english). And thank you for the name of Krashen :)

[@azuregriffin1116]

@@bafouilleetcharabia1814 *imperfect Other than that, English was good.

[@millymoreira9407]

This is how I learned english, reading fanfictions and whatching shows without subtitles.

[@Reforming_LL]

@@millymoreira9407 nice

[@Reforming_LL]

Yup

[@JonBastian]

Dude... make no excuses. You have no idea how much you've done to inspire the rest of us to learn languages. So... go on being on being you. And keep on learning on and sharing. And... kudos, because... what you do really helps the rest of us more than you can ever know.

[@NikhilKumar-wv3to]

My Current Approach- First Day, I watch some videos, listen to audios and songs and also read some text(without caring about the meaning) to just get familiar with the langugae. Next, I study many common phrases, greetings and many common words by making flashcards for next 2-3 days. Then I study the grammar using good books and simultaneously learn 10 new words every day. For a simple language like Spanish, it will barely take 2-3 months. After that, I listen to podcasts, make flashcards of new vocabulary, practice listening and speaing. Then I chat with native speakers on Speaky App or Website (It's free). Then when I am done with whole process in 1 year, I watch a lot of movies, keep learning new words and revising the older words, have talk with native speakers. After this, tour to that country is perfect(though I've never done it but will do when I grow up). In this way, I can learn a language within 1 - 2 years.

[@Reforming_LL]

This is a decent approach ngl. I especially liked how you do lots of input.

[@Joy-wd9ez]

Great ideas!

[@JohnJohnson-bd9zq]

I learned 3 languages fluently starting when I was 23. I don't come from a bilingual family nor did I grow up in a linguistically diverse environment. The way I became fluent in these languages at an older age was by doing pretty much exactly what he's saying in the video. It's pretty incredible, I was shaking my head in agreement for almost every tip he was giving. I've been doing "shadowing" for years with TV shows and movies, I just didn't know there was an actual term for it. Seriously, try to follow these methods more or less. Change slightly for your tastes.

[@Joy-wd9ez]

This is inspiring

[@andang7005]

I was somewhat discouraged by the increasing slowness with which I learn foreign languages. Your comment helped me realize it's perfectly possible, I just haven't tried the right methods.

[@Griff10poldi]

I just laughed at that Indonesian Linguaphone dialogue, it is so 80s (or maybe early 90s) style Indonesian speaking style.

[@elliotvernon7971]

It was made in 1977.

[@LordOfBrownies]

@@elliotvernon7971 this course is ahead of its time.

[@ace24680]

@@LordOfBrownies lmao :)

[@raikozy35]

yeah it's so funny, reminds me of old warkop movies of speaking style.

[@belajardisana.6539]

Is it appropriate for me to say "Ok boomer" here

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

I had to learn english by myself, because my country's teaching system sucks. I had to develop my own way.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

In my case, I focused mostly on grammars, and begun to make all kind of sentences, no matter the meaning or un-meaning of the phrase as long the "blocks" were on the "right spot", thus "The closed cat was meowing in green" is grammtically "right", but since it has no rational meaning, your brain tried to imagine that closed cat thus more areas of your brain got involved in the learning process (imagination, emotions), it was like replicating my childhood process to learn my mother language. The next step was begining to read, write and talk about my most beloved hobbies, in english of course, because without emotional content and commitment, there's no real learning. BTW, my hobbies were, and still are, genetics and D&D.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

@forwatchingu2ubeclip It became an addiction, my friend.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

@以蔵岡田 In my case, I focused mostly on grammars, and begun to make all kind of sentences, no matter the meaning or un-meaning of the phrase as long the "blocks" were on the "right spot", thus "The closed cat was meowing in green" is grammtically "right", but since it has no rational meaning, your brain tried to imagine that closed cat with the additional outcome of more areas of your brain getting involved in the learning process (imagination, emotions), it was like replicating my childhood's process to learn my mother language. The next step was begining to read, write and talk about my most beloved hobbies, in english of course, because without emotional content and commitment (imho), there's no real learning. BTW, my hobbies were, and still are, genetics and D&D. I followed with Old Spanish, then Latin, and now trying Italian and Portuguese.

[@Indrazill]

@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 It's like the common English learning system in country. Teachers always over focus on grammar formulae without encouraging their students to practice the language. That's why only a few people can speak English here although they may have been learning English for over 10 year (from elementary school to high school).

[@ingrid44556]

instead of using the word sucks, use deficient

[@deepdarkmidnight]

For flashcards, I use Memrise. I honestly don't have the time or the patience to use something like Anki where I have to produce the flashcards myself. Memrise has been incredibly good for me to learn German.

[@Knute360cool]

Tiefe dunkle Mitternacht, try using memrise with quizlet, I am learning Finnish and quizlet makes the experience “game-like” and there are “spelling” tests which are super helpful for listening comprehension

[@deepdarkmidnight]

Thanks for the tip.

[@mep6302]

Yeah. I use Memrise for all the languages I'm currently learning. It's really been helpful for vocabulary

[@森-d3s]

i also use memrise for japanese mandain korean and when i can mongolian and french and vietnamese...

[@acampos8422]

Tiefe dunkle Mitternacht I use Memrise for learning Hebrew

[@labyrinthwomb]

DuoLingo has updated a bit - At least for French, they have a "stories" section with conversations and questions, and they have context clues and questions for the more advanced lessons. I also appreciate the spoken word sensing feature - always feels good when the computer recognizes what you said on the first try!

[@anneonymous4884]

Spanish has also added stories. In general Duolingo is improving.

[@kaseywahl]

I've been studying Mandarin for 6 months, the last two of which I have been living in China. My daily study regimen has been about 2-6 hours per day depending on my schedule. I use a cocktail of the HSK workbook (HSK 3 currently), Pimsleur's audio tracks, and Anki. I need to start doing shadowing! My reading has improved considerably since arriving in China, but listening comprehension and automaticity have still been huge barriers, in spite of hearing the language around me all day and speaking it when I can. Thanks for the helpful suggestions!

[@azzamfs]

1:52 "These old Linguophone courses can be pretty gangster though" Me: Oh I think he means these courses are hard to follow Proceeds to talk about smoking in airplanes, reckless gambling, gold diggers and ridiculing hippies Me: Oh

[@kkeanie]

I want to learn all of that in french! isnt that awesome

[@martinpattison8916]

I did Linguaphone German when I was about 13. I remember the dialogue between a couple of teenage cousins: "Was, rauchst du auch?" (What, you smoke as well) "Ja, aber nicht vor Vater und Mutter." (Yes, but not in front of mother and father) "Das kann ich gut verstehen." (I can understand that) I can remember a lot of the texts from the French and German courses even though it is over 40 years since I did them so that validates their effectiveness.

[@Historyboi-vn7gd]

Duolingo taught me: すみません私はりんごです which literally means, Excuse me I am an Apple

[@afz902k]

Same here, "pardon, ik ben een appel"

[@WaterFAK]

me too! xD

[@aliceanimals3768]

Same but french 😭

[@Gussani]

Better than Portuguese Duolingo that teaches you that the cobra, the cat, and the dog eat bread. Feel like Oprah, you have break, and you have bread, everybody has bread!

[@metronoth]

Извините я яблоко😓

[@henroriro]

Thank you for this video, I can't rely on that green owl anymore

[@YangSing1]

No Budget Movies Duolingo is the best

[@uranus2970]

Hmmm...Men jag lär mig svenska med Duolingo och det fungerar.Well at least it helps a little.You obviously cannot really learn a language with Duolingo but it is an acceptable tool for studying.

[@Knute360cool]

No Budget Movies, duolingo is good for spanish and pretty much nothing else

[@hhmaster789]

The owl turns gold when u complete a tree ~

[@uranus2970]

@@Knute360cool It also works for Swedish and English.Assumingly because these languages are not that hard to learn.Also bei mir funktionierts zumindest mak.

[@TommyJapanBrony]

I've been studying German and Korean, this video is helpful.

[@Oliver-dh1bh]

if you need a native speaker to practice German with let me know! :D

[@lenaarkenberg9434]

Very nice 😊

[@Josh-bf6sk]

Never understood why people actually want to learn german...I mean we literally have sentences like "Ist mir Wurst".

[@zak.886]

Josh xD what does that sentence mean ik not german

[@Veevee.Smollfox]

It means "I don't care", literally translated it is "It is sausage to me". Very wierd.

[@secretariatgirl4249]

Thanks for your clear discussion of shadowing!

[@dmytrandr]

I've improved my English dramatically since I started to learn it through KZbin videos. I think I will never be so patient as to learn it through courses.

[@adriangjonca680]

Дмитрий Ященко your English is really good

[@tyshadonyxs2008]

Not to spoil, but wouldn't drastically be a better word choice than dramatically?

[@johnjcb1]

@@tyshadonyxs2008 no

[@dmytrandr]

I've heard both variants in such context, so I think they are often interchangeable, "dramatically" is even more suitable.

[@razalasreficul6902]

@@tyshadonyxs2008 not to spoil, but wouldn't "choice of word" be a better choice of word than "word choice"? Just kidding, bro. You're right.

[@vitorcarvalho7832]

This shadowing approach reminds me of what I did when I learnt English. I memorized songs and it became a bit like shadowing. I also thought in English most of the time and I still do. Watching videos constantly and talking to people also helped me a lot. :-)

[@umuttekin4734]

I used to translate rammstein songs to learn Deutsch of course that's not enough but it s funny.

[@sebbyh9764]

Fun or funny? My gf always get them mixed up (she's Andalusian) haha

[@umuttekin4734]

LoL IDK

[@SantiagoG18]

Yes, me too hahahaha

[@Ashley_plays123]

Ich Will

[@fab006]

Translating song lyrics is how I started off learning English :)

[@nadiab.8869]

Shadowing, huh?? Never thought of it, GREAT IDEA! Years of consistent great content and now such a useful practical tip! Thanks! That's absolutely worth a monthly coffee! See you on Patron!

[@randomizednamme]

Wow I've been watching you for years but never realized that you are all the way up to 500k subscribers! So congrats and we appreciate your hard work, Paul!

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! Well, 560,000 people have clicked on the subscribe button but most of then don’t watch regularly. I’d say there are 50,000 real fans who watch everything, so it’s still a fairly small tribe.

[@Laurentdu59]

@@Langfocus planning on watching all the videos. So interesting. I teach languages and have shown the Romance Languages video to my students. Loved the dialect and continuum parts. Your channel and the "Geography Now" Channel, and Wikipedia are some of the great blessings of the Internet age, fast, fun access to knowledge that makes us better global citizens.

[@sethe6814]

Paul! You are truly an incredible guy since you are able to elocute your points so well!

[@YassoKuhl]

Thank you so much for suggesting Anki! It's great!

[@flairball]

Anki is fantastic. I’ve used it for studying Japanese, and studying for a promotional exam at work. I’m moving on to another language and Anki will be part of it.

[@dactylntrochee]

I haven't learned a language for years, but I have a hunch. At 9 or 10 I learned a bunch of songs on an album by a popular folksinger. The words were written out in the languages in question if they used Roman letters, and were transliterated if not. They were also translated, so I had a picture of what I was saying. I can still sing them to some extent in Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, French and Serbian. I did poorly in high school Spanish (failing 3rd year), but a trip to Peru that summer as an exchange student gave me a good insight: Since I already had sounds and sentences in muscle memory, all I had to do was substitute the appropriate word in a pre-existing structure. When I got back home, I garnered a 98 on our statewide (Regents) examination, and in the next year, I managed a 798 (out of 800) on the national achievement test. (This was especially useful in the area of accent and vowels, since I didn't rely on preconceived notions of what the letters signify. I just sang what I heard.) Understanding was, and remains, more difficult than speaking -- but I don't get to practice much. A project on my bucket list -- probably something I'll never get around to -- is to go on a trip to the north European countries and learn lullabyes in the various languages. I'd start in eastern England, learn a bunch, then go to the Netherlands and find if I could get people to teach me the words in Frisian to the melodies I already knew. I'll bet there are many in common. Then down south to standard Dutch, across to Germany, up to Scandinavia, and finally to Iceland. My guess is that all those languages have some common baby songs with basic sounds, grammar and vocabulary. (Though they might be poetic or archaic.) The hunch is that I could, even late in life, use those seed sentences to "build out" a working knowledge of the language. It brings to mind the phrase from the Wonderland (or Looking glass) caterpillar who, fooling with an old adage, said "Take care of the sounds and the sense will take care of itself." BTW, a friend who knows lots of arias in Italian and Russian uses the same method when speaking those languages. Of course, the project depends on the notion that an old American coot can walk into a bar in Denmark with his guitar, look for people to teach him cradle songs, and get the desired results. That might be a stretch. I don't imagine that opera singers are generally polyglot, but I'll bet you those who pursue it are pretty good at it, since they have a good portion of the job already done.

[@little_island_sound_project]

This is helpful to me to hear what other people do learn and maintain second and third etc. languages. I use shadowing--I watch movies and initially try to shadow using the subtitles. I find it helps me to get the verb forms in context and pronunciation and prosidy. When I find an actor or actress whose diction and pronunciation I like, I search for more of their films.

[@francishaight2062]

Thanks Paul! The way you describe your method of study sounds like it would be right up my alley.

[@lucasmatias.coaching]

I guess this is the best way to learn any language as a salf-study. I use this same way and it fited on me perfectly. I use shadowing, aki and a lot of extensive reading. Thanks for this channel.

[@joshadams8761]

Thanks for sharing your technique.

[@cernowaingreenman]

You are crazy, Paul--- crazy genius! Love your videos. I always learn something from them.

[@josemanuelmayagoitia1177]

Shadowing is a great advice. Thank You Paul. Very good as always.

[@orange_lime]

A huge like for the shadowing technique. I've been practicing it for around a year, first with English and then with French. I'm so grateful to my university professor to have adviced me to do it. I'm no longer ashamed of my English pronunciation and I became much more confident and fluent in both languages. The only drawback of it for me is that you need to have at least A2-B1 level, beginners would find it too hard.

[@rhettvaughan880]

I'm studying spanish interpretation in my college and our drill practices involve shadowing, it's really really helpful.

[@bookle5829]

IDK WHY I LAUGHED SO HARD AT THE HIPPIES PART. Maybe it's because I didn't expect to listen my own native language in this video and maybe it's the way they speak it. lmao

[@ляпетитморт]

does this part sound unnatural or wrong to you as a native?

[@7907-u8h]

@@ляпетитморт another person in the comments said it sounded old fashioned so there ya go lol

[@anantav51]

@@ляпетитморт It's natural but it's too formal.

[@shofwannur4718]

@@ляпетитморт i'm a native. It doesn't sound unnatural...more like a conversation between mafia bosses in movies or between higher ups in goverment.

[@inyour_wetdreams]

@@ляпетитморт to put it on perpective in english, its kinda like hearing how people in the 90s speaks english that you hear on TV which makes sense because the audio that he uses is pretty old

[@aloolyjoseph5604]

The shadowing technique was so much useful to me when I was learning Turkish. And I haven’t used it with English language, so I have been studying English since two years. Actually after this video I am excited to back to the shadowing technique and use it for English this time.

[@amirahaaji]

Firstly I love this channel and your videos - so thank you so much! I would just like to share my experience. I started using Duolingo to teach myself Spanish almost a year ago. I finished the tree within three months, and then now I feel I don't use it anymore because it's just too easy. I'm possibly around a B1 speaking/writing/listening but a B2 with reading. However, I have to say it definitely helped me so much to get started. For the first couple of months Duolingo was all I used to help build up vocab and understand simple grammar. And then I would start incorporating books and other mediums. I still think it's a fantastic (free!) app and great for easing you into language learning! Now I'm about to start French, and will be using both Duolingo and trying out the new Fluent Forever app. Lots of love to all you other language learners!!

[@aldoriverarobles]

I shadowed the entire video! I agree, this technique is super efficient, it really helps to improve your listening comprehension and pronunciation skills. I've been doing this while watching series without knowing this technique actually had a name or exist. Greetings from Puebla, Mexico.

[@gerozayas9425]

Your channel is great, I really appreciate your videos and content, thanks a lot and keep going!

[@TheirWisecrackingUncle]

I am on disability due to liver issues that I've had since I was in my teens. My wife works and so I spend a lot of time at home with my two cats and one dog. As such, I started changing things I normally would say to them in English (such as "get off the counter" or "do you want to go outside") to my target language. I also try to think in my target language when I'm by myself, or when I talk to myself. I've also found it helpful, oddly enough, to learn about my health issues in my target language (such as medication names, disease names, procedure names, etc).

[@zsomborsuto5574]

I think that Duolingo is a very good support when you are learning a language. I've completed the Swedish tree and it helped me lot.

[@ayinstrumentals7731]

Not by itself though

[@heartsthekitteh6239]

@@ayinstrumentals7731 Duolingo does well for what it hopes to achieve, not as a standalone tool. Besides this, I have a single complaint: the CG pronunciation for generated sentences ranges from great (Dutch) to okay (French) to often unintelligible (Italian.) Seriously, sometimes the words at the end of a clause will be inaudible or fade out quickly.

[@ayinstrumentals7731]

@@heartsthekitteh6239yeah, same, heck, the audio won't even work for me

[@deniaridley]

I love it! But I use it specifically to keep up with the 3 languages I speak other than English. I recommend it to everyone who asks me how I can speak four languages. I would never try to learn a completely new language with it. It is quite simply a great tool.

[@GarnetsWeb]

@@deniaridley What do you use on the sidelines with duolingo?

[@EricUhlmann]

A bit behind the times with this one, but I'll have a go: Shadowing: 1) I think shadowing is great. It's considered by many to be an 'advanced' technique, but to the extent I've done it, I find it helpful. People who can't shadow can likely benefit from listening, pausing, and repeating what you just heard (some courses have pauses in their recordings to enable this). SRS/Anki: 2) I used to love spaced repetition systems and was a die-hard user of Anki for over 10 years. In general, I no longer use it. The reason is that if you make a new Anki card for every new word you're learning, your reviews will consume a *lot* of time once you've got 2,000 or 3,000 words in your deck - I would start to lose motivation as it became too tedious. So I now use Anki only for specialized vocabulary that is low-frequency but you nonetheless *need* to know in a language: food, toiletries, work-related stuff, and the vocabulary surrounding my specific hobbies. My approach: 3) My approach is to start with a course, not unlike you, but I use it differently. I primarily focus on understanding: My goal in each lesson is to just understand the dialogue. I'll refer to the vocabulary and the grammar notes to help me understand it (in a way, it's reflecting the linguistics adage that 'grammar is descriptive, not prescriptive' - I *don't* use the grammar notes to consciously teach myself how to speak, although I'll frequently talk to myself in my L2 without thinking about it). I ignore the grammar drills. Once I've gotten through the course, I switch to Netflix. I watch every episode twice: first with English subtitles, then with L2 subtitles. The second time, with L2 subtitles, I also have google translate up in another window. Any time a sentence comes up that I almost understand, except for one or two words, I look up those words. In this manner, I pause to look up words 20-30 times per episode. I find that high-frequency words get into my passive vocabulary very quickly with this approach. I try to vary the content that I watch - I'll only ever watch 10 episodes or so of a series, because each series will have a bunch of common vocabulary related to its plot that I'll have figured out by the time I've seen 10 episodes. Once I plateau with Netflix shows (i.e. the 'new words' I'm looking up, with time, get more and more specific and less and less common. So after a while, the words aren't repeatedly used in a way that lets them 'sink in'), I switch over to Tandem, and I just find people to talk to. It's slow and stunted at first, but I find it comes *very* quickly because I'm just trying to make my passive vocabulary active - I'm mostly not even learning new words at this point. Once I plateau with speaking (i.e. the conversations I need to have, I can have fluently, and I'm mostly saying the same things again), I switch to reading, in succession until I plateau: newspaper articles, non-fiction books, young-adult fiction books and finally fiction books. Depending on the language, I might 'hop off the train' at any point (i.e. in Croatian I decided I didn't *need* to learn to read fluently for my holiday and so I stopped after I could speak it conversationally and switched to something else). But since you asked, that's my system!

[@jcd5533]

Hi, Paul! When I learn a language and go deeper in, I also get a try with a neighbouring language. For instance, I m learning Russian, so learning Ukrainian is also interesting and allows me to match grammar and vocabulary. I do as well with German: I m getting a try with Yiddish. This process is very interesting and efficient. I m surprised to switch from one to another, each language seems to help each other!

[@infinity365]

I learned Koine Greek using Anki. I highly recommend it. It made me feel like I was making progress because I knew it was keeping track of both my successes and failures.

[@caiofariasgs]

I really like your videos. We can really learn about languages. We can see that you do a long research about the language before and it adds a lot of value for us. Good job!

[@BMtodaP]

I've been to two extremes when it comes to Anki. There was a time when my language study was exclusively making and studying flashcards. I didn't realize that when a word is "well known" in Anki, it's still just in your short-term memory. Then I started to just read texts, watch videos, and practice with native speakers, figuring that I could just soak up the language purely through exposure and context. But with that approach, only the most common words and grammatical structures really stuck, and my vocabulary was really lacking. Recently I found a good balance between Anki and context (texts, videos, speaking practice), I seem to be making progress faster. For my listening exercise I usually watch movies and try to pick out words that I know. It's exciting when I can understand a whole sentence. Shadowing sounds like an interesting idea though.

[@dude9864]

Your advice about reading along with the audio is a godsend! I actually felt my brain understanding and hearing more Spanish when I read along with the natives! Sounds I could barely recognise before are now as clear as day after just one attempt... thank you so much!

[@mirekmontepuro5330]

Thanks for the video, Paul. I use a mix a of approaches, but once I know the basics of a language, the best self-learning approach for me is learning song lyrics. It's incredible how well the words stick when there's an association with rhymes and music. Then of course you need to dare using the language, even if you're likely not to understand what your interlocutor is saying. I've just returned from Poland and made a dunce out of myself more than once with concierges and waiters using my pidgin polish and woeful pronunciation, but that's just a phase that you have to pull through. Will give your approach a try, now.

[@dalep.tarima3473]

Bahasa Indonesia itu lebih mudah dipelajari ketimbang bahasa-bahasa lain, seperti bahasa Inggris dan lain². Sebagai orang Indonesia, aku bangga aja karena ada yang tertarik mempelajari bahasa Indonesia. Semoga sukses!!

[@benjaminprietop]

Seems like a cool and effective method, I think I'll give it a go

[@AboAli-pc5qw]

Yeah i also learned languages from linguaphone its really useful

[@pingoleonfernandez498]

Especially the old courses from 50's and 60's.

[@bhutchin1996]

If Linguaphone is politically incorrect and gives you words beyond the phrasebook approach, I'll have to check them out.

[@ruslanst.2339]

Your speech is so clear so even I, not native speaker, can understand it, that's cool.

[@clarkroth1298]

One thing that's helped me immensely is memorizing songs in the target language...you get the native enunciation but often at a more measurable pace, so you can really digest the details, both sonically & grammatically. Plus it hits your brain in a slightly different way than normal daily conversation.

[@santiagosancho2317]

Just my experience here: Personally I took english classes when I was young, like from 12 to 17 and I also had english in my school, still my english was poor. Then I did something, I needed to learn how to use certain programs (adobe after effects, maya, etc) so I started watching tutorials, trying to understand what they were saying. Eventually, I did understood, and because I understood enough, I was able to leave the video playing on the background while I was working, that way I could follow the tutorial. This allowed me to understand what they were saying, and that lead me to watching youtube videos in english, I did look up for some words I didn't know, but little by little I got pretty decent.

[@steffahn]

hmm, never heard of shadowing before, sounds interesting though. I'll definitely try it out for my Japanese language study. I'm not that far into language self study, but as far as I can tell, Anki (which I've been using for vocab) is pretty neat - and I think I personally prefer textbooks over apps, too.

[@Langfocus]

Anki gets pretty spooky sometimes. Sometimes I remember words that I have no memory of ever learning. The context is long gone from my memory, but because of the spaced repetitions I remember the word.

[@davitube4747]

@@Langfocus I've stopped using Anki because I realized that when I wasn't using it, I couldn't remember words I always remember on Anki... That's probably because when I speak a foreign language, I never fall into the translation phase... I think it lets you commit too many errors by trying to translate sentences literally and it also slows down your speech a lot imo... So as I begin feeling comfortable enough with the language, I skip translation, as I said before...this means that when I use Anki, I'm actually training a process I never come across because I would match the (e.g.) Japanese word with the English word, whereas, if I'm speaking, I match it with the thing itself .. Maybe creating image/word flashcards could help, but it seems like too much work...

[@josephwarren3498]

Frank: You apparently do not have children. More than three decades past, that "game" was their favorite annoyance to use on me.

[@steffahn]

I see, apparently they know how to practice their language skills :D - yes, indeed, being in my early 20s I don't have children (yet)

[@Elemy69]

Shadowing is part of the training of professional interpreters, I think that's a good indication of how effective it is. If not shadowing, even listening and repeating sentences is proven to be very effective.

[@caslook.kalliades]

To learn Nepali, I went for 5 months to Nepal, bought a book and lived with a family that does not speak English. It forced me to speak Nepali to communicate. It took me 1 month to understand the basics, 3 months to be conversational, a total of 9 months to be fluent (I live in Nepal now).

[@seid3366]

Being fluent in Nepali was your baby

[@caslook.kalliades]

@@seid3366 😂😂

[@marcamant7258]

this,is a pure jewel of an individual experience that we all have to considere when Learning languages.

[@denamasoomi6599]

This was just great. I used flashcards (not digital ones) to self study german and believe thats the reason I passed my B2 exam. Now Im studying danish and I would definitely give shadowing a try. Thank you so much. I think once one masters self studying one language it just gets easier to go to the next one.

[@mistseeker388]

When you have the basics and around 2000 of the key-words down, then my own preferable method of expanding on this is simple - find the good book in whatever field you are intrested in sci-fi/history/romance/fantasy/detective/autobiography/etc and translate it (don't forgte to write down the translation, preferably in a txt-file). If you are reading the book you are intrested in - your motivation will increase and also your brain will engage the new words with enthusiasm, which will allow you to remember them better. When you are done - don't forget to re-read the book without using a dictionary. Use your translation as a hint if you are stuck. For example i'v been reading english version of the Harry Potter like this, and by the end of the book 5 my knowledge of the language has been good enough to avoid using a dictionary almost entirely.

[@Alicexxhottie1]

I love shadowing and do it all the time. I started doing it when I heard dialogue in anime that sounded cool to me, and wanted to repeat it and sound like the character. It was only recently I found this fun activity for me was called shadowing. I'll be putting in more of an effort now to do this more as now I know it is also a studying technique!

[@WilliamCarterII]

"...is pretty gangster." I cackled until I realized it was literal.

[@tammysegarra2379]

Excellent suggestions, I used the shadowing method, without realizing it of course, from a very young age and learned English watching kids shows and movies. I would repeat the conversation out loud and memorize the dialogues.

[@adgame32]

Sama, mas. Cara belajar kita sama persis. Sudah sebulan ini saya belajar Spanyol. Ternyata lebih mudah dari pada Inggris. Saya memperbanyak kosa kata dengan kamus Indonesia-Spanyol

[@elmirasmiscellaneous1129]

I've almost never tried shadowing except for some languages classes when teacher asked us to repeat a dialogue and paused it and also when I used to use Pimsleur for Swedish. but now that you have mentioned it again, I think it could be an excellent method to accelerate the flunecy or automaticity as you say. I'd give it a try as soon as possible. I think SRS is a very effective method for memorizing words and phrases. I have been using apps like Memrise and another app for memorizing words and also other stuff and it does help a lot. I had never heard of Anki and I feel like I might give it a try as well. I usually love to attend language courses and classes, to me that is the most effective way to start a language, but since I don't always have enough time to attend classes and with accessibility of apps and videos nowadays, I tend to kickstart my language learning with duolingo and memrise and I try to watch series and vids in the target language and I also try to find grammar books for the language which sometimes is hard especially for less common languages such as Danish and some other languages. Thanks for sharing yoyr methods Paul, they were somewhat new and more useful comparing to some other videos I have recently watched on language learning methods.

[@EasyFinnish]

Duolingo taught me to say: ” are you a horse?” I couldnt answer NO...

[@xdgamer2765]

The Language Lab same this also happend to me, i got offended because duolingo called me a american in french class.

[@Historyboi-vn7gd]

¿Tu eres un caballo?

[@jasmineagyakwa]

ты лошадь?

[@anonimus500p6]

Historyboi 1492 No, soy yegua :)

[@aharonnitkin6912]

To their credit, Duolingo has improved and provides much more 'realistic' sentances. I am using it to learn Spanish, but I find LingQ to be a much richer resource

[@nominatorchris5591]

Can't even shadow English. Let alone another language.

[@CaptainsMorning]

Many Western languages link their words together while talking naturally → "I played on my phone" will sound kind of like "I play d'on my phone".

[@bhutchin1996]

Shadowing is interesting and highly favored by Alexander Arguelles. I've been doing similar stuff with audio for a long time. I don't really like flashcards, paper or Anki. A few years ago I read Gabriel Wyner's book and tried that approach with Anki, Forvo, Google Images. For me it's very time consuming word for word. Some people modify his approach and make sentences with his suggested vocabulary list. I'm a fan of Assimil. I have their Dutch course with their instructions on how to use the course, but I've modified it. *Here are my steps:* 1) Listen to the audio with the book shut, 2) Listen to the audio while following along with the L1 (your language, or the language you're learning from), 3) Listen to the audio while following along with the L2 (the target language, the language you're learning), 4) Play the audio once more and shadow along, 5) Read the notes, 6) Write down the sentences and exercises using different colored pens in a notebook, 7) Go to the vocabulary list in the back of the book and write down the vocabulary, L2 to L1, for the current chapter (I usually number them to get an idea of how much vocabulary that course is giving you). While doing steps 6 and 7 I usually find something on KZbin, mostly native material in the target language. *END of steps.* I don't do the second phase (what they call "active") that Assimil suggests. For me it's all active. One could use the vocabulary list, put it on Anki with Forvo audio for each word, and use Assimil's audio for each sentence. I find that writing things down by hand does a better job of imprinting vocabulary and sentences into long-term memory. As for pronunciation, Pimsleur is the best, but at first I don't want to just hear a language; I want to see it as well (and Assimil takes care of that). With that said, Pimsleur is also great for training your ears for the language.

[@bafouilleetcharabia1814]

I also use Assimil. Yes, you're totally active from beginning. It's up to each one. If we're less active, it's a bit easier, but we have to accept to not understand all and to be able to say few words only 2 monts later. And i can't wait ! So I'm often "active" from the beginning. That depends, if you learn easily and don't forget, it's possible to be very active , but for people with difficulties, to take time and to use the passive way is good. That means : listening, understanding, repeating, without trying to master something and waiting that comes naturally. Hmmm... very hard to explain...

[@dogedude3859]

I'm learning french. One technique I use is that I write down conjugation for the present, past simple and future tense for every foreign verb I encounter

[@stelline11]

"Living in the country where people speak the language you want to learn" This is the best and fastest way to obtain foreign language IMO

[@TariqNavabiGaming]

Not always possible though

[@robertomendoza2227]

The best way...

[@dondieggito1931]

The hard thing is affording it :"v

[@vanderlinojunior7895]

Good video. It helps a lot.

[@jamescook2412]

Shadowing here 2. Couldn't customize ANKI. I'd rather make myown color-coded translation-free flashcards that I rearrange & paste round. Has worked 4 German & now Mandarin. Textbooks, Homemade flashcards, YT & zero Apps.

[@everforward8651]

Another excellent video. I learned Spanish by studying it from 7th grade till my third year of college (when you start to learn a language before the age of 13, you can still acquire a native-speaker accent). Along the way, I studied other Romance languages, either by myself, or, in the classroom. This reinforced those words in Spanish which had cognates in those other neo-Latin tongues. Later, I lived in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in upstate New York, and, in New York City. In particular, I lived in a Colombian neighborhood in Queens, while teaching Latin American immigrants English. On the weekends, I wouldn't even speak English at all. Even when I wasn't conversing with anyone in Spanish, I'd subconsciously hear Spanish being spoken around me, and, this reinforcement by osmosis, as it were, also helped me become fluent (and, this kind of osmosis is a tool which I've not heard much about). In addition, I'd read publications in Spanish, and, watch television programming in the language. The years I spent living in Queens, in that Colombian neighborhood, were the next best thing to living in a foreign country, in a part of that country in which few people speak English. The end result of all this was that, one day, when I went to inquire about an apartment being rented by a Colombian lady, that lady thought that I was Colombian myself. After having learned Spanish, I learned Portuguese, and, I did so by first concentrating on the points of grammar in Portuguese which were different from those of Spanish, as well as knowing the sound differences between the two languages (for instance, if I already knew that the word for "son" in Spanish was "hijo," then, I'd know that, in the Portuguese word for "son," probably, the "h" would be substituted by an "f," and, the "j" would be substituted by the letter combination "lh", so that I could expect that the Portuguese word for "son" would be "filho"-- which it is). Also, regarding the Portuguese lexicon, I would concentrate on those words which were different from their equivalents in Spanish: for example, the word for "window" is "janela" in Portuguese, while it's "ventana" in Spanish. When one formally studies a foreign language, one gets to know the grammar of one's native language even better. My having studied other languages helped me when I wrote prose, either in newspaper articles on local history, or, in my public relations work. Now, regarding shadowing, I'm going to try that.

[@akeelaboomful]

I have studied arabic language for almost 3 years and I'm still learning. And so far my experience is I find that learning arabic in arabic is the best solution. I don't know if it works for other languages but that is just my own experience and opinion. Because the first two years of learning arabic, I was learning it with the teacher explaining the rules in malay and english. Then I left the school and joined an online arabic course which teaches arabic in only arabic and Alhamdulillaah I really improved. I understand better when I listen to conversations/lectures in arabic. Yes and I agree speaking with natives does help alot. And also one good tip I learn from my teacher from the online course, is when making a sentence in arabic as a non-native, is to not form it in english and then translating it to arabic. because that is a bad idea. you will probably sound like google translate. but the idea is to think in arabic and form the sentence.

[@Indrazill]

Semangat ya belajar bahasa Indonesianya, Paul! - An Indonesian Native

[@darkgreninja8349]

Y-y-y-you too

[@Belikel]

@Huckleberry Finn What about a dick?

[@neneklampir6664]

*Semangat dalam mempelajari Bahasa Indonesianya, ya Paul! Go learn some Indo grammar, please 😂

[@Kanal7Indonesia]

@@neneklampir6664 mungkin itu bahasa gaul, bukan bahasa formal bro 😅

[@harisnaufal890]

Salah grammar itu gak gaul :D

[@86TrapHouse]

When I saw those cassettes it reminded me of hooked on phonics.

[@Langfocus]

LOL

[@cheesecakelasagna]

There's a channel named JOLLY and they used this Korean social app that's kind of like Tinder but instead of matching via a visual profile, you talk (audio only) to a random person for a short while, only after talking you can decide to "match" them or not. They used it to help the one of them to practice Korean in terms of structuring sentence, doing back and forths, etc. (the other guy is already fluent)

[@stefaniasmanio859]

Thank you so much!! One of the best and more useful videos about learnig languages I have ever met!!!

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! I’m glad to hear it!

[@patbreacadh]

Your videos are very useful, and to-the-point. Great work!

[@limmykinh]

When I was in 5th grade, I started learning Japanese on my own. I watched a lot of anime and listened to a lot of Japanese songs. My dad was like, "how do you know you're not saying any weird stuff in those songs?!" so that challenged me to translate the songs to English from the kanji/kana lyrics. I learned a lot! That's pretty much all I did to study Japanese. Got busy with life after highschool and didn't really pursue language-learning until recently again. When I finally went to Japan last year, the people I met in Japan said I sound good. I took Hebrew classes last year and that's the same approach I did. Helped me excel at my Hebrew vocabulary too.

[@Reforming_LL]

That seems kinda unlikely, as you would’ve forgotten a lot of the words unless you used some sort of revision method like an SRS or something. Also I’m pretty sure if Japanese people say 「日本語上手」they sometimes don’t mean it...

[@AboAli-pc5qw]

I used shadowing in linguaphone it helps you speak quickly

[@justaplayer9351]

"Some of this stuff will spark a Twitter riot in 2018" is funny AHAHHAHAH!!

[@CarlosLopez-xd8re]

Self learning languages is not a easy step,so you are great good to share with us.

[@guss1309]

Hi Paul. Making Flashcards for whole sentences or chunks makes a lot of sense and it’s something I am now doing regularly. I had no idea the method you described was called shadowing. I have been doing it but not as intensely; but that is now going to change! Also thanks for mentioning Anki; I’ll give it a try. Schönen Tag noch.

[@emill232]

Got a duolingo ad in the middle of this

[@tkpt]

Thanks a lot for sharing your learning experience and methods! I personally don't like Anki, and I'm skeptical to the spaced repetition approach, especially when it's in the form of flashcards of words with no contexts. I find the words never stick even I revise the decks of flashcards multiple times, and when I'm pretty sure I can recognize the words. The bigger problem is in recalling words in speech and writing.

[@crono303]

I've used Anki for 7 years to learn Mandarin and it's been pretty helpful. 95% of my cards are sentence cards, though, I almost never put in single-word cards for the reasons you mentions. Combined with an immersion environment, Anki can be quite useful.

[@giorgosandrigiannakis1375]

Duolingo actually is very good to creat a good grammar base, but that's it. It hasn't got rich vocabulary but it has pretty good grammar. It is very good with the Romance languages though. I have studies Italina there and in 4 months i was able to talk with native speakers. Also it has very good stories for listening practice for some language and Spanish prodcast again for listening languages. I would reccomend it any day but i would also say that it is clearly the beginning of the language learning. I have done Italian there and now i do Spanish and Russian. Spanish is pretty good but in Russian I'm ready to cry and probably i will start the FSI courses.

[@kotenoklelu3471]

Russian is hard language. Even some people in Russia struggle with it, we have some other nationalities. And they study it at school, at University, it's literally everywhere. It's hard, yeah. My first memory in the life is how I try to speak Russian without accent.

[@swordofdoom1517]

What a great channel! By the end of the day, gotta love KZbin.

[@haralambimarkov6862]

That's so fucking meticulous. I am in awe of the effort and dedication you put into it. I need to adopt some of these techniques when I go back to studying Swedish. I didn't develop a system for the first two levels of my course, so that's a huge bummer in terms of adding structure, but I hope to change that going into the higher levels.