How to Deal With the Language Learning Plateau

[@Thelinguist]

The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3x92lP1 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com Have you ever dealt with the language learning plateau? What advice would you give to get through it?

[@esteemedyams]

Dear Mr. Kaufmann How many hours of language immersion (e.g.: watching tv without subtitles) do you think is enough on a daily basis to make steady progress? Would 1 hour/day be enough or is that just a waste of time? Thank you in advance!

[@allthereishasbeenandeverca5314]

The lingq app has no sentence mode like on the browser.

[@nacimlearns]

I’ve decided to count the hours I spend on language learning in a spreadsheet, so when I feel that I’m stagnating and it’s hard to stay motivated, I just focus on adding the hours 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻

[@rogerio8812]

Nice man... thanks for the tip. I'm gonna do the same .

[@hyperion3135]

Same here

[@nacimlearns]

@@rogerio8812 😉

[@nacimlearns]

@@hyperion3135 😉

[@MrGeronimo300]

Good idea

[@tedc9682]

Steve has the "teacher" skill. It's the ability to describe and explain something that many of us experience. It's the difference between a great dancer and a great dance instructor. Of course, Steve also has skills in language learning. But who doesn't? Steve can explain MY problem, and suggest methods to improve it. That is a rare gift.

[@tomdoesstuff1978]

If you needed this pointing out to you then you surely have bigger problems.

[@JoseNobregaN]

I'm Brazilian and started to learn english about one and half year ago, today I can understand some 80 to 90% of Stivie videos without subtitles, my writing is not very good, I can't understand very well contents more difficult like podcasts that people speak more fast, but I'm very happy with my progress because I know that in right moment Im gonna reach my goal, and you help me with this, really thank you Stive, I'm very grateful for that.

[@TheESMAT07]

This is incredible! I took three years to be like you! Obviously you do alot of listening. Goodluck!

[@guilhermebazaglia1422]

I'm too, I'm Brazilian too and right now I have the same struggle with the English

[@InstructorLu]

when we are at the beginning of learning a language, we can enjoy the progress. when we are at the plateau, we can enjoy the pleasure of using the target language to talk with people. when we have a fluent language, we can enjoy the convenience that the fluent language brings to us. conclusion: we can enjoy language learning in all the stages.😉

[@polyglotsjourney]

I love the metaphor of treading water👏🏻When you reach a plateau just remember that you should enjoy your time with the language. You probably started because you love it. Great video, Steve!😊

[@southernbelle27203]

I have a several episodes of Peppa Pig in Russian saved on KZbin. When i feel like I'm not getting anywhere i go and watch them. Every time there are words that i previously didn't know that i now understand. That encourages me and in a few weeks I'll do it again and see what pops up. Love your videos. You've been a big encouragement to me. Thank you.

[@estarling8766]

Reading comics or comedy texts considered +/- at the level of your plateau can boost a lot your mood in keeping learning further. Like many experts say, learning a new language must be also funny.

[@daniel.mojimaki]

Thank you Steve! Your videos have always helped me, but your recent ones have come at an especially good time to help me through some rough patches. (Daniel, from Nova Scotia)

[@kingjulian1202]

Every day I learn new words, sure I'm in the phase that I feel like I haven't felt a huge increase in language proficiency, but that doesn't make me lose motivation, simply the joy of reading a text and understanding a few more words than when I read it the last time is making me happy

[@francocorona6092]

I am from argentina. I tried follow Steven's advices. I have improve a lot. I am very happy. I don't understand without subtitles haha. But the video with subtitle I understand maybe 70 or 80%. Really is a great progress for me! I got a lingQ premium (it is very expensive for me, who live in argentina) but I am very happy. I am sure that I go to correct way. I am civil engenieer but lingQ premium so expensive for me hahaha In latin américa we are very poor hahaha

[@aliquis7530]

The intermediate plateau is a generally recognized phenomenon in the language learning world. A lot of KZbinrs offer magical shortcuts to help you overcome it in no time, but at the end of the day, going from a vocabulary of 4000 to 6000 words takes work and time, no matter your approach. I appreciate you for being honest about the cold hard truth of language learning. It is refreshing. Now let’s do this!!

[@lynpayne3667]

Thank you so much I found your encouragement really helpful - I am at least 4 years in and struggle like mad but I can understand more and will not give up! something must be going in.

[@Tehui1974]

I've been learning my target language for 4 years now, and I'm probably B2 / C1. I never really felt like I've been in a plateau, as I've always been chasing new words, etc. Admittedly, I continue to feel frustrated because I can have word searching difficulties at times, or I can forget words that I've previously learnt. However, I know from watching videos like this, that this is normal.

[@kamila4087]

This is my problem also, I learn the vocabulary but I don’t remember it

[@IncendiaHL]

One way of learning weird words that I hear is to simply speak it into something like Google translate in my phone. It's great when I don't know how to spell it.

[@Eng0926]

Thank you very much! Your advice is extremely helpful and inspiring!

[@싸넬동지-7성담배]

*Acceptance* is a big key word here When you let go that's when you stop being frustrated which stops the "no soaking state* of the brain

[@samanthawinfield689]

Great video - very inspirational speaker with lots and lots of good ideas. Will enjoy where I am in the language (French) while planning how to improve - thank you so much.

[@carhoness78]

I'm almost annoyed that I didn't just "get the answer" here, but actually I think this is exactly what I needed to hear, so thank you 😅

[@allyciao5012]

I really like this concept of treading water as i have been frustrated about my lack of progress but i think this mindset will help me focus on enjoying the language journey and focus on what i can control and my motivation and mindset towards learning. I will look back at this fondly once i reach B2 as i will remember how difficult it was to attain this level.

[@ryanchen5022]

Super agreed!! And thank you so much for this video!!!

[@suangel007]

I just noticed I'm in the plateau in english right now 😂 But well, I think I've had some good experiences being here. Even if I feel stuck, I enjoy being able to understand new things and participate in different communities with interesting cultures. So I never felt like I wanted to leave. I'm just comfortable with the way things are now

[@soinc9900]

I like the analogy because this is how I feel at the moment

[@valentina_fantasy]

GREAT! MANY THANKS . Very inspiring!. BRAVO!!!

[@andrewgray1285]

I agree with the above; here are a few additional thoughts. In my view, in any person's use of any language, there is always a plateau, and that plateau is reached when the speaker loses either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to expand their competence in the language. Recently I've been working with students in an immersion scenario, and I see them plateauing when they achieve sufficient competence to do what the need or want to do on a more-less-regular basis. There's an initial jump when they are first immersed and need to do things like order at restaurants, ask for directions, and so on, but if they don't do new things with the language, they plateau. The most important step when you feel that you are plateauing is to do new things with the language - read and listen to new types of content and then (with a tutor or in real life if possible) put some of the substance of that linguistic content to use.

[@ChristineV5]

Great association with the treading water perspective. Merci

[@MariaYadova]

Thank you for the kind words.

[@brain_respect_and_freedom]

My everyday routine to write down, how many activities, and how many time I was practicing my English skills: listening, watching mouth movement, reading, speaking /include to myself/. It works, because it's my honest raport about my engaged.

[@thelucidcrown]

Great perspective!

[@mrmcconko4985]

What a good thing to say steve kaufmann is one of your ideals💜

[@holmespianotuning]

Steve Kaufmann has made language learning something I look forward to rather than pouring over grammar tables or completing tedious exercises on phone apps.

[@TheESMAT07]

I believe the decisive challenge is find pleasure in the process, it's easier than done though.

[@jameswiblishauser9745]

Personally I like the plateau metaphor, feels like an adventure to me.

[@lavidadeunpescador]

Muy agradecido con lo que nos enseña , sería bueno que nos hiciera este mismo video en español, gracias

[@joesmith33-j1b]

Every time I feel frustrated I came here to take full energy of motivation but with this video I learned how to motivate myself by myself, but that doesn't mean I am not watching your videos anymore kidding..

[@Sundaynight69]

Thank you very much

[@IramMehdiLanguagesUniversity]

*Learning new language is another soul*

[@batuhanyumak4552]

I think if you're reached the plateau phase, you did great. Because you'll no longer encounter lots of words that you don't know in everyday speech, that's what natives do. Think about your native language, you don't learn new things every single day in your native lang.

[@meerar827]

Thankyou 🙏

[@Kitiwake]

Thanks Steve.

[@4P5MC]

Hi Steve! I've been learning Swedish with LingQ and I love it so far! Currently clicking on a number like "1234" doesn't do anything-I'd love if the text-to-speech voice read it out in the target language, and maybe even gave the full (written out) form of it?

[@Thelinguist]

I agree. We shouldn't have digits. Please let me know the lessons where you found them and we will try to change to the full written form.

[@4P5MC]

@@Thelinguist I've seen them mostly in imported lessons, which I think is fine. It'd just be great to be able to click them and hear how they're pronounced like all the other words!

[@bradleyj7801]

I’m still dipping my toes in the arctic waiting for the water to warm up so congrats to everybody treading water

[@highchamp1]

Individual learning Should be fun. Plateau - online news would be helpful. (new words and daily subjects) School learning Has a lot of issues. Your not missing much.

[@severian1916]

Hey Steve Does your advice work with learning ancient languages that are primarily text based but not oral? E.g Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew and others? Can you do a vid on that?

[@theswedishpolyglot]

Hey Steve! Unlikely that you see individual messages maybe, but I was wondering if you ever thought of learning Vietnamese. Currently been studying it for 5 months, getting good at reading first. I've noticed a lot of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary (words that are shared between e.g. Mandarin, Korean, Japanese).

[@Thelinguist]

Maybe one day! I tried it a little before going there but didn't get too far.

[@Disgusted19]

I think that gold list methad can be effective with plateau

[@kamila4087]

I learn the vocabulary but I keep forgetting it and end up not using it at all… I feel stuck in B2 level and I don’t know what to do, I read books but they often don’t have many challenging words to learn and even if they have I don’t acquire them

[@JustNow42]

Dont think too much. I had a real lousy English teacher that were absent most of the time. So I learned by looking at western movies quit efficient. Gave me a funny accent but that disapeared fast. My daughter ( 9 year old at the time) looked at the Beverly hill xxxx series and got a terrible american accent. That was OK in her school as long as you did not mix real english with American. All very efficient and without efford.

[@ariohandoyo5973]

I've heared about Plateu however, i don't know what exacly Plateu is. Could you guys please explain it to me in English? I'm an English learner.😁

[@Mike739107]

This is a good video.

[@AJBonnema]

Je vergelijking is incompleet. Stel je de talen zee voor als een zee met eb en vloed, waarbij eb onstaat als je stopt met trappelen en vloed begint als je start en doorgaat met trappelen. Het feit van vloed merk je niet, maar van eb wel. Je bent het plateau voorbij, als stoppen met trappelen geen eb inzet, omdat je dicht genoeg bent bij de kust dat je de taal niet meer vergeet. Ik heb deze vergelijking niet van mezelf, maar van een meisje dat vele talen beheerst en het begin van leren van een nieuwe taal vergeleek met het gestrand zijn op een onbewoond eiland. Je kunt met niemand communiceren, maar dan ga je zwemmen. In het begin gaat het hard: je kunt het eiland zien verdwijnen. Daarna kom je in een gebied waar je je voortgang niet meer ziet. Dat is het plateau. Als je doorgaat kom je uiteindelijk aan land. Dat is het moment dat je kunt beginnen met communiceren. Je bent er nog niet, maar je vergeet het ook niet meer. De eb en vloed van de talen zee heeft je niet meer in zijn greep. Al kom je jaren later terug op het land, je drijft niet meer terug naar je eiland: de taal pak je weer snel genoeg op. Zij definieerde dat punt als "the point of no return". Dan beheers je een taal zodat je het niet meer vergeet, ook al is je communicatie imperfect. Stop je met leren voor dat punt, dan kom je weer terug richting eiland, en als je lang genoeg niks doet ben je weer terug bij waar je begon: het onbewoonde eiland. Einde.

[@messizhao3813]

I think I am before the Plateau now, haha, anyone who will help me to improve my spoken english here?

[@aidagholampour100]

How can I enjoy when I’m drowning 😅

[@ghazyelsalhy3511]

Please sir, I'm good in everything, but as an Arabic native person, you may know that Arabic is a very slow language, so I find a difficulty in understanding the English natives who speak quickly, can you help?

[@lukerupolo4390]

this is the same for every language.

[@salahshabana5591]

With much time immersing in the language it’ll become easier and easier you have to keep being connected

[@mohamedaminegwada8986]

Yes you are alright because putting your self in water not like swimming, first of all we have move musles of our brain to get english step by step

[@RM-jb2bv]

I always feel like I’m not getting anywhere at every stage of learning. But I was and I am. I think progress is simply so slow that I always feel like I’m not moving ahead. And sometimes I AM going backwards via the classic 2 steps ahead 1 back.

[@Johannatereza]

Call me crazy but Steve's background in the last 4 videos seems different from the past videos. Like he is using a fake bookshelf background 🤔. But maybe it's a different angle. 🥲. Btw nice video. From my experience learning languages, I remember that when I was studying English, I enjoyed talking even though it was very bad speaking at the moment and I was patient and positive with my progress. With Dutch, I have had very negative moments, and I think it's because I'm living in the country and native speakers are more sensible when non-native speakers communicate in their language. Definitely language learning is a different journey every time.

[@Kitiwake]

I'm lucky. I live in a francophone country and find it hard to speak French with native speakers. But when I speak with the locals they think I'm an expert !😆

[@Charlotte-ti2yk]

It is a fake background. He spends the winter away from his home in Canada; he’s somewhere in the US just now (I can’t remember where, just somewhere warmer). He does it every year… if you look back you’ll see this backdrop in previous videos. He seems to use it when he’s not at home.