How to learn a language in 2024

Looking to learn a language in 2024?
A very underrated tool for language learners is Surfshark VPN, my personal preference for VPN.
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This one was edited by @MakaiLegister - I think he did a great job!
Refold's video about ways to use AI in language learning:
• 3 ways to use AI to LE...
Benjamin Keep's video on focus:
• A Simple Way to Learn ...
Eric Wen's (great personality KZbinr, and good Spanish speaker) prompt for AI to help you improve your output of the language (it's long so make sure you get all the paragraphs until you see "end of prompt".)
Hi,
I'd like you to now be my Spanish Tutor. Your goal is to help me practice my Spanish, improve my vocabulary, correct my grammar mistakes and give me suggestions on how my ideas can be expressed in a more natural way. You will follow the following process:
1. Your first response will be to give me an easy prompt to respond to. Please wait for me to provide my answer.
2. Based on my input, you will then generate 4 sections:
a) Corrected Response. (Please correct everything, even small grammatical errors or article agreements.)
b) Explanations of every correction
c) Suggestions (give me ways I could improve my answer to sound more natural and fluent. If appropriate, introduce me to new vocabulary or phrases which I could use to enrich my responses or express my ideas more naturally or concisely. If there was a part of my writing that seemed especially fluent or natural, please highlight that to me. With your suggestions, if appropriate, please give me example sentences in Spanish to illustrate what your suggestions could look like if implemented.
d) Follow-up (Write a couple sentences in response to mine. Then give me a new follow-up question related to my answers and your previous questions.)
3. We will continue this iterative process with me giving you more written responses and you correcting my Spanish and giving me feedback.
4. When I say “Done.”, I want you then to give me a summary of:
a) The errors I made during our practice session (list the instances as bullet points)
b) A bullet point summary of all new vocabulary, structures or phrases that you introduced me to
c) a quick summary of how it seems that my Spanish skills are improving.
- END OF PROMPT -
Check out Eric Wen's channel:
www.youtube.com/@EricWen/videos
Videos are often released up to a week early to channel members at just 3 AUD a month (about 2 USD). Membership also comes with longer and alternative cuts of some videos and some other little goodies such as members' only polls etc. We're almost at 200 members! Join here:
/ @daysandwords
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 The first 4 things
02:28 The next 4 things
06:14 AI and other things
10:26 Five more things
14:31 Nos. 18, 19 and 20
16:40 The last 4 things
Subscribe.
This part is here to show people who correct my use of "Lo quiero".
Lo quiero is what I say at the end of every video. It's like the KZbinr who says "Hey guy" at the start of his videos, despite it not being correct. I know it's "wrong", but it's right because it's what I intend to say (and often people forget one of its meanings, which would be "I love you" but in a formal context.) It's a reference to a film that I watched in Spanish 50 times, thus essentially memorising the Spanish script for.

[@daysandwords]

Get an exclusive Surfshark VPN Holiday Season deal. Enter promo code LAMONT to get up to 6 additional months for free at surfshark.deals/LAMONT

[@nattell9357]

Thank you so much!

[@igorten4157]

Awesome, thanx!

[@citygirljace]

My spanish skyrocketed in 2020 when I switched to comprehensible input. Now that I speak at an advanced level, getting nerdy about grammar and moods makes more sense. If you’re a beginner in a language, don’t force yourself to speak. Shutting up was one of the best things I ever did for my language learning.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah that's the same for my Swedish! It was kind of an 8-12 month journey from hearing about comprehensible input to actually accepting that it was a real thing.

[@echelonangel98]

This 100%

[@AndresonEnglish]

Cobero

[@fivestarplaying3553]

Same. It’s not like I could talk to anyone during the pandemic anyway though 😂

[@Komatik_]

As a chronic procrastinator about the actually learning the language bit, getting nerdy about grammar is a _wonderful_ distraction from doing something actually useful, let me assure you.

[@nataliasouza6444]

I love that the fist step is "get out of social media", after I uninstall social media apps I stay much more consistent at my learning routine

[@optimizing_fitness]

as soon as he said thhat, i pressed the like button

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

I wish I didn't have to use it for work, as it's much harder to control the addiction than just deleting it everywhere.

[@tadahead7174]

I love this time of year. I get all the "how to learn a language in XXXX year" videos together and I can get the algorithm back on language learning.

[@daysandwords]

You can really tell the algorithm that you love LL by putting this video on loop and then go to bed. 😆

[@tadahead7174]

@@daysandwords you say that luke I havent been doing that with your videos. I mean the best, I love your content and have for a while. As a job for you, I understand the need to crush content and follow some trends, but your stuff is my favorite. Thank you for your service 🫡

[@paratame105]

@@daysandwords Does this work if the tab is not open? Like, can I mute the video, let it play, and just do stuff on another tab or even window?

[@JamesJ.Collins]

On a completely unrelated note, this channel really helped inspire me to get into starting my own, haven’t posted in a year, editing new videos as we speak. So cool to see the production value in these videos skyrocket. Thanks for all the advice for the years, and all the best to you in 2024!

[@daysandwords]

Thanks! This video had an editor so that's why all the fancy editing, but yeah, I've been trying to improve the level with every video.

[@ntatenarin]

I agree with walking. When I listen to Pimsleur, Podcasts, or anything, I get restless and need to do something (or I get a bit sleepy). So I take a 30 minute walk or do chores while listening to my target language and saying the phrases in my target language out loud. Because I'm moving, my brain and body just feels healthier, and the sun makes me happier as well!

[@ErykKrzeminski]

I did a fairly in-depth dive into Silbo Gomero, which is a whistled language used in the Canaries. I originally was just really curious, but a lot of the articles/videos about it were actually in Spanish. I got a nice refresher from it and also learnt some Silbo Gomero. Great vid!

[@lucasjohnston120]

Love the presentation style you have in these videos, very similar sense of humour to myself and how I aspire to come across in videos I create. Great job as always! Best wishes for the new year

[@MakaiLegister]

Soooo many good tips here it’s crazy! Proud I got to edit this ☺️

[@stevencarr4002]

Fantastic job.

[@yanaracatalan2556]

YESSS, comprehensible input is exactly how i learned English, and i didn't even know i was doing it at the time!

[@lesdyxiatoo]

A lot of great tips here, but I’ll add another one which I personally use: there’s an accessibility feature on iPhones where (if enabled) it can read highlighted sentences to you, it has quite a few languages available for the Siri that reads the highlighted sentences to you (and a few speakers per language) and there’s not really a limit on how much you can highlight and request the Siri to speak. I’ve found it very reliable for my TL (Italian) and anytime I’m confused at how something is pronounced or I’ve forgotten, I’ll highlight and request the “speak” option and after a few times of listening and imitating the highlighted area I feel just a bit more confident in saying that word or phrase going forward. Hope that helps somebody, it’s been a big help to me 😊

[@MakaiLegister]

Omg I’m using that immediately, great tip!

[@lesdyxiatoo]

@@MakaiLegister happy to help 😁

[@deniaridley]

Thanks, gonna try!

[@philipdavis7521]

Thanks for including ‘not speaking’. It’s so counterintuitive that talking early is not helpful (and is arguably counterproductive) that it’s very hard to persuade people to drop it as part of their studies, especially in the early stage. It particularly annoys me that so many language classes insist on speaking exercises for beginners. They are very stressful for those who are shy and they have no merit whatever. Somehow, everyone seems to assume this is what you have to do.

[@mcmerry2846]

Of you speak early, you advance on your speaking faster... 🤡

[@citygirljace]

@@mcmerry2846 If you don’t force yourself to speak early, you remove a huge burden and can effectively filter your experience of the language to consist of 100% native input, so you avoid inventing your own version of the language in your head. Now, I have spoken spanish throughout my whole learning journey, but if I could go back to day 1, I would intentionally delay the speaking by about 3 months because of the impact that switching to input-centric learning had on me. Maybe that’s still “early.”

[@mcmerry2846]

@@citygirljace I speak English, Spanish and German. It is impressive how fast I learnt German compared to English just because I had more opportunities to talk.

[@daysandwords]

​@@mcmerry2846Attribution error. If you had more opportunities to speak German, then you would also have heard it a lot more. You learned it by hearing it, not by speaking it.

[@Polyyboy13]

​@@daysandwords My friend has been doing what you're doing, and it's really good for comprehension, he understands a lot. His speaking is bad though, because he never speaks, and he lacks confidence from not speaking. Just because it works for you and a lot of other people, doesn't mean it's best for everyone

[@kastanie7445]

Hands down best VPN ad I've ever seen. Actual video also top notch as always, your production quality, humor, information provided - just all around probably the best language learning channel out there ❤

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! The editor is to thank for the quality of the edit (obviously), but also the little Batman bit in the VPN part was his idea. Did you see my "I found an audiobook app for language learners" video? It had a very different kind of Surfshark ad in it haha.

[@AmyD-vg8nk]

Thank you for introducing me to the idea of reading a book and listening to its audiobook at the same time. Not only does it make reading easier and more enjoyable it also has given me a very effective way of improving my upper intermediate Spanish. I will definitely be coming back to this video when I start learning German!

[@Andrea-eg6ro]

Merci, so many good tips! I really enjoy listening to your advice, now I’m off to listen to an audiobook!

[@dups1]

Your video production keeps getting better and better, and the points youre making are excellent!

[@daysandwords]

Yeah this one had a lot more work in the filming but also I got a separate editor on this. I think he did an awesome job!

[@tylermacneill3820]

The editing and jump cuts in this video were fantastic, great stuff

[@daysandwords]

That was Makai! Check out Makai Legister for his personal channel.

[@fuglsnef]

That prompt is solid gold, I've been doing tons more output practice using it 👍

[@ukaszrozewicz7488]

It's amazing how much of your advice aligns with my own observations and conclusions that I've come to over several years. A few of them are: quit social media (I deactivated my FB account) change subjects regularly while studying (I read books and watch videos on KZbin in the language I'm learning, but I occasionally change the topics to expand my vocabulary) My own way to master a language faster is: wake up 1-2 hours earlier and dedicate this time in the morning to language learning I have the luxury of starting work at 9 AM and working remotely. So, I used to wake up at 8 AM, take a shower, eat breakfast, and start work at 9. Now, I do it differently, I wake up at 6 AM, spend 1.5 hours learning English, 30 minutes learning Italian, and by the time I start work at 9, I've already "completed" my foreign language study for the day.

[@denizalpazazi7155]

nicely done, sir! but given that you had to wake up at 6am every day, is it not a huge sacrifice already? the life routine is highly a personal thing, but especially for myself, i can't get my brain function properly at early hours. still, congrats on sticking your language goals, i'm pretty sure you'll get to a place you want in no time.

[@thedude69420]

I'm also a try believer in the get it done as soon as you wake up methodology. I don't have as much time as you and I still do some stuff in the evening but language learning is the first thing I do when I get out of bed before I start my day.

[@vladislavgrin7122]

I started doing copywork a couple of weeks ago. By "doing copywork" I mean picking up some text in any form and style that I like and just copying it by hand on the paper, daily. I know that what kids do when they learn to write in their native language. For someone it might seem like a pointless activity, but for me it's a huge step forward. I become more and more familiar with producing something, rather than Just consuming (what I did several years before that, and now get fed up of this approach).

[@Blacksquareable]

Oh yes, the just listen and read technique. That's really good for getting to grips with speaking the language naturally.

[@iago_sc]

the prompt is really helpful, thanks for sharing.

[@0x746f6d]

I was zero output at first, but I added just one sentence a day of output to Anki to hedge. It's not just any output, I really focused on tones and precision and hard sounds across complete sentences. Immediately saw big benefits. By just dabbling, I must have picked up a lot of low hanging fruit, it directly improved my input too. I can hear tricky sounds much more quickly and easily now that I've drilled making them. I still agree output should be deemphasized generally and CI is the key, but limited high quality output (not conversations but drilling) helped me map phonemes and made key constructs stickier. Kinda inspired by your early motivational videos, it's ok to use 5% of your study time to try something out, then reassess after a month. Paid off in this case for me.

[@richardnoelle]

Great ideas. I really enjoy your content. I agree about physical dictionaries. Got my Turkish - English dictionary in a small mom and pop shop in İstanbul for 7.5 lira which is about 25 cents USD! Some days I simply flip through it randomly reading words or I will challenge myself to "read all the Turkish words that start with Ç", etc. I am a bit old school anyway.

[@Consum98]

I really like the sentence of the day thing. I actually keep a deck in Anki with really difficult sentences. Often 20+ words with 2-3 unknown words in them, but I take them either from difficult shows or from books in which I also own the audiobook. I don't learn many of these per day, but it is definitely a big confidence boost when trying to speak longer passages more quickly, and for sure makes longer sentences easier to understand over time (In conjunction with everything else obviously). Nice suggestion! Didn't necessarily notice that something like this was so impactful. I suppose that's why spending small amounts of time dissecting difficult passages has made such a big difference in my abilities. Doesn't have to be much time, but if you spend a little bit of time really trying to understand harder stuff, it for sure helps *more efficiently* than just spending that same time doing something more relaxed. (Provided you have the energy of course). Nice video again Mr 'Stralia!

[@MarcusEskilsson]

Hoi man, love your videos! My last language learning find: Interactive fiction (for my french learning). Both in books (La Forteresse du Chaudron Noir or so) or on computer (feels like being a kid and playing Zork again). Gets me involved in the story, and has me rereading the book over and over to get the various endings and so.

[@petercerro]

where are you getting your digital interactive stories from?

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

@@petercerro same question

[@blumagi984]

Would like to know what website or program that you used as well seems to be a lot of options but not all are good.

[@jdprettynails]

Examples please!

[@tinywest]

Great job by Makai on the editing.

[@MakaiLegister]

Thank you!

[@hillmanntoby]

Social media and screen time in general is huge. I'd add for those that do watch a movie, or do any immersion, have your phone in the other room.

[@Jiusolosurfavs]

Schysst att du är tillbaka, tipsen är bra och kommer säkert vara bra och användbara för andra, tack och bra jobbat!

[@Komatik_]

First time in my life that I ever saw andvändbara, I think. New word acquired!

[@daysandwords]

Va? Seriöst? I see it all the time (ok, not THAT much if we only count the plural conjugation, "användbarA" of it, but "användbart"... All the time!

[@Komatik_]

@@daysandwords Seriöst. Jag har berättat hur jag lärde mig svenska i skolan och har inte använt den efter. Och det var över tio år sedan.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I know, you're not a native speaker and all that, but like... it's a pretty common word. I mean, I think it's just as common as "useful" in English.

[@Komatik_]

@@daysandwords Yeah, I was surprised myself. I think it comes down to not using the language: I just did my school courses, listened to Kent and read packaging labels. Of those, only the school courses are the kind of stuff that'd use the word, and apparently they didn't, at least in any way that stuck even in my passive vocabulary.

[@monosTVsports]

So I've been watching ur vids a lot lately and i have to say u have improved a lot! They are much more entertaining and engaging than they were a year ago. I can see u have practiced ur video making just as much as ur languages hahaha❤

[@daysandwords]

In some ways yes. It depends what video/s you're comparing. I doubt you've seen all of my videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKfOdnuahaaWnaM

[@monosTVsports]

@@daysandwords oh yes that one is really good too, maybe i should have said they are better than they were a few years ago hahah. Anyways the bottom line is that i really like them!

[@ladykookosmile]

Awesome video! I'm excited to make some very unrealistic language learning plans for 2024, and will use this as an inspiration 😊😂 (step one would be getting back into daily studying)

[@athenagreen5390]

I thought Evan's video was aggressive, cultish, and condescending. If that is how he takes criticism of an app for a community he claims to not even be a part of, he needs therapy. Your channel genuinely is helpful. I'm on my third book in my TL and even without the audiobook (I plan to listen to them a bit later), my listening comprehension has markedly improved. People can cry about comprehensible input and immersion all they want but they are the ones holding themselves back because certain ideas are unfashionable (maybe because input theory is heavily associated with Japanese?). While I don't personally find all of the tips in this video applicable to me, I think its one of the best videos on language learning for serious learners. Thanks for staying strong despite the hate and negativity thrown at you by a much larger creator. This channel was a big motivation in me finally buying TL books and actually sitting down to read. I want more people to have good and effective tips like this.

[@daysandwords]

Oh, thanks for that. When I started reading your comment, for a second I wondered if you'd posted it on the right video because I was like "This wasn't anything to do with Evan's video?" but I can see what you mean (my saying that I'm not a gatekeeper I guess). Cheers for that, happy new year!

[@Anna-bm3oe]

What did Evan do? You got me curious lol

[@MaxLearnsPersian]

The "it's like putting new tyres on a car when it hasn't got a working engine" comparison is 10/10 and I will steal it from you and give you the credits only most of the time!

[@vbph2011]

We are SO BACK. Love it.

[@alexandriatempest]

Ah Lamont! I already did the Surfshark through another YTer. Ah well, maybe in three years. Good post, solid, and you're staying classy. I appreciate that ^_^ Happy New Year!

[@daysandwords]

That's fine! Even if it were an affiliate link, it wouldn't be a problem but yeah, it's not. So even if like 100,000 people use it, I don't get paid any more haha. Happy New Year to you too!

[@ornitorrinco_en_la_caverna]

The video's length is just perfect.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! The editor had to make quite a few changes to get it to that. It started over 21 and I was like "Let's remove XYZ and get it to 20:24!"

[@biuliu7157]

I agree with the sentence a day advice. I've been doing this with sentences I know for certain I would use with repetition, and it's less overwhelming then learnings apps that throw a ton of dialogue at you. I feel as if it's easier for me to learn what I want to learn, and it helps.

[@pedrofrancochau2643]

I've been teaching languages English, Spanish and Portuguese for decades. Listening and learning language cadences is imperative. But accumulating, memorizing and storing words is counter productive. Extremes aren't good, a happy medium is always the best policy. There's no magic potions, you have to put the work in, for whichever technique or methodology you choose.

[@SvengelskaBlondie]

5:37 when I started learning Spanish, I decided to try and read Bilbo: an unexpected journey. It was a book I was quite familiar with, had read it many times. Was quite surprising how much I understood just from the context of the story, even if most of the words where new to me and I didn't understand them.

[@daysandwords]

Preach!

[@candacep1117]

24 solutions to everyone's excuses. Love it! HNY Lamont.

[@alandocanto8199]

Love you broo , eres fantástico. Estoy aprendiendo inglés y puedo comprender todo lo q dices 🎉🎉

[@theswedishpolyglot]

Great video Lamont! There are extremely few language learners that hit all those "metalearning" boxes that you checked/hit in this video (as such you are one of the few language KZbinrs I still follow). Walk-watching, read-listening-walking etc. is next level stuff lol, I never see anyone else do it xD It was fun to hear to you do it too (at least the walk-watching) :D

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, just like any field, it's easy to talk about the most surface level stuff... because, well, it's on the surface. Like videography/photography channels that talk about gear. Gear matters less and less now that everything is amazing, but it's still the easiest thing to talk about.

[@theswedishpolyglot]

@@daysandwords Keep up the good work! How do you generally advance your knowledge of language learning tactics/strategy? Does it happen organically or do you have a systematic approach that gives you a good chance of improving on your knowledge base? Cheers.

[@daysandwords]

Oh mainly I just try to do the stuff that will help... I do try to read some books and watch some videos from people more knowledgable than myself but who don't make the fancy looking videos. I'm essentially trying to bring boring language stuff to the masses with these intense edits and stupid titles/thumbnails etc., but it's not particularly easy because there isn't a lot of time to a) learn languages b) watch the more in-depth videos/read books c) make the videos about it

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

@@daysandwords yea you end up spending more time learning how to learn than actually learning languages, right? My french definitely plateaued for a long time despite being in France because my days and nights I was coaching and building the business and speaking with other learners.

[@et6729]

cool new editing! love the new style

[@daysandwords]

Yeah Makai did this one, he nailed it!

[@notcrediblesolipsism3851]

But, you didn't mention watching hundreds of videos on KZbin about how to learn a new language.

[@daysandwords]

I actually did mention that. Tip no 24 is just do it and stop watching my awesome video 😂

[@straytonox1492]

The quality is insane ❄️

[@funpheonix9752]

I’m learning Japanese and I have looked up 日本語を勉強. It means “study Japanese” in Japanese. Pretty solid! But it’s harder to do in Japanese because of kanji. Thankfully I know hiragana and katakana.

[@gnadebote]

I am a Duolingo fanboy. I will keep doing my Duolingo lessons, because I love gamification. That said, I now follow your channel. Sorry for that. Your content is just too good! :D

[@daysandwords]

Haha well my channel wouldn't be here without Duolingo.

[@RyfkahChan]

How repetition helps - After watching him for quite a while, Lamont finally got me motivated to do 7 days of intense language input. 35 hours a week seem like more than I can handle (considering I do have other responsibilities and deadlines coming up), so I will do 28 hours in 7 days, starting tomorrow (31st of January). Because I know that if I wait until the 2nd of January, all motivation will leave me again. Feel free to join me :)

[@RyfkahChan]

2nd day finished. Yesterday, I was a fair bit below the 4 hours a day I planned. Today, I could exceed them slightly, so that's great. However, I quickly lose focus when passages are too challenging, and it seems like the material I used the past two days contains too many words I don't know. Wish there was more (or any) intermediate material for language learners accessible in my TL, as the only stuff I can easily find is for native speakers. Maybe I'll manage to find a nice kids show tomorrow. Or at least something with decent subtitles/a transcript.

[@karasunome6401]

Great video mate!

[@odytimesthree]

Goated tips: #5, 2:33 #6, 4:43 #13, 10:27 #14, 11:09 -- I love the idea of this. When you have those "sprints", you also look back to them with feelings of accomplishment and happiness, going at it with your passion. It's both enjoying the process of those "intense" periods and also gaining skills for the long term that are great about it.

[@perlefisker]

Thank you for this! Very informative - and funny = motivational. (I've actually got the confidence that I will learn Russian in 2024...finally - but I'm also convinced that I need to return to this video quite frequently.)

[@56932982]

About 6: I am learning french and I am interested in traveling to France. Guess what: Best Wikipedia articles about places and cities in France are in the french Wikipedia. Surprise surprise. Information about France in french. Perfect comprehensible input. About 14, sprints. I second that. I try to get every Saturday or Sunday as much French into my brain as possible. So even a one day sprint is effektive. (For me.)

[@Stephanie-gv8rh]

As usual, solid advice!

[@jackjohnson2309]

Listening to podcasts in your target language is a great one. There are a few Hindi podcasts I listen to that really nail a lot of these tips for me. I can listen doing chores at home, driving, even at work sometimes, there are a lot of words I understand, there are a lot of English words in common Hindi daily use which adds context, and I get content I’m interested in as well as trips into other types of content depending on guests and things like that. Some science, some linguistics, some history, some spirituality, lots of input.

[@francoischretien3321]

Point #13: yes, true, moving helps thinking and memorizing and sort of "embody" the thought process. I've recently started getting up and pacing the right and moving my right arm like an orchestra conductor to mark the stresses in the German dialogues that I try to memorize, and it feels so efficient! Now is it really? That should be put to the test, but at least it feels so.

[@miguelcervera1478]

I’m Spanish with a native level (C1) in English and Portuguese, I used to practise French too but I didn’t like it at all. I’ve been years wanting to learn Swedish but in Spain and more focused in my area (Cádiz) it is impossible to find an academy of this language so if u could give me some advice f where or how to learn Swedish… I would be so grateful. Thanks a lot! Amazing channel!

[@user-li7il2td1s]

What I noticed when studying chinese/spanish/french etc.: Reading WHILE reading completely scattered my attention. It worked way better for me to either read OR listen (and possibly read/listen to whatever i before listened to/read AFTER).

[@jmoore5716]

I haven't watched the video yet but I'm hoping he will say "new research is in, apparently you can make just as much progress if you intersperse comprehensible input of your target language with extensive procrastination".

[@jmoore5716]

Just watched and disappointingly he did not say that. In fact, the last rule felt very targeted at me.

[@robscovell5951]

On the topic of working with a language teacher: I work with a phonetics coach rather than a language teacher. A language teacher can't help you (not much anyway) with vocabulary acquisition but a phonetics coach can help with pronunciation and prosody.

[@FlamesWolf]

As a swedish person, I look forward to hear your song

[@ThePhilologicalBell]

11:10 - In my personal experience you can get at least a useful capacity to understand a foreign language by just studying 15 minutes a day, though as a rule of thumb I agree it's not gonna work. I've done this with ancient Greek (specifically, Koine): over the last three years I finished a Memrise course containing all the words in the New Testament (about 5,500), and another for all the words in the Old Testament. And, I've maintained a daily streak in both these courses. Most days I only do about 5 minutes per day, but I've also done *some* reading in Greek (no more than ten texts and one movie) and other grammar study in the past, so I'd guess that it averages out to around 15 minutes a day. And nowadays, I find I can read the New Testament and Byzantine hagiographies without too much difficulty. There are some factors which help me, like I already speak fluent Latin which has a very similar grammar and lots of shared vocab. But, apply this to say a native English speaker learning Dutch, Afrikaans or even Swedish, and the same principle may apply. Obviously, I'd be useless if I had to hold a conversation in ancient Greek presently. But, I'm at a point now where reading Greek isn't burdensome, and for only 15 minutes a day I'd say that's worth it IMO.

[@daysandwords]

So, to be clear, I'm not saying that one should never expect to make progress in 15 minutes a day. I'm saying that full fluency requires A PERIOD at SOME POINT that is more than that. It's like flying to the moon... they don't accelerate the whole way there. After they're about 200km from the Earth's surface, they just cruise. But if they don't have insane acceleration at the start (our analogy doesn't require it to be at the start, just at some point), then they'll never get there.

[@paulwalther5237]

The tip I am going to try to implement first is sentence of the day. I tried 2 sentences of the day before and did for maybe two days. I think 2 is doable but since I failed at it I’m gong to knock it down to one.

[@marcgros5428]

14. could be “Do language Spritz”. I remember learning Italian by meeting students in Rome who drank as many cocktails as possible.

[@elftower907]

Thank you sir !

[@daysandwords]

Varsågod! (You're welcome!)

[@oliverjeez]

can u do a video of your set up, what camera and mic do you use? they are really good

[@daysandwords]

Honestly no one would be interested, it would get like 200 views.

[@CollieNike3]

I actually have tricked TikTok into thinking that I don't speak English, and instagram now serves me near-exclusive foreign language content in my target languages, based on my viewing patterns and interactions with the content. KZbin I still watch some English content on (clearly), but at least half of what I'm suggested here is in my target languages as well. I would say that social media apps have actually been hugely instrumental in increasing my language proficiency: familiarizing me with new vocabulary, teaching me new grammar structures or making difficult ones feel more accessible via the comprehensible input I am interacting with, and allowing me to hear real, native speakers in all environments.

[@daysandwords]

Yes, obviously I am not talking about social media in your target language. Since I specifically mentioned the thing that I've mentioned several times before about putting KZbin into your target language, it's pretty clear that I was ONLY talking about social media that's in English or a language you already speak fluently.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Great edit Lamont. Guessing you filmed the script twice? Only looks like one possible green screen scene. The little actions that can become habits the quickest are definitely the way toward massive progress in the shortest time. However, a lot of that is based on theory at this point. As you point out, we are all guilty of not doing the things we are sure can help us! Have you got a video on the top comprehensible input activities? I'm gonna make sure i get more Danish series and films into my day to day, but they are definitely not going to be comprehensible for the most part. Hmm i need to go back to your previous reply about getting CI.

[@daysandwords]

This edit was actually by Makai, that guy who remixed my Spanish into a beat haha. He said he was looking to do some editing for clients, and he knows language learning stuff so we had a chat and here we are. Oh, there are no green screens. I guess you're talking about when I was on the TV, like about the AI part or the Batman part? Makai just made that happen without green screen... Unless you're doing it for an actual movie, greenscreen isn't really necessary these days. Nah I actually only filmed the bits at the desk that you saw... if you get me, like, I didn't film the whole script twice - I had certain parts highlighted so that I knew to do them at the desk rather than sitting in front of the lights. This actually speeds filming up a lot. Hmm, best video I've got on that is probably here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5WshIB5haiZrbs But a quick top 5 comprehensible input activities: - Scuba diving (reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time... check out Mobify or whatever the Danish version of Storytel is called) - Watching things you've watched before, particularly favourites - Watching things where the exact outcome doesn't matter but the general outcome is obvious (e.g. gameshows) - Short things (KZbin vlogs etc... you'd be surprised how addictive 10 minute videos can be) - Watching things in French or English with Danish subs? This can be really relaxing, whilst still showing you just a bit of Danish. The progress rate is probably about 5% of full Danish immersion but it's really not hard to do at all.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

@@daysandwords Cheers. Yea, so you filmed it once but in 2 places: desk and lights. That's what I do. But when I see creators sometimes changing location between sentences or even mid-sentence so seamlessly, I feel they must be filming twice and making sure they pronounce everything identically. Anyways, great job Makai. And yes, I read the video description before my comment. Thanks for the tips. I know you love audio books as a resource. I've never got into them so it's gonna take some more time to get into that habit. I already listen to the radio and music, but, since I'm not expecting to see immediate progress from these sources, it's worth seeing if I could put my time elsewhere for more results. I'm gonna be more disciplined when it comes to using my Danish YT account. I think that's a great way to immerse with just a little daily effort, since we can make the addictive quality of infinite scrolling into something positive. It'll likely actually make me use YT less overall, but more for Danish. Win win ;). As for watching in English, and reading Danish subs: I do that. I don't think it does much unless you're really focusing on reading, and for that level of effort, you might as well get something with Danish audio.

[@ruslanmakarov1509]

The Little Prince is a good book for practicing target language reading, because it's a classic which has been translated into every fucking language on the planet

[@breadsalmon]

do you have any tips/a video on increasing output? i have lots of Brazilian family and i can understand them when they speak to me (due to my exposure to the language and my fluency in Spanish) but i can rarely reply with what i actually want to say because of my concerningly small active vocabulary haha

[@AlinefromToulouse]

Lamont, how is it that something always clicks when I watch your videos: the AI stuff to sort out words we might not know, I'll do it for words that I already noticed in input activities, and I'll also try to see if it works for words of a specific domain.💡👏

[@michelleneuman579]

Great tips!

[@MorriganJade]

Related tip regarding social media that I should apply to myself: don't use KZbin. If you *know* that there are a lot of resources in the target language, yet never use them. Then even using KZbin is not gonna work, and is gonna be a whole other rabbit hole. Now if only I could kick my own butt into gear with that tip as well Edit: scubadiving videogames. Target language voice, target language subtitle. Optionally: UI in target language too.

[@yorgunsamuray]

It'll be a bit unrelated and only be connected to a little part of this video but, KZbin's algorithm can make one interested in topics that previously were not under one's radar. I wouldn't even think about this, but now I have been watching hoof trimming videos, where some guys carve away cows' hooves, shaping them, fixing small problems that don't require vets. "Digital dermatitis", "white line defect" and "detached hoof horn" have become terms I am familiar with.

[@mybestideas1]

've been watching your videos, love the humor, really adds a sprinkle of joy to the language-learning torture :) Anyhoo, let me tell you, I've landed in this francophone part of Canada, and it's like a linguistic minefield. I mean, I’ve got a Parisian accent - chic, sophisticated, you know, the whole Eiffel Tower vibe. But here they’ve got this thing called the 'Acadian' accent, and let me tell you, it’s like trying to understand French from another planet. So, I'm going for a job, thinking my C1 French will open doors. But nope, apparently, unless your last name is LeBlanc and you can do the Acadian 'j'étions' and 'puis instead of et', your French is as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I'm there, confidently presenting enormeous effort of 2 years, speaking, and they're like, "Sorry, honey, you don't speak French." I'm like, "Excusez-moi? Last time I checked, I'm not ordering croissants on Mars. This is French, right?" Apparently not, because if it ain't Acadian. So, here I am, caught in the linguistic Bermuda Triangle, where my French is lost at sea because it doesn't come with an Acadian passport. Who knew speaking French in Canada was like navigating a culinary obstacle course? Sacré bleu!

[@samirberardo]

Awesome video. Thank you.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for saying so.

[@user-sk6mk1du4t]

bro has gotten funnier ! Love the vid

[@daysandwords]

I had Makai's help (he edited this one). It was only kinda funny before his touches.

[@HablaConOwens]

Im learning language by reading now. I just was AI to make stories that i can read that teach me a new word every paragraph or 2.

[@ultron1060]

one additional Tip : 1. Once you are at a certain level in your T language, leave a comment, in your target language ofcourse, on 1 or 2 pieces of content you watch during the day Once I had completed all the easy parts of learning English i.e. I could understand 98 percent of english content ,but was not able express myself even at some basic level, I convinced myself I had learned all the english I needed and Now it was time to move on to Learning German Because Continuing learning and improvng english was hard now and needed much more effort than I did not want to put. Oh Man, How Stupid I was at that time.

[@mcmerry2846]

Add, phonetics and pronunciation for early and effective speaking

[@jjdjdkdjfj174]

Hey man, is reading textbooks a good way to learn English? I need to improve my English .

[@katyb3869]

Great tips as usual! Do you have any tips for paying for Storytel from the US? I'm learning Dutch and I don't seem to have access to the kinds of payments they take

[@daysandwords]

Oh man, this is an ongoing thing with Storytel. It's not consistent... some people in the US can't seem to pay for it, others have no trouble at all. Collectively, about 80 of us have not worked out what the pattern is. For my data, what state is this in?

[@katyb3869]

@@daysandwords Ah good to know, thanks. I'm in Oklahoma but I'm using Proton VPN set to the Netherlands. They added Klarna since the last time I checked. I'm going to try to go that route.

[@jojox6145]

I find Teacher AI is also a great resource, even though it’s in its infancy. I improve daily.

[@Giraffinator]

I was really bad at Japanese just a year ago. I still am, but I used to be, too. And that's ok.

[@captainpugwash2317]

What do you recommend for Italian beginner.

[@adammoore7447]

Nice tips. BTW, when I copied the AI prompts into Word, my Grammarly program identified several grammar errors ...in English. Interesting.

[@daysandwords]

LOL, Grammarly sucked from the start and are surely struggling to even stay afloat now.

[@alejandrogarciajimenez9428]

Hi! In the 14:45 you mentioned a video from Benjamin idk what more, and you said that you'll add a link of the video, do you have it or the name? I understand that it's normal, there are a lot of links and work in this video, but it would be great to watch his entire video and ideas ^^

[@daysandwords]

Sorry, here it is. I was getting confused because people kept asking me which Benjamin video and I was like "It's linked already?" but there are TWO different Ben's referenced in this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXrCZJWHYqqKias

[@stephenadams6455]

I like the sentence a day strategy

[@MakaiLegister]

Same, I’ve paired that with using AI to have conversations and it’s only been two days but it feels like it’s working

[@filoreykjavik]

great stuff

[@anna7276]

I could be studying my Spanish but I’m too busy eating Tim tams and watching the Boxing Day test. Damn cricket!!!!

[@j5679]

Hey Lamont, I was wondering whether you've considered making language learning videos for high-level learners. I think a lot of people (mainly young L2 English speakers who were brought up by the TV or the internet) find themselves in the situation where they can't expect all that much improvement anymore from inputting alone (I must be at 10k+ hours of English by now and it certainly feels this way to me) but are still clearly non-native (almost always due to pronunciation). The target audience for such content is much more limited but so is the competition i.e. the other content available. While there are some videos that explain the different methods (it's always one or more of the following: study the TL's phonology, do shadowing, do coursing, get corrections by natives, listen back to yourself), there's still a lot left to be desired in terms of content. Some interesting topics off the top of my head: How long do you have to do these before you can expect to see improvement? Is there anything special to know or to look out for for languages as heterogeneous as English or Spanish? How much improvement can you expect from an accent coach? How can you best utilize an untrained native speaker? What does the current body of scientific evidence say? I thought you'd be in a good position to do content in this direction because you speak a language to a high but non-native level.

[@daniellemillerart]

I'm a native speaker and if you hadn't said that you weren't native, I would've assumed you were from this comment. At least in writing, I think you're there buddy - and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be optained without growing up in the language as a little kid.

[@j5679]

@@daniellemillerart Thanks. Yeah, my main weakness is pronunciation, you'd be able to tell that I'm not a native speaker within like 5 seconds of listening to me. As for the last part of your comment, Lamont himself actually argued for the opposite position in another video, namely that it is possible to obtain that level (given hard work and talent).

[@daysandwords]

"and there's just going to be a certain level that can't be obtained without growing up in the language as a little kid." Indeed I did argue, with examples, that there are people who sound as native as native speakers. It's extremely rare but it does happen. I want to do another video on this soon and prove it conclusively by putting in about 20 examples which will throw everyone off.

[@Komatik_]

@@daniellemillerart Nah, it's not that. You want to get to a tip top level in a foreign language, it's less about learning the language, per se, and more that you need to study decently high-level topics in that language and learn to talk about them in that language, much as natives do. Native English speakers had to learn the academic vocabulary of psychology just as much as I did when I wanted to delve into it. Language learning proper is to get you to where you can exist in the language, actually existing in the language and pursuing your interests in it is what will do the rest to raise you to the highest levels.

[@fivestarplaying3553]

This might be due to early output. If you start speaking before you’ve gotten hundreds to thousands of hours of input (depending on the language) you’ll probably have a notable accent. I’ve experienced this a bit with Spanish, but it’s difficult to reverse. You can try shadowing, or maybe only listening to an accent you want to have.

[@o08O80o]

Aww I was waiting around for a response video to Evan 😢

[@aleidius192]

I was entertained and informed by this video.

[@daysandwords]

Haha, same for me with this comment.

[@Logan-lh5tc]

tengo problemas de formar frases en español aunque estudié gramática hasta un nivel B1 o B1 y medio, y entiendo (casi) todo lo que leo/escucho … hay buenos sitios o buenas maneras en que puedo practicar esto más?

[@Inddesign]

Is life way too short to learn German and not sound horrid? debería complacerme ser bilingue pero siempre quiero más... 😂 i reccomend you guys to play an rpg or the sims 2 (the repetition and basic vocabulary might be of help) when starting to read in a foreign language...if you are fond of videogames that is. also... old movies, documentaries and soap operas might help with listening. my apologies for the long comment! love this channel! ❤

[@jeffreybarker357]

“Web cam turner-offer” lmaooo

[@LocalLannister]

Can anyone tell me why on Anki even after completing the full deck (having 0 new cards left) and easily recalling hundreds of words I still have no words classified in the A classification and only in the other classes? Due to this I repeatedly get the same easily-recalled words when there is a smaller daily limit of flashcards now?

[@Z5Z5Z5]

I don’t think there are many dubbed Korean Disney animated movies. Most are just subtitled in Korean. I might need to use a VPN 😅

[@paholainen100]

good video, fun and interesting

[@mramosch]

Where is the best place to find out in which audio languages a certain movie has been released on preferably DVD (or maybe also Blue-Ray) all around the world? PAL vs. NTSC or Region Code isn’t at issue here, just how many different audio dubs are available in general. Let’s say I wanted to know which languages “The Devil wears Prada” is available in. Searching through e.g. the Amazon stores I found versions in English, Polish, Czech, French. But there should be at least another version in German and Spanish, I assume… What is a more streamlined way to find out without the hassle of consulting different incomplete sources and missing out on some valid results? Any ideas or experiences to share on that topic?

[@daysandwords]

Well, for DVDs: www.dvdcompare.net/ As for somewhere that lists the streaming services and the languages they offer, that's a much tougher ask, because they actually block certain languages in certain countries, even though they offer it, so using a VPN actually turns certain languages on.

[@mramosch]

@@daysandwords Thanks. Yeah I already got that from your videos with the streaming services. But I am only interested in hardware - DVD (Blue-Ray) - and not in SaS (Software as Service). Bye the way, for quite some time now I was planning to get in contact with you, I think I’ve got something that will blow your mind. Do you have some website with a contact e-mail address or an Apple-ID to iMessage you?

[@mramosch]

I can only find your Instagram handle but no website, e-mail or any other contact address for that matter. So how do we do that?

[@daysandwords]

There's an email address in the "about" or "more info" or whatever section of KZbin.

[@flewlessdeathreacts9034]

What should I use for Spanish comprehensible input because I already made a new yt account just for Spanish which is this account but what else should I use besides yt

[@ryanbailey44]

Do you play video games? I have my xbox in spanish and playing video games, especially the campaign modes for open world games, has been the single greatest language learning tool for me so far. There is a ton of repetitive vocabulary, dialogue, mini-stories, input with subtitles, input without subtitles, exploration, many one-word commands if it's a military game. It's perfect.