I studied a language for a week straight

I studied a foreign language for 57 hours in one week straight.
Using any of these links for the services described really helps me out and will allow me to keep making the best language learning videos out there.
Patreon:
You can read my more in depth thoughts on the front lines of language learning and help me do this more often and one day get to make a video in Sweden here:
www.patreon.com/user?u=38320669
LingQ is a platform that teaches you a new language by reading material with your native language as a support. I don't like the design but the technique is very effective:
www.lingq.com/en/frenchnswedish/
DO YOU LIKE THE MUSIC I USE? You have excellent taste, and should checkout Soundstripe, the excellent service which I get my music from. It also helps me out immensely and if you use the code "LAMONT" you get 10%:
soundstripe.com?fpr=days-of-language
The native speaker tutoring shown in my videos is through iTalki. You can get $10 credit applied to your account when you make your first purchase, or you can just check it out for free using this link, which also helps me out by allowing me to take more language lessons:
www.italki.com/i/CHfEEb?hl=en-us
The channels shown in this video:
I mentioned Language Come Up because by it did appear to him for a moment that I had stolen his video, and I know how that feels, so even though I had never seen his channel, I still wanna give him a shout out. This is his video about the same concept:
• I studied the Russian ...
Audrey Ember makes videos about indy film making:
/ @audreyember
Eric Wen makes some of the best "improve your KZbin channel" videos out there:
/ @ericwen
Inspired by Captain Sinbad:
• The precise moment whe...
Chris Stuckmann hardly needs introduction from me but still:
/ chrisstuckmann
I buy my Swedish books, e-books and audio books through Bokus, which is simple, reliable and lots of fun to look for good deals:
adtr.co/UFCN4D
Do you like foreign language TV shows and movies? Check out the channel on which I review ONLY those shows:
/ @lamontmcleod2
Subscribe for more awesome language learning content: / @daysandwords
Language learning videos, tips and techniques!
• How To Learn Languages
Normally at the end of my descriptions there is some kind of anecdote or interesting fact from the making of the video. This video was "bigger" than and more ambitious than all my others, in case you didn't notice. What inspired the dramatic nature of it was a channel called Captain Sinbad, where the creator marries drama and self development, as well as comedy. He is signicantly better at it than I am... but I can't jump from the ledge if I don't climb to it in the first place now, can I?

[@daysandwords]

What is the next rock that you can get to?

[@AlvinREDDELTA]

i've memorized kanji maybe 90 letters of them i think including the hiragana katakana i wrote them dont many times . i can read a little but idk the meaning in english ... and im stuck :( also i can write spanish and german but not that much ... i do read at same time ... with own meanings

[@cheeryblossoms2011]

Phrases. I've got the basic vocab and grammar for Korean down, and I can communicate. But I know my sentences are either babyfied or sound strange to a native speaker. Working on learning sentence patterns is my next goal!

[@roseheart3223]

@@AlvinREDDELTA Hey, a fellow Japanese learner here! I'm still not very good at it (between beginner and intermediate I think), but if you want some tips, here ya go. Learning the different readings and meanings of kanji is really important so that you can begin reading some simple things. I would suggest listening to Japanese being spoken by a native often so that you can get familiar with pronunciation, sentence patterns, and learn to distinguish individual words. If you don't really like to memorize vocab (like me), I would suggest watching some content in Japanese with subtitles. I know that it doesn't really count as active listening, but it can help you by hearing the word or phrase being said, and then you can connect it to the English (or whatever your native language is) subtitles. Sorry for the long message, but if you need any more tips, feel free to ask! がんばって！

[@daysandwords]

@mystery mans mum failed him uno 3.5 years but over 2 years of that was spent trying to learn French at the same time. For a while there my French was actually better than my Swedish. But yeah I started 3.5 years ago, just didn't make much progress in 2018 or 2019.

[@lindamorristx]

Al 72 Bravo to you! Your language skills and writing skills are excellent. One correction - The term is ceased to exist.

[@stevediben7900]

Not only is your Swedish rapidly improving, but so is the production quality of your videos. This is a really beautiful video.

[@dombat]

Steve Diben I agree, the production is a step up. Also the content is interesting and refreshingly honest, as usual

[@petrosstefanidis6396]

It's true. All other language channels I'm watching have to do also with the languages I'm learning. He is the only one that I watch not because of his language of choice but because of his methodology, style, communication skills and quality of content.

[@christopheradrien6829]

@@petrosstefanidis6396 same, it's about the approach

[@Olivina330]

Oh sorry I thought this was a TED talk

[@daysandwords]

Thankfully I'll make some money from it, unlike a TED Talk haha.

[@Andrei-vo4eq]

Forget about languages and focus on cinematography. Man that intro made me feel something. Beautiful video.

[@daysandwords]

Well I want to bring the two together. PS. That's just stock footage so it's kinda cheating. I am not really much of a videographer, as you can tell by the poorly colour graded and out of focus shots.

[@cheeryblossoms2011]

When I was in high school, I would go to a camp for Hearing and Deaf people every year. The camp was one week long, and I would get to practice sign language with the other campers. I always found that one week of camp more useful than the whole year of self study.

[@daysandwords]

YES! I get you completely.

[@christinakatharina]

I did 38 hours of language learning in a week and I felt similar effects. After beeing in the target language for 7 hours one day, I heard people talking in my native language outside. My brain didn't understand the words for a view seconds and the words sounded really harsh to me. It was a strange feeling, that my target language sounded more natural to me. To be as long as possible in your target language is great and it was so much fun. I will try to do it again!

[@violinperson1835]

Hmm this is interesting! I kinda wanna feel what that’s like

[@pedrolmlkzk]

I've done that with English, lost a lot of my capability of speaking Portuguese (Native tongue)

[@essennagerry]

@Gytis Stankevičius I feel you, I've had some similar experiences. But my parents moved to my country of residence (to take care of me bcs I was sick) and decided to stay, so now I do speak my native tongue Bulgarian quite a lot. Infact, my German has been sort of stagnating and sort of declining ever since I got sick and would spend much less time among people.

[@AfroLinguo]

That happened to me as well, after I came to live in Germany. I felt more comfortable and understood content in German more than in French which is my native language. But after some time, I immersed myself again in French and everything got back to normal

[@harrytempleman-wright7713]

Love how this is just an honest vid detailing your experience. Not like some other language videos that to use "in a week" in the title.

[@MalluStyleMultiMedia]

Yep, true

[@henriquerezende5106]

As you said in the video, being able to speaking a language really open doors, if i didnt speak english, i wouldnt be able to understand you, which would be a huge waste of great content (to the point that i feel bad for my brazilians collegues who dont speak english) same with german, now im able to enjoy so much content and learn so much more from the culture (that i thought that i had already learned)

[@RosalioRedPanda]

English has so much good content. I'm extremely saddened by the idea of if I hadn't grown up speaking English. I love my English KZbin immensely.

[@Artavasdes127]

Parabéns pelo seu inglês ótimo, cara!

[@AfroLinguo]

Also, You actually start understanding the people from a particular country and not just seeing them as stereotypes. Ich fühle mich auch mega wohl in Deutschland, weil ich die Sprache sprechen kann.

[@mantko3206]

cany ou recommend any good german channels?

[@RussianWonder29]

@@mantko3206 get germanzief

[@horseworms]

I'd love to see you someday make a video in Sweden talking with locals in Swedish. That would be amazing.

[@ChimozuFu]

Me too, id love to see that

[@xurify]

Yeah, same here

[@langret]

I had spent years learning English(not my native language) and was not even close to being fluent. But the thing that had the biggest impact on my language learning was KZbin. I spent 99% of my KZbin time watching videos in English. I listened to music, watched movies, read books in English, had my phone and computer settings in English, joined Facebook groups in English, I Googled things in English... and eventually became fluent. And yes, it’s funny to be bilingual because your brain keeps switching between languages all the time(you should see my to do lists 😄). Now I’m trying to do the same thing in Greek and to be honest, it’s difficult.

[@neredan1182]

you should spend a holiday in sweden man. as soon as it's possible again. i hope you will and can do that. imagine all the conversations you can have. and all the experiences!

[@daysandwords]

But even a holiday is not something that I can just click my fingers and make happen. People talk about "you should go to Sweden" like it's easy.

[@neredan1182]

@@daysandwords true! i am young and without any real responsibilities. i didnt mean to underestimate the organization and all that has to go into. but im pretty sure youre language skills are better than sufficient already. im spending a year in vietnam and cant even follow real life conversation.

[@LoscoX]

@@daysandwords yep, for you it's not easy as for me, that i could spend only 50€ with a low cost airplane to flight to sweden from Italy

[@amelijaceica9617]

@@daysandwords yeah, you said you were Australian, if you live in Australia i expect plane tickets to Sweden will be pretty expensive lol

[@yorgunsamuray]

@@daysandwords if you learnt Indonesian, you could just go over to Bali. Heard that for Australians, it's cheaper to go over there for a holiday than in an Australian beach resort. On the contrary, it's easier for me to go to Sweden than Indonesia from where I'm at. Daily spending might be more though. Sweden is notoriously expensive.

[@Julia-tj6ss]

"I've got the same mug ... so obviously that was a smooth transition." First time I've ever paused a video to hit the like button

[@biglucidhorse1995]

the only language learning channel that is THIS honest with expectations. great work man!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you.

[@danielbelmir0]

When I used to spend like 8 hours a day watching youtube videos in English i improved my listening skills a lot, I got really confident to the point it was like English was my native language. Of course I lose some of that confidence when I listen to recordings of me having a conversation and when I read something I wrote that is full of grammar errors, but I reached the point of no return, the English language is part of my life and I would like learn Finnish and German. I could try to do the same for Finnish but I'm still at that moment i need to study more than practice the language. Learning English made it easier to understand German and I can handle practicing for some hours but pretty poorly. Learning German and Finnish feels like sucide but I'm unlikely to use these languages for anything useful for the next years, so there's no problem if I end up taking a long time to learn them, I'll try to reach the intermediate lvl, at least regarding reading and listening skills before i spend money on italki or in any expensive course. My goal fot this year is to learn enough german and finnish to handle many hours of listening practice. Even if I fail I will get good enough to handle some daily practice.

[@caioconradoo]

Interesting your challenge. The last 60 days I have done the same with my Italian, I took it from knowing absolutely 3 words at the beginning to a fluent and probably B2 level, but yes it has been plenty of hard work, virus quarantine helped me a lot and I was basically studying 5,6 hours every day. Now it´s time to do the same with French but I think it will take me around 3 to 4 months to get this same level as in Italian. And btw your video motivated me a lot. And my mother tongue is Portuguese so it´s easier to learn these languages.

[@MalluStyleMultiMedia]

Nice 👍👍 I thought about learning Portuguese.

[@yunusemre-rm6xr]

Congratulations!! I have some questions regarding your study. How did you keep yourself motivated for long hours? Also, I'm learning German but what kind of sources have you used and how many hours of that 5-6 went into speaking,listening,reading and writing? I mean, how did you distribute it?

[@essennagerry]

I wish you all the best with French as well!

[@languagecomeup]

Lamont, I really enjoyed the video. Your production really went to another level, it felt as if I were watching almost like a BBC production. The part I found most interesting that I can totally relate to was when you were watching an English video and you slipped right into a Swedish one and it was just effortless. I really did feel like this language was one with me like never before and it’s such an enthralling sensation. Thanks for the mention btw, you are a standup guy. Congratulations on your challenge week!

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for being so cool about it on Insta. I feel like some people would just not have believed me (for anyone reading this: Mark did actually have a decent line of reasoning to suggest that I may have ripped off the idea, but it just happened not to be true in this instance.)

[@languagecomeup]

Days of French 'n' Swedish Well it took me a day or two just to come to the rational decision to talk it over with you. I, as a fan of the channel felt like you were a genuine guy. Clearly you are. My channel has gotten a nice bump in viewers and subscribers thanks to your video. Much appreciated. I always wondered if a lot of your viewers (like me) didn’t study French or Swedish. I see that is the case. Russian and Spanish learners on here like me! Ha. How many of these hours would you put into the passive category by the way?

[@daysandwords]

@@languagecomeup Not many actually. Just the running really, so like less than 3. Note that I consider passive to be anything where you doing something else simultaneously. If you are watching a series, then in my books it's still active.

[@languagecomeup]

@@daysandwords agreed

[@essennagerry]

@@daysandwords Hm, I guess for me there are three categories then. Active, passive, and middle. Active if when I sit down and strain to literally learn new things, as in, say I break down Grammar and write it in some way I like, or memorize vocabulary, or very consciously practise pronunciation. Passive is like what you said. And middle is watching a series or reading in the target language and _not_ writing down a ton of things lol. Maybe a few things here and there, or just underlining to check out later. If I have a notebook with me and am breaking down things and writing them then I consider it active. So active in that sense, I feel like maybe 2 hours a day are a maximum.

[@chrissye9720]

Your humility and realism are refreshing and encouraging in a community dominated by people making wild claims about "learning a language in 1 week".

[@taryndancer29]

Chrissy E Why I love his channel. He’s realistic! So sick and tired of these click bait language youtubers.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks guys 😀

[@CaptainSinbad]

Loved it man

[@daysandwords]

Cheers Nikhil!

[@louiefernandez2923]

This was crazy interesting. I’m going to try 2 hours per day in Spanish!!!

[@louiefernandez2923]

^Instead of 10-30 mins per day

[@sueoh4744]

Louie Fernandez good idea, because in my experience 1 hr a day is a real absolute minimum

[@sabr3T]

On Sundays I learn about 3 hours a day, every other day I want to learn atleast 1 hour or 1 hour 30min a day

[@mcfc48]

Interesting video! Spending 57 hours in a target language seems like a mammoth task, I think I would have burnout if I spent all that time studying grammar or vocab but I could easily do the majority of it in passive immersion such as listening to music or watching youtube with/without subtitles as I do that in Italian and Spanish anyway.

[@wolfbits7766]

i do this things as well...

[@sun.sh.in.e]

Yeah I tried that before and burnt out.

[@TheDasilva1]

¿Cómo te encuentras, amiga?

[@MalluStyleMultiMedia]

👍

[@taosit5282]

This video is truly inspiring! I was already planning to do mine while watching it for the first time. Finally I got the opportunity and here I am reviewing your video right before I launch myself into the challenge

[@daysandwords]

Awesome! Good luck with it!

[@andrewson5330]

Because of you i'm learning french faster then i ever though i would. Its so crazy on how much change a single man on the internet can do. Thank you :D

[@atticusfinch3536]

I accidently did this with English a couple of years ago, it did help my language skills a lot. Now I spend most of my time by just doing stuff in English. I'm learning French at the moment and I still am at a pretty basic level, but I'll try to do this with French in some way or another.

[@heathersaxton8118]

”People who are actually doing it and not just pretending to do it” ahahaha I love you man

[@skylar172]

I’ve been wanting to learn Korean for years, but have constantly put it off. But because of this challenge, I got the incentive to just go ahead and start. I did about 12 hours in that week. But the best thing it did for me, was help me start! Even if only a little bit, I’ve been studying just about everyday!

[@bbyball16]

I came here after you yelled at me at the end of the “Change Your Phone Language” video. And you were right. This video is really well done! Lol. And in my defense, I had this video in my “watch later” list. Lol.

[@daysandwords]

My watch later list has more stuff in it than my garage haha.

[@henriquerezende5106]

The quality of this video is fking amazing(pardon my french) Well done mate!

[@Aurora-FX]

Thats english

[@TheStockCarStig]

@@Aurora-FX r/whooosh

[@wolfzmusic9706]

TheStockCarStig i think maybe the thirdreich guy could have been joking

[@tardigrada7481]

Hi, a strange thing has happened, I cried from happiness a bit when I was trying to investigate what the word "weltschöpferisch" means. I understand that some people are satisfied when they're able to simply connect to other people in their target language, make them happy, but damn, it's always nice to see someone who is so deeply dedicated to a certain subject. I, too, love studying endlessly (in my case German :D), putting pieces together and exploring the language more intimately and I'm pretty glad I started fairly soon (I'm 16). Not to be annoying, but one word that amazed me was "sirenenhaft" (seducing). (Well, it's "zvodný" in Slovak, which would be literally "aquatic" without that z. (It's a different root, though. zvodný -> zvod -> viesť -> nevesta = a bride Pretty cool, right? :D))

[@mistbornlazarus2611]

You know, I've read a few comments saying things like "omg i was thinking about this and now there's a video about it! what a coincidence" or something similar in a few videos, but this is the first time it happens to me. Honestly, i've only watched two of your videos (this one and another i can't remember) but still allow me to say that you gave me a little push. I was thinking just this morning (no kidding) that one thing I could do to immerse myself more is a challenge similar to this one. I was thinking 2 weeks though! But watching this video and hearing about your experience fills me with DETERMINATION. So thank you! By the way, "I got the same mug, so that was obviously a smooth transition" (5:44) almost made me spit my food hahaha. Wasn't expecting that.

[@daysandwords]

Haha, I didn't think the joke came out well but I'm glad someone appreciated it.

[@AfroLinguo]

The Universe works in mysterious ways

[@paulwalther5237]

I'm impressed that you got such good results from your immersion week. I hope you get to go Sweden and make a video about it.

[@angelsjoker8190]

Nice motivation coming at the right time for me. I'm just about to finish my first week of three and a half hours per day of actively working on my Russian (not counting pure passive Russian radio in the background) which I want to upgrade to at least full four preferably five hours per day for the upcoming four weeks where I have enough time at hand (but haven't been disciplined enough yet or it was just too exhausting as my level is not that advanced yet, so I need quite a lot of breaks in between)

[@natalya3134]

Удачи с русским языком!

[@angelsjoker8190]

@@natalya3134 Спасибо! Я учил 4ч18/день. И весь июль 133ч16 :)

[@natalya3134]

@@angelsjoker8190 супер! Советую использовать поисковую систему Яндекс. Русский интернет огромен!

[@amazinglion6674]

I love your content! I especially like the fact that you don't claim to be one of those faux 'youtube polyglots' who know x languages fluently after only a couple of months of study, you're down here on the mortal plane with the rest of us who are trying to excel in a single language and showing us that it really can be fun if you throw yourself into it! Good luck with your Swedish and to all who are studying their languages - I'm going to be eagerly waiting for more content from you!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@andygray4418]

The difference between possible and impossible is merely a measure of a man's determination. - Captain James Thain

[@daysandwords]

Thank you sir!

[@user-cg7cv9iu7x]

Captain Jack cringe Sparrow to be more preciese!

[@fernandoaldado]

Nice video. It also reinforce the language learning community’s skepticism about the Nathaniel Drew’s one week learning, Italian and recently Portuguese.

[@professorquarter]

My biggest problem is having a set routine. I put in a highly variable amount of time. Almost always put more than 3 hours a day into my TL but I tend to get up at noon and stay up way late which causes issues.

[@paintbokx]

Try to go to bed 30min or an hour earlier every night until you have worked yourself back to your desired bedtime. Also if you get up early you will be more tired to go to bed. You can set an alarm of course but also if you just happen to wake up early, just get up right then instead of rolling over and going back to bed.

[@Arctagon]

People are so concerned with what is ‘theirs’ and not anybody else's these days. The notion of ‘stealing’ an idea that is so broad and unspecific that literally anyone could come up with it on their own (as demonstrated perfectly in this video) is just ludicrous. You still went out of your way to apologise, and gave the guy some exposure on top of it all, so big props to you. You handled this very well.

[@MelissaJetzt]

I really love the part you discussed about your arithmetic problem because you were thinking in Swedish... I'm posting a new video this week that talks about the different between "measured" and "felt" progress! It's something that fascinates me so I love to see discussion on it!

[@tomatrix7525]

Great quality Lamont, I have noticed a huge improvement since your earlier videos back at 5k when I first joined the channel’s subscription base. Great to see such exponential growth - It will continue to do so! I try to do 3 hours a day of my language (German) This for some may not seem like alot, BUT, I’ve managed to do this consistently for almost a year now and I’ve seen huge improvements. Biggest takeaway is consistency. While the more time per day does still help, the key is time over a broader frame. A few hours daily for even a few months and inestimable progress can be made. 57 hour week is crazy man, I could never do thtat aha, A few time I may have hit 40hours, that’s it! Keep the content up, really enjoying it here from Ireland!

[@daysandwords]

3 hours a day is still a lot. That's only the same amount that I've averaged since I went full Swedish like 3 months ago.

[@TheDasilva1]

This is a gargantuan task to surmount. I am amazed at that commitment and discipline to continue forwards.

[@daysandwords]

Hey, thank you! Do you mean the 57 hours or the task of getting to Sweden and making a video with a Swedish KZbinr?

[@TheDasilva1]

@@daysandwords Both, haha. I saw your announcement of commiting full time of Swedish and tried to do so too, but got too distracted midway. :( Which is why I found your video inspiring.

[@annanelson4934]

Hi! Just wanted to stop by and say thank you for posting this video! This has (re)inspired me to continue learning Norwegian!

[@MuEnViFitness]

I think this is something every language learner has thought about in some way. Immersing as much as possible and see if it makes a change in your abilities. I believe that if your method is focused around anki, like me, this thing can be great to make my listening catch up a lot faster. Good video mate

[@jmanhellhoundkiller]

I absolutely love the feeling of needing to translate English to understand it after spending a bunch of time in German. Thanks for the video this gives me ideas for what I should do in German when I get a chance!

[@brelove1414]

i can’t wait to start reading what you’ll put out! consider me one of your loyal readers :)

[@LOrd-fw3lb]

i love the new style of video- your editing has really improved. good luck with your swedish!

[@Ellary_Rosewood]

I also recently started learning Swedish, along with trying to keep up on my Spanish and Japanese studies. So far, I've been finding it to be a very easy language (we'll see how long that lasts), and I've been having so much fun with it. I've also been trying to find some good books, films, and KZbin accounts that are great for Swedish learners, so thank you so much for putting some in the description! ❤️

[@daysandwords]

Vad kul! It is an easy language to get to about B1 or even B2 with, but then it gets quite hard because there are a lot of things you can say that are "correct" but are not actually what they would say, e.g. "Jag skulle ha sagt..." is correct and a direct translation of English, but Swedes will normall say "Jag hade nog sagt..." and then times that by 1000 for every little thing they say.

[@yato329]

The fact that you have a captain Sinbad link makes me so happy, I love his channel as well

[@daysandwords]

Genuinely my favourite channel. I tried to make this video a little bit like he would.

[@InkThinks]

I’ve been getting around 25 hours of French per week since you issued your challenge! I feel like I have made some really great progress!

[@violinperson1835]

Been waiting for this videooo😆 also it was so nice of you to put the link of the guy who thought you took his video idea!

[@thisisbgm]

You knocked it out of the park with this one! I can't wait until I'm at the point that I can watch KZbin videos in Danish and understand more than a couple words or phrases. Would love to do something like this

[@melrose8199]

Hey there. Your videos are inspiring! I was thinking to do this for German and now gonna do it from today. My uni classes will start soon and I won't be able to do this. Soooo here we go. Thank you very much.

[@alejogabrielgarcia8849]

I'm English learner and your channel is very useful to get inspiration for me and to who are learning any language for their own. I had to quit French for the same reasons than yours. I'm focus on improving English now. Thanks for all

[@infinite5540]

What you said about your speaking skills reminded me of what I've been doing recently about my habit of "running out of breath", when I talk, even in English. Realizing that it was, truly, an issue of self-confidence, I decided that, whenever I could, talk without knowing what I was going to say next. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found that the right words automatically came to mind if I simply made an effort 😀 Maybe this is the same kind of experience you've had. Anyways, excellent work! On both the video and your Swedish. I wish you luck.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah. I still occasionally run out of breath in English too, and then I noticed it happening a lot more often when I started speaking Swedish. But yeah, when you reduce anxiety, it tends to happen less.

[@Myknz]

You giving us the Emil Hansius shoutout the other week, totally has been one of the single greatest things to happen to my Swedish. I've been watching his (and the others I found through him) videos every day out of genuine enjoyment. Wow tack så mycket.

[@learodrigues3108]

Another excellent experience! Your videos are helping me a lot with organizing and setting tangible goals with my dutch journey. One thing I notice that is often overlooked in the yt language learning community is how to acquire and use the colloquial expressions and sayings of the target language. Maybe is that an suggestion? Anyway, keep working on yourself and your beautiful family, you're doing great! :)

[@Dhiren.patel_dr]

I am seeing great leap in the quality of the video :) Really entertaining. Keep it up :)

[@archdukefranzferdinand567]

@@mkelkar1 ?

[@Flauschbally]

Really enjoyed the video and was curios about your challenge. I have done something similar during the lockdown but much less than you. And it pushed my Croatian extremely. Today I watched an Australian girl who has been learning Serbian for one year. Gosh, she has come so so far within only one year. But she says that she studies about 20 hours per week. Well, that is a lot. But it shows... it does pay off. And so shows your challenge. Every hour, even every half hour counts, adds up, makes a difference. Looking forward to your videos coming from Sweden. I have only been once to Sweden. Gosh... where did all this extrem beautiful people come from 🤩 If you are going on Patreon, be sure I will be there. I love your channel, your content, your knowledge and experience. Thx for the effort for this video. It turned out amazing. Greetings from 🇦🇹

[@sharonoddlyenough]

I've had Swedish in life for just over 2 years, but even though I had some contact every day, I could only study for 10 months of that time. I did alright, read 5 books, had a few lessons on italki, interacted in comment sections and forums. The next rock I think is to make (and post!) A video in Swedish. It's daunting, I'm quiet type, but I've seen your oldest video in Swedish I think I've been inoculated against the cringe. 😃 Best wishes, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

[@carleindegasoline8704]

nice video! you inspire me to continue!

[@Eanakba]

Awesome! Been looking forward to this.

[@joemiller947]

Another great video mate!

[@SB-lc5qg]

I was halfway through studying abroad in Spain when the coronavirus sent me packing. During my layover in a London airport, I had to stop myself from asking for help in Spanish because I had gotten so used to speaking Spanish with any strangers. It was discombobulating but quite funny.

[@SanderJanssenBSc]

Amazing video! Thanks for the inspiration

[@una.poca.de.gracia9166]

might do this with my languages, great video!

[@brazilianpotato4523]

Wow good job dude ! Production is on point :)

[@gustavoleitejacovelli1451]

Thank you for your sincere (and mindful, I would say) approach to language learning. I speak english and spanish at a high level (I'm a portuguese native speaker), and recently thought about learning german. I did it for a couple days and was seeing great, quick progress; however, I felt this kinda uncertainty regarding if I really wanted to do it. After thoroughly reflecting upon it, I see I was not being driven by a passion for that language, but mostly being influenced by the pursuit of "adding a new language to my knowledge". So I'm not doing it, and gonna rather enjoy the world through english/spanish lenses (while improving then, of course), at least until I have the true urge to learn some other language. Take care!

[@TheDasilva1]

Você fala português? Eu estou aprendendo e necesito mais disciplina.

[@gustavoleitejacovelli1451]

@@TheDasilva1 sim, sou brasileiro!

[@theswedishpolyglot]

Damn really stepping up the b-rolling and editing. Really engaging video, nice work Lamont!! :)

[@m00se40]

Awesome video man, the quality is so on point with this one 👍 Keep it up man! Your work is very inspiring!

[@Gabriel-is5xq]

Can't believe I hadn't seen this. Stunning video, thank you so much

[@jamdodgeismyname1]

Newcomer to this channel and long-time French learner. I particularly love your broader enquiries into the process of learning itself. Great content, keep it up!

[@dan-3268]

Great channel bro

[@TuomasKivioja]

Loving the upgrade in production quality!!

[@gabriellawrence6598]

Great experiment, congratulations for your advancement. Thanks for bringing this idea to us.

[@knitkitten8927]

Tack så mycket! Great video! Currently learning Swedish myself. Lycka till!

[@Hhggfhu]

I’ll do this now

[@nemesiszer0708]

Good luck.

[@xandersgreg]

I hope this video goes viral and bumps up your subscriber numbers. Great production.

[@DallinJeppsonMusic]

Just wanna say you're an inspiration! Thanks for all the time you put into your learning and sharing your thoughts with us. I'm excited to keep learning Japanese!

[@ThisIsNotInUseOkay]

Great video! Very motivational. It goes to show that putting in the time, whether over a week, a month, a year or longer, is what counts. Looking forward to your new developments and I hope you get to make that video with a Swedish KZbinr someday!

[@lolozo214]

Great job man! Semester break for uni is coming up so I'm looking forward to doing something like this for Japanese 😁

[@TeaDrinker3000]

I watched your video on busuu and won't look back now, thanks for your content

Så jäkla inspirerande! Heja dig!

[@daysandwords]

Hej Hanna!

[@seriekekomo]

Soon I want to start doing videos about being a polyglot and I gotta say that I can tell you videos have improved a lot. Now that I'm going through the first stages of this same process I can notice and appreciate your work even more. And yes, your transitions are on point haha. Maybe in the future I'll reach out to you, we can surely learn a lot from each other.

[@Gizk4]

Inspirerande video, blir sugen på att själv testa något liknande! Angående svenska youtubers så kan jag rekommendera Montefjanton. De gör recensioner, eller snarare sågningar, av diverse svenska filmer, så där får du en chans till en ytterligare inblick i svensk kultur.

[@daysandwords]

Tack! Det hade jag inte hört talas om!

[@alejandromartinezmontes6700]

What a great video! I work in language teaching and I have many students who've gotten to that B2 level but struggle to get to / consolidate C1, which is where it seems you are with Swedish. Simply due to how many students are trying to get basic proficiency, I have tons of tips for getting from A2 to B1, to the point where it's actually my favorite bit to teach and the one where I feel my skill as a teacher is most useful for students. However, there's comparatively little demand for the second breakthrough stage and so not only do I personally lack experience but there aren't as many resources that go beyond just presenting more complex structures and texts. I'm going to try recommending this to students, a sort of simulated immersion week. Most people simply can't pick up and move house across the globe, but they can take a week. Stoked to see what else you find that works at that stage!

[@gabigabi9248]

You content does bring value ( it sure does to me). You'ce broken down the process in a way that is super realistic. It makes a big difference to help me plan. To put a disclaimer on that, I am in recovery after a mental breakdown, so one of the things I need to regain is the capacity to learn and aquire new skills. It used to be easy and natural before, but now it requires loads of planing. So I use this channel to help me plot my journey. And it so happen that my target language is also Swedish 😋. Thank you for staying realistic and down to earth!

[@vommir.]

Really well done video! Beau travail. Motivational.. I've been learning Spanish for 7 months now and these lasts few months I've been more serious and consistent on my learning journey. I switched from Duo to Busuu (thanks to you) + using Pimsleur and it works wonders. I try having one video call a week with a native speaker and my Netflix time is always in Spanish. I think everyone can achieve a new language if you are really motivated to do so. Many times I've heard oh I can't do it but it's mostly because they don't have 100% of the will.

[@nebelung1]

Mycket bra video! Just nu lär jag mig japanska och har gjort det sedan ungefär fyra månader. Även om jag i princip tänker på språket hela det vakna dygnet så behöver jag ibland lite motivation att jobba hårdare! Lycka till med din svenska, du gör stora framsteg! Keep at it! Eller 'ganbatte', som de säger i Japan!

[@Williamottelucas]

I may coincidentally done some Swedish during your Swedish week. I watched 'A Man Called Ove' . Highly recommended!

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I watched that three years ago. I might watch it again now that I can do so without subtitles.

[@Nemo37K]

I've been doing increasing immersion with Japanese, using Matt vs. Japan's MIA methods pretty liberally, and I liken the process to machine learning: Machine learning operates by feeding vast quantities of information and inputs into the system's AI and then, after a period of time has passed, the AI will organize the data into something comprehensible. Depending on the AI, it could take literal petabytes of data, but once fed, it gets exponentially stronger. For me, that's how immersion feels. You're feeding yourself hours - not bytes - worth of information in your target language to the point where your brain forces itself to piece it together and make something meaningful out of it. You won't understand all of it, but after a certain threshold is reached -- that gets longer and longer as you get better at the language -- you piece more and more together. I'm not nearly strong enough in Japanese to do a full week of immersion, but once I get there, I'll definitely consider it. Cheers

[@daysandwords]

That's exactly it. It's funny how stuff from weeks or even months ago can suddenly come to mind and make sense after a lot more immersion.

[@Nemo37K]

@@daysandwords My favorite thing is when words just suddenly click, or you hear something you previously couldn't make out at all, and now you can use context to learn a series of new words. It's super fun

[@JonnaaM]

Hei. Imponerende video. Jeg ville spørre om hvor motivasjonen kom fra da du bestemte deg for å lære å prate svensk, siden det er et ganske lite språk. For en skandinaver som meg er det interessant! Jeg er norsk, så jeg håper du kan forstå det jeg skriver. Lykke til videre med studeringen :)

[@daysandwords]

Ja, det förstod jag! Men jag behövde läsa högt för att förstå därför att orden inte ser ut det som jag är van med.

[@JonnaaM]

Days of French 'n' Swedish Kult! En annen kul ting er at når du lærer svensk kan du snakke med folk i Norge og Danmark også. Selv om svensker og dansker ikke alltid forstår hverandre 😅

[@adamclark1972uk]

The fact that you did a video that was very similar to someone else's could be explained by morphic resonance (a theory of Rupert Sheldrake's).

[@daysandwords]

I listened to the Stuff You Should Know episode about morphic resonance. I dunno that I agree with the theory but I certainly think there's a lot of stuff that we can't explain so we just say "oh it's coincidence/confirmatory bias" when it definitely isn't just that.

[@goodlife8060]

wow this was your best edited video yet, looks great!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@kathryngordon7364]

Very well produced and it's great to see the real fire behind your decision to focus on Swedish. Absolutely not a surprise that your skill is improving. I have the opposite situation going on right now. After getting yelled at for not focusing on my academic work, the fire just seemed to snuff out, and I haven't made a video in weeks. I was probably a bit too keen on cranking out my language videos, but I've completely abandoned my language studies in the meantime, as well. The academic work IS seeing progress, but I broke a habit I've had for four straight years. I've decided to streamline my academic work, so things actually get done, and make sure to not let my channel and language work completely die. Gotta come back from discouragement.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Kathryn. For some reason this was flagged as spam by KZbin? Weird.

[@ShoutsWillEcho1]

3:07 Appreciate the transparency!

[@bl4841]

ive never had an interest in swedish, but your enthusiasm for learning it actually makes me a bit interested now

[@daysandwords]

YES!

[@annie6495]

Hoppas att du kan åka till Sverige!! Vore väldigt roligt att se dig göra en video med en svensk youtuber, jag tror det finns flera som hade tyckt det var kul ☺️☺️ Lycka till med svenskan och allt!!! (hope you understand what I’m saying, good luck!) OCH tipsar om att komma hit på sommaren isåfall, folk är mycket öppnare och villiga att prata med främlingar då haha

[@daysandwords]

Haha det är klart att jag förstår. Tack!

[@astralau8762]

Bonjour / Halla Lamont! Great video as always. Bien que je sois un peu triste tu n'apprends pas le francais maintenant... (because I am ha ha ha) I can still fully grasp, appreciate and connect with your journey for a multitude of reasons... We're both learning a foreign language, We're both using English as our base language, We're both unable to travel to the country of the TFL (target foreign language), We're both Aussies (for what it's worth). I think you have some great skills that have certainly given me some ideas to further enhance my journey. Admittedly, this week has been pretty poor for me with my TFL, having started a new position in a new organisation that is opening a new facility... lots of hours there giving less time for language learning... but not nil time. Have signed up to your patreon, hope it helps. And hope you and your family are adjusting well to life with a new bub and the situation that is Corona... Best wishes from the devil state (Vic).

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! Stay well down there!

[@enzosf]

Im glad I watched this. A long time ago I went to Guatemala with about 20 words of Spanish and 6 weeks later I had to teach basic computer skills to kids that spoke NO English. I did their immersion courses where you had 5 hours a day of one on one 5 days a week but I had tons of prep and flashcard time on top of that, albeit with someone that didn't speak English at all. I could speak like a child in that short period of time. I also noticed progress dropped considerably even tho I lived there several months afterward. I've been looking to sort of revive that experience without the ability to actually travel. So I was interested to see, and impressed that you managed what I would find daunting without kids or other demands. Well done, much enjoying italki after seeing your video and recs about that. And used your code as well.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! In like January or something I am going to do something where I take about 30 lessons in a week to see what happens to my fluency, and I can afford it because people like yourself have used my link. :-)

[@fabdoose569]

Otroligt najs! Har du redan varir i Sverige nu och hur är det med din svenska just nu? Jag lärde mig svenska också själv och jag blev så glad när jag såg att du tittar också på Ijustwanttobecool och alla de bra svenska KZbinr. Hoppas att det går bra för dig. Med vänliga hälsningar från Tyskland :)

[@daysandwords]

Nej, jag har inte fått chansen att besöka riktigt än. Kanske tidigt i 2021.

[@voltz.supreme]

Love it! It's inspiring and I'm not even interested in the same topic.

[@daysandwords]

YES! That is the plan.

[@HeffeFrank]

Congrats on finishing and exceeding the challenge, Must have been a mental marathon.

[@daysandwords]

Honestly the video was harder haha.