I’ve read books in 12 languages. Here’s how I do it

[@Thelinguist]

📲 The app I use to learn languages: bit.ly/44cmzHC 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: bit.ly/3Q6S7Zz ❓Have you ever finished a book in your target language? How was your experience? Let me know in the comments!

[@LearnHindiWithStories]

Looking forward to Hindi on Linq!

[@meltedmysorepak5100]

Pls add tamil language in ur app.

[@strikeback2069]

I m sure mandarin is the first language usefull to get job. But most of them people give up to learn Chinese language because this language is very difficult.

[@francoiscarrier8745]

In my experience, I felt liberated when I let go of my belief that I had to understand every word when reading in a foreign language. It dawned on me that I could not even consistently do that even in my native language. I enjoy so much more now while learning my fourth language, German. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

[@thedeadscientist]

Wie schön! 😃

[@originaldanman]

If it wasn't for digital reading, and being able to look up words easily, and instantly, I would not have embarked on this journey. As it is right now, at 61, I believe I'm approaching a B1 after a year and a half. Reading and listening are my best tools, but so is your encouragement. Thanks Steve.

[@AWJAHSHSHJ]

I appreciate you grandpa😎

[@limitbreaker402]

Hi. Maybe you already use it or something better like LingQ, but I recommend Google Play Books. It allows the reader to look up words instantly, translate and make notes.

[@confidencemagnet]

I think reading with patience is very important. I'm reading Harry Potter in Spanish (Not really a Harry Potter fan but it's a good series to boost your vocabulary and entertaining enough to continue reading). I make Anki cards after each chapter. When Im not reading (or can't read), I go over my flashcards. Not to memorize them in one sitting, but to see low frequency words at a higher frequency. It's important to learn low frequency words. We don't say stethoscope everyday, but when we see and hear the word, we know exactly what it is.

[@Celestina0]

But dedicating yourself to learning the word stethoscope is hardly going to be an efficient use of time. Low frequency words you don’t need as much… because they’re low frequency

[@confidencemagnet]

@@Celestina0 It's not as bad as you would think. You're not taking a test so it's okay to forget these words. The more you see these words, the higher the level of books you can read in the future and retain more vocabulary. There is more than one way to learn vocabulary. If you don't want to worry about low frequency words, you don't have to, but when the time comes to start speaking, you may feel lost trying to speak with a native if you're relying on just knowing high frequency words.

[@DogeCoinInvestor]

@@Celestina0it’s just a question of priority. If all you want is to have simple conversations, ignoring niche vocab is fine. You’ll be speaking at a higher level quicker early on. That said, I think niche words are more common than you seem to give credit to. Exposing yourself to them early will greatly reduce the effort required in the long term.

[@diogofarias1822]

Harry Potter is really hard to read in another language. Congrats!

[@confidencemagnet]

@@diogofarias1822 As you read book 2 it gets easier. I noticed my reading speed picking up. You see a lot of words you've read through book 1. It is challenging tho

[@justinwr092]

After a little over a year using Lingq (every single day) I am now reading a paper book in Spanish for the first time. I'm really surprised at how well I understand most of it.

[@Tehui1974]

Nice! I've also been using LingQ to learn Spanish. I've been using it everyday for nearly 10 months, and can feel myself getting closer to being able to take on a paper book in Spanish for the first time. Keep up the good work!

[@injured9406]

Every single day, read two pages aloud with comprehension, then continue silently. It’s the key to achieving fluency.

[@sazukegu]

Why aloud? Voicing a language you dont know is a bad Idea IMO.

[@Vamos1969]

@@sazukegu Injured said '' aloud with comprehension'' There is a difference. If you more or less understand what you're reading then it's a good method. Especially to practice pronunciation and train the mouth into using the language.

[@justinmohr6585]

There’s no evidence for that, I voiced Chinese aloud horribly for a year and am now 100% comprehensible in a work environment, albeit with an accent.

[@loba7206]

I can't imagine this could be harmful in any means - I think reading aloud is a fun thing and can even help the pronnunciation, you just need to be aware that you could doing mistakes. That is what I personally feel about this.

[@haviskam]

Absolutely agreed.

[@haitiancreolewithluciano]

Reading is underrated. A sure way to acquire languages...

[@davidbrisbane7206]

I couldn't read properly until I was about 10 years old, but somehow managed to learn my native language without being able to spell my last name until I was also 8 years old. Language learning is different for everybody.

[@hyperion3145]

​@FaysalElAddouti That's just how Semitic languages and abjads in general work

[@ChristoChristo03]

@FaysalElAddouti thank you for your advice my brother haha i'm gonna do that , i hope not to be died after that recipe , just kidding , i am currently using free chatgpt to enhance my vocabulary , comprehension and pronunciation , if you get in the web you'll see that they added a voice narrator to the text so from now i am using that and opening google translate to focus words i want to check them out and also to see if they are well pronounced . What do you do to improve your target language ?.

[@ChristoChristo03]

@FaysalElAddouti Hey bro me too , i am a spanish native so to me is very hard to speak out loud i am only able write some a2-b1 sentences and not beyond that , but remember studying hard and being liked to it is better than being a super gifted , i currently haven't finished secundary school and started learning english in my own since two years ago and i am better than university students , i'm gonna end up finishing it though ( later). But bro just read and read a lot despite of you can't understand at the beggining it's just the ice that you have to break and everything goes easier at the momment to read a new word you only readit with the required accent and then keep reading the sentence and try to understand it complete and do it again. what helped me to improve in my vocabulary it's what i have made and currently doing in google transalte, youtube content of my interest , chatpgt asking questitons to it about grammar etc . i hope this may help you brother , if you are constant you will get it :D , see you later.

[@GwynneM]

My main reason for learning languages is to be able to read in them. I'm hyperverbal in my native English, was reading by 2 years old, and so reading is my shortcut to accelerating language learning. I pick a paper copy of a novel that I want to be able to read, and I revisit it weekly as a way to gauge my improvement over time. It's been great!

[@Attihun]

Hello Steve! I'm a hungarian living in London. Just wanted to leave a comment here and saying that I appreciate your work. You're such a big inspiration. I've been learning english for a while and I feel like I'm still struggling but I'm getting there. Since I started to read, my english has been improved tremendously and besides listening that's one of my favourite things to do 😊

[@blueblitzblaze]

Eloquent comment! Your english skills are showing! :D

[@bed7610]

One of your best videos yet Steve! Very informative.

[@chadbailey7038]

Steve this was one of your best videos. Thank you. So helpful!

[@aliciagc2539]

What a brilliant man. I just subscribed. I am a native English (USA) speaker and intermediate in Spanish. I want to reach native Spanish fluency and this gives me hope I can do so.

[@xianzhang9599]

I’ve read 12 books in English last year. Before I really achieve the goal I will never think I can do this. So, no hurry, this year I plan to do it again with 1 book a month. Wish I can continue this habit.

[@abdlouahed82]

Thanks a lot I appreciate it and I am Arabic speaking person and always having fun when I listen to your videos they are full of knowledge

[@vividua]

I'm using this technique to also learn german and improving my english. It is really efficient.

[@d.m.481]

Thanks for this video Steve. I read short easy stories that I enjoy, along with LingO and other tools everyday in French and can now make small sentences as I talk to myself or my dog. Anyway, this video helped me understand that one day I'll get there. I get so frustrated when I can't remember simple words that I just practiced the day before. I liked the hockey stick example.😅

[@ThorIsBoss]

I totally agree. I have read Anna Karenina and half of War and Peace in English. Both were extremely difficult in English. They would be unimaginable in Russian. That was my original goal but hard to see it happening. Started using lingQ right now and it feels like it is speeding things up but reading W & P cover to cover is off the table. Using your fiction argument, my new goal will be to read the book you once recommended on Russian History.

[@RM-jb2bv]

That’s funny bc I started to learn Spanish bc I wanted to read Don Quixote the way it was written and I totally underestimated the amount of skill in the language that would require. It may never happen but I’m fine with that. I’m going through Harry Potter español and having a blast.

[@jackbombay1423]

@@RM-jb2bv Spaniard here. Yes, not many Spaniards can read that book, so you should be proud of yourself just for imagining that task. You should have taken into account the time it was written; Spanish has changed a lot since then, and the vocabulary and idioms are mostly Greek to the current Spanish community. Even so, some sentences from the book are deeply ingrained in Spanish culture. I'm also trying to learn Russian like the OP, but I chose to start with Harry Potter, like you suggested, because someone else told me that it gets increasingly harder with each book. (I've never read that saga before). Good luck!

[@Celestina0]

Get a bilingual edition - I’m learning Russian by reading Anna Karenina right now, and being able to check the translation instantly is invaluable.

[@ThorIsBoss]

@@Celestina0 That would be one thick book!! I may try that if one exists but it would be painful. I have read watered down Russian versions of Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment and they were enjoyable. Hats off to you reading a real version of Anna Karenina even with the translations as it would be tough to get thru for me. If I find a dual language W and P I will buy it. Or Anna Karenina for that matter. Thanks

[@Disgusted19]

Which book has he recommended?

[@johnwilkins3995]

I’m reading War and Peace now. It certainly has taught me to be patient. I found it took 500 pages to really take off. I suppose that’s Tolstoy’s style is to slowly build relationships and characters then he throws the worldly challenges at them and the reader is invested with them. Anna Karenina is next, but I may go non fiction as you mentioned just to see how my comprehension may have improved. I want to self teach a lot of different things if I can over the next 20 years, being an efficient and persistent reader should be my way!

[@Adriana-ph2eb]

My experience with Spanish ... Well, with no prior studies, I have started to read one book in Spanish to see how far can I go with the knowledge acquired from telenovelas viewed in my early teenage years. I have done pretty well, with the dictionary next to me, and it was very satisfying. That was last year and I am still doing it. 😁

[@magnuslu]

I've read books in nine different languages (if you consider Swedish, Norwegian and Danish as different languages). I also regularly read the news and listen to podcasts in those languages. It's a pity that there isn't a platform that allows borrowing, renting or buying ebooks in all those languages. Most books (except for English books, of course) are mainly only available in countries where the language is spoken.

[@ingela_injeela]

A Bible search engine can get me a translation in many languages, so I can read, for instance, Psalm 23, or John 3 in several languages. I find it greatly beneficial to read the same body of text in (my) different languages. Its a good way to gage my level of comprehension in each.

[@reinventing50s]

12 languages? That's incredible! You're such an inspiration. Maybe you can share some tips in your next post?

[@ilfaitfroid9739]

Reading has been a key in language learning for me. I do get a focused on translating every word I don't know. I'll have to try letting some of that go and just enjoying it.

[@Exemonster9]

I need to get into the habit of reading more. I'm going to try to read 20 pages a day and gradually increase that over time.

[@АннаСпицына-л3я]

Hello, Steve! Thank you very much for your video. Very interesting! With all the best.

[@Peter-wc7dg]

I like the graphics that you are using in your content now. Thanks for another great video!

[@jmbarbarossa7920]

the thing about digital reading is that itnow includes e-ink readers which are basically the same as reading a paper book. They are far better than a paper book in fact, because you can change font sizes and read any number of books on the same device. I will totally agree that the study about how we read things digitally applies to reading on laptops, pcs and phones so long as they aren't talking about e-ink I have had a great experience reading on e-ink and I don't even think about the fact that I'm not reading a paper book when doing so.

[@armandocastejon5025]

I completely agree with your point, I've been reading so many different books out loud in the last ten months and it's been such a wonderful experience how you get used to the language, which allows me to get better at comprehension and pronunciation when talking. What it seemed something impossible to me when i started now i can hold conversations and understand different texts, it's in fact a long journey but the results are worth it.

[@frozenmadness]

That's so true! I've learned Finnish, and I wanted to read the classics as soon as possible. But it was hard, and still is. But when I take a book by a politician (I'm interested in politics), it works very well and makes fun, and it did since I was able to more or less understand the evening news on TV.

[@loryndabenson2118]

I took your advice about studying material that we're actually interested in and not just memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules. I loce Jurassic park so i downloadd it and the Lost World in french. I listened to the book in English audio and now im going back to read along with the french audio. Surprisingly there arw a lot of words i already know amd can decipher with context clues. Of course there are also a lot of new words too. Using it on my kindle is nice because i can highlight a word or phrase and quickly look it up. I can also easily pull up the English audio of that chapter if i still don't understand a phrase. It's been really helpful in addition to finally finding a native french speaker i can regularly talk to. My grammar is still terrible but now when i run in to french people i can actually understand and respond in basic conversations. I've been learning french since highschool (over ten years) and I'm just now barely able to actually speak. 😅 But with these great tips I'll certainly finally reach fluency soon.

[@Hebamagdy43]

أنا أحب قراءة نفس الأدب الذي تحبه يا ستيف، الحرب والسلام وغيرها، وأتمنى أن أقرأه بالروسية مثلك. فيديو مفيد جدا، شكرا لك

[@Maksym_Sapiha]

New video 🔋 I appreciate your work and videos are really useful! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[@ReDeveloperr]

I Watch all and i can understand a lot this tips, i am without translater . Tks for all Steve. i will read many books now

[@o_summer]

Reading my first chapter book in Spanish. I’m at an intermediate level so I’m reading a Young adult book called “No Soy tu hija perfecta Mexicana”. Slow going but it is already helping

[@MisterGames]

Read what you want. If it is fiction in first person then do that, if it is fiction third person then do that, and do it in a genre you like. Else, you just wont want to read and it will feel like a chore. If it is children books then do that. Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, whatever. If you prefer non fiction like autobiographies then do that. But it MUST be a topic / genre you enjoy. And in a style you enjoy.

[@ГореЛуковое-ю8е]

Рад слышать. Я работаю на белой Мойке по12 часов смена, и могу только слушать( на ютуб полно аудиокниг с текстом. Приму к введению и буду пересматривать прослушанные книги.

[@ГореЛуковое-ю8е]

А еще я учусь играть в шахматы на ангоящычных ютубовких роликах. Я люблю шахматы. Учу изучаю то что мне интересно на интересующем меня языке.

[@Disgusted19]

Красивый русский

[@carolm.ferreira3699]

Awesome explanation!! Thanks for your great tips! I love Languages and to ready in other language is much magical and Incredible, though I don't understand everything when I read, in fact. I try to enjoy nevertheless. Sometimes the reading is harder and tough and, in other times, is easier, peaceful and agreeable.😊📚💙

[@danielaalvessilva7562]

Reading is very good to learn English. Increase the vocabulary, and as the Steve said: help to improve the listening too. I'm going to read more for me to improve my English.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

my future goal is having a great comprehension and understanding everything or almost everything said. for the biggest challenge, a group of Brazilians speaking quickly with everyday slang and phrases. it is very efficient for me. and also being able to output anything:')

[@a.r.4707]

I believe that it's pretty much the same whether you read e-book or a paperback. It's just a preferance. I do both actually and both have their pros and cons in my opinion. E-books are often free for example and I can find a lot online for free instead of spending a lot money everytime since books can be pretty expensive as well. You also save space (physical) space with e-books and you can easily carry them with you everywhere. You can enlarge the font of e-books so you can see the text better, you don't necessarily need any reading lamp, than with the paperback, you can also check up the words more easily with e-books. Etc. Etc.

[@Violin7010]

I do this to learn English, I bought a book and I'm reading it patiently!

[@pohlpiano]

And of course, you can always have your transcipts and other digital reading materials printed and technically even get it stitched like a regular book, add your own pictures, etc.

[@dandy2111]

¡Excelente video! Muchas gracias, Sr.Kaufmann, por compartir sus sabios consejos.

[@LearnHindiWithStories]

Definitely thinking now that non fiction is a good place to start. More useful vocabulary and easier to get into. Started reading Atomic Habits in Hindi (postponed Harry Potter).

[@xuexiyingyu]

Thank you for this.

[@caitimacl8280]

Loved this video. Definitely worth a re watch.

[@persianlandedu]

Thank you for your great works

A very interesting video. I especially liked the information you provided with pictures/graphics. Like that hangul is read similarly to chinese. I have found that I do focused reading, of difficult material, better on a digital device, than in a printed book. This is mostly because I am much more ready to highlight and scribble in the digital document, than in my "precious book". I think the take home from that is: Do not be afraid of messing up your printed books, if it helps you understand and remember the content.

[@SrCheetoss]

The problem I noticed while reading in another language (in my case English) is that apparently I remember less of the information I read. I use kindle and I don't need to frequently search the meaning of words and I also have already read books entirely in English, literature books. But now, I don't know if it's because I have been reading less, but I started to notice that I missed more details of the story in comparison with reading in my language, for example, sometimes I don't remember something mentioned about the character and things like that. I also, which I think is normal, read more slowly and have a worse work memory reading in another language, in complex parts of the texts that require more attention I tend to forget what I read before and need to come back to it. What I'm doing is alternating between reading the translation and the original, this way I get a sense of the author's style and writing but can also enjoy a more comfortable trip in the book's story. I feel better knowing that literature tends to be harder and with Steve saying that it's still beneficial to read just parts and not the totality of the book.

[@lizzethmancilla5197]

You're the best!! Thank you

[@СашаКузьмин-ь7с]

Thanks for your broadening video

[@chetbaker83]

Great video! Thanks for sharing all of this ☺

[@sebastiendumais4246]

Interesting take on the paper book vs. E-book. I personally prefer e-books irrespective of the language or learning or just fun…. I just find it easier on the eyes… but I’ll give it a try in Japanese with a paper book 😁 Another point I found interesting is the link between reading and listening. You kind of preempted me when saying this depends on the script and this is very much true. I can read almost as fast and accurately in Japanese and French/English but when I try to read out loud I read like a 4 year old (ie: I don’t subvocalize in Japanese at all, it’s directly from squiggles to meaning).

[@dilandilo3708]

Hello Steve, You might have been forgotten about Kurdish language the first language in mesopotamia today and someri , Don’t forget that who are living in Middle East when you are talking about their languages . Congratulations on your impressive multilingual abilities. Your fluency across several languages is truly commendable and serves as an inspiration for my own linguistic journey. I take great pride in my heritage as a Kurd, being fluent in all five Kurdish dialects, alongside German, Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi. I’ve noticed with some concern the lack of mention of the Kurdish language in your discussions. Considering your profound expertise, this omission is quite perplexing. It may stem from a gap in awareness about Middle Eastern languages or could simply be an oversight. Given your proficiency in related regional languages like Turkish, Arabic, and Farsi, your expertise about this region appears extensive. This makes the absence of Kurdish in your repertoire all the more striking. Understanding a region’s history is paramount when learning its languages, and Kurdish is foundational to the cultural fabric of the Middle East. We Kurds are a tenacious and spirited people, and our language is a testament to our rich history and cultural depth. I am hopeful that Kurdish will gain the acknowledgment it warrants in future dialogues about the languages of the Middle East.

[@stefanreichenberger5091]

One big advantage of books on paper is that they don't require electricity.

[@Ekpe1Angwan]

Passwords, batteries, internet, charging, blue glare, etc

[@sjeangilles1]

True. Not to mention, even the scent of books is part of the experience. And be it that scent is intimately related to forming memories, it may help us to remember words. On the contrary, new e-readers such as the Kindle Paperwhite mitigate a lot the issues nowadays. They last long off one charge, you can have the book downloaded locally, they have no glare, and the surface feels like paper. I appreciate my Kindle.

[@ingela_injeela]

I'm reading, while listening to the Bible in Arabic and in Hebrew. Learning a lot that way.

[@MateuLeGrillepain]

I do wonder if certain things could bring digital reading closer to traditional reading. An e-ink display would lack the light of a smartphone screen, having access to touchscreen gestures would let you mimic turning the page, using a larger device like a Steam Deck would let you see more text at once, etc.

[@Татьяна-п5н5к]

Thank you, it's very interesting!

[@ONANDON-u4z]

I enjoy reading books too! Although I am not satisfied with the translated editions, I am not proficient enough to read English-edition books on my own. With the help of the web extension Immersive Translate, I can grasp the basic meaning of the passages. I hope I can get closer to these intriguing books.

[@battarabbit8827]

Learning Hangul I definitely thought of it as a drawing exercise. I still see some characters as drawing a nose, a gate, a snowman and I am waiting for that to transition into seeing it and hearing what it sounds like without an intermediate visual step.

[@davidbrenton4468]

There seems to be great deal of resistance to looking up words in a (printed) dictionary. I personally find a kind of adventure in seeking meaning and usage in a great dictionary (OED, for example, and its equivalent in other languages) One of my pleasures when studying Russian, say, is to use a Russisch-Deutsch dictionary, so I can simultaneously revise my German. I would be interested in hearing from anyone about the advantages of printed dictionaries, or is it now hopelessly old school, so to speak.

[@Vincenzo-ks3zl]

The most important thing is to not stress yourself over unknown words. I've read books in english and spanish, neither of those are my native langauges, which is german. Take the expression "shivering down the spine" I don't know what shivering means, because I have refused to look it up in german. I do know the meaning of shivering but I don't have a literal translation to german. I know that it's kind of the same as trembling for which I know a literal translation into german That is good in my opinion because this way I got seperate languages in my head which increases the flow of my reading in english

[@sabarasouli9156]

سپاس فراوان بابت ویدئو و راهنمایی ستیون کافمن عزیز

[@joseluisvincesmenendez4597]

I spent time reading books especially about literature and just now I'm reading Matilda's book and I make it into my celular devices, in it I can look for words that I don't understand yet also to hear it and for me is the better right now .

[@markc1564]

Maybe you have addressed this on another program.......from my own experience, as limited as it is, I agree with the fact that pleasurable, interesting reading at a fairly easy level is a great way to acquire the language but I haven't seen anyone give references as to where one can find readings that meet these criteria. If I have missed this and you can provide those resources I would be very thankful.

[@geruto17760]

What a cool mic! 🙂

[@amarilloperfum]

Thanks a million Huffamn A can learn English. Thanks goodnees

[@williamjongeward8672]

As an English teacher in a rural Timorese village, I find it very difficult to convince my students of the pleasure of reading. In this culture, reading is a foreign concept and today is only used in the miserable school experience. The words for reading and studying are practically synonymous here.

[@aprilmunday1152]

I don't start with non-fiction, but with detective novels. I always want to get to the end to find out who-dunnit. Then I can start reading non-fiction and literature. This year I finally read I Promessi Sposi and really enjoyed it.

[@fuadalhamid7686]

I Love Uncle Steve ❤️

[@tompalfi1262]

I am just starting to learn Thai which is apparently one of the more difficult languages to ‘acquire’ due to the 5 tones, some unique diphthongs, the need to roll your r’s (which I can’t currently do) and a large number of non-Roman characters comprising their alphabet. Just wondering what is the best way of learning to read when all of the characters are initially unrecognisable and hence meaningless? In particular, do you begin by 1st learning/memorising the new characters or do you begin by using the romanticised version…… or perhaps some other way? I am using the Ling app since Thai is not currently available on LingQ. Any advice gratefully accepted.

[@balumfull]

ᖁᔭᓐᓂᒥ ᓱᑎᕝ your videos really pick me up and keep me motivated to study ありがとうございます

[@expmin1]

Interesting, I found I actually much prefer to start with fiction. For a long time, it was not a conscious choice, but just because I enjoy fiction better, so that's how I always started for a few languages, and it worked very well for me. This time I'm tackling korean, and I did try non-fiction as I was finding novels extremely difficult, but I realized there is a very good reason (at least for me) to start with fiction: I am much less concerned about ambiguity. Being able to follow the plot, and get an understanding of the characters is more than enough for me to fully enjoy the book even if I'm missing a lot of the details, and I don't much care if I get it wrong. But if I'm reading non fiction, then it's about learning something, gaining knowledge, and I keep fighting the urge to look up words to make sure I am not misunderstanding something, or to understand a paragraph that seems like important information, which greatly decreases any enjoyment. (I ended up finding webnovels that are quite easier to read as a stepping stone.)

[@peterwilliams942]

Chat GPT can be used to create reading material at the language level you want.

[@christine8925]

感谢你的精彩分享❤🎉😊我和我朋友们都很喜欢你的高质量视频！

[@libriniserenagobbo9717]

I completely understand your point of view. I study chinese but I do not manage to read Journey to the West😂, better the non fiction 😅

[@Leon_liang]

Steve 真是语言天才！

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

as a kid I loved to read fiction books about monsters (Michigan and American chillers. also goosebumps) and I really wanted to learn Spanish in highschool..and then I to highschool and it ruined reading and learning a language. then almost 3 years later I decided to start Portuguese (br) and at the 2 yr mark of learn I decided to read in English which lead me to enjoying again and also reading in Portuguese) mostly using the help of lingq because it was 2 fiction books about magic and I ended up meeting some 13,000-14,000 NEW words and another 1,000-2,000 more linqs consisting of phrases, sentences and other stuff. all in all I'm at roughly 16,500 linqs the past 2 and a half months. mostly consisting of new words/word families.

[@jasonmacm]

Have you ever considered learning sign language? I first got interested in language and learned body language (the universal language). That evolved into sign language (ASL). And now I recently achieved B1 French.

[@maciek8159]

Is sign language universal? Meaning there's just one way or is French sign language different from English sign language?

[@jasonmacm]

@@maciek8159 Different countries have different sign languages. Britian (BSL) and America (ASL) have different sign languages even though both countries speak English. There is a universal sign language which is unique on its own. I should add that sign language is drastically easier to learn than spoken language

[@fernandobeltrao9257]

In Brazil it is difficult to buy a physical book in another language, I read on Kindle

[@DevlogBill]

Excellent, I really enjoyed this video, it was very informative. Just out of curiosity? Has it been the experience where you haven't used your native tongue to speak nor read. But your focused on other languages. When you return after a time, you find yourself much more articulate and expressive when conversating with others. Has this been your experience? For the past month I've been so focused on digesting in every manner Greek and Italian. That recently when I started speaking English and even Spanish. My ability to articulate and express ideas have dramatically improved. Is this a part of the benefits of learning new languages or is my experience an isolated phenomenon? Very curios to learn more about this research you speak of, thank you for the video, it is much appreciated.

[@Thelinguist]

Definitely. Learning new languages improves you in languages you already know including your own. There may be some slippage but eventually you are better, more vocab , better command.

[@edwardmagnop]

Thanks

[@iichigokurosakii2132]

Hey Steve, I hope you can answer my question: what happens if I only like reading literature? I think that's what catches me the most at the moment. I think I currently have about a B1 level. I hope you can help me.

[@thiagoxaviersoutricolor8260]

Hello Steve how's it's going? Good weekend for you.

[@tuckt6180]

Ty, my russian is coming along nicely...

[@Adriana-ph2eb]

Sir, I hoped that you will disclose those 12 languages you mentioned in the title, how you approached each language and which books were those first readings in each language maybe. 😅

[@hopegate9620]

I actually don't like reading nonfiction when I start to read books as a language learner. I find them often a lot harder than certain children's books, like say, by Roald Dahl. Plus, I can choose some that I've already read in another language, which makes reading a lot easier.

[@tomasmills8258]

Hey Steve, could you please turn danish subtitles back on your videos?

[@lsk0580]

설명으로 한글이 나오니 반갑네요 ㅎㅎ 좋은 영상 감사합니다!

[@keithkannenberg7414]

I prefer to read things on my Kindle in my native language due to convenience and I do the same in languages I'm learning. But I'm never tempted to use the Kindle as anything other than a simulation of the printed page. I don't use built-in dictionaries. I just read. As Steve says, it's not necessary to know every word to in order to enjoy the content as long as you get the gist of what you're reading.

[@pierreabbat6157]

What do you think of reading books that have been translated into the language you're learning? On a visit to Prague, I bought a couple of bilingual books of Sherlock Holmes stories, including The Red-Headed League, which I've also read in German.

[@battarabbit8827]

I wish you would talk about the time it takes to read a sentence in a language you don’t know at all and a new alphabet. In other words, talk about the process at the very beginning. Day 1. I love to read and I speed read English. I have to read character by character in Hangul and still will have to look almost every word up. up. Reading character by character is way below how you talk about this. The assumption I will miss a few words should be reversed. I can understand one or two words. That’s it.

[@paolawil]

Recomienden algunos libros en ingles para mejorar pero que que no sean dificiles

[@Gaer56]

How can one listen to podcasts while doing something else? My brain can't process two inputs simultaneously, I get into one or the other when trying.

[@zickzackkompetenz1301]

What is your opinion to the natural method of language learning. They provide the opportunity to read directly from paper

[@AJ-fo2pl]

Mr. Kaufmann, thank you for this video. I know you have studied more than 12 languages, so I am curious which 12 you have read books in. Would you be able to list them here please?

[@Thelinguist]

I have read bits of books in 20 languages but 12 complete books, from cover to cover, in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech.

[@David-tk7yo]

Should pronunciation come before reading?

[@yumnaapta]

What about reading children books? Is that useful for learning new language? (Given presumably low level of knowledge/delivery inside the children books).

[@pauld3327]

Graded readers are better than children books

[@manuelluna5695]

11:22 too late, I'm reading fight club and Christine by Stephen king.

[@Brooks003]

I'm stadying to take a jlpt n2 (japanese). I don't have problem with to read all days but I cannot understand what I read, and my reading speed is not enough. I think i wont to pass the test. I don't know if there is some video to resolve this problem. (Sorry for my English)

[@ProMasterH]

Is re reading a book in spanish worth it? Because I'm already familiar with the context