Language learning is mostly about learning words.

[@andrearruda9005]

Grammar is learned passively by listening to a lot of Native content and acquiring a lot of words to your vocabulary. The more listening practice and words acquired, the more experience you have. The more experience you have, the easier to understand and communicate. I'm learning English for about a year and I do not study grammar at all, nevertheless, I'm pretty sure you understand what I writing here despite some possible misspellings or wrong grammar usage. To me, learning a language is about connection and not be perfect instead.

[@williamjames4031]

Completely agree with you.

[@kerrysteve6580]

only a year! your english is great ,i wish my spanish was that good which i have been studying for years. The only mistake you made were in the last few words ...and not to be perfect.........or........instead of not to be perfect . Instead ...never comes at the end . Anyway I shall take your advice.

[@The235Anil]

Your English is fantastic, especially for only a year of study!

[@marpaula1047]

Wow your English is really good!

[@rubenmorenog7223]

"is not the lack of grammar that prevents me from understanding, is the lack of words" - Steve Kaufman

[@WorldMusic-ib8nx]

I wouldn`t agree 100%. I learned Turkish and some sentence are really hard to understand allthough I might know every single word.

[@Michaelatkins15]

World Music How so? I am turkish myself and I thought his principle would apply more to turkish inasmuch as turkish is really flexible when it comes to sentence structure making the lack of vocab only hurdle to understand.

[@WorldMusic-ib8nx]

@@Michaelatkins15 may be you are not aware because Turkish is your mother tongue. But there are really grammar aspects in Turkish which are very foreign for native speakers of indoeuropean languages. Knowing and understanding the words is one thing but understanding the context is another thing. Colloquial Arabic is much more easier than Turkish because the grammer and word order is much closer to European languages than Turkish is. Word to word transltion is often more possible from a European language to Arabic. But you can`t use word to word translation with Turkish.

[@poleag]

If you know 10,000 words but have piss-poor grammar, you can get your point across. If you have 500 words and perfect grammar, you might not have the words to do it. Vocabulary is supreme.

[@justin02905]

Dictionaries use ~500 words and perfect grammar. A dictionary can talk about anything. Many people know 10,000 words and are unable to even form a coherent sentence.

[@poleag]

@@justin02905 Coherent sentences are not necessary for communication. Pidgin language is effective. Spending 60 seconds trying to describe the word "passport" with a 500 word vocabulary is a joke.

[@CaptainWumbo]

Vocabulary is helpful for understanding, but if all you want is "to get your point across" you really don't need to know any synonyms and you can prefer words that have a broader meaning. Naturally we tend to want to learn a language to understand media or people of that language. Grammar is hard to pin down, because part of grammar is vocabulary. Some grammar points are not critical to being understood, but others can't be ignored even if you don't learn it from a book. The grammar will get into your head from lots of exposure, just like with your native language... you'll remember the way people said things. You'll remember items of vocabulary as groups of words which often come together, which is grammar. I think the wide criticism of grammar is that people try to learn it out of a grammar textbook. But if you tried to learn a language from a dictionary, it would be just as bad.

[@davide4607]

If you learn 10,000 words by reading them in context, you'll automatically have decent grammar also.

[@OmniKoneko]

@@davide4607 exactly, thank you for saying that, I also want to add that you may be able to ask a question with bad grammar and the person may be able to understand you but there's a huge chance that you won't understand them. Doesn't matter if you can ask a question if you can't understand the answer, as well if you pay attention to grammar in langauges you will see that grammar changes the meaning of sentences a lot so even if you can understand the words it'll mean something totally different if you don't know that specific grammar. Like he said the volume of words you need to know is larger than the amount of grammar you need to know but you need all of it. Language isn't a contest of which part is better, you need all the parts, Grammar, words, reading, etc.

[@GypsieSeeker]

Agree 💯. To reach B2, 80%+ of your time will be spent learning vocab. I think it’s a waste of time for people to worry about fixing their grammar, speaking, etc. now, when these will improve drastically and for “free” as a side effect of all the exposure you need just to learn the necessary vocabulary.

[@stevevagabond]

Ayrton Senna it doesn’t fix listening practice and exposure to people speaking in the target language.

[@WorldMusic-ib8nx]

not in case of Turkish and other languages with strange grammar.

[@deniszelaya3221]

Every single person learns different. That's the point. Learning styles are different

[@DreamingSpanish]

This is so true. Once I get to the point that my vocabulary is enough to speak the language or understand TV, all the grammar I need is already there.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Yes, I don't study grammar at all. or at least not beyond the basics. If you start speaking the language you will learn through osmosis

[@chouaibnabi3396]

I totally agree with you, I came to this conclusion after having encountered many difficulties in understanding passages, then I decided to focus on learning new words. This has come up with a notably amazing progress thanks for sharing your thoughts You are truly a very clever teacher

[@JapanischErfahren]

It's true, and I say this as a big fan of grammar. When I "finished" Japanese grammar, I knew about 5000 words. I was not close at all to being fluent. People with significantly less knowledge of grammar, but on 10k+ words, could understand way more than I did back then. Then, I learned about 10 words a day for 2 years, and it was insane to see how fast I progressed even though I didn't really do much reading and listening (which was still a mistake ofc).

[@l3g10nw]

where did you learn those 10 words a day from?

[@dustin8388]

Yes. Absolutely. If you don't know what people are saying then you are lost and the more words one knows, the easier it is to pick up new words in context.

[@maxheithmar334]

Just started learning Italian this week, and this channel is a great resource so far I agree- when listening you dont need to really master the grammar to understand the message but you def need to know the key words to make sense of the situation

[@aprendahebraicocomabiblia1090]

We're addicted to your teachings, keep up the good work!

[@AmericanEnglishBrent]

Very inspiring, Steve. Thank you.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

yes, thank you so much. I agree with you, Steve. I learned 20 words a day in Italian for a year, and now, I am almost fluent ​

[@LeonSKennedy656]

Hey, Steve, this is just the video I've been needing to see as it is both encouraging and motivational, while it also reinforces my approach. I've been learning Russian from some time, have about maybe an A2 skill level, and I'm often unsure about my progress through the language, such as if I'm learning enough words daily or if my methods are effective. Nevertheless, watching these videos and using LingQ recently both have really aided me in rapidly progressing through my language learning experience. So wanted to say thanks.

[@TwelfthRoot2]

LeonSKennedy656 if you really enjoy the language then you’ll keep going. Try to make weekly goals that are reasonable and stick to them. Then as your language skills increase it will keep getting easier. It’s a long journey and needs consistency. It wasn’t until 750k words read and 39k known words in Russian until I really started to feel comfortable and could read with ease.

[@Thelinguist]

Trust your brain, listen and read a lot, and occasionally refer to grammar. At some point, when you feel like it, get some online tutoring sessions, mostly just to converse with a native speaker. Good luck.

[@borisnegrarosa9113]

Couldn't agree more. I'd say vocab is way more important than grammar when learning a new language, at least in the beginning.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Yes, I don't study grammar at all. or at least not beyond the basics. If you start speaking the language you will learn through osmosis

[@UTube4Chris1]

I like to create lingQs quite rapidly as I was inspired (by you Steve!) to tackle 3 languages at once. I don’t really know if this is a bad thing but I do know that the brain takes in things very quickly. I admit I feel it’s a bit of a chore to churn through 50 cards when I get the notification that “your Portuguese LingQs are ready”. What I do instead is to review lingQs within a lesson as they’re relevant to the content I’ve just been looking at. The list is comparatively short and easy to handle and I often review some more. I think the status is good to focus on as if you make a word known you don’t see it again (that’s if you believe in SRS, which I do). Rather leave the status at 3. Just my opinion-this works for me. LingQ is a really great system!

[@futurez12]

I 100% agree with this. Flashcards have _never_ worked for me. You get a kind of short term success, but unless you spend 90% of your study time going through your Anki decks, there's just no way you're going to remember them in the long term. I remember doing like 3 months of Anki, and I can honestly say I barely even recognise most of the words from that period, much less recall them. I _did_ remember most of them, and _was_ able to recall a lot of them at the time though... The more I do this language thing, the more I realise that listening & reading is by far the most efficient way to spend your time. I'd say listening might even be better for recalling things. A lot of words that pop into my head, whilst I'm trying to produce the language, come from specific lines from conversations I've listened to. It's almost like I hear those lines, and how they were said, in my mind, all over again; like those sounds are still in there bouncing around in my brain.

[@eiriks680]

Agree completely. It's kind of amazing how much one can actually communicate with very few words and no grammatical knowledge at all. If you know the pronouns, the 15 most common verbs, a few prepositions + conjunctions and a handful of nouns, you can say quite a lot of different things. "I go there, you stay here", "I get gas for chainsaw", "You bring water", etc... You may sound like a caveman, but your points are understood and people can act upon them. I wonder how little of a language you actually need to be able to give commands at work etc, I believe it's not necessarily so many. Think about how much you could do if you knew a hundred times the amount of words compared to that. You will likely pick up the grammar if you read/listen to the language a lot, and you won't have to study it at all.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

I learned 20 words a day in ITALIAN for a year, and now, I am fluent

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

@@marcelosilveira7079 lol Spanish

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

@@marcelosilveira7079 what about you?

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

@@marcelosilveira7079 Oh wow, for sure. Although when I was learning French, I didn't know how to learn a language effectively because I thought that going to class was enough, so I don't know what would've happened if I had learned both languages the same way

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

@Max Strength I have a video on it. it's the POLYGLOT GOALS 2020 one if you want to check it out :)

[@chilael6892]

@@marcelosilveira7079 Opaaa, eae, brasileiro ou português?

[@hrmIwonder]

I've been reading a news article each morning in Spanish, then read it again that evening, and read it a final 3rd time the next morning along with a new article. I find when I look up words in the morning, the 8 or 10 hours later when I see them a 2nd time is right about perfect. By the 3rd time I read the article I can read right through and understand pretty much all the words. The few months I've been doing this seem to have made a real difference... I keep 2 anki decks per language, one for new vocab and then a deck for interesting phrases with nothing on the back (semi-learned vocab, points of grammar I'm trying to increase exposure to, it's funny to me, a conjugation I hadn't seen before etc). There's always context present so it's almost never a head-scratcher whether I know the words in the card or not, it's more than just a word, there's a whole idea present using whole sentences. But I've only been doing this a couple months, so my opinion isn't quite fully formed on flashcarding, but I think it's useful. Since there's plenty of context, it might even count as comprehensible input.

[@vladimirslezinger9894]

That is a good idea. I also learn Spanish and i am not willing to learn it conventionaly because it bores me that way. So i am trying to find out some methods how to do it enjoyably for me. I found one youtube channel, where are short videos up to 10 minuts where the girl for example has a conversation with some friend from her country about common things, life, work etc. or walking around her house and describing thing she has there or out in the city and talking about the things shee sees. I listen to it several times, write down words i do not know and watch it again next day. I will apply your system too. :) National geographic in spanish is good start i guess.

[@hrmIwonder]

@@vladimirslezinger9894 The most important thing is to enjoy what you listen to, and of course for it to be comprehensible, sounds like you're on the right track.. Here's how I started with Spanish: Destinos. It's a telenovela made to teach you Spanish. It's all comprehensible input based. The Spanish starts out very easy and gets progressively more difficult as you go along, with lots of review. It's 52 episodes, each episode is 26 minutes long. It was made with public money so it's freely available at www.learner.org/series/destinos-an-introduction-to-spanish/ I watched the entire series 4 times, each time I understood more and more. At that point I was then able to go find podcasts, all in spanish, aimed at beginners (Spanish Obsessed is a good one, the old spanish pod has a show call Del Taco Al Tango which was fun) and I was even able to follow along with a regular telenovela, you can find one you like at Telemundo or Univision's site or various other websites. I prefer to download the entire show so I can watch it in a different media player.

[@hrmIwonder]

@@vladimirslezinger9894 Another couple tips that work well for me. On my phone I found an app called "Repeat Player". It works great for listening to podcasts/audiobooks because of a couple features it has. It has a button to jump back 3 seconds in the podcast (you can set it to however many seconds you want), and it also will let you slow down the audio, so if you want to re-listen to a sentence slowed down you can do that too... I would also like to recommend the author Alicia Estopiñá. She has written 4 books aimed at beginners that are fun (A1, A2 and B1 levels). They use swear words and some dirty language along with a glossary marking which words are curse words along with other phrases. There are also audio versions of the four books. The Lola Lago series are fun too, written at various levels and audio versions are available as well. The Kindle app with built in dictionary is a fantastic tool for reading (easy to copy paste sentences to anki) if you're not into using Lingq (I haven't used lingq yet, so I can't comment on it). If you like National Geographic, you might like the channels CuriosaMente & Genial. There's just a ton of great Spanish language content out there. Cheers!

[@emilys9524]

I do the same thing about saving interesting phrases and grammar points or usages that I want to get into my active vocabulary. I've never used Anki though but I've heard of it. To read an article several times in one day seems like a brilliant idea and I want to start using that with my students. Thank you

[@hrmIwonder]

@@emilys9524 De nada amigo, de rein mon pote. In class, do you cover using technology to aid language learning? The kindle app is a fantastic tool for reading with its built-in dictionary/translation feature. The app "Repeat Player" is great for listening to podcasts since it has a convenient button to skip back 3 seconds so you can re-hear a sentence (you can set it to however many seconds you want), it will also slow down audio. There's lots of graded readers available in Spanish on Amazon with nice glossaries (the kindle app makes it super easy to jump back and forth from the text to the glossary), some have audio with them too. I'm sure there's graded readers in French but I've had less luck finding them so I read a lot children's books which quite a few are available on Amazon. There's tons of youtube channels and some podcasts with people speaking slow/clear/easy Spanish or French which are just great for learning. Podcasts are great to listen to while driving/walking/riding the bus to school, you can also just download audio from youtube to listen to as a podcast. And don't forget Destinos for Spanish and French in Action both available at learner.org, they simply can't be beat for beginners (there's a German thing there too but I can't vouch for it). I wish I had known about French in Action when I was in high school, just watch it, pay attention and acquisition happens (then watch it a few more times). Anki is a great flash card app, super quick and easy to copy/paste sentences into it and you can record sound easily too, but imo flashcarding is more of an intermediate and advanced level thing to do, but I'm not sure about that. (I know you didn't ask for this long response but thought I'd share anyways lol, cheers!)

[@mrsstore2023]

My number of known words in lingq is about 16 000, i don't feel that i know all these words but i can tell that i know half of it, 8 000 or a bit more! But i will keep going till i feel the confidence that i have in english. Thanks mr steve, first time that i try to learn a language by myself, next stop FRENCH 🙏🙏

[@rooklift]

I would agree ...the only caveat I would add is that if you don’t train your ear through constant listening, you might not be able to identify words you know when they are spoken quickly by native speakers

[@SeriouslyLeslie]

I find flashcards really helpful. I feel that in order to speak and understand a language well, you have to know thousands of words. Flashcards seem to me like the most practical way of learning. I use an app called Cram, I've noticed that it isn't very well known or common, but it meets my needs. The flashcards have audio, which I find pretty essential so that I can understand words when I hear them.

[@BrunoPuntzJones84]

One thing that's tricky about Farsi when it comes to known words is that most Farsi verbs are compound verbs. So even if you move them from a yellow status to known they don't count towards your known words. Same goes for many prepositions/conjunctions.

[@Thelinguist]

I save a lot of phrases or compound words in Farsi. However, you are right my known words count is a lot lower than for Arabic, and yet there are more white words on the screen. It seems a lot easier than Arabic.

[@zahrasedaghat3867]

آفرین بر استیو عزیز !! موفق و پایدار باشید ،شما یک الگوی خوبی برای زبان آموزان هستید 🌹🌹🌹

[@sushi_mermaid7116]

Could you make a video discussing active vs passive vocabulary? Thank you!

[@Thelinguist]

OK will do.

[@grai]

@@Thelinguist preferably without mentioning Linq 😂😂😂

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

all your active vocabulary was passive vocabulary at one point. The only way that you can transition passive vocabulary to active vocabulary is through repeated exposure to X word. So basically just keep on practicing. Although I think that there are words that are fine staying in your passive vocabulary because you will not use them in real life, such as "cleave"

[@sushi_mermaid7116]

LanguageGirl thank you so much! That really cleared it up for me :3

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

@@sushi_mermaid7116 You are welcome. I also make language videos where I explain more stuff like that. You are welcome to check them out :)

[@MrJerkensen]

I'm a pretty stupid person, I have NEVER studied grammar. I don't even know what an adjective is to be honest. All I've done is learn words and I've held 3 hour long conversations in french. All thanks to LingQ. It's about learning words and phrases my friends. Children don't study grammar.

[@fanoflanguages7278]

I agree. Learning words and phrases will allow you to communicate with native speakers, even without knowing much grammar.

[@justin02905]

It's because the grammar is the same as your native language. I bet you never studied the French alphabet either. But clearly learning the alphabet is top priority, if you don't already know it. It doesn't matter what children do, we're adults

[@lisenpedersen]

@@justin02905 isn't French a verb centric language while English is noun centric? I've just heard about the romance languages being difficult for germanic speakers due to grammar, but I find even German grammar to be difficult.

[@michaelrespicio5683]

@@justin02905 Anybody with any decent amount of intelligence and observation to details wouldn't be this ignorant. Did you notice he never mentioned his native language or the languages he knows? Whatever they are, how could they all possibly have the same grammar? It's like saying Finnish, Arabic, and Thai all have the same grammar and anyone who knows even a little about all of these languages knows that the grammar is different. Finnish has way more cases than Arabic and tonal languages don't have any morphology. Not like you're smart enough to know what that is without looking it up which I'm betting will happen

[@MrJerkensen]

사이 learning the alphabet isn’t top priority. Not even sure what your point is. If you watch any of Steve’s videos or any polyglot, they all say grammar takes a back seat to vocabulary.

[@NetAndyCz]

Words are important, but I think that word combinations are even more important to understand the language. Things like "Good morning", "I do", "look up", "search for", "red flower", "Tasty meal", "she is dancing", "we will learn", "you are welcome"... the individual words often are bit too ambiguous in my opinion. Words are important, but some words such as "set" or "for" are really hard to understand without the context of the other words.I do not think it is wise to learn the language by learning the grammar rules first, especially since in most languages the grammar more often describes how people use the language rather than tell them they have to use it this way only. But often the whole sentence conveys more information or more precise information than the individual words. For example, when I was learning French a year or two ago, I was listening to the radio, and I understood most of the individual words, I could translate 85% of them, maybe bit more, but I hardly understood what was said. Of course now I understand more words now, but more importantly, I understand the context in which the words operate. For example the French word "pas" can mean step, or more often negates the sentence, but I think that understanding how the words work in a sentence is quite important.

[@fanoflanguages7278]

Excellent comment. I agree that word combinations are more important than individual words. Of course, it is necessary to learn individual words along with word combinations.

[@livedandletdie]

Basic word order and common phrases are what's most important to learn, after that comes vocab and then a systematic understanding of grammar.

[@vladimirslezinger9894]

True. For my Spahish learning i found a page with the 100 transition words together with one or two examples. It is much better to leard it together with somenthing to understand the context. Example - Al mismo tiempo (at the same time) and example in the sentence: Al mismo tiempo, él empezó a correr (At the same time, he begun to run). And many other words - always, already, after, at once, bellow, under, underneath, apart from, in any case and so on. The understanding the filler words and phrases in any language is very important.

[@domitian671]

I don't know if I would agree with this for a beginning learner. I use LingQ, I love LingQ, and I think it's absolutely the best program out there for getting from the early intermediate to the advanced stage, bar none. But I do think that the best thing you can do as a beginner is focus on becoming comfortable with grammar and sentence structures (not through boring drills, but through examples, phrases, and writing) while working with a somewhat narrow range of vocabulary, saving mass input for a bit later. Consider the English-language novel A Clockwork Orange. The narrative is full of completely made up slang. There are dozens of slang words used by the characters that simply do not exist in real English. But even those these words are totally foreign and fictional, and even though they would be incomprehensible out of context, a native English speaker reading the novel can still get the gist of the sentences and understand the meaning fairly quickly, acquiring the new slang words without much trouble or effort. Why? Because they understand how the core of the language works, and the structure of the sentences, and they can subconsciously get a general idea of what function one of these made up words is playing in the sentence and infer the meaning. And I think this core can be acquired in any language with focused practice and effort. That said, while I think this is the best approach if you want to learn the language well but also quickly, I do still think that Steve's approach will ultimately still work for beginners. I think the mass input approach works best for who have already reached the intermediate level, and is absolutely essential for true fluency, but I suspect it might not be the best or fastest way to get started.

[@Thelinguist]

I think an overview of grammar to start with is enough. I find that I can't get comfortable with the grammar until I have a lot of experience with the language.

[@TwelfthRoot2]

I’m interested to see what it’s like to learn a language on LingQ starting from absolute beginner. I knew some Spanish and Russian grammar pretty well before LingQ, and French is similar to Spanish. However I recently started Arabic and I did not know a single word or one piece of grammar haha. It’s been fun though. Already up to 75 known words :) I’m sure after I get through a few more lessons that I’ll start reading about Arabic grammar to get an idea of what to look out for.

[@domitian671]

@@TwelfthRoot2 It can definitely be done that way. LingQ is great, and doing it that way seems to work well for Steve. But for beginners I'm not sure it's the *most* optimal method for learning the language quickly but also well.

[@livedandletdie]

Having a large inventory of words is the most important thing, grammar is secondary, sure it's nice to know a few simple grammatical rules, but declensions and all that jazz, is unnecessary unless you're going for fluency. And listening and reading and practice speaking will help with the vocab a lot. I'm starting to remember a lot more Danish now since I got Danish neighbors again, a language which I haven't spoken since I were 5-6 years old.

[@sanekabc]

For comprehension of a language, what you say is true, but for speaking a language, you need far, far fewer words to express most of what you need to say. It is a known fact, that average native speakers of English for example don't use more than 3000 words for most all of their speaking needs.

[@valentina_fantasy]

MANY THANKS! VERY INSPIRING!

[@Jonarichardson]

Steve, what is your recommendation for someone learning a less studied language. I'm learning Armenian which isn't on Ling Q. I take Italki lessons and found one text book that is really good I use with my teacher. Do you have any recommendations for that type of language?

[@daysandwords]

At 8:00, was the book you are referring to 'Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World' by Cal Newport?

[@Thelinguist]

Yes

[@daysandwords]

@@Thelinguist Great book, one of the few development/'get stuff done' kind of books that I actually own.

[@Michaelatkins15]

Both should be done, but as you get more advanced, naturally, missing pieces will always be vocab because grammar-unlike advanced vocab-always repeats itself in any interaction in the language, and you get exposure to these rules thousands of times.

[@fanoflanguages7278]

I agree. Grammar can be learned naturally, simply by using the language. Vocabulary must be studied and memorized.

[@12jnixon]

One of the things at university my lecturer talked about was what it actually means to understand a word. His concept (Paul Nation) from memory had 9 criteria for stating that a word was understood, including criteria relating to pronunciation, connotation, register, collocations. Is there anyway of getting this sort of understanding from LingQ? From what you said here, if by words you mean individual words, I would have to disagree with you here. I personally would say that learning collocations is more important, since individual words without context can often lead to the misunderstanding of idioms or a phrase, or cause other problems. Keep up the great work with the videos; they are always thought provoking!

[@Thelinguist]

Our knowledge of words grows gradually. On LingQ knowing a word only means that you understand in a context, because you didn't need to look it up. That is all we can measure. I find that is a good measure of my progress in the language.

[@gabrielavieitas1806]

Ma man. S2 Steve just impulsed me into language learning.

[@danielviera9145]

As usual, Great video . I would love to hear your insight about teaching english at high schools. Your opinion on textbooks and also on spending plenty of time teaching through podcasts . Thanks for your videos!

[@Thelinguist]

I have never taught in high school. My general impression is however that kids should be encouraged to engage with content of interest to them, whatever that may be. Kids, in my experience, don't get enough input. There should be less pressure on kids to produce the language and produce the language correctly. The focus should be on comprehension. When they have the opportunity to speak and to speak a lot, they will speak well if they have sufficient familiarity with the language. If there is no need or opportunity to speak, far better that they enjoy the language through an emphasis on input in comprehension.

[@99days_lifehacks56]

Greetings from Iran

[@gardenmaster414]

Is it true you want war with the US?

[@ronlugbill1400]

Yes, but vocabulary is best learned in context. Not just flash card learning, although that is also good. You naturally learn vocabulary when it is in context. Just doing flashcards won't work. It is one technique. One activity. You need to do other activities, such as reading, listening, writing, translation, learning grammar, and speaking.

[@monicafaria6267]

Hello Steve thanks a lot.. Many times when I am studying English I have a question. After finding my unknown words. What can I do with them? And then I have been taken some phrases and I try to write a story because I don't like very much to work with flashcards..Do you have some tips for me??I believe that listening and reading they are the keys

[@Tehui1974]

I'm interested to know whether certain types of words 'stick' easier than others. I ask this question as I find nouns easier to remember than other word types, verbs are relatively more difficult to learn, and adjectives the most difficult to learn compared to other words.

[@johnjustice8478]

Steve, this would, surely, be a recommendation of word lists, wouldn't it?

[@Thelinguist]

No you don't learn from lists, just not efficient. You learn from finding words again and again in different contexts.

[@jamescook2412]

I love to flashcard, I create my own flashcards and I sort them into my own categories.

[@Thelinguist]

To each his own. Cheers.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

what are your categories? I am just curious about your method

[@jamescook2412]

@@KarenVanessaBuitrago travel, body & health, adjectives, animals, money... nearly 50 categories

[@KuroDeresu]

James Cook Omg i prefer just learning all words then by reading and doing grammar I will learn more faster

[@jamescook2412]

@@KuroDeresu I speak fluent Spanish, English, Portuguese & German. Currently making Mandarin flashcards.;-)

[@rubenmorenog7223]

7:48 deep work 😊 I'm reading it, too

[@MrApaHotel]

What's your thoughts about vocab flashcards with native speaker sound included (for example downloaded from Forvo.com)? Should native speaker sound always be included to train hearing comprehension?

[@Thelinguist]

I'm not sure how this would work. Our flash cards at LingQ have text to speech. Actually pasting in authentic audio might be a lot of work but if such flash cards are available this is good. However, I tend to focus on words and phrases that I have just come across and the TTS works fine for me.

[@puccarts]

Hi Steve! I was wondering how you approach tonal languages (like Cantonese) with LingQ? It is my first time learning a tonal language and there are many words that sound similar so I am having a hard time remembering them and reproducing them. Would you recommend parroting/shadowing practice in this case? Thanks!

[@Thelinguist]

Lots and lots of listening. Also with Cantonese, get yourself a book where the number of tones is reduced to six, not nine. I have one at home. But I'm not at home right now. If I find out the name I will let you know.

[@puccarts]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thank you Steve! Yes I have the Teach Yourself series by Hugh Baker. I also downloaded the FSI course and I listen to that on my way to work. Both use 6 tones and Yale (well.. 7 but I just merge high level and high falling together). However, it has become more popular on internet resources to use Jyutping.. and these consonants on either system conflict with each other and throw me off: I forget if I need to read something like jí2 as “yi” or “tszi” for example. I am doing my best just to focus on how the actual word sounds and not worry too much about romanisation. I am very happy LingQ has Cantonese as an option as there are limited resources for it! Thanks again and 新年快樂!

[@puccarts]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve and please do let me know the name of the book if you can! It is always great to have alternative resources so I can keep content interesting and fun! Thanks again!

[@kan-zee]

I wanna see more examples of your *Language learning workbooks / Journal techniques* Not many polygots are posting this in their videos.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Some do. I show a breakdown of what I do on my 2020 Polyglot Goals video if you want to check it out

[@kholoudfadl9974]

Hi, I like your you tube channel and i wanna learn english Language as a second launguage i have just graduted from school therefore I have to learn it. Please tell me what i have to do and what i have to do there are many methods so maybe that makes me confused, by the way my level is A2 to B1 i don't know and i am from an arabic country.

[@Thelinguist]

You need to do a lot of listening and reading. I suggest you look up LingQ. By the way I am learning Arabic, MSA on LingQ right now.

[@MrApaHotel]

I'm in the progress of learning to write the Japanese kanji (using the Remembering the kanji 1 book for that) and then learn the kanji readings. Did you spent a lot of time learning kanji? Any advice on that? I guess the Japanese writing system slows language acquisition down a lot (at least reading skills).

[@Thelinguist]

I learned the Kanji for Chinese. I made a point of learning the first thousand Kanji using flash cards and a self-made SRS system. This was a separate activity from my usual reading and listening. After that I learned them as I came across them. Learning the Kanji requires a significant upfront investment of time to get a grasp of the most commonly used Kanji and how the Kanji are formed. Good luck.

[@baphometic8767]

I don't disagree but i don't think you have to sacrifice grammar for vocabulary. it's 1000x better to learn your vocabulary in context using sentences than focusing on learning individual words, otherwise your collocations and syntax will get messed up and you'll fall into the trap of saying things how you would in your native language.

[@easyChinese]

In my practice, if I can use one word in my conversation, I think I learned that word. 我个人的经验，只有我可以在对话中使用某个词时，才算掌握了该词。听懂，读懂一个词还不行。

[@MarcosVinicius-hg4uz]

I agree

[@diegoferreira6556]

Steve, can you tell us some app to learn vocabulary? Thanks!

[@Thelinguist]

LingQ

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

actually, it is true. LingQ is such a good tool

[@Sponge416]

Drops is also very good

[@eddieliusa]

I feel like it’s impossible for me to write an AP level essay in German, even studying for 3 years. Is that something that takes almost a 12 years to learn perfectly? I mean it took me until high school to write a good essay in English lol

[@Thelinguist]

To write better you need to write more and read more. Also buy a book in German about style and grammar, but in German.

[@StormyOne1]

On Lingq 4 looks like known Maybe a different color?

[@marcelosilveira7079]

When you know the word it shows it underlined

[@petrasabina70]

Thank you!

[@reemshbair3571]

Thank you

[@billsmoke4919]

Hey Steve, could you please make a video about how the more you learn a language, the worse it seems like you are? I know 10,000 words in Turkish but it feels like my understanding in further content is getting worse rather than better, it's quite frustrating. I've been learning the language for around a year and half now.

[@niamaakmaliaa]

so do i. I learnt Turkish for 1 year and i stucked.

[@andrewmakesthings]

It’s the opposite of the Dunning-Kruger effect!

[@channelnumber52]

@@andrewmakesthings No, this is exactly the Dunning-kruger effect. The more Bill has learned Turkish, the more he realizes he doesn't know, and his confidence goes down.

[@andrewmakesthings]

channelnumber52 me idiot

[@落落-j4i]

i am learning english now and my teacher emphasize the importance of the vocabulary. but recite vocabularies is so hard lol.

[@seanyfeng]

Memorizing words is definitely boring and frustrating, and it is absolutely inefficient and ineffective for most language learners. Reading and listening on a daily basis is the key.

[@DivergentDroid]

I'm thinking of learning a language. I've never watched you before. I have learned about a system called The Natural Approach by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen. I like the idea because it seems easier. I'm not good at learning lists of vocabulary or grammar. Your Spaced Repetition System sounds like memorization by rote (I could be wrong) which is no good for me. How does your Spaced Repetition System differ from TNA?

[@Thelinguist]

Ours is not a spaced repetition system. It is a content based learning system which includes some elements of spaced repetition. Mostly you learn through reading and listening.

[@DivergentDroid]

@@Thelinguist Now I'm confused. I'm on the LingQ website and it does say they use a Spaced Repetition System. I thought this was your system? - I have seen this video and your video called Steve Kaufmann: My Method for Learning Languages from Scratch. I'll watch some more. If your system does not include actively speaking with other people who will teach you as if a child like the TNA system, I may like it more.. I don't fancy the idea of having to find people to practice with. Thank you.

[@Thelinguist]

Spaced repetition is a very small part of the total LingQ language learning system

[@DivergentDroid]

@@Thelinguist I will take your word for it. All I know is they mentioned it by name on the site so I assumed it was a major part. Thank you.

[@adriansanvelaz]

Steve Kaufman: "Language learning is mostly about learning words." Also Steve Kaufman: "Mathematics is mostly about counting numbers." Jeniuz. 🧠

[@calin6327]

Math is more application of the known tools to create new formulas. But oh well :D I will go back into my cave now thx.

[@adriansanvelaz]

@@calin6327 I think you haven't understood the idea behind the comment, bro.

[@calin6327]

@@adriansanvelaz i did. But it was a mathematical heresy i had to comment about xD

[@adriansanvelaz]

@@calin6327 Yep. Definitely you didn't understood the message.

[@calin6327]

@@adriansanvelaz I dont think you understood any of my messages either lol. I am a mathematical purist, I didnt really care about the true point, i just had to point out the innaccuracy cuz i just couldnt stand jt

[@rosebarbaro461]

What about if you get a new white word.

[@henriquecandiotto8169]

Steve, could you please help me with the following issue. I can watch you and other speeches like A.J. Hoge pretty well (really comfortable) - and I do it all day long - and that lead me to put others task beside, like watch movie, (by the way, watch movies is really unconfortable to me I don't do it even in my own language, is a little boring to me. I love self development content, I'm a pretty curious person and I run to understand the world and its huge sincronicity) and when I watch a movie, I have to handle with a kind of frustration feeling because it is not so easy and comfortable like wear my headset and do what I gotta do while I do listening. I write all this to get at to the question: Do you think that this confortable way let my learn journey longest? Thankyou Steve! TMJ! Hi from Brasil!

[@Thelinguist]

Movies are harder. You just have to keep going and challenging yourself. Your brain will gradually get more and more used to the language. Cheers.

[@braveheartproduction2323]

Hey Steve if I want to have a conversation with you what would you like me to do to arrange that?

[@Thelinguist]

Please send me an email [e-mail]

[@irkadeng9648]

This problem of active vocabulary......I really struggle with how would I activate my vocabulary

[@catherinejosserand5905]

Similar for me.

[@irkadeng9648]

@@catherinejosserand5905 😥 I think sometimes that it's a long process needs more and more speaking

[@Thelinguist]

I will discuss this in my next video.

[@catherinejosserand5905]

Can you speak arabic with 10 000 known words? It's all the pb between active and passive vocabulary...

[@marcelosilveira7079]

According to the comment above you , you only need the 3000 😏

[@marcelosilveira7079]

@Alfredo Müller Etxeberria what? 😏

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

I think you could. That is very close to the vocabulary of an advanced speaker, which I think is 15,000

[@uneedtherapy42]

"In a language like Russian where there are so many inflections and declensions" TELL ME ABOUT IT STEVE!!!! I live and breath the cases daily and it never gets easy... 6 cases for nouns. Brutal. IF anyone reads this for the love of god please don't attempt to learn Russian it has driven me to insanity. I love it but it's crazy hard to learn. I'll never quit but man is it difficult.

[@Thelinguist]

And I just love it. I loved learning it. I love listening to it and reading it. Not only Russian but also Ukrainian, Czech,Polish. And I don't mind making mistakes.

[@bingomaverick7830]

Did you any audio program like Pimsleur when you started out?

[@terrenavilla]

I truly believe this. I haven't even watched it 😂

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Of course, vocabulary is supreme!

[@JakobRobert00]

Couldn't you argue that the words who do not appear frequently enough to automatically become known words, are so unimportant, that it actually does not matter whether you know them?

[@Thelinguist]

Yes in certain contexts, and if you engage with a context where these words matter, you will learn them.

[@Johnnyjoejoe]

I currently look like Steve in the thumbnail while watching this video.

[@omarcosve]

OK

[@076657]

What? 100% not. I learned english by watching TV, words are nothing. You can get them mostly by context.

[@076657]

@no1youknowz As should be. It's obvious. Kids learn their mother tongue that way. Also, flashcards don't show you the actual common phrases people use. I've been taught english in Spain all my childhood. Never have they taught me what "actual", "actually" means and it's used ALL the time. Just like this example, there's hundreds more.

[@KuroDeresu]

no1youknowz anime rude Japanese 90% of time, that’s not how japanese people speak, yeah you learn some words but are you able to have a conversation with a native speaker ? I think probably no

[@KuroDeresu]

Not in Gb you can’t learn everything in a moment, some things have to be learned by time or just by being exposed to culture or la gauge

[@tomilan6001]

yes there is no shortcuts and no magic algorithm in words aguiring only repetition

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Yes, I don't study grammar at all. or at least not beyond the basics. If you start speaking the language you will learn through osmosis

[@music-underground35]

When I was learning English I did not focus on grammar . I think most people who learn languages get stuck on grammar and then become dissatisfied. If you spent most of your time listening and reading And speaking the language your learning you will naturally pick up the grammar. I’m fluent in 3 languages and i couldn’t tell you the difference between a noun or an adverb.

[@mattchalup]

2nd

[@wanderingdoc5075]

90% of what Steve talks about is how he does this and that in LingQ. Is it possible to talk about language learning without a commercial 😂

[@fanoflanguages7278]

I think he mentions LingQ because that is the primary website he uses to learn languages.

[@wanderingdoc5075]

@@fanoflanguages7278 Yea ok, that's the only reason he mentions it

[@michaelrespicio5683]

Sometimes talking about general advise would be good. Constantly talking about Lingq won't want to make some people to use considering the languages I (and other people) want to learn aren't available for whatever reason, so no amount of closing attempts will convince me to wait and just rely on other means of learning Vietnamese and Lithuanian, for example. Lithuanian I can probably understand if speakers are difficult to find (even though it's is one of the display languages on the site), but Vietnamese there's honestly no excuse.

[@wanderingdoc5075]

@@michaelrespicio5683 Is your gf Lithuanian? That language is 80% comprehensible to me ❤️

[@mikhailbogen8637]

Стив, здравствуйте. У меня есть вопрос к вам про русский язык. Очень интересно узнать, каково ваше мнение вот об этом видео. Я сам из Москвы и согласен с его рассказом. Видео очень интересное. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4qaq4ukZ6uIack

[@mikhailbogen8637]

То есть, очень интересно узнать, каковы ваши ощущения от того, что он рассказывает.

[@Thelinguist]

интересное видео. Мой русский недостаточно совершенен, чтобы эти различия были значимыми для меня. Я часто ошибаюсь в своих окончаниях, и часто сознательно путаю их, чтобы никто не мог услышать, какой окончаниe я пытаюсь использовать.

[@mikhailbogen8637]

@@Thelinguist понятно! Спасибо, что уделили внимание. Было просто интересно, как вы вообще почувствуете атмосферу :) Я в этом городе всю жизнь живу и чувствую всё именно таким образом.

[@Thelinguist]

@@mikhailbogen8637 С тех пор, как я начал изучать русский язык, читать и слушать язык 19-го века, и даже что-нибудь старое на русском языке вызывает у меня теплое, комфортное чувство, тем более что я помню, как мне было тепло в моем доме, когда была погода холодно, во время моего детства в восточной Канаде.

[@mikhailbogen8637]

@@Thelinguist понятно. Дело в том, что очень многие варианты произношения, описываемые автором, присутствуют в современной речи повсеместно. Я сам многие вещи произношу, как выяснилось, по-старому.

[@tschewm1353]

1st