Language Learning Progress: It Sleeps, It Creeps, It Leaps!

[@mamushi72sai]

I needed this today. I've been so depressed about my progress and how much effort I put in. I don't even remember how I learned Japanese. I just know I did and now that I'm doing Spanish and mandarin while doing work and school I feel completely wiped out.

[@alexeltroll]

mamushi72sai me too

[@Re3iRtH]

mamushi72sai How did you learn Japanese?

[@mamushi72sai]

Re3iRtH I started by learning hiragana and katakana as a kid. I then learned woukd. Spend hours a day matching what I heard to subtitles with intermittent grammar study. After 4 years I would talk to native speakers on Xbox and Skype and after 6 I began using a flashcard system obsessively to learn less common vocabulary and the Chinese based writing system. For some reason it seemed to. Come. To me. Much more easily than mandarin is now.

[@joyfulsavage9905]

mamushi72sai I think you need to make the learning more interactive.. immersion. Good luck 👍🏼 再见

[@mamushi72sai]

Joyful Savage thanks

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

Oh yes and I agree that we underestimate our progress . I just watched a story in Indonesian on KZbin that I watched 6 months ago and couldn’t understand - this time I understood it very well !

[@squaretriangle9208]

Love the gardening metaphor😊 and I also came about the "speaking instantly" phenomen especially if you tell people that you are learning a language "speak, speak!!"😂 I would say because speaking is the extrovert dimension of language

[@T33K3SS3LCH3N]

Just wanted to say, after finding your channel and enjoying a ton of your videos I decided to finally have a look at Lingq. It's amazing. I'm usually scared away when a page is so stingy with trials, but no hesitations here, took me a whole of five minutes to pay up. Adding vocabulary while and through reading was never easier. All the effort and worries of looking for practice material and cataloguing of old materials (I'm a bit of a weirdo afraid to leave things behind) are solved at an instant. It's been quite a while that I was this hooked to learning materials as well. I'm in love with that page.

[@Thelinguist]

Great to hear it. We are working to improve it and there will be a few exciting developments over the next couple of months. Out of curiosity, which Language are you learning?

[@T33K3SS3LCH3N]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Japanese. I started in January with various sources so I was fit with the grammar, but got to a point where vocabulary expansion became tricky. Lingq was just the right thing in that spot. I only used it for a couple days yet but the advancement in listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition feels incredible already. I still couple it with Anki, but all the vocabulary I transferr is incredibly easy by the time I see it there. Now I see why you talked about a possible hundred+ words a day. The only problems are some technicalities with the Android app. The audio sometimes crashes when tabbing out, and the audio notification can block the screen for some seconds at the start of a lesson. It's tolerable but not nice.

[@Bluebuthappy182]

I've definitely in the creeping phase at the moment with my Chinese, but Keep at it i'll get there. You are so right about the comprehension too. There's no point in asking a question in perfect grammar and not understanding a word that come back to you. But again slowly does it.

[@Tehui1974]

+Blue How has your progress been over the last 12 months?

[@donutdunkin7799]

Thank you, I'm learning Russian alone through you tube (can't tell you how much I hate the ads). About four hours a day for three months now. My main tool is Russian while you sleep. Not that I sleep, I just find the sounds relaxing. I usually go for a walk through the countryside while listening and pronouncing. My vocab would be about one thousand words that I can recall as soon as I hear the English equivalent. Not sure how many passive words I know, but I'm also watching Russian movies. I studied the old-fashioned way with a textbook for a year about twenty years ago. So, I know about the cases. Basically, I've decided to learn without trying, as I know I can do this every day. My special advantage is having lived with my Russian father as a teenager for four years. I had almost zero interest in Russian at the time, but I know what Russian is meant to sound like. Especially, the highly emotional discharges of passion about what ever, intermingled with a kind of doom like apathy. Not to mention their stoic facade and salty sense of humor. And thanks to my father, I know how to speak English as a Russian with zero understanding of partials. ' Put it the kettle on.'

[@pavlokucher1646]

Thank you Steve! Your advice's always useful !!

[@mohamedgo9403]

You look tired not as usual, I hope that you are fine. May God give you health.

[@Thelinguist]

It all depends on the camera, the light, the time of day and how I feel.

[@joyfulsavage9905]

Wow, I love that expression. Same is true for many things for me. Such as personal development, martial arts, people skills, etc. The sediments collect and collect and then boom 1 day comes and I know it, I’ve hit a new level. A shift has taken place and the progress is noticeable 😎 🌺

[@solea59]

Steve. I think you mentioned comprehension as being like sediment building up ? I thought that maybe comprehension could be likened to being like an archaeologist on their knees scraping away with their trowel. And those moments when the penny drops being like uncovering a long buried coin or something.

[@sauldc72]

Hi Steve, I'd like you to make a video about learning languages en other languages beside English for those who doesn't understand English yet. Thanks

[@jnom8170]

I really enjoyed videos you've done in Mandarin. A video where you carry on a conversation with a Chinese native would be interesting

[@solea59]

All things considered .I think the worst impediment to learning a language is impatience.

[@husneyaalhashemy2190]

Hi my good teacher from Dubai

[@duranvan55]

Greetings from Brazil.

[@kevincarter7633]

Speak in maltese about squirrels. I'm on lingq now thanks Steve.

[@JSCG12]

Requesting Japanese please

[@David-hw7js]

Hi Steve, you talk a lot about reading and listening as a key to learning, which I agree with. I'm studying Japanese and consider myself lower intermediate. I've started listening to Japanese every day, but I'm not sure what my strategy should be. I listen to Japanese news podcasts, but I only catch 10% of what's being said. On the other hand, I'm only interested in listening to natural conversations, so I don't want to "dumb down" the Japanese just so I can understand what's being said. What do you think? Do you suggest listening to your own level, or listening to natural conversations above your comprehension level in the hopes that your talent will eventually catch up?

[@Thelinguist]

I mix difficult texts with easier content, but prefer to listen to material where I can access a transcript to that I have a chance of understanding and learning the words. Try LingQ. You can find stuff in our library and you can import any texts you want.

[@David-hw7js]

Thanks, Steve! I'm sure you've been answering the same questions over and over for years now, I appreciate that you take the time to respond. I just signed up for LingQ last week and I've been enjoying it as a resource. 頑張ります！

[@franmacgillivray1629]

We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in 1 year but underestimate what can be achieved in 10 years.

[@Thelinguist]

I would say that we tend to overestimate what we can achieve in weeks or a few months and underestimate what we can achieve in six months or a year or longer

[@joyfulsavage9905]

Thanks Tai Lopez haha 📖 🤓

[@JSCG12]

Hey Steve, I'm trying to take your advice about maximizing reading and listening to improve my language abilities as I feel that listening comprehension is one of my weaker areas. I'm studying Japanese and I wanted to know what your suggestions would be when listening to audio in a foreign language. I've always heard that repetition is important, but when I use television, movies, podcasts etc. to study I often find that it can be very difficult to understand things at a natural pace. Often I catch a few words here and there and occasionally a full sentence but overall it can be quite challenging to keep up. Do you recommend for example watching a show once through with English subtitles, pausing and rewinding every so often to make sense of things, then watching again with with no subtitles to try to understand as much as possible? Do you think its better just to listen without interruption and do ones best to understand? Or would you suggest a learner adopt some other strategy of listening comprehension?

[@Xeon897]

Song Lyrics I find are really helpful because its usually the same words over and over again and even if you don't understand it completely, you can usually always refer to an already translated English version of the lyrics. Make a list of words you don't understand and review those words. Look up grammar structures if need be, but ultimately, what's common will be common. You will eventually plateau, but then you have to just do vocab lists, but at least you can speak and write to some degree now. Don't try to translate directly from Japanese to English because its really quite complex at times, and you might end up confusing yourself. Read it to understand it as if English is not even part of the equation. Also you can listen to a song on repeat without it getting stale or boring, and that helps lock it in.

[@JSCG12]

Yeah that's a very good point and its something I do try to incorporate into my learning as well. I do try to read it without thinking about English but I don't know that I've developed a "Japanese brain" yet where I can treat everything as if English was irrelevant. My brain always wants to revert everything into English and try to make sense of it that way. The plateau phase is certainly an intimidating place as well because you feel like you're just not retaining and learning anything anymore even though you probably still are. I'd like to see Steve do a video on that topic as well if he hasn't already.

[@Thelinguist]

Until I am able to understand radio or movies on their own, I tend to listen only to material for which I have a transcript. Then I can read the transcript, save words and phrases, in my case at Lingq, and have a chance to build up my vocabulary and comprehension so that I can then enjoy radio movies television etc.

[@abdulmohsennalsalman174]

I am a motivational learner, but sometimes I stop learning for a while up to two weeks. Is there a solution to prevent falling into these gaps ?

[@YTMNDMadMax]

Do you recommend reading at a much higher level than your current comprehension, or stick with reading that's just slightly above your current comprehension?

[@Thelinguist]

Your interest in the content is very important. At an early stage, we necessarily have to read easier less interesting content. As soon as possible I like to challenge myself even though there may be a lot of unknown words. LingQ sort of enables me to do this.

[@petermaroney3625]

Any chance we can speed up the process Steve? Haha. Portuguese for me has been very difficult. Eu sou um falante nativo de inglês e minha experiência aprendendo português tem sido bem difícil. Muitos vezes, eu fico desanimado porque eu não entendo bem quando pessoas falam comigo, muito chato. Contudo, eu não tenho paciência com eu mesmo e as vezes eu prefiro não falar com ninguém por causa do meu envergonhado, medo, comete um erro et cetera.

[@marcusvinicius-hj2nn]

Peter Maroney hey man, posso te ajudar se você quiser :) sou falante nativo de Portugues

[@Thelinguist]

The more you can enjoy the process, find things of interest to listen to and read, or people you like to be with, the faster you improve and the less you worry about how slow the process is. The process is the reward.

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

Hi Steve - do you have any interest in Polynesian languages? Just curious . I speak Maori from NZ

[@Thelinguist]

One day perhaps, but it's not at the top of my list right now.

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve understandable - I find Polynesian languages pretty much absent from the polyglot community .I’m not sure why tbh. I realise the nations are small islands but at the same time places like Hawaii Fiji and Tahiti (although French speaking they have native language too) are popular destinations for tourism

[@Tehui1974]

​@@BrentStrathdeePehi Nō hea koe? Kei Pōneke au. Kei te ako au i te reo Māori ki TWOA. He pai ki a au ki te mātakitaki i ngā hōtaka reo i te ipurangi pēnei i a Steve Kaufmann.

[@WhereisAdamNow]

Hello Steve, I hope all is well. I know it's hard for you to answer questions here but I will try anyway.. I need to pass a French language test and score B2 at least in 4 skills. I am using your website and I am trying to learn the most common 5000 words. would that get me to B2 in 6 months? please advise... thanks

[@Thelinguist]

don’t worry too much about the most common words. Expose yourself to content of interest. The mini stories series at LingQ has a lot of common verbs. Common verbs are important to master if you want to speak comfortably. But more than anything else you should just let yourself enjoy the language, listen and read as much as possible, and speak whenever you get the chance.

[@raffcummins]

How'd you go in the end

[@jessehendry2816]

I love your videos. Do more German videos. Speak about discrimination in Germany, I'd that's a thing please.ive been learning German for about 2 years but I've come to a plateau.

[@noirblanque5324]

ThatsWack in What way? I Can give u tips!

[@alexeltroll]

I need all the help i can get with german .

[@roucoupse]

My concern is my English learning has been sleeping for one decade.......

[@TheHonourableGrandMasterJay]

Are you doing a lot of reading in English and how is your phonology (pronunciation of words)?

[@ZachMikeMoller]

I wish it was three years. With Russian, it was five.

[@markchavez738]

Speak in German! :)

[@seanpaulson9098]

I was just looking through your channel yesterday for a video about this. I am teaching myself Spanish and the problem with teaching yourself is you don't know what Milestones to look for to make sure you are progressing and not waisting your time.

[@Thelinguist]

If you are enjoying your learning, you are not wasting your time. If you need milestones you might want to look at LingQ where we maintain very detailed statistics of your activities and milestones.

[@elikarpinski2460]

Parlerez-vous en Française ?

[@Yusuf1187]

Il a déja plusieurs videos où il parle en francais. (désolé si mon francais est mal. Je l'apprendre. Mais je crois c'est correct)

[@jackkrauser1763]

as far as im concerned i dont think speaking a variety of languages on the same channel is a good idea i suggest instead to create a second channel and make videos in spanish which is argubly as widely spoken as english so u will target more people than u are doing right now, same thing goes for other languages, just create other channels and invite the native speakers of those languages to subscribe to them but the bad news are that u will have to make more videos per week instead of just 2

[@milanpaudel9624]

that is if he is just as fluent in spanish as in english

[@olivereckert2492]

so he should have 20 channels or what? even one channel alone is a lot of work

[@LockMacFly]

Oliver Eckert saying the same things in every video is not a lot of work

[@betavulgaris7888]

122k subs. I reckon he's doing ok.

[@LockMacFly]

Beta Vulgaris justin bieber has even more

[@Liliquan]

請說漢語。中文是你最舊的學過語言之一，所以呢，你該敬老！

[@ViacheslavKr]

Please tell us in Russian about the role of Russia now in Syria.

[@Thelinguist]

I will certainly steer clear of that subject.

[@Vytautas99]

A request for Russian.

[@darraghdonnellan6125]

Speak Swedish please!! :)

[@ShakirAhmed]

Arabic

[@daviddvir8108]

Talk in russian please, political issues.

[@andreymakarov5615]

I don't get it, Steve. Why would you learn all those languages to watch Al Jazeera and listen to Echo of Moscow? It's as if I would learn English to watch Russia Today. Why not go for a totally different perspective?

[@herr_k69]

Andrey Makarov I’m pretty sure those stations you listed in fact *do* provide different perspectives, especially Echo of Moscow, for someone not living in Russia. I thought they were locally produced and deal with local issues? Wouldn’t a better analogy be something like learning Russian to listen to translated AOL broadcasts or something? Curious to know!

[@andreymakarov5615]

qzchris, sorry, but I don't agree. Both Echo of Moscow and Al Jazeera basically just communicate the Western view on the local political situation. Steve would basically get the same exact info from CNN or BBC in English.

[@Thelinguist]

in fact Echo provides a variety of points of view and interpretations of daily events. I can choose those I find most credible. RT is simply Kremlin misinformation all from one source. Western media comes in a variety of flavors, again I can choose.I don’t know much about Al Jazeera other than it is owned by a group in Qatar. I expect they have a perspective of their own. In any case at this point I am only interested in the language. I am already finding however their perspective is quite different from what I get at home.

[@andreymakarov5615]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve, in Russia Echo's agenda is supported by only 2% for a good reason. They make the majority of the population look like some dummies who vote for a crazy tyrant because they are told to do so by the media. I'm sorry, I sure can't tell you what to do. It's just that such an intellectual and broadminded person like yourself could use the language to get a much more complete picture.

[@Thelinguist]

You make two statements which I disagree with. First of all not all the interviews or commentators at Echo are anti-Putin, although many are. There are also pro Putin people, nationalists, imperialists, communists and all manner of credible and less credible people on all kinds of subjects with all kinds of points of view. The advantage is that the audio of the interview comes with transcript. The second thing is your assertion that 98% of Russians support Putin, or don’t want to listen to Echo. Echo has close to 1 million listeners in Moscow alone.

[@betavulgaris7888]

Why don't you learn Norwegian and Danish. They are basically free for you.