How to learn a language by yourself

[@PerwinkleWinkly]

Honestly, my motivation to learn languages is the process of learning itself. Getting from point A to B and starting to understand things you previously couldn't is just a magical feeling that never gets old!

[@languagejones6784]

That’s beautiful

[@polymloth]

Yup, it’s awesome!

[@Brian5506]

This is the thing i love the most about language learning. I like it so much that it demotivated me a little to learn Spanish for a while because I'm a native Portuguese speaker and these languages are so similar that this effect doesn't really exist.

[@PerwinkleWinkly]

@@Brian5506 é verdade! Apesar de que você pode sempre se desafiar a se tornar um falante avançado de espanhol, em particular em sotaques mais difíceis, como o porto riquinho (nem parece mais espanhol kkkkkkk)!

[@Celestina0]

It's weird because the pleausure comes from understanding something in a language that is alien to you, so the sweetspot is being in that intermediate stage where the language is still relatively new, but you can understand a good amount of it, not a later stage where you're comfortable and familiar with it.

[@Derek33UK]

Everytime I look at this channel I get the much needed reminder that I am completely half assing my attempts at learning a language.

[@languagejones6784]

It’s my own reminder to myself 😂

[@thehighpriestess8431]

I relate to that. Spanish is my mother tongue 👅 and I also half @ss it. It’s ok. Just keep on going.

[@paulwalther5237]

Language notebook. A written record of everything you tried to remember but forgot. 😂

[@totally_not_a_bot]

​@@falaleiaThey give you a chance to codify your knowledge in your voice. Write it, study it, use it. If you take your notes in your target language it gives you a chance to go back later and laugh at your sloppy grammar, and that also forces you to learn how to structure your thoughts.

[@momhouser]

Was watching Hotel Del Luna (호텔 델루나) on Netflix with subtitles, and I suddenly felt the urge to be able to *hear* the words being spoken instead of just a string of incomprehensible sounds. 3 years later and I can understand maybe 10% of dialog on a good day (more often less), but I'm stretching my old brain and making slow slow progress while loving every minute. One of my first words was: 고양이, cat, kitty...which a little girl called the ghost tiger. I got the joke!!

[@JustAnotherNameYo]

Hotel del Luna was so good. I hope to rewatch it one day and understand most of what I hearing. 🤞🏽

[@thehighpriestess8431]

Exactly the same reason I want to learn Korean.

[@ScouseJazmin]

I was watching Cdramas and started recognising some Mandarin from words that got repeated over and over again. Outside of words like "I", the most common words were "dead" and "soulmate". Very on theme 😂

[@ultraprincesskenny6790]

Every single time I've tried flashcards, I got burnt out and dropped what I was learning. They're not for me. I'm saying this in case anyone else sees this and has a similar struggle. What I started doing instead is just interacting with media in the target language, and when I see a word I can't remember or don't recognize I look it up, try to create a mnemonic, and sometimes make the flashcard.

[@whotyjones]

Sounds like you've found a way that flashcards work for you! 😃I've found that I prefer to have lots of flashcards that have different examples of word usage that follow a similar structure, e.g. having a flashcard for just the verb as well as a separate flashcard for using it for he/she/it, I, you, we, etc. It creates a lot of cards, but I get a lot of repetition in without it taking a lot of time when I'm reviewing since they're similar and not feeling like I'm struggling to remember something too complicated or just not remembering something because I've only seen it on a single flashcard a month ago

[@dawnkeyy]

Flashcards, used for spaced repetition, if you don't burn out, are probably the most time effective way to learn things in general. But if it's learning suboptimally without them or not learning at all, the choice is clear

[@SirTipsi]

​​@@falaleia hmm, as a person with ADD, when I get a hyperfocus I tend to enjoy every aspect of a certain activity. Right now my hyperfocus is learning Japanese, so I find Anki and even reading textbooks extremely enjoyable. Anything that helps me improve in whatever hobby I'm currently doing, gives me a huge dopamine release. However, this usually isn't sustainable and language learning is a long journey. I hope I can get to a point of enjoyable comprehensible input before the hyperfocus stops. At which point you're spot on, I need something that isn't boring to me in general. A result of my ADD is being great in a ton of different seemingly strange hobbies/interests, but I never manage to keep one going long enough until mastery..

[@chettlar212]

Yeah this occured to me when I realized how many people from foreign countries end up learning English. In many countries they are required to take English, but well, one, not all countries do that and two, the US has basically everyone "take Spanish" but the lack of widespread ability kinda demonstrates how that doesn't necessarily guarantee anything. Instead when I read accounts from people it's often they learn English by just consuming American media.

[@scartyz762]

When I first started studying Russian, I tried to create a flashcard for every word I couldn't remember. Couldn't keep it up, it is just plain boring and annoying. I just don't use flashcards but I love trying to incorporate it into my life, so I try to think in Russian. Learning with flashcards is very effective but I find it so boring that it actually for some time made me procrastinate on studying Russian. I still make flashcards whatever words I couldn't remember at any time while talking to myself. I actually love sitting down and basically consuming a textbook more than creating flashcards and I believe I can recall when I learn from them much better, probably because I have fun while studying this way.

[@charleslee1373]

The advice I would add when looking for resources. First check if the University of Texas at Austin has produced a free, open source beginner's textbook with video, audio and interactive grammar and vocab exercises, because it is likely that they have! The UT languages department is legit and the university is intriguingly not interested in making money. They make great resources and then put it online for free. The first two semesters of Persian (the UT Persian program is one of the best in the world) is entirely available for free online on their website. I teach college-level French and use their French materials for my beginners classes. Students get free access to materials and it's good quality. (I do not work for UT, just blown away by their magnanimity).

[@charleslee1373]

Adding: the French platform is called Français interactif and includes literally hours and hours of audio and video and is meant to get you to roughly B1. Their Persian program is called Persian of Iran Today

[@cybear227]

@@charleslee1373 Thanks, I'll check it out.

[@evercuriousmichelle]

I love UT Austin’s Tex’s French Grammar!! That cute armadillo single-handedly taught me most of the grammar because my French teacher was not very good! Do they have something similar in Italian?

[@SimpleTitle]

I want to learn/am learning Basque to be able to speak with my fiance. She's from the basque country but since moving away she virtually never speaks it. I learned a lot last June, challenging myself to learn as much as I could in 4 weeks (since she came at the end of the month) to surprise her. How I found this channel, actually. Since then, because life and illness, I hadn't been able to sit down and study without getting headaches. But I haven't lost sight of my goal. I want her to never lose that part of home, no matter how far away she travels. The surprise worked, btw, and she was very happy :)

[@GhastlessGibus]

God speed my friend, i have complete faith in you!

[@alguien908]

Zorionak! Basque is an amazing language I've been learning for a year after having lived in EH for 7 years

[@allisonguthrie8257]

Trying to learn a critically endangered indigenous language (from my own nation, Métis/Michif), with limited resources and incompletely documented/recorded. It’s really hard. Hard to keep up motivation when it feels futile. But trying to keep putting in the hours despite being a busy and overworked grad student by day. My goal is fluency, eventually, but with opportunities for immersion limited, that might not happen in my lifetime. More feasible goal is to learn enough of the fundamental language foundations to raise kids who grow up knowing those brutally complicated conjugation tables instinctively/naturally by being raised with it instead of having to memorize them, who could go on to learn more and speak it if they choose to.

[@fleurgoldschmidt8497]

I'm also trying to learn a critically endangered language (Yéddisch-Daïtsch, spoken by Jewish people in Alsace, a region in the east of France) and with so few resources its a lot of hard work and its hard to stay motivated but I know that most of the remaining speakers being in their late 70s at the youngest and I just can't let the language die with them

[@sashamacdonald4278]

Go to your local library, every Canadian library I've been to in the last 20 years has classes or other resources for those looking to learn the language of local aboriginal peoples. also, it may be worth getting into contact with a reservation band if your local library isn't the right language or is light on resources.

[@allisonguthrie8257]

@@sashamacdonald4278 hey thanks I appreciate the thought, but I’ve gotten pretty involved in the Southern Michif language community and unfortunately I’m pretty familiar already with all the limited learning resources that are available to date, although ongoing work continues to create more. I do take a class, on zoom. Unfortunately there are very few speakers or qualified teachers of the language, none in my area, as it’s a very critically endangered language. It’s a Métis language, so there are no reservations or band councils, but there are some Métis-led nonprofit orgs doing really great work. Regardless, I appreciate the sentiment.

[@craigbernthal307]

I just enjoy learning languages. I also practice the piano. I'm 72, relatively free of the need to do things for any special reason, and American news these days is so depressing, I can't take much of that. I've got time, dude. so why not?

[@mynamejefffffff]

i have been learning mandarin chinese by myself ever since i was 15 (i'm 20 now) and i swear by (mostly) everything you said! i wanted to be able to understand native material depicting real life converations asap, since i like many chinese celebrities. i used hsk 2.0 as a guide but since i have adhd it's hard for me to turn the words into flashcards and actually review them, so i instead looked for example sentences and tried coming up with scenarios in which you could use that word. like i said, i like chinese celebrities, so i also looked up words i didnt know that showed up often in songs or cdramas i began my reading journey with fanfiction (lol) but soon moved on to books and (mainly) online news outlets i did not practice speaking !! it was the pandemic and i was too awkward to meet natives online and too broke to get lessons. my town doesn't have a big immigrant community, but i was able to meet a family that moved here from taiwan and i could actually communicate with them, to my surprise overall what i think is most important is tailoring these guidelines to your needs and *likes*, because you won't stick to something you find boring

[@languagejones6784]

加油！

[@hijackbyejack1729]

I would be interested in a video that goes into depth about how you structure your anki cards and how you use it.

[@languagejones6784]

I was doing this for a while in the livestreams. Ideal card has English word and image on one side, target language and audio on the other. Doesn’t have to be a word, but I find full sentences are too much, and cloze deletion doesn’t really do much for me, at least at first. Less than ideal is no audio, or no picture, or both.

[@hijackbyejack1729]

@@languagejones6784 cool, thanks for answering

[@TimmyRiordan]

@@languagejones6784 Any thoughts, (pros, cons, etc. . . ), on Wyner's (Fluent Forever) suggestion for only using a target language in an Anki deck? His stuff has worked reasonably well for me as I've learned Greek; curious about your thoughts.

[@genevaconventionsviolator3994]

I've been learning japanese by myself for a number of years now, and have put a lot of this advice to work. All I have to say is I would probably be a way better speaker if I knew about and implemented the pieces of advice I didn't know about LOL

[@languagejones6784]

Me too, as I learned these I realized how much time I had wasted

[@bryan143]

There is another resource not mentioned that is excellent for speaking and listening comprehension: conversation groups that you can find on Meetup, in community centers, etc. They are either free or very low cost. Often native speakers show up. I participate in 4 or 5 French conversation groups that meet once a week. You get everything: feedback, practice in the real presence of someone, and, as a bonus, you can make friends who share your interest. I find this the most helpful and enjoyable thing I do. It’s also good prep before traveling to a francophone country. Even Québec.😉

[@Zeshan-u9t]

Thanks for taking the time to help us langauge house md!

[@languagejones6784]

I don’t see it, but I still appreciate that you do 😂

[@irgendwieanders2121]

@@languagejones6784 Look at the "polyglots" video again? I totally see it...

[@KeolaDonaghy]

Aloha Taylor. I've been doing self-study of te reo Māori off and on for about four years, though, as you note, my reading and listening are far beyond my speaking and, to a lesser degree, writing. I started working on Tahitian earlier this year as I'm going to be doing some research in both locations next year in addition trying to immerse in the languages. So that's the motivation. I highly proficient with Hawaiian (30+ years with many years working in a Hawaiian language environment. All three languages are closely related 70% cognates, closely related grammatical structures and cultural elements. There are many amazing resources for Māori, a bit less but still significant resources for Hawaiian, and far less for Tahitian (especially in English). Your videos, particularly this one, have really rekindled the fire after a few months away from study. Mahalo!

[@JemRochelle]

I'm learning Modern Standard Arabic with Duolingo, and I have been keeping a journal of everything I learn. It's literally the only way I can remember anything 😂

[@EofMast]

I'm using duo to try and get some of the writing down but I wanted to learn egyptian arabic specifically which they don't have. Pimsleur has 1 course of 30 sessions and some other notecard stuff. I've been using other KZbin videos as well. If you have a specific goal on where you would be using the language I would look into that specific dialect though.

[@jeremiahreilly9739]

Another great video. Thanks. Two things I've found very helpful: (1) Every now and then transcribe something you are listening to. Sort of like doing a dictée in French. At first this might be very hard. But nothing, I mean nothing, improves your aural comprehension as much as transcribing what you are hearing. Ideally, transcribe something which has the text available. I employed this learning technique after moving to German speaking Switzerland. My reading and writing skills were decent. I could speak well enough to express my thoughts. I couldn't understand one word. So I spent a year listening to podcast, watching videos in German, movies, shows, news, etc.-and transcribing. I can now transcribe anything I hear in German, even if I don't understand one word. Listening is a skill and you can sharpen this skill on the whetstone of transcription. (2) Read or listen to all sorts of material, not just the same stuff. If you listen to weather reports, you will get good at weather reports. Won't help you much when you have to report a broken appliance in your apartment to your landlord. In particular, I recently started working through a book to prep German students for high school (Sicher ins Gymnasium). I find this absolutely wonderful, because I did not go to grammar school or high school in Germany. The prep book has all kinds of vocabulary and readings which are filling gaps in my German literacy.

[@gorcrow]

What a cunning linguist you are! Fascinating. I've been teaching myself Russian, poorly, for the past 6 or so years. I think I finally have the alphabet down! :D

[@int_i]

хорош

[@dailydoseofeverything7141]

"cunning linguist"🤨

[@RogerRamos1993]

After years learning other languages and occasionally seeing the Cyrillic alphabet, this year I started learning Russian on Duolingo and found out I knew almost all of the alphabet.

[@Jessica-oy8zs]

I learn Russian as well! I started off learning the alphabet with a Russian alphabet kids video I saw on KZbin! I also have a picture dictionary that is connected to an app where I can listen to the pronunciation if I’m unsure. Additionally, I made a Russian music playlist! With perseverance you can. Even with all that I still have a very, very long way to go! Wishing you well!

[@RogerRamos1993]

@@Jessica-oy8zs Are you Brazilian by any chance? We could have conversations to practice if you want.

[@MathAdam]

I’m working on Latin. I’d like to be able to read it for understanding. I also use it for prayers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that people are actually learning to communicate in it.

[@pxolqopt3597]

I would love to learn Latin and in fact I tried but I found it just wasn't feasible for me to learn a language from scratch while not yet a high enough level in my other one 😢

[@c.y.i.didnt.change.my.handle]

I want to be able to ring up a customer in Spanish. Like, it’s a black coffee. I shouldn’t need to get someone else to understand that…..but also I’m not going to be in this job forever. No idea what my motivation will be when i have a desk job (where a native speaker will just be so much of a better choice than me) but i definitely want to keep learning.

[@languagejones6784]

That’s an imminently doable goal. Follow up is small talk (“how’s your day going?” “Good to see you again, the usual?”)

[@sovietbear1917]

My wife and I are learning Spanish because we plan on retiring to a Spanish0speaking country in 10 years. We're being somewhat leisurely about it because we have time, but we have a lot of Spanish-speakers in the area so we can practice as we go.

[@ccsvenezuela2006]

Bien, buena suerte.

[@languagejones6784]

That’s delightful! Enjoy!

[@akali83]

I discovered this channel about two days ago, and I think it's now one of my favourite channels! I decided to learn spanish a few months ago after a trip. But I had to stop because of health issues taking their toll. I've been so demoralised to start up again, but I like this small, manageable study plan.

[@PopLadd]

9:23 This is what I've been unintentionally doing. While learning Japanese, I was taught that the kanji for "country" can be read as "kuni" or "koku", and the mnemonic I immediately came up with is "Mr. Kuni is smuggling 50 kilos of 'coku' into the country".

[@Kenoticrunner]

Yes: I've learned French to the B2 level (generally considered as "fluent") since the pandemic using LingQ (assisted reading, daily streak keeping, and objective progress metrics), iTalki (conversation and pronunciation feedback), Lingoda (written lesson prep, grammar, cultural formation, and objective progress metrics), Babbel (spaced repetition and daily streak keeping), KZbin (language, cultural and random personal interest podcasts and videos), Netflix (series / simple entertainment), Language Reactor (assisted viewing and listening), Spotify (music), Audible (books), many news websites, ChatGPT (translation and writing correction), and only a few dozen actual face-to-face hours. I don't journal and throw away writing after first use. I don't do flashcards and let the tools and language itself even take care of spaced repetition. I recently went to France and few switched to English. All of these tools are very mature for English, German, and the primary romance languages.

[@NeonBeeCat]

Ive been learning Russian by myself and with the help of native speakers on discord for the past few months, progress is slow but I'm making progress at least! (Also i love how the shabbat is like a free digital detox!)

[@languagejones6784]

It’s funny, if I say I do a weekly digital detox and make a point of eating ethically slaughtered or just vegetarian, people love it. Mention Shabbat and kashrut, though… 😂 😭

[@ArcticMouse]

I've been learning Russian by playing pony town

[@reilandeubank]

Honestly, I just booked a trip to japan in 8 months and have always found their culture fascinating, and have begun to love it even more after watching lots of "Life Where I'm From" here on KZbin. I have been on/off with french since I finished my 5 years of french classes in high school, and I'm ready to mix it up a bit! I really am not worried about getting to a specific level of proficiency because Tokyo and the other large cities are so accessible to non-Japanese speakers, but I think it would be cool to teach this to myself and maybe be able to hold a short conversation (or even just order food) without resorting to pointing or Google Translate

[@SimonRGates]

I started learning Japanese because of a translator's comment in something I read, something along the lines of "This conversation isn't really translatable but this is what's going on". "Aha!" I thought, "If I learn japanese then I will understand that." A few years down the line and I'm not yet that good, but I am now able to read simpler things like Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, sorry, 村上のねじまき鳥クロニクル without too much struggle.

[@benjaminfunk168]

I had a very similar trigger for learning Japanese. I read two different English translations of the same Japanese manga and noticed quite a few differences between them. I remember thinking "which is more correct" before getting the idea that maybe neither quite captured the nuances correctly because there wasn't an English language equivalent. That made me want to be able to read (and later, listen) to the original Japanese without a translation.

[@SimonRGates]

@@benjaminfunk168 Yeah, the more I got into Japanese the more I realized how variable the translations were. TBH, if I'd known anything about the language before I started, I probably wouldn't have, but ignorance of the difficulty, needing a hobby, and being stuck in the house because of lockdowns got me over the initial horror.

[@languagejones6784]

That is awesome!

[@Bgmutza]

Several years ago, I returned from my first visit to Paris and swore that I would speak French when I returned. After 4 years of grinding Duo and watching lots of YT videos, I returned to France and spoke nothing but French for the entire trip. But I was burnt out when I returned and quit for at least a year. Now, I’m back at it with a new goal. My wife and I want to buy a small home in rural France in 3 years and I want to be able to converse and understand spoken French much better. I know I need far more speaking and learning practice than the owl can give, so I took the leap to sign up for italki. The next leap of faith will be to step out and risk practicing and feeling foolish with a native speaker. So, that’s my motivation: not feel like a complete idiot and unable to communicate with my neighbors in France!

[@laachax9279]

I'm on the adhd struggle bus real hard so I have a very very weird study schedule. Because of my work I can listen to an utterly ridiculous amount of audio. So I do something like 4 hours (Or even more!!) generally podcasts marked towards learners, but i have downloaded a ton of native material when I feel confident. And then I try to do a pomodoro or two worth of anki style learning. Recently I realized I should read out loud everything and it's actually helped tremendously. It feels insanely embarrassing and I'm still working on getting over it but when you do it feels crazy good to realize how fast you can talk the sentences.

[@jonnyreinhardt1961]

I’m learning Spanish because I live and work in Philly where a third or so of the people primarily speak it, and 80% of the people I interact with do. I’m pretty good at the 15 same sentences I need until I run into someone that has a slightly different problem lol

[@JayFLopez]

Ive been learning Nawat and K'iche', the languages of my ancestors! These tips are gonna be so useful! Gracias, payush, and maltyox!

[@EthanHurley]

My original motivation for learning Japanese was because I was really interested in the culture, especially the hierarchy between others expressed in the language. But when I went to college, my reason for learning Chinese was so that if I knew both Japanese AND Chinese, I would have a little more job security. I started learning Korean because I wanted to connect to my first friend in college a bit more. Eventually my reasons for continuing learning these languages weren’t there, but now my only reason for upkeeping them to a degree is to stop the emotional distress that comes from not being able to communicate properly with a friend I made THROUGH said language, or having learned a language to a pretty proficient level in a short time, and then seemingly have nothing to show for it.

[@Bucolick]

Oh wow: 11:10 I’ve never heard the term “spatial memory”, but in classic rejection of Sapir Whorf, this concept has affected my learning life so much for decades . It’s why Anki and uniform size flash cards have never worked for me at all, but a paper scrap book with bits of random paper and stuck in it does.

[@ailblentyn]

Thanks for this video. I’m helping my 13-year-old son with his goal of learning some Modern Greek, and some of these tips are useful.

[@languagejones6784]

That’s great; I’m glad it was helpful

[@BigDaddyDracula]

Now I’m so interested in the program you’re contractually obligated not to mention. Also to answer your question: within the last few years I’ve gotten back into singing opera and want to learn Italian not only to better understand what I’m singing but also to understand the Italian school of vocal instruction and the wealth of videos and literature about it

[@languagejones6784]

It’s just an italki competitor. I’m actually not a fan, but you do you

[@snix8242]

This is so perfectly timed I think it's a sign, yesterday I started my journey learning german by myself and this video is extremely helpful to start on the right track. I will implement all the tips you mentioned, thanks so much and greetings from Spain!

[@AndreaBelli-u8f]

I feel like the best way to learn a language by yourself is to search for the quickest path to start reading native content. I had some surprisingly great results by going extremely vertical on certain topics. It’s a way to limit the amount of vocabulary you might encounter and you just focus on comprehension and putting everything together. The best sentences are always those where you can read and understand about 80/90% of it and sort of infer the rest from context. Trying to make predictions about the meaning of a sentence has been probably the most effective way to get fluent in another language for me.

[@karamia1392]

Motivation…. My son in law is a wonderful guy from Punjab and wants my grandkids to speak Punjabi as a second language. It will help if I learn Punjabi so that I can assist to reinforce that learning. Would also love to be able to converse in Punjabi with my son-in-law’s mum . 😊

[@languagejones6784]

That is awesome! It’s distantly related to English so I always find figuring out the relationships fun

[@karamia1392]

@@languagejones6784 it’s incredibly fascinating the old P-I-E. The etymology of ‘mead’ is one of thousands of examples ♥️

[@JustAnotherNameYo]

You are such an awesome grandma!

[@karamia1392]

@@JustAnotherNameYo thanks sweetie. ♥️

[@ToastbackWhale]

An incredibly wholesome goal!

[@coolbrotherf127]

I'm glad that the Japanese language learning community has some great resources and helpful community. I made a lot of progress shadowing and using Anki to get me out of the beginning phase. Every day I would learn some grammar and a few new words then just immerse trying to use what I had just learned. When I got to the intermediate phase I started interacting with Japanese people online especially in video games so I had plenty of options to practice speaking listening without having to hire private tutors.

[@beck7610]

Since starting school again, I've been really lagging behind on my russian practice. I think waking up earlier and doing at least one lesson would be a good idea. I bought the whole russian course on babbel on sale like a year ago, so i have lessons ready for me whenever i want. I like their russian course a lot. It's not perfect, obviously, but i love that they provide both pronunciation tips and tidbits about russian culture(like how a traffic jam is called пробка(lit. cork)). Initially, i started learning on duolingo because i thought it just sounded really cool, and i listened to a lot of music in russian, Ukrainian, etc. I'm super thankful to have a friend who majors in eastern European and slavic studies, so they know a lot more of the language than i do, and they're happy to help me with words and phrases i struggle with.

[@ginabee1212]

I have a Duolingo notebook very similar to this!! When I don’t have access to my notebook, I do a screenshot and make notes directly on that screenshot. I have learned a bit of Russian like this. I would probably have learned more by now, but I haven't been very consistent in writing in my little notebook. I have been using mostly Duolingo because it teaches me new vocabulary and reinforces some basic grammar. I use Pimsleur when I want to start learning a language, and it gives me an amazing jumpstart to hearing and speaking.

[@fernandoteitelbaum]

Excellent vid. I've been doing this for hebrew in the last months, it's been working fine!

[@languagejones6784]

מזל טוב ובהצלחה!

[@akushuki]

I absolutely love italki and the tutors I have on it. So far, italian, neapolitan, and korean. I recommend it to everyone that tells me they want to learn a language. Its an amazing service to connect you to some amazing tutors. Their main competitor doesnt pay the tutors for the first lesson and takes a larger cut, so I agree with you, respect your tutors and use the better service for them and you. Flash cards dont work well for me, it might just be a patience issue. However, I find writing stories, finding the vocab, and then speaking or sharing the text with my tutors (basically corrected homework) helps me retain vocabulary. If I write a story about going to the movies with my fiancee, where we sat, and the comfy chairs and snacks, then suddenly I learned a lot of vocabulary in context. The review of the story gives feedback on all my mistakes in context. And I just reread the story a few times when I dont quite remember it all. Basically spaced repetition but on subjects I wrote in context. I also find this helps me learn all the words that I would use most commonly as well; so it doubles as sort of a natural way to find words and verbs that are the most common without again, having to just memorize a 500 most used verbs book.

[@maxierose564]

I started using italki after I saw a different video of yours recommending it. I love it! I’ve got adhd (and maybe mild dyslexia, assessors of my French keep asking if I am), and having a tutor makes things so much better. Growing up in various Canadian provinces means my French education was a nightmare and I never got a decent grammar baseline. Directly tutoring makes a huge difference

[@RamenLlama]

I've watched a handful of your videos this morning and I am subscribing. You offer great advice and encourage healthy discussion. also you're very handsome

[@ChikaAlphonsus]

Started learning swedish my self and was able to say certain words and understand in the fiirst month. and seen much results. daily 2hrs makes its better

[@ITNoetic]

I've been learning Japanese on and off for a few years. The most progress I made came after I started following a process called Refold. In short, you start off learning the most common 1k words plus basic daily grammar practice, then transition to studying sentences from shows you're watching, and that's pretty much it.

[@ingvarmayer8947]

It’s true that learning the most common words is a good approach for maximizing understanding but, to be honest, after learning just a thousand words, a learner would have to look up way too much information so it’s not really comprehensive at that point, unless you approach consuming content as byte-sized learning or watch content for kids

[@ITNoetic]

@@ingvarmayer8947 there's more to the process than what I said. The initial 1k words is so that you have some kind of base to build upon. Once you've learned those, instead of simply adding thousands more vocabulary cards to your deck, you start watching shows in your target language. While doing this, you will have target language subtitles, as well. You watch the show, people say stuff, then you pause and read the subtitles, looking up any words you don't know. If you have a proper setup, it's as easy as clicking on the subtitles to have the definitions pop up. And if you want to save that sentence as a new flash card, you double click, and it automatically saves a screenshot, audio matching the subtitle's timing, and the current subtitle into a new card with the word you clicked on the front and the example sentence from your show on the back. That way, you have 3 channels to use to encode the context of the word you're trying to learn, which makes the vocab much easier to acquire and retain than simply drilling vocab on its own. Part of the Refold method is to try to keep vocab example sentences as close to i+1 as possible. Another aspect of this is limiting the domain of shows you watch to be simple slice of life things, as that's where nearly all of the top 1k words would come from. Yet another is to try to watch shows you've already seen, or already know the plot to from reading spoilers ahead of time. The goal is to increase comprehension to facilitate acquisition.

[@beirne]

The thing I like about getting a teacher or tutor from italki is I can learn what I want and need to learn. This makes the process more engaging and useful. For example, I know Polish vocabulary about bicycling, which I do, but little about train stations, which is standard textbook fare I don't need.

[@shutterchick79]

But you might need that vocabulary if you ever go there...

[@beirne]

@@shutterchick79 I've already been there and I don't expect to go back so I'm prioritizing my vocabulary to what interests me. If I was planning on going Poland my priorities would be different

[@zipbangcrash]

Good! You have reinforced for me that the methods I've been using ARE helping! I'm doing all these things (at varying levels of intensity) on my own the last couple of years and I have been thrilled at the progress I've made. Yay me, I know. 🎉

[@-TanSo-]

I've started learing Japanese a little less than 3 years ago, and I didn't even have a specific reason other than "This writing isn't a script, it's artwork!" or "This sounds so different from my mother tongue, how do they communicate?". I rather learned to love the language by spending time studying it. Now I could name a ton of reasons why I should keep studying it. Sometimes you find it all along the way, which is a great anology to the saying of the journey being the goal =) I can also encourage everyone to keep making physical notes and stuff instead of just keeping everything on the phone. It is an amazing feeling lifting your 5000+ flashcard box knowing that you memorized them all

[@qedcats867]

I wish you had done this video 2 yrs ago when I embarked on learning Ukrainian by myself. (Motivation was the war and attempting to learn a Slavic language for fun.) So much of what you recommend, I discovered painfully slowly on my own. But you did have a couple of new ideas for me and you confirmed what I am doing. Дякую!

[@ingvarmayer8947]

Успіхів з вивченням української мови! Це важко, але це дуже гарна мова і кожен українець та українка надзвичайно радітиме тому, що ви вирішили вчити українську :)

[@qedcats867]

@@ingvarmayer8947 Дякую. Мені подобається виклик.

[@HonestEmillHead]

I learn english mostly by myself but didnt put much effort into it so i learn it passively with the years and im still far away from fluid level of speaking, now im learning japanese and im really studing it to not make the same mistake again so i would say is possible to learn a lenguage by ya ur self but you have to make it work put effort in it.

[@InsertCoffeeHere__]

I enjoy linguistics! I like learning how a language works and the frame of mind or perspective native speakers of that language have and how they view the world. It’s for this reason I often abandon ship before reaching a true level of comfort in a target language before moving on to another language.

[@TheRedOGRE]

I've been learning Japanese for 62 days. I feel like my progress is going great. I have a lot of spare time (not working) so im studying for 4+ hours a day. I've learned hiragana, katakana and 100 kanji. I'm using anki and doing about 300 flashcards a day. I"m practising reading and writing for a short period every day. I've ordered some textbooks and am using a couple language apps. Setting goals and telling others is definitely a good thing. Short term goals. Long term goals. Having something concrete to work towards is good. I'm really motivated and having fun while doing it. Good luck to everyone reading this on their language journeys.　僕は毎日日本語を勉強します。がんばってみんな。行くぞ！

[@joshlawrence8091]

I’m commenting because you’re very honest about comments feeding the algorithm and thus promoting the video instead of some cheesy call to action. I like that, so here I am

[@DaneA-x3m]

I like the flash cards idea as I am a more visual person, thanks for the tip. I am moving to Spain to live in one or two years time.

[@cybernator5000]

Something you mentioned briefly is doing activities such as playing a game in your target language and i cannot endorse that more. I am learning German and i am currently playing through the first Phoenix Wright game and not only is it a great source for 100% conversational language (with some legal jargon thrown in), unlike a book there is also a real call to action: you need to understand what is being said in order to properly proceed. Sometimes even in the minute details of the conversation. Huge recommendation. Also, בהצלחה בלימודי העברית שלך!

[@Celestina0]

that's genius actually... the pressure of having to understand without a native speaker there waiting impatiently for you to come up with something

[@katem5077]

Motivation is pretty vague, the idea that I'll go to Israel and have convos. I love that English speakers have no idea what I am saying to my husband (also learning). So deep smugness is my motivation. It is very difficult to know which beginner resource is good for you. Understanding that price does not equal success is good. Paying attention to metaliguistics, allow fun but don't fool yourself some bits will be hard graft. Love this vid :)

[@languagejones6784]

Literally no English speakers can even place Hebrew, let alone understand it. It’s wild! I do a (mostly) weekly livestream on Sundays where I’ve been working though the routledge colloquial Hebrew (which is…okay), and I feel you on the struggle with resources. Piece of Hebrew on KZbin is great, Rosetta Stone has some bizarrely good videos on KZbin as well. And honestly, duolingo combined with note taking, anki, Wiktionary for nouns and adjectives and pealim dot com for verbs has been pretty solid

[@SimpleTitle]

As a guy marrying a lady from the Basque country, I sympathize with that motivation to a ridiculous degree.

[@chrysshart]

I've been working on French through Duolingo for almost a year now because it's the language my son chose for his high school credits and I thought it would be fun to support him in that. I've made it to Section 4, Unit 27 (French level 43) and I'm really enjoying it. As you noted, I'm doing a lot of self-talk and narrating in French and my son and I even text each other in it sometimes. Obviously this isn't indicative of any real skill or ability to communicate with native speakers, but I can understand Tweets and short videos I see fairly well. Since my goal is just the fun of learning, I think this approach works for me. XD

[@ZackIsCody2024]

My journey to learn Japanese has only just begun, and thanks to this video I feel like the path across the jungle floor is easier to see As with all things in my life, food is my greatest motivation and Ramen alone is my motivation to learn Japanese. A buddy and me want to go on a ramen tour of Tokyo one day and I can’t describe Heaven more accurately than that

[@languagejones6784]

Oh man Japanese has an additional cultural element of indirect communication and “reading the air”. Good luck, and stay motivated!

[@languagejones6784]

Also, having had lots of ramen in Tokyo, you are completely correct. I’m so excited for you!

[@ZackIsCody2024]

@@languagejones6784 Much appreciated Dr. Jones! Keep making KZbin a smarter and more connected place!

[@wombatkins]

​@@languagejones6784 yeah you can only understand after much time spent observing Japanese behavior and reading. My italki teacher is so good at helping me.

[@OliviaH-d9j]

Thank you for the great advice

[@borscht7743]

i love you, keep making content please.

[@Coadytnp]

Nice! I get the feeling this is a response to a small youtuber who was critical of you, or it came out at a good time to accidentally reply to him. This is a solid video with solid steps. Thanks for sharing.

[@languagejones6784]

If you’re thinking about someone who was all over my “how to spot a fraud” with “hey, that’s me!” It’s just coincidence. I’ve been trying a new strategy of balancing out what kinds of videos I do in a month, and filming them all in batches - this was filmed at the same time as the other

[@Coadytnp]

@@languagejones6784 I haven't read those comments, I went back and checked on that video and didn't see him, I'll leave the link. He is criticizing the video of yours you referenced. Oddly this video (yours) seems to clap back at nearly every one of his points. Great anticipation! kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4PMkHSdqbqmiZIsi=PDXFD86R-e2fjZNh

[@maureenwoodhams9110]

Spanish. I like the sound of it, and hope to travel and live there for a few months in 3 years. (60th birthday present to myself.)

[@Spirit_ghsuwb]

I’ve tried to learn how to speak Tagalog. But never have to right resources and motivation to learn it. Thank you for the advice! My goal here for this language is to fit in with my people when I get older and never have the fear to be speechless.

[@Vicky19463]

You have definitely persuaded me to give Anki another go! I have also been struggling with coming up with a successful study plan so your suggestions were also very helpful. Many thanks for this video. Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱

[@willgibson7478]

Thanks for the study plan! It addresses my biggest roadblock in learning Spanish so far; lack of structure.

[@noelleggett5368]

I love silly mnemonics... Whenever I think of the French word for 'rubber' (caoutchouc) /kautʃu/ I think of a cow chewing rubber - but 'chewing 'gomme'' for the eraser (rubber) on the end of my pencil. In Irish Gaelic, I think of running outside (amach) /əmax/ and going crazy. In Irish, too, 'marcaigh capall' /marəki: kapəL/ (ride a horse) sounds so much like what it means, it's almost onomatopoeic! For a lot of European languages - including English, I find understanding the origin of a word often helps. (There are a bunch masculine words in Italian and Spanish ending in -a that have a Greek origin.)

[@FumblingTowardsFluency]

I’ll try implementing some of these tips, I’ve just been bouncing around with my attempts at Korean for way too long. I started this channel to be accountable and document my progress, but nothing posted as of yet…I can only progress and move forward from here!

[@modalmixture]

After studying Portuguese intensively about ten years ago, I got good, but never quite surmounted the high intermediate plateau. So this year I’ve been back at it on a high-input diet, plus some weekly conversation on italki. Not only is there way more content now, but I am amazed by the new generation of teachers who are finding creative ways to make engaging with the language fun and social. Some are making comprehensible input videos and podcasts, some are doing livestreams, movie nights, gaming streams (eg let’s play The Sims and learn household vocab), etc. Being able to leverage my KZbin/podcast addiction for language learning has been nice, but I really need to get more systematized with a schedule like you recommend. At this level, it’s hard to feel like you’re making progress. The input has definitely helped my comprehension, but it has diminishing returns for output. I’m finding I need to do a lot of writing, monologuing, and italki sessions to notice where all the gaps in my output abilities are.

[@s1nd3rr0z3]

Ich hab angefangen Deutsch zu lernen vor mehr als zwei oder drei Jahre, und ich hatte viele Motivierungen als ich hab entschieden zu lernen. Ich glaube das die primäre Motivierung war Gedichte zu lesen und klassische Lieder zu verstehen in der Sprache, und auch einfach weil ich wollte eine andere Sprache zu lernen und Deutsch scheint mir leichter als Spanisch wegen der Romanische Konjugation. Ich kann noch mit einem Mittelniveau, hauptsächlich weil ich finde neuen Wortschatz schwer zu lernen.

[@irgendwieanders2121]

Lesen, lesen, lesen 🙂 (Meine Mutter war Polin, drum die Frage: Kommen Sie aus einer slawische Sprache? Manche Satzstellungen lassen mich das glauben...)

[@s1nd3rr0z3]

@@irgendwieanders2121 Nein, ich bin ne Amerikanerin! Manchmal wenn ich versuchen mit einer "Deutscherer" Satzstellung zu schreiben, es stellt sich als ein bisschen komisch heraus

[@irgendwieanders2121]

@@s1nd3rr0z3 Was mir im Englischen geholfen hat war lesen, lesen, lesen... Und so schlimm war die Satzstellung nicht, ein Wortpaar austauschen (es stellt) und es wäre perfekt ;-)

[@MaestroBaldone]

Motivation for my current languages: Love, friendship, one just for fun as it is relatively easy and sounds cool, and finally one for work as I get paid to do it. The one for love and friendship are the hardest but my motivation is intense even without seeing any meaningful progress (yet).

[@squallrulz20]

My goal is to be able to move to Japan in 8 years, be able to work in strength and conditioning or exercise recovery. Ideally sport around baseball, dont care about level, would be fine with school, semi or pro level development. Or possibly some research. Currently doing sports science degree in Australia and currently reading through primary-high school science/physics/chem/medical material to get used to terminology I have not interacted with from previous language study. My reading is ok, my production barely exists though because I just never use it, so I will be using my 5 month breaks at the end of the year to focus on production and immersion. As an edit to this, one thing that made my learning is easier was giving up trying to memorize kanji in an isolated context or in example sentences and just looking them up while I am reading content. This was especially helpful because I was exposed to them multiple times through the content while reading it and could then associate their meaning with pre-learned and concepts.

[@seanyouknowwho798]

I found many of what you said are true but unfortunately it took me 20 or more years to figure them out learning Spanish. Your video will save many people two decades of wasted time 😂😂 I will apply your advice when learning Portuguese (hopefully). The key takeaway is you need to be very intentional if you want to learn a language or any new skill.

[@languagejones6784]

We should start a club! The 2 decade late bloomers

[@seanyouknowwho798]

@@languagejones6784 Of course at every meeting, I would say... Back in my day, we didn't have..... 😉😉

[@Dan-vt9vk]

Thank you, Doctor Jones! My "why" is that I'm running the Amsterdam Marathon later this year and want to enjoy the weekend as much as possible. I've found a few Dutch running KZbinrs, which really helps - it's the sort of videos I would watch in English anyway. I listen to podcasts on long runs and sometimes talk to myself if nobody is around - "deze heuvel is te steil!" etc. Running and my target language are pretty nicely intertwined by now, and it's making me even more excited for the race. Elke dag gebruik ik ook "de app met de groene uil" - sorry, maar ik vind het wel leuk!

[@NElectronicSoul]

love the reference to "naughty mnemonics"! Comes direct from memory palace techniques that teach you that things that are violent, sexual or just downright absurd stick in the mind more as they are so different from the everyday scenes/images that our brains know to skip over or ignore

[@TiffanyHallmark]

My current goal language is ekpeye, my husband's tribal language. Guess what language doesn't have many resources? I'm slowly gathering things and making my own. One day I hope to be conversațional enough to be able to speak with his family entirely in ekpeye. Thank you for all of these tips

[@Tc-rn8lh]

I’ve been trying to learn German. I love how it sounds, I am interested in the culture, I would love to travel to Germany one day, and I have a German friend who I want to speak German with. My motivation is mainly my German friend because she has been helping me with my German. Although, I’ve gotten past the basics and don’t know where to start.

[@alinak.1774]

So nice you want to learn German! Our language might be complex, but I personally am always thrilled when someone shows some interest! ❤

[@Tc-rn8lh]

@@alinak.1774 I love the language! It is quite beautiful sounding. But goodness yes, it is complex at times, however, my motivation helps me out a bit with that. Haha! It is quite an intriguing language for me to learn. Thanks for commenting😊

[@AmandaMcCarterWrites]

I'm trying to get to fluency in German. I was in grad school for German a long time ago and had to drop out. I still love the language and want to be able to converse successfully with the locals the next time I visit instead of using English everywhere. I was just looking at a blank notebook the other day, trying to figure out what to do with it. Now I know.

[@therealtulip]

Kudos to you for learning Hebrew, despite the dearth of good resources. כל הכבוד! ☺️

[@eiveive]

i’m learning slovenian, bc i enjoy their music, but also bc understanding any slovenian in the wild (outside of the music) is so addictive

[@zeroeyedpete]

I’m learning Spanish to be able to communicate with the many Spanish speakers at my college and the huge Spanish speaking world I would also like to learn French and German eventually both because they are my ancestors languages and they are major world languages I’m not sure of that’s a good reason? I love how you lay out your exact schedule I’ve never seen anyone do that but have always wanted to hear exactly what steps language learners take!

[@RuthMM100]

I retired a year ago in part so I would have more time to study languages, horseback riding and drivingx and learning to sew. In short, I have a specific set of skills I want to spend at least the next five years mastering and when my brother sent me this video, I was excited. In terms of the language learning part, I was a foreign exchange student in high school back in the dark ages and studied German to the point that I've been pretty much bilingual since my early 20s. It does come and go in terms of the finer points of grammar and I do have vocab deserts where I just don't know the words because I don't live in a German speaking area but my German friends say the same is true for them and I know my English has gaps too so I don't worry too much about that. Since I want to learn a long list of languages for different purposes, I have had to develop a strategy. I figured out pretty quickly that I can only learn two languages at once and I have to spend a certain amount of time using the languages as I get better at them. I've also decided that I will focus on modern European languages first, then dead European languages of interest (Latin, Greek and Hebrew) and that is probably all the time I've got. I have played around with Korean and Kiswahili but they are both much harder and lack the kind of learning resources I need. For people like me who want to learn a number of languages, the question becomes in what sequence to begin and how to shift resources as one gets better. I decided to start with one Germanic language and one modern Romance language and my app of choice, Duolingo. Yes, I know Duo has all kinds of problems but it gives me lots of listening practice which is important for me. I started with Dutch and French. At this point, I can negotiate with border security, order food, and understand podcasts at regular speed in Dutch. The next step is to start reading the novel I bought at Schiphol last year and set up an anki file for new vocabulary. I've finished Duo for dutch. French is harder because duo doesn't do grammar very well. I need to review several options to address this problem. I do have some dual language French/German reading texts in hand. Since I have finished Duo in Dutch, I have started Swedish. Duo just revised this language and it has gotten tons better. Luckily for me I have a daughter who is a fluent speaker of Swedish and there are many Swedish language knitting resources so i can learn two things at once. My biggest question aside from just improving my learning approaches is how to learn "dead" languages? I have taken introduction to Latin and it was a real struggle. My ear for sound is better than average but my memory for spelling is way below average. Oddly, I do spell a great deal better now that I am older. No clue why. So, I will keep watching your channel and look forward to hearing what you have to say.

[@sae2705]

The recipe idea is actually a pretty good one. The tutor I had on iTalki for Vietnamese put up a cooking video to show me how to make Vietnameae spring rolls but it was all in Vietnamese & recommended me a channel to follow...which admittedly I still need to do, but that's more on my procrastination in the kitchen than my procrastination with language learning...I have different excuses for the latter.

[@billyraybar]

Thanks for advice. I have some experience using mnemonics to remember what is at first abstract, unintelligible or otherwise meaningless. Some years ago, I made a video about learning dates using the major system (it involves using a phonetic alphabet and peg words). I am not an expert, but I have read works from the great Harry Lorraine, who suggests using substitute words the tangible when trying to remember foreign vocabulary. He gives this example.: “Ventana means "window" in Spanish. You might picture a girl (one you know) whose name is Anna, throwing a vent through a closed window. If you wanted to remember the French word for window, which is "fenetre," you might picture a window eating a raw fan, or a fan eating a raw window. Fan-ate-raw-fenetre!”

[@stevewithgloves]

I am studying Latin and ancient Greek because I want to make my native French (Qc) and my English more transparent e.g. in thalassophobia, thalassa means sea in ancient Greek.

[@AveriBarten]

What: I am learning Esperanto Why: I am interested in constructed languages and find the regularity and structure appealing. As someone who is autistic, I appreciate the security that comes with learning an IAL. I think what happened to Esperanto in WWII is tragic and I feel a calling to become a speaker to honor those who died advocating for it. How: My goal is to complete all lessons on Lernu and Dualingvo within the next two months or so as a daily habit, with extra exploration during this time as I see fit. I do not have a language exchange partner of any kind and I don't know of any Esperanta TV shows, or even ones with Esperanta captions, so applying the suggested lesson plan exactly would be difficult, but I will keep those suggestions in mind as I may find those things in future.

[@PorkChop304]

Could you please make a video about how you use Anki for grammar learning?

[@rockstonic52]

Thank you so much for your video. I am approaching 90 days and having a lot of fun with Spanish, so I need to see some sort of learning plan so I can get serious. While I am not against getting a tutor I would like to do self study as much as possible. Again, rad video, thank you.

[@slicksalmon6948]

Thank you for another insightful video. I am responding, because you asked me to. I am learning a language because I failed to do so as a student. I've done this for a lot of subjects (e.g., calculus), and I'm one of the most disciplined learners you will ever meet. My target language is French, because I feel sophisticated when I speak it. I also dream of understanding French news podcasts. The first step in the process of learning any subject involves learning how to learn that subject, and it's on this point that I'm stumbling with languages. Language learning advocates promote a wide variety of methods, all of which they claim to be "based on science". Which is correct, particularly when there really isn't any linguistic science? (I say this as a card-carrying scientist.) How do you build expertise in manner that is structurally solid without spending so much time on the foundation that you lose interest? I followed the "comprehensible input" format of Krashen and Kaufmann only to crash and burn. I've followed a number of other methods, as well. None are completely successful, and I eventually I lose faith in the method. Currently, I'm incorporating Duolingo into my routine, because you said that everyone you know is using it. At least it's entertaining as well as somewhat addicting. Some day I hope to work up the courage to use iTalki.

[@DaveLopez575]

I stumbled upon your channel very recently. I watched a few videos and I like your approach regarding the expectations one must have concerning language learning. I also like the depth you give the subjects you discuss. Very professional indeed. Glad I came across a good resource and I like your videos. Thank you very much! 🙏🏼

[@languagejones6784]

Welcome aboard! Thank you for the kind words

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

All very good advice, of course. I use Anki, but I will add that for non simple words, such as most verbs, it is better to store example phrases. That way you learn the associated preposition, if any, and you learn the context. Thus “On l’a placé en garde à vue” or “Il était sous contrôle judiciaire”.

[@markpolo97]

I am a "learn a bit of a lot of languages" type. I am pretty fluent in German (I hope, as I've lived here over 20 years - they waived the language test on my residency because of our interaction), pretty fluent in Spanish, attended university classes in Italian. read Latin and Ancient Greek with facility (and a dictionary). I actually got to a good level of Dutch with just Duolingo, even giving a little talk that was well understood. Of course most people there switch to English immediately, so I've only had a few chances to really test this. I did the Duolingo Polish course, but I don't have the breadth of knowledge to feel comfortable in a conversation, I found Duolingo Hebrew to be just depressing, with vocabulary coming too fast and then never being reviewed. I did a bit of Duolingo Japanese and was really enjoying it, but then I found out that I'm going to Brazil, so am concentrating on Portuguese. Coming from Spanish knowledge, I understand a huge fraction coming in, so the challenge is going to be keeping several Romance languages straight in my mind.

[@thenextworstone9050]

I want to learn Dutch because a.) I want to go to the Netherlands, and b.) I'm writing a book abd the main character is Dutch, so it would be helpful to speak Dutch. Also, I want to prove (to myself) that I actually am capable of learning another language on my own AND for free, because I've tried two others with Duolingo and.. it did not go well lol

[@iammegan6626]

If you have any resources for learners of Historical Languages (Sanskrit, Classical Chinese, Pāli, Latin, etc) I would love to here it! My motivation is that I am a practicing Buddhist and would love to read the Sūtras and other works in the original tongue they were composed in, and I find reading historical documents in their og tongue fascinating on its own. The biggest challenge I see is that these have no L1 speakers, but some do have sizeable L2 communities, and Im not sure how to find them

[@Goldenhawk0]

I'm the child of Egyptians and I've always wanted to learn my Dailect of Arabic. I finally found a book to use and I've been talking with my mom and I even watched a movie a few days ago and was able to catch a majority of the dailouge. I still need to find more rescourses but My ultimate goal is to go to Egypt to see my extended family in a few years.

[@sometape]

New to watching your channel and thank you so much for this! I'm getting a lot of (unsolicited) language study advice from a friend of mine who majored in my target language in college and has a different learning style from me. Right now I just want to be able to order a cup of tea and get on the correct train in a way that's not completely dependent on set phrases. I'm using a couple apps in tandem right now and it's been getting me somewhere, but my "somewhere" has been a little too vague. Thanks for giving me a push to break out the trusty pen and paper. I think it's going to help me lock down some real goals.

[@sammysamlovescats]

Sure, I'll throw in my motivations(Though I've been working on these for awhile, but might as well). It depends on the language, but there's 3 I've been studying over the years that I can really articulate German (The one I'm best at) - This one was a mix of wanting to travel to Germany, having German friends to discuss with, but also wanting to read up on my family's history (I'm descended from holocaust survivors, and a lot of the documents about them can actually be found online luckily) Hawaiian - This was was a mix of fascination with native culture and history, as well as wanting to participate in helping keep the language alive. I'm not native Hawaiian myself, but I like to help bring awareness to it as well. Japanese - Did I start studying Japanese just so I could play Japanese games?.... okay a little, but it's not ONLY that. It's not like I started studying it just to watch anime and play Japanese games (Even if those are certainly involved) but I also do find Japanese history fascinating, and love to engage with Japanese media (Movies, novels, music, etc.) Even if it did kind of start as just wanting to be able to interact better with games, I grew fascinated with the culture and history to the point that now things like anime and games are more incidental, rather than the purpose.

[@wendyrulnick9059]

I love Pimsleur. The audio focus is hard. It forces you to really think, and not rely on photos and clicking easy responses. I've used it well to springboard three languages thus far.

[@LailaKouklanakis]

thank you, you gave such a clear layout