How to REALLY learn a language in 2024 (a linguist explains)

[@Happytravellerkimmy]

I got to the end of French on Duolingo and my French is no better. But the owl has a little gold jumpsuit.

[@southj89]

That’s the real victory

[@rosawysong3025]

😆 🤣 😊 hooray for the owl.

[@NaomiB_]

W Duo

[@languagejones]

Well now I’m motivated to finish up the French course!

[@BiophilicBeats]

I know from a friend who plays for German football team Eintracht Frankfurt's youth team that they give their international players a software called THINKIN to learn German quickly. Maybe they also offer French.

[@daphnemacleod]

I am 69 and learning French for a few reasons .... To exercise my brain and challenge myself (I am also learning to play the piano). In addition to this, I am learning because my young grandchildren are in French Imersion and I want to support their studies by being able to converse with them in French. Also, most of their lessons they sometimes want help with ie maths, socials and science are in French... having to keep stopping to look up translations is time consuming (not that I mind that particularly) but it can be frustrating for my grandchild. They are thrilled that I want to learn and are delighted that they can participate in my learning. We have had many laughs a my attempts at pronouciations.

[@truckmuncher8998]

You're an awesome grandparent God bless you

[@glen1555]

Interesting. I am also 69 and learning French. I have moved to a village in Kent, south eastern England, I'm 42 miles from Calais by train and ferry, and want to go and do more than point at the menu when I need food. Last time I was in Paris I thought I had ordered roast loin of pork only to receive Pigs trotters! The 5 years of French lessons in high school did not equip me for ordering meals in a restaurant

[@Headhunter_212]

Keep hammering. I’ve got ALZ and dementia all over my family tree and language learning is among the best thing I’ve done to keep that greedy organ cooking.

[@mamabiz4150]

This is so sweet. You all will have wonderful memories and you’ll keep your brain young.

[@nawtmyrealnamelol]

"Memory is a process of forgetting and being reminded" brilliantly put!

[@blotski]

I laughed outloud so much at some of your witty comments that my wife came in to find out what was so funny. I told her I was just watching a linguistics channel on KZbin. She's now worrying about my having early onset dementia.

[@zevelgamer.]

When she sends you to the nursing home at least remember you got a good laugh 😂😂

[@languagejones]

@@zevelgamer. or don’t remember anything

[@fariesz6786]

she clearly does not recognise the amusing delight that is linguistics. you must disown her and live a language-studying hermit for the greater good. ​@@languagejonesbrutal. also true. but brutal.

[@jamesacolatse7447]

😅😂

[@graydybug]

Watch out for the conlang videos, if you have to explain one you'll be in trouble. 😂❤

[@sashamacdonald4278]

"If you aim at nothing, you're certain to hit it." I'm writing this on my noteboard, words to live by!

[@frenstcht]

Don't do that before going to a gun range and finding out whether it's true. You're not going to hit nothing; blindly taking action is not costless, and in my experience, those costs are usually imposed on someone else.

[@lukewithab]

@@frenstcht are you retarded

[@elashvili21]

you're saying I can't become fluent hebrew speaker after a 30 days in duolingo?

[@languagejones]

I think after thirty days I could fluently name vegetables and animals, but I go so much slower on Hebrew duolingo than other languages

[@zevelgamer.]

Don't even try Hebrew on Duolingo, as a native Hebrew speaker, you won't learn anything useful, I've skipped to the last lesson and no word was useful. I still remember something with a dove.

[@zevelgamer.]

​@@languagejonesמלפפון וגמל שלמה

[@languagejones]

@@zevelgamer. I wouldn’t go that far. It’s been a big help, I just need to supplement it with a lot of outside study. And I kind of like the little Jewish shibboleths scattered throughout

[@zevelgamer.]

@@languagejones no, I wasn't actually grinding Duolingo, I just skipped to the final test and it was absolutely not useful and some of the sentence weren't even phrased correctly.

[@bookie-t5p]

Getting the amygdala going does help a lot. For example, I learn words 10000 times better when I embarrass myself by using the wrong one in front of a crowd. Never forget it again after that.

[@anak_kucing101]

So am I right when I say one should use the target language when it's sad, angry and scared because our brains make an emotional and impactful connection?

[@trevnti]

Me an introvert… so I’m never gonna learn 😭

[@Kamilla-o5k]

So true. I took a part in an exchange program when I was 16, and I went to Germany. I will never forget the words "übergeben" (too much rollercoaster) and "Kater" ("I have a cat" - that's what I initially wanted to say, but it turned out I had a habgover), as well as Teich and Teig...

[@HackerHaus]

Diagnosed with ADHD at 54. Blew through Russian at DLI at age 18 without cracking a book, doing homework, or even studying and graduated at the top of my class in speaking, listening, and reading. Learned Japanese to functional fluency in 6 months in country. Took 20 years to finish my damn undergrad degree. Until my diagnosis, I had no idea how weird my brain was.

[@olilowry3343]

Whoa

[@oneroomboy]

king shit, just turned 30 got rly fluent in japanese after just being diagnosed with adhd and MS so this reply meant a lot to me damn thank u

[@Headhunter_212]

Bro I feel you. Diagnosed at 50. FIFTY. Had most of the checklist when I was evaluated /tested , most of the conventional tactics have worked to make it manageable. Part of the problem is getting everyone to adjust their behavior to help What a surprise. Keep hammering. Russian at DLI. impressive. TYFYS.

[@Headhunter_212]

Hang in there. MS is quite the assignment.

[@jssmedialangs]

Oh my gosh ... The stuff you said about ADHD!! 😭 I remember trying to listen to hours of Japanese, even as I slept, because that's what someone suggested. My brain felt like mush... Passive listening however has been great for me. When having conversations, it's like all those words my brain stored while listening suddenly activates. Absolutely a huge believer of doing what works for you.

[@piadas804]

Listening to stuff while sleeping is not good for your sleep

[@themultiverse5447]

@@piadas804 you spelled paid ads wrong and forgot to plug your product

[@jennyjohnson5428]

When he called it a "fugue state" I died 😂🤣

[@NightTimeDay]

Studies show that listening to languages while you sleep has no effect. So you were right to stop the habit.

[@AncientGreek-v9f]

Passive listening is so underrated. It's actual magic. Hard to pay attention, but it's also helpful in that way as it builds up stamina in that language (definitely a real thing).

[@satohime]

as an autistic who speaks/studies 7 languages currently focusing on Persian, i'm almost scared how perfect this video is. i don't have the money to purchase textbooks or courses, but the recognition has me motivated to get back in my game and slobber over Hafez for 8 hours a day

[@carson4388]

No fair you have a super power (autism) I swear they are the most intelligent individuals. My little brother is on the spectrum and it’s crazy how intelligent he is in some areas that really interest him.

[@carson4388]

No fair you have a super power (autism) I swear they are the most intelligent individuals. My little brother is on the spectrum and it’s crazy how intelligent he is in some areas that really interest him.

[@carlgreene538]

I am autistic and can only speak English

[@apinchofdisappointment]

I’m autistic but I wish language learning was one of my special interests. I’d be progressing a lottttt faster

[@Khaons]

​@@carson4388please do support him to explore and find many areas that he loves. autism isn't all pros, the cons weight heavily specially as we grow older, whats considered cute and quirky at young age soon becomes.weird as we're either shunned from society from one extreme or mask so much we lose our sense of self on the other. Best of luck for the both of you.

[@bensy1704]

Bindged these videos at work, been trying to learn my indigenous language(irish) for years after living near an irish speaking community and im making more progress than ever

[@languagejones]

I'm so glad to hear that!!!

[@fionnuala7042]

Maith thú- ádh mór ort leis

[@patrickwalker-nolan7617]

I’m 72, my goal in learning language is to keep my mentality. I began in learning Portuguese because I’ve a Portuguese son-in-law. After a year and a half I gave up when I listened to my son-in-law and my granddaughter exchanging a couple of remarks and not understanding a word they said. My son-in-law airily explained this by pointing out that the accent of the App I was using was Brazilian and not Portuguese. I gave up on the spot and began instead to learn Spanish, which I’ve been doing for about a year now. My enthusiasm for learning has decreased. Any suggestions? 😁😁😁

[@DrDavidThor]

@@patrickwalker-nolan7617 Disown your son-in-law.

[@DrDavidThor]

Irish people at work.

[@4chaffenel117]

I'd love to watch a video about you talking about books to read for people who have an interest in learning linguistics from scratch, or something like a bookshelf review where you talk about your top picks! I've recently discovered your channel, and I'm completely in love with it. Keep up the good work! ❤

[@maonoya]

“Neurodivergent savant with a life of leisure” THANK YOU FOR CALLING THIS OUT LMFAO 👏. Nothing inherently wrong with such a life and ability, but some of us are older individuals who have to work 8 hours a day, go to the gym, cook/clean, and also attend to family. Which means most of us only have about an hour or two to spend studying/practicing a language. Therefore, a more realistic approach would be much more reasonable! So thank you again for stressing ‘doing what works best for you’ and just ‘being consistent’ with whatever method you choose. 😊 (ps. I will say the best thing i started doing as a person with ADHD was listening to easy podcasts in my target language while driving to work, showering, doing house chores, and walks! Moving my body keeps me focused and energized 🙌🏼)

[@objective4]

As a French, I learnt Persian mostly by speaking with people on tandem. Took me 3 years to be fluent. I wish you much success with this beautiful language.

[@helpanimals-]

Farsi/Darsi - not Persian

[@objective4]

@@helpanimals- فرقی نداره. مردم هر دو رو میگن

[@Trillvil1]

Idk man I learned more using audiobooks than speaking with people

[@objective4]

@@Trillvil1 if after listening to audio books you can speak the language easily, that's fine. But in the case of farsi, you won't learn the spoken language because audio books use the written language. The vocabulary and expressions can change quite a lot.

[@objective4]

البته یه چیزی هم باید بگم. تو فرانسوی، فارسی farci تلفظ میشه، به معنی "پر شده" (مثل پر شده با گوشت). هیچکس نمی‌فهمه. ولی وقتی میگم Persian ، همه متوجه میشن، چون مردم کمی با شعر فارسی (poésie persane) آشنا هستن

[@nathanlaoshi8074]

“ 你中文说的太棒了，是个真聪明的老外啊！” Been there. One of the most annoying parts of being a private language teacher is having parents ask you to recommend the "best" book or online resource. When they say this, I hear "I'm willing to spend a whole bunch of money to have my kid ace the tests, and if that doesn't work, it's your fault." That happened mostly in China, but here in the USA (public schools) you'll have the occasional ask as well. Your advice is really spot-on in my opinion. Thanks!

[@默-c1r]

fyi 得 for verbs, 的 for nouns so "說得太棒"

[@simonsmith8149]

I've often used 'false mnemonics' / 'mnemonics that don't work' - for some weird reason they seem to work better for me than 'correct' ones. For example, way back when, I always remembered that 'tower' in French / Spanish is feminine, because it . . . um . . shouldn't be.

[@NachaBeez]

That’s kind of how I remember the gender of “bridge” in Portuguese-it’s the opposite of the gender in Spanish!

[@peterthomas5571]

Iirc, the C-word's equivalents in French and Spanish are both masculine.

[@donnaroberts281]

The gender of “girl” in German (Mädchen) is neuter. In Spanish, “the sea” is “el mar”. In French, it’s “la mer”.

[@cemcankaya9282]

Hey I am very happy to see your comment. I have a very similar thing! Most of the incorrect uses of words or typos that made me confused for a moment to decypher it, lives rent-free in my memory until this day!

[@campbell1446]

Now THAT is clever!

[@Dee._.Rose._.]

I've been so confused and kinda upset with myself because I wasn't seeing the same progress I had in the past. I have ADHD and I was able to hyper-fixate for the longest time. But once I realized my decline of interest I panicked and took a college class. although I don't regret my decision, I again didn't see the same improvement. I am back with an old tutor and have a trip to Taiwan in three months. So this is something that I really really want but the drive isn't there. I tend to forget that ADHD can be as much a hindrance as it is a helper. I get easily distracted and lose focus super easy. Studying has been hard. But I think consistency is where I need to start. I will do my best to set a goal and work towards it. I appreciate this video it gave me a lot to think about!

[@languagejones]

I should have said more about this in the video, but it’s really important to not beat yourself up for losing interest either. Sometimes it’s just hard. Having those external factors - a regularly scheduled time where it’s a pleasant experience (for me, that’s a warm drink and a treat) - really helps. And just knowing “today I’m not feeling it, but I’m just gonna do a little” is sometimes really helpful too. Good luck with your learning!

[@tammyblack2747]

This is off topic, but watch Dr. Ken Berry’s KZbin short about ADHD and nutrition. He talks about low carb eating helping fight and perhaps fix ADHD. He also has a longer video where he talks about how diet affects mental health including ADHD, depression, dementia, etc. Very informative.

[@Dee._.Rose._.]

@@languagejonesthank you 😖❤️❤️

[@Dee._.Rose._.]

@@tammyblack2747ooooh thank you I’ll have to check it out!!

[@aprilmunday1152]

Thank you. I hadn't realised that my discontent with my own language learning was because I've achieved my first goal for Italian, even though it wasn't explicit. I can now define my new goal and what I need to do to achieve it.

[@languagejones]

That’s really interesting! I wonder how many people have that experience

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@languagejones It's probably pretty common with people that hit a plateau but for reasons other than being too frustrated with the increased demand. That's what happened with me with German after a year in college and doing a bunch of substitution drills between classes. I hit the point where I knew enough to not really need more classes to continue, but since I hadn't set an explicit goal to it, I just sort of stagnated. But, I could listen to the radio and watch TV and generally follow what was going on. It's just that I wasn't doing anything with my production skills because I hadn't thought to involve a goal related to that. Still, just being able to use native materials does somewhat help, but with German in particular, the struggle tends to be finding people that are willing to speak it rather than default over to English.

[@tomcolley9008]

Funny story related to the comment about Farsi speakers offering their belongings. My wife is a native speaker of Arabic and we were at a wedding where she was wearing a nice Abaya. Another guest at the wedding complimented my wife on the Abaya and, like in Farsi, there is an Arabic saying which basically means "well, if you like it, you can have it". This, of course, is polite talk and not a literal offer. The guest who had complimented my wife, was the daughter of Arab migrants, and as such maybe didn't understand the social interactions as well as she might, said "wow, really? I'll pick it up at the end of the night!" I had to buy my wife a new Abaya the next day.😮

[@julio_is_coolio]

LMAO. I got confused at that part of the video, thank you for explaining

[@eriasmara7739]

😂😂😂 I once introduced a female colleague to a male friend, during the intro I kindly requested for her to do him. I meant to say show him. 😂 I only realized my mistake because of her reaction. 😅 I explained the mix-up and what I intended to say. I was horribly embarrassed 😂

[@tinabean713]

I did not know that. I made a mental note to myself a long time ago to be extremely careful about complimenting middle easterners after a few times of refusing to take their possessions. "Oh, no I couldn't." You should "Oh, no. It's lovely, but no" It was just so awkward. Now I'll know if it happens again just to laugh it off.

[@tinabean713]

@@eriasmara7739 💀☠💀

[@DrDavidThor]

Mi casa su casa.

[@JonathanSchoreels91]

I edited the template of my Anki Cards to have to type the Kanas of the Kanji I read instead of just "thinking about the word" and checking afterward if it was "more or less the same". The recall was at first a bit harder, but now I realize that actively having to write down the reading of the kanji really helps to memorize them better than just "thinking about it". Good tip :)

[@ArchangelTenshi]

Could you explain how you edited them to be like that or drop a link to somewhere else that can? It sounds really interesting!

[@JonathanSchoreels91]

@@ArchangelTenshi Sure, basically in your Anki card, for the field you want to type (most often : READING), you just prefix the "variable" by "edit" Example : {{edit:Reading}} To show the answer at the back, you need to have {{FrontSide}} somewhere in the back of the card template of course

[@creativefierce]

I'm a lazy language learner but I do really enjoy being able to hold conversations when I'm in Italy. I started with a weekly tutor and Gabe Wyner's approach to vocabulary building with Anki. Once I built a foundation, I was able to grind from A2ish to B1ish by listening to podcasts and practicing speaking. I use the bird app to keep from getting too rusty, and it works pretty well for that. I have a good ear (heard a lot of a second language when I was a baby, and I think it helped), and Wyner's stuff encouraged me to lean into that and get very focused on hearing & producing the right sounds. It makes a huge difference when you're actually in conversation.

[@speakeuropeanportuguese]

Loved this video. I learned Portuguese very quickly. I was living in Portugal with a Portuguese partner and I studied at least an hour a day. The rest was background noise which eventually started to make sense. Brits would often say to me "It is not surprising you learned so quickly, you have a Portuguese husband. Like that would magically help me with the language! The truth is, one days he told me "You will never learn this language", and that was my inspiration! Took me about 6 months! I now teach it. How did I learn? Most of the time it was hearing the language. I wanted to be able to speak it, not just read it.

[@speakeuropeanportuguese]

To be honest it was because I heard so much. Being in an environment where I only heard Portuguese etched it on my brain. I had other friends living with partners who were Portuguese and didn't learn how to speak. I really wanted to learn it though. I think that motivation is the main drive. @FreePigeon

[@fernwehtwl]

Good for u I have a Spanish partner and I still can’t speak Spanish well . U really need to have the discipline drive and mental energy to persist to speak a language out of your comfort zone

[@F3liperossetto]

Que legal! poxa, já que você está aprendendo português, eu quero aprender inglês, podemos nos falar pelas redes sociais para nos ajudar um ao outro :)

[@speakeuropeanportuguese]

@@F3liperossetto A bem dizer, já aprendi. Como tem aprendido o Inglês até agora?

[@WallaceGrey]

Lets share contacts i want to learn Portuguese ​@@F3liperossetto

[@Q101-k4p]

After watching thousands of language learning videos, finally I found this chennel that doesn't repeat the same things other people have spoken a thousand times. Great gratitude.

[@reyhanrezaei8468]

It is super cool that you are learning Persian😊. I am trying to learn German for so long and it became a suffering experience for me. due to not being consistent I have been able to accomplish basic of the language and couldn’t develop to advance and enjoy it. مرسی از ویدیوی خوبتون🌹 با آرزوی موفقیت برای شما.

[@joshrotenberg5872]

Thanks!

[@jessicabrauerechtenkamp5607]

Thank you for sharing your tips for the neurodiverse among us at the end. As an individual with ADHD, I greatly appreciate that you took time to point out specific reminders and ideas for brains like mine! It truly means a lot!

[@Ozubura]

Thanks for asking us to think of our goals. I had realized that mine was met several years ago when I just wanted to be able to consume Japanese media with being able to hold basic conversation while being also able to keep myself entertained enough to not lose proficiency.

[@ilariandre_]

What a wonderful voice you have. You can easily record audiobooks.. thanks for your tips and tricks

[@zochbuppet448]

@ilariandre_ Is your brain working okay? No he absolutely cannot be a voice for for audiobooks...quite the oposite, He is so monotone!!! I realized hes one of the worst speakers on language videos I've watched. Everything he says fades into each other like fog or smoke I still dont the concrete steps to follow even after watching most of the video. Maybe if he spent less time on his witty PHd jokes and learned how to properly teach, be would be able to easily understand all his points. He is so monotone!!! This was 17 minutes to total monotone of reading his material for this video This guy would be a total disaster at teaching, and I would never take a class if he was teaching

[@artugert]

My goal is to continually reach a higher and higher level of proficiency in Mandarin. I prefer goals that are vague and that you never actually attain. I would love to learn other languages, but I would rather be highly proficient in one than know the basics in ten; and I don't have time to fit any more languages in. And besides, as much as I love the process of learning a language, on a practical level, I probably wouldn't use any other languages too much, with the possible exception of Spanish. I don't plan on doing a lot of travel; I don't plan on ever moving to another area; and the place I live doesn't have a large number of people who speak other languages besides English, Spanish, and Mandarin. I also don't have a particular interest in reading books or watching videos in any other language in particular. So I'll probably just stick to Mandarin. Maybe after my kids have all grown up and I retire some day, I'll have time to learn other languages! Lol

[@ellsdi1988]

My goal: living and working in an English speaking country. I have been learning English for about 2 years. However i don’t feel that I can pass IELTS for example. Method: I just try to read,speak,watch content and learn grammar as much as possible. At least 2-3 hours per day.

[@patashon788]

I think you shouldn't underestimate your abilities. When I moved to another country I also had a lot of doubts about lvl of my english but in reality, everything was much more easy that I was thinking. Obviously the begging (like couple of days is a little bit awkward and stressful) but then everything is fine and the awareness that you are able to communicate with people from abroad is a big rush of motivation

[@LeftToWrite006]

If you wait till you think you're ready, you'll never do it. If those sentences are an indication of your level, you should be okay.

[@jenm1]

Your English is pretty good from what I can see.

[@chriswixtrom6514]

Thank you so much for making your videos! I just discovered your channel today. In high school, I took Spanish and French and failed both. In my twenties, I made friends with a group of Deaf people who hung out in the courtyard of my apartment building. They welcomed me and invited me to storytelling performances, basketball games, and other events. I gradually gained fluency in American Sign Language. I was so lucky to have this opportunity! Decades later, I now use ASL to tutor Deaf adults in English/reading comprehension and I design videos to encourage ASL and ESL learners. Deaf ASL presenters appear on screen, not me. I'm so glad I found your channel!

[@graydybug]

Thank you so much; this video was very encouraging for me. My self learning methods have always been so different that I felt weird coming to youtube for tips. My language goals have always been related to reading. I wanted to read art tutorials in Japanese, so I learned the writing system and then the grammar. With a dictionary or two, I could then slowly translate whatever I wanted step by step. Now my goal is from my mom. She asked me to help her research her grandparents and other ancestors that died before she was born. She is struggling because we need to reach out for records from four different countries. I want to have enough language competency that I can research the laws regarding family records and acquire as much as I can without getting scammed because we don't speak the language. I am overwhelmed by the task, honestly. I have been starting small by going back to the language I learned in high school, but the polyglot youtubers definitely have me feeling stupid sometimes. I think I need to just trust myself and go back to grammar. I love grammar. I'm so sorry for the long comment, but thank you so much for sharing your informed advice here.

[@davidborst76]

As a amateur powerlifter learning Polish (to communicate with my patients) and French (yearly vacations) i loved your analogy with the deadlift (although i love the deadlift)

[@dwaynecunningham2164]

If the bar ain't bendin' You're just pretendin'

[@Headhunter_212]

"Kolesiu, czy ty w ogóle podnosisz ciężary?"

[@stevewalsh5479]

I am learning German with the goal to become conversationally fluent for travel. I am using Pimsleur, Busuu, Germanpod101, Lingopie and now Assimil. I recently booked some tutoring sessions on iTalki. I have to say that Pimsleur has to-date been most effective. Though my vocabulary is light (perhaps 500 or 600 words), I get compliments on my pronunciation.

[@judyhawkins6584]

I am learning Welsh; I started it on a whim because I liked how the SaySomethingInWelsh introductory video went about teaching me one sentence. So, my immediate goal was to get more time and material for a process of learning that I liked (I love learning new things, especially in good company.) I'm a complete introvert, so the SSIW format works very, very well for me: I don't have to deal with real people face to face, but being human I like the human voice, and I especially like the infinite patience of recorded audio that I can pause and rewind as many times as I like; or skip; or whatever. Four years in, here's my goals that keep me going: -- learning new words at a satisfying rate; ditto phrase forms -- retrieving semi learned words soon enough -- enjoying the relief from rumination (I'm a terrible ruminator, and recent events.... gaaah) -- participating in a community that doesn't ask more than I have to give -- walking, hiking and driving companionship tolerable to this confirmed introvert Other goals are: finding cool idiomatic phrases and learning them; getting to use and explore the fine online Welsh dictionaries; getting the pronunciations down better and better as I relisten to older recordings of me saying things in Welsh. I'm very interested to hear that I could actually be a lot more fluent already than I am, according to what you're saying at about 2:50 in the video; but my inner reaction is kind of like, "oh NO if I were fluent I might actually be looking for people to talk to, that's scary. Really scary." So I'll probably incorporate some of your recommendations, but more for the sake of learning more of the language than for the sake of being able to talk with people. That's a bit peculiar of me, but then, I often find myself off at the thin end of normal curves anyways, it's a familiar place for me. The community that I've gotten hooked into is the group of volunteers running Cymdeithas Madog, the Welsh Studies Institute of North America. In 2023, I went to their residential week, held on a university campus. I'm a serious introvert, so I half expected to be done with the too much people by about mid-week, and had cleared with my "how much money am I spending on this" frugal inner critic that I was allowed to just go home midweek if I hated it. Instead, I stayed for the full week, as it was a group of wordnerds a lot like me, and even volunteered to fill the Secretary position on their Board, as I have had experience doing that for another group that suits my introvert nature (which does need a bit of intermittent human connection...). I'm bopping along with the SSIW level 4, which I have turned into an auto-didact's adventure, in which I'm generating my own extra audio supplementing the "sgwrsia naturiel yn Cymraeg" that is my favorite part of Level 4, which works for me because of the list of goals put down above. Part of my project of supplemental audio means I'm recording myself saying Welsh, which really gives me a sense of how close I'm coming to the native speakers saying things on the audio from SSIW. I'm getting a very colloquial view of Welsh, which is lots of fun. I really enjoy watching the slow development of my comfort at making up my own inner conversations in Welsh. That enjoyment is the most important goal.

[@shaunalynn2997]

I’m learning Finnish (I’m a half Finn from the US), & actually being consistent for 254 days straight on Duolingo for as little as 10 minutes has made me conversational in Finnish. I just added Quizlet to the mix yesterday which helps.

[@steffernie]

ok this is just in case no one has requested a full Michel Thomas video -- I googled his name and he was living in the same exact spots in France that my grandma was during the same time while in hiding. it's crazy how many languages her family had to learn - after several yrs of separation, when she saw her mother again, they couldn't communicate because none of their languages overlapped. anyway - love this shit. keep up the good work.

[@JustAnotherNameYo]

My goals are simple. I want to be able to consume media, books, music, tv/movies, and listen in on people's conversations out in the wild. Living in New York I'm surrounded by native speakers and I'm nosy. I hate translated subtitles because even with my little knowledge so far I'm shouting at the tv because that's not what they said. I'm am mostly fluent in Spanish and am now working on Russian, Korean and Portuguese. But my goals are soft goals because really I'm learning because i simply love these languages and i want to fill my brain with them.

[@mnstrvck]

i do also want to learn korean!!

[@mnstrvck]

do u have any tips?

[@TheEducat0r]

2024 is the year of language mastery! Thanks for the insightful tips, can't wait to level up my language game.

[@bassclefpaco]

As a professional musician, language fanatic who speaks a few, and a bit of a jack-of-all trades, your ten point breakdown is exactly what I would tell anyone trying to learn a musical instrument or really anything else. Nice video!

[@willcollings5681]

At some point i was leaning just for the music, but I then fell into a bunch of communities around my language as well (Scottish Gaelic). The first year was intense study of acquiring words, and it took the next two to actually be comfortable with the language as a whole. Now I'm looking at jumping back in and seriously studying again! Thanks!

[@ladykadiijha]

I want to learn Arabic because I was exposed to Moroccan and Egyptian culture when I was little and i love the people, the food and music. Feels very nostalgic to me when i hear Arabic.

[@skeet5409]

Egyptian here, good luck :)

[@melfhlzahlpd]

I studied MSA for the beauty of it, without any connection to a dialect. I think you're very lucky to already have that decision made

[@opcarrot]

I'm Egyptian, that made me smile 😊

[@normalouis8593]

Pimsleur mentioned woooo 🎉🎉 I love that app so much, I use context clues in non verbal learning, so it's easy to be passive and miss some things. Being forced to speak helps me so much

[@gregorde]

That’s how I learned the core of my Japanese. The constant production was fantastic.

[@fariesz6786]

"or [..] a lot of declarative knowledge _about_ language" THERE WAS NO NEED TO CALL ME OUT LIKE THAT! 😭 ..and i'm not even an academic, i'm just a nerd 😢 anyway, what i wanted to say is i agree very much on the different strokes for different folks approach. as much as i support immersion the people who promote it often talk very disparagingly about grammar-based approaches, but i think that isn't fair bc not every grammar-based teaching approach is the same, not every learner reacts to the same approach the same way, and for some learners learning the grammar from a zero basis may actually help them get used to a language that works completely different to their base language much more efficiently.

[@mechanarwhal7830]

Some really good advice in this video, and I love that you include specific tips for neurodivergent learners - not enough attention is given to this so thank you! My goals are to be able to read Russian literature in its original language and to be able to hold a B2 level conversation on pretty much any topic. I know I should set myself a timeframe but to be honest the stress of a deadline is going to make me more likely to quit so I will leave it nebulous unless I miraculously find more time in my life somehow.

[@JM-kj3dx]

interesting video for sure, as someone with ADHD I'm glad you're starting to bring the topic of neurodivergences into the picture, I personally am doing my own version of the 100 day challenge you mentioned for German(B1, but haven't been practicing consistently) and Polish(A2, main focus language for abt a year) I have a document with a way to "quantify" roughly how much value and exposure content adds in numbers and have a chart keeping track of how much I've done each day and averages per week and in total to harness the "number go up me happy" principle as I like to call it for dopamine and also, the averages and totals keep me from loosing all my motivation when I've missed a day and keep me focused on "the big picture", I've been at it for 3 weeks already and I've so far watched the equivalent of 69 Easy language SI vids (nice) at a pace of about 1.5 videos a day and I'm definitely feeling the progress! Motivation(s): for Polish I just want to get to a decent level and be able to understand and enjoy content, and maybe go to Poland if I get the chance for German I want to study in Vienna, but I have to get to C1 before 2028 for that, so I'm doing this to get consistent practice and input at least for the time being Update: I've surprisingly stayed at it for 13 weeks by now (almost 100 days) and I can say it has worked, I've been watching an average of an equivalent of 2.5 easy language videos on average with both and it *has* worked well, I've gotten my Polish from a mid A2 to a low B1(which in my experience is the hardest gap) and my German from a lower B1 to a higher B1 ( not B2 but will hopefully be there in less than a couple years), I can safely say that it has been one of the short bursts of best improvement in languages I have had and I've only been dedicating around 40min-1hr of watching videos or episodes a day to get that for both! and the tracking has worked! not only has it worked wonders for accountability and consistency, but it's also something that proves the work I've done and something I know I can be proud of! (which I'd been lacking)

[@lucidragon5260]

This is great! I'm studying Korean (still a complete beginner) and I'm happy I'm doing quite a bit of these. 1. I have a few goals. My end goal is to be able to read web novels in Korean without having to look up words (at least, notice more than I do in English). My sub-goals I'd I have a Korean Short Stories book where the stories progressively get more complex. I want to get to the point that I can read the next one. 2. I don't pressure myself to do a lot. I don't have any time limits for when I HAVE to have a lesson done by or the next short story read by. 3. Not too great at this in terms of lessons, but I've been pretty consistent with my Anki decks. My minimum every day is to go through flashcards, and so far it takes about 45 minutes a day. 4. Anki does spaced repitiotions. For reviewing my lessons I do the workbook after finishing the lesson, then study for the mini test when it comes along, then I'll study all of it for when the Unit test comes up. 5. I enabled whiteboard for Anki and try to write out the words before seeing the back of the card. It's really helped and will be amazing for my spelling. 6. I really hope I'm avoiding burnout. I try to keep an eye on things and I've already lowered the number of new words from Anki since I'm busier now. 7. I don't have anyone to talk to and am too shy for that, but I have started Journaling and it has been a great motivator and shows me what I want to know. I can't wait to look back on it in a year or two and see how much I've improved. 8. Concrete end test is more my overarching goal. I want to read Korean without having to look things up constantly. 9. Accountability is the thing I'll struggle with the most. Right now I'm only holding myself accountable, but I might ask some of my friends who also wanted to learn a language to help hold each other accountable. 10. My main focus is the website How to Study Korean, and I'll progress my knowledge of grammar mainly through that. But if there is a concept I'm not fully understanding or something I want to know more about, I'll check out KZbin videos or something. I also get variety by working through that short stories book or watching Kdramas.

[@EchoNorbi]

I'm Hungarian so my English is my second language, and here is my story. I studied it in high school but we went with a snail space. So there were the basics but not much. After graduating I hadn't have much need for English. But I was interested in anime and broadband internet just started spreading. Being from a small country with weird language (so small market) there was pretty much only one option sailing the seven seas. That meant Japanese dub with English subtitle. No way around I need to engage English as I didn't know anything about Japanese. I still remember taking one episode double the time because I stopped to look up words in the dictionary. Than come the second phase. I like video games and videos about it. So one of my fried was like you should check out this AVGN guy. So I did and I liked it. And I now I was forced listen to English if I wanted see more (no closed caption back in those days). And with that the internet opened up. I never felt like I'm studying or learning the English language it was just a byproduct. So I think the lesson of my story is that find something that you interested in and consume it in a language that you are trying to learn and that way it is not a chore but something that you just pick up.

[@mbdg6810]

I would love to know if you have decent recommendations for material to learn Hungarian with. I’m an American who is interested in a few languages, and Hungarian is the outlier among them.

[@acquij]

00:20 Watching this video ahead of New Years makes me either 11 months late or 1 month early. *tips forehead*

[@tal_cohen]

Nice little touch there with the music from the show Tehran when speaking about Persian :)

[@languagejones]

I’m glad somebody caught that!

[@jpwood9082]

I had from a very young age wanted to learn Irish. It was the language of my forebears when they immigrated and that immigration was at a time when Irish was being devastated. But this was pre-internet in country where no one spoke the language. Irish orthography is bananas, you probably can learn it from a book, but I couldn't. I dipped in and out over the years but still could not get from the words on the page to sounds. I started in earnest late last year with the simple goal of being able to say something, and understand a few spoken words. Low hanging fruit but after (yikes!) decades of frustration having such a simple and attainable goal has made me extremely happy. I now want to set the next goal to stretch a little further but also not to set myself up for disappointment.

[@cameronfair7225]

Thanks for the video! Also, you were cited in my Evidence textbook in our readings this week!

[@Far_Alfield]

So, glad I've found your channel. I'm in the US and dating a native Italian speaker, so I've been trying to study Italian since March (this isn't my first Romance language--my mother was a Spanish teacher, and I studied Spanish and Latin in high school and college). I'd like to be able to have basic, casual conversations with her in Italian. I've tried using several resources, including Duolingo, but I've struggled finding the right jumping-off point that helps me move from a passive to an active participant in the learning process (and also, something that helps me feel confident with a native speaker). Really enjoying your approach and advice, here.

[@ginabisaillon2894]

Thank you for confirming that my plan was going in the right direction. I want to learn Hebrew so that I can read the signs, the newspapers, etc. when I get there, and once there to take some classes without being an absolute beginner. I like to have really good base before I even open my mouth, that's what works for me. I'm 82 and I'm doing this also because of my fear of dementia!

[@markbr5898]

You should be able to read signs quite quickly, but reading newspapers will take quite a bit longer. With patience you will get there.

[@kennethwdc]

@@kennethgreifer5123 I used to make a running total in my head of the cost of my groceries as I added them to my cart and then compared the sum with what the cashier rang up. I was young and living in Paris without much money. It made me good at addition but my purpose was to save money if the cashier charged me too much. I was going to the grocery store every few days so the list was not big. I might start doing that again whenever I shop somewhere.

[@JM-kj3dx]

that's a noble motivation! it's terrifying to me too, even tho I'm under 20 years old

[@alexstone9099]

Respect. I'm 21 and learning French just because I'm from England and they're my neighbours and I learnt a bit at school and I also want to have a solid base before I visit, or try and open my mouth to an actual French person.

[@anitagoulet1374]

I'm learning Hebrew as well!

[@viciousrodent]

Current language goals (and status) to feed the algorithm: Dutch - engage with dutch native media without needing to look things up to follow it, talk to native speakers in my life [pretty much done, I still have a hell of an american accent speaking it, but, the first thing any native speaker asks when they find out I speak dutch at all is "Why?" and they don't seem to have any trouble understanding me -- so mostly that language is just in "maintenence" at this point, occasionally get new vocab and such from media or from hings coming up in a domain my vcab was lacking in, like when a friend went to the doctor and tells me what the diagnosis was in dutch b/c they can't rmemeber the english word for it.] French - Basically don't have one anymore, initially wanted to be able to read in french and watch french movies, got to the point I could mostly do that, priorities changed, now it's kinda just a backburner language. [the french have never once asked me "why?" I would learn french.] Russian - Get through interactions with some of the locals of my home town who don't speak english but do speak russian, pretty much met that goal, now mainly just want to get to th point that I can watch old soviet movies and read books in the language, but, it's a low priority currently. [The locals -- mostly russian-speaking ukranians -- occasionally ask me why, but, not very consistently, usually they just tell me my russian is terrible, which, is objectively true.] ASL - The language I'm currently focusing on, currently trying to get through to Basic minimal conversational proficiency; the "Manage small talk and encounters with strangers who sign natively" phase, so far [less than a month] I've gotten through basic introductions, greetings, talking about the weather and basic broad information about relatively shallow topics; so, making good progress towards that and it's going faster than I thought it would. Long-term I want to get ASL to a similar level to where my dutch is currently so I can get through conversations about whatever with people I actually care about and want to have meaningful interactions with in the language [not neccesarily "fluent" but at least "Able to use it in such contexts"]. That's gonna take a while, but, assuming no significant changes in the roster of people that are important to me, I've got pretty much the same sort of motivation for it as I did for dutch. Spanish and german are both basically just abandoned languages I retain some comprehension of, from when I was in high school and before I learned how to actually learn a language.

[@paulwalther5237]

Great tips and I appreciate the humor above all else.

[@RobertArlensky]

Currently studying Russian via KZbin, switching language options on certain programs(Subtitles and Audio), and following Russian TikTokers. Writing down words and phrases has helped me better retain than using Duolingo. This has been very helpful, thanks mate!

[@sungokong8540]

For me these past 3+ is watching film, playing video games and doing some light convo on ome tv(just for the lol of it 😂 , I love it when they see some South East asian dude randomly speaking broken Russian lol )

[@lucylawrence8046]

Great vid, I appreciate how straightforward your videos are providing info in a consice and clear way without going into the stupid hype clickbait this community suffers from so much!! Thanks! If you could make a video about how best to learn vocab and maybe about the linguistic origins of some languages that would be interesting.

[@luiscruz5556]

wooo thank you so much for this video! going to try to implement your suggestion of starting with 20 minutes of consistent study followed by several 20 minute sessions in a day (where possible on days off from work etc). this seems much more realistic than the daunting 60 minutes I've been forcing myself to do for 4 days that eventually results in 3 days of no study whenever work goes a bit long. good reminder that slow and steady wins the race, not big, tremendous, sporadic efforts.

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

Really great video, thanks for the immensely practical advice. State: Studying Japanese since Oct 2022. I want to learn Japanese because it's on my bucket list, I want to consume written and spoken media in Japanese without assistance, and I want to have enough Japanese to visit Japan. Japan visit I'm thinking in about 5 years. Long term goals: mastery in 10 years, Japanese language as a life-long adventure. Short term goals: I've committed to my Zoom classes to get through Japanese for Busy People vol I-III, and that will take to the end of next year, I think, and I want to be conversational maybe towards the end of this year. Conversation is actually the next rank of classes with my sensei. I will probably take the JLPT, but I personally refuse to use a test as a goal; works for some people, but feels artificial to me. Methodology and insights (remember, do what works for you!): I watch ~45-50 minutes of anime in Japanese with English subs while I exercise, daily. Classes once a week. I do the exercises in the book _out loud_, no writing...most of them are geared towards generating output to match the grammar just learned, and I want to be able to _speak_ Japanese, and think on my feet. Anki deck: Started with some premade cards, now I make my own, based on vocabulary and example grammar sentences. Next step is to make more fill-in-the-blank sentences. The cards have audio, I read, _say the answer out loud_, turn the card over, read the answer and _listen_, and if my answer was halting, I repeat it until it's smooth. Kanji: Combination of class, TokiniAndy's new series he's making, and WaniKani. Ringotan for drawing kanji on my phone with my finger. Mostly throwing everything at the wall with Kanji, and keeping what sticks. Absolutely not learning the kunyomi and onyomi: I'm learning to read, not learning to be a dictionary. Thanks for the advice on narrating one's life in one's target language. I do that some, but should do it more. Dopamine: I'm after that really good feeling when I _understand something_ or make a discovery. Especially when watching anime. Like, I actually get shivers. Thanks for the attitude check on mistakes: part of the _point_ of an SRS is I should get about 10% of my reviews wrong; those are the cards that really needed refreshing. Motivation: I find that having a class that meets weekly gives me no excuse to put anything off. Same with the Anki deck: If I don't review the 150 review cards today (that's about 30 minutes), it'll be more tomorrow. The above is wordy, but I am grateful that this video induced me to write that down.

[@ratoh1710]

2:55 I am currently studying Japanese. I have a couple of goals. In the long term, my goal would be to either work with Japanese as a translator or interpreter, or to turn bachelor's degree into a candidate, possibly in folklore and the religions of Japan as I have gotten very interested in the subject. My short-term goal is my current education, which is 'Japanese Studies' at the University of Copenhagen, a language and culture course, shockingly about Japan, with a focus on training people in translation from Japanese to Danish. In my free time other than my course work I use Wanikani as my primary method for learning kanji, and I have recently started sentence mining using native materials.

[@codenamepyro2350]

My goals: fluent by the end of the year! Well what I really mean by that is being able to do everything a native could, just at a much worse level. Being able to read, write, speak, and understand the language at a level where I can communicate and be communicated to, with clarifications and assistance needed at times. But to be entirely true to myself, it's just to watch anime without subtitles... My method? Sentence mining. Literally just watching a lot of stuff, grabbing words I don't know, and having a lot of flashcards. 35 new a day gets me to around 13000 new words. Which I think is plenty to get the basic level of "fluency" I desire. The only real problem is me having to stick with it, and I've been doing fine on that front for over two months now (started a bit before the New Year) Any critiques or advice is welcome

[@dalilsty]

hey! I've been studying japanese for about 3 years (well, it's been 7 years since i "started" it, but i stopped in some of this years so it's more precise to say i studied for 3), and although it's a tough thing to hear and say, it's unlikely you'll become fluent in one year, especially if you don't have any experience with language learning. note, unlikely, not impossible. each definition of fluency requires a different time to archive, but since your main goal is to watch anime without subtitles, one year would be enough to watch a slice of life anime about general topics. when we start learning something we get very motivated, do miraculous routines and impossible goals. it's normal, but something that probably is going to happen is that the first time you don't achieve your goal, you'll get disappointed and want to give up. this approach to focus on vocabulary is really good though. since i started focusing more on it since the latter half of the last year, i went from barely understanding a kid's story to watching animes with topics that aren't what people usually talk about and enjoying a lot of forms of native content it's very good to focus on vocabulary and learn words in a natural way such as consuming content, but make sure to not totally neglect grammar studies. i like your approach, but i would recommend having around 30% of your time studying japanese with grammar. don't need to become a grammar nerd, even natives don't know a lot of things, but some things are necessary to fully understand what it's being said in an anime, for example. hold on a little with such a high number of vocabulary. it looks really good on paper, but in real life, you'll eventually get burned out (i speak from experience). plus, after a while pass you may notice that you can remember a lot of these words you learned, but not quite sure what it means, because you didn't gave yourself the time to let your brain absorb it, and it will start getting overwhelming having to deal with so many flashcards. 35 words per day is awesome, but 10 or 15 words is way more realistic. of you really want to reach 35 words per day, do it slowly. and the flashcards... this is totally my personal opinion, but i think reviewing flashcards it's a way too passive way to memorize words. you won't really learn them, just memorize a bunch of characters together and forget about them in 6 months or so if you don't use/see that word. they're nice, but i recommend doing something more active like, instead of see a word in the flashcard and remember it's meaning, try to remember the word without any help. i learn my words for the day, and then during the day I'll try to write them, remember their meaning and pronunciation. i learn more when i write things down and also like to write and read a lot of things in japanese, so maybe this approach is not right for you. english isn't my first language, so forgive me if it is too hard to understand. good studies, remember to enjoy the language! the process of learning japanese is delighting, although frustrating sometimes.

[@codenamepyro2350]

@@dalilsty Thanks for the extensive reply! I agree, going for general fluency would be really hard for a year, although it's as you say, I'm not really going for full comprehension, just for easier SoL shows. And for that I'm already somewhat decent at, knowing more than 90% of certain shows like Horimiya. I agree, and definitely am doing the best I can to structure my learning to avoid burnout. I've already been going at it with this style for about 2 months, and I find it pretty sustainable. I've tried learning Japanese previously, but stopped after burning out. Not to say I'm bulletproof to it, but I think my current setup is working fine for me. Although thanks for the advice, if I ever feel it's needed to cut down on the new cards per day I will With grammar, I already went through Tae Kim's grammar guide, and I think I have a lot of the general aspects down. Currently when watching and listening I'm at the stage where I can understand a lot, but if I actually tried to write or speak it would be a broken mess. Although I should be studying grammar more admittedly, what resources do you think are particularly good for grammar? I understand the brain not being able to absorb it, and I've also run into this multiple times already. But I don't really see it as a bad thing. I don't view my flaschards as the actual way I'm learning vocabulary, just as a tool to assist, with most of the actual learning coming from watching shows. Because as you say, flashcards alone aren't the best way to learn words, and at certain times it really feels like you're learning the card, and not the word. For some added context I'm only spending around 20 minutes a day doing flashcards, compared to about 80 minutes of watching content. So the emphasis really is placed on the latter Your English is great! Honestly if you didn't say it wasn't your first language I wouldn't have known. Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it all in mind when going forward. I don't really plan on having my learning being so rigid, so any advice is great when looking to see how I should change it slightly in the future. Agreed, language learning is the best when it's fun. Can be frustrating, but insanely rewarding.

[@codenamepyro2350]

Wow it's been nearly half a year since this comment. Big progress, just been slowly but steadily increasing my vocab and comprehension. Now moving onto reading much more, and leaning away from tl subtitles when watching anime. Still no ability to speak, haven't really cared to practice that

[@counterfeit1148]

@@codenamepyro2350 How is it now?

[@codenamepyro2350]

@@counterfeit1148 Very good! My plans changed midway through, so instead of doing 35 I shifted to 25 and started reading. I haven't practice speaking at all, but I'm somewhat confident with basic listening and reading. Some easier shows I don't even need subtitles and I can understand all of it. I'd say somewhere in between N3 and N2, which I'm happy with given I've only spent around 45 minutes a day

[@sehac0311]

I just like this guy. He’s obviously the smartest guy in the room and very funny. I love his no BS approach. I’m excited to see where this goes.

[@NightcrawlerXO]

I bilingual English and German, but would like to learn Italian. Unfortunately I have no self discipline so it feels impossible to do on my own. Hoping that learning vocab and watch shows will be enough.

[@sonoJess]

You're already bilingual which is a great start. What helped me was listening to music before starting with shows, that way my ears and brain were already used to the sounds and then you can 100% focus on words and structures :) Italian has great music 🎉 Oh, and naming step by step all the objects in your home, maybe with a note with some example sentences is a good way to start with everyday nouns. Say it out loud every time you walk by one of them 😆 Maybe do some linguistic tandem too, I'm sure you can find Italian speakers who want to improve their German. You got this! (Sorry for the long message I don't know what inspired me to leave my unrequested advice😂)

[@Happytravellerkimmy]

My goals are to have a casual conversation in Cree and Michif and to read syllabics. It's not that easy because there are several dialects of Cree and if you're learning Northern Manitoba and mix in some Swampy, it gets so confusing. 😂

[@MyLifeInTheDesert]

“Just like someone else is providing you with room and board” lmao

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Who is it?

[@blarghblargh]

@@nineteenfortyeight it's a quote in the video. the joke is that if the person has 8 hours a day to focus on a language, they don't have a job and are being provided for by someone who is supporting their study, and most adults do not have that luxury.

[@user-px9cw9iv2w]

I've always struggled with deciding which language I would like to learn more, because I when I think about it my main focus is not really to consume media in that specific language, but rather to produce or just write poetry in that language

[@jeremiahreilly9739]

★★★★★ Another great presentation. Two tips.(1) Learn phrases and memorize them. Example: Where's the bathroom? Better yet: Excuse me, where's the bathroom, please? There are lots of phrases you use every day in a language. Make them automatic. I am so good at this that sometime I get in trouble. My interlocutor sometimes rips out the answer too fast and I have to ask for a repeat. (2) At the intermediate+plus level, "chunk" your learning and review. Examples: I just learned pituitary gland, spleen, pancreas, small intestine, and large intestine in German. Or, chunk different ways to say the same thing, such as "to make an effort." Again, in German: sich anstrengen, sich Mühe geben, sich bemühen und alles/sein Letztes geben. I find that chunking helps a lot. It goes without saying that using the target language passively and actively as much as possible helps.

[@andersonneil2293]

Im a librarian at a branch with a large population of Mandarin speakers, id like to learn Mandarin well enough that i can help Mandarin patrons with simple questions and give simple instructions like "this is the kids only area" in a polite way. As a longer term goal, id like to get to the point where i can do my entire job bi lingually, bur first things first.

[@byronwilliams7977]

I would personally love whatever you can share about Michel Thomas. His Method is interesting.

[@languagejones]

I’ll make a video about him. I read a biography that was just absolutely jaw dropping

[@fuzzylon]

I agree, I started learning French with Michel Thomas, but I was surprised that there don't seem to be any real life teachers who use his method. The downside of his method and the emphasis on not memorising, no homework, etc. is that when you have to go to a class with a real teacher and suddenly you are expected to do homework, etc.

[@GrumpyMcFrog]

​@@languagejonesCan you tell us which biography? Thx

[@linus9091]

Thanks for sharing your experience of learning with me and all your other viewers.😊

[@OneWordataTime1]

this is an excellent and witty rundown. also, bird app 😂 edit: oh snap thanks for the shoutout

[@japanese2811]

I love the clarity with which you lay out the process. Too often I find myself doing something in the language and thinking "Huh, why am I doing Y when my goal is actually X?", followed by a quick reorienting of my focus. Subbed immediately!

[@IanMahaffey]

Definitely want to hear more about Michel Thomas.

[@jaysterling26]

I've read his autobiography. I think it was cheap on kindle. It's worth it, although others have raised ( warranted or other doubts- I didn't check their validity after I read the book).

[@quintusgrobler9088]

The language you are clearly most fluent in is "Throwing Shadeish". Love it.

[@enterfil]

Hey just a quick question, are you planning on making a follow up to your IPA learning guide? I loved the first part and felt kind of dismayed when I realized there was no part 2

[@BramNguyen]

Learning Arabic while living in Egypt. Very helpful, thankful.

[@seadawg93]

Please tell us more about Michel Thomas’s insane story!

[@coolbrotherf127]

For conversational ability, it's really helpful to really focus on listening and understanding spoken language. You can memorize the entire dictionary, but if you can't hear the words being spoken correctly you won't understand. An exercise that helped me a lot was watching a conversation without subtitles, writing or mentally noting what was said, then watching again with subtitles to see if I missed anything important. Then I'd listen again without subtitles while paying attention for the words I misheard or missed completely. After a while, I made fewer and fewer mistakes with my listening and could follow conversation both in videos and IRL even if I didn't know every word's meaning. It's a great way to practice especially for languages that are spoken very quickly like Japanese or Spanish or for languages that have thick accents like Arabic or German. Japanese was very tricky as they speak incredibly quickly in real conversation and often mumble or skip syllables that are difficult to string together.

[@slicksalmon6948]

Following more formal study, I spent a year learning French by following the comprehensible input theories of Stephen Krashen. Really. 2-3 hours every day. I was incredibly disciplined. I failed miserably. I discovered that there are no formal programs that teach French via oral comprehension. French natives don’t speak the language like they write it, and everyone teaches as though they do. Also, no one actually says “comment allez-vous” or "je voudrais".

[@nathanlaoshi8074]

(from a French teacher) Don't give up! Oh, definitely give up on the method that wasn't working for you but continue the effort. I'd recommend spending some time grazing the endless pasture of learning resources and see which one(s) you gravitate toward. If you're looking for oral comprehension, I'm afraid that enlisting the aid of at least a C1 speaker is in order. Maybe AI will eventually be able to pull that off. I studied French for 5 years before going there to live for a year, and I SUCKED SO BAD for 3 months. After 5 months, I was nearly fluent. All that studying that I thought had done nothing was actually lying in wait, savoring my suffering until my ears, mouth, and brain were coordinated enough to put old skills to use. The point is that what you did with Krashen was not wasted time, but it is time to switch out for methods that work for you. Bonne chance! More authentically: "MERDE!"

[@slicksalmon6948]

@@nathanlaoshi8074 Thank you, but the point I'm trying to make is there are no methods that are based on oral comprehension. You can't learn what you can't understand.

[@6Uncles]

what material were you using for comprehensible input? There's quite a bit on youtube, so surprised to hear you "failed"

[@MrMojo271]

You have to understand the input, not just watch TV or radio

[@6Uncles]

@@MrMojo271 well, he clearly said "comprehensible input" EDIT: but I guess it wasn't now

[@TheGabygael]

For Mandarin: Goals: -i want to start feeling like i'm making progress again -i want to be able to watch movies, tv shows, documentaries and KZbin videos, listen to music in chinese Big goal: -i'd love to read journey to the west or some big classic at some point -my biggest dream is to be able to do journaling in "cursive" chinese

[@PunkHerr]

I want to be able - one day - to read, speak, listen and write in Japanese and French because(!) and to immerse in the culture.

[@zevelgamer.]

Weeb

[@PunkHerr]

@@zevelgamer. compliment or insult?

[@zevelgamer.]

@@PunkHerr both

[@darkik7776]

Im trying to learn spanish for the sole purpose of being able to converse with spanish speakers because i love talking to people and where live at theres a lot of spanish speakers that dont speak great english.

[@themusicactor]

Going on a 689 day streak for German on Duo... 🙌🏾

[@marcusmarcus986]

Unironically asking, did it do smth? My german mother forgot to teach me german as a child now im here just chillin looking at my 30day duo streak

[@marine-001]

I'm of the opinion, as an applied linguist that has been teaching ESL/EFL for 27 years, that the first main ingredient in the mix that taps into our language acquisition as a child is either urgency to stay alive or interest that pushes forward. It can ba instrumental interest or integral learning for the sake of learning.

[@c00bmaster]

neurodivergent among us

[@dbear7717]

god damnit.

[@takionjose6657]

Shhh, you should be masking like a good neurodivergent 😂

[@bananamanjunior7575]

✊🏽

[@TheDrumstickEmpire]

Auch!

[@marcosmerino9369]

📮

[@colinmckenzie7162]

15 minutes of bro yapping

[@LearnEnglishWithMatta]

Great job! Love this video.

[@safialocke1990]

I'm so glad I came across this video. I'm trying to learn Farsi also as some of my family is Persian however I've been really struggling to find resources so this was super lucky for me to find so thank you so so so much

[@massmanute]

By goal is very specific. It is to pass either the the French DELPH or TCF exam at the B1 level in order to be able to apply for French citizenship as the spouse of an English citizen.

[@adrianteixeira3958]

My goals in learning Spanish are: to have fun, basically! I like studying new languages and I like how the sounds are like in Spanish. I also want to travel to Buenos Aires and Chile, and maybe someday Spain too.

[@Satanic-Dan]

Me too. I wanna learn Spanish. It’s seem hard. Feels like my brain can’t grasp languages

[@allegrahinkle9066]

After actually learning one language (Dutch) when I lived there, I was so excited by the idea that I could acutally express myself in another language that I ardently pursued additional languages (French, Spanish, Korean) because I know people who speak those languages and there’s just nothing like sharing that with a native speaker. AND I’m aging and need the brain exercise, and have the time to do it.

[@harmonys965]

Back when I was really into independent study, I would write things in pen (like vocab, sentences, matching - all things that would be on a school quiz) and I would “test” myself with pencil. That way I could check my answers over time and see which parts I needed more focus on. Then erase the answers and come back a week later and see! It was pretty effective

[@loudrumsforyou]

I wanna become a translator, thats what inspired me to start learning

[@matthewhogue67]

This is like the greatest language learning video of all time

[@calebnorton2474]

Swahili. Goals 1. to understand African culture in a deeper experience. 2. wanting to communicate with my students 3. be able to travel to east Africa and possibly for long periods of stay.

[@sakspins]

Those are great goals

[@vansan3211]

I work as a flight attendant and being able to speak Spanish WELL is a huge goal for me. I choose to work mostly domestic flights, but the amount of Spanish speakers who don't speak English is so prevalent. I'd love to be able to provide better customer service for these folks. I also just absolutely LOVE the Japanese language have many airline friends who work as Japanese speakers. And then the third big one is German because it's where my family is from, so I'd love to have that connection.

[@AriWeiss]

My goal right now, as I am living in Spain for 4 and a half months is to become comfortably fluent in the language, where I can not only navigate everyday situations (ordering in a cafe, dealing with some classic Spanish bureaucracy, etc.), but to be able to have an in depth conversation with someone in Spanish and only in Spanish.

[@fabianogama39]

My goals with English right now are the highest. I want to understand everything I hear, everything I read and be able to talk to people comfortably. I'm getting close to that. My goals with french are being able to read books and comic books and watch movies, séries and KZbin videos about the subjects I'm interested in. Maybe later I may get interested on talking to people, but not yet.

[@spacemachine]

This is great! I'm trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese because my partner is from Brazil and I want to communicate with his family so I'm focusing on verbal comprehension and conversational skills. As someone with diagnosed adhd you hit the nail on the head that repetitive memorization is literal torture. I tried Duolingo but I pick things up pretty fast and I get bored very quickly. I'm going to be trying to watch Brazilian tv shows with Brazilian subtitles (no English) to see how that works!

[@pimjikens]

Boa sorte! 😊