Learn Chinese Tips and Method/Learn Chinese Dialect - Interview with the Polyglot Steve Kaufmann

[@Thelinguist]

Lots of fun talking to you and learning a little bit about the Changsha dialect.

[@TulekBehar]

lingosteve is awesome

[@okaeritadaima4451]

Thank you for the great tips. I just watched 相声 a little, they talk clearly. I gonna listen to them more for my study. Thank you!

[@simondefonseca1121]

Your Chinese was almost perfect except your usage of 以后. I think it should be 然后 or 接下来 instead in that context.

[@00wxL]

@@simondefonseca1121 perfection does not exist, not even Chinese can master their own language, your comment is out of place

[@00wxL]

I admire him a lot, it takes more than hours of practice to be able to speak a language, you need to be very perseptive and logical, his memory is truly admirable

[@derekeano]

8:17 - “and the faster you use the phrase, people won’t notice if you use the wrong tone”😂😂😂😂 literally me.

[@clin9443]

Very true. Lol

[@ninoslanguagejourney6002]

I got that tip in my first year and I was mindblown at how well it worked lol Then I became more advanced and suddenly my chinese roommate told me to slow down cause I actually would be easier to understand since my tones were good but I spoke unclear when I talked at a normal speed I was like "nooo"

[@veggiet2009]

This is something I can't seem to get my head around, I try to say it fast, but then my brain said me with "wait did you say that tone right?" And so I asked down.

[@kokolexx]

Steve is the type of old man i want to be when i am old.

[@fstyles612]

Me too and I'm a girl 😂😂. I love Steve's approach to language learning!

[@user-so8zo5tv5v]

I really don't like speak 24 different languages. Would be so confusing

[@sasino]

@@user-so8zo5tv5v why not? lol. You would be able to understand most people around you wherever you go

[@ivomoreira42]

*"Get the rhythm of the phrases rather than thinking of the tone of each individual word"* - this couldn't be more true. Every time I try to read focusing in every single word, I sound like a robot, but when I try to say the phrase as a whole, omg, it's a way better. Of course learning the tones of words in isolation is very important, but words come in context and that's the point. I love this guy! Great vid!

[@noahmcc]

The Steve Kaufmann collab was not expected :0

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

😂

[@dragonmountainmartialartsa7415]

At least 30K views if Steve speaks Chinese…

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

This is a video that you can “watch” while driving and washing dishes! And I’m sure every of you can get some helpful ideas from this video! Leave your takeaway here :)

[@ohlook6222]

The thing about the rhythm instead of the tones just opened a new door for me

[@tchris8561]

Mr. Kaufmann is amazing. I can't wrap my mind around how many languages he can speak. I am an Asian mutt (dad is Chinese and mom is Lao). Growing up in USA, English is my primary language. I can speak and understand Lao but not much Chinese. Recently I've taken interest in learning Mandarin and it feels a bit overwhelming 🤯. So glad I found your channel. Keep up the great work!

[@josephqu579]

我觉得英文也挺难学的。

[@WingChunBoyz]

Wow he’s like the Wise Sage of the Polygot Community! This was fun to watch. 😀

[@DavidsonLoops]

The OG. I gave money to the lingq programme because of his hypotheses and learning languages which are different to school.

[@crazy808ish]

7:45 Rhythm of a language is so much better of an idea than tones! I love that analogy. I have always wondered, if you want to say a sentence with maybe 7 words in it, how can you possibly remember all 7 tones immediately to make a sentence? It would take me a long time to do that. Assuming I even remembered them all right. But if a sentence has a rhythm to it, you don't have to remember all 7 tones, you just remember how the rythm of how that sentence sounded.

[@PaulZedd]

Very thought-provoking to think of tones in sentences, rather than words. I wish I had known that before learning the HSK 4 list 😅. Also I loved hearing the Changsha dialect! I hope you do more of it in the future.

[@jbr5308]

I learned to read thousands of characters in my first 18 months by not trying to write them. You can learn to recognize dozens of photographs in a few days, while trying to remember how to draw those same photos will take weeks. Now, I cannot handwrite you a Chinese letter, but I can read just about any Chinese book or news article you send me. And since I can type Chinese I have almost no loss of opportunity as a result of not learning how to write. Good video. I have watched Steve's excellent work for years. He is totally awesome!

[@iandlz9311]

The word-guessing part of the video got me thinking: when do you consider someone knows a language? He obviously speaks very well, but if he doesn't know words like "controller" or "enter key" (and I guess many other common words), doesn't it mean that he has at best a partial grasp of the language? It strikes me because if a native speaker didn't know these words, it would be very weird/that person would be negatively judged. Otherwise excellent points on tones and great achievements and experience throughout his life, and still going for more! Impressive.

[@matthewstein6838]

I really enjoyed the collaboration effort, especially finding a non native speaker with whom you share dialect knowledge. Shoushuochinese always putting in that extra effort.

[@dodo6583]

Elderly guy: I'm not 20 anymore. Steve: So what? Elderly guy: So I can't learn new things. Steve: What's wrong with you man?!!

[@mr.verybat6951]

This is a cool video, and it was nice to hear a non native speaker talk. It becomes easier to relate and understand how he uses his voice.

[@hhhs4957]

It's steve!!! I watched him on an Indonesian girl's KZbin channel. It's also about learning languages

[@lucretiabolin9851]

Steve Kaufmann is amazing. I so enjoyed this this video. Eu aproveitei sua conversa com ele. I am just starting my adventure with Mandarin. xiè xie nǐ. 谢谢你

[@frogoftheriverdance1980]

What he's saying is very interesting. I just wish the adverts didn't interrupt every minute

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

Really? It only includes two ads in this 18 mins video😂

[@TulekBehar]

Ads mean she is so successful. Mr. Steve Kaufman said Arabic and Persian will bring him to know 20 languages

[@TulekBehar]

@@ShuoshuoChinese I spotted 3 ads. Never mind

[@frogoftheriverdance1980]

Obviously people don't know sarcasm 🙄 there were at least 3 interpretations though

[@ponlatepp.4056]

In one language, there are still classified to slang language, spoken language, writing language, official language, and literature language in addition to the difference of each local area language. Therefore, we need to select to learn what we have to use a lot.

[@alexrichter3707]

Listening to Steve almost makes me want to give up...he's amazing.

[@ConcernedResident_GiantStack]

he had 7 hours a day of free Mandarin courses, haha! I'm not knocking him, but we can't allow ourselves to get discouraged because we don't have the luxury of being employed by the diplomatic corps.

[@null_corporation]

2024 person here. Still very informative to listen to as a beginner

[@nileshbhattacharya2526]

Hello sister . I love your KZbin channel and I Will pray to God 🙏 that your KZbin channel crooses 1 million and you got golden KZbin channel button. I really appreciate your hardwork. And lots of love and huge respect from India ❤️

[@paulagodebrito]

YAY!! I'm early!! This is so cool, thanks for the video!

[@haunguyen6213]

I'am studying Chinese by myself. First of all I also take most of time in listening on youtube. I listen all that I can find with English sub or Vietnamese sub. Thanks Shuo shuo han yu for all plentiful help.

[@Ifaii9l]

I didn't understand anything but I enjoy watching the video, thank you

[@jaychang5325]

THIS COLLABORATION IS PERFECT 🔥✨

[@kaimm1080]

Due to my goals I have to learn to write hanzi, so I cannot just dismiss it. But the advice about tones is excellent, my spoken chinese got way better when I started focusing on reading sentences instead of individual words.

[@lucyanakumala1951]

Thank you so much for the video, Shuo and Steve! Steve's tips are so useful~ Btw I was surprised to see my acc there hahaha, thanks for answering my question😄

[@kathakailin]

wow so funny! Changsha dialect of 可怜 "zaonie" sounds almost like "zannen" in Japanese! I wonder if they got that word from there.. I mean there are quite a few Chinese words in the Japanese language. :D Steve is amazing! I really like he said your motivation for learning a language should be to talk to people and be part of their group. You should never just study to pass a test, nothing will stay. To me learning a language is a never ending process and I really enjoy it even if I am not fluent.

[@nomadicgamer9466]

Oh my gosh!! I think of the tones on an individual word basis and that's what trips me up when trying to speak. I never thought to look at phrases as like a rhythm! :o

[@andreialexander405]

Dear Shuo, This idea of doing interviews takes your channel to a whole new level and makes it VERY interesting. Brilliant! Maybe you will do interviews with notable Chinese people in Chinese (not necessarily celebrities, but people who have something meaningful to say).

[@Mathdmd]

I've started learning mandarin chinese the wrong way, too focusing on speaking even though I didn't have "the feeling" first, just set the point and went for it. Nevertheless, after feeling it too hard, I've decided to search for different learning methods and got to know Stive. After that, I started to focus on listening and writing, replacing grammar for pattern and worrying about imersion and use. Never felt so good since then, I've improved a lot in 6 months, and I'm already up to go HSK3.

[@tomwell9238]

EXCELLENT！！

[@FiasaPower]

Steve is incredible. A living legend!

[@SkritterHQ]

A little tip to get the new KZbin chapters working - you need to start the time code with 00:00 (intro), then the rest will work :)

[@Kam_i_]

this is so great! I always was afraid of directly memorizing tones, you kind of just have to memorize how the phrases sound and piece them together.

[@ariamaze9081]

Congrats! Wow, having Steve in your own channel is an amazing goal! Im so happy you both had this interview, hope you guys keep collaborating each other.

[@LightKnight_Age_Of]

Oh! A feat with Steve Kaufmann! 我要看啊！

[@derekeano]

7:44 “get the rhythm of the phrases rather than thinking of the tone of each individual word because that’s difficult to do.” I would go one step further and say it’s actually impossible, infeasible. According to Stephen Krashen’s language acquisition hypothesis, languages are learned subconsciously. For example, the categories of adjectives in English. We don’t say “red big dog.” We say “big red dog.” Speakers learn this intuitively. When they order the adjectives in their head based on categories, they don’t consciously do it. It would take way too much effort. It would be impossible. Instead they have learned patterns over time and they apply the pattern. Languages are acquired subconsciously.

[@williampriest3836]

Interesting input

[@vinicioslucas7319]

I guess I already know over 3000 chinese characters, but I can't handwrite it yet because it's kinda useless to me since I don't neet to (But sometimes my brain just keep one random character, this morning I noticed that I can write 桶 "bucket" and I don't even know why, I've never used it) the point is: I don't focus on learn handwriting and memorize characters, I focus on recognize them so I can read and type it easily, don't focus too much on something you don't like or don't need to.

[@nahmeo5795]

You don't write them to learn them ?

[@babycora2583]

Are you Chinese American?

[@DavidsonLoops]

Hahahah bucket

[@fstyles612]

I agree. I realised when I learned the characters through reading a lot and typing, I learned them faster as opposed to learning to write the same time. It feels almost useless to learn to write if you're not going to be going to school in Chinese or taking a written test. For business purposes, you only need to type, speak, read. It depends on your goals and what you want to get out of the language. It has to be useful

[@Eric-le3uu]

Great video, Shuo.

[@eagerdip8086]

He is really a unique.has still insatable desire to learn languages

[@christophershatzer2032]

Yeah, my textbook puts more emphasis on memorizing phrases over individual syllables. I didn't understand why, but now it makes a lot more sense.

[@pavel.pantoja]

I agree with everything but with the grammar point. For me to know grammar is like having a map to walk in that forest, maybe without a map I could lose my way easier.

[@inoovadz]

he did say so, aquire a bit of vocab and some basic chinese, than learn grammar

[@janniezbedny2334]

I've had teacher at school who would spend 80% time on grammar, I didn't learn anything there. Instead, I've been listening at home, and it came natural. Sometimes I wasn't sure about something, so I'd look it up. Grammar is important but you shouldn't learn is before vocab.

[@orangesoda641]

I grew up in a small town of Hunan province where the capital city is Changsha , I know how to speak Changsha dialect but as I moved out there almost 20 years already so my accent def get rusted , I promise you that I laughed my shit out at the end of the video when I heard this mother tone again 🤣🤣🤣 ,Salut to Steve , You’re my inspiration and strengthened my determination to learn French which I found as excruciating form of torture in first month ...

[@tanchwa3740]

15:08 WOAAAAHHH The tones for this phrase sound so similar to Hokkien!

[@ponlatepp.4056]

In one language, there are still classified to slang language, spoken language, writing language, official language, and literature language in addition to the difference of each local area language. Therefore, we need to select to learn what we use a lot and compare with the others.

[@akaitombo]

Enter Key, 也稱之為 Return Key, 所以 在大陸稱它為 「回車鍵」，在台灣稱之為 「輸入鍵」較符合其英文名稱 Enter Key。

[@simondefonseca1121]

很受启发，我打算借鉴史蒂夫的经验，这几天我已经开始听西班牙语歌、看西班牙语单口相声了

[@henry12h]

That's why taking a language test can sometimes make you feel discouraged towards keep on learning.

[@filthyswit]

This is great! I have a saved video of Steve's from October 29, 2006

[@jdemeulenaer123]

That's a great video. Thank you. Please have one in 長沙話。好聽哦。😎👍

[@a-sam8151]

非常好👍love this vid really encouraging tips from Steve!谢谢

[@EasyFinnish]

Hi! Very good video about languages learning. I try to teach Finnish as I study languages. I agree a lot what is spoken here. :)

[@miguelrock80s]

nice interview and good tips to learn languages

[@Khimera66]

Great interview and interviewee!!!!

[@shakhawathsohan]

Watching from changsha

[@zachmosher3879]

You did such a good job with this video

[@MichaelNicastro]

This was interesting, thank you!

[@joyuna]

During the word guessing section, it would be good if instead of just saying ‘完全不知道’ he would use some circumlocutions to convey the meaning even if he doesn't know the word, which is an essential skill for language learners! My Chinese is waaay worse than Steve's, but I could say something like 你玩游戏的时候，用这个手里...or something :) It's surprising how much you can communicate even when you don't have a big vocabulary, if you can practice this.

[@AnastasiaKhomenko]

Wow that was incredibly fascinating! :D Thank you!!!

[@musikora5281]

you heard the Italian because he was using the Italian head movement.

[@hashbuilder]

this communication is sooo cool

[@nahmeo5795]

you both make me smile 😂 good video

[@eder3261]

Love both! Nice vídeo!

[@travelvideos]

These words are a bit difficult. I don't can expect any foreigner to know it. Not so often used.

[@MelonLemon007]

I would love to travel the world with Steve, so i don't need google translate 😍😂👍

[@manilyndelapaz7155]

Wow, very helpful, xiexie ni laoshi💕😍

[@OscarWrightZenTANGO]

Excellent video. !

[@user-ly1up5yb6v]

真好的采访，谢谢！

[@mountaintag]

At 10:38, I think we hear an Italian accent because he's gesticulating with the hands, as Italians tend to do. For example » » » Luigi and Antonio are out walking, on a cold winter day, with their hats pulled down over their ears, and their hands thrust deep into their pockets. Antonio: Luigi, why you no talk-a to me ?? Luigi: Wassa matter ? You wanna me freeze-a my hands ??? :-) :-)

[@belencucci]

I´mma use that Changsha phrase to talk to my kitties when they´re hungry so that I can learn it faster haha

[@JoieduChinois]

猜方言的环节好可爱！谢谢Shuo哈哈~

[@ProphetTLK]

Damn his chinese is good; 52 years experience? I don’t blame him for not knowing your dialect. you’d have to be from your city. I hope to learn Shanghai Dialect one day because it sounds fun.

[@tombaron5607]

I learned to speak my mother tongue thanks to dr Steve krashen

[@paulwalther5237]

I noticed the dialect for 解 is closer to the Japanese kai. I wonder which dialect is closest to Japanese pronunciations.

[@kalinsapotato]

Basically the any of the variants from the south have more similarities with Japanese on'yomi.

[@a.g.4843]

Hi Shuo, you are a cute little fish! 😘

[@MarkusBlue]

Love this video

[@glennextics]

Steve先生看起来他学习长沙话学得真棒！我也有机会想去长沙玩儿。

[@tainantaiwan8629]

No offense but I'm tuning out at 2:03 because it's in English. Not good listening practice, plus it be fun to see more of your personality come out interacting with someone with a high level of Chinese. I mean what's the point of learning if you don't have that goal in mind. But that's just me as an intermediate learner. For anyone interested, Steve did an interview with a Taiwanese woman recently Sara Chu in Taiwanese Mandarin. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5-8fXdpZcp8icU If you're not just a beginner with a crush on 老師what are you doing?! Get some listening practice in!

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

haha, it’s ok, I love that video too! And got some ideas from it 😂

[@sparklingearth]

I really like that the interview is mostly done in English. The key points of how Steve learned Chinese are much easier to grasp in English for Chinese beginner/intermediate students.

[@tainantaiwan8629]

@@sparklingearth That's good, I've heard Steve say the same stuff 1,000 times.

[@jamzydarth7746]

I missed you shou shuo😳

[@alvinliu6586]

IELTS 7.5， native Chinese speaker， l would love to meet some English speakers to learn from each other.

[@cd7856]

Steve 挺厉害的！加油！

[@kevinpan5525]

这个老师好像在b站看到过，😂他中文真的很牛逼😲

[@vaderdad8302]

之前还在B站看过一个说四川话流利地一批地英国人，那是真的牛啤

[@rowanguilderson4755]

很有意思

[@ConcernedResident_GiantStack]

Lots of good stuff, although I disagree with the idea that you have to learn a certain level of Mandarin before going to China. That's true if you want to be able to use Mandarin, but if you want to start learning Mandarin or any language, then it's best to just be dumped into that country with whatever you know or don't know. I'll explain below. When I went to Mexico, I almost knew no Spanish. Sure, I had taken three years of Spanish 15-plus years before and I memorized a bunch of flash cards, but the moment I reached Mexico, I realized that I couldn't talk at all in Spanish. BUT, I was able to listen to people speak Spanish all the time: on the busses, subways, in the classroom, etc. I also had tons of signs with pictures and words that served as public flashcards. I also picked up on new vocabulary just by listening to people use certain words in context. As a result, within a year I had a good Spanish foundation that allowed me to have broken conversations with taxi drivers who always wanted to shoot the breeze. After a 3-week immersion course (taken the following summer after I left Mexico), I could hold a long conversation in Spanish with non-English speakers. With Mandarin it was more difficult: it took me 2 years to reach what the level I had in Spanish within 1 year. And, I had to do a lot more studying. (I took no Spanish classes before my immersion course after I left Mexico. But I've taken plenty of Chinese classes.) Even then, Mandarin was difficult.

[@AfroLinguo]

4:45 smooth move.

[@CheckSkills]

Amazing. Specially From 4:12 Keep it Up

[@user-og2hb4jd7w]

这影片太好了😆😆

[@AbdellaMOumer]

Shuo and Steve, Nice sharing! Shuo, the e-mail you shared on the video doesn't work, right?

[@sarminalexandr]

good more of that

[@Graphite2983]

16:02 I read that as "nani"...

[@richrozmarn3817]

Awesome!!

[@shup132]

Can you please send me the free pdf? The link you sent says that your "Account is cancelled and can not accept new subscribers."

[@olegnamedia2355]

Hey, this is pretty cool and unexpected.

[@wilburslug140]

Wow, I live in Vancouver like Steve K!

[@aarushkumar168]

Does simplified and traditional chinese only differ in the writing system?

[@williampriest3836]

Yes

[@TheGretaoto]

谢谢，老师！

[@kimberlyjwhipps]

Does anyone have a link to the comedians he mentioned?

[@rezvhannkoizumi3251]

@ShuoshuoChinese, can you help me get my Chinese name? My English family name means "sanctuary" while my first name means "gatekeeper of paradise".

[@kevinpan5525]

hahaha. I want a wonderful English name too.

[@rezvhannkoizumi3251]

@@kevinpan5525 ..ohh!? Na, this is interesting.😂😂