Matt vs Japan VS Days of French 'n' Swedish

[@mattvsjapan]

Thanks for having me on!!

[@guhmuhtruh]

Matt vs. Japan when are we going to get an update on how Chinese is coming along. I’m very intersted

[@mattvsjapan]

@@guhmuhtruh I have talked about my Chinese studies in past Patreon Q&As!

[@dharmabm42]

Your thoughts on meditation reminded me of one of my fave quotes: “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” - Pascal.

[@DashiSmash]

I've been having an issue with my active immersion that I wasn't able to solve, and so I'm indebted to you because you addressed it in this video. Anytime I'd actively immerse in my target language, (without being able to control it and sometimes without even being aware of it) my mind would begin to wander after only a few minutes and it would remain wandering for the entire duration of my trying to immerse. So when it's over, I pat myself on the back for having done my active immersion for the day even if it felt like I hadn't made any gains in knowledge. Inevitably I'd ask myself, "why is my listening comprehension not improving when I spend so much time actively immersing?" You helped me come to the realisation that all that immersing I was doing, that I thought was active, was in fact the equivalent to passive immersion at best. Listening to your thoughts on meditation has given me a clearer understanding of how I might be able to use it in order to solve some of these problems I've been having. Thank you Matt.

[@joellim7010]

to be honest, the part on meditation is more invaluable than the language learning part in this video. check it out from 35: 09

[@toolworks]

I love how candid Matt is about his unhealthy motivations and worldview in the beginning and how he eventually matured out of it but is grateful that it at least bore some fruit. I think most people would just lie about what their original motivation was.

[@arend050]

I think most people are unconscious of what their original motivation was

[@bostonrules222]

1:01 Motivation 7:13 How languages sound (beauty) 10:52 Worrying about pronunciation before fully understanding a language? 24:21 Input based approach sales pitch to beginners 35:09 Meditation 1:00:25 Flash cards in Japanese vs other languages 1:10:54 Asian vs European languages difficulty & native-like competence Excellent interview

[@mywoodencubes]

Thank you

[@lukaskennedy7946]

Thanks

[@ndescruzur4378]

Zanks

[@rezagrans1296]

@bostonrules Ur 👑thanks👌

[@icehound6763]

Thanks M8.

[@zawuz2681]

Woah, my two favorite language learning channels making a video together, honestly just what I needed during quarantine

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! Even hearing that anyone thinks that our content in some way "belongs in the same category" is amazing to me, Matt is a bit of a hero to me (and even more so after the stuff he said in this interview).

[@rife133]

Same here!

[@agniratha7297]

You two have two of the best, most realistic and informative language learning channels. I got pretty hyped when I saw this and it later reminded me to get 10 minutes of meditation done today. Really interesting stuff, thanks.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! Great job with the meditation!

[@julbombning4204]

Ikr, two genuine guys with an authentic love for languages. Unlike these other youtube "polyglots" who tries to sell you their product and fantasy

[@IndiaHeathIRL]

Wow, I've watched so many interviews that Matt's done but I think this may be one of the best. I especially liked how he spoke more about this initial motivations towards learning Japanese, I don't think he'd spoken in such detail about it at one time before. I'd been having problems with what I'd been expecting from myself in terms of the amount of immersion I was doing in comparison to what Matt and others had done, so it was actually helpful to hear Matt's motivation was so fundamentally different from mine. I'm definitely going to be checking out more of your videos, very glad that I've found a channel about European languages! MIA and AJATT are almost exclusively Asian so me and German feel a bit left out sometimes!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! That's exactly why I asked him these questions. I honestly spent about 5 days coming up with these questions because I didn't want it to be just another interview. Although, his one with Olly Richards after this was also great.

[@markchavez738]

Yeah this was a great one! My favorite is him with Luca!

[@tcsocal5554]

@@daysandwords I have heard Matt speak, and be interviewed, many times. I'm always pretty impressed. But I felt the same way as India Heath, this is one of the best interviews with Matt ever. During the whole thing I kept having two recurring feelings: 1. Wow, that's another interesting insight from Matt that I hadn't heard before. 2. Wow, who is this Days of French 'n' Swedish guy, he is an exceptionally good interviewer. No kidding, I kept having both those thoughts throughout the presentation. Really excellent job. Thank you.

[@tomatrix7525]

‘The better you get at a foreign language the easier it is to learn new words’ - Matt This is so true. I’ve learned English, Irish and Spanish to fluency (English and Irish being a dual native language for me as they’re both spoken a lot in Ireland) So i guess I can only speak really from Spanish experience, but there come’s a point where something ‘clicks’ so to say. Everything finally begins to unify and become coherent and meaningful. Then things get much easier. Unfortunately, this time does not come untul quite an advanced inter,esiate level, perhaps B2 or even C1..... Many drop off before reaching this stage.

[@kevinrawdon8573]

Ayyyy labhraím béarla, gaeilge agus táim ag foghlaim spáinnis faoi láthair

[@alwayslearning7672]

I'm interested in Irish too.I find it hard to find resources to take the MIA approach or any immersion approach as opposed to the grammar approach and which Irish dialects would I learn?.Is it really useful to learn the standard Irish which apparently no native speakers speak? Which resources you recommend?

[@kevinrawdon8573]

@@alwayslearning7672 if you're learning from abroad you're going to mix dialects don't worry about that. the best online classes imo are the DCU classes on futurelearn.com (they're free too), then you got teanglann, focloir, and téarma for your dictionaries, tg4 for the shows and you're lit.

[@alwayslearning7672]

@@kevinrawdon8573 Appreciate it.Thanks!

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

I have reached that point in English and there is no way I am C1 level, so this probably happens at around B2 level.

[@ricardo45607]

This type of matured conversation I need!!! 3 years have passed and I’m still struggling with my English!!! It’s a relief get to hear this conversation!

[@Riurelia]

Matt's been doing a lot of these interviews recently. I started checking out his channel because I saw his interview with Dogen.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, I discovered Dogen through Matt actually, and split my sides on the "Politicians in Japan" video haha.

[@milarkdoesthings450]

I think that’s why he’s doing them. I guess it’s working hahaha!

[@powerpuff4ever]

Happy to see the channel growing

[@FlowUrbanFlow]

It's always been Matt's style to do these interviews, but it's nice seeing them posted on other language-learner channels

[@clowncat000]

When I saw that you have a video with Matt I screamed. It is so amazing and very interesting! My two favorite language learning channels making a video together

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! I mean this is almost a podcast haha, not a lot of visual activity going on, but still.

[@ItsameAlex]

Hello Anastasia, I'm learning Russian, I hope you are grateful that I'm learning your language:D

[@vali69]

This is related to this last section of the interview: 1:10:00 I like the way Matt put it and that he understands how language learning is the same difficulty wise regardless of the language. On r/learnjapanese I keep finding people who tell me that I won't be able to reach as good of a level in Japanese as I did in English because English was "easier" for me to learn because it's "closer" to my native language (Romanian) than an asian language like Japanese is. And I find that complete bullcrap. And the way Matt describes why people seem to have this impression just perfectly sums up what these people don't understand, which is the whole immersion approach to learning a language.

[@竹内ジョウスケ]

I didn't really know what your channel was when I saw it, I just wanted to see matt but damn these were really good questions. I really found the meditation thing enlightening.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! I tried to ask him the most 'deep dive' questions I could, there were a few I didn't get time to ask as well.

[@napsahtava]

Hi Lamont ~ Really appreciated your shout out to the beauty of Finnish. I felt precisely the same way when I visited Finland the first time, and even though I didn't go there looking for a language to study, I wound up deciding to take it on. Now, eight years later, it's turned out to be my longest monogamous relationship... Have to say, too, I've been enjoying your channel quite a lot lately, appreciating your various perspectives on the learning process, replete with honest ups and downs. Great stuff.

[@BenLucasCritic]

I loved the conversation about meditation, thanks for delving into that aspect, great video!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@jessicafurman8470]

Love this interview! Thank you Lamont and Matt! I loved that you brought up the anecdote about the German man listening to his target language and the Chinese man listening to to his target language for a year before beginning to “learn it”. This is something I’ve always thought about in terms of infants and how they basically can only listen for typically at least a year before they begin to speak their native language. It makes sense and why don’t we approach language learning this way also? 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@MagnaAnima]

These videos keep me motivated for the long haul in language learning. I view language learning as 5 - 10 year stretches now!!

[@joachimjustinmorgan4851]

I spend about 2 1/2 hours a day on language learning split between modern Hebrew (for 2 years) and modern Greek (4 months) and I still enjoy coming to these channels and "kicking the tires" of language learning theory more than I actually like learning these languages. But every now in then I get a comment or joke or something in those languages that hits me in a really good way.

[@kingofthejungle2894]

What do you mean by kicking tires? I am not English Native

[@joachimjustinmorgan4851]

@@kingofthejungle2894 it is an expression meaning to check something out. Like when you buy a new car you walk around and maybe you kick the tires to see what kind of condition they are in.

[@kingofthejungle2894]

@@joachimjustinmorgan4851 oh wow nice analogy. thanks for explaining. How is your language learning journey going? I see it's been 4 years since your comment

[@l4z548]

Matt’s understanding of language, learning, philosophy, and deep thinking in general is so captivating. I fuckin loved this video

[@LinaVasquezOfficial]

What a beautiful interview! Especially loved Matt, your insights into the intersectionality between meditation, the self and your connection to the Japanese language & culture! Can relate!

[@victorrascon1716]

These are two of the wisest young people you will ever find on youtube, seeing both of them doing a collab is as good as anything can get. What you will learn from these guys is: patience, appretiation, being present, wisdom, being passionate, and a lot of other values which many people only seem to get until they're very, very old. I love you guys, I really appreciate what you do and I hope you reach many many more people.

[@daysandwords]

Wow, thanks for watching and for your comment!

[@victorrascon1716]

@@daysandwords no u

[@JamalAhmadMalik]

Honestly, when I saw the video I thought of playing it in the background because it was so long...and assumed it would be boring, but instead I had to go out of my way to ask my brother for his wifi because mine wasn't working properly just to be able to keep WATCHING this beautiful conversation. It was deep and interesting. Thank you.

[@davidm943]

Discovered both channels this year and to see a collab is just amazing 👌

[@languagepepe2855]

I was switching between anki and watching this and 扉 came up and I failed to recall the keyword and the keyword is ironically front door; I laughed so hard.

[@daysandwords]

That's probably more "apt" but yeah I see what you mean. That is weird. 😄

[@primsithi-amnuai8854]

Absolutely loved the interview. Learned so much, and reflected back on my experiences! Thank you both!

[@Chonchyyy]

I could listen Matt speaking about languages for HOURS

[@oluwashinaomisanya7487]

Listen and watch. He's cute. 😍

[@SanderJanssenBSc]

Just finished this entire podcast and I can't believe all this value is free! Legit man, mad respect to you and Matt for compiling these clips and providing insane value without expecting anything in return. To top it off, I loved how you yourself said you learned a lot and how you'll have some brain food to digest in the coming weeks from all the topics. Very inspiring!

[@HeffeFrank]

Exciting to see you two collaborate, did not disappoint :)

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for the comment!

[@cndcpwll]

36:36 I think this is one of the more fundamental aspects to language learning that both the language community and want-to-be-language-learners neglect to speak about. A large part of learning (especially a language) is unlearning. It requires acknowledging your ego head on (and other social constructs!) then shattering them. It can be very confronting and takes a certain mindset, resilience, mindfulness and curiosity to persevere. I've navigated exactly what Matt's talking about here with my Persian study, and my Australian self in the process.

[@nadiamayer11]

Man, Matt seems like a really interesting and deep person

[@daysandwords]

Very much so.

[@nfrankiksa4596]

He read a lot over all that years immersing so yeah he is.

[@TheRealSlimShady509]

@@nfrankiksa4596 that has little reason to do with it lol. The biggest reason is because he started Japanese to build his ego, and eventually realized that was wrong and changed himself. Reading light novels in japanese didnt change the way he thinks lol

[@nfrankiksa4596]

@@TheRealSlimShady509 how much hater boy? He barely read light novels LOL. And your reply has nothing to do with my comment. He read a lot anyways

[@ItsameAlex]

His way of talking and systematizing brain reminds me of Sam Harris.

[@tysonball9804]

Matt is everywhere these days!! I am loving the hustle!!

[@daysandwords]

He is a legend. 😃

[@cailwi9]

Wonderful, insightful and deep conversation. Thank you so much.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@studyinginthedesert7690]

1:06:25 I'm in the same boat concerning French flashcards. I was able to build up enough of a passive understanding without conscious study to understand to an alright depth a documentary or a book (looking up a thing or two per page), but now I feel the need to integrate flashcards to learn the less common bits that keep slipping past me. I personally found it useful to put the sentence with a blank over the word or phrase, and a French definition of the word/phrase plus an image for context on the front, question part of the card. This works especially well for learning constructions that are really unintuitive in English. Quizzing my production of the unknown word/phrase is harder, but I heard from a lecture of professor of neurology & memory Robert Bjork that there's a mountain of experimental studies supporting the use of generative review vs passive for long term memorization.

[@daysandwords]

Wow, honestly wasn't sure anyone would watch that far haha. I'm kind of going with Matt's approach of learning to understand as much as possible first (well, not first, because it's too late for that... but now that I can understand 70-80%, I'm working on increasing that to 100 so that things like novels and TV shows will be more interesting and then I can get thousands of hours).

[@lowpolar]

Awesome questions man! Great interview

[@chsinskyy]

this has to be one of my favorite interviews with Matt thus far, overall just super genuine and he's an overall great guy that recognized his unhealthy beginner patterns and owned up to it rather than hiding his first motivation 👏

[@Iskaera]

Glad I found this video that meditation stuff was actually eye opening and hearing about the "tire kickers" was as well since I think I do that as well without even realizing it. Definitely enjoyed this

[@nicholasmontano7172]

The self-aware candidness of how Matt talks about his experiences is so wonderful. I'm so happy to hear him talk about holding worldviews that I can find myself identifying with in different ways and give an honest treatment to it. The beginning is especially powerful. I can totally relate to having such a strong dream of what something could be, and *needing* to hold onto that belief because, well, what do I have without this vision pushing me?

[@margo6133]

Super boosting language learning motivation chat. Danke sehr guys🙏

[@haydenspilman5355]

It's really cool to see such an honest video.

[@elidc93]

38:38 Matt's thought on this hits me hard because I also felt the same way when I was learning Polish 2 years ago in Poland!

[@videogamerka0009]

Really? I'm Polish and I think we really like to integrate with foreign nations, at least me. We are almost shocked when some foreigners are interested in Polish culture because it seems so boring to us. Sorry to hear about your experience, maybe you met wrong people.

[@elidc93]

@@videogamerka0009 No worries, I mean I just spent 2 years of my life in Poland unlike Matt which spends a bit more time in learning Japanese. Well not all is lost because I'm still interested in Polish, watching vlogs and reading books to learn more vocabs and also I still communicate with my friend in Poland, in Lodz exactly. But one of the reasons I decided to stop learning before and leave Poland was I felt that even though I will try hard, they will still feel uncomfortable especially I'm an Asian decent. Anyway, that's just my personal experience, but still if I will be able to go back and visit there I still will, Polska to bardzo piękny kraj :)

[@guhmuhtruh]

Very nice, I found your channel when you left a comment on one of Matt’s channel

[@daysandwords]

Ha, there you go!

[@natalietomatur3358]

This was such an insightful interview, thank you so much! Thoughtful questions, detailed answers, I had an immensive pleasure listening to you both. I have just recently discovered your channel but I knew about Matt for some time already and even watched some of his videos, but I recently really got into language learning and now I am trying to listen to everything this part of KZbin has to say because it really helps to be more mindful about the process! Thank you once again!

[@thedoctorate]

Great share and great convo guys. Thank you both.

[@daysandwords]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@OdotowaAgatka]

That was so helpful and interesting, thank you so much!

[@WyemondMov]

That's a great conversation. And I have something to say about persuading people about the CI hypothesis. Usually, for people, it's easier to believe in an idea when they see results that a person achieved making decisions based on the idea. When a direct approach involving logical arguments doesn't work so well. Also, Matt has done a great job verbalizing the internal processes taking place in our minds during second language acquisition.

[@Bjornbloodeye]

This is like a dream for me coming from someone learning Norwegian and Japanese! So glad to see this collab!

[@jeremybuckets]

So wild to see how much Lamont has grown as both an interview and a content creator since this video.

[@FloraAshley]

I really enjoyed this conversation. You’ve discussed so many things in depth that I’ve thought about deeply since I was a teenager. Growing up most people never seemed to question anything and took things for granted. I’ve rarely met people who have the same interests as I have: metaphysics, linguistics, languages and a myriad other aspects of the human experience. Thank you very much both if you. This was so interesting and helpful.

[@FloraTae]

Awesome! I love Matt. He is very inspirational.

[@daysandwords]

What's interesting about this interview to me is that although he has inspired a lot of people, he admits that his approach to Japanese was not a healthy one. Sort of like Andre Agassi admitting that he hates tennis (which he did).

[@katakana-kun2122]

@@daysandwords I may be wrong, but I think the reason why Matt distanced himself from AJATT and created MIA was partly to distance himself and protect his "students" from the toxic mindset that comes with being an AJATTer.

[@katakana-kun2122]

​@liczba pojedyncza Specifically the idea that you should devote your life solely to Japanese and exclude everything that isn't a part of Japanese (including your friends) is the mentality that I think Matt is trying to separate himself from. That isn't really twisting Khatz's words, he literally says it repeatedly on the site, and he still says it to this day on his Twitter. I like Khatz, but he does encourage people to devote themselves to language learning to an extreme, unhealthy degree. I agree though that the "elitist toxicity" associated with AJATT came from the community more than it came from Khatz.

[@norma3076]

I've been binge watching your videos for a couple of weeks and really feel motivated to learn more languages. I really enjoyed this collab of you with Matt and learnt a lot. Keep up the great work🙌 Greetings from Spain!

[@daysandwords]

Glad you like them!

[@muskadobbit]

What a great conversation. Thanks!

[@nihilism2]

Matt's talk about meditation was very inspiring

[@kyrylo_perederii]

18:00 Matt says really important thing that I can relate to. As a native bilingual speaker of Russian & Ukrainian I struggled with sounds in English. Now though, after spending a year in the US and working on my pronunciation for a year or two, for many Americans I sound pretty "american", which flatters me, of course. However, when it comes to teaching American pronunciation to someone on early stages I hear more mistakes of my students than later on, because my ear simply gets used to it.

[@elenaekanathapetrova2282]

Well I learn English and I found a lot of useful points for myself in this conversation. Thank you! And I like the video cover becouse the arrival inspired me to learn the language

[@FloraAshley]

Yes then there’s the schwa in English which is in pretty much every word. One of the biggest barriers for people learning English is not realizing hey need to use the schwa. This as well as the “connected speech” example.

[@purplefish3609]

1:19:52 in Quebec french we say "Bienvenue" which is litterally "Welcome"

[@kelvintries9457]

Hey Lamont, I hope you are well. I'm currently learning French but I have learnt Japanese to a conversational level. Seeing you and Matt talking about language learning and life stuff in general was super useful for me. I recently discovered your channel and your content is great on how you break down certain apps and how to stay motivated in language learning, keep it up 👍

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@Dreekuz]

Very valuable content

[@DANGJOS]

Really fascinating discussion!

[@harrytempleman-wright7713]

I think you have a talent for interviewing other language learners.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@Ryosuke1208]

Yes I like that he works so hard on making the right questions, the questions that the other person doesn't get that frequently, and ask them.

[@angerventing2694]

5:00 Yeah, that's probably why I initially struggled with Russian. Back at college, I knew about the input method from some Polish guys. I was learning Russian along with English, but didn't do a thing to implement the same strategy to studying Russian. There was no Steve Kaufmann with his KZbin channel or the language learning community on KZbin to constantly discuss this stuff from all sorts of angles. Yet I had the basic idea, was using it for my English with movies, but didn't have a strategy for an entirely new language. I had this idea in mind that I have to start reading something, but didn't know what, except this one book I had in my shelf. It took me a while to force myself to even start and when I did I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I would and lost motivation. The other students were were weighing me down in a way, constantly talking negatively about the Russian department and the ineffectiveness of the teaching methods and our classes. I just wasn't motivated to learn Russian, all the while knowing about this revolutionary input method. I just didn't know where to start. I totally embarrassed myself in front of most of the Russian examiners for no reason. I could have easily looked up some strategies with some digging of more info online. I guess if channels like these had been around back in the day, there is a chance I would have done something more about it.

[@estrafalario5612]

Don't be afraid of the length of the clip. It's really interesting and leaves a good bunch of deep questions in the mind to think of the rest of the week!

[@daysandwords]

Hey there - thanks for watching and for your comment!

[@alessandrofacciani7209]

Just found your channel..really like your channel..I’ve been following Matt’s channel and I came across this video...thank you very much..from now on I’ll follow your videos as well

[@stevencarr4002]

This idea that learning a language to a high , near-native level is different from learning to an intermediate level is so true, I speak fluent German, but I speak basically English with German words. Correct German but obviously a translation of English thought patterns. Germans often use sentence constructions which I know how do do, but they don't come naturally to me because an English speaker would not construct that sentence in that way. It is a bit like literary styles. J.K. Rowling would never write like Charles Dickens, although obviously she writes totally correct English. No 21st century writer can write naturally in the same style as a 19th century writer. In the same way, I don't write or speak German the same way a native German would. That style of speaking does not come naturally to an English speaker.

[@Comintern1919]

Hey, German here who speaks fluent English and has been told I don't have that problem, could you give some examples of how you would word something in German that a Native German Speaker wouldn't?

[@stevencarr4002]

@@Comintern1919 Native German speakers would word things in ways A,B, C, D and E while I would only ever choose A and B, and C,D and E would never be used by me.

[@tompeled6193]

16:14 That's yod-coalescence crossing word boundaries.

[@Elflamencojuan]

Fantastic video and full of deep thought from both of you. It makes a nice change from the large number of "instant success" videos out there. Matt was very open (as meditation leads you to be) and you asked useful, relevant and intelligent questions. Speaking from personal experience, meditation has always helped to deal with all sorts of problems when things can feel like they are overwhelming. I highly recommended it. Start small and build up your time sitting. Experiment with different ways of sitting (e.g. chair, cushion, bench) and different types of meditation. Just avoid some of the more ethereal/new age types that make claims about energies, chakras and stuff. ultimately, the aim is to deal with the mind, as Matt says. Email me if you want any advice.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@patrickgallacher9478]

So is it a battle royale between Japan, Matt, and Days of French 'n' Swedish? Or is it Japan and Days of French 'n' Swedish collectively against Matt?

[@CoartneyGrace]

On the point about native/near-native accent, I’ve never formally studied Korean but became interested in the culture through tv and music and spent probably a year or so before I ever talked to a Korean now having spoken to several everyone has complimented my accent (which I always take with a grain of salt because it was unusual for foreigners to speak Korean then) the reason I think my accent was close to native was because I had unwittingly created a pseudo-immersion (return to infancy) for myself through the shear amount and variety of Korean content I was consuming.

[@k.5425]

That's cool I want to learn Korean so bad, but I'm holding it off because I'm learning Spanish and want to become good enough to use the laddering technique.

[@rottenrafflesia]

This is such an amazing interview. An I have watched so much language learning content for years. The part about how meditation can improve various aspects of living including specifically language learning is really interesting. Wow

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@ItsameAlex]

fantastic discussion:D

[@daysandwords]

Thank you kindly!

[@geratdonerbude2111]

My 2 most fav language channels 🔥🔥 Great collab

[@FlowUrbanFlow]

Never heard of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, but that was a cool bit!

[@karenbaily]

I loved this interview! Thank you both! ❤️👍😊

[@UmamiDeBoi]

only found Matt’s channel recently, and after a video or two auto playing while I worked, his long ass three hour video played. And while I appreciated the insight and new view of language learning he offered, that video did have a lot of negative views and an overall cynical vibe that came across. But i’m glad that several years on, he seems to be aware of all that, and has a much better view of japan and language learning in general. I took a surprising amount away from this regarding learning Japanese, the act of learning in general, and even meditation, surprisingly. I also have ADHD, and i’ve tried meditating in the past (in reasonable amounts: 10-15-30 minutes) but it never stuck. That idea that meditating is letting your brain be completely okay with the universal base-level of stimulation isn’t something i’d really conceptualized before. But it makes so much sense that if I could comfortably sit there with no stimulation to my brain, with nothing interesting to occupy its hyperactivity, then it would stand to reason that even the boring and unpleasant tasks are inherently more engaging than doing nothing, and so I should be able to direct my efforts wherever I please.

[@ronsan1561]

This collab is gold!!

[@daysandwords]

Thanks!

[@mariajohnson2294]

Life changing! Thank you!!

[@AlexHolland123]

The idea of just listening before learning for the sake of pronunciation is great! A year is a bit much but you could do a less extreme version. I'll try it for a month or two. I'll only learn vocab about 10 min a day since nothing at all will make me impatient but I wont speak yet. Thanks for the idea!

[@learner9641]

I thought they were in the same room 💭 great video

[@valq10]

Matt seems like such a genuine nice guy I don't know how that comes across so clearly but everyone in these comments seems to agree! I think the difference is with his situation he started young enough that he didn't have a job or any other commitments, allowing him to go so total into the immersion.

[@daysandwords]

Exactly. I SO wish I could go back and have my teens and twenties again. I probably wouldn't even choose to learn a language - I would just focus on getting really good at something.

[@valq10]

@@daysandwords Youth is wasted on the young as they say. That's part of what makes it special I suppose. Hopefully future generations won't have to get caught in the rat race and will be able to actualise their potential at any age.

[@Thalespoliglota]

Amazing interview!

[@pethaudiddorol]

What a lovely video to spend my morning watching, great content! 😊

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@LiquidSolidus9000]

On the topic of thinking a language sounds beautiful, as another Japanese learner (passed JLPT N1), I never really thought of Japanese speech as sounding beautiful before I started studying, but now that I know a lot of Japanese, I do find a beauty in the pairing of sound and meaning, if that makes sense. Like, the word for "light" is "hikari', and I just find it a very apt sound for that concept, if that makes sense 😁

[@SteveChiller]

I've been trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese and what's helped me was listening to Brazilian songs and reading the lyrics over and over.

[@英語わかりません]

Damn Matt is really honest in this one, you could tell that he was genuinly hurt by some experiences. It's really rare to see people express genuine honesty.

[@ItsameAlex]

A female white exchange student in Japan, or Au pair, that spoke Japanese said ''I had a great time with my host family, but at the end they said that they like me, but if I ever marry a Japanese man they will never forgive me''.

[@英語わかりません]

@@ItsameAlex Based.

[@ItsameAlex]

@@英語わかりません The word based denotes resistant to the brainwashing of the dominant woke/sjw culture, and a commitment to traditional values, seeing reality for what it is. Virtually all of the Japanese population hasn't succumbed to the sjw brsinwashing, so that doesn't really stick out as based to me, although maybe we can describe the whole nation of Japan as based.

[@kingofthejungle2894]

@@ItsameAlex why did they say that? what does it mean

[@luketruman3033]

Amazing, I have been a fan of Matt for a while, I recently watched your interview with Olly and now I am watching this I am starting to really enjoy your outlook and mindset. I watched one or two of your other videos as well, really interesting. I like how real/honest you are about what you are doing, nice work!

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Luke!

[@luketruman3033]

@@daysandwords btw I run a really small channel on languages too, I have mostly studied Cantonese and Mandarin so far, be cool to talk and potentially record a video of you have the time. Keep up the good content!

[@cadian101st]

International Phonetic Alphabet only includes characters for sounds that are distinguishably different in any known human language. The German vs French r is a good example, no human language uses both in a contrastive way. That’s why it’s a good jumping off point but imperfect as a tool for learning pronunciation, it simply wasn’t designed for it. They do have a bunch of diacritics that allow for far more specific distinctions like the German vs French r, but to learn all of them would take more time than just listening/shadowing practice

[@default632]

I could watch Matt talking to me about language for days. No homo.

[@mamaharumi]

The question about the sound of a language before vs after learning was great. That's why I was interested in Japanese originally. It just sounded good and Matt explained that well.

[@aliciagrau6430]

This native speakers changes of sounds it's because natives learn to talk before learning to read. So maybe we should learn how to speak a language before writting and reading.When I was little I used to listen to music in English and as I didn't know any english or how to write it I would write it how I would in spanish to learn the songs without caring what they meant.I still have these and the written sounds and linked words are pretty impressive.Nothing to do with the actual spelling of the word but it sounded as if I could speak English! !

[@luigiconvertini2822]

You used the visual language of the aliens in "Arrival" to frame the concepts of the interview. A man of culture 😄

[@Crashandburn999]

I first started studying japanese in 2015, but I was never very motivated. Even though I have been "studying" for 5 years, I really have about 8 months worth. I can understand enough Japanese to play video games and understand enough to get by, and I can also read manga just fine too, but I feel like my ability to speak Japanese is still very very low. 14:25 I can't hear the difference here either, at least not the first few times. I had to replay this over and over to hear the difference.

[@letiede9094]

Maybe I can explain the French part, since I'm French. So if you go with a translation of "my pleasure" to respond to "thank you", it would be "ça me fait plaisir". But it's true we wouldn't use it often because it's not a throwaway answer. You actually mean "I enjoyed doing it", because you enjoy the activity beyond the fact that it helped someone. For "je t'en prie", it's complicated to disassemble it. It comes from the expression "je te prie de", which is a higher register way of saying "please do" (the verb "prier" alone meaning "to pray" in most contexts). Like "je vous prie de vous asseoir" is a polite but commanding way of saying "please sit down". If you say "je te prie de t'asseoir", I picture an older, upper class, old style teacher talking to a student (because "te" implies in an informal context that you are equals, and in a formal one that you can talk down to someone like a child). The "en" is a way to reference an action or object already mentionned (like "je n'en ai pas besoin" means "I don't need it"). In this case, it's so old that it became a fixed expression and we lost the context about what "en" refers to. So it's like "please do it", but we don't remember what "it" was supposed to be. It can also be used as an answer to the question "can I do...", in which case "je t'en prie" or "je vous en prie" is more of a "go ahead" and doesn't carry a commanding undertone. I hope that my explanation was somewhat helpful, even if it could only go so far. Good luck with your French!

[@daysandwords]

Bonjour, merci ! Yep, so, the "Ça me fait plaisir" came to me a few seconds afterwards (as in, as I was going into my next sentence, I realised that that's what it should have been, but I don't memorise "set phrases" so I have to be thinking in French in order for French to come out, if you comprends me haha.) But also when you're doing these videos and you know that there is no opportunity to edit, you don't have time to let yourself think of little unimportant things like that. As for the "je t'en prie", I know I am going to sound like a jerk who is pretending to know something that he just said he didn't know... but yeah, I knew 75% of what you explained, just not what "prier" meant. Obviously I knew the "te + en" = "t'en" bit, I mean I don't claim to be a French professor but if I find a KZbinr with "French" in their channel name who doesn't know that then I am calling buuuuullsh** ... (Also, I did say "I / you / of / it", in trying to explain what it might mean), and yes I'm good with "en" - although as you will have noticed, it is used in lots of places that we wouldn't use any object at all in English. So yeah I know that I said no idea what it meant but really the only bit I didn't know was "prier", but given that this is the only verb out of 4 words, it's kind of key to understanding what it actually means. My point was that I had no idea what the actual meaning behind it was, only the idea that it's expressing - and that these kind of semi-faux-amis can be dangerous because 90% of English speakers will be happy just saying "De rien" or "Avec plaisir" because they're not wrong, and they're the same as what we would say. So I always go out of my way to say the one that doesn't exist in English, which comes in handy for Swedish too, e.g. "face" vs "ansikte" (a lot of kids just say "face", but the older word is "ansikte").

[@daysandwords]

P.S. Ton anglais est formidable, c'est très bien !

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

One important point, all the north indian and and iranian languages and even the dead toacharian which was spoken in north west china belong to indo European language family, which mean they are sisters European languages. Thats Thats beacuse north indian and and iranian languages shere a common ancestor with European languages. We call it proto indo European language. The grandmother of indo Europian language such as greek, German, sanskrit, latin, russian, english, Spanish and persian. Various groups of Proto indo European speaking people left their Indo-European homeland around 3500 bc and went in different directions and gradually their lanaguge Proto-Indo-European changed its form over time and evolved into ancient languages such as vedic sanskrit, Hittite, ancient greek, latin, old persian, old english. which later evolved into modern Indo European languages. Two of these indo European groups which later bacame iranians and indians arrived in what is now Iran in early 1st millennium BC and india in early 2nd millennium BC

[@loctrice]

I realize this is a 3 year old video - but there are 2 great books that would work very well for people who want to understand what it takes to make the habits and keep going. "Atomic Habits" teaches about habits and "Drive" teaches about motivation. The two books together are very good. If you wanted to follow up with "Emotional Intelligence 2.0" to get some more ideas into self awareness and self management, that would be a great next step.

[@marvinmateo2416]

the power of now (book) helps a lot with guidance :)

[@victorbergman9169]

16:22 It should be in the pure non-slurred way, "Do you not want to go?"

[@daysandwords]

Says the textbook from the 1970s.

[@DoingEvil01]

For meditation I started with reading "10% Happier" by Dan Harris. It's a pretty easy read and got me started on my meditation practice. I now use the "Waking Up" meditation app on my phone. There's a ton of resources out there, find what works for you.

[@daysandwords]

I actually started with that book as well. I didn't quite hate it but I certainly didn't enjoy it. 90% of it is about their boring bus trip and 10% of it is about meditation. This conversation with Matt was much more motivating for me than that book.

[@ReeseCpeaces]

Great video

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@alexprus7953]

Awesome vid

[@Aditya-te7oo]

10:30 I like your voice Matt. I like both British English and Australian English ('cause it's a lot similar to British English) but British English is my favourite.

[@RonaldMcPaul]

1:15:40 I love Matt, he's so articulate. If one day I were to share in some hallucinogens with him, that would be monumental day for international multicultural diplomacy. We would break down some barriers in ways no ever had before.

[@k.5425]

Yh, he's my role model for "articulateness". Because I speak so rushed and unintelligible most times.