Talking With XiaomaNYC: How He REALLY Learned Chinese

[@daysandwords]

You know you've overdone Anki when Matt says that your Anki routine is insane.

[@FOXMAN09]

It's always an Easter Egg to find another language channel creator in the comments section of another language channel creator. And this time there is a language channel creator interviewing another language channel creator and another language channel creator commenting on the language channel creators' video. Man this is getting deep.

[@samihaaraisa]

@@FOXMAN09 you have mastered the skill known as english, my friend

[@vaded2135]

@@samihaaraisa Yeah lol I had to read that twice to comprehend it

[@jefftube553]

I'm expecting matt to fight japan when he reaches 100k

[@oamioxmocliox8082]

;)

[@felipeflgg]

The first weeb war

[@adam-xi8db]

LMFAO WHAT

[@lady_kikilee]

🤣🤣

[@depressedteadepressoespres186]

@虞鹏举 yeah, I only noticed this recently I wonder why he hasn’t gotten a lot of subs especially considering how critically acclaimed he is.

[@francescosilvetti9659]

I keep forgetting that Matt isn't even at a 100k subs lol. Let's keep spreading immersion learning!

[@psiangel]

I didnt even realize this till i saw this comment

[@solidsn2011]

Goddamn when I found his channel he only had 5K subs or something and I was so intrigued! It was inevitable he will grow fast as his method simply works!

[@naxcapfolsap1683]

IMMERSION LEARNING IS THE FUTURE!

[@Shadowserpant00]

speaks to how good his method is, he has a literal cult following already lol

[@CowBeatsCrow]

@@alegalcrepe8162 annnnnd it's here

[@AndrewFerrer3d]

Xiaoma learned Chinese just like he learned his others languages, obviously. In 24 hours.

[@antonyakimenko9572]

And he spoke it perfect from the first minute of learning

[@benjaminjeffery6873]

So nice to just listen to an interview on KZbin without any fancy editing or graphics, very honest, chilled, and sobering content.

[@vaded2135]

Agreed

[@thirdworldpolyglot2095]

English is my target language so I'm glad that I can watch this kind of great content without any feeling of shame XD

[@l.f.3835]

That's cheating! :^)

[@tentzz]

For real

[@lofty8037]

Matt and Xiaoma are the definition of “different roads lead to Rome”. Love seeing you guys collab, keep up the good work!

[@littlefishbigmountain]

Out of curiosity, are you a native English speaker? I just ask because I’ve always (and only ever) heard this phrase said as, “All roads lead to Rome.” Idk if it’s a regional difference or what

[@lofty8037]

@@littlefishbigmountain True that, I just thought "different roads" makes more sense in this context because not all language learning methods lead to fluency lol.

[@littlefishbigmountain]

@@lofty8037 You’re totally right there! lol. I was just curious

[@HanyuuHOLO]

I was thinking the same thing, even thought Matt would mention that how their basically opposite methods ended up resulting in fluency

[@casual_designer]

Thank you for non-edited version. Natural conversations are always great.

[@bocchi_boy]

Great video! Whilst the "foreigner speaks perfect..." videos are entertaining, it's refreshing to hear about the actual amount of effort and work that it took to get there

[@FOXMAN09]

Lol yes finally he doesn't over simplify the process of learning a language. It always interested me waaaaaaaay more to know the brutal process (known more often as "reality") than the "Hey guys just book some italki lessons and you'll be fluent in 30 days"

[@jamesmccloud7535]

Refold is helping me a lot on my journey to Spanish fluency! Thank you Matt! 💪

[@Bort_here]

I love this niche content

[@two-thousand-one1489]

This was so wholesome!!!! Love it Matt

[@OSeanSanO]

What a great set of videos recently, i like xiaoma (but Matt vs japan more) The vibes are always great recently

[@aminenaselfakih68]

11:18 マジで！？xiaoma says blasting and at the same moment a truck driver blasts his horn

[@HanyuuHOLO]

Lmfaooooo

[@msmith155]

Quite an interesting interview. Thank you for the video.

[@lucasps6620]

I absolutely love the way your channel is growing. Your channel was already a huge motivation before but now it's even stronger !

[@girlbythegulf]

I'm excited about this channel! I've been slowly getting into Mandarin Chinese and your videos have really encouraged me! Like you, I learned enough English to get around in 3 months just by watching a ridiculous amount of tv shows over the summer after moving to the US from Brazil. I'm excited that I intuitively have been following the process you outlined on your interview with Joseph so my motivation has reached a new level! There's hope!! Thanks so much for all the content and best of luck on all your endeavors! 😊

[@copeium400]

Love when you do interviews!! Really motivating!

[@Major_Winkee]

The crossover we all wanted! Seems the key is that language learning takes time and immersion.

[@Nico-ur2po]

Awesome interview! As someone deep in their Swedish journey (>1 year studying) I really empathized with a lot of what you guys talked about.

[@Eric-le3uu]

Great vid, production, execution, and your interviewing skills have gone up 10-fold. I mean, refold.

[@Bonapartinha]

Can't wait for the part 2 Keep the good work Matt, u r really doing a great job and i'll never forget that u r the one who made my life easier, if it wans't for this channel i wouldn't be able to understand this interview :O

[@SaiyanJin85]

XiaomaNYC is the reason why I started to learn Japanese 3 months ago. He's a great dude.

[@SourishBanik]

How's it going now? Been 10 months

[@SaiyanJin85]

@@SourishBanik It's been good so far. I had to step back a little bit in order to study kanji more since as I progress with my studies it's a little difficult to read even though I know the words.

[@SourishBanik]

@@SaiyanJin85 it's a very difficult language. You are very brave to have chosen to learn it. Good luck!

[@SaiyanJin85]

@@SourishBanik Thank you very much. I try to be reasonable with my expectations. For example for my use case is more important to be able to read and listen than speaking 100% fluently. So I stir towards to that direction. English is not my native language either which for me is also more important to read and listen to english content. Setting expectations is vital I believe.

[@xiaospetsnaz5809]

Matt, I just LOVE the content you put out there. You will reach the 1 million mark that you deserve! Keep up the AMAZING work!

[@SomeDSquares]

II will be studying abroad in Japan next fall, I am going to try to immerse as much as possible. This was very inspirational, thank you

[@SJ-pt1wy]

How's it going? Did you go to Japan? If yes how was the experience?

[@Danpungip]

where is the update lmao

[@SailorHeavyMetal]

It's good listen you both. I am learning Japanese and Chinese at the same time. I follow you (Xiaoma and Matt) and the advices that you give us are amazing! Thank you!

[@hammyshayaddy8330]

It just goes to show that we all have different ways of learning. Me for example, I use movies and subtitles a lot. I've managed to do Spanish, French, Italian, Serbian, Macedonian and a few more. But the important thing is to always keep improving, it doesn't matter the method, because the end result is the same, to be fluent. Great content, from both of the guys. You guys actually inspire a lot of people, especially because they see it's possible, all you need is to put some work into it and not give up, because it can get frustrating sometimes.

[@Zach-rt9kg]

Exactly, find what works, and stick to it, every minute you don’t practice will take one more minute to get fluent

[@hammyshayaddy8330]

@@Zach-rt9kg Definitely. Every second counts. Even if you are just passive listening to the language, for example, you are getting used to the sounds of that language and it's helping with your pronunciation.

[@Ryosuke1208]

Do you find that subtitles slows your progress in your hearing comprehension when you're on an advanced level?

[@hammyshayaddy8330]

@@Ryosuke1208 No. I play around with them a lot. First, I put the subtitles in English so I get the meaning, then in the language I'm leaning so I see how words are pronounced and written. Then I copy and past both subtitles on Excel, learn the words I don't know or at least most of them, then I watch it without subtitles. I end up watching that specific movie 3 times, so by the third time I already know what will happen and I have some idea of what's being said, even if I don't understand every word or even every sentence. But for me it works, it's good practice.

[@Ryosuke1208]

@@hammyshayaddy8330 I see, seems like a lot of work, I'm kinda lazy and, well, I mix it up a as well, I watch it without subs, sometimes with both subs and other times only the target language subs, but yeah it's working. But I will try to force myself to listening without subtitles because I felt that in english (the second language I adquired) relying on subtitles kind of hindered my listening comprehension because I always relied on them (In movies anyways, not on youtube videos)

[@paulwalther5237]

I'm really impressed that he effectively used active recall cards not just to cram for a test but as a long term strategy. I would think it would be so painful. I would have actually double checked - wait you were doing 800 active recall cards a day?!? are you sure?

[@Joebusyguns]

Fantastic conversation. Your content is highly underrated Matt, I’m about to start my journey to serious immersion for Japanese and you’ve been a big inspiration. Keep up the great work, looking forward to your future videos.

[@amiothenes]

Very nice! Consistency is very important in a successful language learning journey.

[@Spooky.Boogie.xj0461]

I have the feeling this is gonna blow up

[@infecteddarkness442]

Another glorious video. Thanks for all the wondrous content.

[@ConnorChambers-x7u]

Imagine matt vs japan if he bulked up homie you got potential

[@TheRealSlimShady509]

Why does this video not have way more views

[@seanpaulson9098]

Very interesting. Thanks for these videos!

[@drauc]

Thanks for uploading this, after watching your last video with Xiaoma I was wondering about this

[@0x746f6d]

Matt, you should totally interview Jared Turner and John Pasden, or be a guest on the You Can Learn Chinese Podcast. Your methods probably overlap a little, differ a little, but you all definitely have thought really deeply about language learning as a process, so it could be a great conversation.

[@caseymcdowell3353]

Super excited for next week

[@MrsKoldun]

20:08 I’d love to see him back that up by giving a professional presentation or discussing a paper with a native speaker. (I mean that in a an impressed manner!)

[@ASquidWithC4]

cant wait for part 2 :)

[@Zach-rt9kg]

So close to 100k, love to see ya grow man

[@PeachPuppy]

Damn, am I early. Good video, I enjoy Xiaomanyc's content. Thank you for the video!

[@timothyy7]

im with xiaoma on the reading aspect of learning Chinese. i would rather have the social communication aspect of Chinese to be much better than the reading/writing of it. everyone has different goals.

[@acertaingreenvegetable8641]

Another great video!!!

[@tobiasu1117]

Worthwhile and interesting interview! I have the biggest respect for both of your achievements. What I'd be curious about: Matt: Any plans to learn Chinese? Xiaomanyc: Any plans to learn Japanese? With the Kanji/Hanzi under your belt each of you would have a headstart. Keep it up, Tobi

[@jhonyiigp]

Incredible video ! Keep going man!

[@FlowUrbanFlow]

I hope there's a collab with Japanese From Zero soon!

[@FlowUrbanFlow]

Such an awesome collab!

[@unclebob8419]

XiaomaNYC is the KING of click bait videos titles and thumbnails, that's a huge part of his successful youtube channel.

[@NO1xANIMExFAN]

In terms of click bait he is pretty much king but at the same time you can tell through his videos that he's a nice dude, so it's kinda hard to hate his success lol

[@unclebob8419]

@@NO1xANIMExFAN Not hating, just stating the facts. A lot of his videos are an anti-climax, they don't live up to the hype of the title, it's very rare that someone is SHOCKED because a white guy is speaking Mandarin.

[@fiercingdragon]

Road to 100k subs matt!

[@topa336]

great video

[@shlimon7667]

This summer break I'm gonna try studying Japanese a lot using your Refold

[@SgtSuissie]

200 news cards a day??? 10 is already my limit for not getting burned out

[@nolandderlugner1351]

Yeah But i guess Its a skilk that can be learned

[@kougamishinya6566]

Doubt he really meant 200 new cards, more like reviews...

[@SgtSuissie]

@@kougamishinya6566 pretty sure he meant 200 new cards

[@taxman676]

@@kougamishinya6566 he gave emphasis to "new cards", 200 reviews is not very impressive

[@詹姆斯-k2k]

That many new cards would be a waste of time for me because I just wouldn’t retain anything due to volume. I retired using cards years ago because it takes the fun out of it, I find I pick up words better naturally by coming across them multiple times in context.

[@ulissesmm]

Very interesting interview

[@safarfsaf]

My two worlds colliding. Weird but totally awesome. 加油小马！！！

[@brwnsgrgirl4379]

How many hours?- All of them. Okay, time to step up my game

[@GuoJing2017]

21:55 - pfft, everyone knows Taoism is cooler than Confucianism, we have Bruce Lee! On a serious note though, I have read some texts from confucius and also zhuangzi mengzi etc, I feel it is really hard, the amount of cultural and contextual knowledge you need to correctly interpret the stories I feel is so much, even if I understand the text often I misunderstand the moral of the story

[@asmaagamal6314]

you rockk!!

[@cryan9137]

Sounds almost like he was using english phrases as like "key phrases" to spark recall of Japanese phrases. I can see that being useful for survival-type of language like how do you order food, say you're going to the bathroom, etc.

[@oodjee]

It depends. As you evolve in your language, the phrases you want to say evolve with you, and you can enter them into Anki if you wish.

[@cryan9137]

@@oodjee Oh yeah, I totally agree with that. That's my experience so far.

[@santiglot]

Its interesting to see how anyone who takes Anki seriously ends up having an existential crisis lol

[@davchan4423]

I just noticed. You look like an American Ono Kensho and that's pretty cool.

[@josephjoseph1302]

I like this content

[@petern3054]

Love ur content!

[@FatherYamz]

It works people how much more do you need! Knowing the information does nothing , make sure you actually do it! Now get back to immersion !

[@iamtombh]

Xiaoma might have significantly more subscribers but Matt is a language learner of significantly higher calibre. Personally, this interview comes across more as a meeting of 2 youtubers, that also just happen to be language learners.

[@ハンサム-t4b]

Xiaoma is more on Entertainment, im learning Japanese for more than a year now but a enjoyed watching Xiaoma's videos. Just watching people's reaction 😂 But for sure Matt is hard core learner

[@Ryosuke1208]

A great performer vs a great composer kind of thing.

[@ThePhrozenPhoenix]

I dunno, they seem pretty equally fluent in their respective languages.

[@SenatorDodo09]

love these videos, got me motivated, time to step up my game and stop fucking around, uberdanger style

[@Wawruto]

The design of Refold is so beautiful, may I ask you what software/them you used?

[@TheRichExplorer]

Matt you're so cute!😁😁😁😁

[@コミ-e8z]

Was wondering whether Matt was talking about Xiaoma when he mentioned 'fake polyglots' who get a ton of views. I assume by this meetup that Matt respects his level of Mandarin at least.

[@wiscogod262]

Xiama my guy...why you blink so hard...lol...but yeah he is a good guy that motivates the language community

[@pdrey100]

Stress. I can relate.

[@SupremeDP]

"Evaan-jeh-lion" shirt hahahaha.

[@askuren4152]

i wanna learn chinese i just don’t know where to start :(

[@tyruskelebon6917]

I came here because I saw it on Xiaoma

[@Linck192]

200 new cards a day to reach 10k would be less than 2 months...

[@Rainbowsaur]

i think its safe to say, that was the odd day.

[@PopescuSorin]

never heard of Xiaoma.. is he famous?

[@JuniorIncaOjiTaDCoca]

First world is really amazing, look that to finance an entire course of chinese for free for high school students, that is something that I wont see in my own country like until 2100

[@mrslowdown489]

+1 from Xiaomanyc

[@1990PK1990]

These guys are such an inspiration to me. Also, not trying to e rude, but does Xiaoma have tourretes or something?

[@saulgoodman4451]

could you talk about motivation for Japanese learning?

[@Spooky.Boogie.xj0461]

Love anime

[@briandoile5011]

Matt! You deserve better. Sub now, people.

[@Trakusenpai]

Take a shot every time Xiaoma says “Like”☠️

[@Metapuff1]

觉得小马最擅长的是吹牛，他根本算不上“接近母语者一样的水平”。美味口音很重，而且人家一本中文书也没读过 😂 还是走matt那条路好

[@GuillySoulStarThePinkMagi]

here from xiaoma~

[@omegaalex601]

Title should be "A white person blows away mattvsjapan with his perfect knowledge of language learning" or "Matvsjapan almost quit japanese cuz how good this guy with language proficency"

[@mkstlz]

(No)

[@ln6264]

This sounds corny af

[@jonathanfranco8547]

I don't think anyone gets the reference

[@omegaalex601]

@@jonathanfranco8547 I thought it became sort of a meme in language community. Surprised people above didnt get it

[@ln6264]

@@omegaalex601 we get it but the joke is just so overused and the titles from xiaoma's channel sounds so corny that to make a joke using them is just a bad take.

[@Kevici]

Hi!

[@azhivago2296]

How many cards did he say he had at the end? 10K? I didn't quite catch it. Anyone know how many Matt got up to?

[@MrKeepItTrill]

yeah he said 10k. that seems to be a fairly common number for people to drop anki at

[@sgmaxx12]

I love xiaoma but I couldn't stop watching his eyes

[@darkmattergamesofficial]

Why did you turn poor ヨミちゃん off?!

[@mizzourigirl2112]

Trying to pay attention to the video but I always end up losing focus thinking about how hot Matt is 🤦🏼‍♀️😂🤷🏼‍♀️

[@LannasMissingLink]

Who's the guy that became fluent in Japanese in 18 months? And whats the headphone method?

[@thorbergson]

Khazumoto, he called his method all Japanese all the time. Basically what it says, extreme immersion. When you make the language your life. Google AJATT

[@owenmurphy2022]

when Xaoma learns one new Anki words = one new card, does that mean 3 card reviews ? Reading, listening and translating english => Chinese? So, e.g., 50 new words = 150 new anki cards (1 word = 3 reviews).

[@FGCScrub]

2 linguistic geniuses in one room. What a treat!

[@mohammedobi9182]

I need to your help Matt that you can help me by making subtitles or captions available in every video you make and this does not have And thank you

[@benjaminholt6640]

introvert vs. extrovert

[@metorisharp2901]

Where is the "all of them" moment?

[@apprendrejaponaisavecanime423]

language bros here

[@mydogisbailey]

xiaoma went to uchicago

[@malikbooker9187]

shhhh he learned it in 24 hours

[@JPigxvi]

Why is doing long hours of Anki is bad? If I'm studying 5 hours a day, how much Anki should I do? Thanks!

[@ramiellogarius4936]

Well anki is a tool for retaining information that you got in your immersion, you should spend way less time in anki and more time immersing

[@jeffreyd508]

Language learners are infamous for lying about how long they've been learning a language, but this dude takes the cake! I saw one of his vids a few yrs ago where he tried to convince us that he learned Chinese to a fluent level (not even basic level, lol, FLUENT) in two months. It's shit like that, that discourages language learners, making them think they suck. Wonder if dude ever removed that video out of embarassment. Im too lazy to check

[@詹姆斯-k2k]

Yeah, reality is it takes years and years to learn a second language to a high level. Even in your native language it takes years to build up, like you’re unlikely to get an 8 year old talking about someone being livid, or using the world comestibles, as just a few really random examples. You can get basics and survival language down pretty quick, but anything claiming to get you fluent in months is total rubbish.

[@Gr4nto]

If I did 300 cards a day I'd finally have 10k cards in one week

[@Revaldie]

That's too much, you will be exhaust

[@Gr4nto]

@@Revaldie haha I'm not gonna do it. I can't even find that many cards at this stage in a week. Instead I've been doing 30 a day.

[@FOXMAN09]

Ya I was thinking, "wait what? At 300 a day for a year that would be up in the 1 million range."

[@Soubudaimae]

His card count has to be exaggerated or he simply never failed a card and probably retained very little of what he reviewed daily. Just imagine, he would probably have close to 1,000 reviews a day on top of his daily 300. I have 25 new cards daily right now and it takes me between 1 - 1 1/2 hour to review them all. He sounds like a cool guy, but honestly, this interview didn't tell much at all other than he prefers outputting more early on, and memorizing sentences seems to be his main method of study.

[@jamesmccloud7535]

@@Soubudaimae Could be that way, worked for him in the end at least