Learning languages as a native English speaker - Richard Simcott at the Polyglot Gathering 2015

[@ojingaj30]

Saddest part of this video -----> Sorry Richard, you're time is up. I could've listened to this video for another hour or two. Awesome discussion!!

[@AzrentheLanguageNerd]

I agree! That 56 minutes just flew by haha. Do you speak any other languages?

[@ojingaj30]

I've been studying four languages for a little under a year: Korean, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese. I enjoy it very much!

[@Jaylink15]

KoolMintBluu Don't you mix them up at all? @.@

[@mep6302]

*your

[@michaelshort2388]

@@ojingaj30 저도 한국어 공부햐요. :)

[@2tz02]

I also had the same problem with Dutch people - they didn't want to talk in Dutch :/. Even when I asked in Dutch they switched to English

[@Girvid]

+2tz02 Dit geldt niet voor iedereen. Er zijn nog genoeg mensen in Nederland die geen of nauwelijks Engels kennen.

[@joelalexandre9865]

I agree... It happened to me as well

[@timothydouglas9474]

@@Girvid Jij hebt gelijk! De merderheid in Nederland antwoort toch in het Nederlands

[@philtrem]

I'm from a monolingual background, and I'm a polyglot (ie. I learn languages for no apparent reasons).

[@uber3466]

Oh, you do have a reason, you just hate yourself so much that you don't accept it as a valid reason.

[@Kolvatn]

tu parle francais?

[@vikingsailorboy]

omg this speaker is hilarious! I loved listening to this.

[@uber3466]

He's annoying as shit, no need to lie.

[@twattusbobble9845]

You are a very interesting and intelligent man Mr Simcott

[@ProfessorBorax]

I'm a native english speaker, but when I speak to non native english speakers I put on an accent so they wouldn't know unless I told them.

[@fernandomartin-gullans7095]

ProfessorBorax can’t wait to try this 😂

[@uber3466]

Playing with languages like toys, like it was some sort of a circus act, you make me vomit.

[@ProfessorBorax]

@@uber3466 Explain?

[@uber3466]

@@ProfessorBorax No clue, I must've been drunk.

[@johnf4659]

I went to school in Liverpool (like mentioned), and there was a kid in my French class and he spoke, from the first day, with a perfect French accent. The Teacher was freaked out by it.

[@martinet1985]

was he by any chance bilingual?

[@rzeka]

Whoa - this is way funnier than I expected it to be! Good on you, Mr. Simcott! I love it. P.S. The UK school system sounds a lot like the American one...

[@twattusbobble9845]

I excelled at languages in school just because I could string basic sentences together with an accent as Richard explains. I left school and couldn't have a conversation with anyone in either german or French. I went to university to study italian, spanish and german and the way they teach there is not much better either. grammar grammar grammar. I took it upon myself to incorporate my own method and listened to the languages every waking minute of the day for the first three months so my ear could become tuned into the sounds. I also listened to songs in the target languages, learned to sing along and looked up any vocab that wasn't easily translated. I learnt grammar from knowing what sounded right and what doesn't. This method of focusing too much on grammar doesn't work for me as it required me to make more mental conversions before I can speak a sentence which makes it a drawn out thinking process. The argument has been put forward that adults learn differently to children but I disagree. I would rather learn passively first and be able to understand what I hear and then that will naturally convert to active when the time is right. Just my opinion but I don't believe languages can be taught properly in an academic environment and it is all down the the motivation of the learner.

[@emr3114]

Yes I agree I think I lot of the work needed for a language can't be done in a classroom. I wouldn't say that a language can't be learnt in an academic environment but I think it can't *only* be learnt in an academic environment if that makes sense.

[@ispeakmucho]

@@twattusbobble9845 so similar to my own story. Kicked butt in school, especially being that I rapped and had some talent in improvising lines on the fly. Used it through school and had a great accent in Spanish but could NOT have any conversation beyond how are you doing lol. At 25 I taught my myself with audio and books, teaching ESL after work too. 9 months after and with good basic convo mastery I moved to a Spanish speaking island and became fluent rapidly due to the prior hard work and finding what "worked for me". I've since been chatting to various degree in 5+ other languages, with French being the closest to getting to my Spanish level

[@marvelousfrench5442]

Really enjoyed watching this, as always. Informative and well presented. I find these sorts of videos inspiring as well - it's always great seeing language lovers sharing their knowledge and doing what they love.

[@rashidah9307]

I agree!! 😊

[@haroldbridges515]

His talk is oriented toward native English speakers learning European languages. Asian languages don't have gender, but they may have tones which pose a much harder problem for native Anglophones. Learning new phonemes is harder than new grammar.

[@MuttFitness]

Small pronunciation problems. Knew a Chinese guy in grad school. Nice guy. Was asking a word problem and he said there was a piece of ass floating in a glass. Yep, ass. Took a very funny minute to realize he meant ice.

[@Bucherviews]

At 21:50 - I'd say that's racism, that is. I'm from the UK and have a friend (white) who was speaking Japanese on the phone to her friend on a bus, and an aggressive guy turned round and was like "er, what language do you think you're speaking?" and when it was obvious she was English rather than Polish he backed off. Idiot, and a racist one at that.

[@adamclark1972uk]

Dat's waycist

[@bloodaxe5028]

I speak Punjabi on the streets of UK all the time with my relatives, I never say any eyes. Except the eyes of recent Indian immigrants.

[@damianmurrieta3866]

Richard, tú has sido una de mis grandes inspiraciones para aprender idiomas. I really want to learn more languages; that's the reason why I want to go to a multicultural city. Mi piace molto l'idea di parlare le lingue, sopratutto conoscere le culture del mondo.

[@sandorMrBeen]

Than come to Luxembourg....but ok, it depends, what languages you want to learn...

[@barnbersonol]

Foreign people who answer back in English are unbelievably selfish. If you work in a hotel in Barcelona you're going to be able to speak English every day, but they still won't indulge the one outsider in about ten thousand who wants to speak Catalan. I KNOW I have the option to speak English but CHOOSE not to!!

[@axacos]

Catalonian or Spanish, Right? Big thumps up for Cervantes!

[@RonaldMcPaul]

LOL I didn't realize there were other English natives that share my pain.

[@jercol7320]

love this channel.. such a good lecture and dialogue.. keep up the good work!

[@2tz02]

11:11 - applause for Vladimir :D

[@itutu-y4t]

I wish the staff had given him more time at the end. It's very entertaining to listen to Mr. Simcott

[@billbyrne7891]

At 41 he says Swedish was his first germanic language , so what is english

[@johnlawrence3781]

He probably meant Swedish was his first foreign Germanic language and English is really more of a 'hybrid' Romance/Germanic language.

[@caroltodd9732]

Richard, you are fabulous! I could listen to you all day. However, as a native American English speaker, I can say that I was extensively taught grammar in school. However, I fear those times are long past (I'm 69). I love grammar (yeah, I'm weird), and I don't mind conjugating or case, either - and I love Latin. I speak some French and a fair amount of Spanish. Working on those and planning to add more. It's just fun.

[@haroldbridges515]

We Americans in that generation did learn grammar well. (Anyone who knows English grammar should be able to explain off the top of his head the difference between a gerund and a present participle.) I graduated high school in 1967. By about five years later American schools had stopped teaching grammar. They just decided it wasn't worth the effort. So, then the next generation of teachers growing up didn't learn it and knowledge of grammar just disappeared from the culture even for educated people. Without knowing grammar acquiring second languages is much more difficult, but the indifference to grammar was consistent with the lack of American interest and incentive to learn languages.

[@Anonymoususer44569]

11:12 it’s Vladimir!!!!!!

[@experimentingme7669]

This was a really good talk. Both interesting and fun. I wish he would have longer time to speak.

[@nelsongonzalez4533]

You are one of a kind. I am flabbergasted!

[@xyz-pf1yz]

this guy can represent the world verbally

[@moabitsmash]

What an excellent speaker! I really enjoyed this talk.

[@iliasbaker3870]

This guy has so much charisma

[@run2fire]

I wish more Poles would move to my part of the US so I can practice with them!

[@billbyrne7891]

We have lots of them here in ireland you can have them all with a heart and a half

[@barnbersonol]

Very interesting speech, y ademas me encanto la broma SOCKS!

[@sallylauper8222]

Language etiquette: I'll speak whatever damn language I choose and if it pisses you off, so much the better.

[@dorbenayoun6001]

I LOVE your talks

[@mayleecao3063]

Does anybody know what song he was singing at the beginning?

[@wolmirduarte8609]

Amazing talk!!!

[@ProfessorBorax]

28:00 Make everyone learn esperanto

[@asistentegubelinalvarado3706]

The only problem here is this guy talks *british english* !.

[@mep6302]

What's the matter? English was born in England after all.

[@martinet1985]

@@mep6302 how can a language "get born"? Wasn't English "born" in India? Do you know what I mean?

[@jamesward-parrish2309]

How is that a problem?

[@thomasrobertson2225]

The most important thing in life is knowledge of foreign languages! Thanks to foreign languages you can realize all your dreams and realize your grandiose ambitions! I would like to recommend all the practices of Yuriy Ivantsiv ''Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign language". This book will be an indispensable helper, a handbook for every person who studies a foreign language! This book contains invaluable tips, questions and answers, and solutions to problems faced by anyone who studies a foreign language! Knowledge is power! And knowledge of foreign languages is your power multiplied by many times! Success to all in self-development!

[@DazzleQuality]

he's a good singer.

[@Mwilke3789]

This talk was verbatim everything ive learned this last year studying my first foreign language (Korean). I basically had Korean show me that I don't understand English (to quote my very patient Korean friend 😂). So now that I can visual my own language in full dimension in my head I am better able to learn other languages, because I understand the parts of speech.

[@clipsfromfilms]

Great talk. Only just watching this now and Richard is very inspiring and I am green with envy of his polyglotic talent. 30 minutes in Richard says that thie first languge you learn (other than native lanuge) is the hardest, and at the moment this feels like a massive understatement. As someone who choose what is apparently the easiest language to learn (Esperanto), 6+ years ago, I am still not even at a B2 level and getting super fustrated, even disenfranchaised by apparent mega slow progress. As someone who like to break stereotypes i'm Hoping there is a point whre the momentum starts to flow more effortlessly.

[@ched1968]

Molitva :-)

[@andrewjgrimm]

One of the few non-English songs to win Eurovision lately.

[@jasmine-rojas]

great video

[@nelsongonzalez4533]

You should spend more 🌞 time at the beach 🏖️ or at the park getting Sun Tan in Greece or Spain. Voila!

[@ProfessorBorax]

*Ik BEN mn nederlands eigelijk niet vergeten haha :p

[@sandorMrBeen]

I don't understand the title; "Learning languages as a native English speaker"?? - What does it mean? Should I learn Japanese, like a "native English speaker"? Which Englishman learns Corean or Russian, like a "native hungarian speaker" - I just don't get the point....

[@mercster]

I hear some of the people in the audience going down weird holes: 1) Stop spending time on polyglot forums 2) Stop fetishizing it. Just do it.

[@mercster]

This is a value judgement you're choosing for yourself... noone else cares. Noone cares if you can speak it or not, as some sort of measure of your worth as a weird parochial category you want to fit into. Noone is seeing you the way you see yourself, or you desperately want to be seen: some master scholar, steping outside the boundaries of cultures, to unite the entire world in your MASSIVE MIND! Learn the languages you want you learn, and speak them with people you want to speak them with. It's not a video game.

[@mercster]

LOL "People have reactions, but I want them to have the RIGHT kind of reactions! Because they know I'm the RIGHT kind of non-native speaker, and I need the RIGHT kind of understanding!" It ain't all about you, big time. Learn enough languages to be impressive and write a book about it, I guess? Otherwise, just cope. If you know English or French you can speak to most of the world anyway, so it's just some weird hobby on your end. Noone around the world is obliged to coddle you because you have this hobby that you think makes you a wunderkind.

[@mercster]

It's like me being knowledgeable about shortwave radio, and expecting an old person I'm setting up a clock radio for to be really interested and impressed that I understand how their clock radio sets itself by some radio frequency. Noone cares.

[@mercster]

LOL this lady gets upset when people go out of their way on an asian airline to speak to her in english. NO, IM NOT ONE OF THOSE OTHER DUMB WHITE PEOPLE! Ohh shuttup. Your "instinct" to reply to them in their language is false, and you know that. Never bullshit a bullshitter. You don't want to make the person feel bad? Reply in english. You can practice elsewhere, you savant you.

[@meikel5669]

Whats the song at the beginning?

[@Bucherviews]

Molitva - it won Eurovision a few years back. (:

[@michael2k898]

Bucherviews thanks so much (forgot about the Meikel account)

[@bennigan88]

that was a brilliant joke