Should I Have Quit French?

It has been 6 months since I stopped studying French in order to focus on Swedish. Today I want to give you my thoughts on quitting French.
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Wow, you actually made it to the end of the description. Where even is this?
You wouldn't believe how much the wind messed with my filming this. That one shot that you can hear it in is actually one where I DIDN'T abandon what I was saying because I could barely hear it myself... The fact that you can hear it on the video is insane because the mic is actually about 30 centimetres from my face... and I am in a room with all the doors and windows closed.
Also I had to fight hard against a strong desire to leave the Swedish out of the video because it sucks... I pronounce the word "språk" correctly more than half the time I say it but in this particular little monologue I happen to badly mess it up twice in a row... One of the many reasons I hate speaking foreign languages in videos.

[@mitchb61]

Australian here, I was in the US about 5 years ago and asked where I was from. I replied Australia and they told me "well you speak English really well". Your native language comment just reminded me.

[@taryndancer29]

I get this as a Canadian too 😅😅

[@graemep7729]

Us Americans... haha

[@kurootsuki3326]

big mood

[@daysandwords]

Mitch B - haha, glad you got the joke! I know this is sometimes a thing because my sister has lived in the USA for 15 years and gets it every now and then.

[@run2fire]

Taryn DeCicco I don’t know what Americans you were interacting with but they are not too bright!

[@micke5735]

I'm a native speaker of Swedish and I felt very honored when you said you are teaching your son Swedish. You have come such a long way with your swedish. I'm living in Japan and learning japanese, so I understand the struggles you are going through. Good luck in your future studies!

[@mikemustmurder]

Does swedish have pitch accent? If so do you feel like knowing swedish pitch accent helps you with japanese pronounciation?

[@bunnyteeth365]

I personally enjoy focusing on one language and dabbling in others. It's slightly entertaining and it stops me from romanticizing other languages too much.

[@daysandwords]

Which is totally fair.

[@RicardoSilvaTripcall]

That is whats I'm planning to do, to improve my English to the highest level possible first, and just "wet my feet" in other languages, the amount of information and effort on learning several languages at the same time is daunting, a motivation killer, and a frustration machine, add to that several other things that you have to do or study ... excruciating ...

[@bunnyteeth365]

@@RicardoSilvaTripcall I guess the key to studying multiple languages at once is to be realistic about how much progress you’ll make. With my primary language I work pretty hard at it every day. I end up making decent progress in my main language. With the languages I’m dabbling in, I only study them when I feel like it. I don’t expect to make any real progress in them. My main goal is to explore other languages and maybe shorten the beginner phase if I start studying them more seriously. I don’t think I’d ever try to learn any languages 50/50.

[@marluxia8832]

​@@daysandwords Do you have any plans on picking up German again at some point in the future?

[@daysandwords]

@@marluxia8832 Possibly the distant future. Like 5 years minimum.

[@KikiMeowKitty]

How in the hell can someone study multiple languages at once?! I’d die.

[@evaphillips2102]

Language stacking hun

[@raoufrachedi2383]

I'm learning both Spanish and Polish and I am making great progress especially in Polish. Slavic languages just sound the best for me

[@raoufrachedi2383]

@Alice Spencer dziękuję ci bardzo, doceniam to naprawdę!

[@annajanowska6164]

@@raoufrachedi2383 If you need any help let me know :)

[@raoufrachedi2383]

@@annajanowska6164 actually I keep looking for Poles to practice with. So pretty much yeah. Thank you for the heads up!

[@annajanowska6164]

@@raoufrachedi2383 I use hellotalk, you can find me there by the same name :)

[@raoufrachedi2383]

@@annajanowska6164 thanks again for the heads up, I look forward

[@ShinobiNando]

As someone who was fluent to the point i lived in French speaking Canada and did high school classes in it and now can barely say hello, it does come back. You'd be surprised. I went to Paris and in 3 days, my girlfriend went from laughing at me to OMG what the hell you can speak French. Like you said there is so much old French in English it's easy to pick back up!

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

That would happen with any language, if you were fluent in high-school, you will easily pick it up again later in life even if you don't speak it for decades

[@ShinobiNando]

@@smrtfasizmu6161 yes but the creator used to study french along side Swedish, hence why I'm speaking about french specifically. Also having lexical similarities helps with language acquisition

[@foreverdreamwithinadream6871]

While it does make it easier; but in a lot of cases you will trigger your memory and pick things back up again. It happens to me with Japanese. I might of forgotten a lot; but will suddenly remember things, especially after a refresher.

[@Evan12346]

You're so dam reasonable Lamont. Keep up the good work about making sense about language learning. It is so nice no have a no BS perspective on this subject.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@TheCaspergasper]

Kudos for speaking some Swedish in the video -- so many youtube language learners never show this, and whilst I'm sure most are amazing some people have a very broad definition of the word "fluent" :) Starting a new language is always a lot of fun, but it can easily impact your progress so totally understand your decision.

[@OpqHMg]

Yes focusing REALLY simplifies. I quit learning other languages and focused solely on German for about 6 months (as well) and just got my C1! :) The problem is that now I want to get my French and Spanish up to that level and it is turning my brain into a mess all over again. Sigh.

[@archdukefranzferdinand567]

Congratulations on C1

[@JR-rf9sq]

Well done on reaching C1! I'd love to know what level you were at before you made the decision to focus on German entirely if you don't mind sharing?

[@OpqHMg]

@@JR-rf9sq I would say I was already at C1 for a while at that point when I switched exclusively to German... but the whole German journey is a bit complicated but if you are interested, here is the entire story LOL: I started learning German (through the internet) in August 2016 because I came to Munich to do my MBA, where I would then have a twice/three times a month A1.2 German course until December. Then from Jan - April 2017 I had a similarly paced course from the University for A2.2. Thereafter I did an intensive self-study and in September 2017 I started interning at a super German-speaking company and decided to book 10 hours with a teacher at a German learning academy, where they told me that when I spoke with them at the Speaking test that I was speaking at a C1 level already...??? So it is pretty complicated huh because I still found it otherwise difficult to converse with people regularly and especially found understanding conversation extremely difficult. 2017 December I joined a company that had mostly Germans but was quite English-speaking :/ So then I lost the NEED to communicate in German and also the motivation to try because it was still too tough. After that I sporadically on and off tried to work on the language but wasn't doing any courses or anything... Then in 2019 I decided enough was enough and I enrolled in a week-long Business German course and then did a once-a week course for about 4 weeks at the C1 level. Thereafter I just started to study more intensively by myself again... (then near the end of 2020 I ended up dating a native speaker and discussions started to ensue about making the switch from English to German) then in 2020 the switch from English to German in the household commenced in February. It was HARD at first. Then in April 2020, I decided I needed to focus solely on German for at least a while.. picked a goal to work toward (the C1 Goethe Exam) and "chill" self-studied for it mostly with textbooks and the internet, booked some hours with teachers/tutors from Italki to get my writing assignments in particular scrutinized,

[@OpqHMg]

@@archdukefranzferdinand567 Thank you mate!

[@OpqHMg]

@@JR-rf9sq sorry for the ridiculously long story hahahaha

[@PiepenHaus]

I'm working on three languages these days. I'm trying to bring back my French which was learned 50+ years ago and not used in the interim. I've gotten Spanish up to intermediate level and want to advance in that. I've recently started German. I usually work on all three every day. My mind *needs* the contrast. I love being able to move from one to another. Yes, there are some confusions but I accept that as the price for being able to compare and contrast languages as I'm learning them. Loving Lingvist, btw. It works for all three of my languages.

[@bofbob1]

Bon courage!

[@sylvie8088]

My opinion (as language teacher), is that you made the best choice : focus on one foreign langage at a time. Then, when you feel fluent and confortable with this one you can go on a better way on a second one. When you swap between a lot of learning langage process at the same time, it's usually harder and longer to become pretty efficient in one of them (over level A1 or A2 - European CECR). That's based on what I saw myself. At the opposite, when you got fluent in a second language, the third one becomes often easier : brain, ears, all the vocal system seems to become more flexible... The langage you focus on is just personal choice, as a detail... ;)

[@aliceinbath2850]

I agree exactly

[@Tomanita]

I completely understand why you stopped learning French and it doesn't matter what other people think. I never thought about focusing on one language because we were forced to learn two foreign languages at school (pretty much at the same time). So I'm used to that😅 But this might also explain why I'm still not proficient in French🤔

[@daysandwords]

Hm, I think in school it's a bit different... If someone wanted to immerse a lot when they were at school, they would have time, but most adults wouldn't. I think you're not "proficient" at French because 1) you've got higher standards of proficiency... You're certainly fluent and if you can read novels and have it be an enjoyable experience then some people would say you're proficient and 2) you probably just don't get enough time. If you had to move to a French speaking region and live your life in French, I'd say it would overtake your Serbian.

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

Where I live second foreign language often times isn't taken very seriously in school, professors would give decent grades to students who know very little (I had 4 different French professors and only the last one was strict, she denied the most students to pass the year out of all the professors in school, including the math professors). Also, we had second language classes only 2 times a week for about 4,6 or 8 years (depending on what school and what program student chooses). That's why many people aren't proficient in their second foreign language. It is also important to point out that many students who seriously studied the second language for tests aren't able to understand French media, French KZbin videos etc. They have the necessary vocabulary but they don't have the skill of comprehending the spoken language because they have never practiced listening to the content which was made for the natives and by the natives (this skill can be built within few months if you have a good base in a language which these students do). That's why many students who had good grades in their second foreign language classes are under the illusion that they don't know anything because they can't understand the native speakers. I was one of those students who had good grades in French classes, I had somewhat decent vocabulary yet I couldn't understand French news, movies or French youtubers at all. With just a little bit of practice, I can now understand French youtubers and news easily. Most people I know have never put that extra effort in and they think they don't know any French despite having the best grades back in school

[@Tomanita]

@@smrtfasizmu6161 I'm sorry to hear that the second foreign language isn't taught well enough. That's unfortunate! I agree, we have to learn the grammar and specific vocabulary but we're not used to hearing or speaking to native speakers.

[@wadem.3109]

After seeing your video about quitting French, I put my three years of Korean study on hold after completing my university's minor requirements, to focus on German. I'll complete the requirements for the German minor and Graduate May 2021. My life is less stressful now and my German is getting better. I may abandon Korean entirely, because I will never have the gains that I have in German. Seems I need to find a "German language parent" now, thanks for that advice.

[@jacmorales5314]

Thank you for sharing. Not everybody learns the same way. I respect your decision and your honestly. I learn four languages at the same time but I enjoy it and have fun. Just follow your heart!!!!

[@OpqHMg]

respect the flexibility in the approach. I like that! I think we all need to embrace the uncertainty of that and our future plans and how our aspirations can change over time.

[@finchois]

this video has helped me so much. thank you!

[@soniFloatingAbout]

When you first announced quitting French, I remember writing a comment and telling you that I personally think keeping up a small habit of French was a good idea. I don't know if you were talking to your kid in Swedish back then, but if it really helps with that then I think that alone might be worth it not to do whatever interferes with your Swedish learning. It's really awesome that you're doing this!

[@apillowfaceproduction608]

Dude. You deserve a lot more subs and views than you get. Keep doing what you're doing though, because it's awesome.

[@yourfirstsecondlanguage4782]

This was literally the most insightful video you could have posted for me as I’m planning to put Spanish on the back burner and learn Arabic. Some real food for thought here

[@laurawalker546]

Appreciate always your honesty!

[@JS-td6qr]

Nice to see an honest review of a language learning journey

[@londonerlearnsjapanese3337]

Cool to get an update on this. The one thing that has helped me tackle the 'multiple language learning urge' is to have ZERO expectations outside of my Japanese. I recently started reading a book in French and started to have language exchanges in Chinese with a really cool person because I genuinely see them as purely pleasurable. The moment I start to set expectations (explicit/implicit) of my French or Chinese, I know something is wrong.

[@heathersaxton8118]

This is actually a great mindset. I’m currently focusing on Cantonese in which I would say I just barely make the cut for the B2 club. But I’m just a huge language nerd and love dabbling in other languages too. Just don’t set any concrete goals in them, might just pick up a book a lil when I want a break from Cantonese and do something fun. As an alternative to something like scrolling social media or going for a walk or something, just me-time. It’s been working for me and I think it’s only had positive effects on my Cantonese

[@christinamccarty7225]

Great content! Studying French but appreciate suggestions to broaden ways to learn.

[@EasyFinnish]

Hi, you always make very interesting videos. I speak English and French to my kids, but mainly Finnish which is my native language. I call my new born baby: "bébé fille; ma chouchou" say some French words time to time to her. They acquire the languages very quickly and they already speak a bit English and French. As a language learner I only focus one language and it is French. I actually feel bad when I speak English, because I feel I do some thing wrong, haha! It would be great to see you speak swedish at that level which is somewhere C1-C2 level and you feel comfortable as hell, haha!I wish you all the best to learn swedish. Perhaps someday you are studying French again and will get it back! I don't worry about speaking French. I enjoy a lot at this point as I understand a lot. Have a nice day!

[@boyohazard]

This is a very useful video and I'll tell you why. My YT feed is full of videos from polyglots who are studying 4, 5 even 6 languages. These are great videos, don't get me wrong, very useful tips and advice for language learners of all levels. This video however, gives a perspective that I don't often come across and that is the "perfectionist" approach (for lack of a better term). I was raised bilingually - English and Welsh - and I can attest that my Welsh has atrophied over the years due to lack of use. So I can certainly see the benefits of focusing solely on one language to attain a higher level of fluency than perhaps would be possible when studying multiple languages. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

[@run2fire]

Glad Lamont brought that up about not forgetting French as easily because of similar words in English! I can remember some French words I learned decades ago in school!

[@chuckitaway466]

I am studying french...and in this case my opinion is that you should have crunched the grammar before you could expect this to be reliably effective as a long term plan

[@julianchenzaretskaya1427]

Tack! Det var intressant! Samt med mig:)))

[@ChristopherBonis]

I'm so curious about your younger son's Swedish learning journey; It's sort of an experiment in intentional simultaneous bilinguilsim. Do you think with exposure to children's programs that his accent and pronunication might actually excede your own and sound like that of a native Swedish child? Are you worried that domination of English input from other sources will ultimately defeat the endeavor or that he will simply reject this gift of a second language as he becomes more independent? Mycket intressant!

[@daysandwords]

I would say the latter, but the idea is that if we only let him watch TV and stuff in Swedish then he will associate it with easy fun things, rather than with work as kids who are made to study languages at school do. I don't think his accent will realistically be great. I have read a bit about this, and I have met a few raised-bilingual people and they often speak veeeery fluently but almost like a transliteration of their "main" language's sounds onto the second language. e.g. I heard someone with Spanish parents who grew up here who spoke to their parents in Spanish and it just sounded like an Australian person reading a Spanish book with no pauses... but it didn't sound like Spanish. So I really don't know but the channel will keep you updated!

[@dianal1679]

I lived in Sweden from the ages of 3 to 7 and I learned a large portion of my Swedish through watching cartoons before starting kindergarten as my parents did not speak Swedish at the time. My mom likes to tell the story of when one of our neighbours commented that I had a very accurate/standard pronunciation (we lived in the south where there was a bit of a regional accent). So, I do think a young child could pick up a native accent by watching TV.

[@hugomusic9504]

Jag älskar den här kanalen då den visar hur svårt det faktiskt är att lära sig ett annat språk. Det finns en hel del fake videos som säger att man kan lära sig ett språk på några månader och att man kan göra det via appar och att bara studera några minuter om dagen. Eftersom jag själv pluggar turkiska så har jag fått en hel del kunskap om språk och inlärning samt inspiration från din kanal. TACK

[@petrosstefanidis6396]

Very inspiring video! It was last spring when you convinced me to focus only on one language and it pays off. It hurts to leave aside the other one, Russian in this case, but ultimately it's worth it. Everything is moving faster and easier. Besides, I never lost my interest for Russian; on the contrary I am more eager to move on to it in the future!

[@Patricia-xw3ns]

I study a lot of languages for my degree but I noticed that they are not as good as my English which I have been learning for 6 years before I started my second foreign language. I am soon finished with my degree and I decided to concentrate on my language with the second highest level until my level is really high and I dont really have to learn anymore as it is the case with English for me. 3 of them are the same language group which means that learning one often results in achieving a higher level in the other ones anyway and I only want to be completely fluent in two of them. The other ones, I only want to speak at a conversational level and I learn them because I enjoy learning languages. You're video about quitting french has helped me understand that it will never really work out if I practice them all at the same time. Thank you for your videos!

[@jameshuang2677]

I did the same thing, mostly because I felt the need to accelerate my learning of a certain language but it has also definitely simplified my lifestyle as there were certainly moments of frustration out of failure to balance things as well as I would have liked. I think once we get our heads around certain language learning concepts and lifestyle decisions we can look more realistically at juggling languages but it shouldn't be something anyone does when beginning learning their second and third languages because I think it's setting them up for failure when they're a few months in and realise they underestimated the gap between beginner and intermediate, a gap they probably would have crossed had they focused on a single language in the first place. Interestingly enough I had a similar experience to your German as I retained the majority of my progress in the third language and would surpass where I was in a reasonably short period of time given my improvements in language learning. Probably the biggest shift in experience is no more feeling of forced study as there used to be times where I didn't really have it in me to study the third language some days. This in turn keeps me from burning out anymore and I'm always excited about applying myself when I am learning my target language which I believe has helped me to get better results.

[@FelipeSpeaks]

Great video (as always hehe). Regards from Brazil! ;-)

[@JohnBrute]

That's very cool that you're speaking Swedish with your son. He'll definitely benefit from that decision, imo. I went to Welsh-speaking schools during my youth so that I could be given an opportunity to grow up bilingually. I'm so thankful to my parents for giving me that gift. I'm curious how you'd tackle learning a language, such as Welsh, where resources are difficult to come by and there aren't as many speakers (around 600,000 for Welsh) ?

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

I’ve just moved to East Timor where 3 languages are spoken; Tetum & Portugese are both official and Indonesian spoken by everyone and is considered a ‘working’ language. I already speak Indonesian to an intermediate level and had begun learning Portugese last year in preparation for my move here but bailed on it cos I didn’t have enough time to get to a usable level before getting here, although resources and content were much easier to find than for Tetum which is only spoken here in East Timor - then when I got here I discovered that Memrize has Tetum so I’ve switched to that and found that it’s far more influenced by Portugese than I thought. By learning Tetum it feels like you’re getting good Portugese bonus content. Anyway my point is, yeah - gotta spend your time and energy deliberately and focused not spread it too thin

[@eeeeeeee4381]

I stopped learning Portuguese a little while ago to focus on Spanish. I find myself gravitating towards Portuguese content despite not studying it due to my huge passion for the language and the culture attached to it. I’ve found that the two languages can help each other. It is common for me to check with google translate if the new words are similar. I can learn new words in both languages by using the difference/similarity to my advantage.

[@OpqHMg]

I have been wondering!

[@williamheuser2802]

Beklager, jeg snakker ikke svensk, men jeg antar at du forstår også norsk. Tusen takk for at du delte erfaringen din med oss. Jeg har opplevd det samme, at jeg kan ikke fokusere på flere språk samtidig. Jeg lærte også fransk da jeg begynte med å lære norsk og bestemte med for å gjøre en pause med fransk. I dag snakker jeg norsk flytende, så det var åpenbart et godt valg. Jeg har funnet ut at jeg trenger mer eller mindre to år for å virkelige lære et språk, etterpå kan jeg begynne med et nytt språk. Jeg ønsker deg alt det bedste for den angående læringsprosessen din!

[@daysandwords]

Tack för kommentaren! Jag förstod det helt okej, och det var kul att läsa!

[@santiglot]

To me being "perfect" or "a master" in a particular language is often something very overrated. Normally, a B2 in a language is already a good enough level for anyone to get most of the benefit of learning a language. Reaching C1/C2 opens you certain doors, but depending on your particular needs, aspirations and interests, maybe trying to reach that level is just not worth the effort. I've reached advanced levels in a few languages and it is cool, but nothing too special. Maybe I'm just spoiled and to me it's just not a big deal anymore. At this moment, I think that higher is not always necessarily better, it depends. That's why in some languages I try to reach C1, in other languages I try to reach B2 and in other languages I'm happy with just being able to hold a simple conversation. Language learning is a personal journey and there is no right or wrong in terms of what goals we set for ourselves. So it's dumb to judge others for how many languages they speak or to what level they speak them. However I'll say that, very often, people who specialize in one language are inclined to develop a certain ego, a certain sense of superiority. You can see it every time they go "jAcK oF aLL tRaIts mAsTEr oF nOne", as if specializing was inherently better than being good enough in several languages, or as if they were better language learners because specialization is "harder". To those people I say 1: Very often, adaptability and efficiency trumps specialization, because "Jack of one trade connector of none". 2: You can specialize in some languages and still dabble in many others, one doesn't exclude the other. 3: Going from B2 to C1/C2 is not easy, but reaching an intermediate level in many (often super alien) languages, also requires a lot of effort and from it you gain a lot of experience and useful skills as a language learner. So specializing doesn't necessary makes you a better more hardworking learner.

[@loganjukes8820]

I completely agree. I want to be able to completely understand what a foreign speaker is saying, and have the ability to reply without much forceful effort. That is possible at B2. I am a native English speaker but I probably use the same words and phrases 99% of the time and that's more than enough. I don't care if I don't have the vocabulary to express something 10 different ways, as long as I get my point across. 80% of words in a language are simply not required to be able to have day to day conversations.

[@santiglot]

@@loganjukes8820 Yep, just do what works for you :D

[@daysandwords]

But this misses the context that a) I am already a Jack of MMMAAAAANNY trades (seriously), so I don't need to be a jack of any more trades and b) I just don't like the feeling I had when speaking French or Swedish back when I was only OK at both of them. I am much happier just focusing on the one. c) for me, it would be easier to just take up more new ones for fun. That would be "easy and fun" rather than "difficult and worthwhile". I don't believe that would move my life anyway or make anything new or useful for anyone else. Basically I agree that arguments have some merit for some people, but they're not applicable to me.

[@santiglot]

@@daysandwords Yea, but that misses the context that I was not talking about you lol. I was talking in general haha. As I said before, I understand you have certain goals and you are doing what you think works best for you to reach them, that's completely respectable. So don't feel alluded it haha, I'm always the first to encourage you to do you :D

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

@@daysandwords I don't see why you say that easy and worthwhile are mutually exclusive or that fun and worthwhile are mutually exclusive.

[@connorcgleason]

My view is that you can always come back to a language, especially after you've established a good base!

[@noelvn3]

Decision fatigue is real, so I totally understand your decision and its benefits. I'm an inveterate language juggler myself, don't think that will ever change, though I usually only focus on one main and perhaps one subordinate language at a time. But I have to acknowledge to myself each and every day, each and every study session, that a significant chunk of mental energy gets burnt up deciding what to do, what resources to focus on, etc. OTOH, knowing myself pretty well, I fear I'd explode into a flaming ball of ADHD if I tried to study a single language, or much less focus a single learning resource--acknowledging that I might be a little peculiar and perhaps even suboptimal that way.

[@jonasfpaulsen]

I am not Swedish, I am Norwegian, but to me you sound really good in Swedish. This is an old video, I know, but it's really cool to hear you speak Swedish!

[@yakirajimenez8985]

Je pense que tu as fait un très bon choix. Si tu as un objectif, il faut savoir ce qui te tient vraiment à coeur dans cet objectif. Pour toi, c´est le fait de te sentir confortable, sans avoir à chercher tes idées ou à hésiter sur la prononciation . les muscles faciaux ont aussi besoin de temps pour s´adapter à la langue … il faut être patient. pour ma part, je vais prendre ton conseil vu que ton expérience me parle😊. j´investirai mieux mon temps et mes énergies🎉

[@bleach8510]

im not french or plan on going to france soon but i still made an effort the past few years to learn the language and have learned so much about grammer and how languages work just from french and now im using that french to learn italian ❤

[@zefirnaya6238]

I’m learning French and Japanese simultaneously and it has been going great for me so far! Yes, I do have a preference. I usually prioritize my Japanese just because of how much I love anime and Japanese music. However, I cannot imagine myself giving up on either of the languages. They are just so vastly different from each other that it doesn’t even feel like I’m learning two different languages, it’s more like I’m just doing two completely different things! The challenges these two languages present to me, the content I consume in them, the way they sound and work is so different that the concerns you voiced in this video never came to my mind. I watch anime for Japanese and Netflix series for French. I struggle with Japanese writing (kanji) and find the grammar to be quite easy, French is the opposite of that. I feel different whenever I use them. I work on them during separate times of day (morning for French and evening for Japanese). I was scared of the idea of learning two languages at the same time at first (especially with English not being my first language), but it worked for me fairly well!

[@vodkatonyq]

Two languages is totally doable. It is more the rule than the exception in academia.

[@daysandwords]

But in academia they rarely reach complete comfort or a near-native level. Academia's focus is... well, academia.

[@amazinglion6674]

Hi Lamont, I'm just at the point where you're talking about a language parent. Could you link me to any resources you've used that describe this concept of a language parent that you've used and/or the language parents that you've found for French? (I'm assuming they have a parisian accent, that's what we all want to sound like in French, right?) I'm learning French and have been struggling to find information about this concept - most google searches for "language parent" or something similar yield results aimed at raising bilingual kids, mainly the OPOL (one parent one language) technique rather than aimed specifically at language learners. Cheers as always for a great video, the high production value with the beautiful background scenery/lighting/depth of field hasn't gone unnoticed! :)

[@AnnaKaunitz]

Think of it as imitation of a certain speaker. Maybe a famous actor, newsreader or whoever suits you. A person that speaks kind of the “standard accent” so you get used to that first. I call it “anchor accent”. When I learned English I would pick up various English accents depending on where the speaker was from. That got confusing so I knew I had to pick one accent and stick to it. Some sort of RP/South English accent is my English accent. It made my learning easier. There’s plenty of tricks and methods to use.

[@Marguerite-Rouge]

I don't think you need to choose someone who speak with a parisian accent. In France, the large majority of north accents are considered as standart French (there are not much variety between the different north accents). If you know an actor, a youtuber or anyone else and you are comfortable with his voice, you particularly like it, it's more important than the origin of his accent.

[@daysandwords]

It's whatever accent you want to have. I have seriously considered going after a Skåne accent, because even though most Swedes don't actually like it... a) I find it easier to do and b) it sounds more convincing, because Stockholmers are not going to think that you've learn Swedish as a second language if you sound like you're from Skåne haha. But I still haven't even settled on an accent or therefore a parent.

[@Flauschbally]

Hello Lamont. Really interesting video and I can totally understand your decision. I am a "one language at the time" learner. And for me it's important to reach a certain level which I can't measure but feel. Then I am ready to learn a new language and try to maintain or improve the others as well. But struggling with two languages.. oh no. I could just hear you... 🤣 the struggle with deciding which language is it going to be for today? I would have the same problem for sure. I also want to learn French next and what I am going to love about this the most is the available material 🤩 But my Croatian is not where I want to be... so French has to wait. I always make a plan like: Let's see how good my Croatian is in summer 2020. Aha. Not ready yet. Ok. Next plan end of 2020. Well. I already know... not ready yet 🤣🤣🤣 It's your life. Your decision. And your choice. You learn when and whatever suits you best and everybody is different. So have fun with Swedish until you happy as it is. You will know when you are ready for something new.

[@OpqHMg]

I know EXACTLY what you mean about "I can't measure but feel"!!

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Yvi! I'm always encouraged by your comments.

[@jameskilgour387]

Jag vill försöka en Slavisk språk efter jag blir anständig på Svenska. Jag är funderar på prova BCMS som jag älskar den där region, men jag får gör Russka. Jag har borjär Tyska som jag hört att lära sig två liknande språk kan hjälp, men jag vet inte. Lycka till! I'd definitely like to try a Slavic language once I've nailed Swedish down to a decent level. I'm leaning towards BCMS (Serbian-Croatian) as that region is one of my favourite places, but I may just stick to Russian. I've started a go at German, as I've heard trying two from the same language group is really useful, but it may be better to hold off. Good luck!

[@henrikcavallin9692]

Intressant video! Först och främst så vill så måste jag säga att jag aldrig tidigare sett dig prata så bra svenska! Det känns som att du nosar på en C1/flytande svenska nu. Min egen språk-resa påminner lite om din. Jag försöker lära mig franska till en C1-nivå. Jag har nyligen även börjat lära mig ryska för att jag kände att jag kanske aldrig kommer nå en C1-nivå utan att bo och jobba i Frankrike några månader.

[@daysandwords]

Hej - tack! Det beror hur mycket tid man har... Till exempel jag har aldrig bott och jobbat i Sverige och det känns som om jag kunde bli mycket bättre om jag fortsätter, vilket jag ska förstås. Men om du tillbringar bara typ 1 timme varje dag (eller mindre) kommer det vara väldigt svårt att nå C1-nivån. Om du har 2+ timmar varje dag för att spendera att lyssna på och läsa franska, då tror jag att du klarar det. Det tar några år bara... Jag trodde att jag skulle prata flytande efter två år, och det gjorde jag... men inte på samma sätt som jag gör nu, vilket tyder på att jag har nått en påtaligt högre nivå än det jag hade då trots att jag inte har gjort nånting speciellt... bara fortsätt. Hur som helst, tack för kommentaren och lycka till med allt!

[@henrikcavallin9692]

@@daysandwords Interesting to heat! Maybe we could discuss it over a session. Shifting between English, Swedish and French. If it would make good content you might be able to use it. If you’re interested send me an email at [e-mail] 🙂

[@ultraman6950]

I'm currently working in both English and French. I have no problems carrying both of them. Since Spanish is my tongue language it makes the French journey quite easy. And with regards to English, I've been learning it for about 2 years and half.

[@barbaricrunner]

I don't think that your learning of a more difficult language would qualify you more for speaking about language learning. I'm learning Estonian, which is very difficult for a native English speaker. However, I don't think I'm more qualified than you to teach people how to learn a language. I watch your channel because you have interesting ideas about the process of learning a language. I believe the only thing that learning a language with a different script would qualify you to teach about is learning to read and write in a different script. Keep up the great work!

[@OpqHMg]

agreed

[@daysandwords]

Thanks. But even "interesting ideas about the process"... with French, almost half the process is done for you. So I have interesting ideas about half the process haha.

[@barbaricrunner]

@@daysandwords It's all a matter of perspective. For someone who has never studied a language, even French will seem like this massive insurmountable task. For someone who hasn't studied Swedish, even the cognates may be impossible to understand without some study. I remember trying to learn Spanish, before I really knew anything about language learning. It also seemed like I would never learn it, which I suppose so far is true as I still haven't learned it to any sort of conversational level. But, now that I have studied how to study a language, I could probably make progress much faster than I did before.

[@nootics]

@@gluehfunke1547 it's because japanese grammar is often explained by westeners with their world view of how a language should work (i.e the indoeuropean way) and that simply doesn't work. There's a youtube channel called cure dolly that changes the perspective on japanese grammar quite significantly and she likes to boast about that but rightfully so.

[@franciscafarfallina]

You already showed us that you know so much fun daily life stuff in French by the music and it's specific singers.. Just do what you like most even if it's putting an undefined pause for one language.. Doesn't matter.. I try avoiding unnecessary pressure on my language learning path... I feel like I'm progressing anyway even if sometimes by baby steps, you know.. You'll probably get more and more fun out of your Swedish.. Passion for anything specific makes you want to concentrate and persevere just on few things in order to improve in that domain so that you'll feel happier and cosier in Swedish for example, right ? French is already partially a part of you.. you won't forget soo much once you might take it up again..

[@bensomes7662]

I'm having similar thoughts - I've learnt Spanish for 6 months by itself (great progress), learning both Finnish and Spanish for 6 months (very slow progress in both) and now it's been about 6 months of learning Finnish by itself (great progress, no surprise). For both I'm at the early intermediate stage. Now I question myself, how advanced will I take my Finnish? And when will I return to Spanish? I want to get both languages to an advanced level, and I know that on the horizon, the language of German is waiting for me. I feel like as romantic as the idea sounds to bring one language to a highly advanced, MattvsJapan-like level, it would be nice to just get to a low-advanced stage for my 3 aspiring languages. It's a tricky answer, and it's a different answer for many - whether their living situations, work, partner/family would benefit from a very high level of a language.

[@Komatik_]

Onko tuossa miettimistä, suomi on itsestäänselvästi paras valinta ;)

[@ulenka8385]

so i'm learning Italian right now, and i already know that next year i will have to take a French class (lasting 2 years), which as you know is not an easy language, and i'm torn cause my Italian is on B2 (i quess), but i still cannot speak naturally, but i will also have to choose another language workshop to start in the summer and stick with for another year while learning Italian on B2 and French from scratch and the drop the second language so it gives me nothing unless i stick with it by myself which would aquire a lot of time i probably won't have. So i could really use any tips on how to manage learning multiple languages, even tho it's probably not a great idea to do it.

[@joseg.solano1891]

I dropped Hebrew to focus on Mandarin. I just couldn't with three languages at the same time. But me case was the opposite of yours, because I was better at Hebrew. I even like Hebrew more. I still love Mandarin though. I chose Mandarin over Hebrew because my dad really wanted me learn Mandarin and didn't want to disappoint him. Besides all of this, I plan to restart Hebrew soon if God allows it. God bless.

[@parasitius]

Mad props on the Swedish vid, this is something that SHOULD become the norm in language/polyglot genre videos but everyone has been cowardly for too long. (Furthermore... I really want to go to a polyglot meetup or cruise, but I'm hopeful and waiting until one will be forward enough to either ban English or have several days where English is prohibited. Otherwise, it just seems so ridiculous, go to talk about excitement about languages even though everyone knows ONE SAME ONE.)

[@daysandwords]

At the polyglot conference thingy (the big one that moves to a different Euro city every year), they have a no-English room.

[@parasitius]

@@daysandwords Awesome tip thanks, I had no idea

[@SvengelskaBlondie]

8:24 Funny enough, that's how I grew up. Until I started in elementary school, we spoke English at home, after school started I had a period of time where we spoke English at home and Swedish in school. My dad spoke English and my mom spoke both languages, I think that helped immensely with becoming fluent in both languages.

[@Kerskjee]

Damn, your sweadish is good! I'm norwegian and i understood you perfectly, it sounded good too.

[@daysandwords]

Nu för tiden är det mycket bättre. Men tack ändå!

[@Kolvatn]

i would ahve liked to be born speaking another language. yes ofc i speak french and i've learned english (99,99999% my self) but like spanish or german or swedish. I think its good that parents who speaks other languages than the languages that is spoken around you that they learn those languages to their child.

[@Fsanchez2306]

Great video! I’m interested about the concept of parent, could you developed it in another vid?

[@daysandwords]

I haven't, but if you check Matt vs Japan's channel and search "How to start outputting", he goes into it in that video.

[@Fsanchez2306]

@@daysandwords Thanks for taking the time!!

[@nagabro5770]

I recently dropped both Japanese and Mandarin in favor of Russian. Turns out I wasn't really enjoying learning either language and I would rather learn a language that gives me that same excitement you get when you're just starting, every day than try to keep three languages up at once. Like the time you spend on other languages is also taking away time from the language you enjoy the most.

[@VCMD]

Taiwanese Australian here..I like french and would like to get it to a very high level but it bores me to study only one language..so I also study a bit of Japanese and Spanish

[@daysandwords]

Fair enough!

[@WilliamOunj-ge8th]

I am currently learning French and Japanese. So nice to see others doing the same thing.

[@londonerlearnsjapanese3337]

I know the feeling! I wanted to stick to Japanese but the urge to learn something else is still there. I recently connected with some cool Taiwanese people and I don't even feel like speaking with them constitutes as 'studying/practise/etc'. In my eyes, I'm still just 'studying' Japanese.

[@WilliamOunj-ge8th]

@@londonerlearnsjapanese3337 well, I am learning Japanese and I will go and subscribe to your KZbin Channel.

[@ulfen69]

My respect for trying to learn two languages. I think it is hard lo learn one. I am learning French.There is so many other things that requires my attention during the week. Kids has to wake up in time to get breakfast and then in time to school. Work and then help the kids with homework or some help in the household. When one have some time left it´s not always easy to have energy to be a good learner and do some serious studies. There are some steps in language learning I am aiming for. 1.To be able to ask how to go to somewhere further than around the corner then and understand the answer. 2.Express my thoughts or feelings. 3.Understand natives speaking as fast as they speak with each other. 4.Extra. Natives cannot hear I where I come from (most people have some something that give clues where they come from when speaking another language) . When I hear you speak Swedish I can hear you have no problem, not much anyway, to express your thought about concentrate on only one language (#2). I guess you can follow a conversation in Swedish quite well (#3). There are some sentences in your Swedish that is spoken very very good( "Ja. Om vi tar ett exempel..") You will soon be at #4. My french is not at #1 yet.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks. My Swedish is actually now about 20% better than it was in this video, if not 30%.

[@liar.2390]

I love the messiness of focusing on more than one language at a time. I'm definitely not a hYpErPoLyGlOt and I don't actually *speak* that many languages, but I enjoy engaging with more than one, making slow progress in several languages, being able to say at least a few things in several languages and the multilingual mush my thoughts turn into sometimes and the post-code-switching sluggishness when I've switched languages too many times in a row. Idk it's just ... fascinating and fun and human. But yeah, it comes at the cost of learning speed and possibly proficiency, I'm just okay with that. Still just a human with limitations, still not a language genius, just someone who enjoys a different approach more. With that said, I'm only focusing on two languages now (one of which I'm actually intermediate at) and only dabbling in others from time to time (but very rarely), so I guess I'm not *as* all over the place as I feel sometimes.

[@andrewcoates4952]

I was learning French as a hobby but I have moved to Italy for work and have to learn Italian as a necessity. Unfortunately French has taken a back seat compared to Italian, but I still want to keep learning French

[@theswedishpolyglot]

You should put your Patreon in the description :) I can't find it.

[@daysandwords]

Doh! I thought it was. Ok hang on haha...

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I have to fix that. OK it's there now, and here: www.patreon.com/user?u=38320669&fan_landing=true

[@AmbassadorSoriano]

Thanks for the video, Lamont. I learned 8 foreign languages throughout the years, probably achieved B2 in one, and B1 in 3 others, and or A1 or A2 on the rest (including Svenska!). I don't think B1 is enough to put it aside for 1-2 years and pick up close to where I had left off (let alone have meaningful conversations with native speakers). So, inspired by several youtubers, including you, I am making the effort to focus on my B1+ Spanish for four months (finishing it in December) by investing 15-20 hours a week, sort of giving myself an immersion environment. It has obliterated my previous notions on language learning. I'm super happy focusing on one, though I do occasionally have a looksie at French, Russian or Italian. It's interesting to know that you concentrated on Swedish the past two years, and it is around C1 level. After my 4 months I had planned on doing an immersion challenge in another language. But if I'm on a roll, and C1 in Spanish looks attainable by the end of 2021, then certainly I would consider that.

[@daysandwords]

I only started concentrating on Swedish 6 months ago! I was doing a LOT of French before that.

[@AmbassadorSoriano]

Sorry. I thought you had sid you've been learning for 4 years, and you concentrated more on Swedish the last 2. But that's great what you achieved. Keep it up!

[@TheJose17374]

Mexican here, i'm studying russian, ukrainian and german but the one that i'm really focusing is russian, i want russian to be my third language and i have been studying it for 2 years, i can speak it but most of the times i don't know whether i am saying is correct or if that's the way a native would say it, i want to be comfortable when i'm speaking it just like spanish, that's my goal and then, i want to do the same with the others but slower

[@elvis3678]

Wow I'm finally early

[@tuo.dobginski]

J'étudie français, hollandais, japonais et russe, je pense en étudier italien aussi. J'suis brésilien et j'aime langues, but I don't mind about the time and difficulties of learn that many languages, they're just for fun

[@WilliamOunj-ge8th]

Moi aussi, J'ètudie la langue française et la langue japonais.

[@r.m.l.5487]

このコメントを読めますか。 En hoe gaat het met je Nederlands? Groetjes uit Amsterdam!

[@tuo.dobginski]

@@r.m.l.5487 Mijn nederlands is geen goed, maar ik hou van de nederlandse taal. Ik was op mijn negentiende in Amsterdam! Ik werd verliefd op Amsterdam en ik schreef een lied over jouw stad! 僕はあなたのコメントを読めます！

[@r.m.l.5487]

@@tuo.dobginski Wat leuk dat je een lied over Amsterdam geschreven hebt! Je zegt dat je Nederlands niet zo goed is, maar ik begrijp alles wat je zegt :) 返事ありがとう！

[@tuo.dobginski]

@@r.m.l.5487 dank u well 😁😁😁

[@HeffeFrank]

Sure French is more useful but any second language is a gift and can make learning a 3rd that much easier. You do however miss out on short language holidays to New Caledonia 😂

[@daysandwords]

Exactly. Also there is a bit in the extended cut about my feeling that Swedish is actually harder so it's easier to pick it up as a kid and then learn French later, if that's something he even wants to do.

[@mrbouncelol]

Plus Swedish people often have very good English whereas French people, not as much in my limited experience.

[@Mienshao11]

French is so beautiful and easier than Swedish in my opinion. I’ve learned it for a year or so, and I am so happy with my progress :) You should wait until you’re ready to resume, because it’s probably easier than Swedish

[@daysandwords]

Yes, I also find French easier.

[@Komatik_]

@@daysandwords Interesting, I'd say the opposite. Then again, the finlandssvenska accent is probably easier than sverigessvenska.

[@daysandwords]

@@Komatik_ Yes finlandssvenska is easier because everything is more extreme and more ON/OFF. I find French easier not in small part due to the accent. My French accent could probably pass for native with just a few months of work; whereas I'm not sure my Swedish EVER will. But there's also the vocab and the number of things they say in exactly the same way (e.g. to be able to read music... in Swedish it's "to read notes"). On paper, Swedish is meant to be a lot like English but natives don't say very many things in the same way. When I hear English speakers speak Swedish, even if their accent were to be perfect (which it never is) then they often construct things poorly, e.g. "Han är ansedd att vara..." instead of "Han anses vara..."

[@dangmefinnish]

I came to this same realization that I really need to leave french to really learn Twi which I would need more than French in day to day basis.

[@simonhakansson9300]

From my perspective, going from C1 to C2 in a language without moving to the country seems quite difficult. Have you considered moving to Sweden for some time just to get a lot of exposure to the language?

[@daysandwords]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnmsd55uhKhpoZY Så här är svaret.

[@simonhakansson9300]

@@daysandwords Hur kommer det sig att du ville lära dig just svenska?

[@daysandwords]

@@simonhakansson9300 Det är en rimlig fråga: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4nOiX2Ydt-Dhqc

[@theoeguia3302]

Yes

[@JesseKellys]

​ @Days of French 'n' Swedish do you have a ouino affiliate link?

[@daysandwords]

Sorry, no. I took so long to make their review that I felt bad asking for one.

[@AlexanderVlasov]

Obviously no one could say you're wrong, but the other people might have different circumstances. I come from one country, have a wife from another, live in a third one, obviously need English because it's a must nowadays, and only then there's a room for my personal preferences. I've chosen two languages which give practical benefits: a language of a neighbouring country and a language of the country I like to spend holidays, and I don't even dare to think about the languages I would like to learn for the pure joy. Yes, learning two hinders the progress, but ditching one means abandoning potential benefits. You're lucky being a native English speaker, you don't, strictly speaking, *need* any of the languages and can afford learning for fun. We the rest have to work hard to get there.

[@daysandwords]

I think many people, many English speakers especially, would disagree that we're "lucky". I know a Swiss girl who has Serbian parents. So basically without doing anything special, she speaks German, English and Serbian... and then she speaks very good French too, because, you know, Switzerland. Her 4th language is about as good as my second. Am I still the lucky one?

[@gabbisss]

I completely agree. I also don't see the point of being at a somewhat "sucky" level. How long have you been studying Swedish and what's your level now? I've been studying Russian for almost a year, 2 hours a day most days, and I would estimate I'm at a B1 level top.

[@daysandwords]

If you go from day 1 then I've been studying for exactly 4 years (like, the anniversary is in a few days I think... I'm not sure), but for 2 years of that, I did a lot more French than Swedish. 2018 was almost entirely French, and February through April this year was 3 months full French, no Swedish. But by the book, definitely 4 years. My level is B2 spoken, with C1 listening and C1 reading... Writing? I don't really know but I'm generally pretty good at reproducing what I have read, so with some practice I'd probably be at C1 as well but at the moment I can only write like a decent Facebook post or maybe a short blog. I couldn't write a novel like I could in English (and yes, I could do that in English... I just don't have time.) It's the conversation/oral part of it that is not at C1 and I feel it. I would say that given exactly the same circumstances, expressing exactly the same idea in both English and Swedish... the comfort level in Swedish is 60% (assuming the English comfort is 100%... which it isn't, but for argument's sake). I think of this a lot like driving a car with about 100 horsepower compared to one with 180 hp. You can drive a car with 100hp around the streets quite easily, and to everyone else, it just appears to be a car. But to you, even if you're just doing the groceries or whatever, you do get reminded every now and then that it isn't a sportscar. It doesn't MATTER most of the time, but you know that if you got on a hillclimb against the 180 hp car, you'd get your arse kicked and every now and then you're reminded of it, just going up your street which is a hill (i.e. saying something slightly complicated), the car hesitates, just as my mind hesitates when saying "Those people wouldn't know what democracy was even if they were afforded the opportunity to have it." (or whatever). Hope this helped.

[@richarddonnelly7242]

Thanks for the video. How many hours over the past four years do you think you have put into Swedish over the last four years?

[@daysandwords]

Just to confirm... You mean over the last 4 years... or like, do you mean in the last 4 years? (Hehe, just joking.) Umm, well, I'd say it was 3 years at about an hour a day. That would be a generous estimate. The reason I say 3 years is that at an absolute minimum, there was a year that I only did French. It was actually much longer than that, but let's say a year. Then, the hour a day thing... there are more days that I've done NOTHING than days I've done 2, 3 or 4 hours. I've actually done more this year than any other (by far) and I'd be up to about 400 this year. So I'm gonna say 1000, basically.

[@richarddonnelly7242]

@@daysandwords thanks for the response. Ah I see, so you are basically in line with the CEFR estimates that say 1000 hours is necessary to get into the advanced range (C1-C2). I guess Swedish is a relatively difficult European language too. Obviously not as difficult as Finnish or Basque, but there is less shared vocab than German, Dutch, Spanish and French. Plus there is the complication of pitches.

[@daysandwords]

@@richarddonnelly7242 Swedish is rated as one of the easier ones because of the grammar but the pronunciation is definitely harder than some other European languages.

[@runnysmokey4765]

Wah wah wah dude just learn French slower idk. Just kidding I love your videos and appreciate you a lot. Just don’t put so much pressure on yourself you’re kicking ass!

[@rosebarbaro461]

All I can say which you the best of luck in your decision I read something, I think his surname Niclose he is an author when make your decision the universe will help you to make it happen, Good luck

[@ihavenoname6724]

LAMONT, c'est super dommage que tu aies laissé tomber!!! Si, par exemple, tu avais abandonné, le Mandarin, c'est-a-dire une langue très éloignée culturellement de l'anglais, je comprendrais--bien sur; mais le français (ou l'italien, l'espagnol, etc.) est une langue qui te donnera accès a des montagnes de culture et d'Histoire. En plus, c'est une langue Romane, l'anglais et le suédois étant des langues germaniques, donc avec le français tu gagnes accès a tout les mots provenant du Latin. Ce qui rendra, inévitablement, sur le long terme, l'apprentissage du suedois plus facile, plus efficace et plus approfondit! Lit un petit bouquin en français, from time to time, juste pour maintenir ce que tu as déjà acquis , "ca mange pas de pain" ;) 👍👍👍📚📚📚👋👋👋

[@larry_the]

It's been 6 months already???

[@daysandwords]

Yep! Time flies when you're in isolation haha.

[@andreasndervik27]

Why did you choose to learn Swedish? To read the «deckare» in their original language, or Strindberg? Kalifatet?

[@daysandwords]

I get asked this a lot so I have a pre-recorded answer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4nOiX2Ydt-Dhqc&t=1792

[@heathersaxton8118]

Does anyone have any links or some such for information about this language parent thing? Tried to look for it on my own but only get results about raising bilingual kids 😅

[@daysandwords]

Sorry I didn't see this. This is where I learnt about it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3SohIiLdpWqgpI This is the newer, written form: refold.la/roadmap/stage-3/a/adopt-a-parent

[@bofbob1]

Out of curiosity, do you have some kind of objective target, something that will tell you "I've reached the level I wanted in Swedish, so now I can start French back up again" or is it more of a "I'll just know" kind of thing? Because it's one of those things where if you keep on digging you can basically keep on forever. I guess getting a C2 certification is about the last reliable metric out there, and then in the vast open sea between C2 and "native-like" you pretty much have to come up with your own. Of course if you've given up on French then it's not a problem: you can just keep going without having to think about that. But if you do want to pick it back up again someday, then you're faced with that question of how to determine when you'll be satisfied with your Swedish and ready to ease up on the reins.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I have been thinking about this again recently. I think I will "know", but also, I sometimes have conversations now in which I feel like my Swedish isn't much of a hindrance to what I want to say. That's really the hurdle I was trying to get over, because although I did speak both languages, I was always like "This would be stupidly easy in English" whereas now I sometimes feel like "This is easy... I wonder if I could do it this easily in Swedish? Oh wait... I'm speaking Swedish." I mean it's rare, but it happens.

[@bofbob1]

@@daysandwords That makes sense. :-)

[@Riurelia]

0:43 When I first found your channel, I thought your native language was Swedish. I can't recall why.

[@daysandwords]

Because it's so svinbra that's why... haha, nah, maybe it was because you saw a video in Swedish? Dunno.

[@Riurelia]

@@daysandwords If I had to guess, I think it's because you were talking about Swedish, and since I'm not used to Australian accents, I might've assumed it was a foreign accent, although in retrospect, it's obviously not.

[@daysandwords]

@@Riurelia Yeah that can happen. Context gives us more clues than we think - I remember thinking Stefano from Linguaepassione must be American but with European parents... but that's just because he didn't quite sound European but not American either, and I put that together with him learning Georgian and got... something weird, as opposed to just Italian (which is what he is).

[@vivekdahal7452]

I completely agree with you. I'm studying Italian right now and want to learn Spanish too but first I want to get to a good level at Italian. As you sai dnot suck

[@watvid1]

Definitely speaking to a child is the best way to make speaking more fluent, as in, it gets you past the translating in your head phase.

[@daysandwords]

Well I've been past that for 3 years now but yeah, it has helped in general.

[@charliee7112]

Who was your parent in French? I've recently come across the concept and want to apply it but haven't found anyone suitable yet...

[@daysandwords]

Oh it wouldn't have really been a good one anyway, but it was a channel called Marketing Mania. I like the things he talks about (he's talks more about psychology than marketing), but his videos are all prepared beforehand rather than off the cuff, so it's not actually that great.

[@MatW1lson]

Why don’t you review your French for 20-40mins. per day? It’s how I retain all that I’ve learned in German, Russian and Polish. In the day time when my mind is most alert, I am reading/listening to a series of fiction books in French and at night time I relisten to other languages like music or KZbins. The languages all feel and sound familiar. No need to speak; just listen! Plus the languages sound so amazing too because you haven’t heard them in a while! You don’t need to speak or be at the same level of French as in Swedish; but you ought to review it! Plus it will make you even more motivated to learn Swedish because you can start to compare and contrast the two languages, together and it’s an exciting new way to think about your language learning when you can compare two different languages; i.e. meta-learning.

[@daysandwords]

Well there are a couple of problems with that in MY approach (and mine only, I'm not saying it's wrong overall) but the main one is that you said 20-40 minutes a day like it's no big deal. Sometimes I only get 40 minutes of Swedish in. Mostly I get more but unless I could guarantee about 4 hours of Swedish, I just don't want to use the time on anything else.

[@MatW1lson]

Days of French 'n' Swedish Try 15-20 mins. then. Hook up a Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom. It’s one of my tricks! ;) But I understand. Another suggestion: Maybe take a couple weeks every 6 months to do all French review. So, say 11 out of 12 months is all Swedish and 1-2 months is review of all other languages (e.g. French & Swedish). It can be like a reward for all the hard work you’ve done with your Swedish; to immerse yourself in a good French audiobook! =)

[@kattkatt744]

@@MatW1lson I seems to me you didn't listen to what Lamont was telling you about himself and his situation. You seem to be giving advice from your own situation instead of considering his and thinking about if what you know about yourself is applicable to him also.

[@MatW1lson]

@@kattkatt744 I understand: He is a busy man and father. It's also his channel giving us advice. However, he seems to have completely quit French. Languages slip over time: use it or lose it. Having some exposure to French (i.e. occasional review after a few months) will help him retain it, for sure. I am adamant about reviewing because when he does pick up French again, it will be way easier if he was reviewing it along the way. Doesn't have to be reviewed everyday, but should be revisited on occasion; preferably with an audiobook.

[@estefaneoy3483]

Here trying to learn French, any help will be appreciated.

[@maniravandi5983]

B2 is already a great level

[@enrapturedgoose5317]

Would it not be a lot more beneficial to teach your son a language thats not obscure so he's more likely able to use it in his life and it can open doors for him in his life? I understand you wanted to learn an obscure language like Swedish for yourself, but what benefit will this give your son when almost everyone in Sweden is great at English? Wouldn't him learning Spanish/French/Chinese etc improve his life a lot, whereas knowing Swedish seems to me could end up being a time consuming party trick that doesn't have a lot of real world benefit. I just started getting into learning another language so this area is new to me and I'm interested but unsure about a few things

[@daysandwords]

Sorry, I'll answer this later when I'm on a keyboard.

[@enrapturedgoose5317]

@@daysandwords did you lose your keyboard :P

[@daysandwords]

@@enrapturedgoose5317 Yep, didn't you watch my short film? :-P Anyway, ok there's a couple of "issues" (for want of a better word) with your question: 1. I did not want to learn an obscure language. That is, I didn't choose Swedish because it was obscure. I certainly don't have a problem with that aspect of it, but that's not why I chose it or why I continue it. I mean if it was, then I would hardly have taken up French, right? 2. Your comment seems to assume that it would possible to get my son to speak a language that I don't speak. I don't know where you get that idea from, but let's imagine I put him down in front of 4 hours of Chinese content a day... Awesome! Now... how does he practice outputting, when none of us speaks Chinese? I chose Swedish because it's my best language. I was going to do French. I had set on it and was immersing in like 2 hours French a day right up until April when I realised that Swedish was still better because a) I'm better at it b) it's harder than French and further removed from English, therefore will give more side-effect benefits that come with being bilingual (French is basically English with an accent, and while Swedish is similar, it's a much stronger accent with a further removed vocabulary) 3. People in Sweden being good at English is kind of overstated. If you see them speaking English, then it means that they've become good at English. The ones who are not good at English don't end up on TV that you would see, and therefore you get the impression that they are all amazing at English. Noomi Rapace had to cram a tonne of English for the five or six lines she had in English in the Millennium Trilogy. Many Swedish actors go their whole careers without ever speaking English. You come across more of these people more when you start speaking Swedish. Also, if anyone wants an idea of what their true ability is like in English, look at how many English books they translate into Swedish. I'll give you a clue: Basically every single one. But even if we assume they are all amazing at English, that actually makes it all the more impressive and warming to them when you speak Swedish. Chinese people have the attitude of "Live in China? Learn Chinese because you're screwed if you don't." which is fine, but I have blown Swedish and Norwegian peoples' minds by speaking Swedish to them, because they assume that no one would EVER learn their language unless they are required to. Especially when it's as good as mine is; they sometimes think there is some kind of trick going on, like I must be lying about not having Swedish parents or something. 4. Not sure how it could ever be time consuming? A kid is a kid. It's their full time job to learn to be a human, to speak, and to grow. Those three things are what they have to worry about. If you get to the age of 12 or something and already speak Swedish (and English), then you've been given a free language. Those who didn't learn a second language now have to spend time on learning one. So "time consuming" is the very opposite of being raised bilingual. It's the one time that it's truly "free" to learn a language.

[@enrapturedgoose5317]

@@daysandwords wow, I appreciate your very indepth response! I'm a new sub of yours and havent seen your short film but will be sure to check it out lol . Thats interesting to here that English is not actually as common as Iv heard in Sweden, so knowing Swedish does go a long way there. I agree with you that it makes sense to teach your son a language that you know since he should be outputting it. I still feel though that knowing a more common language would outweigh the benefits of knowing a complex language like Swedish that your son may not use. Your French seems to be at a fine level to teach a very young person, so wouldn't it make sense as your son grows and gets older, your French skills would also develop. So you would be able to teach him more advanced content. Therefore you could have picked French to teach him? It seems to me that having advanced knowledge of a language on day 1 of teaching a baby is not necessary, as long as you have advanced knowledge of the language when the child is ready to learn advanced content? Also when I said Swedish may end up being “time consuming” I was meaning more that the time learning Swedish could be used to learn something else more likely to be used. So maybe not the most effective use of time

[@bremexperience]

J'essaie d'apprendre l'allemand et l'espagnol en même temps, mais je focusse sur l'allemand et je m'oblige à en faire ne serait-ce que 15 minutes par jour. Je crois personnellement qu'il ne faut pas forcer les choses, il faut laisser un peu les choses suivre leur cours. Je n'ai pas d'objectif clair en espagnol, mais simplement le fait d'en faire un peu, quand j'en ai envie, l'améliore. J'ai volontairement écrit mon commentaire en français parce qu'il faut bien que tu utilises ce que tu as acquis jusqu'à maintenant! Aussi, je ne crois pas que tu puisses dire que tu as cessé d'apprendre le français. Tu as cessé d'y mettre l'effort, mais tu continues d'apprendre. J'espère.

[@veloboy]

So passé!

[@thinking-ape6483]

I am not too sure about the idea of an L2 learner struggling with an L2 then using it to speak to their offspring. If it were at near native level, it might be different but there would be too many problems otherwise. Just hire a native to do it.

[@daysandwords]

OK so I have a few questions here: Group 1: Where do we get this native? Is he or she going to live with us and communicate with my son constantly? How much is that going to cost? 2: Can only people who have a near perfect level of a language talk to their kids in that language? That would rule at least 30% of Australians out from speaking to their kids in English, because they don't speak it well themselves. 3: What are the potential problems you are getting at? I mean, just think what happens if my son were to NEVER get a proper hold on the Swedish language... it would be AWFUL... almost like... Oh wait, nah it would be exactly the same as what would have happened anyway. 😐

[@thinking-ape6483]

@@daysandwords 1. I have no idea where you get the natives; put out an advertisement? 2. The offspring of those people do not need to speak English to their parents because they will acquire English fluently from their peer group; not analogous. 3. Aren't the problems obvious? a non-native, non-fluent speaker speaking to their offspring, which btw would have to be constant and you would not be able to ever use English. Your colleague with the Brazilian wife is much more plausible because she is a native speaker speaking to her son.

[@morganziegler7351]

I'm still not seeing the problem here. You didn't actually elaborate anything, just called the problems obvious. The child is currently 4 months old and Lamont is trying to get the child used to hearing the sounds and rhythms of Swedish. By the time he begins acquiring speech, Lamont's Swedish will have improved a lot from where it is now. And even if it stalled right here...oh no a child with an intermediate Swedish vocabulary and grammar alongside his native English. The horror? As long as Lamont is consistent with Swedish learning, and his goal is to become extremely fluent, his child can grow up learning Swedish right behind his dad.

[@daysandwords]

@@thinking-ape6483 Morgan said it perfectly. By the time my son is actually talking, my Swedish WILL be proficient. Aside from anything else, it's great motivation for me to continue improving my Swedish rather than joining the "I speak 20 languages to A2 level" club. Also, again, like Morgan said... The worst that can happen is that I have a kid who only speaks English, which I would have anyway.

[@elishevabarenbaum5319]

@@daysandwords Generally it is not recommended for a primary carer to speak to their child in a language they don't speak fluently. Apparently the lack of sophistication of the adult speaker affects the child's development.

[@ninoslanguagejourney6002]

I love your channel! Followed you for a while now (from my other channel) and finally had the guts to start my own language channel! I would love if you could give me some feedback!

[@nick16watt]

Who was your French parent?

[@daysandwords]

Ah désolé, mais c'est un secret ! In all seriousness, I don't want everyone going "Oh yeah he's a great parent." and then going and sounding like that haha. In French you're spoiled for choice, so maybe you are looking for one yourself (I'm not sure, maybe you were just curious) but if you are, there are plenty out there!

[@tompeled6193]

Шыд Аи Хӓв Кўит Фрэнч?