Steve Kaufmann - The coming golden age of polyglots.

[@Thelinguist]

This was a great conference. The first truly international one. Glad we were able to do this before the current pandemic. I look forward to when we can do it again.

[@gabrieltomas9914]

you're so cool Steve

[@KAD10895]

Great talk, though I disagree with learning multiple languages at the same time. I've seen it confuse and dishearten many students in the past so would recommend learning one at a time but to each his own!

[@rdeloges7957]

Great discussion! If I were there I would have asked this (as a bilingual myself, Eng/ESP): What would linguists/polyglots consider "fluency" (being fluent)? I ask because we have always been told how "most Europeans" speak 2, 3, 4, whatever, languages, but based upon my own personal experience (in both Spanish and English) I think they have a more liberal concept of "fluency" than Americans or Asians would. To me, it seems a lot of Europeans that say they are fluent in X amount of languages, really are what we would consider "conversant" (low intermediate). Which I don't knock, but just think we need to be clear. Where do you draw the line Mr. Kaufmann? What do you consider fluent? Or does it matter. What do you think the standard should be? Thanks!

[@tori8823]

Great speech, Steve. I started learning Japanese around 2 and a half years ago and since then most of the wisdom and guidance on language learning was from you. Now I can understand most of what they say in the news, tv shows, and even documentaries thanks to you. Thank you.

[@hanlu4903]

@@rdeloges7957 Hello, I know you wrote that comment a year ago, but as a European I'd like to remind you that Europe is a continent with a lot of countries. These are countries with a lot of history and migration. So in almost every country you will find regions where the people speak the regional language and the official language (e.g. Basque, Catalan, Sorbian, ...). Then there are countries with multiple official languages like Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg where most of the people at least understand two or three languages. Then there are all the regions along the many borders where people speak mostly two languages because they work on the other side of the border. Then there are the regions that were part of another country before one or the other war, where they speak two languages now (e.g. Alsace, South Tyrol, former parts of the UdssR, the countries which came out of the former Yugoslavia, ...). Travelling through Europe you can find a lot of places where street signs are written in two or three different languages (e.g. on Sicily). Every country has it's own history with migration. In Germany for example every forth person has a migrational background. So the chances are high that a few of these people do not speak German at home. And there are a lot of Europeans who live and work in another country for a few years before they go back home. So in Poland and Turkey you'll find a lot of people who speak German. Then we have countries like Sweden or the Netherland where foreign movies usually are not dubbed and viewers get "an ear for the foreign language" by watching television. Or Ireland and the Irish language ... Or the fact that Greek is also spoken in Cyprus, parts of Turkey, small parts of Albania and Italy ... Or all the Arabic speaking immigrants who need to speak the language of the European country they live in. Or all the other African immigrants. Living in Europe they are already at least bilingual! And in all these examples I did not yet mention the languages taught in school. I know - from my own experience - that learning a foreign language in school for about 8 years does not equal fluency, but in almost all counties in Europe kids are learning at least one other language - which does not have to be English. So most of them will finish their language studies - depending on the school system - with levels of A2, B1 or B1.2. But as it is with languages... you need to speak them to keep your level of fluency. Meaning that a person who did learn e.g. French for 8 long years in school and even mastered the A-Levels in French (~ B2) would not be fluent anymore after not speaking the language for the next 30 years. When you followed my comment you will understand that being bilingual in Europe does not mean: "Every second European speaks English or Spanish fluently." No, but there are so many other languages out there.

[@karinaespinozaherrera6587]

If youtube think that i'm going to spend almost 48 minutes listening to Steve Kauffman talking about language learning... Well they're right.

[@sleepsmartsmashstress740]

they're right

[@RonaldMcPaul]

Shoulda been, "some 80 yo man"

[@sleepsmartsmashstress740]

@@RonaldMcPaul Shouda been !!

[@KAD10895]

Those KZbin execs...they are a clever bunch.

[@Simona_midulcevida]

Yeah I did....lol

[@peggytrotman4173]

Steve..... a legend .......great to see a talk by him...

[@fasalalbana4913]

I am a polyglot, I speak 14 languages, I am Arab and I really enjoyed this conference.

[@sarak6860]

I have found that what Steve teaches about Interleaving is true. To leave a language and then go back and re-learn it (it comes back quickly), then leave it again and re-learn it again later, over and over again, causes the language to stick more soundly in my mind than if I kept with that language all the time. I have six languages that I go back and forth with. They all seem to be coming along well.

[@cathrynm]

Nice to see Steve Kaurfmann is still around, he looks good.

[@matthewlake182]

He does. I think he takes care of himself quite well :)

[@roywales4444]

Thankyou for a wonderful talk, I am a 55 year old native English speaker and trying to learn a second language for the first time in earnest. You have put my mind at ease regarding the fear of age and forgetting content already learned. I feel more contented with where I'm at after two years of fumbling my way around and more motivated now to push on :)

[@lmonarkl1158]

Steve is a global treasure. Thanks to him I see learning languages in a different way.

[@zdravovule]

I love listening to Steve! Truly incredible knowledge he posses on language learning

[@Guyomar]

Really good talk. He is right about flexibility and uncertainty. The biggest challenges I see students face are becoming easily frustrated when they don't understand every single word, wasting time asking "why" (it's irrelevant) and not wanting to get out of the framework of one's native language.

[@rashidah9307]

Language learning is definitely a stretching experience that forces you to get used to being outside of your comfort zone! :) But I LOVE asking questions especially why questions! Lol! Many things have simple why's that unlock your understanding of an aspect of the language and allow you to play with it and use it to truly express your own ideas. I mean, once you understand the patterns of the language, everything becomes MUCH easier . . .and a grammar rule taught at the point that it's actually useful and relevant for a learner will actually stick. This has been my experience, and I'm having a blast learning Jordanian Arabic with great success.

[@successcollege4283]

I was glad to be connected with him thru Polyglot Conference in Fukuoka. Great polyglot! Respect Steve, my Guru. Many thanks. Simon Park.

[@nativitymusic]

Thank you for sharing. Extremely inspirational!

[@AfroLinguo]

Steve is the Boss. I absolutely love the dude.

[@CsillaMagyar]

I'm Hungarian and I do speak besides Hungarian, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, I also know a little Mandarin Chinese from Beijing where I lived a long time ago. I love languages, and I think they are very important in our modern world. I do teach some Hungarian on my channel... I love your talk!! I hope to be up there some day to present a talk as well!! :) Your Chinese is great! Mine is not that level yet unfortunately! ;)

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

How about Russian?

[@cha1645]

Wow.

[@rodericksibelius8472]

Hi Steve, You probably have not heard about a country called the PHILIPPINES, they SPEAK 74 LANGUAGES and their derived dialects in that small country alone!!!

[@LisaHerger]

I love the idea of cross-training in languages!

[@fvazquez64]

Listening to audiobooks works great for me, also watching videos helps me a lot because you have the chance to watch and learn new words ... thanks for sharing!!

[@marinaaleksandrova7986]

I listened and want to listen to legendary Steve Kaufmann for hours. Thank you! The book is amazing.

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

You have that book? Where did you get it? Are you from Russia?

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

Вы из России?

[@marinaaleksandrova7986]

@@erturtemirbaev5207 The book is available in Amazon. I am from Ukraine

[@yeliz7963]

Maybe it's a long video for you but it worth listening to. Definitely it changed my perspective and I didn't understand how 48 minutes passed :)

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

I do like is approach quite a lot, when he talks about Stephen Krashen and Manfred Spitzer it does make a lot more sence to me then say Benny´s method. Btw for you who are learning german - go listen to prof. Spitzer´s lectures, he has a wonderful sence of humor. Great talk indeed, hope to see the talk by Alexander Argüelles as well at some point.

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

@Zack sure, kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKbNdn-wrMiXprM kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGHQcnatfZegoLs hope that helps!

[@lewisfitzsimmons1271]

The Lord Of Confusion Danke für die Empfehlung! Tolles Video! Es bringt gute Nachricht für Sprachenlernenden, obwohl ich jetzt Angst vor meinem IPad habe! :p

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

@@lewisfitzsimmons1271 und das ist auch gut so! :) dr. Spitzer ist auch der Grund warum ich kein Smartphone habe, weniger Ablenkung und mehr Zeit zum lernen

[@golden-project081]

Very helpful! Would like to learn more from Steve Kauffman.

[@scottv5587]

This was a great talk. Interesting the whole way through

[@Simona_midulcevida]

This was great Steve. thanks for posting... my attitude is to do what I enjoy. I am studying both Portuguese and Spanish, listening to a lot of audio and reading...LingQ. I am about 3 months in to studying and my approach has already changed from the first month...I realize what I enjoy which is mainly listening and imitating the accent and working on pronuciation and reading...and that's what I am doing. Simona.

[@mochikkochiizu]

久しぶりにカウフマンさんの日本語が聞けて嬉しいです いつまでもご健勝でいてください

[@cleidiomarcalebe6664]

Thanks Steve again, your knowledge is very useful and has helped many people around the world.

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

Hi. Where are you from??

[@richard135b7]

So much wisdom from this man

[@tomilan6001]

there are 2 kind of people people who study language for a certain purpose and people who learn language for pure interest without any action purpose

[@javiergonzalolascano4565]

Excelente Steve!

[@Tabascosause]

With age there is experience. Experience we may not have or get at a younger age. I have noticed in every conference people talk about one thing specifically. Yet they never act on it or study it.

[@senasaglam3869]

Steve your Such a great inspiration for me.

[@valq10]

Steve Kaufman is a figure of historic importance. When I see Steve - I click!

[@cndcpwll]

45:30 To the lady asking this question, if you stumble across this, there are "graded readers" available in a fair selection of languages. Also, you might want to check out Satori Reader. Other than that, I'd recommend distilling your vocab / study into themes or genres specific to your interests.

[@rubyvampiredean.]

From Vietnamese love to Polygots🥰🥰

[@zenxara9914]

mention my province :OOO whaaa usually when I say I'm from New Brunswick Canada they are all like...where? what is that?

[@Barsik-M]

where? what is that?

[@narutowebby]

If teachers were passionate and excited about what they were teaching. Yknow make the kids go “wow I wanna know about this” and the teacher being “ I want you to know about this because it is so interesting and fascinating and important to me”. This does not happen often because school is just a bunch of obligations from both ends.

[@williambudd2630]

Studying grammar to learn a language is like studying how an engine works in order to learn how to drive a car. Its all wasted time and energy.

[@Ryosuke1208]

It certainly helps up to a point to learn the basics, but not to make it a priority.

[@yangruifeng]

Great talk!

[@PsLLinguas]

Awesome.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

11:59 - It would seem that Steve has never used the SaySomethingIn method or the Pimsleur method. Learning from speaking is an amazingly effective method and it will get you great real language input exposure.

[@dcrock8978]

Maybe somewhat effective for beginners would be a better choice of words.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

LT Crock “for beginners” is what he’s talking about. It takes Steve so long to get used to the language that he can spend almost a year without actually using it in some cases. However the cognitive connections made when you actually try to produce the language help your in assimilating it more effectively than by input alone. Input alone gets your passive language working well but there’s no replacing the efficiency of producing the language to develop proficient active language skills. Input only is like trying to have an adventure by studying maps but never travelling. We need both maps and travel for the best adventure.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

TheBeaTle - well, don’t get me wrong I think that Steve is wonderful and a very inspiring hyperglot. But his ability to speak is sorely behind his ability to read. But I guess that related to his language goals. He likes to be able to get into the literature and newspapers, etc. speaking is very much a secondary goal for him. This is highlighted when you hear him speak some of this languages like Spanish and especially Portuguese. And please don’t misinterpret me; I’m not saying that he’s “not good enough” in these languages. All I’m saying is that if your goal is to be able to speak the language, a mainly input method will likely leave you frustrated and dissatisfied with the outcomes vs effort.

[@MuttFitness]

The real problem with the pimsleur method is that there's only just so much content. You finish level 5 and you don't know where to go.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

Mutt Fitness 😂 true. But the problem is in implementation; not the method. SaySomethingIn uses the same method but much more effectively. By the end of 3 months you’re at a very conversational B1 without even trying.

[@seayellow5834]

I don't like how the Chinese think and I am Chinese when they are talking about language level and test and diploma or sth I feel sick

[@RyanMcK19]

As an asian, i have to say those things happen not only in China but also in othe countries. I feel like nowadays especially in the educational enviroment there is a lot of pressure put on high school students. We are not studying, we are competing. I dont say comparison is not good, everything has two sides. To overcome it, i just ask myself that what i got, not what others got.

[@De_rekening_a.u.b.]

I think this also happens in S Korea and Japan. Why do you think this is the case?

[@hrmIwonder]

"If you could motivate the kids, then maybe they wouldn't need a teacher" that's sorta the crux of the issue, languages classes overwhelmingly are a complete waste of time.

[@norvincaballero8563]

Hey guy anybody can tell me how many languages you need to speak to be polyglot?! I love learning languages and I would love somebody tell me if it is possible to learn to idioms at the same time

[@northstar2839]

How many languages to be a polyglot, I don't know. Is it possible to learn two languages at the same time? Yes, with three conditions: that you are already an experienced language learner, and that those two languages are not too similar, and that you are ready to spend lots of time on your study (listening, repeating, understanding, reading, speaking, ...). Each year I spend my holidays in another country and there I only speak the local language for weeks; so I spend lots of time in language learning. I remember a few times I had to learn two languages at the same time: Basque and Catalonian (very different), Hungarian and Romanian (very different), Serbian and Albanian (different), Greek and Macedonian (different), Swedish and Finnish (very different), Armenian and Georgian (very different), and on one occasion even three languages: Lithuanian and Latvian (similar but not too close) and Estonian (very different). If the languages are too close, like Slovene and Croatian, you will inevitably mix them up. But later on, you will profit from your former acquired languages when learning similar ones (that's why you should maintain your skills afterwards, which is easy nowadays with Internet and KZbin). In Europe I still have Bulgarian and Ukrainian to achieve, but I know from experience it won't be tough as I already master eight other Slavic languages... I wish you lots of pleasure in this field, and good luck!

[@norvincaballero8563]

Thanks, for the advice thank you a lot

[@northstar2839]

@Xalpha23 I can only agree with you. I think every language learner should be able to assess her or his own attained level. Look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages and certainly here: www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions

[@sarak6860]

@@northstar2839 I was taught that if you speak three foreign languages, you are a polyglot.

[@polyglotcorner6525]

More than 3 languages is polyglot. More than 6 it’s hyper polyglot. I hope I answered your question.

[@haicautrang5304]

omg was that lindie @ 35:40??????????

[@jcs3142]

Minute 6: I must contradict you. It is not true for Spain. It was historically true during Franco's dictatorship, but nowadays regional languages live an amazing revival due to local (but national-wide inspired) policies, unlike other countries like France. Spain is not a model for a centralised language policy in the XXIst century.

[@antonyferrober554]

There is prove that even during the Franco dictatorship, languages of autonomous regions had a certain amount of freedom, freedom that many other languages did not, and still do not possess under their current governments. (Not saying that the dictatorship wasn't bad for them at all, though)

[@tomybravi3838]

When he said I thought it was because of all that happened with Catalonia

[@Eric-le3uu]

Wicked!

[@jumakondo3527]

My rol model stive Kaufman

[@chriscipiti3235]

0:35

[@beatriceglattauer1087]

Use puppets and little plays Little Language School You tube...

[@hamidparck7927]

Je passe un message pour Steve que je vois dans mes médicaments pour vous et Paul que je parlais de alarmes faire mon programme à qui a visité Pakistan tous les portes qui va donner manger parler de nounou pouvez-vous tu as Baisy-Thy que je vois parler de ça avec Zee application la part de nounou

[@hamidparck7927]

Je pense un message pour que je vois dans la nuit et mon message au style et que tu devras rester ensemble donner un mot pour vous nom de la femme qui va parler de soudain je connais le soldat je connais là-bas qui va parler de cela que je dois donner à la femme pour vous et les poules tout le monde toi tu expliques pas loulou tu penses péter le Soudan tu vas rester à Soudan tu vas rester content

[@hamidparck7927]

Je porte un message pour Steve que je vois dans les bons messages pour toi que je parlais avec vous et avec la femme qui va partir pour parler avec lui saison 1 mot pour enfant poser des questions pour vous vas-y à la femme c'est lui qui va répondre pour vous pour celui qui va dans les la femme qui va dans la réponse c'est pas parti

[@hamidparck7927]

Je passe un message pour Steve que je vois donner mon message pour ça que je vas dormir est mon poul le monsieur qui va parler que je dois donner un mon bobo tout ce qu'il va connais le nom et tout ce qui va coller pipo tout ce qui va coller comme il faut qu'est-ce qui va coller gastro un dos tu vas connecter que ça tout ce qui va coller en il m'a parlé de vous pour un groupe avec un Star qu'il va créer un crise mondiale qu'il va trouver c'est pas pour parler avec lui rien que de programme qu'il va passer la femme qui joue à la corbeille et le Sandro yalla secrète tu vas marcher à Loulou tout ce qui va parler avec Loulou je suis en ligne avec vous parle comme tu veux

[@floxy20]

This man is sort of like a chess player rated 2900 who says "everyone can play chess like me." Er, no we can't. I spent my school days in Quebec and never was adequately instructed in French, although they tried. The average person should aim to be proficient in one other language but it will be difficult if there is no practical reason for doing so. Polyglots are esoteric hobbyists and I am amazed at their ability.

[@matthewbrooks5756]

This is nonsense. The entire point to be made is that traditional methods of language learning simply do not work, as he mentioned in the begin with the 0.066% . You need to acquire a language through Comprehensible Input. It takes you and a Language partner who is fluent, preferably native, in the language you wish to speak. That individual will instruct you by, simply put, teaching you like you'd teach a child. Anyone can do it, there are many videos on KZbin covering this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmHceJeEeryXpJI This is a pretty good video to get you started. Cheers.

[@andymounthood]

The difference between a polyglot and an average person is desire. Polyglots don't need a practical reason in order to put forth the time and effort to become conversational or better at another language. As long as you think in terms of "should" or "practical" you will probably defeat yourself psychologically. I tried learning Mandarin Chinese because I felt it would be useful and I failed. But, I didn't have this problem with Japanese or Russian because I wanted to learn them even when I didn't have a practical purpose for them. Don't marvel at our ability, which is more or less the same as everyone else's. If you want to marvel at our passion for learning languages, that's fine. I marvel at a lot of people whose passions and interests are different than mine. However, if you have any interest in joining us, Steve is inviting you do so in this video and giving tips on how you might proceed.

[@Gitaikou]

If that's your take-away from this talk, combined with your attitude is the exact reason you're an eops

[@YogaBlissDance]

That's what he said! IN school language learning is not good. HE SAID THAT.

[@irenemcnamara9699]

Steve has most things backwards!

[@jamesatem6046]

Haha 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😆😂😂😂 laughing alot. I totally agree with you. I use Pimsleur and Glossika without knowing the language and I end up learning it.

[@hamidparck7927]

Je passe un message pour Steve que je vois dans mes médicaments pour vous et Paul que je parlais de alarmes faire mon programme à qui a visité Pakistan tous les portes qui va donner manger parler de nounou pouvez-vous tu as Baisy-Thy que je vois parler de ça avec Zee application la part de nounou