Teach Yourself Any Language with this Method

[@netrgm]

I do something similar and I find it very helpful. I watch an Italian soap opera with 'sottotitoli' (subtitles) and I put the words I don't know into a spreadsheet with the translation. Then I can study it later and conjugate the verbs. They tend to use the words several times in an episode so I get to hear them repeatedly and remember them. I have to integrate your method into mine. Thanks!

[@LanguageMatrix]

Very good

[@adamhersberger8993]

This is a really interesting method. People in the comments are getting too hung up on the fact that the video uses simple examples that are "useless" or that a beginner wouldn't know how to fill in the grid off the top of their head. It would make for a long, boring video if we had to wait for him to look everything up with no prior knowledge. Pay attention to the concept rather than the specific examples. This method provides a great structure to focus on what YOU want to learn IN CONTEXT. It's kind of like flash cards on steroids. You can create whatever cards you want. The difference here is that you've grouped all of the "cards" in a way that lets you learn how they work together rather than just vocabulary in isolation.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you, yes that's right. ChatGPT can help you generate it. When people get hung up, it's because they are still assuming that the goal of language learning is to learn the whole language first then use it. This approach let's you follow one of the most important maxims this method has: What do I want to say, and to whom? Be able to answer that question, or at least remember to answer it, and you'll never be lost. You can think of that question as a north star. Learn to say the things you want to say first, then extract the patterns you need from that to say everything else.

[@BradPuma]

Thanks

[@alejrandom6592]

Small corrections: It's sunny = Está asoleado It's windy = Hay mucho viento Do you like coffee? = ¿Te gusta el café? (we use articles when talking about something in a general sense)

[@LanguageMatrix]

You right you right

[@liambyrne591]

As ol ea do , a sol e a do , a sol ea do

[@MrSkribanto]

En mi país se dice: Está haciendo sol. / Está haciendo un solazo (cuando el sol está muy fuerte). Asoleado es algo que se pone al sol. Ej. Sal a asolearte, la ropa ya está asoleada (llevó mucho sol, se está tostando)

[@LanguageMatrix]

@@MrSkribanto Gracias

[@lisettegarcia]

@@MrSkribanto 💯

[@byronwilliams7977]

I find that the FSI audio material is absolutely PACKED with useful recordings, situations, and grammatical structures as well as drills which can be modified to help hammer home the target. language.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Nice

[@beckyshockley6738]

What’s fsi?

[@edualf4308]

@@beckyshockley6738 "The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the primary training institution for employees of the United States federal government, particularly those in the U.S. Department of State. Established in 1947, FSI offers language instruction, professional development, and area studies programs aimed at preparing U.S. diplomats and other government employees for their roles abroad. One of the notable aspects of FSI is its language learning programs, which are known for their comprehensive and practical approach to teaching foreign languages. The FSI language courses often include detailed audio materials designed to help learners gain proficiency through practice with real-life dialogues, grammar exercises, and other drills. These materials are sometimes used by individuals outside of government service because they are thorough and have been made available to the public." chatgpt

[@edualf4308]

Where can you find fsi audio material?

[@dafydd1722]

​@beckyshockley6738 Foreign Service Institute. It's how US diplomats and government officials learn foreign languages. The material they use is available free online.

[@arau_r]

Wow, your spanish pronunciation is very good, even your english pronunciation is very clear, there are so many americans that I can't understand at all, nice video

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you very much

[@whitemc2]

I realized that this is powerful for myself by also doing a bunch of methods that involve the spreadsheet. Thanks dude

[@LanguageMatrix]

That's excellent, thank you, and it's my pleasure

[@PolarBear9733]

This looks like a great way to help learning to converse, which I am doing right now in Spanish. It could really help clear the hurdles of know what to say and how to say it. I am definitely trying it out.

[@carolknapp2824]

Learning a language takes time and dedication, no shortcuts

[@LanguageMatrix]

True about time and dedication ... but when the wheel, inclined plane, plow, and computer were invented, we could say those were shortcuts, no? Or if shortcut isn't the right word, perhaps a tool. In any case, what I'm showing here is along the same lines.

[@marinabraeckman7331]

Por qué critican? Es excelente la idea. Son los famosos prompts que proponen en los exámenes internacionales...

[@jamesbond-xl3xs]

This is heat rock. Good stuff Tony. I will begin to implement this method. Gracias my guy!

[@LanguageMatrix]

My pleasure. Thank you! Implement it right away and see where it takes you.

[@jamesbond-xl3xs]

@@LanguageMatrix definitely will. I had a few sessions with you prior and it helped me and I will be sure to reach back out to solidify things when needed going forward.

[@xtaltheo170]

beautiful clarity in your language, my brother!

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you very much

[@MisterGames]

A visual example of how lexical chunks work. Thanks!👍

[@LanguageMatrix]

My pleasure, thank you very much

[@richakings636]

As a spanish native speaker I could understand the point🎉 thank you so much

[@LanguageMatrix]

Excellent, thank you very much

[@madmad6915]

good idea, I'm learning English and this can be very useful, thank you

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you

[@JCMcQueenOfficial]

I Love the way you teach! So Chill. Your Spanish accent is so cute

[@IgnacioVardy-dv5zx]

I literally thought he has a cute Spanish accent😅

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks very much!

[@LicLafarga]

Good, very good!! I like it a lot, I'll implement it with my Thai, BTW your Spanish is on the money, cheers!

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks a lot :)

[@teresita.lozada]

I am finding it super useful. Thank you so much for this video.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Very welcome Teresita, thank you for all your engagement

[@teresita.lozada]

@@LanguageMatrix I am working on the White Belt questions in Italian. Today is my second day and I am having lots of fun.

[@pingoleonfernandez7638]

Interesting method. I'm currently trying to work out a method of my own and this approach reminds me of the one used in a book called "Elementary Russian in Patterns", printed in the USSR.

[@ryantw19]

Very interesting! It would be useful to see this starting from a more filled out example of one conversation.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks very much. You can see it expanded here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j53damOQgtabpsk

[@nigelsouthworth808]

Fantastic, thanks

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks very much

[@rudolphvalentinoconnection8298]

Sort of reminds me to Language Transfer, which is totally oral. The instructor leads the student(s) through a "building block" stream. I like the visual component of your approach! Everything is connected, instead of just LISTS...

[@AshlynDeluxe]

Ty for this

[@LanguageMatrix]

You're very welcome

[@rjg6139]

This is essential for flashcards. Anki offers vocab decks that often lacks context, so I would string words and expressions together in ways no native would until I was corrected. Now I always add dictionary like expressions underneath in a similar way to this video.

[@NewJerseyTico]

I really like that strategy; I’m going to try something similar. Thank you! It’s excellent.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Try it out! You can go forever

[@TheJudeJane]

¡Esta es la forma correcta de aprender español!

[@charlesfitzpatrick3805]

Estoy de acuerdo.

[@daniel_1625_sa]

The template could improve though, I used to have a temple to do active recall, I think if you highlight the text as the same colour as the cell could be easier to do the recall and then you can colour the text back to the original colour when you want to know the answer

[@KendallKruse-b7f]

Tony just really starting out in Spanish and interested in this method, A question for example in the question column would it be appropriate to put a response that was not a question like when meeting "Mucho gusto en conocerte " or does this go in the expression column? Like your channel Thanks

[@MisterGames]

I am not Tony but will answer... If you put non questions in the question column, it stops being a question column and becomes a random stuff column. Questions in question column. Answers in answer column. Variable expressions in that column. KISS.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Hi, that's a great example of a Useful Expression, and can go into that category.

[@LanguageMatrix]

@MisterGames you got it

[@thomasdennis9005]

Could you send me more information on your conversation generator. I've been studying Spanish off and on for more than a year using different methods. I find your approach something to look forward to. If you have a fee course, I would be interested. Please send me contact information.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Hi Thomas, I'm building a complete course here: langmatrix.com/learn-any-language

[@mitchellbaker4806]

The weather is el clima. El tiempo is the time

[@danielfreezer8469]

Weather is called both clima and tiempo, with subtle differences. Tiempo can also be time.

[@wilsonalfa6614]

Useful tips

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you, glad to hear that

[@ScreenPrintR]

Do you have a book?

[@LanguageMatrix]

Hi, a few ebooks on my website: langmatrix.com/ but not a comprehensive book on the. method yet

[@Liopot68]

If i received a penny every time some schmock online calls his half-backed idea "the most powerful tool", I´d be as rich as Elon Musk.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Try out the method, and let me know if you have any questions

[@curtpiazza1688]

COOL! 😊

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks Curt

[@Cr7_the_G]

thanks' man

[@LanguageMatrix]

My pleasure, thank you

[@SodaDrinker94]

How come you call it a machine? There’s nothing automatic about it?

[@LanguageMatrix]

It takes some abstract thinking perhaps ... but it's automatic in this sense ... try it out for yourself. Think of a topic. Now think of a question on that topic. Now answer that question. What verbs and vocabulary did you use?

[@israelquijada4324]

Good.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thank you very much

[@lisettegarcia]

First example is already wrong. Nobody asks "¿Cómo está el tiempo?" That's speaking English with Spanish words. In Spanish you would actually say: "¿Qué tal el tiempo?" You would also never ask "¿Hace mucho sol?" Instead, the right way is "¿Hay mucho sol?" Bottom line, this generator reinforces bad habits. The way to avoid this is to read prize-winning novels and plays. It's the only way to absorb accurate, accepted expression in the target language. Edited to add that listening to a target language's most popular podcasters at .75 speed, while not helping with perfect grammar, will help in picking up typical expressions.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Lisette, just switch out the Spanish for the preferred way of saying it. ChatGPT can help. As for bad habits (and this may infuriate a lot of people :) -- but when it comes to bad habits, bad habits are better than no habits! Because at least you are building momentum. The perfection of great literature is not necessarily the most helpful thing for the beginner speaking student.

[@lisettegarcia]

@LanguageMatrix for sure this works for a person seeking to become functional at a low level in a hurry (law enforcement) but bad habits are a nearly impossible foundation to uproot. So, anyone requiring higher level communication (diplomats) should avoid this system like the plague.

[@LanguageMatrix]

@@lisettegarcia Say the Spanish was perfectly native-like, 'cómo está el clima' rather than 'cómo está el tiempo', etc. ... your stance would still be to not take this approach? To clarify my point, it's simply a way to organize the language according to topic--question-answer, so we can practice generating conversation in conversation rather than memorizing words.

[@lisettegarcia]

@LanguageMatrix i totally thought that about clima but that actually speaks to the weather in broader terms and it sounded like you were using it here to ask about the day's forecast. To your question, though, yes, it's a good system for kitchen spanish (running a restaurant) not for growing into the level of fluency required to score a 3+ or better at FSI. I do agree that memorizing words out of context is useless. Hence, my suggestion to read novels/plays and listen to podcasts.

[@LanguageMatrix]

@@lisettegarcia Great, so I would just argue that 'kitchen Spanish', or being able to converse is the base from which a person can grow from 0 to 3 -- kind of like learning crawl before you walk, and walk before you run -- and once a person is 3+ then absolutely we need novels/plays/poetry/podcasts. And even before level 3 is great too (never too early for input of any kind); all I'm saying is Comprehensible Output is just as important as Comprehensible Input, and that in the same way that CI automatically lead to CO, CO also automatically leads to CI.

[@nonamenoname2767]

İf you know the language you can write it on a spreadsheet but if you dont you can not so that is not a learning method. The point is useless.

[@LanguageMatrix]

You have ChatGPT, a friend, or a teacher help you fill in the template

[@ignacioag]

El clima

[@safiya5940]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@LanguageMatrix]

Thanks very much

[@liambyrne591]

What good is this if you are able to write all that in Spanish you already know it so what good isbit to you

[@repairxpro]

This is almost useless. 3 reasons why: First, you gave examples of close ended questions to study. The answer to all of those is “yes or no”. That’s useless. A conversation is made of mostly statements not questions. In a conversation, you will most likely be asked open-ended questions, like “why are you studying ____ language”? Or “how was your day?” It would be way more useful to study what I call “referential answers” that directly references something already stated to provide context for the response, and “ambiguous answers” where you simply use filler words or repeatable phrases for stuff you don’t know how to answer. A person who is bad at a language can fake a conversation by saying these answers that work for almost any question: “Sounds like a good idea” “I would like to try that” “Let me think about that” “I’m not sure about that” “I don’t know know anything about that” “Could you repeat that?” “Probably” “Sometimes” “Always” “Never” “I’m not sure” “Its hard for me to explain” “Can you explain more about that” “This is/is not interesting” “I’m not into that” “I want/don’t want to try something else” “I want/don’t want to go there” “It depends on the situation” “Would you like some of this/that? “Do you need this/that?” “Is this/that your’s?” “Why do you think that?” “A little more/less, please” Second, you’re not focusing on the different questions that can be asked, regardless of the subject The topic is not relevant because the question could be the same for literally ANY topic. For example: Do you like to ____? Insert topic/verb/noun in blank. Done. You don’t need to make this question for every topic. You are suggesting make a topic list of “Do you like Sports, Pizza, Music, Dancing, etc”. You only need to know how to say “do you like…?” only once. Also, binary questions that ask for “do you want option 1 or option 2” don’t need to be studied either. The answers to a binary question are only 3 possible answers: “I want that one” and point to it or “I don’t like any of these” or “do you have something else”. Again, this is much more useful. It would also be more useful to study the 5 W’s (what when where why who) “Do you want…?, do you have…?, do you take..? do you buy…?, do you suggest..? do you think..? where is…? What is this/that..? what happened…? when is…? when should I go…?, who is this/that…? and the “why…” which you can simply add in front of all the “do you…” questions. Same thing with the “How…”. Done. (That’s like 20 sentences that once you know them, you can simply drop in a noun or subject as you learn them. You could even ask “what is this called?”, get the answer and instantly drop that into the above questions you just learned. Finally, you put infinitive verbs (or one tense of it) on the spreadsheet which is useless Even if you know the infinitive verb tense, you still need to study the past, present and future of that verb or you will be lost once someone asks you a question using that verb, especially if they use a past or conditional tense. For example, someone can still ask you “Would you like coffee? Did you already have coffee? Will you buy coffee?” You won’t know what they are asking because the other variations of this question were not studied. Also the answer is yes or no for all of these so studying the answer is useless. It would be better to simply study the top 100 verbs and their basic past, present and future tenses than to try to study a question with that verb as if you are trying to study that verb. It would take forever, and you would need to study 10 versions of that sentence to learn all the verb tenses. Always study verbs separately and insert them later. Summary: A language takes so long to learn, you can’t afford to study something you aren’t going to use. Again, studying “ambiguous answers” to use in conversation, the top 100 verbs in past, present and future, and studying the 5 W’s will take you father than studying random close-ended questions that all use the same beginning question.

[@novaploca2080]

Interesting view thanks.

[@LanguageMatrix]

Interestingly, what you've just described is the same as my table. The question column is where the open ended questions go ... the verb column is where you can practice any tense you'd like ... and the phrases such as 'can you repeat that?' go in the useful expressions column.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

In Chinese verbs are never conjugated, a verb only has one form, it has no past, present or future.

[@eboyeman8457]

Cool thoughts.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

@@eboyeman8457 we don't learn languages we acquire them. Big difference. Language is acquired when messages are understood. Not through explicit study but through implicit meaningful interaction with the language. Good language acquisition only requires good models of input that we negotiate with a purpose. Output, is a communication skill and secondary to acquisition.

[@sonnetpoem]

Dont make sense if you don't know that language you can't spell it.

[@LanguageMatrix]

ChatGPT will spell it for you

[@matt92hun]

Deepl, Google Translate, Bing Translate, dictionary, etc.