Day 27: Be Patient if You Want to Learn a Language

[@matthewstall6987]

Steve I am watching your videos everyday and they really inspire me to stick with it. Your ideas are very helpful. Thank you.

[@Thelinguist]

Glad to hear it.

[@somedude5990]

"Some people almost get mad at the language" yeah heh heh SOME people. It definitely wasn't me screaming and cursing at the dictionary earlier today.

[@learnmore.practicemore.200]

These are all good reminders. Thank you Steve

[@LD-ui9kf]

Very good video Steve, and I think what you are saying is very true. However, people need to realise that slowly this mucky water of learning a language will become clearer and clearer. Thank you, Luca

[@Thelinguist]

exactly!

[@МарияТод-т1у]

В Вас столько энергии и Вы потрясающе выглядите! Ваши видео очень вдохновляют, спасибо! =)

[@Thelinguist]

Спасибо вам!

[@brentding]

Thanks - good point!

[@pedazodetorpedo]

Haha I can really relate to what you said about people almost being annoyed with the language itself, I teach high school French and Spanish and I hear this sort of thing all the time. "But why are words masculine and feminine?" "Why is it the other way round?" "Why don't they pronounce all the letters?"

[@RyanCurran6]

All the troubles I faced learning French today were what you said, haha. Thanks for the reminder to be patient with language learning.

[@pafsilipoclub]

Good morning sir.

[@zane98zane]

Interesting as usual Steve, I'm currently on lesson 70 of 113 for Assimil French. I recently bought the continuation of Assimil that is supposed to bring you to C1. I also bough TYS and Living Language, they should arrive in the next week or so. I'm really looking forwards to using those.

[@Thelinguist]

I have no experience with Assimil French, or TYS French. However, to reach C1 will require an awful lot of input. Check out LingQ.

[@ChiLaoshi]

Steve, when you say "struggle with the economic content," what do you think that will look like exactly? Will it entail you listening to the same 20 minute clip dozens of times, or will your focus be broader broader than that? Also curious to know if you think your mastery of said economic content will be the springboard for a new proficiency level, or does the reasoning flow in the other direction: will your mastery of the content be more of a sign than a cause of your new proficiency level? Thanks, as always eager to hear back!

[@Thelinguist]

This a series of radio programs. I will listen to them during the day. I will "mine" them for phrases when I re-read them. I don't know how often I will listen to each one. I expect that this will help hear the language and understand it when spoken at normal speed. It will help make the language familiar to me.

[@ChiLaoshi]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve That's fascinating. I'll try the "mining" process that you speak of. I usually am so apprehensive about whether a certain tactic will help me purely "acquire" a language, as opposed to simply learn it, if that makes sense. I think your approach is far more pragmatic. Steve, I have the luxury of doing my 90-day challenge in country. I'm an English teacher in Mexico and am studying Spanish. You mentioned yesterday that if possible, you should go to the country for 2 weeks after 4 or so months of input study. What would be your advice for how to best optimize your experience once in the country?

[@Thelinguist]

I had that experience in Japan. I spent most of time on listening and reading, and took advantage of every little opportunity to use the language. I listened to radio, and watched TV even when my comprehension was poor. I wouldn't do that at home.

[@TheFilmMakingDude]

Can you please type the name of that economics course? Thanks!

[@Thelinguist]

생생경제www.lingq.com/learn/ko/library/courses/106914/

[@TheFilmMakingDude]

Muchas gracias Steve!

[@danielpardo6890]

And what then, according to you, must we do when the dictionary translation makes no sense in a given context?

[@Thelinguist]

Just move on.

[@danielpardo6890]

Fair enough. And do we do the same even if the word or phrase occurs multiple times, and our understanding of what is actually going on does not improve with each occurrence thereof?

[@Thelinguist]

Which language are you learning. If you are on LingQ there is an "Ask your tutor" button to ask for an explanation of the phrase. Sometimes google translate will make sense of the phrase even though the word makes no sense. These are the things that I try.

[@danielpardo6890]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve I am trying to learn Norwegian, and have been for the past three years. Progress is slow and I find it very difficult. I have a LingQ account. It is, however, the free version. I think LingQ is a great site, but I do now have money for the full version (I am only 15 after all). Yes, sometimes it will, but now always.

[@akioteruya6438]

Hello Steve, I'm learning French and the next language will be Japanese, so do you think it would be a good idea to learn Japanese from French?

[@Thelinguist]

Only if you really know French well. In a way it does not matter. Most of your time will be in the target language, or should be.

[@akioteruya6438]

ok, thank you. I thik I'll learn French from Portuguese, my first language, besides, it's easier to find books in Portuguese here in Brazil than to find them in French. hahah

[@jaesungleekorea]

Jump over the " Be patient...", Just enjoy to get something strange. ....

[@edresmn7869]

Mr.Kaufmann, you are almost 70 now, I mean what is the benefit of learning a new language like Korean.

[@Thelinguist]

Edres Mn Interest.