Is there a shortcut to conversational fluency?

[@Thelinguist]

📲 The app I use to learn languages: bit.ly/49syNx8 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: bit.ly/49hTD2o ❓Do you have a question you want me to answer in the Q&A video? Leave it in the comments below!

[@berlin3918]

Hi, Steve! How can I know the Real meaning of a word? Many times I look up the meaning in online dictionaries and google, google tranlator and chatgpt, but I feel so lost and confused, because the meaning of the word in a particular context, doesn't match with the context. There are many meanings for only one word. 😥 What should I do?

[@berlin3918]

I'm learning English, and I was watching the movie Fast and Furious 1, a movie about races, and the sentence was: I used to drag here back in high school. To drag in that context is to race for a short period of time, in my language Brazilian Portuguese We say🇧🇷: Tirar um racha. São corridas de arrancada. Drag race! To drag is a slang in that context? Even if a word is a slang, when I search for the meaning on Google, still there're a lot of meanings, and again I feel so lost and confused about the Real meaning to that context.

[@Andrey_Lavrushkin]

Здравствуй, Стив! У меня есть вопрос для твоего стрима. Я смотрел твоё первое видео в этом плейлисте, где ты даёшь новогоднее обещание себе, что будешь получать удовольствие от процесса обучения языкам. Ты указываешь, что на Lingq существуют системы мотивации, например, челленджи и монеты, но это всё не главное. Я полностью с тобой согласен! Может быть ты читал книгу Альфи Кона "Наказание наградой", в которой рассказывается, что наше общество во-многом построено на ошибочно представлении о мотивации - что внешними стимулами можно повысить мотивацию. На самом деле это два разных типа мотивации: внешняя и внутренняя, и внешняя мотивация не поддерживает внутреннюю, которая обычно сильнее и и стабильнее, а наоборот, подавляет её. Некоторое время назад я занимался на Lingq, но потом заметил, что стал выполнять минимальное количество заданий, только чтобы сохранить прогресс, при это совершенно не получал от этого удовольствия. Так вот, мой вопрос: не хотел бы ты рассмотреть вопрос пересмотра системы мотивации на Lingq? Я много размышляю на эти темы и был бы рад обсудить с тобой то, как можно это сделать. Можно создать локальный проект, чтобы проверить эти теории, а в случае успеха, мы смогли бы помочь огромному количеству людей осваивать языки успешнее и привлечь на Lingq больше пользователей. P. S. Спасибо за то, что высказываешься по поводу войны в Украине! Я из России, но после начала войны мы с женой уехали из России в знак протеста и ради своей безопасности. Сейчас мы живём в Аргентине и мы очень благодарны всем тем добрым людям, которых мы встретили за границей и которые помогали нам.

[@fruzsinaguba5821]

@@berlin3918 My suggestion would be: use academic dictionary. A book is a book. Online translaters are only shortcuts, which can be good but not in a long term.

[@shomskylubin4719]

@@berlin3918I feel your pain because I was going through the same situation back in the days,but I can give a piece of advice about it.For example,if a word has 5 different meanings you can try to familiarize yourself with them 5 one by one .Like today,you can challenge yourself to use the word in only one of the 5 different contexts until you master it well and tomorrow,try to learn it in a different context and so on. Never try to learn them all at the same time at the beginning

[@hatersgotohell627]

I agree with you. There's no way to short cut learning a language. You need to consume it in massive quantity, especially with reading.

[@RogerRamos1993]

And you can't do it all in 6 months. There's just so much your brain can retain at a time. It needs rest. So, realistically, to get good in a language one needs at least 2-3 years. Many become great talkers before that, but acquiring a large vocabulary takes time.

[@borissapron6696]

It possible drastically cut learning time if hit with a club every time said wrong)

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Sort of, the shortcuts only really apply to the early stages when you don't know anything. You need a few shortcuts to get good enough to where you're not miserably using the language. When I was living in China learning Mandarin, I had to get from basically zero to some usable level of fluency as quickly as possible. It was a practical thing that I couldn't just spend a bunch of time with my head in books or watching movies. So, I memorized entire sentences for basic things like eating. I'd learn sentence frames and the things that were allowed to go into them and it got me far enough in a matter of a few months that I could largely function. That being said, that's about as far as you're likely to ever go doing that. Beyond that memorizing phrases and sentences benefits you at most in terms of helping you to follow along with the things you're reading and hearing. You get a bit like that, but not really that much.

[@anarchoappalachian]

​@@borissapron6696Ah, the French Foreign Legion method of language learning. Aka "beating the B1 into you."

[@gc3k]

It can be argued that starting to learn a language at a later time than childhood requires shortcuts

[@BijuuMike]

Hey Steve! Congrats on the huge milestone. Here is my question: How many hours a day did you spend when you first learned Chinese and Japanese in order to become fluent and if you could go back, would you do anything differently to be more efficient? Been using LingQ for a while now for Japanese and I'm really enjoying it!

[@fillipe6732]

Bro, I'm studying Japanese 1 hour every day . some days I study 2 hours but it's becomes boring and stressful. I still think that 1 hour is not enough for me😢.I'm learning English too, I'm trying to do my best every day, when I find a video in Japanese on you tube there are a lot of unknown kanji an vocabulary. I started learning in 2022

[@Suhnik]

@@fillipe6732It might help you to accept the fact that there will be a lot you won’t understand for a long time and it’s totally fine. You’re learning it, it’s necessary and natural to not be able to do something for it to be learned. But you can still enjoy content where you don’t understand many things. A lot of communication goes through context, tone and mimic I found, even in anime where you can’t see real faces at all. Be patient, I am sure you’ll do fine 👍

[@flokiflok318]

He had spend six hour per day with chinese but because he was pay for that. ( It's in his book )

[@flashgordon6510]

@@fillipe6732 Do you vary your study methods? Using different resources helps break it up a little.

[@fillipe6732]

@flashgordon6510 Yes, I read and listen to a large variety of subjects that I can understand a little bit. Generally, I'm watching KZbin videos , interviews and online newspapers in both languages:English and Japanese

[@LeftToWrite006]

I think a lot of people don't realize how many skills are needed to be in a conversation. As I learn Italian, I find I can understand the conversations of others as long as I am not taking part in the conversation.

[@squaretriangle9208]

It's a generatonal thing, in my opinion. Nowadays especially because the internet exists and there is so much information available, people tend to think learning in the traditional sense is no longer necessary and to know something comes easy, this isn't the case. Learning a foreign language is just a proof of that misunderstanding, to comprehend and be able to use a language demands concentration, motivation and a lot of practice, there is no short cut....

[@RyNzOr]

Reading and listening is the best way to really improve, but once to use a word you have to really understand it to let your brain be confident to prompt you when you speak.

[@muhammad-emdad-rony]

This golden prize not only makes you happy but we also happy with you. Love you for your daily class.

[@paulwalther5237]

I have to comment on the making the same mistakes week after week with your tutor. I took online Japanese small classes and this website offered several classes taught by a few teachers. Once in a while they would get a new teacher etc. but usually they were regular. I remember one new teacher and I was kind of excited because she was a young and kind of pretty. Well, she taught us a lesson... and explained a few expressions, grammar etc. The lessons aren't designed to review material but for whatever reason we asked the same questions about the same things again and she had to explain the EXACT same things again to us... and I think I was the only one who even noticed that she explained this the week before (And I only noticed AFTER she explained it again). I could tell by the look on her face she might not be the patient type that's able to explain things over and over and over to adults that can't remember much. She was gone shortly after. When you find someone who really can explain something to you over and over even though you're a dumb foreigner that just doesn't get it.. you've found someone special. Patient teachers are the best.

[@陈沉沉-m2v]

yep,when i begin to learn a new language,sometimes just like,you know,jues like i am a little baby,but a adulted baby, so when someone gald to answer to me the same question over and over again,it to me is very helpful.

[@gooiehoop20]

Ok, 50% of a language is made with 500 words, (a, and, or, etc.) which I find easy. The problem is that native speakers mix in another 50,000 words in between these 500 words. It's the 50,000 words and their forms (cases etc.) that I struggle with.

[@lazstan]

Thanks for the videos Steve. I'm born bilingual English and Hungarian in NJ... Then at age 50 you and others got me to go full on into Spanish reading Harry Potter. Never missed a day for 3 years. Now I'm onto french because of you and Olly and others.

[@陈沉沉-m2v]

can i ask you,when your beginning stage to learn spanish,what did you do for it,i mean,reading Harry potter in a new language is very difficult.because it is not very easy for beginner. i am a native Chinese speaker,i tired to read harry potter in english two months ago,but it is too difficult for me,so many difficult adjective and some difficult words.i fell that reading it in a foreign language is to hard.so i can't consist to read it. can i get some experience about how to improve reading skull of a foreign language from you?

[@tartarus1322]

@@陈沉沉-m2vGo slow. Reread chapters as needed. Sound it out and say it.

[@lazstan]

@@陈沉沉-m2v . Sorry I just saw this. Well English and Spanish were similar enough. And Spanish is easy to pronounce and is spelled very much like it sounds. This is not the case for french. To go from Chinese to English seems like a tough crossover with Harry Potter. For french I'm watching more tv and movies and trying to not have subtitles on at all after I've seen it once. Then I retry reading every couple weeks. Sorry I don't have better answers. But I'd say do anything that you will keep doing every day and you'll get somewhere

[@陈沉沉-m2v]

@@lazstan Thinks for your reply.I am very appreciate it!Since i've send that comment to you,two months have been pass. Even thought i've said that reading harry potter in english was too difficult for me four months ago.But now i can almost understand the first book of harry potter series.Harry potter and philosophy stone.Due to keeping learning.Not only my reading ability but also my listening and writing and speaking capability have a great breakthrough.According my own experience,I one hundred persent agree with what you have said in the comment applied to me.Keeping do it every day will make you better and better.

[@radhe1o8]

Thank you for sharing The 13-sentence method. I don’t see it as the destination, but rather as a helpful jumping off board from which to start learning some of the intricacies of a new language.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Memorized sentences is where I usually start when I've got a new language that I need to be able to manage in. It helps me know that if I pronounce that correctly, I can focus on the response that I'm getting rather than just on what I'm saying. After that, I'll usually learn a bunch of sentence frames and what's allowed to go into the blanks. Then, it's just a lot of practice and exposure for the rest of it. The first two bits are definitely shortcuts as there are longer ways of doing it, but I got a ton out of doing it with Mandarin when I was living in China and needing to get things done on my own. I started with effectively zero Mandarin and within a couple months I knew enough to be able to feed myself and get around. I could even travel city to city by bus without too much trouble. That being said, there's still a ton that I don't know because I haven't really studied long enough, and that's basically just going to be a combination of book learning and exposure to the rules alongside actual exposure to real media and learning whatever grammar and vocab makes that easier.

[@flashgordon6510]

Congratulations on the well-deserved subscriber count! You've been such a source of encouragement on my Japanese language journey. I wish you continued success!

[@robertoestrangeiro]

People sometimes talk about subjects without knowing much about them or without thinking much about them - They just want to show off, show how eloquent they are, Steve Kaufmann however talks about his experiences - His speeches are never empty!

[@cornelombard8029]

Well thought out. It is the practical suggestions and experience that speaks louder.

[@luisguilhermeoliveira5794]

I love watching videos on KZbin in the language I'm learning and leaving a comment even if the only thing I'm able to say is "nice video, I agree with you". Understanding a language and using it well are two distinct abilities. It's like memorizing recipes and actually cooking something. I'm always trying to have conversations with myself since I usually don't have anybody to practice it, and it's a great way to find the gaps in my knowledge.

[@Jackdkchannel]

Playing fluently piano takes me 10 years. I think language is pretty similar. I don’t say it « must »take. It's an average, depending on how you use it, how you are involved. So could take 5 years for really quick studies. But 5 years it’s not one week 😅. Even in my own mother tongue I'm not fluent in subjects I don't master such as car mechanics, hydrocarbons or politics 😅. I am fluent in subjects that I enjoy.

[@Pedro94-dp]

I agree 👍

[@Jackdkchannel]

@@Pedro94-dp 🙏

[@marcoarrieta4983]

Mr.Kauffman may you be blessed for eternity. Even when pronunciation's not your primary goal back in the day you did work on your pronunciation in French and Chinese.. what kind of training did you do or which activities did you engage in back in the day, besides massive input?

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Personally, I recommend minimal pairs and working to identify which one it is until you can hear the difference. (A minimal pair is just a pair of words that are only separated by a sound. For example, that and fat, they only differ in that initial th versus f) Once you hear the difference, then you should be able to focus on making the correct sound and identifying it as you speak. And yes, that works with tones, it's just that the tones are another layer. You'd learn the 4 tones of Mandarin, then you'd learn the pairs of tones, then you'd work to replicate entire sentences in the language to get a more natural tone sandhi. It didn't take me that long to get that down to the point where I could get myself in trouble because the folks I was talking to thought I knew far more Mandarin than I needed. (Having the language on in the background at all times will help that as well, this is an exception to the rule about not being able to learn by mindless exposure)

[@headinthemountains1666]

Congrats on the gold KZbin plaque. !! My questions for the Q&A: -How many hours of Comprehensible Input should you have before you start speaking (ie output) -What is your opinion on watching material in your target language (eg spanish) with subtitles on in the target language (eg spanish) Thanks for sharing

[@garygreen5670]

I've been using Mnemonics for about half a year, and found them to be extremely useful in learning lists of vocab quickly. At first I did find it difficult to come up with images that worked - some worked well; others didn't - and I did find it time consuming. However, like everything else, the more you practice the easier it gets, and I have got better at thinking up mnemonics that work, and I can do it very quickly - in usually, no more than a few minutes now. If I can't think of anything, I'll leave it and move on - and usually come up with something later.. I'm learning Japanese right now, and I'm pretty sure I would be finding it much more difficult without mnemonics. I still regularly astonish myself, when I find I can recall a set of words which I heard for the first time several hours, or a day before - without any repetition practice. And when I do add repetition to my practice (in combination with the mnemonics), I'm able to commit new pieces of language to long-term memory very quickly. So, in my experience, mnemonics are an extremely valuable tool, and well worth the time invested in developing that skill.

[@justjordan1300]

I've also been learning Japanese, and mnemonics have been a tremendous help when learning kanji. Especially for the more complex ones, being able to break them down into parts and create a mental image or story has really helped me recall new characters. I've been using Wanikani, and it's been great for those reasons. It doesn't focus as much on vocab or sentence structure, so LingQ has been helpfully for that.

[@oswaldocaminos8431]

​​@@justjordan1300Hi, could you please explain to me how it works? thank you.

[@justjordan1300]

@@oswaldocaminos8431Which part? Wanikani?

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@oswaldocaminos8431 If it's for the Kanji, the correct way to do that is to learn the components and what sort of components they are and structure the mnemonics around that. Kanji is pretty annoying compared with learning them as part of Chinese because they have more possible ways of being read. Chinese characters rarely have more than 2 possible ways of being read, and it's usually because the character is the result of multiple characters having been merged at some point. Outlier linguistics has some pretty good resources for characters whether they're being used in Mandarin or Japanese.

[@eliscmj]

It's so cool to see the progress you've made over the years with this channel and your app project. I love the refreshing takes you've done lately, where you challenge ideas. My question is: Do you have any favorite books in Mandarin Chinese, any subject.

[@jujudis2008]

Thank you very much for your content. Without a doubt, immersing yourself in the language is one of the best ways to learn it faster.

[@finkodelica]

Congratulations Steve! Thank you very much for your videos, they mean a lot to all of us! The questions I wanted to ask are 1. Can you give your opinion on Mandarin Blueprint method? I’m both subscribed to LingQ and them but I’m switching to LingQ more and more as I progress. Their method of learning Chinese is quite different from yours. 2. Do you believe that the quality of language learning drops when you are simultaneously occupied by physical activity? You usually say that you listen to podcasts while running - do you think that you are equally productive when combining running and listening just as when you are listening at your desk? 3. Have you noticed that a short break after a hard studying period increases your level? I was learning Dutch daily for 3 hours for a year, took a test and almost failed. Then after 2 month of no practice it felt like the language was finally digested and I got C1 without almost any prior training. Thank you very much once again! All the best to you and your channel!

[@emanstv]

Question and LingQ request: I’m currently learning Thai (requesting to pls bring Thai to LingQ in the future!) primarily through the KZbin channel “Comprehensible Thai”. The channel emphasizes to just watch and listen and try to acquire the language through comprehensible input from the videos. It’s been helpful so far, but the channel also advises against reading in the beginner stages because they say toddlers first learn to comprehend the language, then they’ll start to speak/output naturally eventually. Only after some certain level comprehension is when they can start to learn how to read (and write). They emphasize a lot of listening first instead of reading since listening will help your ears get used to the sounds of the language. What do you think about this? Do you think reading should only be started after some level of familiarity with the language?

[@bernhardrulla]

I do support that Thai should be added to LingQ! 😊 Same second question, different wording : does it make sense that we as adults use the same way of learning as toddlers?

[@juanitotucupei]

The REAL reason I come back to his videos: they ALWAYS encourage me to just keep going no matter what. No gimmicks, no shortcuts, no magic number of steps, etc. Just keep at it, and I will eventually learn the language (in my case Russian).

[@ArchanaWasanik]

Hi my the respected as well as a Fluent and Proficient Master, Steve Kaufmann, my name is Ashok Wasnik and I am an Indian.I am so much excited and inspired by listening your the most guidanable, miraculous, mind-blowing, delightful, magnificent, fantastic and excellent lesson in term of improving conversational fluency. You are one of the best linguistic of a English language who achieved the best type of enlightenment of the English language and have becomed the unique master of English language by all the ways. Finally I would like to hat your enlightenment of English language.

[@WhiteTruffleMedia]

Congratulations sir! Thank you so much for adding another layer to my undying interest in neighboring cultures. You deserve it!

[@gelisabethelisabeth]

Thanks 🤩 dear We know that you are right that’s very true, In three months we can learn some vocabulary, but never a language. So thanks 🙏

[@mrgrumpycat9049]

Congrats for the milestone Steve! My question would be, we know very well how you do your input, but how does the output session looks like? it would be awesome if you can explain in detail.

[@null_corporation]

Congratulations on passing 1 million subscribers Steve

[@repacharge431]

Congratulations on the 1 million subscribers!

[@johnvienna3422]

As usual, the Voice of Reason, right here. We would all love to have meaningful conversations with 12 phrases. But proper fluency is where the action is at.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

IMHO, the best way to learn is to build the bridge from both ends. A lot of exposure to the language and book learning of possible vocabulary and sentence frames. Over time, you should be able to shift more of the effort to exposure and use with only occasional memorization of vocab and grammar.

[@futurez12]

Hi, Steve! Congratulations on reaching 1 million! 🏆 If a more deserving channel exists, I've yet to find one. 👏 Here's my question for your upcoming Q&A: Even if it may not be optimal, desirable, or even possible (time-wise for some people), do you think it's at least doable to learn _any_ language in the same way as a baby/child does? If you had comprehensible content, like shows/books/audiobooks, aimed at toddlers right through to high school level, could it be done with a language like Mandarin (assuming we're a speaker of a European language)? Also, despite the helpfulness of grammar review, is simply understanding the message enough, (as Krashen suggests) or is at least a little bit of grammar absolutely necessary, at some point (assuming our end goal isn't to become a professional writer/speaker at some point)? Just to add, without you, I'd never be at the level of Spanish I'm at now. It's been 12 years since I started (at age 31), and I never for one second thought I'd get to the point of understanding most of what I hear. Thank you for all that you've done, and for being so honest with your experience and advice. The more experienced I myself become as a language learner, the more I discover that the things you talk about begin to ring true with my own experiences. You don't know it, but you've been the biggest influence on my life over the last decade. Thank you for that. 🙂

[@alliswell44596]

Wrong. You keep forgetting an important fact. As a retired person who has nothing better to do than just sit at home and keep yourself busy with this hobby - learning for the sake of learning. But for most people its not the case:they have very little free time AND they have a specific purpose to learn a language - to travel or work or relocate. Speaking like a native is a very rare objective, although always a desirable one. Most ppl dont learn to be conversationaly fluent. They learn to resolve specific problems. Thats why your approach - learn everything, every moment of your life to become perfect in everything doesnt work for them. They DO need shortcuts. And guess what - even an impetfect conversation gets them to resolve those problems - be it participating in a business confi-call, or ordering a taxi. And the shortcuts DO work. Those 12 sentences is a fab idea. The high frequency words is a fab idea. Marvelous. They will not get you read Shakspire. Neither will you speak like one. but you will certainly resolve most issues around you and go home happy. Which is the original reason why you started learning a new language.

[@shimakara]

I appreciate it steve I have got a high level of conprehension to japanese.But because I just never expose myself to a japanese situation i got so nervous.Your takes help me a lot😊

[@hatersgotohell627]

I really wish I was obsessed with reading. I can only read 10-20 pages a day of a book a day especially a book in my own native language. I feel like massive reading is the big secret to mastering a foreign language.

[@gee8883]

Read online including comments by advanced users of that language. Reading can be done in little chunks .

[@properpolymath2097]

So glad Steve finally got a microphone (15 years after starting his channel)

[@nicelalija]

Hello from Van! Can’t believe you live not far away! Great channel that was recommended to me by KZbin!

[@jackbombay1423]

Congrats on your 1M subs.

[@danubiodeoliveira6108]

Mr. Kaufmann, congratulations for your achievements on the KZbin platform!

[@gosiapawowska5934]

Congratulations Steve! Great, well deseved achievement! It's always nice to see people appreciating good and meaningful content on YT. My question for Q&A: my level of spanish is very close to reach C2. I've challenged myself to write a book in that language. Do you think it's a good way of practice and improve or it's a waste of time? Maybe is better to stick to diffrent ways of learning which are less time-consuming? Thank you and greetings from Poland! Dziękuję i jeszcze raz gratuluje! :)

[@tinky3110]

I'm french and what I've found to be actually really helpful to learn english is to watch english videos with english subtitles, instead of french subtitles like most would do. And I would pause if I don't understand an important word to get its literal meaning. Now I watch without subtitles(unless it is complex).

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

Same here for French. There are some very good French films. I don’t care for most American films, too wham bam.

[@ddn784]

Congratulations with the KZbin Gold Plaque!

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

You wouldn't invest a lot of time into mnemonics. You'd select a smaller number of important words that aren't sticking, and use mnemonics on those. You'd also use it for things like learning Chinese Characters as it's faster to decompose the characters into their components and memorize their placement and combination with mnemonics than other methods. When I do it, I quickly generate the mnemonic, and I don't even bother to memorize that. I'm just trying to generate what Harry Lorrayne referred to as "original awareness" of the word. If I do that with the words that I really need, or want to know, over time that will speed things up a bit and make the process of using, and enjoying, the language a lot more pleasant. But, I do completely agree, that there's little point in forced memorization in this method, at best that gives you a hook to hold the other meanings and you're looking at potentially 10-20k words to be fluent.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

That makes sense. I struggled with l’argile, meaning the clay in French. So I remembered this: Ahhh Gilles, you have a clay soil. It worked.

[@fastenedcarrot9570]

Tim Ferris is the physical embodiment of midwittery.

[@HowToExcelBlog]

Congrats on 1M! Question: Do you think there is any correlation between speaking early as a baby and learning a second language as an adult more quickly?

[@kingdomkhmer]

Congratulations, Steve! Well-deserved for the interesting and helpful content. My question would be: What is the best way to teach English as a second language in a classroom setting? I will be volunteering as an English teacher in rural Cambodia and want to be effective. Would it be to focus on providing comprehensible input? What is the best way to use classroom time for beginners/mid-level English learners? How would you do it?

[@deivid7200]

Hola Steve, llevo meses utilizando la aplicación de LingQ y me ha gustado, no se a veces pienso que estoy estudiando mal y por eso no avanzo, podrías hacer un vídeo en como tú estudias en LingQ, como por ejemplo en qué momento pasas a otra lección o cuántas veces repites la lección y cosas así, me ayudaría muchísimo

[@BERRUEZA]

A mi también me parece una buena idea que haga un video sobre eso! Me encantaría ver sus métodos. Yo soy bastante novatillo con Lingq, pero por ahora me está yendo bien. Como utilizas Lingq? Por que crees exactamente que no estás avanzando? Espero que pronto sientas que estás teniendo éxito con tus estudios! Ánimo!

[@deivid7200]

@@BERRUEZA más que todo por el tema de avanzar de nivel, me tomo como 4 meses para avanzar a principiantes 2 y eso que le dedicó de 2 a 4 horas al estudio, entonces no sé si es que estoy repitiendo mucho los capítulos o le dedicó mucho tiempo a un capítulo que no conozco. (estoy estudiando inglés)

[@BERRUEZA]

@@deivid7200 ​ Le dedicas de 2 a 4 horas todos los días? De ese tiempo, cuanto lo pasas en Lingq? Cuando empecé a usar Lingq, me vi varios videos en KZbin sobre como utilizar/estudiar en Lingq de una manera eficiente, y aunque los videos que me vi eran en Inglés, seguro que puedes encontrar videos similares en Español. Te lo recomiendo! Podrán explicarte a fondo como usarlo mejor de lo que te podría yo explicarte aquí por escrito. Quizá lo que te está produciendo supuesto atasco, o el parecer que no avanzas, es tan simple como que no estás exponiéndote a contenido mas complicado o avanzado, es decir, mas complicado o avanzado para ti. Uno se puede quedar atascado sin avanzar por el hecho de que piensa que tiene que entender todo al 100%, antes de seguir adelante. Esto es incorrecto, o al menos innecesario. No conozco la lección que mencionas "principiantes 2", pero te sugiero probar ir al siguiente nivel, a ver como te va. Luego vuelve al principiantes 2 a ver si lo entiendes algo mejor. Hay que darle tiempo al cerebro que procese toda la información nueva que le estás dando. Y por su puesto combinar el estudio con un montón de "input", mucho mas que el propio estudio, ésta parte es suuuper importante! Mírate videos de KZbin en Inglés, contenido más o menos a tu nivel, o alguna serie en Inglés. Eso te ayudará tremendamente. Lo último que diré es que 4 meses no es "demasiado" tiempo. No te preocupes de eso. Tu ve a tu paso, y que los demás vayan al suyo. Cuanto más tiempo le dediques, más entenderás; y recuerda que 1 hora al día consistentemente, tras varios mese, es mucho más efectivo que 2 a 4 horas unos cuantos días. La consistencia todos los días es la clave.

[@deivid7200]

@@BERRUEZA de las 2 o 4 horas que estudiaba todo el tiempo era en LingQ, igualmente todo los días, yo creo que es lo que tú dices que le hasta que no sepa las cosas al 100% no paso a la siguiente, de igual manera, solo estoy estudiando una hora y pues tratando de no repetir tanto y consumir cosas nuevas

[@poliglota-uu9fx]

Hey, Steve! How are you? I study 4 languages (English, Spanish, Japanes and korean.) I"m Brazilian, my language native is portuguese. My biggest difficulty is remembering specific vocabulary when I need it. I can't express my thoughts properly because I don't remember the words that represent what I want to say... How can I improve?

[@quostad]

Greetings from a fellow Brazilian! It's quite hard to find those of us who also like learning languages, but just in this comment section I already found three - excluding myself, of course. Our language sets us in a good spot for learning other ones, structurally and phonetically. It's a shame many Brazilians don't even give themselves a chance to language learning - or just fall in the whole language, mostly English, course scams - e.g. in my school, besides me, only two other students speak English. Eu podia ter respondido em português, mas segui no inglês só por coêrencia mesmo. Fora que é bem provável que outros que leiam esse comentário não falem Português, enfim

[@peggylopipero-langmo7894]

Congrats on reaching that amazing milestone!!!!!

[@slowlearner4341]

Realistically, honestly and quite painful for many language learners. A few comments are as clear-cut and precise as conclusions of Mr. Kaufmann. Chapeau monsieur! This is an issue where this always slow and sometimes pleasant torture needs to be accepted. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen.

[@백인줄어든다]

I am practicing listening skill today also~ it is infinite repetitoon~ which also is I think the key of language learning ~

[@BERRUEZA]

Hi there Steve! Congrats on the million subscribers milestone :) I have a question for you regarding learning Chinese characters. What would you recommend for the average learner who has around an hour a day for study? At what point should one transition from pinyin to learning characters? Essentially, how much should one already know/understand (comprehension) before committing to learning characters? And what is a good method for learning them / what is a good goal to strive for during the first few months of studying characters? I apologize for the long-winded explanation to my question 😅 Thank you! Borja

[@PatratTrainer]

Congratulations on 1 Million! What would you say is the best method for learning romance languages? I'm looking at Brazilian Portuguese in particular but I want to learn the European dialect of Portuguese, Spanish and French afterwards.

[@hukuhukuinthesky]

Congratulations 🎉1 million subscribers 😊 You really deserve it.

[@amiwan9596]

thanks steve for sharing your journey. You have a first principles approach to language learning that encouraged me to look into Stephen Krashen's theories and I'm learning spanish thru lingq and lingopie

[@Slaash8]

Congratulations, Steve. You deserve every success. My question is: what was your main mistake when learning your first language and what did you learn from it? Please write a new book Greetings from Brazil, you are my inspiration for learning English!

[@Mamoona-fw8ty]

Steve Sir! great your words as your achievements . congratulations. My kids are fluent in english and I m struggling to reach their neighbourhood . Three of them are under 16 and they never went abroad from PAKISTAN.

[@TaeKinzel]

Hi Steve How do I learn a language with little media and resources?

[@internetual7350]

What language are you trying to learn?

[@archibaldgregory1348]

how similar do you think instruments and language are? Sorry I already posted this comment but im putting it here for the Q&A

[@svitlanakovalyk2493]

Congratulations on your Gold plaque! My question is as follows: How do we juggle 3 new languages most effectively? My mother tongue is Ukrainian,I am fluent in Russian ,English and Polish,now I’m trying to improve my German (B 1 at the moment),Italian - A1 ,starting Turkish (wanted another language family). Is it advisable that I should devote separate days or weeks for every language ?Can I learn them all on the same day and how much time should I devote to it? My previous experience was to learn 1 language at a time and for a long period of time. Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with us!

[@markriobr]

My English was already pretty good, one day having a drink in a bar i realize an amazing thing. I wasn't memorizing new words, once I heard was like cashed in. I dream , sometimes having a conversation on my native language a friend has to say . Hey man stop why are you speaking English. By 30 knew how to speak 5, and sure reading did help me in a big way.

[@bronx7886]

Wonderful channel! I am so pleased for discovering it.

[@janolszewski5068]

There is a shortcut. If you use passive learning (reading, listening) it will take you a lot of time and it's a lazy way. Try some active encoding with a lot of context, avoid passive rehearsal, don't overload your short term memory and after a month you will never go back to reading and listening as a priority.

[@peroron2000]

Hey Steve, congrats on 1 million subscribers. I mostly agree with you in this video. The idea that there is some kind of shortcut to fluency, even conversational fluency is just self delusion. You will learn this within the first minute that you find yourself in a situation where you do have to try to communicate with someone who does not know your native language. The idea of 12 sentences or 2 weeks or any other ridiculous idea is maddening to me. I think this creates false hope in people and sets them up to become really frustrated. The only place I differ with you is when it comes to spaced repetition. I use spaced repetition in order to "install" new phrases and vocabulary into my mind. The reason I think it is useful is that if I simply read books over and over, I cannot stop my mind from glossing over and not comprehending words and phrases that I do not understand. I find that this will keep happening again and again if I were to keep reading the same material. It is only when I take about 10 new phrases per day and add them to my Anki deck that I can finally really get these phrases "installed" into my subconcious. So what I do is invest about 30 minutes per day reviewing my Anki deck and adding 10 new phrases. And I invest 30 minutes per day reading a book which contains those new phrases in the text. This way my mind is getting the true, deep meaning and reinforcing the meaning of a given phrase or expression or idiom but my mind is also learning to make true meaning of the phrase when I encounter it in the "real world". I do find that space repetition is very useful in this way.

[@mangoman2148]

What are your opinions/experiences of language exchange applications that allow regular correspondence with native speakers through messaging and phone/video calls? How much time would you allocate to these exchanges, compared to the usual input methods of reading books and listening to podcasts?

[@squaretriangle9208]

👏🏻 for your plaquette and your many subscribers of which I'm one

[@kevinjones2145]

This rings true with everything I've experienced over the years.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

I'm at roughly 8,000-10,000 words in Portuguese and still struggle to have basic conversations.. it's just so darn hard increasing my comprehension abilities. Even with words I know often I don't understand what's being said. With a few hundred hours of listening practice. Not all active.. much is passive listening. But definitely over 130 hours is active.

[@seanmaher8320]

How have you learned so many words but have so little listening time? Did you just use anki? I'm probably at 4-5k words and have 750 hours of listening and reading. Don't really have a problem understanding people now

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

@@seanmaher8320 I've never used anki no. I don't know my exact listening time. i did say Hundreds of hours.. I only discovered LingQ a year and a half into my 2 years of learning (2 years and 2 months now). On LingQ I have somewhere in the 130 hour range. i don't remember.. but I've watched a lot of yt, listened to a lot of music, podcasts and also watched a couple shows. So it's probably at 300+ hours easily. But it's still super difficult to understand. Getting easier.. but still. (When I watched the shows and listened to most of the podcasts I still had little vocabulary. Recently I've been understanding more and more quickly though. My problem is that I haven't had much talking/phone call time.. the 3 times I've talked my comprehension increased a lot. But I never really have opportunities so 🤷🏻

[@Niko-tw1ct]

Sometimes even i, a native portuguese speaker, can't understand what portuguese speaking people are trying to say, specially the northern accent

[@wolfxlover]

HOOORAYY! :D Congrats Steve! My question is: do you have a strategy for finding meaningful content in another language? I am fluent in French...yet I have never found any resource or media that has truly "entertained" me or left me in awe. I know it's out there but I find that I am mainly exposed to the general pop music, news podcasts, and "the classic stories"...I even spent a year in a French speaking country with a host family. I feel like while this has helped me reach fluency...I still have not found anything that has *spoken* to me or has made me feel a childish joy! Any advice?

[@babayuri8673]

Congratulations on 1 Mil Steve! For my question: I often find myself keeping listening and reading separate. Aside from watching shows or KZbin with subtitles, when I read say a book I do it separate from say an audio book, and when I'm listening whilst doing other tasks it's often to a podcast I've never listened to before. I've done this from the very beginning and while listening my comprehension can be pretty low as I've never studied the content say on LingQ or some other resource. I don't really enjoy reading transcripts from podcasts or videos, and often times I can't find audiobooks for what I'm reading. Is this still a viable strategy for improving my listening abilities in the language? I should mention that my listening is improving ever so slightly, but still pales in comparision to my reading.

[@AliceHegrová]

By the way, greetings from the Czech Republic, I am from Olomouc , a city very near to Prostějov

[@petrosstefanidis6396]

Most of the stuff this guy, Tim Ferriss, says sound doggy, but when it comes to mnemonics to learn vocabulary, from personal experience it really works (in combination with Anki). I do it all the time (and for years at this point) with Russian and Spanish and I would even dare to say that in most cases if I don't, I can't get the word to stick into my brain🤷

[@coryjorgensen622]

"Learning a language is not hard." True. It just takes a long, long time and a lot of input.

[@bOstik210]

Amazing Steve, congrats on reaching 1m subscribers. Keep up thegreat videos :D

[@bgaskin]

Tim Ferriss's sentences. "I give John the apple". I'm a native English speaker and i don't know what that means. eg I'm giving John the apple (now) I give John the (same) apple (again and again every day/week/etc).

[@bgaskin]

"I give John the apple" is grammatically incorrect and/or insufficient for me to actually tell what he is trying to say... ... but maybe that's the point? he's trying to say something a bit vague and ambiguous but it's still a starting point...? I still wonder if he could have chosen a more specific sentence.

[@LauraRamirez-rv9be]

I am a native Spanish speaker. Anyone who wants to exchange language with English and Spanish?

[@seanmaher8320]

Yo Laura, try the website conversation exchange, very easy way to find language partners

[@LauraRamirez-rv9be]

​@@seanmaher8320Excellent idea, I'm going to try it!! ❤

[@ztravica]

Hey Steve - My question follows: I would love to ask what tips or advice you can give for learning Slavic Languages and what you think the best approach is. I am learning Croatian and have been learning the language (in Zagreb) for the past year and whilst I've learnt a lot (I was a complete beginner when I arrived) I've only just discovered your method of input vs output. With Slavic languages, for English speakers, it can be extremely difficult at times, especially with cases, word order and most importantly dialects... (as i'm sure you already know, I saw your video re Croatian). There isn't that much content or specific discussions online for and about Croatian compared to other Slavic languages (from my experience anyway) so anything you can share on how you increased your Slavic language learning journey would be greatly appreciated.

[@Thelinguist]

Slavic languages share a lot of the same difficult issues for learners. Just do a lot of listening and reading and occasionally read the grammar rules without trying to remember them or expecting to be able to apply them until much later.

[@oswaldocaminos8431]

Suhnik: Exactly!

[@PSTroise]

I am most interested in the creative uses of Korean. Fiction. Poetry. Even song lyrics. With poetry or song lyrics, for instance, there are so many metaphors and similes, rhyme schemes and cultural context that it's quite an undertaking to even get one song completely "understood." But as a language that uses a different alphabet, it has a different beginner stage than the majority of other languages. Learning Hangul. This is how it started: So I'm watching a KPop song on KZbin with English subtitles. I am sure the translations are wonky, based on everything I know about songwriting. They aren't literal but they aren't lyrics either, they drop both meter and rhyme scheme. I quickly get that translating between Korean and English is weird. I start learning Hangul. But I don't get this "learn Hangul in 20 minutes" stuff. It's taking it own time. Then I come across a short wherein two people have a conversation in English with a literal translation from Japanese. I think of Yoda with his "Happy I am" language. NOW I get it. It's the order of noun, verb, adjective that is most different. How, then, do I approach the task of learning Korean more accurately, if that makes sense? I watch, listen to a video. Or look at a text. I'll go through the video to copy the Hangul, then literally translate it, including the order of noun, verb, adjective as it appears. Only then will I I understand that "xxxxxxx" means "I read Korean fluently" instead of an approximation of that idea, Context is so very important as well, so one sentence won't do. As for romanization, I sometimes use it as a shortcut when learning songs to sing but get rid of it as soon as possible. Yes, you have to slow the videos down to .25 speed sometimes. I feel that until I am fluent with reading and writing Hangul on a very simple level, the majority of time spent looking for patterns and repetitions,, grammar or some kind of "system" of learning would be wasted on me. I also don't think I want to pay for a tutor until I have Hangul better in hand, My learning is not pressured because I enjoy every part of it, I spend hours a day listening to Korean on KZbin shows or KDramas. Every time another word or phrase either pops out as it's spoken or catches my interest, usually because I've heard it before and then I look it up. As I learn more I find myself speaking the parts that I understand out loud immediately after I hear them. More and more words are popping out all the time. But it's the opposite of speed reading. I admit I am a speed reader and have a huge vocabulary in English. I am also an artist so writing Hangul can be pleasant to me. My questions(FINALLY!!!) is can an individual succeed in learning a language like Korean by building their own method? Am I creating unnecessary frustration by not following tried and true methods? When and what would you advice to add on from learning language resources to help facilitate my growth? And I agree, reading and listening (and writing, for me) are fundamental. Rules come later. Thank you for all you do.

[@shalbic]

I tried mnemonics once to see if it would work for me and, basically, came to the same conclusion; the time invested wasn't worth it. It seemed simpler and more enjoyable to me to read a book in which the same words appear many times than to expend my time and energy inventing a story and then trying to remember the story. However, different strokes for different folks.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

I would like to know what the differences extensive reading vs intensive reading, and which is better and why.

[@triplea9505]

Hi there, Steve! Thank you for all the information you provide and turning around my French progress which was basically, as you put it in one of your videos, drills and exercises!😂 I have now aspired to learn Icelandic🐋🗻after and want continue to learn languages in the future! Congratulations on 1 million subscribers🎉, thank you for the continued inspiration & keep up the great work you legend! 🙌🤘 Alex (UK) My question is🔍🤔: I don't know if you have already answered this in another video, but which of all the foreign languages you speak is your favourite and why?

[@NieltonMoraes]

Very good!

[@mbebrasil2607]

That is perfect!! I am totally with you.

[@English-qh8vb]

My question is a little different, I would like to know better who Steve Kaufmann is. Of course you've already mentioned a little about your life, but I (and I believe other people) would like to know more about your life. I believe many people follow you not only for your advice but also because they like you as a friend. Thank you for all your help in the language learning community.

[@juliuscaesar1573]

What's your IQ ? I think you are blessed since born , have special talent that's why you are able to learn languages so easily while other ppl feel difficulty in even learning 1 language

[@gee8883]

Jews has been forced to learn unrelated languages in the past 2000 years of exile . Humans carry their ancestral genetic imprint so maybe you are right that he was indeed born with some linguistic talent. I had 2 Israeli schoolmate in Istanbul language school who've passed C2 level Turkish language exam after 5 month of study. I myself found some languages just downloaded itslef to my brain without me putting much effort (yakutsk/Tatar/ Turkish/ Persian/ Chinese/ Japanese/navajo ) while English/ Russian/ Arabic took me quite long to become fluent.

[@juliuscaesar1573]

@@gee8883 Can you give some advices to me how to learn Turkish in 5 months ? & what you do to learn words' meaning?

[@RogerRamos1993]

Vaca is cow or vache or mucca oder kuh, and that's it. That's the kind word you learn very fast but if his example were, say, convencer, then it's convince, convaincre and convincere (I guess) and no idea in German, which I barely reached A1. Yes, you could learn only 500 words, only the me and you conjugations, and a set of 100 phrases and force fluent speakers to speak your simplified lingo so that you can understand, but that doesn't make you a polyglot. It could be a first step, it could be a good hack for a trip you decided to take to Serbia in 2 weeks, but something like that should never be the end goal of any language living person. "I finished learning my 500 words in this Greek. I'm done with it. Next language Herr I come." That would make some sense to me, if you know 3 or 4 languages well, and doesn't want to commit to any new language but still wants to know a bit about other languages, their alphabets, how their grammar works, their vocab similarities to the languages you know, etc... Something that would interest more the linguist type. Still, nothing is lost when it comes to language learning, but that approach is definitely not my cup of tea.

[@RogerRamos1993]

Language loving person.

[@Sup3rdud4]

My short cut when I need to learn quickly for work is listening for hours upon hours upon hours. It seems to me that you're brain is not used to differentiating between the sounds of a new language. So, listening a lot gives you that ability.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

I would like to know (maybe if you have a statistic or just from experience) how much harder is it to learn your first foreign language than the second?

[@seanmaher8320]

Like to add to this, languages of the same tree, like Spanish after learning french?

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

@@seanmaher8320 perfect addition to the question, thank you. I hope we get more likes ❤️

[@quostad]

That's a great question, since i've been in language learning for quite a while, and still am fluent in only two (getting there with German though). Although what often makes me wonder about that, is that I've learned English from just exposure online in about two years, with minimal effort and no actual goal of "learning English" ­­­- it was more of a "understanding what all these folks are talking about"

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

@@quostad wow! i am at 2 years of Portuguese and nowhere near fluent.

[@quostad]

​@@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157 My native language is Portuguese. It's nice to see somebody taking such effort and time into learning our language, I really appreciate it!

[@Sarah_Eva]

My question: When you offer the Slovenian language? Surely you can understand how difficult it is to find good material. It's nearly impossible to find any videos in Slovenian with Slovenian subtitles. I have rarely encountered one with English subtitles. I try to read books and listen to music, but without any native speakers to practice with, I have a hard time keeping at it. I really agree with your methods, which is why I think I would love to try LingQ. I know that there aren't so many Slovene learners, but you could really corner the market. 😊 Thank you and congratulations on your channel's success.

[@Vte-u1o]

What is a way to make language learning less stressful when you are doing it on your own?

[@pedrolira3524]

awesome video. i thank about this! you is fantastic professor

[@nvccru]

It would be great if you would put links to the research in the comments when you say, “research shows.”

[@alchemist_one]

The place where I've found SRS most useful is for remembering how to write Chinese characters. What was you strategy for tackling that challenge with your Japanese/Mandarin/Cantonese study? Was just reading at volume really enough for you to be able to remember how to write characters?

[@Joyce-t2f]

Congratulations on the million followers! I have a question on maintaining languages. How much and how often should one spend on maintaining languages? When I devote more time to a new language, I am afraid of forgetting my other languages because I have less time for them. I know eveyone is different and learns in different ways but would you have some general advice? Thank you! I enjoy your videos and learning new language learning tips.

[@kittenverysmall]

I very agree with you. I've done so many techniques as you've had mentions in this videos. If you ask is it help? I can say "yes it is!", but you must put a lot of your energy and time especially to Anki and it is very very much unproductive. Just remember how to learn a language just acquire as Steve said. Take a lot of listening and reading just like that. I've been listening and reading for 3 months. I've improved more than using Anki and others mentioned techniques for 2 years. For real. I've had wasting so much time, but at least I got an experienced for doing a mistake and trial and errors.

[@royleeh]

Congratulations Sir!

[@BigdaddyDalaodie]

The problem with lingQ is that I never really understand a word or grammar; I can't use them when I speak. I don't even know if the sentence I've made is correct or not. At last, I can only read.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

Tim Ferris is referencing Michel Thomas's method of word association. I remember listening to Thomas, talking about the word ARROZ in spanish suggesting we imagine lots of arrows, but the word ARROZ is really the same as the word RICE. Same with SUGAR AZUCAR SUCRE ZUCHHERO, if you know one, understanding the others (atleast in related languages) should not be rocket science. Not saying that it is always the case especially the further away we get from our native language. There is only one way in which language enters our speech cortex, it is the same for the first, second or eleventh language, there are no hacks, you can only speed it up by participating more in the language. We should understand that the meaning of a word or a phrase comes not from translation but our brain forms or applies meaning to said expression over time with experience. If it did not, we would have to look up every word in a dictionary or have every word explained to us and that didn't happen in our first language and won't happen in a second etc.

[@SergLapin]

Language is not math or any other kind of general knowledge. From my experience, each language requires its own compartment in the brain, where things are tightly interweaved. When I try to speak in a language, which I understand on a level of tv or newspaper, I'm pretty sure, the vocabulary is there, but I experience words popping up in my mind from different non-native languages, and never from my mother's language. Seem like brain makes a decision early enough that it is a word from one of the new compartments and pulls words from the most reachable container of a similar color..

[@targafotograf]

Fluency, language, words, memorization techniques, patterns, techniques...and on...one question of myself trying to learn, would be how much time shall i spend on leaning the theories and techniques? Are these things, prerequisites before i develop my plan to learn a language? Now, it seems some progress is made by incorporating many theories...i think there are a bunch of ghostlighters out there, for senseless reasons. I am amazed, a person can speak fluently in 10 or more languages.. My birth language is American English. I am trying to learn a new language at an age when many say that it is perhaps not possible. Then as i recall Webster's collegiate dictionary from the late 70's. The book form, boasted over 50,000 English words. Thinking back on thus fact, and basing an idea, of learning or knowing 10's of thousands of words to be fluent is not a reality for the conversational masses!? I honestly believe that perhaps i know some of the 50,000 words mentioned, perhaps 25,000? I think i speak quite fluently. And, just another point, ...Standford U., came out several years ago, producing a study, suggesting the average American, using conversational words, avoiding technical jargon, used hardly more than 500 words in a daily routine, speaking the language! What does this indicate regarding knowing, and sensibly using a language???

[@rosspalumbo]

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There is no shortcut, just time and repetition.