Vocabulary Acquisition: The Rich Get Richer

[@LightToadster]

Hi Steve, thank you so much for all of your content! I have a short story I think you might enjoy: I am from Austria, currently using LingQ to learn Japanese and also spend my time in Japan via Working Holiday. Some time ago I was catching up on some of your videos in a cafe in Sapporo when somebody approached me from behind saying "Oh you're watching Steve's Videos too? I recommended the whole thing to my mom so she can finally learn English." Turns out this person came from Texas while being half-mexican and is teaching English in a japanese middle school. Having not heard English in a good while I invite him to take a seat and we ended up talking 7 hours straight about the most various things from language learning over all different topics. It was incredibly fun and we exchanged contact information and all that good stuff, therefore I would like to say again: thank you so much! You have brought people together yet again - and how funny it was. An austrian and a texanian guy in a seemingly random cafe in Sapporo end up to be so good friends. Cheers! :-)

[@Thelinguist]

The world is a small place. We are all connected like never before. Thanks for the story.

[@bigbobabc123]

How’s your Japanese coming along?

[@LetoDK]

Although I'm Danish, I could understand your Swedish without any problems at all, and you sounded very fluent to me. It's interesting how, to me as a listener, it doesn't matter that you lacked the right word here and there, because the rest of your speaking flowed so well, with good and clear pronunciation, and with good tonal expression, so to speak.

[@a1k131]

Thank you for all your ideas you share with us Steve. I learned English starting at the age of 28. I'm now 51. The last three years I've been studying German. I spoke it as a child (0-7). I've tried a semester at a college and after that two tutors (and one on-line tutor) in the beginning. They all interfered with my own "real" progress which was happening via just reading the 1001 Nacht. In the beginning they were too advanced for me but I was enjoying them. Every tutor tired their own methods of putting the nuts and bolts of language on me. Thanks to my instinct, which was confirmed and supported with your inputs, I dropped all of those other boring and discouraging methods and went back to the book. And with lots of listening of radio and stories.. I'm on page 1100 and have 800 more to go. I can thoroughly enjoy the stories and absorbing vocabulary faster and faster. I added to this Duden's das Stilwörterbuch and die Redewendungen. I feel like all my learning needs are covered.

[@ZachMikeMoller]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I would say that at the beginning, there will be useful lists to memorize, but after that, the more you see, the more you get. For myself, I call this the mud method. You throw enough of it against the wall, it begins to stick.

[@Thelinguist]

Forget the lists to memorize at the beginning. Waste of time. The most common words will show up often enough in contexts if you start with easier material. Try LingQ.

[@ZachMikeMoller]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve I have been using LingQ for a while. I like it, and consider it one of the best tools for language learning. I have commented about lists before, and we will will probably never agree on their use. It is a matter of personal preference. Another tool, if you can get it, is having someone - a language partner - who is willing to work with you. I have found someone who is walking me through a book in Korean that I want to read. I get vocab and grammar as I go. In this, I am probably an oddity. I like grammar. One - not the only one - reason I am studying Korean is that I have wanted to know a language that uses agglutination. So detailed grammatical explanations are important to me. It was different when I was studying Russian and French - and Spanish, for that matter. Once I had the basics of Russian, and was trying to get advanced, I started to read "War and Peace" aloud to my wife (she is Russian). Initially, it was to improve my Russian. But having my wife - who does not know English very well - by my side, I got all kinds of useful information which concerned only the sentences I was reading. So, I decided to power through "War and Peace" and see how much I could read with some understanding. I read the whole book - except for the last chapters where Tolstoy explains his theory of history (which was worthless, in my opinion). In the end, we read nearly ten books together, and I read a number by myself. In French, I picked up "Pere Goriot" and plowed through that, discovered I liked Balzac, and read number more. I added to that Verne, Hugo, and several mystery writers. I hope to do the same with Korean. I think that one reason I like the lists is that easier material bores me. Lists and grammar help me start with harder stuff that does interest me. When I was in Korea, I picked up two books that I wanted to read, and a manhwa (14 volumes of comics). I will use my partner to walk through them, and probably read them again by myself. I asked you before about a grammar for Korean, and you gave me a good suggestion, which I appreciate. I also picked up a reference grammar, which satisfies my linguistic interest. I tried to follow your ninety day challenge, but had a certain amount of interference from the environment - I am getting a son through law school and trying to help a daughter get established in Brooklyn. I will probably go back to the videos on the challenge and do it again for myself. Although I disagree about the use of lists, I like your videos and your observations on language learning. I take what is helpful, and I think I have gotten a lot of use out of the videos. I use Lingq (and yes, I am a subscriber). Best wishes.

[@nicolasespindola2852]

Dear Steve, I totally agree with you! The better you are in a language, the easier in gets to acquire (especially by guessing and associating) new vocabulary. The efficiency of the vocabulary acquisition process is directly proportional to the amount of words you can handle in the langauge

[@Neueregel]

Steve, nice Swedish talk in the end!!

[@job187]

Very impressive swedish, Steve! Thank you for your videos!

[@RingsOfSolace]

This is a surprisingly simple concept. For example, in Spanish, parecer "to seem" or "to appear to be", aparecer "to apear", desaparecer "to dissappear". Even the English is similar in these circumstances. Makes sense to meeeee. Eventually I realized that des essentially means the opposite of something. For example, "desempleado", to say "unemployed"

[@valentina_fantasy]

MANY THANKS! VERY INSPIRING, TRULY MOTIVATING

[@herr_k69]

I'm taking exactly this approach in my Russian - I'm nearing the end of my first month of Russian, and am very, very interested to see how this pans out, focusing exclusively on listening and reading with the major emphasis on creating LingQs and pushing myself through difficult content. I spent the first two weeks doing three beginner courses, thereafter I jumped into Эхо Москвы and the RussianLingQ conversations, as well as the translation of your book, which are all overwhelming in new vocabulary, to say nothing of the grammar. I'm trusting in this process, as I'm basically treading the same ground you did 10 ten years ago!

[@Thelinguist]

To be fair, I did start with Teach Yourself just to get an overview of some of the issues in the language, then Who is She.

[@herr_k69]

I just finished Who Is She and a couple others last week, after that I was right into the Real Stuff. Foolhardy, perhaps, but we’ll see!

[@Migler1]

LingQ really is a great thing, according to what I've seen and heard so far. Great initiative. I am trying to learn arabic (syrian damascus dialect). I really would use lingQ if it had arabic available, but obviously, it still has a lot of other languages available, which is great! I am struggling though to find interesting stuff to read as I don't know where to look (I only know about 10 out of the 28 letters so no wonder). I am interested in pretty much every subject there is. Wish me luck!

[@blspegasus7457]

thanks so much Steven i needed a video like this now that I started to learn German i was so obsessed trying to memorized every single word but thanks to you now I have a clue how actually it works, I will try this in my next lesson on who is she? on lingQ thanks

[@sajza1728]

Nice video.thanks.

[@JoshKoehnapolyglot]

Right on, Steve. I've found this true in my studying as well.

[@StillRooneyStarcraft]

It's "ryska" :) Thanks for the insight Steve!

[@gaoshikui88]

Hey Steve I had an interesting experience I'd like to share and gets your thoughts on. I went through a period of 3 times of spending most of my language learning time on input. Both reading and listening and maybe only 10% on talking and basically no writing. After 3 months I found I had extreme difficulty expressing myself when I wanted to speak or write. And then after this I went through a phase of regularly doing entries on Lang8 and after that I really felt my writing and speaking improved

[@BrentStrathdeePehi]

I totally agree - we should be less precious about grammar rules and mastery of specific semantics and just gather as much as we can. Great advice thanks Steve - I’ve been using Lingq just a few days now for Indonesian and Spanish and enjoying it a lot. Btw why or how can anyone criticise that you promote Lingq? It’s not like they pay to watch these videos you post or claim any type of conflict of interest!?

[@МаксудРогач]

Под конец старика понесло ..! Молодец , respect

[@Schurfable]

Interesting listening to you speaking Swedish. The pronunciations are surprisingly good, very easy to understand. You don't even have a heavy foreign accent, just a foreign intonation. Har du prøvd å høre på Norsk eller Dansk, for å se hvor mye du forstår av dem?

[@Thelinguist]

I understand Norsk a lot better than Dansk, when I hear them.

[@N_3.1415]

Really good information, as usual!! Thanks again for sharing.

[@Spazar]

so enlightening....

[@apaladiy1]

hi Steve. my name's Andrew, am from Ukraine and naturally am native in both Ukrainian and Russian. Thanks for learning my language)) If you need any help - lemme know. 6 month ago I moved to Brazil with zero Portuguese and now can fairly well get around São Paulo with what I've learned so far, not without your advice on language learning here on the KZbin. Thanks a lot for this. I have a passion (and it's a kinda job requirement) to get reasonable proficiency in Mandarin and would appreciate your thoughts on how to build a good enough vocab to boost the learning and to start applying it asap. Щиро дякую, пане Стiв! :)

[@Thelinguist]

I suggest you buckle down and learn the characters. Search for different methods for learning them and choose one that works for you. The do a lot of listening and reading, at LingQ for example.

[@andersongalvao314]

I also go through with this lessons and tips that Steve always give to us. Very enjoyable! I use this for to practice my listening comprehention in the language. How are you passing here in Brazil? you are liking of living here?

[@isabelalmeidacosta3750]

Hello Steve, how do you do in languages like japanese and chinese when you forget how to read the Ideograms, but even though you know the word?

[@Thelinguist]

You will forget everything you learn in languages. You have to keep reading, listening and learning until things start to stick.

[@مساعدمبارك-ق6ع]

فديو مفيد وجميل ارجو الاستمرار وامتاعنا

[@hannahm6472]

Hi Steve, fantastic and informative video here, just one question I have about the discussion at 3:31 on guessing words - what if they are false friends, often the case in French for me, or in similar languages such as simplified Chinese and Japanese? Sometimes the word will not share the same meaning. How could we gain more confidence in knowing when to double check or pass these things?

[@Thelinguist]

No guarantees in language learning. Sometimes you guess wrong, whether false friends or not. Eventually things become clearer.

[@hannahm6472]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve thanks Steve!

[@sajza1728]

Wow, what language (s) did you talk for the last 5 minutes of this video? Brilliant. Well done man.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@Tehui1974]

Swedish

[@jomarlandau4875]

Thank you for your videos! They are very helpful and interesting! Keep up the good work sir! I wish your channel will grow big someday:)

[@henryzhang4789]

I recently finished reading your book, its quite fascinating experience. I learned a lot from your ways learning a new language. I think you already talked about how to gain vocabularies in your book, right? I feel I am very lucky to read your book.

[@Thelinguist]

Thank you.

[@纪纲-e2t]

Which language was spoken in the latter part of the video?

[@Thelinguist]

Swedish.

[@纪纲-e2t]

It's a little hard to recognize. Men tack.

[@gocrazy5981]

How many Japanese words do you think you know now?

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

Where can I buy your book?

[@justincain2702]

I have been moving very slowly in Japanese and am losing motivation because i don't know much. Do you have any specific advice for getting through the beginning stages. Help getting vocab quickly early on etc.

[@aked1222]

Thanks for the nice video! Now I'm curious about your opinion on the Gold List Method... Have you ever tried that (out of curiosity)?

[@James-sh1lw]

Steve, I'm wondering about learning 2 languages at the same time. I've been learning 中文 for about 4 months now and I met some French people in a hostel I was staying in in 西安, I learned French for years in school but haven't used it for a long long time and have forgotten near enough all of it. My problem is when I try to go over my French again I end up adding Chinese grammar/pronounciation to it accidentally. Any advice?

[@Thelinguist]

I always suggest staying with one at a time until you are quite good at it. You can go several months on one, then on the other but I find doing them at the same time not helpful.

[@northofthenorth1854]

一直在关注您的视频，您一真再强调多听多读，那前提是不是要学会一定量的单词才可以完成听跟读？否则根本听不懂！lingQ我也下载了，上面只有对话，是不是跟着听，然后读就可以了？？谢谢

[@Thelinguist]

你要开始跟简单的东西。 你所听的， 也要看， 最好用LingQ 为了增加词汇量。

[@northofthenorth1854]

好的，谢谢，以后有不懂的再请教您

[@letsexplore8469]

Hello. I seek professional guidance from you. You are a master when it comes to learning languages. 7 languages is no mean feat. You have shown that through grit and determination anything can be achieved at any phase of life. I am learning Japanese and aim to pass the N2 exam scheduled on July 2nd. I have been studying it on a regular basis for the past 3 months. Reading, listening, practicing Kanji and so on. Listening and reading kanjis in sentences is what I find challenging. Please suggest me something by which I can get through this process of learning with a bit of ease. I am pretty through with Hiragana and Katakana. As you say, I am trying to enjoy the process. I find it a bit daunting at times. Need your expert guidance on the same. Whenever you have the time...... Thanks a lot.

[@Thelinguist]

The Kanji is the hard nut to crack. It is a matter of discipline. Learn 10-20 a day, on their own, expect to forget them almost as fast as you learn them, and read a lot. In time they stick. Good luck.

[@letsexplore8469]

Thanks a lot. Will keep doing just that. Discipline is the key. Have a nice evening.

[@boattini2]

Hello Steve, so when you say to learn enough words to start reading what you want, could I say that is important to work with 1000 words before to start reading? Reading is the way to fluency, I agree 100% with that. Although it's very hard to start when we know just a little bit.

[@betavulgaris7888]

No. Take the following sentence: "Listening can be fun." In a new language we won't know any of these words. So we go 'what the hell does this mean!?'. We then look up each word individually like we would on LingQ and then give them definitions. And then move onto new content. We now see a sentence that says "I want to be listened to. It's no fun if everyone ignores you." We see similar or the same words in new contexts and additional words that build the picture. And so it goes on. And after a few weeks and months, we will start to see whole paragraphs of words that we know. We don't need to learn some set of words first or anything like that. Every known word starts off unknown and gradually becomes clearer, which with it brings more clear words and so it goes on. As Mr Steve says, don't try to nail it down, define it and move on and if it's important you'll see it again soon enough and it will gradually become clear. When i was on LingQ i moved 23,000 words to known in 5 months, and i don't count proper nouns, places or English loan words. Some days i would move 400 words to known.

[@boattini2]

Lucas Lima Great, that was exactly what I was trying to say. I like to read out loud, so it's important to have some kind of base beforehand.

[@Schurfable]

I used Duolingo for my Spanish before I started using LingQ. Even though I don't use Duolingo very often these days, I think it's an amazing place to start. I like using it to ease myself into a language, but I soon get tired of the "Type the Spanish word for 'bicycle'"-type questions, which makes it feel very slow to me. But that's just how I feel

[@ibarix]

Professor Arguelles says 7k is the minimum for starting the reading. Find him on youtube.

[@betavulgaris7888]

ibarix He's talking nonsense.

[@harekization]

Do you normally stick to one source of content such as a writer or podcast, or do you get exposure through several different sources at a time?

[@Thelinguist]

I tend to have my favourite sources, but these can change over time.

[@billy-cg1qq]

What! I disagree. What if you read or listen a word that the whole meaning of that sentence revolvse around and you don't get it and youre confused and there's no way to guess the meaning of it and you lose the pace and the context become not as compalling

[@TheSam7565]

will arabic be coming onto LinQ? I had a look but it wasn't there. cheers for the great content

[@Thelinguist]

Arabic is at LingQ check under Beta languages. Just uploaded some great mini-stories in Arabic.

[@TheSam7565]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve perfect, thank you very much

[@adrianadiaz6224]

Thank you for your videos! how many languages do you speak fluently?? :)

[@Thelinguist]

In order of proficiency; English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, German, Swedish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Ukrainian, Czech, Korean, Polish, Romanian, ...the last 3 or 4 still need work.

[@TheErickones]

Steve, is LingQ available in traditional Chinese?

[@Thelinguist]

Not yet but maybe in the future.

[@MegaShakwon]

You can easily use a Chrome extension that changes simplified to traditional automatically, theres a couple of different ones. Im using LingQ in this way, though not with the phone app, though perhaps theres a way.

[@MegaShakwon]

New Tong Wen Tang - Chrome extension

[@DoubleOpposite]

Tips for languages like Japanese where acquiring vocab through kanji is hell and listening even worse? 30K words in Japanese is crazy.

[@ibarix]

Did I just hear 90k words??? I love you and all, Steve, but that's plain bullshit. Maybe you've SEEN many words in Lingq but you don't KNOW them. I saw in one of your videos that you just move the words in known category without even trying to see the meaning. It's like you're obsessed with that known words number.

[@Thelinguist]

Sorry, not true. I am only obsessed by the desire to understand what I am reading and listening to. If I understand a word, or think I do, in a particular context, I don't save it. It is then added to my known words list. There are many inflections of words in Russian, and other languages, and it is possible that a small number of typos, proper names, or non words are included, but , the way we count words at LingQ, my number is accurate. The proof is that when I open a lesson in Russian at LingQ, say something imported from the Internet, there are very few unknown words. This was not the case years ago. I am approaching the same stage in Ukrainian.

[@musikkimies]

I heard that number and was kind of shocked as well. But, then I consider my study of Finnish on your website. I don't know much Russian, but I think there is some similarity in a particular sense. For instance (using English), LingQ counts the "know," "knows," and "knowing" as three words, though they are really the same word. In a language like Finnish, the same word could be counted well over a dozen times depending on the various endings that are a key part of the language (e.g house, in..., on..., from..., to... etc ....the house). I believe this idea is what Steve is getting at to some degree with Russian.

[@musikkimies]

Steve, part two of my statement is particularly how you decide when you decide to create a link (lingq). I know a lot of Finnish from very intensive study about 20 years ago. So when I come across a word that I can easily figure out based on context, but I'm afraid that I don't know it well enough to pull out of memory for my use in speech, I often create a link. I'm interested in how you arrived at your decision to take your particular approach - i.e. (from above) "If I understand a word, or think I do, in a particular context, I don't save it." Considering you have been so wildly successful in learning languages to a high level proficiency, I would tend to support/go along with your approach. But I think more discussion on that might be valuable for us eager language learners. -I feel that some more videos (and a more delineated playlist either on KZbin or on your site) that more clearly explains how to use your site to the fullest would be very valuable. In watching your very useful videos, I get the impression that you are using it in a somewhat different way than maybe some of us are. Maybe I just need to look harder at your KZbin channel... Thanks.

[@МаксудРогач]

Под конец старика понесло ..! Молодец , respect