How to Avoid Giving Up in Language Learning

[@glossy-jimin]

I always feel like I'm not improving enough but then I go back to some old learning materials and realize that I'm at a totally different level than I was before.

[@tabestorm5339]

Yeah, so true. Sometimes I look back at my old notebook and think: 'Wow, did I really have to write that down? But that's so easy! That kind of sentences feel like my mother tongue now'.

[@noemi8872]

I do the same❤

[@ReubenImagination]

Same

[@derpauleglot9772]

"I´m not saying I´m an expert!" - Steve Kaufmann, an expert

[@antigod_7420]

Are u so? The Polyglot?

[@aff4869]

hahahahahahahah

[@henry12h]

He has a very profound expertise

[@muhilan8540]

He's not an expert, he's a practitioner. He's not an expert in linguistics or language acquisition.

[@derpauleglot9772]

@@muhilan8540 "expert - a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area." "practitioner - a person actively engaged in an art, discipline, or profession, especially medicine." (and google images only shows people wearing scrubs and stuff)

[@Pocko213]

"Im not saying im an expert" *Speaks 15 languages*

[@carnatic6205]

fr haha

[@FransceneJK98]

He’s not nowhere fluent though so you can’t really say you “speak a language” if you’re not fluent. But he does have a good level

[@FitProVR]

Felt the low low frustration feeling today, searched “Steve Kaufman motivation” on KZbin and definitely got the fire back. Thanks friend!

[@rebeccamiko9156]

I needed a bit of encouragement today. I had a Russian lesson for the first time in about 3 weeks, and I don't think I said a grammatically correct sentence in the entire 30 minute-lesson. It was a big discouraging, but I'm hopefully going to use this as motivation to practice my speaking before my next lesson.

[@rosebarbaro461]

Steve, I have 3 months of long service leave and I am studying, read, Now I already planned to go away need a brake. Giving Up dreaming, never, no one and nothing will make me give up. And Steve Thanks million for the encouragement.

[@AmericanEnglishBrent]

It’s so easy just to not keep learning. Your videos are great if I ever get discouraged. Thank you. Keep ‘em coming.

[@haniehtalaei8628]

Thanks Mr. Steve I always feel like I don't know anything, even sometimes I couldn't talk and speak like a six-year old child. I think you probably study Persian. I'm Persian and I'm very glad to hear that you are studying Iranian language. The idioms are so attractive and will make you to continue studying. Like: Like a piece of cake _مثل آب خوردن Let the cat out of the bag _ دهن لقی کردن He/she is a button short _ یک تخته اش کم است. . . . Good luck

[@solea59]

I enjoy Steve's videos very much. From my own point of view ( being an active 68 year old language learner ) I like to think in analogies. The reason people struggle , and I do also , is their impatience. Impatience with oneself, expecting too much. And here's my analogy. Thinking of language learning like evolution. We came along millions of years after the world was created. They say that we came from the oceans long before we stood on two legs. People want to stand up immediately, or worse still they want to jump to the Renaissance ! It just can't be done. Give yourself a break, be a passenger, don't expect to drive the bus. Sit back and enjoy the ride. Don't cane yourself, enjoy the process of learning !

[@mchammer7870]

Thank you for this! I am learning Spanish and have my ebbs and flows of getting discouraged. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to speak Spanish! I realize I am learning more and more and I am proud of myself for sticking with it.

[@solea59]

@@mchammer7870 hello Megan. I'm happy to hear you are sticking in " there " wherever " there " might be ! It was a shock to me to see that I wrote that two years ago. For the record I'm still chugging away at spanish but now have italian and portuguese in tow. Que tengas un buen viaje !!

[@ИванХарламычев]

Just the very time i need such sort of video!

[@peanuts4723]

Yup 😅

[@antigod_7420]

Exactly

[@aprendahebraicocomabiblia1090]

You're incredible! Much love from Brazil!

[@damia7942]

I needed this video. I’m beginning to learn a new language with some difficulty. But this reassured me

[@joliettraveler]

Great advice. I need to follow it. Your site is so much better than trying to learn in a university classroom.

[@notoelegancko89]

Hej Steve, Dzięki za codzienną motywację. Od kilku lat uczę się wietnamskiego (drugi język obcy, po angielskim), jako że mieszkałem tam, a żona jest Wietnamką. Dopiero teraz, zainspirowany Twoją metodą, mój progres jest w końcu zauważalny, a motywacja w końcu nie spada tak szybko. Pozdrowienia z Polski :)

[@marlonvaronen4971]

I feel stuck with my Portuguese. Let's keep it up!

[@victorinvestbr]

If you really like Portuguese, you better get going cause time flies like an arrow! Greetings from Brazil!

[@gurfatehsingh4328]

Boa sorte!

[@jeanlucas2592]

Você vai chegar lá, amigo. Não desista

[@tabestorm5339]

Keep going. I'm learning portuguese too. Maybe we can help each other. Take a look at some youtube channels: Easy Brazilian portuguese and Aconteceu mesmo. They are very useful. There's text below every video of 'Aconteceu mesmo' And there's this Brazilian polyglot who doesn't speak too fast. I don't remember his name. But you'll find him.

[@gilsantana2932]

Hi Steven, I am from Brazil and I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for your videos, I look up to you and you is kind my inspiration to go on lerning English. Keep up the great work, you have changed my life and I am shure of others as well. Thank You so much

[@antigod_7420]

Good luck with eng. Cheer from Ukraine

[@PeculiarButtLover1993]

Se disse: you are. Mas boa sorte em aprendendo Inglês, sera muito facil pra você..

[@valentinaegorova-vg7tb]

Very useful, motivating and inspiring. Many thanks!

[@semiramissemiramis8765]

Bonjour ! Je suis très heureux à chacune de vos vidéos postées. Celles en anglais, me permettent d'apprendre l'anglais plus facilement.

[@АннаБирюкова-я3ь]

Прямо в тему :) Учишь-учишь и конца краю нет. А ещё, чем больше учишь, тем больше понимаешь, что надо учить ещё больше. Стараешься всеми способами улучшить память, но она не хочет вмещать столько, сколько хочется. В конце концов чувствуешь себя тупым и бездарным. Только благодаря таким видео опять вдохновляешься и продолжаешь заниматься. И это всего лишь английский.

[@linguamus]

Анна, язык это как океан, дна нет почти, или глубокий так, что кажется никогда не достигнешь даже средины,а не то, что дна. Вот например я, владею великим могучим русским языком почти на уровне носителя, имею больше словарного запаса, чем среднестатистический носитель русского языка. ( среднестатистический носитель русского языка знает от 20 до 30.000 слов. Я давно перевалил отметку 40.000) Но, все равно ощущаю острую жажду по отношению к Ру.Яз. На данный момент тоже самое и к Английскому. Я лингвист и в общей сложности хоть и знаю 13 языков, но все равно такое ощущение, что я ничего не знаю. И как раз таки именно данное ощущение является движущей силой приобретения ин.яз.

[@MassMexi]

Ayer tuve la misma conversación con mis tutores sobre mi camino para aprender español. gracias por recordarme que otros también pasan por esto.

[@jeffreyd508]

Great vid. How about a vid on your opinion about language learning goals? As a Buddhist, I have no goals, as I feel that goals will create a lifestyle of constant suffering and non-satisfaction . Once we reach a goal, after a short period of time, we are on to the next goal, and we feel the same as we did before we reached that goal. We quickly get used to our achievements, financial and otherwise. It's an endless cycle . In language learning, if one is to set a goal, it should be a goal of "learning" or "exposure" to the language, of say, an hour a day, and not a goal as to the end result, yes? Because we cant force our brain to learn or absorb a language. It will do it in due time, when its ready? . We shouldn't say to ourselves "I have a goal of knowing xyz by the end of this month". This is setting ourselves up for failure as we can't control the result, only the effort. It should be better to say to ourselves "I will watch an hour of content in the target language every day". etc. Thanks! .

[@mrsstore2023]

Na minha opinião a principal razão para não desistir de um idioma é a mesma razão pelo qual você iniciou a aprender o idioma. Tudo no começo é bom porém depois o processo fica chato, pelo fato de não saber muito ainda. Então como diz mr steve disfrute del proceso

[@25409019]

Incrível, Steve. Sou brasileiro e estou aprendendo inglês seguindo também suas dicas. Abraço, master!

[@meowmeows8238]

Boa sorte with your English! I don't speak Portuguese but I can understand what you are saying with my Spanish!

[@liammcaulay7976]

Eu gosto de aprender português com comédia do Brasil é muito bom para verbos

[@25409019]

@liammcaulay, sim, ajuda muito no aprendizado.

[@yb8174]

I'm From Iran and I'm learning Korean and English at the same time!🥱😀

[@ortizrodriguezerick8726]

Thank you so much for keep uploading your videos! It’s such an inspiration🤘👌

[@RockOutDude]

Die Seelen der Sprachenen rufen mir zurück und sagen mir zu fortsetzen.

[@linguamus]

I disagree with one point. I achieved tremendous results and fluency WİTHOUT PRACTİCE AT ALL for 2 years. Here is the result in my videos. I purposefully tested this method on myself and it worked out well. Of course, practicing is better but not the only way to speak well!

[@gurfatehsingh4328]

Hi Steve! Please do not forget to put in a few good words about music/rhythm. You do not have to be partial to love ballads...

[@MrLedep]

Thanks for the video. After 4months of learning chinese everyday min 1h/d with various method + a online tutor + my wife is Taiwanese. I am still not capable to say the most simple things. Chinese is so hard! I don't get it at all. It make me sad and angry, should I give up? Maybe for some people it just too hard and giving up is the solution.

[@MRrZero]

Have faith in your brain. Give it some years before you give up. Giving up is a losers strategy.

[@taghriedmousa4142]

I'm still can't understand articles or novel books, so i'll stick with the input process for a while and postpone speaking till be ready.

[@iselanunez5943]

Thank you, I am learning European Portuguese

[@bunnyteeth365]

I gave up on Icelandic when I was a teen because the lack of resources frustrated me. I wouldn't be surprised if I return to it one day. I'm too busy with other languages at the moment.

[@sardunai952]

Hey, don't give up! :)

[@BoghNorh255]

Programação é um tipo de linguagem usada pra falar com computadores mas não achei que vc soubesse programação, me inscrevi recentemente

[@rosebarbaro461]

Hello, Mike, I am from Syria I come to Australia young the only language is spoken is Inglish, and Italian, but i have been study Arabic Over a year got to an acceptable stage. but my writing O, I hope that what you ask.

[@gusevening4910]

I finally gave up learning Greek. I studied everyday using Linq and other resources. I learned quite a bit but after two years I can’t communicate effectively at all and only get the jist of conversations, but miss the real meaning. I still expose myself to Greek news sources and TV shows. But studying everyday for about an hour a day for two years became tedious and didn’t work for me.

[@bigwheelgaza33]

Gus Evening damn sorry to hear that And I was thing about getting lingq

[@gusevening4910]

Omar Smith I thought LingQ was very helpful. Probably one of the most useful resources that I used. Maybe give it a try, it may work well for you.

[@Thelinguist]

The important thing is to look at what we have achieved, at least from time to time, rather than focusing on where we would like to be better. It is also important to vary things and to find content that is both interesting and accessible. In that regard we don't have as much as we would like in Greek. We do have a Greek member , and one of my viewers here, Juan Spada, who is looking into creating some content along the lines of The Iranians. you can always come back to your Greek. Nothing is lost.

[@gusevening4910]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thanks Steve.

[@bigwheelgaza33]

Gus Evening I will now thank you bredda

[@davidk5954]

I cannot give up. I'm moving to the country where the language is used.

[@Junkmail007]

All great advice but, one thing all these people leave out is how one actually finds people to speak with given the time constraints we all have to find people, our jobs, families etc. I agree speaking is the best practice but, finding a helpful group, or committed person without the cost of private lessons is very difficult. That's why many give up.

[@kingofohio5689]

Its been 1year and 5 months since i learned german contienously but my routine has gone to shit but im quite scared to lose my motivation so what should i do about it

[@michaelbolen2118]

Thanks for the helpful comments. Any way the material with circling questions can be labeled in LingQ, so it is searchable?

[@Thelinguist]

Definitely.

[@michaelbolen2118]

@@Thelinguist appreciated, will look out for that.

[@ClassPunkOnRumbleAndSubstack]

In one of Steve's older videos he said the most important part of language learning is learning new words; I think personalized mnemonics or memory devices is a powerful tool to do this, but the key is "personalized" they have to connect with you enough to stick in memory. Yesterday, while at work, I was able to put two new Tagalog words into long term memory in about 20 or 30 minutes. I've found that this is the power of creating your own unique memory device for words and phrases, assuming you can find some kind of pattern, imagery, or anything from your pre-existing memories that will help you remember. I learned "mah-bee-lee" which is "fast", by associating it with "Maybelline"; and I learned "mah-bah-gul" which is "slow", by associating it with "muh bagel" ("muh" being an internet meme way of saying "my"). Similarly, albeit politically-incorrect, I stored the Japanese word for "butt" in long term memory by thinking of a punk rock girl who is retarded, "Oy-she-REE".

[@michaelrespicio5683]

Anong kaya mo magsalita sa Tagalog? Pinoy ako. Props for learning the language. What's the reason for learning it? When people think of learning an Asian language, it's kind of frustrating all they think about is East Asian ones, especially Japanese and believe no other language or culture matters.

[@michaelrespicio5683]

@ロマン Has it not occurred to you that many, many people here learn Japanese? Here's the thing, I'm not saying it's a bad language to learn. I learned it. Other people here also learn Chinese and/or Korean. All 3 of these are East Asian and frankly they're the most talked about Asian languages here in the comments, but if you think Asia = Japan or East Asia, or moreover, if you think that Japanese is the only Asian language worth learning, than you're just another one of those closed-minded Japanophiles and have nothing more to say to someone like this after this comment. Take our friend who posted the comment above, they're learning Japanese AND another Asian language. My language, which besides other ones, many people here don't bother learning, and the reason why you didn't understand what I said above in response. Let's take a step back, the reason why someone pursues a language is because of motivation that comes from somewhere. Why does someone choose to learn Japanese instead of, for example, Burmese? If I think about what other people may say in response, that's what's bothersome. The reason probably has to do with Japanese culture as it somehow casts a shadow over every other culture and language. The problem is many people seem learn Japanese without even trying other languages which in turn seems unfair coming from a language learner and are are too blind to see Asia is much larger than 3 countries. Conclusion, learn Japanese if you want, but why not give another Asian language a try? Just like our friend here learning Tagalog because, unlike many people, this person decided to explore another part of Asia. If this hasn't influenced you at all then dapat kumain ka ng tae. That is all.

[@Thelinguist]

My experience exactly.

[@sarban1653]

@@michaelrespicio5683 Arabic is an Asian language that has a decent amount of people learning it.

[@marcelosilveira7079]

Assimil: L'arabe Cahier d'exercices - Niveau intermédiaire Vous avez aimé notre cahier d'arabe niveau faux-débutants ? Vous aimerez encore davantage ce nouveau cahier, destiné à un niveau intermédiaire. Plus de 150 exercices à la progression étudiée et sous forme de jeux sont proposés, accompagnés de leurs corrigés. À la fin de chaque chapitre, autoévaluez facilement votre niveau. Aucune dimension de la langue n’a été oubliée : la grammaire, l’orthographe, le vocabulaire, la conjugaison ou encore la prononciation.

[@ozen3348]

One of the most important thing is trying to recite songs in other languages. If you know the song and its translation it will both solidify your sense of grammar as well as multiple vocabs in an easy way.

[@jonathangonzalez4385]

I always enjoy your videos, I think i got used to your accent

[@bahja999]

جميل .. بإمكاني تقديم المساعدة في التدرب على اللغة العربية على السكايب أو التلجرام

[@kevinjoseph2650]

very inspiring

[@victoryarin7285]

Amen brother!! I agree 100%

[@takumienglish5814]

This video is “目から鱗” in Japanese.

[@nicollasfelipe4021]

I'm learning French and I have a good level in this language. However, I don't speak very well in French. I agree with you about speak a lot for one day speak well, but in your standpoint what do you think about what I'm doing: I speak French for at least ten minutes every day. Do you think ten minutes per day it's enough? Of course I listen, write as well. Nevertheless, I speak just for ten minutes. Thanks for this video.

[@Wetdoger]

more input

[@perseoeridano4182]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@AnaMaria-pc5zn]

Those 3 dislikes can rot in hell

[@author9]

first

[@josedavidarellanoroman5107]

Today I just wanted to abandon my Welsh learning

[@Sukerkin]

Stick with it, José - it’s a beautiful tongue and well rewards it’s study. I have sadly lost much of mine but I learned it in my youth when I had a Welsh girl in my life (motivation is key :)).

[@michaelrespicio5683]

What's ironic is you're preaching about not giving up in language learning even though that's exactly what happened with Hebrew, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, and Vietnamese. The first three you learned solely for travel and left them since, and Vietnamese you can't even introduce yourself. Go ahead and say they're all on the back burner, that's basically just saying you gave up after a short term. Every other language on the back burner is one you may or may not come back to, no matter how much time you invested, yet if you can't even converse in the language spontaneously - without preparation, you can't in good conscience say you really speak the language. Otherwise it's not bragging, it's hypocrisy.

[@sarak6860]

Many of us have languages on the back burner. They can be revived when needed.

[@urib101]

You still run at your age? Wow

[@Khapresha]

Uri Balsam why wouldn’t he?