Why You Still Can't Understand Your Target Language

[@mattvsjapan]

If you liked this video, then check out my new video on why you might be having trouble understanding what sentences mean as a whole, even though you know all the individual words! kzbin.info/www/bejne/imbJdoaXZZ53adE The opening clip is from the movie Limitless. I’m aware that in the movie, Bradley Cooper butchers the different languages his character supposedly “mastered”. I guess not even NZT-48 could make it possible to acquire a language without thousands of hours of input! Thanks to everyone who pointed those out that I misspelled "led" as "lead" and said "should have went" instead of "should have gone". I'm already aware of these mistakes so there's no need to tell me about them in the comments 😅

[@daysandwords]

What about "olivious" instead of "oblivious" haha. Actually Matt. vs Japan - if you happen to see this, what is wrong with Japanese Pod101? I have never studied Japanese at all but SwedishPod101 and FrenchPod101 are actually both quite good. They have some problems yes, but I wouldn't tell people not to use them. I learned quite a lot of my Swedish with SP101.

[@thetachisly]

This video is absolutely phenomenal. I came across it by accident. Wow. I'm following you based purely on this, but I hope you do similar videos of each part of language acquisition. I would sit through all of it. You really know your stuff. Thank you for this.

[@pia_mater]

Did anyone understand what he said after the woman asked him "since when do you speak italian?" All I heard was skkwksosmsk

[@mattvsjapan]

@@pia_mater "Self-improvement month"

[@amcmillion3]

Bradley Coopers French is actually fairly good. He studied it in college and spent a year abroad living with a French family.

[@guywithaname5408]

Legend has it Bradley Cooper is still running to this day.

[@RobertKaucher]

I can confirm that I watched this video a week after you made that comment and I see he is still running.

[@chinesecovidanalswabs4752]

@@RobertKaucher Love limitless. Good movie.

[@ariamoradi9670]

6 months later and he indeed is still running.

[@xayah-anaischevelleau7900]

Still running

[@리주민]

"Lets apply this to something we know..." [Shows man running] "...swimming"

[@OrangeC7]

Why does it feel like I'm being sold headphones

[@depressedteadepressoespres186]

TwenOalley Yup... that’s the joke...

[@depressedteadepressoespres186]

TwenOalley are you joking?

[@ariellalima7229]

In fact I like the way he repeats the clips so many times. That's how language acquisition should be like: tons of repetition with a little bit added every time.

[@amelijaceica9617]

@@TwenOalley idk i laughed when i saw their comment

[@KillerofGods]

@@TwenOalley How is it not a joke?

[@rife133]

Is that like a personal attack or something ?

[@dragonswordmountain2908]

+Rife [Team Slinger] Oh Brie Larson...you are now a meme hahaha, how my brain recognized that pattern is so cool.

[@mc_dibia]

Really felt like one

[@user-pc3vs3bd4j]

*Yes, it is*

[@seanpaulson9098]

Lol

[@blackdeth-uo9mx]

I will copy and paste this because I really need an answer. What is a RTK equivalent to Chinese? Or if there is a better method, what?

[@fabricio_santana]

Dude, this is not good. This is exceptional. You are doing massively important educational work here.

[@miri-dz9oy]

I absolutely agree!

[@scarymilky]

why are you mad? they were being positive, dude@JoshPecksDad

[@elbeano1721]

You've inspired me to study less and watch more netflix.

[@flutterwind7686]

As long as you're actively listening and correcting and looking up meanings of what's being said

[@artvandalay13]

@@flutterwind7686 I made the same mistake as well. Also, I was watching English Netflix shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation. That didn't help with learning Japanese at all. Wasted 2 months doing that. Don't make the same mistake as I did!

[@spencera1129]

😁

[@GridSludge]

@@maximellow5745 Wow, if you didn't tell me it was a second language I wouldn't know, your English is so good! I hope to get as good with my target language.

[@maximellow5745]

@@GridSludge thanks a lot! That's a huge compliment:D You'll get there one day, it's all just in the middle of amount of time you spend.

[@MigakuOfficial]

The perfect video to share with a friend who doesn't quite get why immersion is the key to language acquisition.

[@xCr0nus]

@Alfredo Müller Etxeberria Welcome to 2019, where the attention span of your average citizen is roughly identical to that of a goldfish.

[@TorkoalFx]

Really, just perfect.

[@marikothecheetah9342]

It is not. I acquired different language skills at a different time and I'm pretty much fluent in English. Immersion is great when you have a solid basis but it can drag you down if you introduce it too soon and too much of it all at once. Focusing on one skill at a time is easier and for many people more effective than an immersion in reading, listening, writing and speaking the target language before they are even fully familiar with how to build sentences and what's the word for spoon in their target language.

[@marikothecheetah9342]

@Alfredo Müller Etxeberria immersion, I came to notice, often is perceived as the way to actually go and live in the country where the language is used even when you are at A1 level of a certain language. What you say is actually a proper approach to any language. Graded readers are invaluable so are any other graded materials who do introduce patterns of every day language but at the level adjusted to the learner.

[@xCr0nus]

Mariko the Cheetah that’s why RTK and Genki 1&2 are completed before starting immersion. So that the learner has a strong base to work with, and can parse most sentences grammar-wise fairly accurately before starting the real immersion phase. Anki also serves as a means to learn new vocabulary and grammar structures as the process continues. If you watched Matt’s other videos, you might understand better.

[@caller145]

As someone who has english as their second language: I learned the basics in school but my grades were falling. Then I got my ipad and accidentally learned english through memes. Now I can understand very well even more complex subjects. Now I'm trying to learn german. I'm at the point where I can understand simple clear conversations but definetely will need more practice. If anyone has any german youtube recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!

[@kupferknochen]

That's so cool mate xD reddit.com/r/ich_irl is good for German memes by the way lol I'm not sure about German KZbinrs, but I know there are lots of old German animated series like Heidi on KZbin, aimed at children, some of which I watched when I was younger. I'm using these sorts of things to learn Japanese myself, in their Japanese dubs!

[@caller145]

@@kupferknochen Thanks a lot!

[@fiver4ever]

If you like murder mysteries, you should check out the movie Felidae.

[@kupferknochen]

@@caller145 No problem! And sorry, I meant reddit.com/r/ich_iel

[@africaRBG]

'Easy German' is perfect.

[@Danilaschannel]

That's quite alotta clips of people putting on headphones

[@martaleszkiewicz5115]

*"alotta"* You literally illustrated what he just said and proved his point. :)

[@annadachowska24]

I'm learning Japanese 5 months now and I was so frustrated that my brain needs so many seconds to translate what I hear/read. You answered my most important question "when will my brain accept that this is 'real' language?" "When will my brain start understand it effortless"

[@bottamayo26]

how's ur nihongo lately?

[@wirito]

@Ramón Antonio I’ve started learning Japanese recently. Let’s get back to this message one year from now Lol

[@wirito]

@Ramón Antonio good luck to you as well! It takes a lot of time so don’t give up :)

[@ubhumma]

so, how goes your japanese?

[@zwelp982]

今あなたの日本語はどうですか

[@christybontrager3896]

Dulingo tells me I know over 1500 words in Swedish but then I am at a Stockholm grocery store and the store clerk asks me something, a phrase i should know, and it only sounds like mush to me. I literally cannot understand the natives most of the time. It is so incredibly frustrating. But now I think I understand why..So thanks for explaining it to me, i need to change my learning routines.

[@dogmeat2418]

If you don't mind me asking, how's it going?

[@Fastskull]

I'm also interested in how it's going. Have you started using anything other than Duolingo?

[@rhezer]

1500 words is just the surface, to understand a native speaker 100% you'll need about 15k passive words

[@soyoltoi]

Me: I don't understand my target language. Matt: ｊｏｄａｎｇｌｅｃｒｏｐｉｓｂｕｎｄｙ

[@waldoswife.4485]

hahahaa😂

[@fuitbythefoot]

10:35

[@omarmoataz2057]

I'm halfway through the video and I've already seen Bradley Cooper running more times than I'll ever need to in my entire life.

[@Ensgnblack]

As both a language teacher, and a language learner, I enjoyed this video a lot. I got a lot out of the specifics, like the discussion of phonemes and linguistics, but it was also simple enough for a non-language teacher to glean all the important points. Buuuuuuuuut: "should have GONE" (not "went")

[@jewel56]

But that's just one more aspect of it! Even native speakers commonly make technical mistakes in writing and speaking, adding to the challenge haha

[@icegoddess1308]

Jewel I actually had this conversation with one of my friends from Greece. He knows I’m learning Greek and spent so many years in America as a kid that he sounds American when speaking English. He said I would probably end up speaking better Greek than most Greeks because I have to consciously learn all the grammar and so on. He noticed the same thing the other way. He noticed when he would speak English to native speakers that he spoke better English because he had to learn the technical bits of it.

[@callmeashy]

The thing is "should have went" makes perfect sense. It kind of feels like the age old argument of can vs may tbh. If there is no need for a distinction then the language changes lol

[@Ensgnblack]

Callmeashy it may make sense to you, but it is incorrect. This is not a case of the language making a change.

[@deathonion404]

@@Ensgnblack Ultimately, terms that make sense but are "incorrect" are what cause a language to evolve

[@Kurobeau]

Holy hell. That 'not hearing what someone said, saying "what?" and then immediately answer what they said bc it suddenly resolves in my head' is literally my life. That call out actually got my laughing out loud as it was so unexpectedly accurate.

[@jll2001so]

My only question is: *how did you find clips for everything you talked about in this video*

[@ZeroRelevance]

Gotta love those stock video websites

[@rever4217]

@@ZeroRelevance I thought they were tv shows or stuff that matt watched himself.

[@ZeroRelevance]

Doubledealer Been a month since I watched this, so my memory’s a little fuzzy, but I think there was a mix of both stock videos and movie clips throughout

[@Imkurieecsgo]

check the channel Benjiro beginner japanese, if you are learning japanese, its good material to hear

[@ZeroRelevance]

I'm kurieX Seems like it, may use later

[@austrianese]

This and *shadowing!* Using your analogy, listening seems to me like you are by the pool with your feet in the water and observing the swimmers. Speaking is jumping into the water and try to immitate them. So I believe you should also practice to speak words and phrases *out loud* to train your mouth to form those words and get used to them. It makes a huge difference to me when I listen to a Japanese dialogue and later read the transcript out loud trying to immitate the speaker as close as possible. Takes many tries because my lips and tounge are used to create different movements. But after a while I start to sound like the Japanese speaker. It's more work then just listening but I believe it supports your language learning process greatly.

[@jase37]

This sounds like a REALLY good idea, I'm gonna start using it with French

[@jewel56]

Shadowing is great!

[@constanza1648]

Easy with immitate the swimmers: if you get the wrong idea, you can easyly get your head in and out the water without any breathing or, worst, breath in when you get the head into the water and drown yourself. There is a vid of Matt telling that shadowing when you are a beginner is a waste of time.

[@Michal_o]

He has a video on shadowing, he says its not the best for a very beginner and so on.

[@AngelcatWarrior]

Definitely!! I noticed a huge difference in my speech once I started repeating each sentence from a French audiobook and playing a recording back to myself. You can hear exactly where you fumble.

[@yagirlsheila7705]

I did this with English when I was 12 years old, immersing myself into social media that had an user base that was mostly composed of English speakers, granted, I made a lot of mistakes back then (as shown by my lackluster knowledge of grammar in my cringy fanfictions) but I would like to think that I have somewhat improved more on these last few years rather than the 9 years I spent trying to learn English just at school. I still have room for improvement though.

[@eclasseclass]

I experienced the same thing but I only started to immerse myself in English after I entered university. After those 3-4 years of immersion, I went from being able to understand just about 30% of any English content to, now, able to binge Matt vs Japan w/o subtitles. It always makes me feel the ~10 years of learning English in school were futile. My English writing & speaking are still trash tho lol. Don't really know how to improve them.

[@andressacolaco9916]

Me too! I've spent 4 years in an English course and after that I became so frustrated that I couldn't understand videos and movies, even though I was able to follow the class really well. It just started to get better when I immersed myself into English content. Now, after almost 3 years, I can understand everything so easily, even in 2x speed (I don't really have patience for long, slow paced videos). I'm learning French now and looking forward to do the same thing.

[@eclasseclass]

@@andressacolaco9916 can u understand movies/ dramas with no problem too? I always find them much more difficult to understand than yt videos. And how are your English speaking skills?

[@andressacolaco9916]

@@eclasseclass Hi! Most of them I can understand with no problems but I found that one or another get me stuck (especially the old ones. An example is Silence of the Lambs, which I had to turn on the captions). Right now, my speaking skills are a bit rusty because I don't have anyone to practice. They were okay when I was in the course but I lost my confidence and I spend so much time to verbalize what I wanna say. Recently I've started to practice reading outloud and making little monologues to help with this.

[@eclasseclass]

@@andressacolaco9916 Thank you for you insightful comment. If I only have problems with certain old movies or movies that have too much vocabs specific to a certain plot, I'd probably let it slide haha As for speaking practice, Matt & some other language-learning youtubers have me wanting to try VRchat. It seems to be a perfect and fun place to find native speakers (or maybe foreign language masters like Matt) to talk to. But before that, I would probably watch a ton of dramas that depict daily life to get more familiar with daily conversation.

[@realjayjobes1849]

Let’s not look past the amount of time and effort that was probably necessary to find those “connected speech” examples.🙏🏽😂 Great video as always.

[@kuya5000]

my man gary veee!!!

[@anastasinscreed]

Why do you think it's hard? It's the basics of linguistics :)

[@WrongWorld23]

This Video made me realise how amazing it is for me to understand all it's meaning so effortlessly. I'm not a native English speaker, i'm German. But over the years of constantly listening to English spoken content and exposing myself to the language, i became better in understanding it with every new sentence i was listening to. I never learned much english active and counciously at school or outside of it, so it has to be from all the endless hours of listening to english content over the internet.

[@Kiara007]

The mind is amazing. The fact, that I can watch and understand this video, while English is not my native language is prove how many hours of learning, consuming and actually using English it took to get me here. And the moment it actually clicked was when I started watching shows and movies in English, not while studying grammar and memorizing words, having to write a vocabulary test every week or so. I've been trying to learn Japanese for a couple of years now, only now trying to find things to watch that I would enjoy and kinda understand, without needing subtitles (like Neon Genesis Evangelion would be impossible in Japanese, I hardly follow in German). But also more challenging than 100 raw episodes of One Piece. Putting on target language subtitles is also hard to get yourself motivated to do, when the target language uses a completely different alphabet/writing system. Anyways! Thank you for this very interesting video!

[@dragonswordmountain2908]

+Kiara007 A lot of them polyglots motto is "If a baby can do it, why can't i?", it's been proven over and over again...there is no such thing as a hard language, it's all about putting in the time and practice playing the actual game not shooting at the free-throw line, like Michael Jordan says. Yeah, the mind is amazing, it never ceases to amaze me.

[@raine8820]

Ich studiere Japanisch und mir ist aufgefallen, dass es für Deutsche, die Japanisch lernen wollen, meistens nicht reicht nur Input zu bekommen. Das funktioniert für uns wahnsinnig gut im Englischen, weil Englisch dem Deutschen so ähnlich ist, aber Japanisch kann zumindest grammatisch jahrelang an deinen Ohren vorbeigehen, wenn du nicht noch auf andere Weisen lernst. So als ernst gemeinter Tipp ;)

[@Kiara007]

@@raine8820 Das kann ich auch nachvollziehen. Tatsächlich hab ich nichtmal den Anspruch wirklich fließend Japanisch zu sprechen. (Sonst wäre ich immer noch im Studium.) Es reicht mir auf ein Level zu sein/kommen, wo ich Leute größtenteils verstehe und sie mich, ohne dass es nach "Du wolle Rose kaufe" klingt. Grammatik lernen war leider noch nie mein Ding, weder im Deutschen, noch im Englischen oder Französischen. Mir bleibt natürlich da nur der Rückschluss auf die zwei Sprachen, die ich gut genug beherrsche. Da hat Input sehr viel erreicht, was Grammatik vorher an Zuversicht zerstörte.

[@raine8820]

Kiara007 Flüssig zu sprechen bekommst du auch ohne Studium hin :) Und ich wünsche dir viel Glück!

[@AstucesLangues]

@@dragonswordmountain2908 I don't think the if-babies-can-do-it-than-so-can-you angle is applicable nor encouraging to adults. Babies get 2 very patient and dedicated private tutors from birth and have no language patterns they need to overwrite. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's not doable, it definitely is, but babies are not a good yardstick. My son is 5. While my German is still better than his (mostly because I'm an adult so I can express more complex thoughts), natives will undoubtedly identify him as a native speaker whereas I will only pass for a couple of minutes before an inglorious basterds moment where I say something a little bit off. For him it's very natural to say Griechisch or Fläschchen, for me it will always require an extra effort to get it right.

[@izaiahacosta1637]

I always love these types of videos you post.

[@izaiahacosta1637]

I know they probably take an extreme amount of time editing, but man "Remembering the Kanji" and this video are the type I really enjoy. Keep it up!

[@Cinjo6]

This is the best explanation I have heard about why one doesn't understand a target language. Excellent information.

[@JBfan88]

my god if I have to see Bradley Cooper run along that river bank one more time I might 出毛病!

[@kevinscales]

out hair illness? hmmm, go bald? have radiotherapy? tear your hair out maybe?

[@JBfan88]

@@kevinscales means to break down (of a machine), go crazy. Chinese, not Japanese.

[@kevinscales]

@@JBfan88 I knew it wasn't japanese :D Just testing how far my knowledge of Japanese would get me. Obviously not very far lol

[@JBfan88]

@@kevinscales BUT, since you already know what the individual characters mean, it'll probably stick in your mind much better than someone who didn't know Japanese.

[@prolofique]

@Fruit Punch Tiger The hair exits you from illness! Lol

[@alexandrelinsdossantos5604]

amazing: "in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is"

[@asbest2092]

If theory doesn't work in practice it isn't a theory, it is a fallen hypothesis. Theory works in practice the same A PRIORI!

[@Renatera1234]

​​@@asbest2092in theory

[@silvershot970]

"The more you listen to your target language, the more you will understand" masterfully explained! A breakdown of the spoken language. If you REALLY give your ears and brain a chance (ie listen more even despite not getting it YET), it will process those sound bites from gibberish to something you just cannot not hear that IT is that target language. It's like a 'what has heard cannot be unheard' kind of thing. Then eventually, you'll be able to infer what is being said. And so on and so forth. I used to be overly neurotic about memorizing stuff in Anki because I'm not getting "it" and getting "there." But...it's an ongoing process. Listen/watch more stuff than you memorize/Anki. You'll get there, folks. P.S. Great video, Matt. Now I'll have a video to show people what I have a difficult time articulating without sounding drunk lol. P.P.S. This should be part of your Theory vs Practice series.

[@dragonswordmountain2908]

+this is jac It's like the brain cannot distinguish between what is real from virtual...it thinks we are there, but we are not, so it opens it's "immersion language program" and starts absorbing like a sponge...without traveling or interacting socially hahaha. Machines rule.

[@seventhsheaven]

Absolute bullshit. You will not just magically begin to understand. You need to do *active* listening, not just passively watch tv shows or listening to music. You need to study, and active listening is part of this.

[@ShadowZx22]

​​​​@@seventhsheaven" Passively " and " Watching a movie " cannot exist in one sentence UNLESS you're Actively not paying attention, which means, watching a movie in fact IS Active Listening, i.e (learning). Which in turn means : your comment is Absolute bullshit.

[@wyvie1431]

this video is everything. i learned japanese on my own, subconsciously, by obsessively watching english subbed anime (i’m not a native english speaker so i learned lots of english by doing this too), listening to japanese music and just consuming japanese media from around age 9 all the way to 14, and i still do it to this day). i didn’t even register that i was learning it until i realised i understood big parts of what was being said in whatever anime i watched, and could distinguish words as well as grammar. i took a children’s beginners course in japanese where i learned hiragana and katakana as well as some more grammar and vocab, but really, that course didn’t give me much i think. i picked up another japanese beginners course in school at age 17, where i learned a lot more, especially grammar wise, as it was faster paced. right now, i’m 18 and doing an exchange year in japanese high school and host family, completely immersed. took me about a month to get used to understanding and speaking japanese /all the time/, but i’ve come around and i now do really well in consuming japanese media such as tv, youtubers, anime and movies without subtitles, as well as in conversation with japanese people. all because i subconsciously learned so much with all the listening practice i did (as well as some actual studying). the current wall i’m trying to climb over in japanese is learning to recognise, interpret, read and write kanji. it’s slow, but i’m getting there! so thank you for this video! immersion/active listening and practice really is everything

[@lambofmagic]

Jodangle Cropisbundy is what i'll name my son if i'll ever have one

[@martaleszkiewicz5115]

Everything is possible in the ol' US of A. (Edit to correct the autocorrect)

[@silvermovie6823]

when i feel uninspired in my language learning journey, i watch your technical videos. They give my so much motivation. Thank you Matt, for making my life a lil better.

[@maryemhossam2761]

Thank you so much for this video. Before i was crying if i spoke to japanese person and forgot so basic words while i studying so much hours. I felt stupid and lost faith in my ability, that i will never achieve it. But now i'm so okay with it and put more effort on listening and it so rewarding

[@RavenReads]

This is probably the most comprehensive and thorough language video I've seen. Instantly subscribed.

[@tanotkashunya2395]

Thank you, now I have everything I wanted to say to friends all boiled down simply.

[@declan8577]

The listening exercise was a revelation. I never realized how easy it was to hear gibberish compared to Japanese. Definitely going to listen a lot more

[@DarkwingD]

14:30 After hearing this entire section, I don't know how to describe this feeling but it's a mix between immediate overwhelming-ness and excitement. I'm a week into Japanese, and I had the mindset described at the start. Thank you for bringing me back down to Earth.

[@luketruman3033]

1:33 - ok I need to rewatch IP man On a serious note, I listened to a podcast by scott young of meta learning a while back and he was saying the human brain is terrible at transfer of knowledge, if you study something in isolation the chances you can use it in a real situation is slim at best, so you should make your practice as close to the real situation as you can for best results. I think ive experienced this with language learning but also at work, graduating and not knowing how to be a proper engineer because all of the information in my head is isolated and disconnected, it wasn't until doing the job for 8 hours a day for a few years that I started to slowly get better

[@cgottschify]

Thats a good point, but lets give youre studies a little credit. Although it does feel like you couldnt use your knowledge when you first started your job, you were, just sloppily and slowly. I could be wrong but, i dont think someone without your education would have lasted long if he was hired instead. You cant learn to apply knowledge if you never had it. Which is why i wish Matt didnt emphasize so hard that "conscious practice" is somehow not used in language learning, where in swimming it is.

[@luketruman3033]

@@cgottschify I agree completely, what I meant was I had a lot of the technical knowledge (not all) but it was all disconnected and it is hard for me to see the big overall picture and link everything together. But without the knowledge in the first place it would of been incredibly difficult and I probably wouldn't of been able to stick with it, I found it incredibly hard at the start anyway. Kind of like university is RTK and being an engineer is actually learning how to read Japanese, the second one obviously takes a lot more time and practice

[@cgottschify]

@@luketruman3033 I know

[@nickm3694]

I really like the interactive demo with repeating the phrases. Helped me recognize that my ability to hear japanese is better than chinese (a language I haven't tried to learn), but still not as good as the English, my native language. Great video as always!

[@lemonprime7889]

I noticed my ability to hear Japanese was better than my Chinese too. I think it's because there's a lot of overlap between Japanese and English phonetics.

[@Sephivoiceactor]

I noticed that as well! A slight lag but I did Japanese fine! (Been learning Japanese awhile) English was effortless. Chinese, I couldnt at all!

[@omarzerk456]

my ability to repeat japanese, a language I never studied, was still better than chinese, a language I am studying.... but one thing for sure the first phrase in the transcript, the chinese one was missing a character! I think it was 船

[@hana-bb6hh]

@@omarzerk456 I’m studying Japanese yet the Chinese was easier for me. I honestly have never studied or took time listening to Chinese! I’m so confused

[@omarzerk456]

@@hana-bb6hh well if you speak also Vietnamese or Thai or Burmese then chinese sounds may be easier that's for sure. Not the case for french. I am just talking about sounds. And it still didn't change much, hearing Japanese sounds and reproducing them in an understandable way is still much easier than chinese for me. Certain sounds and tones are close to impossible to pronounce correctly.

[@sunny_xsm]

I'm so glad this was in my recommended because it was just the push I needed to start watching content in the languages I'm currently learning. I rationalised learning a bunch of vocab first because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand much if I dive into movies this early on, but thinking back on how I learned English *precisely* through watching cartoons as a child, I've realised I should maybe put some trust in my brain to work its magic on its own. Thank you!

[@danilopablo9848]

Spending time with the language is the reason why I was able to become fluent in English in less than 3 years and yet I am struggling for 4 years with Mandarin Chinese. I found out about Flashcards and overused them, relied too much on them, and only now I realize they were not enough. Now I am spending more time just enjoying content in Chinese and I noticed that I've improved a lot.

[@Pawnsappsee]

I need to do the same

[@frankfei9130]

I speak English as a 2nd language, I went from not understanding a thing when watching English news to now being to speak and comprehend English speech almost like a native speaker, it took me 20 years from age 5 to 25, including 10 year living in an English speaking country which is no doubt of tremendous help. The comprehension will come with time and practice if you massively expose yourself to your target language , I can attest to that. I am watching this video to learn a new language Vietnamese. The video has done a great job of laying out what I intuitively know but just couldn’t explain as well as the host

[@ampersandcastle1091]

I’ve been learning German for five years now, but with very little listening practise (outside of the slow examples given in school, using vocab we likely already know). I’m trying to improve past that, and have been watching kids shows in German. I was really frustrated and disheartened that I couldn’t even understand most of the German version of Land Before Time, but this video has been really helpful! It was exactly what I needed. Thank you :)

[@montywoodside]

Never give up! Now that you already know the importance of immersion and listening comprehension, I hope that by now (1 year after this comment of yours) you're damn-near fluency :)

[@marinmarinhola]

It's been a wild journey trying to learn Portuguese and German. I'm a native Spanish speaker that has spoken English for his whole life (4 years old) . My second language is so ingrained with my identity, I can't even remember how I learned it. It feels like it's always been there, same as Spanish. However, now that I'm 22 and I'm trying to do the same thing for 2 more languages, it's been infinitely harder, to the point where it puts into perspective how much I take English for granted and what a struggle it can be for some of my peers who are having a hard time attempting to grasp the language. Definitely a humbling experience.

[@frankfei9130]

I have been on both side of the fence with English where I went from not understanding a thing when watching English news to now being to speak and comprehend English speech almost like a native speaker, it took me 20 years from age 5 to 25, including 10 year living in an English speaking country which is no doubt of tremendous help. The comprehension will come with time and practice, I can attest to that. I am watching this video to learn a new language Vietnamese. The video has done a great job of laying out what I intuitively know but just couldn’t explain as well as the host

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

It sounds funny what you wrote because you said you've been learning English your whole life, and you're 4 years old 😂 But obviously I understand what you're saying. I am almost at 2 years in portuguese and it's been pretty difficult.. but some things are getting easier.. such as reading and writing.. but my listening comprehension has felt the same.. Very difficult.. Like I don't understand anything cause they speak so fast that my brain doesn't work fast enough to understand

[@marinmarinhola]

@@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157 honestly I got lazy and just wrote it in parenthesis instead of weaving it in into a sentence for better context. My bad. It had an implied "since". When it comes to Portuguese, I understand, it's really hard at the beginning. But trust me, I wrote this comment 2 years ago and I'm now b2, it gets better, you just have to stick with it.

[@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157]

@@marinmarinhola I know. Your English must be pretty fluent because I do the same thing and a lot of close family and friends have trouble understanding what I'm saying sometimes. I mean they obviously understand me.. but their brain might take a second cause sometimes I'm lazy.. oftentimes 😂 I'm kinda shocked you replied btw 😳. How's your Portuguese?

[@Milark]

About to go to sleep. Matt uploads. Ah, I guess not.

[@fuzzygolf8497]

Watched this twice in two days now, makes perfect sense! I've been learning Thai for the last 2-3 months and while i'm picking up the vocabulary i can hardly understand a single word when listening to native Thai's have a conversation. Today i've set up a new KZbin account (As you suggested in another video) purely for listening to Thai for at least an hour everyday so my brain will start to pick up the rhythm of the language, even though i don't understand yet. Hopefully this will accelerate the process! Cheers

[@ChristianTapper]

This is without a doubt the clearest and most educational video on understanding spoken language that I've ever come across. So many golden nuggets in this one.

[@Gwangju1980]

6:05 I can relate to this a lot. I´m at a vocabulary level in Danish where I can enjoy extensive reading and read most books I´m interested in, but it can get frustrating when watching danish media outside of news (where they speak very clearly) and have trouble understanding what turns out to be words and phrases I knew. It just takes a lot of time and patience to tune your ear to the natural, fast pace of the language but its really rewarding when the comprehension catches up and begins to flow. Its a funny process. You have to learn the words to be able to read the subtitles to find out what you didnt understand!

[@seanpaulson9098]

This might be the most underrated and important piece of info that people miss. This video is gold. Makes sense why when learning my target language I'll hear something and it takes a second longer to understand it. Similar to your example of saying what after you hear something in your first language.

[@GypsyCurls]

This just reinforces the fact that I need to spend an inordinate amount of time listening to my L2 like I did when I was a baby and eventually, it will make sense to me without translating in my head from my L1 to L2! We’ve done this before and it works. I just need to repeat the process, except now it won’t take 5 years to do so. Thanks for this reminders and what to be on the lookout for when listening.

[@harbingerization]

I've watched this six times over the last year of learning Spanish. This video demystified what I was experiencing in a way that nothing else really has. Thank you so much.

[@stevijs3345]

Really interesting video. I love seeing those examples, because if you are fluent in a language, you never think about those shifts in words. I am at about 2200 hours of active listening right now, so hearing the sounds often isnt a problem. The two problems I have quite often are: 1. (stupid example) They say がっこう. I hear がっこう and I can even repeat it back if someone askes me to. But the meaning 学校 dosent pop up. Or I get this feeling of "I know this one" (and I do), but the meaning doesnt pop up. I often notice this when I mine a show via Subs2SRS after I have seen it. 2. A sentence with rare- or fantasy words. I get hung up on the first word and miss the rest of the sentence. But oh well. It gets better and better.

[@kareepan3382]

This is the first video of yours that I watched, and after watching it I checked out the rest of your videos, which then in turn motivated me to start learning Japanese. I've been steadily learning the language since then and I've gotten pretty decent at it, although I've been slacking off lately. I'm eternally grateful for the content that you make, as it has genuinely impacted me in a way that i could have never imagined.

[@TheShogunClips]

I wish i heard this information a long time ago

[@nujabes1fan]

I am glad I am hearing this now!

[@Kalgoras]

I'm starting to learn a second language and this is one of THE most useful and informative videos I've watched and has really motivated me to start exposing myself to native speech again. I had started early and then been put off and doing well learning words, but this has made me realise I'm going to need all that context 🙂🙂 Great video!

[@ChibDibs]

This is a very underrated video. Especially helpful for those trying to learn another language / English (or more specifically American-English).

[@appleslover]

There isn't much of a difference between us English and others Just an accent

[@riazzaman20]

Every language learner should watch this. Great presentation, thanks

[@Josh_DoesStuff]

I love this video. Really helpful in understanding my current problem in learning/understanding my target language

[@geeksaurusrex]

A masterpiece. I've searched far and wide in the Polyglot community. Olly Richards, Steve Kauffman, Gabriel Wyner, Stephen Krashen--but your channel is probably has the most comprehensive and efficient strategy for mastering a language. A lot of those other polyglots will try to give techniques that will work for a large audience so as not to scare anyone off, but you give techniques for a subset of people who really want dedicate a large chunk of their lives towards mastery. I can say your channel has changed the way I think about language learning, and by proxy, it will have changed my life. Thank you Matt!

[@geeksaurusrex]

I also like how you're not afraid to use the best in technology to aid the process. You're really in it to win it! Super inspiring.

[@kairu6794]

Wow, I honestly thought that a video this long would just be a waste of my time. Clearly it wasn't! I'm actually amazed at how in-depth you have gotten with phonetics and listening comprehension. In learning Japanese I never really thought of it this way. Now that I think of it, these "micro" abilities are how I learned English. Excellent content Matt! You've got a new subscriber :)

[@Kara_Pabuc]

This is the best video that've ever watched about this topic on KZbin, well done!

[@jarekmazur102]

I love how the quality of your videos gets better and better with every release!

[@optimizing_fitness]

This video was necessary, amazing, and overall just well-executed, PLANNED, and organized

[@Dice-Z]

It might sound like armchair philosophy, but i've always said that learning how to learn is just as important if not more important than learning. I feel like this video illustrates it well. That being said, while i strongly agree with the swimming analogy overall, i have to say that comparing a physical activity which requires muscle work, motor skills, muscle memory, etc... versus learning a language that requires a lot of thinking, memorizing and such... Is still not a perfectly analogy, although some principles of muscle memory somewhat have their equivalent for the brain aswell, at least from what i understand. Another great video to supplement your points is "How English sounds to non-English speakers" by "Brian and Karl".

[@STtwo]

Dude, the quality of this is amazing. And also props for the great editing. Just do it!

[@rom4102]

To anyone out there learning a language right now: you can do it!!! Think about how you learned your native language, there was nothing to help you translate every new word you were learning you were just immersed in your language with nothing to do but be forced to understand. Just give yourself exposure therapy and keep going, keep listening, keep repeating and you'll eventually get to the point where you can say "holy shit how'd I get here?" If any of you are around any children, you know that they gradually attain language by constant hearing, and eventually they start to repeat what they hear. My theory is that if you learn a word before you learn the meaning to it, it will stick with you longer. (I remember being 7 and hearing the word 'intense' in a game, then asking my sister what it meant, I will never forget the meaning now). In other words I'm glad the biggest point this video taught me was just to immerse myself in my target language because that was what I've been doing since I started.

[@geekmeee]

This is absolutely great... I’ve been married to a native born Mexican for 7yrs and still understand so little or less when her mother visits. She had two kids 12 and 14 when I married her in New Mexico. I never realized how much interpreting the two kids have been doing over the years. Now that their older and moved out...This really makes sense. I can stop beating myself up so much! I forgot to mention we have a 7 yr old daughter who I have watched become completely bi-lingual and fluent in Spanish. She had no facts only ability to discern meaning.

[@futurez12]

This was a really good video; I really enjoyed it. You put a lot of thought and work into it and I agree with most of what you said. That said, I can't help but think that a 5 second video could answer this question: "You haven't listened enough" would be all that's needed. _Everyone_ learns to understand their native language - to a functional level - at almost identical rates (you won't find any 1-2 year olds who can function well in their native tongue); I don't believe this to be a coincidence. We all get a very similar amount of input, and it takes as long as it takes to decipher it; there's no magic formula. Just listen (and try to understand); do it every spare moment you get and you'll get there in the quickest time possible. The less hours you put in the longer it'll take. It really _is_ that simple.

[@LittleThingsinJapan]

Hi Matt. I studied languages in the traditional way for most part of my life and only in my late 20's (I'm 40y/o now and speak Italian, Mandarin and English) I changed the learning approach in something similar to what you are promoting here and it really makes the difference. I love the analogy you made between languages and swimming, it's a perfect fit. I'm re-learning now Japanese after a previous failed approach at University as I'm now living in Japan. Your inputs are great and valuable! Thanks keep up the fantastic job!

[@Thekermetthebog]

Recently my top goal in learning Japanese has been to understand spoken language. This is just the video I needed. Thank you

[@gordonbgraham]

It took me 15 years to become fluent in Japanese...while living in Japan! Yes, being able to understand spoken Japanese is the best place to start. I recommend a beginner's textbook to study the basic sentence structures, vocabulary and grammar as a foundation for listening to movies over and over again. I watched "My Neighbour Totoro" at least 100 times. I couldn't understand a word the first few times. After about 3 months I understood quite a bit. After a year, I could understand most of the movie without subtitles.

[@lyanne2765]

saw this video being recommended in twitter. what a jem! im still on my through learning english (my second language) and korean (3rd). watching this video not only helps me map out an effective routine for my korean, but it also helps me through my english listening skills. this video is so informative that 30mins feels too short

[@Theherbalempress]

as someone in their 4th semester of Japanese in university and still hardly being able to carry a decent conversation, thank you!

[@JacksonTongEnglishImmers-oz5ey]

所有语言学习youtuber中你是心中的第一位，没有之一！期待有一天能听到你说超出母语者的中文，就像你的日语一样！也希望我英语尽快达到母语者水平。

[@kalevipoeg6916]

The perception of how things change when speaking in full sentences quickly and stringing words together is a HUGE reason why Mandarin Chinese is considered one of the hardest languages on the planet - and I know as someone who has been learning it for over a decade, who can speak it alright but who STILL struggles at times - this is because with Mandarin you not only have tones that change the meaning of the word, you not only have references to obscure idioms or ancient poems, you not only have some words with exactly the same pronunciation that mean different things depending on the character, but on TOP of all of that even putting the writing system aside, you ALSO have to contend with the fact that China has many dozens of regional dialects and ALL of them speak Mandarin with different accents and inflections when they DO speak Mandarin - so you end up with Beijing people speaking in ENTIRELY different ways from about 50 other regional accents, so it's not just a matter of getting to the point where you can understand a FEW regional accents in the language but MORE THAN FIFTY. This is why if you watch a show in Chinese it will almost ALWAYS have Chinese subtitles - which to an English speaker might seem weird - why do they need subtitles in their own language? The reason is..because even NATIVE speakers need help with understanding some of the accents found in Mandarin speakers throughout China. I studied standard Mandarin only to discover this when I met my CHinese mother in law and realized I could barely understand ANYTHING she was saying despite her speaking Mandarin. "Zhe shi" came out sounding more like "ze si" - completely dropping the zh and sh for a s and s, and it COMPLETELY throws you off when they come at you with that and are speaking quickly if you have not heard that accent a lot before. NOW I can understand her a lot better after having lived with her and spent a good year of my life with her but there are many OTHER accents out there in China you might encounter. SO if you are learning Chinese you have to understand one thing: that you are NOT going to understand every accent no matter how hard you try - there's not enough time in life to put in the thousands of hours of practice trying to understand the different ways each region pronounces everything. It even varies by individual person! It's really INCREDIBLY frustrating and I wanted to give up so many times after putting in so much work for so many years only to STILL not understand everything but ...that's how it is. The other thing is, you DO need to speak it. You absolutely are right there. You can develop REALLY good listening comprehension while still having trouble actually SAYING anything - I found that out myself with two languages I learned and continue to learn. My listening comprehension in both would be FAR better than my ability to actually come up with novel sentences on the spot.

[@AngelcatWarrior]

Literally thank you so much for including the phonetic example with Chinese, English, and Japanese. I'm learning chinese and wasn't able to repeat it, but I repeated english easily and was able to repeat japanese slowly (due to years of anime lol). This just shifted my perspective of language!!! Thank you!!!!

[@studiodami]

I'm impressed how your videos are just getting better and better. This was a great and useful video.

[@chandlerkirkland475]

I am a native English speaker and this video helped me understand why people say English is difficult. I never thought about the sound shifts in connected speech.

[@peony3807]

Your explanation makes so much sense!!! I’ve been learning French my whole life but it was mostly through books and memorization I’m not bad at it but it’s very limited in terms of speaking. Just a few months back I decided to learn korean and went to a class, we were very much forced to speak the language rather than just memorize and I know how to speak korean more than French despite learning it in less than a year

[@memo6032]

I would have never believed this video if it wasn't for French. For English, my listening skyrocketed after I read a whole 6-books book series in English. This series gave me a lot of vocabulary, I hadn't known before, that all of a sudden straight after I finished it spoken language became crystal clear. But the thing is at that time I'd already been familiar with English for 9+ years. So when I started to learn French, a totally new language, I thought reading books plus improving my vocabulary alone would inevitably improve my listening. Turned out, now I can read whole books in French but I can't understand spoken French without subtitles or unless they're speaking abnormally slow! It's so fun and unbelievable how I can read but cannot hear.

[@Pawnsappsee]

Which series did you read?

[@selah2367]

Fluent in french? Nah I want to become fluent in Jodangle Cropisbundy

[@CloudAkura7]

Lmao

[@benhue3671]

What an amazing video, omg Dude, I've been struggling with english for years, you know. Since I was a child, I had contact with it through movies, music, games, etc, but I never felt comfortable to comunicate, mainly because of fear, my difficulties with pronunciation and missundertood information. The boring grammar studies and unconscious memorizing exercices never worked for me too, (thank you school) so I basically never studied at all and ended up in this "limbo" of kinda understanding but actually not. Only recently that I've found the concept of comprehensible input and your channel as well, and it blowed my mind. At the end of this video I was so happy after realizing that I undertood pretty much everything you said, but also for noticing the amazingness of the brain, and that I probally get to this level at english thanks to the fun moments I had with it. This showed me that I'm actually capable of getting fluent and perhaps without all the heavy effort I used to link to this I'm still not feeling ready to talk, and my listening can still improve a lot, but now I'm expanding how I see the language acquiring and fully dedicated to get more comprehensible input \o/ Thank you for these videos, although I'm not part of the target audience, it helped me very much. They way the images illustrate what you're saying is pretty nice, it worked like a TPRS for me XD

[@benhue3671]

@@croonch6538 thanks!

[@SenShiek]

Damn, I usually don't comment below videos, but really: great work you have put into this video. Even though it is quite long, it is broken down to the bare minimum to understand the concepts you mentioned. Thank you!

[@truthserum3050]

I can't believe how intelligent you are when it comes to language learning. You're such a motivating dude, dude. 👏👏👏 ありがとうございます！

[@easyandslowbrazilianportug8747]

Thank you so much for speaking clearly, as a non-native English speaker, I'm still getting used to the Connect Speech, but I could manage to understand 90% of the video. My speaking is another story, tho

[@rafaelisidoro4983]

I just started learning Korean as my third language (English is the second) and this video helped me A LOT to understand how I should study from now on. Immersion really is the key to get used to new words and phonemes that you don't have in your mother laguage. Now I'll watch my k-dramas without feeling guilty. Thanks for this great video!

[@lamara6145]

Just remember to do it without English subs. Because then you will be just looking at those instead of focusing on what is said

[@Toasterberrry]

Fantastic video. Your best vid I've seen. The general education and entertainment value is so high, I could easily see it blowing up or trending, keep up the good work dude

[@karuch5962]

You have just explained everything that happened to me when learning english and I wasn't even aware of till now, I just went through it. And now it all makes sense. My world will never be the same from now.

[@mikeshoults4155]

I've been living in Japan for a year, only learning hiragana and basic grammer. I still couldn't understand what people were saying. Untill I started studying Kanji, then the sounds were connected to characters which were connected to meanings. The study and the practice need to BOTH be in place. It's like a Roman arch. One missing block and the whole thing comes down. How do you build a Roman arch if you need all the pieces in place at once for it to stand?

[@AstucesLangues]

I've had the same experience. Beginners complain about kanji and I know it sounds hard to believe but they become your greatest ally past the lower intermediate level. Once you can picture the 3-4 most common kanji for the most common on readings (I'm forgetting some but 'dou', 'kou', 'jou', 'tou', 'mei', 'kei', 'kai', 'ken', 'kyuu', 'koku', 'kaku', 'han', 'sei', 'shou', 'kin', 'ki', 'saku', 'shi', 'shin', 'juu', 'tai', 'hou', 'hei', 'dan', 'kan', 'ka', 'sha', 'ji', 'ten', 'dai') compound words stop sounding all the same and your ability to infer the meaning of a new compound word when you hear it for the first time increases by heaps and bounds. For me it started with words like 車内 or 高級車. I had the same 'gotta bitch' feeling that one experiences when finally swatting that elusive mosquito that was driving you nuts. :D

[@Ohrami]

Sounds like you still need to do a bit of English learning if you still can't even spell the common words "grammar" and "until".

[@luvpotion333]

Wow, impressive video! My native tongue is portuguese, but I'm fluent in english as well. I'm intermediate in french and italian, so watching the video and seeing how different my brain deals with english from how it deals with french or italian made all of the things you pointed out extremely clear to me. Now I can follow my language learning process with a new mindset

[@lucminax]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing all this Matt. Helped me more than I could imagine

[@marcodangelo84]

THE best video on learning to understand a language. Thank you sir, you are 100% spot on.

[@Lyverfive]

Thanks Matt. I think this is just what I needed to hear. It is something I have been struggling with for awhile. I am gonna go do a lot more listening to Japanese TV shows. Thanks

[@ariellalima7229]

I love the quote by Yogi Bera.

[@리주민]

"Lets apply this to something we know..." [Shows man running] "...swimming"

[@MrTripsJ]

Thank you so much I needed this for Japanese.

[@Ciaseea]

So important! Remember everyone the more input and practice, the more you will understand it's not instant but once your brain finally gets there sticking to your language goals becomes addictive!

[@s001b]

Legends has it that dude is still running to this day

[@6et6stude]

I am a native english speaker and have been studying Hebrew for a few years now. Although knowing a great deal of vocabulary and reading it easily I can barely say the most basic phrases. I began watching Hebrew movies with english sub-tittles. I could pick up 1 to 3 words to about every 10 spoken never-the-less very disappointed in myself. However after watching this presentation I understand my own brain a little better. I believe learning to read and write Hebrew was important but now I see why I need to watch more movies, listen to music, the news and weather in Hebrew. I'm excited to see this language truly begin to click. Thank you so much!

[@DevinDTV]

25:30 just for fun I tried pausing the video every few tenths of a second to see what I thought was being said, and rather than finding any kind of lag, I found that I was actually "hearing" the next word in the sentence that hadn't been said yet, because I was automatically predicting what I thought would come next. I think we get so used to patterns in speech that we can predict most of it before it's even said.

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

Absolutely. Most of the time the brain is predicting the next word ahead of time

[@GagiTheBoy]

Thank you VERY, VERY, VERY much, for this very informative video. I am in the process of learning Hungarian language, they say that it is not so complicated as Mandarine Chinese, but still it is quite a challenge (who tried it he knows what I am speaking about). Intuitively I applied the listening strategy from the very beginning, and listened for hours. It helps me a lot now when I am in some intermediate stage to say. This video of yours is very detailed, well structured, I learned a lot from all angles that you presented learning process. What to say, but - THANKS. You're THE MAN! :)

[@SunnyV2]

Very awesome vid

[@snide0]

oh

[@jamesfilios6138]

Thank you for this. I’ve been following immersion based methods for a while but there’s always been a certain part of me that has sort of just been doing it on blind faith. This is the first time I think it’s been explained in a way that really drives home why it’s so important in a way that can be logically understood.

[@ricardomunoz8988]

my notes: When learning a language use your eyes and ears. Imagine ”if you were to be stranded in a deserted island, which video game would you take to pass the time”? But instead ”which piece of media in your target language would you take If for at least a total of 100 hours you could only watch/listen to that one”

[@myshro2875]

?