When Learning a Language DON'T Study the "Basics"
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- čas přidán 1. 05. 2024
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Some people say we need to “focus on the basics” when learning a language. However, we acquire various aspects of a language naturally, in an order that we don’t control. It is futile to try to master the basics, some of which will elude us for a long time.
0:00 I have never been able to "master the basics" in a new language.
1:02 The Natural Order of Language Acquisition.
3:32 What to focus on instead of perfecting the basics.
7:01 The importance of de-emphasizing learning the "basics".
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"Focus on enjoying the language." This really is the best advice. Thank you!
I agree you. It's the most important part of journey.
❤I am learning German and pretty much agree with you, I am loving the process.
Simple extra tip: Do not hold back because you are afraid of making some mistakes. You will get better because you train.
This is great advice.
learning languages as a shy person really sucks
@@irgendwer3610you know, everyone is shy when it comes to speaking the languages 😅
I hope you and I will smash this problem in time 😊
hello there ! welcome to the team
That what's I really need to hear . Thank you
"Focus on enjoying the language" : only when i did that i saw real improvement! Thank you, Steve❤
Irresistible cuteness
As a professional language teacher and language learning hobbyist (and enthusiastic Lingq user!), I couldn't agree more with this. Some very important conclusions for language teaching follow upon this attitude regarding "the basics." Over the years I've seen many teachers get exasperated when their intermediate or advanced students slip up with basic vocabulary and sentence structures, and these teachers feel that they have to revert back to lessons on "the basics" that their students then find irritating and de-motivating. I always tell new teachers to avoid this. I also tell my students not to stress out over these slips. As Steve explains here, with increasingly rich input (and I would add increasing production based on that input), "the basics" eventually fall into place. You just have to keep moving with the motivating n+1 content. If teachers and students everywhere got this message, more people would be motivated to learn languages.
I have spend 8 years learning grammar rules of french and English at school, and never learned anything.
Also after time and time we still returned to the basics stuff cause we just forgot them ecc... And it was a pain in the 4ss all over again. Just madness.
When i start learning English i didn't really know what to do ( everyone said " just watch film " lol ) but after a while and after following good teacher like Steven i really learned a lot.
Eventually i did it with french as well.
Started with grammar rules and stuff, and after 1 week i quit.
I started with video for children and things like that, then moved to podcast ecc.. and after 3 months i moved to France lol.
What i did in 3 months with CZcams for free, i couldn't do in 8 years with "" teachers " which should know what they are doing lol.
Now I'm studying German, and is true that is hard, but still manageable to learn.
I've spent the last 40 years teaching English as a Foreign language and can say that I completely agree with this too. Unfortunately, the contrary position is widely believed both by students and supervisors.
Different people have different minds, however. Those who learn a language using a memorise and master the basics method are often precisely those who turn up in the classroom because the other (more normal!) people have dropped out. They don 't like it if you change the way they are supposed to learn. In these cases I presetneded to use the 'basics' method but actually used the natural method.
Yes to a point. I learned Portuguese mostly living in Brazil. I'm extremely fluent and can express myself as comfortably as English (well almost). But as I never learned the basics I still have problems and it's a pain
Not all falls in place. Even in your mother language you are taught basic writing rules and you get grammar lesson at school. You will never get them right in a foreign language either by just waiting that “all falls in place”. I know what I am talking about - I haven’t taught languages but learnt them … This all doesn’t mean that it’s wrong what is said here. Just just need both. And time, time, time. The biggest error is to assume that learning a language is easy and can be achieved “on the fly”. That works - best case - if you are in the country immersed with native speakers. Still I doubt it will work for a completely remote language (like Chinese for me).
@@alexandermenck6609 My generation were never taught English grammar at school. Those who were fully literate had no problem with it. Students of other languages who are taught their own grammar in school do not seem to benefit from it. I'm inclined to think that time spent learning the grammar of one's own language is much better pent reading a book.
Very true what u say about learning a language naturally! I'm a Spanish native speaker, and I learned English without studying, by just chatting on internet, watching movies and games, etc.
Thank you very much for letting me know it's ok to make mistakes. Now my goal is to fully learn Japanese, and I will be doing the same, mixed with studying the alphabet and Kanji 😄
Japanese is a hard language props to you
1 year before I saw you with Gabriel Polyglot. I always thought that learning a foreign language would be impossible for an ordinary person. And today, I can watch this video and understand what you're saying. Thank you.
This is one of Steve's best videos yet. At age 48 I moved to Germany from the UK and had to start again with the language that I had learned in school. Although some 'basics' of grammar were still there deeply buried in my brain, I had to refresh everything and certainly build up vocabulary like a beginner. And here's the thing, although I would now and again look in a grammar book to check something I did not try to memorise 'rules' or lists. Instead I did loads of reading and spent hundreds of hours listening to native speakers and analysed use of grammar in context to understand how the language works.
When it came to vocabulary learning I remember the metaphor of a 'radar' that was often in my mind. At the start all words in the target language are foreign and unknown. Millions of words are flying around in that language every day, both spoken and written. Then your brain notices a particular word or phrase flying across the mind's 'radar' regularly and it begins to pay attention to that word or phrase. For example, every day I would hear Germans say "Sag mir Bescheid". I never learned that phrase in school. What does that mean? Ah, "tell me" or "let me know" in my native language. It took me another two years before I could use it with confidence myself. Now I don't even think about it.
Sixteen years later at age 64 I can stand on a stage in Germany as a professional storyteller and entertain a German audience in their own language. Every time I open my mouth I still make small mistakes. It doesn't matter!
Now I am learning Ukrainian and challenging myself to learn the story of Little Red Riding Hood so I can tell it to native speaker refugees here.
Keep practicing. Übung macht den Meister!
This is a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. Austria is an amazing country, I have spent some time there before in Steiermark.
Vielleicht könntest du dann auch direkt bei deinen Landeskameraden mit dem Vorurteil aufräumen, Deutsch sei eine harte und hässliche Sprache! :D
Its only because of one guy that the whole planet has the prejudice torwards us germans.
@@danielmeier8321 Ja, der Mark Twain hat da wegen 'hässlicher' Sprache viel zu verantworten! Das mit dem Adolf ist so eine Sache. Wenn Millionen auch nicht mitgemacht hätten, wäre er in Vergessenheit geraten. Aber ja, der ungerechte Versailles-Vertrag, die große Inflation und eine gute Portion Verschwörungserzählungen und Propaganda gegen Juden waren alle mitverantwortlich. Die Geschichte ist eben kompliziert.
Ich bin immer wieder beeindruckt, wie die Mehrheit der modernen Deutschen diese Geschichte nicht verleugnen sondern aufarbeiten wollen. Das Gleiche kann ich nicht bei meinen Landsleuten wegen britischem Imperium oder bei den Amerikanern wegen ihrem Imperium beobachten. Zu oft leider nur Selbstgefälligkeit!
Nur ein Tipp für Deutsche im Ausland. Nicht immer sofort die besten Plätze beim Pool mit dem Handtuch 'reservieren' - das kommt nicht gut an! ;-)
That’s amazing. Thank you for supporting Ukraine ❤
Wish you luck with Ukrainian, too :)
It’s not so difficult as it might look first. Btw, we do understand foreigners even if they mix up all the inflections. And it’s inspiring when foreigners try to speak my mother tongue 😊
@@rickyning Yes, thanks to LingQ I am making great progress with Ukrainian. I intend to hold my first conversation with a native speaker refugee in the next few weeks.
I'm Brazilian, and thus Portuguese is my native language. I learned English when I was very young, through immersion in vast English material - music, games, movies, text, etc. I don't remember studying a book or memorizing rules. Before I even knew it, I could come up with phrases which simply made total sense, grammatically, with the patterns I had been picking up on. Since then, I see immersion as the only effective way to learn a new language, one does not have to brute force one's way into a language.
Inspiring. I am trying to learn Japanese and have realized recently that my immersion in the language has been non existent.
@@Mactakun Well You have to.
I’m Brazilian as well and I’ve been trying for decades, but no advance fluency. 😔
Pretty much what I've been doing for the past 2 years, watching stuff and reading comics in English and it's been working quite well
I think the same way that you do, in regards to immersion. I’m an American who traveled to Brazil several times a year. I would call myself intermediate in Portuguese. If I spent two weeks in São Paulo.. by the third day, I would understand most of what’s going on around me. It took that long for my mind to get used to the patterns and the rhythm of Brazilian Portuguese. But you only get there by being constantly inundated with the language. And the best part about it, is actually spending time in that country. Having no choice but to listen and speak intently.
For my journey studying language outside of school and in an environment of full immersion, starting out with grammar and vocab basics on my own yielded little progress I would either forget things easily or not understand due to lack of context. Learning from a teacher gave me a better foundation for 'the basics' because he taught me things that were actually useful, and taught me how to go about learning from others(i.e. how to ask questions). Now as a more experienced speaker and user of the language, coming back to the grammar basics has helped me sharpen my skills and reinforce proper usage.
What a great video! Speaking 4 different languages, after watching this video I understand better why it took me so long to learn 2 of them. Also noticing my twin daughters, 4.5 years old, speaking fluently 4 languages makes me agree with the approach that Steve proposes in this video a lot! Finally, it encourages me to keep teaching my students Greek in an immersive way, which I love. Don't be afraid to listen and speak! This is our natural way of being, learning, and expressing ourselves!
Back in school, my average grade in English was a C. Later, it became an A-, but not because I had put any conscious effort into improving my English, but because I had begun to read books and comics in English. I only used a dictionary when it was necessary. Like you said, you will learn the most common words automatically if you immerse yourself in the language. I think I did pretty well without ever having been to an English speaking country.
Books are the bestest best friend of a language learner, the only problem that i don't like to read. When i read a few books i realized my mother tongue improved, i found words way easier than before, expressing myself became so easy but i don't read anymore. 🙃
True
I did that too, just need to understand word to word and the contex what are they talking about.
To have correct Grammar requires syst😊ematic learning of Geammar.
skill
Same, but with stupids series and stupids contents on youtube! I improved my English in six months a lot more than in ten years at school studying with "serious" materials.
Thank you for this. I've been failing in basics of english since I was a child, and everytime I failed my thoughts were always the same "You're supposed to know this already, why are you still failing at it?" but now I'm trying to forget about that and enjoy the language, not suffer with it.
Your english is great.
You sound native.
@@lynntfuzz Really? I feel praised haha
@@aquamarina7944 totally agree with Lynngolango, your written sentences look 100% like a native speaker's. As a former professional translator, I am keenly aware how easy it is to make tell-tale slip-ups in a language not our own. But you are well beyond that, you and native. So, if you really are a non-native speaker and not just kidding us, hats off to you. I'm in awe :-)
@@TheJusio Wow, I didn't notice that. And no worries, I'm mexican so my mother tongue is Spanish haha, I don't have any reasons to be joking.
Mr. Kaufmann. Good to see you're doing well. I watched a few of your videos over 10 years ago when I started learning English and now my English flucency is near native like. Just so you know you're changing the world out there, sir.
This is the first video I can watch and listen to without subtitles. Thank you for your content and your App is amazing.
I find studying the basics (I.e., grammar) helps in somewhat unexpected ways. First it helps accelerate my noticing and understanding certain patterns. Often I find native speech “in the wild” has so much going on that I’m too overwhelmed to notice patterns. I also find that if I’m really struggling with a particular grammar concept, I realize I’m just not ready for it yet-try again later. Second it gives me confidence to speak a little earlier especially with common patterns (e.g., what to do with modal and main verbs, how to conjugate a particular tense, where do modifiers belong) . There comes a point where certain things just sound right, but studying a little grammar allows me to start playing with the pattern in my output earlier than I probably would otherwise. I’m guessing I need 70-80% input, and 20-30% “studying the basics.”
The people that tell you not to study grammar and vocabulary are usually trying to sell an app or program. I completely agree with your comment and have a similar learning style.
Agreed! in fact, that's the fun part; plus the phonetics and the culture.
Agreed! There is no good reason to do just one OR the other sequentially!!! Learning both “the basics” and getting lots of exposure to the new language at the right level - BOTH at the same time! - is best. I think you greatly reduce your efficiency if you only get natural exposure OR if you only get explanations with a few examples, as in a language learning book.
Of my 5 languages, I learned one of them, Spanish, solely through natural exposure. Though I speak very fluently and understand a wide variety of accents well, a number of errors got “baked in”…like for example, I don’t always use the subjunctive when I should. I think that this tends to happen when you learn as an adult. You don’t necessarily notice everything and if you can communicate, you’re saying, “obviously this is correct” to yourself. Whereas my German, which I learned later through combined theoretical study and practical exposure is more correct.
YES! The OP is clearly a hardcore Krashenite - I’ve got a masters degree in TESOL and Krashen is like the cranky old godfather of Second Language Acquisition studies: he was instrumental in establishing the field, a couple of concepts have stood the test of time, but mostly he’s referred to in the literature as an example of the crazy stuff we used to believe before 40 years of further theorization and empirical research has proven his core hypothesis wrong.
Krashen argued that Comprehensible Input is necessary AND sufficient for acquiring a second language. That’s BS. It’s certainly necessary, but insufficient. Studying vocab and grammar, using language productively, interaction, meaningful practice - these are all important components in language learning. Look up the “interaction hypothesis” for a better sense of why input is not enough, and look up Paul Nation’s “Four Strands” for a very easily digestible sense of the state of the art of our understanding of how languages are learned and how they should be taught.
@@theymademepickaname1248 The only person trying to sell something here is Steve.
If you want to learn a language you need to practice : speaking , reading , listening. If you want learn efficently , learn the basics. Basics are not enough but practicing without basics is a pain.
thank you :)
I cant agree more!
♥️
This! In most languages it's much more efficient to learn the basics in tandem with high exposure to native language content. English imo is not a very good example precisely bc its basics compared to any other language are very... well.. basic! 😁 True, whether it's "he goes" or "he go" IS inconsequential but only because none of the other persons require a (differently) conjugated verb. I'm learning Finnish now and I am experiencing in real time how learning new grammar helps me improve my understanding and speaking from week to week. W/o that it's just total chaos, and being exposed to language that is levels beyond my skills and comprehension is overwhelming, frustrating, demotivating and physically exhausting. I'd much rather learn those basics than have to constantly struggle with my lack of knowledge and the resulting inefficiency.
Don't forget to add listening to that list! Listening is passive, whilst speaking is active.
I can't thank enough CZcams for all contents I watched all these years. I improved my english following the rules said here, i'm studying other three languages( french, spanish and german). Thankyou Sir❤️ I love CZcams's world. I learned to cook, to dance, I've listened audiobooks and podcasts, I begun to meditate and say the affirmations....I just grow so much day by day. I could go on and on... I'm so grateful!!! Thank you ...Danke ...Grazie ...Gracias ...Merci ...
Its true. No matter how fluent we are, we still make the basic mistakes. So we shouldn’t worry about it so much
Valid points - I noticed this myself recently when I started learning Japanese. I kept repeating the first two units in my study book over and over, and at some point it felt like I was stuck. I was so focused on memorizing the “basics“, that I forgot about making any progress. After becoming aware of that fact, I remembered how I actually learned/studied English back in the days, and I noticed that back then I was actually indirectly pushing myself to make progress by reading and listening to things I didn‘t fully understand yet, but I always looked it up afterwards. The more I read and listened, the more easy stuff like grammar and vocabulary became, and at some point, I’d say, it became like second nature.
Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn. I work with Japanese corporate people who tell me they often don't understand what their colleagues are saying. Many of the people I associate with, when I ask them to define something they just shrug.
I'm also learning Japanese as well and I'm at the point where I feel stuck/overwhelmed by the amount I "need" to remember.
@@nathanhaynes2856 I agree, though for me the 'talking' part isn't something I can talk about yet. I'm still at the beginning of my studies, but coming from a language with a simple alphabet, I know that it will pose quite the challenge to memorise all the different kanji. The good thing is, that I have things that keep me motivated, and so, I'm sure I'll figure this language out in time.
@@LAchicktravels Yeah, I get that. It's my first time learning a language on my own. In school you have a timetable, and you basically rush through everything. Having the chance to do things on my own, I hardly challenge or stress myself. I'm not entirely sure which way is better, but I prefer my stress-free plan for now. I'm sure, that especially remembering all the kanji will pose a challenge in the future, but we'll see.
I started learning Japanese when I went to Japan & lived there for 3 years, learning Aikido in a Japanese dojo and teaching English to earn a living. I never took any formal Japanese lessons, but I had a basic textbook, and a weekly exchange "lesson" with a Japanese friend. (Fortunately, we were both self-directed learners, and each used our own lesson time in our own way.) In the beginning I refused to learn the Japanese scripts - but that changed when I noticed that travelling outside the city area, I needed to be able to recognise place names written in kanji. Eventually I decided to learn the katakana & hiragana scripts - which are usually the beginning of formal Japanese lessons. (My son, 12 years old & at an international school, was not as lucky in his Japanese language instruction.)
I was very motivated to learn to communicate with my fellow Aikido students, and it was easy to pick up the simple instructions that were most important! ...However, I very much doubt that my "first 100 words" would have been on anyone else's list...
In learning an actual language to talk to real people, there are all sorts of filler phrases that never make the textbooks but are incredibly important in signalling that you are about to say something. That is where having access to a friendly native speaker is really helpful!
After 3 years in Japan, I was at about intermediate level, not as far advanced as the people who had been studying Japanese intensively but way more advanced than the other group who just gave up & never progressed beyond "konnichiwa".
Now I have been trying to learn Spanish - and it is really hard without that immersion factor... even though Spanish is a much easier language.
Anyway, good luck, have fun, and keep going!
Great analysis. I spent 6 years ( including 3 years in university) to become decent in German. In contrast, about 18 months to acquire the same level in Russian. Russian I ‘‘studied’ for for 2 weeks to get oriented and then watched CZcams videos of pre school stories, kids cartoons, then read teen books, read books, set my Facebook , etc settings to Russian. An hour and a half or so a day but it wasn’t ‘work’ but just part of day to day living. Proper grammar, verb tenses is more of a breeze ‘after’ exposure to thr language and, to be honest, even then have no ‘need’ to be that proficient in writing Russian…it ‘comes together’ using language caps whrn I post on Russian language forums.
Why bother?
with Russian?
Russia has some of the most beautiful literature in the world. There’s a rich and deep meaning you get from it which you cannot get from English or any language in the world besides Russian itself. If you’re curious about Russian literature I’d recommend; Anna Akhmatova, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
@@Alec72HD because Russian women are beautiful
@@Alec72HD tolstoy, dostoevsky
Also Russian women
@@CoxChiropracticAustin
Stay away from my babushkas.
I grew up bilingual, English and Spanish. I learned conversational French and Dutch one year when I was in Europe. Months ago I started learning New Testament Greek. I couldn't agree more about not learning basics. There are so many words and phrases that repeat themselves throughout the Bible and I've learned to easily recognize them as I study every morning, knowing little about conjugation, grammar, etc. Learning it this way makes it much more fun.
Study to make yourself approved by God, a workman worthy of hire, si?
New Testament Greek is a hard task. As a Greek, I will understand the words, but not the meaning. So congrats for undertaking this task!
i am about to do hebrew
I am learning french and turkish as a spanish and english speakers, but I learned spanish and did not acquire it
I love french. As a Spanish native I used French textbooks since I couldn't find good English ones.
Thanks, those are really good pieces of advice that I have been experiencing myself! Learning a language is a long-term process, but when you enjoy it, it's very delightful to learn!
I actually enjoy learning the basics. I need verb charts etc and the classic, traditional way of studying languages. I know I am a mutant.
I agree with the general message of this video although the name itself is kind of clickbaity. I often say to people "don't worry about the grammar and other rules too much". Which is roughly the same as your message: "don't get obsessed with getting every detail right, even if it's basic". There is of course nothing wrong with studying per se, but as you've mentioned, the only proper way to actually master it and bring it to the intuition level is through long practice (listening, reading, speaking).
So helpful! I love this more fluid approach to learning a language. It helps with letting go of the often-times frustrating 'basic' errors and focusing instead on listening/reading lots, enjoying the journey of learning and trusting that the basics will sort themselves out in time.
I've really liked these explanations. It seems like just for learning from a person with such a large experience in learning languages it can make us more relaxed to go on learning and it helps us a lot , just for it. Because when we are being too hard with us, criticizing ourselves too much,it makes us give up or at least be learning in a slower way. Thanks a lot for these precious tips!
"Focus on enjoying the language" I loved that reflection
Great video. Learning a language is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, rather than constructing a building. With a building, the order is extremely important, whereas with a puzzle the whole thing is worked at the same time. Some areas are easier and some are harder. Tackling the easier areas first makes sense, and makes the harder areas more manageable... but it would be absurd to say that you *ought* to complete a given area before moving on to the next.
Great analogy
Totally agree
Hmm...it's not as simple as that imo. There is nothing wrong with "learning the basics" at the same time as using native materials, for example.
@@rayflaherty3441 I agree - you need a foundation in order to make progress. I would definitely say study the basics - it's the idea that you have to master the basics before moving on that I think is the problem. Language isn't math, you don't need to progress sequentially. As Steve points out, plenty of people speak English very well without having mastered the third person singular verb conjugation. They didn't need it in order to move forward.
@@ctnt3126 "you need a foundation in order to make progress" so it's not like a jigsaw puzzle then? Also, I think not studying pronunciation and the alphabet in the very beginning is a recipe for disaster regarding pronunciation; do it at your own risk.
The problem with this idea is that as an English teacher living in Spain, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the basics are what people are missing more than anything. Numbers, alphabet, the times, ordinal numbers etc, all of which have a direct impact in the world of work. In terms of the natural order of language acquisition, people learning a second language realistically never acquire language in anything resembling a natural way.
"Numbers, alphabet, the times, ordinal numbers etc" precisely what most instruction seems to focus on, and yet these things are hard to learn up front. Better to let them come to you naturally. I'm glad I don't have a language teacher like you.
@@Thelinguist Firstly, thanks for the reply, although I'm not sure why you felt the need to conclude with a personal insult. It just goes to show that it's possible to reach a rather advanced age and learn a lot of languages having never acquired basic manners and humility.
In any case, let me further explain my point. I, for the most part, teach adults who require English for their job, in a professional setting. Being able to hold a conversation and express themselves but being unable to understand a time or dictate an email is unacceptable, and appears very unprofessional, especially to someone who doesn't understand that it's often the basics that are lacking in a non-native speaker.
Whether or not the curriculum in the average school in Spain focuses on the basics (in my opinion it actually doesn't), is irrelevant. Focusing on an objective and achieving it are two very different things. The fact that 'most instruction' (and your own methodology by the looks of things) fails to effectively teach the basics, doesn't mean you give up and leave it to the client to come to you (when in the real world, they don't).
Would a personal trainer, coach or doctor allow the client/patient to determine how and when they should resolve an issue?
You mentioned that you're glad you don't have a language teacher like me, well I can say the feeling is mutual, but I'd add that I'm also glad I don't have a family member or colleague like you, as frankly you seem like a bit of a c#nt.
Have a nice day!
Amazing video. I guess I was being over-critical of myself while I'm learning the basics. I needed this, thank you!
I'm all for studying the basics. You won't learn it all at once, but if you know the idea of how to conjugate a verb it's easier to understand what you're practicing, so it becomes faster to internalize the patterns.
I also recommend watching videos and reading books in your target language to see how the language is used, and practicing with a native speaker is a bonus if you can.
There are some "basics" or patterns that require attention. I am studying Turkish (just for fun) right now. Of course I didn't know anything about how they conjugated their verbs in the beginning. So, I had to give that a look before I advanced. I couldn't very well learn them accurately just by watching tv shows! I had to stop and look them up in books and/or watch language videos or internet websites with the information listed, and then practice them a little. Then I went back to my tv shows and understood the conversation just a little better than I had before. The progress is slow but steady. That's about the best I can do.
The actual argument he gives doesn't support not learning the basics, it supports the weaker suggestion not to think you have to have all the basics perfectly ingrained before moving on
@@joshpecksdad7159 so what should we start with when learning Mandarin? I just did all the things you listed 😅
I agree with you. With languages such as Farsi or Arabic, it is crucial to learn verb conjugations as they determine the tense you wish to speak in, just like any other language.
There are a few core principles which must be fully understood to speak any language such as knowledge of verbs, nouns, prepositions, and a few transitives.
Without these a sentence is incomprehensible.
@@Abu_Ghufraanyeah, there are essential "basics" which you should learn even if you're gonna learn by immersion and don't care much about grammar, I don't understand how some learners don't see you should have both theory and practice to learn a language well, you just should find your way of doing both things in proportions that are good for you and your goal
Nice to hear this. I am currently learning my 5th language, Greek, at age 67.
I learnt French in school over 5 years then lived in Belgium and France for a total of 5 years. My first wife was also French which helped and so my French became pretty good.
I moved to northern Switzerland where I went to night school for a semester to learn German and learned absolute basics but a) I was hearing Swiss German dialect during the daytime in my job and b) learned the rest of my German at work or in the street and later with my wife. Now after 30 years it's not bad.
I went to night school for 2 or 3 semesters to learn Italian so I could talk with my father-in-law a) but they explained the grammar in terms of German so that didn't help me much. However because of my strong French I could fill in many gaps and understand and speak well enough for my needs.
I am now learning modern Greek in German and the grammar explanations relate to German grammar which I still really don't know well, so it's uphill work. But although I don't know the basics very well, I feel they will fall into place as soon as I can understand more and speak more. So I'm not too worried - because at my age I know that people will probably understand what I want to say, even if it's not correct. The best way would probably to get a live-in Greek girlfriend but I don't think my wife would be too keen! 🙂
*Bottom line: I agree with Steve - get familiar with some basics but move on. They'll fall into place when you get more practice and experience listening and speaking*
All the best, Rob in Switzerland
Dang. If only I had a Japanese or French girlfriend/wife, etc.
The trick is to marry a new wife every time you learn a new language. Expensive, but effective.
so the secret is getting a wife that speaks the language you want to learn, got it!
@@facucu5957 Yeah, it cost me 3 houses and hundreds of handbags and thousands of shoes - but it was worth it! 😂😂
Does your 5th wife approve of this message?
Thank you. Actually, overthinking about grammar rules has prevented me from speaking English in many situations and made me feel embarrassed about making mistakes. Your words in this video will help me overcome this problem in my attempt to speak English, increase my confidence, and enhance my language proficiency through reading and listening as you advised in this video. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much! I am learning now finnish and just got tired and watched this video. It gives me a new perspective!
Such good advice!
The "basics" you need to learn are the rhythm, melody and meaning of tones. This is what animals and little kids use to understand messages coming from adults. Immerse, immerse, immerse. Be sure you're immersing yourself in conversation with people who speak well. Let them know you're trying to absorb the language, not so they'll correct you, but so they'll be careful how they speak.
It is so encouraging to hear your this course! I have lived in English speaking countries for over 30 years, studies and work in English environment, but I still feel my English is not good enough, this really make me feel bad. I listened yours another course, you suggested spending 70% time listening! That is a wonderful suggestion, thank you !
Your videos are by far the best language learning videos I've heard in my life.
Great video! While I'm Indian, my first language is English, and when I moved back to India from abroad, I had to learn the local language, Kannada, to get around. My language acquisition was just like how you said. I heard people speak for a couple years and imitated it, got ridiculed sometimes too, but eventually, I attained moderate fluency, and I can now read (although my vocabulary is very small and I can't understand many words). Like you said, I couldn't learn the basics. I was thrown into the advanced level right off the bat, and it actually really helps.
Such wisdom. What you're actually saying is that you can trust the force of the language in terms of other people using the language that will guide you 'en masse' as it were to conform yourself to it - much like a road with no signage or markings, if many cars are together on that road, they accommodate one another in more or less a natural go with the flow way. Its about harmonising within extant usage and allowing it to shape you. This is how babies learn, and its about really concertedly taking the language in (as if your life depended on it).
Great points, Steve! Im learning Polish and I have been stuck with this fantasy of acquiring "the basics" of Polish before I learn something new, but I end up beating myself up all the time because I realize that its too complicated for my Norwegian ear to grasp "all the basics" without making mistakes! I think I gotta continue to learn new words and stop caring too much about making it perfect or Im not getting anywhere
I've followed Steve and the LingQ project for years, had it not been for LingQ, I wouldn't have passed a C2 test with confidence and every one of his insights can save you years, LingQ is just the beginning. Besides from that, when one starts learning a new language, it's very easy to fall on the trap of "mastering the basics" because you come from this place either in your own mother language or a language that you recently mastered/got to be fluent in and you somehow buy into this illusion of hyperfocusing in details. As Steve has said in other videos: "with enough exposure, the language is the teacher".
This is awesome. Everyone goes at their own pace, from different angles, and no one ever speaks the same "English" or "Spanish", etc. That's how dialects form. You speak based on the things you need to communicate. With necessity comes communication. It's a journey where you encounter the same characters in different places, like the Wizard of Oz!
Certainly a lot of things are right. However, it’s also a simplification. It works in total immersion e.g. when you move to the country of the language. “At home” it is difficult to get the necessary level of immersion. It sounds easy to “learn as a child” but children take - almost literally - ages to master a language. And they are fully immersed expressing a lot of frustration very loudly when they do not succeed. Adults usually cannot…
Adults can't learn like children. We need to learn the grammar in order to understand it, otherwise we take ages trying to understand why words are different in each case we encounter. It's much more efficient for an adult just to learn the rules
It makes us feel better to have grammar, because it calms us; yet I have noticed the exposure to the target language is what works the best
I could not agree more! I am a professional language teacher and have had to use mixed bag of methods and my conclusion is that there is NO perfect approach to teaching/learning a language when you are "at home". The amount of time you ARE NOT IMMERSED in the target language and culture is a major component to take in consideration. I have had all types of students, mostly adults, and some are more intuitive and adventurous. others can only advance when they feel safe and sure; some have time to study by themselves and some can barely have a one session per week. So I really think having the knowledge of different methods and using them as needed is the best approach.
By the way, I learned English the other way around - I enrolled in an ELS course in New York and studied there for six months. After these six months, I enrolled in a undergraduate course at Wagner College for six more months and the rest is history. However this is not a reality for the majority of ELS learners.
I have also had the experience of studying Egyptian Arabic at home and believe me, I have this experience as a good understanding of what my students go through.
@@olaf2627 Yes and no. I have spent four years in a workplace with lots of foreigners coming over to Germany for a limited time, a lot of them trying to pick up the language on the side. A reoccuring theme was their frustation with all the irregularities. Learning the rules is just a place to start from. I still remember chatting with this French lady about studying for her B1 exam with the Goethe Institute. She was talking grammar rules I had never heard of (despite being able to apply them correctly), and I was a pretty good student back in my high school days. And this was just B1. They also have an A level...
Thank you for this video Steve! I'm currently learning Spanish and I've noticed that I don't really like to study the basics in the work book that I have because I don't retain much but when I'm actively listening to music or actively engaged in the language somehow like *changing my language on my phone to spanish.* *Listening to spanish podcasts/music* I feel as though I retain more. One habit I'm currently doing is purposely trying to incorporate the spanish language into my life. What I don't know now, I will eventually know. Also, it will help me to better understand how I learn things.
This is really a very encouraging lesson: Have fun on the learning curve and maintain your motivation by taking the big steps first. The details will come automatically later and the errors will be fewer.
Thank you CZcams for suggesting me this channel. You've got a new follower Professor. Greetings from Mexico! 🖖🏽
*_This is most helpful!_* Learning a language immersed in that society has been difficult for me because my wife speaks 90-95% perfect English and rarely attempts her own language with me. I'm still more fluent with the Spanish I learned some half century ago! In fact, most every citizen here in the Philippines learns English as a 2nd or 3rd language because it is used in all legal documents.
Thank you for the advice. This is very encouraging. I tend to overthink and overanalyze verb conjugations and it has stopped me from taking initiative in speaking French. I will try to speak without worry about mistakes. Eventually, if I hear enough people around, I will naturally correct myself.
If i don't learn the basics, I can't understand a word of yours, professor.
Different people might have different learning styles. I find it easier to learn grammar as well as I can, and add vocabulary as I go along. I found it immensely frustrating that my Japanese teachers not only seldom would teach the grammar - at times they did not even know it. For learning the kanji characters: they never told us that there were basic components which would recur over a wide range of kanji. Instead, we were instructed to learn the stroke order, though it is easier just to recognize and assemble known components. If you know the common components, you at least have a chance at guessing the meaning of an unknown character.
True. An analytical person can learn a language amazingly fast through grammar.
To naturally learn a language as we do our mother tongue takes years of direct exposure.
That is probably because the process of learning a language includes a huge part of personal observing, attempting to build the logic and associations. Some people, like me, for example, prefer to see the whole picture before picking out the details. But many others just love obtaining new skills, or information mechanically, because there isn't enough time to think of the rules while the process of speaking, and that's why it may seem useless to spend a lot of time to learn the theory by heart instead of getting hands-on experience right away. But in my humble opinion, it's worth to understand the rule once and get the logic, and you'll be able to recall any rule again from the examples. Win-win. And teachers exist to guide you, so just don't hesitate to ask them your tricky questions :) Who knows, this may open completely new ways of explanation and study one day.
That was probably because that was the way that they learned it (as native speakers, which I assume that you are not). It's a tradition thing. So, they figured that if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for you. What they don't realize is that some flexibility is needed, and that there are multiple strategies that can and could come into play in learning any language, depending on how that language is structured.
Incidentally, I saw a video a while back in which a guy interviewed and tested Japanese people on the street about their knowledge of the Kanji. A LOT of them didn't even know what they meant! Many just guessed (always wrong). The average Japanese person's knowledge of Kanji is probably not that great. That says something about their teaching methods and the weaknesses involved, does it not?
@@tabletalk33 I had suffered from the scientifically unsound contention that the best way to learn a foreign language, is gone child-like. A problem with that, is that adult brains do not functionally much resemble those of infants. In the course of developing into adulthood, the brain reconfigures itself.
Expecting a mind to perform well with developmentally obsolete tools, might not yield optimal results.
@@philipb2134Excellent points! Yes, that is why a baby learns NATURALLY as he is growing and maturing while surrounded by loved ones and neighbors. Adults are no longer involved in that process. Thus, they need many artificial aids and helps to take the place of the family/neighborhood environment in order to jump start them in their learning process. That's an ARTIFICIAL method of learning, and it's not nearly as effective as the natural one.
Your video popped up in the suggestions , and I'm glad that I clicked on it. I'm a non-native English speaker, and I never went through the basic. I actually started with listening pop music ,then Rap which was really tough to understand at the time. Now I guess my English is not that bad, but I still lose the basics from time to time. And sometimes I correct myself within seconds. It depends even on the mood. The message I got from your video prof , is that we shouldn't feel bad about our level is the key to level up. It's actually a good tip in every attempt to learn any skill.
Respects from Morocco.
I think you're right. Personally, I've always been very good at the "basics" and was usually at the top of the class in my college language courses since that's what they tested for. But when it comes to actually having real life conversations, I'm terrible!
From what I've seen, this way of learning a language (English in my case) proves to be one of the best to start communicating more or less naturally, fluently and without translating in your head. Especially, if you get a chance to go abroad for the studying. But, personally, I'd do much worse and longer without Murphy grammar books and detailed grammar explanations by native speakers with tons of spoken English examples on You Tube. I'm so grateful to you Steve and all the teachers on this platform! You've made learning English so affordable and comprehensive that there can be no more excuses for not doing it❤
Great video and happy you appeared in my feed today. I have pretty much thought what you put into words for years . Thank you
The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3XJvPyA
My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com
What do you think about this idea of “mastering the basics of a language”?
Your channel is awesome, really cool, absolutely helpful. Thanks for all this great stuff.
I love this video! True to this story, I also struggled to learn most of the basics. I remember being stuck with the "I am, you are" etc table and the teacher having me stay on that chapter till I learned it. I eventually got it on a certain level and continued to take lessons till I was 13 years old and took my exams for the B2 level (barely passed). I was one of the worst students in my class and stopped the lessons altogether afterwards.
Fast forward 7 years and having read a lot of books in English (I had to because the sequels of my favourite series hadn't been translated in my native language yet). I somehow became one of the most naturally speaking English people in my group of friends and peers. I didn't even put any effort into the learning process. I just acquired it. I didn't even know the grammar I was using (I still don't 🤣). I was just using it.
For example, I remember I had always struggled with the difference between "through, thought, though, throughout, tough". I couldn't write them, I couldn't understand the meaning of the words if I ever saw them. But when I started reading books, the words were always in context! And that really made all the difference.
Often context matters more than the actual words that are spoken or written.
If I stand up in a crowded restaurant, look around anxiously and then say "Aidfggh Xerophad kmaizee?" to a waiter he will probably point to the Men's Room.
This video is a treasure for language learners, I loved the idea of indulging myself in a language without worrying about the basics and I have made incredible progress in one of the most hardest languages which is Japanese. Thank you.
Thank you! As a nursery school teacher I’ve always thought that “natural way “ to learn is The best one. Quarelling a lot with others teachers I really appreciate your contribution, thank you thank you thank you.
YOU ARE MY HERO!!!! Thank you so much for the knowledge and the ideas that you bring!!!🙏🏽
I speak fluent Japanese, which I learned in a traditional undergrad classroom that focused on the basics first, as usual. What ended up helping me really get good was watching subtitled anime for years, thanks to hearing the language spoken naturally in it, but the formal instruction was needed so I could differentiate between legit speech and exaggerated anime speech. There's merit to the basics, it just doesn't have to be the core element of learning is all.
Agree, it's also good for some basic vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and if you watch the right shows, especially non-anime shows, pronunciation and pitch accent.
When you say subtitled, do you mean japanese subtitles?
Interesting point of view. As English teacher I try to combine both options, showing the "basics" and doing more natural exercises, like conversations, reading comprenhension...
“Focus on enjoying the language” love it! 👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge with us Steve, is always a pleasure to listen to you. I'm a spanish person trying to learn Norwegian. I would like you to speak a bit more about Scandinavian languages!. Thanks
This is how I actually started learning Ukrainian.
I was initially too caught up on the proper grammar but as soon as I started to just try to read, listen and speak it started to come together.
I'm still far from fluent but I can hold a basic conversation.
Exactly my experience! I am ignoring studying the grammar until I really need to. Have spent nearly three months just listening and reading and preparing to have my first conversation with a native speaker in the next few weeks.
У вас все вийде😍Дякую, що опановуєте мову моєї країни, після перемоги чекаємо на вас в гості, в Україні!
@@user-qf5oo3kf5v Дякую це дуже приємно.
Я народився в Запоріжжі але емігрував коли був дитиною. Я знав тільки російську мову.
Чекаю перемоги. Дуже хотілося би повернутися до рідного міста.
Very amazing to hear!
It's a lot of impressive perceptions. Thank you!!
The stages of foreign language learning are : acquaintance, practice and immersion. They can be done simultaneously. It is not easy, but watching subtitled movies is a great way of immersion. 😁Cheers ☺️
I agree with what you are saying here ,as a native English speaker living in Hungary. Hungarian is quite difficult for English speakers..but I follow the policy of giving it a go and trying to memorise the common words as I come across them without getting too hung up over the grammar. It’s a slow process but gradually it seems to bear fruit .
I am trying to learn Arabic at the moment to move to Saudi Arabia, it's a slow process but I think the key is that I really like the language and the way it sounds, which has helped me to improve noticeably.
Thank you, Steve! I agree that many of us beat ourselves up unnecessarily. I have to remind myself that as a child I wasn't fluent in English from the get-go and made tons of mistakes over the years (and sometimes still do!).
I just stumbled upon this video, and I found it fascinating. This is the way I have been teaching myself, and I kept thinking I was going about it all wrong. I learned some French vocabulary and pronunciation. I then started to watch some French language TV shows, and very quickly I was able to recognize some words and phrases. Before long I was able to stitch a few words together and make some sense of it. Long way to go, but I feel better about my approach after seeing this video. Thanks Steve!
I’m doing exactly the same regarding French and have made more progress by myself in 2 weeks than in the year I took French at school. I can make simple sentences but what’s more important is that I got used to the sound and pace of language and I’m starting to replicate it.
I am a non-native ESL teacher and Intermediate French speaker, and I can agree with this strategy for myself and for most of my adult students, as well as for most of kids. However, there are some of my both adult and kids students, who are desperately incapable of noticing language patterns with whatever material you give them. They're just waiting for the teacher to give them certain grammar and vocabulary to learn. And only after they're familiar with all the vocabulary and grammar, after they've learnt it by heart, they can watch or read something with this grammar or vocabulary, because now they're not afraid of it. I believe, it might be the Soviet Union heritage, but that's a fatal fear of anything unknown and a fear of independent action which doesn't let such people learn naturally.
В общем, главное в этом посте- обгадить советское наследие, умудрившись сделать это даже при описании методов изучения иностранных языков. Возьми с полки пирожок.
@@dherblay1 i do agree, my students don t want to make any effort to learn by themselves, so, grammar helps them to understand.
The last sentence of the video really hit the nail on the head: "Don't focus on the basics; focus on enjoying the language". The late great laoshu505000 did just that; he focused on memorizing phrases at first and would then study grammar later. I've done the same with Hebrew, and it's really helped me not get bogged down with the grammatical complexities of the language. I find that tackling difficult grammatical concepts isn't such a slog if you already have a bunch of words and phrases under your belt, derived from courses and/or natural input like movies/books/music in the language. Public school Spanish classes really killed the language by beating us over the head with too much explicit grammatical instruction.
This.
"Focus on enjoying the language" ABSOLUTELY! Higher levels of learning happen when we are enjoying whatever it is, being curious and to a lesser extent being a little frustrated (developing the desire to know more). Wonderful presentation.
I agree absolutely! I’ve just finished my Krashen’s Five Hypotheses in multi-classroom participatory research in a primary school in Phitsanulok, Thailand. The kids learn English as a foreign language, as well as integrating in Math & Science as much as possible, from Thai teachers who speak English well enough. I introduce Japanese as L3, as special activity that focus on enjoying the language. The kids are in Grades 4,5,6 a total of 151 students. The are able to acquire Japanese language at the 3rd level (begin to speak & write Japanese by themselves). I’m Thai, literate in English & Japanese with most Loatian dialects. Used to teach English in primary school & experienced teaching beginner Japanese through natural approach. I believe that SLA Theory should be very useful to Thailand’s foreign language education.
I totally agree. I am a language teacher and because a love learning languages, I communicate it by just enjoying and having fun with it. Immersion by listening, singing, and just saying it, and have fun with it.
Wholeheartedly agree! Many school systems mistake actually "teaching/learning " a language with "studying its rules as a scientific topic" at a university. - With the result of sheer frustration for many students, like me 30 years ago.
Very true.
Hi Steve.Thanks for the motivational talk!I keep struggling with a German language,even after almost 3 years living in Austria.I keep watching your videos for motivation.
I thought this was specifically about programming, but it still applies actually.
you have given valid points, I have been learning English for 2 years and struggling with sentence formation and translation ..thanks for your suggestions
I wholeheartedly concur your words. I find, this is one of the significant concepts every language learner has to understand in order to level up their language skills. I feel sometimes it (Mastering basics) hinders me to go further too, because the feeling of incompleteness sucks my energy. And I always remember this quote that says, "Success is not the key to Happiness ; Happiness is the key to Success".
Thank you for making videos frequently ☺ Happy language learning grandpa!
Great advice,now I feel less presure about learning language.
Thanks alot! i learned Turkish exactly the way you described sir, i am as good as native speaker & got a TYS certificate C2 Grade.
that is very simillar to what i thought and your video has given me confidence about the way i think about learning or teaching a language. i had an idea that i will develop it through implementing it i have been doing it actually pretty similar to what you expressed. thanks again best regards
Estoy completamente de acuerdo, con Steve Kaufman, yo he perdido el tiempo prácticamente tratando de tener unas bases fuertes en lo básico, y éso mas bien ha hecho que me haya estancado por mucho tiempo. Hoy en día estoy tratando de leer y escuchar más sin importar cuantas palabras aprendo, etc, y he visto que ahora entiendo con más facilidad. Muchas gracias por el vídeo, Mr. Steve 👍👍
Basic vocabulary and grammar are called basic beacuase they are used daily and are most common as they are used in nearly every topic by natives.
If someone doesn't know the meaning of water or hungry or can't use the present simple for over 6 months after learning, then his learning process is just wrong.
I use frequency lists if available to narrow down to the words you MUST know in a foreign language. While it is true that the common words may show up anyway, oddities can arise, depending on what texts you encounter. For example in learning German I naturally learned Gesicht ("face") quite early but it was not long after that I encountered Antlitz, which means the same thing but is poetic and literary, and found in a work of 19th century literature. But Gesicht is a lot more useful to learn.
Amazing content, thank you so much Steve!
The biggest takeaway I got from this essentially boils down, in my mind, to this; "learn as a child learns." Listen, mimic, ask questions. Eventually things start to "stick" and connect.
I've taught English for a long while and I can garantee that once a person learns something incorrectly, it's much harder to fix that.
Why would a person learn something incorrectly?
Why we don't learn our first (native) language incorrectly?
What makes you think that traditional (grammar first, comprehension last) method doesn't develop incorrect patterns?
@@Alec72HD ''Why we don't learn our first (native) language incorrectly?'' Actually a lot of people do, in lots of dialects in parts of England people have a tendency to pronounce ''th'' sound like ''f'', which is technically not correct English. Once a person starts doing this, it's really hard to ''fix'' it (plus they don't want to because lots of people do it anyway). So that makes perfect sense that a foreigner could develop lots of incorrect things which become hard to fix later on.
@@holliswilliams8426
My argument was that incorrect patterns also develop through traditional "grammar first" methods.
It also depends where do you teach English.
Do you teach it as a foreign language or is it a second language to your students?
Also you are nitpicking about native language speakers having a regional dialect.
The whole England uses a regional (incorrect) dialect called British Engrish or RP or something.
Absolute majority of (native) English speaking world lives in North America and basically speaks American. That includes Canadians.
Good video. I personally believe it’s a combination of both….not 100% mastering the basics and not 100% obtained from input initially. Before reading (depending on the language), you may need to learn it’s alphabet or script…..otherwise you will probably not be able to read the language….also, if you don’t know at least basic grammar it will be very hard to consume input…even after basic grammar it will be hard initially…but I think it would be just a bit less hard…..doesn’t have to be particularly a different forms of a verb…but just basic enough grammar…to maybe at least recognize the dictionary form of the verb so it can be, for example, found in a dictionary…things like that….in my opinion help a lot…..
Great explanation. There may be "basics" that need to be acquired in the early stages, but they certainly aren't the basics that are covered in most traditional language courses in our schools.
This video was super super encouraging because I have been studying spanish consistently for about 4 to 5 months now and I still mix up ser and estar here and now again and I literally make the most basic mistakes and I get so frustrated because I keep thinking I need to have it nailed down but, if you think about it children make grammar mistakes when they first learn their native tongue so as you were saying you just need to be confident and keep trying you know trial and error.
Great video. Agreed, but not by consciously ignoring learning them when necessary at various points in time as we go along. Meanwhile it has to be said the basics of many or the majority of languages can be studied and got familiarised with in a matter of days. So no harm in going over them let say by reading a book picking up whatever one can and then putting the book back on the shelf, perhaps referring to it occasionally later when needed.
This might be true for most people but not for everybody. I personally suck at immersion, I have to _know_ the basics, especially grammar, to remember and especially use a language. Right now I'm learning Slovak and encountered the phrases for 'How do you do?' (Ako sa maš?) and just couldn't remember it. Only when I deconstructed it and found out that the individual words meant 'How yourself make you?" I remembered it. But I still have to construct it in my mind from time to time. So, shout out to people who can do all this natural learning but that there are other people who need the guidelines of grammar and rules ; )
Yeah I learn Czech and I know what you are talking about. This natural learning works (at least for every child) every learning takes a lot ... a lot more than I initially thought. This grammar rules give you a sense of security but at the end when you speak you will struggle remembering all the endings of the cases of nouns, verbs and adjectives and so on. So my advice is that you take podcasts, listen to them day by day. The best is that you have content that is 1:1 the same in your native language so that you get a sense what they are talking about. Listen to every episode 5 to 10 times.
Pay attention what sounds nice in Slovak which means ... how sounds a sentence right (with the endings). With time (a lot) you get a sense of how something works.
Give you 4 to 5 years for basic understanding and another 5 years for fluency. But thinking about such details like "Ako sa máš" is worth it because you learn something new. Grammar is only a description of how a language works but by learning grammar you cant speak a language.
I think the key is to not get stuck on trying to learn everything "perfectly", because eve as a native English speaker, the chances are most people you talk to can't tell you how the grammar works and aren't perfect in their speaking, writing, etc... No one has a perfect grasp on anything, especially language. I am a perfectionist studying Mandarin, so I kind of understand the points hes making. Sometimes we get way too caught up trying to make sure everything is perfect. Study the basics in the shallow end, but dive into the deep in every once in a while and try to use your skills to swim.
This would be the longest way of learning for me. I would try to learn this phrase by trying to remember the sequence of first letters of words - a s m.
He isn't saying to disregard the basics, only to beaware not to trip over them. As in your case, they can be a valuable tool, but its only one of the tools, even if its youre most comfortable.
Thank you for all your replies. Of course I'm also trying to get comfortable with the language. Vienna is close to Slovakia so I can switch on Slovak radio and listen to it - and I'm always very happy when I understand a word or two ; )
But grammar and vocabulary are my path, my ladder.
Anyway, it's fun so I started a channel about my experience learning Slovak. If you're interested here's the link:
czcams.com/video/CiYqr9nfvrk/video.html
I learned Dutch from tv subtitles on shows in english. I found when I eventually bought a book that I knew some advanced grammar but didn't know the basics at all. They followed quickly.
Great advice.
I love all your videos. Learning English sounds fun. You are very nice. My English class today was frustrating, but when I watch your video, I can relax.
This approach really helps with the languages not so distant from your own. That's exactly the way I, bilingual Ukrainian, learned Polish to ~B2 without any formal training. I absorbed it with different intensity for more than a decade before I had got a feeling that I would need to master grammar to be able to write and speak. And so, upon obtaining that knowledge, along with listening to their radio, I became fluent surprisingly fast.
No idea, how would it work with the language I'm learning know, German... English is not my native tongue, certainly....
The best advice I heard is to identify the most difficult aspect of the language you're learning and then completely ignore it. In German, I don't worry about noun genders, in Spanish I don't worry about conjugation, in Mandarin I don't worry about tones, in Polish I don't worry about spelling. As long as I get my basic idea across, it's a win, and if I'm ever in a situation where I'm using these languages all the time, I'll just pick it up as I go. I'm not trying to write poetry, just buy a drink and find the bathroom!
The most difficult aspect of Polish is spelling?! It is one of those langauges where the spelling is quite regular...
@@EECyrpys I dunno, the random string of 5 Cs and Zs in the middle of each word was messing with me, so I switched to a different app that didn't make me spell
@@estoy_aprendiendo_espanyol I kinda agree with you, but I think commentator's idea was that you shouldn't dwell on hard elements of the language the whole time. And ignoring them for the time being is a truly useful advice
Of course it is and a lot of Polsih people make spelling mistakes themselves! There are hundreds of rules and even more exceptions. :p
And you are right to do so, as a Polish citizen if I knew that you are learning the language I would totally give 100% tolerance to your spelling mistakes.
How does this man speak straight no camera cuts? A born pro. 😲Also great point. As an English teacher, I want to incorporate this into my methodology. Awesome vid!
love this!! thank you! very helpful.
This really helped. I wanted to come up w/ a learning plan. Which still might kind of happen as far as time wise. But now I know its something I don't have to build knoledge structurally like math from basics. I think this also makes sense bcuz every persons "set" of vocab is different. I saw a video once I think by Nathanial drew. He explained it like I think like what topics orbit the sun. as if ur the sun & u have main interests & thoughts that usually surround u. Where as say someone like a docotor for example has entirely different "set" of vocab. 😎
I'm a native English speaker learning French and this video makes a lot of sense to me. I have had many tutors all of whom correct my mistakes, either during the class or via an email after the class. The latter is a better idea as I can browse through them later and try to take note of them. But as Steve says I go on making the same mistakes again and again. So this focus on basic mistakes is largely a waste of time. None of my tutors have ever told me this, I presume its because they don't know any better. Before I take on a new tutor I now plan to ascertain their attitude to this concept. It should make for an interesting conversation.
Well if your tutor never points them out, they may never get fixed. I also make basic mistakes in French (eg. not agreeing adjectives with nouns), and continue to make them. However since my tutor has highlighted them, their frequency has decreased and sometimes I manage to correct myself before speaking. So I still think feedback is important and if feedback has no effect, you should think about how you are taking it onboard.
Hi. That's so true to me. I started to follow your vlog a few days ago. That kindled my desire to learn new languages. I (re)started with German to which I was exposed many years ago. I could see how my brain works hard to navigate. Then I wondered how would I fare with Italian which I never venture to listen to. I took a book and started to read and amazingly I could piece things up and understood more or less. It's because I am fluent in French. I saw how my brain worked differently with the Italian. I listened to the audio and the words became even clearer. So I listened to Italian the whole day while reading the caption and by the evening I felt I improved a lot. I think I am catching up in one day what I grabbed in many months in German. The brain finds connections with what has already been acquired. Thank you.