My BEST TIP For Maintaining Foreign Languages
Vložit
- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- If you'd like to check out Atomic Habits - the book we discuss in the video: bit.ly/robins-atomic-habits
After over a decade of thinking about the problem of maintaining foreign language skills, I've been thinking about what is the most helpful single piece of advice I can give to help people succeed. I'm going to share my best tip with you today!
//== Links ==//
❤️ Join my wonderful Patreon community:
/ robinmacpherson
❤️ Follow me on Instagram @
_robinmacpherson
✍🏼 Try my foreign-language Journaling app, Journaly!
www.journaly.com
📖 Check out my book, How To Maintain Languages:
www.robinmacpherson.co/shop
💌 Join my delightful newsletter & access my free downloads:
www.robinmacpherson.co/newsle...
You're basically talking about the magic of compound interest.
lol but that's why it's kind of bullshit. that's usually not how progress in complex skills goes, is it? it doesn't get faster and faster in an exponential way, it usually doesn't even go up in a linear way forever, or even for a year, how is that sensible?
I'm four months into learning Portuguese and some days it feels like it will take forever to reach fluency. A reminder that it happens by consistent (daily) incremental steps is helpful motivation. Obrigado, senhor!
I'm glad you found this to be a helpful reminder, pathwayrev! It's exciting to think how many steps you can accumulate in four months, and where you'll be in four more months! 😄De nada, é um prazer! 😊
I had the same feeling with English and now, Although I'm not completely fluent, I know that being fluent in English is a possibility. But I understand your point, even natives have a problem with Portuguese, hahaha. We quite often take some seconds to remember how to write some words. Boa sorte na sua jornada!
How is your Portuguese now?
I am also learning Portuguese! How is yours going? 😊
update??
I tend to listen to podcasts in all the languages I know. I don't always listen to them super attentively and I miss a lot of stuff (but this is how I listen to podcasts in general, I miss stuff in English and my native Finnish too). But I've found that even just hearing the sound of the language helps me to keep it a bit more active and this is quite easy for me to do without too much effort :)
The 1% improvement is a really good way to think about language learning. I know I certainly fall into the trap of thinking that if I can't dedicate a 'proper' amount of time to my target language then it's not worth it, so this is an excellent idea to keep in mind. Thank you.
I can give you an example from my life. Shortly, I realize that my listening ability wasn't that qualified 1,5 year affer I returned to Turkey from Sweden. And then I started to listen anything English everyday on my way to office. The route takes almost an hour. You know what happens now, It is much much easier to understand the native British speaker:) I have't expected that success. Now I began to speak English With my friends who can speak English to raise up my speaking ability. What Robin says is really true. Keep yourself being exposed to the language you aspire to learn. I have just discovered you and will watch your other videos. Well I am learning French now
@@a1k131 I cannot write well the way I do before. I haven't been busy with writing in English for the last 3 years. However, It has been at least 10 years that I stop translating from Turkish to English when I want to say and write anything English.
@@a1k131 additionally, my sentences are generally long. That's a mistake. I shall make short sentences. My sentences in Turkish are long as well:)
This is inspiring and so true! In Germany six years ago, my rudimentary language learning thrived, but since then, it has withered. Now I’m going to go back again, watch your videos, Easy German videos and read my German New Testament, starting with John’s Gospel ( I know my English Bible, so this will help). I am going to read aloud, as this will help my memory skills. Thank you!
Your enjoyment is inspiring. I have been getting very frusted lately with my Spanish... My wife and family all speak Spanish, and I just want to join in! I have been learning for a year or so, but really struggling. Your positivity inspires me to keep going!
Absolutely fantastic advice. Thank you 🙏🏻
Fantastic, thanks for the advice!!
I have been learning French through audio and repeating for like 9 months now. And I just started reading recently. And omg! Im enjoying it a lot! And I hate reading in general haha
Danke für ein tolles Video! Deine Gedanken zum Üben sind sehr hilfreich.
Great video! I'm already scared of losing my Italian months before leaving Italy. I'll put these tips into practice. I also find it very useful to build an "internet space" in my social media for every language I learn (e.g: follow Italian youtubers/ instagram pages so that I can effortlessly go back into that state of mind later on). Have you ever thought about making a video on how learning new languages can somehow interfere with your previous ones. I think it might be interesting :)
Thanks for your comment and great video topic suggestion, Daniel! I will definitely add that to my list :D Have you thought about creating an "immersion bubble" for yourself after leaving Italy? I had a chapter about this in my book, maybe I should make a video about it soon. I'll put it on my list for the next few weeks so that you can see it before you get home!
HI Robin! Congratulations for your videos! It was funny that you mentioned "Le petit Prince" For a long time it has been one of my favourite books, and I have consistently used it to learn or improve 5 different languages: (English, German, French, Italian and Portuguese - apart from my spanish mother tongue )
Hi Robin, I absolutely find this video valuable. Thank you for stressing out the importance of maintaining a daily goal that will eventually become the backbone of success. From time to time, I watch Easy German videos to aid my language learning, and I came across to the video you had with Carrie and tbh, I was blown away by your conversation and that's why I'm subscribing right now. I am learning German for 4 months now and I haven't been studying actively and just kinda put it off. Really, having an exposure even just within 10 minutes daily can create tremendous results compared to devoting 3 hrs every weekend. Thank you for your words and keep spreading them! Cheers!
Thank you for the motivation! 💪🏻
Way to go Robin! Love the tip...and the new background. Keep up the inspiring work.
Thank you Michael! You keep up the amazing work too my friend 💪🏼
If you'd like to read Atomic Habits, the book we discussed in this video, on Amazon, you can support me by using my personal link 😊 bit.ly/robins-atomic-habits
I'd love to get your thoughts on either struggles you've had maintaining your languages, what has worked well for you, and of course any thoughts you have on my #1 tip! What would your top tip be for maintaining language skills? Let's all keep up the GREAT work this new year!! 💪🏼
Since I'm only really doing french and very very soon Spanish, I aim to get as close to a native command of the language as possible. I tried to employee Stujay's advice from one of his videos, you want to language/culture to infest every aspect of your life. Also, I actively translate everything I read in french to english. I've found that although I haven't actively studied the language in months, I've deepened my understanding of how words are used. I have also implemented some advice from Luca who talked about non-linear returns of constant exposure in small amounts. So I don't read for an hour each day, but I read constantly in very very small bits. All together I think it adds up to much more time spent with the language/culture. I've also taken your advice about making your own resources.
That's really nice to read how you have taken all of these different pieces of advice and are combining them to form your strategy. It's also cool that these are habit-based 😄
I enjoy your vids, thank you for the great advice!
You’re very welcome Jay Smith, thanks for the encouraging comment! 💪🏼
I've just come across you ...thanks so much! I've been learning German with DW for about 2 years which is great. I'm really enjoying it.. But I also need to a bit of coaching and support and your insights knowledge and experience and particularly your enthusiasm are just what I need. I think this is particularly true at the moment when we are all 'locked down'.
Very inspirational, I am trying to learn few basic phrases in Hungarian for my holiday there next month. Will certainly follow your advice.
Thanks mum! Good luck with your Hungarian - looking forward to hearing a few phrases ☺️
I think you're totaly right and it works for sure! I did it with my english for two years and I'm still doing something in english everyday! English is part of my daily routine! I had wanted to test this kind of method with my french and... that's it! I can easily understand everything and speak a little bit just by doing a lot of listening activities and read in french! It's amazing!!! Soon I'm going to add a new language to my study plan... I don't know yet which language.... maybe russian or german but I need to mantein english and french so it's going to be challenging!❤️
I really love your powerful videos Robin, I find them truly inspiring - on a content and on a language level. I can keep up my English UND ich lerne auch sprachlich immer Wörter oder Redewendungen dazu, weil du dich so wortgewandt ausdückst. Einfach toll, DANKE!
That's true, we've got to always practice, thanks for the video 👏
wow i love this!! thank you!!😘😘
Thank you for this content 💖
Your videos are awesome! I can easily understand 100% of what you are talking about, so I'm going to subscribe and keep watching these helpful videos
super content))) I enjoy a lot from what you do - it's so helpful, please keep it up!
Always an inspiration to listen to You 👏
Thank you I will do this for Spanish and Hebrew; already doing something like this for French.
Thank you for the video and the great ideas
Hey, I thank you a lot for sharing this 10 minute method. It's an amazing advice. I was usually stressing about, am I doing enough, will I be able to maintain all my languages etc. , and hell yes, I did and I still do, thanks to you.
Thanks for the inspiration, I imediately watched a video in french on my favourite subject, before attending the next lession in russian.
Das ist ein guter Rat für mich.Dankeschön!
Yeah really cool approach thanks 😊
Thanks for the advice!
This year I’m trying to do it and I’m focused on learning a few words a week while listening and reading a bit every day. So far I haven’t failed a single day 💪🏽
That's awesome, Dan! Sounds like you have excellent momentum 💪🏼 Which language are you learning?
Robin MacPherson Greek
Thanks!
You are absolutely right.i am ganna start to fellow you because of i wanna flaunt speaker in english.thanks for your tremendous valuable speech.
Thank you! It is true, only few minutes a day , but every single day... The power of habits 😎
Thank you 💕💕
You’re very welcome, Grandma Peggy - and thank you for leaving a nice comment! ☺️
Rob! This is something that I recently have been thinking about! I follow around 2-3 CZcamsrs from Norway and Sweden. I adore all of them, so I always click on their videos when they get released and I've realised that they are my only exposure to Norwegian and Swedish (well, I do occasionally use them on FB, but not that often). It's also very enjoyable to have only a handful of sources of exposure so that the time spent with the language feels "special". I really enjoy myself watching CZcams videos by those CZcamsrs. I also like that once or twice a week, I get to spend time with those languages without FORCING myself to find exposure. It's a really neat concept. I should find something like that for German. It's been getting worse and worse recently and even though I recently had a conversation in German, I'd like to have a source of exposure that I could incorporate into my life without an unnecessary change of my habits. I guess I need to hunt for some cool German CZcamsrs ;)
Leszek! It's always so good to see your comments, man :) Oh oh would you mind sharing your favorite Swedish CZcamsrs? I was actually searching for Swedish CZcamsrs just the other day so that I could start getting some natural exposure, but I didn't have much luck yet, so I'd love your recommendations :D
I think you make an excellent point about this time with the language feeling "special" when it is reserved for just a handful of sources. I also think that it makes everything feel much more manageable when maintaining multiple languages over the long-term, too, because it makes your choice very easy. When it's time to spend quality, special time with Swedish, you don't have to spend so much time figuring out which resource or activity you should pick, because you have those few that you know and love. I find that a lot of my stress in life comes from simple choices where I have too many options to choose from, haha.
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms I don't know if you'll be into it, but my absolutely favourite Swedish CZcamsr is Teryos. He's around 18 and while he doesn't upload very often his videos were always fun to watch. He does vlogs, Q and As and since he's also a rapper he does some videos related to making music and such. I always watch his videos as soon as they release. There is also Verz but his channel is based on drama and shit-talking so I dunno if you'd like it. He does storytimes and commentary videos but his content is very controversial for Swedish standards, so yeah.
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms Oh! And Academia Cervena is phenomenal. It's a language-related channel, and while many videos are in English, there is also some Swedish content on it. He has very good videos about the Swedish pitch accent.
Prima video, vielen Dank. Es ist erstaunlich, wieviel man akkumuliert, wenn man jeden Tag ein kleines Stueckchen dazuaddiert. Dein Zahlenbeispiel war wirklich beeindruckend. Und so dachte ich, ich schreibe Dir heute mal auf deutsch, das hilft mir mein Deutsch aktiv zu halten, und Du kriegst was zu Lesen. Hilft uns Beiden, und wie es im Deutschen heisst: 'Uebung macht den Meister.'
Mein top Tipp ist sicherlich auch - jeden Tag ein bisschen. Routine im taeglichen Gebrauch der Sprache, aber Abwechslung im Inhalt mit dem man sich beschaeftigt oder in der Methode die man verwendet.
Weiterhin viel Erfolg.
Vielen Dank, Carol Win, für den sehr nachdenklichen Kommentar! Diese “Anhäufung”, dass du erwähntest, ist so wichtig und mächtig!
Es hat mir viel Spaß gemacht, dein Kommentar auf Deutsch zu lesen 😄
Ich denke, ich werde mehr Videos über “habits” beim Sprachenlernen machen!
Exzellentes Deutsch, Carol(a).
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms Anhäufung, *die* (Klugscheissen muss sein)
Ich stimme dir zu. Wir müssen jeden Tag üben. Genau wie das Sprichwort sagt: Wenn Sie es nicht benutzen, verlieren Sie es.Leider habe ich seit dem Deutschlernen viel von meinem Spanisch vergessen. Ja das ist meine Schuld.
Schöne Grüße aus Berlin
This is my second video of you ... and I am impressed with your ability to motivate people !!!
Your nice personality and enthusiasm are contagious ... :)
I haven't read the book "Atomic Habits" (it waits 2 years on the shelf to be read :)
The idea of increasing your own learning process by 1% every day is nice ... but what does that really mean ...?
"1%" is a demagogic term ... nobody can count it and say how much it is ... and how to get this 1% ...?
For me this is a metaphorical term and just means doing something that would be good for me.
It means doing something continuously and in a disciplined manner ...
1% is a fun tool to help calm people down.
Many Thanks
Michel
Best regards
from Vienna
That's brilliant!
Thank you!
Thanks for this
You're very welcome, Eddy!
Great podcast
You are right
That such interisting video. Thank you for sharing with us about that book, I am looking for them on internet to buy it. Do you you have another book to recomend for a leaner language? I have been studying English for 9 months and I think reading a book will be so useful for my learning.
Totally agree! My main struggle is to make time for the exposure. I speak 4 languages (Vietnamese as mother tounge, English for work, Dutch for daily life, and Chinese out of personal interest) and I feel like I don't have enough time to maintain all of them at a significant level. I am even considering getting up early in the morning to have a bit more time for Chinese, of which I have the least exposure among the 4. I have put so much effort into learning the languages and (am afraid that) without enough exposure, they are going to leave my brain...one word at a time 😭😭
One of the things I find valuable is to leverage interests and hobbies to learn language. For example, i like chess. So now I search for youtube channels about chess in French and German.
Mein Ziel auf Deutsch ist eine bessere Verständnis von den vielen verschiedenen Dialekete der deutschen Sprache. Deshalb finde ich täglich eine YT Kanale auf Bayerisch, Schweize Deutsch, Swäbsich oder Badisch anzuhören. Andere Tagen tu ich daselbe auf Lateinisch. Dann ist da immer noch etwas auf Englisch zu lernen, besonderes die kleine Punkte z.B. Satzzeichnen, Mittel oder Alt Englisch lesung wobei wo und wie das Wort heutzutage benutzt ist , neue Wörter forschen, Kreutzworträtsel lösen usw.
Exposure has always been simple for me. There is a barrio in this town that is 90% Mexican. I shop there and eat there - using Spanish. For Vietnamese, I have joined 3 Vietnamese temples. I work on projects for them, eat with them and just hang out there. Also shop in Asian markets.
I will do the same with Thai - there is a monastery about a mile from where I live. Taking cooking lessons at an Indian market/restaurant...
Spending time with native speakers, and making friends among them is about the best way - other than living in their country - which you cannot do - at the moment.
You will be surprised at how much these people will help you, once they see that you are serious...
I think this is great advice, however, I think this works when it's just one habit you want. I agree 10 minutes is not much, but I have 5 languages that could benefit from maintaining -> you're basically looking 1h on top of the ones I'm actively studying. In addition I have other habits I need for other reasons like meditation (again only 10min, but these pile up). I would also like to have time to enjoy life, so I'm wondering if you have any advice for this situation?
My "maintenance languages" are all at an intermediate level and I don't really struggle with reading or listening, except when I can't focus, but if I have focus, I understand. I have plans to just add to my pile of languages and I never really worried too much about maintaining, since my plan is to just get them to that comfortable level at least in reading and listening and then I can enjoy them even if I have a break. If I need speaking, it'll come back if I suddenly need the language and writing is easier than speaking anyway. But lately I've been thinking that some brushing up could be useful, I just haven't decided how to do that...
Hello! I'am from Brazil! I'am fifty- years old and like your vídeos very much! They help me a lot! Now i've got a friend in you and you've got a friend in me! I hope you have fun!
Still young enough to learn two new languages
Eu estou maratonando seus vídeos. Fiz um canal no CZcams só para praticar o ato de falar sozinha e gravar com muita dificuldade na língua que estou aprendendo. MUITO OBRIGADA
Oiii! Onde estão seus vídeos praticando? Queria os assistir! 😃
This is, unfortunately, true that many informative channels, like yours, aren't that popular. This is very sad.
@Smart Anonimous agree
great topic. No one talks about that~
I think the 1% compounding improvement idea from Atomic Habits is misleading, at least in this context. Here's why: When you're new in a language, sure you could improve 1% or even 10% in a day easily, maybe even 50% or 100% per day in your first week. But when you're already intermediate or advanced, you won't be able to get consistent 1% daily improvement with only a 10-30 minute daily time commitment. When you've already put 1,000 hours into a skill, getting another 1% better will probably take at least a few hours of additional work. As you get better, the percentage that you can improve per day decreases. So while it's still great to get daily exposure and improvement, I think the crazy rate of compounding, like 37x annual improvement, is not going to happen. Thoughts?
Salut Robin. Voici une excellente occasion de ne pas laisser votre français disparaître complètement; c'est mes courriels en francais. Vous avez tout à fait raison que même 10 minutes par jour maintiennent nos connaissances et nos compétences à un certain niveau. Je vous remercie. Et bonne journée.
Hi Robin, have you got any updates on journaly?
Hi Christian T. G.! Absolutely, I’ve been making huge progress with Journaly and I’m very excited to be getting so close to launching a test version 😄
I should be able to give a realistic launch goal for that very soon. Thanks for being patient and for asking for updates!
Do you ever regret learning so many languages seeing as they not only take a ton of time+effort upfront but additionally need to be maintained?
Hi, Robin! Can you make a video about preparing for language exchange better? I have a language exchange partner from GB but I feel that it would be better to prepare for our meetings on Skype. Now I do it without any plan. I talk about anything.
Hello! I'm from Brazil, and i'm practicing english and learning italian now, can I Begin to learn other languages at the moment? Thank you, great video!
HI!! Veronica, how are you doing in your language learning? I'm not an expert, but I do think it's possible to study differents languages at given moment as long as they are not from the same group of languages, for instance, learning Spanish and Portugues simultaneously might not be a good idea.
Subscribed ❤️from Kerala ❤️
Solo se español y me gustaría saber que dices?? Se que tus tips son muy buenos para aprender idiomas
Me encantan todos tus videos, no hablo mucho ingles, me gustaría que pudieras colocar subtítulos a tus videos, los de youtube no son los mejores. Por favor!
Ayer leí tu libro en inglés y tengo que decir que es muy interesante, especialmente la parte en la que hablas sobre "dead time". Para mí reservarme treinta minutes en italki para conversar con alguien en su langua materna es lo más efectivo. Por otra parte leer algo en los idiomas que sigo aprendiendo no me resulta muy útil. Muchas gracias por haber compartido tus pensamientos.
Any ideas, guys? xd (I mean, what's your plan? :3)
❤❤❤❤❤
I used to be so fascinated by Icelandic and other Nordic languages. I did try to teach myself, but I didn't get all that far. I'm busy with another language and ever since that I've noticed I've kind of just lost interest in Nordic languages. I can barely even listen to Nordic music. I still have some liking for it, but I seem to have lost interest. I'm worried about this happening to my current target language. Maybe I just lost interest because I didn't get very far.
But how to keep exposing myself in one language if I'm learning a new language from scratch?I can't expose myself to all 4 languages every day, it messes with my head :(
For example I have a decent level of Spanish and I just started learning portuguese. And I already started messing up pronunciation in Spanish, cause they are so similar! I started reading in Spanish with Portuguese pronunciation. What's gonna happen if I bring my rusty French into this mess?...
Hast du nicht Instagram?
I know three languages. How can I monetize that? I am only about $$
Ты вдохновил меня написать этот комментарий на русском)
Good luck with Russian)
I'm Russian and I know how it's difficult to learn my native language
Удачи✨
@@ekaterinaefimova974 спасибо большое!
I´m gonna marry you