Do Not Study Russian Grammar!
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- You might not believe me but I am testament to the fact that if you want to learn Russian, throw away the grammar books and you'll make massive progress very quickly. Grammar holds you back in the beginning of your language journey so hold off until you are much further down the road towards Russian fluency.
- Krátké a kreslené filmy
![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
Englishman walks through Belarusian city with an israel t shirt on talking about the russian language.
Lol ikr how globalized XD
Thats why we love Bald so much :P
Mr. Worldwide
He has no manners whatsoever.
@@Iparraldekoa He's British, he IS manners.
“Russian language teachers hate him!”
😂😂😂😂😂😭😭😭😭😭I am wheezing rynow
More like Russian GRAMMAR teachers 😂
I am a Russian teacher with more than 4500 lessons taught. I don't hate him, I just disagree 😂 Well, actually I agree with the point that you need vocabulary and you shouldn't focus TOO much on grammar, because it really can be intimidating. Input is crucial. Good teachers would never argue with that. However if you absolutely exclude grammar, you won't be able to go past some very beginner level and won't be able to truly understand texts and speech.
I can't tell you how many times I corrected students who would read some article with me and think that they understand everything. But because they didn't know certain grammar they understood sentences in an absolutely wrong way.
A reader is a co-author of a text. The truth is when you don't know grammar and you "scan-read" a text and think " oh I understand what that means" you are gambling, and very often you understand the opposite of what the actual author meant.
So if your goal is just to travel and have a basic communication, yes, you can skip grammar. You may not learn Russian at all.
If you really hate grammar, you can skip it in the beginning, but don't skip the rules of reading and pronunciation. Read A1 texts with audio and try to assimilate the most frequently used vocab. If you don't have a specific hatred towards grammar, inject some grammar into this assimilation process and it will accelerate assimilation significantly.
Russian with Evgeniy I appreciate the advice! Thankyou
😂😂😂😂
As a native Russian speaker I agree about focusing on vocab. The language is very flexible. The different ends you put on most words are the same, but like he said there are a few. You can talk like Yoda and sound normal in Russia
@Gabriel Henrique yes but for a beginner you don't need to worry about that. People will eventuality understand you.
@icantremember I’ve just started about a week ago and the grammar is already getting in the way of learning vocabulary. I’m going to take this man’s advice if only temporarily, as I’d like to eventually speak Russian as eloquently as my native English.
@@treble8921 the enemy of good is perfect.
@@joeschmo9953 Well sir “good” has a few enemies to be sure, but that’s certainly one! 😅
@BlxckVeins you should definitely learn tenses cuz using them correctly will make your speech a lot smoother but the main focus should be vocab IMO cuz even if you know no grammar but have 1-2k common words at your disposal you will always be able to muster up a decent understandable sentence especially if you've listened to some Russian speech on a regular basis (songs, yt videos, documentaries, films, maybe radio from the app Radio Garden) and therefore knew at least some natural-sounding word combos
Only a British lady got mad at me for asking for a tissue instead of napkin.
Russian speakers really don't care about grammar when talking to foreigners. Maybe if you were to meet a PHD in linguistics and Russian literature... Those guys get upset, the only thing they know in life is grammar 😆🤣
I don't know why she would get mad at calling a napkin a tissue? especially if you are a foreign speaker. I'd know exactly what you meant
I dare you to call her couch a couch and see what happens.
>ITS A CHESTERFIELD
I had a British grandmom. I also had a Ukrainian grandpa :) Literally, straight from Ukraine after ww2. Good man.
Yeah, but Russian peoples goes crazy if someone speaks English with grammar mistakes. I speak easily with English and American, and they doesn't hate me, but then I speak my wrong way English with somebody from Russia, he wants to kill me 🤣
@@pythonofsky4545 because english doesn't even have grammar. It's pretty easy to speak it correctly. At the same time even the native speakers seem to have trouble understanding difference between "you're" and "your".
@@ClySuva Yes, yes it does [Ex: "He give me apple" ...no... "gives me an apple" ... no ..."He gives me an apple"]. And no, no it isn't, it's just that there're so many immigrants and there're so many people trying to learn that we get used to the butchering...what's more, we even borrow words we like...which makes the rules even harder to figure out. Also, the American education system sucks.
Honestly, grammar is what you learn best after you try learning another language only to find out that everything is different and you can't quite put a finger on WHY?
True that! A foreigner that knows perfect grammar is spy!
Ha ha ha. CIA?
That is what a spy would say about it.
Andrej Mucic - Your comment cracked me up!! I speak bad Russian and conversational Farsi (my Farsi is much better than my Russian). Years ago, an Iranian woman gave me a nickname: “jasoos” - spy. Sometimes it’s not great for an American to be good at some languages. I don’t regret it for a second though. I love languages.
@@obed9300 MI6 actually
Interesting!
"There's one reason russian is considered difficult to learn, and that reason is... Russian Grandma."
He would never say grandma, only bubby or babushka
@@imholdenonarope bubby is plural for baba, which is "a chick".
@@Setras it's a short form of 'babushka' as well
@@vladoshka9014 it's not.
@@Setras что нет-то, если говорят так?
Can we take a moment to appreciate how wonderful and cosy residential area he is walking thru
Try it in winter and fall, have a razor handy
Standard Russian neighborhood
@@emell7025 What goddamn razor
This is how "commieblocks" look like if you actually live there
Absolutely
Me as a Czech, I have absolutely no problem to learn russian grammar...It's very similar to what we use in the Czech Republic :) That's one of the good things, when you are a native slavic language speaker, then you will find all the other european languages very easy and not that much complicated. Not counting hungarian, finnish, basque though :)
exactly! our slavic languages have no articles but have flexible words which is beautiful in its own way
Yeah, grammar is identical and also vocabulary sometimes is pretty similar. I moved to Czechia from Russia without knowing the language, but I could understand a lot of speach and even read the text.
@@beingasanocean8066 Great, I hope you like it here :)
@@beingasanocean8066 Great! And what program did you use to move to Czech? I also plan moving there but don't know which way is better.
do u want to try to talk with me, as an exchange of our language skills. Im a Russian native speaker, and know Russian very well, even for Russian guy. And i want to advance my English to level of fluently speaking.
I am Russian, and I approve this message!
I approve your approval
Yeah, if you aren't using cases you will be understood anyway. But all russians in moment will get it that you are foreigner, but this is not so bad.
@@alexview3971 They will see that mostly when you're approaching them from 50 meters against the wind.
Thanks
@@TeDynef lol
I am a retired 76 year-old and this guy reminds me of the years I spent at school learning Russian. After all that time, the only thing that remains with me is the vocabulary, and I can more-or-less follow the conversations. Which proves his point. For all sorts of reasons over the years, I have studied and lived with French, Spanish, Arabic and Afrikaans, all in addition to the Russian, and I think the main lessons have been: 1. Not knowing the right word will kill a conversation, while not knowing the grammar adds to your attraction as a foreigner. 2. No-one composes a new sentence from scratch - it’s all mostly cliches. If you are tying yourself in knots trying to work out the grammar of a sentence, you are not speaking the language as a native as they mostly avoid complicated constructions. Just learn the cliches and exclamations and you will be right 90% of the time. If you learn to say some quotations, words of songs or proverbs reasonably well, no-one will know how much you know of the language. 3. Don’t be afraid - open your mouth and speak! Hesitate, mumble and stutter if you must, but try to keep going. In the end you will get the rhythm of the language, and once you have that, the words will sort themselves out. Repeat what people say to you all the time - always repeat the question. 4. Use your body to supplement your words: point, make faces, act out the point you are trying to make. It’s a bit like doing your own sign-language while you talk, and it helps people understand you better.
Well said tony - completely agree
Excellent advice
your effort is much appreciated man, glad to hear that from people who spent year learning the language.
Appreciate the tips!
Those are some good tips. I did French in school and hated it, but as an adult I've managed to - just about - get by speaking French with the few people I've met who don't also know some English. I once spoke to a guy for about an hour where my level of French was comparable to his English, so we were kind of talking in Frangish/Angçais. It probably helped we were both a bit drunk. When I travel, it's pretty likely that people my age in other countries will speak English (actually an ex of mine from Romania probably knew grammatical rules better than I did), but I don't want to have to rely on that!
Another top tip here that may help the discouraged...I've been living in Ukraine, Russian-speaking part - for 12 years. I'm a Brit. Me Russian is more than conversational but definitely not 'accurate'. I've not studied it academically but I did casually study it to some extent, early doors when I moved over. What I'd say is that the extent to which you need to worry about grammar depends on your aim and your 'pride' in not sounding weird, but mostly to avoid ambiguity. In Russian the ending changes help to pin point precise meaning so without changing them, or by changing them wrongly, it can sometimes cause ambiguity - but mostly not, since the context and accompanying gesticulations are usually enough to clear that up! But for example they are used to distinguish between object and subject in a sentence and if you don't do it, it makes it difficult for them to get what you mean. The good news is that there are some aspects of Russian that are easier than English - no articles, fewer tenses, largely phonetic and basically no fixation with the verb 'to be' most of the time. Also they have a lot of borrowed words from French, German, Latin/Greek which can help out. If you learn the alphabet, not difficult as Bald says here, it's surprising how many words you'll recognise when you start reading directions, public notices and so on. The words for things like toilet, bus, shower, hotel room, telephone, cafe, coffee, tea, sugar and so on will all be familiar to speakers of European languages. The bigger issue, if you have the vocab you need, is the pronunciation - by which I'm specifically referring to the stressed syllable. This is close to critical. Getting this wrong renders your language very difficult to understand, as it does in English actually. But my top tip vis a vis the endings, once you're reasonably confident you have the right word and, hopefully, the right stress, is to mumble! I'm not kidding! When I started mumbling in the shops, early doors, rather than trying to articulate perfectly, the number of times I had to repeat myself dropped dramatically! Just let the ending of the word tale off into the ether and they'll fill in the gaps in their mind! That's another slight issue with the way foreign languages are taught...there's a kind of 'model' pronunciation that's held up as sacrosanct but actually that's not how people speak!
There is a German entrepreneur living in Russia (Stephan Dürr), whose farming on the area as big as Luxembourg, who said, that he learnt Russian by chatting with his colleagues and employees. And when he later came to Moscow dealing some business, they all stared at him in awe as he was German speaking some rural Russian dialect :)
Is learning verb tenses importent?
@@altanbayraml6933 I would say that it definitely helps and that it's more straightforward than in English...not having some grasp of this can make communication a little hard for anything other than basics like shopping, directions etc. Just my opinion...
@@fullboreraw thanks for the quick answer mate. Cheers!
As a native who heard Bald's speeches I would also suggest to learn how to pronounce soft consonants (especially ЛЬ) - that will improve the speech intelligibility greatly.
Person: English
T-shirt: Israel
Country: Belarus
Language: Russian
Hotel: Trivago
Israel*
@@kaissersreich isn't real*
Yeet
@@ShaddySoldier o7
@@ShaddySoldier nt
@@ShaddySoldier wow, Painfuly
I speak england. You undestands I?
sorry, I no speak London. Lol
yes, actually.
mine speaking, english are language easy
alright, yes.
Я говорю по-английски
I am a native Russian.
And I approve it. Hi is right. Listen to him guys.
Hi - привет He - oн
Slou MoBoss, вы правы.
I always loved Russia. I’m living in Moscow for more than a year.. I understand almost everything but I cannot speak because I’m always worried with grammar. I get ashamed and then I don’t speak :(
@@mys245 I wish I could move to Russia for a few years! Please be confident, for all us who wish to do what you are doing!
@@mys245 actually you should speak, people understand if you are a foreigner and will be patient with you, so don't get ashamed, that's one of the fastest ways to learn things, is to practice them.
Second language acquisition and pedagogy expert here: don't listen to Ben! That's right, don't just listen - do! He's totally right.
We don't learn grammar of our mother tongue explicitly, we learn phrases and vocabulary patterns which in turn teaches us the grammar implicitly. We learn to read through listening and copying, none of this phonics bollocks.
The only time you need to learn grammar explicitly is if you need to pass a test, or are merely learning ABOUT a language. Communication is the door to new languages. Vocabulary is the key that opens the door.
You had me in the first half not gonna lie
Phonics?
Did you really just call yourself a "second language acquisition expert"
@@user-wv2zk It might be their job I guess?
You sir just spoke my mind. I am so so glad that I came to realise that learning grammar manually is almost pointless by myself. I came to this video to see if my point was correct. Thankfully it is correct. Learn vocab. Learn simple examples and phrases. You can use those phrases and stuff your vocab that you learned into them. You'll find how you subconsciously learned the grammar pattern. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. You can never solve a jigsaw puzzle without the pieces. You can never solve grammar without vocabulary
He has a point. Take English as an example.
“The boy throws the ball” is the proper way, but if you’re not a native English speaker or starting to learn English, saying “boy throw ball” would be perfectly understood.
Language interpretation comes down to contextual factors as well.
In my native language of Afrikaans, we have a saying that roughly translates to “A good listener only needs half a word”, and that really rings true when someone is speaking a broken language.
@Tina Yael Severinova M. the placement of the words tells you their role semantically.
Alru Muller klein wêreld
Nathan Verster
Angswekkend klein. Ek het vir ‘n paar sekondes probeer verstaan wat jy geskryf het want ek het dit in Engels gelees. Ek kort slaap.
I'm from México, I work all the time with American Tourists and I can fully agree. For example in spanish to ask for the restroom you would say "¿Dónde está el baño?". But if someones come to me and says "Donde Esta Baño?" or "Donde Baño?" or everything in infinitive form I can understand perfectly what they want. It's all about context and basic wording.
As a Belgian (Dutch speaking) your Afrikaans looks a bit awkward to me but I have no problem understanding it. I can imagine its about the same when Bald speaks Russian. :)
And indeed, as long as people are willing to listen you can get a long way with knowing a language somewhat.
I’m from Scotland
Plan is learn Russian
Go to Russia and drink with the locals
5year plan
Good plan, где в Шотландии вы живёте? Моя мама живёт в Dundee. Я люблю Шотландии.
Most people: 'I want to learn a language to meet people and/or find opportunities'. Scottish person: I want to learn Russian to drink more alcohol haha
😂
Hmm...are you planning to survived 5 years of hard drinking..
Good luck dude .👍😂
I’m fae killie
not gonna lie, this is what I needed to hear. I've been "trying" to learn languages for probably 20 years now, since I was 10, and never made any substantial progress because I always give up w hen it comes to grammar rules. Vocab is fun, and this has made me think I might try again.
Thats like me, i have so many attemps at learning new languages, i have tryed vietnamese, filipino, spanish, ext. But now im determined to learn german and russian.
I really do enjoy learning Russian by learning the vocabulary. I bought a list of cards with Russian words and it became something like a tradition for me to go through the cards before bed time. Of course, that itself is not enough. But reading simple books and maybe watching your favorite movies in russian or listening a podcast in russian about your favorite sport also helps a lot and is fun.
Well said! Living in Uzbekistan my broken Russian, some key phrases, and an ever growing vocabulary has gotten me quite far. I knew zero when I first arrived. Trying to use grammar slows me down and, honestly, feels like a roll of the dice when choosing the right ending....people mumble the endings all the time anyway.
"The luxury of moving to Belarus" Only Bald would describe that as a luxury lol
Haha 😂
Lol when he said that I was like luxury?!!😂😂
goingonabout 1:29
Why not it’s good there
II PSYCHO II Lol ok sure pal
Why in hell am I watching this being a native Russian speaker😂
I'm jealous man lmao! Russian is quite the task to handle but honestly I'm having fun in the process which is all that matters.
😂😂😂
Your comment sort of proves his point. Because it would be Why in THE hell. But I get you lol.
I know how you feel. It's the same thing with me except I'm a native polish speaker and I constantly watch English videos about the Polish language
Lol
Thank you!!! This is awesome, Im learning or relearning (it's been 27 years since Ive spoken a lick of Russian). I've been looking for people to talk Russian to..:D Watching your videos have been such an amazing help. i find myself repeating what you're saying to people that you speak to, and trying to retain what I hear.
As someone who's studying Japanese, another difficult language, it's encouraging to hear how much just learning lots of vocabulary helps.
Lmao weeb
@@senior.toucan6370 I'm learning Japanese too
Another one of those people who watch anime and start trying Japanese.
I studied Japanese in Japan but not in a school, on the street, in restaurants and in bed with Japanese girls. I filled up notebooks worth of vocabulary and I was totally fine.
@@reallymentalpig1173is there anything wrong with that?
you ever just walk around wearing a shirt with the Israeli flag and nothing else?
Whats wrong with it? If it was an American or British flag you wouldn't even say anything..
@@tomaskacerovsky3366 the question is whether he is a Jew or not?
@@tomaskacerovsky3366 I pointed out the shirt because it was such an odd thing to see. Any shirt with just a foreign flag on a white background is an odd shirt. The israeli flag is just more odd because, as far as I know, Bald has no ties to and has never been to Israel. The same would be said if it were a Swedish or Canadian flag. If it was the UK flag, although odd, it would make sense because Bald is British. If it were a Russian or Indian flag, it would make sense because he frequents the countries despite not being tied to them.
His grandfather was Jewish.
@@CraftVader1 It's just a T-shirt for Christ's sake...Maybe he got it as gift from one of the guys he meets on his journey.
For me there is just one rule when learning a language. "Do it like a baby". Listen to music, watch movies listen to people and try to repeat what they said. This way you will be able to use grammar more intuitively and it'll work out just fine. (thats how i learned english and russian. I don't know anything about english grammar btw. and i'm austrian!)
@Улитка Хаха да) Игра моего детства!)
Yes, I agree. I've discovered that learning how to conjugate verbs in French by sound is the easiest way to do it (like how a baby would do it). The big tables of verb endings that educators try to make you memorize are not very useful for language learners.
Nice
That's how I learnt English.
Damn, i remember Spore.. good old days
The only reason i come to this video is to read the newest comments.
As a Chinese who studied in a UK university for years, I traveled to Turkey last year and stayed in there for seven or eight months. I totally agree with our bald about vocabulary. I have never learned any Turkish grammar, I only learned vocabularies and a few sentences, then I can speak with locals and living in Turkey with no problem at all. Even if I was forming sentences in my imaginations (based on Japanese and English grammar), most people can understand me easily. For example: ‘burada ne zaman kapat?’ (In Turkish grammar English: This place what time to close?) The word ‘Kapat’ means close, however initially I was using ‘Bitti’, which means ‘over’ in English 😂 I was certainly using wrong vocabulary and I don’t even know is my grammar correct at all. However, locals can still understand my Chinese-English-Japanese hybrid Turkish quite easily. And I can also understand them for the most of times, all thanks to learning enough vocabularies.
I am fluent in both Russian and English language and I would give you a pass as a gopnik
Vlad Makarov The G-Pass
hahah
Certainly you commented just to comment :D
Russians that say they’re fluent in english in reality barely can put 3 words together and those who say they are “so-so” at english speak really well. My personal observation.
@T K I spoke with a lot of young russian guys and most of them barely spoke. I mean, I could understand what point they were trying to bring across, however, to my surprise the only guy who spoke fluent English said to me that he wasn't really good at english the guys that I met usually described themselves as bilinguals but I would say they had plenty of the vocabulary to pass by , but definitely not enough to have a meaningful conversation.
that is how kids learn a language. they start with words.
Amazing... i thought they started with grammar.
I thought they start to learn was by listening from the whom
eat your cereal I tought they just started speaking
Of course they don't start with words!!! They start with listening phrasis which are repeted by mother from day to day.
@@johnmarlowe4092 also from the whom
There's probably a slim chance you'll see this.. but your right I have story.
So beginning of 2019. I started to have health problems. I switched careers. It gave me more time to study. I'm a strange dude(if you couldn't tell by the Handle) but I study things in depth.
Well one day, I was searching the sea of videos on CZcams and found your Moldova video. I thought it was hilarious. I subscribed.
I subscribed to other Russian like channels or Slavic like channels. Note this is the beginning of 2019 And fell in love with the culture and the language.
By 2021 between your channel,Sam's Russian adventures, Ushanka show, Shieh, NFKRZ, Learn Russian( what is crazy she moved to my city from Russia as a teacher in university like a few miles away), Russian Criminal and few other channels ... I learned the basics of Russian. I took to the internet, applied myself Now in 2022 I can understand most Russian. Read and write it if I try.
It's because of you. Now I know I may never leave this rock known as Colorado because of my health. But because of you man, I've seen places I can never see in person. I learned about a culture, culturally I'm not supposed to. Growing up where I lived my step дедушка would blame everything on all в Советы.
Бенджамин... спасибо брат
seriously thank you. Know your appreciated . When you get old know you helped break stigmas, and helped people learn, and helped people feel alive vicariously through your videos and travels.
Блин, это очень круто. Уважаю таких людей, которые ставят себе большую цель и достигают её! Молодец!! Желаю здоровья!
Я в целом восхищаюсь людьми, которые изучают иностранные языки. А если кто то изучает русский, это восхищает меня вдвойне. Потому что мы сами не всегда можем разобраться в нашем языке, где то, в каких то моментах немного запутаться и т.д. Браво!
Have to say, around late '19 I did the same thing pretty much.
Found it very annoying that of half the letters were the same but I couldn't read it... But it was very odd at first, I don't know much for how Russians learning English must feel, but once you get it down you can really just roll through it. It is a far more natural alphabet for it's language, almost like how no one really struggles reading Italian because it was at one time Latin, yet French is way--way more complicated than it needs to be using the same alphabet.
Im also just starting to study russian (at least the basic) mostly because of him...i don't know if i will ever need it (i actually need to improve my english) but for me right now the est european culture is the most attractive
Да ладно тебе, не все так плохо в Колорадо :)
I know how you feel. I attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey in order to learn German. I graduated, but it was the hardest year of my life. Once I left there and was sent to Germany I found that my language skills progressed very quickly when I stopped obsessing about German grammar and concentrated on speaking and listening.
Great video, you are a real inspiration. I think often people learning another language focus too much on getting things perfect meanwhile the locals understand you perfectly even when one makes full of mistakes in grammar. Love your videos by the way.
All russian kids after watching the video: "I knew all of this grammar stuff is pointless!"
Well, if russian kids can understand what he is saying in english, then maybe it's true :)
It's true. As a russian - I never studied russian grammar in school, neither did I understand it, and passed the EGE exam in russian with 95/100 result. The vocabulary is everything.
yeah kinda
There are plenty of videos here on CZcams about misleading in study FROM RUSSIAN TEACHERS EVEN IN RUSSIAN FEDERATION, let alone neighbour countries. So no strange at all that regular person can't explain grammar nor correct you're wrong even when they know correct word. They simply used to speak it that way. As born'n'raised in Ukraine(currently in Israel btw lol) I always tried to learn all of these stupid grammatic rules in both Russian and Ukrainian(which are pretty similar obviously) as hard as I could. Try to guess how much of them still are in my mind when I'm starting to speak Russian?
Of course, grammar is needed to read some serious book like Tolstoy's or Dostoyevskiy's dramas but for some road sign/Cafe's menu/grocery shopping all you need is about hundred words. Any further will come along with live communications only! And, by the way, first impression from "bad speaker" usually is:"Wow! You try to communicate another language! So you should be at least both willing full an smart to even start, my appreciation!"
Moscow Cyclist Hi, is there any specific method you would recommend for an English person to learn Russian vocabulary for beginner? Thanks
This is actually the proper way to learn a language.
Think about it... Do 5 year old children know grammar?
No man
Not everyone Russian knows Russian grammar
@@un1que731 Иди в школу, учись.
Холера...
Russian 5 year olds know have internalized the grammar OP is referring to and can use cases, genders, aspects, the whole of it, correctly. Skipping declension completely puts you on the level of a 2-3 year old.
@@ltu42
Nonsense! Five year old kids don't know grammar. They just know the language through experience.
I've noticed that Russian speakers LOVE to hear people trying to speak their language and are always super supportive and happy to help..
It seems the worse you are the more smiley and helpful they become.
Unlike some...Naming no names.... THE FRENCH
I do not know Russian. Now after seeing this for some reason you inspired me to learn it. Thank you!
Yes. If you don't know grammar we realize that you are a foreigner. But we will understand 95% of what you say)) grammar just allows you to put words wherever you want and not to depend on sequence of words in your sentence.
I mean, everyone would know he's a foreigner as well even if his grammar was perfect. Getting the accent perfect in a foreign language is even harder.
damn it doesn't work in german lol
Syimyk Asanov It also works quite well in german. And as a fallback, the vast majority of germans speak enough english to get around.
@@AlexanderNassian thanks, I didn't know thar germans cool with it. My teacher gets mad everytime I put a verb in the middle))
@@paramount7616 Most Germans are really chill, we know how crazy the language is. Also, German is considered a "cold" language, which means it has a lot of redundancy built in, so you can't easily mess up the meaning (we use pronouns everywhere, you can get the correct case of a noun from word order, article, noun ending, and sometimes the verb, etc). In a "hot" language like Japanese, you do a little thing wrong, and the sentence doesn't make sense any more (because pronouns are often left off, only a particle determines the role of a noun, verbs are not declinated etc). So you can follow the advice of the video as long as you are learning a "cold" language.
As an English teacher, I totally agree with Mr Bald. The modern style of language teaching emphasises learning vocab. Additionally, fluency is more important than accuracy. Hence, use the language to the best of your ability and have fun and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Accuracy comes gradually and naturally. :)
By the way: In class, I use the exciting videos of Mr Bald frequently as the content motivates my students to learn English.
Heh, here in my country the approach to language teaching is still emphasis on grammar rules, rather than vocabulary and practical use of the language. And then you end up with people who have a perfect grade in English, but speak it like broken Google Translate bot, because they lack the knowledge of practical usage and vocabulary. :/
Why are you asking me to “have fun”? We live in free society and you can not just walk around asking people to do this and do that only because YOU want them to. You’re not a ☕️Cher, you’re bully!
Its the same with any language mind you wont be able to read any notices or newspapers though lol but you can have a great experience without learning the grammar
@@DODO-vy6sf wat
@@DODO-vy6sf wat
Thanks for this, been doing duolingo for about a year and a half and happy Ive not given up, the tenses get me also - I hope it will grow on me, I practice about 20 mins daily and wont give up
As a Greek speaker I can confirm it's true.
The Greek and the Russian grammar is almost the same, if you say "Θέλω ενα μπύρα" instead of "θέλω μια μπύρα" people are gonna understand and frankly they are gonna be impressed that you speak any Greek at all.
Interesting. Last week I started learning Ελληνικά and immediately felt it so natural for me as a russian. Even though there are no similar words other than with greek origin.
@@DmitryTaranov привет русский друг! Я очень рад что ты по греческий учишь! Я грек и учу русский язык!🇬🇷🇷🇺
This is why the Spanish education system in the US doesn’t teach you anything. 4 years I spent focused on grammar and was left with no vocabulary, and I could never carry a conversation despite knowing the grammar perfectly
That‘s exactly the same for me here in Germany! I‘m now learning Spanish in school since more than a year, and the only thing we do is learning time forms and conjugations of verbs. Really bad. I‘m glad that I at least learn Russian on my own, that’s maybe why I‘m so good at it, especially compared to Spanish in school haha
I learned more Russian from Counter Strike than I learned Spanish at school.
Same here with spanish classes in Sweden
@@niklas8279 god I find Spanish easy. Have somewhat learnt German in the past but learning Spanish was like a breath of fresh air compared to German. Latin languages are so much easier to learn than Germanic or Slav languages.
@@niklas8279 In Russia we have the same problem. Our teacher knows english grammar perfectly ,but if turn on american or british song,she would understand about 30% even less than it. All she knows is a grammar.
- Don't study Russian grammar
- Хорошо, не буду
Horosho, ta njet.
Charašo, nje budu
В голос😂
Ok, i wont
agha, schass!
Thanks for the tip and nice shirt btw!! I've always thought this about the other languages I've learned when asked by others about them. Ignore some or all of the grammar rules and just go for it by learning vocabulary. You'll hear natives speaking it properly and will connect the dots with grammar later. Natives will get the idea of what your saying, help you out and just appreciate they can converse with you.
I forgot this video and came across it again today just at the right time. You may have single handedly changed my path with Russian language learning! 🙌🏾 ⚡️ thank you
This is precisely how i actually learned English. I'm a 20 year old kid from Bulgaria, which learned fluent English by himself, only by using in the internet and interacting with natives, i simply hated English grammar in school and i excelled in vocabulary. I now work in a fancy tea place where i have the opportunity to speak to a wideeeeee range of foreigner most of which compliment me on my vocabulary. I don't know why what i say works, but i'm sure as hell it does.
the reality is english is a flexible language, to a fault. meaning, *too* flexible: the majority of even fluent english speakers routinely make 'gramatically incorrect' statements, or written sentences. i think yours is an interesting insight, that "i dont need to know WHY i speak these sentences this way, only that it is the correct way". personally i think what ruined french for me was getting bogged down in trying to decipher the literal meanings of the words, because the grammar ruins it
This is precisely how I actually learned English. I'm a 20 year old kid from Bulgaria, who learned fluent English by himself, only by using the internet and interacting with natives, I simply hated English grammar in school and I excelled in vocabulary. I now work in a fancy tea place where I have the opportunity to speak to a wideeeeee range of foreigners, most of which compliment me on my vocabulary. I don't know why what I say works, but I'm sure as hell it does.
I fixed a few grammatical errors for you :) Hope this helps.
Guys, with 20 years you are certainly NOT kids anymore ;) . You're adults.
2:56 - _"So guys, if you want to learn russian, especially in the first year, forget grandma. Forget grandma!"_
😂😂😂
poor babushka lol
🤣🤣🤣
Nice one. You made my day 😂!
Haha my grandma taught me russian.
@@ricog7147 oh man lucky u!
Best tip ever, I totally agree with you Bald ! I never learned further than how to conjugate in Present, Past and Future and it works perfectly fine, I'm able to travel anywhere in Russia and being understood mostly tanks to vocabulary and practice. Gramar will come with the time and there is no need to waste years being stuck on it and missing the practice and the vocabulary you could learn instead. Keep up the great videos, I watch them a lot now that I can't visit my favorite post soviet countries anymore and it makes me feel like almost there. Cheers from France !
Nice Shirt Ben, I love it
@تعودت امشي لحالي Islam is the religion of the fascists
As my tutor said about Russian Grammar: There are always exceptions in grammar, and then there are even more exceptions for those exceptions.
aj039 🙀🙀🙀
That probably just means that she doesn’t know how to explain, that’s exactly what I’d do
@@arthurluzhnov2969 no, it doesn't
English also has this shit
4:02 cat on the hood of BMW
XDD
мимими
Catnik
Koшeчкa!
@@petersarkoci9217 это нормально в России и в других странах снг. Просто там правительству наплевать на бездомных животных, и их они не забирают в приюты. Хотя сейчас они начали их стерилизовать, но это не то. Полно было случаев, как собаки нападали на прохожих.
I've been learning Russian for two years now . I've got to say he makes an excellent point here.
In the beginning when I started learning , I didn't really understand what I was doing. I spent a lot of time trying to understand the case systems , it was EXTREMELY slow progress.
Last year I changed my approach , I thought I am going to focus on listening and repeating. I started doing Pimsluer which is an audio course , now I have progressed on to Glossika which is a listening and repeating course.
I also use Anki for vocabulary , my Russian is still a little patchy but I can now watch Russian movies and serials and understand most or all of it. I can have conversations with natives.
Obviously I am still learning I have some big holes in my vocabulary but I am very happy now I can finally understand what my Russian teacher is saying 99 percent of the time , and I can converse with natives without using English.
If I would have continued trying to just study grammar , I would still be at an extremely basic level. Russian grammar is very difficult for foreign learners.
I totally agree with Bald here that grammar is what slows you down . When you take the focus from grammar and move it onto vocabulary and actually using the language , your confidence grows and you can actually enjoy using the language in real life.
Great video Mr Bald and Bankrupt , thanks for the tip watching this video helped me so much.
I learn russian too, please tell what befor listening and repeating, is that good? How can I make a sentes then? I am sooo confiued
Yes.
Even native russian have difficulty in school learning russian grammar.
i literally clicked on a russian vocab video and saw this in the recommended, lol, m glad someone said it, i spend hours looking at grammar pages and get nothing out of it but when i learn vocab i feel like im making progress and it makes me want to actually keep going
You pretty much explained why my sister took 4 years of Spanish in high school but only knows 2 words today. Language teachers should take note from Bald!
Yessss
If she only knew a few words she wasn't trying outside of the class. There has to be a motivation otherwise no progress will ever be made.
@@kgbcomrade5529 yeah I took one year of Spanish in high school and still know enough to get by. I am learning Polish now and am feeling the grammar things Bald is talking about.
o, as, a, amos, ais, an or some bullshit like that lol
@@kgbcomrade5529 You’re 100% right. But in high school we were told if we didn’t take 2 years of a foreign language we wouldn’t get into college, and our only options were Mexican-Spanish or French 🥺
[bumps into a group of Russians while exiting a restaurant]
Mr Bald:
-Извинитесь!
anyone who didnt get the joke - "Извиняюсь" - is "sorry" and "Извинитесь" - is "apologize to me immediately mfkers"! so grammar can still cost you your life)
@@ImPedofinderGeneral ....... really?!
@@Soy_boy-by8ez Not exactly, it means ''aplogize'', but you you use in an official converstation with a person or just if you're adressing a word to a group of people ''Извинись is used in unofficial enviroment and only to a single person'' But ure not telling them that they're motherfuckers xD But yea, this guy really has a point, if you would want to say sorry and you'd say ''извинись'' instead of ''извините'' you will be tremendously misunderstood
@@levismalevis7239 thx for putting effort man, I truly appreciate it :)
@@Soy_boy-by8ez np :)
You are totally right!!! for any language forget Grammar at all costs, it's a nightmare and makes things more difficult. Thanks for the Video:)
I learned GCSE Russian at night school at age 42. Then I went on to A Level Russian. It was all grammar and exam and I gave up! I just wanted the joy of learning Russian as I loved the language, culture and people. That was over 20 years ago. How I wish I had known this advice then! Might give it a go again…….
That Israeli flag shirt has triggered the internet.
Fuck up
Ottoman Simulation no, fuck left
I love Israel😍
@Mack M obama did plenty of Israel's bidding
@Mack M Liberals aren't leftists.
I fully agree to this. As a Russian this is exactly how I learned English. Just practice, talk to other people, watch movies - the point is sooner or later you will start picking up key linguistic patterns in how a set language works.
Hey I have a question, how easy it is for russians to understand Polish? Because for Poles Russian is about 1/3 understandable and like 85% if you know the context more or less.
@@kubajackiewicz2 I can read Polish and understand about 50%, much better if I know the context, but when it comes to someone speaking Polish, I cannot understand SHIT, unless the person speaks super slowly and makes huge pauses between words. (I'm native russian)
@@kubajackiewicz2 I am a Russian speaker and when I hear polish I can understand about 1/3 of the vocabulary
@@kubajackiewicz2 I've always understood about 1\3 spoken Polish; since I've learned Czech I understand from 2\3 to almost everything, but there is a kind of a mental lag, 'cause some phonetical patterns are different from russian when structually the words are almost the same, or in other cases russian equivalent of morden polish words are archaic in russian (lepszy for example). So, every time i visit Poland, I have almost zero communication problem. It is really hard to read polish, though, like really really.
agree with*
When you speak, you don't think grammar before speaking every sentence. We simply develop the sense over time through communication.
Think the key is being comfortable having sloppy grammer. You are confident and very social, and were willing to sound silly or risk looking "stupid" for not having perfect grammer. Many people probably fear this and waste time trying to be perfect instead of embracing imperfection, wich would make them learn quicker.
This sounds funny to us, but its a no problem, really. You dont need grammar, true.
Yeah, that's exactly what 99% of russian commenters think and apply 🤣
Privjet! :) i started learning like 1 minute ago haha
@@willtipton100 good for you. Now you can play Metro and Stalker games with no eng voice over haha
That's because the grammar is implicitly derived from the inflextion of the vocabulary. It also goes a long way to set the context.
Your profile pic makes it easy to believe you
Or date a Russian.
Personally, that's how I learned German by dating germans.
Good idea. That's the excuse I'll tell my wife.
@@39Chevy underrated comment
Will B. Legend 😂
I also have to learn german. Is any girl here? =))
make this place tinder again
Thank you so much for this. I hit a huge road block in my learning of the Russian language and grammar is the reason.
great video!!! He is right!!! I'm a native Russian speaker (Ukrainian as well) and my approach in learning languages is pretty close to this one, but also I would recommend to read a lot of books. Here is how I study German. I took one book, read it, anther book, read it and so on. And the most important part here is google translater. I open two windows and I copy a pice of text then past it in one of the windows and I click on every single word that I don't know and the second window comes to use when google doesn't want to give me the meaning of a word by clicking on it. Then I copy the word and past it in the second. After the third or forth book the progress will be huge!!! By reading in a such way you accumulate language and see the way this language works in first hand. If you come across a word the second or third time you don't need to click on it any more 'cause you already know it! Then you see grammar structures and context that they are put in what gives you tremendous benefit for you open grammar rules and be like "aha, here it is, here how it works" even if you memorize grammar in the beginning that's not bad , I also did it, and even if you forget it never mind you recall it when you will be listening or reading something... this method I call like collecting threads and after some period of time you will be able to knit your own sweater!!! Also very benifitial thing is trying to memorize no matter what it might be, rules or words or whatever else, just try and don't pursuite the result!!! Всем фарту !!!)))
As a speaker of SEVEN languages, I can only say ... OH, HELL YESSSSSSSSS!!!! I learned Polish, & followed the EXACT SAME RULE!!!
Timothy Fredrikson 👏👏👏im going to start this approach
Zajebiście stary, żółw! 🤜🤛
Isn’t polish considered one of the hardest languages to learn? Right up there with Hungarian and Russian.
@@josepartida1711 ... It is indeed!! Hungarian is not a Slavic, but Polish & Russian both are of Slavic origins! The main difference between Russian & Polish is that Polish does not use the Cyrillic alphabet!
@@josepartida1711 Yes, Polish is a slavic, but it's real saving grace is that it does not use the Russian cyrillic alphabet. It's grammar & composition was truly the most difficult part for me!!
As a Russian native speaker I need to say - THAT IS 146% TRUE! I never learnt Russian grammar I just memorise all that shit (took 10 year though )
So ur tellin me even you native speakers don't even learn grammar and when us poor student who wanna join in to russian unis we have to.. why do u guys do us like dat..
@@lethall6609 as a native speaker of an East European language, that Grammar is just the biggest pain in the ass, no other language subject even comes close to such complexity, amount of rules and exceptions to those rules. More practical to just learn it through years of conversations than through studying
@@lethall6609 I'm sorry for you :):)
@@lethall6609 language is formed from a way of thinking. words in russian are flexible. and this is not a problem for native people as it has certain patterns. the words meander like a stream, but that doesn't stop us from understanding the foreigner. bald is right, grammar is not required for a foreigner to understand them in common parlance
@@lethall6609, Have you ever listened to several native speakers talking to each other. They don't always understand each other.
This was also my problem, although not with Russian but German. As a Cantonese speaker (our language does not really have grammar like most western languages) that concept of nouns changing and stuff was soo exotic and fascinating, so I wanted to study all the grammar immediately. But when I started learning vocabulary, it was like woah a whole new world, cause like he said, vocabulary is king! :D
totally agree with this man... I started taking Russian but my teacher was obsessed with grammar - felt like we weren't getting anywhere...
Yes! That's absolutely true, (as a Russian teacher) I can say that 90%of the lesson concentrating on the lexical structure will really do! Then, students start intuitively use the right grammar forms and progress much faster.💪
You're very pretty, is that your real face?
I love your profile picture. so pretty 😍😘
@@cokedoutmarkhamill8179 Russians girls are very beautiful)))
Landysh Lana true
Has anyone ever told you you look good in your profile picture?
That t-shirt is a good way to guard against CZcams bans these days.
Ya that or Hezbollah or Hamas. All the same engine...
Hahaha sad but true. Geez
explain please?
@@subotaiKhan my friend u dont know who is the puppetmaster then - they control the world
Excellent remark . Europe needs rid . More to this Guy than meets the eye .agent , shill and should be very careful not to be charged as a Spy !. In remote areas filming places with Zero Russian connections .
This is honestly smart advice that I am gonna use. Thanks for the good input
I've been learning russian for a year now, so glad I just found your channel! I agree completely hahaha
I also made immense progress when I stopped wasting time learning about the rules of the language and just observed how it was used in interesting stories.
Even I, as a native Russian who was taught Russian grammar for 9+ years in school and 3 more years in highschool, don't explicitly remember any rules. It's all based on intuition. It's as ridiculous as English phonetics (where you can't even spell the word "phonetics" phonetically). Если я увижу слева голодного медведя, а справа книжку по Русской грамматике, то я побегу налево.
I did that with German. I managed to learn the language, to a level where I've been mistaken, for a native speaker in a few months! The irony of the story: Some German bloke told me a while back, that my grammar is better than most germans.
Yeah, that's how I learned English.
I speak a few languages and its the same for ANY language. A child can speak their native language fluently before they are even aware that grammar exists as a concept. learning to speak a language fluently isn't something that you can study like other subjects, it’s more comparable to learning to ride a bike. you can't sit in a classroom and learn to ride a bike by reading a textbook, you have to get on the bike, try fail try fail try fail until you can ride it. for a language you just have to practice speaking it. You can learn grammatical rules later when you’re reasonably fluent, they will make more sense to you then, but attempting to learn the grammatical rules at the start is insane, they will be meaningless to you and will not help at the start.
As a language teacher myself, I can honestly say you're totally right! That's not to belittle (the importance of) grammar, it's to emphasize the value of vocabulary where communication for its own sake is concerned.
I could not wait any longer. For all sorts of reasons I just had to start learning Russian. I started 2 weeks ago. What a beautiful language but what a nightmare.
Thank you for this tip Ben, it will change the way I learn. I am Dutch myself. When someone from abroad tries to talk Dutch with me I appreciate the effort much more than to correct him / her on their mistakes. Learning a language is NOT an easy task.
For sure the Russians know their language is difficult especially when you come from a language which is not in the Slavic family of languages (Polish, Ukrainian, Serbian).
So I will drop to understand the grammar. Thanks Ben and stay healthy.
Yep. You've nailed it. I majored in Russian, tortured myself over hideous grammar. Hated it, but loved reading books, translating songs, watching films. Just like adults can understand and have a conversation with a child learning their own language (but isn't perfect in his/her grammar), they can understand a foreign person learning and using new vocabulary, even if it's not perfect. I rarely study grammar in any language I am learning. It kills the joy. I prefer to pick it up through listening, observing and practicing :) I worked in a Russian language library (in the U.S.). Russians are happy to correct grammar in the middle of a conversation :)
Donna Frazier I do the same thing. Love listening, watching movies, music, and speaking Russian. I understand the grammar some but I don’t focus on it. It is better to learn vocabulary because it expands conversation. I could get by in Russia by using vocabulary more than grammar skills..
After months of learning Russian and feeling discouraged halfway through it, now I feel motivated to continue learning Russian. When it comes to Russian grammar and cases, my mind goes blank.
How do you learn it ? I use babble
Imagine the latin grammar... even worse
If anyone is interested, we can learn languages mutually. I am Russian to you. You me english. Online skype or else. free
@@Denis-cp2zq my native language is Russian and i learn English. So we can organize a training exchange. If you are interested, add me in Skype - artemmaterik
I just got done learning some of it and I'm fucking lost man, it's very discouraging.
I've been learning polish (and like russian its got a billion f'in grammatical cases) for a few months now and gave up early on due to the grammar. I needed to hear this. Thanks, Bald!
That is so true. Studying English and French in school taught me nothing because all we did was grammar. Since I left school and studied languages on my own I prefer to just study the words and apply them in real life and along the way I will remember the grammar automatically just by using the language.
You're completely right. In the 1980's, I made a three years study of Russian language. The teacher taught us every single grammar rule. I have the diploma and can't speak a word of Russian. I envy your perfect Russian.
His russian is not perfect (i am Russian)
His Russian is VERY FAR from perfect, and sometimes even his vocabulary is bad. But this is one of the reasons why he’s so likable on the streets there - his lack of grammar sounds pretty funny to native speakers and it automatically creates lightness and positive attitude.
I envy your pefrect face
@@crpunks Do you recommend me any app, website, channel, books that could help me learn russian?
This works! This is how I’ve learned English. I’ve abandoned 4y of grammar and started to learn the vocabulary. I’ve also learned to not focus on the single word, but to describe if i can’t remember it. Keeps conversations fluent. Next thing I’ve learned to use future, present and past so I could describe something on the timeline. 20y later I watch movies in english and live in California. American girlfriend/wife helped the progress. I think Mr. Bald would agree 😁
You really help me I have been learning Russian . It's been 1 month I'm learning Russian. I do not understand any grammar I just wanted to quit learning but this video just motivated me to continue.
that's the most brilliant video and the best advice on learning a foreign language. Bald's experience and advices to focus on vocabulary is exactly what I tell to anyone who is asking what is the best way to master English.
I'm Portuguese and my accent is perfect a Russian told me that the Portuguese and Russian have very similar pronounce, even culturaly I felt at home in San Peterborough. Love from Portugal
portuguese sounds eerily like russian
Susana Portuguese is just Spanish spoken in a Russian accent lmao
Susana, If that's your picture, I think I know why he told you your accent was perfect.
Geno Eastern Europeans living in Portugal barely have an accent speaking Portuguese.
@@David-dx5wz Hard for someone uneducated in any of those 3 languages to know any difference. English is just like German spoken in a French accent.
I got 99 problems but the grammar aint one
С *Девяноста Девяти Луфтбалуны,* ты знаешь немецкий !
Best advice for language learning ever!
I have a similar approach to Japanese. A few years ago I started memorizing vocabulary when standing on the train and it made a huge difference. I will also add the excessive study of pronunciation and intonation. A lot of English textbooks have a lot of importance put into rising and lowering intonation, linked sounds etc that is completely unnecessary to know if you want to communicate in English. Even if your pronunciation is off if someone misunderstands you in an actual conversation you can try again or use different works to explain yourself.
My favorite book on languages is "The Loom of Language", originally published in 1944. On Russian, it advises: "It is therefore impossible to give the reader who wishes to learn Russian any good advice except to take the precaution of being born and brought up in Russia."
What asinine and pointless advice
yeah man, your Russian is very good, I'm really amazed not every foreigner speaks Russian that well as you !
Lold nice joke bruh.
I mean, he is more than capable of communicate but i personally know some foreigners who can do better.
Steir Qwe why are you flexing your friends capability to speak a language?
@@spongebobsquarepants1788 I guess you can put it that way, altrough person in question isn't friend of mine
Well, his Russian is pretty terrible, BUT still perfectly okay to travel, have conversations etc, etc.
I couldnt agree more on this. i learned Russian at university for one year as an elective course. They forced us with learning grammar and we barely did any conversation, this resulted in me having a bad note. In the end i learned Russian through your videos, music, movies and meeting russians in person, practising the language. Now i fully undestrand the languge, minus some words.
It’s April 2024 ,After 6 months of learning russian I didn’t see much progress and tonight I saw this vidoe . The next 6 months my focus is gonna be only vocab hope I will come back here after 1 year and check how my russian is doing .
Learn grammar organically, not out of a book. You can't speak the right Grammer by visualising the declension tables while you speak.
I can
@@Maxjeix01 my hat off to you sir
@@xpusostomos lol
I hope this guy makes more videos on learning languages, he seems to do it so easily
he is speaking with natives a lot in a real life environment. its much more efficient than just sitting in the classroom.
Thanks good tip! I am learning Russian for about a year and I have not focussed on Grammar. A good tip is watching series and such so eventually some phrases will stick in your mind with perfect grammar.
I truly aspire to learn as many languages as I can before I kick the bucket, but I've long been avoiding Russian and Japanese (of the languages on my shortlist. -ninja edit). Lately, I've been consumed with the thought of trying to learn one or the other or both, as I'm happy with where I am on my current project. Thanks for the words of encouragement! I think I'll start listening to some Russian tonight! (Part of my learning is auditory, for sure. Once I can link the way a word looks with how a word sounds, I'm starting to pick it up for use by that point. The major kink in this... is that I often screw my grammar up! I'm not learning properly, but I am learning, darn it! To hell with the grammar =)
do you want to speak with me? I learn English and I need some English speaking friends. I'd be happy to speak with you (I speak Russian)
Russian: my grammar is a nightmare.
Hungarian: hold my palinka
Языковой Канал LingvostudiA Finnish : hold my polkaa
George Rady LMFAO 😂
LOLLLLLLL!! One of the funniest comments I've ever seen. Kosonom!
I'm a Hungarian, learning Russian rn. I was good at Hungarian grammar at school, but I'd gladly omit the Russian grammar for a while as Bald suggests because speaking a hard language doesn't make learning Russian easier. 😂
@@BenefitCounterbench Well, yes and no... For example as a Hungarian it is much easier to understand most of the grammar, like cases or perfective/imperfective. Try to explain those to a person whose mother tongue is English where there is no such thing as cases. :)
So.....your video was followed by a Grammarly commercial lol :)
You dont use adblock?
Terrific! For me, slumped in my computer chair, it was one about posture. Haha.
@@DonegalOverlanding using adblock on CZcams is unethical my friend, please think about it !
I agree. Learning vocabulary is how I learned German. It was years before made any real effort with grammar, and my grammar is at times still awful, but I have fluent conversations with people, watch films, read articles, do everything I need to live in a German speaking country.
Got to agree with you - this is my experience with other languages. I also lost out a bit because I tried to start learning Russian in the nineties when Russian classes started evaporating with the end of the Cold War.