When I was a little kid, my English teacher told me in western world if people give you a compliment, your response should be: thank you. I was so shocked that a person give that kind of response because that just sounds so cocky. in Chinese culture you should deny it, saying things like no no I’m not that good. So very often it is not just about language it is more to do with culture.
Haha, we had it differently. Teacher told us that we had to say something short because it's just another way of saying "Hello". In my language people say "How are you" when they genuinely want to know your well well-being
Compliments is English to others and yourself is the same mentality as when someone offers you food. You are kind and respect them and accept it. If you always deny their food or complients, it is seen that you do not care for them and they will be far less inclined to do those things out of you denying them. "Oh he may not like my cooking" or "Oh, he may not like my compliments". It is also a meaning of confidence. Not in a cocky way though. You are thanking the person for seeing your value in something.
We do the same thing here in Michigan (in the u.s) well some people.. a lot of people say thank you.. but the REAL nice people like myself will say "no no, that's too kind" or something of that sort.
in brief: In this video, Steve Kaufmann emphasizes that language learning is not as complicated as it is often portrayed by academics and textbooks. He goes through several books on language acquisition, pointing out various concepts and ideas that make the process seem complex. He argues that language learning is a natural and simple phenomenon, primarily involving acquiring new language habits through listening and reading. Kaufmann suggests that Stephen Krashen's natural learning approach and input hypothesis offer clear and straightforward explanations of how languages are learned. He believes that a focus on massive input, gradually increasing vocabulary, and gaining confidence in speaking will lead to language proficiency. He also mentions LingQ, a language learning platform that facilitates the process of learning through massive input and gradually more challenging content. In summary, Steve Kaufmann argues that language learning is a simpler process than it is often portrayed, with the key components being lots of listening, reading, and gradually building vocabulary and confidence.
@StillAliveAndKicking_ Here's a faster summary for you. Book says something that agrees with Steve's intuition: "This is obvious, and shouldn't have been written down in this book." Book says something that doesn't agree with Steve's intuition: "This is incorrect, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
It seems to me that often the educational books are written by people who don't learn languages actively. I started applying Krashen's comprehensible input and Lingq and I am very happy of my progress in Chinese. It is really simple.
I agree with looking up words, and I didn’t understand why many educators make language learners guess the meaning of certain words. I feel looking up a word is far more efficient. That is how I learn English. I’m fluent now and pretty happy with it.
In the beginning, I agree, it's useless. But, in highest levels helps to speed the acquisition. Suppose you know the "automobile" and "cephalic". The first is made from "auto-" meaning "self" and "mobile" meaning "movable". The 2nd is made from "cephal-" meaning "head" and "ic" meaning "pertaining to". Now you can guess what the word "autocephalous" means: it means an institution that is a "self-head" or an institution that is the head control of itself. If you don't know any words that have those prefixes and suffixes, it is useless to guess, but once you know those prefixes, the ability to learn new words(and sometimes even create new ones) grows exponentially.
Some people use complicated way or boring way to learn new languanges example by memorising 100 words, i agree with him that learning languanges should be blast and etertaining, not stress yourself out, and learning the culture is like a reward for me, it's interesting part of the languange learning. As mr. Bob the canadian said every little bit counts, i'm his subscriber. Yes, learning languange is not complicated whatsoever i speak English on What's app group and in my daily life. Am i expert? Not at all, i'm just an English learner.😊
Great video! One really should not overcomplicate language learning. It's important to stop worrying and start taking action. A very simple method I've discovered to learn new vocabulary is just reading a chapter of a book in a language you know, and then the same chapter in the languge you learn. Not page by page, because the switching will distract you, but really chapter by chapter - and it is less boring this way. By the end of the book, you'll have learned many new words passively, without even realizing it! Thanks for sharing your tips and strategies for language learning.
@@eliseolara5055 First read news paper in your native language and then same news read in eng . this method help you a lot and I am doing the same to improve my vocabulary.
For me learning languages was kind of barriers, I struggled with that so much time. I knew stiven and my point of view change about language learning. Currently I am learning English and now all is easier, sometimes I feel kind of shy but I go on learning, I don’t worry about my mistakes, I mean, I take care about them but just I try to advance and every single day I learn something new.
That's the point. You are a "Learner", and mistakes are expected. So there are no reasons to feel ashamed about it. Even native speakers make mistakes.
Kids in Ireland spend 14 years learning irish. At the end they cannot even order "a cup of coffee to go, and can I tap with my credit card"....meanwhile the education system does the Irish equivalent of Shakespeare & beowulf.
Hi Steve. Your videos helped inspire me to learn 2 new languages going back over 10 years when I felt a failure after my experience with languages in high school and I feel the sky is the limit when it comes to language learning now. I love everything to do with the polyglot and language learning community on CZcams. Best wishes, Gethin 🏴
I think there is a huge commercial and academic imperative to overcomplicate - its simply a means of generating money in the former and prestige in the latter. There is also I think a problem with L2 studies in that it draws in specialists from other disciplines (such as cognitive learning specialists) who then bring their own intellectual loads, mix it in with Dunning-Kruger, and end up giving terrible advice. As Stephen says, there is nothing complex about language learning - our brains are literally designed to do it naturally (unlike, say, learning maths).
As usual, a clear and informative presentation. Second language acquisition today is so much easier than in the BI (Before Internet) era as we have so much access to audio and video in the target language, and as you so rightly say, quantity of input is key. A language teacher, in my non professional opinion, should be someone who generates enthusiasm in the students, encourages them and guides them. They must also make it clear that it requires hundreds if not thousands of hours of conscious interaction with that language.
im learning korean and ive always enjoyed reading webtoons in korean. theres so many and its nice to break into korean literature that way, even if i dont know alot of the words. its helped my progress and aids my speaking alot!
Merci pour tout ton aide, Steve! C'est très génial trouver quelqu'un que explique l'acquisition d'une langue d'une façon si facile et pratique! Merci beaucoup !!
I agree that learning a language is through a massive input from listening and reading. I remember when I was in high school, I learned to be good in speaking and writing in English through a lot of reading. Now, I focused more on listening to improve my pronunciation and accent.
For all those who want to learn a Slavic language, be aware that if you learn Serbian (Croatian, Bosnian), that language speak around 30 million people, so it's far more widely used than Czech or Slovak. Also, the sounds are as clear as those of Italian. As for Slavic languages in general, for starters, you can disregard most of gramatical rules, and the locals will understand you perfectly well.
@@putinisakiller8093 Only in Yugoslavia, which numbered 22+ million of people, everybody knew Serbian/Croatian. So what you are saying is utter nonsense.
Thank you for this video Steve - I don't think I've ever had so much fun watching a video! I loved how you pointed out the more ridiculously obvious aspects of language learning that academics focus on. I'm a PhD student and I went into academia because of my love for language learning which naively enough I thought would mean I would gain some deeper understanding of the processes involved. And while that's been the case to some extent, the majority of the research that comes out in journals and books has very little to do with the practical aspects of language learning. I'd even say it's so far removed from real-world LL that in most cases it adds very little value. These days when people ask me which "science" books they should pick up that would help them learn languages easier, I always tell them that's the wrong approach. If you want to know how to learn a language, don't look to academics or science books - go and ask someone who's learned a language before. Listen to them talk about their experience and try out some of the things for yourself - some you'll like, others you'll drop, and keep iterating until you find what works for you. But whatever you do, don't get bogged down in science-speak thinking science could give you some magical short-cut - there isn't one.
The more complicated your learning system, the less likely you are to implement it. Input is the best way to learn and focus and consistency are the most important things to be successful.
Estoy de acuerdo! I agree 100% it’s what you do outside of a classroom that’s makes all of the difference. For me, my passion to learn leads me. For others it may be purpose. But their needs to be an internal driving force that pushes you reach milestones in learning your tartlet language. Listening and teaching are key to learning. Listening and repeating what we heard is how we learned out native language. Reading and experimenting are how we mastered our native language. The equation is the same for me. Only the factors are different…. I don’t have two parents and siblings speaking Spanish to me everyday so Movies and books are their replacements. Mil gracias por tus videos fantásticos 🙏🏾
I agree with everything you say in your videos, Steve. God!, I’m already a senior citizen and I decided to start learning Italian only six months ago by mostly reading and listening. I watch movies in Italian, I watch QVC Italy interviews, I sometimes listen to songs in italian, I read Corriere della Sera quite often, I started Duolingo two months ago and I’m already reaching lesson 40 out of 57. Granted, my main language is Spanish, and that helps a lot because of the structural similarties between both languages. But, bottom line: I’m learning very, very quickly. My only concern is that I still have not been able to find someone to converse with; after all, speaking is way harder than listening, so we’ll see how I fend when I’m put to the test. Thanks!
I started to make the biggest amount of progress once I made things as simple as possible. I have a certain amount of time each day that I read in my target language... I have a certain amount of time each day that I listen in my target language. Thats it. It almost sounds too simple to work, but in fact it works better than every kind of complicated thing I tried before. You helped alot in finding the right method that works for me, so thank you Steve.
A very interesting video! While I do agree that language learning should not be overcomplicated, I think that we should not expect that linguistics literature on second language acquisition will give us a list of tips for language learners is misplaced, since a lot of what is being described in SLA studies might seem obvious to someone who thinks about their language learning process, since linguistics is primarily descriptive. I also think you are quite hard on Ellis's SLA, since it is an introductory textbook to applied linguistics for beginner linguistics students and not a guide meant for polyglots.
Siempre le escucho y me gustan sus videos los cuales son muy interesantes, he querido años mejorar mi ingles con sus consejos y sugerencias he podido mejoarar mis habilidades comunicativas en ingles, no intento ser poliglota, pero si tengo un afan inmenso de hablar, escribir , leer y escuchar en mi dioma meta que es el ingles.
Just started learning Chinese 1 month ago through an online course but yet have WeChat (and several Chinese friends living in China with whom I can chat because we have English as a common language) and another Chinese social media. Very interesting. I experience very intense learning with my courses and in addition I try to make a contact with real talking in real life.
I want to read nonfiction histories and biographies in French and German. My current method is to spend an hour reading French on one day, German the next day, and continue alternating. I'm reading mostly online news articles on a variety of topics in order to broaden my grasp of vocabulary. I hope eventually to be able to read books in French and German, and Spanish as well. Thank you for the videos, they inspire me to never surrender.
I like espresso Chinese with Dr Catherine Xiang. She teaches Mandarin using news headlines and idioms which provides context. Dr Xiang teaches at the London School of Economics.
You know Steve, I think you are spot on here. I have a love-hate relationship with academia (although it might be a little too strong expression to describe my feelings). What I can say is that I would usually first rather listen to the polyglot community who has actually had success than academics. After all, many universities' language courses won't get you fluent in a language, while much of polyglots' advice and tools would (if you put in the effort). Stephen Krashen is obviously an exception to the rule. I have long learned not to blindly trust and follow all advice from academics. And as you say, we should just go for it and learn, without complicating matters too much.
Generative processing that Paul Nation mentions seems to mean producing either an utterance or a piece of writing with a recently encountered word in a context different from the one in which you encountered it. I.e., making a new sentence with the word and saying it out loud or, preferably, integrating it in a conversation, or writing a short story with that word in a new context.
More than half a century of second language acquisition research may go some way towards helping here. Unfortunately there seems to be suspicion of this academic discipline. Perhaps this is in line with a broader anti-intellectual trend, or perhaps this suspicion is due to an industry made up of unqualified language teachers. Anyway, find a teacher who has studied and understands SLA (teachers, by the way, are the intended audience of the books dismissed here, not language learners) and I'm sure you'll reach your goals quickly.
@@BR-lq6fcI definitely think it’s because of unqualified teachers unless the more qualified individuals to whom you refer are also opposed to input-centric learning I think the issue is that because language learning on a practical level is a hard to quantify process of developing an intuition for the patterns and and in-context meaning and usage of words that a lot of people who do end up learning a language do it in spite of the grammar-centric, conscious learning approach imposed on them in school It’s not necessarily anti-intellectual unless said intellectuals propose things that just don’t work due to the modern over-reliance on quantity-based, positivist thinking
Yesterday I taught a mandarin speaker, a friend of mine, the tenses of English. She is now pursuing a degree and English is one of the required subjects. She got so confused with the tenses, just like a lot of native mandarin speakers do. Until to this day I still think tenses is the most difficult part of English and I’m still not very good at it. ( from a mandarin speaker point of view)
Native English speaker here. Your English sentence is very good but even here you have made mistakes with tense. You should have said " she has been pursuing a degree" as opposed to "She is now pursuing a degree"
If you can find something you like doing in the language, any technique is fine as long as you are learning words. If you can't, there is no technique which will get you there. The guidance people need is how to find those things they like doing in the language.
I would love to hear you talk about thinking in another language versus trying to translate in your head and why that’s a bad idea it’s always been interesting like something going from English to Japanese in my case for example
My learners are Mandarin speakers - the most difficult part of them learning English is having them change their habit of NOT translating because that's how they've been taught to do in schools.
@@glumraidh - yeah. i can see that.. - I would love it for example if LingQ let your turn on the hiragana and the romanji at the same time with furigana all on at once. to reinforce the reading in the early days.. so your not looking up all the kanji and the hiragane/katakana for things. Right now its either or.. which is a bit limiting.. would be nice to just have 3 check boxes to turn any of them on / off
Hey there! In my point of view as much you learned and everyday ability of understanding english make you less sensitivity to your own experience of it.
Another very simple and obvious thing is that when someone is trying to sell you something their product becomes the perfect panacea for everything you need.
Thanks Steve for these valuable tips which are always very encouraging and interesting. Your are the best advisor that I have ever met. Please could you tell me which kind of abilities are required to get b2 ? I mean, at what point can I say that I have b2 level ? Thanks for all. Best
@@Thelinguist actually it depends on the context. I am used to watching your content so I can understand more than 95% of your speech but that is difficult for me to understand a movie for example. In fact academic content is easy to understand ( like lecture or documentary) but every “casual” content is a real hassle.
It would be great if people in the language learning community in Ireland would host a polyglot in Ireland. I think it would allow other language learning approaches to influence the teachers .
A very interesting video, thank you Steve. Could you please clarify what you mean by “massive” input? I am trying to raise my French to fluency, so I will be joining LinQ, but how much reading and listening should I do each day to markedly improve in 3 months?
(of course I’m not Steve, but I doubt answer to this question would vary greatly) Short answer: a lot… Long answer: depends on your level. The more advanced you are, the less noticeable progress you have in the language…you are still progressing and getting better, but it’s less obvious. In contrast, if you’re a beginner and just doing 1 week of French an hour a day then by the end of the week you will feel like you have just learned a mountain of things… Even though progress is less noticeable the more advanced you are in the language, you still have to do as much input (listening/reading) as you possibly can within your day, every day. Don’t think of it as “I need to read/listen for 4-8 hours daily for 3 months”…rather just enjoy the process…if you set yourself a goal of “I want to be fluent in x months”, when you find out it takes longer, it often leads to disappointment…but as you mention just having a goal of “I want to improve my French in 3 months” is totally doable, but “improve in 3 months” a very broad and generic goal….by just doing daily input, any daily input will have you knowing more than when you started…so that’s technically an improvement Also, you can’t get to fluency just by doing input. You can get far, but without output (speaking/writing) you won’t be able to get rid of minor things like stuttering while trying to convey ideas or having to overthink if what you just said is correct or what would be the correct way to say something. Also no matter how much input you get, you won’t be able to formulate complex sentences without practicing some output. Maybe a tutor or language exchange partner could help with output (if you don’t have anyone to practice with).
Maybe I should do a video on this. The more input the better. Read for vocabulary growth. Listen for general comprehension and to improve your reading ability. I listen early in the day and often while doing tasks. There is usually lots I don't understand and that triggers my curiosity to read and study the transcript on LingQ. In total, maybe one hour and a half a day. There are languages on LingQ where I have read over a million words and listened to hundreds of hours. Make it enjoyable and follow your statistics on LingQ. Good luck.
Honestly, I know you're probably keen to get estimates of time, but I'd forget about '3 months.' The reason is that 3 months is absolutely nothing in language learning (if your goal is to get to a pretty high level). If you start fixating on "what results will x get me in 3 months", you're probably already being far too impatient. Also, depending on what stage you're at, what you're actually doing, and how focussed you are, your progress in '3 months' can range from absolutely massive to completely negligable (or at least seemingly so). Just do what you can and relax about where it gets you. The more you do, the more results you'll feel, but those results aren't linear, and somtimes you'll struggle to even perceive them.
I started revising French one year ago, at least one hour a day of work, and now I can understand many native podcasts, but I don’t understand slang or street French. I think at least an hour a day is needed, even then it will take years to learn to communicate well.
I’ve been studying Portuguese for 9 years now and I’ve visited Brasil 18 times but I still can’t read or converse yet and I have to translate everything into English to understand. I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and I can’t understand her. We’ve been practicing for 6 years now. Portuguese words don’t mean anything to me until I translate them into English. English words seem to automatically come out of me when I speak but Portuguese words have to be translated from English words. I usually sit quietly when I’m visiting Brasil because of that.
The intended audience of these books is students of linguistics and students of language teaching, not learners of a language. You've selected the wrong target here. I'd also like to say that some metalanguage is essential for talking about the object of learning, especially for adults, and this is certainly not jargon. You prove this point in your video by talking about articles and plurals and making comparisons with the learner's L1. Having said all that, I certainly agree that language learning (again, not learning about linguistics or teaching) shouldn't be chopped up into small discrete pieces, ignoring all the interlocking variables that allow fluency. As for language teaching, I would hope after reading these books to learn about SLA that the teacher wouldn't take the same academic approach to language teaching. However, there are still teachers who deliver lectures in the language learning classroom and that have an obsession with grammatical rules. Perhaps this is due to a lack of training, or perhaps it's just easy, or perhaps because it gives the impression of professional competence in a field that is full of under-qualified (if at all) teachers. This dated approach will unlikely develop rounded communicative competence. Fortunately, language teaching, thanks to some of those writers you dismiss, has largely moved on from this. Finally, input is hugely important, as you said, but when dismissing the likes of Schmitt and Ellis you missed the importance of things like hypothesis formation and reflective learning in the SLA process. We can do so much better than just passive input. You mention these books from 20 years ago, but perhaps you could remind us when exactly Krashen wrote about his 5 hypotheses?
the best way to learn a language is to learn from the ones you like most... I know myself that i sound like someone when I speak in English, and sound like another one when I speak my basic Japanese. lol and to be able to tell a funny story is the key of language learning...
Steve, I have a question about listening. Do you read the transcript while listen to audio? If yes, when do you do that? At a begginer level or you keep doing that even at an intermediate or advanced level? Thank you!
hola yo hablo español y quiero aprender a hablar ingles, si hablas ingles porfavor dame unos consejos para leer en ingles, osea cual es la regla que usab para leer ingles
Book says something that agrees with Steve's intuition: "This is obvious, and shouldn't have been written down in this book." Book says something that doesn't agree with Steve's intuition: "This is incorrect, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
You mention academics, but then you give an example of unrelated corporate speaking. I'm sorry, but judging by your comment, I doubt you actually know any academics.
I believe I saw discussions on LingQ about Thai, but I think it will always come down to whether or not anyone is providing enough material for a given language, to create it as an official course.
I would like to read, but what can you do when you don’t know the alphabet of that language? I’m English speaker and well can understand latin based characters, but what about Arabic, Chinese, Korean where the letters are completely unknown? Any suggestions on reading comprehension
I tried turkish for months (with linq ) Lots of input reading listening etc I i know the meaning of a lot of words (all memorized) ! But making one sentence is imposdible Understanding one , no . What am i doing wrong ? Or is it just not my language ?
es correcto. ser metódico y técnico no significa hacer el aprendizaje super especializado. it's right. being methodical and technical does not mean making the learning super specialized
The dictatorship of happiness must forcibly be applied to language learning too. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center got it all wrong.
In my experience such linguists get caught up hypothesizing about THE MIND due to its incalculable complexity. Meanwhile, our involvement is literally: "AQUIRE INPUT."
When I was a little kid, my English teacher told me in western world if people give you a compliment, your response should be: thank you. I was so shocked that a person give that kind of response because that just sounds so cocky. in Chinese culture you should deny it, saying things like no no I’m not that good. So very often it is not just about language it is more to do with culture.
YES!
Haha, we had it differently. Teacher told us that we had to say something short because it's just another way of saying "Hello". In my language people say "How are you" when they genuinely want to know your well well-being
In my part of the western world we “mitigate” the compliment - probably what you would call deny. And thank the giver.
Compliments is English to others and yourself is the same mentality as when someone offers you food. You are kind and respect them and accept it. If you always deny their food or complients, it is seen that you do not care for them and they will be far less inclined to do those things out of you denying them. "Oh he may not like my cooking" or "Oh, he may not like my compliments". It is also a meaning of confidence. Not in a cocky way though. You are thanking the person for seeing your value in something.
We do the same thing here in Michigan (in the u.s) well some people.. a lot of people say thank you.. but the REAL nice people like myself will say "no no, that's too kind" or something of that sort.
in brief:
In this video, Steve Kaufmann emphasizes that language learning is not as complicated as it is often portrayed by academics and textbooks. He goes through several books on language acquisition, pointing out various concepts and ideas that make the process seem complex. He argues that language learning is a natural and simple phenomenon, primarily involving acquiring new language habits through listening and reading.
Kaufmann suggests that Stephen Krashen's natural learning approach and input hypothesis offer clear and straightforward explanations of how languages are learned. He believes that a focus on massive input, gradually increasing vocabulary, and gaining confidence in speaking will lead to language proficiency. He also mentions LingQ, a language learning platform that facilitates the process of learning through massive input and gradually more challenging content.
In summary, Steve Kaufmann argues that language learning is a simpler process than it is often portrayed, with the key components being lots of listening, reading, and gradually building vocabulary and confidence.
Crikey, it’s quicker to wach the video …
@StillAliveAndKicking_ Here's a faster summary for you.
Book says something that agrees with Steve's intuition: "This is obvious, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
Book says something that doesn't agree with Steve's intuition: "This is incorrect, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
Thank you for your effort to make this short summary.
did you transcribe the video and put the script into chatgpt
@@tokenslol no, i use chatgpt 4 with voxscript
It seems to me that often the educational books are written by people who don't learn languages actively. I started applying Krashen's comprehensible input and Lingq and I am very happy of my progress in Chinese. It is really simple.
The absolutely best way to learn a language are bilingual books. There is nothing better and faster than that.
I agree with looking up words, and I didn’t understand why many educators make language learners guess the meaning of certain words. I feel looking up a word is far more efficient. That is how I learn English. I’m fluent now and pretty happy with it.
In the beginning, I agree, it's useless. But, in highest levels helps to speed the acquisition. Suppose you know the "automobile" and "cephalic". The first is made from "auto-" meaning "self" and "mobile" meaning "movable". The 2nd is made from "cephal-" meaning "head" and "ic" meaning "pertaining to". Now you can guess what the word "autocephalous" means: it means an institution that is a "self-head" or an institution that is the head control of itself. If you don't know any words that have those prefixes and suffixes, it is useless to guess, but once you know those prefixes, the ability to learn new words(and sometimes even create new ones) grows exponentially.
Especially if you are looking them up in a monolingual dictionary.
Some people use complicated way or boring way to learn new languanges example by memorising 100 words, i agree with him that learning languanges should be blast and etertaining, not stress yourself out, and learning the culture is like a reward for me, it's interesting part of the languange learning. As mr. Bob the canadian said every little bit counts, i'm his subscriber. Yes, learning languange is not complicated whatsoever i speak English on What's app group and in my daily life. Am i expert? Not at all, i'm just an English learner.😊
If you don't care how correct your English is you won't get tired from learning it. But if you care... That's a different matter.
Great video! One really should not overcomplicate language learning. It's important to stop worrying and start taking action.
A very simple method I've discovered to learn new vocabulary is just reading a chapter of a book in a language you know, and then the same chapter in the languge you learn. Not page by page, because the switching will distract you, but really chapter by chapter - and it is less boring this way. By the end of the book, you'll have learned many new words passively, without even realizing it!
Thanks for sharing your tips and strategies for language learning.
i want to try this, but how can i find both the english version of the book as well as the other language?
I am going to try this
@@lovelypandamom ideally a free method, but I’ll give a try
@@eliseolara5055
First read news paper in your native language and then same news read in eng . this method help you a lot and I am doing the same to improve my vocabulary.
For me learning languages was kind of barriers, I struggled with that so much time. I knew stiven and my point of view change about language learning. Currently I am learning English and now all is easier, sometimes I feel kind of shy but I go on learning, I don’t worry about my mistakes, I mean, I take care about them but just I try to advance and every single day I learn something new.
That's the point. You are a "Learner", and mistakes are expected. So there are no reasons to feel ashamed about it. Even native speakers make mistakes.
Kids in Ireland spend 14 years learning irish. At the end they cannot even order "a cup of coffee to go, and can I tap with my credit card"....meanwhile the education system does the Irish equivalent of Shakespeare & beowulf.
And I bet that most kids who do become fluent Irish speakers didn't acquire that ability in the classroom
I think it's a common problem almost in every country. Almost.
😂😂😂
Is trua sin
Had the same experience with Arabic in college
Hi Steve. Your videos helped inspire me to learn 2 new languages going back over 10 years when I felt a failure after my experience with languages in high school and I feel the sky is the limit when it comes to language learning now. I love everything to do with the polyglot and language learning community on CZcams. Best wishes, Gethin 🏴
you forgot to include which languages!
@@anires1195 Spanish C2 and Portuguese B2. Have dabbled in other languages too. I hope to learn a few more languages going forward.
I still think that Steve makes these videos only to show off his super cool glasses.
I think there is a huge commercial and academic imperative to overcomplicate - its simply a means of generating money in the former and prestige in the latter. There is also I think a problem with L2 studies in that it draws in specialists from other disciplines (such as cognitive learning specialists) who then bring their own intellectual loads, mix it in with Dunning-Kruger, and end up giving terrible advice. As Stephen says, there is nothing complex about language learning - our brains are literally designed to do it naturally (unlike, say, learning maths).
100% Academics can be dreadful, calling a spade a manual earth excavation apparatus.
As usual, a clear and informative presentation. Second language acquisition today is so much easier than in the BI (Before Internet) era as we have so much access to audio and video in the target language, and as you so rightly say, quantity of input is key. A language teacher, in my non professional opinion, should be someone who generates enthusiasm in the students, encourages them and guides them. They must also make it clear that it requires hundreds if not thousands of hours of conscious interaction with that language.
im learning korean and ive always enjoyed reading webtoons in korean. theres so many and its nice to break into korean literature that way, even if i dont know alot of the words. its helped my progress and aids my speaking alot!
Merci pour tout ton aide, Steve! C'est très génial trouver quelqu'un que explique l'acquisition d'une langue d'une façon si facile et pratique! Merci beaucoup !!
Great video, Steve! I totally agree with you! Thanks so much!
I agree that learning a language is through a massive input from listening and reading. I remember when I was in high school, I learned to be good in speaking and writing in English through a lot of reading. Now, I focused more on listening to improve my pronunciation and accent.
Steve, this video is great. Many thanks. Sincerely Andre BERENYI English language trainer based in France
Thanks 😊 yes your point of view is very inspiring and accurate- the more learning languages, the easier we find 😊
Yes Yes Yes. Your wisdom is spot on. Thanks for sharing this with all of us
For all those who want to learn a Slavic language, be aware that if you learn Serbian (Croatian, Bosnian), that language speak around 30 million people, so it's far more widely used than Czech or Slovak. Also, the sounds are as clear as those of Italian. As for Slavic languages in general, for starters, you can disregard most of gramatical rules, and the locals will understand you perfectly well.
It's about 15 million speakers who speaks Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian. If you want more speakers you should learn Polish or Ukrainian. :)
@@putinisakiller8093 Only in Yugoslavia, which numbered 22+ million of people, everybody knew Serbian/Croatian. So what you are saying is utter nonsense.
Thank you for this video Steve - I don't think I've ever had so much fun watching a video! I loved how you pointed out the more ridiculously obvious aspects of language learning that academics focus on. I'm a PhD student and I went into academia because of my love for language learning which naively enough I thought would mean I would gain some deeper understanding of the processes involved. And while that's been the case to some extent, the majority of the research that comes out in journals and books has very little to do with the practical aspects of language learning. I'd even say it's so far removed from real-world LL that in most cases it adds very little value. These days when people ask me which "science" books they should pick up that would help them learn languages easier, I always tell them that's the wrong approach. If you want to know how to learn a language, don't look to academics or science books - go and ask someone who's learned a language before. Listen to them talk about their experience and try out some of the things for yourself - some you'll like, others you'll drop, and keep iterating until you find what works for you. But whatever you do, don't get bogged down in science-speak thinking science could give you some magical short-cut - there isn't one.
Thank you Mr Kaufmann for sharing this with us. That's very helpful
The more complicated your learning system, the less likely you are to implement it.
Input is the best way to learn and focus and consistency are the most important things to be successful.
Thank you so much. Very informative and interesting
Estoy de acuerdo! I agree 100% it’s what you do outside of a classroom that’s makes all of the difference. For me, my passion to learn leads me. For others it may be purpose. But their needs to be an internal driving force that pushes you reach milestones in learning your tartlet language. Listening and teaching are key to learning. Listening and repeating what we heard is how we learned out native language. Reading and experimenting are how we mastered our native language. The equation is the same for me. Only the factors are different…. I don’t have two parents and siblings speaking Spanish to me everyday so Movies and books are their replacements. Mil gracias por tus videos fantásticos 🙏🏾
Great advise Nga Mihi
I agree with everything you say in your videos, Steve. God!, I’m already a senior citizen and I decided to start learning Italian only six months ago by mostly reading and listening. I watch movies in Italian, I watch QVC Italy interviews, I sometimes listen to songs in italian, I read Corriere della Sera quite often, I started Duolingo two months ago and I’m already reaching lesson 40 out of 57. Granted, my main language is Spanish, and that helps a lot because of the structural similarties between both languages. But, bottom line: I’m learning very, very quickly. My only concern is that I still have not been able to find someone to converse with; after all, speaking is way harder than listening, so we’ll see how I fend when I’m put to the test. Thanks!
Me encanta la explicación. Es muy pedagogo. Yo me moriré sin aprender inglés y siempre con la ilusión de aprenderlo. Muchas gracias.
I started to make the biggest amount of progress once I made things as simple as possible.
I have a certain amount of time each day that I read in my target language... I have a certain amount of time each day that I listen in my target language.
Thats it.
It almost sounds too simple to work, but in fact it works better than every kind of complicated thing I tried before.
You helped alot in finding the right method that works for me, so thank you Steve.
Thanks I am from Cuba
A very interesting video!
While I do agree that language learning should not be overcomplicated, I think that we should not expect that linguistics literature on second language acquisition will give us a list of tips for language learners is misplaced, since a lot of what is being described in SLA studies might seem obvious to someone who thinks about their language learning process, since linguistics is primarily descriptive.
I also think you are quite hard on Ellis's SLA, since it is an introductory textbook to applied linguistics for beginner linguistics students and not a guide meant for polyglots.
Right on! 👏👏👏
Siempre le escucho y me gustan sus videos los cuales son muy interesantes, he querido años mejorar mi ingles con sus consejos y sugerencias he podido mejoarar mis habilidades comunicativas en ingles, no intento ser poliglota, pero si tengo un afan inmenso de hablar, escribir , leer y escuchar en mi dioma meta que es el ingles.
thanks steve, you are a big motivation for me!
"It’s acquiring new language habits" "largely through lots of listening and reading" KEY QUOTE THERE.
Thanks...
Just started learning Chinese 1 month ago through an online course but yet have WeChat (and several Chinese friends living in China with whom I can chat because we have English as a common language) and another Chinese social media. Very interesting. I experience very intense learning with my courses and in addition I try to make a contact with real talking in real life.
I’m reading simple Japanese at the minute and it reminds me of when I was a young child, sounding out words in picture books.
I respect Professor Krashen, too.
I want to read nonfiction histories and biographies in French and German. My current method is to spend an hour reading French on one day, German the next day, and continue alternating. I'm reading mostly online news articles on a variety of topics in order to broaden my grasp of vocabulary. I hope eventually to be able to read books in French and German, and Spanish as well. Thank you for the videos, they inspire me to never surrender.
So Steve like all your advise cause you're a good advisor teacher but that's great
Hi Steve, You've got a nice shirt.
You´re Amazing !!!
Excellent
I like espresso Chinese with Dr Catherine Xiang. She teaches Mandarin using news headlines and idioms which provides context. Dr Xiang teaches at the London School of Economics.
Welcome to the world of academia. That was very entertaining, thanks a lot.
I watched a movie on flight from Shanghai to Taipei yesterday and noticed Steve looks like Richard Gere!
please make a video how to train young kids to learn atleast 3 languages
The law of attraction 😊,
Hadar ❤❤❤
Thanks for reminding me
1Referent
2Full scope of word
3 threads Sharps pins
4 spoon feed
5.make generation
6deliberate
7 massivly
You know Steve, I think you are spot on here. I have a love-hate relationship with academia (although it might be a little too strong expression to describe my feelings).
What I can say is that I would usually first rather listen to the polyglot community who has actually had success than academics. After all, many universities' language courses won't get you fluent in a language, while much of polyglots' advice and tools would (if you put in the effort). Stephen Krashen is obviously an exception to the rule.
I have long learned not to blindly trust and follow all advice from academics. And as you say, we should just go for it and learn, without complicating matters too much.
Generative processing that Paul Nation mentions seems to mean producing either an utterance or a piece of writing with a recently encountered word in a context different from the one in which you encountered it. I.e., making a new sentence with the word and saying it out loud or, preferably, integrating it in a conversation, or writing a short story with that word in a new context.
Totally agree. People are always looking for a secret key, but there is none.
More than half a century of second language acquisition research may go some way towards helping here. Unfortunately there seems to be suspicion of this academic discipline. Perhaps this is in line with a broader anti-intellectual trend, or perhaps this suspicion is due to an industry made up of unqualified language teachers. Anyway, find a teacher who has studied and understands SLA (teachers, by the way, are the intended audience of the books dismissed here, not language learners) and I'm sure you'll reach your goals quickly.
@@BR-lq6fcI definitely think it’s because of unqualified teachers unless the more qualified individuals to whom you refer are also opposed to input-centric learning
I think the issue is that because language learning on a practical level is a hard to quantify process of developing an intuition for the patterns and and in-context meaning and usage of words that a lot of people who do end up learning a language do it in spite of the grammar-centric, conscious learning approach imposed on them in school
It’s not necessarily anti-intellectual unless said intellectuals propose things that just don’t work due to the modern over-reliance on quantity-based, positivist thinking
Yesterday I taught a mandarin speaker, a friend of mine, the tenses of English. She is now pursuing a degree and English is one of the required subjects. She got so confused with the tenses, just like a lot of native mandarin speakers do. Until to this day I still think tenses is the most difficult part of English and I’m still not very good at it. ( from a mandarin speaker point of view)
Native English speaker here. Your English sentence is very good but even here you have made mistakes with tense. You should have said " she has been pursuing a degree" as opposed to "She is now pursuing a degree"
@@yiannisroubos8846 thanks dude. Much appreciated
@@elllllllle939 anytime :)
Doesn't mandarin have any tenses?
@@javierfernandoagudelogomez1794 no variation in verbs. Grammar super easy.
If you can find something you like doing in the language, any technique is fine as long as you are learning words. If you can't, there is no technique which will get you there.
The guidance people need is how to find those things they like doing in the language.
❤❤❤❤ a great video
Very fine
I would love to hear you talk about thinking in another language versus trying to translate in your head and why that’s a bad idea it’s always been interesting like something going from English to Japanese in my case for example
My learners are Mandarin speakers - the most difficult part of them learning English is having them change their habit of NOT translating because that's how they've been taught to do in schools.
@@glumraidh - yeah. i can see that.. - I would love it for example if LingQ let your turn on the hiragana and the romanji at the same time with furigana all on at once. to reinforce the reading in the early days.. so your not looking up all the kanji and the hiragane/katakana for things. Right now its either or.. which is a bit limiting.. would be nice to just have 3 check boxes to turn any of them on / off
Hey there! In my point of view as much you learned and everyday ability of understanding english make you less sensitivity to your own experience of it.
Toddlers don't know or care about grammar. If you are starting out, just relax and let it happen to you. Keep at it!
Another very simple and obvious thing is that when someone is trying to sell you something their product becomes the perfect panacea for everything you need.
In general, these books are written for academia, e.g. students of linguistics not for foreign language learners
Thanks Steve for these valuable tips which are always very encouraging and interesting. Your are the best advisor that I have ever met. Please could you tell me which kind of abilities are required to get b2 ? I mean, at what point can I say that I have b2 level ? Thanks for all. Best
Wen you understand most of what you hear.
@@Thelinguist actually it depends on the context. I am used to watching your content so I can understand more than 95% of your speech but that is difficult for me to understand a movie for example. In fact academic content is easy to understand ( like lecture or documentary) but every “casual” content is a real hassle.
Agreed
It would be great if people in the language learning community in Ireland would host a polyglot in Ireland. I think it would allow other language learning approaches to influence the teachers .
Loving LingQ! Could Hindi please be added to it someday?
Might be a waste since India has over 1,000 languages and just because you know Hindi doesn't mean you can talk to anyone in the south of india.
How could it be a waste of time to be able to communicate with over half a billion more people? Norwegian is on lingq which has 5 million speakers
You've got a nice shirt. 👕
sir i am obsessed with your glasses
A very interesting video, thank you Steve. Could you please clarify what you mean by “massive” input? I am trying to raise my French to fluency, so I will be joining LinQ, but how much reading and listening should I do each day to markedly improve in 3 months?
(of course I’m not Steve, but I doubt answer to this question would vary greatly)
Short answer: a lot…
Long answer: depends on your level. The more advanced you are, the less noticeable progress you have in the language…you are still progressing and getting better, but it’s less obvious. In contrast, if you’re a beginner and just doing 1 week of French an hour a day then by the end of the week you will feel like you have just learned a mountain of things…
Even though progress is less noticeable the more advanced you are in the language, you still have to do as much input (listening/reading) as you possibly can within your day, every day. Don’t think of it as “I need to read/listen for 4-8 hours daily for 3 months”…rather just enjoy the process…if you set yourself a goal of “I want to be fluent in x months”, when you find out it takes longer, it often leads to disappointment…but as you mention just having a goal of “I want to improve my French in 3 months” is totally doable, but “improve in 3 months” a very broad and generic goal….by just doing daily input, any daily input will have you knowing more than when you started…so that’s technically an improvement
Also, you can’t get to fluency just by doing input. You can get far, but without output (speaking/writing) you won’t be able to get rid of minor things like stuttering while trying to convey ideas or having to overthink if what you just said is correct or what would be the correct way to say something. Also no matter how much input you get, you won’t be able to formulate complex sentences without practicing some output. Maybe a tutor or language exchange partner could help with output (if you don’t have anyone to practice with).
Maybe I should do a video on this. The more input the better. Read for vocabulary growth. Listen for general comprehension and to improve your reading ability. I listen early in the day and often while doing tasks. There is usually lots I don't understand and that triggers my curiosity to read and study the transcript on LingQ. In total, maybe one hour and a half a day. There are languages on LingQ where I have read over a million words and listened to hundreds of hours. Make it enjoyable and follow your statistics on LingQ. Good luck.
Honestly, I know you're probably keen to get estimates of time, but I'd forget about '3 months.' The reason is that 3 months is absolutely nothing in language learning (if your goal is to get to a pretty high level). If you start fixating on "what results will x get me in 3 months", you're probably already being far too impatient.
Also, depending on what stage you're at, what you're actually doing, and how focussed you are, your progress in '3 months' can range from absolutely massive to completely negligable (or at least seemingly so). Just do what you can and relax about where it gets you. The more you do, the more results you'll feel, but those results aren't linear, and somtimes you'll struggle to even perceive them.
I started revising French one year ago, at least one hour a day of work, and now I can understand many native podcasts, but I don’t understand slang or street French. I think at least an hour a day is needed, even then it will take years to learn to communicate well.
I’ve been studying Portuguese for 9 years now and I’ve visited Brasil 18 times but I still can’t read or converse yet and I have to translate everything into English to understand. I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and I can’t understand her. We’ve been practicing for 6 years now. Portuguese words don’t mean anything to me until I translate them into English. English words seem to automatically come out of me when I speak but Portuguese words have to be translated from English words. I usually sit quietly when I’m visiting Brasil because of that.
When you ask the time, you don't want a history of the wrist watch.
The intended audience of these books is students of linguistics and students of language teaching, not learners of a language. You've selected the wrong target here.
I'd also like to say that some metalanguage is essential for talking about the object of learning, especially for adults, and this is certainly not jargon. You prove this point in your video by talking about articles and plurals and making comparisons with the learner's L1.
Having said all that, I certainly agree that language learning (again, not learning about linguistics or teaching) shouldn't be chopped up into small discrete pieces, ignoring all the interlocking variables that allow fluency.
As for language teaching, I would hope after reading these books to learn about SLA that the teacher wouldn't take the same academic approach to language teaching. However, there are still teachers who deliver lectures in the language learning classroom and that have an obsession with grammatical rules. Perhaps this is due to a lack of training, or perhaps it's just easy, or perhaps because it gives the impression of professional competence in a field that is full of under-qualified (if at all) teachers. This dated approach will unlikely develop rounded communicative competence. Fortunately, language teaching, thanks to some of those writers you dismiss, has largely moved on from this.
Finally, input is hugely important, as you said, but when dismissing the likes of Schmitt and Ellis you missed the importance of things like hypothesis formation and reflective learning in the SLA process. We can do so much better than just passive input. You mention these books from 20 years ago, but perhaps you could remind us when exactly Krashen wrote about his 5 hypotheses?
I'm in awe of those glasses 👓
the best way to learn a language is to learn from the ones you like most... I know myself that i sound like someone when I speak in English, and sound like another one when I speak my basic Japanese. lol and to be able to tell a funny story is the key of language learning...
Steve, I have a question about listening.
Do you read the transcript while listen to audio?
If yes, when do you do that? At a begginer level or you keep doing that even at an intermediate or advanced level?
Thank you!
At the beginning I listen while reading in sentence mode at LingQ. As I progress I no longer do that.
Thank you, Steve!
I think steve what he does a little better. Sometime I will wait and try to read and guess a word I am not quite familiar with
Hi Steve,
I'm curious, are you taking notes while reading non fiction books?
Thanks for your video, I've learned a lot from them.
No notes and I forget much of what I read but I enjoy discovering what's there and it does influence me.
hola yo hablo español y quiero aprender a hablar ingles, si hablas ingles porfavor dame unos consejos para leer en ingles, osea cual es la regla que usab para leer ingles
hi steve!
Book says something that agrees with Steve's intuition: "This is obvious, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
Book says something that doesn't agree with Steve's intuition: "This is incorrect, and shouldn't have been written down in this book."
I want to learn Japanese on Linkq but can't get in. It keeps showing I have a password problem.
Professors and PhDs always make things complicated. For instance, we say "cut the salary" while they use "make adjustment of the salary structure".
You mention academics, but then you give an example of unrelated corporate speaking. I'm sorry, but judging by your comment, I doubt you actually know any academics.
Is Thai going to be added to LingQ in the future?
I believe I saw discussions on LingQ about Thai, but I think it will always come down to whether or not anyone is providing enough material for a given language, to create it as an official course.
I would like to read, but what can you do when you don’t know the alphabet of that language? I’m English speaker and well can understand latin based characters, but what about Arabic, Chinese, Korean where the letters are completely unknown? Any suggestions on reading comprehension
It looks like thar those liguistis he mention are a lot influenced by Paulo Freire.
One day we may discover that Steve Kaufman is really Steve Martin playing a role 😮😅
If you don't care how correct your English is you won't get tired from learning it. But if you care... That's a different matter.
Science is never obvious.
I tried turkish for months (with linq ) Lots of input reading listening etc I i know the meaning of a lot of words (all memorized) ! But making one sentence is imposdible Understanding one , no . What am i doing wrong ? Or is it just not my language ?
Stay patient and keep going. The brain learns, but it learns slowly.
Have you ever thought of inventing a language learning tool kit that could help anyone mastering any language?
LingQ
I'd only wish to have money, for to be able to buy a lot of books😢
Languages learning is very easy when you study to polyglot teacher
The learning itself is easy for everyone as we're all wired to learn languages. The hard part is the time it takes and the patience you need.
es correcto. ser metódico y técnico no significa hacer el aprendizaje super especializado.
it's right. being methodical and technical does not mean making the learning super specialized
The dictatorship of happiness must forcibly be applied to language learning too.
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center got it all wrong.
For the magical thing is MANGA, then Later ANIME
Learning foreign language is still a lot of work!
😍😍😍😍😍😍
In my experience such linguists get caught up hypothesizing about THE MIND due to its incalculable complexity.
Meanwhile, our involvement is literally: "AQUIRE INPUT."
Bengali-Hindi-English-Japanese-Korean-Urdu these are interconnected in some ways with a lot of similarities.
Nice fancy glass haha