After watching many of your videos the last few months, I've learnt to be more forgiving of myself when I forget words, grammar rules and make mistakes. As long as I keep exposing myself to the language, I'll get better.
@@kenedy6925 Yes, but it's not a perfect system. Over the last year, my proficiency has improved from learning phrases that contain new words and finer points of new grammar.
I fell asleep while watching the Danish tv program Borgen....I could swear that while half-asleep I could understand the Danish. Maybe it was a hallucination, but seemed real to me.
This is the truest and most useful advice I've gotten so far from any language learning youtuber! You have effectively turned my conceptions upside down! I am very skilled at linguistics and grammar in general, but this thing has been bothering for months now. I have been studying Japanese for 2 years, but it is only recently that I changed my focus onto listening and speaking. I have been able to chat with native Japanese speakers and read news in simple Japanese for a long while now, but I normally I can't get a single sentence while listening. Just a few words here and there. The thing is, a couple of months ago I started watching my first anime series (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) in Japanese with English subtitles and I must say the improvement I made in just ONE day was unbelievable. This video of yours has just made me fully realise what I have to do from now on with Japanese or any other language a learn in the future. I'll keep listening to a lot of Japanese and I'll try to contact a native Japanese teacher online. I can certify what you say here HAS WORKED incredibly well for me. Even though I love studying grammar and I find it rather interesting, Japanese has made me realise that Listening is by far the most important and fundamental skill one has to develop. Anyway, thank you very much for this video. As I said before, this has turned my conceptions upside down.
Can't agree more! My situation is kind of similar to yours. I have been learning Japanese for 6 months. At first I kept on reading grammar book but then I realised that it is not effective at all. When I listen to Japanese, I dont understand anything and I can't even have simple conversation. I had a JLPT 2 weeks ago. In the listening part, I didnt understand anything. So after that, I think the most important thing in language learning is speaking and listening which allow us to be able to communicate. I also think that if we learn listening and speaking first, everything else (grammar...) comes easy that we can pick it up in a second when we see it in a grammar book instead of trying hard to memorise it. So starting from this week, I started talking to my friends all in Japanese. And you know what, in just a few days, my Japanese has improved a lot. I can now have a conversation with Japanese for one hour. But still, my listening is the worst. I still cant pick up what the japanese says. I need them to write down the kanji so I can understand. Am just wondering how you train your japanese listening?
Also a lovely lady I called Yaiyai left a few recipes to me in her will, but they are in Greek only and I can't fully read it yet. So I'm mostly going off memory
i am a MD from austria close to retirement. i can ensure, even when it comes to medicine or science......you are forced to study and learn. but true understanding and mastery just comes, when you forget about rules and guidelines....just see a lot of patients, their symptoms......just then you will recognise patterns, without learning them, just seeing them over and over again
This is so true. I saw it happen with my own learning. Certain concepts and vocab wouldn't really set in until my brain let them. But once I had that "moment of clarity" they'd become part of my speaking from then on. Great stuff! Now I just have to continue to convince my students of this.
+Kinho SUK RUA DE Cool man! Thanks for the reply. I wrote a post about this very topic. Check it out: www.feelgoodenglish.com/naturally-english-grammar/
I think it's subconscious, I haven't had a lot of time to study Spanish, but I watch Spanish TV shows and understand like 80-90% of everything, yet I cannot repeat everything back if someone asked for that. My brain does the work and doesn't tell me much. My studying now seems to be just me trying to gain control of the conscious ability to communicate in the language. Also to feed the subconscious so it doesn't start to delete my knowledge on me.
from a recent UN report the last 20 years have seen significant reductions in the depth and severity of extreme poverty in the developing world. Notwithstanding the continued growth in the world’s population, the absolute number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen, regardless of whether the poverty-line income threshold is set at $1.25 or raised to $2 or $2.50 per day (figure II.1).
Your videos are life changing. As a child who grew up under the tyranny of controlling drills and tests, I find myself now exploring new subjects using your natural and subconscious learning techniques in my thirties. Your videos are inspiring. I am trying to apply them to learning programming languages. Please keep recording and inspiring!
Well, although I agree what he said in the video, I don't think it's a good idea to apply it to programming languages because the fact that programming languages get the word "language" in their name doesn't immediately mean they are of the same thing to what we typically recognise as languages. Programming languages are artificial and DESIGNED to make it readable and comprehensible to humans while in their very essence they are just mnemonics for instructions from lower abstraction level of computer system. Instead, languages like English and Japanese spoken by real humans are natural languages and they are not designed but EVOLVED accompanied with their speakers. In my point of view, learning programming languages resembles more like learning math, where you are absolutely free to get to know how to operate with numbers subconsciously but it would be much more efficient if you learn it with conscious thinking and heuristics.
"Your English is excellent by the way." Thanks! I learn foreign languages through reading and listening and independently (without teachers and classrooms). Your videos persuaded me that it is the most acceptable and rather effective method of language learning.
rm2kdev Cheers for this, I've been looking for "how to reprogram your mind in 60 seconds or less" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you heard people talk about - Giyoe Fonogan Builder - (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my mate got great success with it.
You just have to find your own path. For example I can't choose the correct word , or conjugation to fit in the spaces. I just go off wire! I also don't do flashcards etc. My method is listening, writing talking and speaking. I now have paid for an online teacher, every Wednesday and it's the best thing I ever did !
I don't have your general knowledge and your experience of studying languages; however, I've noticed the same feeling. Simplicity and the ability to drift learning a foreign language are the way to make this routine more effective pleasant. It's kind of "come back to your childhood." Thank you, Sir.
I am Italian, husband German..3 children and raising them bilingual speaking our native language to them...i was always fascinated to see how my children progress in speaking and understanding Italian was way better than that of my husband studying it in a classroom...they were so ahead of him..and people keep saying: oh they are children it is easier for them..maybe a bit..still it is to admire and pick up from their way, not to diminish saying it is just because to they are children...and my husband, being German, was exactly that type of person wanting to correct mistakes if my children made some, despite them being soooo good in their second language compared ro him...i think this concept is applicable not just to language learning but to learning other domains too...we left Germany ( one reason was also that mentality in the school system) and moved to Spain, a region where they speak Spanish and valenciano...so big challenge for my kids now but they do this full immersion here.. i can help them as i speak Spanish and the languages are similar... anyway that focus on grammar, correcting and very top down approach in teaching is very established in German Bayern school system
It happened with me when I was speaking with my tutor. When i didnt know some word, i just explain about the word that i wanted to say and it works very well for me. The other thing was that he allways gave me the feedback in Portuguese( my mother tongue) , but one day i told him, sorry but i prefer only in English. My opinion is that when you are forced to speak , you just have to face the challenge and go ahead!!!
I think a useful analogy to use when explaining how we learn a language is that of learning to swim. One way of teaching a person how to swim is to explain to them all the laws of effective swimming. We can explain the techniques used by our best swimmers. This is grammar - so to speak. Now, we all know, that no matter how well you learn these swimming laws you will not be able to swim unless you actually try to swim over a prolonged period of time. Knowing the best techniques is helpful (top swimmers are coached in them). However, they are neither necessary nor sufficient for knowing how to swim reasonably well. I think the same is true of language learning.
This has been my experience. After living in South America for the past 5 years, I frequently will be walking down the street talking to a friend and I'll say a something, stop and ask if that's a word and wonder when and how did I ever learn that word.
Yess totally!!! Whenever watching a video of yours I really feel like sending it to my French teacher. But, I know there is no good, I will just continue letting her believe that I know the language so well because of her lessons :)
couldn't agree more! i love your views on language and i agree with pretty much all of them, some of them i had never thought about but after listening to you i realize i experience the same thing. linguistics and language learning are one of my biggest passions, thank you for making me realize stuff i subconsciously knew but hadn't thought about and making the learning process easier and more interesting!
Thanks for this video. The more I watch your videos, the more I am encouraged I am learning French the right way. I am spending time with French each day and am picking it up slowly. I do have to take a foreign language class at my university for one of my general education requirements in about six months, I'm hoping to do really well in it with all of this practice and am looking forward to the interaction. But I am convinced that most of my learning will take place outside of the classroom.
Hi Steve, Alex from LingQ here. I could not agree more. I now started doing French in tandems and with one "pro" teacher. Just speaking freely with common people on topics of interest is so much fun! However, the "Sorbonne" teacher who decided to correct ALL of my mistakes depressed the hell out of me in no time. He would not let me say a word! I surely told him it wouldn't work but 90% of the teachers work like that and then we have discouraged students feeling miserable and giving up. So sad.
I think the magic & revolutionary dynamic that occurs w/ language when it starts to come together has a lot to do w/ not only that is learning repetition; also, that which we persist in doing becomes easier not that the nature of the thing has changed; rather, our ability to do increases. When all else fails perseverance prevails especially when our heart gets there first as the mind may be great; yet, the spirit as to our heart & might is greater!
Well, I agree with most of what you're saying! I'd have to precise though that there are teachers, me included, who flexibly adapt to the needs of the students. Over the years I've met students who learn better by just conversing...others who want a more structured approach, other who are open to unconventional learning (such as accelerated learning). I do think that a modern language teacher is a coach as well as a teacher! Thanks for your video!
I have heard Luca explain it. He certainly is a great language learner. I am against doing things that are sor of against the grain, work in other words. I would not do this. I prefer to either listen and read, which is easy and interesting. Or I talk with people and express myself as best I can and wait for my conversation report from my tutor. I guess it is quite individual.
I wonder if people in former Communist countries don't sometimes forget the shortages, the queues for food, the restrictions on travel. There is understandable nostalgia for cheap housing, guaranteed jobs, but overall I wonder if most people weren't poorer in the previous system. I knew China in the 70's. There was no hope for the future. Today there is inequality and pollution but there is hope for a better life.
Your last point about the 3rd person singular is an amazing example. I have some friends from Spain and they always conjugate 'la gente' in the 3rd person singular although I've told them countless times that, that is not the case... We need to learn things for ourselves!
Your English is excellent by the way. It is true that in a number of countries, including some of the most developed countries, and former Communist countries, income inequality has greatly increased. It remains to be seen if this is a temporary phenomenon or not. However, in Asia and Latin America hundreds of millions of people have escaped poverty. Africa, until recently had lagged, but even there things are improving.
I have done a lot of learning of maths and science (physics specifically) and I don't think there is a huge difference fundamentally between learning these things and learning languages. There is a difference in emphasis, I think, in that in maths and physics, we spend more time working complex stuff out, and less time trying to remember stuff, simply because the content is much more complex and there is much less that needs to remembered.
"I prefer that you write a report of all the mistakes I made so I can study them later." Even as a guy who loves his grammar exercises and is always tempted to ask, "Is that how you say this?" I have to say that already sounds like a perfect idea. If you've only got X amount of time to spend with a speaker, but a lot more time to study on your own, that's a lot more efficient.
Nonsense, people live better now than at any time before. Healthier, longer lives, higher incomes, etc. There are lots of problem areas, especially in Africa, but even there things have improved for most.
Well said, I'd take this period of humanity over any previous period. Even as an industrial average wage earner compared to a king living 1000 years ago, or even 500 hundred years ago, the present is a much healthier and risk free time to live in.
Do things that you find interesting such as listening and reading to interesting things. I would leave Assimil and work with more interesting content. And stop translating. Just listen and read. Work on comprehension, vocabulary and enjoyment. Get on LingQ.
A problem I have with the translation method is that I often end up translating it differently from the text provided and I don't if what I have written is wrong or just different.
Thank you for your videos Steve. I honestly can't afford classess and used to think if I can't pay I can't learn much. But your videos have helped me unlearn that myth and 4 months into comprehensive input method of learning..I can actually follow 40 percentage of Polish movie dialogues and my pronunciation is quite good... maybe my Indian tounge helps with those szcz problems...I still am not too confiden.speaking because I really want to get it righr enough..! But it's probably a mental block I'll soon get over...
I also understand books in beginners level to an extent and follow a lot of polish instagrammers to see how they type their captions and stories and try to learn themm!
Just to say thank you for your commonsense views on language learning. This is my experience. I felt most of my life very stupid (which I except I may be) because I really struggled with formal language teaching,
Oh I always hated those artifical conversations the English teachers and examinators force onto you to determine your English level. I am not really talkative person in the first place, I prefer internet because I can take my time writing and rereading what I write, but if I speak I want to have meaningful conversation about something that interests me. And I especially hate those debates when I have to pretend to have some opinion which I do not and challenge another student who has pretend another opinion and we have to either win the debate with arguments or came to middle ground somehow while being constantly aware of the fact that it is not our arguments that is being monitored but our use of vocabulary so we need to put some ifs and woulds and have beens in there. It is so artificial and completely ruins any potentially interesting conversation. Anyway I usually prefer to listen to debates and interject only with factual corrections:)
I meant relative quantities, not absolute. For example, in my country 30 years ago income of 10% richest people equalled 4 times income of 10% poorest people. Now it is not 4, but 40-70.
Sciences and math require both a subconscious and a conscious part for effective learning. You have drill the problem but if you do just that it's not enough
Continuing from my previous post, despite these differences, in both cases most of what I have learned has been unconscious and I rarely know why I have learned something. I guess I would say that learning physics is like learning a language with a massively complex grammar that nobody has yet to understand, a tiny vocabulary, and no native speakers who can tell us what is correct.
I dare say language learning isn't different from science learning. You need a specific vocab, a specific hierarchy of processes, etc. When you look at it a scientific field is very much built up like a language. Mathematics may be completely different though I feel.
I wrote some comments here to practice my English writing rather than to prove something. It is a huge topic and I understand that my statement is not too definite.
Thanks for the video. I understand Krashen's difference between "learning" (explicit) and "acquisition" (implicit), but I think implicit learning is not subconscious per se. If it was, why would we find some languages harder to learn than others? Or why would we find some words easier to learn than others within the same target language? I understand that when reading we sometimes acquire new vocabulary practically without noticing (based on the context and our previous experience), but I would call that "guessing", not "subconscious." For it to be "subconscious" shouldn't we be able to understand every single new word?
I think the criticism of globalization mostly deals with the fact that it's going backwards in many countries with the super rich getting more and more ridiculous rich while the ranks of the lower classes grow. Also, it has a lot to do with the exploitation of people in developing countries by those very same super rich from the developed countries. I think talking about the problem in gross terms as in more people live a better life now than before kind of obscures the problems.
Everybody talks about listening/speaking, but what about writing? It might be the case that learning grammar won't help *that much* to improve speaking skills, but when it comes to writing, unless you know proper grammar and sentence structure, what you write will be dreadful to read to say the least (in my opinion)
In Russia people remember all defects of communist system that you have mentioned. Also "Echoe of Moscow" radio constantly reminds about repressions and Gulag in Stalin's period. But there were many advantages that people also remember. 70's is considered as Golden age of Soviet socialism.
Interesting what you say about not being discouraged by not getting something right after having studied it. I am most of the way through the beginners assimil course and am finding it quite frustrating how much I can't remember or get wrong when translating earlier lessons from English into Italian. Perhaps my frustration and increasing boredom with what I am currently doing is I sign I should move on. I also decided to start learning Chinese but 我累 by the end of the day. Might it be too much?
Sorry for typo iOS sometimes Inserts astroNUT v. Astronomer must of been a red I once made to that femme fatal that x the n amer in a diaper re: aggressive actions, pardon me
Steve, what do you think of "sleep" learning, or listening while laying in bed and falling asleep with the audio going while you sleep? Is it of any value?
Galileo (Italia astroNUT/physicist): Galileo: You cannot teach people anything. You can only help them discover it within themselves. In other words, some things are CAUGHT & not TAUGHT we can provide the atmosphere which helps influence attitude & actions as Steve *The Great Linguist* if our time does so superbly, WHY? because where MUCH pleasure is taken MUCH profit is given!
I'm glass you said it was the subconscious and not the unconscious as I reject the idea of the unconscious mind, which is some mystical entity with a purpose of its own.
What do you think, Steve, about such technique as back'n'forth translation, which Luca always mentions? I have been trying it for a while, but it seems it doesn't have a lot of "return on investment". When doing it, I "feel" it works but when it comes to real talk I can't retrieve much. Very frustrating.
Could you expand on the role of tutors, and particularly, personality traits aside, what qualities make a good or useful tutors? What do they do? What don’t they do? Take it that the provision of natural phrases....how collocations work? They provide prototypical examples f language? I realize that. This guy was too keen on conscious correction....but I need to know specifically, when you using atypical, or odd structures, the ones that native speakers never use, but can understand with some extra effort in the context of tutoring or just exchanging money at a market etc., do you worry that you are reinforcing a pathway in your mind, that what you did is a one rather than a zero, and thus now becomes routine in your knowledge base, from which you can then build countless other phrases subconsciously? Would a good tutor perhaps rephrase your target phrase later....what is the role of example....? This is the crux of what I a. trying to say. Tutors provide evidence of prototypicality....of phrases as they naturally occur. (I don’t know where idioms start and finish to be frank...perhaps all typicality is almost idiomatic)
Not true. Health, life expectancy, education access to education, drinking water and a range of other services are up. Perhaps you have some reliable third party information to share that would prove otherwise.
Interesanta perspectiva :) Sincer, cautam un video despre metode concrete de invatare a unei limbi straine prin adresarea subconstientului. Speranta mea e ca intr-o zi sa invatam orice prin metode subliminale (vizual/audio). E.g. cand dorm ascult o prezentare a limbii franceze si cand ma trezesc stiu sa vorbesc franceza. Viteza de access a subconstientului este mult mai mare decat a constientului, ca urmare in 8 ore de somn e posibil sa programezi subliminal 80 de ore de limba franceza.
Just a comment on "globalization". Few will take issue with Skype calls in order to understand each other better. The mutli-thousand page documents that constitute "globalization" in practice however are not concerned with your Skype calls either. They have all sorts of democracy destroying measures, in the guise of "investor protections," that make the world radically unequal and keep it that way through treaty obligations.
Hi, Steve: I have been seen your video; personally I have difficult for speak though when I listen conversations I understand a little, I feel sad because I'm trying of speak since 2010. I believe sometimes that I can't. Help me. As Can I advance? Thank you.
+BerjanoRocks The acquisition is subconscious but the noticing is deliberate and conscious, as is the pursuit of content of interest. Noticing is only one part of the learning process. The better we notice, the sooner the brain gets used to the language, but it does it on its own time, subconsciously, in my view.
Steve is doing this x Skype on his nickel & he'll decide how the time is to be used ? well, is it a nominal cost, then? How are the reports being generated that Steve reviews later?
Steve 50% of people live on less than 2.50 usd a day, with 80% of the population of the world living on 10 usd a day. Globalization can't be said to be a great success for the lower classes, they may in some ways be better off than before but work far more and are relatively speaking far poorer than before. I suggest some research into relative wealth and the effects it has on a society in the areas of crime, health, and mental health. I suggest you read papers about the "trickle down effect".
Globalization has brought us some good and useful things, but that doesn't mean is good as a whole. Poverty has been increasing the last 50 years, and it's not me who says it, it's the World Bank. And it's not necessary to go to Africa to see that. US has huge amounts of people living under the poverty threshold. Also the UK. China. Greece. Spain. Portugal. Italy. Ireland... I could actually never stop.
Where do you get your information from. Poverty has been decreasing in real terms for the past 100 years and extreme poverty is expected to be eradicated in 20-50 years at the current rate of progress, in most part thanks to globalisation.
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Some of these videos are like fine wines -- they get better with age and views.
After watching many of your videos the last few months, I've learnt to be more forgiving of myself when I forget words, grammar rules and make mistakes. As long as I keep exposing myself to the language, I'll get better.
Do you use spaced repetition?
@@kenedy6925 Yes, but it's not a perfect system. Over the last year, my proficiency has improved from learning phrases that contain new words and finer points of new grammar.
I fell asleep while watching the Danish tv program Borgen....I could swear that while half-asleep I could understand the Danish. Maybe it was a hallucination, but seemed real to me.
He's not talking about randomly understanding when you're not paying attention. Hes talkin about our ability to learn without paying attention.
Hahah love this
I felt the same way. Fell asleep watching Spanish and whole sleeping I seemed to understand almost everything being said
forstå miiiiiiiiiig
This is the truest and most useful advice I've gotten so far from any language learning youtuber! You have effectively turned my conceptions upside down! I am very skilled at linguistics and grammar in general, but this thing has been bothering for months now. I have been studying Japanese for 2 years, but it is only recently that I changed my focus onto listening and speaking. I have been able to chat with native Japanese speakers and read news in simple Japanese for a long while now, but I normally I can't get a single sentence while listening. Just a few words here and there. The thing is, a couple of months ago I started watching my first anime series (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) in Japanese with English subtitles and I must say the improvement I made in just ONE day was unbelievable. This video of yours has just made me fully realise what I have to do from now on with Japanese or any other language a learn in the future. I'll keep listening to a lot of Japanese and I'll try to contact a native Japanese teacher online. I can certify what you say here HAS WORKED incredibly well for me. Even though I love studying grammar and I find it rather interesting, Japanese has made me realise that Listening is by far the most important and fundamental skill one has to develop. Anyway, thank you very much for this video. As I said before, this has turned my conceptions upside down.
Can't agree more! My situation is kind of similar to yours. I have been learning Japanese for 6 months. At first I kept on reading grammar book but then I realised that it is not effective at all. When I listen to Japanese, I dont understand anything and I can't even have simple conversation. I had a JLPT 2 weeks ago. In the listening part, I didnt understand anything. So after that, I think the most important thing in language learning is speaking and listening which allow us to be able to communicate. I also think that if we learn listening and speaking first, everything else (grammar...) comes easy that we can pick it up in a second when we see it in a grammar book instead of trying hard to memorise it. So starting from this week, I started talking to my friends all in Japanese. And you know what, in just a few days, my Japanese has improved a lot. I can now have a conversation with Japanese for one hour. But still, my listening is the worst. I still cant pick up what the japanese says. I need them to write down the kanji so I can understand. Am just wondering how you train your japanese listening?
When you feel like more confident listening Japanese, try to watch anime series without subtitles. I'm sure it would rocket up your learning process!
What is it that motivates you? How do you rekindle it? You should also develop some habits. Often it is just a matter of getting started in a routine.
Netflix put on a Greek myth themed show, I watched it all in Greek. It was amazing
Also a lovely lady I called Yaiyai left a few recipes to me in her will, but they are in Greek only and I can't fully read it yet. So I'm mostly going off memory
Just keep going and enjoying your learning. You will improve gradually.
i am a MD from austria close to retirement. i can ensure, even when it comes to medicine or science......you are forced to study and learn. but true understanding and mastery just comes, when you forget about rules and guidelines....just see a lot of patients, their symptoms......just then you will recognise patterns, without learning them, just seeing them over and over again
This is so true. I saw it happen with my own learning. Certain concepts and vocab wouldn't really set in until my brain let them. But once I had that "moment of clarity" they'd become part of my speaking from then on. Great stuff! Now I just have to continue to convince my students of this.
+Inglês Ninja I've listened to a Podcast that you were on from Real life English. I really enjoyed it and I love the way you teach! KUDOS.
+Kinho SUK RUA DE Cool man! Thanks for the reply. I wrote a post about this very topic. Check it out: www.feelgoodenglish.com/naturally-english-grammar/
I think it's subconscious, I haven't had a lot of time to study Spanish, but I watch Spanish TV shows and understand like 80-90% of everything, yet I cannot repeat everything back if someone asked for that. My brain does the work and doesn't tell me much. My studying now seems to be just me trying to gain control of the conscious ability to communicate in the language. Also to feed the subconscious so it doesn't start to delete my knowledge on me.
from a recent UN report
the last 20 years have seen significant reductions in
the depth and severity of extreme poverty in the developing world.
Notwithstanding the continued growth in the world’s population, the
absolute number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen, regardless of
whether the poverty-line income threshold is set at $1.25 or raised to $2 or
$2.50 per day (figure II.1).
Your videos are life changing. As a child who grew up under the tyranny of controlling drills and tests, I find myself now exploring new subjects using your natural and subconscious learning techniques in my thirties. Your videos are inspiring. I am trying to apply them to learning programming languages. Please keep recording and inspiring!
thank you. It's kind of you to say that
So did you a learn anything since you commented?
Well, although I agree what he said in the video, I don't think it's a good idea to apply it to programming languages because the fact that programming languages get the word "language" in their name doesn't immediately mean they are of the same thing to what we typically recognise as languages. Programming languages are artificial and DESIGNED to make it readable and comprehensible to humans while in their very essence they are just mnemonics for instructions from lower abstraction level of computer system. Instead, languages like English and Japanese spoken by real humans are natural languages and they are not designed but EVOLVED accompanied with their speakers. In my point of view, learning programming languages resembles more like learning math, where you are absolutely free to get to know how to operate with numbers subconsciously but it would be much more efficient if you learn it with conscious thinking and heuristics.
"Your English is excellent by the way." Thanks! I learn foreign languages through reading and listening and independently (without teachers and classrooms). Your videos persuaded me that it is the most acceptable and rather effective method of language learning.
When a teacher tries to teach the master 😂😂
rm2kdev Cheers for this, I've been looking for "how to reprogram your mind in 60 seconds or less" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you heard people talk about - Giyoe Fonogan Builder - (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my mate got great success with it.
Exactly
You just have to find your own path. For example I can't choose the correct word , or conjugation to fit in the spaces. I just go off wire!
I also don't do flashcards etc. My method is listening, writing talking and speaking. I now have paid for an online teacher, every Wednesday and it's the best thing I ever did !
I don't have your general knowledge and your experience of studying languages; however, I've noticed the same feeling. Simplicity and the ability to drift learning a foreign language are the way to make this routine more effective pleasant. It's kind of "come back to your childhood." Thank you, Sir.
I am Italian, husband German..3 children and raising them bilingual speaking our native language to them...i was always fascinated to see how my children progress in speaking and understanding Italian was way better than that of my husband studying it in a classroom...they were so ahead of him..and people keep saying: oh they are children it is easier for them..maybe a bit..still it is to admire and pick up from their way, not to diminish saying it is just because to they are children...and my husband, being German, was exactly that type of person wanting to correct mistakes if my children made some, despite them being soooo good in their second language compared ro him...i think this concept is applicable not just to language learning but to learning other domains too...we left Germany ( one reason was also that mentality in the school system) and moved to Spain, a region where they speak Spanish and valenciano...so big challenge for my kids now but they do this full immersion here.. i can help them as i speak Spanish and the languages are similar... anyway that focus on grammar, correcting and very top down approach in teaching is very established in German Bayern school system
It happened with me when I was speaking with my tutor. When i didnt know some word, i just explain about the word that i wanted to say and it works very well for me. The other thing was that he allways gave me the feedback in Portuguese( my mother tongue) , but one day i told him, sorry but i prefer only in English. My opinion is that when you are forced to speak , you just have to face the challenge and go ahead!!!
When you feel like it. For me after few weeks for Romanina, after 6 months for Czech and after 18 months for Russian.
Couldn't agree more! Role-Play and artificial conversation do not lead anywhere.. Natural conversation is the key to learning!
I think a useful analogy to use when explaining how we learn a language is that of learning to swim. One way of teaching a person how to swim is to explain to them all the laws of effective swimming. We can explain the techniques used by our best swimmers. This is grammar - so to speak.
Now, we all know, that no matter how well you learn these swimming laws you will not be able to swim unless you actually try to swim over a prolonged period of time.
Knowing the best techniques is helpful (top swimmers are coached in them). However, they are neither necessary nor sufficient for knowing how to swim reasonably well. I think the same is true of language learning.
This has been my experience. After living in South America for the past 5 years, I frequently will be walking down the street talking to a friend and I'll say a something, stop and ask if that's a word and wonder when and how did I ever learn that word.
I have become a huge fan of LingQ, and love your observations
Yess totally!!! Whenever watching a video of yours I really feel like sending it to my French teacher. But, I know there is no good, I will just continue letting her believe that I know the language so well because of her lessons :)
couldn't agree more! i love your views on language and i agree with pretty much all of them, some of them i had never thought about but after listening to you i realize i experience the same thing. linguistics and language learning are one of my biggest passions, thank you for making me realize stuff i subconsciously knew but hadn't thought about and making the learning process easier and more interesting!
Thanks for this video. The more I watch your videos, the more I am encouraged I am learning French the right way. I am spending time with French each day and am picking it up slowly. I do have to take a foreign language class at my university for one of my general education requirements in about six months, I'm hoping to do really well in it with all of this practice and am looking forward to the interaction. But I am convinced that most of my learning will take place outside of the classroom.
Hi Steve, Alex from LingQ here.
I could not agree more. I now started doing French in tandems and with one "pro" teacher. Just speaking freely with common people on topics of interest is so much fun! However, the "Sorbonne" teacher who decided to correct ALL of my mistakes depressed the hell out of me in no time. He would not let me say a word! I surely told him it wouldn't work but 90% of the teachers work like that and then we have discouraged students feeling miserable and giving up. So sad.
I think the magic & revolutionary dynamic that occurs w/ language when it starts to come together has a lot to do w/ not only that is learning repetition; also, that which we persist in doing becomes easier not that the nature of the thing has changed; rather, our ability to do increases. When all else fails perseverance prevails especially when our heart gets there first as the mind may be great; yet, the spirit as to our heart & might is greater!
“I just wanna have a natural conversation”😂
LOL
Well, I agree with most of what you're saying! I'd have to precise though that there are teachers, me included, who flexibly adapt to the needs of the students. Over the years I've met students who learn better by just conversing...others who want a more structured approach, other who are open to unconventional learning (such as accelerated learning). I do think that a modern language teacher is a coach as well as a teacher! Thanks for your video!
I have heard Luca explain it. He certainly is a great language learner. I am against doing things that are sor of against the grain, work in other words. I would not do this. I prefer to either listen and read, which is easy and interesting. Or I talk with people and express myself as best I can and wait for my conversation report from my tutor. I guess it is quite individual.
I wonder if people in former Communist countries don't sometimes forget the shortages, the queues for food, the restrictions on travel. There is understandable nostalgia for cheap housing, guaranteed jobs, but overall I wonder if most people weren't poorer in the previous system. I knew China in the 70's. There was no hope for the future. Today there is inequality and pollution but there is hope for a better life.
Your last point about the 3rd person singular is an amazing example. I have some friends from Spain and they always conjugate 'la gente' in the 3rd person singular although I've told them countless times that, that is not the case... We need to learn things for ourselves!
You are a language philosopher what a genius you are?
Your English is excellent by the way. It is true that in a number of countries, including some of the most developed countries, and former Communist countries, income inequality has greatly increased. It remains to be seen if this is a temporary phenomenon or not. However, in Asia and Latin America hundreds of millions of people have escaped poverty. Africa, until recently had lagged, but even there things are improving.
Thank you Steve! The don't understand was a figure illustration ref. in globalization --figure H.1
It depends on the language. Only in Romanian did I have to go outside of LingQ.
I have done a lot of learning of maths and science (physics specifically) and I don't think there is a huge difference fundamentally between learning these things and learning languages. There is a difference in emphasis, I think, in that in maths and physics, we spend more time working complex stuff out, and less time trying to remember stuff, simply because the content is much more complex and there is much less that needs to remembered.
"I prefer that you write a report of all the mistakes I made so I can study them later." Even as a guy who loves his grammar exercises and is always tempted to ask, "Is that how you say this?" I have to say that already sounds like a perfect idea. If you've only got X amount of time to spend with a speaker, but a lot more time to study on your own, that's a lot more efficient.
Nonsense, people live better now than at any time before. Healthier, longer lives, higher incomes, etc. There are lots of problem areas, especially in Africa, but even there things have improved for most.
Well said, I'd take this period of humanity over any previous period. Even as an industrial average wage earner compared to a king living 1000 years ago, or even 500 hundred years ago, the present is a much healthier and risk free time to live in.
Do things that you find interesting such as listening and reading to interesting things. I would leave Assimil and work with more interesting content. And stop translating. Just listen and read. Work on comprehension, vocabulary and enjoyment. Get on LingQ.
I used eLance for Romanian. You might give it a try.
A problem I have with the translation method is that I often end up translating it differently from the text provided and I don't if what I have written is wrong or just different.
Thank you for your videos Steve. I honestly can't afford classess and used to think if I can't pay I can't learn much. But your videos have helped me unlearn that myth and 4 months into comprehensive input method of learning..I can actually follow 40 percentage of Polish movie dialogues and my pronunciation is quite good... maybe my Indian tounge helps with those szcz problems...I still am not too confiden.speaking because I really want to get it righr enough..! But it's probably a mental block I'll soon get over...
I also understand books in beginners level to an extent and follow a lot of polish instagrammers to see how they type their captions and stories and try to learn themm!
Just to say thank you for your commonsense views on language learning. This is my experience. I felt most of my life very stupid (which I except I may be) because I really struggled with formal language teaching,
Error corrections can be a form of input however. I have my tutor interject if the mistake is really bad or if I’m struggling.
Oh I always hated those artifical conversations the English teachers and examinators force onto you to determine your English level. I am not really talkative person in the first place, I prefer internet because I can take my time writing and rereading what I write, but if I speak I want to have meaningful conversation about something that interests me. And I especially hate those debates when I have to pretend to have some opinion which I do not and challenge another student who has pretend another opinion and we have to either win the debate with arguments or came to middle ground somehow while being constantly aware of the fact that it is not our arguments that is being monitored but our use of vocabulary so we need to put some ifs and woulds and have beens in there. It is so artificial and completely ruins any potentially interesting conversation. Anyway I usually prefer to listen to debates and interject only with factual corrections:)
I meant relative quantities, not absolute. For example, in my country 30 years ago income of 10% richest people equalled 4 times income of 10% poorest people. Now it is not 4, but 40-70.
Sciences and math require both a subconscious and a conscious part for effective learning. You have drill the problem but if you do just that it's not enough
Continuing from my previous post, despite these differences, in both cases most of what I have learned has been unconscious and I rarely know why I have learned something. I guess I would say that learning physics is like learning a language with a massively complex grammar that nobody has yet to understand, a tiny vocabulary, and no native speakers who can tell us what is correct.
Do you listen to things that interest you, and that you can also read? Have you tried the material at LingQ?
I dare say language learning isn't different from science learning. You need a specific vocab, a specific hierarchy of processes, etc. When you look at it a scientific field is very much built up like a language. Mathematics may be completely different though I feel.
Thank you! 👌🏻
I wrote some comments here to practice my English writing rather than to prove something. It is a huge topic and I understand that my statement is not too definite.
Thanks for the video. I understand Krashen's difference between "learning" (explicit) and "acquisition" (implicit), but I think implicit learning is not subconscious per se. If it was, why would we find some languages harder to learn than others? Or why would we find some words easier to learn than others within the same target language?
I understand that when reading we sometimes acquire new vocabulary practically without noticing (based on the context and our previous experience), but I would call that "guessing", not "subconscious." For it to be "subconscious" shouldn't we be able to understand every single new word?
Everything that I have learned, was learned by error. It is more memorable this way.
es muy interesante, lo mas me pienso mal pensamientos sobre mi idioma aprendizaje lo peor hace estoy. actitud es clave ¿sí o no?
I receive an email or a text file through skype which I import into LingQ.
Good video Steve! keep them coming...
So true
I think the criticism of globalization mostly deals with the fact that it's going backwards in many countries with the super rich getting more and more ridiculous rich while the ranks of the lower classes grow. Also, it has a lot to do with the exploitation of people in developing countries by those very same super rich from the developed countries. I think talking about the problem in gross terms as in more people live a better life now than before kind of obscures the problems.
Google language immersion helps you practice the language whenever your are using the internet.
another pearl
Persistance yes!!!
Everybody talks about listening/speaking, but what about writing? It might be the case that learning grammar won't help *that much* to improve speaking skills, but when it comes to writing, unless you know proper grammar and sentence structure, what you write will be dreadful to read to say the least (in my opinion)
In Russia people remember all defects of communist system that you have mentioned. Also "Echoe of Moscow" radio constantly reminds about repressions and Gulag in Stalin's period. But there were many advantages that people also remember. 70's is considered as Golden age of Soviet socialism.
Hi Steve
Can you do more in Italian please? In particular I would like to hear your "seven secrets" series in Italian.
Grazie
Google "Why 2012 was the best year ever" and you will find an article in The Spectator that may well change your mind.
very well said
Your facts please.
Very open minded. I like that. And I am learning German through youtube, and will go German directly. Fuck all the grammars and language courses!
Wong William Smalling How far have are you now?
Interesting what you say about not being discouraged by not getting something right after having studied it. I am most of the way through the beginners assimil course and am finding it quite frustrating how much I can't remember or get wrong when translating earlier lessons from English into Italian. Perhaps my frustration and increasing boredom with what I am currently doing is I sign I should move on. I also decided to start learning Chinese but 我累 by the end of the day. Might it be too much?
Sorry for typo iOS sometimes Inserts astroNUT v. Astronomer must of been a red I once made to that femme fatal that x the n amer in a diaper re: aggressive actions, pardon me
Steve, are there any plans to add Thai to LingQ in the near future, or at anytime whatsoever? Thanks :)
I am Latino and English learner.
Great thoughts! Are you finding tutors via LingQ, iTalki or what?
Steve, what do you think of "sleep" learning, or listening while laying in bed and falling asleep with the audio going while you sleep? Is it of any value?
Vous êtes très cool, j'addore vos videos :) !
Galileo (Italia astroNUT/physicist): Galileo: You cannot teach people anything. You can only help them discover it within themselves. In other words, some things are CAUGHT & not TAUGHT we can provide the atmosphere which helps influence attitude & actions as Steve *The Great Linguist* if our time does so superbly, WHY? because where MUCH pleasure is taken MUCH profit is given!
I'm glass you said it was the subconscious and not the unconscious as I reject the idea of the unconscious mind, which is some mystical entity with a purpose of its own.
What do you think, Steve, about such technique as back'n'forth translation, which Luca always mentions? I have been trying it for a while, but it seems it doesn't have a lot of "return on investment". When doing it, I "feel" it works but when it comes to real talk I can't retrieve much. Very frustrating.
Just reading is efficacious.
Could you expand on the role of tutors, and particularly, personality traits aside, what qualities make a good or useful tutors? What do they do? What don’t they do? Take it that the provision of natural phrases....how collocations work? They provide prototypical examples f language? I realize that. This guy was too keen on conscious correction....but I need to know specifically, when you using atypical, or odd structures, the ones that native speakers never use, but can understand with some extra effort in the context of tutoring or just exchanging money at a market etc., do you worry that you are reinforcing a pathway in your mind, that what you did is a one rather than a zero, and thus now becomes routine in your knowledge base, from which you can then build countless other phrases subconsciously? Would a good tutor perhaps rephrase your target phrase later....what is the role of example....? This is the crux of what I a. trying to say. Tutors provide evidence of prototypicality....of phrases as they naturally occur. (I don’t know where idioms start and finish to be frank...perhaps all typicality is almost idiomatic)
Not true. Health, life expectancy, education access to education, drinking water and a range of other services are up. Perhaps you have some reliable third party information to share that would prove otherwise.
Interesanta perspectiva :) Sincer, cautam un video despre metode concrete de invatare a unei limbi straine prin adresarea subconstientului. Speranta mea e ca intr-o zi sa invatam orice prin metode subliminale (vizual/audio). E.g. cand dorm ascult o prezentare a limbii franceze si cand ma trezesc stiu sa vorbesc franceza. Viteza de access a subconstientului este mult mai mare decat a constientului, ca urmare in 8 ore de somn e posibil sa programezi subliminal 80 de ore de limba franceza.
Don't understand.
Just a comment on "globalization". Few will take issue with Skype calls in order to understand each other better. The mutli-thousand page documents that constitute "globalization" in practice however are not concerned with your Skype calls either. They have all sorts of democracy destroying measures, in the guise of "investor protections," that make the world radically unequal and keep it that way through treaty obligations.
Hi, Steve:
I have been seen your video; personally I have difficult for speak though when I listen conversations I understand a little, I feel sad because I'm trying of speak since 2010. I believe sometimes that I can't.
Help me. As Can I advance?
Thank you.
Steve, what is that device you are holding in your hands on the video?
Hey everyone I have been looking for a italian Skype language tutor if someone would help me I would appreciate it.
Isn't it in contrast with the noticing hypothesis?
+BerjanoRocks The acquisition is subconscious but the noticing is deliberate and conscious, as is the pursuit of content of interest. Noticing is only one part of the learning process. The better we notice, the sooner the brain gets used to the language, but it does it on its own time, subconsciously, in my view.
Can i sleep while listening to a language ?
Steve is doing this x Skype on his nickel & he'll decide how the time is to be used ? well, is it a nominal cost, then? How are the reports being generated that Steve reviews later?
Steve 50% of people live on less than 2.50 usd a day, with 80% of the population of the world living on 10 usd a day. Globalization can't be said to be a great success for the lower classes, they may in some ways be better off than before but work far more and are relatively speaking far poorer than before. I suggest some research into relative wealth and the effects it has on a society in the areas of crime, health, and mental health. I suggest you read papers about the "trickle down effect".
Are you still working on your Romanian?
on hold for now
"No role-playing" hahaha
Trade languages is not a new concept
Where are you, I mean in which country?
Canada
$1.25 or raised to S2 or 2.50 per day (figure H.1). ?Where is the figure?
Is it just me or does this guy look like Sid Roth.
Globalization has brought us some good and useful things, but that doesn't mean is good as a whole. Poverty has been increasing the last 50 years, and it's not me who says it, it's the World Bank. And it's not necessary to go to Africa to see that. US has huge amounts of people living under the poverty threshold. Also the UK. China. Greece. Spain. Portugal. Italy. Ireland... I could actually never stop.
Where do you get your information from. Poverty has been decreasing in real terms for the past 100 years and extreme poverty is expected to be eradicated in 20-50 years at the current rate of progress, in most part thanks to globalisation.