Great video, I don't know if it's clear for everyone but as a polyglot I definitely feel your point. You did a great job analyzing the process of starting to THINK in the language, this is what I did when I moved to the UK, and it makes a huge difference to "just" learning (no matter how good you are), listening reading or even "just" understanding. You then become more and more active, and it seems to happen naturally. Just remember to open a dictionary once a day to check out those "gaps" that have just been pointed out. To go even further, and train your pronunciation and accent at the same time, don't be afraid to say everything out loud. It may sound weird but definitely works. Just watch babies starting to speak and you'll get the point :-)
I love the tips. I am listening to a lot of audio through videos, podcasts, movies and more. I also practice speaking when I go for my evening walks. The tip about describing what you see on the street is great!
'Le feu tricolore' looked up 'traffic lights' in French when I heard you talk about exposing yourself to different situations. I learnt French for maybe 8 years but it still took me some time to break apart what I heard into audible words and acutally understand 'natural' conversation rather than what was meant to help students pass exams. I find it helps to (as you progress) not to depend on just one learning rescource; the language just seems more real that way.
Don't translate. Listen and try to get to overall meaning. Each language is different and you really have to live a language. Don't try to find the equivalent for something in your native language in your target language for everything. If you want to talk about the weather with someone you just met don't think of a sentence in English and then try to translate this exact sentence word by word, just start speaking.
. I´m a student of linguistica applied to translation and you are right: It is never esay the transition. The most important is try to expose yourself to the language that you are learning. It could be very frustrating at the beggining. It is because things you learn (vocablulary, some expressions) stay in you declarative memory, when you start to use it , you are able to establish links between all that abstract learning, at this pint, your knowlegde is more "procedimental" :)
I went to spain for 1 week , on an exchange , you can see this in my picture , You experienced the same as me , When i spoke to my family back in Ireland - on the phone - on the 5th day , i felt so weird they sounded weird too but i didnt know if i was talking english correctly hahah Even your hearing of yourself changes , and by speaking spanish to natives you feel proud - Excellent video I really enjoyed it
Someone who knows a language does not "think" the sentences. It comes automatically, from practicing vocabulary phrases and conversations with target-language speakers. My problem is answering in another language. Today when a Spanish speaker asked me a question, I replied in French! Boo hiss. A lovely video.
Perhaps you can discuss learning a language at an older age. Like over people in their 30's and over. I'm over thirty trying to learn Spanish and its a bit difficult
All you described I have lived, I have had to do it with Italian. At the begining you find out you have great gaps, you have to look many times at the dictionary, and by the way, I also used to check if I knew to say it in english or not, so I improved (and I continue doing it) also my english at the same time I did it with italian. I continue learning italian (I am spanish native speaker) because I live in Italy and I have a great motivation to learn it properly. Good video and enjoy spanish.
I've had that weird feeling too when returning to English from French - it's fun isn't it! I love your videos: the're really engaging and interesting. Thank you for sharing all your great content. If I think of any questions/discussion points about language learning then I'll log right on here and post them. Happy learning! :)
I was just as obsessed. Even mastering grammer was exciting lol. At some point, I found that learning idiomatic expressions really help. For one thing, it helped me improve the fluidity in my speech. Secondly, I was able to communicate and actually understand native speakers without in thought translation. I suggest that people try that.
Great video! A massive amount of input is what enabled me to think in English. Thinking is like speaking to yourself without actually uttering the sounds. You still have to be really familiar with particular words and sentence structures to make the formation of your foreign language sentences a (near-)natural process. And getting familiar with these structures and words is best done through exposure to the language. Being patient with one's progress is helpful too :-)
I recommend Pimsleur, then getting friends on Skype from the country of the language you're trying to learn. I also recommend listening to radio and TH-cam, and getting Anki and filling it up with vocabulary and phrases you find. Google Translate. Do this long enough, and you will think in the language, if it is consistent and several times a week.
HI guy, thank you very much for your kindness, sharing your experience about how to learn a foreign language is great and very interesting for us. As for me, I yearn to speak english fluently, so, I'm gonna try to listen to your precious advices, All the best my friend. Seb from France.
When you are starting a language, you need to push yourself to put in more hours per day. Traffic lights seem quite basic in French, Spanish or German. There are computer terms that are pop up all the time. The other day I came across a word for a battery charger in Chinese. And there are other words you may be curious about such as Graphic Design, upload, download, mobile phone, notebook computer, etc. As fluent as you are in a language everyday you pick up new words & phrases that isn't use very much or don't come up very often in a conversation like specific parts of the body. It gets interesting every time you learn a new word / phrase like "surf the net". Gets to a point I would listen to a news broadcast in Chinese and think in English and vice versa. I have an uncle who lived in Hong Kong but his Chinese isn't fluent enough but he can understand what is said. He tends to reply back in English as if the 2 languages are related.
Cheers David you have definitely helped me to make the decision to learn Spanish for a longer period of time before I spend a month in Spain a year to 18 months should mean I have a reasonable vocabulary and grasp of verbs and grammar sentence structure etc. Thanks for posting the videos
I really like your video. Thanks for your advices, I'll try it, I'm studying English and sometimes it´s too difficult for me to speak because I just can´t think in English as fast as the conversation is, but your advice is really helpful! I also want to tell you, I LOVE your English acent haha, I hadn´t to put subtitles, I understood everything you said! Thanks from Mexico!
I found the video to be incredibly helpful as I'm learning another language for the first time. I've probably just reached the B1 level in my target language (Māori). In 2019, I attended full immersion classes which included having weekends away with classmates without speaking English. At the last immersion weekend I attended, I found my mindset starting to shift towards Māori and when I returned home, I experienced a 'transition period' back to English, similar to the experience you described in your video. My motivation to learn the Māori language to an advanced level is still very strong. I just have to keep pushing forward. This may sound weird, but because Māori is my 'heritage language', I'm probably going to have a 'man cry' if I reach conversational fluency. Ngā mihi ki a koe, e hoa. All the best.
+David Mansaray Where are you from, David? I ask because I'm intrigued to know where does your accent come from and I can't dintinguish it because I'm Latinamerican but it is obvious you have a different accent. Greetings from Venezuela...
A thing I think is important is either skyping with or immersion with a native. the reason I say this, is there is the way of speaking or colloquial way of saying certain words that when your learning a language your ear doest pick up on. for example even in this video you said ta instead of to. or in my neck of the woods we say wadda ya doin instead of what are you doing. and fer instead or for. I think it's little formal and informal ways of speech that muddy the waters.
In this video you mentioned the fact that at the begining you were obsessed with Spanish. It's the same for me and Norwegian. I've been studying it for 6 monts but still I have a will to get to know more and more ;-) but in my opinion it's a fantastic side to studying foreign languages ;) great tips !
It's funny that you say that you were obsessed with Spanish, because I've been obsessed with English for years now. Actually my obsession has to do with understanding English as good as I understand Spanish. Not there yet. I'm a native Spanish speaker, btw. Another thing that I want to say is, at first, it's normal that you translate everything in your head, but then you don't do it that much. I think in English sometimes but not complete sentences but words or I make a mix of the two languages
Hi david, My native language is spanish, and I have been studying English over the last two years, I already saw your video and one advise that a got to improve my communication is to see movies in spanish, but as I look at them I translate all what people say to English in my mind, pretty much like If you were a translator without pauses, its quite challenging. Throughout the movie you will face parts that you cannot say and you surely will get tired jaja. Try it.
Great information. I’m 61 years old. I’ve been trying to speak Spanish for about 40 years(off and on). I have started again. I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully in Spanish.
thank you for your tips. I am gratefull for them. I learn Thai and Chinese and it's a real challenge for me being a non-native english speaker. I can speak thai quite comfortably after almost two years of living in Thailand, but sure I still need to learn hard and work on filling the gaps you're talking about. I just started learn Mandarin by myself a months ago and it's a challenge for me to learn two tonal different languages at the same time. Something is changing in my brain as till now I was able to focus in one activity or one language only, but yeah it's challenge and I wanna know my real limits. I watched lots of videos of polyglots here and need to say this video helps me a lot, so I can start to learn short sentences in chinese and describe everything around me speak them loudly and make them more complex in the next months. Probably the most important thing is the enthusiasm and effort you give the language learning, which help you keep your motivation. Thank you once again🙏
I think it is wrong, yes. What you need to do is lots of reading, lots of listening and lots of speaking about these topics so you develop the necessary vocabulary and get a lot of practice. You'll make many mistakes. If you aren't making mistakes then you aren't learning. You say you understand and write french very well, but what about speaking? If you're speaking is not good then that means you have a lot of passive knowledge and you need to make it active. The only way is to speak a lot!
Really glad i found your channel David. Great videos! Ive been thinking this for a while. Im currently in Tokyo learning Japanese and this simple concept has just hit me - i CANT SAY EVERYTHING I WANT TO IN JAPANESE! haha. It was a hard pill to swallow but i've final come to terms with it. One day im sure it will come, its all going in the right direction. For now though, I just have to realise that i am a japanese baby and i have to act accordingly when it comes to 'outputting' the language until it all comes naturally (sloooowly) lol.
David, I have been studying english for 2 years and half and I can understand native speakers, music, movies and whatever. But the problem is that I cannot express myself very well, I have to stop and think about the language, I mean the words don't come automatically. What should I do? Thanks for everything, I really appreciate your videos! ^^
Thanks, I think this was helpful for me. I don't study Spanish tho. I realized that even if I use my time on Duolingo doing the lessons of different courses learning there, it's not going to get me any more fluent. I have to think about the language and use the vocabulary every day. Right now I'm studying three - no, four - languages, which might be too many. But I was thinking about doing a weekly project with all of them. I'll choose a word and translate it into all of these languages. In some, it will be revision whereas with some I'll expand my vocab. During the week I'll have time to study these words, look up all their meanings and make up example sentences. Then the next weekend I hope I have learned something and I will take a new word. I got this idea some time ago but I haven't tried it yet. I'll probably start today :)
For me the key to get me thinking in a foreign language is assimilation of the new language. This failed with Turkish because my Turkish teachers all spoke only German in the lessons and and my Turkish self-study could not create enough assimilation. A good language course where only the target language is spoken allows me to assimilate for two hours. Then I continue thinking after the lesson. Now I can think in Danish when I want randomly. My rule: without assimilation no thinking ability!
Great advise. I think I am going try walking around describing everything I see in the language I am trying to learn, I think that it would be quite fun.
This tip will surely help when people are waiting at bus stations, etc. There might be some vocabulary you might not even know to complete the sentence.
This is a great help. Gracias mi amigo. Question: I am planning a trip to Spain or some other Spanish speaking country for a the spring of 2015. However, I won't be able to spend 3-weeks like you did (because of work). Do you think a week would be fine? And what other Spanish speaking country would you recommend besides Spain. Did you find Spain to be pricy?
hello! i am in the process of learning Swedish and after about a month or two i started thinking a little in Swedish. i was wondering how to progress when there is no one around to practice the language with. i was given advice to find an online conversation partner as well as trying an immersion program. what would your advice be to learning 'conversation' Swedish when there's no one around to practice the language with? your videos are very interesting and helpful thanx for your time!
Thank you for this video! I have been so stressed out about how you could possibly think in another language. I am teaching myself Japanese and am learning the writing systems but I find thinking in Japanese is so difficult. I see an apple and will have to force myself to think that apple is ringo. Ringo=apple. But then everything else I was trying to think came out in English.
I love doing that ! I speak spanish but I got used to thinking in French and English and now my mind can't help it. It's helped me a lot in all ways, and that doesn't mean I will forget spanish ;)
No necessarily forget the language, although I've met kids that have moved to a foreign country and never again used there native language..and yeah...I would say they've forgotten the language. But I've lived in Chile for over 20 years and was raised in Texas and what I've noticed is that when I don't use one of the two languages enough I lose my handle on vocab more so than completely forget the other language. I'd say... read a book in English every now and again or watch an English show that you might like...don't ever abandon a language cuz as difficult as it is to acquire one you should take care not to lose it completely :).
you will not. I am Macedonian and have lived in Macedonia for the first 18 years of my life until i went to uni abroad. consider myself bilingual macedonian and english simply because i grew up with a computer and a lot of internet friends and have found myself thinking in english exclusively for a long time or detach myself from macedonian and the only affect is that my macedonian has deteriorated a bit and that's all.
DiloenIngles i used to speak in my native language but after moving to England I just stopped but I can still understand it I just can’t speak it or write it
I don't think you can ever forget a language. You can forget words but the intuitive grasp on grammar and structure and speech patterns doesn't go away quickly (unless we're talking about a REALLY long time). Your ability in a language will diminish for sure if you don't use it but I don't think it's fair to say that you can 'forget' it.
@davidmansaray OK that's cool. I've yet to have this happen majorly. Then again, I find it difficult to force myself to think in target language because Im always concerned about grammar. How "xenophobic" (get my drift) is Spain. I mean from what I've heard (and seen on soccer/football games)...
I'm in my 4th or 5th month of learning Korean, and even though I'm nowhere close to fluency, a month back, I was in Spanish class. I was trying to think of and write out a sentence in Spanish. However, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Korean translation of the sentence, and even when I "forced myself to think in Spanish" I accidentally thought in Korean syntax. It was soo cool.
Hey, you're like me. I'm in my third year of Spanish and started Korean classes a few months ago. I learned the letters/hangul in around June, and started taking classes for the language in...January? February? Around then. We've gone fast. Even though I know so much more Spanish, I can't help but to think Korean words rather than the Spanish when I'm in class. To me it's annoying. I don't think my teacher accepts Korean instead of Spanish. XD
Me gustaría escuchar tu voz en español :D jajaja. Sabes actualmente estoy aprendiendo a hablar inglés y me sirven mucho tus consejos. Tengo un poco de dificultades escuchando, pero leyendolo se me facilita más. Bueno espero tengas algún video sólo para conocer tu voz en español, y gracias por compartir tu experiencia :)
Good vid :) I’m at the point where I’m almost able to think in Spanish but still got lots of gaps in grammar and knowledge, but ... I’m loving the journey!!!
This is my first video, and I was sat here thinking "I wonder what language he speaks" and the first one I settled with was Spanish; turns out I was right!
I've been studying French for 4 years & I'm really trying to get to the point where I'm not only thinking in French, but also dreaming in the language. I read and write well in French. I understand spoken French as long as it is spoken clearly. However, I'm really anxious to get to the point where I can have fluid French conversations talking about politics, education, life, celebrity gossip or whatever. Is it wrong to think that I can only gain fluency by actually living in France?
I believe that thinking in your target language makes speaking much easier at the advanced level. Now that I think in Russian, I speak the language much more confidently and fluently. Luckily living in Moscow gives me more chances to use the language.
thank you for me i speak well two language arabic frensh , and also english but i'm not in the same levels of these two languagues (arabic frensh) and i want to learn spanish next year incha allah ..do you think that it's better for me to continue learning english awith out learn spanish ? or to try to learn both at the same time ..because english next year i wil; be in 4th level when i will get my diplome incha allah ..??? thank to answer me please
David you are great... I have a question for you please. I have a very dear 46 year old friend that wants to learn German language but he is so discouraged because he says he doesn't have the talent for "learning foreign languages like me" (I am learning Finnish), we are both Romanian doctors wanting to emigrate. Any tip for encouraging him? Is really "the talent" necessary??? I mean I always liked literature and languages but him mathematics so...? What do you think?
Kids learned languages better because they have their natural curiosity. As you grow up, your natural curiosity gradually decreases. In summary, the older you are the harder to learn language.. It's not about IQ or any speacial talent.
Iam learning spanish and i think the best way to learn is like a baby. For 2 years babies only speak gibberish while absorbing facial movements, body language and developing the understanding of the meaning of words and whole sentences.
I'm from Domican Republic , I speak spanish and also English but my problem is to remember how to write words. what did you do for improving your writting skills?
¡Hola! Saludos desde Lima .. en caso que llegares saber muy bien español algunas lenguas romances serán más fácil /Hi!! Greetings from Lima ... in case you will be able to speak very well Spanish, anothers romanic languages will be so easy..
i'm from england too mate its hard learning spanish i really wanna achieve fluency asap ive been learning it for 2 years now and i can express myself but my problem is that when i do express myself sometimes ill make a mistake and a lot of the time i'll find that i know the vocabulary already but i just don't know how to use it like a spaniard. it really confuses me.
I started getting much better after I read this article on the "Telenovela Method" which is just saying to use Spanish shows and music and sitting down, translating and studying the words and what they mean, culture, ect. It really helped me because after the first few, you start translating the easier because it's stuff you taught yourself from previous songs and shows. And plus, it's free because you can find these things on TH-cam and translate them using Urban Dictionary, SpanishDict, and Google Translate
Hi David, sorry if you've answered this question before somewhere (this is the first video of yours that I've come across), but after you start trying to describe everything in Spanish and you come up with words you don't know, do you list them down somewhere and study them separately or do you just spend a second trying to memorise them and move on?
Lo mejor que podías hacer para aprender una idioma nueva es practicar siempre. Necesitas tener la determinación. Aún así, va a ser difícil en la empieza. Pero, mientras progresas, va a ser más fácil. Lo mas que practicas, lo mas rápidamente que tú aprendes.
Heyyy does anyody know like a forum or skype group i don't know to talk with other people to communicate in other languages. Like someone from Brazil helps me with my portuguese chatting, and i help him with my spanish.
I can understand news and a good amount for arabic but the problem I have is understanding their dialect when the speak and I be nervous when I speak any advice
"Walk around and say simple sentences." This is great. I started doing this and didn't think of it as a "technique." Thanks!
Great video, I don't know if it's clear for everyone but as a polyglot I definitely feel your point. You did a great job analyzing the process of starting to THINK in the language, this is what I did when I moved to the UK, and it makes a huge difference to "just" learning (no matter how good you are), listening reading or even "just" understanding.
You then become more and more active, and it seems to happen naturally. Just remember to open a dictionary once a day to check out those "gaps" that have just been pointed out.
To go even further, and train your pronunciation and accent at the same time, don't be afraid to say everything out loud. It may sound weird but definitely works. Just watch babies starting to speak and you'll get the point :-)
I love the tips. I am listening to a lot of audio through videos, podcasts, movies and more. I also practice speaking when I go for my evening walks. The tip about describing what you see on the street is great!
'Le feu tricolore' looked up 'traffic lights' in French when I heard you talk about exposing yourself to different situations. I learnt French for maybe 8 years but it still took me some time to break apart what I heard into audible words and acutally understand 'natural' conversation rather than what was meant to help students pass exams. I find it helps to (as you progress) not to depend on just one learning rescource; the language just seems more real that way.
You are a very nice speaker.
you need a spanish speaking wife
....ten hours a day listening to her
in two years ...you are fluent
LOL
XD
That's sound stupid asf.
Get a friend instead. Peace out!
You are a good learner because you are crazy for learning language.That is the shortest way to a good speaker.Happy learning!
I love your videos, only now I found you, congatulations for your work
Don't translate. Listen and try to get to overall meaning. Each language is different and you really have to live a language. Don't try to find the equivalent for something in your native language in your target language for everything. If you want to talk about the weather with someone you just met don't think of a sentence in English and then try to translate this exact sentence word by word, just start speaking.
. I´m a student of linguistica applied to translation and you are right: It is never esay the transition. The most important is try to expose yourself to the language that you are learning. It could be very frustrating at the beggining. It is because things you learn (vocablulary, some expressions) stay in you declarative memory, when you start to use it , you are able to establish links between all that abstract learning, at this pint, your knowlegde is more "procedimental"
:)
I went to spain for 1 week , on an exchange , you can see this in my picture , You experienced the same as me , When i spoke to my family back in Ireland - on the phone - on the 5th day , i felt so weird they sounded weird too but i didnt know if i was talking english correctly hahah Even your hearing of yourself changes , and by speaking spanish to natives you feel proud - Excellent video I really enjoyed it
Cheers Dave for the excellent tips! I'm learning Arabic and need some tips to assist me in the day to day integration of Arabic!
Many Thanks!
I'm brazilian and I used your video to think in english!! hehe Anyway, I had to turn off the subtitles too!! ;) Greetings from Brazil!!!
Someone who knows a language does not "think" the sentences. It comes automatically, from practicing vocabulary phrases and conversations with target-language speakers. My problem is answering in another language. Today when a Spanish speaker asked me a question, I replied in French! Boo hiss. A lovely video.
you have a very good vocabulary! It makes you very interesting and I like how you are able to express yourself so well in this way.
Great advice AND a treat for the eyes! Thanks.
Perhaps you can discuss learning a language at an older age. Like over people in their 30's and over. I'm over thirty trying to learn Spanish and its a bit difficult
I like the point which was mentioned in this video about gaps in your mind while you don't know some word in foreign language. That is fully true!
All you described I have lived, I have had to do it with Italian. At the begining you find out you have great gaps, you have to look many times at the dictionary, and by the way, I also used to check if I knew to say it in english or not, so I improved (and I continue doing it) also my english at the same time I did it with italian. I continue learning italian (I am spanish native speaker) because I live in Italy and I have a great motivation to learn it properly. Good video and enjoy spanish.
I've had that weird feeling too when returning to English from French - it's fun isn't it!
I love your videos: the're really engaging and interesting. Thank you for sharing all your great content. If I think of any questions/discussion points about language learning then I'll log right on here and post them. Happy learning! :)
I was just as obsessed. Even mastering grammer was exciting lol. At some point, I found that learning idiomatic expressions really help. For one thing, it helped me improve the fluidity in my speech. Secondly, I was able to communicate and actually understand native speakers without in thought translation. I suggest that people try that.
Great video! A massive amount of input is what enabled me to think in English. Thinking is like speaking to yourself without actually uttering the sounds. You still have to be really familiar with particular words and sentence structures to make the formation of your foreign language sentences a (near-)natural process. And getting familiar with these structures and words is best done through exposure to the language. Being patient with one's progress is helpful too :-)
I recommend Pimsleur, then getting friends on Skype from the country of the language you're trying to learn. I also recommend listening to radio and TH-cam, and getting Anki and filling it up with vocabulary and phrases you find. Google Translate. Do this long enough, and you will think in the language, if it is consistent and several times a week.
HI guy, thank you very much for your kindness, sharing your experience about how to learn a foreign language is great and very interesting for us. As for me, I yearn to speak english fluently, so, I'm gonna try to listen to your precious advices, All the best my friend. Seb from France.
David your videos are so useful for me, thank you very much, I am tryng to imrpove my english, portuguese and italian, please post more videos
You're describing exactly my feelings and experiences learning english. (I'm spanish)
You eloquently summarized the feeling of learning another language. The suggestions you provide are helpful, thank you! 😊
Another great tip on language learning.You're amazing, David.Thanks for the tip. :)
When you are starting a language, you need to push yourself to put in more hours per day. Traffic lights seem quite basic in French, Spanish or German. There are computer terms that are pop up all the time. The other day I came across a word for a battery charger in Chinese. And there are other words you may be curious about such as Graphic Design, upload, download, mobile phone, notebook computer, etc.
As fluent as you are in a language everyday you pick up new words & phrases that isn't use very much or don't come up very often in a conversation like specific parts of the body. It gets interesting every time you learn a new word / phrase like "surf the net".
Gets to a point I would listen to a news broadcast in Chinese and think in English and vice versa. I have an uncle who lived in Hong Kong but his Chinese isn't fluent enough but he can understand what is said. He tends to reply back in English as if the 2 languages are related.
Cheers David you have definitely helped me to make the decision to learn Spanish for a longer period of time before I spend a month in Spain a year to 18 months should mean I have a reasonable vocabulary and grasp of verbs and grammar sentence structure etc. Thanks for posting the videos
I'm from Brazil, and I started to learn English about an year ago. Thank you very much for post the vídeo, this tips are going to help me a lot.
I really like your video. Thanks for your advices, I'll try it, I'm studying English and sometimes it´s too difficult for me to speak because I just can´t think in English as fast as the conversation is, but your advice is really helpful!
I also want to tell you, I LOVE your English acent haha, I hadn´t to put subtitles, I understood everything you said!
Thanks from Mexico!
Elizabeth Rivas how it going
I found the video to be incredibly helpful as I'm learning another language for the first time. I've probably just reached the B1 level in my target language (Māori). In 2019, I attended full immersion classes which included having weekends away with classmates without speaking English. At the last immersion weekend I attended, I found my mindset starting to shift towards Māori and when I returned home, I experienced a 'transition period' back to English, similar to the experience you described in your video.
My motivation to learn the Māori language to an advanced level is still very strong. I just have to keep pushing forward. This may sound weird, but because Māori is my 'heritage language', I'm probably going to have a 'man cry' if I reach conversational fluency. Ngā mihi ki a koe, e hoa. All the best.
I looooove your accent!! very proper!! ;)
Maria De La Rocha Glad you like :)
+David Mansaray Where are you from, David? I ask because I'm intrigued to know where does your accent come from and I can't dintinguish it because I'm Latinamerican but it is obvious you have a different accent. Greetings from Venezuela...
J Aurelio Puente I'm from London :)
Thank you, men...
A thing I think is important is either skyping with or immersion with a native. the reason I say this, is there is the way of speaking or colloquial way of saying certain words that when your learning a language your ear doest pick up on. for example even in this video you said ta instead of to. or in my neck of the woods we say wadda ya doin instead of what are you doing. and fer instead or for. I think it's little formal and informal ways of speech that muddy the waters.
In this video you mentioned the fact that at the begining you were obsessed with Spanish. It's the same for me and Norwegian. I've been studying it for 6 monts but still I have a will to get to know more and more ;-) but in my opinion it's a fantastic side to studying foreign languages ;) great tips !
It's funny that you say that you were obsessed with Spanish, because I've been obsessed with English for years now. Actually my obsession has to do with understanding English as good as I understand Spanish. Not there yet. I'm a native Spanish speaker, btw. Another thing that I want to say is, at first, it's normal that you translate everything in your head, but then you don't do it that much. I think in English sometimes but not complete sentences but words or I make a mix of the two languages
look up conversation partner and some sites should come up. its when you skype with someone of the language you are trying to learn. hope that helps!
Hi david, My native language is spanish, and I have been studying English over the last two years, I already saw your video and one advise that a got to improve my communication is to see movies in spanish, but as I look at them I translate all what people say to English in my mind, pretty much like If you were a translator without pauses, its quite challenging. Throughout the movie you will face parts that you cannot say and you surely will get tired jaja. Try it.
great video,
Im glad to know that I'm already doing what you've suggested.
Great information. I’m 61 years old. I’ve been trying to speak Spanish for about 40 years(off and on). I have started again. I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully in Spanish.
I'm looking for Spanish people to practice my Spanish. If you're interested in speaking with me, let me know :)
***** yo, me i am a native speaker. If you help me on my french or arabic.
Hey! I can help you. Send me a message and we can set a timetable!
Bladi13 I will help u to learn arabic nd to help in french
Bro whenever you want i dont kno if you have whatsapp this my number +18298859238 Dominican republic
I can help you. Text me on Whatsapp if you want...
thank you for your tips. I am gratefull for them. I learn Thai and Chinese and it's a real challenge for me being a non-native english speaker. I can speak thai quite comfortably after almost two years of living in Thailand, but sure I still need to learn hard and work on filling the gaps you're talking about. I just started learn Mandarin by myself a months ago and it's a challenge for me to learn two tonal different languages at the same time. Something is changing in my brain as till now I was able to focus in one activity or one language only, but yeah it's challenge and I wanna know my real limits. I watched lots of videos of polyglots here and need to say this video helps me a lot, so I can start to learn short sentences in chinese and describe everything around me speak them loudly and make them more complex in the next months. Probably the most important thing is the enthusiasm and effort you give the language learning, which help you keep your motivation. Thank you once again🙏
Good video, Great tips!
I think it is wrong, yes. What you need to do is lots of reading, lots of listening and lots of speaking about these topics so you develop the necessary vocabulary and get a lot of practice. You'll make many mistakes. If you aren't making mistakes then you aren't learning. You say you understand and write french very well, but what about speaking? If you're speaking is not good then that means you have a lot of passive knowledge and you need to make it active. The only way is to speak a lot!
Short, concise and awesome. Thanks man! :))))))
Glad you enjoyed ;)
Really glad i found your channel David. Great videos! Ive been thinking this for a while.
Im currently in Tokyo learning Japanese and this simple concept has just hit me - i CANT SAY EVERYTHING I WANT TO IN JAPANESE! haha. It was a hard pill to swallow but i've final come to terms with it. One day im sure it will come, its all going in the right direction. For now though, I just have to realise that i am a japanese baby and i have to act accordingly when it comes to 'outputting' the language until it all comes naturally (sloooowly) lol.
I'm trying to learn Swedish, and I really appreciate these tips!!! Great advice I will definitely use. Tack sååå mycket! 💛💙🇸🇪
Nice talk; you tell it as it is.
David, I have been studying english for 2 years and half and I can understand native speakers, music, movies and whatever. But the problem is that I cannot express myself very well, I have to stop and think about the language, I mean the words don't come automatically.
What should I do?
Thanks for everything, I really appreciate your videos! ^^
Thanks, I think this was helpful for me. I don't study Spanish tho. I realized that even if I use my time on Duolingo doing the lessons of different courses learning there, it's not going to get me any more fluent. I have to think about the language and use the vocabulary every day. Right now I'm studying three - no, four - languages, which might be too many. But I was thinking about doing a weekly project with all of them. I'll choose a word and translate it into all of these languages. In some, it will be revision whereas with some I'll expand my vocab. During the week I'll have time to study these words, look up all their meanings and make up example sentences. Then the next weekend I hope I have learned something and I will take a new word. I got this idea some time ago but I haven't tried it yet. I'll probably start today :)
Its very hard to think in spanish when you're family only dpeaks english and other people talk to you in English.
Gamer H Only work images in your mind. Use you vocabulary in language
For me the key to get me thinking in a foreign language is assimilation of the new language. This failed with Turkish because my Turkish teachers all spoke only German in the lessons and and my Turkish self-study could not create enough assimilation. A good language course where only the target language is spoken allows me to assimilate for two hours. Then I continue thinking after the lesson. Now I can think in Danish when I want randomly. My rule: without assimilation no thinking ability!
Great video man.
Great advise. I think I am going try walking around describing everything I see in the language I am trying to learn, I think that it would be quite fun.
This tip will surely help when people are waiting at bus stations, etc. There might be some vocabulary you might not even know to complete the sentence.
This is a great help. Gracias mi amigo. Question: I am planning a trip to Spain or some other Spanish speaking country for a the spring of 2015. However, I won't be able to spend 3-weeks like you did (because of work). Do you think a week would be fine? And what other Spanish speaking country would you recommend besides Spain. Did you find Spain to be pricy?
Great video!! Greetings from Argentina
hello! i am in the process of learning Swedish and after about a month or two i started thinking a little in Swedish. i was wondering how to progress when there is no one around to practice the language with. i was given advice to find an online conversation partner as well as trying an immersion program. what would your advice be to learning 'conversation' Swedish when there's no one around to practice the language with? your videos are very interesting and helpful thanx for your time!
Very good tip about training yourself to think in the language by describing your surroundings. The day to day contact is important.
Thank you for this video! I have been so stressed out about how you could possibly think in another language. I am teaching myself Japanese and am learning the writing systems but I find thinking in Japanese is so difficult. I see an apple and will have to force myself to think that apple is ringo. Ringo=apple. But then everything else I was trying to think came out in English.
Nice video. Your camera is awesome.
I love doing that ! I speak spanish but I got used to thinking in French and English and now my mind can't help it. It's helped me a lot in all ways, and that doesn't mean I will forget spanish ;)
Will I forget English if I detach myself from english, and only think in German or Spanish?
No necessarily forget the language, although I've met kids that have moved to a foreign country and never again used there native language..and yeah...I would say they've forgotten the language. But I've lived in Chile for over 20 years and was raised in Texas and what I've noticed is that when I don't use one of the two languages enough I lose my handle on vocab more so than completely forget the other language. I'd say... read a book in English every now and again or watch an English show that you might like...don't ever abandon a language cuz as difficult as it is to acquire one you should take care not to lose it completely :).
How the fuck does someone learn 20 languages then?
you will not. I am Macedonian and have lived in Macedonia for the first 18 years of my life until i went to uni abroad. consider myself bilingual macedonian and english simply because i grew up with a computer and a lot of internet friends and have found myself thinking in english exclusively for a long time or detach myself from macedonian and the only affect is that my macedonian has deteriorated a bit and that's all.
DiloenIngles i used to speak in my native language but after moving to England I just stopped but I can still understand it I just can’t speak it or write it
I don't think you can ever forget a language. You can forget words but the intuitive grasp on grammar and structure and speech patterns doesn't go away quickly (unless we're talking about a REALLY long time). Your ability in a language will diminish for sure if you don't use it but I don't think it's fair to say that you can 'forget' it.
Thank you for the video. Very helpful. I am looking at going into TESL so everything helps! :)
Happy Language Learning!! :D
Thank you.....
@davidmansaray OK that's cool. I've yet to have this happen majorly. Then again, I find it difficult to force myself to think in target language because Im always concerned about grammar. How "xenophobic" (get my drift) is Spain. I mean from what I've heard (and seen on soccer/football games)...
This is a great video!
I'm in my 4th or 5th month of learning Korean, and even though I'm nowhere close to fluency, a month back, I was in Spanish class. I was trying to think of and write out a sentence in Spanish. However, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Korean translation of the sentence, and even when I "forced myself to think in Spanish" I accidentally thought in Korean syntax. It was soo cool.
Hey, you're like me. I'm in my third year of Spanish and started Korean classes a few months ago. I learned the letters/hangul in around June, and started taking classes for the language in...January? February? Around then. We've gone fast. Even though I know so much more Spanish, I can't help but to think Korean words rather than the Spanish when I'm in class. To me it's annoying. I don't think my teacher accepts Korean instead of Spanish. XD
+김보 (Beau) When I'm in Spanish class, I accidentally stick French words in the middle of my English sentences!
Me gustaría escuchar tu voz en español :D jajaja. Sabes actualmente estoy aprendiendo a hablar inglés y me sirven mucho tus consejos. Tengo un poco de dificultades escuchando, pero leyendolo se me facilita más. Bueno espero tengas algún video sólo para conocer tu voz en español, y gracias por compartir tu experiencia :)
Que tal? Te gusta practicar vía Skype? Soy de los estados unidos y estudio espanol. jajaja
@@joshuamichael391 A mí si me interesaría.
I am from Colombia and I am learning English.
@@jesusgoez4047 :) Tienes Whats?
@@joshuamichael391 Yes, I do.
Good !
OOT, but you're the first British chap I know that speaks clear English.
ntenzz1808 lol you need to meet more British people. Lots of us speak clearly :)
I don't, but I love my dialect and apologise for nothing. xD
Good vid :) I’m at the point where I’m almost able to think in Spanish but still got lots of gaps in grammar and knowledge, but ... I’m loving the journey!!!
Keep going! It's all about the journey. Enjoying it is what will get you to the other side :)
David Mansaray ahh thanks man , I intend to :) respect ✊
Thank you! Good luck on your journey! :)
This is my first video, and I was sat here thinking "I wonder what language he speaks" and the first one I settled with was Spanish; turns out I was right!
I've been studying French for 4 years & I'm really trying to get to the point where I'm not only thinking in French, but also dreaming in the language. I read and write well in French. I understand spoken French as long as it is spoken clearly. However, I'm really anxious to get to the point where I can have fluid French conversations talking about politics, education, life, celebrity gossip or whatever. Is it wrong to think that I can only gain fluency by actually living in France?
I believe that thinking in your target language makes speaking much easier at the advanced level. Now that I think in Russian, I speak the language much more confidently and fluently. Luckily living in Moscow gives me more chances to use the language.
thank you for me i speak well two language arabic frensh , and also english but i'm not in the same levels of these two languagues (arabic frensh) and i want to learn spanish next year incha allah ..do you think that it's better for me to continue learning english awith out learn spanish ? or to try to learn both at the same time ..because english next year i wil; be in 4th level when i will get my diplome incha allah ..??? thank to answer me please
they need to make a language book that is titled write it like youd
O cara saca da parada! Manda um video em Português ai!!
David you are great... I have a question for you please. I have a very dear 46 year old friend that wants to learn German language but he is so discouraged because he says he doesn't have the talent for "learning foreign languages like me" (I am learning Finnish), we are both Romanian doctors wanting to emigrate. Any tip for encouraging him? Is really "the talent" necessary??? I mean I always liked literature and languages but him mathematics so...? What do you think?
Kids learned languages better because they have their natural curiosity. As you grow up, your natural curiosity gradually decreases. In summary, the older you are the harder to learn language.. It's not about IQ or any speacial talent.
me gusto tu video!
so fun thankyou
good voice
Iam learning spanish and i think the best way to learn is like a baby. For 2 years babies only speak gibberish while absorbing facial movements, body language and developing the understanding of the meaning of words and whole sentences.
I just spent 2 years speaking gibberish... no improvement.. you've wasted 2 years of my life.
I'm from Domican Republic , I speak spanish and also English but my problem is to remember how to write words. what did you do for improving your writting skills?
Thanks from Egypt
peace& love you are wonderful
Not yet! ;) Someone sent me the file and I thought why not add it :)
¡Hola! Saludos desde Lima .. en caso que llegares saber muy bien español algunas lenguas romances serán más fácil /Hi!! Greetings from Lima ... in case you will be able to speak very well Spanish, anothers romanic languages will be so easy..
i'm from england too mate its hard learning spanish i really wanna achieve fluency asap ive been learning it for 2 years now and i can express myself but my problem is that when i do express myself sometimes ill make a mistake and a lot of the time i'll find that i know the vocabulary already but i just don't know how to use it like a spaniard. it really confuses me.
I started getting much better after I read this article on the "Telenovela Method" which is just saying to use Spanish shows and music and sitting down, translating and studying the words and what they mean, culture, ect. It really helped me because after the first few, you start translating the easier because it's stuff you taught yourself from previous songs and shows. And plus, it's free because you can find these things on TH-cam and translate them using Urban Dictionary, SpanishDict, and Google Translate
For a 9 year old video, this quality is good
Hi David, sorry if you've answered this question before somewhere (this is the first video of yours that I've come across), but after you start trying to describe everything in Spanish and you come up with words you don't know, do you list them down somewhere and study them separately or do you just spend a second trying to memorise them and move on?
this was so helpful!!!!!
HerroKerushii Glad to hear it! :)
woaaah you replied! thank you!! lol
btw will you be making any new videos?
greeeat tips thaaaaaaanx !!
Great info, new subbie here! Thanks for sharing!!! ;)
Lo mejor que podías hacer para aprender una idioma nueva es practicar siempre. Necesitas tener la determinación. Aún así, va a ser difícil en la empieza. Pero, mientras progresas, va a ser más fácil. Lo mas que practicas, lo mas rápidamente que tú aprendes.
de donde eres?
+jose contreras soy filipino
Heyyy does anyody know like a forum or skype group i don't know to talk with other people to communicate in other languages. Like someone from Brazil helps me with my portuguese chatting, and i help him with my spanish.
The traffic lights are black. Very handy for the night time =D
I can understand news and a good amount for arabic but the problem I have is understanding their dialect when the speak and I be nervous when I speak any advice