Children learning their native language often demand to hear the same story, time and time and time again. Bad news for grandparents who have to watch Peppa Pig 20 times, but good news for people wondering how children learn their native language, and if they can copy how children learn.
English speaker here. I was counting reps at the gym in French and found it made them go so much faster. Then I realized it was because I was skipping 6 and 7.
And little kids don’t talk right away and when they do it’s super simple and their pronunciation is not great. Obviously adults can learn better than kids but we have to take the pressure off ourselves to sound native and speak completely soon.
I started babysitting a seven year old recently, and she's so incredibly smart! I always marvel at her vocabulary, but then I remember when I was a little kid -- I read the same books over and over, every night (and my parents swear I never shut up 😂) The first night I babysat her, she got me to read her favourite book to her three times before she would go to sleep! Kids are so amazing, their brains are just simply incredible.
I instantly got it and I love the term, it’s because you are FULLY immersed. Listening and reading simultaneously has you fully immersed in the content. I do this in my native language to fully immerse in content. I’ve done it a little in language learning. Rocket Languages, Speakly, and Beelinguapp have this feature built it. It’s great. I wish Pimsleur also had a transcript you could read while you listen. I also love Pimsleur, but it is audio only.
@NewportSolar has ALMOST got it, but it's more than that. Humans are not supposed to be fully immersed in water. People who don't have special training can't survive down there for more than a few minutes... but with a SCUBA, they can. I find it the same with language "scuba". I can't understand very much German, or Italian, or Icelandic... but I can actually follow along with the narrator when I've got the book in front of me, which in turn gives me practice listening to the language. I might not be able to understand very much, just like scuba diving doesn't improve your actual lung capacity for free diving... but it improves how used to being under water you are. My following along with a book in, say, Romanian, would not teach me Romanian (not before about 6000 hours anyway), but it would increase my capacity to actually separate one word for another when I heard Romanian. It's essentially a "cheat" of the natural condition that is complete non-comprehension, just as a SCUBA is a cheat of the natural condition of having no air when you're under water.
I'm a polyglot who's been teaching people utterly unconventional methods for picking up languages. In the old days I experimented with watching instructive videos trying to discover new techniques. To, I have to say, absolutely no avail. Now TH-cam forced me to watch this and it actually contains some original, useful, practical material. Wow! Tack så mycket!
I love the term ‘scuba diving’. I find audio while reading is very powerful in learning, and more importantly, stops you getting bad pronunciation habits from reading alone. With French I find that the written text encourages me to hear the subtle difference between words i thought were the same.
I’ve been studying Portuguese for 9 years now and I’ve visited Brasil 18 times but I still can’t read or converse and I have to translate everything into English to understand. I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been practicing for 6 years now but I still can’t understand what she’s saying and I have to translate everything into English to understand. It’s very frustrating. I have classes, read books, use apps and watch movies and TH-cam videos. I practice every day with native speakers.
@@hiranom20 I thought I would be able to converse after a few months of studying because I usually learn quickly. My son can converse and he’s never studied Portuguese, he just picked it up after visiting Brasil with me several times. It must feel great to understand without translating everything but I can’t imagine how to make it happen. Thanks
@@patfromamboyman you may need to relax with translation tbh. I’ve been dating a Spanish speaker for 2 months and I’m already starting to be able to say basic things to her. Ive been saying the same few things over and over and over because sometimes it’s all I can say. However that makes me “feel it” and not just think it, and now those same phrases are building or getting changed into similar phrases about other topics
Repetition does magic. As a kid, I was obsessed with the Lion King, and I watched it probably hundreds of times. Sometimes literally multiple times a day. Now, at 25 years old, and without having seen the movie in maybe 3 years at least, I can still recite the whole movie with maybe 80% accuracy, and I'm sure that if I was watching it, I'd get more like 95% of the dialogue correct. Has this helped me any way in my life? No. No it hasn't. But it proves that the brain remembers what it's been fed the most. Good video, really good tips!
😄Maybe I should watch The Lion King in Korean! 👍🏻👍🏻 I know all too well about repetition and memory, I have a severely autistic 26 year old son, he has watched some of his favorite movies 30 + times in the past years, he can recite Titanic, Cast Away and a bunch of other movies and TV shows word for word (most of the time when he's really happy). He's also a huge Beatles fan and can sing most of his favorites word for word (he's fairly non verbal unless prompted so this is huge). I also think music really helps with memory, I can sing songs I haven't heard for 30 years word for word....the brain is an amazing thing! 😊🧠
The was exactly the kind of language learning advice I needed. Every other creator in this sphere never *quite* got the right fitting advice where I'd go "Ah, I can do what they did" and it feel natural. All these five points? They're EXACTLY fitting to the kind of stuff I'd want to do, have done in some form and am excited to do. Thank you for putting them in such good terms, Lamont!
I know this is an old video, but I just wanted to let you know that I regularly come back to it, mostly to remind myself to just keep doing these things. In my totally biased opinion it's one of your best videos, if not the best.
Well, there's probably a limited number of methods you can share before you have to repeat yourself. But still, not many videos on language-tube go into details what to _actually_ do, beyond "oh, do a lot of immersion" or "spaced repetion saved my life" etc., so anything that's actionable and maybe not entirely obvious is gold. It doesn't even need to be unique.
The saturation one is so true. I'm currently learning italian and I've listened to the opera Don Giovanni so much I know it by heart. I can recite in my head the meaning in my native language, and that really helps me to get a clear view of how the grammar works, the vocabulary, etc. With english I had the same experience. I watched A Clockwork Orange so many times I also memorised it, and when I read the book in my native language, I could recite in my head the english translation. It's my favourite technique, and also it's probably the reason why I haven't had much luck with German, I haven't found something to obsess over lmao
As so many people have confirmed, repeated exposure to a one form or another of the target lang is very effective. But, for anyone who considers also using A Clockwork Orange as their source, not having seen this film, let me warn you that you have to be comfortable with a great deal of savage violence including a notorious gang-rape scene. This, and the other violent scenes, was the reason that Kubrick had the film withdrawn from UK cinemas for some years due to incidents of copy-cat violence. The gang who do all this stuff use a private language, invented by author Anthony Burgess.
@@christophernation4793 yeah, I'm aware of all of that. Linguistically speaking I think A Clockwork Orange is very interesting, and even though it doesn't give me modern vocabulary it does give me an insight in English culture (as their made up language is a mix between Russian and Old English). It actually is my favourite movie ever, but I can understand how some people might not stomach it
Great video! For those who are going to try the copycat technique , I found sketch shows very useful. They are basically just dialogues and the emotions there are usually very usefully exaggerated.
One thing I came across by accident because I was just trying to memorize something without any goal in mind, works wonderfully when it comes to target language improvement is the following: I first memorized a poem and then learned the author's interpretation and background, and after that I was able to speak fluently about the poem in my target language. Memorizing is not only good for practicing your pronunciation everywhere, since you can just recite the poem, but you also have an interesting topic of conversation with another native speaker, in this case a poem.
I decided to try scuba diving using Le Petit Prince since that was the only physical book I had that had a free corresponding French audio for me to listen to. My book is in English though so I’m listening to the French audio while following along in English. I’ve found that it’s helping me pick up new vocabulary and other interesting things are happening. For example, I got into a silly argument with my French friend because I greeted him in English “good evening” he replied “goodnight” in English. I laughed cause I thought he was being stupid on purpose but he started getting into the semantics of when evening becomes night….. But it’s actually a language/cultural issue. I didn’t know that in French, it’s totally acceptable to greet someone with “good night”. My French friend just didn’t realise that in English, goodnight is never used at the start of a conversation. Reading the words “good evening” but hearing “Bonne nuit” made me realise that.
Hi Lamont, I loved this one, too! I have one small little tip for beginners who try to get their pronunciation sound right and be fluent: say you as a native English speaker try to learn German, Spanish, or Finnish - try to make a mock accent of them, a bit too over the top. How do native Germans, Mexicans, or Finns (or whatever your target language is) sound when they speak English. That is exactly the accent you should start from when learning these languages. Imitate, exaggerate, and have fun! (Needless to say: I don't recommend to be offensive, nobody likes that.)
@@daysandwords Love to hear that. Your Swedish pronunciation is fantastic, so no wonder - five years ago, you say!!! I've forgotten about it, if I ever did see - can you find it again? For me my English pronunciation changed from passable to OK, when I was able to do an English accent in my native Swedish, some 20+ years after I first started to learn English. That is, from child to middleaged I had done little to get rid of my accent. Pronunciation is not that important but when you already are a fluent reader and listener, then you look for a new goal, I guess. Accents also have to do with fluency in that every language has made the pronunciation easier for fluent everyday speech, by using its tricks and treats.
Ha, you're never going to believe this... I just went back through my videos to find it, and it was 5 years ago... TOMORROW. So my 5 years guess was pretty dang close haha. th-cam.com/video/LBEPEIdm5zw/w-d-xo.html
@@daysandwords Wow, that's a feat! Goes to show that language learning makes you smart and keeps you smart! Grattis och hurra för dej, Lamont! Och tusen tack också! ( that is: Congrats and hurray for you, Lamont. E mille grazie!)
When my 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son came to America from Japan last year, my daughter could speak English well enough, but my son couldn’t. I enrolled them in school and put them in the ESL program. In addition to this, they spent lots of time with their cousins talking, watching TV, playing the game, and watching TH-cam videos. It was pure immersion. At first, they only spoke Japanese to one another. Then they eventually started to use both. Finally, they ended up just speaking to one another in English. My daughter improved to fluency very quickly since she already had a solid base, but my son. He learned to speak fluent English so quickly everybody was shocked. I know he’s a kid, but the process was incredible to watch. Back in Japan, they still speak to one another mostly in English.
I have taken to “over cooking” audio using Pimsleur and Speakly. They are perfect for this. Especially Pimsleur because I get to hear the target language over and over, with pauses for me to repeat, and explanations of everything. Pimsleur is such a phenomenal tool. I supplement with other things, but I am so impressed with Pimsleur. It is BY FAR the best comprehensible input language tool on the market (that I’ve found so far).
@@GamingDad That’s interesting feedback. I have not used Michel Thomas, but my friend who recommended Pimsleur has used both and recommended Pimsleur. Why do you prefer Michel Thomas? PS: I’m a big fan of having more than one teaching tool. I will happily use both. I like that Pimsleur has an app with flash cards, practice tests, etc. Pimsleur also has 50+ languages. I’m studying Persian with Pimsleur. I’ll have to check if Michel Thomas has Pimsleur. Many apps, books, audio programs do not.
Sadly they don't have that many languages, what I like about Michel Thomas vs Pimsleur is that with Pimsleur it feels less of a conversation, with Michel Thomas the teacher is having a conversation WITH you. That and the speed of how the language is build up feels faster too. I can't really explain it better than that.
Once again, Lamont busts out some real nuggets of language learning advice that I've never heard ANYWHERE before, and I've watched a lot of videos about language learning! I've gotten really into "scuba diving" lately thanks to you, and I've also been repeating simple stories dozens of times in a language that I'm a beginner in (Amharic). That helped a ton. Before that, I would only read each story three or four times before moving on, and my Amharic sessions always felt sooo hard, so sometimes I just wouldn't do them. Now I can enjoy the stories because I understand them really well, and I see myself improving every day. Gonna have to try scratching next!
Do you have any tips on how to learn Amharic yourself ? I want to learn it but the only resource I came across was Appleyard's Colloquial Amharic. Thank you in advance 😊
@@PaleoalexPicturesLtd I've tried to reply to you several times, but the reply keeps not getting posted, I guess because it's too long. I will try dividing it up into a few parts: Having tried a number of different resources, this is what worked best for me: Step 1: Learn the fidel writing system Step 2: Learn some basic vocab and grammar (just a little bit) Step 3: Read and listen to children's stories of gradually increasing difficulty. Eventually, I plan to work my way up to books written for adults, but I've got a ways to go. (cont'd)
To Lamont’s point about exercising, while, consuming audio material, it’s actually beneficial for memory because of the chemical release you get during exercise actually boosts your retention for most people. Great video as always.
I love your content! Not only do you have great advice, but the way you deliver the information is so easy (& quick) to digest. On top of that though, you give me something even more rare than that, which is an example of someone passionate about their language learning! Watching your videos never fails to reignite my passion for my target language & also to reframe how I'm approaching learning. You're an absolute gem, thanks mate!
I listened to the audiobook of Heart of a Dog in Russian probably at least 10 times while delivering pizza some years ago. I got really sick of it eventually but I think it was good for my Russian abilities.
Estos son buenísimos consejos! I love to listen to videos or music en Español while out for my daily walk, cleaning the house, or doing the laundry. I also make a habit of turning on los subtitulos for videos so that I can read along with the spoken word for a more immersive experience, which really helps when the accent is a bit thicker or the speaker talks faster than I am accustomed to. There are a few Spanish lecturers & músicos that I enjoy the content of, so I tend to replay my favourites to fully absorb everything about them. I also like to challenge my brain by translating street signs & billboards while driving. (I may or may not sing along with the latino music when I am by myself in the car. 😂🤫) Muchas gracias, señor! PS: Glad to know that I am not the only one who counts out my reps/ steps in a second language. 😂
I was skeptical about audio books while running because I tried it in the past and it was too exhausting mentally but I tried it with some random Korean TH-cam videos last night and it worked quite well. It’s above my level so if I had attempted to watch it without multi tasking I’d get super bored unless it had subtitles or something. I think for me the key was that I didn’t have to stay 100% focused on the content. I think there’s plenty of stuff I could listen to where I’m satisfied if I only get the gist of what I’m listening to. Some books I might not be satisfied as I want to understand as much as possible and I think that was what led to problems before. If it is a really intense workout though maybe music in the target language is ok too.
That's it. I sometimes have no idea what's happening in the book because I'm not listening... other times I don't remember the last 5km of run because I was so interested in listening.
I find I have to take breaks from audio material, even if it had been working before. Like you, I can't quite listen to language materials at the gym unless it's music because I need music for motivation. But the gym isn't too far from my home and I can listen to podcasts to and from. And when I can't, I let myself get pumped up for the gym and return to it after a break.
I think your copycat technique might help me a lot. I always try to do shadowing, but only make it about 30 seconds before I get stressed trying to keep up.
Oh my goodness, you suggest hitting the bell yet clarify that no one wants push notifications (even though your videos are amazing). Wonderful, same as the rest of the video. 👍
Don’t hate the player hate the game… hate recommendations algorithm advertising attention companies who have the only goal to make you spend as much time as possible on the platform 😂
My work commute is 20 minutes. Chapter 1 of Tom Sawyer in my TL is 20 minutes. I listen going to work and coming home. I also have a 70 audio of Sherlock Holmes i listen to daily in the background. I am amazed how i am slowly picking up things in the audio when those two are not my focus. I figure i also get cadence and my brain starts to figure out individual words... and remember, kids put the wiggles, my little pony or whatever they watch, on repeat over and over. Sure mum and dad are sick of it but the kids are not.... pepper pig is a good example 😁
The idea of scratching has never crossed my mind. Now I really want to try it with my chinese, because have found some astonishing documentaries on Chinese history recently. Great video, gracias
@Lamond Curiously, I've been utilising your methodology for fluency even though I've never stopped and systematically analysed it, as I've been using those five steps intuitively
Late last year I took your advice about watching a short movie 50x until you can almost understand it. I have done the challenge with 3 different films so far just playing it in the background while I work and I have noticed that I can recognize words a lot more accurately now in Spanish where as before it sounded jumbled up. I plan to make time this go round to learn the script of the short film I’m watching so that I can better follow along. It also keeps be actively doing something. I’m also listening to other audio programs and using the mango course app. If I were to have done 2hrs of solid study each day over the last 12mos I would for sure know a ton and be well on my way to fluency, if not being fluent.
I'm glad you've find a great new name for the channel! It's my experience too that I understand more Japanese when I listen to something while doing chores. Maybe it's because in this case Japanese is the more exciting thing even if I can't understand everything. But just sitting and watching/listening something I can't fully comprehend is boring and frustrating.
I've recently been listing to Japanese podcasts while I cook breakfast and it's a game changer, I feel like I get more out of it and it's not as boring as just sitting and listening.
Brilliant video with brilliantly explained examples. I like the dead pan joke deliveries too. I’m learning Arabic and I’ve unknowingly been doing some scratching and scuba diving. I won’t be doing the Puzzle brain thing because with my past experiences it has adversely affected my attention span and have completely avoided multi-tasking since but that’s me. I need to try Copycat and conscious Eatreps. Thanks alot!
Thank you for this video. These tips were quire insightful and I believe they (especially the puzzle brain and repetition approaches) will be extremely useful. I do have a couple of questions though and if you'd answer them I'd be grateful. 1. The example you used is Swedish, which is Indo-European and Germanic and written in the Latin alphabet, like your native language English. What tips would you recommend for a language that's completely different from your own? 2. What tips would you recommend when you have difficulties finding material to find audiobooks, movies, or podcasts for? For both of these questions, I have some languages I speak conversationally and wish to improve but have a hard time finding materials for (Kalmyk, Guarani, Livonian) so I usually have to learn from dictionaries and by chatting with online friends who are natives.
Love the new name. I haven't looked in for a while, and despite its flaws, I'm on day 890 of Duo, and I dought if I could hold a conversation. So I'm looking at Lingo Pie for a path to fluency. Thanks.
@idioting Duoling's come a long way since it was first recommended to me for relearning Spanish in 2017 (I have almost 210k XP in the app). It helps with things like learning vocabulary & listening to different pronunciations/ accents for words. Reading & listening comprehension get more challenging the further you get into the units. I still struggle with remembering the different tenses for certain verbs, though. I think that will really only come with being forced to converse in the language. Like any tool, it can only do so much. The tips in this video are great to further your language learning journey. Mucha suerte!
@@sweetiespoon5150 thank you for your response! i’m fluent in two languages, in other words, bilingual but i’ve always loved russian, i heard that there are 6 different cases in the russian language and it’s a harder language in general, but i’m not one to give up! and yes, i agree. memorization is the most difficult thing, i personally don’t overwork myself and do a lesson a day to memorize words, even if it takes a longer time to become fluent. i’m extremely happy for you and i have other questions, do you find yourself understanding spanish movies, songs or people talking? and how long did it take you to get to your level? i admire your consistency!
@idioting Bilingual is pretty awesome. So cool that you are wanting to learn a 3rd language. Yes, I have heard that Russian is pretty tricky to learn, but I don't know more than a few words myself. LOL I first took classes when I was in middle school & up until I graduated from High school in 1995 (2 different maestros). I picked it back up again in 2016 after chatting w/ some amigos via social media (2 live in Spain & one lives in Argentina).... So... I comprehend the written word the best & listening (w/o subtitles) second. Conversional is where I am weakest, but it depends on the context. I have no clue what my fluency is at the moment, but it is lightyears from where I was in 2016. I do have a small opportunity here & there @ my job to converse in Spanglish w/ some clients, which is fun! And thank you, my goal is to see España someday, hopefully in the next 4 years.
@@sweetiespoon5150 wow!! you’ve given me a lot of hope for my learning, hearing about your communication and experience with your friends and coworkers, communication and interaction is key to fluency and comfort in a language! and i see some “spanglish” in your paragraph here and there haha! i also mix my home language with english. good luck with your goal, i’m sure you’ll be able to travel one day and it was nice interacting with you :)
I've been watching Kung Fu panda 3 and I'm trying to watch it 50 times like you did with into the spiderverse and I've picked up so much!!! I think I'm at 30 times or so. I'm really enjoying this method at the moment!
Wow! Great language learning content - real world and obviously your material comes from experience and this is all wheat! Definitely like'd and sub'd!
I like setting some of my electronics and some apps in the target languages. For example my phone and ps5/4 are in Türkçe, laptop 💻 is in Kiswahili. Although with sign language I try to interpret videos with the signs that I’ve learn with lots of miming.
You really had me jumping at the beginning! I thought: Did he just say the swedish "tjena"?! It was even spelled like that in the subtitles, but there is a different language right after. Maybe it's a coincidence? But no, you're actually teaching yourself it! Spännande, spännande! Lycka till och ha så kul! 😊 bra video förresten! Massa bra knep som jag kan använda mig av när jag ska lära mig japanska! Tack ska du ha~
Yeah Swedish has been my main language, on and off for about 7 years now. Call it 4 years of proper study, so yeah, I can switch to thinking in Swedish without noticing... but "tjena chicos" is how I open all my videos.
5:54 I listen to a radio station in my target language while going about my day as they have an app and I can exit the app while still getting audio! I always need noise anyway lol
The song that plays during the Scuba Diving section is so pretty, does anyone know what it is? Shazam isn't picking it up since there's mostly talking while it plays. On the topic, if anyone is trying to learn Korean most of the Netflix produced Korean Dramas have Korean closed captions so it's very helpful to watch the episode in English so you know what they're saying, then watch it again with Korean captions on so you hear and read the dialogue at the same time. It's entertaining and repeatable so it applies to like 3 of the different categories he talks about in this video.
couldn't agree more! that's basically what i do with languages, plus tons of reading and sometimes output exercises - including with real people, with Google translate, with Chat GPT, and just on my own like speaking to myself or writing stuff i can in the language. the output activities are especially useful for finding gaps in my language to later pay more attention to when working with input.
I had been planning to scuba dive in French for months and finally started a few days ago. And now I have a phrase for it. For about two years, I've been reading books outloud in French but have known there are words I've been pronouncing wrong, so I decided to go with this for a while. Im discovering that The Wheel of Time has a much more advanced vocabulary than The Ranger's Apprentice. More so than originally assumed J'étais un étudiant d'échange pendant dix mois en Belgique il y a douze ans donc je connais la langue plus ou moins déjà Edit: I also have the Wheel of Time in English in both physical and audiobook form and have been listening to each section I do in French in English first as a refresher so I at least know that when I come across two pages with a lot of unknown words it's because Robert Jordan is talking about architecture again. 4 chapters in and I'm already remembering how much I hate it when any character interacts with another character, too
That’s a hell of an investment. I’m sticking to Harry Potter! But more manageable. I gave up at about eight books in with wheel of time as I started reading as it was originally being published and the suspense broke me. Too traumatic to go back and start again.
I speak 5 languages English ( nation I was raised ), French ( Dad ), Italian ( school/college/uni ), Polish ( mom ) and Korean ( work & fluent within 2 years ) and started to learn Japanese about 3 weeks ago due to clients. Before I learn a language I actually listen to and sing catchy kids songs and use it as a base to learn the language,so if you see some random guy humming a catchy kids song don't be too alarmed. I can actually sing baby shark in 12 languages but when doing it in Arabic or Norwegian it can be really poor, it's something I did for my child and regardless what language it's in she loves it.
Definitely not whilst scuba diving. The point there is to let the audio guide you through the words you're reading. I don't think I've ever used a traditional language book to learn anything to be honest.
There's the Jesus film in several languages - I'm "over cooking" the Gospel of Luke in my target language (Hebrew), going from just 'Shalom' to understanding just about everything.
Do you think eatrep would work the same way with stuff like songs,, or would it be more geared towards specifically media with a story arc like books or movies?
I think it would work GREAT for songs but there's generally not as much material there to learn. I mean maybe hiphop, if you could look up the lyrics and learn them all then sure, but otherwise songs only contain about 200 words or so, total (maybe 70 unique words).
I found it works very well with songs, at least from the artists I've found in my favourite music styles. As long as the lyrics are clear, you'll hear the words from the chorus at least three or four times per song, and the verses often reinforce the meaning from the chorus (or vice versa). Add to that a good beat and an infectious melody line, and you're singing the song even when there's no music playing. It's an easy way to increase exposure to your target language, without having to focus on the language itself.
Babies pick up language like 95% by ambient language, not by people talking to them. They hear it and absorb...and then in puberty their brains myelinate and the language acquisition slows WAY down. But having it "on in the background" does seem like a really good way to learn language.
I just want to leave it here. I've noticed that many people wrote down their opinions in comment section simply to test their ability to use language. So as I do know😅
I had to play despacito in my middle school and playing it so much has burned the lyrics in my mind despite not really knowing much spanish... Now that i think about it, it was really funny we played that song in school considering what the lyrics are saying.
I'm guessing you watched on a phone, or through a TV or laptop, that is, with very small, tinny speakers. If you watch with full on hi-fi headphones, the music is much louder, so the mix has to be optimised for the thing that the music is going to be loudest through, otherwise it might sound great on a phone speaker but be like a Nolan movie once you put headphones on.
@@daysandwords Haha Nolan movie, I was listening to it on Jabra Headphones. I said it wrong actually, I meant that the music was discernable but just at the right level to not distract you from what you were saying. Great stuff! Thanks for the videos and your thoughts. Also, if you read this, ever thought of reviewing Linq? I'm thinking of giving it a go Edit - ...seeing as you can get tuition with the premium package too
Hej! First of all, I’ve just noticed the name change. I like it! Second, you bring up an interesting point about the correlation between exercise and memorisation; I’ve always said that if I go for a walk or a run prior to a study session (language or otherwise), that study session is likely to be a good one. Not only that, I retain more of that study session for longer. And that’s regardless of whether I listen to my target language while exercising (which I do when walking or lifting weights, but not when running - I need some heavy metal to get me through a run! 😂). I’m sure there’s some science behind it, but anecdotally at least, I agree with you. Maybe a topic for another video since you’re in exercise mode these days…
At 12:00 - So what is the more comprehensive video he says is coming out later? I am watching this for the first time 3 months after this video was posted.
If you're looking them up then that's an activity that's different to scuba diving... Scuba diving is continuous. But also, I would not look them up. If you feel you need to understand more, then I'd go and learn more words as an entirely separate thing.
Children learning their native language often demand to hear the same story, time and time and time again. Bad news for grandparents who have to watch Peppa Pig 20 times, but good news for people wondering how children learn their native language, and if they can copy how children learn.
I definitely took this path and it has helped immensely.
Haha I'm a good fun of pepper pig
I did that in Spanish last year and I'm doing it with german it's very helpful specially when keep repeating series
English speaker here. I was counting reps at the gym in French and found it made them go so much faster. Then I realized it was because I was skipping 6 and 7.
@@km3268 I found I started coughing and spluttering when counting in French past 7. My doctor said I had a huit allergy.
And little kids don’t talk right away and when they do it’s super simple and their pronunciation is not great. Obviously adults can learn better than kids but we have to take the pressure off ourselves to sound native and speak completely soon.
I started babysitting a seven year old recently, and she's so incredibly smart! I always marvel at her vocabulary, but then I remember when I was a little kid -- I read the same books over and over, every night (and my parents swear I never shut up 😂) The first night I babysat her, she got me to read her favourite book to her three times before she would go to sleep! Kids are so amazing, their brains are just simply incredible.
Yes, I do need to know why you call it scuba-diving.
I instantly got it and I love the term, it’s because you are FULLY immersed.
Listening and reading simultaneously has you fully immersed in the content.
I do this in my native language to fully immerse in content.
I’ve done it a little in language learning. Rocket Languages, Speakly, and Beelinguapp have this feature built it. It’s great.
I wish Pimsleur also had a transcript you could read while you listen. I also love Pimsleur, but it is audio only.
@NewportSolar has ALMOST got it, but it's more than that.
Humans are not supposed to be fully immersed in water. People who don't have special training can't survive down there for more than a few minutes... but with a SCUBA, they can.
I find it the same with language "scuba". I can't understand very much German, or Italian, or Icelandic... but I can actually follow along with the narrator when I've got the book in front of me, which in turn gives me practice listening to the language. I might not be able to understand very much, just like scuba diving doesn't improve your actual lung capacity for free diving... but it improves how used to being under water you are. My following along with a book in, say, Romanian, would not teach me Romanian (not before about 6000 hours anyway), but it would increase my capacity to actually separate one word for another when I heard Romanian. It's essentially a "cheat" of the natural condition that is complete non-comprehension, just as a SCUBA is a cheat of the natural condition of having no air when you're under water.
Ah. I never heard the scuba analogy before.
It makes sense.
Glad to share it with you. It's my own actually, so I'd obviously love it if people used it!
I'm a polyglot who's been teaching people utterly unconventional methods for picking up languages. In the old days I experimented with watching instructive videos trying to discover new techniques. To, I have to say, absolutely no avail. Now TH-cam forced me to watch this and it actually contains some original, useful, practical material. Wow! Tack så mycket!
I love the term ‘scuba diving’. I find audio while reading is very powerful in learning, and more importantly, stops you getting bad pronunciation habits from reading alone. With French I find that the written text encourages me to hear the subtle difference between words i thought were the same.
Agreed! It's incredibly helpful.
I’ve been studying Portuguese for 9 years now and I’ve visited Brasil 18 times but I still can’t read or converse and I have to translate everything into English to understand. I practice every day with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been practicing for 6 years now but I still can’t understand what she’s saying and I have to translate everything into English to understand. It’s very frustrating. I have classes, read books, use apps and watch movies and TH-cam videos. I practice every day with native speakers.
@@patfromamboyThis is unusual. You should have been fluent by now.
@@hiranom20 I thought I would be able to converse after a few months of studying because I usually learn quickly. My son can converse and he’s never studied Portuguese, he just picked it up after visiting Brasil with me several times. It must feel great to understand without translating everything but I can’t imagine how to make it happen. Thanks
@@patfromamboyman you may need to relax with translation tbh. I’ve been dating a Spanish speaker for 2 months and I’m already starting to be able to say basic things to her. Ive been saying the same few things over and over and over because sometimes it’s all I can say. However that makes me “feel it” and not just think it, and now those same phrases are building or getting changed into similar phrases about other topics
Repetition does magic. As a kid, I was obsessed with the Lion King, and I watched it probably hundreds of times. Sometimes literally multiple times a day. Now, at 25 years old, and without having seen the movie in maybe 3 years at least, I can still recite the whole movie with maybe 80% accuracy, and I'm sure that if I was watching it, I'd get more like 95% of the dialogue correct. Has this helped me any way in my life? No. No it hasn't. But it proves that the brain remembers what it's been fed the most. Good video, really good tips!
The question is: are you obsessed the same with Anki cards? 😅
If you’re trying to learn a language use Lion King in your target language since you already know it all in your native language.
😄Maybe I should watch The Lion King in Korean! 👍🏻👍🏻
I know all too well about repetition and memory, I have a severely autistic 26 year old son, he has watched some of his favorite movies 30 + times in the past years, he can recite Titanic, Cast Away and a bunch of other movies and TV shows word for word (most of the time when he's really happy). He's also a huge Beatles fan and can sing most of his favorites word for word (he's fairly non verbal unless prompted so this is huge). I also think music really helps with memory, I can sing songs I haven't heard for 30 years word for word....the brain is an amazing thing! 😊🧠
@@charlottesmom Music is great too! Hope all goes well with everyone!!
@@charlottesmomI can't remember what I ate for dinner and I just ate dinner. But I'll try this, maybe it works
The was exactly the kind of language learning advice I needed. Every other creator in this sphere never *quite* got the right fitting advice where I'd go "Ah, I can do what they did" and it feel natural. All these five points? They're EXACTLY fitting to the kind of stuff I'd want to do, have done in some form and am excited to do. Thank you for putting them in such good terms, Lamont!
I know this is an old video, but I just wanted to let you know that I regularly come back to it, mostly to remind myself to just keep doing these things. In my totally biased opinion it's one of your best videos, if not the best.
Oh wow, thanks. I've been trying to get away from this kind of content but maybe I should do more of it, so thank you.
Well, there's probably a limited number of methods you can share before you have to repeat yourself. But still, not many videos on language-tube go into details what to _actually_ do, beyond "oh, do a lot of immersion" or "spaced repetion saved my life" etc., so anything that's actionable and maybe not entirely obvious is gold. It doesn't even need to be unique.
1:36 "best guess as to how it's spelled"
*cries in Chinese*
lmao I do this tho, I just write my best guess at the pinyin and tones.
It is...still pretty hard tho
Check out the bopomofo writing system
The saturation one is so true. I'm currently learning italian and I've listened to the opera Don Giovanni so much I know it by heart. I can recite in my head the meaning in my native language, and that really helps me to get a clear view of how the grammar works, the vocabulary, etc. With english I had the same experience. I watched A Clockwork Orange so many times I also memorised it, and when I read the book in my native language, I could recite in my head the english translation. It's my favourite technique, and also it's probably the reason why I haven't had much luck with German, I haven't found something to obsess over lmao
As so many people have confirmed, repeated exposure to a one form or another of the target lang is very effective.
But, for anyone who considers also using A Clockwork Orange as their source, not having seen this film, let me warn you that you have to be comfortable with a great deal of savage violence including a notorious gang-rape scene.
This, and the other violent scenes, was the reason that Kubrick had the film withdrawn from UK cinemas for some years due to incidents of copy-cat violence.
The gang who do all this stuff use a private language, invented by author Anthony Burgess.
@@christophernation4793 yeah, I'm aware of all of that. Linguistically speaking I think A Clockwork Orange is very interesting, and even though it doesn't give me modern vocabulary it does give me an insight in English culture (as their made up language is a mix between Russian and Old English). It actually is my favourite movie ever, but I can understand how some people might not stomach it
Great video!
For those who are going to try the copycat technique , I found sketch shows very useful. They are basically just dialogues and the emotions there are usually very usefully exaggerated.
I love the idea of fragmenting your brain. I often listen to Arabic as I walk, and I agree it’s a useful learning tool. Great video.
One thing I came across by accident because I was just trying to memorize something without any goal in mind, works wonderfully when it comes to target language improvement is the following: I first memorized a poem and then learned the author's interpretation and background, and after that I was able to speak fluently about the poem in my target language. Memorizing is not only good for practicing your pronunciation everywhere, since you can just recite the poem, but you also have an interesting topic of conversation with another native speaker, in this case a poem.
Ooh that makes sense. Thank you!
This is very helpful. Thankfull
I decided to try scuba diving using Le Petit Prince since that was the only physical book I had that had a free corresponding French audio for me to listen to. My book is in English though so I’m listening to the French audio while following along in English. I’ve found that it’s helping me pick up new vocabulary and other interesting things are happening.
For example, I got into a silly argument with my French friend because I greeted him in English “good evening” he replied “goodnight” in English. I laughed cause I thought he was being stupid on purpose but he started getting into the semantics of when evening becomes night…..
But it’s actually a language/cultural issue. I didn’t know that in French, it’s totally acceptable to greet someone with “good night”. My French friend just didn’t realise that in English, goodnight is never used at the start of a conversation.
Reading the words “good evening” but hearing “Bonne nuit” made me realise that.
Really? I didn’t know that in English doesn’t exist good night 🥶
@@TheBrn12you only say it before you or the person youre talking to goes to bed, not as a greeting
You can also say it when YOU are going to bed. When anyone is going to bed, you can say it... but not as a greeting, and not as "goodbye".
Hi Lamont, I loved this one, too!
I have one small little tip for beginners who try to get their pronunciation sound right and be fluent: say you as a native English speaker try to learn German, Spanish, or Finnish - try to make a mock accent of them, a bit too over the top. How do native Germans, Mexicans, or Finns (or whatever your target language is) sound when they speak English. That is exactly the accent you should start from when learning these languages. Imitate, exaggerate, and have fun! (Needless to say: I don't recommend to be offensive, nobody likes that.)
Yeah I've actually got a really old video (5 years old I think now) in which I do a French accent the whole video.
@@daysandwords Love to hear that. Your Swedish pronunciation is fantastic, so no wonder - five years ago, you say!!! I've forgotten about it, if I ever did see - can you find it again?
For me my English pronunciation changed from passable to OK, when I was able to do an English accent in my native Swedish, some 20+ years after I first started to learn English. That is, from child to middleaged I had done little to get rid of my accent. Pronunciation is not that important but when you already are a fluent reader and listener, then you look for a new goal, I guess. Accents also have to do with fluency in that every language has made the pronunciation easier for fluent everyday speech, by using its tricks and treats.
Ha, you're never going to believe this... I just went back through my videos to find it, and it was 5 years ago... TOMORROW. So my 5 years guess was pretty dang close haha.
th-cam.com/video/LBEPEIdm5zw/w-d-xo.html
@@daysandwords Wow, that's a feat! Goes to show that language learning makes you smart and keeps you smart! Grattis och hurra för dej, Lamont! Och tusen tack också! ( that is: Congrats and hurray for you, Lamont. E mille grazie!)
@@daysandwordsThat's serendipity, if ever something was - am I right? (Serendipity is not a word in Swedish, regrettably.)
When my 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son came to America from Japan last year, my daughter could speak English well enough, but my son couldn’t. I enrolled them in school and put them in the ESL program. In addition to this, they spent lots of time with their cousins talking, watching TV, playing the game, and watching TH-cam videos. It was pure immersion. At first, they only spoke Japanese to one another. Then they eventually started to use both. Finally, they ended up just speaking to one another in English. My daughter improved to fluency very quickly since she already had a solid base, but my son. He learned to speak fluent English so quickly everybody was shocked. I know he’s a kid, but the process was incredible to watch. Back in Japan, they still speak to one another mostly in English.
You need to keep speaking Japanese to them then. You can forget your mother tongue if you don’t speak it long enough.
I have taken to “over cooking” audio using Pimsleur and Speakly.
They are perfect for this. Especially Pimsleur because I get to hear the target language over and over, with pauses for me to repeat, and explanations of everything.
Pimsleur is such a phenomenal tool.
I supplement with other things, but I am so impressed with Pimsleur.
It is BY FAR the best comprehensible input language tool on the market (that I’ve found so far).
I also like Pimsleur
I find Pimsleur to be a bit too slow, I prefer Michel Thomas far better.
@@GamingDad That’s interesting feedback. I have not used Michel Thomas, but my friend who recommended Pimsleur has used both and recommended Pimsleur.
Why do you prefer Michel Thomas?
PS: I’m a big fan of having more than one teaching tool. I will happily use both.
I like that Pimsleur has an app with flash cards, practice tests, etc. Pimsleur also has 50+ languages. I’m studying Persian with Pimsleur. I’ll have to check if Michel Thomas has Pimsleur. Many apps, books, audio programs do not.
@@GamingDad I just checked, Michel Thomas has 18 languages. Persian (what I am studying with Pimsleur) is not one of them.
Sadly they don't have that many languages, what I like about Michel Thomas vs Pimsleur is that with Pimsleur it feels less of a conversation, with Michel Thomas the teacher is having a conversation WITH you. That and the speed of how the language is build up feels faster too. I can't really explain it better than that.
Once again, Lamont busts out some real nuggets of language learning advice that I've never heard ANYWHERE before, and I've watched a lot of videos about language learning!
I've gotten really into "scuba diving" lately thanks to you, and I've also been repeating simple stories dozens of times in a language that I'm a beginner in (Amharic). That helped a ton.
Before that, I would only read each story three or four times before moving on, and my Amharic sessions always felt sooo hard, so sometimes I just wouldn't do them. Now I can enjoy the stories because I understand them really well, and I see myself improving every day. Gonna have to try scratching next!
Do you have any tips on how to learn Amharic yourself ? I want to learn it but the only resource I came across was Appleyard's Colloquial Amharic. Thank you in advance 😊
@NomadicVegan
dij u hav uh huzbind frum EethIyopiyuh ; ) ؟!?
@@rezagrans1296 No, my husband is from Australia. I want to learn Amharic just because I love Ethiopia.
@@PaleoalexPicturesLtd I've tried to reply to you several times, but the reply keeps not getting posted, I guess because it's too long. I will try dividing it up into a few parts:
Having tried a number of different resources, this is what worked best for me:
Step 1: Learn the fidel writing system
Step 2: Learn some basic vocab and grammar (just a little bit)
Step 3: Read and listen to children's stories of gradually increasing difficulty. Eventually, I plan to work my way up to books written for adults, but I've got a ways to go. (cont'd)
@NomadicVegan - are you trying to include links or anything? TH-cam will filter that too.
BTW thank you for going out of your way to help people!
Just want to say i'm always suprised on how much new information your videos bring to the table in the Language learning sphere :)
@swerv7728
yes "Days and Words" iz indeed uh wizurd🕵🏻🙏🏻👏🏻 in hiz own riyt ; ) thank u misTur, and wut paart uv (thu u.K.) dij u liv in؟ ; )
I find that even with character-based languages, reading along in a written/printed book with the audiobook playing is still a super helpful exercise!
Oh yeah, it definitely would be, you just can't do it until you know some of the characters.
To Lamont’s point about exercising, while, consuming audio material, it’s actually beneficial for memory because of the chemical release you get during exercise actually boosts your retention for most people. Great video as always.
I love your content! Not only do you have great advice, but the way you deliver the information is so easy (& quick) to digest. On top of that though, you give me something even more rare than that, which is an example of someone passionate about their language learning! Watching your videos never fails to reignite my passion for my target language & also to reframe how I'm approaching learning. You're an absolute gem, thanks mate!
Now I want to use lingopie to learn Japanese. And make a TH-cam channel called days of Japanese and Portuguese.
I listened to the audiobook of Heart of a Dog in Russian probably at least 10 times while delivering pizza some years ago. I got really sick of it eventually but I think it was good for my Russian abilities.
oh the last one was so powerful. I love the last method so much.
Estos son buenísimos consejos!
I love to listen to videos or music en Español while out for my daily walk, cleaning the house, or doing the laundry. I also make a habit of turning on los subtitulos for videos so that I can read along with the spoken word for a more immersive experience, which really helps when the accent is a bit thicker or the speaker talks faster than I am accustomed to. There are a few Spanish lecturers & músicos that I enjoy the content of, so I tend to replay my favourites to fully absorb everything about them. I also like to challenge my brain by translating street signs & billboards while driving. (I may or may not sing along with the latino music when I am by myself in the car. 😂🤫)
Muchas gracias, señor!
PS: Glad to know that I am not the only one who counts out my reps/ steps in a second language. 😂
I was skeptical about audio books while running because I tried it in the past and it was too exhausting mentally but I tried it with some random Korean TH-cam videos last night and it worked quite well. It’s above my level so if I had attempted to watch it without multi tasking I’d get super bored unless it had subtitles or something. I think for me the key was that I didn’t have to stay 100% focused on the content. I think there’s plenty of stuff I could listen to where I’m satisfied if I only get the gist of what I’m listening to. Some books I might not be satisfied as I want to understand as much as possible and I think that was what led to problems before. If it is a really intense workout though maybe music in the target language is ok too.
Yea same here
That's it. I sometimes have no idea what's happening in the book because I'm not listening... other times I don't remember the last 5km of run because I was so interested in listening.
I find I have to take breaks from audio material, even if it had been working before. Like you, I can't quite listen to language materials at the gym unless it's music because I need music for motivation. But the gym isn't too far from my home and I can listen to podcasts to and from. And when I can't, I let myself get pumped up for the gym and return to it after a break.
I think your copycat technique might help me a lot. I always try to do shadowing, but only make it about 30 seconds before I get stressed trying to keep up.
You're looking more fit already! And thanks a lot for the ideas in this video, it really helped me conceptualize some things!
Good tips. Very impressed by your Swedish pronounciation. English speakers tend to struggle a lot with that part but you are doing very good.
Been watching a lot of How-To language acquisition Videos but this is very original and useful.
Thank you for saying so!
@@daysandwords and thanks a lot btw. (merci beaucoup) I sometimes take free-info-videos for granted.😅
These are amazing tips! Merci beaucoup d'avoir partagé cela avec nous !
Excellent advise, thanks. I'm learning Russian.
Where is this cool guy from? I am looking for an Englishman to practice my listening skills on the British material. Have I bumped into the one?
"I come from a land down under!"
@daysandwords I guess it is almost the same in terms of accent. Your cool channel will do. Thank you, brother.
To a non-native English speaking ear, yes, they are similar.
But to us Aussies/Brits (British people) - no, they're totally different.
Excellent! I'm also interested in Swedish so you got my attention immediately. Tack så mycket!
Perfect excuse to watch “Clark” 50 times
Couldn't get into that show myself but sure, if it works for you to learn Swedish, go ahead!
Oh my goodness, you suggest hitting the bell yet clarify that no one wants push notifications (even though your videos are amazing). Wonderful, same as the rest of the video. 👍
Don’t hate the player hate the game… hate recommendations algorithm advertising attention companies who have the only goal to make you spend as much time as possible on the platform 😂
keep doing what your doing brother
No twitter, no x, stupid name. My favorite part of this video!❤
Som en person från Sverige det är väldigt roligt att se folk lära sig det
One of my favorite TH-camrs 👌🏻.
My work commute is 20 minutes. Chapter 1 of Tom Sawyer in my TL is 20 minutes. I listen going to work and coming home. I also have a 70 audio of Sherlock Holmes i listen to daily in the background. I am amazed how i am slowly picking up things in the audio when those two are not my focus. I figure i also get cadence and my brain starts to figure out individual words... and remember, kids put the wiggles, my little pony or whatever they watch, on repeat over and over. Sure mum and dad are sick of it but the kids are not.... pepper pig is a good example 😁
Hello Days and Words :D Tack så mycket for your videos! Jag gillar dem mycket! Kiitos, tack, gracias!
The idea of scratching has never crossed my mind. Now I really want to try it with my chinese, because have found some astonishing documentaries on Chinese history recently.
Great video, gracias
@Lamond Curiously, I've been utilising your methodology for fluency even though I've never stopped and systematically analysed it, as I've been using those five steps intuitively
Another set of useful tips, with the psychology of language learning in focus.
Thanks for all these tips. Really inspiring and exciting because I can see the path to learning Arabic now.
Late last year I took your advice about watching a short movie 50x until you can almost understand it. I have done the challenge with 3 different films so far just playing it in the background while I work and I have noticed that I can recognize words a lot more accurately now in Spanish where as before it sounded jumbled up.
I plan to make time this go round to learn the script of the short film I’m watching so that I can better follow along. It also keeps be actively doing something. I’m also listening to other audio programs and using the mango course app. If I were to have done 2hrs of solid study each day over the last 12mos I would for sure know a ton and be well on my way to fluency, if not being fluent.
Such great advice! I am much older than you, but I truly get inspired by your messages so Thank you! :)
Nice video! Very helpful. And I just have to say, your swedish pronunciation is great💪
I'm glad you've find a great new name for the channel!
It's my experience too that I understand more Japanese when I listen to something while doing chores. Maybe it's because in this case Japanese is the more exciting thing even if I can't understand everything. But just sitting and watching/listening something I can't fully comprehend is boring and frustrating.
I've recently been listing to Japanese podcasts while I cook breakfast and it's a game changer, I feel like I get more out of it and it's not as boring as just sitting and listening.
When doing something the subconscious mind is free to learn anything. It is science based.
The mind resist anything new, even a new language.
Thanks for explaining the scratching! It works!
I’ll try to read the same novel several times! Thank you for making this one
Brilliant video with brilliantly explained examples. I like the dead pan joke deliveries too.
I’m learning Arabic and I’ve unknowingly been doing some scratching and scuba diving.
I won’t be doing the Puzzle brain thing because with my past experiences it has adversely affected my attention span and have completely avoided multi-tasking since but that’s me.
I need to try Copycat and conscious Eatreps. Thanks alot!
You really give a longwinded explanation for a concept that could be introduced in half the time and words 😮
I'm happy to hear your summary of the concept in half the words here in the comments.
As usual, brilliant advice! I do some of these already but I think I could incorporate some of the others. 😁
Thanks, Stephanie!
Thank you for this video. These tips were quire insightful and I believe they (especially the puzzle brain and repetition approaches) will be extremely useful. I do have a couple of questions though and if you'd answer them I'd be grateful.
1. The example you used is Swedish, which is Indo-European and Germanic and written in the Latin alphabet, like your native language English. What tips would you recommend for a language that's completely different from your own?
2. What tips would you recommend when you have difficulties finding material to find audiobooks, movies, or podcasts for?
For both of these questions, I have some languages I speak conversationally and wish to improve but have a hard time finding materials for (Kalmyk, Guarani, Livonian) so I usually have to learn from dictionaries and by chatting with online friends who are natives.
Excellent activities, thank you my friend.❤
Love the new name. I haven't looked in for a while, and despite its flaws, I'm on day 890 of Duo, and I dought if I could hold a conversation. So I'm looking at Lingo Pie for a path to fluency. Thanks.
wow! can you share your progress with me? i’m still on day 11 but i need reassurance, does duolingo work and is it worth it?
@idioting Duoling's come a long way since it was first recommended to me for relearning Spanish in 2017 (I have almost 210k XP in the app). It helps with things like learning vocabulary & listening to different pronunciations/ accents for words. Reading & listening comprehension get more challenging the further you get into the units. I still struggle with remembering the different tenses for certain verbs, though. I think that will really only come with being forced to converse in the language.
Like any tool, it can only do so much. The tips in this video are great to further your language learning journey. Mucha suerte!
@@sweetiespoon5150 thank you for your response!
i’m fluent in two languages, in other words, bilingual but i’ve always loved russian, i heard that there are 6 different cases in the russian language and it’s a harder language in general, but i’m not one to give up! and yes, i agree. memorization is the most difficult thing, i personally don’t overwork myself and do a lesson a day to memorize words, even if it takes a longer time to become fluent.
i’m extremely happy for you and i have other questions, do you find yourself understanding spanish movies, songs or people talking? and how long did it take you to get to your level? i admire your consistency!
@idioting Bilingual is pretty awesome. So cool that you are wanting to learn a 3rd language. Yes, I have heard that Russian is pretty tricky to learn, but I don't know more than a few words myself. LOL
I first took classes when I was in middle school & up until I graduated from High school in 1995 (2 different maestros). I picked it back up again in 2016 after chatting w/ some amigos via social media (2 live in Spain & one lives in Argentina).... So... I comprehend the written word the best & listening (w/o subtitles) second. Conversional is where I am weakest, but it depends on the context. I have no clue what my fluency is at the moment, but it is lightyears from where I was in 2016. I do have a small opportunity here & there @ my job to converse in Spanglish w/ some clients, which is fun!
And thank you, my goal is to see España someday, hopefully in the next 4 years.
@@sweetiespoon5150 wow!!
you’ve given me a lot of hope for my learning, hearing about your communication and experience with your friends and coworkers, communication and interaction is key to fluency and comfort in a language! and i see some “spanglish” in your paragraph here and there haha! i also mix my home language with english.
good luck with your goal, i’m sure you’ll be able to travel one day and it was nice interacting with you :)
I've been watching Kung Fu panda 3 and I'm trying to watch it 50 times like you did with into the spiderverse and I've picked up so much!!! I think I'm at 30 times or so. I'm really enjoying this method at the moment!
Awesome to hear! Man that film is so visually stunning.
I also do not like to count to six outloud in Norwegian in public.
Wow! Great language learning content - real world and obviously your material comes from experience and this is all wheat! Definitely like'd and sub'd!
Such great advice, thank you for sharing.
I like setting some of my electronics and some apps in the target languages. For example my phone and ps5/4 are in Türkçe, laptop 💻 is in Kiswahili. Although with sign language I try to interpret videos with the signs that I’ve learn with lots of miming.
You really had me jumping at the beginning!
I thought: Did he just say the swedish "tjena"?! It was even spelled like that in the subtitles, but there is a different language right after. Maybe it's a coincidence? But no, you're actually teaching yourself it! Spännande, spännande! Lycka till och ha så kul! 😊 bra video förresten! Massa bra knep som jag kan använda mig av när jag ska lära mig japanska! Tack ska du ha~
Yeah Swedish has been my main language, on and off for about 7 years now. Call it 4 years of proper study, so yeah, I can switch to thinking in Swedish without noticing... but "tjena chicos" is how I open all my videos.
I scuba dive all the time! its really helpful
Love your videos. Thank you!
Fantastic video. All these tricks seem really workable to me. First time I've seen your channel -- subscribed. 😊
Thank you!
Good energy!
5:54 I listen to a radio station in my target language while going about my day as they have an app and I can exit the app while still getting audio! I always need noise anyway lol
The song that plays during the Scuba Diving section is so pretty, does anyone know what it is? Shazam isn't picking it up since there's mostly talking while it plays.
On the topic, if anyone is trying to learn Korean most of the Netflix produced Korean Dramas have Korean closed captions so it's very helpful to watch the episode in English so you know what they're saying, then watch it again with Korean captions on so you hear and read the dialogue at the same time. It's entertaining and repeatable so it applies to like 3 of the different categories he talks about in this video.
I doubt Shazam would pick it up anyway, since it's stock music. I'll try to find it tomorrow.
For lingopie, the onetime fee of 199 would be the way to go as it includes all languages.
Interesting never heard of these approaches excellent.
This language stuff is somewhat complicated. I am fluent and comfortable speaking in Swedish, but your pronunciation is better than mine.
Go for it.
Cheers for that. I'm comfortable once I get warmed up but it can take about 10 minutes.
couldn't agree more! that's basically what i do with languages, plus tons of reading and sometimes output exercises - including with real people, with Google translate, with Chat GPT, and just on my own like speaking to myself or writing stuff i can in the language. the output activities are especially useful for finding gaps in my language to later pay more attention to when working with input.
I had been planning to scuba dive in French for months and finally started a few days ago. And now I have a phrase for it. For about two years, I've been reading books outloud in French but have known there are words I've been pronouncing wrong, so I decided to go with this for a while. Im discovering that The Wheel of Time has a much more advanced vocabulary than The Ranger's Apprentice. More so than originally assumed
J'étais un étudiant d'échange pendant dix mois en Belgique il y a douze ans donc je connais la langue plus ou moins déjà
Edit: I also have the Wheel of Time in English in both physical and audiobook form and have been listening to each section I do in French in English first as a refresher so I at least know that when I come across two pages with a lot of unknown words it's because Robert Jordan is talking about architecture again. 4 chapters in and I'm already remembering how much I hate it when any character interacts with another character, too
That’s a hell of an investment. I’m sticking to Harry Potter! But more manageable. I gave up at about eight books in with wheel of time as I started reading as it was originally being published and the suspense broke me. Too traumatic to go back and start again.
That last activity I did with the Polish For Dummies audio cd. Gotta say it works. 👍
I speak 5 languages English ( nation I was raised ), French ( Dad ), Italian ( school/college/uni ), Polish ( mom ) and Korean ( work & fluent within 2 years ) and started to learn Japanese about 3 weeks ago due to clients. Before I learn a language I actually listen to and sing catchy kids songs and use it as a base to learn the language,so if you see some random guy humming a catchy kids song don't be too alarmed.
I can actually sing baby shark in 12 languages but when doing it in Arabic or Norwegian it can be really poor, it's something I did for my child and regardless what language it's in she loves it.
Do you look up words while scuba diving or take notes? And do you also use traditional language learning books to learn grammar rules?
Definitely not whilst scuba diving. The point there is to let the audio guide you through the words you're reading.
I don't think I've ever used a traditional language book to learn anything to be honest.
Thank you so much! Your channel got me back into learning Spanish :)@@daysandwords
... "because it's a stupid name now on top of everything else." lolol
Thanks
5:40 It's "sex" in Latin too 😂
Great video 🙌
Thank you!
Just curious: why do you learn Swedish, is it just because you like the language or perhaps you plan to move to Sweden?
There's the Jesus film in several languages - I'm "over cooking" the Gospel of Luke in my target language (Hebrew), going from just 'Shalom' to understanding just about everything.
Do you think eatrep would work the same way with stuff like songs,, or would it be more geared towards specifically media with a story arc like books or movies?
I think it would work GREAT for songs but there's generally not as much material there to learn. I mean maybe hiphop, if you could look up the lyrics and learn them all then sure, but otherwise songs only contain about 200 words or so, total (maybe 70 unique words).
I found it works very well with songs, at least from the artists I've found in my favourite music styles. As long as the lyrics are clear, you'll hear the words from the chorus at least three or four times per song, and the verses often reinforce the meaning from the chorus (or vice versa). Add to that a good beat and an infectious melody line, and you're singing the song even when there's no music playing.
It's an easy way to increase exposure to your target language, without having to focus on the language itself.
Babies pick up language like 95% by ambient language, not by people talking to them. They hear it and absorb...and then in puberty their brains myelinate and the language acquisition slows WAY down. But having it "on in the background" does seem like a really good way to learn language.
I just want to leave it here. I've noticed that many people wrote down their opinions in comment section simply to test their ability to use language. So as I do know😅
I had to play despacito in my middle school and playing it so much has burned the lyrics in my mind despite not really knowing much spanish... Now that i think about it, it was really funny we played that song in school considering what the lyrics are saying.
like the editing and the 'almost' perceptable background music
I'm guessing you watched on a phone, or through a TV or laptop, that is, with very small, tinny speakers. If you watch with full on hi-fi headphones, the music is much louder, so the mix has to be optimised for the thing that the music is going to be loudest through, otherwise it might sound great on a phone speaker but be like a Nolan movie once you put headphones on.
@@daysandwords Haha Nolan movie, I was listening to it on Jabra Headphones. I said it wrong actually, I meant that the music was discernable but just at the right level to not distract you from what you were saying. Great stuff! Thanks for the videos and your thoughts. Also, if you read this, ever thought of reviewing Linq? I'm thinking of giving it a go
Edit - ...seeing as you can get tuition with the premium package too
Hej!
First of all, I’ve just noticed the name change. I like it!
Second, you bring up an interesting point about the correlation between exercise and memorisation; I’ve always said that if I go for a walk or a run prior to a study session (language or otherwise), that study session is likely to be a good one. Not only that, I retain more of that study session for longer. And that’s regardless of whether I listen to my target language while exercising (which I do when walking or lifting weights, but not when running - I need some heavy metal to get me through a run! 😂).
I’m sure there’s some science behind it, but anecdotally at least, I agree with you.
Maybe a topic for another video since you’re in exercise mode these days…
Wow this is great
Thanks.
Some Bible apps will read the text to you and you can follow along with the text.
Days and Words with another banger video 🔥🔥
"I call it scuba diving"
Instructions unclear, ended up duct taping the book to my face and now I can't see out of the bathtub 🤣
Superb tips.
So now you’re back to Swedish have you got any plans to visit Sweden at some point?
At 12:00 - So what is the more comprehensive video he says is coming out later?
I am watching this for the first time 3 months after this video was posted.
Speaking of the "scuba diving", when you come across some new words, would you rather pause the audio and look them up or just keep going?
If you're looking them up then that's an activity that's different to scuba diving... Scuba diving is continuous.
But also, I would not look them up. If you feel you need to understand more, then I'd go and learn more words as an entirely separate thing.