I agree with you to a point. You should keep practicing the basics (speaking, listening, writing and reading them) but you should also keep reading and learning more and more words even if you can't say them all. Just being able to recognize them when you read them or when someone says them is enough and you can respond in your own way with words that you do know how to say well.
Great video, you made some really good points. I particularly like your point about multilingual people who can learn a new language quicker than someone else and this being due to the training which they have previously been through to reach a certain level of automaticity in that language.
You made some very good point with the 'automatics' thing. But to be honest, I think in all languages I know, completely unconsciously. And since every language changes somehow my attitude, my 'inner voice' is kind of unpredictable. And unlike me, my thoughts have flawless accents! :D Great videos, I'm starting to learn Czech this year. :)
Thank you for your insight. Speaking of thinking in a language, I totally agree with you on that we talk without thinking. I'm reading "Power of Habit" (witch highly recommend, btw) and according to the book, the habit(automatic actions, decisions, thoughts and emotions) part of the brain works very independently from thoughtful(remembering and reasoning) part. Based on my experience of language learning, I'm convinced that language skills are meter of habits(good or bad), not thought process.
Wow! You're video's are so helpful! You really are a great teacher, Anthony! I have recently been studying all of your conversational connectors that you put on your website and it has made a world of difference for me in my Czech. Now, If I am not quite sure how to answer a question in Czech, I can first use a connector and the rest then become easier! Thanks again! :)
man, i am trying to learn german and i find it tough.. i somehow knew that i dint have to master 1000s of words but never thought thru.. the way u explained it gives me hope.. thanks for taking the time to explain! may all ur dreams come true this year, every year!
Anthony is correct. Medically, its called neuroplasticity. The Pimsleur method practices this. Useful phrases, over and over. Think about it...its much easier to learn a language in the native country. You are around it all the time. You hear and are forced to speak and eventually think in that language. In Africa, there are tribes with IQs in the 70's that speak 4 dialects. Learning a language is difficult and all of these resources (Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, etc.) like to promise quick results. Yes, to learn super basic phrases of course. People want to express their feelings and ideas in different tenses, much difficult.
A really interesting video!! I completely agree with your advices. It's true that this idea of thinking in the other language is very popular and I must admit that I've also used this expression. But yeah, what you say about automaticity makes a lot of sense. You nailed it! Thank you for this great explanation!
Thank you very much, you informed me of alot of things that I wasn't aware of & was struggling! Thanks to this video you actually inspired me to go back & study every single words on these books that I bought & make progress, thank you thank you thank you thank you! :D :D :D
Thank you for that. Your advice is excellent. I speak several languages to various levels. I know what it's like to know just a little of a language, and then be faced with a reality situation and you can't think of anything at all to say. So I always try to have a few things I've rehearsed so many times that I can guarantee I'll always be able to say them: such things as self-introductions or phrases to keep a conversation going ("What's that?"). I've now got 3 months to learn some Czech for the holidays, so Prominte, I must get on.
@ViktorColling Most recently I have been spending a lot of time with Russian, because I now have a lot or Russian friends. I still have my other languages bubbling in the background - and spend time on most days. The one language I have been neglecting is Vietnamese. When my schedule opens up later in the summer I hope to spend a lot more time on it. There are many Vietnamese speakers where I live, and I think it is respectful to learn a little of their language.
Oh thats true!!! We were in Italy (2 weeks)and I learned a bit to tide us over. A lady asked did we speak spanish (she was lost)and I have been learning it for about 2 years but never speak it to anyone , anyway I answered her in Spanish and told her where the shop was so she could get proper directions and I didnt even have to think about what to say. It was like magic. We had been using my very basic italian for those two weeks and so when she asked for spanish it was like turning the tap on full flow instead of dripping out the basic italian ,I could pour out the spanish.
Hi Anthony - I never really understood what 'thinking in another language' meant so I really like your take on it. It makes a lot of sense. One point of course - if one wants to achieve what you call 'automaticity' even with a small vocabulary one needs to practice practice practice speaking the language, ideally with a native speaker. Only that way will one get to 'own' the words and phrases they know. Thanks for the video.
Sometimes it's wonderful the fact you are actually thinkin in the foreign language istead of your native one. It makes you feel you have "more confidence in it"
Good video. It can be very hard to tell what's really going on in the brain, and perhaps there are varied experiences, but I have the sense that I've learned to separate words from there meanings-something I couldn't do as a monolinigual. I've found myself "thinking" in Italian, Spanish, Russian, Albanian etc. in response to something I'd heard or read. I can't speak any of these languages (studying RU) but I have "automaticity" with the rew dozen words I know, rarely translating mentally.
Thanks for this. One quibble, you may have your mike level set too high. Occasionally in the video when you emphasize a word the audio is clipped i.e. distorted, as the volume level of your speech exceeds the limit of what your microphone can register (at its current setting). A way around this problem is to use recording software with auto level/peak control or one that shows a clear input level meter on screen so you can see when your vocal signal is too hot (all red bars).
@heloizyjhenifer You make some great points, and I agree with you completely. The video is only talking about active vocabulary, which needs to be automatized. Passive vocabulary is always much much larger. As I mentioned in the video, my Czech passive vocabulary is tens of thousands of words, but my automatized active vocabulary is somewhere around 2000 words. Several earlier videos on my channel talk about increasing passive vocabulary.
I've been learning japanese on my own for 2 and half months excessively and have been looking for the best advice since and have taking a liking to a technic I've come up with "eliminating the english" technic (where you mindlessly listen to your old well know dailogues and start listening to the words as if you understood them... It took me a few weeks of practice... but its working out for me pretty well... as I listne to my new dailogue that I've hadn't studied yet....... to be continued.....
Thank you so much for your lessons, especially the Czech ones, as I'm learning that language and have found your videos really useful. Just curious though if you know of a list of words similar to the "basic english" example you gave here but for Czech - the core vocabulary as you say?
Thanks! Funny because when i learned french..I never translated in my head..but with spanish I do a lot...although I've lost my french....it comes back when spoken to me and i still dont have to translate...
@FluentCzech Thank you for the reply. Motivation is the key to language learning, therefore combating frustration by any means is needed for many people :). In that respect you're doing a good job and making good videos, take care and keep it up.
@boabysands123 Thank you. I just listened to the video, and you are right. I will be more careful with the recording levels from now on. Sorry about that.
Спасибо! Хорошое видео, я никогда думал об этом точно как ты объяснил, но я совсем согласен с тобой. You hit the nail right on the head. I was unaware that you speak French to some degree as well. What foreign languages do you know besides Czech? (and I'm talking about getting by in the country and making friends, not perfection)
It a really good technic... Really hard to get used to though... I find I have to learn it with english first and then remove the english out of the word a few days later... I probable got over 100 words down like this... it takes alot of time, work and focus.. But man does it work.. lol
Fine but what scares me, if anything does, is when I don't understand nearly everything I'm hearing in the language I'm learning. Therefore, acquiring massive vocabulary is necessary and it doesn't hurt my speaking automatisms, which are a separate thing anyway. As a sidenote, my second language is currently my best language, so I'm speaking from experience too :). I don't think what applies to simple English applies to every language. English is *often* used between non natives, special case.
@GreenKab My progress in Russian is going quite well. It is a lovely language. In fact, I wish I had learned Russian first. Doing Czech as my first Slavic language was a nightmare. The other way around than I did it would have been more sensible.
Well, I'm not a expert but I'll share my expirience with english... I think phonetics is also involved. I mean, the easier you brain pocesses the sounds the easier you will understand and the easier you will asociate sounds with meaning. That is to me, the main explanation to the problem of translating in your head when listening to a foreign language.
+SmootherCuber If you look up 'common word list' for your target language there's usually somewhere online with the 5000 or so 'core' words, ranked by frequency too. I was able to get them for Russian recently in Excel files which helped target what/where I went next in vocab.
Very nice video! I've always been confused by what people meant by thinking or dreaming in a language! >~_< This video really explains it well. I find if I 'think out loud' in the target language. it helps me focus on the target language aussi.. but i'm only starting.. quelle merde!!
Part 2..... and find that I can mindlessly understand the words I know in new dailogue and I'm still early in the game.... I dont know if this will help anyone whom reads it and sorry for the poor english I'm running out the door in five minutes... and this is my first language I'm learning... My grammar might be off but... kimi wa Kyoo wa ii iru yo (you have a nice day) off the top of my head and not the dailogue..
SmootherCuber You will have achieved automaticity--when your native language, I guess English, flows just like your foreign one; when it flows like English.
Great!!! It's the same with doing videos--and you seem to have experience in that. Yes, Swahili is coming much easier for me, now that I know Portuguese. It makes me very angry that they teach us we're basically--more or less--the effective center of the universe, and: "You don't really need a foreign language," not offering ANY until at least junior high school!!! $#@@%!!!
"There's no point in learning the various parts of a hover craft when you can't say, 'No thank you, I'm not hungry.'"
Ahahaha that's hilarious! 😄
I really like your videos. You give really clear, logical, practical advise. And you're empathetic. It's nice.
I agree with you to a point. You should keep practicing the basics (speaking, listening, writing and reading them) but you should also keep reading and learning more and more words even if you can't say them all. Just being able to recognize them when you read them or when someone says them is enough and you can respond in your own way with words that you do know how to say well.
Thank you for your words of advice. I am struggling now with language learning and appreciate your thoughts.
Great video, you made some really good points. I particularly like your point about multilingual people who can learn a new language quicker than someone else and this being due to the training which they have previously been through to reach a certain level of automaticity in that language.
You made some very good point with the 'automatics' thing. But to be honest, I think in all languages I know, completely unconsciously. And since every language changes somehow my attitude, my 'inner voice' is kind of unpredictable. And unlike me, my thoughts have flawless accents! :D Great videos, I'm starting to learn Czech this year. :)
Thank you for your insight. Speaking of thinking in a language, I totally agree with you on that we talk without thinking. I'm reading "Power of Habit" (witch highly recommend, btw) and according to the book, the habit(automatic actions, decisions, thoughts and emotions) part of the brain works very independently from thoughtful(remembering and reasoning) part. Based on my experience of language learning, I'm convinced that language skills are meter of habits(good or bad), not thought process.
Wow! You're video's are so helpful! You really are a great teacher, Anthony! I have recently been studying all of your conversational connectors that you put on your website and it has made a world of difference for me in my Czech. Now, If I am not quite sure how to answer a question in Czech, I can first use a connector and the rest then become easier! Thanks again! :)
man, i am trying to learn german and i find it tough.. i somehow knew that i dint have to master 1000s of words but never thought thru.. the way u explained it gives me hope.. thanks for taking the time to explain! may all ur dreams come true this year, every year!
Anthony is correct. Medically, its called neuroplasticity. The Pimsleur method practices this. Useful phrases, over and over. Think about it...its much easier to learn a language in the native country. You are around it all the time. You hear and are forced to speak and eventually think in that language. In Africa, there are tribes with IQs in the 70's that speak 4 dialects. Learning a language is difficult and all of these resources (Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, etc.) like to promise quick results. Yes, to learn super basic phrases of course. People want to express their feelings and ideas in different tenses, much difficult.
automaticity! thank you so much for this particular video! also, i love your topics as well as your delivery. so helpful
it's about time you made a new video!
and as usual ... a really great video!!
A really interesting video!! I completely agree with your advices. It's true that this idea of thinking in the other language is very popular and I must admit that I've also used this expression. But yeah, what you say about automaticity makes a lot of sense. You nailed it! Thank you for this great explanation!
An amazing insigh, and without doubt the crux of the problem when it comes to speaking fluently. Thanks so much for your priceless advice
Thank you very much, you informed me of alot of things that I wasn't aware of & was struggling! Thanks to this video you actually inspired me to go back & study every single words on these books that I bought & make progress, thank you thank you thank you thank you! :D :D :D
Thank you for that. Your advice is excellent. I speak several languages to various levels. I know what it's like to know just a little of a language, and then be faced with a reality situation and you can't think of anything at all to say. So I always try to have a few things I've rehearsed so many times that I can guarantee I'll always be able to say them: such things as self-introductions or phrases to keep a conversation going ("What's that?"). I've now got 3 months to learn some Czech for the holidays, so Prominte, I must get on.
@ViktorColling Most recently I have been spending a lot of time with Russian, because I now have a lot or Russian friends. I still have my other languages bubbling in the background - and spend time on most days. The one language I have been neglecting is Vietnamese. When my schedule opens up later in the summer I hope to spend a lot more time on it. There are many Vietnamese speakers where I live, and I think it is respectful to learn a little of their language.
Oh thats true!!! We were in Italy (2 weeks)and I learned a bit to tide us over. A lady asked did we speak spanish (she was lost)and I have been learning it for about 2 years but never speak it to anyone , anyway I answered her in Spanish and told her where the shop was so she could get proper directions and I didnt even have to think about what to say. It was like magic. We had been using my very basic italian for those two weeks and so when she asked for spanish it was like turning the tap on full flow instead of dripping out the basic italian ,I could pour out the spanish.
Hi Anthony - I never really understood what 'thinking in another language' meant so I really like your take on it. It makes a lot of sense. One point of course - if one wants to achieve what you call 'automaticity' even with a small vocabulary one needs to practice practice practice speaking the language, ideally with a native speaker. Only that way will one get to 'own' the words and phrases they know. Thanks for the video.
Sometimes it's wonderful the fact you are actually thinkin in the foreign language istead of your native one. It makes you feel you have "more confidence in it"
Excellent advice, thank you.
Good video. It can be very hard to tell what's really going on in the brain, and perhaps there are varied experiences, but I have the sense that I've learned to separate words from there meanings-something I couldn't do as a monolinigual. I've found myself "thinking" in Italian, Spanish, Russian, Albanian etc. in response to something I'd heard or read. I can't speak any of these languages (studying RU) but I have "automaticity" with the rew dozen words I know, rarely translating mentally.
Thanks for this. One quibble, you may have your mike level set too high. Occasionally in the video when you emphasize a word the audio is clipped i.e. distorted, as the volume level of your speech exceeds the limit of what your microphone can register (at its current setting). A way around this problem is to use recording software with auto level/peak control or one that shows a clear input level meter on screen so you can see when your vocal signal is too hot (all red bars).
@heloizyjhenifer You make some great points, and I agree with you completely. The video is only talking about active vocabulary, which needs to be automatized. Passive vocabulary is always much much larger. As I mentioned in the video, my Czech passive vocabulary is tens of thousands of words, but my automatized active vocabulary is somewhere around 2000 words. Several earlier videos on my channel talk about increasing passive vocabulary.
I've been learning japanese on my own for 2 and half months excessively and have been looking for the best advice since and have taking a liking to a technic I've come up with "eliminating the english" technic (where you mindlessly listen to your old well know dailogues and start listening to the words as if you understood them... It took me a few weeks of practice... but its working out for me pretty well... as I listne to my new dailogue that I've hadn't studied yet....... to be continued.....
Thank you so much for your lessons, especially the Czech ones, as I'm learning that language and have found your videos really useful. Just curious though if you know of a list of words similar to the "basic english" example you gave here but for Czech - the core vocabulary as you say?
This makes so much sense. I wish I understood it years and years ago. Thank you!
Thanks! Funny because when i learned french..I never translated in my head..but with spanish I do a lot...although I've lost my french....it comes back when spoken to me and i still dont have to translate...
yeah, we are improveing day by days.
good talked!
@FluentCzech Thank you for the reply. Motivation is the key to language learning, therefore combating frustration by any means is needed for many people :). In that respect you're doing a good job and making good videos, take care and keep it up.
Futhermore, the way we learn a new language may has its influence, I mean, using grammar book, dictionaries, translating every single word we see...
@boabysands123 Thank you. I just listened to the video, and you are right. I will be more careful with the recording levels from now on. Sorry about that.
Спасибо! Хорошое видео, я никогда думал об этом точно как ты объяснил, но я совсем согласен с тобой. You hit the nail right on the head. I was unaware that you speak French to some degree as well. What foreign languages do you know besides Czech? (and I'm talking about getting by in the country and making friends, not perfection)
I never knew he was English he just looks and sounds Czech to me
excellent video
ありがとう。すごくいい考え方と思う。
It a really good technic... Really hard to get used to though... I find I have to learn it with english first and then remove the english out of the word a few days later...
I probable got over 100 words down like this... it takes alot of time, work and focus..
But man does it work.. lol
@ispeakczech Fantastic. I am really glad to hear my connectors are useful to you, and the videos to. It encourages me to make more of them.
Fine but what scares me, if anything does, is when I don't understand nearly everything I'm hearing in the language I'm learning. Therefore, acquiring massive vocabulary is necessary and it doesn't hurt my speaking automatisms, which are a separate thing anyway.
As a sidenote, my second language is currently my best language, so I'm speaking from experience too :).
I don't think what applies to simple English applies to every language. English is *often* used between non natives, special case.
@GreenKab My progress in Russian is going quite well. It is a lovely language. In fact, I wish I had learned Russian first. Doing Czech as my first Slavic language was a nightmare. The other way around than I did it would have been more sensible.
Well, I'm not a expert but I'll share my expirience with english... I think phonetics is also involved. I mean, the easier you brain pocesses the sounds the easier you will understand and the easier you will asociate sounds with meaning. That is to me, the main explanation to the problem of translating in your head when listening to a foreign language.
you're great man👍👍👍
Where do you find the core vocab of your target language to practice with?
+SmootherCuber If you look up 'common word list' for your target language there's usually somewhere online with the 5000 or so 'core' words, ranked by frequency too. I was able to get them for Russian recently in Excel files which helped target what/where I went next in vocab.
+sdagf908346hg Awesome! Thanks
Unfortunately, I do not know of any such list for Czech. Sorry.
Very nice video! I've always been confused by what people meant by thinking or dreaming in a language! >~_< This video really explains it well.
I find if I 'think out loud' in the target language. it helps me focus on the target language aussi.. but i'm only starting.. quelle merde!!
I've watched this whole video without thinking anything in my mother tongue, yay.
What's your mother tongue?
you just broke my brain with godly words
Probably one of the most effective and poignant videos on language learning, and especially for those learning their 2ND language.
Part 2.....
and find that I can mindlessly understand the words I know in new dailogue and I'm still early in the game....
I dont know if this will help anyone whom reads it and sorry for the poor english I'm running out the door in five minutes... and this is my first language I'm learning...
My grammar might be off but... kimi wa Kyoo wa ii iru yo (you have a nice day)
off the top of my head and not the dailogue..
The problem for me is. I know the vocabulary, what I don't know well is the sentence structure. I try not thinking about grammar but it's hard O-o
Do human beings really think differently? Do we really know what we think? Is translating different than figuring out the speaker's intentions?
Also, how will i know when i have achieved automaticity
SmootherCuber You will have achieved automaticity--when your native language, I guess English, flows just like your foreign one; when it flows like English.
Check out memrise . com, they have dozens of czech vocabulary lists.
thanks, thats was very usefull
this method (translation) is good, but it will restrict your learning and its becomes tedious after a few days.
Yes I think it helps a lot to not even try to translate it.. just pretend you never knew english and just read the 'japanese' words as they are.
Great!!! It's the same with doing videos--and you seem to have experience in that. Yes, Swahili is coming much easier for me, now that I know Portuguese. It makes me very angry that they teach us we're basically--more or less--the effective center of the universe, and: "You don't really need a foreign language," not offering ANY until at least junior high school!!! $#@@%!!!