I've been following quite a few language learning channels over the last 1 year, but I think you give the most useful advices. Thank you for all the work you put into helping people to learn languages! Thank you very much Mikel!
I just wanted to say thanks again brother. It's been a month now of shadowing and language island practice, and the change for me personally has been significant. I had an italki lesson last week and the words just flowed! People need to understand that there is a better way to learn than sitting back and passively listening to stuff in the vain hope that one day they''ll magically be able to speak a language. It just isn't true - effort is required, especially if you want to hasten your journey.
Hey Mikel I like your no BS approach to language learning. Quick question what do you use for mass sentances I saw in another one of your vidoes that you use Glossika. Is that the only thing you use or do you use something alongside it. Thanks.
I use several lists, most of which I have created using AI. I use lists of verbs, nouns and adjectives with example sentences, ordered from most frequent to least.
I found your channel by accident and this sounds like a reasonable method. I have 2 questions. How much time do you allocate by day on average to learn a language in 3 month? Because you have already done the mass sentence generation and vocab lists for the languages you learned. Did you upload those somewhere, so followers of yours have a head start if they plan to learn any of those languages?
@Mikel, Thank you sir, just spent a few hours watching this and taking notes.--- I still got a few questions about some specifics on language islands and mass sentences. Is the best way to get these answered by joining the $99 a month program? Does it give access to a community as well?
Good. I need to get back into language learning I want to learn Latin because it's cool and Polish will no doubt be a useful language for me considering the line of work that I am in. I believe that Carl Gustav Mannerheim (is he a relative of mine?) spoke something like 7 languages among them Polish.
@@NaturalLanguageLearning Yeah, I know there is a famous recording of him speaking German with Hitler. It would make sense that Mannerheim spoke Russian (he did I am 99 percent certain) as well he did serve the Tzar after all and lived in Russia for a long time. Since Spain is on my mind a lot due to my business dealings that got me wondering I wonder how General Franco and Mannerheim would get along. I know that Franco met Hitler once and Hitler complained that he would rather have his teeth pulled out without anesthesia than listening to Franco speak for one hour.
Thank you very much for making this video, very detailed and useful guide! I have a question about the mass sentences. If I understand it right, it is 10.000+ sentences list, with the most important words, grouped by word families and it contains all the grammar in the language. But how do you make that list? I mean I tried with chatgpt several times just a normal list of the most common 1000 words and it always fails, after around 300 words it keeps repeating the same words over and over, no matter what I do. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I tried a lot of prompts, and it still fails. And I didn't ask it to group them by word families or use every grammar points, just a simple list. So how exactly do you do it? I would appreciate your help with this.
Chatgpt doesn't work for creating lists so long. I find the word lists online already and use chatgpt to create example sentences of the words, in blocks.
@@NaturalLanguageLearning Thank you for your answer. Yes, I am doing that right now with online word lists, but it is quite a slow process. Thought I could speed it up somehow but I guess there is no shortcut to it then.
When you do your language islands, do you just read the sentence 5 times in the target language or do you say it 5 times from memory while glancing at the native language?
Wants you learn it enough you won’t have to look at your language you will just remember what the sentence means because you will also be learning vocabulary
To make mass sentences, is the best way to just make a list of native language phrases you would say and then ask an LLM to make the translations? How do would you generate the pronunciation audio?
For language islands, I use DeepL to translate my pre-written phrases into the language. It's quick and super fast. For mass sentence, I use a frequency list and ChatGPT. I take the most common verbs and ask for 10 example sentences each, using a variety of vocabulary, structures and tenses. This gives a wide variety of sentences, and it tends to include idioms, which is very useful. I then paste these into a Text-to-Speech generator, which produces the audio. There's probably a faster way to do it, but this has given me 2k+ sentences fairly quickly, which is more than enough to get started as I slowly expand it out.
@@smithyq6335 Pretty much my approach as well. I add a few things though. - First, I mine my extensive listening of native media for useful and fun idioms. - Second, I ask ChatGPT specifically to generate examples for grammar patterns I want to master. You can feed it a list of vocab you want it to include in the examples, or simply say something like "Use useful colloquial vocabulary on the subject of trekking and wild camping suited to CEFR level B2"... - Third, I've built up a list of around 200 conversational connectors and discourse markers - eg "On the other hand / What do you think?" / You're kidding! / Exactly!". They're classified by context, such as agreement, disagreement, summing up, turn-taking etc. Then I add them to all my language islands so they become second nature. This is what makes conversations sound normal and relaxed, rather than stilted and beginner-like.
@@smithyq6335 Oh - and I asked ChatGPT to generate a script for Google Sheets which automatically generates text to speech files for all my sentences using the Google TTS API. So I can play each sentence as I go, or concatenate them into a longer file to play in the car.
@@tullochgorum6323 Fascinating, thanks for sharing. I've used similar prompts to increase my understanding generally, but I hadn't thought of integrating them into my language islands as ready-made expressions. I'll definitely add that to my list of to-dos.
Yeah, create your sentences (Language Islands manually, Mass Sentences with AI using word frequency lists) then translate with AI. I use text to speech software for audio.
Some nuggets of wisdom but a little contradictory in places. You say something to the effect of ‘Don’t let anyone tell you can learn languages effortlessly and then a little later you say, if you know the words and the pronunciation you’ll JUST LEARN THE GRAMMAR BY CONTEXT. Isn’t that like Dreaming Spanish’s philosophy of Comprehensible Input?
Also this line about the example of how you learnt your first language is overused. By the time you understand and speak your mother tongue, you’ve had years of comprehensible input, not three months.
Why is the word hyperpolyglot in quote marks is it because hyper is a suffix that makes the word a tautology, what I mean is that polyglot by the very definition is someone that is fluent (truly fluent like UN interpreter fluent) in several languages and in this context hyper is completely useless.
@@Swedishpolymath Not really criticizing the word itself but its usage. I find it often associated with people who gloat about knowing many languages but in reality they know how to say very basic things in many languages, and of course, they try to sell you something. I checked this dude's channel for a bit and found out he advertises "fluency in 3 months" where you'll be able to "understand natives easily" and "speak fluently in any situation".. So.. he's a scammer, much like most of the other self-identifying "hyperpolyglots" with sth to sell
@@karayi7239 Yeah that was sort of what I assumed. I get really annoyed at these sort of "TH-cam/Instagram polyglots" although TH-cam is better in this regard. And it will be even better as I am a Finnish investor that is going to do a lot of business these next couple of years. TH-cam I feel will become an important strategic partner in my business dealings. I feel Steve Kaufmann of LingQ is a true polyglot as he is a former Canadian diplomat. I was quite active on LingQ between December 2013 and June 2020 although I feel like that is something I already have mentioned but it bares repeating so that things are put in motion. I am also working pro bono for the Finnish foreign ministry trying to end the war in Ukraine and see to it that Russia gets its issues sorted out. I am a Swedish man who is of partial Finnish and Russian descent and I suspect my family members were murdered during the Finnish Civil War in 1917.
![Answering all your questions about language learning [Q&A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2vomCrZB-fE/mqdefault.jpg)
I've been following quite a few language learning channels over the last 1 year, but I think you give the most useful advices.
Thank you for all the work you put into helping people to learn languages!
Thank you very much Mikel!
Thanks for the comment!
I just wanted to say thanks again brother. It's been a month now of shadowing and language island practice, and the change for me personally has been significant. I had an italki lesson last week and the words just flowed! People need to understand that there is a better way to learn than sitting back and passively listening to stuff in the vain hope that one day they''ll magically be able to speak a language. It just isn't true - effort is required, especially if you want to hasten your journey.
Nice! Glad to hear it's working for you!
Mikel is blessed for us Introverts!
This is no nonsense, invaluable information for many people. Thanks
Thank you very much for sharing your language learning method. It is priceless.💖
beside jokes, this is the canon of language learning.
What text to speech do you use for the audio got the Language islands?
I use natural reader. Need to pay for audio files though (I think it’s worth it)
Usually TTSmaker
Hey Mikel I like your no BS approach to language learning. Quick question what do you use for mass sentances I saw in another one of your vidoes that you use Glossika. Is that the only thing you use or do you use something alongside it. Thanks.
I use several lists, most of which I have created using AI. I use lists of verbs, nouns and adjectives with example sentences, ordered from most frequent to least.
I found your channel by accident and this sounds like a reasonable method.
I have 2 questions.
How much time do you allocate by day on average to learn a language in 3 month?
Because you have already done the mass sentence generation and vocab lists for the languages you learned. Did you upload those somewhere, so followers of yours have a head start if they plan to learn any of those languages?
Good stuff my guy
@Mikel, Thank you sir, just spent a few hours watching this and taking notes.--- I still got a few questions about some specifics on language islands and mass sentences. Is the best way to get these answered by joining the $99 a month program? Does it give access to a community as well?
Yeah it's a course + community
Thank you! 👍
👍
Good. I need to get back into language learning I want to learn Latin because it's cool and Polish will no doubt be a useful language for me considering the line of work that I am in. I believe that Carl Gustav Mannerheim (is he a relative of mine?) spoke something like 7 languages among them Polish.
It wouldn't surprise me. I've watched a video of him speaking German and he most probably spoke Russian too.
@@NaturalLanguageLearning Yeah, I know there is a famous recording of him speaking German with Hitler. It would make sense that Mannerheim spoke Russian (he did I am 99 percent certain) as well he did serve the Tzar after all and lived in Russia for a long time.
Since Spain is on my mind a lot due to my business dealings that got me wondering I wonder how General Franco and Mannerheim would get along. I know that Franco met Hitler once and Hitler complained that he would rather have his teeth pulled out without anesthesia than listening to Franco speak for one hour.
After the CEO of Testosterone, now the CEO of language learning!
Thank you very much for making this video, very detailed and useful guide! I have a question about the mass sentences. If I understand it right, it is 10.000+ sentences list, with the most important words, grouped by word families and it contains all the grammar in the language. But how do you make that list? I mean I tried with chatgpt several times just a normal list of the most common 1000 words and it always fails, after around 300 words it keeps repeating the same words over and over, no matter what I do. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I tried a lot of prompts, and it still fails. And I didn't ask it to group them by word families or use every grammar points, just a simple list. So how exactly do you do it? I would appreciate your help with this.
Chatgpt doesn't work for creating lists so long. I find the word lists online already and use chatgpt to create example sentences of the words, in blocks.
@@NaturalLanguageLearning Thank you for your answer. Yes, I am doing that right now with online word lists, but it is quite a slow process. Thought I could speed it up somehow but I guess there is no shortcut to it then.
When you do your language islands, do you just read the sentence 5 times in the target language or do you say it 5 times from memory while glancing at the native language?
Wants you learn it enough you won’t have to look at your language you will just remember what the sentence means because you will also be learning vocabulary
To make mass sentences, is the best way to just make a list of native language phrases you would say and then ask an LLM to make the translations? How do would you generate the pronunciation audio?
For language islands, I use DeepL to translate my pre-written phrases into the language. It's quick and super fast. For mass sentence, I use a frequency list and ChatGPT. I take the most common verbs and ask for 10 example sentences each, using a variety of vocabulary, structures and tenses. This gives a wide variety of sentences, and it tends to include idioms, which is very useful. I then paste these into a Text-to-Speech generator, which produces the audio. There's probably a faster way to do it, but this has given me 2k+ sentences fairly quickly, which is more than enough to get started as I slowly expand it out.
@@smithyq6335 Pretty much my approach as well. I add a few things though.
- First, I mine my extensive listening of native media for useful and fun idioms.
- Second, I ask ChatGPT specifically to generate examples for grammar patterns I want to master. You can feed it a list of vocab you want it to include in the examples, or simply say something like "Use useful colloquial vocabulary on the subject of trekking and wild camping suited to CEFR level B2"...
- Third, I've built up a list of around 200 conversational connectors and discourse markers - eg "On the other hand / What do you think?" / You're kidding! / Exactly!". They're classified by context, such as agreement, disagreement, summing up, turn-taking etc. Then I add them to all my language islands so they become second nature. This is what makes conversations sound normal and relaxed, rather than stilted and beginner-like.
@@smithyq6335 Oh - and I asked ChatGPT to generate a script for Google Sheets which automatically generates text to speech files for all my sentences using the Google TTS API. So I can play each sentence as I go, or concatenate them into a longer file to play in the car.
@@tullochgorum6323 Fascinating, thanks for sharing. I've used similar prompts to increase my understanding generally, but I hadn't thought of integrating them into my language islands as ready-made expressions. I'll definitely add that to my list of to-dos.
Yeah, create your sentences (Language Islands manually, Mass Sentences with AI using word frequency lists) then translate with AI. I use text to speech software for audio.
You have an idea what to do in case there is no association?,
Cos im pretty stuck
If the word is hard to memorise with associations, skip and memorise other words. You'll learn it in context later.
Call the vatican to add the new word of God to the bible 🙏🏼
Some nuggets of wisdom but a little contradictory in places. You say something to the effect of ‘Don’t let anyone tell you can learn languages effortlessly and then a little later you say, if you know the words and the pronunciation you’ll JUST LEARN THE GRAMMAR BY CONTEXT. Isn’t that like Dreaming Spanish’s philosophy of Comprehensible Input?
Also this line about the example of how you learnt your first language is overused. By the time you understand and speak your mother tongue, you’ve had years of comprehensible input, not three months.
"hyperpolyglot"
www.polyglotassociation.org/members/mikel-telleria
Why is the word hyperpolyglot in quote marks is it because hyper is a suffix that makes the word a tautology, what I mean is that polyglot by the very definition is someone that is fluent (truly fluent like UN interpreter fluent) in several languages and in this context hyper is completely useless.
@@Swedishpolymath Not really criticizing the word itself but its usage.
I find it often associated with people who gloat about knowing many languages but in reality they know how to say very basic things in many languages, and of course, they try to sell you something.
I checked this dude's channel for a bit and found out he advertises "fluency in 3 months" where you'll be able to "understand natives easily" and "speak fluently in any situation".. So.. he's a scammer, much like most of the other self-identifying "hyperpolyglots" with sth to sell
@@karayi7239 Yeah that was sort of what I assumed. I get really annoyed at these sort of "TH-cam/Instagram polyglots" although TH-cam is better in this regard. And it will be even better as I am a Finnish investor that is going to do a lot of business these next couple of years.
TH-cam I feel will become an important strategic partner in my business dealings. I feel Steve Kaufmann of LingQ is a true polyglot as he is a former Canadian diplomat.
I was quite active on LingQ between December 2013 and June 2020 although I feel like that is something I already have mentioned but it bares repeating so that things are put in motion.
I am also working pro bono for the Finnish foreign ministry trying to end the war in Ukraine and see to it that Russia gets its issues sorted out. I am a Swedish man who is of partial Finnish and Russian descent and I suspect my family members were murdered during the Finnish Civil War in 1917.
@@karayi7239 cry more. I get results, you don't. I'm a member of the international association of hyperpolyglots, you're not.