📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/2h53s2w3 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: tinyurl.com/5f8sfyan ❓Have you tried reading a book in your target language? Share in the comments!
How do Steve? I started learning Spanish 2 years ago with Duolingo.. after about a year I stopped, kinda needed a break from it. A few days ago, I started again from scratch..it came back quickly to me but I realized it's kinda slow progressing so I thought I'd have a look over YT, which is a bit of a game changer. Naturally you popped up soon enough in a discussion with a guy from another channel giving advice and tips for learning second languages. Anyway, when I heard you talk I immediately thought you were Irish.😂 Anyway..thanks for the channel and advice.🫡👍🏻
My highschool didn't offer any English speaking classes, so all I was taught was reading. I still remember how terrified I was when I had to share my opinion in my first English class at university because I had never spoken English in my life until then. To my surprise, I somehow managed to articulate my thoughts in rather cohesive sentences. It was such a weird feeling to observe myself doing something that I didn't know I was capable of.
"I read well but I just don't speak well." This is very relatable to me. I've been using English for decades without knowing anything about aspiration or lexical stress (for example), but I was doing fine as English is spoken by billions and people are exposed to lots of different ways of saying the same things. Then at one point I started learning Danish, I got to a level where I was texting in Danish with my Danish gf, I could read Danish texts and follow movies in Danish. Still, whenever I was talking to strangers, they switched to English when they heard me speak. Even my gf's family members were asking my gf to "translate" when I tried talking to them. Then I read a book about Danish phonology, learned about all the things that aren't parts of my native language and after having read that book and started to pay attention to aspirate my plosives and use the stress patterns people expect to hear, people started understanding me. It's still not 100% perfect, but nobody tries switching to English anymore, they just understand me well enough to tolerate my accent.
I watched an interview once with Jack Barsky who was an East German spy for the KGB in America. He lived in America for many years, undetected, speaking flawless English. Before the KGB sent him over to the USA, his handlers asked him if he was ready for this mission. He pointed at a stack of Engliish book and said, "Do you see those books, I know every word in those books, every single word."
@2:11 "B2 English in Tokyo"" According to the source Steve used, "People sign up to take the test voluntarily, and those who already know English are more likely to take the test to assess their knowledge.", so yeah, the level would probably be lower if they had tested random people.
One thing I do is focus on one paragraph and read it multiple times. This helps make the material more digestible and familiarize myself with it more gradually. I hate just going through a book and not understanding what I read. I even do this with English and it has done a number on my fluency in the language despite living here in the US and growing up speaking English.
1) Any given author has his preferred vocabulary and idioms and usages. 2) Any given story requires vocabulary specific to the story. Both these things help you when you read a book. Since you see certain vocabulary over and over, it quickly gets more easy than if you constantly bounce around between shorter form material. Along the way, of course, you also learn lots of more general vocabulary and usages. Another bonus is that if you find that book that really grabs you, you have solved the problem of finding something interesting to read for as long as it takes to read the book. I read both Лавр and Мастер и Маргарита on Lingq, and my vocabulary skyrocketed as I did so.
Hi Steve, in my opinion books can be a great motivational goal to reach, too. For example my goals in french and in spanish are that I want to read a specific book (20.000 Miles under the Sea from Jules Verne in French and Don Quixote in Spanish). I'm working on it and with every smaller novel I read, I come closer to this goal. Thanks for LingQ, best tool for language learning. Would love to have a chat with you one day. Cheers! René
yeah ,I agree with you , when I have read my first novel in English, it was a milestone for me . I have this approach for german and french too and I know when I can finish the first novel in those languages , I can easily say that I know French and German
I am learning Russian, very basic. I was super motivated to read a particular book that is not available in English (I ordered it from a website in Russia pre-invasion, negotiating the Russian-only website) so I learned to type in Russian and have typed out most of the book. Imported it into LingQ and now am reading it, learning the language on the way.
Question, I’ve tried out some things from other yt videos but I’m still at a bit of a roadblock when it comes to the memory recognition part of things (looking and reading the Russian letters and then trying to remember what the word means), I’m pretty sure that can get better over time as I rereading the words and all, but the question I had was, how and where do you learn your vocabulary if all you know (effectively know) is the alphabet and the sounds of letters? I’m asking because I just started my journey to learning Russian a couple weeks ago and I have the alphabet and a few words down, but I’m not at a level to read books nor listen to audios and pick out the words I recognize, I want to be able to get past that but I’m pretty much getting the same advice from all other yt videos I watched (watch shows and movies, read books, play games or watch yt) I’m personally just struggling on attaining the beginning part of the vocabulary and trying to gain more words and idk if there’s something that I’m not doing right or not, so I’m just looking for some input. Edit: I’m trying to do this for free, but if I have to pay a subscription I’ll do it if needed
For starting out from scratch in a new language, I like to use a spaced repetition flashcard deck, like Anki. The first 500 words can be single words. After that, I want phrases with words that go together. Once you have memorized some words, you can sort by percentage of known words in Lingq, and then start working through whatever is easiest and most interesting. Try out the "Simple dialogues" and "Russian in one's palm" in the Language section of Lingq. After that, look at "Mini Stories" and "Who is she?" Reading in Lingq sentence mode, and reviewing the Lingq online flashcards will help you get your initial vocabulary.
@@Daka_9there's an amazing Anki deck for learning both grammar and vocab at the same time, it's called (something like) Lingo Llama Russian Deck. The most outstanding feature is that each card changes the example sentence every time you review (so you don't end up memorizing the sentence instead of learning the word). Very much worth a try
I recommend google books which can be read with google translate. It is however a long process, you need to start with short, relatively simple texts and progressly develop both the length and complexity. After a while, you can dispense of the phone and read the book directly, which is more satisfying and pleasant. Newspapers are another good source of simple text, as are wikipedia articles
Love you Steve Kaufmann ❤ I have a Swedish book that I’ve had a while and should probably dust and start reading. I feel like I’ve plateaued with Swedish currently. Definitely a great way to expand your vocabulary!
Great timing on this one. I've read a couple of YA novels in Spanish, on kindle so I can look up words, but I just started my first adult physical novel this week, which I'm enjoying so far :)
5:45 - Steve has discovered Storytel! It's about time more people were talking about Storytel. I feel like one of those crazy guys with a sandwich board except instead of saying "THE END IS NIGH" it says "STOP USING AUDIBLE, IT SUCKS".
Hmm... some people read well and have huge vocabularies but don't speak well. Pronunciation and phonics in general are often a major roadblock for adult learners!
@lucapointcom I second this! Shadowing is one of my top language learning techniques, not to mention it's absolutely beneficial for hard languages as well, such as Arabic.
Comprehensible input novels for A1 worked great for the French kids I was teaching English to, they made more progress than a traditional language classroom.
I try to read books written in the spanish I need. I live in Uruguay and it is different to Mexican or Chilean or Spanish from spain, not significantly but vocabulary is important and a few forms. Learning local spanish will make it easy to communicate with the others so I prefer to start local. I found a few argentinian (same Spanish) and Uruguayan authors and I sourced their books in English where possible so I read in English to understand the story, then in Spanish (now I understand the story) so I should acquire more Spanish through the experience. I focus on short stories. That way I can read it quickly again if I want and also read it a lot. I constantly read a paragraph more than once, I can read 4 or five times. I read consistently, slowly, by paragraphs every day if possible. I occassionally use google translate for the odd word where not knowing it makes a sentence impossible to understand, but I don't reach for translate for every instance I struggle with comprehension. It is important to understand that meaning emerges over time with regular exposure in a variety of contexts. Eventually a meaning will implicitly form and we will acquire new vocabulary. There is no before this moment I did not know this word after this moment I knew it. Language is vague and abstract and complex. Great video, I love your passion for reading.
@@ceciliaromia I also have Marquez, but he is harder because his Spanish is not local and his ideas quite rich and Vargas Llosa and Galeano, a great Uruguayan writer.
Hola, saludos. Pienso igualmente que a medida que lees un libro puedes aprender palabras sin necesidad de tener un vocabulario amplio para ello. Es un proceso que puede hacer de la lectura todo un descubrimiento.
I mostly agree, as long as you bother yourself with listening and reading a plenty, you will become fluent. Books were my main booster. I did not speak at all until some point, but after reading so much speaking stopped being hard
I like that challenge and I agree, it can be very rewarding to make it through a book in a different language. Though I think it’s also important to take the kind of book you pick into account if you want to judge your skills. There are books that go beyond my head in my native language as well. A bit ago I tried to read Shakespeare in English. It was a rather short experience. Am I bad in English because of that?! I don’t think so 🤷🏻♀️
I have started learning Chinese being a very enjoyable and relaxing language while practicing. Maybe I would be able to be there within a few months. It's all because of your inspiration and motivation that you have been doing it since I have subscribed your channel being very helpful and motivational when a person can learn one language, right now he is capable of getting more and more languages when he keeps what you are saying. In this journey perhaps you would help us with a lot of improvement
IMO, biblical books are great for exercise, since you may be familiar with much of it, it contains many genres with large vocabulary (IIRC, most of what we have of the extinct Gothic language comes from a single bible translation) and if you get stuck there are probably a variety of translations (even free online) in your language (almost whatever it may be) with a system of chapter and verse that makes it effortless to find where you are and compare.
A really great book is the Old Testament of the Bible. The way it repeats the same words, and the Hebrew parallel poetry makes the words stick so well. Even if you aren’t religious, it will help tremendously
Eu ia comentar o mesmo... triste realidade. Pro mandarim tive que assinar um app de leitura pois simplesmente não tenho dinheiro pra comprar livros em constância. E já o japonês, imprimi materiais no passado (textbooks então? socorro)
my one disagreement is simply the fact that not all people can visualize things in their head (which is called Aphantasia), so if someone only reads books silently they wouldn’t be able to speak the language as they don’t actually know what the words sound like. There is however a simple solution, and that is to read books aloud. Even just whispering the words to yourself, and looking up the pronunciation for words you can’t quite get should help tremendously.
Personally I think reading an article from magazines or newspapers are easier than books because it’s shorter, whereas books (especially novels) can be more fun
My goal has always been more geared to reading. I am studying Latin right now and am just knocking on the intermediate level. I hope to read the latin translation of the Hobbit by early summer. I am also doing German on the side. My wife found me Grimm's Fairy Tales and my eventual goal is to read that but I don't have a timeline for that
I can and do read in French. But I don't speak it at all (I can buy me a loaf of bread in a boulangerie). I speak Italian and this is why I understand French so well.
I heard many Japanese people are good at learning languages. However, due to proximity it’s more popular or in demand for the them to learn a Korean and Mandarin Chinese whereas in North America other than English it’s more in demand to Learn French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese to an extent.
An important question... Like when I listen to a podcast and then read it to identify new words and refer to other content, is this a good method and “Is translating terms into the mother tongue good or bad!?”
Tysm steve... I used lingQ It is insanely effective, so I was wondering at this point. It was causing me doubts. Thank you. I will continue @@Thelinguist
I think it is very hard to read a book from cover to cover without a previous knowkedge of at least 80% of the words unless it is one that you have read already in your mother language
I learned english read games dialogues and trying to understand the game's plot. I should do the same to learn japanese, so the first thing i'll do is learn the japanese alphabets. Knowing the alphabet, i will be able to read anything in japanese, even if i don't understand what is written, but i might learn little by little like i did with english. Can't believe that i only thought about it now.
I disagree with you Steve. I read a few languages well but speaking I am 1 or 2 levels below. When you read, you have visual cues that help you recognize and understand words, and you can take your time to process them. In contrast, speaking is more immediate and dynamic; it requires you to actively retrieve vocabulary, apply grammar rules in real time, and structure sentences on the spot-all while maintaining a natural flow of conversation.
Yes you need to develop these language habits. I usually make sure I can get the audio book for any book I am reading. Really prepares me for speaking.
You are right. You will always be a level below what you read. So the KEY is to try to read as high as possible, thereby pulling up your own speaking leaving. Right now I can read Russian at A2 level, but speak at only A1. So my goal is to reach B1 in reading, that way my speaking will become A2 😊
Hallo:) I see a problem with German at Linq. Phrasal verbs are not correctly translated. For example, let's take aufstehen, the app only translates stehen, it doesn't see auf at the end of the sentence. Please let me know, if you plan to improve the app.
Separable verbs. LingQ uses AI for a context relevant translation of words, and offers a wide range of 3rd party dictionaries for users to choose from. Yet this may still not capture the two parts of a separated verb. Verbs with prefixes like "ab-", "an-", "auf-", "aus-", "ein-", "mit-", "nach-", "vor-", and "zu-" can be separated from the main verb stem when conjugating in a sentence.I find I get used to noticing them after a while. LingQ also has automatic tags for such verbs showing potential combinations. If you look up the verb "schauen" the following tags appear. Check it out. You can also save a whole phrase or look at the text in sentence view to get a better sense of the meaning of these verbs when they appear. abschauen anschauen ausschauen dazuschauen durchschauen hinwegschauen nachschauen präsens reinschauen umschauen vorbeischauen wir zuschauen
@@Thelinguist "War and Peace" is novel too. If you can read it without a dictionary and know every word I dont think the level of reader is B2, It's something between C1 and C2
My main focus right now is Russian. I'm still a beginner, but I've jumped straight into native material. I usually don't enjoy graded readers, they're just not for me. I need the real deal, not a overly simplified version of the language. I'm currently on day 13 of intensively reading a novel I found for free on Amazon. It's hard, and I don't know most of the words, but I'm enjoying the process of looking up each word and uncovering more about the story (and the language) as I go. So far, I've collected 376 unique words in just 4 pages lol. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of verb aspects now. Most of the time, I don't need more grammar than I already know, and ChatGPT helps me with any unfamiliar grammar that can't be easily understood after a dictionary lookup. All that said, I'm not out of my mind to start reading "War and Peace" as a beginner 😂 I'm reading a novel made by an amateur native writer.
Reading is the way, but "on paper" is a no-go for me going on 15 years. I love physical books, libraries and book stores... don't love the physical storage, moving them or the environmental up-charge. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you really mean to emphasize the "paper" part of your suggestion at the beginning of the video? Using a tablet and a writing instrument hasn't ever been a problem for me in recent years when directly compared to pen and paper. Thank you for the video, and all the work you do to help everyone channel their passion for language and culture. ❤
I got LingQ for Mandarin, and I am sorry to say it is quite bad. Even the most basic lessons are riddled with bugs. They out for I don't know how long, and the quality is still poor. If Mandarin is your aim, look elsewhere.
@RodriHernandez-x1w Is already happening (very fast). There are pills to combat this. They are very cheap. I'm taking for some 2 months, I wish I had taken the initiative before :/
90 percent of words, to read a novel? Words you can at least guess the meaning? I think that is *way* too low. When I read a novel, looking up two or three words per page feels like the sweet spot. That's so little that you can actually immerse yourself in the story. 4 to 5 is pushing it, that's already a bit uncomfortable. And beyond that, you're spending more time looking stuff up than reading. So 98 to 99 percent, more like. Also, you have to *understand* the words, not just somehow guess it. For the first few books you read, that's almost impossible. Better to accept them to be a lot of work and expect it will get better after a few books.
Have to disagree with you. I started my first Japanese book with around 30 percent and with enough interest and determination I was able to finish the book and was able to skyrocket my vocab by doing so and reached b2 in 2 years of studying the language. And now after 8 years and many books later, I have near native level ability. Doing the same thing again in Korean right now.
@user-nm3ug3zq1y Ahh I see what you’re saying. Yeah for me I looked up over half of the words on each page at first and I put them into my Anki deck but most people probably don’t have the patience for this as it’s very tedious.. lol.
@@theojpofficial7770, well, as I wrote, for the first few books you hardly have a choice. You only know the words you know and therefore have to fight your way forward. However, as soon as I have the choice because I reached a certain level, I'd rather read a text of which I understand 98 percent. In a novel that would be 2-3 words per page, so maybe 1000 per book. I think, that's quite decent still, and it allows for immersing yourself more deeply in the story.
📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/2h53s2w3
🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: tinyurl.com/5f8sfyan
❓Have you tried reading a book in your target language? Share in the comments!
If only the app worked it would be great. I have never before used such a bug ridden piece of software. There are stable alternatives available.
Pronunciation of the new words in the target language is a challenge, especially for beginners
How do Steve?
I started learning Spanish 2 years ago with Duolingo.. after about a year I stopped, kinda needed a break from it.
A few days ago, I started again from scratch..it came back quickly to me but I realized it's kinda slow progressing so I thought I'd have a look over YT, which is a bit of a game changer. Naturally you popped up soon enough in a discussion with a guy from another channel giving advice and tips for learning second languages.
Anyway, when I heard you talk I immediately thought you were Irish.😂
Anyway..thanks for the channel and advice.🫡👍🏻
Suggest a feature that will allow users to communicate with each other during the challenges
I love this! I just got a physical book in one of my target languages last week.
My highschool didn't offer any English speaking classes, so all I was taught was reading. I still remember how terrified I was when I had to share my opinion in my first English class at university because I had never spoken English in my life until then. To my surprise, I somehow managed to articulate my thoughts in rather cohesive sentences. It was such a weird feeling to observe myself doing something that I didn't know I was capable of.
"I read well but I just don't speak well."
This is very relatable to me. I've been using English for decades without knowing anything about aspiration or lexical stress (for example), but I was doing fine as English is spoken by billions and people are exposed to lots of different ways of saying the same things.
Then at one point I started learning Danish, I got to a level where I was texting in Danish with my Danish gf, I could read Danish texts and follow movies in Danish. Still, whenever I was talking to strangers, they switched to English when they heard me speak. Even my gf's family members were asking my gf to "translate" when I tried talking to them.
Then I read a book about Danish phonology, learned about all the things that aren't parts of my native language and after having read that book and started to pay attention to aspirate my plosives and use the stress patterns people expect to hear, people started understanding me. It's still not 100% perfect, but nobody tries switching to English anymore, they just understand me well enough to tolerate my accent.
I watched an interview once with Jack Barsky who was an East German spy for the KGB in America. He lived in America for many years, undetected, speaking flawless English. Before the KGB sent him over to the USA, his handlers asked him if he was ready for this mission. He pointed at a stack of Engliish book and said, "Do you see those books, I know every word in those books, every single word."
Wonder what books he read.
I agree I was super bad in english in highschool. I read like two books and improved sooo much
@2:11 "B2 English in Tokyo""
According to the source Steve used, "People sign up to take the test voluntarily, and those who already know English are more likely to take the test to assess their knowledge.", so yeah, the level would probably be lower if they had tested random people.
One thing I do is focus on one paragraph and read it multiple times. This helps make the material more digestible and familiarize myself with it more gradually. I hate just going through a book and not understanding what I read. I even do this with English and it has done a number on my fluency in the language despite living here in the US and growing up speaking English.
1) Any given author has his preferred vocabulary and idioms and usages.
2) Any given story requires vocabulary specific to the story.
Both these things help you when you read a book. Since you see certain vocabulary over and over, it quickly gets more easy than if you constantly bounce around between shorter form material. Along the way, of course, you also learn lots of more general vocabulary and usages. Another bonus is that if you find that book that really grabs you, you have solved the problem of finding something interesting to read for as long as it takes to read the book.
I read both Лавр and Мастер и Маргарита on Lingq, and my vocabulary skyrocketed as I did so.
Hi Steve,
in my opinion books can be a great motivational goal to reach, too. For example my goals in french and in spanish are that I want to read a specific book (20.000 Miles under the Sea from Jules Verne in French and Don Quixote in Spanish). I'm working on it and with every smaller novel I read, I come closer to this goal.
Thanks for LingQ, best tool for language learning. Would love to have a chat with you one day.
Cheers!
René
yeah ,I agree with you , when I have read my first novel in English, it was a milestone for me . I have this approach for german and french too and I know when I can finish the first novel in those languages , I can easily say that I know French and German
I am learning Russian, very basic. I was super motivated to read a particular book that is not available in English (I ordered it from a website in Russia pre-invasion, negotiating the Russian-only website) so I learned to type in Russian and have typed out most of the book. Imported it into LingQ and now am reading it, learning the language on the way.
Question, I’ve tried out some things from other yt videos but I’m still at a bit of a roadblock when it comes to the memory recognition part of things (looking and reading the Russian letters and then trying to remember what the word means), I’m pretty sure that can get better over time as I rereading the words and all, but the question I had was, how and where do you learn your vocabulary if all you know (effectively know) is the alphabet and the sounds of letters?
I’m asking because I just started my journey to learning Russian a couple weeks ago and I have the alphabet and a few words down, but I’m not at a level to read books nor listen to audios and pick out the words I recognize, I want to be able to get past that but I’m pretty much getting the same advice from all other yt videos I watched (watch shows and movies, read books, play games or watch yt)
I’m personally just struggling on attaining the beginning part of the vocabulary and trying to gain more words and idk if there’s something that I’m not doing right or not, so I’m just looking for some input.
Edit: I’m trying to do this for free, but if I have to pay a subscription I’ll do it if needed
For starting out from scratch in a new language, I like to use a spaced repetition flashcard deck, like Anki. The first 500 words can be single words. After that, I want phrases with words that go together.
Once you have memorized some words, you can sort by percentage of known words in Lingq, and then start working through whatever is easiest and most interesting.
Try out the "Simple dialogues" and "Russian in one's palm" in the Language section of Lingq. After that, look at "Mini Stories" and "Who is she?" Reading in Lingq sentence mode, and reviewing the Lingq online flashcards will help you get your initial vocabulary.
Привет друг, скажи как сейчас идут твои дела с этим?
Sorry for asking, but are you ok with sponsoring the terrorist state? They then kill people with this money😢
@@Daka_9there's an amazing Anki deck for learning both grammar and vocab at the same time, it's called (something like) Lingo Llama Russian Deck. The most outstanding feature is that each card changes the example sentence every time you review (so you don't end up memorizing the sentence instead of learning the word). Very much worth a try
I recommend google books which can be read with google translate. It is however a long process, you need to start with short, relatively simple texts and progressly develop both the length and complexity. After a while, you can dispense of the phone and read the book directly, which is more satisfying and pleasant. Newspapers are another good source of simple text, as are wikipedia articles
Google Books is an underrated tool
Love you Steve Kaufmann ❤ I have a Swedish book that I’ve had a while and should probably dust and start reading. I feel like I’ve plateaued with Swedish currently. Definitely a great way to expand your vocabulary!
Check out the website Bokon for Swedish audio books and ebooks you can download.
@@ThelinguistThat’s great, thanks!
Great timing on this one. I've read a couple of YA novels in Spanish, on kindle so I can look up words, but I just started my first adult physical novel this week, which I'm enjoying so far :)
Awesome! I only just saw this now, but I'm currently reading a book in Norwegian on LingQ, so I'll join the challenge!
5:45 - Steve has discovered Storytel!
It's about time more people were talking about Storytel. I feel like one of those crazy guys with a sandwich board except instead of saying "THE END IS NIGH" it says "STOP USING AUDIBLE, IT SUCKS".
The only complaint is that I can't download the ebooks I buy so I can't import them into LingQ.
How’s Storytel better than Kindle or Audible?
Hmm... some people read well and have huge vocabularies but don't speak well. Pronunciation and phonics in general are often a major roadblock for adult learners!
You described me 😢
Certainly you're right
@lucapointcom I second this! Shadowing is one of my top language learning techniques, not to mention it's absolutely beneficial for hard languages as well, such as Arabic.
Pronunciation is something that should come naturally while watching content
Reading out loud is a good tool.
Comprehensible input novels for A1 worked great for the French kids I was teaching English to, they made more progress than a traditional language classroom.
Good tips! I personally read a bilingual bible in Spanish and it is definitely help me learn more vocabulary.
I try to read books written in the spanish I need. I live in Uruguay and it is different to Mexican or Chilean or Spanish from spain, not significantly but vocabulary is important and a few forms. Learning local spanish will make it easy to communicate with the others so I prefer to start local. I found a few argentinian (same Spanish) and Uruguayan authors and I sourced their books in English where possible so I read in English to understand the story, then in Spanish (now I understand the story) so I should acquire more Spanish through the experience. I focus on short stories. That way I can read it quickly again if I want and also read it a lot. I constantly read a paragraph more than once, I can read 4 or five times. I read consistently, slowly, by paragraphs every day if possible. I occassionally use google translate for the odd word where not knowing it makes a sentence impossible to understand, but I don't reach for translate for every instance I struggle with comprehension.
It is important to understand that meaning emerges over time with regular exposure in a variety of contexts. Eventually a meaning will implicitly form and we will acquire new vocabulary. There is no before this moment I did not know this word after this moment I knew it. Language is vague and abstract and complex.
Great video, I love your passion for reading.
Hey! Have you read "La autopista del sur" by Julio Cortázar?
@ceciliaromia I am currently reading Bestiario. That title you mention I have not come across ... yet. I read Borges' Ficciones before this.
@@TheCompleteGuitarist Oh! Wow! That's awesome! Cortázar and Borges are amazing writers!
@@ceciliaromia I also have Marquez, but he is harder because his Spanish is not local and his ideas quite rich and Vargas Llosa and Galeano, a great Uruguayan writer.
Hola, saludos. Pienso igualmente que a medida que lees un libro puedes aprender palabras sin necesidad de tener un vocabulario amplio para ello. Es un proceso que puede hacer de la lectura todo un descubrimiento.
I mostly agree, as long as you bother yourself with listening and reading a plenty, you will become fluent. Books were my main booster. I did not speak at all until some point, but after reading so much speaking stopped being hard
I like that challenge and I agree, it can be very rewarding to make it through a book in a different language. Though I think it’s also important to take the kind of book you pick into account if you want to judge your skills. There are books that go beyond my head in my native language as well. A bit ago I tried to read Shakespeare in English. It was a rather short experience. Am I bad in English because of that?! I don’t think so 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah, most native English speakers would have trouble with Shakespeare!
我喜欢你说的话。 谢谢。
Thank you Steve. I will now read books.
Hello, Steve! It's a pleasure to see your new video! Moreover, the TH-cam channel of Takashi from Japan is familiar to me.
I love this. Thank you, Steve!!
I loved your advice i subscribed and liked the video ❤
Thanks so much! At the Boston Public library, there's an app we use to "borrow" books. A 21 day deadline really motivates you to read
We have it here in Florida too. I think this service is provided by all public libraries in USA.
I am from Boston too. I only Libby. Is that new app ?
I have started learning Chinese being a very enjoyable and relaxing language while practicing. Maybe I would be able to be there within a few months. It's all because of your inspiration and motivation that you have been doing it since I have subscribed your channel being very helpful and motivational when a person can learn one language, right now he is capable of getting more and more languages when he keeps what you are saying. In this journey perhaps you would help us with a lot of improvement
Linnq Mandarin is full of bugs. Try HelloChinese (up to HSK 3) or SuperChinese (beyond HSK 6)
As an Italian I struggled reading that part of "Gli indifferenti" from Moravia you showed on screen, that's some language right there lol
Interesting, nice video 👏❤
IMO, biblical books are great for exercise, since you may be familiar with much of it, it contains many genres with large vocabulary (IIRC, most of what we have of the extinct Gothic language comes from a single bible translation) and if you get stuck there are probably a variety of translations (even free online) in your language (almost whatever it may be) with a system of chapter and verse that makes it effortless to find where you are and compare.
Libgen for finding books.
A perfect formula for healthier relationships in any area of life. Well said! 💬❤
I really enjoy “Short Stories in German” by Olly Richards, for my German practice.
A really great book is the Old Testament of the Bible. The way it repeats the same words, and the Hebrew parallel poetry makes the words stick so well. Even if you aren’t religious, it will help tremendously
saddenly, in Brazil books are really expensive, and if you want it in a foreign language it's muuuch more expensive
Eu ia comentar o mesmo... triste realidade.
Pro mandarim tive que assinar um app de leitura pois simplesmente não tenho dinheiro pra comprar livros em constância. E já o japonês, imprimi materiais no passado (textbooks então? socorro)
very good content and informative, thanks.
3:47 "They have a 5 year plan, like straight out of the Soviet Union" - that was a great line, lol
my one disagreement is simply the fact that not all people can visualize things in their head (which is called Aphantasia), so if someone only reads books silently they wouldn’t be able to speak the language as they don’t actually know what the words sound like. There is however a simple solution, and that is to read books aloud. Even just whispering the words to yourself, and looking up the pronunciation for words you can’t quite get should help tremendously.
Thank you sir steve, espero que tenga un buen día
Thanks!
Thanks for the info
You,re the best ❤
Thank you
Personally I think reading an article from magazines or newspapers are easier than books because it’s shorter, whereas books (especially novels) can be more fun
I wish you'd speak with ilber ortaylı on a live stream too:) he also knows russian, latin, english, french...
Kendisi çok engin bilgisi olan bir profesördür. İnşallah yaparsınız.
That would be awesome. My Turkish isn't good enough but English, French and Russian would work.
Steve hi the same as u i am learing 6 language arabic persian turkish spanish italian russian french
My goal has always been more geared to reading. I am studying Latin right now and am just knocking on the intermediate level. I hope to read the latin translation of the Hobbit by early summer. I am also doing German on the side. My wife found me Grimm's Fairy Tales and my eventual goal is to read that but I don't have a timeline for that
Are you using LLPSI? I'm finding it amazing!
I would recommend you to read "telugu" novels and literature which is regional language
I can and do read in French. But I don't speak it at all (I can buy me a loaf of bread in a boulangerie). I speak Italian and this is why I understand French so well.
شكرا جزيلا لك ❤❤❤❤
This is so funny! 🤣3:07
Steve, which is more important. when learning a language: listening or reading?
I heard many Japanese people are good at learning languages. However, due to proximity it’s more popular or in demand for the them to learn a Korean and Mandarin Chinese whereas in North America other than English it’s more in demand to Learn French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese to an extent.
I doubt that
An important question... Like when I listen to a podcast and then read it to identify new words and refer to other content, is this a good method and “Is translating terms into the mother tongue good or bad!?”
Not only good but inevitable
Tysm steve... I used lingQ It is insanely effective, so I was wondering at this point. It was causing me doubts. Thank you. I will continue @@Thelinguist
Hi Sir Steve good weekend for you
Hi Steph we learnt too much from your TH-cam channel thank you ''''How is your Arabic
On the back burner right now
I think it is very hard to read a book from cover to cover without a previous knowkedge of at least 80% of the words unless it is one that you have read already in your mother language
I learned english read games dialogues and trying to understand the game's plot. I should do the same to learn japanese, so the first thing i'll do is learn the japanese alphabets. Knowing the alphabet, i will be able to read anything in japanese, even if i don't understand what is written, but i might learn little by little like i did with english.
Can't believe that i only thought about it now.
Unfortunately learning to read Japanese is a ridiculously long and difficult process.
شكرا لك ❤❤
How many times should i read the content or listen to it to absorbe it fully
As many times as you enjoy doing so. When you lose interest you should stop
Ótimo!
I disagree with you Steve. I read a few languages well but speaking I am 1 or 2 levels below. When you read, you have visual cues that help you recognize and understand words, and you can take your time to process them. In contrast, speaking is more immediate and dynamic; it requires you to actively retrieve vocabulary, apply grammar rules in real time, and structure sentences on the spot-all while maintaining a natural flow of conversation.
Yes you need to develop these language habits. I usually make sure I can get the audio book for any book I am reading. Really prepares me for speaking.
There are a few I semi-regularly watch movies and videos in, yet I can't hold a conversation to save my life.
You are right. You will always be a level below what you read. So the KEY is to try to read as high as possible, thereby pulling up your own speaking leaving. Right now I can read Russian at A2 level, but speak at only A1. So my goal is to reach B1 in reading, that way my speaking will become A2 😊
I learnt English the same way! But with Percy Jackson fanfics on AO3 haha
Steve, Your beginning to become a polyglot was listening to languages, or what is the other language trick?
Hallo:) I see a problem with German at Linq. Phrasal verbs are not correctly translated. For example, let's take aufstehen, the app only translates stehen, it doesn't see auf at the end of the sentence. Please let me know, if you plan to improve the app.
Separable verbs. LingQ uses AI for a context relevant translation of words, and offers a wide range of 3rd party dictionaries for users to choose from. Yet this may still not capture the two parts of a separated verb. Verbs with prefixes like "ab-", "an-", "auf-", "aus-", "ein-", "mit-", "nach-", "vor-", and "zu-" can be separated from the main verb stem when conjugating in a sentence.I find I get used to noticing them after a while. LingQ also has automatic tags for such verbs showing potential combinations. If you look up the verb "schauen" the following tags appear. Check it out. You can also save a whole phrase or look at the text in sentence view to get a better sense of the meaning of these verbs when they appear.
abschauen
anschauen
ausschauen
dazuschauen
durchschauen
hinwegschauen
nachschauen
präsens
reinschauen
umschauen
vorbeischauen
wir
zuschauen
I wish that you were my grandfather😢
Taken
Oof the rejection. 😂
It's okay, pick up a book, eventually you'll find that reading will make you feel better.
內容很棒
Is it ok to learn more than one language at a time?
Yes if you are motivated to do so.
Steve you should learn Vietnamese next! 🇻🇳
I’m an intermediate in French, any original French book recommendations?
My problem with the books, I found, I can't really get interested in the history.
B2 level is an ability to read novel without dictionary? I disagree
It is a minimum. So my point was that the average English level in Tokyo is not B2
@@Thelinguist "War and Peace" is novel too. If you can read it without a dictionary and know every word I dont think the level of reader is B2, It's something between C1 and C2
@@dufifaYou don't need to look up each word when you read. War and peace is old and difficult text not like the contemporary ones available.
@@a.r.4707 If you dont look up unknown words you dont learn
@dufifa You can still learn if you get them from the context, also it's not necessary to look up each word.
My main focus right now is Russian. I'm still a beginner, but I've jumped straight into native material. I usually don't enjoy graded readers, they're just not for me. I need the real deal, not a overly simplified version of the language. I'm currently on day 13 of intensively reading a novel I found for free on Amazon. It's hard, and I don't know most of the words, but I'm enjoying the process of looking up each word and uncovering more about the story (and the language) as I go. So far, I've collected 376 unique words in just 4 pages lol.
I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of verb aspects now. Most of the time, I don't need more grammar than I already know, and ChatGPT helps me with any unfamiliar grammar that can't be easily understood after a dictionary lookup.
All that said, I'm not out of my mind to start reading "War and Peace" as a beginner 😂
I'm reading a novel made by an amateur native writer.
But where do you even find books that are completely in different languages though? International eBay? Oof those shipping costs...
hi I have a subscription to lingq however there is a size restriction on the site so I can't upload audiobooks what can I do to fix this?
why are you looking at my left ear?
Forgot to say german language i am 77 years old
Reading is the way, but "on paper" is a no-go for me going on 15 years. I love physical books, libraries and book stores... don't love the physical storage, moving them or the environmental up-charge. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you really mean to emphasize the "paper" part of your suggestion at the beginning of the video? Using a tablet and a writing instrument hasn't ever been a problem for me in recent years when directly compared to pen and paper.
Thank you for the video, and all the work you do to help everyone channel their passion for language and culture. ❤
I want to speak English with you in your live
Can I visit you, please?
Gracias profe buen trabajo sin ingles difisel conquistar una Gringa desde bolivia.sofria antes tengo amigos amigas de Estados Unidos y Canada
I got LingQ for Mandarin, and I am sorry to say it is quite bad. Even the most basic lessons are riddled with bugs. They out for I don't know how long, and the quality is still poor. If Mandarin is your aim, look elsewhere.
Master Arabic Pronunciation with Our Unique Map!" Alhamudullah
th-cam.com/video/THqUL6R6bqY/w-d-xo.html
why is this filmed like an alquaeda hostage video
My life gets worse.
what happened with your hair? :0
Time has no mercy
Steve's almost 80 years old, it just happens
It will happen to you
@RodriHernandez-x1w Is already happening (very fast).
There are pills to combat this. They are very cheap. I'm taking for some 2 months, I wish I had taken the initiative before :/
It's part of life, and one day he will not be here with us anymore, unfortunately.
90 percent of words, to read a novel?
Words you can at least guess the meaning?
I think that is *way* too low.
When I read a novel, looking up two or three words per page feels like the sweet spot.
That's so little that you can actually immerse yourself in the story.
4 to 5 is pushing it, that's already a bit uncomfortable.
And beyond that, you're spending more time looking stuff up than reading.
So 98 to 99 percent, more like.
Also, you have to *understand* the words, not just somehow guess it.
For the first few books you read, that's almost impossible.
Better to accept them to be a lot of work and expect it will get better after a few books.
Regardless, you WILL learn new words faster as opposed to rote memorization
Have to disagree with you. I started my first Japanese book with around 30 percent and with enough interest and determination I was able to finish the book and was able to skyrocket my vocab by doing so and reached b2 in 2 years of studying the language. And now after 8 years and many books later, I have near native level ability.
Doing the same thing again in Korean right now.
@user-nm3ug3zq1y
Ahh I see what you’re saying.
Yeah for me I looked up over half of the words on each page at first and I put them into my Anki deck but most people probably don’t have the patience for this as it’s very tedious.. lol.
@@theojpofficial7770, well, as I wrote, for the first few books you hardly have a choice. You only know the words you know and therefore have to fight your way forward.
However, as soon as I have the choice because I reached a certain level, I'd rather read a text of which I understand 98 percent.
In a novel that would be 2-3 words per page, so maybe 1000 per book.
I think, that's quite decent still, and it allows for immersing yourself more deeply in the story.
You have to be a success! You have to be a Muslim!... Islam is a the true and last religion from Allah So don't miss your chance of success....
Hi Sir Steve good weekend for you