From my experiences with Spanish, passing the intermediate plateau simply just requires receiving more input. After learning Spanish for a while and was stuck in the intermediate quicksand, I made it a habit of watching at least 4 hours of spanish videos be it interviews, comedies telenovelas, cortometrajes etc. I did this for a year or so and i realised that it helped all my Spanish skills. I could understand anything in Spanish, speak more natively. You have to receive enough input to grow stronger and break that wall of intermediacy.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been in intermediate purgatory in Spanish for years now and it’s so frustrating. I have to learn the basics of other languages to respark my motivation since Spanish is no longer fun and has become a chore due to slow progress.
It is very easy to think more input is enough to get to the advanced level, however, it is important to note that not every input is stylistically at the same level. So while you certainly develop the skills to feel and possibly even speak naturally within your topics, if you stick to merely everyday topics that use plain vocabulary, you may never get to hear or read more complex phrases, idioms or vocab in general. It may become a problem for some people who get comfrotable just following certain topics and enjoy them in English, such as a favorite sport, cooking, or discussing relationships, but there is not much advanced vocabulary while talking about these simple topics, so for instance someone who follows politics, philosophy or economics and enjoys these topics has an unfair advantage (or you can say to these people that they are uneducated idiots who folow just some bs) over people who don't as they get to learn a lot of advanced vocab which can very well get them to C1 or even C2, while the people who don't enjoy these high level topics stick to the topics they enjoy and never get to cross that barrier. You know how hard it is sometimes to get motivated to do things you don't enjoy. We can of course say people with this attitude really don't want it that bad and they deserve to get stuck, but even some experts say you can only do things effectively in the state of flow, and anywhere else you get to the state of either anxiety or boredom, where it is difficult to do anything effectively.
you're right .....i have b2 level and it's true that I can speak and understand nearly all the conversation but I don't feel that it's anough at all ....c level is important if you want to master the language
@@diariosdelextranjero In general terms, I think understanding TV news in a foreign language is quite difficult, I think it's one of the more difficult skills to acquire.
@@diariosdelextranjero The certificates allow a lot of immigrants to go to the country, and the same don't can have a job because they don't know the language.
@@luckyluckydog123 TV news is less difficult than some TV series/movies. I think a B2-level learner would understand most news and SOME TV shows and some OF some movies...on the upper echelons of C1 it's when one understands MOST input and yet not all. An advanced C1 would understand pretty much everything or almost everything. A C2 understands everything and has complete mastery of the language. This level requires a profound immersion in the language of many years. That's how I see it.
Positive mental attitude is everything IMO. I struggled to escape the plateau because I was always anxious and afraid of making errors. I think if that's not addressed then a person will never achieve a high level.
I'm learning only my second language. I'm probably at an elementary / A2 level but I'm improving every day. I haven't hit the plateau point yet, but I can totally understand how people become complacent at the B2 level. They've probably learnt 90% of the language and can now use it functionally.
I felt king of freaked when you talked about the reason why people are stuck in the fluent level, Luca. Because I AM one of those who feel comfortable being at this level, so haven't been making effort to breakthrough the wall of it. This video reminds me that and the level I want to acquire. I'm looking forward to the next video, and thank you for motivating me.
That's so true, the things that were useful back when I had a B1 level in English now are just too simple. It's always important to get input which is slightly above your current level. Great video, I'm looking to seeing the second part of it. Bye!
Reading novels would be a great way to excel. Thanks Luca I am improving my French every day . by speaking it. and repeating sentences. soon I will began to attempt book lesson again. I am learning faster and more words because I am capturing the sentences and not just one word at a time. :) Progress.
Luca it is clear that you have a lot of experience and knowledge in this topic. With that said, I find that you can greatly improve the quality of your videos by sticking to the point, being precise and most of all concise. For instance in this 7 minute video all I have learned about "How to Overcome the Intermediate Plateau" is that one must change his attitude. I simply cannot find this kind of delivery competitive. I hope you will consider some adjustments, because I truely see your potentital!
Jim completely agree with you. He basically started talking on the main theme at 5:03. I'm a huge admirer of Luca but sometimes, he can beat around the bush a little too much in his videos
I think that you all missed the point, the subject of these videos are problems, in this particular one the problem is that people can't pass from the B levels to the C ones, and if you have a problem, to solve them you have to identify what is causing them, to do so it's good to start defining things, he even said that, he talked about his definitions of fluency and proficiency, because once you have that done you can see more clearly in which box you are in, and the problem becomes more precise, that way you can make a better strategy (another thing mentioned in the video). The first part of the video is the most important, where he's basically (like that proverb says) teaching you how to fish, you can't expect a fish each day for the rest of your life. It's for that technical approach that I like to watch his videos, there's not always an ultimate answer in language learning, but he does make a lot of effort to handle it as a science, it always depends on the person's situation and that's a lot of variables, and it's for that same reason that his way of helping is the best you can get, it's adaptable.
Ashley Taylor I went to university for Portuguese over 20 years ago. Got a minor in it. I read Portuguese afterward and wrote the vocabulary in the book. For reading it took me about 4 to 5 years, including in school, to get to about B1 or higher. My health and the fact that I didn't have a computer for years kept me from progressing. Speaking at almost a B1 or higher level, just took my background in the university and reading afterwards for about a year or two on my own, and speaking with Brazilians for 2 years. So, it might be B2 in speaking and listening now, and it in total took about 6 years, 7 years; the reading and writing in that time is about a C1. A second foreign language, as I've heard from several, takes significantly less time and is significantly easier. Best of luck! Which language are you working on?
This is how you can be sure the guy knows his stuffs, when he is able to put in words exactely what a lot of us actualy feels concerning the language learning process, watching this video it was like, hearing my own conscience explaining why I am stuck at the B2 level in French..rs Thanks dude, I was almost giving up to reach the top of the mountain (c1\c2), and getting too much confortable..but now I'll definitely will finish this endeavor..lol.
I've watched a few of your videos and your advise on learning languages is spot on. I got to the similar conclusions after learning English for 16 years living in the UK and I have to say your advise on how to approach a language learning process is priceless and you are so right saying that at some point people become comfortable with what they know and they get stuck. This happened to me and I could also observe it among my friends. BTW I watched the video of you speaking Polish and I couldn't make myself believe it. The pronunciation and accent just brilliant and very fluent and spontaneous conversation with a Polish native speaker. Dzięki za to że dzielisz się swoją wiedzą i zebranym przez lata doświadczeniem z nami. Pozdrawiam trzymaj się i życzę Ci by twój kanał odniósł wielki sukces bo moim zdaniem na to zasługuje Panie Luca
same here. Before this video I haven't never heard of that term Plateau and now I know that it exists and what my problem is. Because I ve been learning German for years and get stuck at B2 C1 levels. I can understand mostly conversations and interviews but to express the same ideas with my own words will be difficult for me. And when you know your problem you will find the way to overcome it. Its just a matter of time.
I’ve been learning German for a little over two years now, and feel like I’m gonna hit this soon. I feel like I could be B2 currently, since I’ve taken a couple practice tests online and gotten that result, can understand the majority of news articles, and can understand “Der Richter und sein Henker” fairly easily, and am pretty conversant with my language partner, but I struggle still with understanding interviews in German as well as with German tv shows. It’s hard to tell though. I practice every day by both reviewing what I once learned on Duolingo and Busuu, and by practicing new words on Lingoda, quizlet, as well as by reading and listening to podcasts on the way to work. I feel like I’m doing the right things, but it is still frustrating
I learn German too and I prefer to practice with more difficult sources, that's how I improve drastically. Search for articles from newspapers in German and then do summaries of them or say your opinion. You can highlight the most important words and phrases (especially phrases or chunks, not single words) and then write your summary using these new words. It helps me a lot and makes my Texts look more fancy. However the problem for me is that I'd like to memorize them. I believe the more you use the words the better they'll get stuck in your head and you'll use them more often for other writing activities.
Ćao duže, šanse su da si zapravo lošiji nego što misliš. Izvini. Znam to jer sam radio zvaničan test znanja engleskog i na nivou sam b2. Pa sudeći po tome rekao bih da si negde nivou b1 što se tiče nemačkog. Jer b2 treba znači da razumeš maltene sve i da možeš da gledaš TV i muziku bez problema ali da se mučiš sa sitnicama. B2 je mnogo sličan sa C1. Ali svakako nastavi da se trudiš. Imaćeš mnogo bolje ponude u poslovnom svetu. Ja sam negde na A1 s Nemačkim inače. Pozdrav
You know I've been learning English for almost ten years but I have a feeling that I'm stuck at intermediate level and can't go further unfortunately. And i don't know what to do next. I'm upset with it
@Skeptical Slim Im currently studying english and despite doing everything you said, I still feel stagnated. I really don't know what I suppose to do...:( I tried to memorise meaning of the words to improve vocabulary(which turned out to be utter waste of time),I wrote several diaries in english, I've watched millions of english youtube videos without subtitle(and didn't have any problem understanding for most of the time) but none of them seemed to work..
@Skeptical Slim Well, nearly perfect English, yes. I noticed 15 mistakes just at a first glance, and I'm no grammar expert. I don't say this to point out her flaws, but to illustrate that perhaps she has a different understanding of proficiency than you.
@Skeptical Slim agreed. The message is definitely clear. But if one's goal is to sound native, then I think it's fair to say there is room for improvement. G.P.Kim doesn't say what his/her specific goals are, so I can't be certain. His/her English is good, no doubt about that. But there are some people who are never satisfied with a B and will always strive for an A. That's ok, too.
G.P. Kim to be honest your english seems fine to me if you didn’t say in your comment that you have been learning i would just think you were a native to not plateau you should read challenging books or just challenge yourself in general
As a native English speaker it's so encouraging to see all the progress everyone in the comments is making. Wenn es nur genau so mit meinem Deutsch gehen würde.
Thank you so much for posting! I've been struggling to reach proficiency in my target language for over a year now; I'm very excited for your next video/article!
Thank you thank you, this will be extremely helpful for me! I've definitely been 'stuck' in the lower intermediate level for a while now...it will be interesting to hear some strategies to help overcome this
Thanks for your video 🙏 I’ve been learning English by myself for 2 years exactly. When I started I knew only “how are you” “my name is”... before fall 2018 I was making a lot of progress, but now it seems like I stopped in the level I have now. I am going to get your advice, because my main goal is to be like a native speaker in English so that people would think I am from the North America.
Basically, I've been stuck at C1 for ages, advanced but not proficient. I've been attending an english school for years and share a textchat with friends of mine(from whom I learn soooo many words, expressions, sentences and terms) and with whom I interact and practice the language daily. I'm keeping studying pieces of vocabulary, lexicoon, phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions day in and day out, but the upper C1 peak(max C2 beginner) is the sky for me. I attended a C2 course and was awarded a C2 certificate sitting for a final exam, but I don't have that level by any means. It was a sheer fluke, pure stroke of luck. I ain't C2 at all. I should be approximately C1, I'm capable of communicating and interacting with everyone going through some mistakes at times, but making use of a decent range of words, vocabulary and idiomatic expressionns, and in addiction I record very long audios to friends in which I run 5/10 mins of monologues speaking continuously and reiteratively in english fluently and putting on display a broad enough vocabulary. But on the other hand I'm nowhere near proficiency, I'm miles behind. The C2 books have taught me too much, but by the same token I'm not able to communicate as eloquently as you to make an example, I'm fluent but not super elegant. A lady friend of mine has impressive skills and she's able to express herself in a very smart and smooth way sizing up her opinion about everything in a breathtaking manner, she also mentions a huge quantity of synonyms in the writing and speaking, she's on the cusp of upper C2(or at least she's mid C2, so I refer to sth in the middle in between C1 and proficiency) and she's never travelled nor applied for any private school, super talented, I wish I spoke english like her. I chat with her daily and speak to her once a 2/3 weeks through a phone call, she's been making me explore tha language in its more subtle nuances and making me discover an impressive portion of new general lexicoon. I make the most of our interactions improving that much and have my english comeover skyrocket courtesy of her. She's too skilled and has to take advantage of this enormous potential(which it's not for everyone) to reach the very top, translated into full proficiency, cos it takes her the bare minimum work and very little time and practice to come so far. Pursuiting this goal, she's really on track to master the language like you in leaps and bounds, so in a very short period of time, very very soon. Lucky her, I ain't as talented as her by a countrymile. She's not certified as a level, but I assess she's between upper C1 and upper C2 nowadays, this stastement originates from my experience in evaluating the outcome of people talking to them. Regarding me, I maybe should be exposed more to the language through journeys abroad, embarking trips to England or in the nearby, living foreigner adventures. I get by in the writing area cos I'm producing a methodical study of words, phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions. In the meantime I've reached satisfactory outcomes in the speaking too, I've the incline of reiterating the same words a lot even if I've a satisfactory kwoledge of terms and synosyms, I'm sometimes able to exploit majoriy of my vocabulary and scan, address and say many expressions. Concerning the listening phase, I watch stuff on Internet day in day out and fathom circa 80% of a video's content without subtitles as an average. Sometimes I figure out 60%/70% if the speaker sort of pronounces words way too fast and showing a peculiar and weird and intonation, and around 90/95% in the circumstances in which the person who've uploaded the video is laid back, relaxed and calm in speaking. cannot deal with videos whose topics are unfamiliar for me, or better I figure out the meaning and the story, but not like a native would do. So if I were a true C2, I'd get the whole context of videos, or at least 90% in the fast ones and 100% in the slow ones. When it comes to grammar, I make errors every now and then, mostly due to lack of concentration and due to unfocusment, but I'm on point setting apart every lackluster situations that occur every now and then. Moreover, I've to admit that I should be more careful cos I speak and write super nimble, super fast, super quick and don't see the silly mistakes. Furthemore, I suppose that C1 represents my plateau, my peak and I ain't able to overcome that boundary in spite of the fact that I've been trying for 5/6 years. Stuck in a rut, going nowhere fast. Moving on, I must confess and admit that I'm daub and horrendous at reading, regardless of the fact that I can fulfill the tasks and accomplish the missions pointed out by you in the video where you addressed ''a fluent reader can relax simple texts and newspapers having to check the dictionary every now and then to discover new terms'' and that's enough for me. Talking about ''holding a lecture, or a conference'' it depends, if the topic was releted to football or coped with football, I'd be able to hold it, otherwise I'd struggle to stomach sth difficult and unknown for me. Feel in place and realized with fluency, I've the dream and the goal to reach proficiency one day, chasing this target. What could your tip be? Your suggestion to overcome the limit and come to the stars alongside travelling more(given I've never visited any away countries)? My mindset is prepared enough, I spend 2/3 h per day studying english involving speaking, listening, writing and memorizing/revising expressions 😚😙☺ sorry for the enormous lenght of the message, and for the inevitable errors and mistakes made. Dunno whether patience to read all this stuff is worthwhile 🙂😆
@Muimfeè thanks for your kindness and compliments, I strognly appreciate them and feel proud to be classified as a competent speaker by people like you. As for your issue, keep up like this, push and believe in yourself. You'll reach a long way higher outcome than intermediate through hard work, commitment and dedication. Never give in and back down.
Glad that the whole "Intermediate Plateau" turned out to be a thing and not my own personal problem. It's something I've been struggling with in German for the past few weeks. I can understand most native spoken/written German, but when I try to write something, it just doesn't click in. The sentences I write end up either being too B1-ish or too long, complicated, and clunky they don't sound native at all.
Yeah... b2 is the comfort zone. It's where i'm right now and things are pretty good, I can watch tv shows w/o subtitles having very little trouble and most things on youtube, like this vid, is now super easy to understand. But i still struggle with music and reading books. I lack confidence on my speaking too * sigh* Portuguese as first language here.
I heard your Russian, Luca. It's impressive.. And your pronunciation is good. Lots of people who learn Russian struggle with the Russian pronunciation. Of course you have an accent, but it's not a huge accent. I hope you will get rid of that accent soon. It's a big pleasure to see foreigners speak Russian with no accent. It's rare. But you almost did it. And I am willing to see you speak Russian with no accent.
I have been stuck in upper intermediate in Mandarin since I graduated high school LOL I could go onto watch a bunch of shows etc. but I'm now focused on Portuguese so when you want to get past intermediate is totally up to you! I find that with learning languages there is no where to go but up, you don't usually unlearn what you already know.
Luca, you brought up an excellent point regarding the enjoyment of the language being conducive to complacency. I'll be actively searching for ways to get out of these comfort zones. Rather insightful video! Grazie!
The first time i watched a video of you was with mathew in babbel's chanel. i got shocked i admire you a lot. i've been studying french and english for a while and i hope one day im able to speak well as many languages as you do. thanks for your videos they have helped me a lot.
Beta Vulgaris are you a native speaker? I’m a native English speaker, born and raised in the United States, and his American accent is basically perfect.
Yes i am and no it's not. He's very clearly not a native speaker of English. As i' ve said, i'm not bashing him - he is very, very, very good at English. Better than a lot of natives. His accent is terrific. It's just not native. Nowhere close.
Yes he does. I don't know linguistic terms but for instance listen to the first time he says 'language learning'. He doesn't sound like a native English speaker.
When I graduated from the University of Michigan, I know I was at least a B1 level in Russian. But now I am forgetting everything . So I almost have to start at the beginning again. My memory seems to be improving, however.
The plateau where you got this word sounds beautiful. In the disease there are the words crisis, i.e. the rise of the disease, the decline of the disease and remission, weakening or decrease. Those. the process of movement of disease or recovery. Plateau geographical designation (fr. Plateau, from plat - "flat") - an elevated plain with a flat or wavy, weakly divided surface, bounded by distinct ledges from the neighboring plain spaces of the earth's surface. The plateau does not have movement because it is a plane. displacement due to the shift of tectonic plates. We are constantly on it on the plateau. It does not rise and fall. I did not understand. What does medicine and geography do. There is a name stable remission. Reconvalescence is a recovery process. normal life of the body after an illness. Stable (lat. Equilibrium) state of health. Have not tried to repeat the textbook of geography the geographic society can sue you for illegal use of the geographic designation of the plateau
Thanks for this video! I was looking for the struggles people have when they reach their intermediate plateau and what motivation help them to break through. Today I found myself at intermediate plateau in my art journey so now I'm researching the theme. And by the way. As for Russian speaker I was really surprised to know that you are studying it. Despite the fact that Russian is my native language I still think it is quite hard. And requires quite amount of effort to learn it.
Merci Luca pour ces renseignements. Je me mets toujours des objectives, étudier un cours de théologie en français, écrire un thèse en français, faire du porte à porte pour un politicien municipal pendant les élections...écrire chaque jour mon quotidien en français, changer les paramètres de mon téléphone intelligent ainsi que TH-cam, faire des dictées en français, porter un dictionnaire par tout et le lire comme un roman...Je veux finir le biographe Papillon et un jour, oui, je vais lire Stendhal Le Rouge et Le Noir ainsi que Molière.
“Ofen” and “often” depends on your accent... in some places in England, a “t” in the middle isn’t pronounced in some words, but becomes a soft h sound or pause in the word. For example, the town Luton is pronounced by its inhabitants as Lewh-on. Or lewh-un. However pronouncing the t is more correct, academically. Lewht-on/loot-on/lew-tun. (And definitely not “luhtton” which is what i heard on american so called expert call it in a news article a few years back.)
Hey Luca, proof positive that you are a C2 in English is when you said that "literally "you hit a wall in language learning which is technically impossible but a technical mistake that the majority of English speakers make. This is not a criticism, it just seems like a great example of how naturally you speak English. Thanks for the great pointers on how to get to the next level. I'm working on a language called Iu Mien there are very few resources to learn the language, I mostly learn from native friends. Right now I am probably at a B2 and desperately want to get to C1. Looks like no one's commented on this video for about a year but just know that some of us out here are still finding great value in it. Keep it up and thanks.
You show the learning curve graph but it's not consistent from language to language. Some languages like German are difficult in the early stages but get much easier after that. Then there's English which is easy in the beginning but gets much harder at the advanced stages. This has a lot to do with the adjective set, verb tenses, spelling, the volume of vocabulary actually used, adjective stacking rules, the idiomatic nature of the language and more. I know lots of people that as you say plateau in english around a B1-B2. Few really cross to the C1 level. Whereas, Getting to B2 in German isna chore but the climb from B2 to C1 in German isn't that difficult. The verb tenses in spoken German are very simple once youmlearn which are sein and which are haben verbs. Simple past is almost exclusively written. Word play is nowhere near as prevalent in German. Germans tend to say the same things and say them the same way. Furthermore, Germans are reticent (to speak). So, a native speaker of German doesn't have the same command of their own languge that English speakers do. Germans generally act like they get charged by the word and mostly communicate with clicks, grunts, whistles, pointing etc. The whole "Germans don't like small talk" really equates to Germans dont lime to talk at all and therefore don't develop the same language skills. Even in school, talking isn't a skill thats fostered. It's actually shunned for leise (quiet). My son has gone to several schools. There's no show and tell, no answering questions, no oral reports, no debate classes, no rhetoric lessons, no spontaneous class discussions. This all gives way to quiet study alone with books. And therefore, Germans just don't develop language skills. This was different in the past...distant past. This can be extended to music where people actually have to get permission from the neighbors in apartment buildings for the kids to have piano lessons and theres strict timing from say 3:00 - 3:30. And it reflects on the society. Once upon a time, Germany produced Goethe, Faust, Bach, Beethoven etc. Today, they contribute a negligble amount to world culture as they sit quietly doing engineering. The UK with a much smaller population has a much greater influence on culture from music to TV to movies. There is no German Monty Python or Beatles or Stones or Queen or Who or Kinks... In the last 60 years they've produced Kraftwerk, Rammstein, some heavy metal and a lot of dreck like Heino, Helena Fischer and Schlager music. Their kids' shows are abysmal. Die Biene Maya is about as good as it gets and it's mind control propaganda. It isn't even subtle. She's a bee that doesn't conform to the collective and that's bad. She's not a good worker bee. Compare that with Octonauts and other great British kid's shows. And America and other countries can still make fun shows without a moral or lesson being mandated. Phone as and Verb, Zig and Sharko (French), Adventure Land and virtually everything are far better than German kid's shows. And German kid's shows are full of profanity! The one thing they learn is how to swear. So, if you can grunt, swear and point, you've hit C1 in German. Sure that's an exaggeration but the point I'm making is true.
Some mixed metaphors here. A plateau is clearly not when the slope becomes to steep, but rather when it levels out, the opposite of becoming too steep; and whilst metaphorically one can hit a wall it sounds odd when the broader metaphor is so alpine, one might find a cliff or a sheer cliff one has to surmount but not a wall.
I like and agree with most of what you said, but I believe knowing 5000 words is a pretty low bard to set (at least in the case of Japanese). I currently know well over 10.000 words and don't feel like I'm fluent at all, much less proficient. Native speakers know close to 40.000 words, so there's still work to be done, and that's not even mentioning the grammar and writing system. Now, if we're talking about a language like Spanish, 5000 words is quite a lot and can get you to fluency if you are an English speaker.
Just as a matter of interest, how does one count how many words one knows? Go through a dictionary saying, I know that one, don't know that one, know that one etc etc? Or obtain vocabulary lists of the most frequent 1000, 3000, 5000 words etc?
@@richardblackhound1246 Well, what I do is I have a program called Anki where I store all my vocab and just look at the amount of words marked as "mature" which gives a pretty accurate estimate based on your learning on the program. If you don't use Anki, you can just make an educated guess based on how much you struggle when reading a book, for example.
Everytime I listen to people speak about fluency, I rarely hear them speak about the need to translate the second language back into their first language. I know the thing holding me back right now is not operating exclusively in the language that I am learning.
According to your definition I'm proficient in Russian. My writing is my weakest skill. It's more like B2 level. I struggle a bit with modern comedy shows in Russian. But I can read most anything and understand basically all films.
If a person is able to understand this video, what level do you think she/he is in? Always when I take an online english test I get A1/2 level, but I am able to understand a lot of people, natives talking to natives..
I know a little more than 10 000 words in english and i'm still B2. If i read a book , especially the descriptive ones , i really struggle. And also there's a lot of idiomatics expression in english...
My listening is alright, it's real B2,I have a problem with vocabulary,I think I'm gonna stuck at B2 level for a while,level C sentences are too difficult. Maybe, I'll upgrade that later while I'm working with people.
Caro Luca ho capito bene che hai detto mi trovo in una " comfort zone" imparando l'italiano e non posso aspettare la seconda parte per favore🙏sbrigati!!
Hey in English we say "I can't wait", which literally translated is "non posso aspettare" so well done! But in Italian one says "non vedo l'ora" (I can't see the hour)
I'm stuck at the beginner stage in learning Portuguese. I've been learning many words and how to structure sentences and even making sentences of my own. But I can't understand anything when I listen to a native speaker. Even when I try to read, there's tons of words that I don't know and I feel like I'm not learning as fast as I was a few months ago.
You should try to listen to all the multiple accents other Portuguese countries have instead of sticking to one particular one and then find the one the one that is easier for you to understand or that you like then focus on that accent by watching youtube video’s or movies from that country. I recommend Angola. Angolan accent is between Portugal accent and Brazil accent. It’s very clear and slow.
Bom dia Luca, meu nome é Elias, moro no Brasil e acompanho seu trabalho tanto no youtube como no seu blog há algum tempo. Minha maior dificuldade hoje é justamente ter um método de aprendizado. Atualmente estou estudando inglês por conta própria e com ajuda dos seus vídeos aqui e de outros poliglotas mas confesso que ficar procurando por dicas de vários poliglotas está me atrapalhando e causando muita ansiedade e por esse motivo decidi focar apenas nos seus ensinamentos. Meu objetivo de vida é imigrar para o Canadá mas primeiro preciso passar na prova do IELTS. Recentemente comprei um curso preparatório para o IELTS mas me sinto um pouco perdido no aprendizado e em como eu posso mensurar minha evolução. Já tenho o hábito de assistir seus vídeos sem legenda e também já assisto filmes e séries com legenda em inglês para melhorar meu vocabulário. Estou juntando dinheiro para comprar seu curso e poder aprender a aprender não só o inglês como várias línguas. Quais estratégias você me recomenda para desenvolver um método de aprendizado mais eficiente?
Elias, você conseguiu atingir seus objetivos com o inglês e o plano de se mudar pro Canadá? Eu também estou estudando inglês com o mesmo objetivo, e depois que pegar o Avançado pretendo começar o Francês (sem largar o Inglês é claro), mesmo que não vá pra província de QUEBEC.
@@PatriciaAlves-rx4hr Olá, boa noite! Eu comprei o curso do Luca para poder ter uma metodologia de forma mais organizada. Que legal que você também pretende ir para o Canadá. Para qual província você pretende ir? Eu também estou estudando francês aos pouquinhos, pois não quero me sobrecarregar, até porque já tenho o IELTS para estudar, coisas do trabalho e outros cursos que estou fazendo também. Como está seu speaking? Caso queira, a gente pode depois trocar experiências de estudos, será um prazer ajudá-la! Grande abraço!
@@eliasdasilva4490 Estou entre ir pra Montreal e Vancouver. Meu speaking está "Ok"... Tô no nível upper intermediate de inglês, então resumindo, ainda cometo diversos erros gramaticas e preciso pegar mais vocabulário, mas já consigo me comunicar de forma razoável.
Yes, I'm a native English speaker. My target language is Māori (New Zealand). I'm an inexperienced new language learner, so I've been adapting my methodology on the fly based on watching videos such as this. You may scoff at my progress, but at least I'm moving forward and doing a little bit everyday without getting discouraged.
I think your progress is great (unless you learn for 8 hours a day). Everyone views the beginner/intermediate/advanced somewhat differently. My rule of thumb is if you learn for ~10 hours a week, you can get to B1 in one year, B2 in 2, C1 in 4, C2 in 8... (for some languages the times can be halved or doubled); it is usually easier to spend more time in the language as you get better so you may get to C2 faster, but in my opinion you need to read ton of books and listen to a lot of content to move beyond intermediate content. It takes so much time, till you pick up the rarer words that spice up the language.
Hola chicos saludos a todos, soy nativo del español, estoy estudiando inglés y creo que me encuentro en un B1, escalando y buscando alcanzar un C1. Como se que si estáis viendo este vídeo debéis estar muy entendidos de la metodología del aprendizaje y de práctica de los idiomas. Entonces mi propuesta es si alguno de vosotros está en un B1 o B2 de español y quiere subir el nivel y está buscando muchas horas de conversación entonces podemos hacer un intercambio, por supuesto yo ando buscan intercambio con el inglés, quedo muy atento.
I can read (nearly) any book or understand any speaker in my target language, but when I try to speak I feel r*tarded, even though I've had several people think I'm pretending to be a non-native speaker.
Do you have advice on how to acquire books written in the target language? I feel, not being in Europe for example makes it tougher to acquire some books in other languages.
Trafalgar I personally find eBay quite good for this. If you go to the target languages version of ebay, you can then find the book that you want. After that change the url to your country and buy it if they ship it to you.
Trafalgar look at ebay, amazon dowloads, free online videos/text (bbc is in every language, tunein radio lets you listen to radio anywhere). there are also an inumerable amounts of books on amazon, even with shipping, used books in foreign languages are quite cheap
Judging from your video I can assume I can consider myself as a C1 listener. I can watch just fine something about astrophysics or watch a movie and understand 98-99% percent. I can't consider myself a C1 reader because I find at least 5 unknown words per page while reading some classics taking into account that novels have around 300 pages it makes 1500 unknown words already. Well, my speaking I guess isn't C1 either I wouldn't be able to hold a lecture but so in my native language as well. Usually what I can say in my NL I can say in English. Am I a C1 writer? Probably not
first of all in Cambridge test they give me A2 in other test also too good They give me B2 I don't know my level right now for that motive but I cosidere B2 because I able to speak with other people also talk in English and speak a bunch of phrases and world already But I need I think learn more grammar how you can see in that little text I'm typing have a lot of error and I have some days to make a progress because I need do English test for College and I trying apply for it Is my dream do college abroad(and i had other things in mind)
Hello, how to determine your level in english? I tend to think that i am not training a lot, i would like to reach advanced level, but it seems to me obstacle and i am feeling stuck.
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From my experiences with Spanish, passing the intermediate plateau simply just requires receiving more input. After learning Spanish for a while and was stuck in the intermediate quicksand, I made it a habit of watching at least 4 hours of spanish videos be it interviews, comedies telenovelas, cortometrajes etc. I did this for a year or so and i realised that it helped all my Spanish skills. I could understand anything in Spanish, speak more natively. You have to receive enough input to grow stronger and break that wall of intermediacy.
Good point, I can say with English, the only way to improve is practising every single day and never give up. There are no shortcuts in this process.
Let's see if you have learnt spanis,h what does this mean " Mamaguebo" :V
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been in intermediate purgatory in Spanish for years now and it’s so frustrating. I have to learn the basics of other languages to respark my motivation since Spanish is no longer fun and has become a chore due to slow progress.
It is very easy to think more input is enough to get to the advanced level, however, it is important to note that not every input is stylistically at the same level. So while you certainly develop the skills to feel and possibly even speak naturally within your topics, if you stick to merely everyday topics that use plain vocabulary, you may never get to hear or read more complex phrases, idioms or vocab in general. It may become a problem for some people who get comfrotable just following certain topics and enjoy them in English, such as a favorite sport, cooking, or discussing relationships, but there is not much advanced vocabulary while talking about these simple topics, so for instance someone who follows politics, philosophy or economics and enjoys these topics has an unfair advantage (or you can say to these people that they are uneducated idiots who folow just some bs) over people who don't as they get to learn a lot of advanced vocab which can very well get them to C1 or even C2, while the people who don't enjoy these high level topics stick to the topics they enjoy and never get to cross that barrier. You know how hard it is sometimes to get motivated to do things you don't enjoy. We can of course say people with this attitude really don't want it that bad and they deserve to get stuck, but even some experts say you can only do things effectively in the state of flow, and anywhere else you get to the state of either anxiety or boredom, where it is difficult to do anything effectively.
@@kitosake8248 jajajajajajajajja
you're right .....i have b2 level and it's true that I can speak and understand nearly all the conversation but I don't feel that it's anough at all ....c level is important if you want to master the language
nadji dz how long did it take to get to b2?
Hmm. I feel the same way. I have trouble listening to spanish speakers when they mention technical terms. 😞
Can't wait for part II. I find getting to C1 in reading is a lot easier for me than getting to that in speaking, listening, or writing.
The B2 plateau is real. I was unable to understand the news in Spanish even at this level.
You just need more input, (a whole lot of input).
Sorry, but if you didn't understand news, you were not at B2
@@axelcarvalho2661 The certificate said otherwise.
@@diariosdelextranjero In general terms, I think understanding TV news in a foreign language is quite difficult, I think it's one of the more difficult skills to acquire.
@@diariosdelextranjero The certificates allow a lot of immigrants to go to the country, and the same don't can have a job because they don't know the language.
@@luckyluckydog123 TV news is less difficult than some TV series/movies. I think a B2-level learner would understand most news and SOME TV shows and some OF some movies...on the upper echelons of C1 it's when one understands MOST input and yet not all. An advanced C1 would understand pretty much everything or almost everything. A C2 understands everything and has complete mastery of the language. This level requires a profound immersion in the language of many years. That's how I see it.
Positive mental attitude is everything IMO. I struggled to escape the plateau because I was always anxious and afraid of making errors. I think if that's not addressed then a person will never achieve a high level.
I'm learning only my second language. I'm probably at an elementary / A2 level but I'm improving every day. I haven't hit the plateau point yet, but I can totally understand how people become complacent at the B2 level. They've probably learnt 90% of the language and can now use it functionally.
Starts at 5:10
thanks
Oh thank you, you saved me from alot of ....
Thanks
@@Hellomaricedd wow, you are gorgeous
You guys miss the point by shortcutting
I felt king of freaked when you talked about the reason why people are stuck in the fluent level, Luca. Because I AM one of those who feel comfortable being at this level, so haven't been making effort to breakthrough the wall of it.
This video reminds me that and the level I want to acquire.
I'm looking forward to the next video, and thank you for motivating me.
That's so true, the things that were useful back when I had a B1 level in English now are just too simple. It's always important to get input which is slightly above your current level. Great video, I'm looking to seeing the second part of it. Bye!
I'm from Russia! It was such a surprise to hear that you learned my native language 😎
Reading novels would be a great way to excel. Thanks Luca I am improving my French every day . by speaking it. and repeating sentences. soon I will began to attempt book lesson again. I am learning faster and more words because I am capturing the sentences and not just one word at a time. :) Progress.
Luca it is clear that you have a lot of experience and knowledge in this topic. With that said, I find that you can greatly improve the quality of your videos by sticking to the point, being precise and most of all concise.
For instance in this 7 minute video all I have learned about "How to Overcome the Intermediate Plateau" is that one must change his attitude. I simply cannot find this kind of delivery competitive. I hope you will consider some adjustments, because I truely see your potentital!
Jim - Well, 489 of us and counting enjoyed it! :)~
Jim I agree. I think this could have been condenses down to a couple minutes, or even as a brief intro to the main video
Jim completely agree with you. He basically started talking on the main theme at 5:03. I'm a huge admirer of Luca but sometimes, he can beat around the bush a little too much in his videos
He likes to speak :D
I think that you all missed the point, the subject of these videos are problems, in this particular one the problem is that people can't pass from the B levels to the C ones, and if you have a problem, to solve them you have to identify what is causing them, to do so it's good to start defining things, he even said that, he talked about his definitions of fluency and proficiency, because once you have that done you can see more clearly in which box you are in, and the problem becomes more precise, that way you can make a better strategy (another thing mentioned in the video). The first part of the video is the most important, where he's basically (like that proverb says) teaching you how to fish, you can't expect a fish each day for the rest of your life.
It's for that technical approach that I like to watch his videos, there's not always an ultimate answer in language learning, but he does make a lot of effort to handle it as a science, it always depends on the person's situation and that's a lot of variables, and it's for that same reason that his way of helping is the best you can get, it's adaptable.
I'm almost C1. Portuguese. I didn't know some vocabulary on the test. It's great!!
Mr. Luca, your English is Excellent!!
Aquarian Christianity how long did it take to get to c1?
Ashley Taylor I went to university for Portuguese over 20 years ago. Got a minor in it. I read Portuguese afterward and wrote the vocabulary in the book. For reading it took me about 4 to 5 years, including in school, to get to about B1 or higher. My health and the fact that I didn't have a computer for years kept me from progressing. Speaking at almost a B1 or higher level, just took my background in the university and reading afterwards for about a year or two on my own, and speaking with Brazilians for 2 years. So, it might be B2 in speaking and listening now, and it in total took about 6 years, 7 years; the reading and writing in that time is about a C1. A second foreign language, as I've heard from several, takes significantly less time and is significantly easier. Best of luck! Which language are you working on?
Aquarian Christianity
Respect for your effort man! That's real dedication
This is how you can be sure the guy knows his stuffs, when he is able to put in words exactely what a lot of us actualy feels concerning the language learning process, watching this video it was like, hearing my own conscience explaining why I am stuck at the B2 level in French..rs Thanks dude, I was almost giving up to reach the top of the mountain (c1\c2), and getting too much confortable..but now I'll definitely will finish this endeavor..lol.
I've watched a few of your videos and your advise on learning languages is spot on. I got to the similar conclusions after learning English for 16 years living in the UK and I have to say your advise on how to approach a language learning process is priceless and you are so right saying that at some point people become comfortable with what they know and they get stuck. This happened to me and I could also observe it among my friends. BTW I watched the video of you speaking Polish and I couldn't make myself believe it. The pronunciation and accent just brilliant and very fluent and spontaneous conversation with a Polish native speaker. Dzięki za to że dzielisz się swoją wiedzą i zebranym przez lata doświadczeniem z nami. Pozdrawiam trzymaj się i życzę Ci by twój kanał odniósł wielki sukces bo moim zdaniem na to zasługuje Panie Luca
same here. Before this video I haven't never heard of that term Plateau and now I know that it exists and what my problem is. Because I ve been learning German for years and get stuck at B2 C1 levels. I can understand mostly conversations and interviews but to express the same ideas with my own words will be difficult for me.
And when you know your problem you will find the way to overcome it. Its just a matter of time.
I’ve been learning German for a little over two years now, and feel like I’m gonna hit this soon. I feel like I could be B2 currently, since I’ve taken a couple practice tests online and gotten that result, can understand the majority of news articles, and can understand “Der Richter und sein Henker” fairly easily, and am pretty conversant with my language partner, but I struggle still with understanding interviews in German as well as with German tv shows. It’s hard to tell though. I practice every day by both reviewing what I once learned on Duolingo and Busuu, and by practicing new words on Lingoda, quizlet, as well as by reading and listening to podcasts on the way to work. I feel like I’m doing the right things, but it is still frustrating
I learn German too and I prefer to practice with more difficult sources, that's how I improve drastically. Search for articles from newspapers in German and then do summaries of them or say your opinion. You can highlight the most important words and phrases (especially phrases or chunks, not single words) and then write your summary using these new words. It helps me a lot and makes my Texts look more fancy. However the problem for me is that I'd like to memorize them. I believe the more you use the words the better they'll get stuck in your head and you'll use them more often for other writing activities.
@@marcelam.8752 I loved your comment, I want to improve my writing skills but I didn't know how. Really useful, thanks!
Ćao duže, šanse su da si zapravo lošiji nego što misliš. Izvini. Znam to jer sam radio zvaničan test znanja engleskog i na nivou sam b2. Pa sudeći po tome rekao bih da si negde nivou b1 što se tiče nemačkog. Jer b2 treba znači da razumeš maltene sve i da možeš da gledaš TV i muziku bez problema ali da se mučiš sa sitnicama. B2 je mnogo sličan sa C1. Ali svakako nastavi da se trudiš. Imaćeš mnogo bolje ponude u poslovnom svetu. Ja sam negde na A1 s Nemačkim inače. Pozdrav
I can help you as I am german. In exchange you could help me to hone my english skills :)
You know I've been learning English for almost ten years but I have a feeling that I'm stuck at intermediate level and can't go further unfortunately. And i don't know what to do next. I'm upset with it
@Skeptical Slim Im currently studying english and despite doing everything you said, I still feel stagnated.
I really don't know what I suppose to do...:(
I tried to memorise meaning of the words to improve vocabulary(which turned out to be utter waste of time),I wrote several diaries in english, I've watched millions of english youtube videos without subtitle(and didn't have any problem understanding for most of the time) but none of them seemed to work..
@Skeptical Slim Well, nearly perfect English, yes. I noticed 15 mistakes just at a first glance, and I'm no grammar expert. I don't say this to point out her flaws, but to illustrate that perhaps she has a different understanding of proficiency than you.
@Skeptical Slim agreed. The message is definitely clear. But if one's goal is to sound native, then I think it's fair to say there is room for improvement. G.P.Kim doesn't say what his/her specific goals are, so I can't be certain. His/her English is good, no doubt about that. But there are some people who are never satisfied with a B and will always strive for an A. That's ok, too.
G.P. Kim to be honest your english seems fine to me if you didn’t say in your comment that you have been learning i would just think you were a native to not plateau you should read challenging books or just challenge yourself in general
Your written English is terrific. Good job 👍
As a native English speaker it's so encouraging to see all the progress everyone in the comments is making. Wenn es nur genau so mit meinem Deutsch gehen würde.
Thank you so much for posting! I've been struggling to reach proficiency in my target language for over a year now; I'm very excited for your next video/article!
Khalid El-Shabazz keep at it buddy :)
Thank you thank you, this will be extremely helpful for me! I've definitely been 'stuck' in the lower intermediate level for a while now...it will be interesting to hear some strategies to help overcome this
From your definition, I think I'm already at C level in reading, writing and listening, but sadly not speaking...
Thanks for your video 🙏 I’ve been learning English by myself for 2 years exactly. When I started I knew only “how are you” “my name is”... before fall 2018 I was making a lot of progress, but now it seems like I stopped in the level I have now. I am going to get your advice, because my main goal is to be like a native speaker in English so that people would think I am from the North America.
how is your english now?
Спасибо большое, Luca! Благодаря твоим видео и методике я улучшил английский и начал учить итальянский!
как дела у тебя сейчас?
Basically, I've been stuck at C1 for ages, advanced but not proficient. I've been attending an english school for years and share a textchat with friends of mine(from whom I learn soooo many words, expressions, sentences and terms) and with whom I interact and practice the language daily. I'm keeping studying pieces of vocabulary, lexicoon, phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions day in and day out, but the upper C1 peak(max C2 beginner) is the sky for me. I attended a C2 course and was awarded a C2 certificate sitting for a final exam, but I don't have that level by any means. It was a sheer fluke, pure stroke of luck. I ain't C2 at all. I should be approximately C1, I'm capable of communicating and interacting with everyone going through some mistakes at times, but making use of a decent range of words, vocabulary and idiomatic expressionns, and in addiction I record very long audios to friends in which I run 5/10 mins of monologues speaking continuously and reiteratively in english fluently and putting on display a broad enough vocabulary. But on the other hand I'm nowhere near proficiency, I'm miles behind. The C2 books have taught me too much, but by the same token I'm not able to communicate as eloquently as you to make an example, I'm fluent but not super elegant. A lady friend of mine has impressive skills and she's able to express herself in a very smart and smooth way sizing up her opinion about everything in a breathtaking manner, she also mentions a huge quantity of synonyms in the writing and speaking, she's on the cusp of upper C2(or at least she's mid C2, so I refer to sth in the middle in between C1 and proficiency) and she's never travelled nor applied for any private school, super talented, I wish I spoke english like her. I chat with her daily and speak to her once a 2/3 weeks through a phone call, she's been making me explore tha language in its more subtle nuances and making me discover an impressive portion of new general lexicoon. I make the most of our interactions improving that much and have my english comeover skyrocket courtesy of her. She's too skilled and has to take advantage of this enormous potential(which it's not for everyone) to reach the very top, translated into full proficiency, cos it takes her the bare minimum work and very little time and practice to come so far. Pursuiting this goal, she's really on track to master the language like you in leaps and bounds, so in a very short period of time, very very soon. Lucky her, I ain't as talented as her by a countrymile. She's not certified as a level, but I assess she's between upper C1 and upper C2 nowadays, this stastement originates from my experience in evaluating the outcome of people talking to them. Regarding me, I maybe should be exposed more to the language through journeys abroad, embarking trips to England or in the nearby, living foreigner adventures. I get by in the writing area cos I'm producing a methodical study of words, phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions. In the meantime I've reached satisfactory outcomes in the speaking too, I've the incline of reiterating the same words a lot even if I've a satisfactory kwoledge of terms and synosyms, I'm sometimes able to exploit majoriy of my vocabulary and scan, address and say many expressions. Concerning the listening phase, I watch stuff on Internet day in day out and fathom circa 80% of a video's content without subtitles as an average. Sometimes I figure out 60%/70% if the speaker sort of pronounces words way too fast and showing a peculiar and weird and intonation, and around 90/95% in the circumstances in which the person who've uploaded the video is laid back, relaxed and calm in speaking. cannot deal with videos whose topics are unfamiliar for me, or better I figure out the meaning and the story, but not like a native would do. So if I were a true C2, I'd get the whole context of videos, or at least 90% in the fast ones and 100% in the slow ones. When it comes to grammar, I make errors every now and then, mostly due to lack of concentration and due to unfocusment, but I'm on point setting apart every lackluster situations that occur every now and then. Moreover, I've to admit that I should be more careful cos I speak and write super nimble, super fast, super quick and don't see the silly mistakes. Furthemore, I suppose that C1 represents my plateau, my peak and I ain't able to overcome that boundary in spite of the fact that I've been trying for 5/6 years. Stuck in a rut, going nowhere fast. Moving on, I must confess and admit that I'm daub and horrendous at reading, regardless of the fact that I can fulfill the tasks and accomplish the missions pointed out by you in the video where you addressed ''a fluent reader can relax simple texts and newspapers having to check the dictionary every now and then to discover new terms'' and that's enough for me. Talking about ''holding a lecture, or a conference'' it depends, if the topic was releted to football or coped with football, I'd be able to hold it, otherwise I'd struggle to stomach sth difficult and unknown for me. Feel in place and realized with fluency, I've the dream and the goal to reach proficiency one day, chasing this target. What could your tip be? Your suggestion to overcome the limit and come to the stars alongside travelling more(given I've never visited any away countries)? My mindset is prepared enough, I spend 2/3 h per day studying english involving speaking, listening, writing and memorizing/revising expressions 😚😙☺ sorry for the enormous lenght of the message, and for the inevitable errors and mistakes made. Dunno whether patience to read all this stuff is worthwhile 🙂😆
@Muimfeè thanks for your kindness and compliments, I strognly appreciate them and feel proud to be classified as a competent speaker by people like you.
As for your issue, keep up like this, push and believe in yourself. You'll reach a long way higher outcome than intermediate through hard work, commitment and dedication. Never give in and back down.
I liked your comments bc it was very long
Glad that the whole "Intermediate Plateau" turned out to be a thing and not my own personal problem. It's something I've been struggling with in German for the past few weeks. I can understand most native spoken/written German, but when I try to write something, it just doesn't click in. The sentences I write end up either being too B1-ish or too long, complicated, and clunky they don't sound native at all.
Yeah... b2 is the comfort zone. It's where i'm right now and things are pretty good, I can watch tv shows w/o subtitles having very little trouble and most things on youtube, like this vid, is now super easy to understand.
But i still struggle with music and reading books. I lack confidence on my speaking too * sigh*
Portuguese as first language here.
Very helpful, thanks
Video begins at 5:08
I heard your Russian, Luca. It's impressive.. And your pronunciation is good. Lots of people who learn Russian struggle with the Russian pronunciation. Of course you have an accent, but it's not a huge accent. I hope you will get rid of that accent soon. It's a big pleasure to see foreigners speak Russian with no accent. It's rare. But you almost did it. And I am willing to see you speak Russian with no accent.
I have been stuck in upper intermediate in Mandarin since I graduated high school LOL I could go onto watch a bunch of shows etc. but I'm now focused on Portuguese so when you want to get past intermediate is totally up to you! I find that with learning languages there is no where to go but up, you don't usually unlearn what you already know.
Muito feliz que você esteja aprendendo português.
Luca, you brought up an excellent point regarding the enjoyment of the language being conducive to complacency. I'll be actively searching for ways to get out of these comfort zones. Rather insightful video! Grazie!
The first time i watched a video of you was with mathew in babbel's chanel. i got shocked i admire you a lot. i've been studying french and english for a while and i hope one day im able to speak well as many languages as you do. thanks for your videos they have helped me a lot.
Luca, you literally sound like a native English speaker. Good job!
No he doesn't. He's very, very, very comfortable in English and has a superb accent but he's clearly not native.
Beta Vulgaris are you a native speaker? I’m a native English speaker, born and raised in the United States, and his American accent is basically perfect.
Beta Vulgaris he doesn’t sound any different than the bulk of the English speakers in the northern United States.
Yes i am and no it's not. He's very clearly not a native speaker of English. As i' ve said, i'm not bashing him - he is very, very, very good at English. Better than a lot of natives. His accent is terrific. It's just not native. Nowhere close.
Yes he does. I don't know linguistic terms but for instance listen to the first time he says 'language learning'. He doesn't sound like a native English speaker.
I couldn't agree more with the "being comfortable" part 😅
I used to like to see Lucas messy room like in this video, very relatable haha. Now the videos seems everything so perfect. Peace!!
When I graduated from the University of Michigan, I know I was at least a B1 level in Russian. But now I am forgetting everything . So I almost have to start at the beginning again. My memory seems to be improving, however.
I bet you 'll pick it up quickly, same was with my Polish, but I recalled really fast
Ты учишь русский а я английский, это так классно что люди интересуются новыми языками чтобы расширять свой кругозор!
Perfect insights ! We should keep walk but have to change the way of practicing the language, Great matter.
The plateau where you got this word sounds beautiful. In the disease there are the words crisis, i.e. the rise of the disease, the decline of the disease and remission, weakening or decrease. Those. the process of movement of disease or recovery. Plateau geographical designation (fr. Plateau, from plat - "flat") - an elevated plain with a flat or wavy, weakly divided surface, bounded by distinct ledges from the neighboring plain spaces of the earth's surface. The plateau does not have movement because it is a plane. displacement due to the shift of tectonic plates. We are constantly on it on the plateau. It does not rise and fall. I did not understand. What does medicine and geography do. There is a name stable remission. Reconvalescence is a recovery process. normal life of the body after an illness. Stable (lat. Equilibrium) state of health. Have not tried to repeat the textbook of geography
the geographic society can sue you for illegal use of the geographic designation of the plateau
"literally hit a wall"? That sounds painful.
Yeah, you got the message ...
When will you release the second video?
Where is the second video? Is it up yet?
Не могу дождаться!
Thanks for this video! I was looking for the struggles people have when they reach their intermediate plateau and what motivation help them to break through. Today I found myself at intermediate plateau in my art journey so now I'm researching the theme.
And by the way. As for Russian speaker I was really surprised to know that you are studying it. Despite the fact that Russian is my native language I still think it is quite hard. And requires quite amount of effort to learn it.
thank you luca for the videos! i am an intermediate spanish speaker and i need to increase my fluency.
Thank you so much for your advice Luca!
Thank you! I'm so glad that you have finally brought up this topic
Grande Luca, dopo ogni tuo video mi sento ispirato!
Nice comparison of a mountain with C1 level. I`m looking forward for the next part.
Merci Luca pour ces renseignements. Je me mets toujours des objectives, étudier un cours de théologie en français, écrire un thèse en français, faire du porte à porte pour un politicien municipal pendant les élections...écrire chaque jour mon quotidien en français, changer les paramètres de mon téléphone intelligent ainsi que TH-cam, faire des dictées en français, porter un dictionnaire par tout et le lire comme un roman...Je veux finir le biographe Papillon et un jour, oui, je vais lire Stendhal Le Rouge et Le Noir ainsi que Molière.
Thanks for the great video. Your point about comfort level is well taken.
I was about to give up. But i hope to improve.
Hi, any tips for moving from B1 to B2? I feel I've been stuck here for months!
Find a teacher or use effortless English on your own
Галина ооо thanks but I’m not learning English. I’m learning Hindi but I still feel I’m between B1 and B2 and can’t really understand films? Thanks
@@andrewfaulds6438 oh, I see
I find your analogies to be really good.
Once again Thank you Luca for the motivation
Kind regards from Colombia
"often" - I thought pronunciation is "ofen"?
Can someone help me with this confusion?
That's right
“Ofen” and “often” depends on your accent... in some places in England, a “t” in the middle isn’t pronounced in some words, but becomes a soft h sound or pause in the word. For example, the town Luton is pronounced by its inhabitants as Lewh-on. Or lewh-un. However pronouncing the t is more correct, academically. Lewht-on/loot-on/lew-tun. (And definitely not “luhtton” which is what i heard on american so called expert call it in a news article a few years back.)
@@Tiggermk4 Thank you.
Doesn’t matter. Both ways are correct and common. Just depends on your regional accent.
Hey Luca, proof positive that you are a C2 in English is when you said that "literally "you hit a wall in language learning which is technically impossible but a technical mistake that the majority of English speakers make. This is not a criticism, it just seems like a great example of how naturally you speak English. Thanks for the great pointers on how to get to the next level. I'm working on a language called Iu Mien there are very few resources to learn the language, I mostly learn from native friends. Right now I am probably at a B2 and desperately want to get to C1. Looks like no one's commented on this video for about a year but just know that some of us out here are still finding great value in it. Keep it up and thanks.
Logo Ventures honestly
Uh, what is the critisism exactly? That he used the word 'literally?' I don't understand.
Thanks for your videos. Looking forward to watch the next video.
You show the learning curve graph but it's not consistent from language to language. Some languages like German are difficult in the early stages but get much easier after that.
Then there's English which is easy in the beginning but gets much harder at the advanced stages. This has a lot to do with the adjective set, verb tenses, spelling, the volume of vocabulary actually used, adjective stacking rules, the idiomatic nature of the language and more.
I know lots of people that as you say plateau in english around a B1-B2. Few really cross to the C1 level. Whereas, Getting to B2 in German isna chore but the climb from B2 to C1 in German isn't that difficult.
The verb tenses in spoken German are very simple once youmlearn which are sein and which are haben verbs. Simple past is almost exclusively written. Word play is nowhere near as prevalent in German. Germans tend to say the same things and say them the same way. Furthermore, Germans are reticent (to speak). So, a native speaker of German doesn't have the same command of their own languge that English speakers do. Germans generally act like they get charged by the word and mostly communicate with clicks, grunts, whistles, pointing etc.
The whole "Germans don't like small talk" really equates to Germans dont lime to talk at all and therefore don't develop the same language skills.
Even in school, talking isn't a skill thats fostered. It's actually shunned for leise (quiet). My son has gone to several schools. There's no show and tell, no answering questions, no oral reports, no debate classes, no rhetoric lessons, no spontaneous class discussions. This all gives way to quiet study alone with books. And therefore, Germans just don't develop language skills. This was different in the past...distant past.
This can be extended to music where people actually have to get permission from the neighbors in apartment buildings for the kids to have piano lessons and theres strict timing from say 3:00 - 3:30.
And it reflects on the society. Once upon a time, Germany produced Goethe, Faust, Bach, Beethoven etc. Today, they contribute a negligble amount to world culture as they sit quietly doing engineering.
The UK with a much smaller population has a much greater influence on culture from music to TV to movies. There is no German Monty Python or Beatles or Stones or Queen or Who or Kinks... In the last 60 years they've produced Kraftwerk, Rammstein, some heavy metal and a lot of dreck like Heino, Helena Fischer and Schlager music.
Their kids' shows are abysmal. Die Biene Maya is about as good as it gets and it's mind control propaganda. It isn't even subtle. She's a bee that doesn't conform to the collective and that's bad. She's not a good worker bee.
Compare that with Octonauts and other great British kid's shows. And America and other countries can still make fun shows without a moral or lesson being mandated. Phone as and Verb, Zig and Sharko (French), Adventure Land and virtually everything are far better than German kid's shows. And German kid's shows are full of profanity! The one thing they learn is how to swear.
So, if you can grunt, swear and point, you've hit C1 in German. Sure that's an exaggeration but the point I'm making is true.
Some mixed metaphors here. A plateau is clearly not when the slope becomes to steep, but rather when it levels out, the opposite of becoming too steep; and whilst metaphorically one can hit a wall it sounds odd when the broader metaphor is so alpine, one might find a cliff or a sheer cliff one has to surmount but not a wall.
Tim Amor the plateau is so steep that it has a wall that you "literally hit". This is no doubt extremely painful.
Hi, when you are gonna upload the next one
I like and agree with most of what you said, but I believe knowing 5000 words is a pretty low bard to set (at least in the case of Japanese). I currently know well over 10.000 words and don't feel like I'm fluent at all, much less proficient. Native speakers know close to 40.000 words, so there's still work to be done, and that's not even mentioning the grammar and writing system.
Now, if we're talking about a language like Spanish, 5000 words is quite a lot and can get you to fluency if you are an English speaker.
Just as a matter of interest, how does one count how many words one knows? Go through a dictionary saying, I know that one, don't know that one, know that one etc etc? Or obtain vocabulary lists of the most frequent 1000, 3000, 5000 words etc?
@@richardblackhound1246 Well, what I do is I have a program called Anki where I store all my vocab and just look at the amount of words marked as "mature" which gives a pretty accurate estimate based on your learning on the program.
If you don't use Anki, you can just make an educated guess based on how much you struggle when reading a book, for example.
@@Aadrian7 Ah, I see. I'll look into Anki, thanks for the reply and the tips!
Thanks for posting such a useful learning material.
The plateau happened to me many years ago with Italian.
did you get over the plateau
I'm looking forward to the next video.
Everytime I listen to people speak about fluency, I rarely hear them speak about the need to translate the second language back into their first language. I know the thing holding me back right now is not operating exclusively in the language that I am learning.
Great video, I'm a bit anxious for the next one!
According to your definition I'm proficient in Russian. My writing is my weakest skill. It's more like B2 level. I struggle a bit with modern comedy shows in Russian. But I can read most anything and understand basically all films.
If a person is able to understand this video, what level do you think she/he is in? Always when I take an online english test I get A1/2 level, but I am able to understand a lot of people, natives talking to natives..
I know a little more than 10 000 words in english and i'm still B2. If i read a book , especially the descriptive ones , i really struggle. And also there's a lot of idiomatics expression in english...
My listening is alright, it's real B2,I have a problem with vocabulary,I think I'm gonna stuck at B2 level for a while,level C sentences are too difficult. Maybe, I'll upgrade that later while I'm working with people.
Caro Luca ho capito bene che hai detto mi trovo in una " comfort zone" imparando l'italiano e non posso aspettare la seconda parte per favore🙏sbrigati!!
Hey in English we say "I can't wait", which literally translated is "non posso aspettare" so well done! But in Italian one says "non vedo l'ora" (I can't see the hour)
@reggie kemp Fai attenzione! Non vedo l'ora significa "I can't wait"
Can't wait for the next video!
I've been waiting for this video for soooo long :) Good job!
Thanks Luca! I'm certainly looking forward to your next video 😉
I'm stuck at the beginner stage in learning Portuguese. I've been learning many words and how to structure sentences and even making sentences of my own. But I can't understand anything when I listen to a native speaker. Even when I try to read, there's tons of words that I don't know and I feel like I'm not learning as fast as I was a few months ago.
You should try to listen to all the multiple accents other Portuguese countries have instead of sticking to one particular one and then find the one the one that is easier for you to understand or that you like then focus on that accent by watching youtube video’s or movies from that country. I recommend Angola. Angolan accent is between Portugal accent and Brazil accent. It’s very clear and slow.
I have got good vocabulary plus I listened a lot but still I don't know how to progress.what to do to get out of it do suggest something
Very helpful video, thank You Luca
When he said about Russia I was like WHOA cause I'm Russian and that was unexpected for me :)
Bom dia Luca, meu nome é Elias, moro no Brasil e acompanho seu trabalho tanto no youtube como no seu blog há algum tempo. Minha maior dificuldade hoje é justamente ter um método de aprendizado. Atualmente estou estudando inglês por conta própria e com ajuda dos seus vídeos aqui e de outros poliglotas mas confesso que ficar procurando por dicas de vários poliglotas está me atrapalhando e causando muita ansiedade e por esse motivo decidi focar apenas nos seus ensinamentos. Meu objetivo de vida é imigrar para o Canadá mas primeiro preciso passar na prova do IELTS. Recentemente comprei um curso preparatório para o IELTS mas me sinto um pouco perdido no aprendizado e em como eu posso mensurar minha evolução. Já tenho o hábito de assistir seus vídeos sem legenda e também já assisto filmes e séries com legenda em inglês para melhorar meu vocabulário. Estou juntando dinheiro para comprar seu curso e poder aprender a aprender não só o inglês como várias línguas. Quais estratégias você me recomenda para desenvolver um método de aprendizado mais eficiente?
Elias, você conseguiu atingir seus objetivos com o inglês e o plano de se mudar pro Canadá? Eu também estou estudando inglês com o mesmo objetivo, e depois que pegar o Avançado pretendo começar o Francês (sem largar o Inglês é claro), mesmo que não vá pra província de QUEBEC.
@@PatriciaAlves-rx4hr Olá, boa noite! Eu comprei o curso do Luca para poder ter uma metodologia de forma mais organizada. Que legal que você também pretende ir para o Canadá. Para qual província você pretende ir? Eu também estou estudando francês aos pouquinhos, pois não quero me sobrecarregar, até porque já tenho o IELTS para estudar, coisas do trabalho e outros cursos que estou fazendo também. Como está seu speaking? Caso queira, a gente pode depois trocar experiências de estudos, será um prazer ajudá-la! Grande abraço!
@@eliasdasilva4490 Estou entre ir pra Montreal e Vancouver. Meu speaking está "Ok"... Tô no nível upper intermediate de inglês, então resumindo, ainda cometo diversos erros gramaticas e preciso pegar mais vocabulário, mas já consigo me comunicar de forma razoável.
Now my level is intermediate how many hours I need to reach advance?
Excellent video Luca, though I've never heard of "steep plateaus" before ;-))
Yes, exactly!!!
The thumbnail image for this video is wrong. It actually shows the opposite of a plateau!
Ioannis Bookwormoglu 0
How do you know how many words you know?
Luca is the man!
I've been busting my ass in my target language for a year, and I haven't even reached B1 yet. LOL
Tehui how is that possible tf?
I'm close. I'm probably B1 with my reading & writing, but I would put my listening comprehension & speaking at a A2 level.
Tehui What’s your target language? Assuming your native is English
Yes, I'm a native English speaker. My target language is Māori (New Zealand). I'm an inexperienced new language learner, so I've been adapting my methodology on the fly based on watching videos such as this. You may scoff at my progress, but at least I'm moving forward and doing a little bit everyday without getting discouraged.
I think your progress is great (unless you learn for 8 hours a day). Everyone views the beginner/intermediate/advanced somewhat differently.
My rule of thumb is if you learn for ~10 hours a week, you can get to B1 in one year, B2 in 2, C1 in 4, C2 in 8... (for some languages the times can be halved or doubled); it is usually easier to spend more time in the language as you get better so you may get to C2 faster, but in my opinion you need to read ton of books and listen to a lot of content to move beyond intermediate content. It takes so much time, till you pick up the rarer words that spice up the language.
Лол, я изучаю английский и тут узнаю, что ты изучаешь русский
Классс :)
Good job
Hola chicos saludos a todos, soy nativo del español, estoy estudiando inglés y creo que me encuentro en un B1, escalando y buscando alcanzar un C1. Como se que si estáis viendo este vídeo debéis estar muy entendidos de la metodología del aprendizaje y de práctica de los idiomas. Entonces mi propuesta es si alguno de vosotros está en un B1 o B2 de español y quiere subir el nivel y está buscando muchas horas de conversación entonces podemos hacer un intercambio, por supuesto yo ando buscan intercambio con el inglés, quedo muy atento.
Necesitas ayudar? Tengo C2 en ingles, y B2 en espanol jaja
I can read (nearly) any book or understand any speaker in my target language, but when I try to speak I feel r*tarded, even though I've had several people think I'm pretending to be a non-native speaker.
omg! I can't wait for the next video!
Do you have advice on how to acquire books written in the target language? I feel, not being in Europe for example makes it tougher to acquire some books in other languages.
Trafalgar I personally find eBay quite good for this. If you go to the target languages version of ebay, you can then find the book that you want. After that change the url to your country and buy it if they ship it to you.
Ebay or Amazon are great.
Thanks guys.
lots of kindle books available, many free
Trafalgar look at ebay, amazon dowloads, free online videos/text (bbc is in every language, tunein radio lets you listen to radio anywhere). there are also an inumerable amounts of books on amazon, even with shipping, used books in foreign languages are quite cheap
Judging from your video I can assume I can consider myself as a C1 listener. I can watch just fine something about astrophysics or watch a movie and understand 98-99% percent. I can't consider myself a C1 reader because I find at least 5 unknown words per page while reading some classics taking into account that novels have around 300 pages it makes 1500 unknown words already. Well, my speaking I guess isn't C1 either I wouldn't be able to hold a lecture but so in my native language as well. Usually what I can say in my NL I can say in English. Am I a C1 writer? Probably not
first of all in Cambridge test they give me A2 in other test also too good They give me B2 I don't know my level right now for that motive but I cosidere B2 because I able to speak with other people also talk in English and speak a bunch of phrases and world already But I need I think learn more grammar how you can see in that little text I'm typing have a lot of error and I have some days to make a progress because I need do English test for College and I trying apply for it Is my dream do college abroad(and i had other things in mind)
This was so helpful thank youu Luca
Grazie, molto utile 👍🏻
Hello, how to determine your level in english? I tend to think that i am not training a lot, i would like to reach advanced level, but it seems to me obstacle and i am feeling stuck.
Thank you
Luca, how long do you think it takes to reach a C level in English, for example, from an A level?
You speak english better than some natives