I will be offering many new classes and sessions in my virtual academy as of January 2024, so if you enjoy learning from my videos, please explore these: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ And keep up-to-date by subscribing to my monthly newsletter: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/
One of my favorite activities lately is reading while listening to audio books. there are some high quality Japanese audio books out there (mainly targeted for young adults) that have full casts of voice actors, not just a solo narrator.
I don't know about sources for Japanese audiobooks, but Robbie may well, and if he does not, he could easily find out, so why not ask him? I'm not sure if he will read these comments, so if you look at the last video I did with him, there is a link to his channel there.
@@MisterM2402 I shared a link yesterday, but apparently TH-cam deleted my comment. anyway, google: Tatsumoto Ren website. In the Resources section, scroll down and you'll find the audio books. the book I'm reading is part of a fantasy series: ロードス島戦記灰色の魔女. there are other books with good quality voice acting like: 千歳くんはラムネ瓶のなか. I didn't have the patience to sift through them all.
I loved this video! Lots of valuable advice. I recognized some of the steps I already apply (because reading great literature in its original language is my main driver for language learning) but also some new things I'd like to test. Please keep on making this sort of videos where you give tips on how to achieve / improve polyliteracy.
This was a nice overview. Reading English text while listening to Finnish audio helped me get over the gap from textbooks to general blog and news articles and to read easy readers more easily. It also really makes me slow down reading. I finally read all of the Lord of the Rings doing this and the process was just incredibly enjoyable. It was also fascinating that the Finnish helped me understand some more obscure English words like names of equipment or succor (of which I always forget the meaning). I also noticed an improvement in my general listening comprehension from this one book that was maybe 20 hrs? Finnish has an amazing thing called Selkokirja, which is its own genre of fiction and nonfiction for adults and includes abridged, simplified books of popular modern works. It's wonderful and much better than the usual graded reader.
Thank you for confirming the value of listening to audio in the target language while reading a translation. And thank you for the reference to Selkokirja, which I have not heard of before.
Love watching these videos. I found one of the best methods for me was one that I found while in France. I was studying abroad for a summer and had bought a few books by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese writer who has a distinctly clear style, and was putting each word I didn’t know into Anki. What I found was that both Murakami and his translator into French had an idiolect that led to there being words which repeated decently often, along with constructions. By the end of the book (it was 400-500 pages I think), I could read it comfortably. I also wouldnt put each and every word into Anki. I had a frequency list I could search them in, and anything less common than the top 30,000 words I didn’t save, but kept the definition in mind. I found this really helpful. However, I was also at the point where I could mostly talk about anything in french with relative comfort, so not the same for someone just starting out.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Indeed, an author's idiolect makes reading several works by one person really valuable for assimilating their vocabulary range.
Thank you so much for this video, Professor! It was lovely to listen to you and Robbie. For the 3rd stage I would add not just history books but also books on science or other scholarly subjects, but only if you are studying a closely related language or a new language from a familiar group, as scholarly vocabulary can often be very similar in these languages (though I would imagine that for say Hindi and Urdu the scholarly vocabulary would in fact be different owing to the histories of those languages). And I do love using multiple languages in my studies at the same time but it's very hard to find the right material in my target languages.
I got some hindi urdu bilingual children books, but besides that it is really hard to find good and interesting bilingual texts in this language pair (teach one from the other does exist, and also dictionaries, but a proper side by side version of something I like not really so far)
Professor, would you share the link to the silver bullet post? I tried the one that's showing up in your browser, but it's not working. Amazing video, as always.
The manuscript of the "Path of the Polyglot" is in much better shape since I used it as the notes for a lecture course in my academy this past year. If a publisher were to ask me for a sample now now, I would have something to show them, but I am not ready to approach them just yet. I will repeat that lecture course starting in January for those who might be interested in getting a theoretical framework for how to approach a long-term language-learning project systematically. The feedback I get from the students in this class really helps me polish the delivery of the ideas I have in the book.
Sorry, no, I don't remember as it is not something I have saved, but just something I looked up online one day to show Robbie how easily he could read this register of Catalan with his knowledge of Spanish and general language learning experience.
@@ProfASAr Ok, thanks. I understand this was just a reading comprehension test, but it has the potential risk of leading beginners to assume Catalan pronunciation might not be so different from that of Spanish, which as you know is not at all the case.
I do not want to be rude, but I have never heard Alexander speak any of the languages that he claims to have studied. Can anyone tell me where I can find vids where he actually speaks Arabic or German or…?
Thanks for replying professor. It would be learning Russian with a native language of English. Ok that is helpful advice, thank you; I was trying to pick a good CEFR level to begin the bilingual book phase.
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I will be offering many new classes and sessions in my virtual academy as of January 2024, so if you enjoy learning from my videos, please explore these: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ And keep up-to-date by subscribing to my monthly newsletter: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/
Thanks for having me on, Professor Arguelles!
You are very welcome, Robbie, thank you for being there!
One of my favorite activities lately is reading while listening to audio books. there are some high quality Japanese audio books out there (mainly targeted for young adults) that have full casts of voice actors, not just a solo narrator.
Can you share where you usually find audiobooks. I know audible has some, but I’d be curious if there are other places to look.
Seconding Ryan, could you share some?
Hopefully you can share some recommendations, they sound good
I don't know about sources for Japanese audiobooks, but Robbie may well, and if he does not, he could easily find out, so why not ask him? I'm not sure if he will read these comments, so if you look at the last video I did with him, there is a link to his channel there.
@@MisterM2402 I shared a link yesterday, but apparently TH-cam deleted my comment. anyway, google: Tatsumoto Ren website. In the Resources section, scroll down and you'll find the audio books. the book I'm reading is part of a fantasy series: ロードス島戦記灰色の魔女. there are other books with good quality voice acting like: 千歳くんはラムネ瓶のなか. I didn't have the patience to sift through them all.
I loved this video! Lots of valuable advice. I recognized some of the steps I already apply (because reading great literature in its original language is my main driver for language learning) but also some new things I'd like to test. Please keep on making this sort of videos where you give tips on how to achieve / improve polyliteracy.
Thanks for the appreciation!
This was a nice overview. Reading English text while listening to Finnish audio helped me get over the gap from textbooks to general blog and news articles and to read easy readers more easily. It also really makes me slow down reading. I finally read all of the Lord of the Rings doing this and the process was just incredibly enjoyable. It was also fascinating that the Finnish helped me understand some more obscure English words like names of equipment or succor (of which I always forget the meaning). I also noticed an improvement in my general listening comprehension from this one book that was maybe 20 hrs? Finnish has an amazing thing called Selkokirja, which is its own genre of fiction and nonfiction for adults and includes abridged, simplified books of popular modern works. It's wonderful and much better than the usual graded reader.
Thank you for confirming the value of listening to audio in the target language while reading a translation. And thank you for the reference to Selkokirja, which I have not heard of before.
Love watching these videos. I found one of the best methods for me was one that I found while in France. I was studying abroad for a summer and had bought a few books by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese writer who has a distinctly clear style, and was putting each word I didn’t know into Anki. What I found was that both Murakami and his translator into French had an idiolect that led to there being words which repeated decently often, along with constructions. By the end of the book (it was 400-500 pages I think), I could read it comfortably. I also wouldnt put each and every word into Anki. I had a frequency list I could search them in, and anything less common than the top 30,000 words I didn’t save, but kept the definition in mind. I found this really helpful. However, I was also at the point where I could mostly talk about anything in french with relative comfort, so not the same for someone just starting out.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Indeed, an author's idiolect makes reading several works by one person really valuable for assimilating their vocabulary range.
Thank you so much for this video, Professor! It was lovely to listen to you and Robbie.
For the 3rd stage I would add not just history books but also books on science or other scholarly subjects, but only if you are studying a closely related language or a new language from a familiar group, as scholarly vocabulary can often be very similar in these languages (though I would imagine that for say Hindi and Urdu the scholarly vocabulary would in fact be different owing to the histories of those languages).
And I do love using multiple languages in my studies at the same time but it's very hard to find the right material in my target languages.
Hello Yan! It is always good to hear from you. I hope you are doing well and I look forward to having you in the Academy again sometime soon.
I got some hindi urdu bilingual children books, but besides that it is really hard to find good and interesting bilingual texts in this language pair (teach one from the other does exist, and also dictionaries, but a proper side by side version of something I like not really so far)
This is great. Was just thinking of you today.
Thank you kindly.
Professor, would you share the link to the silver bullet post? I tried the one that's showing up in your browser, but it's not working. Amazing video, as always.
Thank you: how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=245
How's the book going?
The manuscript of the "Path of the Polyglot" is in much better shape since I used it as the notes for a lecture course in my academy this past year. If a publisher were to ask me for a sample now now, I would have something to show them, but I am not ready to approach them just yet. I will repeat that lecture course starting in January for those who might be interested in getting a theoretical framework for how to approach a long-term language-learning project systematically. The feedback I get from the students in this class really helps me polish the delivery of the ideas I have in the book.
@@ProfASAr This must be the only book I anticipate (I mostly read old books).
Could you tell me the title of the "piece on the history of the Catalan language"?
Sorry, no, I don't remember as it is not something I have saved, but just something I looked up online one day to show Robbie how easily he could read this register of Catalan with his knowledge of Spanish and general language learning experience.
@@ProfASAr Ok, thanks. I understand this was just a reading comprehension test, but it has the potential risk of leading beginners to assume Catalan pronunciation might not be so different from that of Spanish, which as you know is not at all the case.
I do not want to be rude, but I have never heard Alexander speak any of the languages that he claims to have studied. Can anyone tell me where I can find vids where he actually speaks Arabic or German or…?
Would this process start at B1 level?
Depends on how similar the language is to your own or another you have already learned well, but in general that would be too soon.
Thanks for replying professor.
It would be learning Russian with a native language of English.
Ok that is helpful advice, thank you; I was trying to pick a good CEFR level to begin the bilingual book phase.