To plan to learn a language use ChatGPT to help you build a plan and get you resources. Make sure your prompt is describing correctly which level you want to attain. As I mentioned already before - the best way is the procedural way of learning. This can only be achieved with a human natively speaking person. The best way is to plunge into everyday situations with a native-speaking person, before you know it you will speak and learn the language. So the choice which system you use in your brain determines the way you speak. Declarative learning will never bring the correct accents and pronunciation.
What she first mentioned about the difference in learning a new language for children and adults is the difference in the brain's learning system. You have the declarative system (conscious) and the procedural system (unconscious). In children the procedural system is at its top, weakening by becoming older to give advantage to the declarative system. It is advisable to confront young children with two languages as they will benefit from it later. It does not surprise me that she doesn't really know how neurological learning happens, during my studies not ever a teacher explained to me how to study and what happens in the brain. I asked many teachers to explain me the process - none could and that is astonishing.
This is the method i use. As lazy and fun as possible. I can always pull out a youtube video or textbook if i am curious about learning something more complicated. But, if i just study, it would be unpleasant and i would learn very little. I just do input, in context, at my level or just above.
Only way to be truly fluent in a language is to have close relationships with people that only speak the language you want to learn, may it be personal or professional relationship
Informative and encouraging interview. Just about everyone I’ve known who only speaks English has declared they’re incapable of learning another language. In the next breath, they then proclaim how amazing I must be that I became so fluent in French. And then they ask: How did you do it? My answer is bit by bit, and all the while giving myself the opportunity to learn without stressing over perfection. I recognise I have a gift for languages, but that alone didn’t make me fluent. It merely meant I was able to acquire French more quickly than others. I started learning French at age 15 in school, enjoyed it a lot, did well with it, and pursued an opportunity to live in a French-speaking country at some point. After high school I spent a year in Belgium, followed by four years in Quebec City at university. In both places, I held fast to one principle: minimise the amount of time speaking English, and maximise exposure and practice of French. Over the course of my first six months in Belgium, I became very fluent. In the time after that, it was all about improvement and mastery. Flash forward to today (40 years later) and my French is very nearly as fluent as my native English. That was my goal from the beginning, and therefore my approach was likely quite different from those whose aim is to become decently conversant.
Two recommendations for learning languages, which I applied to really improve my foreign language skills. 1. If there's a book that you know really well because you read it many times in your own language, so that you almost know it by heart, then read that in a foreign language (you need to know the basics first). I have two native tongues, and Spanish was my third (first one learned as a foreign language), which I learned most intensively at school. That was structured learning and I got to an OK level. But where I really upgraded it was when I decided to read the entire Harry Potter series (over 4000 pages in total) in Spanish. For assistance, I also had an electronic scanning translator to help me and where it failed (often) I compared side by side to the original English. 2. Italian was my fifth language (although it's now fourth in terms of my mastery). I first learned the basics from a course I took. But to improve it, I would make a point, whenever I stream a movie, I put subtitles in Italian. That way, as the actors are speaking in English, I see what they're saying in Italian. I managed to improve my Italian to a point when even when the movie had an alien species speaking in a made up language, I was still able to follow it (although I had to freeze the movie to take the time to read it properly). In my last visit to Italy, I got to the point where I now no longer need people to speak in English for me to talk to them. I was able to do just about everything in Italian.
Syntax and rules in language are only useful for teaching purposes. Even an almost completely uneducated person will generally and instinctively use the rules correctly, in their native language, without actually knowing them.
The frequent cuts in this video are very distracting. Could we just listen to your expert without these unnecessary cuts to the host -- back and forth? Pick a view (showing the host or not) and keep it, at least between natural breaks in what the expert is saying. End of rant.
This is a complex subject. My mother tongue is Spanish but I'm a retired teacher of English as a Foreign Language who won a scholarship after finishing my studies at the Instituto Pedagógico de la Universidad de Chile. Then I got two Master´s degrees (one in Linguistics and the other in Audiovisual Communication) at Indiana University. To make a long story short, I have been Director of Studies at a British Insitiute and have taught Phonetics, Grammar and English Language Practice at university level (Teacher Training College). There is nothing wrong with paying attention to Grammar, Phonetics, and so on if you make this meaningful and give systematic training in Phonetics, Vocabulary and Grammar. For example, in order to learn the Simple Present of the verb to Be, it is not enough to learn "I am, you are, he is, etc... Instead, I can say " I am/I'm Juan, I'm from Chile, but I¨m in Argentina now , Where are you from? Are you from Asia? Where' s your country?, etc. etc. This can be followed by a text in genuine English to be used for conversation practice. Of course meaningful dialogues illustrating particular grammar points are also quite useful. Sorry, this is a rather long explanation which you may find boring. Obviously, in my opinion this is the sort of approach which may need to be used to reach a fairly good level.
Great video! What is your experience in hitting almost 300 hours or having 300 hours or more in Dreaming Spanish? A lot of the intermediate videos, I still have a difficult time understanding. Recently, I went back to the super beginner and beginner level because it is easier. According to dreaming Spanish, I am intermediate level, but discouraged because I cannot fully grasp the intermediate videos. Also, what is your opinion in listening to videos that we do not understand most of the time? If we watch videos that is not our level and we understand some stuff, would that still help our input and understanding?
8:30 I feel that. I've been studying Danish for a few years now. There are weird syntax rules that have you shamble the word order depending on what kind of sentence you're making. I've known these rules by heart for a long time now but because I lack speaking practice, I keep forgetting to use them when I should. I have learned them, but I haven't really acquired them.
I don't use dreaming spanish but theres podcasts like cuentame and chill spanish listening practice thats for comprehensible input and while at work its all i listen to
50 yeers ergo i starteed two lurn Ingleesh hand me finks that hat larst i can not ownly speek good but right well as well..A few problems wiv wurds who has moore than threee letterrs but all inn all i are happy.Startting Mandrin sooon.
Why is this a game-changer? What's new here? Every language learner goes through several stages, first you learn the basics of language, the way it works (grammar) and some basic vocabulary. After that you apply it to comprehensible output and comprehensible input. After this initial stage, language learners start to read books, watch movies etc. - everyone does. The memorization done in the first year pays off handsomely.... cause so much INTERESTING material becomes comprehensible. It is like a short cut.
Thanks Matt and Dr. Neubauer - I taught English in South East Asia and now I am learning Italian and find making a youtube channel on the target language helps me push forward to learn a new language. Thanks for you great video.
The read along comprehension stories on youtube have been more helpful to me in learning french and spanish than any tool I have ever used. If I had had them from the beginning, I would easily be fluent by now. It is the same concept that we used as little kids with our native languages: our parents read to us as we read along, sounding out the words. SO helpful in speaking/reading/writing and comprehension of the spoken language! And there are hundreds of them on youtube!
It all sounds true and most of the things I agree with. However, there remains one important question: how to acquire less frequent words. All the process of acquiring vocabulary described in the interview (i.e. when you first meet a new word, from the context you get a vague idea what it means, then every time you meet it, it adds 10-15 percent to your understanding of its meaning etc. etc. until you fully internalize it) it all seems well and good but I am afraid it only applies to really frequently used words (roughly the ones covered by the Oxford 3000 list). They are all quite frequent and you meet them quite often if you listen and read a lot. The key word here is A LOT. Yes, you naturally will acquire them with a lot of practice. But the trouble is that beyond these 3000 or 4000 most frequent words the frequency of other words drops dramatically. And beyond this 'frequency threshold' there are thousands upon thousands of words which are still necessary if one wants to achieve a high level of comprehension and fluency to be able to function in a native speaking environment, but in order to acquire them, one must meet them many times and this gets increasingly difficult the less frequent these words become. One has to read a thick book or listen to hours of audio input a day every day in order to ensure that one meets these less frequent words sufficient number of times to acquire them and even then there is a chance that many of these words will be never met or met so infrequently as to never stick in the memory. So my conclusion is that it is better to study these less frequent words consciously, notice them and learn their meaning, otherwise it might take decades to just pick them up from context.
I'm thinking of trying to offer conversation classes and this is great advice. I would 100% use comprehensible input and teach thngs in context. The only thing I would do different is actually using flashcards but only custom-made as extra help to understand a specific dialogue/story/movie scene etc. Also AI can be a great tool to create content more effciently if you know how to ask for it
Late to this one, Matt-my apologies! Glad to see you’re still getting experts involved in the conversation. I’m learning even the best methods have some room for improvement. It’s also good to hear there’s still no replacement for consistency with time spent in the language. Looking at you, Duolingo!
Then they are asking to do something way beyond your level. Speaking a language shouldn't be guess work, you think it through when you are studying, just like you focus on hearing words and sentences when doing listening comprehension.. After awhile, you don't have to focus and you just hear it without effort.
I speak four languages, and come from a culture and schooling that encourages and supports learning foreign languages. We do have to address the most important aspects of the grammar, as it is the skeleton of a language. Grammar then has to be put into context, and practiced a lot, but we can’t consider it secondary, if we want to get to a high level of knowledge of a language. Do study grammar, please, read, and speak, and listen to songs, sing the songs, if you want to gain fluency.
What works for me is to find the 100 most common words, know the basic rules, and then apply it daily. You need all 3 parts: Common words, rules, and a huge dose of application. I don't think a binary classification helps. Learning it alone is also a waste of time.
A really interesting interview - thanks to you both. I agree with Dr Neubauer about grammar, which I used to regard as very important but I now think that being familiar with common sentence structures is more useful. I also don’t think that flash cards are useful or interesting. But, to be honest, I now see grasping tones as very important when learning Chinese. I know that I will never sound like a native speaker but I have found that speaking with the correct tones is essential if I want to be understood. Thanks again.
Having experienced language instruction for French, Latin, German and Cantonese, I find listening is a far far more important skill to concentrate on than speaking. My experience with learning Spanish here in Ecuador as an ex-pat is thinking about it as a form of singing and listening to Spanish music and singing along with understanding greatly increases your facility in the use of the language. You really need to love the language to learn it. ----that explains why the first things that usually stick with you is how to swear with venom (and delight) in the new language! Once you get a sense of the native rhythms, meter and phrasing and enunciations, only then can you process almost intuitively what is being communicated. Also, total immersion is necessary for quick assimilation, when necessity spurs marvelous linguistic invention . I found arguing over suspiciously smelly tuna at the local fish market with all its bedlam and anarchy advanced my Spanish in 30 minutes more than 300 hours of silly "Learn while you sleep" videos on RU-vid. And one last point. Reading, reading, and reading. I presently write out line for line a Spanish novel, double-spaced and then write out my translation without any aids, and then go to the official English translation of the book to compare and correct my initial take. You then get a sense of the idiom and their use of metaphor and expression that defies strict translation word for word but gets you inside the mind of the speaker to get an intimate familiarity with how they think and see the world. Okay, okay, last last point. Adopt the a personality of a native speaker to get the intonation and enthusiasm necessary to speak fluently. Here in Spanish Ecuador, i try to mimic the bandit in the movie, Treasure of SIerra Madre, who famously yelled ......I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!
The learning method is maybe the most important aspect to focus on. 1) Choose an app where there is a speech setting to slow down what is spoken. 2) Choose a book with visuals giving the native language and target language. 3) Choose a text book that requires a person to write out a response in the target language. 4)Choose another app that is focused on basics that gives speech, text, and quizzes to gauge comprehension results. 5) Time is related to frequency, duration, and relevancy. The input should be simple, not overbearing, and certainly enjoyable. Thank you.
I absolutely think that the pressure of grades is not helpful at all for language acquisition-- or the acquisition of any kind of knowledge. Assessment, on the other hand is useful for teacher feedback. I think that many people balk from the idea of formal schooling because of the grades (for example, language acquired in college). What I find is that those students who make high grades stick with something, and those who make poor grades run away and do not continue because the resulting grade can damage their entire GPA, which could lead to detrimental effects.
"Way to actually learn a language" as opposed to "Way to learn a language" . What does "actually" mean in this context ? In other words, is there a difference between "learning" and "actually learning" ?
