I'm Aaron! I spent 6 years learning Spanish in school, and graduated barely able to speak at all. That was before I learned HOW to learn languages. Now I speak English, Spanish, French, Esperanto, some Thai, and I'm actively learning Greek. Stick around and we'll discuss what you should be doing to finally learn that language that's been on your mind. A new language will enhance your life!
I also have my own Esperanto only channel which you can see here: ru-vid.com/show-UC21NBss-ioqoDpvZsKl5niw
If you would like to take private language lessons from me, you can find more information here: sites.google.com/view/fingtamlessons/home
[Banner background Photo by Jérémie Crémer on Unsplash]
Yes, hard to know exactly how much intensive versus extensive reading you should do. Definitely agree you should try to do more extensive reading, but intensive reading also has value. One of my rules of thumbs is do "intensive" reading on shorter material - and write definition in the book -- or create index cards -- so you can re-read the material quickly -- and use longer material for extensive reading. Yes, hard to say what the split should be.
Great video! Yes, verbs and "connecting words" like Steve Kaufman words. Connecting words are just as important as connecting words -- and there are some verbs that are much more valuable than other verbs.
With the greatest respect to the lovely and talented Len I must disagree. I’m from the west highlands and my native tongue is the Gàidhlig but like most, if not all ,Gaels I speak English as my day to day language. The ‘Scots’ dialect of English. When I go down to England I am usually clearly understood - although my Gaelic accent means I am often mistaken for Irish. My point is If my dialect of English is clearly understood by English people in England it is in no possible way a different language. The Gàidhlig on the other hand ……
Thank you for this video and giving a comprehensive explanation. I've been looking at IPA videos and it is so frustrating that some videos just don't explain anything, show no chart, and straight dive into pronouncing just some random letters.
Як я розумію шотландців... Я з України. І всю нашу багатовікову історію Росія, на правах великого сусіда, намагалася стерти нашу мову, придумувала брехню, що це штучна мова. Але ми зберегли і збагатили нашу мову. Бажаю шотландській мові відродження, для майбутніх поколінь.Дуже хочу відвідати Шотландію, мені подобаєттся ваша країна, ваша культура і ваші легенди.
My father-in-law who's from Kiel Wisconsin stretches his"a's" like in baeseball, chaenge, no diphthongs, almost like some English accent, super interesting.
I definitely agree with everything you said about Duolingo. I took German 1 during my junior year of high school. I just started learning German again since May, and the resources I’m using are Deutsch Welle as my primary resource. For supplemental resources, I am using Duolingo and Clozemaster, and I also have videos that I like watching in German on RU-vid. I was able to pick up the A1 material pretty quickly and now I’m at an A2 level in German. The way I see when it comes to using Duolingo is that it’s best used as a supplemental resource, and not as a primary source for language learning. Anyways I just wanted to give you my two cents about this, and I hope you have a great day.
I grew up in Mexico were we speak Spanish, since we are close to the border with USA I learned english. With duolingo I started learning brazialin portuguese and now I can understand most of song lyrics. It helps and I am not done ye with the course.
Duolingo is best Instead of wasting time on video games, Duolingo is the best alternative It's fun, entertaining and also teaching you new things on language learning Not waste of time
It is pretty obvious that a visual support will help you understand a story or a any type of message. Meaning is of course important too, that s Why you could have mentioned context. But Education sciences have long ago clearly demonstrated that we don’t all learn in the same way. And other items count too such as culture and the cultural and linguistic gap -distance- btw your mother tongue and the language you learn.
i liked so much to find your channel i am have or had afraid to speak in english with people becuse i am a english learning , than i got nervous about my mistakes and stuck on any word that i don't remember, your videos are help me to take it easy with myself. Seu português é bom e você se comunica muito bem , obrigado pelo otimo conteudo, sou mais um inscrito brasileiro!
I hear people talking about intensive and extensive reading but I feel they fail to define exactly what those terms mean. Personally I use the terms "fast reading" and "slow reading". For any book or text, first I try to read as fast as possible without consulting the dictionary. I try to guess the meaning of any unknown word from the context. I simply ignore anything that I don't understand. Then I read again, but this time consulting the dictionary for every unknown word I meet. The second reading is much slower but I only read the interesting or important parts of the book or text, I skip or ignore everything else.
Duolingo is good at teachingh you basis of language. Like i am not planing to speak different languages my aim is to getting more resources in order to research
I see Duolingo as brain training and it makes sure I’m at least doing SOMETHING towards language learning every day. I agree it won’t get me to fluency on its own, but I’m keeping it as part of my plan for now.
🤦♂️ I literally use short plays and scripts to teach French 🇨🇦, yet never thought to do that with my own learning (outside of a textbook) or for extensive reading!!! Thanks for the tip! I don't even want to be in Canada during winter, yet you came to study! True dedication 💪
I have been trying to figure out how to say Wisconsin like a native. I am from Iowa & there are a lot of similarities in our speech but for the life of me I can’t get it right! The s to c part just doesn’t sound right no matter how I try to say it. I think it has something to do w/ the pronunciation of the o to an a. Nice video I-oh-wah!
I enjoy Olly Richard short stories. The same stories (science fiction, history, adventure) have the same enjoyable stories told in 15 different languages and include glossaries and questions. Some are beginners and intermediate.
Helloooo I’m going to have linguistics exam this week, with Syntax and Parts of speech! Your videos are being really helpful! Thank you for explaining what my teacher didn’t explained well 🙂
Hi Aaron, hope you're doing well! I've watched you for years you really helped me when i was living in Spain learning Spanish. i just came across your '4 steps to learning a language with books' again and thought i'd look you up. So sorry to hear about this news, it's obvious in this video how hard this time was for you and maybe you dont want to click on this video to revisit it so you'll maybe never read this comment. if you do i just want to say thank you and i hope you've found some peace, all the best.
I'm fed up with people complaining that duolingo is ineffective. I don't give a s. about being effiecitve. I've been learning french in an ineffective way since 2 years on duolingo It's still better than giving up an effective way after copuple of days.
