My name is Ethan, and a few years ago I committed to learning a language on my own and did it (Italian). Whilst I was beyond proud of myself, I learned that SO MUCH of what is on the internet is complete rubbish when it comes to language learning, and that's what motivated me to step up and help others in their learning journey.
MY GOAL: To teach a generation of braindead people how to actually learn things.
Great video ty but since the channel is kinda new you should make the text smaller in the video, its so big I had to zoom out making it small will be more readible thanks
Haha, sorry bro. I more meant most learners waste their time being "productive", and I was trying to address which content has the highest ROI to actually learn a language. I am a big fan of your channel though, the only influencers I dislike were some of the other ones that blatantly lie and stuff. Alphapolyglotgigachads are still on top :)
I'm learning Russian and the reason might sound.... a bit nuts to most. My cats are from Moscow and they were between 2-4 years when I adopted them. So Russian is their human mother tongue. It calms them down e.g. at the vet clinic. The Russian vet moved on and Dutch doesn't do the trick, so I started learning Russian. Create different profiles on social media and train the algorithm for your target language, if you learn several languages, create separate profiles. I'm German and some resources are based on German, some on English and I figured out that I don't try to translate words, when I learn them from different basic languages. And due to dabbling with Dutch some words pop up in Dutch, when I'm searching for some Russian words. 😂
Actually learning the Cyrillic alphabet was a piece of cake compared to the verb declension and cases in Russian. I still try to get the hang on it. Verbs of motion is also something to get through.... Two forms of plural.... I keep pushing!
Something I do at work is listen to an audio book for a few hours while I work. I will watch Native Spanish vlogs on RU-vid. I will watch movies and show on streaming apps with Spanish subtitles even if the audio is English. I listen passively just to get my ears used to the language and get used to hearing native speakers speak even if I don't understand anything that is being said. I also read everyday to build my vocabulary. Reading is actually the cheat code to the language because you get to see the words being used in different context. Word lists don't make sense until you see those words being used in different situations. Some words have 20 different meanings. When you read, you organically learn all 20 meanings instead of force-feeding all 20 meanings into your head without context in one sitting. I use Anki for review. I review a deck on my lunch break. The more you expose yourself to words and phrases, the more you can understand them as soon as you read them and hear them. Don't try to force feed the words into your brain. I set my RU-vid to Spanish. This is one of those "I see it, I know it" situations. Kinda like putting sticky notes on objects so your brain links the object to that word in your target language.
Nice bro - reading is DEFINITELY a cheat code (particularly w languages like Russian that have a more irregular verb conjugation - you have to read to understand all of that stuff or you'll never learn it).
Clueless white speaks perfect Mandarin, locals shocked. Actual meaning: I have meaningless small talk and polite shop owner politely endures my stammering.
I think this is very important! All those videos of polyglots showing how they study and giving tips, and at this point all of them just keep saying the same things, make you feel like you're going to learn something but then you don't. I try not to watch them but they flood my feed and I end up thinking "what if I *am* missing something?" It sucks.
Thanks for the video, you're a breathe of fresh air within the realm of langauge learning. I have a little request, (maybe not so little) can you make a video citing all the bottle necks you've experienced ? I don't know maybe from the very first bottle neck to the last according to your own language journey that can be related to other langauge acquisition. I'm currently acquiring French. This is my third language, I acquired English when I was little so I have little experience in acquiring a new language from scratch. Thanks and more power to you.
I’m learning Spanish recently started. I’m taking the comprehensive input approach. I plan to read a1 til the next steps and listen in the following manner.
The thing is we ought to make learning languages part of our life a journey. Especially when the main goal is to be a polyglot so all what you got do is to understand that this is a life term goal
Yes that's my main ploblem that i might forget vocabulary, and i worry too much because of that. And it make me think i waste my time because i aready know english as a native romanian, and nowdays we have AI to translate easily. So its another reason in my mind to give up. And this video is very relatable and realistic in terms of why languages are hard for most of us.
This was an interesting video, I never actually thought of much ways to stop stalling (or stagnation as I call it) in your target language. I only told learners that being consistent and continuing to learn is the way to stop the stall.
Tbf, for the “prioritising views over actual learning” ones, some of them like Language Simp aren’t there to teach you how to learn a language, they’re there to make comedic/entertaining content.
@@Reforming_LL absolutely agreed, they’re not all misleading per se. The problem is learners mislead themselves, and need to be told what is useful/not useful. It sounds obvious looking back, but much content we digest is useless in regards to the goals we pursue. In this instance, if many were to inspect the content they consume they’d certainly find a lot of the LQ content and less of the HQ content I mentioned.
A simple, simplistic language if you use alphabetic writing..though tones take some learning if you are not used to that...going forward the character system will be left behind for chinese as a global language.
When I'm in the DRC talking about the "good cobalt" in chinese, I dont find in necessary to make good relate to the inate goodness of the mother and child that is held within hanzi characters..
I believe that mastering a language within a year is achievable, but it requires full-time study and complete focus. A bit of luck helps too-such as the language being similar to your native one, whether in phonemes, writing system, or other aspects. I once studied with someone from the U.S. who learned Portuguese in just under a year. They lived in the country full-time, were immersed in the language as a child, and constantly interacted with friends, which accelerated their learning.
@@gabrielvinicius975 Doesn't matter what you claim to believe. It can't be done. You can't learn 30,000 word in a year. You can't adapt to a foreign grammar in a year. You can't understand how a different language approaches the formulation of ideas in a year. And you sure as hell can't do all of those things at the same time in a year.
When one says "I believe that," it often signals the start of an argument or a point of view. It implies that the speaker is presenting something they truly believe in. In my earlier comments, I wasn't making a claim about learning 30,000 words in a year; rather, I was discussing the ability to communicate with native speakers, understand them, and have them understand you in conversations about feelings, preferences, hobbies, as well as topics like math, philosophy, climate, weather, and dating. A year is a significant amount of time for someone who is fully immersed in a language. Fluency doesn't necessarily mean speaking perfectly or without an accent. I was merely sharing an experience that actually occurred: a person I studied with learned the language within a year, to the extent that you could converse with her for hours without realizing she wasn’t a native speaker. Is this common? No. Did the environment play a crucial role? Absolutely. However, dismissing the possibility of someone achieving this simply because it didn't happen in your experience might be somewhat shortsighted.
@@gabrielvinicius975 " I was discussing the ability to communicate with native speakers" No, you specifically said, "I believe that mastering a language within a year is achievable". That is worlds apart from being a shitty A2 speaker who can hold a half assed 2 minute conversation. " as well as topics like math, philosophy, climate, weather, and dating." Not gonna happen in even 2 or 3 years. That's C2 level skill and nearly native. That takes 5+ years. "A year is a significant amount of time for someone who is fully immersed in a language" You've clearly never tried, because it's literally nothing. "dismissing the possibility of someone achieving this simply because it didn't happen in your experience might be somewhat shortsighted." No, you're just a pos contrarian clown trolling people about what you imagine should be possible because you don't know what dunning kruger is.
@@gabrielvinicius975 My comment was apparently deleted. "I wasn't making a claim about learning 30,000 words in a year" You said "mastering a language within a year is achievable". So you are lying. "as well as topics like math, philosophy, climate, weather, and dating." The ability to do these things is C2 level and nobody can achieve this in a year.
the problem with Danish is that not only is the population low but the people don't have a lot of pride in their language and most people over there know English (but not everyone). what will end up happening is that once you learn the basics you may end up forcing yourself watching or reading things you don't care about just because its in Danish. personally even some languages with lower populations can be more useful like Finnish for example. it may just be a fluke because Finnish has a lot of the same cultural "problems" as Danish but for some reason Finnish media is more creative and appeals to my tastes and hobbies while demark sees to be in a weird time limbo were its stuck in 2006 because nobody in denmark wants to make youtube videos so you just got made for tv stuff .but the made for tv stuff from denmark is maybe more like American stuff from 1970 but with modern trends so not that interesting. also languages like Georgian or Slovak or Lithuanian have way more stuff and a lot of people in those countries don't know English the only problem is that they are all way harder than Danish a long time ago Denmark conquered England and the ancestors of the English originated in what became demark so it has had a long relationship with English.
I think the only possible exception for learning a language in 3 months is, if the language is already very similar to yours, for example I'm brazilian so i speak portuguese, BUT I can understand spanish almost perfectly, and they can understand me, so it wouldn't be a lie if i say i learned in 3 months, same for italian, i can understand a lot of stuff but not everything (i never studied neither talked too much with italians, it is just because it is a similar language). I also study mandarin for 1 year, and i study everyday around 1h30, and i can still understand Spanish better than i can understand mandarin although i never studied spanish. That said, i would like to say it would be very unfair and disonest if i come up to a native english speaker and i brag about me being able to speak spanish within 1 / 2 months of learning(I mean I understand spanish already, although i never studied, but it was just an example)
Yes I agree. After learning Italian, I could read Olly Richards beginner texts in French and Spanish w minimal understanding of those languages. However, I wouldn't want beginners to get it in their heads that that is "normal" (particularly if they're learning some hard language).
Even in those cases is not so easy. 1) One think is understanding and another completely different is speaking. I can understand Portuguese because is similar to Spanish, but I can't say a word because waht I speak is Spanish not Portuguese. 2) It depends a lot on the content. Even in Spanish, my mother tongue, I don't understand quantum physics, law language or many texts on philosophy, not to mention poetry. 3) Because regional or country differences, it's difficult to understand people from other varieties of Spanish. 4) Even sociolects (different forms of the language spoken by different social groups) make complicates the understanding among people from the same region or city. 5) Language also vary along with the age. Adults and teenagers use different forms of the same language. Furthermore, if students and teachers speak the same language, why can the former often not understand the latter? If that happens in our mother tongue, it is more common in a foreign language, no matter how similar it may be to our own. Many times we think that we understand but it doesn't mean that we really do.
I agree with your point about language variation across regions, age groups, and even within the same country. Although I primarily understand Spanish, I’m able to communicate effectively, discuss feelings, preferences, hobbies, and engage in more advanced topics. Language learning is a lifelong journey, and it’s impossible to know every word or understand everything completely. We often rely on context to fill in the gaps. That said, I believe it’s easier for Portuguese speakers to understand Spanish than the other way around. Spanish content, including movies and cultural materials, is far more prevalent on the internet than Portuguese content. However, there are exceptions-certain Spanish-speaking countries, like Chile, have a dialect that I find particularly challenging, where I can barely understand 10% of what is said. In my experience, Chilean Spanish is among the most difficult to grasp.
@@gova4238 I've never tried, but now that you said about it, it made me curious, I think I'll search on YTB and comeback here to say if I understood something
I've got a complete French guide on my website. www.headofstate.com.au/copy-of-spanish-gm I'll try and find one for Mandarin when I get a moment, still building that one. Do you have any resources or tips you'd recommend, I want to build this stuff to help you guys as much as possible.
@@TheHeadOfState okay . But tell me, Does it even worth to learn languages ? What's the point what's the difference between someone speaks 2 language and someone speaks 4 . Cause im so confused if should i keep up on learning
@@ryccki4el If you don't have a good reason to learn a language you will lose interest. For example, if you are doing it for bragging rights, to show off, or for a woman. Those aren't good reasons. If you love the culture where it is spoken, that is a good reason. That will give you a good drive to keep going. Otherwise you won't get far. Learning a language to fluency takes a long time. You can't really measure it because you are always learning something.
@@Hellenicheavymetal For a woman can be a good reason if you're marrying someone and learning her culture's language. It is unlikely you would see a language to completion without a good reason though, when so many people can't in the first place
@@ryccki4el If you enjoy learning and want to learn another language, you should. One of the biggest reasons why young people in particular should learn languages is because of how fried most people's brains are with tiktok/social media etc. Learning a language really improves you mentally, and can put you way ahead of other people.
I have been an English teacher for more than 20 years. You cannot learn a language in seven days, nor in three months. You can learn a few things about the language in three months, you can learn to say good morning, how are you? and stuff like that, and you can probably learn some basic fundamentals of the language in three months, but it won´t make you a speaker. It takes years to learn a language.
Depends on the language and the method. I watched a video about a guy learning spanish in 44 days and it was pretty convincing. But Spanish is very easy to learn, perhaps the absolute easiest for english speakers. He wasn't perfect but he spoke pretty good. Probably a low B2 level. But the guy studied for 8 hours a day and documented everything.
@@Matt-jc2ml It took me more than five years of total immersion to reach level B2 in Spanish as a native SPANISH speaker. How long did it take you to reach level B2 in your mother tongue?
@@Matt-jc2ml You see, you don't understand a very simple fact: a baby needs more than a year of total immersion to be able to say complete sentences in their mother tongue and more than five years to reach a B2 level of fluency. What doesn't make sense to you?
@@gova4238 you just phrased it wierd. Why wouldn't you just say "I wasn't at B2 until I was 5 years old"? Your comment makes it seem like you were actively studying the language for 5 years before reaching B2 level. And you can definitely learn a language faster than that, I reached C1 within a year by living in the country. I even spent two weeks in jail in cdmx lol, I learned very fast there
I agree with what the Head of State says about the expert syndrome. Great content and advice. Still that said it is possible to learn a language in seven days but you would probably need to have an atypically formed brain as in be a high-functioning savant like Daniel Tammet who immersed himself in the Icelandic language and spent time with a native speaker. Tammet also has synaesthesia which means for those who don't know he is experienced in one or more of his senses through another. Tammet is a true polyglot and is said to speak fluently 8-11 languages.
@@Reforming_LL I make my own thumbnails on Canva (generally either with photos I have or AI generated art as it's free to use and effective). I recently got an editor, but previously I made my own minor snips and adjustments to videos. I'm planning on having them professionally done with good equipment for maximum results.
As far as I know, there isn't one website that has all of them. So, I have two answers: 1. If you tell me your language, I can find one for you. 2. I'm currently building a website that WILL have complete resource guides for every language, but currently only Spanish is fully developed. You're welcome to check it out though. www.headofstate.com.au/
@@Cammed5point3sierra Italian is on my website . I am still working on Russian and German. These are two I've just found. Russian: www.russianlessons.net/lessons/lesson1_main.php German - still looking for one I'll post when I find it.
