This is a place for all things language: insights from linguistics, language learning tips, and facts from linguistics that might flip what you thought you knew about language on its head. I draw on my background as a PhD in linguistics (sociolinguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, 2020, where William Labov - yes, that William Labov - and Robin Clark were my advisors). I'll discuss language learning, but also sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, linguistic ideologies and discrimination, and real-world applications of linguistics. This isn't necessarily Ling 101 -- it's a whole lot weirder.
I think one of my funnies mistake in language, was when i tried how to say "Santa" in english, but I couldn't for the life of me remember this word So i just went "okay, in french its Papa Noël, so ill just translate it" and I said "Daddy Christmas" I realised as I pronounced the last letter how wrong it sounded 💀 My friend laughed so hard
If you are going to do language technology reviews, then Language Reactor is a cool extension for chrome. Allows one to have double-translation and original subtitles on RU-vid and Netflix. And when you hover your mouse over a word or phrase, it explains it instantly and, if you choose to, you can save the words to the learn deck or copy the subtitle to clipboard, which are very convenient. Also, with a single stroke of key, you can repeat or move back and forth the video to a next new subtitle, or make it pause automatically for each subtitle. Moreover, you have a way to practice words in a practice section in different sentences, and even hear them. Interestingly, there are also books on phonology in the studied language, well, at least for French, with recordings also being there. Another feature is translating search queries to another language, if one chooses to, which allows beginners to search RU-vid videos in their desired language. Seems like a more affordable option compared to LingQ, yet one can't apply it on pdfs, as far as i know. Though, they can for webpages. Lastly, what is also missing is speaking and writing practice, but overall it is a very useful extension.
6:40 in the Netherlands, I once told the hotel staff that my room was "very shoe" (schoen) instead of "very clean" (schoon), I realized what I just said and we laughed together
I want to try iTalki, but I kinda worry that it will just be the language learning version of Betterhelp. How does it address the common problems associated with contractor websites like these?
Mixing up kepala (head) and kelapa (coconut) in Indonesian is quite embarrassing and has happened to me a couple of times. Ed. to add. I just remembered an embarrassing slip of the tongue I made in my native language (English). In my music theory class, I was trying to say "triadic" but accidentally put the emphasis on the last syllable instead of the second last.
My first time in Japan and speaking Japanese after learning it for 3 years was with the customs officer, who asked me how many days (日間 nichikan) I'd be in Japan for, I correctly heard what he said and responded appropriately, but the nerves got to me and I fluffed it and said 8時間 (8 jikan) (8 hours).
I can say hello in Mongolian, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Ukrainian, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Estonian, English and Greek... and I can say at least 1 sentence in Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, Greek, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, English and Mandarin, and I can only say I speak 2 languages (Mandarin) and (English) English is my first language
Onetime I was talking with someone from China online, and they said "我来了" and translated it (this was when I was starting out), and the translation said "I'm coming" and I thought they meant something innipropriate, so I quit talking to them... I found out a few days later it means "I'm going online" I then apologized for ghosting them, and explained what I thought they said
I've been teaching myself Mandarin Chinese for 2 years now, and this year I can finally start understanding native speakers, read books, and watch shows in full Chinese, but I'm definitely no where near fluent
Chinese is my second language, and English is my first language... though in elementary school I thought myself Vietnamese and got pretty good at it, though I forgot most of it since (I still remember all 6 tones though), so it's easier for me to learn than someone who has never learned a tonal language before
I have been learning French for like two and half years. And while I can talk daily stuff. Talking about topics of Russian Ukraine war is still out of my league. And these guys claim they learned in like 30 days 😂
In high school I tried to excuse myself from a conversation with the foreign exchange student by telling her I needed the toilet. Instead, I told her that was my name. (She was Russian, FWIW.)
I became friends with a man two generations my senior, the Austrian writer Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909-1999). He spoke 17 languages and could write fluently in eight, as I recall. He once noted that his nursery languages (he was born under the Austro-Hungarian Empire) were German, Hungarian, and Latin. His wife was a countess, though not a wealthy one; they had to leave Austria before the Anschluss. After the war, for a while he taught Japanese at a college in New Jersey. When he was in his eighties we had him over for dinner. Afterwards, my wife, who is Japanese, said his Japanese was very good. I use Kuehnelt-Leddihn as a measure. He likely was the best-educated person I ever have met. If someone claims to speak more languages than he, my antennae go up.
This is so true. I used to be moderately proficient in Polish and Russian. I can now mostly just tell people how I used to study those languages and why I studied them in the first place. But those speakers will come away with an inflated impression of my ability. My pronunciation is still moderately good and I've repeated those conversations so often over the years that they are burned into my brain. Stray from that one topic and I'm immediately on thin ice.
FWIW, the FSI only scores up to 4 now. The ILR scale was revised a few years ago, among other things to get rid of references to "native speakers" (which is admittedly a pretty vague benchmark for testing purposes...). With the revised ILR scale, the FSI was struggling to measure significant differences between levels 4, 4+ and 5. That, and the top requirement for jobs at DoS and whatnot is 4, so getting 4+ or 5 was always just an extra perk. As a result they collapsed those three levels into one single level 4. Not much to say about the rest. Well, a lot to say actually but probably not worth it ^^. The short version is just that I think the focus needs to be on policy (regulating advertisement on this platform) rather than calling out individuals. Ofc you can always do both lol, but if it's just calling out people without any push for a change in policy than imho it won't change anything. I mean, it's nice to tell people what the red flags are, but the only reason they need to know what the red flags are is because this space is the unregulated far west where anything goes. Best imho to create a regulated environment where people don't need those red flags in the first place. Re: Glossika specifically, I can just say that I used it back when it was in book format (shut up I'm old! ^^) and it was pretty useful. But nowadays, for me at least it has lost a lot of its relevance just because of the sheer quantity of content easily available in my TLs, including on this platform. Campbell does have a chip on his shoulder though. That much is true.
This video is so controversial I was expecting ... let's say, something a lot more forceful LOL. One problem with your elitist description of fluency is that it excludes the vast majority of native speakers, especially in countries where there is let's say "very little" intellectual climate like Colombia and the Philippines. No natives will talk about your topics that "prove fluency" I promise you, people with IQs in the entire sub-105 segments DO NOT enjoy talking about abtract things so that's half the human race right there who aren't natives of their own language? come on brah. ALSO... you are completely brainwashed by really dumb L2 literature, these people might have Ph.Ds but aren't qualified to tell anyone how to learn a language.
I admit I gave academic examples but I would be fine with basically anything. I should probably make a video about the problem with the idea of “fluency” or “native speaker” because you do have valid criticisms there. I wouldn’t characterize it as an *my* eitist description of fluency, but rather one that most would expect from how these folks represent themselves.
Michael Campbell has put up a video on his website explaining about whether he claims to speak 100 languages fluently. He explained that it was his overenthusiastic marketing agency and that he does not speak nearly that many. Sounds quite reasonable. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kIwDECm987U.html. But he certainly apologises and says he does not claim to speak that many.
He’s still got videos up where he personally claims to, so forgive me if I’m not convinced. I will agree he likely has overenthusiastic marketing, but it seems like one should really exercise more hands-on oversight about what one’s duly appointed representatives say about one.
So presumably he has deleted his video called 'This man speaks 100 languages', where Michael Campbell explained he could conduct conversations in about 100 languages. Guess what? That video no longer exists....
This is a disappointing video. First of all, one of the guys you screenshotted not only speaks much better Mandarin than you do, but I'd say his Taiwanese is also better than your Mandarin by a fair margin. I don't work with him or have any affiliation other than once having met him at a friend's birthday party. The gap between his language skills and yours is massive, regardless of your degree. Honestly, if anything, you look like the fake here. To be clear, the person is NOT Benny. The Irish Polyglot is a blowhard bordering on fake, at least with all the languages I've also studied. His French or Portuguese might be great, but his Japanese and Mandarin escapades were shameless. Your core argument at the beginning is also a bit silly. Obviously the time it takes to learn French, Spanish, Portugese and Itailian to a B2 or C1 level is NOT 4x the time it takes to learn one of the four. The more languages you learn in a language, the easier each one gets.
@@thereseolsen1405 His Taiwanese is better than Jones's Mandarin. The gulf in general language learning accomplishments, at least those I've heard, is just immense. Also, attacking someone for learning and promoting indigenous languages is super shitty. It's clear Jones is trying to play some virtue card, but he's completely wrong here. As someone with a significant Navajo/Pueblo family background, including one family member in particular who moved back to the reservation when I was little, it's just maddening that Jones would be attacking someone for learning and taking nationally sanctioned language proficiency tests in indigenous languages in Taiwan. Does he actually think he's doing something positive by making a video like this and attacking Mike? I don't even know Mike, except one meeting in a social context. I just think this video is stupid, mean-spirited and broadly harmful.
@@alchemist_one It's pretty interesting to watch a white guy with a Ph. D. from an Ivy try to pull a virtue card while simultaneously implying that he knows better about determining proficiency in an indigenous language than the local Taiwanese government.
When speaking about my family in a Spanish class I was going to tell that my grandmother lives alone ("sola"), but my brain short-circuitted and I said "soltera". Meaning that my granny is either unmarried or doesn't have a boyfriend. A strange thing to say about a widow in her eighties. One German guy is married to a Russian woman and tries to learn some Russian. He tried to say "посудомойка" (dishwasher), but instead said "паскудомойка" (this is not an actual word, but means something like "bitchwasher" in Russian). Yes, his wife tends to swear a lot after her conference calls in home office.
French: I want to be able to sound actually comfortable when I am speaking it. German: I would like to be able to understand enough of what I hear to be able to comfortably understand the videos I watch, as well as comfortably read the comments. Hungarian: I would like to be able to understand enough to randomly understand phrases in the videos I watch. Plus develop my vocabulary so that I can at least occasionally figure out the subjects of comments. Japanese: Read along for the Hiragana in videos just to be able to see how the sounds correspond to the characters. Spanish: Develop enough common household phrases to speak with my mom.
If you think it was glance, you don't know English. odds are, the verb is regular, not irregular. if glang is correct, then ring would be a regular verb.
When living in Germany, I needed to buy a Hakenleiste (hook rail) to hang towels on in my bathroom, but at the store I fumbled my words and asked instead for a Hakenkreuz (hooked cross, i.e. swastika).
I thought he had taken it down but it was just connectivity on my end. Wild. I’m just catching up on all the comments today. I honestly didn’t expect this response (or range of responses) but what did they expect reaching out to me?
You mentioned that in a future you may make a course, I'm usually sick of buying resources to learn languages from RU-vidrs, but yours might be the only one that I'd truly trust.
