How I learn languages as a (somewhat) lazy introvert 

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English is not my native language. When i first started learning english, i thought "She is very childish" meant a woman who could give birth to a lot of children. Lmao. I have come a long way since then.

I'm an introvert and have some social anxiety too, so your comments about group classes over tutors really resonated with me. Even though 1:1 classes = more speaking time and therefore "better value for money", the mental energy I need to expend to attend a 1:1 lesson means it's not sustainable for me long term. I'm much more consistent with group classes. Only discovered this recently and I'm 31!

I learn whole sentences saying them aloud. 5 days - 300 repetitions per day at least. Later I don't need to translate. I know the meaning of words straight away like in my native language. And also I remember the meaning longer than by learning separate words. This method is called: chunking. It was a real game changer in my learning process and communication skills in English and other languages.😊😊

What resonated: The learnjapanese reddit being unfriendly 😂 It’s so refreshing to hear someone not focus on speaking speaking speaking. So true.

With LingQ and reading for beginners has a free limited option. For book lovers there is Anylang for reading. The free option has limited word checks and only 5 langs are available. Also Gutenbergorg has reading for uncopyrighted material, even literature from 100s yrs ago.

I really enjoyed hearing about your language learning goals outside of speaking. As a quiet person without a real interest in speaking a foreign language verbally it is difficult to find people that have similar goals to me as more of a written or content consumption focus. There are some good ideas in here I'm excited to try out! I'm glad to have found your channel!

You are learning Polish! So great to see these materials in your video :) Thank you for including this part of your learning process! Polish is my native lg.

Thank you, this was SO helpful. I'm autistic so social situations even in my native language are difficult and stressful and sometimes even trigger a full on autistic shutdown. It always feels like everyone else was given a guide on how facial expressions and subtle emotional cues in tone work but I was absent that day or something. So when everyone's main advice on learning languages is to go out and speak to people on day 1 even though you don't really know anything yet It felt like being multilingual was an impossible dream. It's nice to know there are other people who have successfully learned languages in a more introverted way. It was also cool to hear about shadowing. One trait of autism I'm very familiar with is echolalia (repeating words or phrases in the exact way you heard them repeatedly). It's helped me over the years build scripts to more easily interact with other people without messing up or letting on I'm autistic. It's also how I've gotten good at mimicking other English accents so it makes a lot of sense to use it to better my target language's pronunciation.

I am an introvert ( and also with social anxiety). I am 15,Senegalese and I speak 6 languages ( Wolof, pulaar, French, English, Korean,spanish ) I am also trynna learn ASL. The first three languages I picked it growing up I think almost everyone in senegal is bilingual at least French is our official language and we have a lot of national dialects and languages. We learn sometimes English and Spanish starting middle school but it’s not nearly enough so I taught it myself, same for Korean I don’t have any books any teacher or whatsoever but I try to speak it as much using lingbe or hilokal etc…I am so glad that I decided to learn as many things as I could thank you for this video definitely helping us more !!!

Great video thank you so much! I really like the style of your videos, the calm voice you have and all the close shots. It really makes everything you talk about so relatable and human. I learn a lot from you. Keep doing such a great work!

I'm so grateful for your channel :) Your learning style seems most similar to mine out of all the language learning RU-vidrs I follow, so I always really appreciate hearing your perspective and advice

Glad to see you here! Thinking about going back to LingQ! Take care, hope you are doing well!

Thank you so much for the video! It is so cool to find someone who shares your passion for languages. I'm focused only on English and Italian. And I should mention that I've returned to English due to the Italian. I adore that language, culture, and everything about it. I discovered your channel about three or four days ago and have already watched all of your videos. It's good to know that there is someone who shares my anxiety about speaking not only in a foreign language but at all😄

Thank you so much for these tips! As a fellow language learner it's always nice to see different people's approach and how they structure their workflow. I am also not a big fan of flashcards, simply because they are boring, but whenever I hear a new word I note it and later I try to come up with few sentences using that word. After hearing and seeing it 2/3 more times in my podcasts/books, it will probably stick with me for a long time :) Pozdrowienia z Polski!

thank you so much for this video! i feel so inspired to improve my routine after this you've given me so many ideas! as always love your videos thank you for your constant creativity and generosity!

This was great and makes me feel much better. I read and write my target language very well and think I know a lot of words, and I chat online a lot but I almost never speak to anyone - also social anxiety - so that's the struggle. Just trying out group classes now and you were spot on. Way less pressure also good to hear a mix of better and worse than me

Hi! I just found you today, what a pleasant relaxed voice you have. I love falling asleep with earphones on listening to long videos of the language I’m learning, usually word or phrases but with a soothing voice. Sometimes they have these annoying background music or loud speaking which is not good for falling asleep.

Tanya, I've been watching you and your content for years. I am genuinely amazed at how wholesome you are as a person and the way it is reflected in your videos. I want to thank you for all masterpieces that you produced and wish you all the best!

This is some of the most sensible and useful language learning advice I have ever heard. Perhaps because I am also somewhat introverted and lazy! I love how you don't pressure yourself - there's enough pressure in life - who needs more? Why add it to something you choose to do for its own sake? (Of course, it's different if you have a deadline, or a specific purpose, such as work, in mind.) Pretty much all of this resonated with me. Things I like to do, that you didn't mention specifically: I take a correct sentence in the target language (from something I have read, or even from a textbook), and write it out many times, substituting vocabulary, changing the tense, adding complexity - one change at a time. I also enjoy making art that incorporates words and phrases from the TL, and collect sayings and proverbs, riddles and tongue-twisters - i.e. I do things that I find fun, in the target language. I keep a kind of diary - one sentence a day (or thereabouts, or when I feel like it). I've liked and subbed.

9:31 The reason why children, or specifically people who grows up in a community that speaks that language learns faster than others is because they have the chance to actively learning the language. People correct them if they're wrong, they witness others using the language correctly (or at least what's considered to be the norm there, in terms of accent, vocabulary usage, and such) I really recommend any language learner to move somewhere or to find a community where they can actively learning the language they're learning, if you can

I feel like I can relate to you a lot on this. I'm a lazy introvert with ADD, I can't for the life of me think of speaking a language I want to speak from the beginning. Thank you for the advice you gave in this video, I'll do my best. :)

Your English is 💯 percent pronounced correctly, even though you did not strive to sound like a native speaker. Gives me hope that I can one day sound authentically Latina, which I am. (My heritage is Cuban, Puerto Rican & Spanish, but was not encouraged to use Spanish at home.)

I appreciate you making this kind of video. I am also finding out how I study and works best for me and gauging it against existing resources, methods, as well as other people's workflows, taking ideas or simply pondering why something doesn't quite work for me. Seeing someone else do the same helps me do this and helps me realize that my journey of self discovery is sort of going in the right direction, that is, in the direction I want it to take me.

Anxious introvert here. Thank you for sharing your methods and thought process, it’s super helpful. I’m trying to learn two languages atm, one with a lot of resources and one with relatively few. Looking forward to trying out your tips!

❤Thank so much for sharing all this tips with us, your personal experience is really valuable and it inspire me 🙏🏻

Totally with you on preferring group classes for anything, from language to skiing, lol. I don’t think of myself of an introvert but I feel too much pressure with private classes. In a group class I have more time to process things and also learn from the other students. This video had a lot of great ideas.

Awesome! u r not lazy at all! so hardworking. Anyway I am learning Korean by myself, your video is so inspiring!!!

This is the best language learning video everrrr 💞💞💞 tyyyy

Amazing video, love your content, one of the channels that has motivated me to get back into learning languages! -I gotta say that the r/learnjapanese joke was on point xd -Also i agree with the whole thing about textbooks being overwhelming at the beginning plus the issue of become a resource hoarder... (also watching tons of videos on how to learn a language or how to how to learn). -Personally i think that one should use apps (duo, lingodeer or whatever) as a way to test the waters! -for textbooks i think one should get ones that get up to B1 or the equivalent (with textbooks, audio, vids and all that) while using tools like lingQ, clozemaster or lingvist and also continuously listen to the TL to get used to the sounds of it. (you could go for the C2 but i feel like that would be too boring and tiring... so immersion would be better imho) -And the biggest thing is consistency -Also writing (again imho) is way better for remembering things if you focus on what you are writing down

I’m also that weirdo who loves grammar books and drills 😂 But at the same time I once got fluent in a language and only after that studied grammar and it worked miraculously. Thank you for the writing tips! I’ve only tried journaling

You are like me!! I too. Total introvert but still love to study language!

Your voice is so calming... 😌

Great tips! For me it’s really funny that when I learned English in elementary school I used to do most of those tips subconsciously without putting active effort into it and now it seems like the hardest thing to put my mind into 😂

Lots of good advice here, thank you. 😊

as a native polish speaker i am so shocked that you decided to take up this language. it is reaaally hard, even for us. keep it up! loved the vid

Thank you so much! I started to learn English four years ago and think I'm pretty good at reading and listening but writing and speaking are still a challenge for me. Now I'm trying to learn Chinese by myself and your advice is really helpful!

Thnks to shared ur Language learning method as an introvert I feel this method will work for me 💗🙏

Keep up the good work👍🏻

As an introvert I very much relate to this, even when I knew I could speak it It took me a long time to want to speak. My goal is to speak the languages I learn just because part of my goal is to speak the languages of the countries I visit frequently. I don't hear a lot of people who learn polish, I tried to search trough your youtube but couldn't find a specific video about you learning polish. Do you have any resources that you really like for polish? Specifically that main resource (that you like having in textbook format) as well as grammar book, and dictionary, shows and videos and audiobooks are easy enough to find though if you have some that you love id love to know still. But I find finding textbooks and more the typical "study" resources to be harder to find 😅. I just found your channel but uh I need to go trough your videos and see the way you use your iPad when studying languages its so aesthetic and just looks so satisfying!

Well, I come from Brazil, and I am learning English with Duolingo's courses and some RU-vid videos, for an example, now I am watching your video, I've already done my lessons and, for me, English is getting easy to learn more, I hope that in a few years I can speak fluently and write, listen and read in a perfect way :D

I understand and relate to you! I am learning spanish and I'm scared to practice with others online. I have social anxiety as well and even giving my order at a resturaunt, I get nervous even in my native tongue. Speaking with my mexican family was very very hard, because I didn't understand spanish and im shy.

A way to easily generate flashcards is through obsidian with the flashcard plugin. The plugin tales input from your notes and generate automatically a flashcard. It goes well with exposure as when you search a word that you don’t know you create your own dictionary that can be synced between your computer and the mobile app so you always have with you your dictionary and at anytime add a new word in a few seconds.

I feel like I'm already doing a lot of things you mentioned in this video which reassures me that I'm on the right path! I definitely want to do more so I learned a lot from watching this. I especially love the idea of talking to yourself. I already do that a lot in my native language so I feel like it would be a useful switch to do it in the language I'm studying. Although, I have already been talking to my pets in the other language haha!😅 I find that to be a fun exercise too! 😊

Hello! New subscriber. As a (somewhat) lazy introvert myself, I felt like a lot of your methods towards learning different aspects and skills of languages were similar to mine. Although I'm not quite advanced in any language (other than my native US English), I often took similar approaches while trying to learn many (European) languages. I like how you brought up the fact that many learning materials are set up for people travelling to a country where the language is spoken, which is something I noticed too in many resources I own or have looked into. I'm not in the best financial situation to travel often to a foreign country, so those sections in learning resources are often not useful. When it comes to learning, I too am in favor of a content based approach, while having a solid resource to practice other skills (like grammar) alongside whatever I'm learning from, whether that be a movie, tv series, podcast, song, etc.

Hi! It's cool to see you're learning polish 😄

I know there are tons of resources for people wanting to learn spanish but one of my favorites is SpanishDict or SpanishDictionary because there’s vocab (with a kinda spaced repetition method) as well as some grammar lessons.

I loved the joke about the "r/learnjapanese" community. I don't think you should be afraid of calling out that toxic community 😂😂

I like writing flashcards but I don't use them. It’s the writing that helps me learn! Usually I transcribe stories though once I get past the beginning stages of learning vocabulary/verbs/sentance structures.

As someone trying to learn Japanese I guarantee that the r/learnjapanese joke wasn't actually a joke :C

You speak really clear.

Thank you for sharing! For me, one of the resources that stand out to me when learning a new language is Immersive Translate. I use it to translate webpages and documents and even to watch my shows and movies on Netflix every day. This helps me integrate the language I’m learning into my every day life.

Hi from Poland! I love your content, thank u for this video it really helps to be more motivated abour learning languages.

I'm a lazy introvert as well so this really helped me, I could never talk to someone in another language I'd literally cry lmao. Thank you for this and I would also like to add that I admire you for learning polish, because as a native speaker this language even annoys me sometimes 😭

Great video. I can relate to wanting to learn a language in a lazy way. That's actually why I'm building an app that combines spaced repetition learning with Ai and documenting it on my RU-vid channel.

I just started the video but i loved seeing that you were watching "Che dio ci aiuti" at the beginning❤i am italian so i immediately recognised it ahah

I’m also a flash card skeptic… if you don’t encounter a word often enough that you remember it naturally, then it’s not a word that’s worth dedicating special time to remembering. So where do flash cards fit in? It’s always better to familiarise yourself with new words in their contexts, rather than in isolated cards

I’m an introvert too except when I find someone easy to talk to. I like LingQ a lot also for the same reasons you mentioned. If you use their sentence by sentence reading view, along with the machine translation, you can start effectively reading anything from day 1 if you want. The only drawback is that you have to press the translate button for every sentence. There’s no setting to do it automatically. In addition to LingQ I like Anki a lot. Im always experimenting on how to make the best flash cards though 😂. But if I don’t use SRS and just rely on reading I won’t remember stuff as well. I'm just adding to my comment as I listen to the video. I'm terrible at small talk in my native language English. But small talk in a foreign language? No problem. Well, if I can speak it anyway. I love speaking foreign languages so I'll happy talk to you about curtains in my target language if you like curtains. I hate one on one classes unless I'm very conversational already and really want to speak a ton. A1/A2/B1 one on classes... hate them. But there are no group classes to found anywhere. I am signed up for a class at Flexi class and it's supposed to be a group class but there's not enough students and it's always just me. And the native speaker. I have a class tonight. I am doomed.

you're so sweet - thanks for sharing!

Great video.

I love it! Such a great video! 💛

Everything resonated with me.. lol you are awesome..

Great method overall! Btw, I talk to myself as well😊😊

I remember when I was in early primary school I really struggled with English and so my parents sign me up for private classes. And I remember not having a huge progress over like first two years or something, but when I turned 13 I started to watch a lot of videos from English creators like PewDiePie. At first I didn’t understand it allegbut I understood a good amount of what they were saying. After couple months even my tutor noticed that I started to correct myself as I was speaking because I started to develop this „feell for the language. I started to have this realization that „oh wait, this doesn’t feel right in this sentence I made a mistake”. That’s why now that I know a good chunk of Norwegian vocab I start to surround myself with this kind of content again via twitch or RU-vid, stuff I enjoy in English (gameplay for example) but by norwegian creator. Also, hi from Poland, it was nice seeing someone learning polish!

Really interesting! I wondered if you have any tips for understanding Italian? I'm a beginner (have been for years I don't put enough time in) and like you said passive immersion is so hard because I can't differentiate most of the words and also I just tune it out (feels pointless if I'm not even hearing it). Is it because I don't know enough vocab? Would reading more help? Would love to know your experience and your tips for learning Italian thank you

Hi Tanya! Your Philosophy of languages and learning really helps me. Your channel is one of my favourite polyglot/language channels in the language learning community :) I'm curious to know what languages are you currently studying and learning? What is your native language? Thank you always for your help and advice!

I'm an introvert with social anxiety. I love to learn languages. They really help me take things off my mind. I speak English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Finnish and Swedish. I know some of the basics of over 20 languages, but these are the ones I'm currently learning. I'm learning these for travel and education. I started learning languages in July and I saw that I've made so much progress so far. My native language is English. In July, my Mom keeps on talking to me about countries and their languages. When I found out about those languages, I decided to try them out to see if they were easy or hard and I also found out that learning languages was easier than I thought. I learnt Spanish and French in school, so the other romance languages were easy for me. When I started learning Finnish and Swedish in July, it felt like they were a variation of Spanish and French. As an introvert, I really love learning languages and it's really fun. I don't have books or tutors, so I use many apps. I'm learning all the languages that I mentioned, but I'm mostly focused on Finnish.

To me is music and reading comics You know is interesting how sometimes u notice oh this word refer to this X action cuz u have seen it a couple times I don't like to put to much time in how construct an oration with a formula I try to watch different conversations But a some point u need some basics I like

Your English is amazing! I'm a Brazilian girl trying to learn Russian. I must say it's been quite a challenge, but I won't give up. I think it's a beautiful language.

How do you learn so many languages at the same time? establish a schedule for each one? Aren't you confused? Or does it become frustrating not to understand something?

I’m also interested in learning Korean and I wanna know where u bought the textbooks from? Thanks in advance ☺️

Я тоже , когда учила английский, любила повторять понравившиеся фразы с понравившейся интонацией снова и снова . В принципе, я и сейчас так делаю. 😅

What can you suggest for a beginner Italian learner? What textbooks/content?

I actually learn english in the same way as you did. I wasn't even trying to learn it but it comes out that I started to comprehend effortessly english by just consumming gaming yt videos. And the more I comprehend, the more I enjoy listenning to english! Moreover, I practice exactly my speaking way by speaking to myself precisely! But what i found out, is that english has so much content on youtube that it seems to be inevitable to consume them, but when I began study german, it is nothing like that. I wanted to try LingQ but it is useless with the free version... Nonetheless, thanks for the tips! I'll apply to my german's study :)

I have difficult to speaking even in my native language, so funny heard about this of other person. This always make me fell very insecure to speaking in other languages. Thank you.

How do you find a textbook in the other language? For Italian I found only prego which is oriented to students and travel.

Απ' ότι είδα μαθαίνεις και ελληνικά. Συγχαρητήρια και καλή τύχη μιας και τα ελληνικά είναι από τις πιο δύσκολες γλώσσες. Και εγώ προσπαθώ τώρα να μάθω ιαπωνικά που ίσως να είναι και πιο δύσκολα από τα ελληνικά 😂

Hey I’m an introvert too! And I’m trying to learn some languages in order from what I want most to least its 1.Japanese 2.Mandarin/Chinese 3.Korean 4.Croatian

♥

Could you tell us a little about those books? I've never seen so many simple and organised and beautiful books like those. I'd love to buy some to study spanish and english.

Hi! What studentbooks do you use to learn Italian?

I was taking English classes, but I prefer to learn by myself. I don't why, but I feel bored talking English classes :C I like to use Memrise to learn new vocabulary and Immerse to talk.

what do you use to get the translations at 0:11? sorry if you mention this later in the video haha^^

can you list the resources you’ve used in the intro/video pls! esp the textbooks thanks!

O uczysz się polskiego? Wow świetne polski to dosyć trudny język ale życzę ci powodzenia ❤

How do you manage so many notebooks, iPad notes, textbooks? Is having so much data spread out challenging when you need to look something up?

13:47 can you tell me what is the app name? with the movies?

Hi! I'm Anna and I'm from Italy, I'm glad to see that you're learning Italian!😍 If you or someone else reading would like to have a little help in learning it, I'm available!

What was that language resource you used at 2:07? It seems super helpful!

Suscribed ty im learning korean

Greetings from Poland :)

thanks for new video) I am Russian native speaker ) I always watch your video and practice my listening skills also your videos are so motivating!

where do you find these textbooks?

This is me when i dont feel like interacting with people😂😂

i am fascinated by languages and have tried multiple times to learn (spanish, japanese, german) i think what would motivate me the most if i tried again would be finding a practical reason to learn it. please let me know if you have a suggestion !

Does anyone know which app is where you watch series and have two subtitles?

Do you have any good resources for obtaining digital textbooks?

I'm an introvert as well and I've been studying Arabic but I'm too scared to actually practice speaking to my bf cuz I'm scared to make mistakes. Do any of you have recommendations on books/ Channels i can study with?

Daft question, but what tablet is it that you are using?

What is this app that grabs texts on screen and translate she showed in the video?