I Asked 5 Top Polyglots How to Learn a Language FAST 

Curious how the U.S. military learns languages fast? 👉🏼 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pi5taR18uZ8.html

I don’t know I usually slam the textbook against my head until I learn…. Results may vary

I find learning how to say multiple phrases with words/phrases like " I can (blank)" "I think (blank)""I would like (blank)" etc are the best to focus on at first . Phrases like this in what ever language you are learning are SOO helpful

Luca is really well above most of youtube "polyglots", his accent in any language he speaks is impeccable, he is a machine.

Honestly, my favourite "method" is using as many methods as I can. Every type of learning teaches me a different aspect of the language.

I find it interesting that no one mentions that learning methods can vary based on the language. Yes, you need an intro period to get the basic gist and to consume a bunch of vocabulary, but... I think each language requires its own approach. French, for example, requires a ton more work to understand and produce the pronunciation than, say, German, which instead has a steeper grammar learning curve. Where I put my energy, or even the definition of what it means to be "capable" in these languages, is very different.

What Wouter said about using one language to learn another language is so true!! My native tongue is portuguese, but since I'm living in France I'm learning chinese in french. and let me tell you: even though i have absolutely no problem with the french language outside of learning chinese, every week I learn something new in french!

Something that's been helpful for me is to rewatch old shows or movies or anime in a new language. Or reread a book. Or replay a game. Since I already know what characters intend to say, the plot and such, I already know the meaning of what they're saying. In my opinion, that's as close to learning like a newborn baby as you can get. Because you don't have to translate words into words, you have to translate concepts and feelings and situations into words. It just feels...organic.

Emotional connection is key, I am glad Luca mentioned it ❤Routines are key too, yeah, and combining different activities is awesome (like learning languages while exercising, cleaning, walking, etc.) Great tips and nice to see that not everyone learns the same way, I think it is about trying out different methods and seeing what works best for you in terms of both enjoyment and progress 😄

Olly, por favor más videos como este. Creo que atraen a la gente. Ver colaboraciones con otros políglotas es algo muy atractivo. Me encanto! Mucho éxito👏

I love the idea that you have to connect emotionally to the language. I'm learning Icelandic, and I have had several people ask me why. The amazing RU-vid channel Icelandic for Foreigners did an entire video about this recently and quoted Harry Potter: "the wand chooses the wizard". Why do I want to learn Icelandic? Because I do, because I love the idea of speaking a "hard" language fluently. If it doesn't resonate with you, if there isn't something about it that just speaks to you for whatever reason, you likely won't practice. It's the concept of delight led learning, which is how kids teach themselves about bugs, sewing or computers.

I love what Luca said. An emotional connection is so important! I also love using paper/ writing things out. I keep a journal and write in whatever language I feel like and it’s so much fun! Thanks for this video, one day in the future I might consider getting a language tutor.

I love that Olly, who makes money by selling language learning materials, is confident enough to post a video that says (in part) that a person doesn't need to buy a lot of these! (P.S. I've used only a few of Olly's materials, and they've all been great.)

As an English learner I would say that learning a language is really ''hard'' especially if you want to achieve the fluency level. Most of the polyglots are not that fluent even if some of them claim that. What I would say is, if you want to be fluent you need to work hard enough and to surround yourself with your target language as possible as you can. And of course knowing the purpose behind your decision plays an important role, not only in language learning but also in almost anything you want achieve.

Four languages and counting! Just wanna add on, for Americans, highly recommend enrolling in the language courses at your local community college, especially if you’re a total beginner. Those classes are a billion times cheaper than university or private courses ($50-$150 usually) and they’re great for finding speech partners in your area

The secret is that there are no secrets. We all have to find our own ways. I've picked things up from different people like a magpie. I use the things I like and that work for me but there is no one single method I've got from somebody else.

It's always amazing to me how many people speak different languages. Sometimes I greet people in public with a non-English greeting to see how they will respond; you'd be amazed how many people in my area can have a conversation with me in German.

It's always lovely to see the RU-vid language learning community working together to get people learning and having fun.

Things that cost nothing are mostly worth nothing. I totally agree on that point. Paying for Materials to learn a language or paying someone to teach the language to you is a good form of commitment, i think.

Great questions for them! Thank you for this!

This video, and the military one you mentioned, really helped me feel more confident about finding a language-learning path that feels personal and works for me. Thanks for the interesting videos!

I've been learning languages for a long time and a linguistics major. I know 2 languages comfortably, but I can do the basics in about 4 others. Here's my tips that work for me- -give yourself time to just hear the language Languages sounds funky and strange when you first hear it, just give yourself time to get used to all the new sounds and intonation -listen as much as you can Just watch stuff you like, translate a term like "travel video" and just watch videos that feel good to you. - I personally love watching kids tv shows They're visual and basic. Plus a lot of countries have their own kids tv shows. There's a lot of old Russian cartoons out there and they're pretty fun honestly -if you know a language, ladder off of it If you speak 2 languages, pick one you know well but needs improvement and use that to learn your new language. I use German to learn French on Duolingo -just have fun Language is just a way to communicate, you don't need to pressure yourself to be perfect because not even natives are perfect. Just learn what you like and enjoy the trip

These were all such useful tips and it was great to hear tips I hadn't even thought of. I always hear about immersion and listening to podcasts/watching movies, etc. but the tip that resonated with me the most was Jo's tip about looking at our daily habits and incorporating language learning in those habits. I hadn't known some of these polyglots so they all earned a subscribe from me. Videos such as these are encouraging and inspiring; thank you Olly!

Olly, this video was incredible! Your interviews and analyses are always amazing, and your ability to listen to your guests is almost second to none. I’d be really curious to see you do a video or two on/with Nathaniel Drew. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve created a very special space on RU-vid here. Much love from Austin, Texas!

Fantastic interviews!! 🎉🎉loved this video.

Thank you for this video!

I think this is the most helpful video on this topic. Thank you so much

Great video idea Olly! Would love to see more of these in the future.

this was a beautifully done video and great info!!

Very interesting and useful video. Thank you 🙏🌹

What a great video again :). I can tell that lot's of work went into this one. Learning languages can be such a great tool to get to know yourself better. To learn to listen to yourself and to only do the things that actually work for you. Many principles can be also used in other areas of life.

Great advice!

Great tips from these incredible human beings. Incorporating the languages in activities that I already do helps. Like listening to phrases on audible, watching grammar videos on youtube, short drama clips etc.

Very interesting.. thank you so much

I found Luca's info most relateable; similar style and approach. But all had something relatable. Thx for putting that together. Newb-to-french.

I have to commend you on these videos. Having different perspectives and sources other than your own exudes genuine integrity in helping people learn other languages. I can appreciate that. Basically, "Hey I have this method that works for me for this amount, but here are some other sources and perspectives as well from other polyglots!" Also, you don't criticize the other sources mentioned. Super impressed with your channel and books!

Woww so many gems in this video! I look up to all of these people! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Miss the IWTYAL podcasts but have been enjoying your new video series. They've been keeping my LL juices flowing. This one is great. Add me to the "Keep them coming" column.

I would like to hear how "fluent" they actually are in the languages they claim to speak

Thanks for the tips, very good information, I'll put forPractice these tips. 😎👍Best regards.

This was great Olly. I learnt how to refocus my energies in order to make my own method more efficient. 2 Takeaways, forming an emotional connection and bringing the travel to you; I wish I knew these a few years ago. :)

great video! Love to hear a wide variety of opinions. And great questions too

olly a great fan of yours learning French at the moment you just help so mutch to understand different methods it's so refreshing

This was really interesting! Thank you :)

Absolutely love your videos

Olly - I’ve been away from your channel for too long! Blame the YT algorithms. They’ve been cramming stuff I don’t want onto my feed… I found this one on accident and you guys NAILED some great points and ideas for language learners. The bit about saying a LOT with very few words describes the first ten years of my Spanish speaking career, and the inverse is the problem with most English grammar courses in school. (Teaching too many words when most are too fancy or complex for regular use) I had a very limited but effective vocab pool to work with in the early years of my Spanish speaking. I became very adept at communicating whatever I needed to get across, often by simplifying the sentence. I had to work a little harder to comprehend new vocab being thrown at me sometimes, but my learning curve was shortened, because I was able to jump in and start talking with natives regularly at my job assignments. Instead of getting hung up on endless vocab and grammar studies from a book or app. Keep up the great work!

Great stuff Olly - and great to see everyone in one clip together.

This is extremely useful thanks

I could listen to Luca talk all day about languages. Great video Olly. I had lost my motivation to study, but this video has given me a little energy to get back into it. 👍🏼

Great video thank you

I tend to talk to myself when nobody is around. When I’m learning a language, I try to talk to myself in that language.

I respect all of the people in this video but to me, Luca is the real deal - it's extremely important to have a real connection to a language/culture and also reason why you want to study it. Very underrated tip imho.

thats such a good video, thank you

Fantastique vidéo Olly ! J'ai appris de nouvelles idées.

I find the advice of connecting with the language on an emotional level very interesting and useful. I live in a small country with a very hard language (Danish) where most of the population speaks English fluently as a second language so I have years of living here speaking and working in English and is very difficult for me to be fluent in the local language because is very-very hard for pronunciation but also everybody switches to English with foreigners. So I have built all my important relationships here in English or Spanish not in the local language, I realize thanks to this video that THIS is maybe THE big "mental block" I have that prevents me from being motivated to learn Danish even when I have all the resources to learn at my disposal and for free... and this is the first time I realize it, thanks to this video.

Gracias por el video ❤️ Saludos desde 🇦🇷

Helpful insights, thanks. Currently speak a few Latin-based languages, plus some of Slavic origin. About to commence Thai, which is another totally different ‘type’, so the tips provided are going to be useful in my quest. Thanks!

HI Oily, just a quick note to let you know that this was a fantastic video to watch. You channel continues to provide great meaningful content to language learners. Your Italian series was also one of the best content out there too. Thanks again for your efforts.

Amazing video!!!

One of your best efforts!

Glad to see one of my preferences shown here as a tip, I always liked mixing pimsleur lessons with treadmill programs, my treadmill does 30 minute workout programs so pimsleur fits perfectly

loved this!

Great video as always Olly! Currently reading your short stories series and enjoying and struggling with it lol. I am a personal trainer and recently picked up a client who is a native spanish speaker and has very little english speaking ability. I feel one of the most powerful things for my Spanish has been our sessions. I am cueing her entirely in Spanish for exercise form as well as asking lots of questions for pronunciation and grammar. But more importantly, she is doing the same for her English. Having that relationship of both parties learning each other language I think is very powerful. I know you talked about this in your experience learning Spanish as well. If someone is out there struggling, find a person who is trying to learn your language and give it a go!

Great video. Love printing things out. One channel with transcripts for everything I print them out and it’s way easier for me to learn. The same thing on a screen just doesn’t quite do it as well. It’s interesting. I wish I had $500 to invest in more tutor sessions. They are so fun :)

This was interesting. Thanks for putting it together! Would love if next time you try to dig in a bit more into the specific techniques these folks use. For instance when Luca said he prints out podcast transcripts, what does he do with them? From the piece of paper he held up it looks like he’s doing a lot of annotating with a pen and I’d love to know what his approach is to getting the most out of the transcript.

Thank you, mulțumesc, gracias, danke for sharing this topic. I am finding that it's very inspiring to see how other languages learners/speakers do their studies. So many good tips presented today.

This was a helpful video, @Olly Richards, because of the variety of language learners you interviewed. It was especially supportive for me to learn about @Wouter Corduwener, as I've felt intimidated and unsuccessful until now because I'd always enjoyed most and been most rewarded by learning 18 languages with most only at levels A1-A2, and only two at A2-B2; the only C2-proficiency exception being my native. I studied, and I still learn best, in groups other than the Indo-European language family: My degrees are in Music, with an Opera minor, and Linguistics, with an Applied Linguistics minor, so that, after three years of Spanish in prep. school, my Music major required one semester each of French, German, and Italian, and Linguistics required three semesters of a single language, for which I chose Russian. I think that, for this reason, the connection I have to groups of languages is in their cultural connection (I think that this creates a deep emotional connection, a driving force, as well), in addition to their family, so that, in addition to connecting Germanic and Italic languages and their structures and cognates, I connect the most common languages in each family to their artistic applications (EG opera), which provides additional context for comprehension and application (EG because themes in opera and their language lexicon and syntax for composition are similar. NB: This is also different in different periods, so that I think in subgroups of languages and their respective uses in Medieval & Baroque music as opposed to Romantic, for example). NB: Because of engagement of various parts of the brain, it is helpful to listen to an opera and read along with the libretto; following this by comparing libretti is also helpful for building on story comprehension with vocabulary and grammar. Today, I'm extremely sick, and my language skills, and my brain, are atrophying. Ah, PS, Olly: "Learn a Language 'FAST'?" Ghah! Fix, please? ;)

great info.

Great video ✌️

You should definately take control of your own learning! I decided to focus down on Spanish and Japanese, now I've applied for University. Having a course and teacher can improve motivation if your in control of your learning and all the resources are available via the teacher. A University degree includes a year away in whatever country you're studying the language of and can link you up with tons of other learners and native speakers. If any of you read the Bible, totally get a Bible in the language you're studying. Do your research though, for different versions the language can be quite antiquated or very modern. And especially look for things like Furigana in Japanese books and Pin Yin for Mandarin books.

I love what Jo said about social media. I was on Twitter today searching through many accounts in order to find my target languages. I previously joined some motor racing and tennis accounts and realized today I should do more of this. I love Twitter because it's everyday language and there is a character limit so you get a nice little snippet to read. It's not too overwhelming but enough to pique your interest and pick up a few new words at a time as well as cementing some existing more repeated words in your memory. I even came across some polyglot accounts which was awesome! I also think Wouter's idea of using one language to learn another is brilliant! Wow, that's a really clever trick, no wonder he's got 29 on his list! There was also one very interesting one which uses funny pictures to make words in various languages stick in your mind.

In my journey for a second language I took a bit of time first and ask the Question to Google best way to learn language … after looking over I started with Duolongo and no goal. After 6 mos and losing my streak , I got serious Well more serious and started listening to RU-vidrs . Found one that was a game changer for me and he has become my one stop for renewing motivation relearning a basically answering most questions via his product. For me it’s great. I like novelty so every six or so months. I go on RU-vid and re-motivate myself with videos like this one I heard a lot of good new things I had not heard and good ideas that I might insert into my journey… Thanks for the good motivation and once again and some new to me polyglots to check out you guys rock.

Thanks for this helpful video! I've always been worrying that i am wasting my time with the wrong method. It relaxed me to hear, that writing and working with paper can do as well. I love writing down thing. I love working with paper. I'm writing by hand (not printing) and I read it while writing. (sorry for my English, I'm no native speakter^^)

Ooo, Robin)) i like his chanel 😊

Truely Appreciate 😊 everyone's way

Hi Olly Very, very Interesting video. For my Peninsula Spanish learning journey I first went to Spain and had an immediate emotional connection with the language, the people,, the food, the culture, the history and the geography of Spain 🇪🇸…and then I went from there to a Michel Thomas CD course to following very good RU-vid channels to Podcasts, to an online course, to intercambios, to an immersion course in Spain and finally to weekly italki lessons as well as Netflix films …and Radio and TV shows.. reading books, articles and blogs in Spanish and making spanish friends where I live and helping them with their English as they help me with my Spanish…..this is what is working for me …I do something spanish EVERY single day and as a distance learner living in England..this is the key for me! Bizarrely enough, as I work in the creative field, just for fun, I taught myself ventriloquism during the pandemic lockdown and then wrote a small sketch in Spanish aimed at kids. Then I videoed it and put it out on RU-vid…😂and it went down quite well..and I’m quite proud of it. For me it is important to do fun things like this to keep,the interest in the language going.

This video motivated me too start back learning español

Rob is one of my most favorite polyglot RU-vidrs!

Great video Olly! Thanks a Mil. Please share links to You tube channels of your guests.

I’m only 6 minutes in but I already learned so much! I saw Ikenna on the thumbnail so I clicked but I got to know all these amazing people.

Piece of cake for me, and i do some techniques they just mentioned, and i currently speak 5 languages, and recently started with russian it's an amazing language!!!!...and i do encourage people to be Polygot it helps in many fields

A lot of these things, I have been doing form the start almost. However, when, I was in high school all these RU-vid videos did not exist or these resources you would have to go to a book store , buy a Living Language set, and listen, repeat, read, and write.

Nice content bro.

So far 3, English, Spanish, Tagalog, and trying to learn Chinese. I think it's very important to know why you want to learn a language. My goal is to watch my drama without subtitles. Then they come in handy in real life.

Forgetting my boy Ranieri, very sad. Great video, loved it.

printing out things is great, I agree. But I invest in blank notebooks, inks and fountainpens and copy stuff from interesting resources by hand (internet, freed pdfs, books I own and similar). that way I directly interact with the words actively.

Priceless finding your own path it's a journey that has a pot of languages. 👍

Myself here at Saga Mìn travels, I speak and write 3 languages and am working on 4th. I feel most comfortable and emotionally connected with the Germanic languages

Insightful.. you should have invited Timothy Doner too for this one.

My native language is spanish and I dont think my english is the best but I can tell that noticing and learning patterns can make you get used to te language and it makes you able to use it easily

Ollie, I love the vlogs! Question about his one. Why is it that none of your guests speak what you refer to as easy languages to learn like Afrikaans or Norwegian?

He's right about emotional connection being important. I need to learn Mandarin (I work in Taiwan) but I lack an emotional connection to it and as a result I easily get bored and frustrated by it.

My observation with language learners in general, is that it matters where you come from and that you bring your uniqueness into the plate. Because naturally some methods will be more effective to you than others. Some apps or resources will be more appealing than others. Whereas I may not like writing in a physical journal, some people do love to study that way. Even for the choice of languages to learn and the motivation behind them, no two learners are the same. We all come from different walks of life, and for me it matters to take that into consideration whenever you're looking for language learning advice.

When in Spain or Portugal....i would take one-to-one lessons in Brazilian jiu jitsu , and secretly its a language lesson. Other countries ? Tennis coaching, or other stuff. Great fun, healthy, and surprisingly efficient for making good progress.

Aside from immersion and actually forcing myself to use the language as much as possible, the most effective way for me has been to simply make it fun to learn. Sure, textbooks have their benefits, especially when you first start out, but I think most people get "turned off" by them pretty quickly and as a result, learning becomes a chore and you lose interest and might even find yourself making excuses to do it later (which eventually becomes never). For me, finding friends who are native in the language I try to learn has been beneficial in many ways; for one thing, they're not as afraid of correcting you when you're wrong and it feels less scary (in loss of a better word) to make mistakes in front of friends than someone who is/feels like an authority figure (like a teacher). It's a more casual environment that lets you practice without the pressure. Fun activities in the language also helps, whether watching movies or what have you. Karaoke has worked great for me since it challenges me to read, speak/sing and listen at the same time - plus, it's fun.

I've been learning Italian casually, on & off, for ~3 yrs. My method is mostly having to do with using translated material. I watch RU-vid vids with translation, use a book called "2000 Most Common Italian Words in Context.", & use Google Translate to translate online text, including ebooks. I've tried journaling but can't seem to keep it up. I'll try again bc I think it could be an effective method. I've spent ~$30 total on resources (not counting internet hook up)-- all books . I use a lot of free stuff on RU-vid. I also use google translate quite a lot & it's also free.

Since joining college I've been searching what's the best method for me to learn in a very effective way, finally I think I sorted it out by learning another language and I've already learned English and I consider myself I'm fluent in English as I feel comfortable using it with when it comes to talking about any topic in English sometimes I find myself more comfortable than my mother tongue (Arabic) and I'd like to say I'm on my journey to pick up German and I've learned from my mistakes during learning English for example ( I didn't practice from day and it's so frustrated because you study and put in a lot without talking,but I can say it helped me a lot to understand the language properly on top of that nt listening is so Strong and I can understand any accent in the world even the difficult ones...btw Olly you don't know how much we gain knowledge from your podcast 😅 it's been a long time since you've upload an episode 😅

Olly, thank you for your good advice! Could you please advice me a good book for learning Ukrainian? I always found it helpful, first to have a look at some grammar item, then to find some model sentences and after that to practice it with native speakers. But short stories may also work for me. My first foreign language was Russian. Thou I was learning it in school for 6 years my real success came long after with Russian speaking immigrants coming to Germany. The same occured with the English language when I started travelling to England. I begun to learn Italian with a book and an audio disk. After having learned three lessons I contacted a small school for foreigners at Siena. During the next three years I spent 8 weeks in total there. At home I continued with my book what was much easier by then. But most of the vocabulary along with the local dialect I acquired on the streets of Siena. I'm a native speaker of the Upper Saxon dialect with a passive competence of German :) Yours sincerely Frank

Useful

Спасибо😊