Language Basics, How to Learn Them 

I've used your tips for learning languages for years and they work a lot for me. Thank you so much

I am teaching myself my first foreign language. I have also been studying the techniques of polyglots and other language learners. This video might be one of the most important that I have watched because there is so much truth, at least for me. When I first noticed a specific structure and I look up more info, things become clear and I generally remember it fast better than the times I have attempted to force these ideas into my brain.

When I studied English in school, one of the first words which I learned was "spoon". I don't know why. Maybe because we studied words related with home, kitchen and so forth. When I grew up, and started learning English again, by my own, actually, I can't remember when I counter with the word "spoon". And I was curious why. I downloaded the "word frequency list" and found this word. It was on 5k, 6k, even 7k place, depending on the dictionary. It's not the word that people use a lot in conversation, or in their writings. So why I studied it, at school, at the very beginning? I don't know. Now I don't study lists of words, just only because I "SHOULD TO KNOW them". I study words I counter in my reading, podcasts, or films. I study words what I NEED TO KNOW, not what I SHOULD KNOW

I would agree with what you said here. My experience learning mandarin was quite strange and different for me. I didn’t understand the basics until I understood the advanced stuff. Then after finally acquiring the basics, I found myself relearning the advanced stuff, then hitting fluency.

It‘s so helpful to hear a realistic and honest view of learning a language!

It's a pleasure to watch your videos, the way you express yourself, the intonation, the gestures, etc are very engaging and relaxing. In fact, I've noticed myself that when I speak English I tend to imitate your pronounciation and way of speaking. You are like a nice point of reference to imitate

Honestly , clear sound, perfect pronunciation, and expert speaker..... hummmm subscribed and liked for sure ^_^...

great video; particularly loved the bit about colours being "basic" I know the japanese vocab for all kinds of computer programming stuff since its my main interest; last week i had to look up "purple". First time I've ever needed it in 3 years of study.

Interesting! Personally, I LOVE grammar, so learning the "basics" as such - in terms of structure, rules etc. - are often quite fun for me. Another peculiarity is that when I was studying Farsi before, I actually found the writing system to be the easiest part, and it was the first thing I learned, so it's intriguing to me when people talk about the difficulties of certain writing systems (incl. Cyrillic, which for some reason many people tend to talk about as some sort of "hurdle" in learning many slavic languages), when it has been rather intuitive for me in these languages when it comes to my learning style. Nevertheless, in my experience, there are also certain areas of language learning that others have found much easier than I have. For example: one of the reasons I enjoy watching these kinds of videos, is that you can really learn a lot from other people's experiences, and discover new ways to overcome certain obstacles like Vocabulary and Intonation - (which is one of my main difficulties with 日本語 Japanese so far). At the end of the day, it all comes down to the learner really - just as Steve said!

Hello Steve. I am applying this to Russian right now. Lingq, Assimil and a grammar book I’ve just found. I know it takes time but I do love the process. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

Thanks for sharing your learning process with us Steve. It’s been really inspiring for us who are learning though languages like you’ve been doing with arabic

Thanks for confirming my way of teaching myself German! Jump into the water, play, and then go back to the basics. Das finde ich sehr practisch.

Thanks very informative video! I love your videos :) I'm happy I am fluent in Arabic and English, I am studing Spanish, after Spanish I will study German and French

I personally admire this man and must admit he’s right about getting exposure of the language. My native language is spanish, and i stared learning english ten years ago but because i didn’t like it and the grammar was so confusing to me, i didn’t learn well. After that, i graduated from high school and for some reason, I get interested in reading, and the best resource was in English so what did i do? Make myself exposed to the language and eventually starting learning without noticing. My vocabulary has increased a lot and must say better than when i was in high school. 10 years ago, i was interested in the asian culture (i still i am) but at that time, i just watched dramas/anime/programs. I did get a lot of passive exposure in korean and japanese, and after a lot of thinking, i decided to learn japanese and korean properly. Surprisingly, my vocabulary has been better than i though. Then I started to learn the basics and the difficul part was the hiragana and katana. I already knew how to read hangul so it wasn’t a big deal. Grammar has been the easiest, because i can recall a lot examples from my previous subconsciously exposure, so getting the tones in my pronunciation and understanding the grammar has ben incredibly amazing for me. I also want to study chinese because recently I’ve been interested in the culture but because i haven’t had to much exposure to that language, my progress has slowed down and sometimes it’s difficult to remember what i’ve been studying. I’m trying to improve that while I’m studying and re-studying my material, but again, my progress is incredibly slowly in comparison with my other two languages. In other words, get exposure from the target language. Get really interested so that it won’t be boring. It will get easier as long as you remain interested in learning.

I'm learning Arabic, as a beginner I learned the alphabet and my daily work consists in writing basic words and sentences, using Assimil, old courses of FSI, Memrise. It's a very interesting languange with a beautiful writing system that motivates me to study everyday.

Man, you are so very wright! I though I was wrong, but after your talk it all makes sence

Another interesting idea. May I tighten up - as I understand it - what you said about the need for learning words right from the beginning. I would say that we need pattern sentences and useful vocabulary. “Pattern sentence” for me is a term. It is a sentence that shows a particular structure and by the substitution of a word/several words, we can generate other sentences. In English, the sentence “Please pass me the sugar,” could be a pattern sentence. By changing “sugar” to anything that is on the table - the tea, the beans, a napkin and so on - we have a sentence that can be used a lot at the table. In Korean, I started with ordering things using 주세요: 카푸치노 주세요, 따뜻한 아메리카노 주세요 and so on. I went on to acquire a number of other useful words for other transactions. My point is that in addition to individual words, there are a good number of sentences that could be learned at the same time. Right now, I am trying, with the help of my Korean iTalki teacher to acquire what I need to ask questions and understand answers about learning Korean in Korean. I know that you are not a strong supporter of memorizing programs, and I have said that I find them useful. In my case, I have found Nemo Korean very helpful in acquiring a fund of pattern sentences and building blocks for sentences.

The Purpose of learning a language is to be able to use it, i.e., speak, and maybe read, etc. Grammar is not the purpose of language-learning. When we speak, we think about what we want to say, perhaps in English; the grammar is instinctual, not studied now. The purpose of language-learning is to speak, etc., not to be a grammar expert.

You are so right Steve! I need to show my Spanish teacher this. The curriculum at college is all about basics (grammar) and it's not teaching me to speak it and yet they expect you to know it.

I can't believe people think Arabic is very hard meanwhile I take it for granted.

The Languages is first of all the sound communication; as People/Kids we learn to speak-hear = ei. understand the spoken languages. Most languages even do not have t he script; and all languages did not have it until some time. There were studies that showed that Kids which learned some words first in in Script, have difficulties to speak them properly. That is why starting to learn the languages means forget (for now) about the script etc. and (try to) learn only trout the audio. And to me the best for this is (something like) Pimsleur.

Thanks a lot Steve! I do agree with you on this one. I started learning English at a young age school, and I have been living in UK for the last 8 years. I'd say my English is quite fluent, but only now I started to notice and take a deeper look at particular grammar structures, especially the particularities of different tenses. Even though I've revised them a million times at school it did not stick in my head. However, now, as I speak the language well, they make much more sense.

I am happy to hear about U. You are amazing! I study English and do the same :)

Thank you so much for your insights and sharing your learning experiences. Back in the mid 1990s, I tried learning a bit of practical Arabic while assigned to work in Riyadh for a couple of years. I never achieved fluency but did get a small degree of understanding when talking and mostly listening. Never did learn to properly read the script.

Great video, couldn’t agree more! I have recently decided to learn Russian and bought a beginner book, but it didn’t work for me at all and it was a massive discouragement. So now I’m just trying to take it easy, one step at a time.

This is a really interesting topic yet somewhat contradictory to what Steve has suggested in the past. In the past it was suggested to start with a teach yourself book or similar reference first, then start a system such as LingQ. I did exactly that but did it before I even knew anything about LingQ. In this video Steve points out that the references did not make sense. But, that does not mean that there are no methods out there that can teach the basics very effectively. I want to first say that I am a strong believer in LingQ although I am still in the process of learning my first language (Portuguese) using it. But, what Steve says is so logical and LingQ is so effective that I have faith that I will master the language. But anyway, I started with Michel Thomas. For me it did an incredible job of teaching me the basics in a way that I enjoyed and fully understood. Is it designed to take us to fluency? Absolutely not! But, for me it taught me a lot of grammar in a way that I could remember without reading a single word. Now that I'm using LingQ I find that the more advanced I get the worse the translations are that other people have used on the system before me. What I mean is that, at least in Portuguese, a word not only has a definition but it will also imply who is saying it, the sex of the person involved, and of course the tense. But, on LingQ I see people using translations that simply define the basic definition but lack the other details that I know because I got it from Michel Thomas. I have found that I spend a ton of time improving the translations because it is clear to me that many other learners who came before me did not really understand the grammar. They just went to Google translate and pasted in the basic definition with the rest of the meat missing. In summary, if you can find an effective way to learn the basics first, I think that is the best approach to using LingQ. I'm not here to sell Michel Thomas guys but for me it was awesome for learning the basics. I suggest first finding a way to learn the basics that works for you and after completing that, you only need LingQ.

I'm going to take a guess and assume that you regard Duolingo/Memrise et al as a huge improvement on how to initiate 'the basics', as these apps use pictures, word banks, video of native speakers and audio to gradually introduce words and characters in new alphabets. I find the 'how would you reply to...?' or 'what did they say?' videos on Memrise particularly helpful as right from the start they're getting you into a common real-life situation where you'd have to know/improvise a response.

Thanks Steve for making these videos. I’m finding it so helpful. Mon français est encore très basique mais je progresse !

I’ll be teaching my first Arabic class in September!

Hi Steve, could you please make a video about mental translation? Do you have this problem when you're starting up a new language? Hope you see it. Thank you.

Thank you for your videos. My native language is Chinese. I need to keep learning English and Japanese. Thanks for the tips .

Yay!!! You are my hero for speaking out against these beginner books ...whether textbooks or not ...they are horribly boring, overwhelming, and therefore useless.

You made my day Steve!!! Thanks!

When I started reading easy Japanese News Articles, I noticed all of these unknown interjunctions and now I just quickly look them up in the dictionary. If I can't find out what it means exactly, I probably will on a later day when I have more experience with the language.

Thank you Steve Kaufmann!!! Very helpful!!!

Hello, I am VERY casually, also, trying to learn Arabic and I find the videos/lessons of Imran Alawiye here on RU-vid to be helpful. Perhaps they are not for you as you may have advanced yourself in Arabic, but maybe they'll help a beginner. Could you even consider doing a review of these kind of lessons, in order to listen to an experienced learner's opinion?!

Your motivation and diligence are impressing!

Thanks , exposure first , noticing comes next.

am Arabian and let me tell you. arabic grammar subjects are the hardest in college. I pass English grammar with a+ and barely pass Arabic grammar. if i was you ill probably just skip the whole grammar part of the language and focus on other parts. i can explain English grammar to you very well but if you asked me to do that for Arabic gramma i would have problems. and this thing isn't just for me. i study English translation and all of my peers have the same issue. we understand English more than our language.

I told you, and advised you before. Watch the next TV shows, ( you can find them here on RU-vid with HD, They are available by their production company): صقر قريش ربيع قرطبة ملوك الطوائف شهرزاد الحكاية الأخيرة They are in Classical Arabic, it is understood throughout the area, besides that they are enjoyable, especially صقر قريش

I have come to realize that the basics become reinforced as one progresses further. It is after familiarizing your brain clicks and you understand what you struggled with in the beginning. I realized you just have to give yourself time especially if it is your first language you are learning; synaptic plasticity is a hell of a function the brain is ridiculously good at. Time is the solution

Thanks for your Videos Steve!

it is nice to watch your videos. Вы молодец!

I agree with a lot of what you’re saying but I personally believe the language learning experience is more or less different for everyone You can totally grasp basics But I don’t think you need ALOOOOT of vocabulary You need a healthy amount of words that are frequently used at least

Hello Steve, thank you for all the videos you share with us your experiences. One of my struggles is I am learning a Philippino language called Cebuano and it is a mostly spoken language without a lot of reference material. I did manage to find a grammar book which also has an introduction to the language. I understand the sounds and it uses most of the same characters as English, my first language. I have been learning and studying for about 1 year now and I have mostly only been studying vocabulary lists and flashcards on Memrise. My Fiancee is from the Philippines and speaks Cebuano as her first language. I have a hard time getting her to speak to me in Cebuano because she does not like having to explain herself twice. So I really need to figure out how to progress in my language learning with limited resources. I am not finding podcasts to listen to or storybooks to read. I can find some news articles but I do not know enough words to understand what I am reading. Any advice with this challenge would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Completely agreed. I think a lot of the difficulty level re: learning the basics also has to do with how different the language you're learning is from your native language. If the orthography is very different, oftentimes you're not reading at the start, you're *decoding* ... reading (recognizing groups of symbols as words) comes later. If you're a monolingual English speaker, languages with lots of cases start to feel overwhelming quickly, and it's not because it's not possible to learn them, but rather that you're trying to internalise a whole new concept that doesn't *exist* in English... there's no parallel for you to lean on as you familiarise yourself. I struggled massively with the concept of lenition in Irish, because no matter how many times it was explained to me, I couldn't get the concept itself to stick in my head - again, there's no real parallel and it is very much a basic concept in Irish, but it took a *lot* of exposure for my brain to fully accept the fact that it even existed (and what it sounded/looked like)... only then could I comprehend the explanations of why and when it happens.

Thanks you.

Thank you せんせい

You are awesome Steve!!☺👍

스티브님 전 당신을 존경해요 근데 영어라서 해석을 못해요 한국말로 영상을 올려주시면 감사하겠습니다

Language learning is an iterative process not a linear process.

Small letters! I had the same problem with my Assimil for writing mandarin. The characters are small to very small that you can barely register the contours of strokes and they expect you to learn them and be able to write them.

Agree with you except for japanese, I feel the basic holds me back.

I learned arabic since i was in primary school & I am a malay speaking person. I am from Malaysia Learning Arabic is really recommended if someone is a muslim and to understand the holy book of Al-Qoraan, which is all the writings is in arabic.

I'm taking up a training project in which I have to train and coach non-English speakers (They probably just know the alphabet). My job would be to teach them how to communicate in simple English. On a scale of 1-10, I'd like to take them to a 3 or a 4 in terms of spoken English ability. I'd really appreciate any advice, suggestions or road map on how to get this implemented and executed. I'm also gonna be doing the same for people who are probably a 3 or a 4 in the same scale and take them to a level of say 4 or 5 or 6. Cheers!

Thank you Steve so right what you just says, my problem is I can read the short story when am looking at the word. When I red the short story no more than 8 to 10 words need to look up. Without looking I miss a lot Why.?

How do you start reading a text in a complete different language? Do you look up for every word in the dictionary or just read while hearing, hoping for patterns or something to start making sense?

Dear Steve, i want to learn japanese and spain and there are a some good videos on the grammer of both languages. The way i learned arabic was that i built a strong basis of vocabulary (about 500-1000 words), meaningwhile heard much audios and than learnt the grammer in few weeks through videos. I liked this method as i didnt had to struggle with not knowing the used words in the lessons. I want to do the same for japanese and spain: learn both languages at once by building some vocab (500-1000), hearing a lot of stuff and get a feeling for both languages and than studying in short time the grammer. What do you think about this approach? I think its the fastest way to learn a language on once own. Would love to hear your opinion, thanks

This guy is so awesome ! ! !

Steve, may I ask you if you are learning MSA or a specific dialect. I have plans to learn Arabic as my next language and I hope to focus specifically on Levantine Arabic because it is a language that I will have to use a lot in the coming years. I really love using the LingQ system for learning. Could you give me any tips, please? Thank you! :)

Do you think Arabic is the hardest language you’ve tried to learn or do you think some of the first ones like Chinese and Japanese were harder? At that time you didn’t have the experience you do now but even now it seems Arabic is quite the challenge for you.

what book you recomend for basic american english?

What do you mean by BASICS?

Which arabic stories do you refer to when you said you listened to them? Thanks!

Did the Arabic language is difficult than any other laguages do you learn it before ???

Do you star reading or listening? how i can star reading a language like arabic ou japones if i don't know the pronunciation?

Super! Vous avez tout a fait raison Monsieur Kaufmann!- Pardon, peu importante, mais vous ne regardez pas directement vers la caméra. Moi, je suis convaincu de vôtre méthode.

After years completely focused in on English, Spanish and Japanese. Today I decided to start studying German throught LingQ. I know 0% of the language... :/

I’m learning Indonesian by myself and have reached perhaps a low intermediate level so far without any specific method or system - once I’d learned some basic introduction type phrases then basic grammar/sentence construction, I leapt into a diverse range of activities including; Babbel, listening to songs, RU-vid videos, a little of the Colloquial book (not often) - but the single biggest aid iv found was and remains communicating with native speaking friends both online and in person when I can. I don’t know that it’s any better as a learning system cos it’s not any kind of system at all lol but I remain interested and motivated because my learning is real, realistic and in context. I’m going to Indonesia in July for 3 months so I’ll be immersed- I’m fairly confident I’ll emerge somewhat conversational at least and for me that will be great - I’m not too concerned with being perfect or native-like as long as I can communicate and be understood!

Also, would anyone be able to give me some studying tips that would minimise the amount of writing done, in order to actually memorise a language's vocabulary and grammar? :)

What about farsi?

Hi Steve, Thanks for updating us with your progresses in Arabic, it happens i am more or less at the same point as you. I learnt the "basics" 25 years and forgot everything. Coming back from Marrakesh one month ago, this excited me so much that i started again. With this first : Apprenez à LIRE ET PRONONCER L'ARABE / Arabe Reusssite ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GzXN2tQBiVw.html but quickly switched to Assimil, the french version (my mother tongue). I am currently at lesson 28. First I don't get why you bother with the german flavour of Assimil, it exists an english one : fr.assimil.com/methodes/arabic from here fr.assimil.com/ select your mother tongue and the learned language) Second there exists also apparently great ressources here (though expensive ) tresoreducatif.com/ You can have a look at the preview of one of the books here www.amazon.fr/Jardin-Histoires-Bilingues-arabe-fran%C3%A7ais-Niveau/dp/153526862X/ref=la_B01M73O1EG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522178155&sr=1-1 Unfortunately no digital version... I did not buy of these (yet) but it seems adapted for childrens so the progression is slow and your can get plenty of content to listen here tresoreducatif.com/audio-le-jardin-des-dialogues-bilingues-arabe-francais/ I have discovered Lingq and your blogs and videos 2 or 3 weeks ago (thanks to the Gold list method...) and I attempt to apply your hints to Arabic and German, the latter being a nightmare since I am 14yo, but thanks to reading/listening thru Lingq or with germans songs with Spotify : (Reinhard Mey, Annet Louisan...) I am feeling the progresses ! I do listen repeatedly the Assimil lessons but only marginally the Lingq content for the moment. Hope it helps. Cheers, Thierry Cattel Longevilles Mont D'Or France

Weird to teach language learning techniques based on a language he hasn't yet successfully learned or spoken.

this reminds me so much of "i've grown accustomed to her face"

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Hi Steve, have you ever met Vladimir Skultety?

A big part of the reason for this false compartmentalization and laddering of concepts is to make language teachers feel like scholars, keep watching over more difficult concepts students (supposedly) can't understand without them

I still don't know why colors are basics 🤣

first))