Language learning - The Most Effective Method Of All 

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we should respect someone who wants to teach something for free, so THANKS A LOT

Get comfortable with not knowing every single word and enjoy the process is my takeaway from this video. It’s how I pushed myself to get comfortable with English and French when I started.

That is the big question. It is not that they don't have enough time. It is that they are not sufficiently motivated. How to motivate them is the question.

I agree, I've been recently reading about a method devised by some American polyglot and he said that you got to be addicted to the way you learn, you got to like it, believe in it and stick to it. Of course you can experiment with different approaches, but you should continue with your method if it's working for you.

Now google tells me I am not allowed to comment on my own youtube channel. !!!!

Steve, enjoyed your ideas. In case you didn't know, enjoyment causes dopamine, and dopamine feeds dendritic growth (accelerates learning). That's the neurology of it, so I hear. Bruce Thomson in New Zealand.

I've been learning German for a long while now, and I've done this method, writing it down and coming back 2 weeks later, and I can say it works, it works very well

Another thing that I don't think I heard mentioned in this video is the fact that--especially for beginners--if you are telling a student which way they should learn, and telling them "this is the best way, you need to use this method" the student may try the method and try very hard to stick with it, despite the fact that they don't like the method, and they may be turned off completely to the language! What's sad though is that they'd stop learning the language because they dislike the method of learning, not the language itself. Just something else to ponder.

You’re so inspirational! I speak 4 languages myself and am a translator but I’m still on a long language journey trying to learn more languages! This video really helps! Thank you!

How to speak english fluently 👇 1 - use shadowing technique 2- talk to yourself , record yourself 3- read aloud 4- speak 1 on 1 5- sing a song out loud Do these 7 days regularly and consistently.

Hello Mr. Kaufmann, I really enjoy your videos and I just signed up at LingQ. I am legally blind so language learning has been difficult but I am returning to my Spanish studies with a new motivation, mindset and understanding. Your methodology for learning languages makes a lot to sense to me. You are such an inspiration! Thank you for sharing your lifetime of experience.

And you are definitely right! I enjoy when I'm learning english! I watch talk shows, different scientific things, movie and I like it! If I don't understand some word, I just write it down and translate it,next time I'll know the meaning of it! So yeah! It's awesome! I Am russian by the way!)

Great Steve! It is as simple as this. It's really hard to convince learners of this, however, because they've been programmed to be dependant learners, always looking for answers from someone else. Self-awareness is key

I wasn't looking for this. But I am definitely glad I found it. Thanks.

Thank you Steve, this is a very good explanation about how enjoyment relates with memory. I started 3 months ago to learn Spanish, French and German using Pimsleur, Michel Thomas and Assimil in rotation. At the end I believe, language learning is all about "knowing yourself" in terms how your concentration,enjoyment and mnemonic techniques works best. And knowing oneself is just addictive! ;)

One thing I like to do that works especially well for me with declined languages (e.g., German, Polish), is to learn short phrases, usually of two or three words (prepositional phrases, noun/adjective phrases, adverb/verb phrases)...this helps with seeing the various declensions, and how they are involved in different situations without having to force-learn them, and also it provides context and reinforcement for the words. I liked your thoughts on learning languages. Probably different students prefer different things since different people learn things different ways...some people are auditory learners, some are visual learners, some are kinesthetic, etc.

"If you dig it, do it. If you really dig it, do it twice." - Jim Croce

I like your voice and the way of saying,and explanation,so I’m listening to your channel every day for my English study. It’s very very useful! Thank you so much!!

Some times I felt confused about How to learn English. Lots of videos telling us to speak, said that's the best way to learn English fast. Today, so lucky to watch this video: whatever you enjoy doing with the language is the most effective way, and I'll keep my way to learn English. My aim is to be able to understand News and movies.

I think having a passion for something, and truly enjoying it is when you learn and it passes by so quick. It breezes by, and soon you know so much, and all you know is wow you were having so much fun. That's why I strive to fall in love with things, not force myself to learn them(:

I agree. I enjoyed Anki a lot, therefore, I was learning fast. However, it have been getting boring as I was learning less. So if we get bored doing something it won't work. In fact, I think every one should create their own method because you are free to change everything in order to make it fun.

When i was learning english, i remember i had difficulties with 2 or 3 words...what I basically did, was to recreate a context of them in my brain...literally used my imagination to save them..and it worked.

I eventually realized what he says is the best way to learn languages. Thank you so much!

I can't believe yt recommended me this, it's been a year since I subscribed and all I did was nod my head while watching the whole time since I do relate with this. Thank you so much!

Hi Steve!!! I am learning so much from your channel!!! Watching almost everyday!!! Thank you so much!!! You are such an inspiration!!! 🙏☺️

Hello Steve! I'm Henrique, I'm from Brazil. I thank for your video, I'm learning English and Your method will help Me in this walk.

Yes, the most important criteria is the time available + do something you actually enjoy

I appreciate your open mindedness about learning methods. It is very different for different people what works best. If you enjoy it, do it!

Steve, I've listened to a number of your videos over the years and what I remember most about them is your enthusiasm for learning languages. You have an open and effusive way about you and it's very expressive and very entertaining. I drop in when I need a good pep talk or a dose of inspiration. Today you introduced me to David James. I looked him up, listened to one vid and was blown away by his insight into the human mind and the relationship between short term and long term memory and the effect of interval training. The mind is a subject I have devoted much of my time over the last ten years to learning more about and I have to say he connected a couple of dots. I was taken by his hypothesis that we have no control over long term memory, and the reason he gave was that it's programmed in for our own safety, like maintaining heart beat or rate. There's a damn good reason. The mind can only do one thing at a time. It can't be trusted to control these biological functions. There's a built in governor in the brain I like to call our need to know which I believe separates our biological processes from our reasoning and emotions. We know enough to put a coat on when we are cold, but we know nothing about activating the immune system when we contract pneumonia. Why am I focused on ST and LT memory? It's more about an interest I have in the neuroplasticity of the brain, how it changes itself daily to accommodate our needs, or to improve or repair itself. Behavioral psychology addresses the Gestalt, that "other" which manifests in us as our reason for being. Our gestalt represents who we are as a person, the entirety of our individual biological systems taken together, which is quite different from our biological systems. We think of our brain and mind as one. Our brain and mind are separate and distinct in what they do. The brain and peripheral nervous system together goes about its business monitoring our individual organs and bodily functions and adjusting our temperature, blood pressure, hormonal balances, etc. to keep us in a near perfect state of equilibrium no matter what the environment is like outside our bodies. It is called homeostasis and It's a fine line to walk. According to the second law of thermodynamics perfect equilibrium equates to death so there is a dance it must do to keep us dynamically active. Conversely our gestalt manifests in who we are as a whole organism and what purposes and intentions we adopt through our consciousness, and given that, which of them motivates and moves us to take action. The mind can do things the brain would not, like make us sacrifice our life for what we would deem sound logical reasons, or not, for a belief, a cause. for love or hate or some other fleeting emotion. All the while the brain does everything it can to keep us alive. The brain is just being judicious when it takes its time choosing which memories we should keep permanently archived inside our heads.

I've seen a couple of your videos on here, and this is probably my favorite. You speak so much sense in your videos. I found this one especially helpful with my learning. I really hope in the future other likeminded people discover this video to help them along the way. 👍👍👍 Thanks for posting

When I started with Dutch, I grabbed an audio of the children's book Minoes and a PDF of the book in Dutch. I listened to the audio. I then translated one page of the book a day. By them time I was half way through the book (it's not long), I was able to understand 80% of the audio, almost 50% of dutch TV shows. No flash cards, no memorizing. It flawed me how I was learning it like magic. I only now found out about GOldList and realize I was doing a kind of version of it with my translating. AMazing.

Hi Steve, I have become a great Fan of you since I joined Lingq. I am a native german and i am learning french right now. Here is something that I have discovered with my ANKI deck: When a german phrase comes up, I write out the french phrase before I flip the card. That has proven to be extremly effective. It is kind of an alternative to the "golden list" concept. I believe the reasons why it is effective are: 1. your brain has to phrase the sentence correctly. 2. by writing it down, you activate a different portion of your brain because it now is a motoric action. 3. You commit yourself to your answer. I think there is a lot of self bias after flipping the card that you still got it right after all... 4. You have to think of all the accent aigues and grafs that you would otherwise just oversee by just looking at the translation. ANKI now takes me an hour instead of half an hour, but I feel that it is time well spent and it tremedously improves my writing skills in the target language. At the end of the day, it is precisely what I would have to do when I would try to write a letter in french. Keep enjoying your live ! kind regards from Germany! Klaus

Your channel is a treasure for langanguge learners✨ Thanks a lot!

I love Anki because it helps me so much with my french pronunciation. Every time I see myself using a word or phrase in English which I don’t know in French, I take a note and when I get home I make a flashcard from it to enjoy on the next day. I’m not a fan of vocabulary list or paper flashcards, however, Anki is my exception that I can have all cards together and use them anytime and anywhere I want.

What a refreshing video. I have drilled my way to high-intermediate fluency in Spanish. It worked because, well, I *like* drilling. Others would die of boredom. Now I want to go further. Wanting to supplement drilling with other methods, I am overwhelmed by the infinitude of pedagogies I'm finding online, I'm seized with the fear I'll choose the "wrong" one. Then I come across your video. So simple. Find a way that you love and do it. Sounds like a plan. Thanks!

Hi! I'm a 14 year old girl who really wants to learn japanese, korean and spanish but I really didn't know where to start. This video cleared a few things out and made me a lot more motivated to learn. I've decided to start with Japanese since I've got some of the basics down and I'm very excited to see how far I can go. Thank you :)

Hi Steven. I love listening you. I'm learning English since September 2020. I'm following your advices for languague learning and it helps me a lot ❤❤❤ I'm very grateful for your content. Greetings from Buenos Aires

You are very wise man,Steve....just recently discovered your videos adn veru glad about it... I enjoy reading in English, but when it comes to writing or speaking I am not so confident....also I would recommend another way to improve significantly your foreign language is to go and live for some time in the country which language you want to speak, it when all your comprehention skills start to activate and you are forced to speak, write and comunicante in this language....

I wanted to find a native a French speaker for so long in my city and yesterday I finally did at a little French cafe that she owns in my city centre, when I started speaking French to her she was so shocked but happy that me, a British English native, was coming in using her language and not my own and then when I started speaking French to her; she her mouth dropped in surprise, and French, Steve - is how I've learnt it all with the process of listening and listening and listening, in my cas

I was relieved to watch this video. I’ve heard many cases that many person mastered thick word book, and a professor told that we must perfectly memorize how to write it. But to me, it was just too much! It wasn’t fun at all!!! I just read one word book and enjoyed to know how much I remembered, but I was not sure if my way of learning was okay. After checking this video, I felt relieved and I’ll continue my learning style! Thank you for your opinion!!!! It helped me a lot!

Mr Kaufmann, your method works well. Thank you

this kind of videos are great and enjoyable, you got my respect from Colombia, those ''gurus'' of english dont make so much sense here and im improving a lot with your advices, thank u a lot !!

Obdivuji vaše nadšení pro češtinu, protože je to jednoznačně hodně těžký jazyk. Ani mnozí rodilí mluvčí češtinu neovládají na 100%. Přeji hodně úspěchů.

The best advise for any learner, thank you Mr Kaufmann

10 years living in Czechia, studying daily, talking with people daily , but I am still waiting for my passive vocabulary to become active. People barely understand me, if at all.

You are a great thinker, fun is absolutely the essential

I have always said that the most effective way to learn a language or something else is the interest students get on learning it. It does not matter the method or the good or bad teacher a person may have before him/her: if that person is interested in learning, he/she will learn for sure. I´m a teacher of English in Cuba. Thank you for your doucumentary

I really appreciate your honesty. Learning a new language is a long, continuous journey and I found those claims from some to "hack" learning new language with a "secret method" for profits rather disappointing. I enjoy watching your videos as they come across as someone sharing the journey of learning with a honest, genuine heart, and not to try to sell something. I support LingQ as a user but appreciate that you also encourage us to use all other resources to learn languages!

Had to pause this video in the middle because I got too dang inspired to do some language learning!!

Well, of course, you have to enjoy what you do to be effective and see results. I am a native French speaker, and I learned English in no time because I loved it. That's all I did all day. I couldn't sleep if I had a question I cold not figure out. That being said, plenty of language methods out there (including the most famous ones, but I don't want to name names: "Je ne veux pas citer de noms") teach you things that are irrelevant, obsolete if not plain wrong. I would also say they are very very incomplete. There re so many things they don't teach, including the most used idiomatic expressions...

That is so true Steve !!!! For me language through songs with coherent lyrics catchy melodies and rhythm have worked beautifully and best of all, I do really enjoy it !!

I have tried to do the gold list. And it is boring. but it is really effective. Because it is boring it is not the activity I have done the least. But whatever words I did with the gold list system I do remember. The big secret about the gold list is that if you remember after 16 to 20 days you know it. If you remember it after 5 days you don't really know it. If you are motivated, (say you have to speak to a beautiful russian girl) Then even the boring gold list will become enjoyable. Easy and enjoyable and doing what you like doing is good, but if you want to up the effort you might not enjoy doing all you do, equally.

Great ideas! I am going to try the gold list and flash cards. Thanks for the great videos.

An important bit seems to be that we have an emotion that fires when we feel like something is going to be difficult to remember, and that emotion just obliterates the usefulness of our memory. I did experiments with a few people where I give one word and they repeat back the growing list, and about a word or two before the emotion strikes, their eyes start to move more. At this point, stop, shrink the list, and cover a different section which you can then add to the former. Amazes them!

Highly agree. Tbh, what Steve really means is to do any super fun activity that you really, truly enjoy in your target language. So, you get to enjoy the benefits and the pleasures of the activity, whilst subconsciously being exposed to and passively absorbing the language you are learning.

Thank you for this :)) I recently have wanted to learn a few languages but didn't know how to start. I've started to grow a passion for learning foreign languages. I really appreciate this video

That’s so true. I used to look up each vocabulary that I didn’t know while reading English books but I get bored and frustrated pretty quickly. Later on I find out a better method which is to ignore the words that I do not know and make a reasonable guess. Most of the time the words that I did not know has little impact on my comprehension because I could guess its meaning right according to the context. Unless it is a word that is really important which if you do not look up, you will completely lose track, if in that case, I will look up in dictionary or else I just ignore them and continue reading.

4:01 Same in France 😂 most people just don't care and pretend to learn but then when we have tests, they don't remember a thing !

Loved it! Best answer ever for this question!

GREAT! MANY THANKS. VERY INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING

It's very interesting how you delve into time distribution and efficiency. It's definetly an additional time sink but i'll try the goldlist for sure. Thanks for your insight Steve

14 days! I forget a new word or phrase after 14 seconds! Might explain why it has taken me 20 years to become mostly fluent in Spanish!

What you say is so refreshing to hear. Jusr find what works for you. I hate the flashcards too. I have given up on spaced repetition. I know scientifically it should work but maybe a scientisct can explain why when I see words and phrases on a screen they never advance from my short term memory. It really knocks my confidence when I've got to the point when I can tick it off as learned after seemingly endless repetitions but a month or two later they're all gone and I realise they were still just in my short term memory. Again you're right to steer clear of the Gold list if it's going to bore you but I found that's the method that has helped me most for various different reasons I won't bore you with but with a language I knew quite well but wanted to take to a more advanced level. Anyway, I agree. Find what you enjoy and it'll work and you'll enjoy it more because it does work.

@gutaraneko I don't find watching TV or listening to music to be efficient but some people may only do that, and would not do anything else. I think meaningful and comprehensible input is more enjoyable for most people.

This idea of fun thing is probably the single most important thing you talk about. It's so easy to grasp how important this is. It's very easy to become hypnotized by a few doubts that inhibit motivation. Fun is the one real way to change that. I wonder what it will take to banish laziness and doubt. I'm a lazy one. Thanks again Steve

Get comfortable with not knowing every single word and enjoy the process is my takeaway from this video. It’s how I pushed myself to get comfortable with English and French when I started.

I agree. As an English teacher, it is vital to know your students - infuse technology and make it interactive. The rule I hear a lot is have the students speak 70% of the time (I push that to about 80%). Teach the language by incorporating games and fun - they will learn and stick with it longer (so many language students give up too early).

I learned English by watching RU-vid. I found it very helpful to watch videos of music with lyrics. It is a funny way to learn and very effective...

Very knowledgeable!!! Keep it up

Always enjoy your videos. I know that I was an early reader, learning how to read before entering kindergarten. My intense enjoyment of reading equipped me with an natural sense of the music and style of speaking, writing and enjoying reading English. I want to strive to to do that with Spanish and also employ the Gold list method. I need to use Linck more. Thank you.

I always enjoy your videos and appreciate the useful learning tips and insights because I am quite limited by time due to my age in how much more I can learn. (I am impressed by your ability to speak extemporaneously but, after a radio personality mentioned that he was annoyed by the excessive use of “you know” in speech, I find myself counting how often a speaker uses this “filler phrase”. This interferes with the message conveyed, so either the listener must stop hearing it or the speaker could change his habit. I think that the former is the more reasonable approach.)

Thank you, Steve, i enjoy your English))), I have a same approach to learn languages, however I speak not so much languages French, German, English and just a little bit Japanese, native russian.Will be glad to practise with others polyglots))

Спасибо за ваши видео! Это видео записано 11 лет назад, но актуально и сейчас. Спасибо за вдохновение!

Great video! I love the main idea: do what you enjoy. Thanks!

your site is the best in analyzing the languge learning aspects

Oi Steve, sou um de seus fãs aqui no Brasil e estou muito feliz por ver seus videos na língua inglesa!E a primeira língua estrangeira que aprendo, mas com a permissão de Deus falarei pelo menos dez. Estou ansioso mas paciente por aprender a primeira, pois sei que o começo e sempre o mais difícil mas, graças aos amigos que ainda não tive o prazer de ser apresentado,o meu anseio, grato Steve Kaufmann!

speaking of interesting content ... your videos are one good example for the type of content I like to listen to. I really enjoy watching them.

Thank you Mr. Kaufmann. You are an awesome professor.

Thank you very much Steve

I'm here trying learn english, your videos are an expiration for me Steve, thank you, your content is wonderful.

Thanks for the video :) ... I think the three days is right oddly. For the foreign languages I understand (because I almost never speak them and because I get sooo uptight speaking for fear of mistakes), for the first three days, it is as if I do not know the language at all. I will stumble over everything like I am a beginner (especially verbs). Then after about three days, everything settles and as if by magic, I am speaking.

Hi Mr. Kaufmann! (saying Steve feels odd to me), stumbled across your channel while reviewing language learning software. I had decided to start working on my 4th language (dutch) for kicks so I could speak with my mom and improve pronunciation. Anyway I think you hit it on the head, you have to enjoy the learning process. For me, I found watching movies that I enjoyed in english, dubbed in italian for example, was a lot more benneficial than listening to italian movies. It worked for me because it was much clearer than actors on a live set shooting their lines. It also tended to be the standardized language verses regional dialect. Later on, italian movies became a synch because I built up to them. Anyway, looking forward to checking out your channel and hope you are doing well.

@gutaraneko That appears to me to be a waste of time. Do they enjoy doing it? Would they do anything else? It seems if they are content to write words over and over they probably are not too interested in learning English. But I guess you have a point.

I agree with you. Enjoying language learning is very important as well as regular exposure to native speakers of the target language. Those two are the most important factors for an effective second language acquisition process as far as I concern. Negotiation of meaning is crucial. The way in which one has to make himself understood by using the knowledge of the second language one already has triggers this (in my opinion) subconscious learning mechanism which allows us to infer meaning more and more quickly and effectively over time. That is how I have become a fluent english speaker. My mother tongue is spanish, and if I start learning chinese as I have already planned to, I will be speaking the 3 most spoken languages in the world :)

I admire you, about you learned, relentless pursuit of words, key to speak English language.

Hand writing something you are learning is proven to aid in remembering the material. It involves additional aspects of your mind, learning and remembering to listening, reading and speaking. If I have to look up a few words while reading, I'm fine with that. Some people say the best way to learn is to just watch videos of 'comprehensible' content, but idk how it's comprehensible if you don't know any or most of the vocabulary. I think a mix of all methods is ideal, and in that find what you enjoy.

What an awesome video! I just started watching your videos today and it's been really helpful! I didn't know which technique to use and I've been watching videos for so many weeks. Finally, I've decided to spend my time on SRS and just have fun with it :'D

There he is, the man, the legend, Steve.

Thank you for sharing your insight to learning languages.

My No.1 method is a simple word game no one else ever thought of - Mad Libs. I love playing that game so much, especially with other languages. That was how I improved my English a lot.

i am trying to learn Italian now . As i am romanian it is way easier to learn it but still have problems . for now i know some verbs , some prepositions , colors and a bit more . hope ill get better :D Ciao

Thank you very much Mr. Kaufmann, that's helping a lot. In fact I'm living in Germany Since 5 months ago, and to be honest i didn't find the effective way to learn German and it still looks complicated for me. but i'll try to do what I like to do in my learning method, Because I hate Language courses and stuff like that and as you mentioned, Germans has not interesting kind of modern music or TV Shows. and I never learned a language with going to courses and the beginners stuff, even English that I learned at School and I never get fluent with it until I start to use it and learned a lot when I started to read about from Computer Systems, watch TV Shows, and listening Music and reading History and Politics books and now I just realized that i must work on the same ways with German. Thanks again, and Best Regards. :)

english is my second language so i practice listening your videos and trying to figure out what you are saying without using subtitles i´m also learning italian with LingQ and it´s really helping me i also want to learn japanese(just to watch anime), korean(cuz i listen kpop music) and croata (my grandma and grandpa where born there, so if i ever visit my cousins i want to be able to speak with them)

Interesting stuff Steve! Has given me a lot of food for thought!

I think you're gonna become one of my mentors in the path of learning English

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I want to be your friend. Kaufmann. I am just a super normal Chinese student in Canada. I am trying to be a polyglot. You really motivated me a lot. Thank you for your video. Sincerely.

gold. thank you mr kauffmann!

I fully agree. Nobody has to be an "alive library". Doing what someone likes to do is the perfect way to perform well.