Learning A Language By Strategically Combining Extensive & Intensive Reading 

My first novel that I read in Spanish was Harry Potter. I had to read and reread chapters several times. I read it in english as well to get context to what was going on. All said a and done I read and listened through the entire book 5x. It was a huge struggle and it took about 3 months to get through it. I moved on the the second book in the series and it only took 2x to get through the book. By the 3rd book I read the entire book in 2 weeks. I am now almost done with the 4th book an my level of Spanish reading, comprehension and speaking have all exponentially grown in the past few months. Without the struggle of grinding through the first book I wouldn't be anywhere close to my level of Spanish. Thanks for the great content! I look forward to all of your videos!

This whole channel is just amazing!

The best thing about this Robin's channel is that the principles in language learning that he shares are also applicable in other aspects of life for growth and well-being. ❤️ You really deserve more subs! Support from the 🇵🇭

Hi Robin, I, too, am an Andre Klein fan. There are now 11 books in the "Dino Lernt Deutsch" series, the last one of which takes place during the COVID Lockdown [Learn German with Stories: Lockdown in Liechtenstein - 10 Short Stories For Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch 11) (German Edition) ]. And, what make this series even wunderbarer is that the entire series from "Cafe in Berlin" to "Lockdown in Liechtenstein" is itself graded. And, still more wunderbarer is that there is an audio book for each of them, too. Thanks for all you to to encourage and support language learning. For me, your efforts are especially welcome during this time of social isolation. Have a wonderful day, Russ

Another great video Robin! Here's my approach to combining intensive and extensive reading for French: 1. Find longish easy-intermediate dialogues with audio. (Olly Richard's 101 beginner and intermediate conversation texts are great and so is hygiène de l'assassin) 2. Read each text to the end once, whilst rapidly copying/pasting *any* sentences I do not understand into Anki with their literal translation. 3. Learn the sentences I did not understand via Anki. 4. Re-read the books several times until comprehension becomes easy and automatic. 5. Listen to the audio over and over until comprehension becomes automatic. I'm seeing great progress with this method.

I usually look up the words as I go (I use the Kindle app dictionary). After a while that word or phrase will pop up a lot more frequently throughout the story or in other things I've read previously. Don't worry about forgetting words or phrases. Daily reading will give you constant refreshers.

Man, thank you for your content. It really improves my english. I wish you to have no less than 1 million followers. You deserve it)

As always, great video. My weekly shot of inspiration. Thanks 💪🏿

Great idea to highlight words and check them only later! It's indeed not very fun to stop every second while reading to translate words

Great! Thank you so much! And take care

Great points! As always: we need to find the balance between struggling and pleasure.

Thank you for your recommendation in an earlier video of El tiempo entre costuras. I'm about halfway through and for me I use a mix of intensive and extensive reading. Sometimes I click on an unknown word to get the definition, then move on, other times I stop and analyze a phrase or a sentence for a length of time. It has been great for my confidence. Me encanta tu canal. ¡Saludos desde the Central Sunset District!

Wenn du das Wort "fleißig" magst, habe ich ein Super-Zitat für dich, "Ohne Fleiß - kein Preis!"

Que tal? Muy bien.. For me, not so well. My husband died last year, but I am hanging in there with the help of my languages. I also started sharing Spanish with my friend. We are doing 3 words a day in Spanish. It doesn't sound like a lot, but with the grammar it makes a full lesson.

You really motivate me to continue my French language learning. I have a ways to go but step by step I will reach my goal. Then Arabic will be next. Thanks so much!!!

It's so great to see you learning German. Best wishes from Berlin!!!

Honestly, Robin is one of my favorite Polyglots. Maybe my favorite one! The way he talks about learning languages and connects to his audience with his authenticity at the same time is stunning.

Useful as always :')

I created a language tracker sheet like yours just now. I’m using Duolingo and Memorise for some basics (French). And it’s nice to have a highlightable visual reference. :) Earlier this week I did a calendar to plot out what I needed to do each day to accomplish a specific goal I set, with a specific end date. This gives me basically weekly homework I have to complete. Which is really helpful and pushes me. But having the really nice and formal chart chart to mark off progress on… It’s quite satisfying. Thank you for the idea!

I purchased Cafe in Berlin and have begun reading it. I read parts of it online before. I renewed my study of German about 5 years ago. Now I can follow along with you, Robin!

First of all, thank you for reminding me that I had a cup of tea on the table, behind my latop. I had totally forgotten about it and when you showed us your cup, I realized that it's been getting cold for at least an hour. Second of all, I love reading. I've spent now two years living in the Netherlands and I've already read around 10 Dutch novels, but for some reason now it feels more difficult than before, which is weird. I also remember reading articles and books in Norwegian and writing down all the words on pieces of paper which I later put into a pile and there were lots of them haha. Today I mostly use LingQ for intensive reading. I can't be bothered to look up words manually, but I still like to read extensively although lately I've been mostly doing it in English because I really like American literature :) Anyway, for the first time in 2 years I'm really hooked on a language and it's a language that I've tried to learn multiple times but always failed. For the first time I'm really progressing with Romanian and a few days ago I even read a whole article about politics in Romanian with the help of LingQ and had so much fun doing it. Those Romance cognates really help with political texts haha. My goal is to learn as much Romanian as possible by January so that next year I can keep learning through passive means (I won't be able to do as much active study because of other language-related plans). I had nothing in particular to comment on, just wanted to say hi. Good to see your channel growing and keep coming with those videos.

I'm learning Danish in preparation for doing a year abroad there as an exchange student. The hardest part is the pronunciation for me, and listening so I'm definitely hitting a road block with how to rewire my thinking of pronunciation, into the danish pronunciation.

Happy wednesday Robin!

Ich habe jetzt „extensive Reading“ für Italienisch übernommen, allerdings übe ich gleich das Sprechen. Ich liebe diese Begeisterung für das Lernen. Mach weiter so!

8:02 sums up my first video about improving in German lol not enough struggles Thanks for your videos Robin ✌🏼

Robin kayboldu. 🙃 We are waiting patiently for Friday's video. 🙂

I’m on the fifth Dino book by Andrei Klein and I really like them. I read each chapter twice before going on to the next one. Once I’m finished with the first eight, I plan to reread them. I bought the Kindle bundles that each contain for books.

Never been this early!! 👏🏻

Your point about the novels and jumping into them and struggling made me think of my current journey with kettlebells. I have two weights, 20lbs (~10 kilos), and 35lbs (~16kilos. I started with the 20lb one and started learning the movements and the workouts. And one of the most fun movements is the Turkish get up. And I got good at them with the 20lb one. I tried get up with the 35lb one, and I couldn't even lift my shoulder off the ground the first time I tried 😂 With Kettlebells, they don't lift like normal weights, and you swing them, so little jumps in weight will make you struggle a lot more. So I thought of this when you described the jump between the "easy" extensive reading and the "hard" intensive reading

Nice follow up to the series with Jared.

Great video, as always! I love learning languages, and watching this kind of videos I notice many things about the learniship process. They are very interesting and useful for me at this moment, I'm learning Dutch, and although I'm only a beginner I feel that if I work in the appropriate way I'll reach my target. Thank you very much! 👏👏😀😀

In case you're open to recommendations for a good read: "Ich bin dann mal weg" by German comedian Herpe Kerkeling. It's about his journey on the Jakobsweg (Camillo de Santiago trail) as an answer to his existential crisis and poor health. It's not so much about religion but his own experiences in the changes he undergoes during the journey. 🙂

L2 Press German stories combine interlinear translation and parallel translation - perfect for combining extensive and intensive reading. I believe they were made specifically for that purpose actually. I use it. I love it. Just passing it along.

Hi Robin, thanks for the video! Please could you make a video about how to learn a language that is similar to one you already speak? For instance in my case I have recently started learning french and I already have a ~C1 level in spanish. I find that I can understand quite a lot and what I've been trying to do is do a lot of reading/listening at a low intermediate level of content. Do you have any particular techniques which work well in this sort of situation? Thank you!

Hey Robin ♬ I've started watching your channel recently, but just wanted to say "thanks" for sharing all your thoughts and knowledge. Your everlasting cheerfulness and love of language studying is contagious and make me feel that passion again on days I’ getting tired of juggling with languages or of living abroad (Japan). So ありがとう☆これからも見続けるからよろしくお願いします！(o*。_。)oペコッ

Robin, I assume the Babbel content functions as its own review. I'd like to know what your approach to review is once it is no longer an integral part of the learning material. You've shown us, your viewers, your use of Notion as a learning organization tool, and it looks nice to see hundreds of potentially useful words and phrases assembled together - with the potential to become, over time, tens of thousands. But, what do you do with this storehouse to keep from forgetting it?

Robin, do you think there is some link between drinking coffee and improving your ability to learn foreign languages? Just out of curiosity.

Does extensive listening have the same benefits as extensive reading?

Vielleicht kannst du nächstes Jahr ein Bookclub für 'Ein ganzen Leben' machen?

You're AWESOME bro! I'm challenging myself to 2-3 hours/day in German for three weeks. Enjoy your Coffee! :D

Hast du das mal probiert Teile des Lesestücks zu verwenden als Anreiz zum Selbstgespräche? Besonders wenn Du auf neue, nützliche Worten wie „fleißig“ zustoßt?

Has anyone read the Alchemist in the language they're learning? I want to read a book and feel I'm at an A2 maybe level but not sure what kind would be best and has common words I would use. I see some people do harry potter but not that interested in using it since it specific words that are not commonly used in everyday speech

I'm having difficulties learning french. Since it's very similar to my native language (Portuguese), I can read very well and understand a bit. But I can't talk or remember the vocabularies... What do you guys suggest?

Robin, I was just wondering. I'm not sure i got a response but I'm looking foe the Best graded readers for French.

First view! 🙌

Total beginner here: i have a question... I’ve done a lot of learning now on HOW to learn a language.. all the videos and research i do, I’m hearing much about reading and listening obviously .. my question is HOW do you get to the point where you can actually begin to read and listen and actually understand? Do you take an intensive approach until you can understand some? Do you just continually listen and you will begin to understand? Totally new learning my first language.. I’m just trying to get the science down and figure out what I’m actually doing here so i can put together a solid schedule and plan to move forward. Thank you!!

I enter, insta like

Quick question: A few months ago you discussed the value that speaking has in solidifying a language in your memory, so that it disappears more slowly. How would you get this same effect when speakers are extremely scarce? I have been learning Latin for 2 years, which is, predictably, not very widely spoken.

Really getting a bit superfluous now...