It all counts, but I find it better when we can understand at least half of what we are listening to, that is why I usually combine listening with reading the transcript the way we do at LingQ.
It is the deliberate focus on gammar that is inefficient. I have done a few videos on the subject. Get on over to LingQ to work on your Spanish. But yes we do need to refer to grammar from time to time.
For the last few weeks, I've started listening to my target language via podcasts when I'm traveling to work and doing other things. I don't know if I learn new words this way, but I do know that when I hear familiar words that they become more embedded into my long term memory.
IF you learn the language correctly. It took me 10 years to learn french because I did it wrong like learning only word lists and grammar for the first 6 years. I learnt 95% of my french in the last 2 years with a lot of the thanks to lingq and yabla websites.
I want to say thank you Steve Kaufmann for all your videos and advice. They've been a big help and really inspiring for me. I have been studying Italian for a week now and every day I have been putting 3-5 hrs a day or even sometimes 8 hrs. I've never studied another language before and every time I did try to study Italian I would study it wrong and drop it right away. Hopefully I'll be able to speak it one day. Grazie!
it took me two years to learn english at a medium level (b1). My aim is to achieve b2 level in one more year. In my experience, if you want to learn fluent english, Spanish, or Italian, it takes time. You must spend between one and two hours a day during 3 years.
I am living in Slovakia and learning Slovak language. Its so frustrating sometimes. It helps when I listen people talking but i get terrible headache after sometimes.
@marchuckvalentine Certainly not a waste of time, in fact a good thing to do. It is just that in my case I add a hundred words a day to the list of words that I am learning, and many more words are added incidentally by listening and reading. I could not review them all in Anki. I do review my words and phrases in LingQ, but only occasionally. I do not have the time to review them all and still read and listen as much as I do.
I don't mind taking a year to reach a level of comfort, as I believe this will allow me to fully enjoy more engaging content, which in turn will facilitate my language learning process. Currently, I watch material in my target language, but at times it can feel strange, as I understand it but cannot explain how. I hope that, as I become more proficient, my understanding will improve and I will find greater enjoyment, enabling me to enter a deeper state of flow.
Always had in my mind that I could study two similar languages at the same time, cutting my learning time in half. But realized each language is going to take it's own time. And all I would do is get confused, slowing progress. It's who's ahead at the finish line that counts and I think conquering one and then the other would put me ahead.
I think a year is a very long time. Russian is not my native language but I can speak it "flawless". So it took me three months (4,5 hrs/week) to be able to communicate and even (I am a bit proud of myself :D) read a novel for children in Polish. So, just never give up ;)
@Boonweezy I have never had that experience. I work through a text that is more or less at my level. I listen and over time more and more of the target language becomes clear. i have never heard of anyone reacting the way you describe. Why not get on our Forum and describe your experience and see what others have to say?
great video, im a native english speaker, "almost" fluent in spanish, but now i'm going all out to learn japanese. i'm studying non stop in my free time, listening to instructional mp3's etc. etc.. my goal is to be functional in japanese in 1 year
This is a great video. I've watched a lot of your more recent videos, but this I think is actually a gem and one of your best. Some many great pieces of info in this video.
This is a very good explanation about how long does it take to speak a foreign language. I am learning a third language at the moment. Second one was learned through a childhood so it is difficult to measure a learning curve. But with this third language that I am learning I can confirm that this explanation is equal to my experience. 1,5 years for a germanic language if you know English to be comfortable (B1 /B2 level). With consistant learning of course.
Ciao Steve! Nice programme. I got the advanced (C1) level of English some years ago..since then I've been continuing trying to improve. I don't think a C1 is flawless and although I'm happy with my English I still find some difficulties when I watch movies..you know slangs, new words and expressions I've never heard before. So I came to the conclusion that my learning process will take my lifespan. This year I tried to do some Spanish and after 6 months studying 15 minutes a day when I went to Barcelona I was just able to ask information and have some basic conversations. Now, I'm curious..what is your level of the idioms you learnt? Once you said you're C2 in French..how about the others? Grazie..ciao da Cagliari (Sardegna)
Today I could study all the day in my target language: English. I already can read and listening and understand 70% more or less but I want someone to chat and I can help in Portuguese. Someone?
I say that if people want to learn a language faster, they should have some means of carrying vocabulary lists of words and phrases so the language can be studied bit by bit throughout the day. Taking peeks at words or phrases and repeating them until they are imbedded firmly in the mind would be very beneficial I believe.
Ok you want to know how long to learn a language,so here is the answer 2000 to 3000 hours of listening to learn Spanish and a language like Irish or Russian 4000 to 6000 hours of listening
Any Deutchspeaker here? Am trying to learn that for higher studies purpose. Any tips will be much appreciated. I sort of know english, hindi(native one) and sanskrit.
I think you are missing the main thing. I will tell you how I got to level C1 in Russian. I studied the grammar in 6 months. All by myself, because paying for clases eventually gets too expensive. Then after I learned the grammar I spent the next 2.5 years learning vocabulary. By vocabulary I mean verbs and nouns, adjectives, etc. And thats it. Now I'm level C1. I know that because I can watch movies without subtitles and I've completed C1 books that I ordered from Russia.
Если так, можете ли вы описать тленность жизни, что кроется за тонкой-тонкой сутью бытия? И почему мы суверенно верим в то, что, будучи изведанным, со временем теряет всякий смысл?
I'm learning Russian, it's my first second language. So far I agree with what Mr Kaufmann has said in this, and his video on tips for learning Russian. I am at a frustrating stage where I'm crawling through exercises trying to understand which rule I'm supposed to used. But I can even begin to understand news articles on RT.com, only after a few months of really making an effort to put Russian into my daily routine.
@toopeek Sure! I mean, I was in Poland, not speaking, but able to hear speech, at least. So, I am not that prodigy. The crucial thing is to figure out key differences between two languages.
@Boonweezy I had the same expierience with Chinese. Try to understand what a word means without reffering to English translation, i.e. focus on the universal meaning. For example sometimes I cannot recall wheter the text I read was in Polish (native) or English. I just remember the meaning. Watching movies in the target language is good for this kind of figuring the language out.
I'm studying Japanese by myself(though I have a lot of friends and support) and I can say the quick and easy polyglot idea is misled. It will take you a masters degree level of effort to become meaningfully fluent in a strange language. Biggest tip I can give is love the language, love the culture, love the people!
おはよう！ what's your level now? it's 8 months since you have posted this comment and i want to ask you about your experience studying Japanese, because i also study it on my own (but i started a month ago). Could you please tell your opinion on what you have done and how easy or hard it was? thanks!
@Imyirtshashem Ah, I stand corrected. I had been lead to believe that it was a unique characteristic compared to the other Germanic languages. My father is learning German and is somewhere between A2-B1 and finds this aspect of syntax the most difficult part of the language for him. Anyway, thank you for the correction.
Steve, How long are you learning the same content?For Example,if you read a chapter of the book,and there is a lot of words that you don't know,maybe 300 or more.How long does it take to understand 80 percent or more in this chapter?
Thank you for such an honest video, debunking the myth that one can learn a language in 10 days, one month etc. I've been studying Spanish for a year now (30 minute) a day and on top of that, I also turn on spanish subtitles for all the videos I watch on youtube. Now I am at the point of a little more comfortable with Spanish, but still it is a struggle. My ears feel very strained when listening to a spanish video and I do have to have the subtitles to aid me in the understanding. Now my problem is I can't find mid-level spanish material to read. Most of the reading material are so boring that I just can't stand it. So I am still looking all over the place for some easy non-boring Spanish material and it is not easy to find. How do you looking for reading material that are interesting and not too difficult? I mean I think this is the most difficult thing right now for me.
Yes I am very skeptical of anyone that claims to have learned a language in just a few months. I’m not saying it’s impossible. The US military trains soldiers to become interpreters using INTENSE constant training.
I always say this to me, how much I'd ENJOY..!! Having to Stephen as my English teacher, by the way my native language is Spanish..Really you are great and sometimes I'm impressed cause I am able to understand EVERYTHING you said, which do not happen with somebody else. Saludos Stephen yo hablo fluido ingles, italiano y portugues y por supuesto español sería algo increíble una conversación con ud.
i never actively studied spanish, nor had an interest in studying it, but i have family that speaks spanish, so i essentially 'passively' learned it from occasional exposure to them, over my whole lifetime. Spanish really is an 'easy' language to learn for english speakers tho. I'd say a year of good studying will do it. once u hear it enough that ur brain stops translating in the middle of sentences, ur good to go.
I'm doing 2 hours most days right now, about 3 hours a day once or twice a week. i'm trying to build up to more. I'm not sure how similar the language is.. Maybe Finnish-level of difficulty.. That's a very uneducated guess though lol I would like to become fluent sometime this summer but that maybe be a little unrealistic. I hope to update on this comment someday when I hit a level where I can have short confortable conversations with people.
In my opinion if you're able to discipline yourself and keep practicing, half a year or less is needed for decent/alright speaking (not fluent but yeah decent but being able to write well is the hard part. Then again the first language I started going to practice with was mandarin
Hello from Poland. I speak Polish, English, German, Spanish (a2) and ten letters of Hiragana 😀 How do you refresh the languages you already speak. My German level is C1 and I watch German films every film so this level stays the same. But how you are doing it with 20 languages???? 😁 Hugs from Poznan. Love your videos
they say 3000 words presents 95 % of the average daily conversation, if you get your vocabulary up to this number you speak the language... now I moved to France so I've been studying for about a month, I am Czech so latin languages are quiet far to me but you are right that French environment makes it much easier as you learn everywhere you go, gym, buy a train ticket etc... will se how I go but my goal is to be able to understand and have a normal dialog within a year....Jinak jsem moc rad, ze se nekdo snazi ucit cesky, rustinu mam na seznamu po francouzstine....
Kaufman's comments seem pretty reasonable. However, he doesn't mention study with a professional teacher one-on-one. In my Thai study I find this to be indispensable for several reasons. Thai has tones which are difficult for us whose mother tongue is English to hear and difficult to produce. The teacher will correct the student and draw his attention to elements of the sounds, such as tones and rhythm, that he will be hard-pressed to recognize on his own. In my own study it took me a couple of years trying to produce the tones, even with correction, and then within a period of a few weeks I basically got the tones down and can now produce them fairly reliably. Conversing with natives speakers is very valuable, of course, but they are not teachers and may not know how to give effective correction even if they are willing to.
While there are a lot of language skills one can learn on one's own, the Thai tones and other unfamiliar phonemes apparently are not among them. Most of the Westerners here in Thailand attempt to learn Thai from various book and tape methods and virtually all of them fail miserably and give up convinced it is impossible. Those who do succeed either study at one of the very few programs with qualified teachers or have a spouse who functions as a teacher. We need correction, because our ears are initially closed to the Thai phonemes. The other reason that a qualified Thai teacher is essential is that there are no good quality Thai dictionaries that explain connotations and provide examples like the OED or Petit Robert. Without a teacher with advanced knowledge of the Thai language, the learner is never going to grasp the nuances necessary to achieve mastery.
The only human being I want to be like I have been studying for almost 12 years and Russian, I have worked on it for some time; one year and half. Planning to learn German in seven or six years
Interesting stuff, thanks Steve. 9 years into my Spanish adventure I can vouch for what you say about making/keeping it enjoyable. Not sure I agree about grammar being inefficient though: Isn't this an intrinsic part of the learning process? Do you have a video about how you view this?
I did not said I was learning Russian. I know it 'flawless', like I said, since I was four. I used it while learning Polish, i.e. another Slavic language.
@qzchris Yeah, it is certainly closer to German than it is to English but as far as I'm aware, English syntax is generally closer to Dutch than it is to German. I studied German for a few years back in secondary school and started learning a little Dutch a couple of years ago but decided to stop pretty quickly as I could see it clashing with my Norwegian which is not yet solid.
I will try 40 hours a week. It's going to cause a lot of mental stress, but it'll be worth it in the end. And now with summer vacation coming up in 3 weeks I'll go hardcore for 4-5 hours every day.
I need advice. Right now I am in Japan as a foreign student and have been here for about 3 months. But I feel as if I am not as fluent in Japanese as I should be or as people expect me to be. What do you suggest I should do? Any advice on how to help me learn faster. I need to be able to communicate well with my host families, and potential friends. Also, there is school to worry about.
I’ve been learning English 1year. Finally after 1year I can enjoy English to some degree. I mean Podcast, youtube, some easy books... I am living in America so that could learn effectively I think. but still It’s very stressful understanding people’s very quick and murmuring talking...I’m not too young and I’m not in a situation that I can go to the school to learn English now. Do you think can my English listening level improve to the level which understands their very quick talking or murmuring voices in a year? If I study 4-5hour a day? Sometimes their talking sounds like an alien language...
Sophie J it all depends on what language you speak natively. If you speak a romance language it will be a lot easier to learn English than a person native in asian or slavic languages. So putting in a lot of effort will give you quicker results regardless of what you speak natively. You said you live here now and have trouble listening, just keep listening to the sounds and it will be something you get used to.
@toopeek they have maaaany words in common. Btw, I decided not to look up in a dictionary - I just read. I've read that book many years ago, but reading in original is always better. I can communicate in Polish. Speak on regular topics, but not, for example, write or read some classical novels. I am taking next semester courses in Polish, and I am quite scared :)
Where r u in it now ...i'm learning my third one too (started this week took like a 400 verbs and feel like i understand most of the written phrases but cant really understand spoken ones so ..i'm wondering how did u fix it)
Depende de sua dedicação, dentro de uns 4 anos estudando todos os dias você tem chance de chegar a fluência. Com uns 1-3 anos a pessoa normalmente está no nível intermediário. Chegar no nível intermediário é possível em até uns 6 meses, mas sair dele e chegar a fluência requer tempo/paciência
Does this acknowledge Stephen Krashen's insights or not? It's just I was reading his book on the Principles and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, and he was speaking of studies where the study process was 3-10x quicker dependent on study.
I feel that this question is impossible to answer. Too many factors to be considered. Howerver, the more I think about it, maybe a good computer program that could analyze and reasonable assign a value to everything you bring to the table in your attempt to learn language "X", might come up with an answer. Now I'm wondering if this hasn't already been attempted. Yes, sounds like a computer program, programmed "properly" might give a good estimate. Not sure how you could assign motivation, etc.
German is the closest language i have heard to english that isnt a different dialect ,but a full language, and it only took me about a year to become comfortable with it. Now having studied it for almost 4 years, i feel that my German is very good and i could go to Germany and make something of myself. Granted i am German, living in America and learned english, but i feel you need to WANT to learn the language and care for it as well as have a reason, or inscentive in order to learn it. The more you care, and the more you want to, the faster or easier it shall be. This was evident in my journey through Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Romanian. Now im trying Russian, and thou it is very hard, i have inscentive and im not learning it because "why not" im learning because i have a reason and i want to.
Well i havent studied afrikaans so i wouldnt know. I just know that english is a direct derivative of german and latin, but mainly stemming off of german
German and dutch are easier on the Anglophone ear. When I took German in HS I could sort of understand what the Germans were saying in WWII flicks. However I find French easier to read but really hard to listen too. After having been exposed to Pali, German declensions are nothing.
