I was doing Japanese immersion and at one point I completely understood, without breaking down the sentence and words or even translating it, I hear "そろそろ学校は始まるね?”. And I was so taken aback and happy and got a massive rush of motivation!
"In the beginning I enjoy it (a language learning method) but then it starts sucking" Sometimes the "right method" changes with my level. I love language apps when I'm starting out but later on they feel boring and repetitive. Often we are not looking for the one perfect method, but the best one for right now or to reach the next goal, IMHO. Great video though, both yours and Lydia's. Thanks for sharing.
I'm super grateful to this TED talk for kick starting my foreign language learning journey again. I remember watching this TED talk 1.5 years ago. At that time, I had the experience of learning Japanese for 4 years in school, but I found it very difficult. I tried my best but I still didn't feel confident in the language at all, and absolutely could not speak it, so I steered clear of language-learning afterwards, thinking I just had no "talent" in languages. This very video motivated me to believe that anyone can learn a foreign language to a high degree, it may take more effort for some, but it's not impossible. So the very next day I started learning Korean, a language I had always wanted to learn. I revamped my entire studying method, focusing on speaking and immersing myself in the language. 1.5 years later, I'm at a high intermediate level and can speak to native speakers without much problems, understand more than 80% of the content of videos in Korean without subtitles. On a recent trip to Korea, I even ended up having conversations in Korean with locals about all sorts of topics and explained to an elderly Korean man how to use the locker at a subway station (this was difficult). In the meantime, I also learnt a 2nd foreign language to low intermediate level and am starting on my third one.
This is encouraging. I started learning Korean 10 years ago. Actually studied about 4 or so. Now I have a plan and recently started working with someone who helps me. And I hope I will be able to speak comfortably in the future!
@@jasmin27798 감사합니다 :) The summer went really well for me and I am now solidly into the intermediate level and competing in a Korean speech contest later this month. I got brave and put some comparisons on my RU-vid. My speaking is slow, but I only started speaking this summer so I have made a lot of progress. Bigger vocabulary, just slow. Haha. I'm much stronger in reading and writing. Now I'm just having so much fun with Korean because I can understand so much more that I end up staying up too late, consuming hours of Korean content. I hope your journey goes well too :) Just keep doing at least a little bit every day. That's what made the difference for me! And not being afraid of mistakes. 화이팅!
Hi Olly, I watched this TED talk some time ago. Lydia is a fantastic polyglot and explains the different ways everyone can learn a language. I had an "Ah-Ha" moment similar to Lydia's understanding of German for the first time. Mine, was reading a notice on a photo of a noticeboard outside a castle. The script was in two different non English languages. When I read the notice, I was halfway through the second different script before I realised that I was reading a different script! I then had that "buzz" of knowing that I have progessed in understanding those foreign languages!
My "Ah-Ha" moment was watching a video on RU-vid where Spanish, French, and Romanian speakers were talking to each other in their own languages to see how much overlap there was in those languages. I got to the end of the video having followed the conversations and only then realized that they hadn't spoken any English. I was following it because I was listening to the Spanish speaker ask questions and get answers, so even though French and Romanian were different enough that I didn't understand it at all, I understood via how he was asking and answering questions himself.
Yes, I agree with you. At the beginning when you are learning a new language you can’t understand what’s the structure of language and its grammar etc.. After 1 or 2 months You understand logic of language and people’s conversation. I know 3 languages. Now I am learning French.Wish me luck👌🏻
To me it was also "random" to become a polyglot 🤣, I never planned it. But yeah, learning by having fun is the best. I am more of a "listener", it is the best way for me to learn 😄 I also must admit that I sometimes talk to myself in different languages when I am alone, glad I am not the only one 😁
That’s amazing!!! 🤩 I hope I’ll find my way of learning. I realized that I want to learn everything at the same time than I learn nothing 🤭but I will 🙌🏼
I learned English for the most part through video games, TV, reading novels and only partially through school, despite 9 years of formal English Education, yes schools are highly inefficient for language learning, however they are a good stepping point for getting the basics, you need to learn the syntax, aka grammar and such, then textbooks, help you understand conversations and their structures, dictionaries help you with vocabulary, and finally someone you can talk to, question and learn from, is important help if used correctly. It's also really helpful if someone can teach you how to pronounce the words correctly, some languages have pitch or some other form of tone to differentiate words or phrases, for example Japanese which has 4 different pitches, or Swedish which has a lot of words that looks the same but are not the same, due to tone. For example the noun Apa(monkey), and the verb Apa(act goofy) rise rise vs rise fall... Or you could take my native tongue Scanian, which have da(then/that) dä(that) dää(this is/that is/there is) dää(there) de(that/you) or i(you plural) and i(inside/within). Learning languages is easy, it's just excruciatingly slow and time consuming.
lol i’m not entirely sure about this 2 year thing either, but if i remember correctly i think she mentioned it somewhere on her blog or something, that when she gets to a certain level (b2 at minimum) she picks up another language and she discovered that it takes her approximately 2 years to get to that level
That is what she says. We don't know how well, or badly she speaks those languages. Her English is pretty good. B2 is an advanced level. At this point, you can speak the language well, you understand most of what you hear. C1 is indeed a very advanced level. You have to learn words, idioms, and grammar structures that you don't hear in the street. You can learn a bunch of sentences and words by heart and claim yourself as a fluent speaker.
Hi Dom, that's right. Lydia says that it takes around two years to get to a B2 level when devoting an hour a day to that particular language, provided you use effective methods :) Niki from the Language Mentoring team
It worked for “RM,” Kim Namjoon of BTS. He learned English watching the sitcom “Friends” when he was 14 years old. His mother bought him the series to use for this purpose. He watched the whole thing with Korean subtitles then again with English and finally with none. Now that wouldn’t work work alone for me or probably most people.
I never thought I was that good in languages. I had very average grades in school for English and French. But I never loved going to school. I was studying because I had to. Also did not have real friends. I was okay with everyone, but kept my distance. I always felt older than them. When I started studying Arabic, I got a lot of negative feedback from people I knew. But it was so reviving to learn something completely new, completely different. I just jumped into it. After 6 years I spoke rather well. And 2 years later I think I was fluent. The biggest surprise still had to come, though. I met people who had been studying Arabic for 10 years or more, who were still on an A level. So I thought; maybe I CAN learn languages. So that was the trigger for me to relearn my English and French, and above that I also learned German, Indonesian, Moroccon dialect, and now started with Turkish. Of course I am not great in all my languages, and I speak them in various degrees of fluency. But learning languages has changed me as a person. It made me much opener and more selfconfident.
Olly, thanks for a nice reaction video. I've watched several of Lydia's videos. I think that it takes her 2 years to feel comfortable with a language. It is at that point (the 2-year mark) that she becomes excited about learning a new language, using the system that has worked for her up until that point.
You put this video just at that time when i was struggling with why now language learning was not working for me, when I did do it once earlier. I did get a couple of points, to take away and apply. Let me see how it works out. 💪
Very nice! I remember my first victiory in French (I Live in Belgium) - I watched the iconic french commedy "L'aile ou la cuisee" after about 2 yrs of courses and I realised at the end I had completely understood it and was laughing out loud at the jokes without even realising it. That is when I knew I had broken through a big wall.
I like your videos and podcast I learn a lot. I love learning Spanish and I been learning Spanish since I was 20 years old. I am not 100% yet but I understand enough to get by. I read and watch almost anything I get my hands on in Spanish and I watch channels like yours to help me learn as well.
When I saw the screenshot of Lýdia before watching the video I got the impression that you were going to try to take her down. Thank God that didn't happen as Lýdia has worked as an interpreter and I have HUGE respect for her! My guess is that you're both buddies.
Olly, I've been following your since 3/4 years back, listening your podcasts at my work! Great content, I am glad you more active on youtube now, waiting for more videos!
2:40 That reminds me of a chess strategy i used when playing online. Have one game with your friend and another with a bot but you play what your friend did and copy the moves the bot does in response.
Personally watching and reading stuff in another language works for me. I need to do some more grammar and speaking practice in a class to make sure I get it right but just being involved in that makes it possible for me to pick things up. Words. Even an accent which might become a problem eventually
I do agree with you. You can get inspired by others. They can even give you tips; that is why there are plenty of Languages coaches like Luca Lampariello. 4:16 Some people are laughing about that point she mentioned in that talk; however, I use that technique. I watch some Russian films or series on Netflix. I don't understand much. When I learn languages, I try to figure out if my ears and brain can recognise some similar words, or I try to guess the meaning of a conversation based on the actor's and actress's body language and the atmosphere surrounding them. If we are at our doctor's, we are not gonna talk about holiday, history and what I did yesterday in that disco. I am not a gifted polyglot, not in my wildest dreams.
I’m going to start on my fourth language, and always look for new ideas on RU-vid. The reason you’re one of the few polyglots I follow here is that you don’t bash other polyglots ideas. Like you said everyone needs to use what works for them. Keep creating great content 👍
I'm learning English by my own as my second language and I'd like to learn more languages, but first thing first i need to improve my English skills like grammar which is very weak and poor. By the way, this videos was recommended by RU-vid, then i decided to watch it and now I'm a new subscriber. I hope I'll learn a lot with your vast knowledge in languages. Greetings from Brazil!
Hi Ezequiel, that's right, before adding a new language it's good to have the previous one on a good level. Hope the video has helped you on your language learning journey :)
Dois sugestoes 1) to obtain on line & book reference grammars (Wiki grammar has some languages, in Portuguese & in English to point by point compare both, But for each language&zero unique culture words, see websites , books. msgszines, etc. Examples-/ saudade, axe, jeito brasileiro, etc. To obtain Portuguese books that teach English, & English books that teach Portuguese. They need to have target language new words or sentences to learn, & translations- bilingual. in these cases. Boa sorte!!
Since moving on from my first few languages, I always start out a new language with an intensive look at the grammar (Routledge or something similar), to help me have a better understanding of how it’s all glued together. Then I pick out some basic vocab words from a dictionary and start reading stories. The beginning is slow, but I spend a lot of time reading out loud, so as I slowly get a feel for the pronunciation, I’m also getting authentic material. Speckle in some level appropriate reading along the way and that’s pretty much it. Finding authentic listening material is always the hardest part for me.
I watched Lydia's video course. she said that depending on the language it might take more than two years for someone to learn the language to the same level as her, but she focuses on european languages, which are easier for her given her native tongue is Slovak. :)
Word order is different between Japanese and European. Some people say Japanese is easy. I think it's because they just copy sentences. When you think of SVO or SOV order or something, you tend to fail these languages. Maybe just coping is the key like anime fans do. Someone who speak both Japanese and English since they were born said learning foreign language doesn't take time. If you masterd two types of words order languages, you will get likely many foreign language skills. So I hope Luca to try learning Japanese again.
Hi Michael, yes, that's right, Asian languages are likely to take more than 2 years. They have some extra challenges such as the different alphabet that takes some time at the beginning and requires quite a lot of practice. Niki from the Language Mentoring team
@@jazmine9570 Hi Ashley, Lydia has never learnt Japanese, you might've confused her with someone else. She has always learnt languages because of her personal motivation, for example when she wanted to travel to a specific country, read a particular book in original etc. She's never learnt Japanese because she's never found any of that personal interest there. Niki from the Language Mentoring team
Hiya Olly, by delivering that wonderful presentation in such beautiful English which is not her native tongue, proves to me that her method works. Thanks for a fab video. David.
As a 40something confirmed monoglot, I suddenly got the inspiration 2 years ago to try learning Mandarin. Well, I was actually interested in proving if I could or not! I knew the 'formal education' route was not going to work for me, so I've been feeling my way through, finding methods that seem to work - or at least that I enjoy. It is nice to know that I was on the right track in doing this! 🙂
You should question your Method. Have you tried to learn the language differently? Have you tried to take risks by speaking to people and don't be afraid of possible mistakes? Do you focus on grammar and vocabulary, or you just take everything easy? How much time do you devote to that language? Why are you learning Greek? Do you learn it for fun, or is it an obligation to learn it because you live in Greek? Do you learn Greek to pass an exam? Figure out the best way to learn. What kind of learner are you? Listener, auditory, kinesthetic.
I’m learning German and French here in Spain where the my teachers and classmates speak Spanish and Galician… I’m learning all of these languages at the same time but then again I’ve been living in Spain for 4 years
Haven't yet watched it fully, but my way of learning a language is what I know works, because every talking person did it to learn how to talk. I basically just hang around people speaking the language I want to learn, and after a while I start understanding it, through many different things, including similarity, human body language, context, and baby books in that language. So that's how I learn - I treat myself as a baby growing up in a country that speaks that language. I don't wait for achievements, I'm not saying "today I've expanded my vocabulary", but instead I say "today I've expanded my knowledge. My understanding." After learning the basics from listening for a very long time, I go to friends who speak that language, and talk to them in that language. If I don't understand a word, I go look it up in a dictionary - that way I remember spelling, definition, use, and pronunciation. So that's my way, and I can speak 6 languages and understand many more. Hopefully soon I'll be able to talk to people in the other languages, but I can't find enough people who speak these languages. Maybe sometime in the future.
I had a German online friend who learned English from watching gameplay of visual novels, translated words they didn't understand into google and texted to Cleverbot. (And I thought their English was very fluent I couldn't tell it was a second language) So your method doesn't have to be rigid and professional, just have fun
I think the 2-year thing is just a personal preference, but I've also noticed for me it takes about a year to go from a complete noob to the point where I feel comfortable enough to start a sentence without necessarily knowing all the words needed to finish the sentence, and a year after that to be able to have conversations only in the target language I'm learning. My primary method is to talk to native speakers of the language for two hours a week (that is, two sessions of an hour each spread out by 3-4 days) for the first year, and then about an hour a week for the second year. I also read media in the target language and listen to audio books, etc. but those are less structured for me so I view them as "add-ons" to my primary method, not really methods themselves. With all that, it DOES take me about two years to get to the point I know I can always have a conversation, even if I might not be able to read that culture's version of Shakespeare, so I actually start to look for new languages then as well. Although, of course, it doesn't mean I stop having conversations with the native speakers that I'm now usually pretty solid friends with in the original languages either 🙂
I would say that I learned every language I speak with a slightly different method. My next language, Danish, I wanna learn using the story telling method. :D But I first need to get better in Italian.
Danish is really interesting. I am currently learning norwegian and I realize the similarities almost instantly. Jeg ønsker deg en rigtig god tid med å lære dansk.
I walked into Barnes & Noble today to browse the languages section to See if there was anything in Croatia (I lived rhere for 2019-20). I didn’t find that subject, but saw your Short stories in Russian which I recently began learning. I have a working knowledge of French, so I picked up both Short story selections and started reading them simultaneously. I read Russian 1st, then French. Things I miss in the 1st, I can supplement with the 2nd withoit having to Cheatham and Look up the English. I Like that the stories are similar, but not exact. When using a Translate tool, I will Translate from the Croatian to several other languages before going to English if I don’t understand. I use French, German, Romanian, and Russian to Trey to figure out the Croatian, although the Russian isn’t much help at times bc of the similarity of -Slavica languages, and my smaller knowledge of Russian. I have started going to a theThompson Station Slavic Baptist Church south of Nashville, TN. Thanks for your work, Ollie.
Netflix is good, and there are methods for learning languages with it, but I prefer to watch shows and movies on it with languages I already speak to a high degree. Same with Udemy courses. Right now I'm going through one in Portuguese, and it's not my first time doing that. I took another Udemy course in German and realized that even though I understood most of it, I didn't understand everything. I know I need more writing and speaking practice with German for me to feel more comfortable with the language.
I learned German through discord... I learned it from native German speakers from Germany, by just saying hallo, then they responded with "Hallo, wie ghets du?" So I would say "gut," then I saw everyone else said "ich ghets gut," and realized that means I am good, so now I say both
I saw her TED talk after seeing the conference presentation it was based on...I much preferred the original, longer version. Lýdia Machová - Ten things polyglots do differently ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ROh_-RG3OVg.html
When you learn Chinese for five days and while watching dong hua you understand the three words, that appeared there that you already know - PRIDE XD But seriously. What many people are missing is not those big a-ha moments, but those small moments. The kanji, that you suddenly recognise. That sentence, that you heard on TV and you understand most of it, the moment, when you properly pronounce the word with which you've been struggling so much. Small victories are, for me personally, much more effective to motivate me to keep on going.
Learning is by nature very hard ,still underway to be user-friendly,getting applied to language learners, devoid of passion & motivation.Therefore, systematic,organized methods & language learning techniques need to be developed as in mathematics & technology so that anyone can as easily master any language as all or majority of us are numerical literate.
you have to mix it up and take your time. you just cant rush it. like anything in life you want to be an expert in something you have to give time. nothing happens casually. it is just how human brain is trained and gets excellent. these folks love what they do and they have ability to do it for a long time. So basically you have to want to have a cause and must be able to go through the process. A simple degree with no guarantee of a job takes 22 years at best of times! And still you have not got it( most of us).
I like to think of myself as 'You're a greasy, fast, 200-pound Italian tank". ( I am not Italian and I am 185lbs ) "Go through him! Run over him! - I'm a tank. I'm gonna get him". ( Him- is my target language- from Rocky the movie.)
I love learning through reading stories - when I can understand them. But there is the problem, I struggle to find material at A2/B1 level. Your books are great, are you planning to write any more? Or can you recommend anything else in French and German? Thanks
Olly, thanks so much for your series of readers and dialogue books. I especially get great benefits from the foreign language (English is my L1) Intermediate Level products. Any plans at all for higher levels? Again, thanks, merci, grazie, vielen dank, dank U wel, tack, gracias, obrigado ...!
I think one of the problems is that people/children are forced to learn a specific language (often English), in school or just try to learn a hard one (Korean, Mandarin, Japanese), and when THEIR brain isn't wired very well for THAT language, they wrongly conclude that they are unable to learn ANY foreign language.
Disculpen el castellano, soy un viejo italiano. Exsisten, en mi opinion, poliglotas y gente que habla muchos idiomas. Estos ultimos no se llaman poliglotas a si mismos. Hablan idiomas porque los necesitan por el trabajo o simplemente porque le gustan. Disculpen, pero el termino 'poliglota' me hace reir, hay millones de africanos que hablan dos, tres idiomas (ademas del idioma oficial) y ni se le ocurre definirse 'poliglotas'.
I'm not agree that polyglots are just average people with average intelligence. This fact that they was bad students in class, shows something very common with gifted people. Maybe they're not geniuses but their IQ is higher than average.
I speak 3 languages (basically from birth) and I still can't yet grasp my "motivation" or "methods" on how to actually learn a new language. Something that truly works for me and other people I've met is: - Just do something that feels good in your target language.
I don't think there is a secret. You need exposure to grammatically correct material that you find funny or interesting. Movies, TV-series (preferably with good subtitles), spoken radio, blogs...
I prefer watching RU-vid video like this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nRmKeyN-qEI.html than watching movies itself. But you need reading skill to watch these type of videos which explains about slang. I hope she advices more specifically.
Hey Olly if someone who can watch to let's say Matt's videos, or even yours videos and understand 80% of it but when take a test, he does it very badly. Do you think that it might be because that person has never looked up grammar rules? Note: I'm the person
@@storylearning Another question, maybe a silly question I don't know haha Do you think that maybe I should look for grammar rules? I mean, I've been learning english for 4 to 5 months just input. Do you think that's a good idea look grammar?
@@thyagosilva1973 i just started to better my terrible french. i would get input first, but whenever i notice something in grammar i look it up. i don`t learn it but i just check the rule. whenever it will appear from now on i will recognise it.........so you made a tiny mistake in your comment....actually nobody would care, because it is easily understood, what you mean. your english is very good......but if your goal is to speak perfectly.......it is: pay attention to grammar. so what i think.....learning a language, understanding it, being able to communicate......input learning is the best way.......but if you want to be really good......look up some grammar rules, just at the moment you realised the difference to your native language....just check, don`t learn.......it will come naturally,. but this is just my opinion and the way i learn best
Olly, I am taking your course now (and reading your books) and I run to them each day. They are actually what I most enjoy about the new language (Spanish). Thank you. Deeply grateful.
I’m learning Russian now (I’m not actually called Dima). At the end when Olly mentioned learning through stories I got an ad for Russian stories. YT ad also! I see what you did there 🤓