Polyglot speaks 20 languages. Here's how he did it. 

"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you." My favorite quote that keeps me going.

Basically, I think the theory boils down to the fact that learning should be interesting, which sounds stupidly obvious when you say it out loud.

The most unbelievable part of this is the fact that he’s 75

It's not just that he's learned a lot, he learned the most difficult languages from diverse language families

No joke I learned Norwegian by changing the in game language on Minecraft. Played on a Norwegian server as a kid, wanted to know what items the foreign players were referring to so I changed the language. 6 months later I could speak with them in game fluently. Still not sure how I actually did it, seems ridiculous, games make time fly by I guess haha. Also being a child helps

My Spanish teacher was really ahead of the curve on this. He basically had us sing songs in Spanish, only spoke to us in Spanish, and had us read books in Spanish. We could only reply in Spanish, with of course substituting English words if we couldn't remember the word, which he would then say in Spanish. I only took three years, but I can still understand the majority of conversations in Spanish. It's really crazy, because it didn't really "feel" like I was learning Spanish, when I really was.

I saw a conference with polyglots and one thing I found interesting they said was after speaking about 5 different languages they get new ones quickly cuz they start to notice the patterns with the languages they already learned

Seriously, it's not just language; almost every subject is taught so poorly in schools that even the ones you are really interested in become really boring to learn. As a student, you just end up trying to simply do whatever is required to pass the class instead of really learning much. After you take the final exam, you forget almost everything you learned. Self-learning can be very powerful and I agree with Steve that television can be very useful. Great interview!

I'd like to add this. The same is true for learning mathematics. Mathematics was always very difficult for me in school because I would always ask the teacher why certain things were the way that they were and the teachers would always just shrug, rarely having an answer. Without meaning in mathematics you will not retain most things. Many people consider mathematics to be another language.

I dated a Brazilian once, and for months I tried learning Portuguese through Grammer books and Duolingo. I struggled, until when i met her family (who only spoke Portuguese), after only a week I was conversational in the language. I still speak it to this day and can read and speak it in their specific Southern Brazilian accent.

His way of learning is actually proven by the nature itself. Your native language is the first one you learn as a baby, and for the whole life it's the one you know the most. And as a baby you don't learn to speak it by dictionaries or grammar manuals. You simply become more and more familiar with understanding and using words you hear around, because they make your whole world. All this is constantly stimulating your brain, just like bombarding, and you don't even notice your growing skills, as the brain learns it for you. Seems all of us know the best way of learning - we used it in the beginning of our lives without noticing. Seems you just have to act once again like a baby getting to know the world, but this time in another language. It's so simple and brilliant.

I speak 5 languages and understand 9. Currently learning Japanese. 90% of everything I learned about all these languages was outside the classroom.

Steve Kaufman is great because he's still in the thick of it! He's learning right there with all of us, and shares such incredible insight!

I speak only 4 -- Italian, English, Russian, Spanish -- but I'm currently studying French and German and I find that at 56 I have an easier time with languages than I did when I was younger. I'd like to eventually add Dutch, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. Of course, that may be too much, but I'd like to try just because. :)

I've learned english by playing videogames in english, and at some point I knew how to read english, then I started watching english speaking youtubers with subtitles, then at some point I just turned off the subtitles and was still able to understand everything, there's no doubt that interest and having fun when learning a language is one of the most important aspects of the learning process. If you get bored you just won't ever remember what you learned.

As old rule goes: "You know you have learned the language when you start dreaming in that language !"

as a 20 year old i genuinely thought i was too old to start learning languages. i’m so glad i gained the determination to learn german out of the blue, i am 4/5 months in and i’m at A2 level speaking (high beginner) but definitely at an intermediate understanding. i love it and i truly believe it’s much easier learning languages as an adult. 100% i agree with what this video talks about.

I dream of learning all major languages as this man has. To be able to connect with almost anyone you meet, no matter where you’re from or who you are, would be a gift, and when you begin to speak fluently in someone’s native language and they hadn’t expected it, the look of joy and awe on their faces is priceless.

I love the way Steve says the word "boring". The passionate contempt is so relateable.

This man didn't only learn the language, it looks like he learned the culture and demeanor as well. You can see how his demeanor changes from language to language. Such an impressive person really

the most impressive thing is learning languages with different alphabets and roots, like knowing Italian, Spanish and Portuguese isn't nearly as impressive as knowing English, Russian and Arabic

I totally agree with the accent thing. Some people get so obsessed with trying to get rid of their foreign accent in other languages. As a American I'm so used to hearing all kinds of English accents from all over the world and it doesn't bother me at all. So I don't think that accent makes you fluent or not in a language, unless it makes you difficult to understand.

While studying Japanese I stumbled on Japanese Enka music and totally fell in love with it. I just listened to it for the joy but soon realized how much vocabulary I had picked up from those songs that I actually ended up using in conversations. Pretty hilarious.

his swedish sounds perfect. there was a very weak accent, but I would've never guessed it was because he wasn't a native speaker. damn

When I was little I used to watch A LOT of German TV shows; we had access to German TV even though I'm from Croatia. I remember the feeling of not understanding what the words mean but being able to understand the situation from the context. I became fluent in German by watching TV, and in English from TV, video games and by interacting with strangers on the Internet. After high school I moved to Sweden, and literally same thing happened there; I've barely studied the language, I learned most of it by interacting with the environment. Currently I'm studying French, with Assimil, and their method follows the same principles. Trying to learn words one by one is not an efficient method. I 100% agree that comprehensible input is the way to go.

I'm a big fan of both Steve Kaufmann and your channel. I actually interviewed Mr. Kaufmann some months ago in spanish. Maybe some of the people watching this interview would like to get a different perspective (as a latin american trying to learn languages). Greetings from Mexico and thank you for another awesome video.

best interview with Steve Kaufmann I've seen so far. I admire this man so much... the relentless effort he puts out to make language learning even more enjoyable is so admirable!

From my experience of learning Chinese and Japanese to upper intermediate level I found that the languages are so different that I believe there could be benefits to trying to learn them in different ways! Chinese grammar is so easy and Japanese is so hard along with formalities etc that I believe it is important to study the grammar more in Japanese at the beginning, and in Chinese listen and talk more!

Language is almost like a portal to a whole other world

33:30 I would not recommend watching Tom & Jerry for learning a language since neither of them speak much! 😆😸🐭

Wow, 20 languages. His brain will keep him so young as he gets much older. Even though he is 75 he speaks as though he is much younger.

His advanced age is very inspiring, that there's no limit in life to when you can learn something new.

I've been following Steve for years. I'm glad you're covering him.

This is incredible. My Japanese teacher Mrs. Satake who would make the learning fun and interactive. We did plays , speaking exams , had pen pals, etc.. The language has to find a place in your heart or its just words of no utility to the brain.

I was just wondering about the number of books he can read i.e without losing the originality of the content, even movies and songs. I'm also surprised by the amount of vocabulary he's learnt that too from 20 different languages. He's just amazing

Steven is an absolutely fascinating person to listen to. Thank you for the great and enlightening interview.

I don't think Tom and Jerry is a great show for language learning, but I get the idea XD.

Flashcards has accelerated my learning by a lot. Its all about how you use them. I use flash cards to memorize the words. Then i try to speak it. After i do i practice it by writing the word repetitively. Then i write the word in a sentence. To each is own

Fantastické!! Naprosto souhlasím s Vaším přístupem. Jsem velice překvapená, že jste původem z Česka, podívala jsem se na článek o Vás na Wikipedii potom, co jsem slyšela Vaši podezřele perfektní výslovnost slovanských jazyků. :D Jste nejen nesmírně nadaný a nadšený, ale také velice příjemný člověk. A nesmírně se mi líbí Váš názor, že je lepší neprocvičovat mluvení do doby, než má konverzace opravdu význam. Skvělé video!

I'm a Japanese and the reason why people in Japan can't speak English well is a strong lack of listening input. If people can read and understand the content of book or a English text book, We regard them quite fluent and competent enough. Actually I got 8 in reading in IELTs exam last summer, but still now it's quite difficult for me to comprehend even what he says in this video. It's terrible. I'm going to listen to tons of authentic English. I hope someday I become able to understand what he says completely. Thank you for uploading such an informative and enjoyable video. From Japan :D

I'd say the most encouraging thing from this whole conversation is his definition of fluency. We often assume fluency means to be as flawless as possible, and it puts such a huge pressure on perfect grammar and native-level accent... yet he's right, if we can communicate ourselves intricately and understand equally complex conversations, we're fluent enough, even if we make minor mistakes or sound absolutely foreigner. In the end, "sounding like a native" is just a goal we set to impress others... not because it's beneficial for our language learning, but because other people are amazed by it. And why would we waste our times doing that?

I moved to USA in 1987 at the age of 16 from Ukraine. I didn’t know English aside from hello, goodbye and thank you. The first six months I was in a high school and ESOL school every day. I watched shows and music videos on tv in English and that’s how I learned fluent English. Being fully immersed and being young helps.

Congrats on all the great interviews/videos Joseph, especially this one with Steve. From one someone who has dedicated his life to language acquisition, more specifically experiential language immersion, both you and Steve hit on so many great points. Having coached thousands of Japanese English learners in Toronto, Canada, I couldn't agree more that motivation, attitudue, enjoyment, and making language learning meaninful for the learner makes all the difference. Comprehensible input is vital, which is why we empower and guide our learners how to make any city their classroom and speak with thousands of strangers. Language is truly a tool to break barriers and build bridges. With borders being closed, my entire business has suffered, but your interview re-ignited my passion and encouraged me not to give up. You are truly doing great work Joseph! Keep it up!

What made me the best student in every single language class I took in my young life, is that I wouldn't expect much from my weekly classes. I was learning a lot before and after class. When my fellow students had 3 meagre hours a week (to which they wouldnt even pay attention), I had more than 15. For each language. I would also spend my weekends studying instead of enjoying life. It doesn't take talent, but lots of grit. I don't even think I am gifted at languages. I've met people who were and languages do not come nearly as easily to me. I just refuse to be mediocre. That's the key to success imo.

This is an awesome interview! I definitely learned something today!

When I was 14, I visited the Notre Dame cathedral. Inside, I stumbled upon a japanese child (well, literally he did collide with me) and couldn't help to say sorry in japanese, even though he knew, obviously, that I can't speak japanese. Plot twist is, I actually knew a little and told him it's okay. His face lit like a christmas tree, and he really grabbed my arm and led me to his parents. She was a bit shy, but the father asked me how did I learn so much. I kind of understood him, but it was hard for me to reply, so I showed him the Obenkyo app (which is/was a very famous app for things like learning kanji and such). They were amazed and respected that I was trying to learn their language and communicate with them. It was such a cool experience for me. I mean, I'm not a native English speaker and I have had many situations where people visiting my country could speak with me and ask for directions, etc. But the strange situation (in Notre Dame), the randomness of the encounter and a language from so far away that I was learning because of a damn anime made this story so great for me. Anyway, hope it was interesting for somebody.

What he said about the immigrant from France not passing the citizenship exam reminds me of a fellow student in High School. He had lived on Senegal, spoke French fluently, but had a D in the class, while I had an A and couldn’t speak it at all.

i struggle to learn english alone, i always thought i'm intermediate but when i speak, i realize i'm nowhere beginer, at least i could watch this without subtitles so it's not total disappointment

Probably the best video I have watched about language learning. I feel like I just have been preached. Full of revelation. Thank you soooooo much for those insights 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

I've been learning Japanese for about 9 months now and way way back i when started learning the language I stumbled to a Japanese song entitled *Flyday Chinatown*. I love listening to it so i decided to memorize the lyrics without knowing the meaning. Fastforward today, the song becomes clearer and more fun to sing knowingly that I can understand most of it.

Waww this is the best and most comprehensive Steve Kaufman Interview I've ever watched.. Thanks so much!

I think that being fluent in a given language is having a framework of this language that allows to learn and understand anything new. It is obvious that noone knows all the words there is xD And because of that, native speakers also learn new words everyday in their language. But what allows them to do it is having a solid framework in which they can just patch the holes with new words. Great example is technical slang. You dive into some technical area and you have no clue what people are saying but you figure it out out of context :p

He is an incredible guy. I follow his stuff.

I am 40+ years and speak 9 languages. This being said, I have a long way to go compares to this brilliant brain! Currently learning Norwegian online and I am loving it!!

The outmost respect and admiration for this very positive and kind man!!! You hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. Very nice gentleman! Thanks for interviewing Steve!

What a cool guy. Thoroughly enjoyed the interview. Thanks.

As a young Filipino kid, I learned the English language by watching English TV series like McGyver, Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories, Highlander, The Sipmsons, Alf, Perfect Strangers, Friends, Quantum Leap, Doogie Houser M.D. etc. It's true that it is much easier to learn things which you enjoy or are interested to. Thanks for this.

He’s come a long long way. I remember when he first came on RU-vid he was just beginning his language learning and was more into linguistics.

This gave me such a boost in motivation and confidence!

My father knew how read in many languages. He spoke Latin, French, some German. Read Greek, Hebrew, Italian, German, French at an academic level. He was born in the Midwest in 1932. But he loved languages and taught philosophy until he was 36.

2:21 "language learning is a skill" *Rocky pounding the everliving crap out of that carcass* lol

I live in the Philippines and I was puzzled when they decided to stop showing English-language movies in its original language. Now when they do show these movies, they are all dubbed in Tagalog. Granted I probably never understood anything when the movies were in English when I was a kid but it would still have been a great free tool for people trying to learn the language.

Each and everything you said was so relatable. Even for me turkish series helped me to learn turkish which slowly lead me to Turkish history. And since I am an Indian Turkish has a lot of words similar to Hindi which lead me into exploring all the Arabic , Persian , Hindi Urdu , and all language families , which lang.evolved and influenced the other sort of stuff. . In short , language learning is such a roller coaster ride as it drives you through their culture, their ways of life , history and so much more !

This was so inspiring to watch!! I love how he was interested in history and talked about central Asia and Uyghurs!!

Great interview! Loving this new string of content. These language discussions 👍🏾

As a child I was fascinated with pig latin and then learned Spanish in school. Learning Spanish was like being reminded of something I already knew, even though I was never exposed to the language before. Has anyone else felt that way about learning another language?

Amazingly inspirational video! Thanks for sharing this.

Lol i always feel sorry for Steve at the beginning of his interviews because he has to repeat his story everytime he is interviewed (which is a lot)

Thank for this informative interview, i used to follow kuffman videos 5 years ago when i started to learn Russian language in Russia. Currently I consider myself fluent in Russian and English. Nevertheless my mother tongue is Arabic. There is a point or a question I have been wrestling with recently. Do you feel that your character or behaviour changes when you start talking and THINKING with different languages? I notice that in Arabic I’m more emotional while in English I’m logical or you can say objective and in Russian I’m totally different don’t know how to explain it but I hope you get my point. Thank you again

I took French all 4 years of high school. But in my senior year our teacher retired and we had a new teacher. She focused more on speaking and listening. Our finals and midterms were not a test. We had to go to a restaurant and only speak French. We watched movies and listened to music. Some friends took French in high school too. And to this day can't say anything besides simple greetings. Now I. So thankful for that teacher and wished I had her for all of my 4 yrs of French. Also it is true if the voice is boring you'll lose interest. That is why I love TTMIK. They do small banter and their voices are not boring. They are more upbeat. I also need something esthetically pleasing. So I like drops and Lingodeer.

I freaking love your channel. It seems EVERYTHING you post about is exactly what I'm most interested in too 💗 Currently brushing up on my Spanish and learning French for the first time. SO EXCITING!!!!!

Wow what a great interview. I turned it on didn't know what the length of the video was, and it felt like 20 minutes. To say I was surprised would be understatement. Thank you and Steve Kaufman

It's reassuring that he doesn't advocate for flash cards. I hate doing them and never feel like I'm learning anything but so many language gurus act like you can't learn a language without them

14:00 Just because there are lots of English books and schools doesn’t mean Japanese people are serious at learning English. Most Japanese people are not serious at learning English. For them, English is just a hobby, like cooking or fishing. There are lots of cooking books in Japanese book stores, but most of them are not aiming for becoming a professional chef. Japanese people who actually need English ability speak it quite well. But most Japanese people don’t need to speak English at all.

wow, what an impressive person!! and questions also were very interesting. Thanks both of you!!

love this. very insightful. feeling very inspired.

I can confirm, I came to the united states in my mid teens and I only surrounded myself with english speaking people, no one that spoke my language. Within a few short months, I was understanding everything and saying a few things, after a few more months I was speaking fluently. Took me much longer to learn how to write properly, but at least I could defend myself. The rest of my family (including younger siblings) took much much longer to learn and they followed traditional methods of learning.

I speak 5, the biggest key to learning is love. No matter the subject, if you try to learn without love it's like trying to swallow dry sand. If you add love, it's watering down the sand. And love is so magic it could turn into your favorite drink, someday a milkshake some other day a wonderful juice. Love is what you make it.

Wow. Amazing interview! Thank you for sharing! Very insightful about language learning and just how to learn and enjoy life better! Thanks!

Great interview! I resonated with a lot of it, but especially where you talk about "pretending" in another language/culture. Have definitely felt that with Japanese and Chinese as I've been learning and have to consciously be okay trying to sound different

What a great fellow Steve is! Take away: - The more exposure to the language the better - Make the exposure fun! Do what interests you in the language - Don’t worry about making misstakes at all! That does not matter! What matters is exposure and the willingness to learn! Stay Based

"Kaufmann hitchhiked through Europe after his studies, picking up basic language skills in Spain, Italy and Germany. He went on to join the Canadian diplomatic service, where he began learning Mandarin in Hong Kong in 1969, and became fluent in it within a year of full-time studying. When re-posted to the Canadian embassy in Japan in the early 1970s, he had to learn Japanese."

I got the app thanks to you guys. Thank you for sharing this. I'm excited to learn! 🤩

Remarkable, thanks for sharing! 👍👍

This channel might be my best find this year

This was exactly how I learnt english. When I came to england from Mauritius, my parents spoke English to me and I watched a lot of cartoons and within a year I was able to learn english in less than a year and had a literacy level higher than the natives in my class. However, it did come at a cost of my mother tongue, I can fully understand it but cant speak it anymore. Maybe I'll try to do the same thing back home.

Comprehensible input is so real, I am currently studying Japanese and I learned early on that すみません meant "Excuse me". But after watching Bocchi the Rock i naturally came to a better understanding of the word and that it can be used as an apology which the typical vocab quiz-like study failed to teach me

Another awesome video thank you for everything.

Great interview, great video editing. Informative and inspiring. These videos are a little long and dense for me, but I like to watch them anyway.

Really interesting point of the importance of listening and injecting input with understanding. I was born and raised in Eastern-Europe and we had Cartoon Network only in English. I believe I understood every bit of it and made me acquire the base of English language.

What he said about vocabulary is so true! I just started taking french classes right at level A2 just by learning some vocabulary and it's just so much fun to be able to understand the others and produce my own broken sentences. I'm feeding some grammar into my learning in real life situations and without thinking much about it.

I love this approach. Gotta build on what you truly DESIRE ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

I have been following this guy for a couple of years and I can say he speaks 5 languages at most (EN, FR, JP, CHN, SP) and definitely not 20. Like the majority of the internet polyglots, he blows his achievments out of the proportions.

Yup - I've always believed this. I was near fluent in English by the time I went to school (not my native language and hardly any spoken in my home) thanks to a mild addiction to tv games and cartoons. Not only that, but it reduced my accent to a point where people are often surprised when they hear my name at the end of a few conversations and realise I'm not English-speaking. I still have a localised accent, but it's not the same as that of my cultural peers who struggle with many sounds like 'th'. I breezed through English in school by simply applying the 'what feels/sounds right' technique due to my higher exposure (still a game and cartoon addict) instead of what the (often terrible at English) teacher taught us. I'm trying to expand my language now as I'm getting ready to move to Southern Europe for work next year (super excited) and I'll be working with a very diverse team and would love to be able to carry a conversation in at least French and Italian - so guess who's trying to find French and Italian books and movies (besides Duolingo). After that, I want to learn some Arabic and I've always been curious about Greek :D Languages are awesome. Love your channel by the way - so much. I'm eating, living and sleeping better thanks to you and I share it with anyone who has the mental fortitude to learn a fresh perspective. Honestly, probably my favourite channel.

Fantastic video man, I adore your channel

Thanks for that awesome interview!

Accent is tho the most important thing about learning any language in its deepest level accent is as a rythm of a language if you follow it its easier to kinda get used to it it becomes sooner or later handy in use.

I love the fact that you used the clip from inglorious bastards of Hans Landa speaking perfect italian. The actor was just perfect switching from german to french to italian to english throughout the movie.

This video and interview is so interesting and one of the most intent-focused videos I've ever watched due to the subject. I've tried and have an interest in two languages Japanese which i did learn to some degree when i lived in Japan while was in the military there and Spanish which I've been trying to learn for the last few years. While i was in Japan in the military i took what were two semesters of Japanese speaking course on base and while i learned some language it seemed mechanical and was slow. However, when i spent time with who was my Japanese GF at the time, i learned exceedingly far more just immersed in the language spending time with her and as we visited her friends who all did speak both Japanese and English as well. But they spoke mostly in Japanese just chatting. And though i didn't understand anything much at first just constantly hearing the language, eventually my ears became tuned and I started recognizing patterns in words they said and those were the words i started to remember and learned. While I couldn't understand the full words, I could recognize pieces of something they said and through repetition, it grew from there. Same as was with Spanish learning, I learned more just being in South America immersed in the language vs just studying Spanish.

Thanks Steve! This is very helpful advice. Simply becoming proficient in French as a Canadian has been a journey🇨🇦