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
I agree repetition and consistency is everything. Having moved to the US and knowing a single word in English, being in school and hearing nothing but English made me fluent fairly quickly
The only thing children have that adults don't have which makes them great language learners are time and a freak huge amount of concentration on the things they are passion about. So you stumble on Norwegian on your passion of playing Minecraft, and i'm pretty sure in those 6 months you got at least 1000h of exposure in the language.
That’s impressive as heck. Reminds me of a time when I was binge watching a Norwegian show and I looked away at one point and comprehended a whole sentence in Norwegian. Had to double take and rewind to see the subtitles and if I had actually processed it correctly.
Exactly how I learned, from age 14 to now, about paraphilia and the differences between a paraphilic interest from a paraphilic disorder, I also read the official DSM-5 to be sure I have the most relevant information on the topic. I also looked into the neuroscience and psychology around the subject, I know more than the average joe on these things so it commonly frustrates me whenever some uneducated person tells me that supersession is the way to go when studies have shown acts of suppression oftentimes are the cause for these criminal acts to occur; it's a significantly better to find a happy medium and as well find a partner willing to role play these ideas. *TL;DR* I enjoyed the topic I self studied; learned it significantly and looked at it in multiple angles.
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 wish my Spanish teacher would do this. She’s an amazing teacher and speaks in Spanish every now and then but due to the certain subjects she has to teach it limits her to how much she can expose us to the language. I really want to learn Spanish so I can talk to my Hispanic friends but high school Spanish has always drains the fun out of it
My English teacher did the same (i'm native spanish speaker), but he did that beacuse he didn't spoke spanish xd. I can understand a big part of a normal convertation, as well as, i can comunicate my toughts :).
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
Yeah it is true. Already with two or three languages it can be like that. After some time the brain starts to understand how pattern recognition works.
true. I learned German with my English and French skills. I also learned farsi with my hindi, Pashto and urdu skills. then learned arabic because of farsi. its crazy how they're all similar when you realized it.
I entirely agree. I began with two languages from two different families, Spanish and English, and this made it easier when I began learning French, German, Italian and Portuguese. It's about the similarity in patterns of grammatical structure of expressions as well as the similarity in many words which show you how they have influenced each other. I'm now learning Russian, from a very different language family, and it's really amazing to realize how many words from my first languages have had an influence on it, and even knowing the basis of German cases (so difficult for some) could be helpful to learn the more difficult Russian cases. And don't forget the importance of every new different sound you learn with every new language. It's a really fascinating world !
@@abrahamv.7714 are you doing this on purpose? Spanish Italian French Romanian Portuguese are all from the same family. Czech and Slovak were the same country. Along with Ukrainian and Russian all are from the same family.
@@kucam12mischablue I dont recall mentioning italian or french. I know those 3 are romance languages, that doesnt mean he didnt "learned the most difficult languages from diverse families" like the comment above stated.
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 had a math teacher in high school who insisted on teaching us the proofs for equations. I remember she taught us how the quadratic formula actually works, and being pretty stoked about it. Honestly, if high school wasn't such a depressing hellscape for me, I could see myself being in a mathematics-heavy field of study.
@@yurichjerez9563 My math level isn't so high so started with courses like: Secrets of Mental Math and The Power of Mathematical Visualization One day I hope to have more time to delve into courses for discrete mathematics, mathematic decision making, physics, game theory, etc... But languages have been taking a higher priority in my life :)
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!
We have mandatory Swedish here in Finland (which is dumb when you realize my city has 20 times as many Russian speakers as Swedish speakers coming here but that's besides the point) I got great grades in everything at school including that, but I barely learned anything in 6 years of learning. I couldn't hold a conversation even vaguely
@@man4437 Yeah, it's the same with Spanish class in the US (in high school). You can learn for 3-4 years and barely be able to have even a basic conversation with someone. It's just not very effective.
@@man4437 i visited Helsinki and it was a very nice city but damn the Swedish needed some work but still intresting to learn that you have to learn Swedish, In Sweden its like that for us but with German
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.
Thats funny because im trying to learn portoguese but i keep quitting because of how hard it is to remember grammars and so on, i guess ill try speaking to portoguese speakers more.
@@colemerchant8926 True. The reason why I never understood almost anything in English in school even after studying only in english medium is because the teacher always tried to teach grammar and their rule first. But I could never bring myself to focus on grammar as it was boring and wasn't helpful even when I learnt some of the rules. So eventually I forgot all of the rules that I learnt in my school. Only after using internet and chatting to people in English I started to understand it. Now, when I try to learn some english grammar rule, it gets easy because I often use those rule unknowingly in my conversations. So now it's easier to remember rule since I know intermediate level English but it wasn't back then as a beginner.
I love Brazil so much that I went on vacation for a month and learned to speak very well. When I returned to my country, I took Portuguese classes to learn grammar. But without a doubt, spending a whole month there made learning much easier.
I'm from the south of Brazil 😊😊 congratz there.. I am trying to learn Korean but i don't know any natives I could speak to unfortunately.. I really like the pace of the language plus I consume content on it for years it would be so cool to understand
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.
That's why many people advocate for finding a language "parent" who can patiently talk with you and gently correct mistakes in the same way that adults patiently listen to and correct actual children
@@Theroha while it’s so useful to have someone who speaks to you in your target language the corrections aren’t as important as one might assume. It’s really just more and more exposure that will “fix” those errors
@@matthewg4882 one hundred percent. I learned to speak Hebrew this way to fluency. I had no language parent. I just consumed a lot of videos and music after I learned words and basic grammar... and with time I picked up the way people speak
@@matthewg4882that’s definitely not completely true. My girlfriend‘s Italian grandpa is 83 and he has lived in the United States for almost 50 years. He still constantly makes mistakes and says sentences in strange ways, even though he has been around English speakers every day for 5 decades. My girlfriend‘s dad on the other hand came to the US from Italy when he was 13. he learned English in school in Italy and went to high school in the USA. (Her grandpa didn’t learn English in Italy, as it wasn’t required back then). Her dad speaks perfect English with only a slight Italian accent, her grandpa speaks broken English, but they have both been in the USA the same amount of time. It seems to me like the corrections/grammar in school must have some effect?
@@Haunt888 I am Fluent in 3 and the other 2, I am able to hold a conversation but I won't be able to speak at a formal event or give a speech in them. The rest (4 more) I understand them well but find it really difficult to respond effectively in them, hence I don't count them as languages that I can speak.
@@xa-1243 It's very common in South Africa to speak at least 3 languages. So my native language is Setswana, then I learned Afrikaans(Dutch Dialect), English obviously, then I went to University in another province and learned Xhosa there, and my wife speaks Sotho so I learned that as well. I was 21 when I spoke the first 4 languages and the most recent 5th one I was 30 when I learned it. It's much easier to learn a new language if you are immersed in that culture. Learning on the internet or classroom takes too long. As I said, it's not impressive in South Africa if you are a polyglot people usually roll their eyes. 🙄 It's only fascinating in Countries where people speak one 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 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. :)
How did you learn and do you use any apps or books that help? I know a few words in many languages but I want to learn faster and more. The one I have the best grasp of is Spanish but I want to be fluent. Any tips? 🙂
IVE LIVED IN BULGARIA 12 YEARS I try every day to speak Bulgarian, tried every method known to man to learn Bulgarian... I'm just f-king useless at it. They are NOT separate in my head, they are just different English words for the same thing as far as my brain is concerned. They are 100% interchangeable so my sentences are just English with 50% to 90% Bulgarian words. I can do maths in my head in BG and Eng at the same time cos they are NOT different languages to me.
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.
Me too, i even used some english books while in university, since it was the same book as my native language, and it was easier to have one avaliable in the university library.
@Dalan Miller I did not have conversations, just listening to videos, of course if you speak you'll have far better pronounciation, but it's not really important for understanding. What I did was play dialogue heavy videogames (with text conversations) to learn to read and write. And watch videos, movies or series to learn to listen.
You accurately described my entire english learning process. Haha! First came the games (specially japanese VNs translated in english), then the youtube videos. At some point I didn't need any subtitles. If you don't mind me asking... where are you from?
@@connorlafferry7579 I used them on my native language, but I already knew how to write by that time. Quickly understanding which words they were saying was the hard part.
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.
most native-english speaking people are much less xenophobic about accented english though. to mention somebody's foreign accent or grammar mistaken is considered rude, but it is almost guaranteed in other cultures. even the use of the word "foreign" is a pejorative in the UK, but in Korea it's simply an adjective. and don't even think about going to a spanish-speaking country with accented spanish without expecting to be called gringo daily.
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!
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
Ya because you dont have 30 to 50℅ of the language already known. But remember the 80℅ 20℅ rule applies in language too. You can cover 80℅ of geogtaphy and communicate with 80% of the people on earth by learning 2 to 4 languages.
Yeah, you're right. Being polyglot doesn't also mean to speak 4 languages, but also these languages mustn't be intelligible among them. For example: Someone who speaks English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Galician, that's not a truly polyglot. But someone who speaks English, French, Spanish and Mandarin is a truly polyglot.
who cares about impressing. Impressing to yourself is what matters. Learn different languages for ONLY Yourself. If you live doing things for impressing people you are a loser. Period.
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
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.
I find songs sometimes have unnatural changes to the lyrics to fit the music so sometimes you can pick up things that sound right in the song but are not quite what people really say. I'm not sure if this is true for enka but it does seem to hold for rock/pop songs in Japanese and definitely in English.
@@andrewdunbar828 Yes, this is of course 100% true. I should clarify that obviously I am not going to my friend and saying "あなたが欲しい~~~" to ask her to have a coffee with me after listening to Enka. It's more like through hearing words in songs you can remember them well since an emotion is attached to it (if you like the song) and then once you hear these words in "real life" expressions you already know them and are able to quickly convert them into instantly useable vacabulary. I hope this clears it. 😅
@@amarug Agree! It's a great way to learning Japanese vocab from songs, but not how to use them. I also copy lyrics of songs that I particularly like. That helps with writing and remembering kanji. Of course, I am from Hong Kong so recognizing them isn't a big deal. Immersion is really the key. Over the years, I made little conscious effort in learning Japanese. All I did are just watching TV dramas, movies, anime and listening to songs. After some time, I was able to read and write some. I still remember how I watched and understood the Kimetsu no Yaiba movie without looking at subtitle for half of the time. It felt magical!
The key there is "while studying Japanese." How do you strictly hide the music with nothing anchoring it to some elements of your reality you wouldn't learn anything.
For some reason in Arabic Tom & Jerry (the original Tom & Jerry not the new show idk about that) they speak so much. When I first watched Tom & Jerry in English I was so excited to finally understand what the characters were saying only to find out they don't actually say anything at all 😭 the Arabic dubbers just decided to add a bunch of dialogue themselves.
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.
@@travisbergen2807 It's what had made me start studying it.. After some time of watching anime and listening to Japanese music, I had started to be able to understand random words, and then as a consequence I could 'decypher' whole sentences. If I had continued enjoying their media, maybe I'd be decent at it today! I had tried studying kanji by themselves, without consuming media, but that made it boring, and you won't stick to it if you're bored by it. Might go back to it once I'm done with French :)
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!
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!
Technically he _is_ a native speaker. It was his first language, but he forgot it after his family moved to Canada as a young child. He says that when he started learning it again as an adult, it felt familiar and not like the other languages he had started learning from scratch.
Wouldn't a native swede have said "väldigt, väldigt viktigt" instead of "mycket, mycket viktigt" in that instance? Though "mycket" is of course perfectly legible in that contex. It's just one of those subtle word-choices that informs if you speak it natively or not.
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
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
This was commented 5 months ago and I really hope you are doing well with your journey to learning English more fluently. Once you learn English it can open up a whole world of other Latin based languages more easily if you choose. (I.e. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian…) I think your observation of why japan’s English fluency is so low is really estate and interesting. I hope more people choose to venture into learning new languages in Japan to help diversify the culture and communication. Whether it be English or any other language. You already seem to be quite fluent in writing in English. I bet you will be super fluent in no time! I would LOVE to learn Japanese but in America it’s hard to find others to speak to for practice that know the language and there isn’t tons of media to watch to help learn unfortunately. I still think it would be such an incredible language and culture to learn and really hope I have the opportunity someday! Best of luck to you! ❤
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 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.
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 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!!
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.
Musashi speaks truth, you need only English and whatever language you are interested in. Otherwise it is huge waste of time, you can learn much more valuable skills.
@@musashi542 In a knowledge point of view very likely, because there's more information in any topic in English for being a universal language. However, it's scientific proven that learning at least one more language can decrease the chances of having Alzheimer's disease, and other degenerative brain problems, and the experience in itself it's very enriching.
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?
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!
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
You are probably stucked at the stage where your passive vocabulary is bigger than your active vocabulary. You just need to practice more speaking and listening more.
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
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.
But Filipinos can still speak English well. Actually, they, especially people outside Katagalugan, can speak at least 3 languages. Mother tounge, English, Tagalog (Filipino).
Of course because we are in the Philippines. We don't need to prioritize a foreign language in our own country. Lol. It's normal to have Filipino dubbed shows, even English movies.
@@lucystephanieproperties what I meant was, all those movies were originally in English anyway. Having them dubbed is an added expense. And also since it seems every Filipino I encounter online boast that all Filipinos understand English anyway, then it shouldn't really be an issue if those movies are shown in the original language. 🤭
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!
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.
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.
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.
@@WhatIveLearned no, this is the right format for this kind of content. I just don't often think about linguistics and neuroscience (didn't train my brain), so difficult to follow. In more pieces, it would be even more difficult. And with a lighter content, not interesting enough. It's VoD after all, the viewer can pause and replay the whole time.
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
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.
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.
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.
Can't relate as I've never talked to a foreigner in their language but the internet communities (Discord server, Reddit forum, RU-vid comment section whatever) sometimes can bring the feeling closely resembling that very (translating an idiom here) "thread of understanding" the connection that makes human interactions so pleasurable to ourselves, I'd say it's some sort of evolutionary adaptation (I'm the type of guy that mentions evolution under every single video regarding any subject of human biology), plus overcoming the barrier of language is in of itself quite satisfying.
I like the fact that he is humble about it, saying he does not understand everything at some point in the examples. There are different levels of knowledge (A,B and C) no one is "fluent" in every language. I know many people who claim to speak tons of languages, truth is they can only order a coffee and a sandwich in every one of them. As he says with French he made a lot of reading and listening. It takes hard work and time.
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?
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
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.
Hi! I had sort of the same experience as you and im also from Mauritius 😅 I'm worried one day when I move away I will also forget my mother tongue eventually.
@@hihihihi3806 my first language is french, thats the language I speak with my parents. But french isnt my native language. I only started speaking my native language when I was 13 and entered middle school
"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."
This is highly interesting and motivating Steve. You and I share enormous interests and listening to you, I feel more motivated to continue learning languages. Currently am learning Kiswahili and Lingala. This adds to my knowledge in Limbum, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. After this, my next target would be Arabic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 !
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.
There is no need for 20 languages. This is why I believe that: Language, like all things, has a purpose. In my opinion, its primary purpose is communication. Its secondary purpose is belonging. I already speak the world's most spoken language and I do it quite well. If I wanted to add to that list of spoken languages with the purpose being communication, it might be Japanese or Chinese (Mandarin) because I watch Japanese anime and have watched Chinese films in the past. If I added Mandarin, that's over a billion speakers with whom I can communicate with. If I added Hindi, that's over a billion speakers with whom I can communicate with. As for belonging. I live in Britain and I'm an introvert. I don't need a special emotional connection beyond that. I don't need to feel as though I belong and feel as though I am seriously missing out or being excluded..I'm happy with that.
I agree but I like learning personally, even if I am introverted it just is something cool and speaking a different language. Also languages can help brain power
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.
@@adiands850 Ive seen a couple interviews, like with MattvsJapan, where he was kindof argumentative, or dismissive in an impolite way. (Just to make it clear I like Steve, inspiring dude)
One of my sons learned to speak Danish from watching Danish cartoons. My other son learned to speak English the same way. So, what he says makes perfect sense to me, as they would have been slowly understanding the language based on what was happening in the cartoons. There were no subtitles either.
This really shows how much the US language learning system needs to be overhauled. I spent 4 years learning Spanish in high school and my Japanese is already better because of this method.
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
Am happy to come across this video, i speak 3 languages at the moment and am currently learning Chinese, i find this video very useful as a learner and as a language Tutor (Yoruba language).You can join me in class if you find Yoruba interesting and willing to learn
Learning opera pieces has helped me with romance languages as well as a bit of Russian. I would bet that this gentleman is just as sharp 20 years from now.
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.
My mother learned how to speak and understand Turkish by watching Turkish movies. I joined in on the fun and began learning Turkish with her. Our family conversations are a mix of English, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian and French. My grandparents were a diverse bunch. 😅
Thank you for bringing language learning back to its core! As a nerd, it’s easy to get caught up in a rabbit hole of word lists, techniques, etc…and miss the point that learning another language is communication, not perfection
