George confirms my view that language learning is a long journey. You need an interest or even a hobby in the language to sustain your interest and push through to fluency. FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingostevepodcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN
"Language is a tool, not an art to master" "You don't have to strive for perfection" I feel like this is a reference to Matt vs Japan, where he prefers to completely master one language. There is nothing wrong with treating a language like an art to master. That's what he likes to do. And you two like to be good enough in many languages. Neither is wrong. Some people love the art and that's ok.
I believe that language is a tool and art, maybe even a tool that can be used for art. They don't exclude each other. If for example visual art evokes emotion and can be experienced in its different forms why can't language be?
I have been studying with George's Japanese from Zero books and website for years. It is a very good system. He's also right about motivation - you have to have a good reason for studying a language. If you don't, it's very hard to keep going through the tough times and learning plateaus. It's very much like learning a musical instrument - you have to love it and you have to be prepared for a long haul. I contend that George should learn French next. With a last name like Trombley - get in touch with your ancestry George!
Steve you're such a good interviewer, and George your enthusiasm to share knowledge it's very encouraging. I really enjoyed this interview. I might be one of the few that find struggling and making mistakes as motivation to continue pursue something. I agree with George in a 100% that getting the language from music, TV/Streaming shows and radio shows or podcasts, has a huge impact in the learning process. I feel so comfortable typing in English because I can express myself as I'd in my native language, however, sometimes I struggle to verbally communicate my thoughts, but that may be because outside of work I don't have many opportunities to speak with people outside the IT field. As a consequence my vocabulary can get biased towards that field, that's why I consume content of my other interests in English. Regardless the language we shouldn't feel dumb for not knowing how to say something, because not even in our native language we know everything.
I don’t know if I should listen to the interview or stare at George’s shirt. 😁 Great interview, Japanese is a language I would love to learn. One day I will begin on what I know will he a lifelong journey. 👍🏼
I’ve learned Japanese for 3 months, I can say It’s very difficult because there’re a lot of grammar rules that you need to memorize. Some of them and some subjects don’t have certain patterns, must memorize mechanically. For instance, date, number etc. It really discourages me. I think It requires a lot of exposure to acquire it.
That's a imp point to note out. People think that you are dumb just because you can't speak their Language but they forget that they gonna face same consequences when they would use a foreign language too,,, So always be a humble person. Respect other people's effort. 🙌
I like Steve & George because they are both humble, chill and super smart. Also they are life accomplished giga Chads that had skin in the game with their Japanese. They seem to lack any interest in Otaku Culture, ‘systemic’ learning, Anki, Reddit wisdom or being a robot. As I watched some other time Steve had quite the lively and organic story learning Japanese (come on the guy worked in diplomacy and is a business man) and George probably didn’t lived in his room making Anki cards, he probably was making out with someone in Japanese instead (I think he even produced Japanese offspring). Both don’t have magic formulas for language learning, I think Steve talking about the importance & joy of reading should be common sense at least from an European education view, and advocate not smart strategies but street smarts, or just plain good old engagement with languages. If I don’t mix it up George also once said that it is very arrogant to think that westerners think they can outsmart Japanese people in learning Kanjis. In the end people are selling products and talking other products down to push their own. Well known RU-vidrs are doing the same by hyping a very esoteric part of Japanese language to sell you not existing courses for not existing problems. I also like George straight laughing at virgins in the so-called “japanese online learning community”, never saw anyone of those guys achieve anything publicly in Japan, except talking maybe about JLPT N1 which is basically a super complicated grammar quiz for foreigners that Japanese people solve in like 10-20 minutes.
George contradicts himself here a bit where he first says that he doesn't understand people wanting to perfect a foreign language and then goes on to say that Americans are condescending towards non-native speakers who haven't perfected English to the point of passing for a native. And this is in the US that is so used to interacting with foreigners speaking all sorts of bad English. Well, here you go. This is exactly why people strive to become truly native-like in the languages they learn. And there's another reason, also mentioned by both Steve and George. You acquire a culture by acquiring a language (essentially, you develop another version of yourself in that language). When you are at a native-like level, you *truly* understand the culture and are not just scratching the surface.
@@brendon2462 Well yes. I have no doubt he's a lot more conscious than your average Joe. But this is what I'm saying: there is a lot of subconscious bias based around accent (not to mention vocabulary and grammar), as it acts as a demarkation line separating your in-group from all the out-group people. And therefore there's a very compelling reason to try and reach a native-level like fluency if you plan on living in the language you're learning. The contradiction is in George saying he doesn't understand the drive to reach that kind of level as a goal while also acknowledging that below this level a learner will not be treated as an equal.
i do self study and although i do not use his books, i like george as a content creator and support his books for the people who are literally starting at zero. a good resource. but the man's content is very valuable, like his adventures in asia YT channel.
George usually comes on strong and often says something in a controversial way, but I always think that the base of his language thinking is similar to how I think. If you want to be perfect, fine. But it is always okay to use language for your specific goals without being perfect. I totally agree with using new grammar and vocabulary the minute you learn it. And a lot of people who are fans of the speaking side of languages underestimate the value of semi passive listening. But listening is especially important for languages that are far away linguistically and culturally. They are going to say things in a different way or even say things that we never thought of having a word for. Soooo many times my Japanese students ask me what something is in English and we don’t even have that idea, far less that word.
Great interview guys. I really loved that tribute to Laoshu at the end. His style was confusing to some people initially because he often aimed just to know a few sentences in an obscure languages, but actually that was really joyful because it opened people up who were so happy someone was speaking their language! It was a great wait to connect, he's so sorely missed.
Mr. George can spoke japanese wow, i agree with him before you learning a languange love the country first, i'm so in love with japan but i haven't learn japanese languange yet.😂 Coz i want to focus on english first, but i do love japan and japanese culture. Your japanese pronunciation is very good we love japan so much.😘🇯🇵
Hay Steve very nice interview ur interview makes a lot of sense learning a language takes a lot of time and patience I injoy watching ur channel when I can I just started learning Chinese I would like to learn Japanese as well thanks u for ur inspiration on people wanting to learn a language
Thanks for the video! I always love finding Korean language learners. I want to be like him. I love Asian cultures and would love to be an expert in Asian languages. I love love love Korea (use to live there) and Japan (teenage obsession like George and I wanna live there now). And I have many Chinese students so knowing a little Chinese could be fun too.
I think languages are a tool, but talk is an art, isn't it? We learned during the history to draw, sculpt, sing, song, act and talk too. So why we don’t consider it like an art?
So, JIT (just-in-time) learning is exactly what I have been preaching. And for that very reason: you establish what feels like very stable neurological pathways since you have a real urgency / willingness to activate a chunk of vocabulary and grammar and a very real context to activate it in. I found out that this method works so well that you don't need spaced repetition to retain what you've activated (in fact, this experience will lead you to reproduce whatever you acquired again and again naturally)
@@diariosdelextranjero So, I'm speaking from the perspective of a learner living abroad. Basically, when life forces you (or you force yourself), you need to research a subset of vocabulary and/or grammar (in context) you don't know and then go and navigate whatever situations you have at hand with that newly acquired knowledge. You would normally need to research way more than what you need to say because you also anticipate responses you need to decipher. When you go about it like that, you truly remember all that pretty much right away because there's probably a lot of factors signalling to your brain how important it all is. You will then start noticing that grammar and vocabulary around you and, subconsciously, use it in contexts where it applies further solidifying the newly formed neuron pathways. As I said elsewhere, imagine your shower breaks down in, say, Brazil. Now you need to a) talk to your neighbour from downstairs about a potential flooding; b) talk to your insurance company; c) go to a hardware store and buy stuff you barely know anything about. For that, you need to gather a lot of context-bound words and phrases like "trickle down", "seep through the ceiling", "emergency", "flooding", all sort of verbs to link it all together, some social cues to minimize the impact of the news; tons of obscure insurance-related terms you may not know even in your own mother tongue; words like "shower head", "insulation", "nut", "fixture", etc. And maybe some grammar you're missing at that. Then as soon as you've researched it, you go to the three places and activate it all as best you could. Trust me, you will remember all of that knowledge (and whatever comes up in your conversation) for life
16:07 se refiere a matt vs japan y a su comunidad , realmente creo que como uses los idiomas es cosa tuya,tanto si buscas perfección como si nó. En mi caso con inglés y francés busco fluidez con buena pronunciación, no busco perfección ni mediocridad.En fin, es una decisión que cada cuál tiene que tomar según sus preferencias.El tal George me parece un poco lambón.
Estoy de acuerdo al 100%, porque nadie puede estar "correcto" sobre cómo aprender una lengua, pero algunas personas preferirán ser más serias sobre algo en lo que están dedicando todo su tiempo y podrían tener un objetivo determinado que quieren alcanzar y hay métodos que ayuden a lograrlo. en referencia a matt vs japan ^ me gusta su forma de hacer las cosas porque mi personalidad es organizarse y poner todo en algo, al tiempo que también me divierte. cada persona tiene que evaluar sus propias preferencias y objetivos, esta fue mi experiencia con español :: george es un buen chico jaja pero no estoy de acuerdo con algunos de sus puntos, pero está bien
@@mr_yoshidasan Yo igual he notado eso y también que es una comunidad muy competitiva, incluso con la gente que toma clases de japonés al estilo tradicional cuyo japonés es muy limitado. Yo me metí a clases en mi universidad porque quería créditos extracurriculares sin necesitar poner mucho esfuerzo, y siempre hay ese ambiente de querer comparar quién tiene el "mejor japonés" acompañado por supuesto de ese sentido de superioridad que ello genera; incluso a veces siento que tienen una mentalidad tipo "nosotros tomamos japonés en una universidad prestigiosa, obviamente somos los mejores hablantes de japonés de la ciudad" (pese a lo limitado del nivel). Y pues de ahí en fuera no conozco más de la comunidad, la inmersión puede llegar a ser un camino muy solitario xd Es algo que no se ve casi para nada en inglés
I do not agree on the idea that "languages are just tools". If they were , we should strive to know and use and few of them as we can, not as many of them as we can as language lovers do... The fact is that "with every new language you learn you get a new soul". Learning a language will change your personality and the way you think, but only if learn it to the level of fluency , that is being able to talk and listen in that language "without thinking", without effort. That of course does not mean that you must be perfect in grammar , or pronunciation , or accent...but you have to be fluent. If you are thinking in your native language and speaking and listening in another then that language is indeed just a tool , and a tool that ,in the age of AI, is going to become worthless very quickly...
@@maa7528 Hello! I'm learning MSA and Egyptian dialect (and also English 🤷♂️). I have some youtube channels but I just need something easy to read, like short stories. However, I will be happy if you have any recommendations. Thanks!
@@Andres-mk4wr the best are the comics and BD they are available in MSA in a website called Arab comics net What are the channels which you have Will you list them please What is your mother tongue? Also there are sites of American movies with Arabic subtitles And there are Arabic magazines about cinema Regards
@@chandraw8571 thank you for sharing, i'll check it out! I have a lot of channels: ru-vid.comvideos ru-vid.com/show-UCwCfL558ARkpJ0V_MODzjoA ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xpw9AFyM0u0.html&ab_channel=Alkottaab www.youtube.com/watch? ru-vid.com/show-UCFGYePl3N2XZSqnJJOwvJ1A ru-vid.com/show-UCFQRnNW7LxjMLHmfFvkTcaQ ru-vid.com/show-UCHNAJQwlxGjbrd62VD05Ciw ru-vid.com/show-UCazFScO30FKY3YoNNDfNY5g ru-vid.com/show-UCazFScO30FKY3YoNNDfNY5g ru-vid.com/show-UCTkPs2-FkcVh3IkfaQjbd6w ...and so on They are mixed, Egyptian, MSA, Syrian, etc This is a link of movies and series from many Arab counties ramadan2021.alarab.com/ my mother tongue is Spanish from Argentina 🙂
@@Andres-mk4wr lingq has lots of stories, try to check it, I wrote 2 replies for you and they got deleted I don't know why What stories or topics do you prefer What is gnative language?
"Now let's suppose you're not 12 or 15, and you're not chasing Japanese girls..." Well, I'm 56, and I'm still chasing Japanese girls. (Not catching, but still chasing...) But anyway, great interview and tips, guys, thanks. Greetings from Austria to Vancouver and Vegas (got family in both).
