To Improve Comprehension DON'T Try to Understand 

I use Deutsch lernen mit Video by DW which are on a variety of topics and are all under 5 minutes which is manageable. For longer stuff, currently I’m reading Terry Pratchet.

@@Liliquan is this an app or you use the website version ?

@@Aliraza10107 App.

Dear Steve, do you believe all input has to be comprehensible? If so then what about in the case of videos/movies with subtitles in your target language that's above your level? Having to pause every few seconds to look up a word can disrupt the enjoyment and be slower and it'll probably show up in your vocabulary deck later on anyway right? I guess there should be a balance of intensive and extensive reading/listening.

I swear by face-to-face conversations with native speakers who want to practice my native language. I have several weekly convos with the same people on Skype. When conversing with the same people every week the conversation evolves rather than repeating the same first convo every time. This helps us both in speaking, comprehension and grammar. We both speak in one language and then switch to the other.

Sounds like me ,extensive reading is more practical

Sounds like me ,extensive reading is more practical

I think no one should try reading a book in a foreign language before learning around 1000 words or so considering it's not a children's book or a beginners reader sort of book And even at 1.000 words, one should choose a simple book to start

I did that too. Had to read Flyga Drake (The Kite Runner) for Svenska som andraspråk. Wrote down and found the translations for every word I didn't understand. The list was 300 words long after a few chapters! So I bought the English language version too, but only compared them if there was a whole paragraph or section that I couldn't comprehend. After that experience I have mostly read books that I have previously read in English (though not recently) so that I know the main plot points. Then I only look up a word if not understanding it prevents me from understanding something vital in that chapter. It still takes me much longer to read things than in English, but it's more enjoyable.

Me too

your seggestion is good

I listened to lots of 3 - 5 minute videos by "Lucrezia" while learning Italian. I wrote every word in the captions in Italian, also watched the translation. This really helped. I wasn't totally ignorant of Italian at the time but certainly not fluent. I kept this up for about a year, reading, writing, creating conversations with myself. Having studied French helped. The main this is keeping at it

Thanks for the suggestion

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​@@DrOrsonim learning italian rn lol

Yo también, no más

I watched Rick and Morty 5 times and always get a bit more.

Yo hablo español!!

Hey Chuck, would you like to do a language exchange? I'm a Spaniard learning English and French. If you like the idea let me know, we could talk via whatsapp, telegram or whatever app you prefer.

I'm learning English, we must be practice !

Its not. People are like 'yeah! she's right! the more you try to sleep the harder it is!' Forgetting the first sentence. Take it to the extreme, do you think if you just sit there for years listening and not engaging that you'll learn quickly/at all? Then imagine you engage with everything you hear, forever. Neither extreme is optimal but to say that just zoning out and letting it all seep in is a load of bull.

​@@thesampsoninstitute I didn't say anything about not engaging. Please, don't put words in my mouth and distort my comment like that. Both Steve and I have talked about the importance of noticing and paying attention to patterns. But that can be done without creating resistance. It's all about noticing without stress, resistance etc.

Physics books have to read this way, my friend. It's hard, doesn't mean it's not right.

AA

I understand your point regarding understanding. As for the sleeping thing, many people fall asleep almost immediately after seconds or minutes of trying, myself included, so it's not a good example.

Well done!!

Congratulations!!

yeahh sure

Diss tha' haters, fantastic job young lady 👏 🥳🥳🥳 keep it up.

Ok lol

@ Steven Eardley. Yup! To communicate with specific people I didn't try to "learn their language." Instead I tried to figure out how to communicate with them -using whatever means I could. If that turned out to be "learning a new language" then it turned out to be learning a new language. It was easier for me if I thought of it just as learning some new words. That, however, doesn't seem to be much use if I a planning to go somewhere where people don't speak much English and they typically speak some other language and if I want to learn how to communicate with them - before I go there - so I don't have to learn while I am there. .

Well I had the baptism of fire when I was 5 years old and went to school. I was brought up by my Hungarian mother and only spoke that language at home. At school in England I was forced to learn quickly when I did not know the word to go to the toilet! Consequently I wet my pants and was given a heavy serge replacement 😊 Thereafter I quickly learned key phrases useful for a 5 year old boy😏

that is exactly how the grammar is aquired, it falls in place naturally

I really appreciate that analogy. I guess the key word that I miss/forget is EVENTUALLY. I need to be patient. Especially when I question if any progress is being made... Like with the puzzle, I just can't see it yet, but EVENTUALLY I will. 🤯

that's one great analogy

My teacher is 60 years old and he kept telling me, "I needed 60 years to speak at my level."

@@josepmariaalcoverropons9186 He's absolutely right!

That's so interesting. I was thinking about seeing if it applies to other subjects as well

That's really interesting. A new way to comprehend such difficult subjects. Thank you for sharing man.

coming from a physics student per se.Yeah all this time i couldn't figure it out what's the culprit that causes severe effect in my learning and development , and this is just what i need

also business ;)

I am studying for civil services and this is how I approach the preparation. I have to read a lot from economics to geography to history to polity and this advice holds true for all those subjects.

What is your purpose in life ? Learning Spanish , French , Korean , Hindhi etc has any impact on your career!!

Yes sir, so true, that is the mistake that language learners make.

An interesting exercise is to listen to a podcast in your own native language and focus on understanding all the words. When I try that, I find it's hard to follow the message because my attention is in the wrong place. And that's in my native language!

Yes! I've found just before sleep, listening to something and not trying to translate, I suddenly see pictures of everything being said, even words that I don't really know.

yea, that is awesome. It works exactly like that and also It is much enjoyable the process of learning a new language

Thanks for your experience. I'll try to listen podcast whitout to try understand every single Word. Thanks so much.

ليش تركت قصص اكسفورد ؟

@@saeedyahya9020 قصص اكسفورد مبسطة لمن يتعلم اللغة الإنجليزية، تركتها لأنني تجاوزت هذه المرحلة وصرت قادر على قراءة القصص العادية مثلي مثل من لغته الأم هي الإنجليزية.

@@TheESMAT07 نصائحك عن مهارة الاستماع اريد اطور مستواي من مبتدئ الى متوسط افهم

Awesome 👌 try the audiobooks on youtube ;)

Only reading??

Your writing skills are excellent my friend!

I think this is great😂

Learn the secksiest language of all: baguette language.

Dad?

Speak German.

@@BryanAJParry amen

Stop looking.

Hey Colin! Thanks for sharing. This was an answer I was looking for, cause I'm learning Python, etc now and sometimes struggle to get a full grasp of things. But does this approach really help? What's your experience? Eveuntually you manage to understand things deeper?

@@grandpraline hi! Yes, I think with learning Python you have to try and push past the parts you don't understand as well and try and get code working. You need to immerse yourself in the language just like maths I think. It will take time but it will make more and more sense with time. Hope that helps :)

​@@grandpraline Yes, just keep coding and don't worry too much about what others tell you is the right way. Either you will appreciate why they said that later by making the mistake or after you do try their way you understand why they are wrong. Code and keeping coding. Learning is like a tree growing. You don't see it grow. But come back next year and you will see a difference.

I'm a gay Lithuanian man and I want to visit Brazil. I want to go to the beaches in Rio De Janeiro, eat açaí, and have fun with gay handsome Brazilian men.

@@lukasbalchunas1272 lol I’m not from rio and am not gay as well. But surely you’ll be welcome in our country. Rio is a very lively and bustling city.

Your English is great! Congratulations on your progress!

@@theocurtis02 thank you so much, bro. I appreciate your feedback. Even though I don’t feel like that fluent and sometimes I struggle with the language, especially when it comes to speaking, i feel like getting better and better. Take care!

@@cesarchiarelli8039 let matters take their course! I'm a native Spanish speaker and I think I've reached an English proficiency level in which I feel comfortable interacting with other people and in general just using the language as any other person would. Just keep immersing yourself in the language, talk to other people (in English ofc), and without you noticing, time will take care of things and you'll just keep getting better! I wish you success in your journey, learning another language is not an easy task. Be proud of the progress you've made so far, your English is great!

Similar experience with coding!

This is generally good advice for nearly all non-linear subjects. Or better put, any subjects that relies on ability rather than simply knowing. Anything you can "work a muscle" for.

The problems start when you try to speak your vocabulary adquired out loud :( , it becomes all like if you never learned anything as if you had just a few begginer words . That happens to me , i understane too much but if i try to speak what i wrote here it becomes a hell for me . What do you say about my problem ? , does that happen to you too?

​@@ChristoChristo03 Yes brother, it is normal, but as Steve has said in several videos, you must first listen a lot, read and finally read aloud and gradually imitate the sentences in English, you must be patient, and enjoy the trip brother

@@pablojure3550 thank you very much my friend for your help :D, God bless you .

I somehow hate repetition, it's like programming something you might not use even in hundred years time.

Sleep is critical.

if your seeing new words, should you try and translate them or just expect to understand their meaning after repetition in different contexts?

​@@joyfulburger2395 If you are advanced enough in your learning journey you can use your target language's dictionaries to define words you encounter, otherwise if the word refers to an abstract concept you can translate it to your native language. If it's referring to a concrete concept it is preferable to just google it and find the meaning through an image.

I fully agree with what this man is saying, to not force the process so much to get the result. Russian is my target language, and I struggle with comprehension mainly because I have to admit that I’ve been trying to base my language learning skills off the way one would learn in a military academy. Unfortunately that’s now I learned as a boy, and as a young adult. There’s even a specific word in Russian for someone who just memorizes things and doesn’t comprehend at all. It’s on the tip of my tongue now. Learning to let go and accept where our comprehension level is, is a big deal. Not getting caught up in trying for example, watch a presidential speech or listen to a full conversation on эхо Москвы, when you are an upper beginner like me :)

I'm dealing with uncertainty I don't know how to compete this issue .

Terrific story & growth in self awareness. Even today, I fear, and maybe there’s actually a regression in this regard, for all the talk of different learning styles and the uniqueness of each student, I think there’s a rather brutal one size fits all approach that ends up valuing only certain kinds of learners… with the rest left to feel somehow deficient. A terrible disservice with incalculable human cost

I thought that as you read more the better you get at it and therefore the faster you can read the same material while retaining a good level of comprehension. Btw do you have any advice that has struggled his entire life to get into reading? I'm pretty fluent in English but I've always struggled with developing the habit of reading. No one in my family nor my social circle is fond of reading and as a kid I always hated reading even though I was good at math. Probably the environment has a lot to do with my perception and as result it's so hard for me to read for pleasure

@@TheAnarchist99 You & I are very similar in background, talent, and experience! Read topics that INTEREST you. Your own interests should guide your reading & you will find it more relevant & pleasant. For example, there are some very good topics in math that one can read & learn about. You could choose a known topic & read deeper about it - or pick a new topic in math or a related skill (such as economics) to broaden your knowledge & practice your reading skills in context.

​@@TheAnarchist99 I realize this comment is old by now, but maybe this'll still be helpful. I'm someone who was an avid reader as a kid but struggles badly with it as an adult. See if your local library has a collection of audiobooks! If the time commitment is a hurdle to sitting down with a paper book, throw one on while you do something else. There's this weird stigma around it that it doesn't count but it absolutely does. It's got me into reading again, maybe it can get you into reading in the first place :)

I also feel guilty about not finishing a book I've started, so I usually just flip through the rest if it doesn't interest me any more. Strange mindset. It's probably due to the amount of time already invested in reading the book.

Learning to comprehend spoken French is so hard, because the spoken version of the language is very different from the written version.

I`ve been learning french for a year now and I can by now watch most french RU-vid videos and understand pretty much everything. It took me a lot of time tho just listening, re-listening and re-listening. Maybe a few content tips that I love: - InnerFrenchPodcast (probably the most known one for learners. It has over 100 episodes right now and every episode is transcipted, so that you can read as well as listen to it. The difficulty increases slowly from episode 1 so that you dont even realize it. I almost exclusively used this podcast for the first say 3-4 months just listening to it ALL THE TIME until I got kinda "bored" and wanted to increase the difficulty even more with content for natives.) - Nota Bene (pretty big histoy channel with A LOT of interesting videos of wich most are subtitled by humans. Can be hard to understand sometimes tho. I just download the subtitles, import them into Lingq and read them like a book.) - Mamytwink (also pretty big history channel thats focused mostly (but not only) to the second world war with very interesting storys that fit the small story in the big context. Almost all videos are subtitled by humans and I think pretty easy to understand. They talk in slow, precise sentences) - Questions d'Histoire (history channel as well with a lot of their videos subtiteld) - Secrets d'Histoire (about 2h long videos about history, not subtitled tho) - Colas Bim (funny animated videos. Hard to understand as a beginner. He talks pretty fast but the videos are funny even if you dont understand lol. I sometimes found them even more funny when I didnt understand :D) - quoi de neuf docteur (big french streamers taking a pretty long interview in the form of a (fake) psychiatry session. I like it because they mostly have the same structure and questions. So you know at least about what they are talking about and if you dont understand, there will be a next question soon. They all talk naturally and without soundeffects or other distracting things in the background. Just hours of pure talking. No subtitles tho. - Joachim Mouhamad (chess channel with a guy on his quest to become a grandmaster. As I'm learning chess as well right know its pretty useful to do both (french and chess) at the same time. - Koinsky (Lets Player with games I like. Great tip if you like lets plays. Just watch a lets play with a game that you know and you will understand a lot from that context alone) - french comprehensible input (a lot of videos with varying difficulty. Can be nice for beginners because he has a lot of very basic stuff.) You see these are a lot of history realated stuff because I love history. A big part in learning a language is finding content that you love in that language. Its hard to learn with content that you dont like or that you consume just because its in your target language. Dont rely on your tutor to provide you with content. When you are intrinsicly motivated to understand, it will be a lot easier to stay motivated even if you dont understand everything. Also notice that there are still videos that I dont understand anything even tho in others I understand almost a 100%. LAnguage learning is just like this but it gets easier the more time you spend with it. And its not only getting easier, its becomes fun to watch stuff in french and learning on the go while you have fun. Trust me its worth it. (sorry for long post and teacher-like attitude)

@@Tighris Thanks for taking the time to share your French learning experience with me and also the various French websites and You Tubers - I have been listening to the InnerFrench podcast and find it very good although I'm sure he talks slowly for us learners but that's okay. I will check out the others and will I'm sure fine some useful content. My tutor gives me TV5 B1 oral comp exercises but I find these difficult and they take (me) quite a bit of time to do. So I tend not to do them. I prefer to listen to a longer piece with no interruptions, that I can understand (75%) and I think I get more out of my listening this way. Thanks again.

@@Tighris many thanks for your suggestions . I am also on a journey of learning and being fluent in French. I live in ontario canada and just a few hours drive to Quebec . After reading your message I subscribed to 3 of the you tube channels and the pod cast. Thanks again

can I just say you're my type of language nerd! that comment was such a delight to read \

Don't be surprised how quickly that comes. I was alone for 3 weeks in Spain one year and watched the same TV documentary series every night, different episode each time. My street comprehension improved about 300%.

B1 to B2?

@@marcelosilveira7079 B1 Low intermediate B2 Upper Intermediate C1 Advanced C2 Native level

Read challenging books.

@@MG-ln1yw The vast majority of natives don't have a C2 level. C2 is an academic level.

@@aquarius4953 Why would "academic" be considered a higher level?

So how u get the meaning wt actually they try to say. Do u listen them repeatedly

Could you tell me how much u dedicated specifically to listen English In the past 3 years without subtitles? Am curious cuz am trying to learn or understand Norwegian and am just interested in the stats

@@NSh-xn9en if you don't get it's okay just keep listening, eventually you'll figure it out

​@Aditya learning any language takes time. If you plan to be extremely proficient pretty much immersing yourself everyday for hours is the way to go. At least that's what I do for japanese