On this video I react and respond to this extremely popular video about how to learn any language within six months up to “fluency”. #languagelearning #polyglot #mythbusting
TEDx will never give platform to someone who will say "in order to learn language you need to put in a lot of effort and resources. Over your lifetime you will constantly be improving, but still natives will be able to tell that you are a foreigner"
There are certain exceptions though. If a foreigner grew up in a country, it will be extremely difficult to tell if that person is a foreigner. That person would be able to achieve high level of proficiency in his native and second tongue.
When someone compliments me on how well I speak my second language, I think two things. First, pride, because I worked really hard to get there… and secondly, if I was really that good, no one would comment. I realize I only brag on someone’s English if they are clearly a foreigner, so I have to assume the same applies if someone compliments me. My good day is when they guess the wrong country from my accent.
The guy's not American, he's from NZ--I'm surprised you didn't pick his slight down under accent. He's totally salesman-y, using weird examples to prove wacky points. And dude, he literally crafted this speech one logical fallacy after another. I bet he sells books and courses. What a load of BS! Keep up the great work, man--your videos are always on point.
Well said. The whole thing stank of sales pitch and reminded me of a whole bunch of fitness and weight loss BS that you see and hear on line. Also, he was constantly citing anecdotal evidence - the lowest form of evidence. "This is what happened with me" and "this is what happened with this person I know", as if those things were automatically applicable to everyone. Nonsense.
It’s an interesting accent it has some of those nasal qualities and the longer vowels but his r sounds like an old fashioned Cornish one especially at the end of a word
I'm reminded of some stuff in the health and fitness community. Where there's a difference between people telling you "eating from a smaller plate is a small psychological trick that could potentially help you feel satiated earlier. Over time, this could lower your calorie consumption, helping you to lose weight, so long as you're not using this 'trick' as a crutch to avoid other dieting principles." Compared to "LOSE 10LBS in 1 WEEK with these 5 EASY TIPS, GUARANTEED (norefunds)."
33:13 no, he means if you're upset about something else! I spent 3 days at a resort in mexico with no running water or electricity after a hurricane. Believe me, my Spanish improved immensely during this time.
With all the massive respect I have for you Metatron you do not sound like a native English speaker. You do sometimes have an English accent since that's where you learned English. And your English with your Sicilian/Italian accent is wonderful. You are my language learning hero; or at least one of the top. I am subsequently learning Portuguese (worked on high school French and Spanish half a century ago) and have now decided to work on Hebrew. I'm no spring chicken but you were assuring in previous videos it is not out of the question to work on languages even at my age. Thank you Metatron. love those 72 wings.
I started learning English at age of 16 and it pisses me off whenever someone says it's so easy it takes only several months. It won't even give you an advanced level, let alone fluency. Apart from the words, you need to know what context they can be applied to so you also need to learn entire phrases. And of course the grammar like understanding how things are constructed in relation to time etc. Speaking is another thing, passive learning like reading and listening comes faster than discussing things in the real time, using different terms with correct grammar at the same time. And yes, one's mouth can hurt at the early stage.
I find very disrespectful the whole behavior from this polyglot. Way too many cheap salesman things brought to my attention how much of an overpromising on his "infallible" method. To be honest, the part that bothered me the most was "you can learn to draw in 5 days" since I have dedicated my life to drawing (I'm 43 and have no memory without a pencil on my hand) and the examples he shows are indeed an improvement but that's it: improvement. You get that by investing time on whatever you want to do, and if it is a thing of understanding and muscle memory you go miles by dedicating even 30 minutes a day. I do teach my students always "anyone can learn to draw" because it means that you can reach a level of proficiency that goes on a commendable level by taking your time to practice, but I also say that your progress is also tied to how easy the practice is on your preferred craft (talent). I've seen so many salesmen do his whole number to the letter: taking some facts from a reduced number of people and applying to the whole human race in order to sell something related.
It's always a matter of perspective and expectations, I believe. I strongly believe the pareto principle is a real thing, and you can reach a mostly sufficient level in just about anything by just investing a bit of effort. For example, I am pretty sure that I could train somebody to do most of my job in 2-3 months, easy. Doesn't mean the person would understand the intricacies or would be competent in a crisis situation, but they would be able to perform most of the work, adequately. Of course, these sales people use this fact for their personal gains, though it should be just common knowledge.
In a way, a total lack of talent will probably also be coupled to an unwillingness to invest energy into learning something. For example, I cannot draw. I'm in my late fifties, I can just about draw stick men (very uneven and scraggly ones at that), that is the extent of it - so I'm starting from zero. And if I spent 30 min every day of the next week training, I'd maybe be able to draw nicer stick men. Why would I do that? From observing myself and others around me, it seems to be something about how I process visual input. It seems to slightly differ? I can't quite say how, I am not color blind or have problems with depth perception *shrugs* On the plus side, I'm extremely good at finding objects; shapes "pop out" to me (if that makes any sense?).
@@p.s.shnabel3409this is one of the misconceptions about learning how to draw. You are correct that you don’t know how to process visual input in the right way to draw. The fun part is that practicing changing how you look at things for thirty minutes a day will enable you to sketch things on a semi-competent (and definitely beyond stick figure) level literally immediately. Some of drawing is physical skill and some of it is mental understanding. You can look into “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” for more info, but I have diagnosed visual processing issues and I can still draw, though I did need to have the book teach me. It turns out it’s easier for those like us (non natural talents) to learn how to draw from other non natural talents, because the natural talents will be expecting us to have some of those base mental skills that non natural talents need to be taught. But of course once you understand how to “see,” your progress hits an eventual limit where your motor skills need to be refined and progress slows. But as far as the mental skills go, you can make immediate progress.
@@p.s.shnabel3409 Absolutely. It's a waste to invest time in something if you don't have talent. I'd rather invest that time into something that adequately reflects my efforts.
Don't be hard on yourself, you ARE speaking native-like kind of english, you even emulate sort of an RP accent which for someone like me (I'm Polish) is near impossible as my mouth does not produce some of these sound
His accent definitely makes him pretty recognizably European, but I don't think I could reliably tell his native language is Italian by his accent alone. He sounds just a hair different from an RP English speaker to me, as an American.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines British people do not speak Received Pronunciation, except King Charles. We don't pronounce 'pens' to rhyme with 'pins', not for 50 years....
I am learning Japanese on my free time (which is a fair bit of free time considering I barely have a life tbh) and even tho I spend 4-6h on it daily, and have been for the past 3 months, I know there is NOT A SHOT IN THE WOLRD I'll be able to speak this language anywhere NEAR fluency for at least another 3 years at an optimistic guess. I speak 2 languages, English and Serbian, but I honestly do not know how I picked up English other than early age immersion, which really doesn't work anymore now that I am 26. Maybe I could pick up a neighboring slavic language - say Slovenian, Bulgarian or Macedonian within a short timeframe because they are already mostly legible due to my native language. But a completely foreign language like Japanese? It just takes so much reprogramming of my brain and learning new concepts and a new culture, it is not and can never be a quick process.
thank you for making this video. I was exploded by polyglot videos who are like performing speaking 10 languages on RU-vid since I once klicked on one of them. It’s truly making my own effort in learning to seem meaningless. Your video saved my motivation.
If I write down a set of phrases in languages I know a bit and train a lot, I could make a video speaking Portuguese (native), Spanish, French, English, Italian, Catalan, Romanian, German and Galician. Now, the truth: Catalan (can read and understand, but not speak), Romanian (can read some, but not speak), German (know a bit, something around a1), Galician (dabbled a bit, know how it is pronounced, it is extremely close to Portuguese). In fact, what you are seeing mostly are people who speak 3-5 languages with a decent degree of competency and know bits and pieces of other 5-8 languages.
As someone who recently started learning German, I completely agree when Metatron says that it's impossible to 'learn a language' in short time like 6 months. Language learning is like cooking a delicious Spaghetti. It's a slow process. Once rushed then it becomes either overcooked or undercooked, we can't be having any of that! Remember, a true chef as well as a language learner needs to first and foremost enjoy the process instead of expecting a quick result. I am so frigging hungry right now...
I'm your polar opposite: my first language is German and I've been learning English for over four decades now. Since I also immigrated to the US about a decade ago, am married to an American and our common language is English, I'd say I'm immersed ;) And you're absolutely right, there are no quick results. Reaching "perfection" is an elusive goal, because there's always something new to learn. Not just the vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation but also the culture around the language. If you rush it, there's going to be weird gaps. Things you don't understand about the people who speak the language, finer points of grammar, the inability to correctly interpret tone of voice etc. I know you say you just started, but maybe you are able to understand some of the words and a lot of the body language should be self-explanatory: Loriot. He was a German comedian, famous for his tv sketches. He excelled at showing the absurdity of your typical middle-class German - without being derogatory.
I cannot agree enough. For me, learning a language is like playing a really fun, long and hard video game. :) It takes time, dedication and it helps to learn a language you enjoy. :)
tbh, I *am* one of those people who don't want to even start talking until they reach a certain level, but... it has worked for me. But like, i wasn't just waiting for that day to come. I read a lot of books in the language, I listened to music in the language, I paid attention to how words inflected. And eventually, the speaking just came. Some notes: I did learn the pronunciation rules first, and most of the languages I speak are closely related both to eachother and to my native languages (i have multiple - two official languages + 2 or 3 dialects, i'm not sure whether or not i should count one as native but i was daily immersed from ages 3 to 14). I also tend to get really immersed in good stories, so I will think of them even when I'm not currently reading them, essentially "write fanfiction" in my head, in the same language that i read it in, so it's not like I don't get any practice in forming sentences, it just happens out of anyone else's view. Listening to music also goes with singing along, or singing to myself, I always check the full lyrics of a song if i don't understand it. I've also been told my pronunciation is much better when singing, I think it's because when I sing I'm trying to copy the original singer *exactly*.
The easiest way to refute this kinds of claims is to just consider how much vocabulary you need to know to be at a comparable level with an educated native speaker. Most estimates put the figure at around 20k (very educated and well-read people can know as much as 40k). Now with a simple math, assuming that one learns 4k words a year (which is A LOT of work - this means learning 11 new words a day) it will take you 5 years to learn all the words. And this is just vocabulary, because you also need to know grammar, know how to naturally formulate things in the language, develop speaking fluency, and many other things (and the word count refer to word families, which means things like conjugation forms of the same verb count as one word - it is assumed the you understand grammar well enough). There is no way to learn this many words in half a year AND do these all other things. Now it is possible to reach a decent level of proficiency with around 9k-10k words, which is still not a native-like level (maybe of a native middle schooler), but even 10k you are not gonna learn in half a year (you would need to memorize 55 new words every day - and from my experience of daily Anki use, even doing 10 new words daily is very taxing).
I don't know how large my Portuguese (native) vocabulary is, but it may be in the dozens of thousands of words. According to online tests, my English vocabulary is around 15-20k words. Close to that of an 18-year-old native speaker. Seems accurate to me. It is important to notice that half (wild guess) of the words I learned in English were learned very easily due to their similarity to Portuguese. I also know French and some Italian, Catalan and Spanish (and a bit of German). So, there's a lot of overlapping. You don't need to learn 20k new words for each new language. And that's a great vocabulary for those who want to read good literature almost without recurring to a dictionary. If your aim is travelling and talking to locals, then 5k words is an excellent vocabulary.
@@paulwalther5237 It depends. It's not a crazy number to learn 11 new words per day if you go for 15 and have 80+% retention using SRS like Anki. But even then, you would still need to grind it for half a decade every day.
Thank you! I saw this video some time ago, and I thought it was BS: overpromising impossible results by applying a method (a totally valid and widespread one, that said). I always thought that someone claiming to reach fluency in 6 months (and native level in a little bit longer!) is either a genius or a liar. And in any case, it doesn't apply to me or to most people. Some may find this guy video inspiring, but it is not, quite the contrary to be honest. I absolutely loved your analysis, this is exactly what I think and it makes me feel good to see that we have the same point of view. You have a new suscriber.
Quite simply comprehensible input is really controlled immersion if you're able to be immerse into a language gradually with simple stories and language that is related to how you live and that relate into your interests, then you are going to do much better in a language then in a high stress immersion environment.
I've lived in my target language's country for 23 years and yet barely speak nor understand it. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with that, but this year I found out that I have ADD. I think one of the biggest problems is that I have a terrible short term memory, and also poor comprehension of anything.
it absolutely does hamper difficult tasks. My step mum had ADD & it took her twice as long, or longer, to learn Difficult subjects. She was smart, but the pathways from point A to point B were winding & tangled & fuzzy. BUT! Once she pushed through, she Shone.
Hello Metratron! First of all this guy is an Anglophone--but he is *not* an American. My guess would be that he's Australian. Myself, I'm an Anglophone, but I live in Japan--although Japanese is the weakest of my acquired languages. My most fluent foreign language is German (both the spoken and written language), because I am interested in German Literature. After that, I can *read and write* Russian, as I also am also interested in Russian Literature. (I have a long way to go with *spoken* Russian, though.) As for your spoken Japanese, I can understand perfectly what you say--but I have a very hard time comprehending what a Japanese physician is saying to me. Any comments from you would be appreciated!
I'm a New Zealander, and he is definitely a New Zealander, although he sounds like he has spent a lot of time either in the USA or speaking to people from the USA as there is some rhoticity in his accent which isn't typical in New Zealand.
@@metatronacademy I think it rather proves your point regarding fluency vs. native speaker. I’m a native American English and fluent German speaker (since 5 years old). Even so, there are times I recognize the region, but have a harder time pinpointing the exact origin. Especially in a limited context. West Tennessee or North Alabama? Sachsen or Südbrandenburg? It’s tough.
7: 00 Yeah just like people who learn the French language for a while then call themselves ''fluent'' while speaking some broken French with a limited vocabulary focused on everyday conversation. I think being fluent should mean that you mastered a language enough to be able to participate in conversations with complex subjects and that includes online conversations with the written language. English is my second language, it took me 10 years to become fluent (Using my definition) and I do have a more advanced vocabulary than the average native... But I am not ''native'' level as English still feels unnatural for me to speak and I still have difficulties with the pronounciation, so I don't sound native and the language doesn't feel like an extension of my mind when speaking.
@@cahallo5964 They speak sub-standard or familiar versions of their languages, their comprehension of more complex subjects is limited, they don't have the intellect to master their language. They are however native. Basically they have fluency for day to day life, but they don't have proficiency in higher levels of language.
Hi, Metatron ! I really like your work here and at your other channels. It would be nice to hear your opinion on the use of AI in real time translations. Do you think the need to learn other languages can become obsolete in the future ?
What do you think about the proto-Indo-European reconstructed language and I.E language shifts? I personally think it is one of the most interesting things.
As someone who speaks Catalan and Spanish natively, on top of a couple other languages, I think I'd be able to learn Italian fluently (not natively) in 6 months of full immersion. Then again that'd be a rather specific case, let alone other combinations of "x base language towards x target language" like say, native Japanese learning German, it'd be nearly impossible to do in just 6 months.
When I was a student at the university of Bologna in Italy, there were quite a few Spanish students who didn't even officially study Italian until they arrived. But it only took them several weeks to get to a reasonably functional level and then about six months to become comfortably fluent. In fact I wouldn't even call it "learning" Italian, it was more like they just adjusted what they already knew from Spanish into Italian as they went along. However the one thing they didn't learn at all in six months was anything close to an Italian accent, so even though their Italian was technically really very good, it was incredibly hard to understand them a lot of the time because they made Italian sound like Madrid Spanish. I'm sure the same thing happens in reverse with native Italian speakers who go to Spain and "adjust" their Italian into Spanish too quickly. I guess it takes time to pick up a good accent even if you can learn the language faster than that.
Italian is not my first language (my third actually, I am about B Level now) , but it helps me very much learning spanish, because the words are quite similar and it seems the grammar is too. And for me, italian has quite easy grammar, you can start talking pretty fast (it gets harder on the higher levels.. congiuntive and stuff x.X) So, depening on which languages you already speak, new ones can be easier or harder
Curious what you'd say to Lydia Machova's language learning methods. I'm not going to post a link since you've said you don't click links in comments, but you can easily find her talks on youtube, she's had several, now i've only listened to them in Slovak but the English versions are also up. And from her talks that i've listened to, I found myself agreeing very much, a lot of her methods and principles are what I've used myself and (as someone who also speaks and has studied multiple languages) had me thinking "yeah, exactly!".
What you say at 5:00 is what I try to tell people who are using exclusively work books and grammar books to learn languages. Usually however they group up and tell me I dont know what im talk about, while the same community asks how I can learn all the languages I am learning and to that level.
Can you explain in more detail how immersion language learning works, Metatron? I don't understand it. I've never experienced it, and never had money to travel anywhere. But I used to work with a lot of Hispanic people, and I only understood a few words here and there when they spoke Spanish and only because I had looked up those words or was told what they mean in English. For example, I was told that "buenos dias" means good day, "buenas noches" good evening, "hola, como estas," hello how are you. I was told or looked up the translation into English of these sinple phrases and so could recognize them. BUT when these guys were having normal conversations it all sounded like gibberish!! I didn't understand a thing. So how exactly could I just "pick up" the meaning when I have no idea what any of the words mean? No one told me and I haven't looked up the translation in a dictionary, so how can I just know? That is what frustrates me because a foreign language sounds like gibberish so I don't see how I could just figure out the meaning by listening. I've never experienced immersion, like I said. I mean if he's pointing at an object and says a word, I get how you can figure that out. But usually it's not that obvious... and I find most (non anglo) native speakers don't want to bother translating for you or teaching you. If you don't understand they will just speak English to you. If they don't know enough English they'll just use a friend or child as translator. When you're a child I get it because you're still learning the words for everything for the first time. But as an adult, it's different, my brain is already set to English. So are you saying you can just learn the language by being immersed, even without ever having someone translate for you or look up the words in a dictionary? Or do you mean immersion plus studying the words and translations? Cuz that would make more sense to me. Also, I find in general I learn much better through reading and writing and not by listening. So for me, trying to learn French, I can understand the written words but not spoken. And I have no idea what to say in conversation beyond "hello how are you"... bonjour comment ca va. Lol. But I do know a lot of French words and can recognize them in written form. I can understand some spoken but much less and only if they're talking so slow and clearly.
I watched this many years ago, and I agree with most of what you are saying. Seems like the guy wanted to inspire, but chances are that the end result will be the opposite. It was fun back when I first watched his Ted talk and I belive your criticism is justified.
The point I think he's trying to make is that talent is not a requirement to learn a second language or more specifically to use "his system" (make of that what you will) but he is correct talent is not a prerequisite to learn and achieve fluency. Obviously someone with natural amplitude will be better, faster, etc.. but that doesn't mean a person without said gifts can't also try and make significant progress through dedication and work. In the end it seems like semantics but talent doesn't matter for that reason if you're will ling to work.
I think it's a positive message because often as a culture (America at least) we've become so fixated on talent and natural ability that those without, or even those who think they might not have (for whatever reason) don't even try new things to better themselves.
@@thelordraj5412 his message is negative, it gives unrealistic expectations and if someone were to try his or other method and fail to reach fluency by 6 months mark they would just get discouraged
In one sense, I do agree that immersion alone is not sufficient (I lived in Belgium and spent a lot of time with locals and not speaking English), I did pick up _some_, but I learned more from even short classes. However - immersion with both controlled and uncontrolled input _and_ some class time will _definitely_ lead to greater results. The FSI has research that shows immersion is more effective when you are at least at an intermediate level (A2/B1) or higher.
Chris is a new Zealander. He also speaks Cantonese, where there are also videos of him speaking. Pronunciation is also pretty good. I think he tries to apply a lot of NLP (not the computer kind) principles to language learning.
27:37 I learned English in school from grade 5 to 13, but I really learned English when I watched Breaking Bad with subtitles. And yes, I looked up words I didn't understand a lot after school, simply because I wanted to know what they mean, instead of needing to know what it means for a test. Motivation is key. I also watched Hell on Wheels with subtitles after that, and those two shows helped me understand thick English slang and dialect. I never expected that. Now I can even understand people speaking English with a very heavy accent that native English speakers don't even understand. It's weird how that works, I am nor perfect though. I also look up words in my native tongue to check the etymology, knowing words and wanting to learn helps a ton I must say.
I took seriously your suggestions to learn words for everyday things and use to improve vocabulary, etc. And with all of the stress and medical problems and other serious issues, I actually managed to not get a friggin thing done. Let me explain a bit better and I believe that I may have found a better starting out method for me. I am trying to learn Latin, Russian and up to date CSS. CSS is the part of web pages that take the content (the headers, paragraphs, bullet lists, buttons, form inputs) from what is just a black and white page you would print out and "styles" it. Which means all of the colors and backgrounds and borders and changes when your mouse is over something. In other words, makes it look good. Just one problem so far for CSS. No damn content to style. Which naturally makes doing it a chore versus a desirable thing to do. (I also program, but since I closed my company, I have few desirable things to actually program.) So, per your suggestions, I will write out web pages with Latin and Russian content that I am learning (starting with your excellent suggestions). Then I have that much wanted and needed content. Which then gives me tons of stuff to style with CSS. I now can learn words and grammar, put them on pages. Then I can take each page and do all kinds of different styling for each page. A total mix of wildly different looking pages to pull me forward into making all three things fall together and learn a mountain of new CSS which over the years has gone from pretty simple to now having all of the wild designs on so many sites. Also, I have the equipment now to make audio and video recordings of myself speaking, too. I will also just mention that many operating systems (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux) have built in web servers that you can set up and just run on your one computer and serve your browser with your web pages without needing any external network. Most of these operating systems can be put on a USB stick and booted to without messing with your existing operating system.
I do fall asleep quite often with movies and whatnot in Spanish which encourages my dreams to be in Spanish this doesn’t help me learn per se but it is fun, my most effective method of acquiring words and internalising them is via music and songs as music is so expressive I feel it easier to absorb the connotations and feelings of the words and structures but as it is a creative medium they can be more flexible with grammar so I have still needed to look at grammar books but I’d say music got me 40% of the way and the rest raw embarrassment via speaking to natives and hard study I feel the same as you in that I’m functionally fluent but my Spanish has clear Scottish influence every now and again tho funnily enough I’ve been asked if I’m Italian jajaja probs the melodic way we speak or the person asking is just ignorant
I think his drawing analogy actually works. When he showed how well he can draw after five days, it was okay. You can say you can draw, but no one is gonna wanna see it. So he likely has a lower standard of fluency than you
I haven't looked Chris up, but he definitely doesn't sound American. He sounds Australian but just sometimes putting an "r" sound at the end of some words for some reason for another, where most Australians wouldn't. At any rate, a Southern Hemisphere English speaker. Also, I'd never mistake Metatron for a native English speaker, just because of these perceptible accents that are basically impossible to get rid of (nor should one get rid of them, as it gives more personality and has a connection to one's own native language). But that being said, when it comes to word usage, speed of talking, and general understandability, Metatron's speaking is as good a native speaker's. I think that accent and fluency are nearly completely separate things.
Hey, I have a language question: extemporaneus literally means "out of the time", but the actual meaning is "done without previous preparation". Would it be wrong to say "the principles Polybius brought forward with the anakýklōsis are extemporaneous", meaning that they are out of time = timeless/always true?
Also, I think Andrew Huberman was discussing that neuroplasticity is induced by cortisol, a primary stress hormone. Not that the colloquial definition of "stressed" is necessary for learning-but rather inducing eustress, or a hightened emotional state and awareness of surroundings, will help induce it.
Indeed, I was very stressed when I was placed into a foreign military academy where I wasn't allowed to use my native language in any way. French Foreign Legion also does that, but they don't have such a large ratio of native speakers to non native. It's true, I was very stressed until a foreign language became my second language (3 months) and within 6 months I became fluent and understood all forms of speech in my second language. On One year mark I was fairly advanced, could have tricked a native for a minute to think I was also a native speaker.
I did not speak any japanese whatsoever until I found myself in a situation where I needed to speak, and so I spoke, and pretty well for that matter. I got better at it after a while, sure... But the speaking caught up reaaaally quickly to my comprehension. My experience learning english as a child on the internet was similar. I had noone to talk to, so I just didn't. But then a swede came home, and I just started to speak english with him, pretty well. Again, got better with time. You don't need to speak from day 1, and in my opinion it creates bad habits. You need to speak to learn to speak, but you do not need to do it early, and if you're shy, you don't have to force yourself to mangle the language you're learning if you're 3 months in. Just listen and read, and speak once you have a proper idea of how the language works and you don't have to strain your mind to say basic stuff, and you can hear the differences between you and a native more clearly, and correct them yourself. I heavily side with Steve Kaufmann and Krashen and Refold on this one, because it's my personal experience.
I'm going for Thai and it's slow. But i would make zero progress if i could not read the alphabet. I also think there is a lot of immersion that can be done before i get on a plane. books, tv, radio.
I definitely seems like he was talking the "dinner table conversation" level fluency, and not fluency as in "could take an advanced college class in the language" level fluency. In most languages, dedicated study for 6 months is totally enough time to learn basic conversational skills, but it's another thing entirely to master a language to a level similar to a native speaker. I think it can be incredibly rewarding for people who have failed at language learning in the past to make a lot of progress in the first 6 months, but people need to be prepared for the intermediate plateau when new words don't pop out in every other sentence and they have to really dedicate themselves to learning a language over the course of years instead of months.
I learnt German to B1 level in one month, but it was my 4th foreign language, i had a pari motivating me (afraid to lose 3 my monthly salaries if i fail, inspired to win 3 my monthly salaries from the doubters if I win) and i studied German 8-12 hours a day
If English was your 1st language and you started learning French, 1-2hrs a day, then realistically after 6mths you would probably be able to do the following: Watch French TV and Films with French language subtitles, read simple books and instructions, understand 60-70% of something a French person said to you IF they're speaking slowly and clearly, be able to string a few sentences together and be understood. For someone very gifted or extremely motivated who put in more hours a day, they might do a bit better but not much better in 6 months.
Metatron's English is fantastic. Is it just me, or does the word 'Italian', sound the most Italian? It just seems to flow so very smoothly, more smoothly than a native English speaker would make it. And the glottal stops don't seem to quite fit the rest of the accent. Native English speakers do use glottal stops, but normally (I could be wrong), the rest of the accent would be that of the kind of person who does use glottal stops in those particular places. But this is very pernickety. The overall cadence is superb.
He speaks English to a very high level, completely fluent, but to my ear he has a strong Italian accent and I found it quite hard to understand at first. I still have to concentrate. He speaks very fast, machine guns syllables, and the vowels are clipped, this is typically Italian. He’s using syllabic timing, rather than stress based timing. After listening to most of his video, I find myself getting a headache as he speaks too fast, much too fast, I can’t cope with so much information, with no pauses and the intonation is very flat. But I don’t want to be negative, he sounds like he has lived in England for many years. I’ve known Italians who after decades in England don’t speak as well as him, he has an excellent grasp, he sounds native level in grammar and vocabulary.
I learned Albanian for 3 months before living there for 2 years and I worked very hard to get to the point that when speaking with people on the phone they couldn't tell I wasn't Albanian. It's been some time since leaving and I'm still fluent but my accent is very obvious now. I have been teaching myself Russian for 2 1/2 years and lived in Ukraine for nine months translating for foreign volunteers running civilian evacuations but my memory is nowhere near as good as it was 16 years ago when I started learning Albanian. I have to try so much harder to retain vocab now. When I was in Albania I met a young man who had never left the country but spoke perfect American English to the point that I was convinced he was American until he spoke perfect Albanian to me. The point is that this whole, 'any adult can learn a language to fluency inside 6 months' thing is such a load of shit. There is a limit to what any person can learn and retain. Maybe he's one of those people that can't relate to other humans and thinks that everyone is like him.
The perfectionist thing is hindering my learning classical Greek, I believe. Because I want to pronounce it with perfect reconstructed classical pronunciation, phonemic vowel length and pitch accent. Should I relax on these things and learn it wrong for now and later correct my pronunciation? I’m a bit lost. The problem is that the Greek class at university doesn’t wait for me to learn the basics perfectly. And the professor doesn’t care about these details, only I do. Also, I joined Greek II without having made Greek I. Help me!
Hello Pedro, you’ve answered your own question: an efficient way is to work on your biggest weakness. If pronunciation is your current biggest obstacle, then yes, work on it. But if you’re focused on “perfecting” your pronunciation while there are bigger problems elsewhere, then... 🤔 The day may come when all your other areas are much better than your pronunciation, at which point yes, work on it. 🙂
There is no such thing as "perfect classical reconstructed pronunciation". 1) The reconstruction of classical Greek phonology is highly debated. 2) The pronunciation of Classical Greek was variable with different accents. It was not a monolith. Spartans, Athenians, Thebans etc all had different dialects and accents. 2) You can never be perfect because there's no way to verify if it's correct. We do not know what Classical Greek sounded like. All we have is an educated guess. Anybody who says they "know" or can "prove" their reconstruction is either lying or is delusional.
I'm from NYC. As a result I grew up surrounded by Caribbean Spanish speakers -- Caribbean Spanish is more labial & glottal, generally softer, characterized by slurrings and elisions of consonants, so the word for fish ("pescado") can wind up sounding identical to the word for sin ("pecado"). This proved helpful when learning to speak Brazilian Portuguese later in life, since it's very similar in that regard, but I've been trying to learn Italian and just could not get the pronunciations right...until I realized that Italian is more like MEXICAN Spanish, characterized by over-enunciation and precise pronunciation of all consonants. I have to stop my tendency towards natural slurring and elision and imagine that I am performing (to my mind) as an exaggerated stereotype.
Artists who draw are great at drawing though, learning how to draw rather means it looks okay I think. There is a difference in learning the basics, and then getting great at it. But I get what you were saying.
I wouldnt say that acquiring a language (any language) is difficult, but the process does take a long time. The exception, where you will need to drive yourself to some degree in my experience is when you have to pick up reading/writing in a new writing system.
agreed. I am french, born in belgum. when I was very little I had walloon, french, flemish and a smattering of yiddisch with the odd word of polish. I spoke mostly french being as we lived in brussels. when I was nearly 4, I moved to england and learned english fom the telly. after 3 months I could get by at most. due to family issues, I all but forgot everything in non english, (if that's a word), then after nearly 40 years, I moved to france and discovered that french had changed somewhat. I have been resident in france for a about 10 years now, and I still don't consider myself fluent, yet it was my first language. I do not think this 6 month claim has any truth to it, I would have to read a ton of french litterature to improve, yet I have talent in languages, simply because I find languages fascinating. I also have a self taught technique that accelerates language uptake, I consider all languages as 'song', if one can sound exactly the same a s a native, even not understanding everything you are saying, you can be assured that others will comprehend what you are trying to say, the caveats are , one needs to understand the cadences of the language, and, you need vocabulary, which only comes from hearing vocabulary and readiing vocabulary. essentially : experience. my english level is , so I have been told exemplary, but I read very extensively on many subjects in english. my chagrin is that in my own language I do not have any erudition, I cannot speak on many subjects as I simply do not have the words to convey the comprehension that I learned in english.
"My English isn't at a native level, I can only discuss complex academic topics at length in English" Native-level fluency is a lie, strive for history-RU-vidr-level fluency instead.
More importantly, "native" is not a level of fluency. It is like saying "Italian-level of pizza making": although the point you are trying to make is clear ("you are as good at pizza making as the best pizza makers in the World") you cannot take it literally and assume that every Italian is a better pizza-maker than every non-Italian. There are plenty of foreigners speaking English better than plenty of natives, although they will still have a foreign accent.
Alas, Ted x Talk being less regarding towards who can do presentations there, it's the place where a lot of scammers get. As the HBomberGuy showed, Tommy Tallarico was one of them for example.
Benny Lewis was on TED Talks and other lecturing platforms. Not one time did he ever give a seminar in another language, aside from his native English. I am still a fan of his, but even his Spanish was notably not that great and I am sure if he attempted to do a lecture in Spanish, he would be dreadful. He seems to be effectively a motivational speaker, than an actual polyglot.
Metatron, you speak English better than many native Americans, even myself at times. My own goal in language learning is to be able to speak about as well as a 3rd grader (8 year old) native.
27:54 I when I was a kid did not pick up any english for years until I got an american teacher and he forced us to speak once I guess you get that break you can get going 29:12 had that too when learning english One of the reasons I failed at learning Korean was because I tried to read only. I got to a point where I could read comics and understandm ost of it, but then when I heard spoken korean I just gave up. I could not make out the words, it sounded like mumbling to me and I have up
Note that it also depends what you mean by "learn". Learn how to draw in five days, does it mean "become an expert in five days" or "become good enough at drawing that you are decent at it" - i'd be more inclined to think the latter. Same with learning a language in a short time. Though of course, from people advertising this stuff I'd expect more clarity on what they actually offer. I've also seen some people in linguistic and language learning circles say things like "you can never be fluent" and arguing with them because they evidently have a different idea of what fluency means. You can replace "become fluent" with "learn" if you wish. What does it mean, exactly? The people who say you can never be fluent seem to have this idea of fluency, that it means mastering everything there is to know about the language, which is unachievable even for native speakers - and therefore completely useless as a term, because you can't actually use it to describe anyone's skill level. I think fluency just means being good enough at a language that you can comfortably use it to discuss any topic at the same speed and detail as you could in your native language. (this definition ensures that poor communication due to unfamiliarity with the topic discussed is not a problem in determinging language skill. Re: talent, well I don't know about you, but I've seen people (a particular example that stands out in my memory came from a language teacher, even!) claim that, if you don't have talent you will never be able to learn a language no matter how much you try. Which seems to be the sort of mindset he is responding to. Often in our overzealousness to correct one wrong, we go too far in the opposite direction and end up in the other wrong. Or sometimes we might have a balanced view but don't get it across clearly enough. Cheers.
I speak 3 languages (italian, spanish and english), a tiny bit of french and learning mandarin for 2 years after hearing cantonese and mandarin on a daily basis for many. I will never believe anyone's claims about becoming fluent (whatever they mean) in months, not even in a year, like some others claimed. Even getting from school level English to conversational, able to read any books, understand various native accents, etc took me a long time of full immersion on a daily basis in a foreign country. And English was not such an alien language compared to mandarin. Moreover the process is still ongoing and forever will be. Let me add that I draw since I'm a kid and that is now my profession. There is no way anyone can learn to draw in 5 days. I don't even know what "learn to draw" means as it's an ever evolving skill, much more complex than one might think. It doesn't have a "last level" sort of thing one can reach and say "now I know". This polyglot is a mere salesman that beats around the bush without even going to the core of the topic he is trying to present. Besides, since when learning is a race? People have different learning abilities and possibilities. Do what you can in the time you have for the goal you intend to reach. (I still can't believe he said that about drawing....what a joke, truly. Ignorant, insulting and ultimately a scammer)
After several years of language learning, I eventually learned to drop “native level fluency” as a goal. Many people talk as if that is the obvious end point of learning a language, but I have since come to the understanding that total comprehension and an ability to communicate without much effort on a variety of topics is my goal for my target language, not “sounding like a native”. Who cares if you sound like a native? I have no less respect for a person for having an accent or making some grammatical errors when speaking in English, so why should I not be just as forgiving to myself? Perfection is unnecessary
What do i think...well..firstly..Love this video! it is such Fun!...& i found myself agreeing with your comments almost entirely. Looking forward to the next video as i am struggling with the feeling he's going to sell us snake oil. I realize it's the Form of his presentation, which i Hope is simply misleading...i do hope he's genuine & Not trying to sell us oil. You say he is fluent & i respect your opinions so..i will not doubt it....but i can't help but doubt his motives since he is clearly using a sales pitch formula. Why, if he's not selling?...maybe..it's because he feels the power words in those formulas will attract more attention? i hope this is the case.
8:58 to your point, I (native English speaker) heard the presenter we're listening to and immediately thought, "Oh no, fam, he's not American. Maybe... Scottish? Australian? NZ? His accent is definitely American-esque. I could tell howa non native speaker would hear American though
Depends on your definition of native, there are several people in the U.S. of Italian descent who only speak English. I wouldn’t be able to tell you apart from them.
I wrote something similar. Only he has some British influence mixed in. Still sounds better than most Brits, not to mention Australians. Those 🇦🇺 sound hideous.
Great video! This is cheesy, but love makes a big difference. If you have genuine love for the language, the people and the culture, then you'll go very far in learning a language. Cybernetic implants couldn't hurt either.
I will add that love makes a big difference in another sense. If you fall in love with someone of a different culture/language, then your motivation to learn the language soars, and of course being with your partner will help you familiarize yourself more easily. That is, if the two of you actually strive for it. Because I know couples who have been communicating in a third language, for instance English, for years, and none of them has learned their partner's language. Which is sad.
@@irmar Oh so true! That was my experience learning German in the eighties. Happy days! Another thing that sharpens your wits (or so I've been told) when learning a language is taking up an activity like sailing or rock climbing, where there is scope for catastrophe or disaster and you need to act fast.
What's the rush to be fluent ? I've been learning German for 20 years. I'm reasonably good but I don't sound like a native. But what's the hurry? why does everyone claim to have the secret to learning a language " in three months" or " two weeks" or whatever... It's not possible and it's not even that important to do so.
"Sounding like native" doesn't mean "fluent". Be fluent means you can lead a fluent a conversation with native speaker. It's the main goal for most people learning a language. To be fluent after 20 years is completely useless, so they naturaly want to be fluent as soon as possible.
@@scobra1cz I agree native accent has nothing to do with fluency. However reaching fluency really quickly isn’t realistic . It’s just telling people what they want to hear, not the reality of the situation
@@paholainen100 You certainly could become near native in a year or two, definitely within European languages. Plenty of people have done just that. One year of 100 % immersion, and it means 0% for native language usage. But really, who needs German, they all have to speak English.
Anyone who said they didn't know you are Italian were either being polite or were thick as a plank.lol.Not insulting you,you are actually quite pleasant to listen to,I love accents and you are far more agreeable to my ears than Americans from a certain famous big city.You can fly a car,just not "fluently".lol. I can always tell people who didn't learn American English by immersion,they tend to be very stiff and formal and often sound British not American. Also some expressions mean something different in a different context.
Metatron speaks perfect English I mean it’s a tremendously high-level of English. You can tell he might of originally came from somewhere else, but I would’ve guessed that he started learning English as a boy. Maybe a teenager lived in London,. I think that’s why I would guess he had experience of going to school or picking up sort of like a London vibe, you don’t get this level of English without living in England I would’ve thought South London?
I'm an automotive technician, I could take 10 random people and teach them the exact same way to preform a random task and I guarantee they will not all complete it with the same level of proficiency
They learn kind of wierd though. They learn a very small context of the language which is just missionary work. They focus on just that so they tend to learn very well
I met a Mormon missionary on a flight once. He was coming back after two years in Chile. Of course I asked him about learning the language. He said it took him about six months to get comfortable, but that even after two years he still learns something new each day.
This guy is definitely not American. I almost want to say Australian, but not quite... Whatever the accent is, it's not any accent out of North America. That said, fluency in spoken Chinese in 2 years seems reasonable. While some of the phonemes are extremely foreign to speakers of western languages, and some of them are very similar in sound to a degree that is dangerous (the words for 'to be' vs. 'ten' vs. 'death', for example, all entirely too similar to the untrained ear), none the less the individual words are all short and simple, when written in pinyin typically just 2 or 3 letters long. It's the intonation that can be tricky, but if you've a good ear for music, that shouldn't be a problem. That said, 2 years to fluency is *written* Chinese would be nigh a miracle. Speaking Chinese is probably not a whole lot more difficult than learning just about any other language on the planet that is outside of your own language family, but the written language is where even Chinese people sometimes struggle (quick: what's the Chinese character for the verb 'to sneeze'?), and reading a Chinese newspaper will forever be beyond the grasp of almost all non-natives no matter how long they study the written language. Especially if it is written in the traditional manner, in columns, top to bottom, from left to right, where characters just run on continuously with no groupings, no breaks, no punctuation, no hints at all how to read it, you just have to know how it all works without any help from the author. That'll break just about any student of the language...
I began learning in May 2023 2 years for an "intermediate level" is very good. Infact I would even say you're above average. Dont fall for these scam artists and GenTubers that promote this other false nonsense. Social media will have you convinced you are underachieving
So aside from Chinese and English, what other language does he speak? Polyglots need to speak at least 3 languages and for me they don't need to be native-like to be called polyglots but fluent enough in all three or more languages.
I was in my 20’s before i realized i had a specific talent that others dont have, mr.lonsdale does not seem to know that he has a specific talent or he is selling something.
This is one example for how you should always start a speech. The best way. Start with a question or something personal, a story... I'm talking about the polyglot in the video.
If it weren't for your accent I would have trouble determining that you are not a native speaker. It is clear that you have strong exposure and practice with both casual and academic English. Sometimes you throw out words that I need to search the dictionary for, but it makes sense given what you study. There are technical terms that I was first exposed to in German (my second language) that I honestly couldn't even tell you what it is in my native English. My realization for learning a language is speaking it first and foremost and repeating as much as possible. I will learn a new word in a conversation, and try to keep on the same topic so I can use the same word over and over again so that it sticks.
IMO there are probably less than 100 true polyglots in the world. Maybe even less. To me multilingual is 4-5 languages, after trilingual 3 (obviously). Polyglot is 6+. And by that I mean near native in all of them. Not just learning to a basic or even intermediate level
