I had been learning Russian for 2 years but stopped active learning in 2019. I resumed my studies at the beginning of this year, and I believe that I have learned more this year alone than in the previous 2 years combined. The reason for this is that I make an effort to listen to podcasts while doing tasks that require minimal attention, such as washing dishes or cooking food. This realization has made it easier for me to dedicate more hours per day to learning. I simply incorporate a headset with podcasts into my existing routines.
You might try taking a product called Prevagen, my husband gets it a the pharmacy called Walgreens....he also studies German, Spanish, but his real love is dialects of the 14 or so English languages...he uses different dialects,to me with people if he doesn't like them🤣😂 but any how this brain vitamin, is great for memory retention, and focus.,he has cut his learning time in half...just saying ....🌹
I'm an English language learner, so I tore my Achilles tendon and I underwent surgery, then I have so much time. I am spending my time trying to improve my English, so I started writing down a diary about my recovery and my feelings during this time, everything in English. My mother language is Portuguese.
Two weeks ago, I started working a job in my target language (Japanese), and I'm intermediate, and currently I'm questioning all of my life choices because it's so hard but watching this video makes me think that maybe I can grow into the role... The job makes me feel like I don't know any Japanese at all and I'm constantly second-guessing myself... and I'm also in tourism and I have to deal with crowds of people while at the same time listening to commands of Japanese colleagues who use vocabulary that is entirely new for me. And the grammar and speaking style is so formal, I feel like a little child in comparison to the way the Japanese staff speaks. I convey most concepts but it's so obvious that my choice of words and grammar is miles away from an advanced level. Today I comfortably chatted with colleagues on my way home from work and that reassured me of my skills a little again. I do speak some Japanese after all, just not the very specific terminology we need at work, I guess... I really hope I'll grow into this job.
I think the big reason why people who have studied to a B2 level don't / can't forget the language is that they've invested years into this language. If you've studied / done something for years (unless you're a really young child), it's very likely become stored in your long term memory for life. I mention this because, I've been studying Korean for several years now and it's still not a B2. Korean is hard - please don't judge me. But I really have been studying and it really has been several years and therefore I don't think I need to worry so much about forgetting it if life were to get in the way now or maybe even I just got distracted. This is quite different now from when I made my first attempt at Korean shortly after I started Japanese. I took 1 semester of Korean, got an A in the class, but then decided to focus on Japanese only and ignored Korean for several years. When I went to visit Seoul I couldn't read hangul to save my life or say anything besides hello to people. I had forgotten everything. But even though I'm not a B2 now, I don't think I could ever possibly forget how to read hangul after reading it every day for several years.
I feel the same way about my Japanese! I've recently started learning it intensively so I can reach a B2 level but I learned it for many years and then didn't study for just as many years and I'd forgotten almost nothing.
For me trying to speak with native speakers or someone that speaks the language I’m interested well was what helped me to improve in languages. At beginning sounds awful, I even felt drained after, but over time it became comfortable and easier 😅
I learned German in high school for 6 years. Then I lived in Germany for 4 months and hosted an exchange student for 4 months. I became fluent by the end of that experience, which school alone wouldn’t have done. Fast forward 10 years and I had forgotten a lot of it. But when I revisited Germany, I was surprised how much came back to me. So I believe it’s all still there, as you say, I just have to bring it to the surface. Anyway, I would now consider myself at an intermediate level (20 years post high school), and I will use these tips to regain fluency. Thank you for the suggestions. The internet makes this so much easier now ❣️
I'm Croatian and creating a content in Brazilian Portuguese which I suppose reached an advanced level thanks to using it on a daily basis with my wife, but at the same time I'm working on my Arabic where I believe I'm upper intermediate due to a lack of using it. However, I often watch content in target language, for example podcasts, documentaries, TV channels even when I don't understand absolutely everything, I always learn something else and at the same time, I feel immersed into the language when using that method because at the same time you don't just learn a language but learn about culture, history, politics etc. and in my case this is a very fun and interesting method when learning any foreign language.
Svako čast brate, odakle sam Južnoj Afrike i ućio sam kako da prićam Srpski-Hrvatski. Očigledno još učim, ali mogu da prićam sa izvornim govornicima i da gledam izvorni jezićni kontenat bez "subtitle", ali još stradam se sa padežima I tako dalje... Odnosno gramatički pravila. Ja sam Pravoslavni Hrišćanin i imam se mnoge prijatelje iz Srbiju, tako imam suviše prilika za govorenje, ali slušam se na podcast i vesti svakodnevni i bilo je jako korisno, odnosno "passive aquisition" i takođe svestan trud i ućenje. * žao mi je ako napravio sam mnoga grešaka, nisam koristio "prevodilac", smatrao sam da će biti kao vežbanje. Poštovanje.
Hej! Ovo mi je prvi komentar na mom jeziku, ali pošto rijetko srijećem naše ljude na strani interneta koju koristim (uglavnom je to ona gdje se priča engleski, jer iskreno ima mnogo više svakakvog sadžaja za razliku od našeg interneta), pa eto da iskoristim priliku. Meni je majka Hrvatica, iz Osijeka, a ja sam iz Crne Gore. Svaka čast na učenju jezika! Oba spadaju na moju to- do listu. Meni je trenutno target language japanski, a pored toga znam engleski italijanski, francuski, malo njemačkog i španskog, ali engleski najbolje i preko njega učim ove ostale jezike, pošto najviše resursa za učenjeima na njemu. Samo naprijed i sve najbolje!
I speak Chinese for 25 years already! During Covid, I didn’t speak it for more than three years! And the first time I met a Chinese, I remembered everything … so strange
Mimicking a native speaker that I admire and a big fan of? Glad I discovered your channel, Uncle, I've been learning RP accent by mimicking your style. My deepest gratitude to you, Uncle. 🤝🏼
That was such a powerful, inspiring video. I arrived in the U.S. 16 months ago at 40 years old with very basic English, so I decided to become fluent and put in the effort every day. I committed to practicing at least three hours daily, constantly updating my routine. My practice focuses on shadowing, reading, speaking, writing, and pronunciation. I'm now definitely fluent, and my goal is to reach an advanced level. Consistent practice is crucial
Using a swear word in place of a normal word by mistake is great stuff. When I was in Japan I didn't really distinguish between hamaru and hameru. The kanji is 嵌 for both. I figured one used a direct object and the other didn't (if you follow the pattern of other verbs). They both have a few meanings but the one I intended to use was "engrossed in / addicted to" and that is definitely only hamaru. So when I said hameta the reaction was pretty well.. I got a reaction. Basically I was saying I was having sex instead of what I meant to say.
For me it was humor and puns and stuff. The corniest eye-roll-inducing things,but the joy of being able to joke around in another language is hard to replicate. Great way to expand your vocabulary too. Finding words that sound similar but mean different things, i feel like it presents a fun way of engaging with a language and an interesting challenge that doesn't feel like a chore. A: "How do I hire a church singing group?" B: "You mean a choir?" A: "Ok, how do I acquire a church singing group?" Stuff like that. 😅
Some great advice for upping your level! One thing, though - it's true that native speakers often make mistakes in their own language, but they're not the *same* kind of mistakes as learners make. I would say that you know you've reached true mastery of another language when you make the native-like mistakes in it!
¡Qué buen vídeo! He experimentado esto por meses con mi aprendizaje del hindi/urdu. Encuentro que no hay muchos recursos del nivel intermedio pa aprender hindi, todos los recursos son para muy muy principiante, o el opuesto, los para nativos. Entonce falto bastante vocablos para entender y leer al nivel más avazando. Me pasó volando el aprendizaje del español y me siento cómoda con hablar y sólo uso los recursos nativos. Hace dos meses me di cuenta de que mis podcasts mexicanos (sobre el amor la amistad y más) no me costaban escuchar para nada, y hay que exponerse al contenido diverso pa mejorar. Desde entonces, he estado escuchando a podcasts de noticias, de dialectos muy variados, y empecé a hacer voluntario como intérprete para un jardín comunitario. También compré un diccionario monolingüe para que me aumente la comprensión de libros. Me enamoré del idioma otra vez. Lo único con lo que debo enfrentar es alcanzar un nivel más alto intermedio en hindi por leer y aprender más vocabulario, pero pienso que el proceso está en mi contra porque no había descubierto la estructura debida que me facilitara el mejoramiento del hindi.
Get out of my head olly. 3 years of Spanish and a trip to mallorca had me feel I can add French. Now I listen every day to Spanish french and Hungarian (born bilingual)... Best feeling to actually learn a language on your own at age 50...
Oily I agree with the last thing you said. Your brain knows more than you are letting to know. This us true for me. When I begin to speak all the information I know seems to disappear. So frustrating.
I just recently felt the "shackles of fear" of making mistakes just fall off with my language learning. It's so liberating 🥰 and my language efficiency just sky rocketed!
Thanks for this video. That's exactly what I needed. I've been learning German for two years now and I can't get over this bloody plato, even though I'm in Switzerland. It's about time to get out of my comfort zone and work at my pronunciation
Switzerland Deutsch is nothing like Hoch Deutsch. It’s no wonder you can’t learn. I once was with a girl from Switzerland and one from Bavaria at the same time. I struggled to understand them due to the dialects. I was only self taught in GERMAN so it was difficult. At the same place there was also a couple from Hanover and I understood most of what they were saying. The gentleman arrogantly said to me when I remarked at how easy it was to understand him, “Naturlich, Ich spreche nur Hoch Deutsch.
Thank you for the tips! I was really frustrated about being stuck at the A2-B1 level, I feel like I can understand a lot of things and even speak properly but my writing skills are really bad and sometimes I tend to forget words that I am used to listening to every day.
I've been learning french for about 9 months and I'm currently reading Camus' L'étranger and watching Lupin. I've managed to hit probably a B1 simply through my brute force love of the language using RUclips, duolingo, newspaper articles, lots of music and slowly digging into novels and tv shows now. I still use captions in french since my raw comprehension is, on average 60-80% depending on subject matter, but I'm definitely noticing it gets smoother the more time i commit. I think the best thing is to constantly be challenging yourself. I think once my comprehension starts reaching that 90-100%, it'll be time to take off the training wheels and turn off the captions. Leaving comments on youtube videos helps me find new vocab to add nuance to my expressions.
Learning arabic, I can certainly recognise some of the points made: * Look at your own progress every once in a while: what things are you good at or not, what do you do enjoy or not, what should be the next step. Indeed get out of your comfort zone, sometimes you just need to focus on a specific part you were hesitant to pursue before. I've seen plenty of people *knowing* intricate grammar rules, but not able to *apply* them in conversation (afraid of making a mistake?), which is huge missed opportunity IMO. Everyone's learning style is probably different though. * "Always be a little bit skeptical": I think you can learn something from anyone, but I found that not all native speakers are necessarily good at grammar themselves (perhaps learned it as a child but forgot it, just don't have the same skills as a language teacher). * Have fun, motivation is super-important, and helps you to continue
I recommend watching News Programs, Current Affairs Shows, Talk Shows, and Reality TV shows in the target language you are learning as it helps you immerse yourself into the culture and language that you are learning about. I would also recommend you to changed your Computer OS and Smartphone OS into the target language that you are learning along with changing the keyboard to the target language that you are learning to fully immerse yourself.
I learnt Russian to A2/scraping a B1 and then took a break. Completely lost the ability to speak or even understand a lot of it after a surprisingly short hiatus. I never had the motivation to get back into it and started again from scratch in Spanish. I'm probably better in Spanish now than I ever was in Russian but I know I could lose it like I did with Russian, so im not stopping until I reach that B2 level. (Also Story Learning is so much faster than the somewhat passive attempt I had at Russian)
Dear teacher Stefano, you are totaly higt. I can hear from you from Olly without go throu there. Just have all of you smart teachers by phone and internet. Thank you both most dearest teacher: Olly, Stefano and now my french teacher: Luiz Alberto a native portuguese teacher. All my love for everyone who have been help me to improve my self. I love you both.❤💙🎧📙📘🖍🙋
My english speaking is all about QnA pageantry. So , my friend was asking to me about what do you think about her fashion. I was suddenly answer that question like. In my point of view, fashion is not only about how good looking you are in public eye , how good your mix and match your clothes. But the most important thing people should be know about fashion is they are identify you as you and they bring your confident into the middle of society. No matter what people judging you bad or good either. At the end of the day as long as your confident with yourself. Loving yourself, i think everything will be enough. I was confused with my answer, why i was doing that. LOL , and i know that my answer is my daily habit watched pageant every single day to learning english.
I really hope one day you'll short stories in Hungarian and Estonian. I used them with Danish, and it was really good, so I hope to do the same with magyar and eesti.
I think part of "not forgetting" a language is having a personal zeal for the language. I studied German for 3 years in high school, then 1 1/2 years in college (2 of those years really weren't quality years. Last year in high school, I was the only one that signed up, and did private study, while listening to the class. The 201/202 level in college was 100% in English, and just studying grammar - no German texts.). I did write in German, especially letters (this was back in the 1990s) to my grandmother's younger cousin who came from Germany in 1945. My great-grandmother also came from Germany in 1914 (although her language was Swabian). My grandmother's cousin is still alive, and we just talked in German on the phone the other month. I've even seen things in German, like her daily calendar with some short story for each day, family Bible in German, tapestries with German sayings. So, it was kind of a heritage language for me. I also think that the "Intermediate Plateau" is something of a myth - it's only a "plateau" because people forget the training wheels (and guide rails) are off, and they're free to explore. Granted, I've always been eager to expand and dive into the language once I've completed the basics. For me, it's not an "Intermediate Plateau" or "Intermediate Purgatory", but "Intermediate Bliss". I've also found that writing really helped me to remember vocabulary that I want to use, too. Another thing I don't see mentioned much is "Thinking in the Language". That comes with a lot of input. I'm trying out Dreaming Spanish, and I think I've crossed a threshold after 720 hours, where I can start to have mini-conversations in my head. I've noticed progress every 100 hours.
Well, I've reached the limit between upper intermediate and advanced in English, but, unfortunately, I haven't crossed that line. Soon I've started learning German and right now I'm on B2 lvl. And I've noticed, that I forget my English consistently 😢 That feels so bad! I regret not crossing that line
Olly!! I have been following you from the beginning and the quality that you have achieved is incredible! My congratulations and deep respect! How about a video comparing learning music and languages? :) Greetings from Madrid!!
hahahahahahaha, oh man. this video hits so hard right now. I was literally just commenting on how I don't feel like i'm EVER getting out of HSK4 zone (intermediate-ish)
I was wondering if, after reaching a good level in German, I would like to keep going into advance level or move to another language, but being more resilient to forgiveness is a pretty cool point, I'll definetly try to get it (in English too ofc)
I have lived in Poland for 1year and maybe 4 months anyway my language has come a long way but it is very broken! But I am working and going to shops on my own! But I am definitely not A1/A2 but everyone says it's easy to learn at work but i work in a high pressure environment and my learning has slowed down so much
I'm a b2/c1 English learner by acquiring constant input,I'm able to read difficult books like Edgar Allen Poe's works,Shakespeare(in particular"Hamlet")and Sherlock. P.S:No regrets❤😊
I too walk speaking to myself in my 3 languages (ear pods on so I don’t look too crazy...though in London nobody cares). I pretend to speak to an English friend and German friend and an Italian one, each one of them is unable to understand the other 2 languages so I need to say the same things (speaking about my life...whatever comes to my mind) in each language. I recently started using google translate to double check my translation (for German) and listen to the audio too.
I always tell people this! Speaking to yourself is also a way of increasing fluency, its almost as good as talking to others. This is how I learnt German.
Stafano's tips saying ...compared to what you have been doing it (in fact,the last one is a noun clause by having "it "at the last as an object,which is not needed due to what doing that function already .This is n non-native speaker who speaks English not automatically.
You probably have to make it to an advanced level to avoid people switching to English when you're abroad. Especially if your target language is another Germanic language like German, Dutch, or one of the Scandinavian languages.
The learning process is the exact same as any other language. But since the ease at which Esperanto can be learned. You progress through those stages at a much more accelerated rate. In order for me to get to an advanced stage of the language I had to implement a more immersion based approach while using resources only written in Esperanto. Then coupled that with massive amounts of input.
Which accent is closer to a neutral British English given some native speakers consider Modern RP somehow fake? London's? Thanks in advance! Celeste from Argentina.
No accent is fake unless you're putting it on. Which some people certainly do -- even in my country! The way Olly speaks is neutral - it's RP, but relaxed. I believe they call this 'contemporary RP', which is not the same as the stuffy kind some high society types use. If we remember that the point of a neutral accent is that everyone will clearly hear and understand what you're saying, then anything fitting that description is 'neutral'.
hello Olly do l watch movies that l do not understand 100 percent? And do l search every words? because my purpose is understand all texts, movies, books that all l need. l am not interested in speaking yet
Want to improve your language skills play Assassins Creed in your target language or new Bethesda game plus Crunchyroll now dubs in numerous languages so there that as well and RUclips. Also discord so this video is mainly a old man tips video
Extensive reading usually refers to reading without looking up many words and tolerating some ambiguity. Intensive reading refers to focusing on trying to have 100% comprehension of a text before moving on. Both have their uses.
Im at the point in french where i can watch a movie with french subtitles and understand what's going on in the story now. It's still tough to understand a movie because the slang and the speed they speak. I can understand a podcast pretty well though. It's a long , slow process
Yes, it's a long, slow process. Two truths most people nowadays do not want to hear. It takes effort, it takes planning, it takes time. Counted in years, not in minutes or miliseconds. Working on taking my Italian to C1 or preferably C2 level now. And I know it will take about 2 years. If I manage to speed it up I will be very happy but I'm realistic about it. And I do not expect it to happen to me at random. Or in only pleasant way. All pieces of advice from this video make sense. On one condition- you make consistent effort to use them on daily basis.
Both my mom and my grandpa have at least one language that they used to know intermediately, but forgot, so I'm watching to prevent it from happening to me
I have no excuse not to go talk to native speakers of Spanish since I live in an area with lots of immigrants, except that it scares me as an idea to just talk to random people lol
I don’t think there are clear rules for it, B1, B2 etc. are just labels and the reality will look different for everyone. While some advices probably only make sense once you reach B2 indeed (like looking up synonyms, exclusively reading adult-targeted books) some can work before (like extensive listening, watching without English subtitles etc.) everyone kinda has to figure it out for themselves
Thanks Guys. I think I'll keep pushing for B1>B2 before using these techniques. Hoping to try something new to rejuvenate my methods or escape my plateau.
B2 and above. B2 is the first "indpendent learner" level. Below this level it's good to work with a teacher or a tutor , so under close supervision of someone with C2 level in your target language.
I always admired by British pronunciation,but couldn't pick interesting movie to watch,and in american movies british characters mostly negatives with creepy donald duck pronanciation😂😂
You only want to sell your books I have a question for you Richard ;If I don't know the alphabet and basic grammar how can I learn a language by Reading?
I honestly think there must be an equilibrium, you cannot go through a language without knowing the basics, at least you need to know much grammar and basic vocabulary in order to apply Richard's method, but you need to balance the reading, listening, speaking and writing in order to improve better
In all fairness every RUclipsr is selling you something, in this case it's his own product instead of hello fresh. He does also discuss learning from absolute beginner in other videos, he doesn't expect people to be able to read from scratch
In his video, "What is your language level?" Olly specifically says at the A2 level it's a good time to begin reading (at around 1500 words learned) easily digestible material.
Obviously he is selling his own product, but isn’t that the nature of RUclips? Many RUclips videos are pushing the author’s product. Fine, what do you expect? Why should someone work for free?
Wondering what your language level is? Click here to find out! 👉🏼 ruclips.net/video/yBTjkYoQj4E/видео.html
I had been learning Russian for 2 years but stopped active learning in 2019. I resumed my studies at the beginning of this year, and I believe that I have learned more this year alone than in the previous 2 years combined. The reason for this is that I make an effort to listen to podcasts while doing tasks that require minimal attention, such as washing dishes or cooking food. This realization has made it easier for me to dedicate more hours per day to learning. I simply incorporate a headset with podcasts into my existing routines.
Great advice. I have been learning Russian for 3 ½ years.
You might try taking a product called Prevagen, my husband gets it a the pharmacy called Walgreens....he also studies German, Spanish, but his real love is dialects of the 14 or so English languages...he uses different dialects,to me with people if he doesn't like them🤣😂 but any how this brain vitamin, is great for memory retention, and focus.,he has cut his learning time in half...just saying ....🌹
Who needs studies when you have Russian internet and RUclips its massive.
Why learn russian?
What podcasts did you listen to?
I'm an English language learner, so I tore my Achilles tendon and I underwent surgery, then I have so much time. I am spending my time trying to improve my English, so I started writing down a diary about my recovery and my feelings during this time, everything in English. My mother language is Portuguese.
you are doing very good, keep it up
Two weeks ago, I started working a job in my target language (Japanese), and I'm intermediate, and currently I'm questioning all of my life choices because it's so hard but watching this video makes me think that maybe I can grow into the role... The job makes me feel like I don't know any Japanese at all and I'm constantly second-guessing myself... and I'm also in tourism and I have to deal with crowds of people while at the same time listening to commands of Japanese colleagues who use vocabulary that is entirely new for me. And the grammar and speaking style is so formal, I feel like a little child in comparison to the way the Japanese staff speaks. I convey most concepts but it's so obvious that my choice of words and grammar is miles away from an advanced level.
Today I comfortably chatted with colleagues on my way home from work and that reassured me of my skills a little again. I do speak some Japanese after all, just not the very specific terminology we need at work, I guess... I really hope I'll grow into this job.
I think the big reason why people who have studied to a B2 level don't / can't forget the language is that they've invested years into this language. If you've studied / done something for years (unless you're a really young child), it's very likely become stored in your long term memory for life. I mention this because, I've been studying Korean for several years now and it's still not a B2. Korean is hard - please don't judge me. But I really have been studying and it really has been several years and therefore I don't think I need to worry so much about forgetting it if life were to get in the way now or maybe even I just got distracted. This is quite different now from when I made my first attempt at Korean shortly after I started Japanese. I took 1 semester of Korean, got an A in the class, but then decided to focus on Japanese only and ignored Korean for several years. When I went to visit Seoul I couldn't read hangul to save my life or say anything besides hello to people. I had forgotten everything. But even though I'm not a B2 now, I don't think I could ever possibly forget how to read hangul after reading it every day for several years.
I feel the same way about my Japanese! I've recently started learning it intensively so I can reach a B2 level but I learned it for many years and then didn't study for just as many years and I'd forgotten almost nothing.
For me trying to speak with native speakers or someone that speaks the language I’m interested well was what helped me to improve in languages. At beginning sounds awful, I even felt drained after, but over time it became comfortable and easier 😅
The muscle strengthens!
So nice to see Stefano! He answered some questions in the beginner Spanish story learning! Good to see a face to the name!
❤
I learned German in high school for 6 years. Then I lived in Germany for 4 months and hosted an exchange student for 4 months. I became fluent by the end of that experience, which school alone wouldn’t have done.
Fast forward 10 years and I had forgotten a lot of it. But when I revisited Germany, I was surprised how much came back to me. So I believe it’s all still there, as you say, I just have to bring it to the surface. Anyway, I would now consider myself at an intermediate level (20 years post high school), and I will use these tips to regain fluency. Thank you for the suggestions. The internet makes this so much easier now ❣️
I'm Croatian and creating a content in Brazilian Portuguese which I suppose reached an advanced level thanks to using it on a daily basis with my wife, but at the same time I'm working on my Arabic where I believe I'm upper intermediate due to a lack of using it. However, I often watch content in target language, for example podcasts, documentaries, TV channels even when I don't understand absolutely everything, I always learn something else and at the same time, I feel immersed into the language when using that method because at the same time you don't just learn a language but learn about culture, history, politics etc. and in my case this is a very fun and interesting method when learning any foreign language.
Svako čast brate, odakle sam Južnoj Afrike i ućio sam kako da prićam Srpski-Hrvatski. Očigledno još učim, ali mogu da prićam sa izvornim govornicima i da gledam izvorni jezićni kontenat bez "subtitle", ali još stradam se sa padežima I tako dalje... Odnosno gramatički pravila. Ja sam Pravoslavni Hrišćanin i imam se mnoge prijatelje iz Srbiju, tako imam suviše prilika za govorenje, ali slušam se na podcast i vesti svakodnevni i bilo je jako korisno, odnosno "passive aquisition" i takođe svestan trud i ućenje. * žao mi je ako napravio sam mnoga grešaka, nisam koristio "prevodilac", smatrao sam da će biti kao vežbanje.
Poštovanje.
@@servantofChristMichaelBravo ja sam rođen u hrvatskoj i ide ti super samo tako nastavi koliko ga dugo učiš?
Hej! Ovo mi je prvi komentar na mom jeziku, ali pošto rijetko srijećem naše ljude na strani interneta koju koristim (uglavnom je to ona gdje se priča engleski, jer iskreno ima mnogo više svakakvog sadžaja za razliku od našeg interneta), pa eto da iskoristim priliku. Meni je majka Hrvatica, iz Osijeka, a ja sam iz Crne Gore.
Svaka čast na učenju jezika! Oba spadaju na moju to- do listu.
Meni je trenutno target language japanski, a pored toga znam engleski italijanski, francuski, malo njemačkog i španskog, ali engleski najbolje i preko njega učim ove ostale jezike, pošto najviše resursa za učenjeima na njemu.
Samo naprijed i sve najbolje!
I speak Chinese for 25 years already! During Covid, I didn’t speak it for more than three years! And the first time I met a Chinese, I remembered everything … so strange
Mimicking a native speaker that I admire and a big fan of? Glad I discovered your channel, Uncle, I've been learning RP accent by mimicking your style. My deepest gratitude to you, Uncle. 🤝🏼
That was such a powerful, inspiring video. I arrived in the U.S. 16 months ago at 40 years old with very basic English, so I decided to become fluent and put in the effort every day. I committed to practicing at least three hours daily, constantly updating my routine. My practice focuses on shadowing, reading, speaking, writing, and pronunciation. I'm now definitely fluent, and my goal is to reach an advanced level. Consistent practice is crucial
Using a swear word in place of a normal word by mistake is great stuff. When I was in Japan I didn't really distinguish between hamaru and hameru. The kanji is 嵌 for both. I figured one used a direct object and the other didn't (if you follow the pattern of other verbs). They both have a few meanings but the one I intended to use was "engrossed in / addicted to" and that is definitely only hamaru. So when I said hameta the reaction was pretty well.. I got a reaction. Basically I was saying I was having sex instead of what I meant to say.
I spotted the kanji before I actually read the thing and I knew exactly where this was going XDXD
For me it was humor and puns and stuff. The corniest eye-roll-inducing things,but the joy of being able to joke around in another language is hard to replicate.
Great way to expand your vocabulary too. Finding words that sound similar but mean different things, i feel like it presents a fun way of engaging with a language and an interesting challenge that doesn't feel like a chore.
A: "How do I hire a church singing group?"
B: "You mean a choir?"
A: "Ok, how do I acquire a church singing group?"
Stuff like that. 😅
One of your best videos, Olly, thank you. I'll be showing this to my "Advanced" ESL students.
Some great advice for upping your level! One thing, though - it's true that native speakers often make mistakes in their own language, but they're not the *same* kind of mistakes as learners make. I would say that you know you've reached true mastery of another language when you make the native-like mistakes in it!
Very very good point! So true! And all of a sudden you almost feel ashamed when you speak "too correctly" haha :)
@@linguaEpassione Absolutely!
Very true. Subjuntivo for example, in Spanish or other Romanic languages, is a very typical foreign students´ mistake but uncommon among natives.
Olly, you're just always killing it. Thanks for all your hard work in teaching all of us how to be better language learners.
¡Qué buen vídeo! He experimentado esto por meses con mi aprendizaje del hindi/urdu. Encuentro que no hay muchos recursos del nivel intermedio pa aprender hindi, todos los recursos son para muy muy principiante, o el opuesto, los para nativos. Entonce falto bastante vocablos para entender y leer al nivel más avazando. Me pasó volando el aprendizaje del español y me siento cómoda con hablar y sólo uso los recursos nativos. Hace dos meses me di cuenta de que mis podcasts mexicanos (sobre el amor la amistad y más) no me costaban escuchar para nada, y hay que exponerse al contenido diverso pa mejorar. Desde entonces, he estado escuchando a podcasts de noticias, de dialectos muy variados, y empecé a hacer voluntario como intérprete para un jardín comunitario. También compré un diccionario monolingüe para que me aumente la comprensión de libros. Me enamoré del idioma otra vez. Lo único con lo que debo enfrentar es alcanzar un nivel más alto intermedio en hindi por leer y aprender más vocabulario, pero pienso que el proceso está en mi contra porque no había descubierto la estructura debida que me facilitara el mejoramiento del hindi.
Get out of my head olly. 3 years of Spanish and a trip to mallorca had me feel I can add French. Now I listen every day to Spanish french and Hungarian (born bilingual)... Best feeling to actually learn a language on your own at age 50...
Oily I agree with the last thing you said. Your brain knows more than you are letting to know. This us true for me. When I begin to speak all the information I know seems to disappear. So frustrating.
I just recently felt the "shackles of fear" of making mistakes just fall off with my language learning. It's so liberating 🥰 and my language efficiency just sky rocketed!
Thanks for this video. That's exactly what I needed. I've been learning German for two years now and I can't get over this bloody plato, even though I'm in Switzerland. It's about time to get out of my comfort zone and work at my pronunciation
Switzerland Deutsch is nothing like Hoch Deutsch. It’s no wonder you can’t learn. I once was with a girl from Switzerland and one from Bavaria at the same time. I struggled to understand them due to the dialects. I was only self taught in GERMAN so it was difficult. At the same place there was also a couple from Hanover and I understood most of what they were saying. The gentleman arrogantly said to me when I remarked at how easy it was to understand him, “Naturlich, Ich spreche nur Hoch Deutsch.
Thank you for the tips! I was really frustrated about being stuck at the A2-B1 level, I feel like I can understand a lot of things and even speak properly but my writing skills are really bad and sometimes I tend to forget words that I am used to listening to every day.
Acho que isso de esquecer palavras é bem comum, até pra quem já estar bem avançado.
Great video! I like this one better than showcasing individual languages
I've been learning french for about 9 months and I'm currently reading Camus' L'étranger and watching Lupin. I've managed to hit probably a B1 simply through my brute force love of the language using RUclips, duolingo, newspaper articles, lots of music and slowly digging into novels and tv shows now. I still use captions in french since my raw comprehension is, on average 60-80% depending on subject matter, but I'm definitely noticing it gets smoother the more time i commit.
I think the best thing is to constantly be challenging yourself. I think once my comprehension starts reaching that 90-100%, it'll be time to take off the training wheels and turn off the captions.
Leaving comments on youtube videos helps me find new vocab to add nuance to my expressions.
Learning arabic, I can certainly recognise some of the points made:
* Look at your own progress every once in a while: what things are you good at or not, what do you do enjoy or not, what should be the next step. Indeed get out of your comfort zone, sometimes you just need to focus on a specific part you were hesitant to pursue before. I've seen plenty of people *knowing* intricate grammar rules, but not able to *apply* them in conversation (afraid of making a mistake?), which is huge missed opportunity IMO. Everyone's learning style is probably different though.
* "Always be a little bit skeptical": I think you can learn something from anyone, but I found that not all native speakers are necessarily good at grammar themselves (perhaps learned it as a child but forgot it, just don't have the same skills as a language teacher).
* Have fun, motivation is super-important, and helps you to continue
I recommend watching News Programs, Current Affairs Shows, Talk Shows, and Reality TV shows in the target language you are learning as it helps you immerse yourself into the culture and language that you are learning about. I would also recommend you to changed your Computer OS and Smartphone OS into the target language that you are learning along with changing the keyboard to the target language that you are learning to fully immerse yourself.
I learnt Russian to A2/scraping a B1 and then took a break. Completely lost the ability to speak or even understand a lot of it after a surprisingly short hiatus. I never had the motivation to get back into it and started again from scratch in Spanish. I'm probably better in Spanish now than I ever was in Russian but I know I could lose it like I did with Russian, so im not stopping until I reach that B2 level. (Also Story Learning is so much faster than the somewhat passive attempt I had at Russian)
Dear teacher Stefano, you are totaly higt. I can hear from you from Olly without go throu there. Just have all of you smart teachers by phone and internet. Thank you both most dearest teacher: Olly, Stefano and now my french teacher: Luiz Alberto a native portuguese teacher. All my love for everyone who have been help me to improve my self. I love you both.❤💙🎧📙📘🖍🙋
My english speaking is all about QnA pageantry. So , my friend was asking to me about what do you think about her fashion. I was suddenly answer that question like. In my point of view, fashion is not only about how good looking you are in public eye , how good your mix and match your clothes. But the most important thing people should be know about fashion is they are identify you as you and they bring your confident into the middle of society. No matter what people judging you bad or good either. At the end of the day as long as your confident with yourself. Loving yourself, i think everything will be enough.
I was confused with my answer, why i was doing that. LOL , and i know that my answer is my daily habit watched pageant every single day to learning english.
I really hope one day you'll short stories in Hungarian and Estonian. I used them with Danish, and it was really good, so I hope to do the same with magyar and eesti.
Very inspirational and educative video. Big thanks!
Thanks for all the videos and great effort
Terrific video, love that we get a chance to see other people's perspective / experience. Thank you!
I think part of "not forgetting" a language is having a personal zeal for the language. I studied German for 3 years in high school, then 1 1/2 years in college (2 of those years really weren't quality years. Last year in high school, I was the only one that signed up, and did private study, while listening to the class. The 201/202 level in college was 100% in English, and just studying grammar - no German texts.). I did write in German, especially letters (this was back in the 1990s) to my grandmother's younger cousin who came from Germany in 1945. My great-grandmother also came from Germany in 1914 (although her language was Swabian). My grandmother's cousin is still alive, and we just talked in German on the phone the other month. I've even seen things in German, like her daily calendar with some short story for each day, family Bible in German, tapestries with German sayings. So, it was kind of a heritage language for me.
I also think that the "Intermediate Plateau" is something of a myth - it's only a "plateau" because people forget the training wheels (and guide rails) are off, and they're free to explore. Granted, I've always been eager to expand and dive into the language once I've completed the basics. For me, it's not an "Intermediate Plateau" or "Intermediate Purgatory", but "Intermediate Bliss". I've also found that writing really helped me to remember vocabulary that I want to use, too.
Another thing I don't see mentioned much is "Thinking in the Language". That comes with a lot of input. I'm trying out Dreaming Spanish, and I think I've crossed a threshold after 720 hours, where I can start to have mini-conversations in my head. I've noticed progress every 100 hours.
This is SPOT ON!!!!!!!!
What an excellent speaker and communicator!
Well, I've reached the limit between upper intermediate and advanced in English, but, unfortunately, I haven't crossed that line. Soon I've started learning German and right now I'm on B2 lvl. And I've noticed, that I forget my English consistently 😢
That feels so bad! I regret not crossing that line
Olly!! I have been following you from the beginning and the quality that you have achieved is incredible!
My congratulations and deep respect!
How about a video comparing learning music and languages? :)
Greetings from Madrid!!
hahahahahahaha, oh man. this video hits so hard right now. I was literally just commenting on how I don't feel like i'm EVER getting out of HSK4 zone (intermediate-ish)
You’re probably closer than you think!
nice. now to get to intermediate level
I was wondering if, after reaching a good level in German, I would like to keep going into advance level or move to another language, but being more resilient to forgiveness is a pretty cool point, I'll definetly try to get it (in English too ofc)
I have lived in Poland for 1year and maybe 4 months anyway my language has come a long way but it is very broken! But I am working and going to shops on my own!
But I am definitely not A1/A2 but everyone says it's easy to learn at work but i work in a high pressure environment and my learning has slowed down so much
Polish is not easy, I understand you.
I'm a b2/c1 English learner by acquiring constant input,I'm able to read difficult books like Edgar Allen Poe's works,Shakespeare(in particular"Hamlet")and Sherlock.
P.S:No regrets❤😊
Woow
Outstanding, Ollie. How do you keep coming up with duch great content?
I too walk speaking to myself in my 3 languages (ear pods on so I don’t look too crazy...though in London nobody cares). I pretend to speak to an English friend and German friend and an Italian one, each one of them is unable to understand the other 2 languages so I need to say the same things (speaking about my life...whatever comes to my mind) in each language. I recently started using google translate to double check my translation (for German) and listen to the audio too.
I always tell people this! Speaking to yourself is also a way of increasing fluency, its almost as good as talking to others. This is how I learnt German.
Stafano's tips saying ...compared to what you have been doing it (in fact,the last one is a noun clause by having "it "at the last as an object,which is not needed due to what doing that function already .This is n non-native speaker who speaks English not automatically.
So, the keyword for advanced fluency is "extensive" in every language activity.
You probably have to make it to an advanced level to avoid people switching to English when you're abroad. Especially if your target language is another Germanic language like German, Dutch, or one of the Scandinavian languages.
Any good tip for esperanto?(After esperanto, i might learn Norwigien)
The learning process is the exact same as any other language. But since the ease at which Esperanto can be learned. You progress through those stages at a much more accelerated rate.
In order for me to get to an advanced stage of the language I had to implement a more immersion based approach while using resources only written in Esperanto. Then coupled that with massive amounts of input.
Hi, Olly! Have you ever been keen on learning Russian as it is spoken by native speakers?
Really great video that adds new information to this topic
Work construction with Mexicans in El Paso working at Mexican restaurants and working construction with Russians migrants also.
Hahaha Pasa el vodka amigo
Which accent is closer to a neutral British English given some native speakers consider Modern RP somehow fake? London's? Thanks in advance! Celeste from Argentina.
No accent is fake unless you're putting it on. Which some people certainly do -- even in my country! The way Olly speaks is neutral - it's RP, but relaxed. I believe they call this 'contemporary RP', which is not the same as the stuffy kind some high society types use. If we remember that the point of a neutral accent is that everyone will clearly hear and understand what you're saying, then anything fitting that description is 'neutral'.
hello Olly do l watch movies that l do not understand 100 percent? And do l search every words? because my purpose is understand all texts, movies, books that all l need. l am not interested in speaking yet
This is what i use to do.
1). Make sure All your Errands ARE DONE.
2). On your day off. Study ALL DAY. SAY 8am. Till bed time 🛏️
Want to improve your language skills play Assassins Creed in your target language or new Bethesda game plus Crunchyroll now dubs in numerous languages so there that as well and RUclips. Also discord so this video is mainly a old man tips video
For me reading was crucial for learning a new language.
Reading is most painless way of learning new vocabulary.
How much time is considered “extensive” reading?
Extensive reading usually refers to reading without looking up many words and tolerating some ambiguity. Intensive reading refers to focusing on trying to have 100% comprehension of a text before moving on. Both have their uses.
Im at the point in french where i can watch a movie with french subtitles and understand what's going on in the story now. It's still tough to understand a movie because the slang and the speed they speak. I can understand a podcast pretty well though. It's a long , slow process
Yes, it's a long, slow process. Two truths most people nowadays do not want to hear. It takes effort, it takes planning, it takes time. Counted in years, not in minutes or miliseconds. Working on taking my Italian to C1 or preferably C2 level now. And I know it will take about 2 years. If I manage to speed it up I will be very happy but I'm realistic about it. And I do not expect it to happen to me at random. Or in only pleasant way. All pieces of advice from this video make sense. On one condition- you make consistent effort to use them on daily basis.
Both my mom and my grandpa have at least one language that they used to know intermediately, but forgot, so I'm watching to prevent it from happening to me
I have no excuse not to go talk to native speakers of Spanish since I live in an area with lots of immigrants, except that it scares me as an idea to just talk to random people lol
LOL why not take an activity you like like comic books, or cooking for fixing cars course etc someplace where there is natural mutual interest.
if i read mangas or comics in englis work ?
I think those could help you improve English.
Does this apply to B1 -> B2 move? Or is this just B -> C?
B2 to C
I don’t think there are clear rules for it, B1, B2 etc. are just labels and the reality will look different for everyone. While some advices probably only make sense once you reach B2 indeed (like looking up synonyms, exclusively reading adult-targeted books) some can work before (like extensive listening, watching without English subtitles etc.) everyone kinda has to figure it out for themselves
It bounced around a bit. I think the focus started at the intermediate plateau and why it's worth it to push through.
Thanks Guys. I think I'll keep pushing for B1>B2 before using these techniques. Hoping to try something new to rejuvenate my methods or escape my plateau.
B2 and above. B2 is the first "indpendent learner" level. Below this level it's good to work with a teacher or a tutor , so under close supervision of someone with C2 level in your target language.
I'm stuck somewhere between B2 and C1 😅
Using this video to help me get to intermediate 😂
I strive for the intermediate plateau😂 Seinfeld rules😂
I still can't understand a random stranger in br Portuguese with 2 and a half years of practice:')
I always admired by British pronunciation,but couldn't pick interesting movie to watch,and in american movies british characters mostly negatives with creepy donald duck pronanciation😂😂
There are some great British movies! You can look up lists of best British movies, but personally I recommend Hot Fuzz (great movie!)
So what was the swearword that sounds like ice cream?
Qualquer brasileiro aqui que é aprendendo inglês? Eu gostaria de trocar idiomas. Responder abaixo :P
I'm learning English, I'm acquiring English
This video hits me hard 🤣😭
So you’re saying don’t just start another language when you hit a plateau on one of them? Lol
Hello! thank you for your great video! Can give me Dave's youtube channel?
You only want to sell your books I have a question for you Richard ;If I don't know the alphabet and basic grammar how can I learn a language by Reading?
I honestly think there must be an equilibrium, you cannot go through a language without knowing the basics, at least you need to know much grammar and basic vocabulary in order to apply Richard's method, but you need to balance the reading, listening, speaking and writing in order to improve better
In all fairness every RUclipsr is selling you something, in this case it's his own product instead of hello fresh. He does also discuss learning from absolute beginner in other videos, he doesn't expect people to be able to read from scratch
In his video, "What is your language level?" Olly specifically says at the A2 level it's a good time to begin reading (at around 1500 words learned) easily digestible material.
Obviously he is selling his own product, but isn’t that the nature of RUclips? Many RUclips videos are pushing the author’s product. Fine, what do you expect? Why should someone work for free?
Learn the basics then apply the method. He's on point with what he's saying.