I find that a good portion of the 'fun' and motivation in learning the language comes from the people that you're using it with and the ANTICIPATION of the people that you can use it with. Just think of each language that you learn - how many millions of people is it going to open you up to. Each one of them has a potential to have a wild influence on your life. That's exciting.
This is absolutely incredible, you are extremely gifted. Not everyone can do what you do. you are a tremendous inspiration for everybody. Thank you for sharing these beautiful clips and God bless.
Hey Luca! Great to have you swing by. Thanks so much for your suggestion too. I totally agree with you. You're language ability is phenomenal. I happily receive any help you can throw my way. I haven't spoken italian since I was around 9-10 years old. I would love to be able to slap it in to shape! Would be great to get together and all of us do something useful with our languages in the future.
yes it most definitely is :) Putting this clip up was good motivation though. I've spent the past week or so pushing myself to start getting my butt into gear when it comes to not being lazy with my Japanese. Rather than relying on my Chinese when it comes to just being able to read it, I've been getting stuck into learning all the proper Kun and On pronunciations. Watch this space! :)
The thing that I love about morse is that you actually do start hearing it as another language. The dots and dashes become actual 'word rhythms' which then turn into 'sentence rhythms' that you can see the meanings to as they play out. It's a dying art.
japanese VERY rusty and VERY basic :) ... but thanks for the comment. I personally think that Japanese is a little more difficult than Chinese. As I've mentioned in other comments - I'm happy though that I've put this out in public, as it will serve as a good measuring stick / good motivation for me to raise the level of all my languages in the future.
Thank you for your humble narration :) It is an amazing thing to tap into the software of people all over the planet... the more you know, the more you realise you don't know!
You are truly amazing. You've given me a whole new view on languages and the things you can do with them. Currently, I'm learning a third language and at first, the feeling of learning something new was really fun. But after studying for a few years, I stress about studying so much and get angry at myself for not understanding something new right away, and don't seem to have fun studying anymore. I'll definitely try to change my attitude though and try to enjoy it more. Thank you
@halfstepdown88 Totally! ... don't limit yourself to learning one language at a time. You're brain will surprise you. The more you learn, the easier it is to learn, and those other languages start working as guides / pegs for the other languages that you're learning. In any one day, I will be learning at least 5 or 6 languages.
I woudl love to. I've actually just started looking into Turkish these couple of days - so it's my first step toward Eastern(ish) Europe. The Baltic languages I feel are a missing link in the languages I have under my belt. A Turkish friend of mine is fluent in Russian - I might look at trying to learn both at the same time from him.
I agree with you. It's been a LONNG time since my Italian has seen the light of day. I'm going to have to find a way to put me in a place where it'll get a workout.
I'm also a polyglot (10 lang.) and I like seeing people with the same passion for languages :) What impresses me the most about your language skills is that it seems you have less difficulties speaking a language than writing it. It feels like you didn't learn from books, but rather by talking & hearing. Looks like travelling a lot and meeting new people is the key, right? I often find myself having difficulties while speaking a foreign language, while writing & reading is no problem at all.
It gave me a lot of motivation too. I liked your advices, specially the one about tricking the 2 native speakers. I'd specially like to hear more about career. I have a bit of languages background and I could never use it until now.
I'd love to get into German ... Back when i was right into the scandinavian languages, It was always on the cards, but over the year other 'motivations' for other languages came about and German slipped by the wayside. I'm sure it's not too late though!
Your video was amazing and normally when I see these types of things I get a bit down because I think "I'll never be THAT good at THAT many languages". However, I'm learning Hindi and I understood a LOT of what you said in Hindi and that's given me the kind of positive feedback you described with your "playing 1 native speaker against another" trick. Thanks for that!
Hey Rebecca... wow, that's wild - you speak Arrente! I am always learning languages simultaneously... I find synergies by finding memory points between the new languages... short circuiting English. As far as maintaing fluency - it's a matter of creating an environment around you that keeps you using it! - Facebook is great for that :)
Stuart you are a superstar mate, as a fellow aussie you have inspired me to continue my studies in mastering putonghua. I am bilingual by birth, spanish and english, however I am interested in Italian, Mandarin and possibly Cantonese. Very inspirational stuff. By the way have you ever considered doing a video with other polyglots like Steve Kaufmann or Luca Lampariello or the great Moses "laoshu" 505000. They all know chinese among many others but Moses actually enjoys learning most of the asian languages out there like Vietnamese and Thai. It would be amazing to see a collab video, or walking the streets invoking that native response that I hope to invoke one day myself in others. Cheers.
I always enjoy watching your videos. I am a student of linguistics, so I always understand what you're talking about. It's awesome that you got to meet Stephen Krashen though! =] My biggest hurdle in language learning is vocabulary. I absorb the grammar without hardly thinking, but I don't know a goo way to acquire it quickly. Do you have any suggestions?
hey Stu, while I'm having insomnia I'm surfing the web and watching some videos, but when I found yours, I was amazed with your so big interest in languages :) as Lithuanian I speak English, Russian, almost fluently, I also was trying to learned Finnish and French, but I gave up learning French it's too tough for me though. > are you thinking to get a closer look to Baltic languages ? for example Lithuanian or Latvian ? they r so similar :) > take care thanks for the answer.
You say your Japanese is "crap", but I was really impressed that your intonation seemed so natural! Usually language learners think of this as an "advanced" aspect of a language to work on, but I can see that you probably give this (as well as body language) a high priority from the beginning. I'll have to keep this attitude in mind when I take on Spanish soon: get the Spanish-speaking mentality down regardless of how many words I know. Thanks for another awesome video :)
What exactly do you mean short circuiting English? I am currently learning Spanish and then I want to learn Mandarin, would you suggest I start studying some mandarin now instead of waiting?
Hey Raj., You are the greatest inspiration ever ... i wish i had the willpower and brain capacity to take on as many languages as you. Unfortunately i haven't heard you take on my native language yet... have you ever tried German?
Your amazing. Even if your not perfect in each language, it's still so amazing and nobody else has any room to talk, because they're probably not as talented as you. But im sure you already know all that. Have you ever used rosetta stone? I just don't know what to think about that language learning software. It's so much money, and there just seems to be cheaper ways to learning a new language.
Wow I'm so excited to find out other people have learned all those languages as well! I didn't know the word polyglot, but I guess I'm one too:) I am familiar with about 15 languages. Cool:)
I felt pleased watching your Japanese because it reminded me of my patterns when I speak it. That is, falling back on から to end a lot of sentences. It seems one can speak passable Japanese with only から and けど, though it's not especially elegant. Still I aspire to be like you someday. And to people criticizing your Japanese: You only gave it 1 star! What did they expect?
@jasminetea6161 Thanks ... my Japanese is really crap - and I actually have no excuse for it. I should have invested more time in it. I would love to spend a lot more time in Japan.
@Lucaswaxmann I would love to really get into learning German. I still have a few years left in me yet - I'll see what I can do! :) Have you joined my language and Mind Mastery group yet at stujay dot om? Perhaps it will give you the stamina that you need!
I have to agree. However, I think that if he takes more time on it, he'll speak it well. And for those who don't understand Vietnamese, it wasn't his grammar, rather his pronunciation. The thing with Vietnamese like many tonal languages is that it must flow in order to work properly. I understand he only started learning it, so keep up the good work! Hãy cố lến! Chúc bạn may mắn trong tương lai.
@magorianworld jump in, learn what filters are at work and try and remove them so that you can reproduce what you REALLY hear as much as you can... rather than what they tell you you should be saying as a 'foreigner' learning Tieng Viet
Definitely liked Morse Code the best, could you speak normal sentences with Morse or would it take a really long time? I would like to be able to speak Morse, it would annoy the hell out of people lol
buset!, bagus banget bro...pas anda ngomong pakai bahasa negara laen pun tetap kayanya aksen anda tidak asing ditelinga saya...saya merasakan anda seperti dari negara saya dan seperti memiliki bahasa saya (indonesia)...mungkin kedepannya anda bisa mempelajari penyingkatan kata dalam bahasa indonesia yang biasa digunakan oleh orang indonesia untuk SMS...great!!!
You mentioned japanese is challenging and i could see it in uour pronunciatio it is bizarre for me that you can pronounce tonal languages easily but find japanese a bit challenging ? I find japanese to be easy pronunciation wise. Definitely much easier than thai. I feel like my tongue gets tired with thai practice. Haha
Your Italian intonation is way too exaggerated, besides you sound a bit Indian. Your Spanish is quite good. You made some minor mistakes, but not bad! This video is old, so I hope you have made a lot of progress :D
Great to meet you. Thanks for swinging by.
Very interesting. I'm a polyglot as well. I love meeting other people who are just fascinated with languages like this. Keep it up.
I find that a good portion of the 'fun' and motivation in learning the language comes from the people that you're using it with and the ANTICIPATION of the people that you can use it with. Just think of each language that you learn - how many millions of people is it going to open you up to. Each one of them has a potential to have a wild influence on your life. That's exciting.
This is absolutely incredible, you are extremely gifted. Not everyone can do what you do. you are a tremendous inspiration for everybody. Thank you for sharing these beautiful clips and God bless.
Hey Luca!
Great to have you swing by. Thanks so much for your suggestion too. I totally agree with you. You're language ability is phenomenal. I happily receive any help you can throw my way. I haven't spoken italian since I was around 9-10 years old. I would love to be able to slap it in to shape!
Would be great to get together and all of us do something useful with our languages in the future.
Thanks Speeder :) All coaching is warmly welcomed.
yes it most definitely is :) Putting this clip up was good motivation though. I've spent the past week or so pushing myself to start getting my butt into gear when it comes to not being lazy with my Japanese. Rather than relying on my Chinese when it comes to just being able to read it, I've been getting stuck into learning all the proper Kun and On pronunciations. Watch this space! :)
The thing that I love about morse is that you actually do start hearing it as another language. The dots and dashes become actual 'word rhythms' which then turn into 'sentence rhythms' that you can see the meanings to as they play out. It's a dying art.
japanese VERY rusty and VERY basic :) ... but thanks for the comment. I personally think that Japanese is a little more difficult than Chinese.
As I've mentioned in other comments - I'm happy though that I've put this out in public, as it will serve as a good measuring stick / good motivation for me to raise the level of all my languages in the future.
Thank you for your humble narration :)
It is an amazing thing to tap into the software of people all over the planet... the more you know, the more you realise you don't know!
You are truly amazing. You've given me a whole new view on languages and the things you can do with them. Currently, I'm learning a third language and at first, the feeling of learning something new was really fun. But after studying for a few years, I stress about studying so much and get angry at myself for not understanding something new right away, and don't seem to have fun studying anymore. I'll definitely try to change my attitude though and try to enjoy it more. Thank you
@halfstepdown88 Totally! ... don't limit yourself to learning one language at a time. You're brain will surprise you. The more you learn, the easier it is to learn, and those other languages start working as guides / pegs for the other languages that you're learning. In any one day, I will be learning at least 5 or 6 languages.
I woudl love to. I've actually just started looking into Turkish these couple of days - so it's my first step toward Eastern(ish) Europe. The Baltic languages I feel are a missing link in the languages I have under my belt. A Turkish friend of mine is fluent in Russian - I might look at trying to learn both at the same time from him.
This is impressive. 15 language is something! Morse code at the end was really fun. You are inspiring. Thanks A LOT for posting.
Your Vietnamese still needs a lot of work,however,your language ability in general is truly amazing.Thank you for sharing.
I agree with you. It's been a LONNG time since my Italian has seen the light of day. I'm going to have to find a way to put me in a place where it'll get a workout.
I'm also a polyglot (10 lang.) and I like seeing people with the same passion for languages :)
What impresses me the most about your language skills is that it seems you have less difficulties speaking a language than writing it. It feels like you didn't learn from books, but rather by talking & hearing. Looks like travelling a lot and meeting new people is the key, right?
I often find myself having difficulties while speaking a foreign language, while writing & reading is no problem at all.
Ahh - could you imagine speaking a whole conversation in morse code. I think it would have maximum impact on a crowded train.
It gave me a lot of motivation too. I liked your advices, specially the one about tricking the 2 native speakers.
I'd specially like to hear more about career. I have a bit of languages background and I could never use it until now.
I'd love to get into German ... Back when i was right into the scandinavian languages, It was always on the cards, but over the year other 'motivations' for other languages came about and German slipped by the wayside. I'm sure it's not too late though!
Your video was amazing and normally when I see these types of things I get a bit down because I think "I'll never be THAT good at THAT many languages". However, I'm learning Hindi and I understood a LOT of what you said in Hindi and that's given me the kind of positive feedback you described with your "playing 1 native speaker against another" trick. Thanks for that!
Hey Rebecca... wow, that's wild - you speak Arrente!
I am always learning languages simultaneously... I find synergies by finding memory points between the new languages... short circuiting English.
As far as maintaing fluency - it's a matter of creating an environment around you that keeps you using it! - Facebook is great for that :)
@MusartJD THanks Musart.
hahaha.... 'Strine' (Australian) is definitely one!
@MrGrinningManiac I find that technique is really effective ... it generates its own energy!
Stuart you are a superstar mate, as a fellow aussie you have inspired me to continue my studies in mastering putonghua. I am bilingual by birth, spanish and english, however I am interested in Italian, Mandarin and possibly Cantonese. Very inspirational stuff. By the way have you ever considered doing a video with other polyglots like Steve Kaufmann or Luca Lampariello or the great Moses "laoshu" 505000. They all know chinese among many others but Moses actually enjoys learning most of the asian languages out there like Vietnamese and Thai. It would be amazing to see a collab video, or walking the streets invoking that native response that I hope to invoke one day myself in others. Cheers.
@JMX2280 No... my Japanese is really crap.. that's why i included it here - to show that not all languages are learned to equal degrees.
I always enjoy watching your videos. I am a student of linguistics, so I always understand what you're talking about. It's awesome that you got to meet Stephen Krashen though! =]
My biggest hurdle in language learning is vocabulary. I absorb the grammar without hardly thinking, but I don't know a goo way to acquire it quickly. Do you have any suggestions?
hey Stu, while I'm having insomnia I'm surfing the web and watching some videos, but when I found yours, I was amazed with your so big interest in languages :) as Lithuanian I speak English, Russian, almost fluently, I also was trying to learned Finnish and French, but I gave up learning French it's too tough for me though.
> are you thinking to get a closer look to Baltic languages ? for example Lithuanian or Latvian ? they r so similar :)
>
take care thanks for the answer.
You say your Japanese is "crap", but I was really impressed that your intonation seemed so natural! Usually language learners think of this as an "advanced" aspect of a language to work on, but I can see that you probably give this (as well as body language) a high priority from the beginning. I'll have to keep this attitude in mind when I take on Spanish soon: get the Spanish-speaking mentality down regardless of how many words I know. Thanks for another awesome video :)
What exactly do you mean short circuiting English?
I am currently learning Spanish and then I want to learn Mandarin, would you suggest I start studying some mandarin now instead of waiting?
I would love to - I've dabbled with Portuguese... Just a matter of time i guess
The last thing Stuart said was: "Stay tuned for the next episode". Personally I am looking forward to see the next episode!
You really are my hero! Seriously!
Hej Stu! Great videos and impressive language skills! I just had a quick question. Would you consider adding French or Portuguese to your collection?
You're awesome man, inspiring.
Hey Raj.,
You are the greatest inspiration ever ... i wish i had the willpower and brain capacity to take on as many languages as you. Unfortunately i haven't heard you take on my native language yet... have you ever tried German?
Your amazing. Even if your not perfect in each language, it's still so amazing and nobody else has any room to talk, because they're probably not as talented as you. But im sure you already know all that.
Have you ever used rosetta stone?
I just don't know what to think about that language learning software. It's so much money, and there just seems to be cheaper ways to learning a new language.
Wow I'm so excited to find out other people have learned all those languages as well! I didn't know the word polyglot, but I guess I'm one too:) I am familiar with about 15 languages. Cool:)
I like what u said about a career in languages. I'm worried about it.
The Morse code was amazingly interpreted! really curious!
I felt pleased watching your Japanese because it reminded me of my patterns when I speak it. That is, falling back on から to end a lot of sentences. It seems one can speak passable Japanese with only から and けど, though it's not especially elegant. Still I aspire to be like you someday.
And to people criticizing your Japanese: You only gave it 1 star! What did they expect?
as someone learning tieng viet as a second language, i was wondering if you would say vietnamese is the hardest language to pronounce?
@jasminetea6161 Thanks ... my Japanese is really crap - and I actually have no excuse for it. I should have invested more time in it. I would love to spend a lot more time in Japan.
@Lucaswaxmann I would love to really get into learning German. I still have a few years left in me yet - I'll see what I can do! :) Have you joined my language and Mind Mastery group yet at stujay dot om? Perhaps it will give you the stamina that you need!
I have to agree. However, I think that if he takes more time on it, he'll speak it well. And for those who don't understand Vietnamese, it wasn't his grammar, rather his pronunciation. The thing with Vietnamese like many tonal languages is that it must flow in order to work properly. I understand he only started learning it, so keep up the good work!
Hãy cố lến! Chúc bạn may mắn trong tương lai.
Thanks a lot man. I learned a lot from this!
@magorianworld jump in, learn what filters are at work and try and remove them so that you can reproduce what you REALLY hear as much as you can... rather than what they tell you you should be saying as a 'foreigner' learning Tieng Viet
It truly is!
i literally LOL'ed when u did the morse code
Definitely liked Morse Code the best, could you speak normal sentences with Morse or would it take a really long time? I would like to be able to speak Morse, it would annoy the hell out of people lol
Hi, I'm impressed. Can you speak Tagalog?
thanks alot for all this advice you are a really good motivator you really encourage people to keep learning thanks
ederno5150 from mexico
How many English accents can you do?
buset!, bagus banget bro...pas anda ngomong pakai bahasa negara laen pun tetap kayanya aksen anda tidak asing ditelinga saya...saya merasakan anda seperti dari negara saya dan seperti memiliki bahasa saya (indonesia)...mungkin kedepannya anda bisa mempelajari penyingkatan kata dalam bahasa indonesia yang biasa digunakan oleh orang indonesia untuk SMS...great!!!
I can't imagine how nerdy morse code would be like if it was used in public the way you just did....
I've heard you're pretty much fluent in Thai.
You mentioned japanese is challenging and i could see it in uour pronunciatio it is bizarre for me that you can pronounce tonal languages easily but find japanese a bit challenging ? I find japanese to be easy pronunciation wise. Definitely much easier than thai. I feel like my tongue gets tired with thai practice. Haha
Simpatico il tuo italiano! Il tuo accento mi ricorda quello dei sardi (abitanti della regione Sardegna). [sono italiano madrelingua]
You should use losmatrix. it's the best place for multilingual people..
Parece que dominas mas las lenguas orientales, se nota la dificultad a la hora de hablar lenguas como el Español y el Italiano.
Hi from future
well, italian isn't easy, but... you must try harder! (i'm from italy)
me too...
Why is there a British flag? Should be Australian.
Hehe, you do have an australian accent xD; It's kinda cute
Your Italian intonation is way too exaggerated, besides you sound a bit Indian.
Your Spanish is quite good. You made some minor mistakes, but not bad!
This video is old, so I hope you have made a lot of progress :D
he is a very good polyglot. but his italian needs to better
Wow, ur english sounds really australian.... hehehehehe..
Your japanese is really bad. Ehehe.