Ily's story of learning English in school and from her parents reminded me of my experience even learning English as my native language. I remember having to try so hard as a little kid to understand what adults were saying to me and trying to learn my letters and read in English for the first time sitting in the living room with my mom, struggling to read even a few words in Dick and Jane or Hop on Pop. I clearly remember the stress and mental strain of my young brain doing its best to comprehend the letters and remembering what they sound like. I would get so frustrated when I couldn't quite get a word right. I think it's disingenuous when people say that language learning "comes easily" for children. Learning a new language, especially for little kids who are born with no inherent language at all, is just as difficult but they are pretty much forced to learn something to communicate with their parents and others around them. When I was learning Japanese for the first time, it really reminded me of learning to read as a 4 year old again. Stumbling over the words, not knowing what many words meant, and not knowing how to pronounce new sounds. It was that same mental strain, feeling like I couldn't think any harder. That effort though paid off and eventually reading Japanese became just as second nature as reading English as my brain adapted to the new system. At any age, everyone will have to work hard to push through that initial incomprehensible beginner wall. As they say, no pain no gain.
I'm learning Danish and every time i hear Norwegian i want to cry 😂 its basically the same (Bokmål) but so much clearer. But if i learnt Norwegian instead of danish my Danish wife would revert to her ansestral ways and kill me with an Ax 😂
Like a GPU is different than a CPU, the language center learns in a very different way than the way "we" learn. Language is essentially too complex to learn consciously. But - the complicated tangle of rules and exceptions which confuse the conscious brain feel quite natural and obvious to the language centers. Don't forget: you already have specialized hardware specifically adapted to language!
This is a really good point. Thanks for saying that. The brain has it's method of decoding patterns and maybe laying too much grammar over the top, just interrupts the process. I feel like it should help somewhat to speed things up to be a tiny bit consciously aware of the rules. Like learning vocabulary, I think we can speed it up a bit with some memorization (in context). I don't spend enough time doing extensive (as opposed to intensive) reading and listening. Looking everything up doesn't give the brain a chance to suss it out, but I find the temptation difficult to resist.
Great video, Lamont and Ilys! I agree with Ilys on the Grammar front. I think it helps to give some basic grammar instruction in snippets pretty early on (maybe not before getting into input). It can massively speed up the process of benefitting from the large amount of input, especially basic syntax, conjugation of important words like to be or to have.
Whoa, just yesterday or the day before I had rewatched the video you made about her video and I had wondered if she had seen your video or if you had communicated with her, and now today there's this.
I have to tell my students essentially the same thing. When my students (or their parents) ask me how long it took me to learn Swedish, I do not tell them in years, I tell them hundreds and thousands of hours. If they ask me how I learned, I tell them but with they understanding that they most likely won't do it. I usually preface it with, it was a perfect storm with COVID. It was socially acceptable to spend all day at home reading and listening to Swedish (and Norwegian and German). I read well over 200 adult novels in 2 years while understanding almost nothing at first. If people can do that, they will have no choice but to learn, but will they? Probably not. So the question for my students then is okay, what can we commit to and follow through on it.
My first self-taught language is German (took me over 2 years). It is interesting to see how some of us had to go through all the 5 stages of grief with our first language. Now that I am learning Swedish, it feels so much simpler and more beautiful that sometimes I want to cry
It's so interesting on how some things just sound right even when you're not good at the language. I'm learning German, not even that actively only a little in school and I watch the occasional video in German I was much more into it before but still I'm not good at speaking it at all but sometimes a word for example just feels like it is has the masculine gender or it is feminine or whatever but like idk what it means but I know what gender it is and how to conjugate it it just sounds right
I can not get enough of Illys. She has so many good techniques and gems. I bet that being an actress is related and helpful. She probably has a good ear for mimicking texts. And I love how she said she was memorizing Norwegian text while waiting on the set. It was like she was memorizing a new script. There is a Turkish guy on RUclips who learns English by printing out the script of sitcoms (like Friends) or chatty vlogs/podcasts and sort of acts it out while mimicking the actors. Remember how Madonna moved to England and starting speaking with an English accent? People made fun of her pretentiousness and fakeness. But I thought it was probably because she is a singer and has a good ear for things like that. I think it is a sign she would be good at learning languages even though she may still be pretentious and fake. lol. But I'm not an actress. I need to figure out if this method works for me or if there some way I can adapt it to my own strengths, whatever those are. lol
She seems to have a strong drive to learn Norwegian so she can adapt better, as she mentioned. That kind of motivation isn’t always easy to find, especially when it comes to learning a third or even fourth language. A lot of people struggle with it, and it’s even harder without a supportive environment where the language is used regularly in daily life. It makes me wonder, though-how much of this is about personal determination, and how much is about access to resources or opportunities? I’d love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions on how to improve this perspective further
Great video! One thing I would say, (as a psychology post grad) is that Lamont may have experienced hindsight bias in regards to his grammar learning. This can take the form of memory distortion, such that it's very difficult to remember not knowing as much about a topic as you currently know. It happens a lot with university students who graduate thinking they haven't learnt anything for 3 years, then they get a job and realise they have tons of skills but mistakenly attribute them to everything they learnt after their studies. This isn't meant as a criticism btw, just something I thought some people might find interesting/useful.
One thing I struggle with is finding vocabulary and when people say use "comprehensive input," I'll go check it out and the videos will be very boring, which will just deter me from learning that way Edit: My goal would to be near native in French and German after that picking up danish for fun being my family are danish/german
Muy buen vídeo, es cierto que si hacemos todo lo que ella hizo podemos hablar el nuevo idioma pero también es cierto que no todos lo harán . El tema es que Lemont enseña cómo aprender solos, y ella da clases, entonces se enfrenta a diferente tipos de circunstancias, y aunque la gramática no sea lo más importante, le da estructura y sentido a un cerebro que al principio pueda estarse resistiendo a aprender. Me encantan estos vídeos pues son muy sinceros y directos. Gracias Lemont…..
22:37 it happens to me too! My native language is spanish. I work for an American company. If in a work meeting I have a native english speaker and an english intermediate speaker. I'll talks as usual to the native speaker. But if I have to talk to the intermediate speaker my brain glitches and I would only use the same level as my coworker!
She said she doesn't really know, but estimates maybe 5 hours. But that was the Covid time and she had really high motivation because of moving there. It seems like people don't like to answer that question, but I like to know the answer because if I take decades to learn a language, it makes me feel better because it is because I'm not putting in the same amount of time. It doesn't mean I'm incapable of learning.
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Ily's story of learning English in school and from her parents reminded me of my experience even learning English as my native language. I remember having to try so hard as a little kid to understand what adults were saying to me and trying to learn my letters and read in English for the first time sitting in the living room with my mom, struggling to read even a few words in Dick and Jane or Hop on Pop. I clearly remember the stress and mental strain of my young brain doing its best to comprehend the letters and remembering what they sound like. I would get so frustrated when I couldn't quite get a word right.
I think it's disingenuous when people say that language learning "comes easily" for children. Learning a new language, especially for little kids who are born with no inherent language at all, is just as difficult but they are pretty much forced to learn something to communicate with their parents and others around them.
When I was learning Japanese for the first time, it really reminded me of learning to read as a 4 year old again. Stumbling over the words, not knowing what many words meant, and not knowing how to pronounce new sounds. It was that same mental strain, feeling like I couldn't think any harder. That effort though paid off and eventually reading Japanese became just as second nature as reading English as my brain adapted to the new system. At any age, everyone will have to work hard to push through that initial incomprehensible beginner wall. As they say, no pain no gain.
I'm learning Danish and every time i hear Norwegian i want to cry 😂 its basically the same (Bokmål) but so much clearer. But if i learnt Norwegian instead of danish my Danish wife would revert to her ansestral ways and kill me with an Ax 😂
😂😂😂
Like a GPU is different than a CPU, the language center learns in a very different way than the way "we" learn. Language is essentially too complex to learn consciously. But - the complicated tangle of rules and exceptions which confuse the conscious brain feel quite natural and obvious to the language centers. Don't forget: you already have specialized hardware specifically adapted to language!
This is a really good point. Thanks for saying that. The brain has it's method of decoding patterns and maybe laying too much grammar over the top, just interrupts the process. I feel like it should help somewhat to speed things up to be a tiny bit consciously aware of the rules. Like learning vocabulary, I think we can speed it up a bit with some memorization (in context). I don't spend enough time doing extensive (as opposed to intensive) reading and listening. Looking everything up doesn't give the brain a chance to suss it out, but I find the temptation difficult to resist.
She's my favourite teacher in Norwegian. She's really inspiring. Thank you. Jeg elsker henne!!
Great video, Lamont and Ilys! I agree with Ilys on the Grammar front. I think it helps to give some basic grammar instruction in snippets pretty early on (maybe not before getting into input). It can massively speed up the process of benefitting from the large amount of input, especially basic syntax, conjugation of important words like to be or to have.
Whoa, just yesterday or the day before I had rewatched the video you made about her video and I had wondered if she had seen your video or if you had communicated with her, and now today there's this.
I have to tell my students essentially the same thing. When my students (or their parents) ask me how long it took me to learn Swedish, I do not tell them in years, I tell them hundreds and thousands of hours. If they ask me how I learned, I tell them but with they understanding that they most likely won't do it. I usually preface it with, it was a perfect storm with COVID. It was socially acceptable to spend all day at home reading and listening to Swedish (and Norwegian and German). I read well over 200 adult novels in 2 years while understanding almost nothing at first.
If people can do that, they will have no choice but to learn, but will they? Probably not. So the question for my students then is okay, what can we commit to and follow through on it.
My first self-taught language is German (took me over 2 years). It is interesting to see how some of us had to go through all the 5 stages of grief with our first language.
Now that I am learning Swedish, it feels so much simpler and more beautiful that sometimes I want to cry
top notch editig , Lamont, like esthetic besides the interessantissimo interview , so relatable
I've literally been waiting for this wonderful treasure, you both, amazing, dreaming ✨
Yay, a video with Ilys! ❤😊
It's so interesting on how some things just sound right even when you're not good at the language. I'm learning German, not even that actively only a little in school and I watch the occasional video in German I was much more into it before but still I'm not good at speaking it at all but sometimes a word for example just feels like it is has the masculine gender or it is feminine or whatever but like idk what it means but I know what gender it is and how to conjugate it it just sounds right
I can not get enough of Illys. She has so many good techniques and gems.
I bet that being an actress is related and helpful. She probably has a good ear for mimicking texts. And I love how she said she was memorizing Norwegian text while waiting on the set. It was like she was memorizing a new script. There is a Turkish guy on RUclips who learns English by printing out the script of sitcoms (like Friends) or chatty vlogs/podcasts and sort of acts it out while mimicking the actors.
Remember how Madonna moved to England and starting speaking with an English accent? People made fun of her pretentiousness and fakeness. But I thought it was probably because she is a singer and has a good ear for things like that. I think it is a sign she would be good at learning languages even though she may still be pretentious and fake. lol.
But I'm not an actress. I need to figure out if this method works for me or if there some way I can adapt it to my own strengths, whatever those are. lol
such an incredible video. it's like a documentary of someone who changed the way we learn languages. bravo.
She seems to have a strong drive to learn Norwegian so she can adapt better, as she mentioned. That kind of motivation isn’t always easy to find, especially when it comes to learning a third or even fourth language. A lot of people struggle with it, and it’s even harder without a supportive environment where the language is used regularly in daily life. It makes me wonder, though-how much of this is about personal determination, and how much is about access to resources or opportunities? I’d love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions on how to improve this perspective further
Lei è incredibile, semplicemente incredibile e non ho bisogno di nessun'altra parola per dirlo.
Great video! One thing I would say, (as a psychology post grad) is that Lamont may have experienced hindsight bias in regards to his grammar learning. This can take the form of memory distortion, such that it's very difficult to remember not knowing as much about a topic as you currently know. It happens a lot with university students who graduate thinking they haven't learnt anything for 3 years, then they get a job and realise they have tons of skills but mistakenly attribute them to everything they learnt after their studies. This isn't meant as a criticism btw, just something I thought some people might find interesting/useful.
We are watching it right now
Nice information.
Cool interview
One thing I struggle with is finding vocabulary and when people say use "comprehensive input," I'll go check it out and the videos will be very boring, which will just deter me from learning that way
Edit: My goal would to be near native in French and German after that picking up danish for fun being my family are danish/german
Muy buen vídeo, es cierto que si hacemos todo lo que ella hizo podemos hablar el nuevo idioma pero también es cierto que no todos lo harán . El tema es que Lemont enseña cómo aprender solos, y ella da clases, entonces se enfrenta a diferente tipos de circunstancias, y aunque la gramática no sea lo más importante, le da estructura y sentido a un cerebro que al principio pueda estarse resistiendo a aprender. Me encantan estos vídeos pues son muy sinceros y directos. Gracias Lemont…..
22:37 it happens to me too! My native language is spanish. I work for an American company. If in a work meeting I have a native english speaker and an english intermediate speaker. I'll talks as usual to the native speaker. But if I have to talk to the intermediate speaker my brain glitches and I would only use the same level as my coworker!
Oh good I was worried it was just the RUclips short
Haha like when Tarantino and gang made that trailer for a movie that didn't exist.
we teach maths so poorly… people who are great at maths think they’re not because they aren’t good at algebra or some specific niche 🤦♀️
how long did she spend learning daily
She said she doesn't really know, but estimates maybe 5 hours. But that was the Covid time and she had really high motivation because of moving there. It seems like people don't like to answer that question, but I like to know the answer because if I take decades to learn a language, it makes me feel better because it is because I'm not putting in the same amount of time. It doesn't mean I'm incapable of learning.