Learning language for the wrong reasons. My mother was a second gen. Her parents were from Mexico city and she grew up in a heavily Latino culture in LA. She taught my sister Spanish as a baby and didn't teach me. Any time I'd try she would sternly correct my pronunciations saying "say it right! Don't embarrass me! How don't you know this?" I grew up thinking something was wrong with me and I struggled to talk to teachers or students in my Spanish classes in middle school. I felt so ashamed of myself and my abilities. I thought I just couldn't learn another language. Then I took 4 years of German in highschool with a great teacher. My German was good enough to make basic conversations when I visited Germany. Turns out I'm not bad at learning languages I just had horrific negative associations to mispronouncing Spanish words because of my upbringing. It's crazy how the brain works.
@@tiedänkö I can bet they were pronouncing the words correctly, but the case is clearly about favourite child vs. scapegoat. It is a taboo, but favourite children exist. Also, their mother is SECOND generation living in a community in another country - this is not Spanish Spanish. I come from Poland and trust me, Polish that Polonia uses is a far cry from what is spoken in my country, I suppose the same is happening here. In such cases the best way to learn the language of your ancestors is to take lessons - you will at least learn usable, correct and maybe formal, but every day, language you can use when going abroad.
I swear some parents think that you've been born with a free language pack of their native language and are surprised when you don't know something you've never been taught smh Aber schön, dass dir wenigstens Deutschlernen Spaß macht :)
“Remembering is a process of repeated forgetting” is surprisingly revelatory to me. I’ve always beat myself up for struggling to remember things, but I think after 55 years you’ve explained to me that just repeating something over and over isn’t what remembering is. Thank you!
Would love to see a spaced repetition video from you man! I'd really like to have a more nuanced explanation than being told to grind Anki for hours every day
@@giuseppeagresta1425 yeah I was doing about 2 hours daily for a few weeks and ended up dreading it. I've dropped it down to about 20-30 mins daily and it's not bad at all. Very manageable
No better way to make myself accountable than letting thousands of strangers on RUclips know my goals, so my language goals for 2025 are to be able to hold a basic conversation with my mom's family in Polish and my girlfriend/her family in Farsi. Wish me luck!
Just realized my German learning has TURNED into the wrong reasons overtime. Because I’ve spent so much time with this language, I’ve started to feel shame and frustration that I’m not where I “feel like I should be”. This is going to help me rethink my German language goals and break down those negative feelings I’ve developed over the 7 years, and bring back joy and curiosity- not pressure and disappointment.
"German should be considered among the dead languages, since only the dead have time to learn it." -- Mark Twain. But seriously, I recommend his booklet "The Awful German Language." Despite his razzing, he was totally in love with German. Embrace the struggle! If you wanted a language whose joy was in simplicity, you'd have studied Esperanto.
Me watching this after watching these type of videos in 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015, 2016,2017,2018, 2019, 2020 - (took a break in 2021; obvious reasons), 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
I think of these videos as sermons that keep me from straying from the path (not that I really consider it to be a religion or anything). I’ve mostly watched them since 2014, although I’ve been learning since about 1990.
Thank you for acknowledging that adults do not learn the same way toddlers do, and that neurospiciness adds its own nuances. So many of the language content creators are just out to sell their own programs with nothing substantially beneficial to offer. You are one of the exceptions. Glad I found your channel. 🙂
And for pointed out that our goals as adults aren’t the same as infants. No, I don’t want to function at kindergarten level after five years of exposure. We should all acknowledge that we as adults learn some things much, much better than infants do. Stop the tyranny of the babies! 😄
7 out of 10 videos of this channel is: "The traditional method of study is scientifically proven (false) and works. I can't show you MYSELF how it has supposedly worked for me, neither can you find someone who is REALLY fluent in a language, let alone in more than one, let alone in languages that are very different from their native ones, like Westerners speaking flawlessly Asian languages on TV of the country of the target language, and, strangely, ALL of the people that you can find that CAN do that seems to suggest Comprehensible Input, BUT that's because all of those successful speakers are "neurodivergent" and that won't work for you. Note.
Indeed! I had a situation in the shop: kid mumbled: ou da do-! And the mother said: yes, it's a door. As adult learners we don't have to go through this stadium, we can go to straight up learning the proper pronunciation of the new word.
For those of you who are also parents to young kids, don't lose hope! I started learning Japanese after having two kids under 3 years old, and I'm able to read material at a 2nd grade level! It's hard, but so so worth it. ジョーンズさん, この動画はありがとうございます!
My "learning a language for the wrong reasons" is with Spanish, and it's as simple as "it was taught to me in school but I had no *reason* to learn it." I was interested in knowing more languages in general, and there's lots of people in the United States who speak Spanish better than English, so there were great reasons to know it! But *I* have no reason I really WANTED or NEEDED to learn it. I didn't have music or media or communities in Spanish that I, personally, was compelled to connect with outside of for reasons of learning the language. I realized why this was "the wrong way" to learn when I started on Japanese and, within 2 weeks, knew more than I ever learned in 6 years of Spanish I/II courses in grade school and university. I simply had an actual passion for things that were in Japanese more than I wanted to learn the language, and ironically that makes learning the language VASTLY more motivating and easy.
Hi TJ, I'm a former Silicon Valley engineer who retired to Germany, and I've now spent 9 years not understanding what the locals say. On the other hand, I study German every day. In particular, I have made a hobby out of constructing my own dual-language books and annotating every detail of every word, phrase, and sentence in the book. I find that it's addictively fun. I've been watching you for a number of months now. Once I caught a bit of a "live" broadcast. That was the only time that you spoke slowly and took pauses. And that's when I finally figured out that you are actually a mortal. Before that, it was like watching the first three seasons of "The West Wing". So witty, so smart. Now that I discovered that you somettimes pause before speaking, I appreciate your fast videos even more. After all, I can always rewind, and you don't waste time unnecessarily. (What would it even mean to waste time "necessarily"?) Anyway, I find the whole topic of linguistics and language learning to be endlessly fascinating, and I thanks you for what you do. If I hadn't lost my shirt on failed startups I would even be sending you money. Really! Thanks again young man.
Hi, Deutschlehrer here: I too am an annotation addict. However, to understand what locals say, you need to go out and communicate with locals. You're going to $%#^ up, probably early and often. If you're really putting in the necessary effort, you're going to $%#^ up ALL THE TIME. Ask me how I know. Nice thing is: Germans are very tolerant of learners. The hard part will be convincing them not to switch to English. "Ich möchte mein Deutsch üben. Können wir nur Deutsch reden?" is a decent way to find out if your local has the time and energy for that. If not, forgive them and move on -- not everyone can be your teacher. Viel Glück!
Hi! I'm learning Hindi this year, after completing the 2 levels of pimsleur couple times last year, I've moved in with my native speaker boyfriend and started picking it up while he talks on the phone with his friends & family. My 100% working advice for learning a new language: move in with a natural speaker! 😆
Seated in the front row for ASMR in ASMR. Doing Korean and recently picked Japanese back up. Lusting after Arabic from afar but may throw Italian in the mix since everything else from HS is being revived.
You know I was procrastinating some other things by watching RUclips, which is a trap I need to get out of, and then I got this notification for a video that seems to be very informative and relevant to the Japanese language study I should be doing right now.
Great video. I hate the Anki stuff, but I'm neurodivergent, and what you said made sense to me. From my personal experience I realized that brute forcing me to listen/read tons of different contents I just partially understand for a ridiculous amount of time works better than trying and failing to do even only 5 Anki cards a day.
there's now a new algorithm (fsrs) which you can turn on and I think it simplifies a lot of it and avoids some of the problems the old one had. you are supposed to hit optimize every so often
Just found your channel last year, and didn’t make much progress in my language goals (unrelated, of course). I just recently moved, and now that I’m resettled I can focus on this year. My goals are to advance 1-2 levels in each of my target languages, so B2/C1 in Spanish, B1 in French, and A2 in either Italian or Dutch/Flemish. I had a gap in Spanish study for years because of an awful teacher I had in high school. I went from Spanish Club officer, speaking on radio in Honduras, and having a pretty good grasp of the language, to not speaking or studying at all, in spite of having Spanish speaking friends and living in south Texas. After years of trying to work through the block, I’ve finally separated my feelings regarding said teacher and the language, and I’m enjoying speaking and studying again.
I love what you said about memory being “repeated forgetting and reminding yourself or being reminded”. I feel that so much. Thank you for that I always think I’m stupid for forgetting after learning, but you have remedied my self loathing in the field of memorization.
I've been enjoying a lot of your recent content lately! I'm going into my second year self learning Mandarin and I'm feeling really good about my goals and continuing my progress from the previous year! It's been super helpful incorporating a daily learning habit even if all I can do on a particular day is review my flashcards. It's kept me really persistent in my learning and I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it for over a year now, when in the past I would've given up already. Looking forward to the content you have planned this year!
“Don’t beat yourself up for forgetting things” Thanks. Trying not to do this after doing the Lingoda placement test for German and being placed as A2 despite living in Germany for a few years and having been awarded my B1 certificate 2 years ago (twice actually - I immediately retook the exam thinking I failed the first time).
I appreciate the brief call-out to Gabe Wyner. I attended the first workshop he gave on language learning and it has impacted all of my learning in the 10+ years since. I have ADHD and am learning te reo Māori. I (unsurprisingly) purchased lots of materials right out of the gate, but the most useful by far has been "Māori Made Easy" by Scotty Morrison, because it promises '30 minutes a day' as the commitment. For someone who gets distracted and bored easily, I have consistently kept up with this because it does not feel like an interminable slog. That book, Te Aka online dictionary with pronunciation, and Anki are my go-to resources. I would like to see a video on how you incorporate Anki into your learning.
I adore this channel! Yes, tell us about the ASMR, please! I’m a learner of the Korean language and I have really been adoring hearing ASMR videos lol. Something about the emotions and constant talking are so great.
Hello, all! Godspeed with your language goals this year. My overarching goals are to a) sing/understand folksongs in Cymraeg and b) be able to interview farmers in Welsh. I officially start a Welsh course next Monday and my goal for the next few months is to attend every class and do all homework well.
Another great channel is Jackson Crawford’s, a scholar of Germanic/ Scandinavian languages who did a really great video of IPA from English. I’d suggest checking it out until Dr. Jones comes out with one.
Kaffee und Kuchen, immer gut. Trying to learn some Spanish to communicate with the potential in-laws. Tried comprehensible input but am realising (thanks to you) that there is no way around some grammar learning and repetition. Keep up the good work, I'm enjoy your content (alles sehr sachlich und nicht Übertrieben). Grüße aus Deutschland
For people who want to use spaced repetition but have trouble getting Anki set up and/or sentence mining, give Speakly and Clozemaster a try. They are basically Anki but streamlined. Speakly has the 4,000 most commonly used words and Clozemaster has tens of thousands depending on the language. The downside is you can’t really mine your own sentences, the upside is that it’s all set up for you in a nice clean package.
I've gotten deeply obsessed and in love with Hungarian for the last few weeks, I've studied linguistics in university but never dabbled in it before. Mostly due to it's reputation as impossible. But like, it's so enjoyable, complex compared to my 1st language, definitely, but every new little grammar detail feels like treat for me to unlock. I like poetry and Hungarian feels like a match made in heaven for good poetry, so that is something I'd really like to be able to read (and write???) in the future. I'm lucky enough that my sister's mother in law speaks native Hungarian, so if/when I get a bigger vocabulary I can speak and text with her. For pronounciation I've tried to find engaging songs I can sing along to, I'm a choir singer so singing in different languages is common practice for me. For vocabulary I'm trying to find new words all over, Hungarian Craigslist is one (I know it's an odd choice), and just got into children's books from the library. Found an anki deck to but it's not as engaging I feel. The dopamine hits hard for me because everything about the language is so different and new all the time, and it's structure really connects with me, it's natural in some way. SO EXCITED!!! ❤
I'm a reformed boom-bust cycle learner. Nothing feels better (or works better imo) than consistent learning over a long period. Currently at 6,200 words in Anki with 2,972 'mature' cards. My goal this year is to reach 13,000 known words :)
It's so refreshing to listen to an actual linguist discussing language learning. I have a masters and the informal "ABD" in sociolinguistics, and i speak (to varying degrees) 3 languages, but I also enjoy just enjoy being able to read in a foreign language without an obvious foreign accent, even if i don't understand what I'm reading. I can't tell you how annoying it is to share this with people and have them respond with a blank stare/ silence or "why"? When i was looking for resources to teach my children just the proper pronunciation of various languages so they could be primed to go on later and study their chosen languages without that foreign accent, people did not understand why that would even enter my consciousness. Anyway, so I'm psyched to hear you start with setting a specific goal and noting that "knowing the language" isn't much of a goal anyway. So refreshing. Ok, going to finish the video now.
Happy new year! I'm relatively new to language learning but I'm becoming day by day more passionate about it and since last summer I never skip your videos! I have to say I really love this one in particular because it's clearly full of love towards language learning and, in the chaos of the internet, makes me feel so faithful and calm. And maybe even grateful. Thank you for your videos, good luck with languages to everybody :)
Emotional trauma and language learning are ultra-antagonistic to one another. I had a hard time wanting to continue Spanish after a breakup for a long time, but after swapping it out with Japanese and dabbling in other things, I broke that association in my head. After about 2 years, I still had the issue, but I did 10 hour days at work listening to podcasts in Spanish, and that finially pressure washed my brain clean of all the trauma I had remaining. What's crazy is I never felt any appreciation for the culture through the language while I was actually IN the culture, but once removed, I felt it in the immediate pain of loss, and later (now) a sense of love, comfort, and gratitude for the people who invited me into their culture. I, now, can really understand that those cultures are not those people - meaning the culture exists outside of them - and if I choose - inside of me, too. Whoever said they're learning that one language to forgive the culture of the people who killed their brother is straight up lying, however, because that's EXCACTLY what I'd tell the police when they asked why I started learning a super niche language that happened to be used by the people who JUST killed my brother, and why my fingerprints are all over their cold, bruised windpipe. Just sayin.
I started learning Russian back in 2018. I had an interest in Russian culture which has only grown over the years, and I was getting Duolingo ads. I figured it was worth a shot. Between my ADHD and my college coursework, I didn’t stick with it for very long. I came back to it just last year, and have been studying off and on for several months. There are lots of new skills I’ve been trying to acquire lately, and this year, I’m getting organized so I can ramp things up! Learning Russian has been really fun so far, that helps a lot! Idk I just figured I’d share some. Wish me luck!
I'm studying Japanese mainly for travel and to at least converse at a simple level with my husband's family. Translated: Gain a high level understanding of grammar and a modest vocabulary specific to travel, food, and interacting with strangers. Your video helped me articulate my goals. I think creating specific short-term goals will help too.
Just came across your account from the Duolingo video and I’ve found it very interesting, but was slightly disappointed with the passing mention of Welsh. Mainly because I’ve been trying to learn Welsh on Duolingo and it’s very hard (I’m English and dyslexic + AuDHD). Curious about your thoughts about Welsh and it would be great if the language had more popularity, especially since how hard the Welsh government are trying to keep it alive. I have found that living in Wales has helped with some of my understanding of Welsh but it’s still extremely difficult, especially when trying to listen to casual conversations 🙃
I've been learning German for a while. My goal is to understand the daily newscasts. After 4 years, I'm still a couple of years away, even using a couple of Lingoda classes per week, according to my very competent German teachers!!!
Can we get a full video of how to do the Anki system right to the best of your knowledge and the state of science, please. That would be extremely helpful. Thank you
The timing of this video was perfect for me. I’m a passionate Spanish learner who has taken an online lesson with the same teacher every week for a year. I’ve learned a lot, but after watching your video, I realized that those lessons are not meeting my real goal, which is to be able to express myself in a wide variety of situations from professional to street slang.
I love videos on book binding, too! Not sure if it was the wrong reason, but I started learning Korean during the lock-down so that I would have a "legitimate" exuse to bingewatch k-dramas all day.
as someone with adhd, my boyfriend looked at me like i was insane when i said i could not do flashcards even if i tried but still managed to learn 3-ish foreign languages. do not let the fact that you can't do anki discourage you
@@worldwidezoey find dictionaries that have example sentences !! i usually learn basic words with things like duolingo but after a while whenever i want to remember a new vocab term or grammar point i try to use it somewhere. i like journaling but i've seen people who prefer recording themselves whilst they speak about their day in their target language tl;dr put the word in context
I started wanting to learn Korean because of music and other media, but I genuinely fell in love with the language and want to take it seriously. South Korea is a tech hub and also a growing part of the entertainment industry. Everything about it aligns with some of my other interests and even my job sometimes. So, I want to try and continue learning it even if it takes me 10 years to see real progress. It stretches my brain in a way I am not used to, but it feels really good when I make my own sentences or when I understand a new word or phrase.
The language I'm studying is Ukrainian. Ultimate outcome I want is to be sufficiently fluent to talk to my gf in her own language, and also read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels in Ukrainian translation (I have acquired most of them already, and they're sitting on a shelf waiting for me). Shorter term, for 2025, is to study a minimum of 15 minutes every day for at least 300 days out of the year. That's 75 hours minimum. If I can manage 300 hours of total study over the year, I will have met my "stretch goal". I'm ADHD and find Anki painful to use, so I'm doing exposure by listening and reading (at the same time - eBook or audio recording of the text) per Krashen's ideas on language acquisition. I read the same text over and over again, over days, at least five times in total.
15:30 actually, for me this was a great motivator. I studied “language x” for the same reason, and not only does it motivate me to keep learning, but i’m even now dating a “language x” speaker (from the very community from which i have so much trauma) which has all been very healing to me and further fuels the learning process. So no, IMHO, separating the two into two distinct phases is unnecessary and even a missed opportunity. This is the problem with scientific thinking; the constant need to segment and separate everything into little neat sensible structures of analysis. That’s not how life really works. זה השתי אגורות שלי, בהצלחה עם העברית שלך אחי :)
I'm going to work on Nederlands and Gaeilge. Nederlands because a friend wants to learn it and I don't really care about the language (which means no pressure on the learning side), and Gaeilge because I'm really interested in it for a variety of reasons. I'm planning on using the methods I see are working for me on my primary language to do the end run around that feeling of frustration and uselessness when things get difficult and I can't seem to progress. Making my way as you'd say
I'm continuing my Danish course on the green owl app, and the language fascinates me. It's so like yet so unlike English that it keeps me constantly thrilled. I don't really have a goal apart from cracking it, and maybe one day going to Denmark and talking to locals (who are all fluent in English so it's kinda pointless). This fascination has held me for like 25 years, but now I'm moving fast in the spoken language. 2025 may be the year I actually talk to a native!
Fedt at høre at du lærer vores sprog :) Ja, de fleste her snakker meget godt engelsk, men det er altid godt at lære noget nyt under alle omstændigheder. Selv er jeg ved at lære spansk. Jeg blev færdig med den grønne ugle for nogle måneder siden, så nu bruger jeg bare Anki og ser film og serier. Hvis du har spørgsmål og Dansk og Danmark kan du bare sige til. Det er godt nok ikke at snakke med en indfødt, men at skrive kan også bruges. Held og lykke med din sproglæring.
@@Sgrunterundt Mange tak for din understøttelse. Hvis jeg har spørgsmål, jeg skriver til dig gerne. Lige nu er min dansk ikke på gode nok nivå til at snakke om meget... Y a tí mucho feliz con aprender español.
@cicolas_nage For whatever reason you are imploring me to quit, I don't have that reason and it's working fine for me. When, if, I see it as a bad thing to continue, I will remember your piece of advice. Cheers.
Alright, why not. I've just started learning japanese because I'd like to be able to get deeper into otaku culture, both by reading light novels without waiting for translations, and joining japanese-speaking online communities for fandoms. In the next five years, I'd also like to visit. I'm using duo and anki to learn characters right now, hoping to be able to read phonetically within the next month or two before I start the process of building vocab, so I don't get used to seeing the words spelled out in latin script. Just started 2 days ago, and I'm hoping to have hiragana down in around 2 weeks and katakana by the end of february. If I get that far, I'll start paying for anki to get more cards per day, but duo is actually feeling really good for this step so I'm leaning harder on them for now. I'm also spending passive listening time on a mix of easy/beginner level native input and videos of speakers explaining various grammar and cultural quirks, along with channels like this one giving strategy advice. Not sure I'll remember to update this even if it all goes perfectly, but we'll see!
I’m learning Japanese right now and have to use it for work, so reading is a priority for me, but I’d like to shift my focus to speaking. I perform better than peers on tests but at the end of the day they can have a very fruitful conversation. I’m going to pivot from grammar focused study to vocabulary memorization, something like 15 new words per day, so even if I might not have the perfect grammar structure for it, I can get the ball rolling with my existing grammar and expanded vocabulary. I’ll reinforce my memorization and practice listening by watching lots of tv dramas, since I already enjoy those now.
Sounds like a good idea. For speaking you might want to memorize phrases and phrase structures rather than words because in the spoken language we rely on ready-made ideas, that’s why travel books are full of fixed expressions. You could memorize more than one way to ask or answer common questions. You might want to also study phonology and how sound alterations work in a phrase/sentence. I study Korean and I initially spent too much time on vocabulary of individual words when I should have memorized short phrases, so I was too slow in making up sentences. I still memorize words in family groups for my reading, but phrases for speaking, especially phrases from my favourite characters in dramas. I hope this helps.
I only found your channel recently because I've been looking to dive into Irish. Previously, I had learned German for a few years at Uni, and while I was satisfied with my progress to a degree, I let it go due to life being life. Now I want to dive into this language because I really like the musical play with how it sounds. My goal is to be able to watch shows and listen to audio right now. I know at some point, I'd like to read Irish, but given what you said, I think my initial goal is watching and listening to things.
2024 was the first year when I actually sat down to set goals for my language learning journey. I never really cared about goals, since I'm enjoying what I'm doing, so I basically wrote down what I'm doing and how I intend on progressing. It's more to feel accountable than to really set those goals. You know, life happens, and I wouldn't want to get depressed over not achieving goals because of the new house or something. But I'm also a language addicted, so I'm not really afraid of losing interest.
I'm studying Indonesian and this year my goal is to read 1 million words in Indonesian. I use Lingq which I love for reading. I'll also be adding cards to Anki and doing 20ish minutes of that a day and classes on italki to keep up my output. I wish there was something like lingoda for Indonesian. Although in some ways the lack of resources in Indonesian is helpful becuase I'm not always chasing the shiny new thing! I appreciated the inclusion of neurospicey peeps and look forward to a spaced rep/ anki video.
Not starting a new language, but continuing with Gàidhlig. I have fallen into a pattern that works for me quite well and my plan is to keep doing what I am doing until I feel ready to head to Scotland and test at the Gàidhlig College to see what level I have reached, but first I want to get to the point where I am comfortable enough to do a couple of weeks staying with a native Gàidhlig speaking family in Nova Scotia. I teach music so the stay will be fun for doing some traditional music too.
I am learning French in order to dive in straight into the fruitful works of many francophone Orthodox Christian fathers, some of the best theological and philosophical texts from modern times on my religion are written in French; which provide a reciprocal dialogue between how us Christians and our modern secular worlds approach many important topics related to ethics, theosophy and anthropology. I just want to be able to take on my hands their works and New Testament and read without any interruptions with a consistent grasp, wouldn't even complain if I can't buy a pack of Marlboro reds in French at a buffet... all my focus is on reading
I'd love a video in which you set up Anki cards/decks. It'd be nice to see it at different levels (just beginning a language, focused on vocabulary, focused on grammar, etc).
I have been shopping for a new language to learn for about two years. I started with Polish (on Duo Lingo) and hit a wall. Then I shifted to Yiddish for fun, as I’m competent in German. I dabbled in Norwegian, and Dutch, neither of which cliqued. I landed on Spanish, which has been fun for me as I also studied French. I’m feeling motivated to get as good in Spanish as I was in French. In the future I would love to continue with Polish and Yiddish, and choose a Scandinavian language to learn. Maybe someday I could learn Portuguese or Italian. Also, I want to learn Anishinaabemowin!!!!
Thanks for the video! And yes, please, make the video about the explicit vocab memorisation and repetition! And wait! Did I hear ASMR??? So happy I’m a subscriber already!
I live in China and my wife speaks Mandarin and Cantonese. My desire to study Mandarin is waning due to negative experiences in country. I am motivated to study Tibetan since we have traveled in areas where the language is spoken. Plus I would love to be able to speak with a monk or other Tibetan speakers. Also my neurospicy mind likes the idea of studying the most complicated spelling system among modern languages.
my story learning language for the wrong reason. I was working in a grocery store (with a significant arabic-speaking population) and wanted to learn arabic, partly cause I think it's pretty, but my main goal was to be able to help customers in arabic. Just things like "the dairy section is to the left" or "the chicken with the blue label is halal". Two things I didn't realize - arabic is a language of varied dialects, and leaning MSA is not going to be very helpful to speak to an Egyptian, Moroccan, etc. customer. Second, NOBODY is EVER going to walk up to a white grocery clerk in Canada and as a question in Arabic.
I really, really loved how you described the problem of learning languages that you have negative associations with. I'm learning Mandarin Chinese (I don't have Chinese heritage), and a lot of my friends from Chinese immigrant families constantly express frustration with their own learning journeys, not being able to force themselves to memorize characters, a lot of shame speaking in public, feeling like they should already know everything, etc. I've always thought, damn, if Chinese inspired such intense negative feelings in me, there's no way in hell I'd be able to spend hours doing flashcards learning characters. All I get from learning Chinese is positive reinforcement from learning new things, and every native speaker I meet is happy and patient with me.
this video is calling me out so hard - the mention of hungarian, the ADHD section describing me so well, and the sleep section because i am watching this video at 5am 💀
Really appreciate this channel. I've been trying to learn French for a few years, (I made some good progress when I was a kid, but dropped it in college and the following few years). Have picked it up again a few years ago due to French Trip last year, and once there I loved the amount I could interact, even though it was very small, and wanted to really deep dive more. So casual conversations, directions, talk about food and culture are my main goals. My progress has been slow due to awful strategies at first, right now I'm just trying to memorize conjugations (thanks Subjunctive), and vocab, while doing some reading and listening to some native french speaking on podcasts. Progress has also been slow due to 1 year old and stressful job, but I'm trying to make some progress. Thanks for all your videos
I'm trying to learn Swedish so that when my partner and i have children we can speak in her native language at home so they learn it along with English. I don't want my kids to have the same fate i had with my mom being an immigrant but never learning Russian because my dad refused to learn it.
I think in one of Jones's videos I heard him talk about a strategy when one parent talks to their child in one language, and the other parent talks in different language, and that somehow helps the kid learn both. Jones should create a video on this topic.
Learned Spanish because I felt it was the most useful second language for a U.S. citizen. At the B1 level, I actually love it now, but I definitely forced myself not to quit early on. Definitely recommend not doing a language because you feel like you should-just like Dr. Jones said.
Great video as always. I watched the 2024 one :) My language goal this year is with Japanese. I want to be conversational enough to enjoy meeting natives and smoothly navigate the basics of traveling in Japan, and I want to read books and understand native content (news, entertainment, etc) I'm using WaniKani (an SRS) to learn vocab and Kanji, (There are 60 levels and I'm level 27) My goal is to continue that everyday to not get behind in reviews and do a minimum of 5 new cards daily, more on weekends and when I can. I have a book I want to read ５pages a week (また、同じ夢を見ていた） A grammar book 1 chapter a week or look up things as I notice them Produce a few sentences myself to be peer reviewed each week or some other output (commenting on videos in Japanese, journal entry, etc.) And engage in watching and listening to any content as much as I can that isn't so difficult to understand that I start to hate the process. :)
I absolutely understand how specific strategies can sometimes be vastly more effective than others at achieving one's goal. But I've always felt that if you're learning a language in general terms - with an interest in reading, writing, listening and speaking all to a relatively high standard without any specific frills - that by far the best way to proceed is simply brute force: study and immerse yourself in general contexts, with focus on the basics and what you find interesting, and never look back. Just do what floats your boat and you'll come across all the stuff you need to and want to know.
In a year and half, my partner will finish her studies, and we’re planning to move to Finland. I’d love to reach a level by then where I can have basic conversations with my Finnish friends (so I don’t keep forcing them to speak English), ask for directions, do my shopping, listen to the news, and more. So, going from a high A1~low A2 to B1.
I am focused on maintaining my Spanish, German, and Romanian. But I am more motivated to learn my husband's language of Ekpeye. It is a bit of challenge, as there is not a lot of material out in the world, but there is some and I am determined to be able to be conversational with his family. I am almost certain I am the only pale-skinned person learning it for this purpose.
Honestly so real, I originally wanted to learn German because I wanted to read fanfics in a different language than English ( I have no idea why, but it seemed appealing)
since 2024 was terribe for my language learning due to some external factors, this year I´d like to make up for this. I started Icelandic, wish to get my french and dutch to a higher level, and start slowly with Old English, since I´d like to be abe to read it in the future. Oh yes, and I´d still like to hear your take on Pimsleur.
I've started following a bunch of ASMRtists in my target language (Italian) recently. I like to listen to ASMR to relax before bed and this is a nice way to get some additional language exposure while I do that, especially since the language is often relatively simple and they tend to speak (or whisper) slowly and clearly.
I've been learning Japanese for 3 years of hard work... with MASSIVE breaks. I have forgotten more than i've ever learned, but I retain more each time I buckle down for a while. I'm at around an N3 level now finally, and it took a lot of work and a long time to get here. And anyone who tells you they can pass the N3 in a year is telling the truth, but they're not at the actual level the N3 is supposed to represent. Think similarly to the people that can pass a certification test, but can't speak intelligently about any of the relevant topics that comprise the test subject... you can study for a test and pass almost any of them in a year, but rote memorization is not the same as learning.
"Recognizing something but not knowing what it means" - also a part of processing that I find super interesting where we have a representations of a word/etc. which is a different thing from it being attached to a meaning for it.
A video about SRS would be super interesting. I've been kind of an Anki nut for over 10 years, and there's a lot of new developments recently that would benefit from input from people with more domain knowledge.
I'm a native Spanish speaker, bilingual in English. I also know a bit of Japanese and some words from other languages. My plan for 2025 (in fact, the second semester) is to learn Portugese. I work for an insurance company, and I would like to be certified in Portuguese to be able to take those calls instead of looking for an interpreter.
For Christmas this year my mom got me a comic book in French that I saw the last time I was in Paris that I regretted not buying, so goal number 1 is to be able to comfortably be able to read that book (and perhaps plan another trip hehe)
My 2025 goals are: - Become comfortable in both spoken and written Chinese (I’m getting there, although the spoken part is lagging behind-I need to learn more words). - Resume learning Spanish, which unfortunately was sidelined due to the overwhelming enthusiasm I developed for learning Chinese. - Resume learning the new vocabulary I encounter during my weekly spoken German sessions (also sidelined by my focus on Chinese). - Continue to acquire new words and idiomatic expressions in English. - Strictly forbid myself from starting any new language learning projects, as my bandwidth is already fully occupied.
I'm a conference interpreter and I have to have a high level of proficiency in my B languages in a vast amount of technical subjects. On a Monday I might work at a conference about make up and the next day it's about dam safety. Any advice on how to add/perfect languages? I would love to know more about the academic studies about people like me.
short term goal is "see how long a daily streak I can get on Duolingo Spanish," and long term goals include conversational Spanish with friends, maybe traveling in S. America, and learning Classical Nahuatl (most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish)
I am currently working on learning German because I’m moving to Germany in march for a masters degree and want to be able to communicate with the locals and make new friends!
The ADHD comment hit home, having tried to learn (French, Italian, Japanese, in high school) Russian (still can read Cyrillic but that's about all) Finnish, Arabic (very briefly), German and Spanish post (as well as occasionally trying to re-learn Japanese). This year I intend to focus on Spanish while continuing with my German studies, Spanish is by far my strongest second language, helped greatly by a visit to South America and two brief visits to Barcelona. For me, and I believe most English speakers, out of the above languages Finnish was by far the most difficult for me to grasp. I don't think it was helped by the fact that Australian English is my native flavor and we tend not to be too picky about what vowel goes where or enunciating them clearly, all extremely important if your language is made up of mainly vowels, Huvin kiitos.... Just did a Spanish lesson, am taking your advice and rewarding myself, with a German beer, It being a very hot summer Saturday afternoon here.
A spaced repetition video would be awesome, I've been using it to study words for scrabble of all things and it has worked scarily well, I've been meaning to pick up Anki to do it with Spanish words. A video on doing it more efficiently would be legendary
my "learning for the wrong reason" story is relearning spanish, my native language, which has been dormant in my brain since moving to a different country as a child. as I got into linguophilia I became more and more overcome by an irrational sense of guilt and shame over abandoning my "real" language to go gallivanting with japanese and (worse) italian (which ironically I found quite easy thanks to my dormant spanish). it ends happily though, as I ended up rediscovering how great of a language it is, its fascinating phonology, how much great literature (cervantes, garcía márquez, borges) there is, and quite a few youtube channels which make enjoyable CI content. much luck on your spanish journey ✌
Learning language for the wrong reasons. My mother was a second gen. Her parents were from Mexico city and she grew up in a heavily Latino culture in LA. She taught my sister Spanish as a baby and didn't teach me. Any time I'd try she would sternly correct my pronunciations saying "say it right! Don't embarrass me! How don't you know this?" I grew up thinking something was wrong with me and I struggled to talk to teachers or students in my Spanish classes in middle school. I felt so ashamed of myself and my abilities. I thought I just couldn't learn another language. Then I took 4 years of German in highschool with a great teacher. My German was good enough to make basic conversations when I visited Germany. Turns out I'm not bad at learning languages I just had horrific negative associations to mispronouncing Spanish words because of my upbringing. It's crazy how the brain works.
how did she expect you to speak spanish if she didn't teach it to you?
@@tiedänkö I can bet they were pronouncing the words correctly, but the case is clearly about favourite child vs. scapegoat. It is a taboo, but favourite children exist. Also, their mother is SECOND generation living in a community in another country - this is not Spanish Spanish. I come from Poland and trust me, Polish that Polonia uses is a far cry from what is spoken in my country, I suppose the same is happening here. In such cases the best way to learn the language of your ancestors is to take lessons - you will at least learn usable, correct and maybe formal, but every day, language you can use when going abroad.
It's usually the case. I'm sorry you had to experience this but I hope your success with German will keep you learning on.
I swear some parents think that you've been born with a free language pack of their native language and are surprised when you don't know something you've never been taught smh
Aber schön, dass dir wenigstens Deutschlernen Spaß macht :)
“Remembering is a process of repeated forgetting” is surprisingly revelatory to me. I’ve always beat myself up for struggling to remember things, but I think after 55 years you’ve explained to me that just repeating something over and over isn’t what remembering is. Thank you!
There is science supporting this idea. If you are interested look for Congnitive Psychology.
Same! (In an older video of his, and after 16 years of redundant self beating less than you...)
Ditto. I heard somebody talking about his some time last year and felt liberated and stopped feeling so bad. Also stopped testing myself so much.
At 67, I'm an outstanding forgetter. Hope this means I'm eventually learning something ;)
Would love to see a spaced repetition video from you man! I'd really like to have a more nuanced explanation than being told to grind Anki for hours every day
Same! You read my mind 😊
Yes please!
Using Anki daily for more than 30 minutes / 1 hour must be MADDENING
@@giuseppeagresta1425 yeah I was doing about 2 hours daily for a few weeks and ended up dreading it. I've dropped it down to about 20-30 mins daily and it's not bad at all. Very manageable
I second... or in this thread, fourth... the motion for a spaced repetition video from you. Also, happy new year to you and yours.
Can’t wait for the 2026 video
I’m already taking notes for what to add!
Petitioning Jones to make a "how to learn a language next year in 39,995"
@@AncientGreek-v9f How to learn High Gothic in 001.M41
No better way to make myself accountable than letting thousands of strangers on RUclips know my goals, so my language goals for 2025 are to be able to hold a basic conversation with my mom's family in Polish and my girlfriend/her family in Farsi. Wish me luck!
Good luck pal!
Just realized my German learning has TURNED into the wrong reasons overtime. Because I’ve spent so much time with this language, I’ve started to feel shame and frustration that I’m not where I “feel like I should be”. This is going to help me rethink my German language goals and break down those negative feelings I’ve developed over the 7 years, and bring back joy and curiosity- not pressure and disappointment.
Du schaffst das 😊 viele Grüße aus Deutschland 🇩🇪
@@fraupier2115Vielen Dank! Ich schreibe oft bei meine Familie in der Schweiz- das ist EIN guter Grund, weiter zu lernen. :)
Here’s wishing you nothing but joy and curiosity in the new year!
"German should be considered among the dead languages, since only the dead have time to learn it." -- Mark Twain. But seriously, I recommend his booklet "The Awful German Language." Despite his razzing, he was totally in love with German. Embrace the struggle! If you wanted a language whose joy was in simplicity, you'd have studied Esperanto.
you should rethink your strategy instead. Comprehensible input rules. Gewman is EASY for an English speaker, for Christ sake!
Me watching this after watching these type of videos in 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015, 2016,2017,2018, 2019, 2020 - (took a break in 2021; obvious reasons), 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Wow! That's a lot of time. You must've mastered a dozen languages by now, right?
@@ArtemHahauz-nm7bk I've mastered zero 😂 procrastinator.
It's not obvious to me why a break would have been taken in 2021. Also, 2021 is included in your sequence of years.
it was different in 2000 trust me
I think of these videos as sermons that keep me from straying from the path (not that I really consider it to be a religion or anything). I’ve mostly watched them since 2014, although I’ve been learning since about 1990.
Thank you for acknowledging that adults do not learn the same way toddlers do, and that neurospiciness adds its own nuances. So many of the language content creators are just out to sell their own programs with nothing substantially beneficial to offer. You are one of the exceptions. Glad I found your channel. 🙂
Thank you so much!
And for pointed out that our goals as adults aren’t the same as infants. No, I don’t want to function at kindergarten level after five years of exposure. We should all acknowledge that we as adults learn some things much, much better than infants do. Stop the tyranny of the babies! 😄
7 out of 10 videos of this channel is: "The traditional method of study is scientifically proven (false) and works. I can't show you MYSELF how it has supposedly worked for me, neither can you find someone who is REALLY fluent in a language, let alone in more than one, let alone in languages that are very different from their native ones, like Westerners speaking flawlessly Asian languages on TV of the country of the target language, and, strangely, ALL of the people that you can find that CAN do that seems to suggest Comprehensible Input, BUT that's because all of those successful speakers are "neurodivergent" and that won't work for you. Note.
Indeed! I had a situation in the shop: kid mumbled: ou da do-! And the mother said: yes, it's a door. As adult learners we don't have to go through this stadium, we can go to straight up learning the proper pronunciation of the new word.
@@maxducoudray I feel fuzzy and warm inside reading your comment.
For those of you who are also parents to young kids, don't lose hope! I started learning Japanese after having two kids under 3 years old, and I'm able to read material at a 2nd grade level! It's hard, but so so worth it. ジョーンズさん, この動画はありがとうございます!
My "learning a language for the wrong reasons" is with Spanish, and it's as simple as "it was taught to me in school but I had no *reason* to learn it." I was interested in knowing more languages in general, and there's lots of people in the United States who speak Spanish better than English, so there were great reasons to know it! But *I* have no reason I really WANTED or NEEDED to learn it. I didn't have music or media or communities in Spanish that I, personally, was compelled to connect with outside of for reasons of learning the language. I realized why this was "the wrong way" to learn when I started on Japanese and, within 2 weeks, knew more than I ever learned in 6 years of Spanish I/II courses in grade school and university. I simply had an actual passion for things that were in Japanese more than I wanted to learn the language, and ironically that makes learning the language VASTLY more motivating and easy.
Me with Korean vs Spanish in school
That was my experience with Finnish in school. I graduated with top grades and totally forgot the language less than a year after.
a lot of guys just learn Spanish because Latinas are attractive
@@AddisTime a legit reason like any other. Many marriages happened because a person met another one and they've learned a language for that person.
@@marikothecheetah9342 Heck, I've *met* more than one such couple (of course, I'm writing this from Mexico)
Hi TJ, I'm a former Silicon Valley engineer who retired to Germany, and I've now spent 9 years not understanding what the locals say. On the other hand, I study German every day. In particular, I have made a hobby out of constructing my own dual-language books and annotating every detail of every word, phrase, and sentence in the book. I find that it's addictively fun. I've been watching you for a number of months now. Once I caught a bit of a "live" broadcast. That was the only time that you spoke slowly and took pauses. And that's when I finally figured out that you are actually a mortal. Before that, it was like watching the first three seasons of "The West Wing". So witty, so smart.
Now that I discovered that you somettimes pause before speaking, I appreciate your fast videos even more. After all, I can always rewind, and you don't waste time unnecessarily. (What would it even mean to waste time "necessarily"?) Anyway, I find the whole topic of linguistics and language learning to be endlessly fascinating, and I thanks you for what you do. If I hadn't lost my shirt on failed startups I would even be sending you money. Really! Thanks again young man.
Hi, Deutschlehrer here: I too am an annotation addict. However, to understand what locals say, you need to go out and communicate with locals. You're going to $%#^ up, probably early and often. If you're really putting in the necessary effort, you're going to $%#^ up ALL THE TIME. Ask me how I know. Nice thing is: Germans are very tolerant of learners. The hard part will be convincing them not to switch to English. "Ich möchte mein Deutsch üben. Können wir nur Deutsch reden?" is a decent way to find out if your local has the time and energy for that. If not, forgive them and move on -- not everyone can be your teacher. Viel Glück!
I don't understand half of what you're saying but I find your cadence of speaking calming and I enjoy listening. 😂😂😂
Even if you choose x 0.7 speed? Sorry for that..
And is kinda good input.
😅
Same here. US's K-12 has no educate. At least our kids don't inherit the crippling college debt.
Spaced repetition video, yes, please! :)
Thanks for the video!
Hi! I'm learning Hindi this year, after completing the 2 levels of pimsleur couple times last year, I've moved in with my native speaker boyfriend and started picking it up while he talks on the phone with his friends & family.
My 100% working advice for learning a new language: move in with a natural speaker! 😆
Seated in the front row for ASMR in ASMR.
Doing Korean and recently picked Japanese back up. Lusting after Arabic from afar but may throw Italian in the mix since everything else from HS is being revived.
You know I was procrastinating some other things by watching RUclips, which is a trap I need to get out of, and then I got this notification for a video that seems to be very informative and relevant to the Japanese language study I should be doing right now.
Great video. I hate the Anki stuff, but I'm neurodivergent, and what you said made sense to me. From my personal experience I realized that brute forcing me to listen/read tons of different contents I just partially understand for a ridiculous amount of time works better than trying and failing to do even only 5 Anki cards a day.
12:57 anki - oh, the amount of contradictory info on scheduler tweaks to evade "ease hell"... would def like to hear your take on it
there's now a new algorithm (fsrs) which you can turn on and I think it simplifies a lot of it and avoids some of the problems the old one had. you are supposed to hit optimize every so often
Just found your channel last year, and didn’t make much progress in my language goals (unrelated, of course). I just recently moved, and now that I’m resettled I can focus on this year. My goals are to advance 1-2 levels in each of my target languages, so B2/C1 in Spanish, B1 in French, and A2 in either Italian or Dutch/Flemish.
I had a gap in Spanish study for years because of an awful teacher I had in high school. I went from Spanish Club officer, speaking on radio in Honduras, and having a pretty good grasp of the language, to not speaking or studying at all, in spite of having Spanish speaking friends and living in south Texas. After years of trying to work through the block, I’ve finally separated my feelings regarding said teacher and the language, and I’m enjoying speaking and studying again.
I would love a to see a video about how to use space repetition and Anki for language learning.
Love the content. Definitely my favourite language learning content on YT
"Hate watching and bonding over it" lol you are witty, love you and your channel
I love what you said about memory being “repeated forgetting and reminding yourself or being reminded”. I feel that so much. Thank you for that I always think I’m stupid for forgetting after learning, but you have remedied my self loathing in the field of memorization.
I've been enjoying a lot of your recent content lately! I'm going into my second year self learning Mandarin and I'm feeling really good about my goals and continuing my progress from the previous year! It's been super helpful incorporating a daily learning habit even if all I can do on a particular day is review my flashcards. It's kept me really persistent in my learning and I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it for over a year now, when in the past I would've given up already. Looking forward to the content you have planned this year!
“Don’t beat yourself up for forgetting things”
Thanks. Trying not to do this after doing the Lingoda placement test for German and being placed as A2 despite living in Germany for a few years and having been awarded my B1 certificate 2 years ago (twice actually - I immediately retook the exam thinking I failed the first time).
That Lingoda test is tough!
I appreciate the brief call-out to Gabe Wyner. I attended the first workshop he gave on language learning and it has impacted all of my learning in the 10+ years since. I have ADHD and am learning te reo Māori. I (unsurprisingly) purchased lots of materials right out of the gate, but the most useful by far has been "Māori Made Easy" by Scotty Morrison, because it promises '30 minutes a day' as the commitment. For someone who gets distracted and bored easily, I have consistently kept up with this because it does not feel like an interminable slog. That book, Te Aka online dictionary with pronunciation, and Anki are my go-to resources. I would like to see a video on how you incorporate Anki into your learning.
AHDH isn't real
I adore this channel! Yes, tell us about the ASMR, please! I’m a learner of the Korean language and I have really been adoring hearing ASMR videos lol. Something about the emotions and constant talking are so great.
Hello, all! Godspeed with your language goals this year. My overarching goals are to a) sing/understand folksongs in Cymraeg and b) be able to interview farmers in Welsh. I officially start a Welsh course next Monday and my goal for the next few months is to attend every class and do all homework well.
Hi, speaking of 2025 one of my goals is to finally learn IPA and I would love to see part 2 of the IPA series!
Another great channel is Jackson Crawford’s, a scholar of Germanic/ Scandinavian languages who did a really great video of IPA from English. I’d suggest checking it out until Dr. Jones comes out with one.
@@CompInput thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely check it out
Kaffee und Kuchen, immer gut.
Trying to learn some Spanish to communicate with the potential in-laws. Tried comprehensible input but am realising (thanks to you) that there is no way around some grammar learning and repetition.
Keep up the good work, I'm enjoy your content (alles sehr sachlich und nicht Übertrieben).
Grüße aus Deutschland
For people who want to use spaced repetition but have trouble getting Anki set up and/or sentence mining, give Speakly and Clozemaster a try.
They are basically Anki but streamlined. Speakly has the 4,000 most commonly used words and Clozemaster has tens of thousands depending on the language.
The downside is you can’t really mine your own sentences, the upside is that it’s all set up for you in a nice clean package.
I'm a monolingual beta and I thoroughly enjoy your channel. I've watched every new video this year. Keep up the good work.
I meant to say I've watched every video in 2024. Now I seem like a dingus AND a monolingual beta.
I've gotten deeply obsessed and in love with Hungarian for the last few weeks, I've studied linguistics in university but never dabbled in it before. Mostly due to it's reputation as impossible. But like, it's so enjoyable, complex compared to my 1st language, definitely, but every new little grammar detail feels like treat for me to unlock. I like poetry and Hungarian feels like a match made in heaven for good poetry, so that is something I'd really like to be able to read (and write???) in the future. I'm lucky enough that my sister's mother in law speaks native Hungarian, so if/when I get a bigger vocabulary I can speak and text with her.
For pronounciation I've tried to find engaging songs I can sing along to, I'm a choir singer so singing in different languages is common practice for me. For vocabulary I'm trying to find new words all over, Hungarian Craigslist is one (I know it's an odd choice), and just got into children's books from the library. Found an anki deck to but it's not as engaging I feel.
The dopamine hits hard for me because everything about the language is so different and new all the time, and it's structure really connects with me, it's natural in some way. SO EXCITED!!! ❤
I'm a reformed boom-bust cycle learner. Nothing feels better (or works better imo) than consistent learning over a long period. Currently at 6,200 words in Anki with 2,972 'mature' cards. My goal this year is to reach 13,000 known words :)
Amazing! Which language?
@@languagejones JapaneseIt is a real challenge but I'm trying to enjoy the journey
It's so refreshing to listen to an actual linguist discussing language learning. I have a masters and the informal "ABD" in sociolinguistics, and i speak (to varying degrees) 3 languages, but I also enjoy just enjoy being able to read in a foreign language without an obvious foreign accent, even if i don't understand what I'm reading. I can't tell you how annoying it is to share this with people and have them respond with a blank stare/ silence or "why"? When i was looking for resources to teach my children just the proper pronunciation of various languages so they could be primed to go on later and study their chosen languages without that foreign accent, people did not understand why that would even enter my consciousness. Anyway, so I'm psyched to hear you start with setting a specific goal and noting that "knowing the language" isn't much of a goal anyway. So refreshing. Ok, going to finish the video now.
Beard looking MAJESTIC.
Thank you! It’s just sort of happening
Happy new year! I'm relatively new to language learning but I'm becoming day by day more passionate about it and since last summer I never skip your videos! I have to say I really love this one in particular because it's clearly full of love towards language learning and, in the chaos of the internet, makes me feel so faithful and calm. And maybe even grateful. Thank you for your videos, good luck with languages to everybody :)
Happy new year, and thank you for the kind words!
Emotional trauma and language learning are ultra-antagonistic to one another.
I had a hard time wanting to continue Spanish after a breakup for a long time, but after swapping it out with Japanese and dabbling in other things, I broke that association in my head. After about 2 years, I still had the issue, but I did 10 hour days at work listening to podcasts in Spanish, and that finially pressure washed my brain clean of all the trauma I had remaining.
What's crazy is I never felt any appreciation for the culture through the language while I was actually IN the culture, but once removed, I felt it in the immediate pain of loss, and later (now) a sense of love, comfort, and gratitude for the people who invited me into their culture. I, now, can really understand that those cultures are not those people - meaning the culture exists outside of them - and if I choose - inside of me, too.
Whoever said they're learning that one language to forgive the culture of the people who killed their brother is straight up lying, however, because that's EXCACTLY what I'd tell the police when they asked why I started learning a super niche language that happened to be used by the people who JUST killed my brother, and why my fingerprints are all over their cold, bruised windpipe. Just sayin.
I started learning Russian back in 2018. I had an interest in Russian culture which has only grown over the years, and I was getting Duolingo ads. I figured it was worth a shot. Between my ADHD and my college coursework, I didn’t stick with it for very long. I came back to it just last year, and have been studying off and on for several months. There are lots of new skills I’ve been trying to acquire lately, and this year, I’m getting organized so I can ramp things up!
Learning Russian has been really fun so far, that helps a lot!
Idk I just figured I’d share some. Wish me luck!
I'm studying Japanese mainly for travel and to at least converse at a simple level with my husband's family. Translated: Gain a high level understanding of grammar and a modest vocabulary specific to travel, food, and interacting with strangers. Your video helped me articulate my goals. I think creating specific short-term goals will help too.
Just came across your account from the Duolingo video and I’ve found it very interesting, but was slightly disappointed with the passing mention of Welsh. Mainly because I’ve been trying to learn Welsh on Duolingo and it’s very hard (I’m English and dyslexic + AuDHD). Curious about your thoughts about Welsh and it would be great if the language had more popularity, especially since how hard the Welsh government are trying to keep it alive. I have found that living in Wales has helped with some of my understanding of Welsh but it’s still extremely difficult, especially when trying to listen to casual conversations 🙃
I've been learning German for a while. My goal is to understand the daily newscasts. After 4 years, I'm still a couple of years away, even using a couple of Lingoda classes per week, according to my very competent German teachers!!!
Can we get a full video of how to do the Anki system right to the best of your knowledge and the state of science, please. That would be extremely helpful. Thank you
Thanks!
The timing of this video was perfect for me. I’m a passionate Spanish learner who has taken an online lesson with the same teacher every week for a year. I’ve learned a lot, but after watching your video, I realized that those lessons are not meeting my real goal, which is to be able to express myself in a wide variety of situations from professional to street slang.
I love videos on book binding, too!
Not sure if it was the wrong reason, but I started learning Korean during the lock-down so that I would have a "legitimate" exuse to bingewatch k-dramas all day.
as someone with adhd, my boyfriend looked at me like i was insane when i said i could not do flashcards even if i tried but still managed to learn 3-ish foreign languages. do not let the fact that you can't do anki discourage you
I hate anki, what do you recomend?
@@worldwidezoey find dictionaries that have example sentences !! i usually learn basic words with things like duolingo but after a while whenever i want to remember a new vocab term or grammar point i try to use it somewhere. i like journaling but i've seen people who prefer recording themselves whilst they speak about their day in their target language
tl;dr put the word in context
I started wanting to learn Korean because of music and other media, but I genuinely fell in love with the language and want to take it seriously. South Korea is a tech hub and also a growing part of the entertainment industry. Everything about it aligns with some of my other interests and even my job sometimes. So, I want to try and continue learning it even if it takes me 10 years to see real progress. It stretches my brain in a way I am not used to, but it feels really good when I make my own sentences or when I understand a new word or phrase.
I have ADHD and love bookbinding, watching and doing it. I find it very meditative 😀
The language I'm studying is Ukrainian. Ultimate outcome I want is to be sufficiently fluent to talk to my gf in her own language, and also read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels in Ukrainian translation (I have acquired most of them already, and they're sitting on a shelf waiting for me). Shorter term, for 2025, is to study a minimum of 15 minutes every day for at least 300 days out of the year. That's 75 hours minimum. If I can manage 300 hours of total study over the year, I will have met my "stretch goal". I'm ADHD and find Anki painful to use, so I'm doing exposure by listening and reading (at the same time - eBook or audio recording of the text) per Krashen's ideas on language acquisition. I read the same text over and over again, over days, at least five times in total.
15:30 actually, for me this was a great motivator.
I studied “language x” for the same reason, and not only does it motivate me to keep learning, but i’m even now dating a “language x” speaker (from the very community from which i have so much trauma) which has all been very healing to me and further fuels the learning process.
So no, IMHO, separating the two into two distinct phases is unnecessary and even a missed opportunity. This is the problem with scientific thinking; the constant need to segment and separate everything into little neat sensible structures of analysis. That’s not how life really works.
זה השתי אגורות שלי, בהצלחה עם העברית שלך אחי :)
I'm going to work on Nederlands and Gaeilge. Nederlands because a friend wants to learn it and I don't really care about the language (which means no pressure on the learning side), and Gaeilge because I'm really interested in it for a variety of reasons. I'm planning on using the methods I see are working for me on my primary language to do the end run around that feeling of frustration and uselessness when things get difficult and I can't seem to progress. Making my way as you'd say
I'm continuing my Danish course on the green owl app, and the language fascinates me. It's so like yet so unlike English that it keeps me constantly thrilled. I don't really have a goal apart from cracking it, and maybe one day going to Denmark and talking to locals (who are all fluent in English so it's kinda pointless). This fascination has held me for like 25 years, but now I'm moving fast in the spoken language. 2025 may be the year I actually talk to a native!
Fedt at høre at du lærer vores sprog :) Ja, de fleste her snakker meget godt engelsk, men det er altid godt at lære noget nyt under alle omstændigheder. Selv er jeg ved at lære spansk. Jeg blev færdig med den grønne ugle for nogle måneder siden, så nu bruger jeg bare Anki og ser film og serier. Hvis du har spørgsmål og Dansk og Danmark kan du bare sige til. Det er godt nok ikke at snakke med en indfødt, men at skrive kan også bruges. Held og lykke med din sproglæring.
This is exactly me. I took a couple of college courses of Danish in college (and my heritage is Danish) 30 years ago . Hope to visit one day.
please stop using duo, for your own sake
@@Sgrunterundt Mange tak for din understøttelse. Hvis jeg har spørgsmål, jeg skriver til dig gerne. Lige nu er min dansk ikke på gode nok nivå til at snakke om meget... Y a tí mucho feliz con aprender español.
@cicolas_nage For whatever reason you are imploring me to quit, I don't have that reason and it's working fine for me. When, if, I see it as a bad thing to continue, I will remember your piece of advice. Cheers.
Alright, why not.
I've just started learning japanese because I'd like to be able to get deeper into otaku culture, both by reading light novels without waiting for translations, and joining japanese-speaking online communities for fandoms. In the next five years, I'd also like to visit.
I'm using duo and anki to learn characters right now, hoping to be able to read phonetically within the next month or two before I start the process of building vocab, so I don't get used to seeing the words spelled out in latin script. Just started 2 days ago, and I'm hoping to have hiragana down in around 2 weeks and katakana by the end of february. If I get that far, I'll start paying for anki to get more cards per day, but duo is actually feeling really good for this step so I'm leaning harder on them for now.
I'm also spending passive listening time on a mix of easy/beginner level native input and videos of speakers explaining various grammar and cultural quirks, along with channels like this one giving strategy advice.
Not sure I'll remember to update this even if it all goes perfectly, but we'll see!
You had me at neurospice!!
✨️ SUBSCRIBED✨️
I’m learning Japanese right now and have to use it for work, so reading is a priority for me, but I’d like to shift my focus to speaking. I perform better than peers on tests but at the end of the day they can have a very fruitful conversation. I’m going to pivot from grammar focused study to vocabulary memorization, something like 15 new words per day, so even if I might not have the perfect grammar structure for it, I can get the ball rolling with my existing grammar and expanded vocabulary. I’ll reinforce my memorization and practice listening by watching lots of tv dramas, since I already enjoy those now.
Sounds like a good idea. For speaking you might want to memorize phrases and phrase structures rather than words because in the spoken language we rely on ready-made ideas, that’s why travel books are full of fixed expressions. You could memorize more than one way to ask or answer common questions. You might want to also study phonology and how sound alterations work in a phrase/sentence. I study Korean and I initially spent too much time on vocabulary of individual words when I should have memorized short phrases, so I was too slow in making up sentences. I still memorize words in family groups for my reading, but phrases for speaking, especially phrases from my favourite characters in dramas. I hope this helps.
@ that’s actually super helpful thank you!
I only found your channel recently because I've been looking to dive into Irish. Previously, I had learned German for a few years at Uni, and while I was satisfied with my progress to a degree, I let it go due to life being life. Now I want to dive into this language because I really like the musical play with how it sounds. My goal is to be able to watch shows and listen to audio right now. I know at some point, I'd like to read Irish, but given what you said, I think my initial goal is watching and listening to things.
2024 was the first year when I actually sat down to set goals for my language learning journey. I never really cared about goals, since I'm enjoying what I'm doing, so I basically wrote down what I'm doing and how I intend on progressing. It's more to feel accountable than to really set those goals. You know, life happens, and I wouldn't want to get depressed over not achieving goals because of the new house or something. But I'm also a language addicted, so I'm not really afraid of losing interest.
I'm studying Indonesian and this year my goal is to read 1 million words in Indonesian. I use Lingq which I love for reading. I'll also be adding cards to Anki and doing 20ish minutes of that a day and classes on italki to keep up my output. I wish there was something like lingoda for Indonesian. Although in some ways the lack of resources in Indonesian is helpful becuase I'm not always chasing the shiny new thing! I appreciated the inclusion of neurospicey peeps and look forward to a spaced rep/ anki video.
Not starting a new language, but continuing with Gàidhlig.
I have fallen into a pattern that works for me quite well and my plan is to keep doing what I am doing until I feel ready to head to Scotland and test at the Gàidhlig College to see what level I have reached, but first I want to get to the point where I am comfortable enough to do a couple of weeks staying with a native Gàidhlig speaking family in Nova Scotia.
I teach music so the stay will be fun for doing some traditional music too.
Yes, please, ASMR video about linguistics of ASMR!
I am learning French in order to dive in straight into the fruitful works of many francophone Orthodox Christian fathers, some of the best theological and philosophical texts from modern times on my religion are written in French; which provide a reciprocal dialogue between how us Christians and our modern secular worlds approach many important topics related to ethics, theosophy and anthropology. I just want to be able to take on my hands their works and New Testament and read without any interruptions with a consistent grasp, wouldn't even complain if I can't buy a pack of Marlboro reds in French at a buffet... all my focus is on reading
I'd love a video in which you set up Anki cards/decks. It'd be nice to see it at different levels (just beginning a language, focused on vocabulary, focused on grammar, etc).
Thank you for the video as always! I always get super excited when you have a new upload!
You are so welcome! Thank you!
I have been shopping for a new language to learn for about two years. I started with Polish (on Duo Lingo) and hit a wall. Then I shifted to Yiddish for fun, as I’m competent in German. I dabbled in Norwegian, and Dutch, neither of which cliqued. I landed on Spanish, which has been fun for me as I also studied French. I’m feeling motivated to get as good in Spanish as I was in French. In the future I would love to continue with Polish and Yiddish, and choose a Scandinavian language to learn. Maybe someday I could learn Portuguese or Italian.
Also, I want to learn Anishinaabemowin!!!!
Thanks for the video! And yes, please, make the video about the explicit vocab memorisation and repetition! And wait! Did I hear ASMR??? So happy I’m a subscriber already!
I live in China and my wife speaks Mandarin and Cantonese. My desire to study Mandarin is waning due to negative experiences in country. I am motivated to study Tibetan since we have traveled in areas where the language is spoken. Plus I would love to be able to speak with a monk or other Tibetan speakers. Also my neurospicy mind likes the idea of studying the most complicated spelling system among modern languages.
I would love a video on how to do spaced repetition systems.
Yes! Please do a video on how to do spaced repetition well
My family would think theres something wrong with my brain if i started learning turkish lmao. Great video
my story learning language for the wrong reason. I was working in a grocery store (with a significant arabic-speaking population) and wanted to learn arabic, partly cause I think it's pretty, but my main goal was to be able to help customers in arabic. Just things like "the dairy section is to the left" or "the chicken with the blue label is halal". Two things I didn't realize - arabic is a language of varied dialects, and leaning MSA is not going to be very helpful to speak to an Egyptian, Moroccan, etc. customer. Second, NOBODY is EVER going to walk up to a white grocery clerk in Canada and as a question in Arabic.
I really, really loved how you described the problem of learning languages that you have negative associations with. I'm learning Mandarin Chinese (I don't have Chinese heritage), and a lot of my friends from Chinese immigrant families constantly express frustration with their own learning journeys, not being able to force themselves to memorize characters, a lot of shame speaking in public, feeling like they should already know everything, etc. I've always thought, damn, if Chinese inspired such intense negative feelings in me, there's no way in hell I'd be able to spend hours doing flashcards learning characters. All I get from learning Chinese is positive reinforcement from learning new things, and every native speaker I meet is happy and patient with me.
20:10 YOOO I never put that double meaning together before! 🤯🤯🤯
this video is calling me out so hard - the mention of hungarian, the ADHD section describing me so well, and the sleep section because i am watching this video at 5am 💀
Really appreciate this channel. I've been trying to learn French for a few years, (I made some good progress when I was a kid, but dropped it in college and the following few years). Have picked it up again a few years ago due to French Trip last year, and once there I loved the amount I could interact, even though it was very small, and wanted to really deep dive more. So casual conversations, directions, talk about food and culture are my main goals. My progress has been slow due to awful strategies at first, right now I'm just trying to memorize conjugations (thanks Subjunctive), and vocab, while doing some reading and listening to some native french speaking on podcasts. Progress has also been slow due to 1 year old and stressful job, but I'm trying to make some progress. Thanks for all your videos
I'm trying to learn Swedish so that when my partner and i have children we can speak in her native language at home so they learn it along with English. I don't want my kids to have the same fate i had with my mom being an immigrant but never learning Russian because my dad refused to learn it.
I think in one of Jones's videos I heard him talk about a strategy when one parent talks to their child in one language, and the other parent talks in different language, and that somehow helps the kid learn both. Jones should create a video on this topic.
@elzabethtatcher9570 well if we're raising the child in America we would be switching between languages whenever we leave the house
Learned Spanish because I felt it was the most useful second language for a U.S. citizen. At the B1 level, I actually love it now, but I definitely forced myself not to quit early on. Definitely recommend not doing a language because you feel like you should-just like Dr. Jones said.
Great video as always. I watched the 2024 one :)
My language goal this year is with Japanese. I want to be conversational enough to enjoy meeting natives and smoothly navigate the basics of traveling in Japan, and I want to read books and understand native content (news, entertainment, etc)
I'm using WaniKani (an SRS) to learn vocab and Kanji, (There are 60 levels and I'm level 27) My goal is to continue that everyday to not get behind in reviews and do a minimum of 5 new cards daily, more on weekends and when I can.
I have a book I want to read ５pages a week (また、同じ夢を見ていた）
A grammar book 1 chapter a week or look up things as I notice them
Produce a few sentences myself to be peer reviewed each week or some other output (commenting on videos in Japanese, journal entry, etc.)
And engage in watching and listening to any content as much as I can that isn't so difficult to understand that I start to hate the process. :)
Are annual "how to learn a language" videos spaced repetition for us to remember language learning principles?
I absolutely understand how specific strategies can sometimes be vastly more effective than others at achieving one's goal. But I've always felt that if you're learning a language in general terms - with an interest in reading, writing, listening and speaking all to a relatively high standard without any specific frills - that by far the best way to proceed is simply brute force: study and immerse yourself in general contexts, with focus on the basics and what you find interesting, and never look back. Just do what floats your boat and you'll come across all the stuff you need to and want to know.
YES! Please do a piece on Anki (etc.).
In a year and half, my partner will finish her studies, and we’re planning to move to Finland. I’d love to reach a level by then where I can have basic conversations with my Finnish friends (so I don’t keep forcing them to speak English), ask for directions, do my shopping, listen to the news, and more. So, going from a high A1~low A2 to B1.
I am focused on maintaining my Spanish, German, and Romanian. But I am more motivated to learn my husband's language of Ekpeye. It is a bit of challenge, as there is not a lot of material out in the world, but there is some and I am determined to be able to be conversational with his family. I am almost certain I am the only pale-skinned person learning it for this purpose.
My original motivation for learning Spanish was watching Mexican wrestlers on WCW.
Honestly so real, I originally wanted to learn German because I wanted to read fanfics in a different language than English ( I have no idea why, but it seemed appealing)
since 2024 was terribe for my language learning due to some external factors, this year I´d like to make up for this.
I started Icelandic, wish to get my french and dutch to a higher level, and start slowly with Old English, since I´d like to be abe to read it in the future.
Oh yes, and I´d still like to hear your take on Pimsleur.
PLEASE do the linguistic asmr video🛐🛐
yes please!
I've started following a bunch of ASMRtists in my target language (Italian) recently. I like to listen to ASMR to relax before bed and this is a nice way to get some additional language exposure while I do that, especially since the language is often relatively simple and they tend to speak (or whisper) slowly and clearly.
I've been learning Japanese for 3 years of hard work... with MASSIVE breaks. I have forgotten more than i've ever learned, but I retain more each time I buckle down for a while. I'm at around an N3 level now finally, and it took a lot of work and a long time to get here. And anyone who tells you they can pass the N3 in a year is telling the truth, but they're not at the actual level the N3 is supposed to represent. Think similarly to the people that can pass a certification test, but can't speak intelligently about any of the relevant topics that comprise the test subject... you can study for a test and pass almost any of them in a year, but rote memorization is not the same as learning.
"Recognizing something but not knowing what it means" - also a part of processing that I find super interesting where we have a representations of a word/etc. which is a different thing from it being attached to a meaning for it.
A video about SRS would be super interesting. I've been kind of an Anki nut for over 10 years, and there's a lot of new developments recently that would benefit from input from people with more domain knowledge.
I'm a native Spanish speaker, bilingual in English. I also know a bit of Japanese and some words from other languages.
My plan for 2025 (in fact, the second semester) is to learn Portugese.
I work for an insurance company, and I would like to be certified in Portuguese to be able to take those calls instead of looking for an interpreter.
For Christmas this year my mom got me a comic book in French that I saw the last time I was in Paris that I regretted not buying, so goal number 1 is to be able to comfortably be able to read that book (and perhaps plan another trip hehe)
My 2025 goals are:
- Become comfortable in both spoken and written Chinese (I’m getting there, although the spoken part is lagging behind-I need to learn more words).
- Resume learning Spanish, which unfortunately was sidelined due to the overwhelming enthusiasm I developed for learning Chinese.
- Resume learning the new vocabulary I encounter during my weekly spoken German sessions (also sidelined by my focus on Chinese).
- Continue to acquire new words and idiomatic expressions in English.
- Strictly forbid myself from starting any new language learning projects, as my bandwidth is already fully occupied.
I'm a conference interpreter and I have to have a high level of proficiency in my B languages in a vast amount of technical subjects. On a Monday I might work at a conference about make up and the next day it's about dam safety. Any advice on how to add/perfect languages? I would love to know more about the academic studies about people like me.
short term goal is "see how long a daily streak I can get on Duolingo Spanish," and long term goals include conversational Spanish with friends, maybe traveling in S. America, and learning Classical Nahuatl (most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish)
I am currently working on learning German because I’m moving to Germany in march for a masters degree and want to be able to communicate with the locals and make new friends!
The ADHD comment hit home, having tried to learn (French, Italian, Japanese, in high school) Russian (still can read Cyrillic but that's about all) Finnish, Arabic (very briefly), German and Spanish post (as well as occasionally trying to re-learn Japanese). This year I intend to focus on Spanish while continuing with my German studies, Spanish is by far my strongest second language, helped greatly by a visit to South America and two brief visits to Barcelona. For me, and I believe most English speakers, out of the above languages Finnish was by far the most difficult for me to grasp. I don't think it was helped by the fact that Australian English is my native flavor and we tend not to be too picky about what vowel goes where or enunciating them clearly, all extremely important if your language is made up of mainly vowels, Huvin kiitos.... Just did a Spanish lesson, am taking your advice and rewarding myself, with a German beer, It being a very hot summer Saturday afternoon here.
+1 for a detailed breakdown on how to use SRS :)
I am going to work with my partner to make a real language learning plan. Thank you for the insights
A spaced repetition video would be awesome, I've been using it to study words for scrabble of all things and it has worked scarily well, I've been meaning to pick up Anki to do it with Spanish words. A video on doing it more efficiently would be legendary
my "learning for the wrong reason" story is relearning spanish, my native language, which has been dormant in my brain since moving to a different country as a child. as I got into linguophilia I became more and more overcome by an irrational sense of guilt and shame over abandoning my "real" language to go gallivanting with japanese and (worse) italian (which ironically I found quite easy thanks to my dormant spanish).
it ends happily though, as I ended up rediscovering how great of a language it is, its fascinating phonology, how much great literature (cervantes, garcía márquez, borges) there is, and quite a few youtube channels which make enjoyable CI content. much luck on your spanish journey ✌