Language learning is fundamentally about acquiring words. If our vocabulary grows through lots of listening and reading, our sense of the language, its structure and usage, will also grow. --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingosteve podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN
"It's gonna take as long as it takes" man that takes a lot of weight off of feeling like I'm behind! Thank you for these videos seriously, they always inspire me to go harder at learning Mandarin!
@@springbreak2021 Great to hear, currently picking up spanish again, after I had for 3 years in highschool. Still felt unsure about how to pick up new words and learn vocabulary effectively, this helps me a lot and motivates me to just trust the process.
Thank you Mr. Kauffman, I'm brazilian and I spend the time in quarentine improving my english and learning the japanese language. Your videos are really helpful. Obrigado!
Language learning by reading is kind of like a Galton Board. Every time you see a word, your understanding of that word is slightly increased. After some time you understand words in the language based on how frequent they are. This is automatic. Sometimes you may feel like you don't make any progress, but you have some understanding of a lot of words at the same time. There are thousands of words ready to be "activated", which they will be by reading them a few more times. They are just waiting to reach the line which is needed to be able to use that word in a sentence. And when those words reaches the line, it will open a new world of words because all words in a language are connected. You may never have seen the word "pitaju", but you know that "pitanje" means question, so you kind of just know it anyway.
I personally don't, but a lot of people do, and it works for them. I read books, use Lingq, and watch RUclips or other videos. For me Lingq is the absolute best when it comes to learning new words, but you have to listen to the language being spoken as well or you won't understand much.
There are only two ways in which you can cause your brain to put information into your long term memory. One is by having review sessions with time periods inbetween. This is called the spaced repetion method. The other is by having emotionally stressful experiences. This second method is difficult to use. For the first method, when you are reading and occasionally run across the same word you are accidentially using a form of spaced repetition. The problem is that if to much time has elapsed, the brain will decide that the informmation is not used often enough to not put the information into long term memory so it is bettter to use flash cards and review them at planned times.
“Just keep enjoying the language”. In all my search to find the best way to study A language, this is it. When you love something, you not only do your best but you don’t worry, judge or get frustrated.
Some people say Steve Kaufmann is fake and can't speak so many languages. But I believe Mr. Kaufmann, and I have learned a lot from him. Now I speak four languages, using his methods. At least, it worked for me. Thank you Mr. Kaufmann.
Just because he spoke some languages before doesn't mean he can still speak them today. If you don't use it, you lose it. The only way to prove himself is to speak the languages he hasn't used in years with actual natives and let them decide. My prediction is that with some languages he can't last even 5 minutes, and until he proves himself, some of us will remain rightfully skeptical. It's so easy to say "I speak 20 languages" and some of them are so rusty you can barely hold a 5 minute conversation and end up not proving it.
@@michaelrespicio5683 He says that he can comunicate in 20 languages, he always emphasizes that he cannot speak perfectly all of them, and this is not a unique problem of him, all polyglots know and coexist with that. A person who studied and can comunicate with 20 languages is obvious that he will not be able to speak perfectly all of them. There are a lot of videos that he talks and practice languages with native speakers, you're a person who have a lot of opinions without even knows the subject that you are talking.
@@michaelrespicio5683 He doesn't have to prove anything. Anybody who knows anything about language learning can see that he knows what he's talking about and that he's a skilled polyglot. But carry on being skeptical, if it helps you in some way 🤷♀️
Hi, Steve, love your videos. I'm a language learner and an instructional designer, and you hit it on the head: ENJOY is the trick. People who enjoy (i.e. find rewarding) learning keep learning and will find ways to learn anything (not just language), even if the instructional methodology isn't there. Finding ways to love what you're learning overcomes obstacles.
I just want to say thank you very much i am studying English language but sometimes i forgot and suffering with grammar. You have helped me what i should have to do to improve my skill.
Hi Mr. Kaufmann! I'm Brazilian and I'm learning English! Your videos are so amazing and they're helping me a lot in my learning! Thank you so much for this rich content and for motivating the people to keep learning languages!
Mandarin is pretty far from American English, so (as you say) it takes longer. I'm on my 4th year of self-study, but I've improved in the last month. I learn new phrases, forget them, learn them again and after a couple times I remember them. It works. Thanks for the ideas and suggestions.
I always find it really frustrated when I forgot the Russian words I previously learned. Now I feel relief after listening to you, just need to forget and re learn, it good to forget. Amazing.
i'm a Russian native speaker, and I (and lots of us) forget Russian words sometimes when I speak english or any others language. Therefore it goes the same with English etc. So don't worry about It
Steve does such an excellent job in digging deep and in making it simple. I can totally identify with him. I'm one who is always looking for an advantage in learning. LINGQ definitely is my most used and most important tool for learning. It does two things that are essential to effective study and learning. It gives you clear and native audio while at the same time, giving you ample, effective and interesting content. Steve, thank you so much for what you do! You are deeply appreciated!
Steve I’ve seen your channel on my recommended for years. I just wanted to drop by and say your video production quality has gone way up. You’re awesome and your ability to excitedly learn new skills at a later stage in life helps me keep going in my language learning.
Since I'm an engineer, I've been spending the last year and a half trying to take an engineering approach to learning Japanese. It's been rough. Hearing Steve talk like this is so refreshing. He's the anti-engineer. Here's to the next 18 months being a lot more enjoyable for me.
I find that more often than not - a new word will just 'stick' without any conscious effort on my part to remember it... and this happens in a variety of circumstances: a conversation I had with a taxi driver, a news article I read, a cooking show I watched, and so on... so this comes back to your point Steve, about just enjoying the language and using it every day.
Hi Steve, I think the way you count the words a reader knows on Lingq is so much better than trying to track a reader's "understanding" of a word family through some convoluted algorithm involving the various forms of a word. I was a software developer for many years and I am learning German. My experience with both of these intellectual disciplines tells me it would be nearly impossible to develop a good general algorithm for identifying word families, and it would be even more difficult to explain such an algorithm to a user. In fact, I'm sure almost no one would want to, or would bother to, wade through such an explanation. By itself, the word "ziehen" in German has many forms. Here are a few, counted out for illustration: 1-ziehen, 2-ziehend, 3-gezogen, 4-ziehe, 5-ziehst, 6-zieht, 7-zog, 8-zogst, 9-zogen, 10-zogt, 11-ziehest, 12-ziehet, 13- zöge, 14-zögest, 15-zögen, 16-zöget, 17-zieh If one can use all these forms of "ziehen", does one "know" the word. No, not even close because each of these can be used with at least 15 prefixes. Then, too, things get even more complicated when one considers that Duden, a standard dictionary for the German language, lists at least twenty definitions for the word "ziehen." Also, let's not forget that many of these forms and variants have other uses in colloquial speech and fixed expressions. And, this is just one verb out of tens of thousands. This is why my experience says it would be nearly impossible to work up an algorithm capable of assessing one's knowledge of, or understanding of, a word. I think Lingq has the right approach with its counting individual word forms. It's a good metric. It's a concrete measure of progress which celebrates each incremental conceptual step toward internalizing one's target language. To be able to say, "I am," in another language is an important step, however, large or small a step that might be, and Lingq rightfully counts that as progress. To effectively use a language requires that tens of thousands of small language-learning steps be made. Lingq tracks each of these steps along the language learning path. With each new word-form counted, Lingq assures the reader that they are always moving forward.
6:45 that's true l have friend He was study ilets 1• He forget every vocabulary he learned. 2 • He began reading various fields, reading the space field as well, and fortunately for him, on ILETS he had a question writing a post about space the reading helps him alot.
Thanks .. feel better about all the stuff I’m forgetting along the way and have to go back and re -learn , it can be discouraging sometimes ; but hearing it’s part of the process is encouraging !
Krashen is basically the core of everything we do. I agree so much on that point. We don't really need anything more complicated than that. Repeated reading in an extensive reading in context is very effective for vocabulary acquisition. I ask my students to 1. Read an accessible text, preferably while listening to audio of the text. 2. Define in L1 with the most likely definition of the choices available. 3. Add the words to a spaced-practice vocabulary acquisition program that will drill as many skills as possible. 4. Reread the text. 5. Note, summarize, or graphically organize the text. Record yourself 6. Spend enough time each day with your vocabulary set to keep up with the new vocabulary, normally ten or fifteen minutes. The effects are almost miraculous. Students can easily add 15-20 quality vocabulary per day to their real, acquired language.
Yes, 100%. I really enjoy listening to Mr. Kaufman . . . talking about how to learn a language or how to learn vocabulary, that’s why I subscribed it . . . Thanks a lot!!
The timing of this video and what i have noticed recently is spot on! I am retaking some much lower french and the reminders are fantastic. It's no longer trying to remember why you do what you do but a great strengthening tool and reminders!
Quote of the video: "So you're better off to simply spend your time enjoying the language, reading and listening as much as you can, to acquire the language naturally. In the natural way, eventually words will stick."
I just started to want to learn to Korean, yes it started with Kpop, but the more I hear, the more learn of the culture I realized I really wanted to learn the language. Steve you have help me beyond words with your videos, I realized my learning style with language is reading and listening. Thank you so much for all the amazing information! Been working on just listening and reading Hangul just for a few weeks and I can already see myself understanding so much! ❤ learning the Vocabulary has help me so much in my understanding! Thanks again Steve!
Every person is different and has his own creativity. As a result, I created my own method to learn vocabulary, which makes use of 2 tools, video clips and looped audios. Over the course of the past 4 years, I gathered 550 expressions or thereabouts, and created a journal. All the expressions are just popular phrases, which you may listen over and over again on TV shows, sports events, radio shows, and stuff; that's the reason it took me quite a bit of time. The expressions include phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms, and so on and so forth. I have all of them written in context, using my own experiences in life. To make vocabulary memorable, all my target language is in upper case letters and highlighted. When I click on a specific phrase, I get redirected to a bunch of video clips, containing just the phrase I clicked on; I use the videos to grasp how vocab is used in different scenarios and practice the shadowing technique. In addition, Using a human-like text-to-speech software, I created an audio of my personal experiences in the journal so that I can use a loop player (app) to listen segments of my journal, over and over, when I am driving or doing things at home. Not to brag, but mind you, I already have a good command of the English language.
I’ve been using lingq to learn French. I’m close to 4,500 learned words and I can make up what a word that I’ve never encountered before. I’m also able to recognize how the language is being used. Everything is becoming clearer.
@@nyob4938 According to my dictionary, wood is also possible, at least in British English. But it doesn't really matter, the point I wanted to make is that although I admire Steve a lot, I sometimes feel he is simplifying things a bit too much. Acquiring words does not just mean acquiring words, if you know what I mean. It means acquiring grammatical properties, semantic range(s), register etc., and while it may be the right thing for one learner (like Steve) to acquire these aspects of vocabulary subsconsciously, it might be the right thing for another learner to chose a more conscious, structured approach. Just my two cents.
@@hckoenig yeah I can agree with you there. I guess he teaches what he knows works for most people - but you're right. I like a mix of gradual absorbing and intentional study for more complex constructs
That is also my view on this topic of language learning! I am currently learning german and I have already achieved a very fluent level of english, and I have always learned in a very natural way! I also know some spanish and italian. My mother language is portuguese!
Another nice vid, Mr. Kaufman. See that silver thing in front of you sitting on your desk? It's an electronic apparatus that is used to collect sound. It's called: "microphone". There you go!
You gave us many perfect advices. I learn new vocabularies by reading a lot, and I do that reading the Bible, for it is something I'm into it, so it's easier for me to understand that. I also think that it is more important to learn by synonyms, because it enriches our vocabulary, and for sure that we see that achievement when we are speaking or doing an essay.. That's when we realize that the path we're taking it's good, haha!! Greetings from Brazil🇧🇷📌
You are the best i tried to study english by using or memorizing word and after it was a waste tme i always forget these words and i dicided to read the Bible in english for just fun and i see the results
I can read around half of the words in a text in Japanese. Vocabulary is 1400 distinct words. 530 mature as of Anki. I will be faster then expected when this goes on. I'm thinking about studying 100 Japanese words for a day again for a few days.
For anybody who needs to take a test: One thing I'd like to note is that while I agree with many things said in this video, please don't disregard the "450 words for TOEFL"-like books. While any given word is unlikely to show up on the test, you are 100% going to see a couple of words from that book. And if you don't know their meaning - you are for sure going to lose some points. It is even more true about GRE, which specifically targets recondite, arcane, convoluted words that are used in normal speech so meagerly that you may only encounter them in normal text through sheer serendipity. -- I hope you see what I did here. This is a type of sentence you may actually see on a test. I once had to take the TOEFL and GRE (verbal part is just a harder version TOEFL), and I needed to ace them. And I did. If you want a very high score - you must go through the lists of words you need to know and you must use flashcards. Otherwise, you would have to read hundreds of books to encounter the 2000+ arcane words that you will be tested on during the exam. Unless you have years to prepare - the "read more" strategy alone will not work. Moreover, the tests specifically make you pick between very similarly sounding words/between words with similar meaning. You must absolutely master you word knowledge in order to be confident in your answers, so simply "being familiar" will not suffice. What I find extremely helpful, however, is to make sure that you show the words you learn some attention, love, and respect. Ask the word about its friends (usage context), ask it about its family (etymology and related words), give it a cute nickname (some mnemonic). This way you actually get to know it well. My maximum was mastering 50 words in a day (around 3 hours of pure vocab study). Also, it's relatively easy to do once, but keeping it up for a week/month is a completely different beast (you need to wisely schedule word review, etc.). P.S. Whatever you are doing - make sure to hype yourself up a little. If you are reviewing the flashcards - make every word you recall feel like you have conquered the world. Fight to recall every word as if you were holding your friend who is grasping to you, trying not to fall into an abyss of oblivion. If you attach deep emotions to your practice - you will learn much, much faster.
Hello Sir, thank you for your teaching 🙏 Just wanted to suggest. Please make a video to learn a language from scratch. With no knowledge what so ever of any words. I have apply the method of extensive listening, but at some point if I don’t start to memorice at least a number of words then I don’t learn anything. I only become familiar with the sounds but no the meanings
Hello mr. Kaufmann, hope you see this comment. As a persian I was willing to state that despite of the alphabet similarities between arabic language and persian, they are far too different in terms of grammar. For vocabulary they have fairly in common but I say again that these two are really distinct from each other. And a fun fact: arabic is being teached in iran and almost all of the students are afraid of it and they especially hate it though they have to study it well to get applied to the top universities in the country.
Thanks for the advice! Been trying to enhance my vocabulary for live eSports commentary and I've been looking up words and writing them down and all that but it doesn't seem to stick! Seems to me that I've lost touch with the fundamentals, reading.
I like your spectacle, nice to see that you can break it into two halves and rejoin it effortlessly. will buy same, what shall I search for? foldable spectacles?
@@mohamelsadig I've been studying languages for years and have a degree in Modern Languages, but was lazy with reading and vocab. Thus I've never gotten fluent in my OCD opinion. Just a shame I only thought of this now
@@Theincrediblespud They say that reading and listening comprehension are the only way to tune the narrative voice of language in our heads :) Thanks for sharing with me! Wishing you all the best on the journey of language acquisition and mastery
Hey Steve! If you read me, how would one go about learning a language with a non-phonetic script? In my case, Japanese (and would like to later learn Chinese); since I don't know both the meaning and pronunciation, looking up every single word makes reading frustrating. Is there more to it or it just boils down to indeed looking up every single word until they stick? BTW nice glasses!
@@aliceberethart I think there is something to be said for understanding kanji first (or learning the kanji of a word if you don't know them yet). That doesn't mean you have to study all kanji in existence before learning words, but Knowing the components of words is really useful. For example 火山 (kaZAN) meaning "volcano" is made up of the kanji for "fire" and "mountain" which makes sense. Once you know the reading for mountain in one context, it applies to a lot (not all) of other words with the same kanji. For example 登山 (toZAN), 山岳 (SANgaku), 山脈 (SANmyaku). This kind of holistic knowledge of the characters and how they relate to words applies in other ways, such as the character 的's ability to turn nouns into adjectives such as with 世界的. It also applies within individual characters such as in 鉱. This character means something like "mineral" or "ore" and you might recognize the character easier by noticing the meaning component of the character, "金" relates it to gold (or metals in general) and the "広" component gives you a hint for the pronunciation, こう (onyomi). You would know how to read 鉱 just by knowing other words with that sound component like 広告 (KOUkoku), 広大 (KOUdai), etc. If you knew all of this from other words and knowledge of Kanji, then you may be able to deduce that 鉱山 is pronounced (kouzan) and means "mine" as in the place in the mountain where you find ore. You can still look up the word if you are unsure, but knowing all of this creates links between concepts, components, Kanji, words, and sounds and really helps words stick in your mind. It gives them their own identity and you can also understand words more intuitively rather than by rote memorization.
A word from a program’s point of view can be a few words with no spaces between them when the orthography requires. This makes it harder for programs, including LingQ to make correct word lists with definitions.
I wish I watched this video when I was learning Arabic. I wasted so much time on unnecessary words! I would read novels and memorize vocabulary, then go to the native speakers and use that vocabulary. Their answers would be like: What? What does that word mean lol...
Hi Steve, how about spelling and writing? Do you ever write the new languages you learnt ? OR even write an article/essay or something ? Also, do you have any technique to help to memorise how to spell a word (rather than just recognise it when reading)? It appears you haven't touched much upon this topic (sorry, or do I miss it? Since you have so many great videos, I haven't watched them all yet), it would be great if you can talk about these too or direct me to the ones where you have already covered these in the past, if you don't mind..., many thanks.
The only languages where I was tested and had to demonstrate an ability to write were French and Mandarin Chinese. Otherwise I have very little need to write and I don't worry about my spelling. Nowadays with computers and different keyboards, and using dictation as I am doing right now in English, and which I can do in 10 other languages, I have no need to worry about spelling.
Where can I buy Krashen's book .... Taipei Lectures? Amazon or Barnes/Nobe has Exploration in Language Acquisition and use, 1st Ed. but does not show "Taipei Lectures" so it isn't the same book Steve recommended.
Hey steve im at a b1 level in my spanish and i was wondering if since i already learned most of the most common words through comprehensible input, would it be useful to memorize new words i find since they dont repeat as much anymore?
@@trevorharrington3446 I spontaneously came across this video and untill now I learned new English words by finding it in book or on the Internet and putting them into my vocabulary learning app and then repeating them using space repetition technique and then most of the words I forgot) How do you learn new words? Just seeing new words in a book and trying guess their meaning? Because i understand that I spend a lot of time trying to put words into my app and trying to memorize them :(
@@alagunoff судя по имени могу ответить по русски. Я был в похожей ситуации. Прочитай мой коммент выше. Главное - не пытаться "быстренько" выучить слова с помощью карточек. С каждым словом которое ты учишь надо повозиться хотя бы 5 (а лучше 10) минут. Я использовал приложение Quizlet, т.к. оно предлагает несколько уровней изучения - от простых карточек до игры, где надо как можно быстрее печатать слова (иначе на планету падает астероид). Я делал колоды по 50 карт, с одной стороны определение на английском, с другой - слово. Старайся напоминать в определениях слова из других колод. Например, если ты выучил слово table в предыдущей колоде, то, когда учишь слово cup - можно к нему написать определение/подсказку в стиле "there is a ___ of tea on the table". Таким образом, ты, создавая карточки, будешь повторять другие карточки автоматически. На Quizlet я играл в астероиды пока слова не "отскакивали от зубов". То есть нужно чтобы увидев определение, ты мгновенно отвечал слово. Это не так долго, как может показаться. Если ты азартный человек - желание побить свой рекорд в игре будет отличным мотиватором. Если ты скорее человек творческий - очень помогает писать небольшие рассказы или стихотворения, используя все слова которые ты недавно изучил. Это весело и помогает запомнить и повторить много всего. Другая полезная игра - взять какое-нибудь слово и вспомнить все синонимы/антонимы. Иногда интересно посмотреть происхождение слова. В общем, главное - думать про слова, использовать их по-разному. Так ты запомнишь их навсегда. Удачи.
It's funny cuz when you don't have experience in any language and you start one from the scratch, you don'y really understand how just "reading and listening" you can acquire words and gradually words, but it works, it does, and from my experience i say it, cuz 60% of my knowledge of english comes from GTA V and other games and the other 40% from music, this man gives excellent advices and probably the best it's just make it enyoable, don't complicate it with things like grammar rules or study rules and that, of course if that works for you and it's interesting, do it, but if you don't enjoy study grammar rules, don't do it, and do things that are funny and great for you, probably this is best advice you can get, if you don't believe, just look at this man, nearly 80 years and he knows more than 15 languas, lmao
I want to share a technique for kearning and recalling, only because Im a Neuroscience buff- btw searching for material in French. That fuzzy, confusing sense when studying feeling like "Im never goi g to learn this" is actually the Brain doing the learning, and when we fall asleep, in the first few hours the magic happens. Also having a sensory stimulation while studying then repeating it while asleep the brainwill recall what we learned. Can be white noise, music, room freshner that plugs in. Andrew Huberman professor at Standford is my reference Instagram, RUclips is where I watch him.
Language learning is fundamentally about acquiring words. If our vocabulary grows through lots of listening and reading, our sense of the language, its structure and usage, will also grow.
---
FREE Language Learning Resources
10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com
LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/
My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/
The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/
My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingosteve
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870
---
Social Media
Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/
TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve
Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve
Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve
LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN
Steve you are my inspiration, a big hug from Brazil
@@galepticos1561 Blessings to Brazil
Hii Steve! I challenge u to learn Albanian, its a wonderful and very very special language! Its hard but you are going to love it!
@@mohamelsadig Thanks Guy
I hold the view that Language learning is fundamentally about immersing oneself in the culture in which that language is popular. cheers!
Okay but can we just take a moment to admire those cool glasses
In the polyglot community, you get awarded them after learning 15 languages.
@@breadyegg that's actually pretty dope
Hahahahah i was gonna say the same thing 🤣🤣🤣🤣
While watching, i couldn't stop thinking "hey man, pretty glasses"
"It's gonna take as long as it takes" man that takes a lot of weight off of feeling like I'm behind! Thank you for these videos seriously, they always inspire me to go harder at learning Mandarin!
It’s a marathon. Keep up the good work.
How is it going?
@@notoriousone1011 dude, so well! Thank you for having me return to this. He was right!! It really is a marathon!!
@@springbreak2021 Great to hear, currently picking up spanish again, after I had for 3 years in highschool. Still felt unsure about how to pick up new words and learn vocabulary effectively, this helps me a lot and motivates me to just trust the process.
Thank you Mr. Kauffman, I'm brazilian and I spend the time in quarentine improving my english and learning the japanese language. Your videos are really helpful.
Obrigado!
Otaku
Kkskks também
Salve otakada, blz
Im also learning Japanese i think I'll suffer learning kanji 😁
You don't need to suffer! Kanji are really healpful, the difficult part is the 音読み and 訓読み but they really will help you
Language learning by reading is kind of like a Galton Board. Every time you see a word, your understanding of that word is slightly increased. After some time you understand words in the language based on how frequent they are. This is automatic. Sometimes you may feel like you don't make any progress, but you have some understanding of a lot of words at the same time. There are thousands of words ready to be "activated", which they will be by reading them a few more times. They are just waiting to reach the line which is needed to be able to use that word in a sentence. And when those words reaches the line, it will open a new world of words because all words in a language are connected. You may never have seen the word "pitaju", but you know that "pitanje" means question, so you kind of just know it anyway.
Do not you learn new words by using memorizing app like Anki?
I personally don't, but a lot of people do, and it works for them. I read books, use Lingq, and watch RUclips or other videos. For me Lingq is the absolute best when it comes to learning new words, but you have to listen to the language being spoken as well or you won't understand much.
👌🏾
There are only two ways in which you can cause your brain to put information into your long term memory. One is by having review sessions with time periods inbetween. This is called the spaced repetion method. The other is by having emotionally stressful experiences. This second method is difficult to use. For the first method, when you are reading and occasionally run across the same word you are accidentially using a form of spaced repetition. The problem is that if to much time has elapsed, the brain will decide that the informmation is not used often enough to not put the information into long term memory so it is bettter to use flash cards and review them at planned times.
@@eiriks680 could you share your account with me?
“Just keep enjoying the language”. In all my search to find the best way to study A language, this is it. When you love something, you not only do your best but you don’t worry, judge or get frustrated.
Some people say Steve Kaufmann is fake and can't speak so many languages. But I believe Mr. Kaufmann, and I have learned a lot from him. Now I speak four languages, using his methods. At least, it worked for me. Thank you Mr. Kaufmann.
What? There are several videos of him talking to people and people praising him, those people who don't believe him are mentally handicapped.
Just because he spoke some languages before doesn't mean he can still speak them today. If you don't use it, you lose it. The only way to prove himself is to speak the languages he hasn't used in years with actual natives and let them decide. My prediction is that with some languages he can't last even 5 minutes, and until he proves himself, some of us will remain rightfully skeptical. It's so easy to say "I speak 20 languages" and some of them are so rusty you can barely hold a 5 minute conversation and end up not proving it.
@@michaelrespicio5683 He says that he can comunicate in 20 languages, he always emphasizes that he cannot speak perfectly all of them, and this is not a unique problem of him, all polyglots know and coexist with that. A person who studied and can comunicate with 20 languages is obvious that he will not be able to speak perfectly all of them. There are a lot of videos that he talks and practice languages with native speakers, you're a person who have a lot of opinions without even knows the subject that you are talking.
@@michaelrespicio5683 He doesn't have to prove anything. Anybody who knows anything about language learning can see that he knows what he's talking about and that he's a skilled polyglot. But carry on being skeptical, if it helps you in some way 🤷♀️
Hi, Steve, love your videos. I'm a language learner and an instructional designer, and you hit it on the head: ENJOY is the trick. People who enjoy (i.e. find rewarding) learning keep learning and will find ways to learn anything (not just language), even if the instructional methodology isn't there. Finding ways to love what you're learning overcomes obstacles.
Furthermore, if you enjoy what you do, a lot of times, you don't really notice the obstacles, because you are always focussing on way to move ahead.
Basically the takeaway from this video is to immerse yourself and enjoy the language you're learning , period.
That's the takeaway from every video
@@michaelrespicio5683 Not really
@@TheAnarchist99 yes it is
I just want to say thank you very much i am studying English language but sometimes i forgot and suffering with grammar. You have helped me what i should have to do to improve my skill.
You have reduced this learning thing to its simplest form. Thank you for keeping it simple for us simpletons.
Hi Mr. Kaufmann! I'm Brazilian and I'm learning English! Your videos are so amazing and they're helping me a lot in my learning! Thank you so much for this rich content and for motivating the people to keep learning languages!
Mandarin is pretty far from American English, so (as you say) it takes longer. I'm on my 4th year of self-study, but I've improved in the last month. I learn new phrases, forget them, learn them again and after a couple times I remember them. It works. Thanks for the ideas and suggestions.
I always find it really frustrated when I forgot the Russian words I previously learned. Now I feel relief after listening to you, just need to forget and re learn, it good to forget. Amazing.
i'm a Russian native speaker, and I (and lots of us) forget Russian words sometimes when I speak english or any others language. Therefore it goes the same with English etc. So don't worry about It
Wise Oldman, love listening to steve kaurfmman's speeches n teachings, greetings from Medellín
Thank you, as always, Mr. Kaufmann!
Steve does such an excellent job in digging deep and in making it simple. I can totally identify with him. I'm one who is always looking for an advantage in learning. LINGQ definitely is my most used and most important tool for learning. It does two things that are essential to effective study and learning. It gives you clear and native audio while at the same time, giving you ample, effective and interesting content. Steve, thank you so much for what you do! You are deeply appreciated!
I listen to you every morning to kick start my motivation to keep improving my language learning.
Steve I’ve seen your channel on my recommended for years. I just wanted to drop by and say your video production quality has gone way up. You’re awesome and your ability to excitedly learn new skills at a later stage in life helps me keep going in my language learning.
Since I'm an engineer, I've been spending the last year and a half trying to take an engineering approach to learning Japanese. It's been rough. Hearing Steve talk like this is so refreshing. He's the anti-engineer. Here's to the next 18 months being a lot more enjoyable for me.
I find that more often than not - a new word will just 'stick' without any conscious effort on my part to remember it... and this happens in a variety of circumstances: a conversation I had with a taxi driver, a news article I read, a cooking show I watched, and so on... so this comes back to your point Steve, about just enjoying the language and using it every day.
7:08 those glasses though 🔥
Hi Steve, I think the way you count the words a reader knows on Lingq is so much better than trying to track a reader's "understanding" of a word family through some convoluted algorithm involving the various forms of a word.
I was a software developer for many years and I am learning German. My experience with both of these intellectual disciplines tells me it would be nearly impossible to develop a good general algorithm for identifying word families, and it would be even more difficult to explain such an algorithm to a user. In fact, I'm sure almost no one would want to, or would bother to, wade through such an explanation.
By itself, the word "ziehen" in German has many forms. Here are a few, counted out for illustration: 1-ziehen, 2-ziehend, 3-gezogen, 4-ziehe, 5-ziehst, 6-zieht, 7-zog, 8-zogst, 9-zogen, 10-zogt, 11-ziehest, 12-ziehet, 13- zöge, 14-zögest, 15-zögen, 16-zöget, 17-zieh
If one can use all these forms of "ziehen", does one "know" the word. No, not even close because each of these can be used with at least 15 prefixes. Then, too, things get even more complicated when one considers that Duden, a standard dictionary for the German language, lists at least twenty definitions for the word "ziehen." Also, let's not forget that many of these forms and variants have other uses in colloquial speech and fixed expressions. And, this is just one verb out of tens of thousands.
This is why my experience says it would be nearly impossible to work up an algorithm capable of assessing one's knowledge of, or understanding of, a word.
I think Lingq has the right approach with its counting individual word forms. It's a good metric. It's a concrete measure of progress which celebrates each incremental conceptual step toward internalizing one's target language. To be able to say, "I am," in another language is an important step, however, large or small a step that might be, and Lingq rightfully counts that as progress. To effectively use a language requires that tens of thousands of small language-learning steps be made. Lingq tracks each of these steps along the language learning path. With each new word-form counted, Lingq assures the reader that they are always moving forward.
You're exactly right. Enjoyment is the key. Everything else will follow.
6:45 that's true l have friend
He was study ilets
1• He forget every vocabulary he learned.
2 • He began reading various fields, reading the space field as well, and fortunately for him, on ILETS he had a question writing a post about space
the reading helps him alot.
Thank you for sharing. It's only natural that we'll forget. Just keep going. You'll be stunned with what sticks.
Thanks for making LingQ. I've been able to find so many useful and understandable stories. I'm excited to start learning Swedish again.
I couldn't agree more. I also think that listen and read is the key!
Thanks .. feel better about all the stuff I’m forgetting along the way and have to go back and re -learn , it can be discouraging sometimes ; but hearing it’s part of the process is encouraging !
Krashen is basically the core of everything we do. I agree so much on that point. We don't really need anything more complicated than that.
Repeated reading in an extensive reading in context is very effective for vocabulary acquisition. I ask my students to
1. Read an accessible text, preferably while listening to audio of the text.
2. Define in L1 with the most likely definition of the choices available.
3. Add the words to a spaced-practice vocabulary acquisition program that will drill as many skills as possible.
4. Reread the text.
5. Note, summarize, or graphically organize the text. Record yourself
6. Spend enough time each day with your vocabulary set to keep up with the new vocabulary, normally ten or fifteen minutes.
The effects are almost miraculous. Students can easily add 15-20 quality vocabulary per day to their real, acquired language.
Yes, 100%. I really enjoy listening to Mr. Kaufman . . . talking about how to learn a language or how to learn vocabulary, that’s why I subscribed it . . . Thanks a lot!!
The timing of this video and what i have noticed recently is spot on! I am retaking some much lower french and the reminders are fantastic. It's no longer trying to remember why you do what you do but a great strengthening tool and reminders!
Quote of the video: "So you're better off to simply spend your time enjoying the language, reading and listening as much as you can, to acquire the language naturally. In the natural way, eventually words will stick."
Thank you Steve, very helpful. Love the glasses btw haha
I really enjoy at the moment, I laughed during this video. Perfect explanation. Thank you🙂
I just started to want to learn to Korean, yes it started with Kpop, but the more I hear, the more learn of the culture I realized I really wanted to learn the language. Steve you have help me beyond words with your videos, I realized my learning style with language is reading and listening.
Thank you so much for all the amazing information! Been working on just listening and reading Hangul just for a few weeks and I can already see myself understanding so much! ❤ learning the Vocabulary has help me so much in my understanding! Thanks again Steve!
"Just enjoy the language" So true! Don't let all these thick books discourage you, do it in a way you like!
Hi Steve! I'm liking the new setup and video quality!
You are the best teacher in the world.thank you so much.
Every person is different and has his own creativity. As a result, I created my own method to learn vocabulary, which makes use of 2 tools, video clips and looped audios. Over the course of the past 4 years, I gathered 550 expressions or thereabouts, and created a journal. All the expressions are just popular phrases, which you may listen over and over again on TV shows, sports events, radio shows, and stuff; that's the reason it took me quite a bit of time. The expressions include phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms, and so on and so forth. I have all of them written in context, using my own experiences in life. To make vocabulary memorable, all my target language is in upper case letters and highlighted. When I click on a specific phrase, I get redirected to a bunch of video clips, containing just the phrase I clicked on; I use the videos to grasp how vocab is used in different scenarios and practice the shadowing technique. In addition, Using a human-like text-to-speech software, I created an audio of my personal experiences in the journal so that I can use a loop player (app) to listen segments of my journal, over and over, when I am driving or doing things at home. Not to brag, but mind you, I already have a good command of the English language.
if I even read 1 page in English I easily get 6-7 new words , then on even reading 20 pages I acquire 130+ new words .
How to memorize so much words ?
I’ve been using lingq to learn French. I’m close to 4,500 learned words and I can make up what a word that I’ve never encountered before. I’m also able to recognize how the language is being used. Everything is becoming clearer.
So, so thankful for you and your resources!
Actually, "wood" has two meanings: 1. small forest 2. the material trees are mainly made of. So even this case is not as simple as it seems to be.
Well a small forest is "woods". So they aren't exactly the same
“There is another”
@@nyob4938 According to my dictionary, wood is also possible, at least in British English. But it doesn't really matter, the point I wanted to make is that although I admire Steve a lot, I sometimes feel he is simplifying things a bit too much. Acquiring words does not just mean acquiring words, if you know what I mean. It means acquiring grammatical properties, semantic range(s), register etc., and while it may be the right thing for one learner (like Steve) to acquire these aspects of vocabulary subsconsciously, it might be the right thing for another learner to chose a more conscious, structured approach. Just my two cents.
@@hckoenig yeah I can agree with you there. I guess he teaches what he knows works for most people - but you're right. I like a mix of gradual absorbing and intentional study for more complex constructs
It has three meanings, one of which is slang 😂
That is also my view on this topic of language learning! I am currently learning german and I have already achieved a very fluent level of english, and I have always learned in a very natural way! I also know some spanish and italian. My mother language is portuguese!
I simply love your videos.
I have to mention that he has amazing glasses.
Great video, by the way.
Hello, dear teacher steave. Thank you for this video. It's so useful for me. Regards from Colombia.
Обожаю Вас, спасибо за то что теперь я говорю на 4 язык, это все благодаря Вам!!!!
Спасибо вам
Another nice vid, Mr. Kaufman. See that silver thing in front of you sitting on your desk? It's an electronic apparatus that is used to collect sound. It's called: "microphone". There you go!
you are right the best way to learn is to enjoying the language, BTW I like your glasses
Thanks for your advice to ENJOY learning language :)
Thanks for all your tips!
You gave us many perfect advices. I learn new vocabularies by reading a lot, and I do that reading the Bible, for it is something I'm into it, so it's easier for me to understand that. I also think that it is more important to learn by synonyms, because it enriches our vocabulary, and for sure that we see that achievement when we are speaking or doing an essay.. That's when we realize that the path we're taking it's good, haha!!
Greetings from Brazil🇧🇷📌
We love you Steve
Steve, I would appriciate LingQ in Hungarian and Serbian too. Best wishes from Hungary!
We have both languages I think
Thanks Dr. Kaufmann😊
You are the best i tried to study english by using or memorizing word and after it was a waste tme i always forget these words and i dicided to read the Bible in english for just fun and i see the results
Thanks, doing this type of video you are always helping at the language learning process.
Oh I Love your glasses. ❤and thank you for your sharing
I can read around half of the words in a text in Japanese. Vocabulary is 1400 distinct words. 530 mature as of Anki.
I will be faster then expected when this goes on. I'm thinking about studying 100 Japanese words for a day again for a few days.
Great information. Thanks for posting.
Those glasses are so damn cool.
Very helpful video.
Thank you Steve Kaufmann. You learned your first Chinese before the wide use of Internet. Chapeau
very helpful lesson.. thank you steve
100% agree! Thanks for the great video Steve
I'm a language learner,especially English, the tough moment that im going through is practicing , speaking. Still cannot do that
Thank you Steve, I really appreciate that.
керемет видеолар, Стив рахмет сізге!!!
For anybody who needs to take a test:
One thing I'd like to note is that while I agree with many things said in this video, please don't disregard the "450 words for TOEFL"-like books. While any given word is unlikely to show up on the test, you are 100% going to see a couple of words from that book. And if you don't know their meaning - you are for sure going to lose some points.
It is even more true about GRE, which specifically targets recondite, arcane, convoluted words that are used in normal speech so meagerly that you may only encounter them in normal text through sheer serendipity. -- I hope you see what I did here. This is a type of sentence you may actually see on a test.
I once had to take the TOEFL and GRE (verbal part is just a harder version TOEFL), and I needed to ace them. And I did. If you want a very high score - you must go through the lists of words you need to know and you must use flashcards. Otherwise, you would have to read hundreds of books to encounter the 2000+ arcane words that you will be tested on during the exam. Unless you have years to prepare - the "read more" strategy alone will not work. Moreover, the tests specifically make you pick between very similarly sounding words/between words with similar meaning. You must absolutely master you word knowledge in order to be confident in your answers, so simply "being familiar" will not suffice.
What I find extremely helpful, however, is to make sure that you show the words you learn some attention, love, and respect. Ask the word about its friends (usage context), ask it about its family (etymology and related words), give it a cute nickname (some mnemonic). This way you actually get to know it well.
My maximum was mastering 50 words in a day (around 3 hours of pure vocab study). Also, it's relatively easy to do once, but keeping it up for a week/month is a completely different beast (you need to wisely schedule word review, etc.).
P.S. Whatever you are doing - make sure to hype yourself up a little. If you are reviewing the flashcards - make every word you recall feel like you have conquered the world. Fight to recall every word as if you were holding your friend who is grasping to you, trying not to fall into an abyss of oblivion. If you attach deep emotions to your practice - you will learn much, much faster.
Hello Sir, thank you for your teaching 🙏
Just wanted to suggest. Please make a video to learn a language from scratch. With no knowledge what so ever of any words.
I have apply the method of extensive listening, but at some point if I don’t start to memorice at least a number of words then I don’t learn anything. I only become familiar with the sounds but no the meanings
ruclips.net/video/mXqFD2bWHxU/видео.html
Hello mr. Kaufmann, hope you see this comment. As a persian I was willing to state that despite of the alphabet similarities between arabic language and persian, they are far too different in terms of grammar. For vocabulary they have fairly in common but I say again that these two are really distinct from each other. And a fun fact: arabic is being teached in iran and almost all of the students are afraid of it and they especially hate it though they have to study it well to get applied to the top universities in the country.
Thanks for the advice! Been trying to enhance my vocabulary for live eSports commentary and I've been looking up words and writing them down and all that but it doesn't seem to stick! Seems to me that I've lost touch with the fundamentals, reading.
Thank you
ありがとう
شكرا
I like your spectacle, nice to see that you can break it into two halves and rejoin it effortlessly. will buy same, what shall I search for? foldable spectacles?
Hi Steve, I recently thought it could be interesting to improve by listening to audiobooks whilst reading along. What are your thoughts about this?
100% do it
fantastic idea, great application of applied pronunciation, tonality, and speech mannerisms.
@@mohamelsadig I've been studying languages for years and have a degree in Modern Languages, but was lazy with reading and vocab. Thus I've never gotten fluent in my OCD opinion.
Just a shame I only thought of this now
@@Theincrediblespud They say that reading and listening comprehension are the only way to tune the narrative voice of language in our heads :) Thanks for sharing with me! Wishing you all the best on the journey of language acquisition and mastery
For my niece's 10th birthday, I gave her a thick heavy English dictionary. Today at 20, she has a wide vocabulary and she is studying Law.
L
Hey Steve! If you read me, how would one go about learning a language with a non-phonetic script? In my case, Japanese (and would like to later learn Chinese); since I don't know both the meaning and pronunciation, looking up every single word makes reading frustrating.
Is there more to it or it just boils down to indeed looking up every single word until they stick?
BTW nice glasses!
@@aliceberethart I think there is something to be said for understanding kanji first (or learning the kanji of a word if you don't know them yet). That doesn't mean you have to study all kanji in existence before learning words, but Knowing the components of words is really useful. For example 火山 (kaZAN) meaning "volcano" is made up of the kanji for "fire" and "mountain" which makes sense. Once you know the reading for mountain in one context, it applies to a lot (not all) of other words with the same kanji. For example 登山 (toZAN), 山岳 (SANgaku), 山脈 (SANmyaku).
This kind of holistic knowledge of the characters and how they relate to words applies in other ways, such as the character 的's ability to turn nouns into adjectives such as with 世界的. It also applies within individual characters such as in 鉱. This character means something like "mineral" or "ore" and you might recognize the character easier by noticing the meaning component of the character, "金" relates it to gold (or metals in general) and the "広" component gives you a hint for the pronunciation, こう (onyomi). You would know how to read 鉱 just by knowing other words with that sound component like 広告 (KOUkoku), 広大 (KOUdai), etc.
If you knew all of this from other words and knowledge of Kanji, then you may be able to deduce that 鉱山 is pronounced (kouzan) and means "mine" as in the place in the mountain where you find ore. You can still look up the word if you are unsure, but knowing all of this creates links between concepts, components, Kanji, words, and sounds and really helps words stick in your mind. It gives them their own identity and you can also understand words more intuitively rather than by rote memorization.
A word from a program’s point of view can be a few words with no spaces between them when the orthography requires. This makes it harder for programs, including LingQ to make correct word lists with definitions.
There are also lemmas (dictionary forms) and inflected forms. You want to count lemmas.
Very helpful and correct
شكرًا لك على الدرس
I wish I watched this video when I was learning Arabic. I wasted so much time on unnecessary words! I would read novels and memorize vocabulary, then go to the native speakers and use that vocabulary. Their answers would be like: What? What does that word mean lol...
That's happened so much with me I've begun to hate dictionaries and textbooks.
It would be really nice if your website had kurmanji. It's such a difficult language to find resources on but such an important one.
I love your glasses, they are ver fun :D
Thank you steve
Glad to know your thumb is ok.
Steve's reading glass frame is like a split snowboard 😉
스티브 선생님, 제가 앞엔 뭘 빠뜨렸는지 모르겠지만 한 가지가 정말 궁금하네요.
손으로 설거지 하시는 이유는 있으시나요? 식기 세척기를 사시면 될 걸을요. 물론 기계로 씻지 못할 그릇들이 있겠지만요.
Hi Steve, how about spelling and writing? Do you ever write the new languages you learnt ? OR even write an article/essay or something ? Also, do you have any technique to help to memorise how to spell a word (rather than just recognise it when reading)? It appears you haven't touched much upon this topic (sorry, or do I miss it? Since you have so many great videos, I haven't watched them all yet), it would be great if you can talk about these too or direct me to the ones where you have already covered these in the past, if you don't mind..., many thanks.
The only languages where I was tested and had to demonstrate an ability to write were French and Mandarin Chinese. Otherwise I have very little need to write and I don't worry about my spelling. Nowadays with computers and different keyboards, and using dictation as I am doing right now in English, and which I can do in 10 other languages, I have no need to worry about spelling.
Where can I buy Krashen's book .... Taipei Lectures? Amazon or Barnes/Nobe has Exploration in Language Acquisition and use, 1st Ed. but does not show "Taipei Lectures" so it isn't the same book Steve recommended.
Hey steve im at a b1 level in my spanish and i was wondering if since i already learned most of the most common words through comprehensible input, would it be useful to memorize new words i find since they dont repeat as much anymore?
Nope move onto more difficult content and consume more of it and you will continue to be exposed to more and more new words over and over again
@@trevorharrington3446 ok thanks
@@trevorharrington3446 I spontaneously came across this video and untill now I learned new English words by finding it in book or on the Internet and putting them into my vocabulary learning app and then repeating them using space repetition technique and then most of the words I forgot) How do you learn new words? Just seeing new words in a book and trying guess their meaning? Because i understand that I spend a lot of time trying to put words into my app and trying to memorize them :(
@@alagunoff судя по имени могу ответить по русски. Я был в похожей ситуации. Прочитай мой коммент выше. Главное - не пытаться "быстренько" выучить слова с помощью карточек. С каждым словом которое ты учишь надо повозиться хотя бы 5 (а лучше 10) минут.
Я использовал приложение Quizlet, т.к. оно предлагает несколько уровней изучения - от простых карточек до игры, где надо как можно быстрее печатать слова (иначе на планету падает астероид). Я делал колоды по 50 карт, с одной стороны определение на английском, с другой - слово. Старайся напоминать в определениях слова из других колод. Например, если ты выучил слово table в предыдущей колоде, то, когда учишь слово cup - можно к нему написать определение/подсказку в стиле "there is a ___ of tea on the table". Таким образом, ты, создавая карточки, будешь повторять другие карточки автоматически. На Quizlet я играл в астероиды пока слова не "отскакивали от зубов". То есть нужно чтобы увидев определение, ты мгновенно отвечал слово. Это не так долго, как может показаться. Если ты азартный человек - желание побить свой рекорд в игре будет отличным мотиватором.
Если ты скорее человек творческий - очень помогает писать небольшие рассказы или стихотворения, используя все слова которые ты недавно изучил. Это весело и помогает запомнить и повторить много всего. Другая полезная игра - взять какое-нибудь слово и вспомнить все синонимы/антонимы. Иногда интересно посмотреть происхождение слова.
В общем, главное - думать про слова, использовать их по-разному. Так ты запомнишь их навсегда.
Удачи.
@@noob_improove thank you)
Dude you rock.
Wonderfull sir I'm from. India
Reading Reading Reading will improve your vocabulary a lot
It's funny cuz when you don't have experience in any language and you start one from the scratch, you don'y really understand how just "reading and listening" you can acquire words and gradually words, but it works, it does, and from my experience i say it, cuz 60% of my knowledge of english comes from GTA V and other games and the other 40% from music, this man gives excellent advices and probably the best it's just make it enyoable, don't complicate it with things like grammar rules or study rules and that, of course if that works for you and it's interesting, do it, but if you don't enjoy study grammar rules, don't do it, and do things that are funny and great for you, probably this is best advice you can get, if you don't believe, just look at this man, nearly 80 years and he knows more than 15 languas, lmao
your spectacles are fun😄
I want to share a technique for kearning and recalling, only because Im a Neuroscience buff- btw searching for material in French.
That fuzzy, confusing sense when studying feeling like "Im never goi g to learn this" is actually the Brain doing the learning, and when we fall asleep, in the first few hours the magic happens.
Also having a sensory stimulation while studying then repeating it while asleep the brainwill recall what we learned. Can be white noise, music, room freshner that plugs in.
Andrew Huberman professor at Standford is my reference
Instagram, RUclips is where I watch him.
Thanks a million
Thanks Steve! I definitely acquire words more quickly in Spanish than Russian. 🤓 Edit: (and easily)
What!! His glasses are so cool!! Lol
Thanks for explaining your thumb situation, I was a bit concerned about that from like 2 videos ago 😂 ❤