Learning a New Language? Don’t Get Hung Up On Your Mistakes

I'm currently learning Arabic and making lots of mistakes. I am not worried about these mistakes, and I do not see the benefit in being corrected. I will learn not to make certain mistakes through lots of exposure to interesting content as I progress on my Arabic learning journey.

[Arctagon]

I think the way you phrased it in this video is a perfect description of how reviewing should be done (like with SRS): 'concentrated exposure'.

[hapgull]

You are an inspiration, Steve! Thank you for your videos!

[محمدصالح-فدب]

Words cannot express how much I am grateful towards you:)

You changed the way of learning any new language


And by the way

Your Arabic is amazing


I am an Arabic native speaker


You said
لكن أنا لا أستطيع التحدث

Which is completely correct

The thing about Arabic is


It is a very wide language

There are tons of ways of saying a single phrase

So in most cases what you are saying makes sense!

[magdyzagloul]

Congratulations your Arabic sentences are right.
Thanks for your efforts to teach others.

[fabacarini]

I totally agree, when I used to get upset about my mistakes in language learning I wasn’t improving at all... the time I stopped caring about them, I realize how my abilities in the language was improving.

[mymetamorphosis]

I always enjoy your videos Mr Kauffman!!

Could you speak on the subject of how you can use languages as your job and how you've used it as your job as well?
I love language learning and would love it to be utilized in some type of work.

[dd.oliver]

Hey Steve, I’ve been exposing myself to French and German for a while now, and i reached the level where I feel like i have this need for speaking... could you make a video saying how would you do it, when would you do it and how is the feeling about it! Thanks

[abdulmohsennalsalman]

I think what you said at the begging of the video in Arabic is very acceptable to me. I also want to mention something that you have talked about before but you did not mention this time, which is the ability to notice; I think the ability to notice has something to do with the desire to improve. If all we have is massive input without the desire to improve, I think we would never be able to move on to the next level.

[Diotallevi]

I seem to be quite different from most of the language learners you know, as corrections have a rather high impact on my learning. Of course input is still king.
I heard somewhere that corrections work best if you hide them a little. Don't mention that you are correcting what your partner has just said but insert the phrase they used incorrectly into a new sentence, this time in the right way.

[mohamedgo]

Watch three TV series, ( if you want to make a good progress, ) which are:
صقر قريش
ربيع قرطبة
ملوك الطوائف
You will find them on YouTube.

[deveagle]

I’ve been on the first paragraph of my Historia 1 Spanish lesson now for days. When will I stop “looking” at the words in my target language (Spanish) and thinking or saying the English for those words? Can anyone help me understand that? Should I be speaking the Spanish word out loud and just thinking the English word? Is it bad to speak the English word out loud while reading the Spanish? It just feels like I’m “using” my native language (English) instead of the Spanish.

[yuchenwei]

I had talked to you like two years ago when I was learning English, but the problem I have it’s grammar part is week. Which i am hard to get higher of my English language skill, and the profession English test, it’s hard for me to pass. But now I am learning Korean at Korea, which I want to learn it having Systematicly to improve my Korean skill and get more formal, what should I do to get the way I want

[JamSamJackx]

Steve, I have been learning Japanese for a while and Reading is tough because of Kanji. If I have good interesting articles but they use furigana over the Kanji, is that OK? or do you suggest taking time to learn the Kanji before trying to read much? always love the wisdom you share on your videos, have a great day!

[kessijhones]

*Hey, Steve, help me, i undestand 85% his videos, but when i try to reading novels, for instance, harry potter and philosopher's stone i can not undestand anithing.*
_I have been studing english for 4 months just by listening and reading_

[isaortruiz]

Steve, in your experience, how useful would this be. Say you're in a conversation and the person learning the language had a mistake. Instead of correcting it, what if you'd rephrase or continue the conversation using the correct form. Something like sneaking in the correction without making it explicit

[ldz]

Arabic seems to be very difficult, Steve has learned many languages, I think this one is the most challenging one.

[jamescook]

Steve, my question: There r students who really struggle 2 copycat sounds. Example: "Spoon". Yet, they keep saying "ess-pooch, ess-pox, ess-poach, ess-patch" What to do with people who cannot reproduce sounds after hearing them?

[m.feltrin]

Hi Mr Kauffman, I would like to know, if I have nearly 400 hours of exposure on the language, and I can understand in the most of time nearly 60, 70% sometimes even more, could I be considered on the B1 level? Thanks a lot

[belstar]

I really hate it when people correct me rudely online this is a big problem I get insulted for even the smallest mistakes

[betavulgaris]

The answer is more exposure not more language learning.