Easy Language Learning

Why force yourself to do language learning activities you find boring or ineffective? Make learning a language easy and stick to what works for you.

[maccaj]

I wish more of the experienced language learners out there took the time to emphasize this. It's not about any one technique being better than any other technique, it's about "Try everything, keep the things that are fun, easy, give you a sense of forward progress, etc, and don't worry about the rest." If you love grammar, study grammar. If you don't want to speak right away, don't. If you do, do. If you don't like graded readers, don't use them. Etc, etc, etc.

If you love the learning process you create for yourself, your brain will find ways to "fill in" the rest, the same way our brains learnt our mother tongues... no 6 year old is going to crack open a grammar book, but they *will* say "hey, why do we say mouse/mice but not house/hice?" So too, a language learner who dislikes grammar texts will get to a point where cracking a grammar book seems interesting/useful, even if only to check a certain rule. And a person who prefers to listen rather than speak will, if they're listening to interesting things, eventually *want* to speak about those things. No need to force feed ourselves.

[eucartografo]

Steve I love your videos, my name is Joelson I live in Brazil I am learning English and you are a great motivation for me.. 😊 thank you very much.

[AdamCHowell]

Glad i'm not the only person who just reads a few chapters of a book before jumping to a different book.

[g-bo]

Steve, I love your videos, sir. I really appreciate your philosophy, and I think you're inspiring an expanding audience of the average language learner that never thought learning a language could be an enjoyable process. Keep up the good work, sir!

[kanishk]

Profound. I feel that I've wasted my life following a Confucianist "drill" based approach to learning. Only now am I, inspired by your videos, trying to change my learning style by using a more "Taoist" flow-based approach. Thank you for posting this! I needed it! Very inspiring.

[danielroutley]

Hi Steve, great video as always! Been watching you for a while, but only recently gotten serious about learning Japanese. While I enjoy Anki reps, watching your videos on compelling content has led to me casting worries of reading ability away and reading some manga. I'm currently reading a simple manga named Yotsuba and I can read and understand more than I thought I could! You're a great role model to a lot of people and I wish you well in language ventures of the future!

[patriciosilvarodriguez]

Could you use a better mic the next time? thanks

[martincurran]

hei steve. i just want to say thank you for your great advice and tips.

[grahamstewart]

I think ultimately it's subjective though. There are people who like reading and listening and then there are people who focus heavily on grammar tests etc. RE Duolingo, I've met people who love it and people who hate it. I like it because I'm a bit of a completionist so I'll keep doing it until I get it right. The repetition of phrases and sentences is pretty effective in helping me to remember words. I think the main thing with language learning is to do whatever works for you and do what you find enjoyable.

[Jonathan-BR]

As always, great video Steve. Yours tips are helping me a lot to learn English.

[jackkrauser]

i agree with all what u said except for translation, i think it is quiet efficient to take a look at a translated transcript and compare it to the original one especially if the language u're learning is from the same family that ur native language or the languages u mastered are, i use it every so often but i still believe it's efficacious and furthermore ive seen many successful polyglots using it too like Luca Lampariello, but at any rate getting used to the pattern through listening and reading is efficient too although uit might take more time to reach the ultimate goal which is being fluent, i think the best thing is to use all of the good methods but focusing on the favorite one or ones

[philipphortnagl]

maybe the first time I can agree just partly. I mean of course you should spend the most time of language learning with what you are interested in, what you like, what is 'easy' for you. BUT if you only do what is easy for you - what easy comes around goes around. I mean, all this writing exercises have the reason to allow your brain to connect faster and in more different complex ways to this new language. So I totally agree that on longterm you can keep motivation only by doing what you like and that is why hardly anybody learns languages in schools, but at least spend 5% of your language learning time also with this not so 'easy' tasks like writing exercises. When I have 1hr a day for learning I spend mostly my first 5-10 minutes with such things.

[victoriaaghazaryan]

I am wondering how we managed to master the endless vocabulary in our native language. (I am Russian) Somehow it happened subconsciously and now I am trying to figure out what that process, so that to find a way to repeat that process for mastering English. Because I need the same level of fluency level as in my native language.

[julianfbeck]

whats your opinion on switching to monolingual language learning when you reach a certain level. i mean learning new word with definitions in the same language?

[MeZmoRiiZeXx]

Hi Steve, i just subscribed to your channel not to long ago and i am currently learning spanish and i advocate most of your philosophies on language learning needless to say that they've helped me come along way but anyways i'd like your opinion on using dictation in language learning for understanding native speakers. Have you incorporated this method into your listening and if so did you find it effective?

[BestRareR]

I keep translating and some words which have the same translating I never get like start and start out, open and open up wait and wait up and a lot of words are not translated in my language and I hear all the time without getting the meaning

[RussianwithAnastasia]

Добрый день, Стив! Давно уже когда-то встречала Ваши видео, Вы молодец, что снимаете видео об изучении языков! Как с Вами лучше связаться по поводу совместных видео? Facebook?
Спасибо и привет из Петербурга!
Анастасия.

[alexcosta]

yeah steve!! today your voice so many down !!
but nice video !! congratulations !!

[mikeashi]

I have a question you always talk about passive learning, passive words and I am currently learning german and I think I have a huge number of passive words (B1) but when I try to speak my brain just Freezes, should I think in german or in my Mother tongue. I always try to think in german because that is faster but when I do that I just forget about grammar and I just say a bunch of verbs and words that no one can understand how can I fix that ?

[belstar]

Hey steve i think there is something wrong with your mic im having a hard time listening to this video even when my volume is on the loudest setting