POLYGLOT REACTS to Learn any language in 6 months @TEDx Talks

In this video, I react to Chris Lonsdale's TED talk on the topic of how to learn a new language in 6 months. Can you learn a language that quickly? I give you my thoughts on that and much more in this video.

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🔍 My name is Stefani Kostadinova and I am a language enthusiast and a polyglot that currently speaks 8 languages. I am a member of HYPIA, the International Association of Hyperpolyglots. On this channel, I share my tips and tricks with anyone interested in languages, and I upload new videos every week.

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[PolyglotSecrets]

What did you think of this TED talk? Let me know below 😊

[phoenixknight]

6 months to learn any language? Very simplistic assertion. The reality is the TED speaker is exceptional and the examples he gives are mainly of people learning level 1 difficulty languages. The general principles he proposed were sound. E.g. connecting with emotional memory, learning the most basic words first, building upon material that is directly relatable.

[peterpike]

Definitely good advice in general. I have found for me that speaking conversationally with native speakers is the best way for me to learn a language, since wanting to communicate with someone and wanting to understand what they say in return are extremely powerful motivators for me. I don't get the same effect from reading texts or from watching videos, with one exception. My parents were in Ukraine when Russia invaded last February, and for the first ten days or so of the war I didn't know if they were safe, so I would watch Spanish news because I was invested in understanding it, and it helped me retain it. But that kind of focus isn't something you'd want to generate as a tactic....

[Englishcomprendsive_input]

You are so sweet when you hear that phrase"comprehensible input" ！！！

[vannhantran]

I really like this kind of content. Experts review other experts which is great way to deeply learn from those. And more than that just watching dramas we don't normally have opportunity to watch 😂

[chrisc]

Six months to get fluent (have a functional ability to communicate in your daily life) in the majority language of the place you live is easily do-able with the right attitudes and the right set of language learning strategies the ones outlined in the talk and your comments. The main ones being relax, enjoy it, and concentrate on the vocab about things you need plus things you enjoy. It's OK to have gaps in your knowledge. Fluency isn't omniscience 😉
I learned functional the minority language of my country, Welsh, in about that time by attending the Ulpan courses which are based on the Israeli intensive Hebrew lessons developed for people joining a Kibbutz. But the difficulty I experienced was getting 1st language native speakers to stop switching to English. So it took a little over 2years in total to reach a level of fluency in colloquial Welsh so that I could be accepted as "truly fluent" by others. By then I was doing University level courses.
Most people confuse Fluency (the ability to communicate) with correctness (being comfortable with the "rules" of "grammar" and syntax) or even confuse Fluency with eloquence. Fluency is a spectrum.
Because I worked as a Welsh tutor for a few years, my ability to discuss some subjects is sometimes stronger in my 2nd language than my first because I don't really use my 1st language to discuss tgem.
You can achieve Fluency in One language domain but still struggle in others - even in your 1st language.

[DavidMorris]

The title of the talk is misleading. You can learn SOME of a language in six months, but the title implies fluency and that's not possible.

We all have things in our lives which mean that we can't dedicate all our time to language learning. For example, I have a full time job where I'm drowning in work, I care for my disabled wife and I'm very involved in local politics. I fit in learning whenever I can, but my lifestyle means I can't achieve my goals as quickly as I'd like.

Having said that, he does make some good points. Comprehensible input is tried and tested. I use as much of that as I can.

I agree with what you say about speaking from day one. That's not always essential. Sometimes people are introverted, but there can also be difficulties with finding people to practice your speaking with.

[PumpkinMozie]

I think maybe his wording should be changed to “anyone can learn a language within 6 months *under ideal circumstances*” haha. That’s the key. I think most people probably have the mental capacity for it, but like you said, other factors in their life make it more difficult.

[deutschmitpurple]

Thank you so much for this video. I really TED Talks videos. They are so useful for me. By the way, I have really admired your dress and style. You look so beautiful 🥰🥰🥰

[Itziar_hay_yan]

Creo que es posible conseguir tener una conversación en chino en seis meses, dependiendo de las circunstancias y de las horas al día que se dediquen, pero aprender los caracteres es otra cosa, ni siquiera los chinos los aprenden en dos años, les lleva toda la primaria y más. La historia de esa mujer creo que se refiere al método para teclear los caracteres que aparece en la foto (9:36), ahora ya en desuso, pero supongo que ella ya sabía leer chino antes de esas 48 horas.

11:19 Ahí se equivoca, los niños no usan el lenguaje para comunicarse desde el día 1, normalmente tardan más de un año en decir una palabra y al menos dos en construir frases sencillas. También pueden leer mucho antes de ser capaces de comunicarse por escrito.

21:52 Sí, 🤣 la tiranía de las personas extravertidas, siempre piensan que a las personas introvertidas nos funcionarían las mismas cosas que a ellas, pero no es así y menos cuando hablamos de comunicación.

[spoonerboy]

This is possible only if you lived in the country with the target tongue. I tried this living in my country with german and i just attain a level between a2-b1 in 6 months without native speaker and using not italki.

[duyhungnguyen]

There's one thing that I both agree and disagree with him. Yes, learning languages not require talent but to be able to be fluent in a language like mandarin chineses in 6 month for a westerner requires some talent and effort. Anyway, thank for posting and sharing your thought on an interesing topic!

[thomasfleck]

i believe he gets a lot of things right, yet there's room for interpretation.... "native-like" will definitely take rather years than months (or not be achieved at all...). "fluent" in 6 months? maybe, depends on definition. you can probably learn to speak 500 words in six months and understand maybe a thousand and if you are smart and a good body language reader (!) that will be enough to appear "fluent". but is that the real thing? probably not. laura needs about a year to achieve an a2-b1-ish level. she has documented that in her videos for italian and swedish. i need more like three years to achieve that because i am not a "language person". and i will never be "native-like" in any of my learned languages, i will always construct some weird germanish phrases because german brain is stronger than the others and i have repeated the same mistakes (le doppie!!) for decades and will continue to do so... so, your mileage, as always, may vary, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. good enough is good enough, but six months may not be good enough.

[muttlanguages]

I think some people consider his story of the guard teaching him Chinese on a train as apocryphal. Someone being so bored they teach you a language from scratch for 8 hours? It's a bit weird. Like something you'd read in a comic book, not real life.

On a different topic, I don't learn foreign languages to speak them. I learn them to understand things I see and hear. Loving in America, my odds of actually using any particular language are very small unless I move to New York or California.

[mitin]

Аз също не съм съгласен с това, че трябва да се зе говори от ден първи. Иначе този човек е легендарен, на много хора е отворил очите за изучаването на чужд език. Стефани, ти кога започваш да говориш един език, който изучаваш?

[nolanr]

A bit short of breath, heart issue.... That beer belly you know...