POLYGLOT REACTS to Secrets of Learning a New Language @TEDx Talks

In this video, I react to Lýdia Machová's TED talk on the topic of what polyglots do differently to learn a new language.

Overall, Lydia makes many great points on the topic of language learning.

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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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[LydiaHricMachova]

Thanks a lot for commenting on my video, Stefani :) Glad we agree on most points. After all, I wasn't speaking just about my own experience, but also about the experience of dozens of other polyglots I have met. Hope we get to meet somewhere in person soon! :)

[phoenixknight]

I agee, sometimes it's just a matter of trial of error in finding what works for you. For example, introverts often avoid wanting to sit and speak in front of big classes or go out and randomly speak to strangers.

[Ballykeith]

Glad that you finally managed to defeat the algorithm! A very fair presentation of Lydia's talk and yes it would be interesting to see more such reaction videos. Maybe someone will make a reaction video on you before long 😊

[bigbong.official]

It feels nice to know that I'm not the only "chaotic" learner 😜

[jamesm.]

I've seen that TED Talk plenty of times and totally agree with your points! 😃 I haven't haven't found (after 8 years lol) what works be for me, but eventually I'll get there. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!

[thomasfleck]

😊the "russian method" is a really cool idea! feels a bit like making two ais chat with each other. but it produces meaning, gives you usable other-people's-thoughts to process and quote👍

[deutschmitpurple]

This is really great video like always. I love TED Talks videos. They are so useful for me. Thanks for sharing this fantastic video. By the way, your blue dress is amazing. You look so beautiful 🥰❤️🥰❤️

[DavidMorris]

For me, spaced repetition works, but I totally agree that it needs to be more than just single words. Apps like Memrise include phrases, but Anki can be a bit hit and miss (entirely depends on what decks of flashcards you get). Duolingo does some spaced repetition too, but there's obviously less of a focus on phrases you need in real life.

You definitely need structure. As an absolute minimum, I do some each day - a bit in the morning and some in the evening. Whilst I work, I might have some things like podcasts or YouTube videos running in the background. I work from home most days, but when I drive to the office, the majority of what I listen to is Spanish and Portuguese.

At school, I learned French (got a decent grade for it in my exams) and a little bit of German. Sadly I never used either of them in my day yo day life afterwards, so I forgot most of what I learned. I found that, in school, there was very little focus on how to use languages out in the real world and how to keep them maintained. Back in those days, there wasn't smartphones or apps, but they should still have given us ideas. It was far too constrained and focused on passing exams.

[odcarri]

Very good video, Stefani! 👌🏼 I definitely agree that every person has different methods and styles of learning languages (or any other skill). The key is trying some of them and do what you enjoy the most and works for you.

In my case I'm 30 and I like learning languages with the "old" style taking classes with textbooks 😅 It may sound weird, but it works perfectly for my "methodical" engineer mind haha. I've watched in several videos where people say that grammar is not very important and I agree partially. However, I love learning grammar and analyzing how the language works. I speak Spanish, English, German, Russian and I'm starting with Portuguese. ¡Saludos desde México! 🇲🇽😁

[Daviddaze]

Have a look at 'the uruguayan polyglot ' and his interesting videos. He's studying Portuguese at the moment.

[muttlanguages]

I find spaced repetition is setup so you just barely remember a word after like 10 seconds of thinking. It won't make you fluent. But if you add listening to comprehensible input, you now have a greater chance of figuring out what they are saying because you can figure out the sentence. Eventually with enough input that word will be be one you just know.

[muttlanguages]

There are faint background noises in the video, so I thought for a second someone else was in my house. I got a little freaked out! Lol