How do you learn a foreign language as an adult?

Have you tried and failed to learn a foreign language? I failed for years before I realised I was going about it all wrong. 🤦‍♂️ The problem adults have when learning their first foreign language is that we think that how we learnt it in school is the only way, or we fall for gimmicks that make us think you can learn to fluency in just 30 days. Quickly we realise that's not possible. The reality of language learning is simple and empowering...

I want to help beginners learn a foreign language because the effects can be life changing 😁

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[jck]

I was sent by Days of French and Swedish so I decided to start with the first video
I’m learning German right now and I gotta say, I’m impressed with the quality of these videos and pretty good advice too

[speakeuropeanportuguese]

Knowing the rules is very useful. I had a grammar book and was immersed (living in Portugal) it took me a few months to actually speak, but when I started speaking, people were very impressed. I watched quiz shows - they are the best for comprehensible input. Wheel of fortune, the price is right or who wants to be a millionaire - you learn so much! Music is great too!

[mertmaralmojo]

I liked how you shifted the focus from ''studying'' on a language to naturally acquaring a language. Good to hear there are people talking on useful methods.

[todesque]

Lamont sent me here.

I think it's important to mention Comprehensible Input means you understand roughly 90%-98% of the material you're reading/listening to. (Some people may tolerate 50%, but it's quite painful, and you run the risk of giving up in frustration.) In reality this means the material you'll absorb in the first few months is staggeringly basic. But if you hang in there long enough the results will come. The key is patience AND finding material you enjoy reading/listening to AND finding material that's at or very slightly above your level AND don't be afraid to basically ignore the study of grammar and verb conjugation tables.

So the $64 million question is, ''Where do you find Comprehensible Input if the target language is new to you and you don't comprehend anything?'' In my opinion TPRS is the best method for rank beginners to get a toe-hold in the target language. TPRS -- combined with graded readers -- will take you a long, long way towards the acquisition of your target language.

[hanaelkhedri]

Amazing video and tips, I never gave it a thought in that way! Thank you so much, I was aiming to start teaching a language to an adult audience and I was wondering how to get started efficiently, your video gave me a completely new perspective!

[hyggemcb]

Congrats on the channel, looking forward to learn alongside you. -mcb

[Reflektr]

With Chinese, you do need to have a certain basis before you start immersing fully. Comprehensible input was also the breakthrough for me, but I couldn't have made it if I hadn't been at HSK3 already.

[michaelkobylko]

One problem I'm finding as I attempt to start a new language from scratch, as a complete beginner, is that there's pretty much no such thing as comprehensible input at this stage. There's nothing I could listen to or read in my new language that would be in any way comprehensible to me. I started learning Norwegian three years ago and as a native English speaker, the fact that the grammar was so similar to English and the fact that you don't have to conjugate verbs meant I felt like I had a headstart. A few weeks of Duolingo and I was ready for Olly Richard's Short Stories. But now I've turned to a language with several grammatical cases and a different grammatical structure to English, and I don't know where to start.

[oscarmorales]

That's very true!

You need to get massive exposure to your target language in order to acquire it. It's just about time, not grammar or vocabulary, cuz you're gonna get that automatically through the process of comprehensible input.

[ejwnzmg]

My tip is to write down the words in numerical order. Read from up to down 3 times without looking and then take 1 minute pause repeat but this time from down to up. Once you finish doing that do the same but this time before anywhere 30 min before sleeping.

[coolbrotherf]

For pronunciation, I've found that it's something that many people have to consciously practice as it's a physical part of the language. If they only know the word mentally, and never practice the physical movements of the mouth, then often they'll revert back to the sounds of their native language and just kind of make it sound close enough. My German sounded really bad for a while even though I knew the words because I wasn't really trying to sound German when I first learned them. When I started Japanese, I made sure to really study the pronunciation rules and took a pronunciation class early on to make sure I didn't sound like a tourist.

[Joseph-eqod]

I really really liked this video! Sorry just wanted to clarify something in regards to input. Lets say if someone knew nothing about a language at all and just listened to it even on a basic level, Im not sure they would be able to pick up much without a lot of effort. Do you think it would be a good idea to use a translator in combination with the input to help someone fill in the gaps?

[Harsh_Singh]

Can you learn a language just by listening?

[mondo_burrito]

I bought a French Grammar textbook written by a well-known YouTuber. The book is so incredibly dry and boring and she just throws a thousand grammar rules at you at once.
I regret buying these books.

[philipdavis]

I’ve found that a good way to make difficult material ‘comprehensible’ is to watch a YouTube clip with subtitles so I can understand what is going on, then watch again with subtitles in the target language.