Polyglot reacts to @IAmMarkManson's language learning advice

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Someone recently suggested that I give my opinion on language-learning advice from bestselling author @IAmMarkManson.

⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - What is this video about?
0:41 Tip 1: Conversation, Conversation, Conversation
1:29 Tip 2: Intensity of Study Trumps Length of Study
2:18 Tip 3: Classes Suck and Are an Inefficient Use of Time and Money
2:53 Tip 4: Know Your Motivation
3:34 Tip 5: Set Learning Goals
4:37 Tip 6: Start With the 100 Most Common Words
5:26 Tip 7: Carry a Pocket Dictionary
5:53 Tip 8: Keep Practicing the New Language in Your Head
6:13 Tip 9: You’re Going to Say a Lot of Stupid Things. Accept It
6:44 Tip 10: Figure Out Pronunciation Patterns
7:09 Tip 11: Use Audio and Online Courses for the First 100 Words and Basic Grammar
7:46 Tip 12: After the First 100 Words, Focus on Becoming Conversational
8:13 Tip 13: Aim for the Brain Melt
8:43 Tip 14: Use the New Language Daily
8:57 Tip 15: “How Do You Say X?” Is the Most Important Sentence
9:18 Tip 16: One-on-One Tutoring Is the Best and Most Efficient Use of Time
9:52 Tip 17: Date Someone Who Speaks the Target Language
10:09 Tip 18: Find a Language Buddy Online
10:34 Tip 19: Facebook Chat + Google Translate = Winning
10:48 Tip 20: Try to Use New Words Right Away
11:32 Tip 21: TV Shows, Movies, Newspapers and Magazines Are Good Supplements
12:01 Tip 22: Most People Are Helpful, Let Them Help
12:33 Tip 23: There Will Be a Lot of Ambiguity and Miscommunication
12:47 Tip 24: Phases You Go Through to Learn a Foreign Language
13:22 Tip 25: Find a Way to Make It Fun
14:21 Conclusion

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Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
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❓Did you agree with Mark’s advice? Tell me in the comments!

Thelinguist
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I got A's in college French, went to France and was shocked to find that I couldn't converse worth shit on a shingle. One day the hotel clerk (whom I leaned on to practice) told me not to talk to him in French any more. He spoke English and was tired of me "conversing" with him in his language. Good for him to be blunt about it! Conversation is great practice, but it can be self defeating if you don't get enough of the language into your bones first.

zeppelinmexicano
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What I often do in learning English in order to get fluency is repetition. Is it boring? Yes, but repetition is a must.

JASMINEAL
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Shout out to you and Stephen Krashen for introducing the Compelling Comprehensive Input method to me when it comes to language learning. All these years I been trying to learn how to speak Spanish as quickly as possible by learning words and grammar instead of doing a lot of listening and reading. It's a slow process, but you are able to express complex thoughts at a faster rate. In other words, you may not be able to speak with confidence right away, but when you are watching movies, listening to the radio or podcast, etc in your target language, you catch and understand more words than you have before trying to focus more on output.

I think native speaker think it's "cute" when you put in the effort to speak to them in their native language, but they may not show a high level of interest to talk to you casually if you don't have the ability to listen at a native speaker's pace and they're constantly giving you a language lesson. It's like speaking to a child vs. speaking to a peer. When you have acquired enough of the language to where you can understand moderately complex thoughts, express your opinion, and catch certain jokes and references, they will treat you as a peer. They will even treat you with more respect. Think about how people treat people who speak very little English vs. how they treat people who speak English with more fluency. It works the same way if you are trying to speak to a person in your target language and they don't know your native language.

confidencemagnet
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I agree on the most common 100 words. There's a couple of issues. Firstly, as you say, these words will simply occur so often that you don't need to explicitly learn them. But secondly, the reason the words are so frequent is that they are typically used in a hundred different contexts. If you look at learning English, the word 'the' will appear in the very first lesson, but then open an advanced grammar book, and there will still be exercises about it there. What does the word 'have' mean? Well it means to possess, but it also has all sorts of grammatical functions in Perfect sentences (have been), passive sentences (to have something done). A lot of the frequent words in English at prepositions. What does 'on' mean? Well it means 'in contact with.' Unless you're talking about the lights. Or it's being used to create a phrasal verb. If you learned the 100 words in English, you would learn 'get, ' 'on' and 'with' and you still wouldn't understand what 'get on with' means. So at what point have you 'learned' any of those words?

Personally, I'd say the first things you should learn is vocabulary related to yourself, because that often won't come up in books. When I was learning French in school, I had a guinea pig. How many beginner textbooks do you think had that as one of the pets on their unit about animals? I teach English, and I don't really teach lower levels any more, but when I did, I was always amazed by the number of people who would get to A2 level, or even B1, without knowing how to say the name of their job or university subject in English. They'd just gone through the books, and learned what was in there, with no thought to what they might want to talk about in real life.

joepiekl
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Tip 6: I think learning the most common words can be useful, if done in addition to input. Matt vs Japan explained it well: using flashcards can make you "familiar" with the words, so when you go on and read/listen a lot you will notice them more quickly and the input becomes more comprehensible. But it´s not through flashcards that you really learn them (acquire), it´s through the exposure in different contexts. Of course it also deends on motivation: if you learn for fun and have no rush, there´s no need for that. If you want to learn faster, then the addition of flashcards can help..

LanguageMaus
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Great video. I'm also a believer in high input as a priority early in the learning process. But I think that's related to the type of personality I have, and that's how I've been used to learning since my school days (I'm in my 50's, from the UK). After I'd been in Germany for about 18 months, feeling as if I was at about what you'd call B2 level, I met an American girl who had been in Germany for only six months and had arrived with no knowledge of the language at all. She was WAY better at holding conversations than I was, but she was also fearless about making mistakes - and she made a lot of them - while I was still falling behind in conversation, trying to structure my thoughts correctly. I guess she had the dual advantages of complete immersion (she was an au pair with a German family, while the work I was doing was predominantly in English) and a very extrovert personality. I suspect personality type is an important factor in choosing an effective learning approach.

AJeziorski
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I carry a pocket dictionary everywhere I go. It's also a calculator, a flashlight, a way to learn languages. It's called a phone cause it's 2023 and there's no need to carry a dictionary 😂

gamingwithpurganarchy
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As a language tutor, I find that one-on-one tutoring can have drawbacks unless the student is highly motivated and already knows how to acquire languages. I much prefer to work with a pair of students who share the same motivation. There are also days when a student's mind cannot focus or is distracted. The tutor can then turn to the other student and still generate a productive learning session.
I agree that carrying a dictionary doesn't help much; I do, however, think that it's very helpful to carry around a pocket-sized notebook for jotting words that I want to better study or know that are important to remember

annarboriter
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Different people's perspectives on language learning are always interesting to me. I find that my language partners often become friends and that in itself helps keep my motivation to learn the language very high. One of my exchange partners who became a good friend has made recordings and transcripts for me that I load into Lingq. These have turbo-charged my motivation and my learning. As an added bonus, since you learn what you study... now I understand my friend.

brianahoffman
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I am learning Spanish now and want to learn atleast 20% of what Stephen knows. What a gem and a role model. Just watching your videos are pure motivation.

KavilearnsSpanish
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1. I don't think learning vocabulary in context was mentioned... and I think it's very important. Basically, you should learn vocab words as part of sentences, not individually.
2. I use Google Translate most days. It's my main resource. I'm constantly translating text I come across online. According to the idea of Comprehensible Input, you need to understand quite a bit of the target lang you encounter in order to acquire it.
3. You need to spend a lot of time with the target lang in order to acquire it. If you're frustrated by the slowness of your learning, you're probably not spending enough time with the lang.

LauraBCReyna
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I think the reasons why I became fluent in English were both the private tutoring i did for 7 years, and by far the most vocabulary and grammar structures I learned came from watching English content way before i even understood what "used to" meant. I think that experience has given me extremely valuable confidence in my language learning now.

tsakeboya
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remember, everyone has different preferences and learning styles, so it's a good idea to try out different Apps to see which one works best for you. Good luck with your languages learning journey! Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice. Keep up the good work Steve Kaufman! 🙏❤

ubaldo
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Terrific advice as always. I appreciate how you emphasize the importance of finding what works for each individual. We often believe there is a single, definitive way to learn languages, but in reality, everyone gains confidence in their own unique way. Thank you once again, Steve!

LuzAngelafromLightSpanish
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Mark forgot tip #26: When giving advice, stick to what you're good at and don't pretend you know everything about everything just because you're moderately famous. Unfortunately for his admireres, though, Mark grew too big for his britches and I don't think he gives a f*<k anymore😂

defqqq
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Steve, you always make language 👄💬 learning 🎓 so very simple ⬆️ for everyone 🙂 keep up with your great teachings ❤🙏🏻

craigyoung
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I have a problem with this guy. I followed his YouTube channel for a little while but then stopped as something about him really bothered me. So I find this video really interesting; I'm glad to hear someone critique him, as I think, perhaps, he's really full of himself or something. Grateful for your advice. Thank you.

nataliethomson
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Kudos to you, outstanding video. Gratitude from Brazil.

evelisecarvalho
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thank you again for another great video Steve! You succeed in refuting most of these pieces of advice in a clear and compelling way by giving straightforward arguments.

ronh