HOW TO READ in a Foreign Language | Polyglot Secrets

Reading is one of the best forms of input when learning a foreign language. However, it can be quite daunting and many questions arise around how to do it best. In this video, I discuss my experience with reading and tips and tricks I have used to make reading in a foreign language more pleasurable and effective.

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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.

⌛ Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:26 Why read?
3:33 How to pick what to read based on level
14:31 Don't look up every word
17:35 When to look up words
20:08 Should you reread?
21:15 Should you read out loud?
22:24 Should you take notes?
23:47 Trust the process
25:54 Commit to reading
26:47 Tailor to your own unique situation
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[LucaLampariello]

Amazing and very informative video Stefani! Keep rocking and shining🙂

[syldysful]

Спасибо за видео, чувствуется, что ты прожила эту тему полностью, очень информативно. Я сам читаю щас на иностранном языке много, но постоянно лезу в словарь, нужно преодолеть это!

[jorgebaigorrotegui]

Your experience is very much similar to what I am going through right now, thank you for your insight

[thomasfleck]

so true! i'd like to add and recommend to read books, whenever possible, on kindle. not because i like amazon, but to minimze the interruptions. you just tap and hold a word and the translation pops up. so you understand that sentence without picking up another book or gadget, but as you said, don't look up every word. the fewer interruptions the better.

[Neiltendo.]

Thanks for your videos. I’m currently learning Gujarati and I was close to giving up because there are very few learning materials, but your videos gave me lots of great advice and helped me to stay motivated.

[Flauschbally]

Just saw you on Steve's channel in the interview. Thx for creating such great videos. New subscriber here. ✨❤

[autumnteacozy]

I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but I found that reading fanfiction can help a lot. I tend to lean more towards fiction in my native language and have a few series I enjoy. I think people who dislike rereading things but have some favorite series or books could benefit from it. It's often written with everyday language too with some flowery words.

I can't wait to see your channel grow! I love your content and your take on language learning! ❤

[tomaslaskovsky]

I would definitely recommend reading with voice accompaniment (ideally audiobooks) at first, independent reading later.

[JA-jhgr]

Well said and very beneficial information for us newbies learning from hyperpolyglots like yourself. One more thing breath and you aced it 👍

[miguelmma]

I'm reading "how to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere, Larry king . I'm a native Spanish speaker so .. saludos preciosa, me gusta mucho tu canal !

[DavidMorris]

I've been reading (on and off) some books in Spanish from Olly Richards. The language seemed to be pitched at the right level, gave me some vocab and boosted my confidence.

What I end up doing more often is reading news articles - mostly about politics (a massive area of interest for me). I follow a number of Spanish language news sites and (more often than not) I can understand what's written.

To help me with this I'm also regularly updating an Anki deck of political words that I go through fairly regularly. I understand what you mean about context though. That can be very important, so I only add the words that appear in the articles. That way I have context straight away.

When I finally get to go abroad to a Spanish speaking country, all this should help me to have conversations with people that aren't just limited to the standard tourist sentences.

[JustAnotherNameYo]

I tried reading graded readers and short stories but I’ve found that I get very invested in the story and characters so they weren’t long enough for me. After two days of reading them I decided to buy self published teen/young adult books from Amazon instead which has been a success. I learned so many new words and phrases and the stories so far have been great. The self published books are inexpensive so I can buy a few at a time and they can be shorter than the average publishing house books as all that I bought are under 300 pages and each are about 10 dollars and under.

I do look up every word I don’t know as I am reading because for me I want to understand and enjoy the story as I am also reading for fun and I can’t do that if the sentence only half makes sense. Also Portuguese has a lot of phrases that mean something completely different than the literal meanings of the individual words and sentence. I am reading 3 books of each genre I like right now and I started with romance since it tends to have a lot more frequently uses everyday speech and fiction writers tend to use a lot of the same words repeatedly in their work so it really gets me accustomed to the words I just learned from the book. I think it is really important to choose a method of reading material that you will enjoy that keeps you reading. Even though I’m only in my 6th month of study fiction turned out to be the right pick for me as I understand everything I’m reading except for those few words I have to look up which for me doesn’t stop my flow or enjoyment of the book.

I think you give great advice but everyone does need to take the advice and definitely tailor it to fit their own needs.

Thanks for a great video!

[deutschmitpurple]

It is really amazing video. Thank you for that. You are the best 🥰🥰🥰

[mitin]

Супер интересна тема. Както винаги информацията е в целта👍. В момента чета на руски и испански( намерих книгата препоръчана от тебе "The alter ego effect" на испански, много ми хареса) и съм напълно съгласен с всичко, което казваш. Четенето на глас не ми се нрави много много винаги, но е добре за произношението пък и понякога е мотивиращо да се чуеш как четеш чуждия език като роден.

[a.r.]

Thanks for the tips Stefani! I've been reading books in foreign languages for years now, but I still watch these types of videos out of interest, and maybe I'll learn something new😄. I've noticed the same thing with Bulgarian and Russian in their written forms that I often understand a lot of words too although I never studied them really. Since Serbian is one of my languages it helps a lot, although it's not my native one, but a lot of shared vocabulary also many Turkish words are the same in Serbian and Bulgarian.

[BlueFox_Mods]

Right now I watch old German movies on youtube, and thanks to the auto-generated subtitles I'm able to understand some words. It is very rewarding when I'm able to understand the overall meaning of what happens, even if I don't get the whole meaning of what they're saying.
I write down the most recurring words and when I hear them again I try to remember what do they mean without looking to my translations.

[muttlanguages]

The first book I read in French was Alice in Wonderland. It was brutal but I learned a lot.

[kylebroberg]

Atualmente tô lendo “O Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien” em português. O que você disse sobre os tempos verbais é verdade mesmo! Muitas formas que nunca vi antes e ninguém usa na fala (que eu saiba).

[Eduardo_Music]

Hello Stefani, good afternoon! This is the first time I posted a comment in any of your videos. Yesterday I found this one and other videos, a few very interesting. This video is the best for me. But in other I identified a technical subject: their audio is very low. You must improve this opportunity. It's a good advice 👍. Have a great start of the week, wherever you are. Greetings from Sonora, México 🇲🇽.

[Applepie]

Please answer this from your learning experience. I got a new Spanish book. And I can’t read it. What do you do. Do you get anybody that read for you. Or. You get each new book with audio sounds in order to read in a new language. Thank you