How to REALLY learn a language in 2024 (a linguist explains)

In this video I explain how to really learn a language in 2024.

Links to books mentioned:

#languagelearning #linguistics #language #polyglot #spanish #duolingo #rosettastone #italki #lingopie #persian #french #spanish #chinese #mandarin #anki

[Happytravellerkimmy]

I got to the end of French on Duolingo and my French is no better. But the owl has a little gold jumpsuit.

[elashvili]

you're saying I can't become fluent hebrew speaker after a 30 days in duolingo?

[blotski]

I laughed outloud so much at some of your witty comments that my wife came in to find out what was so funny. I told her I was just watching a linguistics channel on Youtube. She's now worrying about my having early onset dementia.

[jssmedialangs]

Oh my gosh ... The stuff you said about ADHD!! 😭 I remember trying to listen to hours of Japanese, even as I slept, because that's what someone suggested. My brain felt like mush... Passive listening however has been great for me. When having conversations, it's like all those words my brain stored while listening suddenly activates.

Absolutely a huge believer of doing what works for you.

[tomcolley]

Funny story related to the comment about Farsi speakers offering their belongings.

My wife is a native speaker of Arabic and we were at a wedding where she was wearing a nice Abaya. Another guest at the wedding complimented my wife on the Abaya and, like in Farsi, there is an Arabic saying which basically means "well, if you like it, you can have it". This, of course, is polite talk and not a literal offer. The guest who had complimented my wife, was the daughter of Arab migrants, and as such maybe didn't understand the social interactions as well as she might, said "wow, really? I'll pick it up at the end of the night!"

I had to buy my wife a new Abaya the next day.😮

[bensy]

Bindged these videos at work, been trying to learn my indigenous language(irish) for years after living near an irish speaking community and im making more progress than ever

[Dee._.Rose._.]

I've been so confused and kinda upset with myself because I wasn't seeing the same progress I had in the past. I have ADHD and I was able to hyper-fixate for the longest time. But once I realized my decline of interest I panicked and took a college class. although I don't regret my decision, I again didn't see the same improvement. I am back with an old tutor and have a trip to Taiwan in three months. So this is something that I really really want but the drive isn't there. I tend to forget that ADHD can be as much a hindrance as it is a helper. I get easily distracted and lose focus super easy. Studying has been hard. But I think consistency is where I need to start. I will do my best to set a goal and work towards it. I appreciate this video it gave me a lot to think about!

[objective]

As a French, I learnt Persian mostly by speaking with people on tandem. Took me 3 years to be fluent. I wish you much success with this beautiful language.

[chaffenel]

I'd love to watch a video about you talking about books to read for people who have an interest in learning linguistics from scratch, or something like a bookshelf review where you talk about your top picks! I've recently discovered your channel, and I'm completely in love with it. Keep up the good work!  ❤

[aprilmunday]

Thank you. I hadn't realised that my discontent with my own language learning was because I've achieved my first goal for Italian, even though it wasn't explicit. I can now define my new goal and what I need to do to achieve it.

[nathanlaoshi]

“ 你中文说的太棒了，是个真聪明的老外啊！” Been there.

One of the most annoying parts of being a private language teacher is having parents ask you to recommend the "best" book or online resource. When they say this, I hear "I'm willing to spend a whole bunch of money to have my kid ace the tests, and if that doesn't work, it's your fault." That happened mostly in China, but here in the USA (public schools) you'll have the occasional ask as well.

Your advice is really spot-on in my opinion. Thanks!

[simonsmith]

I've often used 'false mnemonics' / 'mnemonics that don't work' - for some weird reason they seem to work better for me than 'correct' ones. For example, way back when, I always remembered that 'tower' in French / Spanish is feminine, because it . . . um . . shouldn't be.

[cameronfair]

Thanks for the video! Also, you were cited in my Evidence textbook in our readings this week!

[satohime]

as an autistic who speaks/studies 7 languages currently focusing on Persian, i'm almost scared how perfect this video is. i don't have the money to purchase textbooks or courses, but the recognition has me motivated to get back in my game and slobber over Hafez for 8 hours a day

[paulwalther]

Great tips and I appreciate the humor above all else.

[willcollings]

At some point i was leaning just for the music, but I then fell into a bunch of communities around my language as well (Scottish Gaelic). The first year was intense study of acquiring words, and it took the next two to actually be comfortable with the language as a whole. Now I'm looking at jumping back in and seriously studying again! Thanks!

[JonathanSchoreels]

I edited the template of my Anki Cards to have to type the Kanas of the Kanji I read instead of just "thinking about the word" and checking afterward if it was "more or less the same". The recall was at first a bit harder, but now I realize that actively having to write down the reading of the kanji really helps to memorize them better than just "thinking about it". Good tip :)

[lucylawrence]

Great vid, I appreciate how straightforward your videos are providing info in a consice and clear way without going into the stupid hype clickbait this community suffers from so much!! Thanks! If you could make a video about how best to learn vocab and maybe about the linguistic origins of some languages that would be interesting.

[japanese]

I love the clarity with which you lay out the process. Too often I find myself doing something in the language and thinking "Huh, why am I doing Y when my goal is actually X?", followed by a quick reorienting of my focus. Subbed immediately!

[graydybug]

Thank you so much; this video was very encouraging for me. My self learning methods have always been so different that I felt weird coming to youtube for tips. My language goals have always been related to reading. I wanted to read art tutorials in Japanese, so I learned the writing system and then the grammar. With a dictionary or two, I could then slowly translate whatever I wanted step by step.

Now my goal is from my mom. She asked me to help her research her grandparents and other ancestors that died before she was born. She is struggling because we need to reach out for records from four different countries. I want to have enough language competency that I can research the laws regarding family records and acquire as much as I can without getting scammed because we don't speak the language. I am overwhelmed by the task, honestly. I have been starting small by going back to the language I learned in high school, but the polyglot youtubers definitely have me feeling stupid sometimes. I think I need to just trust myself and go back to grammar. I love grammar.

I'm so sorry for the long comment, but thank you so much for sharing your informed advice here.