Learn Languages with Steve Kaufmann

Reward yourself for what you can do in your target language. Don’t criticize yourself for what you can’t do. There are moments when you feel disappointed. Ignore these moments of self-doubt. Give yourself credit for staying active with the language, a guarantee of eventual success.

If you Google “Pareto’s Principle” You will find all kinds of examples of how a small number of any series of events will account for the lion’s share of the results of effects of these events. People say this also applies to language learning. In this video I question this.

Pronunciation and spelling can both give problems to learners of English. They are connected. Unfortunately, however, the spelling is not a reliable indicator of how words are pronounced. It takes a long time to get used to this.

In every language I have learned there are certain usage patterns that tickle my fancy. They are usually handy in expressing my thoughts. The French pronouns "y" and "en" are good examples.

If we engage in physical exercise, we have the feeling that we have done something, improved our fitness. We may even have tightness or soreness in our muscles. The same is not true with language learning. Often we don’t know if, in fact, we’re learning.

Some people say they read well in a language, but struggle to speak. Solution: speak more, but don’t neglect reading. A wide passive vocabulary, best acquired by reading, enables you to engage in conversations with people on a wide range of content.

Many people think memory in language learning refers only to words you are able to retrieve when you need them. A much bigger part of your memory are words that you once learned and have forgotten. They are in your reserve waiting to be rediscovered.

When you start in a language, nothing is comprehensible. So then how do we get a toehold? Some advice for the key first three months.

Reading comprehension is crucial in language learning and in life. The faster we can read, the more quickly we understand what we’re reading, and the faster we learn. There are tricks we can use to improve our reading comprehension. I discuss them in this video.

Some people worry about which kind of Spanish to learn, Mexican, Colombian, Argentinian, or the Spanish from Spain. In my view, this is not something worth worrying about when we start out in the language. Later on, once you are comfortable in the language, you can decide which accent or version you want to focus on.

When we learn a language we focus on specific details at times, to get a clearer sense of the language. At other times we allow the language to enter our brain with less than perfect comprehension. Both help us grow in the language.

I use artificial intelligence in the way I learn languages already. I think we’re just at the beginning of what AI can do to help us enjoy language learning more, and consequently do better.

An obstacle to acquiring vocabulary is our reluctance to accept forgetting, our vain hope to hang on to vocabulary we have tried to learn. Maybe we should just let go of new vocabulary, repeatedly catch and release, until it sticks.

Language immersion sounds like magic. You go live in a country and once you are there you learn the language. In this video I explain why this isn’t necessarily the case, and what you can do to increase your chances of language immersion strategy success.

Language learning is forgiving. It allows for errors and forgetting. We slowly become better by doing mostly top down, big picture learning, but sometimes we need to look at the details. We just shouldn't expect to remember them.

You’re in charge of your language learning journey, you’re steering the boat. You go where you want to go and don’t worry about who’s behind and ahead of you.

A language teacher should first and foremost be a motivator. I don’t believe you can teach a language to someone not motivated to learn it. Motivating learners is, of course, easier said than done, but it should be the primary goal of any teacher.

How deliberate should we be in learning a language? Should we deliberately study the language or do we just acquire it naturally?

I think we should aim for authenticity in language learning. The language content we are learning from, the conversations we have, need to be as authentic and as meaningful as possible. That way we learn without noticing that we are learning.

I hear people say they want to achieve native pronunciation. A more realistic goal may be natural pronunciation where the speaker and the listener both feel comfortable. To achieve natural pronunciation you may need at first to just let go and play act a little.

Tetsuya of the YouTube channel Morite2 teaches test-taking skills for Japanese people taking TOEIC. We chatted about the state of English learning in Japan and his adventures in language learning.

Tomorrow I will do a livestream with Dr. Stephen Krashen, linguist, educational researcher and activist, where we will discuss language acquisition. Join us at 11AM Pacific Time on August 24: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7WUxvpPIKQ

In Jordan Peterson’s book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” the Canadian clinical psychologist offers life advice via 12 essays. Here’s where I agree and disagree with the ideas in the book.

In English and other languages, certain words are often used with certain other words, sometimes to convey a special meaning. This juxtaposition of words is sometimes referred to as collocation. How do we learn to use collocations?

When learning a language I'm mostly motivated by an interest in the history and culture. Persian is no exception. Right now I'm listening to a podcast in Persian about Iranian identity.

To learn a language we need to look up the meaning of words. This means referring to dictionaries. Lately this has meant mostly referring to online dictionaries for me. Dictionaries are a necessary part of language learning as long as we use them effectively.

For the last four or five days I've been focusing on a Persian podcast about the Islamic Revolution. I feel that this degree of focus and concentration has elevated my Persian. I explain in today’s video.

Variety is the spice of life. Variety will help you learn. If you're in charge of your learning, you set the program, decide what you will spend your time on and set yourself up for success.

I don’t think comprehension questions are helpful in language learning. They destroy the pleasure of reading or listening. Brazilian educator Rubem Alves agrees with me. I listened to and read his thoughts while learning Portuguese. I didn’t always fully understand but I thoroughly enjoyed the process and my Portuguese improved.

What is important in language learning is whatever is important to you. You learn best from content that is important to you. You notice things that are important to you. You remember things that are important to you.

As you know, I learn languages on LingQ. Mostly I listen and read. But I also review vocabulary. Here’s how I do it using LingQ’s vocabulary review activities.

In this video, I discuss learning English with Anna Tyrie of the YouTube channel English Like a Native: phrasal verbs, spelling, pronunciation and more!

It's fine to have a long term vision that we would like to be fluent, have intelligent conversations in a language or understand movies. It's nice to have that as a vague goal, but in order to push yourself in that direction, you should not focus on the long term goals.

Reading is powerful. When I have read a whole paper book from cover to cover, without a dictionary or the iPad, I consider that to be a major milestone.

Listening comprehension is the core skill that leads us to speaking and reading better. It leads us to a better sense of the language.

Once you're past the first "discovery" period in a language, you hit the plateau. You feel you're not progressing. You need to vary things up, in order to keep going. One approach is speed LingQing.

Some people say you should try to learn 10 words a day and make sure you can use them, really nail them down. I've never found that effective. Here is how I learn vocabulary.

Make sure you have a tutor who has the imagination, the wherewithal and the resourcefulness to keep the conversation going when there’s a lull. A tutor who comes up with a new subject, a new question, something to keep the conversation going. This is key.

As you are progressing in your target language there will be lots of times when you are not going to understand. To reach your goals you need to accept this and keep moving forward.

Enthusiasm is such an important factor in language learning, and there are few more enthusiastic than YouTuber Rupa Sensei. I caught up with Rupa to find out how and why he is inspiring English learners.

Though I am an input-based language learner I want to output better. That’s why I am embarking on a three month challenge of increased Persian study. Here’s what I will do to step up my Persian.

There are two stages in language learning: the initial intense study of a limited number of words, and the later more extensive approach to learning in order to acquire the up to 10,000 words needed to function at a professional level. These two stages make up the upside down hockey stick.

It’s easy to get caught up in the negative as a first time language learner: I keep forgetting the words, I can’t speak, I’m just not getting it. You need to maintain a positive attitude and believe you will get there. Keep on putting in the time and you will improve.

I began learning Arabic in early 2018. In this video, I discuss what my learning strategy was at the beginning of my Arabic journey and how it has changed over the years.

My seventh and final video in my series on language learning goals is on culture. I leave culture until last so I can explore it in the target language. It makes the exercise more meaningful.

Of course there are objective factors when it comes to being a successful language learner, but there are some subjective factors too. In this video I discuss the characteristics I believe set language learners up for success.

As well as enjoying the process, learning another language means I get to discover a new culture and people. What is your “why”?

Writing is an effective way to improve language skills. You have time to look things up: words, verb and noun forms, conjugations, declensions, phrases, etc. You have more time to work on your output than when you’re engaged in an oral conversation.

Learning is about much more than schools. This is especially true for language learning. A major ingredient for success is enthusiasm, on the part of the learner and the teacher. My chat with Alberto of Italiano Automatico.

Language learning is not about performing or being judged. It's about communicating, understanding, expressing our thoughts and ideas and feelings, however imperfectly, in the language we're learning.