Fix These Bad Habits to Finally Learn a Language (so easy)

have you ever wondered whether there's something about how you're trying to learn a language that you could be getting wrong maybe you're missing something how is it that some people seem to learn languages so easily While others really struggle in this video I'm going to share the key mistakes to avoid and more importantly the simple changes you can make to fix them which will mean that you make progress that is not only easier but also more enjoyable before I tell you about that though there is something that we need to talk about something really important you need to get your head around this in order to be in a position to make progress in whichever language that you're trying to learn in fact it's the first mistake that a lot of people make the classic way that people talk about learning a language is they say oh I've been learning French for 3 years and I still haven't made any progress how is it that one person can get to a conversational level of French in half the time whereas the person who's been trying for 3 years isn't much past well the successful learner is probably going to be doing the things that I'm going to tell you about in this video but if you break down the successful learner and the less successful learner the one making progress is simply probably doing more in less time they've spent more hours with the language 15 minutes of dual lingo a week isn't really going to get you anywhere for that reason don't count weeks or even years count the hours that you spend with the language and it makes a surprising difference I actually found it really useful to track my first 1,000 hours of Spanish watching that number go up every day was really motivating if I didn't have much planned for one day I could just try and see how many hours I can could get in 8 and a half was a good day and on the days it was half an hour was not the end of the world because I was still making that number go up you can do the same by making a simple spreadsheet yourself as a low Tech version but there are websites out there that can do this for you like toggle clockify and poly logger just Google time tracker and just see which one you fancy now that you understand that you are already primed to make some serious progress so let's imagine for a second that you're going to cross an island infested with dangerous wild animals in order to get to safety it's Danger but it'll be an epic achievement you're about to leave you've got your boots your big jacket and some lip balm seriously it can get very dry out there and then in order to set off you spin around three times walk out of the building with your eyes closed in the hope that you happen to be going in the right direction and get to the chopper without getting eaten along the way it's not going to work is it language learning isn't necessarily A straightforward path but we do need to have an idea of where we're going at least that's why one of the biggest mistakes is not having a strong enough idea of why you're learning a language but we can fix that very quickly get out a pen and paper and grab yourself a notebook yes an actual pen and paper you want this to feel more tangible rather than a wishy-washy approach I want you to write down why you're learning the language it can just be a list of bullet points of things that you want to do or achieve that is fine but you can do something much more powerful in as much detail as you possibly can describe a scene that wouldn't be possible without the language it's an experience that you want to have but I want you to describe it in a way which just involves as as many of the senses as possible it'll not only motivate you but be particularly memorable so for my Spanish I could say something like this after watching YouTube videos about canab in Spain I fly out there with my wife we rent a car in the airport entirely in Spanish and I make some jokes with a man behind the desk I tell him we're planning on driving around the region and I mention how the subject of espano bathia really interests me he recommends some abandoned villages to go and explore and gives me the directions we stop off on the way at a small village and get some tapas in a bar to keep our energ up the owner of the bar has a lovely dog and my wife and I chat with her about our dog and how we're missing him already I could go on but you get the idea you need to have a clear idea of where you're going and what you want to achieve if you're going to keep this up over the long term anytime you're feeling like you're losing Drive in your learning you can turn back to this image which can refuel your desire to continue with the journey but that's just the start now this next point is really important but for you to understand it I need to explain a little bit about the language learning process so that this makes sense so when you learn a language it actually doesn't work in the way that a lot of people think you can't memorize all of the rules and vocabulary and suddenly you're a fluent speaker what happens is a process which you can't really control where your brain sees bits of the language which you expose it to and it picks up little pieces of some of the things that you show it slowly over time it's building up an image in your head of all of this information it's making connections and constructing an idea of what the language is this is just like how it did for your first language if you're really new to this style of learning it might not feel like you're doing anything but providing it at a level that you can understand what's going on you're going to start picking up the language without realizing if you have no idea what's going on time to find something easier for now your brain needs to be exposed to enough data for it to have the necessary material to build up the language in your brain and the key thing here is allowing it to make connections between all the other bits of data that it already has now excitingly I can share with you that one way to do this is through lingopie if you haven't yet heard of lingopie they Pride themselves on being the Netflix of language learning on their platform you've got access to a host of different TV shows from easier kids TV right up to Netflix series in nine different languages if you hear a word that you don't understand you can just click to quickly look it up and find out what it means and then get back to enjoying the content that can assist in making the show more comprehensible to you and therefore Aid you and picking up the language you can connect it to your Netflix account to look up words whilst enjoying some of your favorite shows I was using it to enjoy lacassa their Propel such a good series if you're studying more than one language the great thing is it's just one subscription so if you want to dabble with multiple languages or you already have other languages that you're trying to maintain you can do it at no extra cost you can enjoy content through lingopie and know that provided it's at the right level you're going to pick up the language naturally you'll build up your ability to understand real people talking in a more natural way slowly over time you can increase the difficulty of the content that you're watching in order to pick up more of the the language you can get a 7-Day free trial so there really is no reason not to try it out use the link in the description to check it out thanks to lingo for sponsoring this video so back to the idea of collecting data rather than memorizing vocabulary and rules that brings me on to the next mistake if we look at your language learning as essentially the task of giving your brain this data and allowing it to pick and choose the bits it wants to add to the network that it's building we then have to incorporate that into our learning in some way how I hear you ask I can't actually he you that' be a bit weird we have to look at this in a practical sense and look at exactly what you're doing day to day and yes every day some people have misaligned expectations where they want to see progress but they're not getting enough daily exposure to the language in a form that will actually help them but to fix that you simply just need to hunt for some content that interests you and is at the right level for you this might look like finding YouTube channels for Learners of that language with videos that are entirely in the language it could be a podcast for Learners where the speakers use Simple vocabulary that you can understand not only does it work better than studying tables of conjugation for example it's also much much more enjoyable if the activities aren't ones where you're hearing or seeing the language in context or you don't really understand what it is you're exposed to you're not going to get that far and if you feel that you're not making progress that can lead to you feeling frustrated and giving up remember that notebook with the scene in it how is it that you're going to get there it will take you adjusting your daily life so that you can regularly do activities that result in the goal that you're after and as the goal is to learn your language those activities have to have something to do with building up this subconscious understanding of the language through exposure to material that you mostly understand so we understand we need to allow our brain to build a network of the new language through daily watching reading or listening that is your foundation now I get the idea of having a little bit of a push to learn a language having a more intense period of study like the first 90 days or so to try and get out of the beginner stage that little bit quicker if you've got the time in the inclination that sounds great but how long can that last for and are you going to put the rest of your life on hold whilst that happens for a lot of us with other responsibilities that might not be so simple that's why I think one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make is not thinking long term if you're working in a way which doesn't fit with what you do dayto then you are guaranteed to get bored or Worse to burn out the key for me is having the awareness that if I'm going to take a long time to build this network in my head I want to be doing in a way that I can sustain over the long term you can have habits Etc which sounds great but when are you going to start enjoying yourself now I don't know what you like to get up to in your spare time so I can't say what you'll enjoy but there are so many great creators making interesting content or even platforms where you can find content in a language that you want to learn and at a level that you can understand you just have to trust that the experts who study language learning and talk about lots of exposure to the language do know what they're talking about your job is to just try and find a way to fit it into your daily life in a way that is enjoyable for you if you're enjoying it then is just a matter of time if you're not convinced or you need more information then click on this next video here where an expert explains the language learning process in more detail if you understand the process then you're going to be so much better equipped in order to make progress

Channel: Matt Brooks-Green

Views: 4,693

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Id: D6hkuRrPPcc

Length: 9min 33sec (573 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024