Transcriber: Alina Siluyanova
Reviewer: Denise RQ Scot Young: We want to start off
with a question for you. By a show of hands, how many of you
have put in time and effort into learning another language? Maybe you took
a high school Spanish class, or maybe you took
a lot of Rosetta Stone, but you can't confidently speak
that language right now. Vat Jaiswal: OK. That's most of you here. Some of you are raising
both of your hands. So, we've tried learning
a few languages ourselves, we're going to talk about it in a minute. But let's talk about what is the problem, what is the main issue
that is holding everybody back from learning languages. Could it be that you're using
the wrong program of study, and if you were to use
a perfect program or the application, then you'd be able to learn the language? SY: Well, here the track record
isn't too good. Out of the 1,000 Americans who responded
to the General Social Survey, only 7 claimed that they could speak
another language very well, and had actually learned it in school. And if you consider self-study programs,
like Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur, well, they can work some of the time,
but they have another problem: huge drop out rates. [NFLC], at the University of Maryland did a study that took
an enthusiastic group of volunteers and found that only 6% put in
more than 100 hours with the program, which is far less than
what you'd need using these programs to become fluent in any language. VJ: OK, well, maybe then the problem is that you don't live in the country
that uses this language, and if you were to move there,
you'd be able to learn it. SY: Here I have to agree with you, Vat. Living in the country that speaks
the language, definitely helps. It provides motivation
and an opportunity for immersion. But it's not the answer
to all of your problems. If you go to the country
and you don't yet speak the language, what are you going to do? Are you going to rely on other expats
and locals who speak English to help you to get by? And that's going
to create a bubble of English, it is going to isolate you
from immersing yourself. So, we know an extreme example. We know of an American businessman
who went to Korea, married a Korean woman,
had children in Korea, lived in Korea for 20 years, still couldn't have
a decent conversation in Korean. So, living in the other country helps,
but it is not a silver bullet that will answer
all of your problems on its own. VJ: OK, well, finally maybe the problem
is that you're simply too old, and you should've tried
learning the language as a kid because kids learn
the languages faster, right? SY:This is actually a pervasive myth. Steven Brown of Einstein University and Jennifer Larson-Hall
of Qiushi University reviewed the literature and found adults actually learn languages faster
than children in the short run. It's only when we talk about reaching native-like levels
of pronunciation and grammar where children start to show
an upper hand over an adult. So, definitely, if you want to just
be able to communicate with people, have conversations, there is no reason you can't learn
a second language at any age. VJ: If those are not the core issues,
what is the core issue? We have a completely different hypothesis, and to explain this concept I want you to look
at this image of the ocean. Now, if you look at the water,
you're going to see 2 distinct zones: zone at the bottom
where the waves are breaking, an the zone at the top
where the water is relatively calm. Now, I want you to imagine
you're standing on the shore, and you want to swim out into the ocean. When you first start
swimming out into the ocean, you ARE going to be in this first zone
where the waves are breaking. And swimming in this zone
is incredibly difficult, you feel this incredible resistance, the waves come crushing down on you, and they constantly try
to push you back to the shore. However, if you were to push through
this zone and get to the second zone, suddenly, swimming becomes a lot easier and more importantly,
the waves are not trying to push you back, you're no longer feel
this incredible resistance. So, we believe that language learning
works very similar to this. When you first start learning a language, you're going to be in this first zone which we call 'the zone of fear'
or 'the zone of frustration', because this is where you fear
using the language, this is where you fear making mistakes, this is where you fear
embarrassing yourself. And learning a language
in this zone is very difficult: the waves represent this negative feedback and this constantly tries
to push you back to the shore. However, if you were
to push past this zone and get to the second zone
where the waters are calmer, suddenly language learning
becomes a lot easier, and a lot more fun. Mind you, I'm not saying
that you're perfect when you reach the second zone, or maybe you only know a few words,
but you're able to use them confidently, maybe you're able to have
some simple conversations. And language only goes
from being always frustrating to now being rewarding,
most of the time. So, the core issue, we believe,
that a lot of the people have is that people get stuck
in this zone of fear and frustration for longer than they have to, and for some people, forever. And if all you see is negative feedback, it's very hard to motivate yourself
to learn further and improve yourself, and learn the language
that you really want to learn. So, ideally, you'd use a different method, a method that allows you
to get past this zone very quickly and very efficiently, so you can get to the part
where language learning is fun and easy as quickly as you can. SY: We believe we have this method,
a method that cuts through the waves and gets you to the easier part
of language learning as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's very simple. Don't speak in English. And, that might sound
a little obvious or simplistic, but it's actually really powerful. When you force yourself to speak
the language you're trying to learn, and you learn words
and phrases by necessity, not the order it comes up in the textbook That means you automatically learn
the most frequent vocabulary and the most important words
for your situation. Next, because you don't know
many words and phrases, you're going to overuse what you do know. This results in effects
psychologists call overlearning which allows you to access
that information automatically. You don't need to get
your tongue tight or hesitating when you're using
basic words and phrases. And finally, because you're
not allowed to speak in English you're going to easily develop
conversational work-arounds to handle situations
that are above your level. That is going to be
from learning simple phrases like: "What does this mean?"
and "How do you say this? in the language, relatively early on, to being able to efficiently use things
like Google Translator and dictionaries to integrate new words and phrases
into your conversations while you're having them. VJ: So how do we know
that this method works? Well, we know that this method works
because we've tried it for ourselves. So, last year Scott and I
did an experiment. But we tried to learn
four different languages, and we went to four different countries to learn these languages over a year. And we used the same no-English rule
to learn the languages. So, first we went to Spain
to learn Spanish over 3 months, then we went to Brazil
to learn Portuguese over 3 months, then over to mainland China
to learn Mandarin over 3 months, and finally over to Korea
to learn Korean over 3 months. And we found that this
no-English rule worked incredibly well. As a matter of fact, near the end
of our travels in each country, we were confidently able
to have conversations with native speakers pretty much about any subject, and going by our daily lives, using the language
that we were trying to learn. So we actually have a short video
that we would like to show you that captures the kind of progress
that we were able to make using this no English rule
just under 3 months for each country. So, take a look. (Video) SY: This might seem a little bit extreme. After all, wouldn't it be a lot easier
to speak some English when you're trying to learn the language even if it is not quite as fast
as this no-English rule? We actually believe
that this is a misconception. And to argue that why
it is a misconception, I'd like to reference
an experience that I had. You see, years before
we did this challenge, I had a different opportunity
to learn a second language. I was in the university
and I had an opportunity to study abroad for a year in France. And like this trip, I was very eager
to learn the local language. I bought books, I downloaded podcasts, I really wanted
to become fluent in French. The only difference
that I had no specific rule against speaking in English. I figured, "I'll go there and I'll speak
as much English as I need to, and I'll just try
to practice French whenever I can." And after a year of living in France, and pushing myself
to study every single day, I did get to a point where
I could have a conversation, but it was never easy,
it always felt difficult, it always felt like I was
a little out of place. And contrast that to that
of my more recent experience in Spain. Once again, we have
the motivation and opportunity, but this time
we have the no-English rule. From the very first day we came to Spain, we decided we were only
going to speak in Spanish. And, as you can probably imagine, with limited Spanish skills
it was very difficult in the beginning. We had to communicate to each other almost exclusively through
our dictionaries for these first few days. But after 2 weeks something changed, it started to get a bit easier. After a month even easier. And by the third month
we were in Spain, it'd become so easy, that living our lives
entirely in Spanish was automatic. We didn't have to think
about studying or practicing, it was completely invisible in our lives. And what's more,
after just 3 months in Spain, our Spanish, both of our Spanish,
was much better than my French was after a year of living in France
and deliberately studying it. And so, when you're evaluating
the difficulty of a method, particularly in learning languages, it's not really fair to look at that
initial sliver of difficulty because you have to look
at how much effort you're going to be putting in
not just in the beginning, but day after day, month after month in order to finally being able
to learn this language. And what we found is not even just
that the no English rule is faster, but that when you take it
over this longer view, it is actually easier
than any other method we've tried for learning a language. VJ: And I'd like to speak about
another misconception that a lot of people have is that you'd somehow be able
to completely avoid making mistakes when you first start learning a language. And that's simply not true. Actually making mistakes is very good
because it means you're using the language and eventually it helps you
to gain the confidence that you need to speak the language. When Scott and I
were doing this challenge, we made mistakes every day
especially in the beginning, everything we said
was wrong, but that's OK. And in China and in Korea, because Chinese and Korean
are so much harder than the European languages
we attempted to learn, we slipped up and broke
the no English rule a couple of times as well,
but it didn't matter because it is not about making mistakes, how many mistakes you're making, it is more about that each time
you make a mistake you try again. So, remember that the whole goal
of this process and this method is to push past this zone
of frustration and fear so you can get to the part where language learning
becomes fun and easy. Ideally, the way you'd do this is you'd move to the country
that speaks this language and go 100% immersion from the first day and commit to the no English rule. But obviously, that's a bit extreme and a lot of you here
might not have the opportunity to do that. But I'd like to point out
that the beauty of the no English rule is that it doesn't have to be 100%
no English all the time with everybody. It can also work in a limited context. So let me give you an example. If you're trying to learn Spanish and you have a co-worker
or colleague that speaks Spanish, maybe you commit to the no English rule
every time you see this person. So, every time you're going to see them
you only commit to speaking in Spanish. So if you were to bump in them
at the water cooler and you want to make small talk, and you want to say
- let's say you were busy at work - and you want to say:
"Oh, I'm so busy today," it is OK to pull out your dictionary,
and translate the entire sentence. You don't have to feel ready to say this, the goal is to just try and attempt. And what this really helps you to do is that it helps you out
with two really important things. The first one: it helps you to remove the ambiguity
of which language should you use, because if with this co-worker,
let's say, you can speak in Spanish, and you can speak in English,
obviously you're going to default to speaking in English
because it is so much easier. But by committing
to the no English rule, you're saying: "Every time I see this person
I know it is practice time, there is no doubt in my mind
that now I have to speak Spanish even if I have to pull out my dictionary." And the second thing it helps you out with is it helps you develop a habit
of speaking the language even at the very low level of ability. This really helps you out to build
the confidence that you eventually are going to need
when you'll start speaking this language to the higher level of ability. SY: So you've heard about our challenge. Now we'd like to issue you one. And no, we're not asking you
to sell out your stuff and go to live in a far away country. We're going to ask you
to do something a lot simpler but if you follow through on it,
it will still be very effective if you want to finally start having
conversations in that language you'd been learning all your life. Just 3 steps. Step 1: Find one person. It could be a native speaker
of this language, or it could be another language learner, it could be someone you already know, a friend, a colleague, a spouse, or it could be someone you find online. There are services like
italki.com and livemocha to find conversation partners online. So if you can't find
this person in your life right now, there are easy tools
for finding them online. Step 2: Commit to
the no English rule with this person. Every time you see them
just speak in this language that you're trying to learn. Tell them that, you know,
even though you're not too great at the language yet,
you are going to have to use Google Translator and dictionary
a lot in the beginning, that's OK. Step 3: Start speaking. Once again, it is not something
you have to be perfect at. You might slip up and break
the "no English" rule, just try again. Pull out your phone,
download the Google Translator app, you can type in the whole sentences
if you don't feel comfortable yet speaking the language. The goal is to get you to start speaking, to start building
that knowledge of the words, and start practicing those core phrases. What we're hoping is
that by showing you this method we're encouraging you
to get started with something, not to be perfect,
and maybe even today to decide to find that one person
and start this rule, and finally start speaking that language. Chinese have an expression: (Chinese) "A good start
is a half of success," which means:
"A good start is a half of success." (Applause)
It's not often that I agree 100% with anything that gets posted here, but I completely agree with this. The focus on the psychological aspect of language learning (overcoming feelings of fear, hopelessness and humiliation) is incredibly important in language learning - much more important than which textbooks or apps you use, or whether you focus on this first rather than that - but is not discussed enough. And the 'avoid English' rule as a way to do this is definitely the best way to grapple with these emotions. It's not an easy rule to follow - in fact, it's incredibly hard at first - but, from my own experience, the more momentum you get, the easier it is to stick with it. It is the best way to gain confidence in really using the language.
Pro-tip: one of the most incredibly useful phrases to memorize before going to a country that speaks your target language is: 'I'm sorry, I'm from (Poland / Bulgaria / some random non-English speaking country), so I can't speak English well. Let's just speak in (target language)'. Also, note that you will sometimes feel like a bit of an asshole using the 'avoid English' rule. Especially in Asia, if you are white, people will see your lovely caucasian face and come up to you, all excited to practice their English, and start blurting out English phrases. At moments like this, you have to realize that you have as much of a right as them to practice the language you want. In fact, because you are the one who has generally made significant sacrifices to be in their country, your situation trumps theirs. So just go ahead and tell them you are from Poland. They may just walk away (I've certainly had that happen), but they may not, and either way, you'll be able to stay in the world of your target language. At all costs, you need to avoid getting torn out of that world and thrust into the world of English.
One other thing about the psychological aspect of language learning that is critical is the importance of being easy on yourself. You may or may not learn your target language as quickly as you want. (Because most people have unrealistic expectations, this is likely. Where these unrealistic expectations come from is another topic.) There may be others who learn more quickly than you. You may fuck up in situations in which you feel like you should have been able to succeed. Forgiving yourself, and not being prone to acts of psychological self-laceration in these sorts of situations, while hard, is one of the most important skills of language learning. Language learning teaches you humility and patience; without them, you simply won't get to genuine fluency. The people who are best at language learning are actually the people who, while extremely highly motivated, are easy on themselves. This is a very delicate and difficult balance to strike, but is absolutely essential.
I like these guys - when they had their year of not speaking English challenge they uploaded at least a few hours of raw audio a day unedited, and at the end of it let the results speak for themselves. Scott's website is also quite interesting, more about learning in general than languages specifically.
I like this idea. I think I will apply it to my days off (days when I am not obligated to speak my native language at work/school).
An entire day in another language. Definitely something that could help me out.
I'm so glad you posted this! I feel really excited now to study abroad and not speak English, including with fellow exchange students. I think this is a wonderful idea, and knowing you can always have access to a dictionary is reliving and makes it seem more approachable. I'm also thinking of speaking in English/Spanish with my family. Maybe if I type out an English message I should also write it out in Spanish and bring it to someone who can help point out my errors. I'm so excited! Thanks!...Now if only I could travel to a few other countries for 6 months haha
I tried this, and I can already say that it works very well. This is a must-do method.