@123bbryant
I found that watching childrens tv shows in the language i was studying was a huge help
@DAB-2023
There is really excellent advice in this video. I'm a native English speaker. I am fluent (C2) in Italian and almost fluent (C1 on a good day, B2 on a bad one) in French. I learnt both languages as an adult. The following are really notes for myself. The idea in this video is to focus on acquisition and meaning. The essential "incremental" part comes when you encounter the same word in a variety of contexts. Inevitably you will come across a more unusual word and you will look it up then imediately forget it - even if you carefully write it down and try to memorise it. However, if you keep coming across a word in different contexts you are much more likely to remember it, and, for that, you need to concentrate on *acquisition*. The more you read and the more you listen, the more likely it is you will come across the same words in different contexts. (Note to self) Incremental acquisition is also key to being able to recognise what is common and what isn't. For example "pigro" and "indolente" both mean "lazy" in Italian, but you will almost never hear an Italian saying "indolente". Read and listen *a lot*, to understand which of these two Italian words (and there are of course others which mean "lazy") would be most appropriate to describe "lazy" in a given context. Get there by continually bashing your head against the wall (reading and listening, reading and listening, reading and listening). The word enters your brain in the end and, slowly but surely, the word "pigro" starts to sound right when you see a teenager lounging on a sofa, but "indolente" doesn't. I would add that everyone makes mistakes, even in their native language. It's absolutely fine to make mistakes in a foreign language - it's almost expected of you. If people want to speak to you they will, even if you don't conjugate your verbs properly. However, if you haven't done any practice with acquistion and don't understand anything people say to you, the conversation will end rather quickly. Comprehension is key. EDIT: to add to above, in case I gave the impression that you can learn a language by just reading and listening. You should have at least a basic idea of the grammar of your target language. You should understand the basic concepts of classes of words: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc. This will make life much easier for you. Verbs are quite complex in French and Italian, and in many other languages too. At the very least, if you don't know what a verb is, then brush up on your grammar before trying to learn another language.
@pinkflojdica5467
As a language tutor and language learner myself I find this comprehensive video extremely useful. I can't emphasize enough the value of this video!!! One viewing of THIS video is enough to learn ANY language. Thank you for this, I can't stress enough how valuable this is!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤
@dckdck7368
He said don't learn words, then he said you must know 98 percent of the text.
@menethilarthas6356
I believe this is one of the most helpful youtube video for language learners. What Dr Jeff McQuillan told is truly enlightening!
@mikeymileos
I've been learning Japanese thru acquisition and while it has helped me to learn a bunch of stuff, pulling back and spending a few hours to learn about Japanese verb conjugation helped me immensely. My acquisition was based on formal Japanese and the verbs had already been changed and I didn't understand AT ALL how the dictionary verb connected to the polite Japanese use of it AT ALL. Now that I have learned verb conjugation, I can understand the same verb in so many different ways. When I start hearing and acquiring them it's going to make so much more sense now
@cemalsureya1719
Ask yourself, why is he an ex-professor?
@learnandtravelannushka
Thank you for the video! As a professional teacher of English and Russian as a foreign language and a University teacher, as well as a language learner who is learning Chinese (as I am living and teaching university students in China now) and German and planning to learn French, I can say that ALL factors are important in learning languages: both conscious learning and subconscious, memorising and acquiring, studying textbooks and reading fiction books, noticing and just looking around, spaced repitition and repetition in context, talking to native speakers and talking to a teacher, even memorising dialogues are important (it does serve you good) - all the nuances are worth taking into account. Even flashcards are important. The idea is THE MORE TIME YOU SPEND ON INPUT AND OUTPUT, THE MORE PROFICIENT YOU BECOME. I agree that learning vocabulary as isolated words is not worth it but we always learn it in a chain: a word - a phrase - a sentence - an extract - a text or a dialogue - similar dialogue - real life talk and exposure. It is impossible to acquire a language just by listening or living in the country unless you make real efforts. It is time-consuming, that is why we have to be patient and consistent in how we learn it. "Systematically" - that is what important, as in any other business or area. I have a question: who in the mordern world just memorises words without a context? All students whom I teach, they use flashcards only for reviewing. All is important. Every single detail. For one person, talking to a foreigner is enough to improve. For another, they should sit and write and read and learn and repeat. We are all so different. There are many cases described in the "SLA" theory showing that some people acquire languages easier than others. Brain and our psyche are very complicated areas. Good luck to us all.
@LamiaKnighton
I love that this is grounded in science — it's refreshing to see language learning backed by research!
@Nativlo
Fantastic stuff! Well done đź‘Ź
@SimplyChinese
I’m lucky that I found Dreaming Spanish. We need Dreaming <Language> for all languages.
@catherine4385
I love grammar. It's like an intriguing puzzle.
@HollowJesters
I've been learning French for a couple of years, using Duolingo, Hello Talk, researching grammar rules, memorising conjugation rules, watching shows in french with english subtitles and a tutor for the last few months. I've heard this comprehensible input/learning via story praised as the golden method for learning a language by multiple different educators and I totally agree it's a completely necessary tool as I can read, write and speak fairly well in French, but am utterly useless at comprehending whilst listening. What I have an issue with however, is the overlooking of the challenges with this method. His example of 'I have two hands' in Spanish was great, but in reality where am I suppose to get this content? Especially if I have zero comprehension of a language in the first place. Surely conscious learning is completely necessary and very effective at least when a complete beginner? I'm at a point where I can have pretty good conversations on Hello Talk (using translate every now and then for some words and phrases) and can almost watch French shows with French subtitles, but it's consistent conscious learning that has got me to this point where I'm almost ready for comprehensible input to be the most effective aspect of my learning.
@lealy3002
I feel like finding a gem. This video is a gem. That explains why my grammar gets better after using bunch of vocabs. I learn the meaning and the structure follows, not otherwise
@goldeneddie
The best explanation I've heard yet of how you really deeply connect with a language.
@renegade-spectre
“You should be focusing on acquisition” Well yes….but for certain languages there can be no hope of acquiring if there is no conscious learning first (or at least in parallel). What I know about Italian (being both an English and Spanish native) I learned from just exposure to the language. What I know about Japanese couldn’t have been possible without first learning the ins and outs of the language…I was exposing to it while at the same time making a conscious effort to learn (since I was learning vocabulary, Kanji and grammar at the same time as I was doing immersion)…same thing for Korean. Learning a language is not the same process for any language….there will always be things that work for one and not the other…for example, for Japanese, I was so obsessed from day 1 that I could immerse in native level content from like 2 months into learning because I would not mind looking at the same sentence for 20 minutes…fast forward 4 years later and I can now understand everything at a very high level almost without having to stop to look up things…In contrast, with Korean, I just cant do it…I can’t do immersion (even aimed at language learners) until I have the basics down because I get overwhelmed so quickly its not even funny…. So yes…I agree that acquisition is the way to learn, but sometimes there just can’t be any unconscious learning without some deliberate learning…sometimes they can happen at the same time, other times one has to happen before the other can take place
@ILoveMaths07
I've learnt languages the traditional way using grammar exercises, and it has worked splendidly for me.
@Anima_Libera_14
The best way to learn a language is listen, watch and repeat what you heard. Writing notes/letters in the target language is extremely helpful (writing by hand works better than typing). Watch the News: first in a language you understand, so that you know what is going on, and then in your target language. Watch movies that come with subtitles in a language you understand. In Sweden, pretty much everyone speaks English fluently, and a good number of people can communicate in three, four or even more languages. Why? Because everybody watches TV and no movie shown by a Swedish TV station has ever been translated into Swedish. Movies are always shown in their original language with subtitles. At first, you need those to be able to follow what is going on. Gradually, you'll notice that you rely on them less and less until one day you find that you watched the whole movie without ever even looking at the subtitles. It may not be the fastest way to learn a language but it's definitely one of the best.
@AhmedSayed-ki3fm
Thanks for such a valuable video, I have been learning German for a while and I started getting frustrated due to my slow progress, but the advices and techniques mentioned here gave me more energy to continue my learning journey
@matt_brooks-green