Hi.
Today I want to talk about learning a language in one month.
Um, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell to get
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So we regularly see blog posts, videos, where people provide
advice on how to learn a language in a given period of time.
One month...
one month, three months, six months.
And typically they have a, you know, a range of, of, um, tips and tricks
and hacks that will enable you to learn the language more quickly.
I am skeptical.
Uh, I'm skeptical because I believe what Manfred Spitzer said, and
that is that the brain will learn.
The brain is a learning machine.
It's a pattern creating machine, but the brain learns slowly.
I don't believe that the brain learns quickly, but you can Google.
And it's interesting to do because obviously those of us who are
interested in learning languages, we want to see how other people learn.
We want to, if there are useful tips and hints, then obviously we want to,
you know, learn from these people.
And there are things that work for some people that don't work for other people.
And you'll see that some of the suggestions are, you know, just
get out and talk to people.
Well, it's very difficult to do that.
If you don't first have the language in you, you have the more traditionalist
person who says you must get a good grammar book, uh, and a good dictionary.
And I don't find that necessary either because sure, you'll probably get
yourself a grammar book or a starter book, and you'll read through these
explanations and it won't make much sense.
Yes, you have to refer back to some kind of grammar explanation,
but you can do that at any time.
It's easily available via Google.
Uh, and you will become curious about certain aspects of the
language after you've had enough exposure to the language, and
that's the way we designed LingQ.
And you can start reading, you look up words, you start to
gradually explore and piece together the, how the language works.
Then you become curious and you look up the grammar.
Some of the other suggestions, you know, I, I noted some of them.
Yes, they recommend there are a lot of apps out there, Duolingo and LingQ,
of course, and Babel and, and, and, uh Busuu and however, the fundamental
process is still one that takes time, whether you are using these apps or not,
whether you have a good dictionary or a good grammar book or not, you still
have to have the language come in you.
Some people suggest, you know, memory techniques.
Again, some people, if you enjoy, you know, memory techniques, I must
confess that I don't I'm I'm not prepared to invest the time in a
memory techniques, but some people are because again, I believe that, you
know, learning some words in isolation you've been using memory techniques
is no substitute for this massive
input, reading and listening, which is going to allow my brain to gradually
get familiar with the language.
Uh, some people suggest you, you should have these measurable
goals and realistic goals.
And I think that's a good thing, but I've always found that language
learning is something that's driven by your motivation and some days
you're keener than other days.
The idea that you should decide that every day at 10 o'clock in the morning or six
or whatever, that I'm going to do, this, that, and the other, it can be part of
a strategy if you're that way inclined.
It's not a condition.
And I don't think it's necessarily going to move you faster to this
goal of, of learning the language in one month or three months.
Uh, one of the suggestions was that, you know, You can actually jump from
B1 on the European framework to C2, by doing this, that or the other.
You don't jump in language learning.
You certainly don't jump from B1 to C2 because actually that's a long, long way.
And that's like almost, I would say years.
And to be C2, you have to be living where the language is spoken.
You have to be using it a lot.
You have to have done a lot of reading.
You have to have put in a lot of time, over a long period of time.
You can't just jump because you start speaking.
If you don't have the vocabulary and you don't have the comprehension,
you aren't going to jump
to sort of beyond fluency as it was described.
Uh, of course we have things available to us today.
We can find a tutor online.
We can have Skype conversations, we can do all of those things, but we can't
do those if we don't understand the language, if we don't have vocabulary.
And obviously the closer the language is to one we know the easier it is to
learn, but to suggest that one shortcut to learning more quickly is to find cognates,
cognates are very similar words in another language, well, that works.
If you're learning a language, which has a lot of cognates.
But if you're learning a language that has no cognates,
it doesn't really help very much.
Generally speaking, the more recognizable vocabulary there is in the new language,
the faster you're going to learn.
Another argument that's put forward is, you know, learn the most
important 1000 words, 500 words, learn the important words upfront.
In my experience, first of all, having the most important 500, 1000 words is
not going to help you if you get into a genuine, meaningful conversation
with someone because the vocabulary will go well beyond those words.
And unfortunately, frequency and vocabulary declines very, very quickly.
So you're still going to have to chase those less frequent vocabulary
items at some point, if you want to be genuinely comfortable in the language.
And those very frequent words, they're going to show up anyway, you don't
really have to focus on learning those.
They all come at you so often.
If you're doing a lot of listening and reading, those are the ones
that will be the easiest to learn.
You're still gonna have to pursue the, um, you know, the
less frequently used, uh, words.
And another thing, another thing you hear is how to sound like a native.
I think if we listen a lot, if we are attentive to the language, if we are
motivated to, to sort of imitate the natural native pronunciation, we'll
get better, but we may not ever sound like a native and it doesn't matter.
In fact, it's interesting, I was watching a golf tournament and they
interviewed this golfer from Mexico.
I can't remember his name.
But he had a Spanish accent, but he spoke excellent English.
Sometimes if you speak very well and you have a bit of your native accent
that almost gives your English or whatever language, if you're learning
another language, a little bit of charm.
Whereas on the other hand, if you exaggerate sort of the native twang,
but you don't have the, the, you know, uh, use of words and the control
of the language that would normally match that level of pronunciation,
it may not make a good impression.
So I guess what I wanted to say is, you know, in, in this idea of studying
effectively, make sure you expose yourself to a lot of the language, let the brain
take its time to learn the language.
The brain will learn, but it takes time and don't put pressure
on yourself to learn it in one month, three months, six months,
uh, nor is it even certain what it is you hope to achieve in one
month, three months, six months.
Because if it's an a, if it's a new language, you have no concept of, of
how much there is in that language.
And typically you'll discover the deeper you get into it
that there's just more and more of it there, which if you're enjoying
the language, it is a delight and not sort of something you want to
get past as quickly as possible.
So there you have it.
Can you learn language in a month?
I don't think so.