hello my dear friends welcome to my channel, zoe here
originally from China
a language enthusiast
phd student in sociology in France
actually French is the first
foreign language
I've learned to speak to proficient level
yes not English
I've learned English in school like
any normal Chinese students but I've never practiced it
and I've improved my English after French after I've learned
German
Arabic Turkish and Persian
the more languages I learned
the faster I can learn the next language
of course it depends on a difficulty of that language
but basically I have more experience
my toolbox of effective methods
and I know how to avoid some of mistakes
I made before
that's what I'm gonna talk about today
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the first mistake I made was that I was
always worried about the judgment of others
this is the main obstacle to practicing speaking
many people have a good knowledge of language
but they can't speak
I know we make so much effort to learn a language
we want to talk to people
but sometimes when we try to say something
especially in the beginning people don't understand us
or some people mock our accent
these attitudes make us feel uncomfortable
frustrated and we make more mistakes while speaking
and we become more and more afraid to speak
but if we don't speak
how can we progress first of all
you can't speak a language perfectly
from the beginning
making mistakes is a very important
part of learning the language
and you don't learn a language for others
but for yourself
your studies your dreams
the people who give you their opinion
positive or negative
depending on their personality or mood
they don't really care if you speak well or badly
they have their own life to worry about
but whenever you have an opportunity to
practice that language
it will only benefit you
not them especially you make mistakes
people correct you politely or rudely
especially the rude one
I'm sure you will no longer make the same mistake
I would like to tell you a story a bit sad but
very inspiring
I have a syrian friend
she has been in France for almost five years
her French accent is flawless
better than mine
when I first met her
I thought she was born in France
I asked her how can you speak French perfectly
are you talented or did you do some special exercise
she said zoe
you know what
I had a strong arabic accent
and sometimes people couldn't understand me
I was obliged to change my accent
I was working in a store
you know when you have to sell something
you have to speak well, all my colleagues
make a fun of my accent
sometimes I said something wrong they teased me that
even said there that I speak french so badly
that my husband and I won't find a decent job here
that we should go to the arab neighborhood and only
work with arabs
I didn't say anything
every time they criticize my accent
I note it in my head and correct it
when I go home I check the word
and repeat it 100 times with a voice in the dictionary
until I don't have any accents
there are a lot of layers in this story
I mean a lot of sociological analysis that maybe in
another video we can
talk about this topic like " accent " and experience
of being immigrant
refugee or foreigners in different
societies which is actually my research
field
leave in the comment and tell me if you like this idea
okay back to the topic
those people who have made fun of my friends accent
would have discouraged and destroyed her
but they made her stronger and better
my point is that if you are native speaker
don't easily judge other people's accent
in your native language regardless of
their background
if you are learning a language
don't get frustrated easily
if others don't understand you
another story
I was in a train in France
you know in France we have the
seat face to face I mean like this
there is a table in between
While I was sitting down
I heard a girl in front of me
talking in telephone in Persian
with the Iranian accent
after she hung up the phone I asked her directly
directly in Persian
and she replied
and then I replies
we were so happy we were chatting for 3h in the train
sometimes I didn't know the words
how to say in Farsi and then she helped me find words
she said that she was alone in France
she was very
happy to find someone who speaks her language
before I was always
worried about other people's opinions
sometimes I want them to be impressed
I mean sometimes I want to impress them
actually is super toxic
I have changed my mindset completely
the purpose of learning a language is not to show
off your abilities
or intelligence
but to communicate and connect with people
that's the basic function of a language
starting my YouTube channel is also
a way to overcome this
fear of others judgments here on YouTube
most of the people are very kind
you guys give me a lot of compliments
we encourage each other
some people give me constructive criticism
I always appreciate it
they take their time
write me long comments to tell me to pay attention
to the pronunciation of this or that letter
I should do this or that to sound more natural
and of course some people criticize me
even aggressively
I've received the criticism for the
accent of all the languages I speak
including English French and Chinese
yes my native language Chinese like
you have a strong southern accent
or I can't understand when you speak English
if you go to iran people
won't understand a word you say
I don't want people to think
germans as ugly as what you speak
guys I mean
there are always people who don't like you
for any reason
there are always people who judge easily
by ignoring your efforts
you can't change their views
the most important thing is that you know yourself
your level
your goals don't be distracted by these kind of opinions
focus on your work
if you realize that you need to practice more
just go and talk to people
there are many language exchange applications
websites go to the place
where you can find native speakers
if people give you compliments
keep yourself motivated and feel grateful
constructive criticism
take it and correct your mistakes
mockery just ignore them
another mistake I made is that
I didn't how to manage my expectations
I still remember I was learning French
I was very ambitious
I wanted to get a
c1 in only six months from zero
I told myself that I'm super disciplined
hardworking and normally I learn things
pretty fast so I made a super intensive study plan
I was studying almost like more than 10h per day
after five months I took an online test guess what
B1
I was in shock
frustrated
disappointed I say to myself no I'm far from my dream I
will not be able to apply the master in France
yes I was like a bit drama queen
then after two days of depression
I asked myself
did you say a wrong goal from the beginning
you did your best
that's your limit
learning a language takes time
to use to practice to repeat
what I have learned is that it's very
important to manage your expectations
from the beginning to know yourself and your limits
the second example I've planned to learn arabic
I was also ambitious
I said to myself this time I'm going to be reasonable
I want to reach the C1 level in one year
like what I did in French
after one year
I couldn't even hold a proper conversation in arabic
because
I was doing my master's degree at the same time
I wasn't living in an arab country
I didn't have the condition to study full time
and have an immersion
like while I was learning French
and this language is
much more complicated than I imagined
is a completely new system
than the language I knew new alphabet pronunciation
grammar
if I can memorize a lot of French words because
they are similar to English arabic
I couldn't find any link to memorize the words
I had a period of
frustration because of the wrong expectation
I didn't
understand my own situation and I didn't take
into account the difficulty of the language as well
even now after
three and half a years I can use arabic in my research
to do interviews with people
and some observation
in my field work
I still have a lot of difficulties because
it's really difficult
but this time I'm more patient
I concentrate on my daily and weekly task and let
time speak so when you ask someone
how long does it take you become fluent
in a language
I mean it's great to have a benchmark
it can motivate you
but ask that person
how did he or she learn that language
how much should I do
they spend on it every day and every week
do they have an immersion environment
how difficult is this language in relation
to their native language
you can then assess your own situation
and decide if it is a reasonable
to set the same time line
or if you should take more time
another thing you need to know is that
it takes some time to find your rhythm
and really know your ability to study
so don't be afraid to change your goal your plan
your expectation
we know ourselves better
by learning and making mistakes
I used to believe that the more intensive I learn
the faster I could speak a language well
I ignored
the fact that
language is not only a mechanical accumulation
of sounds words and grammar
it's also a way we perceive the
world we interact and exchange with people
we express our thoughts and feelings
we build the link with a new culture
which takes time to observe
practice to learn
that's why in many of my videos I always say
do it last but more regularly and with more focus
do you think that if you study 5h a day
you can learn more
than someone who study 2h
not really actually
it's not the length of a time that matters
but your productivity
your concentration
and how you organize the different tasks and exercises
study may just
mean you sitting down and doing some exercises
but that doesn't mean you have really learned understood
and know how to use it so normally
in my study routine whether it's for an hour or 2h
I always try to combine these three parts
learning new things
revealing all things and practicing
a lot of people have jobs studies families
but even you have only 15 or 30min
but you study with high concentration
you can do it every day you can see progress over time
I've learned Turkish and persian like that
another thing I want to say is that
sometimes the intensive pace of a work
can burn you out
you really have to pay attention
here's a story
people ask me how many anki cards I study every day
I will tell you that it depends when I was in Egypt
I kinda have this imimersion environments I was
on vacation I didn't have the work
so I was able to learn at least 100 new words
and review 250 flash cards a day
because basically I was studying every day
and I was able to use them every day
but now I'm in France
I have work
and I'm learning different languages at the same time
it's not realistic at all to keep that pace
but obsessed over finishing
the same amount of flashcards was just stressing me out
I was completely burnt out and it was
super county productive
every morning I woke up thinking oh my god
today I have to review two hour flash cards
it just made learning arabic dreadful
so I no longer obsessed by my flash cards
I prefer to focus on
using new words to talk about my ideas
even just the three or five new words a day
for example when I watch a video
in arabic I've learned 10 new words
and some nice sentence structures
for example the first thing I do is
not to put it in my anki deck
pill them up and wait to repeat them
I just write them down and make similar sentences
that relate to my life
my research and my thought
sometimes I will try to write a story using them all
it's actually pretty awesome
I feel like it's more fun
than just revising flash cards
you have to listen to your body sometimes
find your rhythm
take a break to allow your brain
to absorb the information
it takes time to create a connection
between
what you see and what you want to say in that language
rather than pushing yourself to
learn a lot of new words
new lessons sometimes I prefer to stop
just review watch old videos I've already watched
talk to myself
read my old diaries in that language
so this is the end of the video
I always say that
learning a language depends
more on your mental strength than your intelligence
I hope you can learn something from my mistakes
write in the comments if you have any questions
and share with others what
kind of mistakes you have made in language
if you like this video
don't forget to give me a like and subscribe
to my channel bye guys