hi there steve kaufman here today i want
to talk about
how to learn languages on your own
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i learn languages so it doesn't really
matter whether you're at a school
or entirely on your own to my mind
to be a successful language learner you
have to be independent
it is you and the language so
it i think the first part of learning
languages on your own
is to have that independent mindset i'm
going to learn this language
and so that it's my responsibility all
the things that happen during my
journey to fluency are going to be you
know dependent on
me the learner that i think that's
that's the first thing that's very
important to be
independent so this is going to affect
the language learning material that you
search for
the grammar rules that you look for
explanations about
whatever you do is going to be dependent
on you
the learner and remember i've mentioned
this before the sort of three keys to
language learning that i once heard from
a
professor at san diego university in the
states
language learning success depends on
three things your attitude
the time you spend with the language and
your ability to notice
now the ability to notice will develop
on its own
if you have the right attitude and if
you spend enough time
so enough of the theory and i should say
too that the importance of being
independent and responsible for your own
actions
doesn't just apply to learning languages
it applies to so many things in life you
have to take charge
whatever happens to you are things that
may be beyond your control what is
within your
control is how you react to these things
and
so with language learning you know it
can be lonely it can be a bit
frustrating therefore anything that
makes it easier
uh obviously is a good thing so i i want
to digress a little bit by mentioning
you know how link helps me be an
independent language learner
one feature is the playlist or
in my own case i tend to go to you know
listen to the course audio
so that i always have the audio of
whatever course i'm on
with me i can be listening in the car on
sort of bluetooth through my
car radio i can be listening on my
airpods while i'm working out while i'm
doing the dishes
so it makes me sort of my own language
learning
you know language lab with me all the
time i think that's important
okay you may want to sort of say well
now how do i get started i know nothing
i know
don't know the language i know nothing
well
because you're going to be an
independent language learner you have to
make investments
so you are going to invest in books at
least i do
so you know i have not ever tried
learning dutch we have dutch at link
one day i think i will tackle dutch and
so i saw this book
essential dutch grammar it's in the uh
dover i believe series and these are
excellent grammar books because
they're very small very thin no
exercises no drills
which i avoid like the plague i just
want a brief
overview initially of the language which
i can flip through
and then i need this as a reference from
time to time i go back to it so that's
one investment
you can also invest in starter books
which also will give you a bit of an
overview of the language
and some sort of a bit of content
second thing about language learning is
the need to find content
all the time major activity is looking
for content
when i was a language student in hong
kong i spent a lot of time in the
bookstores
and in behind me here lots of books
chinese books
chinese with glossaries after every
chapter but i was constantly looking for
new material
even though i had material already i
would buy stuff that i think i'm going
to need in the future
because you can never get enough
you know content in terms of starter
books it
to me it almost doesn't matter which
starter book you use you can use several
starter books
one common theme as an independent
language learner is
it's good to cover the same material in
different books
it's good to cover you know sort of
grazing interleaving
it's good to you know do
typically these starter books have you
at the restaurant and the post office
and stuff like that
do it in different books and this is
again it's true for studying
anything if you're doing history you're
better off to read three different books
about the same period in history in
order to
finally have the sort of get an
understanding and remember some of the
key events and so forth
if you've covered them from different
perspectives the same is true
in language learning now i have a
preference
now for our many stories
but i do believe that they're typical of
the kind of
story that is a great way to get started
as an independent learner
but if you're learning polish you could
use pyotr's material at realpolis.pl
if you're learning english aj hogue is a
wonderful source of
these kinds of stories or content with
you know different points of view
circling questions
lots of repetition you're listening to
it over and over again
it becomes almost hypnotic you're
listening to it and
slowly this material is washing over
your brain
and getting the brain used to the
language you're not worried about
writing exams you're not worried about
doing drills
answering questions you're just letting
the language come in
listening and reading every so often if
you're curious about the point of
grammar
you can look it up you can google the
conjugation of a particular verb
if you're unlinked you can when you look
up the the word in the dictionary we
also have a conjugating dictionary so
you can look at the conjugation
and then forget it don't try to ace
anything or master anything or remember
anything
just keep letting the language wash over
you so as an independent learner
that's sort of the initial period now if
you if you're in a a classroom
environment
the learning still is done by you as an
independent learner
and what you do outside the classroom
is at least as important as what you do
inside the classroom because inside the
classroom
the teacher decides what you're going to
study the teacher decides what they're
going to teach you
you may not be interested in what
they're teaching you ready for that
particular point of grammar
as an independent learner after the
classroom you go home and you're curious
about
a certain tense or a certain you know
declension you can look it up
so you the attitude of an independent
learner
doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't
in a formal class it just means that you
are determined you have made the
decision that you are going to learn
this language
uh so so the initial period i i
definitely recommend
repetitive listening to relatively
simple stories with
high frequency vocabulary now the next
stage and i've said this
many times is to find material that
is now interesting authentic but not too
difficult
there is a shortage of that kind of
material but it does exist
and so here again you've got to look on
the internet search for the material you
can get on our forums at link and see
what other people have
recommended very often anything that's
of a conversational nature
podcasts these kinds of things are going
to be easier
than more formal material like a book or
something
and even when you move towards authentic
material like books
i have found because i'm interested in
history
non-fiction for example history is
easier than literature
i'm more familiar with the subject
matter the vocabulary used is sort of
more relevant to things that are of
interest to me
than more literary language
but as an independent learner you have
to move from the sort of
relatively easy call it sheltered
protected
material with lots of repetition uh you
have to move from that
to uh you know genuinely authentic
material where you are going to be
driven more by your interest in the
subject matter
than uh
the sort of effort to learn the language
after a while
you're not saying i want to learn the
language i want to learn the language
which is how you're motivated at the
beginning
but rather i'm interested in what
they're talking about and therefore i am
learning the language because i am
pursuing
my interests now learning a language can
be a lonely activity
it can be all-consuming uh if you are
spending an hour a day it's not too bad
if you're spending two or three or four
hours a day
you get consumed in this thing and it
starts to
take a space in your brain which can
lead
sometimes to a sense of frustration
and so you sometimes you have to take a
break from it
it also helps in my view to have some
sort of very specific goals like here
again at link we have
you know uh goals in terms of number of
of
links created in other words number of
words you have saved
number of words you have learned number
of words you have read
so that as you're in this fog of trying
to
you know come to grips with this
language and sometimes feeling as if
you're not making
progress if you can see that actually i
have read so many words i have
you know learned so many words these
very concrete
goals or milestones can be motivating
and help
keep you moving when you're in the
doldrums and make
no mistake that there will be periods as
an independent language learner where
you're doubting yourself
doubting your ability feeling a sense of
frustration
and you just have to persevere you have
to keep going through that
and that's where obviously your original
commitment
as well as your interest in the subject
matter so it doesn't matter if i'm
improving because i'm enjoying what i'm
doing
but also some of these specific you know
concrete
goals uh can help you
okay i'm kind of i'm fighting the
language right now but at least i
i saved a hundred words or i i read so
many words or
these kinds of things that can kind of
confirm to you that you
actually are moving because make no
mistake as long as you continue to spend
time with the language listening reading
speaking
writing and uh if you remain motivated
and even if the motivation
flags a little bit the more time you
spend with the language the better you
are
getting the brain is absorbing all of
this uh
stimulus and forming patterns out of it
and sometimes you have the impression
that you're not making any progress and
all of a sudden surprisingly
you know three months later certain
things come together for you so
to that extent i think being in a
classroom can be motivating
because you're with other people you
have a teacher hopefully stimulating you
you have other people that you meet it's
a social it's a get-together opportunity
uh learning entirely on your own for
some people can be a bit of a lonely
experience
although i think it's it's the more
efficient way to learn is to do it on
your own
listening reading writing and then
getting online you know if you're not in
the classroom i mean eventually you have
to speak
but you can find people online there's
italki and or a link we have tutors
so you can get on and talk to people
because
every so often you know you can't just
be listening and reading totally in your
own little cocoon
you you want to connect to people you
want to see what you can say
get some reaction from other people and
so therefore i think it is important to
connect with people online in my own
case
two or three times a week would be a lot
uh
and and then i get of course the reports
from my tutor which i analyze and
slowly i i improve my accuracy in the
language so
you know within the limits of this uh
video here i just wanted to touch on on
what i consider to be some of the
highlights
of learning a language on your own uh
i have done other videos on a similar
subject and i
would offer these to you as further uh
discussion of the same subject i don't
remember quite what i said there maybe i
repeat myself
but one is called become an independent
learner
and the second one is called learn
languages for your own reasons
so i invite you to go and look at those
two as well thank you for listening
bye for now