hello my dear friends welcome to my channel
if you're new here
I'm zoe a language lover who speaks seven languages
at the same time
I'm doing phd in sociology and I lecture at university
in France
you can check out my videos that I speak different
languages on my channel
I'm so happy to make this video today
this time I've changed the strategy a little bit
I first make a post on the community
on my channel to ask you guys
what are the difficulties you have in making
a language learning plan
and what you want to learn from the new video
based on your feedback and questions
I made this video
thank you guys you helped me to make this video
so if you like this video
and if you think it's helpful
don't forget to give me a like
and subscribe to my channel
if you are following my channel
you must know that I'm
learning four languages at the same time
Arabic German Turkish and persian
for each of them I have different goals and strategies
today I will share my plan with you in detail
but I'm not going to give you the fish
I want to teach you how to fish
the goal is for you to know
how to make a proper plan for yourself
rather than just copying mine
I would be a liar if I would say
you use my plan and you can speak a language
fluently after a year
I'm not discouraging you
maybe you can get there faster than me
that's totally normal
because you know everyone's a situation
an ability is different
I just want to give you the healthy beliefs that's very
important to keep you motivated
first I made an ideal type of
two language learning profiles based
on my own experience
and the questions I have received from my subscribers
first profile I call it discoverer
people who learn a language as a hobby
to travel to communicate with friends
family and partner
so listening and speaking about the everyday topics
is most important
but the difficulty is they don't have much time
the 2nd profile master
people who are
learning a language seriously
for professional academic purposes
they need all four skills
listening speaking writing and reading
the difficulty is
how to balance the exercises of these four skills
and how to break the plateau after a learning period
these two profiles are not absolutely
in fact I can do one video for each profile
but I still have decided to do them together
because often we are inbetweeners
for example I learned French as a hobby at first
then I made it my professional and academic language
you can also have a two profiles at the same time
now I'm learning Turkish and persian
more as discoverer and arabic and German as master
now you have a basic idea of your profile
that make a step by step plan
set the goals
this is the most important step
I always prefer to set a general goal
for the long term like one year
three years or five years
and concrete goals for every three months
one month one week or even one day
I mean here that sometimes we set a general goal like
for example reaching B1level in one year
that's fine but you need to have a clearer idea
why do you want this B1 level
and what your life will be with it
I'm trying to guide
you consciously and concretely
build a vision rather than focusing only on the number
sometimes the number of your level
may not represent your true level
you may have a B1 certificate
but your speaking skills are not even A2
for example
what pushes me to study French intensively and get
DALF C1 in only one year
is that I have a clear vision
in five years
I want to do my phd in sociology in France
I want to be able to read good sociology
philosophy geopolitics books
I want to be able to talk
about these kinds of topics in
private and in front of an academic audience
I got my DALF C1 after a year of learning
but they only meant that
I could apply for the masters degree
in social sciences in France
that's it
I still had to work very hard to follow the courses
pass the exams and get the scholarship
for my phd when I was in my masters degree
I was inspired by many
anthropologists who speak the local language
there is a French researcher
Olivier Roy
who has been living between France and Afghanistan
for more than 10 years
and he speaks fluently Farsi Dari
I have a lot of his books here and I have his biography
today he is one of the leading experts in this field
I started to dream that
one day I will be able to travel to the middle east
talk to and interview people in different dialects
go out in the field and live with people
that's the style of research I want
at that time I have never been to the middle east
three years later
step by step I make it come true
the certificates of my level
are not even important in this case
now I don't really know what my level
is in different arabic dialects
but I can use it in my work and in my studies
that's enough
so when we set a goal ask yourself what will my life be
what will my life be like
with this language make a scenario imagination
the B1 level
or the C1 certificate is only the part of this goal
without this vision of the future you can't go further
this is the core of the motivation
of course some people
learn one or more languages just for hobby
that's fine I'm talking about people who wants
speak a language fluently use it and integrate it in their life
Self-assessement
next step asset your situation and abilities
ask yourself this question
how much time can I devote
each week to learning this language
how much can I learned in each study session
some people learn fast
some are slow there are factors just find your pace
don't blindly compare yourself to others
if you are not sure
just try to study one or two sessions and
find your own rhythm
discoverer profile for example
30min a day so you can set 30min as your study session
so you can start at least for example
four sessions a week
and 16 sessions a month
master profile
for example you can set 1h or 2h as a study session
and focus one skill per session
you can also organize three or 4h study session
including the practice of different skills
we will now
combine the first and 2nd steps and make a good plan
Make a plan
I planned to learn persian as discoverer
so my long term goal scenario is
communicate freely with people in iran while traveling
make a documentaries and even live in iran for a while
to achieve this goal I need to
know the structure of this language
grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary etc
do a lot of listening and speaking exercises
at first I found this book Assimil
they have 86 lessons
with my study ability
it takes 30min to study a lesson
I'm learning other languages at the same
time I have work and other activities so
I can only devote
two 30min sessions during the week
and two one hour sessions during the weekend
one tip why don't I just do 2h on the weekend
if your study gaps are too long
you will not familiar with the language and will
easily forget it
so I always prefer to do less but more regularly
if I study four times a week
two sessions of 30min during the week
and two sessions of 1h during the weekend
I can study six lessons a week
and that's almost finishing the book in three months
so my shot term goal is very simple and concrete
three months I focus on a book I finish it
so I can have a structure of the persian language
if you are beginner learning a language from zero
for two profiles I really
recommend you find a structured book
with audio or video
in your target language because they
teach everything step by step
normally you have the conversation
grammar basic vocabulary
and I mean everything
after a month I made a summary
I realized that
I needed to learn and practice more verbs
so I added 15min
to write conjugation of a verb
every day and make sentences in each session
for more details about this method you can watch
the video how to learn vocabulary effectively
so to goal for the second month became
24 lessons and 24 verbs
then for the third month
I found my language exchange partner Negar
so I started adding an extra task
at least two conversation sessions per week
and we started sending each other
sentences and a diary every day
so the goal is to have at least 24 lessons
24 verbs
eight speaking sessions and at least eight corrected
diaries
it's very important to set concrete goals for each
month that are based on your daily or weekly task
if you study aimlessly
one day you are watching video
another day you are using an app
the next day you are learning new words on Instagram
you will get more and more confused and you can't track
your progress
another tip is to write down the date of your notes
new words the diaries
is a good way to
track your progress and summarize every week
and every month
even if you don't like to study with a book for example
you can study with an app or YouTube videos
you can set goals like one lesson one video a day
seven videos a week
20 videos a month the most importantly
write in your calendar and every day to do list
and make it your habit
one tip each month
make a summary
based on a previous month's progress or changes in circumstances
and ask what you have learned this month
do you feel progress
what is counterproductive
should you be doing less or more
how? you can set a new goal for
next month it's very important to be flexible
for the master profile for example
I'm learning arabic
the scenario for my new long term goal is to be able to
lecture giving conferences in arabic for example
my goal for the next three months is therefore
improve my reading skills
I need to read more books in arabic
to write and speak about many complicated subjects
so I make a 3h study session which you includes reading
listening writing and speaking
and I have to study at least three times a week
here is a tip
I focus on one topic in each session for example
I read an article
about the situation for muslims in France
so I watch a video about that topic
and I write a short essay
using new words from that article
it's almost the end of the video
some people ask me
zoe zoe can I learn four languages at once like you
or which language should I learn
sorry guys to be honest I can't answer
it depends on
what you are learning this language is for
What's your goal? what's your situation?
it really depends on you
now I'm learning four languages
my plan is two languages a day on odd days
and two more languages on even days
I don't recommend you to studying a lot of languages
simultaneously
I don't want to give you the illusion that
Zoe can do it if I copy her I can do it as well
It's really tiring and overwhelming to be honest
but I need these languages in my studies and my work
at the moment
so the answer is up to you
well
I hope you can find some inspiration from this video
if you have any questions just write in the comments
let me know if you think this video is helpful
if you liked this video
don't forget to give me a like and subscribe
to my channel
see you guys bye