hey guys what's going on a Xiao ma okay
so first things first I know the title
flows I click baby I'm sorry but I
really do believe that you can actually
learn any language in 24 hours there's
no shortcuts to getting fluent in any
language you definitely can't get fluent
in a language of 24 hours but you can
definitely learn how to have a basic
conversation in any language in 24 hours
or less and I really believe this is
true I've done it with languages as
diverse as Korean and fuel needs and
this of course all runs totally contrary
to most language learning textbooks
which promote this myth you have to
endlessly drill tones alphabet stroke
order numbers whatever before you can
even get started speaking the first
first just because a lot of people have
been asking me I wanted to do a little
bit of an intro about like Who I am and
why I speak Chinese I get messages like
this all the time so wanted to talk
about that a little bit if you're not
interested in this part you can click
down in the description for the time
stamp to just skip all this backstory if
you're not interested so I started
learning Chinese in like 2008 it was a
cert in the summer after high school you
know so I saw this ad for this free
Chinese class and I was like yeah sign
me up that sounds great I grew up in New
York speaking only English but I was
just kind of always interested in
learning languages and so ended up in
college going to
with China for a year you know at that
point I had already studied one year of
college Chinese and so by the time I
went to China I wasn't really fluent but
I had some language under my belt in
China I took this class called Princeton
in Beijing which is like a super intense
immersion experience in Chinese like
that experience of doing that super
intense immersion Chinese class where
like they will literally kick you out of
the program if you spoke any English
after that I was probably able to speak
like basic conversational Chinese and
then I stayed on in Beijing for another
year by the end of that year I was
definitely you know fully fluent in
Chinese you know especially if you grew
up in America the way that we learn
languages here I think is really just
messed up and I think the people I think
that people don't understand like how
people actually like how people actually
acquire languages I think people spend
time learning like Spanish and stuff and
just from a textbook the way that I
learn Mandarin in China it was it was
through a combination of talking to
people and a lot of unki and a lot of
memorization you know I was in school
there to learn Chinese but I tried to
focus less on like the school aspect of
it and more the fact that I was in this
like crazy amazing country with all
these things that I had never heard
about and all these people that I had
never met and so I just tried rather
than spend most my time in school just
spend my time like with people having
like conversations and so I spent a lot
of time talking to spend a lot of time
hanging out you know I have a whole
other channel called re in Beijing which
I'll also link here where I talk about
like methods for language learning and
that sort of stuff so I definitely used
I definitely do a lot of memorization
and a lot of flashcards a lot of unki to
memorize Chinese but I would say the
main thing honestly was just really
trying to live my life just using as
much Chinese as possible to be honest I
don't really remember it like it's been
a long time since I first started
learning Chinese so I think the best way
for me to kind of explain how I
originally learn Chinese is how I learn
languages now which is just sort of a
refinement of that method you know
people say like oh man you learn
languages like oh it's gonna take you
forever
like years whenever like guys I'm
telling you right now you can learn any
language and I promise you I guarantee
this because I know because I've done it
you can actually learn to have a basic
conversation in any language in 24 hours
and here's how you do it so you know how
most language learning textbooks will
just start out with like a whole list of
like you must first learn the totals and
you must first learn the alphabet you
have to first learn how to say all the
numbers and all the colors and all that
will fit that okay because that's not
how you actually start learning like
that's not how real people start
learning languages like how babies start
learning languages is like this the mom
says to them like hey baby do you want
some more milk or like here you can eat
this like the parents giving them basic
sentences they're not starting from the
house but they're not starting from
tones okay it's starting from basic
conversation how I learn languages is I
try to imitate like that baby way of
learning languages as much as possible
like I think to myself okay if I want to
have a conversation with somebody how
like how can I actually do that so I
have a list of sentences that I make
with any sort of language that I want to
speak like if I'm talking to a random
stranger in the street what's the basic
stuff that I need to say like hello I
can speak Korean then they say maybe how
do you speak Korean I say well I learned
it yesterday or like I learned it by
talking to my friend let's say I want to
go to the market right I wouldn't know
how to say how much is this right
I won't know how to say $1 I want to
know I say a dollar 50 I want to know
how to be able to say that looks tasty
you're like you know I really like
eating foods Oh needs food like I like
there are these things that I that I
know that I will need to be able to say
in a basic conversation and so what I do
is I have this list of sentences and I
just try to memorize them so so I I'll
go to a friend
who speaks that native language I think
it's best to do this in person with an
actual native speaker rather than rather
than like online somewhere just because
like you know in person you can ask them
for clarification like why is this like
this I think it's you can probably do it
online but I think it's easier if
possible to do it in person with a real
native speaker get them to translate all
the stuff that you want to say and then
um record them that's really important
you have to record what they're saying
you know for long-term memory retention
I'll put it into a system called funky
which is you know I've talked about this
before especially on my heart in Beijing
channel but it's just it's flashcards so
you know it has to English from the
front or whatever like native languages
and then the back is gonna be you know
the food Jodi Nia's Korean Spanish
whatever equivalent plus the audio right
see so and every time you click on the
flash card and it says hey in English
and you click on it and it's gonna flip
over and then it's gonna say in you know
in your target language it's gonna play
the audio of whatever the sentences I'll
memorize them and then I'll just go out
and practice it right on I know what I
need to say and then I'll just go and
try to use it okay hold on
so one thing I know a lot of you guys
are thinking right now probably is like
you're just memorizing these lists of
sentences what if somebody asks you
something that you didn't memorize right
like wouldn't that be weird so what I
try to do with these target sentences is
I try to like I try to memorize
sentences that I think are
representative of the language in some
way so I want to know how to say like I
like eating green foods if I memorize
that sentence I like eating Korean food
then you might be thinking well okay
you've just memorized one sentence but
you actually haven't memorized one
second so you've memorized the pattern
of speech you've memorized I like eating
Korean food but if you learn how to say
the word Chinese you now also know how
to say I like eating Chinese food right
you can all say I like eating American
food I like eating German food you you
have like a branch of all these things
and grammars that you've just memorized
you know a sentence pattern and you
haven't just memorized I like eating
food you've memorized I like riding a
bicycle maybe that works the same way
and so by osmosis
your brain is naturally gonna figure out
how to say other stuff
to say stuff other than what you've just
memorized don't just memorize words
don't just memorize like Apple or like
impaired like obviously at some point
you do have to remember as words or
learn words what's important is to
memorize patterns of speech memorize how
to say where is the park because then
you know how to say where's the bathroom
if you learn the word bathroom so try to
memorize these patterns and I've gotten
better and better at like learning which
sentences to memorize to give me a
better grasp of the language and then
another question you might have is like
but what about all that stuff in the
beginning like what about the tones what
about the alphabet like the characters
like what about the nub what numbers 1
to 10 isn't that stuff important my
philosophy is that the stuff that's
important you're gonna learn because if
you need to know it you're gonna learn
it so numbers okay do you need to know
numbers one to ten maybe you do and
maybe you don't if you're learning to
buy stuff in the marketplace you
probably do want to know the numbers one
to ten right in context of like how much
is this this two dollars right because
not every not every language is the
number two can be the same as two
dollars right so in a marketplace
context it might make sense for you to
learn numbers but maybe you don't care
about numbers so not important right
maybe you don't care about colors like
okay that's right what about tones right
if you're in Chinese like don't you have
to know how to say ma ma ma right so you
don't call your mom a horse or something
like that like the answer is like yes
and no it sort of depends like when I
was learning foo Joanie's which is a
which is a Chinese language which has a
very complicated tonal system there's
not a single resource on the Internet
that's gonna help you learn foo Joanie's
tones there's no website you can go to
that's gonna say this is tone one in foo
Tony this is tone to this is don't three
and practice it doesn't exist
right I just ended up memorizing my
friend said and just ignoring tones
right so for a while I was thinking like
oh how am I gonna memorize new journeys
tones in the end what I just did was
just ignored it I was just like all
right why can't memorize food renews
tones so what I'm gonna do is just
memorize how he said stuff read and just
learn everything naturally in context so
if you ask me the word foo Joe leaves in
foo Johnny's right which you are what
the tones are for that I don't know
maybe rising tone maybe there's a middle
tone maybe there's like a falling tone
um put UI
mid blow me I don't know but I just
memorized how to say it like that right
because I just listen to my friends say
that all over and over and I learned and
I just memorized him saying so I don't
really know the tones I just know this
is how my friend said it right and isn't
that how babies learn languages too like
babies are just sitting there like with
their mom telling them the word for
Chinese is jong-un right and the kids
not thinking or in Oh Joanne what sound
like first tone on that jaw or is that
like second tone on the wind or maybe
that's fourth oh like that's not what
the kids stick and the kids just like oh
my mom said Joel went to me a thousand
times so I have perfect tones of drum
line now because she said it to me a
thousand times so as far as writing yes
I admit my method does not work for try
and learn how to write like that's a
different beast you do have to spend a
lot of time just memorizing characters
and stuff it depends on what you're
looking to do like you know for me with
Chinese like it's just really cool to be
able to go out and speak to people in
the street and I do happen to be able to
know how to read and write Chinese I and
for me that's important because you know
I have lots of friends that I like to be
able to text and write to in Chinese you
know that's important to me but it's not
necessarily important to you and you
don't necessarily have to force yourself
into this paradigm that language classes
are saying well you have to learn how to
read and write you don't necessarily
need to write that's that's your choice
in your decision
I hope this answered some questions that
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now as well which you can see in like
the teespring merch shelf below so if
you guys are interested in supporting
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by the way because like I haven't gotten
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get like the samples of that stuff but
if you're interested in checking that
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thanks for watching see you guys next
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