Steve Kaufmann on learning languages

[clarinini]

Have you already made a video about the way you learned Japanese? If not, please make one! I know the same language learning principles apply to every language, but... how did you deal with the Japanese script vs. spoken language?

[SaBracaSam]

I speak English. Говорю по-Русски. Ich spreche Deutsch. Govorim Hrvatski. Und du, Steve? :D

[MrHmoob17]

i want to learn languages for the rest of my life too. i only speak two. and am in french class in high school now. and yeah it sucks learning it in class. but i really want to learn languages though so much.

[Bonnenouvellesjonny]

Two friends, Pessy and Opty both aged 21 are talking about languages. They both only speak English and decide to take French lessons. After a month Pessy gives up,

"Look man, you need to learn that shit when your young, after 20 your capacity to learn new languages just dies."

But Opty continues to learn French. A little over two years later Pessy and Opty go on holiday to France. Pessy watches on clueless as Opty easily and confidently converses in French with many new and wonderful people.

[bnrshdydvdrtrk]

No one can learn a foreign language. I've tried, and it's impossible!

[Sillilesshells]

urgh so annoyed that i was only bought up learning english, i have been studying russian for 5 months and i really fucking enjoy it. i can't wait till i can speak it as fluently as i can. urgh i feel stupid just speaking english, i wish i could do like 4 . my sister is learning japanese , shes been doing it for a year :) xxx it does really make a difference to have a passion for languages. you have to actually. it means when you study it won't be a chore :).

[MrEuropean18]

I'm sorry, I DO NOT believe a man can speak more than 4 langauges fluently. You tend to forget them when you age, you mix them up alot of the times, and you will always be able to speak the 2 first languages rather then the 2 others.

I'ts a fact that after you're 20 its far more diffeicult (but not impossible) to learn another forgien langauge,so you're talking about learning 6-7 more?! It's impossible,and considering youre a working man when do you get the time? that's a nice dream though.

[lingosteve]

@MrEuropean18I have learned most of my languages after the age of 20, and part time, while working. This includes Chinese, Japanese and Russian and 5 or 6 others. I have no trouble switching back and forth. What you are saying is just a lot of conventional wisdom not based on fact. It all depends on how we learn and how motivated we are.

[MrEuropean18]

@lingosteve

This sounds completly unreal.

The human brain can contain langauges,but to a limit.

You are aware that speaking FLUENTLY so many languages makes you a very special person? like,very.

We only use 25% of our brain skills,this means your brain is WAY more devloped,maybe they should make a research on you.

I find it hard to believe one can speak so many langauges fluently,sorry,until I will be proven otherwise.

[lingosteve]

Respond to this video  Please listen to a video that I did where I speak ten languages called "Multilingualism - in answer to Mr.Sanchez."

[Grey13Human]

@MrEuropean18 There are people who know dozens of languages.

[aprilhope91]

You are an inspiration¡ I am studying a master degree in English language teaching, but I'm not a native speaker, I speak spanish and sometimes I feel like the weakest of my class, but when I watch your videos I feel better and motivated to follow my master degree. Thanks

[beyondsupreme]

hahahahahah zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[SeanKimStyle]

Ur eyes lol

[theEdTechInsider]

Steve, your passion for learning languages and spreading the joy of languages to others is truly inspirational! We at Brainscape are also very dedicated to helping people learn different subject, languages being among these subjects. Check out us out at brain-scape . com and take a look at the video response I've posted. Good luck on learning your future languages!

[Neuroneos]

I speak 5 languages. French, english, spanish, german and russian. I'm looking forward to learn more and more languages !

[4545454545asp]

out of curiosity, why not learn Mandarin in, say, Taiwan or Singapore?

[sjeine19]

Говорю по русски!

[nickangl]

i am already fluent on greek(mother),english and german.

i can understand but cant speak(since they are dead languages)latin and and ancient greek

i am currently learning swedish

i hope that by 22-23 years old i will be able to speak 5-6 foreign languages fluently

[FeralArtist]

@nickangl Yes! Svenska!

[wuyiting]

My multilingual friends of mine tend to associate the ability to speak more than 2 languages well with higher intelligence. Do you think that is true?

I personally agree and disagree. I find it very fulfilling like you mentioned as a form of self-improvement and very flattering (I speak 4 or 5, sadly, not perfectly) when people believe in that. However, I find once you learnt more than one language, it becomes easier to learn others. All you need is interest, patience and hardworking.

[Mindpetals]

Thanks for this! 

[lingosteve]

@Mindpetals Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the pat on the back.

[LearnRussianForFree]

Nicely done, Steve! Go ahead!

[svsimon]

people in, lets say, USA should speak at least 3 american languages (english, spanish and X) while in Europe one should speak at least 4 european languages (mother tongue X, english, other language 2, other language 3). When this is accomplished, I suggest you get your mind on to a language such as mandarin, arabic, persian or perhaps swahili (whatever langauge that is most common in your region).

[ColgateCat]

by the way, it's not "Parlete italiano?" but "Parlate italiano?"

[Billymaysfan6837]

Damn...10 languages?! I salute you, dude. You probably practice like hell in order to retain them. Many Americans only speak English because it's the most widely spoken language in the world, and i agree that learning languages is great. I'm currently learning German right now, and after that, perhaps Italian or Spanish.

[Chezrocksall]

I speak 38 languages and am fluent in all of them except for French. Please go to my profile and look at all the languages I am fluent in.

[MrEuropean18]

@Chezrocksall

Then you are not human.

This is not possible.

AT ALL.

You may be dreaming OR maybe you're a bit nuts and think you know them fluently,but have you traveled to those 38 countries and tried to speak those 38 langauges? If you haven't than you should,that will be the real test to witness wether you really know them fluently or not,cause you just might be suprised at the result that you might have some knowledge in those langauges but you are most likely not fluent at all.

[HimmiJoe]

My native language is Icelandic, but I speak English fluently, speak basic Danish and am learning Norwegian. I am planning to be able to speak at least 5 languages fluently in my lifetime. Top on my list is Russian.

[OldfashionGirl90]

i speak 3 languages only swedish , english and arabic and i hope that i can learn more in the future :)

[ofelirris]

wow!!! You are a genius!

I was wondering if you could help me with this... I want to get a tattoo that says:

am I dreaming?

But i want to try it in different languages... so if you could please translate it for me in the languages you know i would appreciate it a lot.

Thanks!

[Xephyron]

I love learning languages, even in school. Languages fascinate me, and I have a natural proclivity for languages. At the moment I speak 3, and I just turned 16. I really hope to learn more languages, and to be able to speak them fluently. Thank you, because your videos have been extremely informative and a good resource to aid me in my learning. :)

[yarrboots]

Steve I have a question- do you discourage learning more than one language at a time? From your experience, would it be better to concentrate on one language and become fluent in that, or is it okay to study say.. two at a time?

[lingosteve]

I tend to want to focus on one at a time till I reach a certain level. But two is also OK. IN that case I go 80% one language and 20% the other.

[yarrboots]

Thank you Steve! I will try the 80/20 thing. :)

[MrEuropean18]

@lingosteve

How can you devide langauges skills?

You can't just go aroudn telling people "I know 85% French

or I know 27% Italian!"

That's just weird and inaccurate.

Being fluent or just knowing basic things in a langauge is more rational.

You sound like a man that has a nice passion for langauges and a nice dream to speak it,but come on,it's unreal. not to mention ACCENT which is more than important in langauges like German and French if you lack the correct accent youll be misunderstood

[halfstepdown88]

I'm currently learning Spanish. I'm almost done with Pimsleur Spanish Disc 2. Eventually I'm going to learn Mandarin Chinese.

So besides from doing Pimsleur, (which I feel has helped me learn quite a bit) what would you suggest? I'm going to Chile this summer for 5 weeks on a Study Abroad with the University, but I feel like I could do something to further enhance my learning.

What are the "pleasant" ways in which you are learning languages?

[yarrboots]

@halfstepdown88

Hola! I enjoy watching foreign media (cartoons, tv shows) and listening to music. I've found that if you print the lyrics to a song and translate it by hand, you can grasp a better understanding of the words/meaning.

It can also improve your pronunciation and vocal range! ^_^

[halfstepdown88]

Any good ideas for films? Interesting yet not too crazy of language?

Where do you get your media?

Thanks,

T

[yarrboots]

Translations/dubbed Disney films are nice, especially since we know the stories well. Since you already understand the context, all your brain has to do is translate the actual words to that language.

Internet! If you can find a fan group or a forum to discuss on, it might prove quite useful for dialogue exchange. Steve's site is very helpful too :)

[halfstepdown88]

Oh yeah never thought about the Disney films. I think I am also going to try watching Destinos sometime (well more like a little each day)

And yes Steve's site is useful, I've already met 3 or 4 people who are learning English that want to chat on skype and help each other out. :)

[lingosteve]

I am into lots of input with only the target language. Lots of listening and reading. Essentially what is built into LingQ. Take advantage of the content that you can find there. I find that a very little amount of output is enough at first. Build up your vocabulary and ability to understand. You will get a lot of output in Chile. Build up your passive ability now, and you will take off when you get to Chile.

[halfstepdown88]

Thanks, enjoying both your vids and site!

[ashleygonzalez1991]

j'ai seulement écouté la télévision et 2 mois plus tards je comprenais presque tout...

[ashleygonzalez1991]

Qu'elles sont les langues avez-vous apris? Moi ma langue maternelle c'est le français , ensuite j'ai apris l'anglais ,l'espagnol, l'Allemand.. j'ai seulement 18 ans..

[leopower7]

nine fluent languages? that's amazing! i can only speak 3 :/

[AKafghan08]

nice way of pronoucing "pilates". sorry for the irrelevant comment.. you have inspired me to improve my spanish... inshallah!

[alecutesmile]

I want to be multilingual!!! I speak english, spanish and a little of italian but I want to speak many languages. Please, tell me how I can do.

[lauraleesmithagain]

Hi- I went to your ling q site and I found it rather confusing. So If I click on a word that is highlighted blue none of the translation hints are necessarily the right translation?

[lingosteve]

The Hints that you get are the most common translations that other users have chosen. You can also go to a dictionary. We call these Hints for the simple reason that any dictionary definition is only a Hint as to the full meaning of a word, or the meaning in a given context. I suggest you ask questions on the Forum and get the views of other learners.

[Cosmored]

I found some good teaching material on the internet. Google "Ferd'nand".

These are wordless cartoons. I have the students describe the situation trying to use all the important structures. Then I have the students role play the situation.

I've had a lot of success with this. It's the fastest way I've seen to give them a good command of important structures.

This is good material for language exchanges too. It's good for any language.

[lingosteve]

Not something I would use. I dislike role playing and all artificial communication exercizes. I prefer lots of meaningful input , followed by meaningful output.

[paltonio]

nice and appeal to every one to learn as much languages as possible. Babel would not defeat if all tryed to understand each other

[bhebsteph]

wenn du verstehen nicht hast, dit-moi pas de probleme :-p see u!!

[bhebsteph]

tengo 15 años y hablo español, english, français, deutsch, zhongwen, schwiizerdütsch, el lehja l libneniyi, el lahga l maSriye, al lughatu l 3arabiyatu l fuS7aa, e posso parlare un po' d'italiano hahaha e português...ehm...ma ba3ref shu aktar fiyi 2elak hahaha, wo zhen de xiang xuexi henduo de yuyan, pienso k es muy importante ahah, espro algun dia podr hablar muchos idiomas metlak la2nu baddi edrus el yabani kamen w kul shi2 , ya3ni inshalla yom fiyi 3arrafak :-D!!!

[bhebsteph]

hi woow i was really impressed when i listened to ur pudonghua he gwongdungwa de fa yin!! it really good! haha:

[latrocks]

im teaching myself amharic,oromo and want to finish learning spanish and learn arabic...love languages

[EstrellitaBacio]

Wow you're amazing you have truly motivated me to learn another language

[SousukePanic]

Same

[evelioto]

असली बहुत मेरे कारण के लिए महत्वपूर्ण है. असली लोग, वास्तविक भावनाओं, नहीं, एक आम तौर पर यह महसूस कर के बारे में बात करती है ... मैं जो कर रहे हैं वही चीजें लोगों के माध्यम से जाना ... और यह मुझ

[MrConfusingable]

I can't learn. Some people are just language savages.

[daysin1234]

you can learn, its just how long you can put up with it. I studied German for 4 years before i quit. It's amatter of when YOU want to draw the line.

I personally believe anyone can learn atleast 1 second language.

[AtomikNY]

Yes you can learn. Any human can learn any language. The ability is built into our brains. If you think you "can't" learn, you're either lacking motivation or a good method, or both.

[amoondria]

I rly admire ppl who love learning languages. Can say that I've discovered it as a passion of my own. Learning languages at schools have proved to be pretty much ineffective for me (lots of grammar, almost no work on communication and vocabulary) hence why I'm looking for an effective way to learn languages by myself. Hoping to find something in these videos to help me achieve that. You are a great inspiration :)

[derneuschooer]

denn mutts ook noch platt leern, denn kummst up´t welt goud torecht haha

[lingosteve]

ll66, Why not join us at LingQ and teach Swedish and work on your other languages. Most people use the site free of charge.

[languagelearner66]

If anyone is intressted in learning swedish i could help you out. We will do the lessons over skype. The catch is. You will teach me your language.

[sweetypepe22]

the only thing i dont understand is that by the time you've learned 9 lanuages..wont you start to get mixed up or forget the other ones?...im trying to learn how to speak french, that's my main goal.

[schattenjedi]

indeed, in order to not lose ability in a language it is required that you maintain it. the more languages you know, the more time you need to spend maintaining them. however maintaining a language is far easier than learning one.

[sk8tertater]

yes its hard to remember languages because we tend to forget some things. But if you immerse yourself for good amounts of time in them, you'll only forget some things here and there. For example, I've studied Japanese for almost two whole years, and so far I've spent only 14 days in Japan, BUT I learned SOOO much in those 14 days and I havent forgotten any of it.

[HaleysHeresat]

Steve Kaufmann--Good for you. :)

[GirlyVoice]

I've been tempted to learn another language, I can't imagine learning new mappings of sounds to things and new synthaxes would be of huge benfit to me. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

[teddythefrency]

Français , oui, English, Deutsch(hmm,sehr schecht!), Español, Português um pouco, Pa Russki? hmm "Esli vy gävarite miedliena",puc parlar també català i gascon dialect,lishono aramoyto (modern aramaic), some welsh expressions and one word in Breizh Kenavo!

Thank you for your interesting video, I am travelling through languages, and not too much by airplane.

[Rav3n3sque]

Funny some people chose to be Olympic athletes, while some do not...especially if we all have the same predispositions? You know, what with our DNA being so similar, I'm gonna really put my mind to becoming strongest man in the universe...The fallacy that we are all the same degrades our uniqueness. All men are not created equal, sad but true...

[evelioto]

Tha's true...

[BMtodaP]

Ouais je parle le Francais. Hablo tambien espanol. Parlo anche un po d'italiano. Shi aa wo ye hui jiang yi dian zhongwen. Ngo sik gong yat di gwong dung wa. Watashi mo sukoshi nihongo ga dekiru. Hankuko anhae. Ich spreche aber sehr gut Deutsch. En ochsa en litt svenska. Da ya magu gavarit' tozhe pa ruski.

[crouchtig]

Totaly agree with you, especialy on languages in schools, they didn't even teach us what cases were in german. So you started late teens early twenties? Because I've been worrying that I've started too late... I only discovered that a person could learn langs from internet during my later college years. So much time wasted...

[humpadihump]

The question is, do you speak these languages fluent or can you just say: Hello, do you speak english?

[ppooler]

Read the text carefully "Steve Kaufmann is fluent in nine languages and learning two more, Russian and Korean"

Fluency doesn't necessarily mean you know academic level of the language.

Takes two years reach the fluency. So in a 20 years you can possibly speak ten languaages as well...

[schattenjedi]

Fluency is an incredibly vague term. Anyone with a bit of healthy skepticism should doubt people who claim to be fluent in a large number of languages.

[northen20]

I agree!! fluency is about knowing the culture ,thinking like the people, knowing how to respond and being creative with the language itself. If you can't do even half of those stuff you can't really be "fluent" in that language you just "know" it.

[asmodeus585]

If someone claims he knows 10 languages or more, the truth usually is - that he knows most of them only on a basic or intermediate level. I doubt that there are many folks who can write novels and poems in so many languages.

[xiaoma]

I heard him speak here in Taiwan. I can say that his Mandarin at least, is excellent.

[asmodeus585]

OK, there are exceptions. But I think it's (unfortunately) impossible for a normal people to achieve fluency in so many languages. I'd be glad if I wasn't true, though. ;)

Besides, he might be very good in Mandarin, but is he equally good in every of the mentioned nine languages? If so, then I really admire this guy. :)

[ThisIsTaiwan]

I'm 24 years old and I speak 6 languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, French, and Italian in that order of fluency). I agree alot with what the guy says, but I don't think everyone has an aptitude for learning. It's not right to assume that everyone can a language well or saying that they are not learning well because they are not using the right method.

[yahags]

Well ThisIsTaiwan, I have a fav phrase for that and it's "if you think you can't do it, you're right!". We, human beings can do anything. It's just that some of us are more fooled into thinking they are essentially different from others. We always tend to come up with 1000 excuses why not to do something. "too old", "too young", "too fat", "too thin", "too busy" are just some of them. The correct attitude IMHO is "I'll try my best, and will see what happens" and... "impossible" becomes possible.

[schattenjedi]

That's not true. Some people are plainly not disposed to learning foreign languages. The opposite is of course also true.

[yahags]

Well, what can I say, schattenjedi. I have my views and you have your views. My stuff if based on life experience and connecting the dots over the years... yours probably too. We will prolly stay around long enough to find a definite answer to this in our lifetimes. :)

I think my version is "true" who knows. If I see hat I was wrong I'll come back here and admit my mistake (if won't forget it by then).

To anyone reading this: use your own judgement.

[schattenjedi]

Why on earth do you believe this? Is there any other skill that you believe everyone is equally capable of acquiring or is language some kind of special area?

[yahags]

Well, schattenjedi.... I believe this because I concluded it using reasoning and logic, experience, and own judgement. IMHO all people are essentially the same. Also, 99.9% of our DNA is identic. We come from different backgrounds and have different experiences but our brains are flexible enough to overwrite old data with any new information.

I also believe that it applies to EVERY other skill.

Hope it answers your questions.

greetz :)

[drchicken3000]

schattenjedi, If you were able to acquire your native language (which most people are), then you are able to acquire another language. I think your referring to some people just try things for a month at the most and then quit, while others might stick with it and end up learning what they set out to learn. It is a question of dedication and desire, NOT genetics.

[schattenjedi]

i never said that it's impossible for someone to learn a foreign language, only that some people aren't disposed to it. it's incorrect to say that dedication and desire are the only factors that matter. someone who is disposed to learning languages needs less dedication to acquire a foreign language than someone who is not disposed to learning languages.

[Jenfucius]

I have difficulties learning any language. I find it frustrating.

[schattenjedi]

have you tried learning a romance language? they seem to be the easiest for native speakers of english.

[symbiote333]

You took the words right out of my mouth. I speak English, German, and I'm starting on Russian. It's so fun. And the investments are endless.

[TimTropic]

I'm very impressed! I speak two languages and I'm learning a third. I would learn more but time is limited. How do find so much time to spend on learning languages?

[lingosteve]

It is what I like to do. I enjoy reading and listening in different languages. Using an iPod I can make use of a lot of dead time.

[bsilverdelis]

I agree with engros. This was very inspiring. I love what you do. :]

[engros]

i'm learning japanese, french, korean and spanish. You're videos inspire me to learn more and improve

[finalfantasychick88]

you are amazing mr.kaufmann, jus a quick question, were you self-taught in all your languages?

[lingosteve]

You could get my book which tells all in some detail. Briefly, I had French in school but did not speak much till I got motivated. I did 3 years of University in France. I also had one year of intensive Mandarin in Hong Kong in 1968 but most of the work was done at home. The rest are essentially self-taught. Even if you go to class, you learn on your own!

[kakaker]

wo a ho.. very nice accent

[SaileAway]

Spasibo!

Tvoya govoryesh po-rooskiy coobodniy?

[ryan5050]

I wonder if you speak 9 languages...

[michaelleung1992]

廣東話!

勁!本人來自香港!

小弟come from Hong Kong!

[xxsnareb0y07xx]

Im very fortunate to have found this video, and I will be checking out the blog that you linked to in your video. I see that you are currently learning 2 new language, and one of which is Korean? I am studying korean at the moment also, I have been studying it for about a month.

[kmkFR]

Steve,

That a very good promotion of your website !

[ImAlwaysR1ght]

Ok, sounds great. I'm currently learning Japanese, German, Spanish, and French.

[lingosteve]

Further on the subject of using Right Click to activate the Lingq box, apparently this was in the original spec when we were planning an off-line application. Since we have gone the online browser route, we are not able to use Right Click for this function.

[lingosteve]

Once we have the system fully operating we will streamline some of the functions. We will also improve the functionality of the sound bar to allow the user to chunk sections of sound for repeated review.

Anyway, nice to hear from you. What languages are you studying?

[ImAlwaysR1ght]

I've been trying your Lingq system. I think it could be better if you could just right click on a word to create a lingq instead of highlighting and going to a bluebutton. Also it would be cool to be able to listen to only one sentence at a time to help repeat it over and over. Some of the speakers are too fast and I have to manually keep going back to hear what they said.