Foreign language learning tips and advice

[supermegabeast9000]

make your woman drive her own damned ass around, don't be a bitch.

[KearBearKay]

Hal tatakalam al'arabia..? :)

[MagicMaximo]

@KearBearKay sorry, I don't understand Arabic (yet..hehe)

[KearBearKay]

@MagicMaximo Oh, it's really fun! :) I'm just learning it. It's my first attempt at learning a new language and your tips are so VERY helpful!! Shokran (Thank you)!! :D

[MagicMaximo]

@KearBearKay Congrats! and thank you for your kind comments. Keep up the good work!

[rza139]

This man knows EXACTLY what he is talking about. I have been learning Italian for about 1 year. I listen to italian and watch a lot of italian movies. One day my cup was so full from listening that I used a phrase from a movie that I saw while I was driving and full of "road rage". It just came out. Thanks Mr. Brown.

[MagicMaximo]

@rza139 Thank you for your kind comments!

[sahnie82]

Very Informative and insightful!!!

[MagicMaximo]

@sahnie82 Thanks!

[rickjones53]

Yo supongo que Vd. habla espanol, no ? Cuales otros idiomas Vd. habla con fluidez ?

[MagicMaximo]

@rickjones53 Si, Hablo espanol. Mi esposa es de las islas filipinas, entonces hablo su lengua,se llama Tagalog.  Tambien hablo Vietnamis, y otros.

[yarmo28]

All very good advice. I would add: listen to songs - learn the words and sing-along; it's fun and it gives you vocabulary in meaningful expressions.

[MagicMaximo]

@yarmo28 Thanks for your comments.

[mrjeffburnett123]

@yarmo28

I do the same with Spanish music, and it's almost all I want to listen to anymore. Besides giving you vocabulary it's amazing for pronunciation.

[dexterhawson]

im currently learning tibetan, and am actually living in a tibetan community in india,

this advice is actually very correct. anyone watching this to learn a language should take this on board. trainning your ear is hugely important in the beginning but comes with constant conversation. nothing makes you want to understand more than embarresingly asking someone to repeat themselves 5 times becuase you dont undesrtand. great advice.

[MagicMaximo]

@dexterhawson Thank you for you comments. Tibet! How intriguing! Best of luck!

[rfwelsh]

Nice video Bud! Honest, helpful and not at all pretentious!

[MagicMaximo]

@rfwelsh Thanks for your kind comments.

[runbambirun]

Hope you weren't waiting too long for the missus. I enjoyed your short lecture. I agree about the vocabulary. If you have enough vocabulary, pronunciation turns out not to be such a big deal in the end. I have a good story about how to pronounce ' a pound of brown sugar' using only British accents. Doesn't work in text, but the point is that, if you worry too much about pronunciation, you'd never be able to learn even English, much less mat'hata'khou. Thanks, anyway.

[MicroDispersion]

I'm learning languages so that I could understand other people and would be able to communicate :) This is the first one. The secondary might be that I want to live abroad :) If I learn a few languages and if i'll like their culture maybe i'll be able to move there :)

[MicroDispersion]

You know :D I totally agree with what you had said in this video. I am Lithuanian, but I like English more than everything :D All started with some interesting English cartoons. After few years of watching them I began to understand what was said. Now, because of the childhood in front of TV I have actually no problems during English classes. Everything seems fine, I'm just chilling out and having fun ;D

[MagicMaximo]

@MicroDispersion Good for you!

[mhmaslam]

Thanks alot .. worth watching

Did you tried learning Tamil

[MagicMaximo]

No, but I think Tamil is a very interesting language to learn. Is that your language?

[ofelirris]

Hello, funny music intro... but nice vid, very useful.

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!

[andreaurino24]

I want to learn ''ESPERANTO'' , is so hard , but in the right time , i will speak it.

[wardogmobius]

I want to learn portuguese, mandarin and japanese. I now dominate english and spanish. Some one told me portuguese is similar to spanish. What advice to learn this languages? My purpose is to improve my record when getting a job. Maybe in the future, I will like to dominate that language to work in that foreign country.

[karolbeatbox]

answer to fonsecafh :

People who learn English in schools know mainly formal language. Americans use much more informal language than people from Great Bitain.

Especially when they use slang, you won't understand them. However, watching a lot of english videos make me used to guess meaning of new words. Although I've been learning english for 13 years and i know all the grammar rules (and also my vocabulary is rather advanced) i still don't unterstand american rap songs.

[wardogmobius]

The problem is that the language spoken in rap music is nor informal. Is describe as "jerga language" in spanish. Is a group words created by a certain commuity who share the same thoughts about it.

[MagicMaximo]

You're no alone. Because I am of a different generation, I don't really understand rap music either.

[AkaoKiyotsu]

@MagicMaximo I'm thirteen. I don't understand it either.

[mariaXDmartinez]

this video on learning a foreign language really helps since I'm trying to keep up with portugese

[MagicMaximo]

Thanks for your comments.

[fonsecafh]

Hi i live in Brazil and speak a little bit of english but sometimes i have difuculty to understand what americans or somebody else are speaking because they speak too fast.I think i have to listening over and over again.

[ed2276]

(2) I got the idea to try the singing method to learning pronunciation after watching some vids of TEFL teachers teaching English to Chinese kids by having them sing songs in English in class.

I am really excited about learning tagalog now! At first it felt like a insurmountable mountain I was going to have to climb and struggle with. Now, it is fun!

Your vids also are a real help to me, as well. Thank you!

[MagicMaximo]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

[ed2276]

(1) I agree with you that listening is an important first step. I have found that combining listening and singing help tremendously with pronunciation. I have had trouble pronouncing tagalog words and my fiance is always getting a laugh from my attempts. I started listening and singing along to the song "Ikaw na nga" by Willie Revallime. I learned the words and pronunciation and sang the song to her. She was shocked and pleased with my pronunciation, and gave me a 10 in pronunciation!

[ChelonianDudeMaster]

i've just started spanish and that helped a lot, thank you.

[Ygeianism]

Very insightful, thank you

[poliglotta80]

I used to talk to myself in some of my tongues to keep myself from getting a bit rusty with 'em..People could have thought I was crazy! Don't do anymore, I just try to practice my languages whenever I can..go check my video "Luca speaks 8 languages"..Ciao!

[crouchtig]

You're right, lessons always focus on reading and writing, and on grammar before vocab. I use songs to get a feel for a language, I may be wrong but it seems like people exagerate the different sounds when they sing, making it easier to imitate?

[pelizete]

thank you very good..

[Spiculum2008]

Some people study while they are waiting... but you even teach while waiting *g*

thanks a lot, I already took a look at some of your videos and you helped me a lot :) keep on the great work!

[springflowerchild]

Thanks so much for that. I'm language lover too. Listening to the language primarily is really good advice.

[prajalpa]

Great tips.

[robroyces]

thank you, Bud. I think you are right.

[zeropeanuts]

I'm similiar in my approach, he is right. :)

[SaileAway]

his glasses are annoying..all flashy and such

[MagicMaximo]

yaaaaaaaay!! Good for you! Keep up the good work!

[Babykittyjade]

lol everything you said is EXACTLY what i do when learning a language!!!!! YAAAAAY!!!!!!!! ur awesomeeeness!!!!! em yeu ahn!!!!!

[randyjr86]

Very interesting i will start listening more because i am surrounded in Vietnamese language i bet they talk about me all the time i think thats why there laughing sometimes HAHAHA but there cool people they speak english too but see i wanna learn there language so they cant talk about me anymore if they are. lol Thanks again!