How long to get to a conversational level in a language?

[pishkitarian]

you should learn swahili

[TheMartikaa]

That was the best Video! I thought I am stupid bicause Idon `t speak English wery well after 1 year learning! You are the best most realisctic language teacher I´we ever had!By the way I am Hungarian I speak Yugoslawish and Germanish ! I make many mistakes but newer mind! You are the best for me!M

[utubesqueeze]

Really impressive video - a true experienced polygot's carefully reasoned and explained response. Thank you very much, Steve!

[SOGN0]

thanks for this video, steve. i remember wondering how long it would take for me to be able to speak japanese. i decided that it didnt matter. i was just going to keep going until the shift happened. it did! one day i found myself having a great conversation with one of my teachers. i was able to say what i wanted to say, he had no problem understanding me and i had no problem with his responses and questions. a great, surprising feeling. i am expanding vocabulary and constructs now

[aofsamos]

...me the conviction to keep going. Indeed, I have already made great progress and found it very rewarding to discuss various topics and make Korean friends (that don't speak English) laugh with jokes in their native language. But not knowing the word for a military general or "revolt" and so on can get frustrating. But as you say, with more listening and reading, these gaps can be overcome. It's how I got this far. Still, I also make careless mistakes, the kind I realize soon after I make them.

[aofsamos]

Thank you for discussing the moments in which you couldn't understand or were unable to speak well. It is encouraging for a learner such as myself to know that an accomplished polyglot like yourself goes, to some extent, the same process everyone else does. Last night I went out to a dinner in a Korean environment and made a lot of mistakes (including using a form of goodbye used among friends when a more formal version was required). Examples such as yours give...(cont).

[arivas713]

i need that exposure....thats it i'm packing my bags for israel and japan.

[OmarOcean]

Why do you think that French is harder to speak than the other Romance languages? :)

[lingosteve]

@OmarOcean 1) The spelling is not as consistent and obvious as the others, 2) The words have changed more from the original Latin 3) The pronunciation is more difficult 4) There are more unique structures (ne..pas, y en, etc.) On the other hand the subjunctive is used less which is a plus.

[bigpete871]

Excellent video. Definitely answers some questions that I have been pondering recently about conversational ability in language learning.

[SummerKingdom]

Informative as always, thanks steve

[jasonUKbristol]

I've been learning french for many years. I think my french is now a good level. I started learning Chinese a year ago and I'm surprised about how quickly i'm learning it. I think this is partly from the experience of learning French. As you said, i've learnt to do more listening and reading.

It's important to get the right level of listening material.

I read your book last week along with 'learn any language' by Barry Farber back to back. Super books for motivation, which is also important.

[delafdelaf]

Steve, I think you look at the timer while recording video.

youtube videos increase the time, now 15 (or more) minutes

[MrOregona230]

could you make a video showing exactly what you do with lingq

[Sanyadr]

agreed

[tias90]

Very informative, indeed. Language learning is certainly proportional to the time and effort which one puts in.

[YouStoleMyTube]

Great video! Your advice is always appreciated :D

[SubjectAlpha100]

Thank you so much for the up load! Whenever I watch one of your vids it reminds me of how lazy I am, but encourgages me to work harder! You are an inspiration!!

[mednos]

Thank you so much Steve! I totally agree with you!

[DelNegro10]

Oi, Steven, você falou sobre um tal de Moser(acho que é assim que escreve) no seu vídeo anterior, poderias, pois, escrever o nome dele corretamente para que assim possa procurar no youtube!

Desde já agradeço!

[lingosteve]

@DelNegro10 Moses McCormick

[DelNegro10]

@lingosteve

Obrigado!

[F3rnando666]

jaja.. language learning fitness level!.. love the term!!..  tremendo video steve! da un sentido de tiempo, importante para nosotros que aprendemos otros idiomas!!

[CyrusFun]

Can you add a section to your website for people looking for Skype language learner friends? It'll help a lot if people can have regular conversations in whatever language they are learning....

[lingosteve]

@CyrusFun At LingQ people can and do contact each other via the Forum and their walls to arrange skype conversations.

[CyrusFun]

I just realized that I've been pronouncing "one" wrong for a long time :D I was saying using /v/ like in "variable" while it's like /w/ in "went"

[lingosteve]

@CyrusFun ??

[CyrusFun]

@lingosteve oh yes I'm not a native English speaker and not differentiating between /v/ and /w/ is a common mistake among many people. Compare the first syllable in "variable" with "where" to figure out what I meant.

[qzchris]

@CyrusFun Are you German?

[CyrusFun]

@qzchris Nope :D but we don't have /w/ in our language. Honestly I didn't know about this difference between /w/ and /v/ until I came to Canada then I was like oops.!!!!!!!!! and because of such an old mistake, I need to revise all my "w"s and stuff...

[YouStoleMyTube]

@CyrusFun Lol yeah haha. "One" is pronounced as "wun" :P

[garrettparson]

How do you find to be the best way in you opinion to learn vocabulary? I know in one video you mentioned your brain almost 'chooses' what you remember till you see it so many times and you remember. But what do you think has helped you the most in memorizing vocabulary. flashcards/writing/saying it etc.

[lingosteve]

@garrettparson Lots of listening and reading, focused on the same subject, or author for periods of time, and the yellow highlighting of previously saved words at LingQ. Not writing, not flashcards, not speaking.