英语母语者也要背单词吗？How to become fluent in any language — Transcript

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1. 0:00recently I've got a lot of questions
2. 0:02asking how I learned Chinese and also a
3. 0:05lot of questions asking how native
4. 0:08English speakers learn English how do
5. 0:10Americans remember so many English words
6. 0:13so I thought I'd make a video talking
7. 0:15about my language journey and also share
8. 0:18some tips and techniques for learning a
9. 0:21language as an adult without any
10. 0:23language environment especially if you
11. 0:25struggle with memorizing words this is
12. 0:27going to be really helpful so make sure
13. 0:29to stick around to the end I've been
14. 0:31learning Chinese for about 6 years now
15. 0:34and a lot of people have asked how I was
16. 0:36able to reach a relatively fluent level
17. 0:40and honestly being in the classroom
18. 0:42environment really helped me a lot in
19. 0:44the beginning it was really helpful to
20. 0:46have a teacher teach me the basics and
21. 0:49give me a foundation in this language
22. 0:51but a lot of the work for me also came
23. 0:54from outside of the classroom especially
24. 0:56in situations where you don't have a
25. 0:59language environment and you're not
26. 1:00surrounded by this language every day
27. 1:03and you can't practice these basic daily
28. 1:06conversations so it's really important
29. 1:08to try to make the environment for
30. 1:10yourself and put in the extra effort
31. 1:13outside of class I would surround myself
32. 1:15with as much Chinese as I possibly could
33. 1:19so I would constantly watch TV shows
34. 1:21movies and I would listen to Chinese
35. 1:24music while I was walking around campus
36. 1:26and really anything to help me listen to
37. 1:28more Chinese and get more input I would
38. 1:31constantly take note of the new words
39. 1:33and phrases that I heard and write them
40. 1:36down and I have so many notebooks just
41. 1:39filled with me repeating the same things
42. 1:42over and over and writing everything I
43. 1:44heard down but most importantly is that
44. 1:47I would talk to myself in my head using
45. 1:50Chinese for example if we learned a new
46. 1:53word or phrase or even sentence
47. 1:56structure in class then I would try my
48. 1:58best to really Inc incorporate that into
49. 2:00my inner monologue so even though nobody
50. 2:03would be there to practice with me I
51. 2:05could still practice with myself and
52. 2:08this is really important because if you
53. 2:09honestly want to improve in any language
54. 2:12then the key is practice and spending
55. 2:16time to really say all these words
56. 2:19phrases and structures that you
57. 2:21encounter and another key point is not
58. 2:24just focusing on one single word or
59. 2:27phrase but putting it into a sentence
60. 2:30and understanding how it's really used
61. 2:32in real life because if you spend a lot
62. 2:34of time just repeating one word over and
63. 2:37over and over you might be able to
64. 2:39remember it but it's going to take a lot
65. 2:42of extra effort and brain power and it's
66. 2:45not really applicable if you don't know
67. 2:47how to use the word properly so instead
68. 2:50I would recommend finding some more
69. 2:52examples of how to use this word and
70. 2:55this way you can really understand and
71. 2:57deeply feel the meaning of this word and
72. 3:01you'll be able to use it naturally and
73. 3:03when other people use it you'll be able
74. 3:04to understand what they're trying to say
75. 3:07this is also important because in real
76. 3:09life conversations or when we're reading
77. 3:11a paper or a book or something like that
78. 3:14these words are never really isolated
79. 3:17they're never just alone they always
80. 3:20have some context and we can use this to
81. 3:22figure out what they mean the use of
82. 3:24context clues is actually how a lot of
83. 3:27native speakers learn a lang language no
84. 3:30matter what the language is for example
85. 3:33if your native language is Chinese how
86. 3:35did you learn it your parents and the
87. 3:38people around you would constantly be
88. 3:40speaking in this language so as a baby
89. 3:42you just start to pick up on the sounds
90. 3:45and the words and you eventually start
91. 3:47to speak it on your own and this is the
92. 3:49natural way of learning any language we
93. 3:52connect words to real life objects and
94. 3:55we learn new words based on how other
95. 3:58people use them in different contexts
96. 4:00even native speakers make mistakes when
97. 4:03learning their native language but each
98. 4:06mistake is just a step closer to fluency
99. 4:09and we can use these methods when we're
100. 4:11learning a foreign language as well I've
101. 4:13had a lot of people ask how Americans
102. 4:16learn English like do we have to
103. 4:18memorize a lot of words too or do we
104. 4:21have English classes or what do we do
105. 4:24when we encounter a word that we don't
106. 4:26know we learn English the same way that
107. 4:29anyone else else would learn a native
108. 4:30language but in order to go past a very
109. 4:33basic level of English native English
110. 4:37speakers also have to spend time
111. 4:39studying English in school for example
112. 4:41when we're younger we have to do a lot
113. 4:43of spelling tests and memorize the
114. 4:45spelling of new and longer words as we
115. 4:49get older we also have to learn how to
116. 4:51analyze English writing and we have to
117. 4:54learn how to write an English paper and
118. 4:56we spend a lot of time learning about
119. 4:58English literature
120. 5:00and also history as well so English is a
121. 5:03big part of our curriculum English is a
122. 5:05very wordy language so naturally there
123. 5:08are a lot of words that we might not
124. 5:11know the exact meaning of and even as
125. 5:14native English speakers we have to spend
126. 5:16time learning these new words there are
127. 5:19a few different methods of learning
128. 5:21these new words but I'm going to share
129. 5:23one common method that is going to be
130. 5:26very helpful we'll call this method the
131. 5:28context clues method it's also used a
132. 5:31lot for learning English when it's not
133. 5:33your native language and I've summarized
134. 5:36three main steps for you to follow but
135. 5:38just keep in mind this method does
136. 5:41require a little bit of a basic English
137. 5:44understanding to use it when we see a
138. 5:46new word that we don't know in a
139. 5:48sentence first we need to figure out the
140. 5:50basic and general meaning of the overall
141. 5:53sentence like what's the tone or what
142. 5:56other words could we put in place of
143. 5:59this new new word and still have the
144. 6:01whole sentence make sense and this is
145. 6:03the core of using context clues second
146. 6:07we use context clues or the information
147. 6:10surrounding this word to make an
148. 6:12educated guess on what this new word
149. 6:15really means and then the third step is
150. 6:18to finally use a dictionary to confirm
151. 6:22our educated guess and doing this also
152. 6:25reinforces this word in your brain and
153. 6:28helps with memorization this is really
154. 6:30important because if you see a new word
155. 6:32and you just immediately go to the
156. 6:34dictionary or you immediately translate
157. 6:36this word to understand what it means
158. 6:39and then quickly move on without even
159. 6:41understanding the context of how to use
160. 6:44this word it's actually going to be
161. 6:45really hard to remember the word and
162. 6:49understand how it's really used so
163. 6:51checking with the dictionary is
164. 6:53important but it should be the last step
165. 6:57using your brain to understand the use
166. 6:59and meaning behind these new words is
167. 7:01actually going to give you a deeper
168. 7:03impression and help you understand the
169. 7:05Practical use of the words and
170. 7:08eventually this will make things a lot
171. 7:09easier in the long run I also used this
172. 7:12method when I was learning Chinese and I
173. 7:15think it's part of the reason why I was
174. 7:17able to pick up on things so quickly
175. 7:19while I was listening to these TV shows
176. 7:22and movies and anything like that in
177. 7:24Chinese if I saw something new that I
178. 7:27wasn't sure of exactly what it meant
179. 7:30instead of just directly translating it
180. 7:33I would look for it in other contexts
181. 7:36and slowly start to understand the
182. 7:38meaning and how it's used and honestly
183. 7:41when you rely too much on direct
184. 7:44translation of words and phrases then a
185. 7:47lot of the times you'll start to lose
186. 7:49the nuance and the feeling of a language
187. 7:52it's also really important to remember
188. 7:55that learning a language no matter what
189. 7:57the language is takes a lot of time and
190. 8:00persistence it's taken me about 6 years
191. 8:03to learn Chinese without knowing
192. 8:05anything about the language previously
193. 8:08but only in the past year have I started
194. 8:11to really kind of connect the dots and
195. 8:14become a little bit more fluent in the
196. 8:16language I spent years just
197. 8:19understanding the sounds of Chinese and
198. 8:21memorizing sentences and words and
199. 8:24phrases and talking to myself a lot all
200. 8:28of these steps were needed for me to get
201. 8:30to where I am today so my biggest piece
202. 8:34of advice is don't give up I hope this
203. 8:37video was somewhat motivational for you
204. 8:39no matter what language you want to
205. 8:40learn and I hope that this technique is
206. 8:43going to help you a lot in your studies
207. 8:45so let me know if you have any other
208. 8:47questions about language learning and
209. 8:50I'll see you guys next time bye-bye