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How to learn any language in six months | Chris Lonsdale | TEDxLingnanUniversity — Transcript

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0:00Transcriber: Translate TED Reviewer: Allam Zedan
0:10The people in the back, can you hear me clearly?
0:13OK, good.
0:15Have you ever held a question in mind
0:19for so long that it becomes part of how you think?
0:25Maybe even part of who you are as a person?
0:28Well I've had a question in my mind for many, many years
0:32and that is: How can you speed up learning?
0:38Now, this is an interesting question
0:40because if you speed up learning,
0:42you can spend less time at school.
0:44And if you learn really fast,
0:47you probably wouldn't have to go to school at all.
0:50Now, when I was young, school was sort of OK but...
0:54I found quite often that school got in the way of learning
0:58so I had this question in mind: How do you learn faster?
1:02And this began when I was very, very young,
1:05when I was 11 years old,
1:07I wrote a letter to researchers in the Soviet Union, asking about hypnopaedia,
1:11this is sleep-learning,
1:13where you get a tape recorder, you put it beside your bed
1:16and it turns on in the middle of the night
1:19when you're sleeping,
1:20and you're supposed to be learning from this.
1:22A good idea, unfortunately it doesn't work.
1:25But, hypnopaedia did open the doors to research in other areas
1:29and we've had incredible discoveries about
1:32learning that began with that first question.
1:36I went on from there to become passionate about psychology
1:39and I have been involved in psychology in many different ways
1:43for the rest of my life up until this point.
1:45In 1981, I took myself to China
1:49and I decided that I was going to be native level in Chinese inside two years.
1:56Now, you need to understand that in 1981, everybody thought
2:01Chinese was really, really difficult
2:04and that a Westerner could study for 10 years or more
2:06and never really get very good at it.
2:08And I also went in with a different idea
2:11which was: taking all of the conclusions
2:13from psychological research up to that point
2:16and applying them to the learning process.
2:19What was really cool was that in six months I was fluent in Mandarin Chinese
2:24and it took a little bit longer to get up to native.
2:28But I looked around and I saw all of these people from different countries
2:33struggling terribly with Chinese,
2:35I saw Chinese people struggling terribly to learn English and other languages,
2:40and so my question got refined down to:
2:44How can you help a normal adult
2:47learn a new language quickly, easily and effectively?
2:51Now this is a really, really important question in today's world.
2:54We have massive challenges with environment,
2:56we have massive challenges with social dislocation,
2:59with wars, all sorts of things going on
3:02and if we can't communicate,
3:04we're really going to have difficulty solving these problems.
3:07So we need to be able to speak each other's languages,
3:10this is really, really important.
3:12The question then is: How do you do that?
3:16Well, it's actually really easy.
3:18You look around for people who can already do it,
3:21you look for situations where it's already working
3:24and then you identify the principles and apply them.
3:27It's called modelling and I've been looking at language learning
3:30and modelling language learning for about 15 to 20 years now.
3:35And my conclusion, my observation from this is
3:38that any adult can learn a second language to fluency inside six months.
3:43Now when I say this, most people think I'm crazy, this is not possible.
3:49So let me remind everybody of the history of human progress,
3:53it's all about expanding our limits.
3:57In 1950, everybody believed that running one mile in four minutes was impossible,
4:03and then Roger Bannister did it in 1956
4:06and from there it's got shorter and shorter.
4:09100 years ago everybody believed that heavy stuff doesn't fly.
4:12Except it does and we all know this.
4:16How does heavy stuff fly?
4:18We reorganise the material using principles that we have learned
4:22from observing nature, birds in this case.
4:26And today we've gone even further...
4:30We've gone even further, so you can fly a car.
4:34You can buy one of these for a couple 100.000 US dollars.
4:37We now have cars in the world that fly.
4:39And there's a different way to fly which we've learned from squirrels.
4:43So all you need to do is copy what a flying squirrel does,
4:46build a suit called a wing suit and off you go, you can fly like a squirrel.
4:50Now most people, a lot of people, I wouldn't say everybody
4:54but a lot of people think they can't draw.
4:57However there are some key principles, five principles, that you can apply
5:01to learning to draw and you can actually learn to draw in five days.
5:05So, if you draw like this, you learn these principles for five days
5:10and apply them and after five days you can draw something like this.
5:15Now I know this is true because that was my first drawing
5:18and after five days of applying these principles that was what I was able to do.
5:22And I looked at this and I went:
5:23"Wow, so that's how I look like when I'm concentrating so intensely
5:27that my brain is exploding."
5:31So, anybody can learn to draw in five days
5:35and in the same way, with the same logic,
5:37anybody can learn a second language in six months.
5:42How? There are five principles and seven actions.
5:46There may be a few more but these are absolutely core.
5:49And before I get into those I just want to talk about two myths,
5:53I want to dispel two myths.
5:54The first is that you need talent.
5:56Let me tell you about Zoe.
5:58Zoe came from Australia, went to Holland, was trying to learn Dutch,
6:03struggling extremely, extremely... a great deal
6:06and finally people were saying: "You're completely useless,"
6:09"you're not talented," "give up," "you're a waste of time"
6:13and she was very, very depressed.
6:15And then she came across these five principles,
6:17she moved to Brazil and she applied them
6:19and in six months she was fluent in Portuguese,
6:22so talent doesn't matter.
6:24People also think that immersion in a new country is the way to learn a language.
6:28But look around Hong Kong, look at all the westerners
6:31who've been here for 10 years, who don't speak a word of Chinese.
6:35Look at all the Chinese living in America, Britain, Australia, Canada
6:39have been there 10, 20 years and they don't speak any English.
6:43Immersion per se does not work.
6:45Why? Because a drowning man cannot learn to swim.
6:49When you don't speak a language, you're like a baby.
6:52And if you drop yourself into a context
6:54which is all adults talking about stuff over your head, you won't learn.
6:59So, what are the five principles that you need to pay attention to?
7:02First: the four words,
7:04attention, meaning, relevance and memory,
7:06and these interconnect in very, very important ways.
7:10Especially when you're talking about learning.
7:12Come with me on a journey through a forest.
7:14You go on a walk through a forest
7:17and you see something like this... Little marks on a tree,
7:20maybe you pay attention, maybe you don't.
7:23You go another 50 metres and you see this...
7:26You should be paying attention.
7:29Another 50 metres, if you haven't been paying attention, you see this...
7:33And at this point, you're paying attention.
7:37And you've just learned that this... is important,
7:40it's relevant because it means this,
7:42and anything that is related, any information related to your survival
7:48is stuff that you're going to pay attention to
7:50and therefore you're going to remember it.
7:52If it's related to your personal goals,
7:54then you're going to pay attention to it.
7:56If it's relevant, you're going to remember it.
7:58So, the first rule, first principle for learning a language
8:01is focus on language content that is relevant to you.
8:04Which brings us to tools.
8:07We master tools by using tools and we learn tools the fastest
8:11when they are relevant to us.
8:14So let me share a story.
8:15A keyboard is a tool.
8:18Typing Chinese a certain way, there are methods for this. That's a tool.
8:21I had a colleague many years ago
8:24who went to night school; Tuesday night, Thursday night,
8:27two hours each time, practicing at home,
8:29she spent nine months, and she did not learn to type Chinese.
8:34And one night we had a crisis.
8:36We had 48 hours to deliver a training manual in Chinese.
8:40And she got the job, and I can guarantee you
8:42in 48 hours, she learned to type Chinese
8:44because it was relevant, it was meaningful, it was important,
8:47she was using a tool to create value.
8:50So the second principle for learning a language is to use your language
8:53as a tool to communicate right from day one.
8:57As a kid does.
8:59When I first arrived in China, I didn't speak a word of Chinese,
9:03and on my second week, I got to take a train ride overnight.
9:07I spent eight hours sitting in the dining car
9:10talking to one of the guards on the train,
9:12he took an interest in me for some reason,
9:14and we just chatted all night in Chinese
9:17and he was drawing pictures and making movements with his hands
9:20and facial expressions and piece by piece by piece
9:22I understood more and more.
9:25But what was really cool, was two weeks later,
9:28when people were talking Chinese around me,
9:30I was understanding some of this
9:32and I hadn't even made any effort to learn that.
9:35What had happened, I'd absorbed it that night on the train,
9:38which brings us to the third principle.
9:40When you first understand the message,
9:43then you will acquire the language unconsciously.
9:48And this is really, really well documented now,
9:51it's something called comprehensible input.
9:53There's 20 or 30 years of research on this,
9:55Stephen Krashen, a leader in the field,
9:57has published all sorts of these different studies
9:59and this is just from one of them.
10:01The purple bars show the scores on different tests for language.
10:09The purple people were people who had learned by grammar and formal study,
10:14the green ones are the ones who learned by comprehensible input.
10:17So, comprehension works. Comprehension is key
10:21and language learning is not about accumulating lots of knowledge.
10:28In many, many ways it's about physiological training.
10:34A woman I know from Taiwan did great in English at school,
10:37she got A grades all the way through,
10:39went through college, A grades, went to the US
10:42and found she couldn't understand what people were saying.
10:45And people started asking her: "Are you deaf?"
10:49And she was. English deaf.
10:52Because we have filters in our brain that filter in
10:56the sounds that we are familiar with
10:58and they filter out the sounds of languages that we're not.
11:02And if you can't hear it, you won't understand it,
11:05if you can't understand it, you're not going to learn it.
11:07So you actually have to be able to hear these sounds.
11:10And there are ways to do that but it's physiological training.
11:13Speaking takes muscle.
11:18You've got 43 muscles in your face,
11:21you have to coordinate those in a way
11:23that you make sounds that other people will understand.
11:27If you've ever done a new sport for a couple of days,
11:30and you know how your body feels? Hurts?
11:33If your face is hurting, you're doing it right.
11:38And the final principle is state. Psycho-physiological state.
11:43If you're sad, angry, worried, upset, you're not going to learn. Period.
11:48If you're happy, relaxed, in an Alpha brain state, curious,
11:51you're going to learn really quickly,
11:53and very specifically you need to be tolerant of ambiguity.
11:57If you're one of those people who needs to understand 100 percent
12:00every word you're hearing, you will go nuts,
12:03because you'll be incredibly upset all the time, because you're not perfect.
12:07If you're comfortable with getting some, not getting some,
12:11just paying attention to what you do understand,
12:13you're going to be fine, relaxed, and you'll be learning quickly.
12:16So based on those five principles, what are the seven actions that you take?
12:21Number one: Listen a lot.
12:23I call it brain soaking.
12:26You put yourself in a context
12:27where you're hearing tons and tons and tons of a language
12:31and it doesn't matter if you understand it or not.
12:33You're listening to the rhythms, to patterns that repeat,
12:37you're listening to things that stand out.
12:39(Chinese) Pào nǎozi.
12:41(English) So, just soak your brain in this.
12:43The second action is that you get the meaning first,
12:46even before you get the words.
12:48You go: "Well how do I do that? I don't know the words!"
12:51Well, you understand what these different postures mean.
12:55Human communication is body language in many, many ways, so much body language.
13:00From body language you can understand a lot of communication,
13:03therefore, you're understanding, you're acquiring through comprehensible input.
13:07And you can also use patterns that you already know.
13:11If you're a Chinese speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and you go to Vietnam,
13:16you will understand 60 percent of what they say to you in daily conversation,
13:22because Vietnamese is about 30 percent Mandarin, 30 percent Cantonese.
13:28The third action: Start mixing.
13:31You probably have never thought of this
13:33but if you've got 10 verbs, 10 nouns and 10 adjectives,
13:36you can say 1000 different things.
13:40Language is a creative process.
13:43What do babies do? OK, "me", "bath", "now".
13:47OK, that's how they communicate.
13:49So start mixing, get creative, have fun with it,
13:51it doesn't have to be perfect, just has to work.
13:55And when you're doing this, you focus on the core.
13:58What does that mean?
13:59Well, any language is high frequency content.
14:02In English 1000 words covers 85 percent
14:06of anything you're ever going to say in daily communication.
14:093000 words gives you 98 percent
14:12of anything you're going to say in daily conversation.
14:14You got 3000 words, you're speaking the language.
14:17The rest is icing on the cake.
14:20And when you're just beginning with a new language,
14:22start with your tool box. Week number one,
14:26in your new language you say things like:
14:28"How do you say that?" "I don't understand,"
14:30"repeat that please," "what does that mean?"
14:33all in your target language.
14:34You're using it as a tool, making it useful to you,
14:37it's relevant to learn other things about the language.
14:41By week two, you should be saying things like:
14:43"me," "this," "you," "that," "give," you know, "hot,"
14:47simple pronouns, simple nouns, simple verbs,
14:51simple adjectives, communicating like a baby.
14:54And by the third or fourth week, you're getting into "glue words."
14:59"Although," "but," "therefore," these are logical transformers
15:03that tie bits of a language together, allowing you to make more complex meaning.
15:08At that point you're talking.
15:10And when you're doing that, you should get yourself a language parent.
15:15If you look at how children and parents interact,
15:18you'll understand what this means.
15:21When a child is speaking, it'll be using simple words, simple combinations,
15:24sometimes quite strange, sometimes very strange pronunciation,
15:28other people from outside the family don't understand it.
15:32But the parents do.
15:34And so the kid has a safe environment, gets confidence.
15:39The parents talk to the children with body language
15:42and with simple language they know the child understands.
15:45So you have a comprehensible input environment that's safe,
15:48we know it works; otherwise none of you would speak your mother tongue.
15:52So you get yourself a language parent,
15:54who's somebody interested in you as a person
15:56who will communicate with you essentially as an equal,
15:59but pay attention to help you understand the message.
16:04There are four rules of a language parent.
16:06Spouses are not very good at this, OK?
16:08But the four rules are,
16:09first of all, they will work hard to understand what you mean
16:12even when you're way off beat.
16:15Secondly, they will never correct your mistakes.
16:18Thirdly, they will feed back their understanding of what you are saying
16:22so that you can respond appropriately and get that feedback
16:26and then they will use words that you know.
16:29The sixth thing you have to do, is copy the face.
16:33You got to get the muscles working right,
16:35so you can sound in a way that people will understand you.
16:39There's a couple of things you do.
16:40One is that you hear how it feels, and feel how it sounds
16:44which means you have a feedback loop operating in your face,
16:47but ideally if you can look at a native speaker
16:50and just observe how they use their face,
16:52let your unconscious mind absorb the rules,
16:55then you're going to be able to pick it up.
16:57And if you can't get a native speaker to look at, you can use stuff like this...
17:02(Female voice) Sing, song, king, stung, hung.
17:12(Chris Lonsdale) And the final idea here, the final action you need to take
17:16is something that I call "direct connect".
17:18What does this mean? Well most people learning a second language
17:21sort of take the mother tongue words and the target words and go over them
17:24again and again in their mind to try and remember them. Really inefficient.
17:28What you need to do is realise that
17:31everything you know is an image inside your mind, it's feelings,
17:34if you talk about fire, you can smell the smoke,
17:36you can hear the crackling, you can see the flames,
17:39so what you do, is you go into that imagery and all of that memory
17:42and you come out with another pathway. So I call it "same box, different path".
17:47You come out of that pathway and you build it over time,
17:50you become more and more skilled at just connecting the new sounds
17:53to those images that you already have, into that internal representation.
17:58And over time you even become naturally good at that process,
18:01that becomes unconscious.
18:03So, there are five principles that you need to work with, seven actions,
18:08if you do any of them, you're going to improve.
18:10And remember these are things under your control as the learner.
18:14Do them all and you're going to be fluent in a second language in six months.
18:17Thank you.
18:19(Applause)

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