learning a new language is easy, actually — Transcript

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1. 0:00Learning a language is actually very easy. You  start off by watching this video right here,
2. 0:05then you stare at this screen, then you pick  a language you have no business learning,
3. 0:09do one lesson, forget about it, then  search up videos about how to learn
4. 0:13that language in 6 weeks, made by a  youtuber who learned it in 6 years.
5. 0:18But if you want to actually learn a language,
6. 0:20you have to make sure you're not  doing it for the wrong reasons.
7. 0:23Sure, if you learned a hard  enough language it would probably,
8. 0:26impress a lot of strangers and it  would probably get you a lot of views
9. 0:29on Youtube. subscribers too. I think  some people even make money from it.
10. 0:34But if you’re a beginner, you should really be  picking a language that’s easy enough for you
11. 0:38to actually enjoy learning it. You shouldn't pick  a language if you're gonna treat it like a chore.
12. 0:42So to maximize your chances of success,  here’s a chart of some popular languages
13. 0:47ranked by how much time it takes for  an English speaker to learn them.
14. 0:51If you're not sure what language you should  start learning, I would just pick either Spanish,
15. 0:55French, or Portuguese. Not only are  they the easiest for English speakers,
16. 0:59but many countries speak one of  these as an official language.
17. 1:03I don’t know why. but it’s  probably just a weird coincidence.
18. 1:06However if you do want to go for  a harder language, it is possible.
19. 1:10Just remember to ask yourself, do  I really have the right motivation?
20. 1:14For example. “wanting to understand anime” is not
21. 1:17gonna motivate you to learn  Japanese for more than a day.
22. 1:20However, “My friends speak Spanish and I want  to understand them” is a pretty good motivator,
23. 1:25because that’s probably why they  made a group chat without you.
24. 1:28Some people have a take a language class for
25. 1:30school. But that by itself is not a  great motivator because your finger
26. 1:34might slip and you might accidentally  paste all your assignments into DeepL.
27. 1:39However, The British invaded my country and  I need English to survive, is the perfect
28. 1:44motivation to start learning English, and  so far it seems to have been a huge success.
29. 1:49So now that you’ve picked your language, it’s  time for the easy part, which is learning it.
30. 1:53Usually, people on the internet will tell you  that the fastest method to learn any language
31. 1:57is to get a language partner, or a tutor, or  a friend who’s willing to sit down with you,
32. 2:02and talk to you like a baby, until you  start picking up words and sentences.
33. 2:06And while this is probably the fastest way,
34. 2:08it requires human interaction.
35. 2:11So instead here’s a method that you can do all by  yourself, at home, to become fluent in a language.
36. 2:16The first step, is learning the basics.  This is actually a very easy step,
37. 2:21but many people try to skip it by doing one or two
38. 2:23Duolingo lessons . Other people get stuck  on the language-learning side of youtube,
39. 2:28watching 138 videos about how to Learn Korean,  none of which include a single word of Korean.
40. 2:34But the whole time, all you really had to do was
41. 2:36find a beginner textbook for that language  that has practice exercises for you to do.
42. 2:41It might take you a month to finish the  whole thing, but the progress you’ll make
43. 2:45is equal to about 2 years of Duolingo,  or about 12 years of school in America.
44. 2:50,and you can find these books for  free by just googling “beginner,
45. 2:53then the language, textbook pdf.”
46. 2:56And there you go. You could also get them  from the library. Or, as they say in France,
47. 3:07Once you finish the beginner book,
48. 3:08it’s time to practice listening. You don’t  even have to worry about speaking right now,
49. 3:12because first you need to learn what the  language is actually supposed to sound like.
50. 3:16The easiest way to do this, is by  watching youtube videos in that language.
51. 3:21The idea behind this, is that you’re  not gonna understand everything,
52. 3:24but by looking at the video, and using  context clues from what you do understand,
53. 3:28you can slowly pick up the  language without even realizing.
54. 3:32This works especially well because every language
55. 3:34only has a few thousand words that are  actually used in regular conversation.
56. 3:38So overtime, you’ll start recognizing the same  few words and phrases in every video you watch.
57. 3:44And you can really pick anything to  watch, as long as it’s interesting,
58. 3:48and you can understand at least 30% of it.
59. 3:50If you put on a video and it sounds  like gibberish, it’s not your fault,
60. 3:54they’re just talking too fast.
61. 3:56this is probably because they’re trying
62. 3:57to gatekeep their language. Do  not let them do this. To fix it,
63. 4:01just go to the Youtube search bar,  and add the magic word “easy”,
64. 4:05and just like that, you get served up a  bunch of videos that you can understand.
65. 4:09Automatic captions also help a lot, cause you  can rewind and look up the words you don't know.
66. 4:14There are even websites like reversocontext where
67. 4:17you can look up a word or phrase and  actually see it used in a real sentence.
68. 4:22But whatever you do, do not turn on english
69. 4:24subtitles. IF YOU'RE READING  THIS...I KNOW YOU HAVE THEM ON
70. 4:25Many people who try to learn Japanese,  for example, watch anime. This is not a
71. 4:30bad way to learn Japanese. But people who turn on  English subtitles, will just read the subtitles,
72. 4:35and even though they think they’re  learning Japanese, in 5 years,
73. 4:38all they’ll have to show for it is this profile  picture and a discord nitro subscription.
74. 4:44But luckily, you’ve been using subtitles in the  right language, and you can now understand at
75. 4:48least 70% of everything you watch. It’s time  to unleash step 3, which is speaking practice.
76. 4:53to start speaking, just keep  watching youtube, except now,
77. 4:57you pause after each important sentence, and  repeat it out loud. Or at least whisper it.
78. 5:02Try to pretend like you’re having  a real conversation with an actual
79. 5:06person. And even think of different possible  situations where you could use the sentence.
80. 5:10Whenever you find a sentence that sounds really  useful, write it down in a notebook. You're
81. 5:15probably never gonna look at that notebook ever  again, but it's nice to get some writing practice.
82. 5:20Now, at any point in this entire process, once you  feel ready to start speaking, sit down and record
83. 5:25yourself talking to a camera. And just talk about  your day, stuff you did, stuff you’re looking
84. 5:31forward to, and even ask a couple questions  to the imaginary person on the other side.
85. 5:36If you ever forget how to say something,  fill it in with english and move on.
86. 5:40Later, you can watch the recording back,
87. 5:42and look up whatever you didn’t know how  to say using DeepL or reverso context.
88. 5:47To an outsider, this might look like  a lonely way to learn a language,
89. 5:50but if you’ve ever heard someone say they’re  self-taught, this is exactly what they were doing.
90. 5:55And that’s all there is to it, if you keep reading  about the language, watching youtube and talking
91. 6:00to a camera for long enough you’ll become fluent  without ever having to talk to an actual person.
92. 6:05Congratulations.
93. 6:07But one day in the future,  you’ll probably have to travel,
94. 6:09and you’ll eventually have  to talk to native speakers.
95. 6:12All you have to do is just learn the  culture and keep up with the politics.
96. 6:16For example, if you ever visit France,  this is what you might expect to see,
97. 6:21but what you’ll actually see is hundreds of
98. 6:23French farmers driving their tractors  into the capital to form a blockade.
99. 6:27If you stop a Frenchman on the street to ask  what happened, he’ll just tell you that this
100. 6:31is just a normal day in France. French people  use creative protest as a way to pass the time,
101. 6:36and you clearly must’ve not read about  it using Ground News. #sponsored.
102. 6:40Ground News is an app, and a website,  that feeds you news from multiple sources
103. 6:45while also telling you straight-up if the  sources reporting on an article, are biased.
104. 6:50For example, When I'm reading that BBC article  about how French farmers are protesting getting
105. 6:55absolutely shafted by the government, the  Ground News browser extension shows that
106. 6:59this article is from the center, and the left and  the right seem to be covering it pretty equally.
107. 7:04If you click on Full Coverage, you can see  that 306 sources are covering this story,
108. 7:09and there’s a summary from  each political viewpoint.
109. 7:12The Bias insights feature tells you  how the left, right, and center,
110. 7:16are reporting on the story differently.
111. 7:18You can even see tabs showing bias distribution,  the factuality of the sources, and who owns them.
112. 7:24But what I do most often,  is compare headlines. This
113. 7:27article makes the protestors look like  angry manure-slinging traffic-blockers,
114. 7:31while this article makes them look  like strong, revolutionary heroes.
115. 7:37I recommend browsing the International Edition so  you’ll never look confused in foreign countries.
116. 7:42Just go to THE LINK YOU SEE ON THE  screen or click the link below,
117. 7:46and you’ll get 30% off their  unlimited access Vantage plan today.