August 21, 2016

How to learn a foreign language fast and well - short answer


A Slovak journalist once asked me to write a short paragraph about how to learn English fast and well. It is very difficult to summarize something like that into a few sentences, but I tried. Very simply put, learning a foreign language can be compared to learning how to play a guitar. If you want to learn how to play a guitar fast and well, you need two things (except for the guitar obviously):

  • spend a lot of time listening to someone who plays the guitar well 
and
  • spend a lot of time practicing. 

In the world of foreign languages, this translates into:

  • a lot of input (listening and reading) 
and
  • a lot of output (speaking and writing). 

The approach of a beginner and an intermediate student will be different of course, but the learning philosophy remains the same.

When it comes to listening, the best thing to listen to are radio or TV talkshows, where the language is real (unlike in movies, or textbooks) and where there are no silent moments, like in movies or TV series for instance. An even better thing to watch are youtube videos (specifically vlogs), where people speak in first person and talk about what they have been doing recently, where they went, what they think about this or that etc.

When it comes to speaking, more important than who you’re talking to is, how often you have the chance to talk to someone. Ideally, you should be able to talk to someone everyday, but at least an hour a day, three times per week. A good exercise is to talk to yourself in the foreign language.

Your ideal conversation partner should be different depending on what your level in the foreign language is. If you are an American learning Chinese for instance and you are a complete beginner, your ideal conversation partner is an American, who speaks Chinese fluently (they will be able to explain to you the language much better than a native speaker). If you are an intermediate or advanced student a native Chinese speaker is better.

18 comments:

  1. Please make more videos so we can see your beautiful smile!

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    1. :) Thank you. I made one today actually. It will be on youtube in a few hours.

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  2. Vladimir,

    I just stumbled upon your information today while following the rabbit hole (my silly term for following many click-through links) from a TED talk. I can't tell you how inspired I am after listening to your video in 19 languages! (The jigsaw puzzle based on "Cafe Terrace at Night" in the background was rather epic as well.)

    I adore languages and have learned bits and pieces of quite a few, but nothing close to your fluency. Sadly, I have rarely found someone with whom to practice, so the majority of what I know is lost over time unless I continually refresh my knowledge. I guess it's the same in every other aspect of life - you may not fall off the bicycle when trying to ride after a long hiatus...but it's definitely a wobbly start when you first begin pedaling.

    I've always been considered somewhat odd by those around me who can't fathom why I would study another language, let alone many. (born and raised in Texas with no international travel) It is a HUGE relief and wonderfully exciting to find you and others with similar interests, that you have prompted me to search out.

    You have my most sincere thanks and undying gratitude.

    Best Regards,

    Dee

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dee,

      thank you very much for the nice comment.

      There are a few language learning forums online with hundreds of thousands of members. If you need to look for like-minded people, that is the place to go:)

      Thank you again,

      Kind regards,

      Vladimir

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  3. Vladimir,

    I just stumbled upon your information today while following the rabbit hole (my silly term for following many click-through links) from a TED talk. I can't tell you how inspired I am after listening to your video in 19 languages! (The jigsaw puzzle based on "Cafe Terrace at Night" in the background was rather epic as well.)

    I adore languages and have learned bits and pieces of quite a few, but nothing close to your fluency. Sadly, I have rarely found someone with whom to practice, so the majority of what I know is lost over time unless I continually refresh my knowledge. I guess it's the same in every other aspect of life - you may not fall off the bicycle when trying to ride after a long hiatus...but it's definitely a wobbly start when you first begin pedaling.

    I've always been considered somewhat odd by those around me who can't fathom why I would study another language, let alone many. (born and raised in Texas with no international travel) It is a HUGE relief and wonderfully exciting to find you and others with similar interests, that you have prompted me to search out.

    You have my most sincere thanks and undying gratitude.

    Best Regards,

    Dee

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love learn languages and It is my passion learn them:)
    I agree with you about each line that you said for us.I learned English in my own,by the way, Recently, I returned for my Chinese learning. I need of all you help. Bye-bye

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    Replies
    1. Hello Michael,

      feel free to read some of the articles I wrote about learning Chinese here on my blog, or watch some of the videos on my youtube channel. Maybe they will help a bit.

      Good luck,

      Vladimir

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  5. Hey Vlad :).

    What was your work when you were abroad, but your Chinese was still in the early stages? Just curious really, since now you work in Chinese!

    Rom

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    1. Hello Rom:)

      I was a student actually. Then later I worked as an English language editor in a TW company.

      Delete
  6. Szia Vladimir,
    Marcin vagyok és Lengyelországból szarmazom. Most magarul tanulok, mert magyar nyelv nagyon szép. Kérdezhetek valamit? (concerning Hungarian audio materials? On that stage my creativity in Hungarian ends, but I'm at a beginner level right now, so I have to switch into English). For me one of the way to be more familiar with the language I'm learning and to feel the rythym & melody is to watch videos in that particular language with subtitles. I've searched youtube as well as internet sites of Hungarian national tv channels but I haven't found any :( Every broadcast is dubbed and there's no version for deaf people, so there is no way to find a Hungarian broadcast with Hungarian subtitles :( Any suggestions. I'll be more than grateful!

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    1. Hi Marcin, I'm not too sure I can help you because I've never looked for anything like this, but my friend Martin did some youtube videos with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxex_lITOaq32xYOYdSg3yg
      Also, there is a Hungarian audio library for the blind with free audiobooks. You just have to find the text to go with them: http://mek.oszk.hu/ Good luck.

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  7. Viadimir 你好
    發現你的youtube頻道覺得很驚訝也很欽佩,給了我很大的鼓勵。
    有個問題想請教你:當你住在當地學習當地語言時,想必會透過多與當地人交流談話來學習吧!可是通常當你的語言達到了可以溝通的程度時,當地人因為聽得懂你說的話,所以當你講錯的時候,他們通常也就不會再糾正你了對嗎?

    我住在西班牙,一開始也低估了西班牙文的難度,以為到了當地自然而然就會講了。現在住在這裡兩年多了,雖然可以順暢地聊天,但西班牙文的動詞非常複雜,我和西班牙朋友聊天時講的文法與動詞都是錯的,不過因為他們都聽得懂,也不想中斷對話的興致,所以並不會糾正我。有時我知道自己講錯了,但不知道正確動詞時,還刻意問:『這樣講對嗎?』他們還會說:『對呀對呀我聽得懂阿!』西班牙人真是可愛。

    事實上只要不是專業的教師,要去糾正別人的文法錯誤是蠻困難的。久了以後發現即便勤加練習與人聊天也遭遇到瓶頸,畢竟西班牙的動詞不能靠死背,一定要反覆使用才有辦法記起來。我有上西班牙文課,老師當然就會糾正我的語法,不過一個禮拜只有兩次實在不夠。最近也想像你一樣開始用不同語言寫blog,也許可以從寫西班牙文blog文章開始練習吧?:)

    好奇想請教你是否有遭遇過類似的瓶頸?中文應該也有些東西如西班牙文的動詞一樣,需要大量記憶,並且靠練習才能記憶起來?

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  8. Hi Vladimir,

    I want to learn Russian and my native language is Greek. Can you please tell me what is the best and most effective method to learn it step by step ?

    Thank you

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    1. Hi,

      sorry I'm replying to your comment only now, but it was automatically labeled as spam for some reason and I had to manually allow it to be displayed. Google usually does a very good job at filtering out spam, so I almost never check the spam folder, that's why it took so long.

      To answer your question would be very time consuming, so I can't help you in this comment I'm afraid, but I wrote several articles on my blog about language learning. Specifically about learning difficult and intermediate languages which are articles that might be helpful in your case:

      https://www.foreverastudent.com/2011/09/hello-all-on-my-blog-i-have-written.html

      https://www.foreverastudent.com/2011/03/learning-difficult-language-part-1.html

      Hope they will help a bit. Good luck with your studies,

      Vladimir

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  9. Are there any Chinese radio shows and/or vlogs you would recommend?

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    1. Hello. Unfortunately I can't. I was looking for something I could listen to myself forever, but I couldn't find anything. There is this show called 二分之一強 it's the only thing that is somewhat watchable, but I wouldn't recommend watching more than one episode at a time, because there is a very high chance your IQ will drop significantly:))

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  10. hey there , greeting from Iraq , I kinda feel like I'm stuck in the same level and it is the upper l intermediate level , I don't know what to do , people said listen and read novel ,I'm not into movies or tv series and even podcast , heard people talked a lot about how they used movies or tv series and podcast for language learners to learn english , I want to go up to the next level or even to be fluent cuz I want to learn another language ,can I use youtube for listening , I love youtube a lot ,if you could give me some tips ,I wanna acquire english not study it ,suggest me some tips , channels ,do I have to be systematic or organized I mean do I have to put a schedule ,like 2 hours watching youtube , 1 hour reading manga or novel , what about writing , reagrding to speaking can I do shadowing to improve my speaking ,btw I want to prepare for the ielts exam , hope you can help please would appreciate it

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    1. Hi. Try to read an article in Arabic and translate every sentence into English (not write, just say) for 1-2 hours every day. It will improve your English drastically.

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