Learn Languages with Steve Kaufmann

Tetsuya of the YouTube channel Morite2 teaches test-taking skills for Japanese people taking TOEIC. We chatted about the state of English learning in Japan and his adventures in language learning.

Tomorrow I will do a livestream with Dr. Stephen Krashen, linguist, educational researcher and activist, where we will discuss language acquisition. Join us at 11AM Pacific Time on August 24: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7WUxvpPIKQ

In Jordan Peterson’s book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” the Canadian clinical psychologist offers life advice via 12 essays. Here’s where I agree and disagree with the ideas in the book.

In English and other languages, certain words are often used with certain other words, sometimes to convey a special meaning. This juxtaposition of words is sometimes referred to as collocation. How do we learn to use collocations?

When learning a language I'm mostly motivated by an interest in the history and culture. Persian is no exception. Right now I'm listening to a podcast in Persian about Iranian identity.

To learn a language we need to look up the meaning of words. This means referring to dictionaries. Lately this has meant mostly referring to online dictionaries for me. Dictionaries are a necessary part of language learning as long as we use them effectively.

For the last four or five days I've been focusing on a Persian podcast about the Islamic Revolution. I feel that this degree of focus and concentration has elevated my Persian. I explain in today’s video.

Variety is the spice of life. Variety will help you learn. If you're in charge of your learning, you set the program, decide what you will spend your time on and set yourself up for success.

I don’t think comprehension questions are helpful in language learning. They destroy the pleasure of reading or listening. Brazilian educator Rubem Alves agrees with me. I listened to and read his thoughts while learning Portuguese. I didn’t always fully understand but I thoroughly enjoyed the process and my Portuguese improved.

What is important in language learning is whatever is important to you. You learn best from content that is important to you. You notice things that are important to you. You remember things that are important to you.

As you know, I learn languages on LingQ. Mostly I listen and read. But I also review vocabulary. Here’s how I do it using LingQ’s vocabulary review activities.

In this video, I discuss learning English with Anna Tyrie of the YouTube channel English Like a Native: phrasal verbs, spelling, pronunciation and more!

It's fine to have a long term vision that we would like to be fluent, have intelligent conversations in a language or understand movies. It's nice to have that as a vague goal, but in order to push yourself in that direction, you should not focus on the long term goals.

Reading is powerful. When I have read a whole paper book from cover to cover, without a dictionary or the iPad, I consider that to be a major milestone.

Listening comprehension is the core skill that leads us to speaking and reading better. It leads us to a better sense of the language.

Once you're past the first "discovery" period in a language, you hit the plateau. You feel you're not progressing. You need to vary things up, in order to keep going. One approach is speed LingQing.

Some people say you should try to learn 10 words a day and make sure you can use them, really nail them down. I've never found that effective. Here is how I learn vocabulary.

Make sure you have a tutor who has the imagination, the wherewithal and the resourcefulness to keep the conversation going when there’s a lull. A tutor who comes up with a new subject, a new question, something to keep the conversation going. This is key.

As you are progressing in your target language there will be lots of times when you are not going to understand. To reach your goals you need to accept this and keep moving forward.

Enthusiasm is such an important factor in language learning, and there are few more enthusiastic than YouTuber Rupa Sensei. I caught up with Rupa to find out how and why he is inspiring English learners.

Though I am an input-based language learner I want to output better. That’s why I am embarking on a three month challenge of increased Persian study. Here’s what I will do to step up my Persian.

There are two stages in language learning: the initial intense study of a limited number of words, and the later more extensive approach to learning in order to acquire the up to 10,000 words needed to function at a professional level. These two stages make up the upside down hockey stick.

It’s easy to get caught up in the negative as a first time language learner: I keep forgetting the words, I can’t speak, I’m just not getting it. You need to maintain a positive attitude and believe you will get there. Keep on putting in the time and you will improve.

I began learning Arabic in early 2018. In this video, I discuss what my learning strategy was at the beginning of my Arabic journey and how it has changed over the years.

My seventh and final video in my series on language learning goals is on culture. I leave culture until last so I can explore it in the target language. It makes the exercise more meaningful.