#AskSteve

Enjoyable but it takes time. Some useful URLs. Russian http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/ Czech http://www.radio.cz/cz http://www.rozhlas.cz/ctenarskydenik/portal/ http://www.rozhlas.cz/toulky/vysila_praha Here is the link to a conversation with my Russian tutor. http://blog.thelinguist.com/2012/02/evgueny-talks-to-steve-about-russia-in-russian.html Timelines: 0:10 Why started with the Russian language. 2:10 Two reasons why I started learning Russian. 2:40 Materials I used for learning Russian. 5:52 Coming across Ekho Moskvy. 7:31 Going after the Czech language. 8:13 Materials for learning Czech. 10:38 My Czech level now. 11:43 Get used to and enjoy the process of language learning. 12:53 Don’t get hung up when learn a language. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Follow the new LingQ channel: https://goo.gl/WVnzRS Follow "Steve's Cafe" channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKaufmann

🔥 Learn languages like I do at LingQ. Try it for free: https://bit.ly/3Kle4OZ How fast can we learn words? What does knowing a word mean? Here is my blog post on this subject: http://blog.thelinguist.com/can-we-learn-100-words-a-day Transcript: Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. I posted a post on my Blog The Linguist on Language (I’ll try to remember to leave a link here) where I talked about whether we can learn 100 words a day. I think since I started Czech I have learned more than 100 words a day. Maybe 150 words a day, I don’t know. I describe all these numbers on my blog post. Basically, LingQ says that I know 25,000 words, but that includes non-words, numbers and names. How many of those there are I don’t know, maybe 10%. Plus, I have saved about 20,000 links, which includes a number of phrases. Of the words that I have saved I don’t know how many I know, but I think I know maybe a third of them. So 25-28,000 words in there and then I said that and you’ll see this all on the exchange on my blog. Various people have challenged different aspects of this. Stefan from Denmark said, well yeah, that’s true in an inflected language like Czech where a noun might have six or seven different forms, verbs have different forms. In English there are fewer forms. I mean we do have ‘I go’, but we have ‘he goes’, ‘you go’, ‘we go’, ‘went’ and ‘gone’, so we have a few forms of the verbs. Probably verbs we have as many forms as the Czechs have, but in nouns we just have the singular and the plural and the Czechs might have six or seven. So if I have, theoretically, 25-28,000 words in Czech, what is that equivalent to in English? Study the full transcript on LingQ: https://goo.gl/puZfKU Timelines: 0:20 How many Czech words I have learned. 1:15 Number of words vary depending on a language. 3:29 Do you only know a word when you can use it? 4:40 My first goal is comprehension. 5:18 Even in English I know more words passively then use actively. 7:23 Nailing all words down is not realistic. 8:26 Passive vocabulary grows incidentally. 9:34 Focus on passive vocabulary and active one will come. Visit LingQ: https://bit.ly/3Kle4OZ My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Follow "Steve's Cafe" Channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKaufmann

We need interesting content to learn from. Content is king! Learn a language at: http://www.lingq.com Visit my blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com

These were languages that I felt were accessible because of languages that I already knew. The key in all cases was finding interesting content. Timelines: 0:17 Who doesn’t want to learn Italian? 1:45 ilnarratore.com - a tremendous Italian audiobook source. 2:51 The materials I used for Italian. 3:54 A month in Italy. 4:29 Lack of interesting materials in Korean. 6:58 Portuguese is more different from Spanish than I expected. 7:58 Portuguese materials on LingQ. 8:44 I have never made difference between Brazilian and European Portuguese. 9:08 Massive podcast source in Portuguese. 10:07 Reading in Portuguese. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Content to help you study Italian, Korean, and Portuguese: Italian https://www.lingq.com/blog/2018/11/21/italian-audio-books/ https://www.lingq.com/blog/2019/01/16/italian-sayings-about-food/ Korean https://www.lingq.com/blog/2018/10/12/kpop-lyrics/ Portuguese https://www.lingq.com/blog/2017/12/04/portuguese-pronunciation/

It is not that we need not learn the basics, or need not make and effort to learn them. It is just a matter of when and how. For me this effort comes later, and often, but not in the beginning. Most language programs try to teach them in the beginning. This does not work for me. But I do focus on the basics, from time to time in my language learning. Learn a language at: http://www.lingq.com Visit my blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com

I find that I cannot do it I just forge ahead and learn words and get used to the language? I think we need to cover a lot of ground, some new, some old. We need to exploring new things, pushing the boundaries, while regularly reviewing the basics, many times during the learning process. The basics take a long time to learn. Learn a language at: http://www.lingq.com Visit my blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com Transcript: https://blog.thelinguist.com/learn-the-basics-in-the-language-first-really

This describes a period in my life which was important to my continuing interest in language learning. Recommended reading : How long does it take to learn French? https://www.lingq.com/blog/2018/12/19/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-french/ Timelines: 0:30 My French background. 5:26 The major problem learners who have never learned a second language face. 5:58 My Spanish background. 8:24 Sources I used for learning Spanish. 11:17 Reading is the most effective way of building up your vocabulary. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Follow the new LingQ channel: https://goo.gl/WVnzRS Follow "Steve's Cafe" channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKaufmann

Learning Swedish? Check out LingQ's free Swedish grammar guide: https://www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/swedish/ I will do these videos in the order of the requests. French to follow, then Spanish, Russian and Italian. Timelines: 0:15 My Swedish background. 3:55 Sources I used for learning Swedish. 6:08 My gaps in Swedish. 7:01 People enjoy speaking their native tongue to you. 7:37 A few gourmet things I enjoy about Sweden. Learn a language at: http://www.lingq.com Visit my blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com

Basically a lot of reading and listening at home, and eventually speaking when I got the chance to visit Germany on business, mostly in the early 1990's. Timelines: 0:15 My German background. 4:55 Reading materials I used for learning German. 6:20 Listening materials I used for learning German. 7:28 Visiting Germany. 8:21 I don’t bother about German grammar. 8:45 Thirty Year’s war tour. 9:26 Summary. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Get your free German grammar guide here: https://www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/german/

It all happened around 11 years ago. Timelines: 0:14 Lack of motivation to learn Cantonese. 1:19 Hacking Cantonese tones. 2:25 The reason I wasn’t motivated for Cantonese. 2:42 Simplified approach to Cantonese tones. 3:22 Mini Disc players and lots of listening. 5:20 Audio sources for Cantonese. 6:15 Debunking Raymond Chan. 8:23 Learning Cantonese stands at the origins of LingQ. Learn a language at: http://www.lingq.com Visit my blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com

I was asked how I learned Japanese, so here it is, as well as I can remember. Get LingQ's free Japanese grammar guide: https://www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/japanese/ For some more tips, you can check out the LingQ blog: https://www.lingq.com/blog/2018/10/22/learning-to-read-japanese/ Timelines: 0:59 The way I studied Chinese. 2:43 How I ended up in Japan. 3:46 How I started learning Japanese. 5:44 Why I struggled with Kana. 6:56 The materials I used. 8:59 My ideal Japanese language partner. 9:59 Dealing without looking words up in a dictionary. 10:35 TV shows, soap operas and baseball games in Japanese. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Follow the new LingQ channel: https://goo.gl/WVnzRS Follow "Steve's Cafe" channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKaufmann

どうして日本で英語の勉強はつまらないか。 Timelines: 1:10 言葉の勉強は楽しい事ですね。/ Learning a language is fun. 1:49 日本では日本語と英語しか存在しないような雰囲気。/ It seems only Japanese and English exist for Japanese. 2:25 TOEIC本, TOEFL本と単語本は効果低い。/ Books on TOEIC, TOEFL and vocabulary are inefficient. 3:30 短期的の勉強対長期的の勉強。/ Short-term VS Long-term learning. 4:53 興味がなくても面白いやりかでやれば学ぶ。/ You can learn it if you find a fun way of doing it. 6:11 最初はたくさん読むと聞きく、文法はあと。/ Lots of listening and reading first, grammar comes second. 8:54 忘れたら事構いません。/ I don’t bother if I forget things. 10:18 単語が豊富にあればTOEICは問題ない。/ If you know abundance of words, TOEIC is not a big deal. 11:11 要約。/ Summary. Visit https://www.LingQ.com My Blog: http://blog.thelinguist.com/ My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lingosteve My Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingosteve Follow the new LingQ channel: https://goo.gl/WVnzRS Follow "Steve's Cafe" channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKaufmann