Thank you very much 😊 somehow that's just what I needed to feel less stressed about learning (German) I hope I'm kinda fluent by the end of the year 😁✨

We are all guilty of impatience, it's the greatest impediment to learning anything new. That's why 2nd hand shops are full off sad musical instruments that people have given up trying to learn, and charity shops have lots of language course books. Everyone wants everything yesterday !

If you're not enjoying the process then you're more likely to not be able to speak many languages...

​@@solea59yes. playing a musical instrument is a task that requires persistence. The same as with learning a language you hit a plateau where you can play but you feel that your playing isn't fluent enough. It takes time and patience and many hours of practice, but eventually you can get there

Now I’m doing it as well.

your English skills are truly impressive, well done!

You summarized my issue entirely, I don’t think I’m comfortably studying a language for over a decade before being able to communicate well. I have family members I want to connect with but I may not have a decade in the back to wait out

It's my method, too. I'm just consuming content in the language and it's it. Sometimes I bothered with grammar, but not too much.

Same here - I was reading some old NHK Easy and breezed through

That was hilarious to do, especially because I remember when I used to believe I would never understand it, and coming back now that’s the most basic material 😂

Excactly.

Surely someone who is studying linguistics would appreciate that words can have more than one meaning? Odd to battle against a dictionary definition just because that’s not the definition you’re familiar with?

As someone who studied Applied Linguistics, I am annoyed that he uses the term "Linguist" for himself. I guess he chose it because it sounds posh but the truth is Linguist and polyglot cannot be used interchangingly.

Literally the only difference is that he does not operate in the same “linguistic” paradigm as you. Linguistics is the study of languages, not the study of linguistics 🙈 all polyglots are linguists - not all linguists are polyglots. For example, logicians and computer scientists study formal languages therefore these fields are a type of formal linguistics and students might can correctly call themselves linguists. I understand that the colloquial use of the word means “general linguistics”, but that does not mean you own the word. Do you have any specialization within the field of linguistics or is it all just a language game for grant money so you can avoid actual work while binging youtube?

Rule Britannia just wow. I thought these levels of stupidity were not reachable.

Two years later after your comment...how is your Italian today?

Obviously not since most people quit.

I don't mean to be a contrarian, but improving from A2 to B2 in my target language was hard work. I'm currently moving towards a C1 level and it feels relatively easier because I can read and understand most things.

Some corrections that may help you: Siento que estoy en el plateau en español, hace casi 9 meses que empecé *a* estudiar español por mi cuenta, leyendo y escuchando*,* y hace 3 semanas que tuve mi primera conversación con -un- *una* (femenino) chica -del- *de / de los* (o 'los' en plural, o simplemente 'de', ya que es un país. Las dos formas estarían bien, pero no 'del') *Estados Unidos* (países llevan mayúsculas) que habla*ba* (no estoy 100% seguro, pero 'hablaba' suena mejor y más natural) fluidamente -el- español ('el español' está bien dentro de todo, pero no suena tan natural como sin 'el'). Ahora siento que no hago mejoras*,* pero voy a continuar leyendo y escuchando hasta lograr la fluidez. Gracias -mr- *sr* Steve, he usado su método.

ur a portuguse speaker riught?

@@RealJokerx7 I wouldn't say "hablaba fluidamente español". He wants to describe that she speaks Spanish fluently. You wouldn't say "yo hablaba inglés" to say "I speak English". "que domina el español" suena mejor.

@@RealJokerx7 -Estoy en el plateau en español- *Estoy estancado con el/mi español* *No avanzo con el español* *Me siento estancado con mi/el español*. "Estar en el plateau" es un anglicismo bastante crudo e innecesario (ya sé que _plateau_ es originalmente francés, pero a nosotros nos llega como anglicismo)

Yeah, in fact linguist doesn't mean that you know how to speak other languages. David Crystal is a celebrated linguist... a linguist of the English language. He probably speaks some other languages but that's like a related hobby.

Linguistics doesn’t even mean grammatical structures surely. Somehow people think linguistics is about grammar. It’s far more deeper. That’s descriptive linguistics just a part of linguistics. A sub branch. You don’t even have to speak a certain language to examine it is a linguist.

@@szilvianagy2410 Yeah, you're right. On the topic of grammar, "It's far deeper." - you can't have "more deeper" in English. Deeper is a comparitive so "more" or "less" cannot come before it.

@@daysandwords "cannot can" ?? Muphry's law strikes again:)

@@szilvianagy2410 following a more traditional definition, a linguist was one who looked at primarily the syntax of the language, as well as other aspects, like morphology and phonology. In my own research, I'm more of a sociolinguist and do some work in applied linguistics also. I suppose grammar wasn't the correct term to use here, while structure would perhaps be better, because you're right, Linguistics is so much deeper than just the grammar. I simply find fault in the use of the word linguist in describing someone who primarily speaks multiple languages, because as Days of French N Swedish pointed out, there are many linguists who really may not speak more than their native language (although someone could be a polyglot and linguist at the same time). I'm sorry, I'm really just rambling at this point...

Steve大爷万岁！🤣

Chris Godas 万岁可还行

I find that I do need to get the transcript, and read it on LingQ. Just listening alone doesn't do it I basically don't understand.

@@Thelinguist :D Isn't fastidious to read another alphabet ? Arabic is hard, although it is an awesome culture with a lot to learn from. Also arabic once you know 3000 root words (three letters) and derivation rules, you can understand everything. All in all stemming is really useful in Arabic.

Of course it's more difficult to read in a new Alpha bet. I have learned to read in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Greek, had a brief flying at Hebrew but stopped and now I am really enjoying reading in Persian and Arabic. Everything about language learning is difficult at first. We just have to continue. And of course the Arabic culture, as well as the interaction between this culture and other cultures in that part of the world, is fascinating.

Google has an app called Live Transcribe that I use with podcasts. It is not perfect but I can follow the podcast better being able to see the live transcription. There is another app called Google Recorder that records audio and transcript at the same time but this app currently only supports English and will add new languages in the near future

I have found there are no borders. We always want to continue in the language we are learning, we are never satisfied. It is just when the motivation to explore another language overtakes our motivation to improve on the one we are on, that we move on. We don't forget languages we have learned. We can always go back. so it is really up to you.

@@Thelinguist Thank you so much for your reply 🙂

What spanish shows would u recommend

On Netflix, El Internado, Velvet, Space in Between, The Grand Hotel

Also The Money Heist I think it’s called.

@@lukeconner Im thinking about picking up Spanish, is it difficult?

al t What is your native language? Spanish is on the easier side if you already speak a Romance language because they share so much vocabulary.

Ayrton Senna that’s only the plateau at increasing your official level c2 those sort. But most native speakers can’t perform at the top 2 of those highest levels. That’s a matter of advanced education. But a person who didn’t graduate from high school is still fluent- in a different way

That's why I have always said that Steve Kaufman is actually a language learner or just a pretender that pretend to know different languages just to get the likes of the audience. He knows about languages and the process of learning as a result of much reading about that, but I'm not sure is he is really fluent in at least a intermediate level in each of the languages he says he knows. The fact that he calls himself as a "linguist" proves that he hasn't a fucking idea about what a linguist really is. 🤣

as I said in an earlier reply, the term linguist in English means first of all, someone good at languages. This has been the meaning for hundreds of years. Recently it has been used to mean someone who studies linguistics. Most English speakers have not heard the word polyglot.

True. From Merriam Webster: 1linguist nounlin·guist\ˈliŋ-gwist\ : a person who speaks several languages : a person who studies linguistics Full Definition 1: a person accomplished in languages; especially : one who speaks several languages 2: a person who specializes in linguistics OriginLatin lingua language, tongue. First known use: 1591

Here's another use of linguistics terms. Steve's surface representation is knowing about languages and claiming to respect and care about every culture. His underlying representation: he claims to know many languages although I bet you anything his abilities in certain languages have diminished with time, and only cares about certain cultures and languages with many speakers and doesn't give a $hit about other ones. Don't believe it? In a previous video, someone asked if Steve ever learned Icelandic or considered learning it, to which he responded along the lines of why even bother? That means he doesn't know $hit about Iceland's culture or language, and/or doesn't seem to care enough to learn it no doubt because of the limited number of speakers, which is completely absurd and unfair, especially coming from someone like him. Icelandic happens to have few speakers and he doesn't want to learn it. Then again, Vietnamese has many speakers and Steve has never learned it and probably never will.

@@Thelinguist When I first began to learn multiple languages as a young adult with no internet, the literature on language learning and translation that I had access to referred to people who had acquired more languages beyond their native tongue as "Linguists". It was considered a more distinguished and professional label at that time.

I have both for French. I am back importing a bunch of interviews on lingq to improve my conversation skills. Lingq has the best ever platform to study texts. I love the sentence mode and being able to import from KZfaq and Netflix. Having sessions with my French tutor on italki is great to break the mysticism and fear to talk to native speakers but does not help me much to improve my speaking skills quickly.

Russian was greatly influenced by French and took a bit from English and German, I dont think its that hard if you get used to the alphabet (which isnt that different from Latin)

I already speak Russian and I'm learning Chinese. I think both languages are quite easy, although Chinese is much easier than Russian. I don't speak any Arabic though, although it is a language I would love to learn

He has said before that French is his best (after English, which I'm assuming is what you meant as "best").

@@daysandwords I meant his best language not including his native lang

@@realdeal350 Yeah then that would be French. He has a video about which languages he speaks to various levels.

Mark Chavez how interesting. Or play an instrument

That would be interesting to hear. I actually tried that. I learned how to play guitar. Taking up some other hobbies like that where you're not afraid to share about it and talk about can help make you more confident to diversify the conversation topics. It's cool to talk to people in their native language but if the conversation is about one or two things like only talking about their culture or talking about languages and nothing else, I think it gets dull and boring real fast, and I've been in that spot. Point is, language learning is cool but if it's literally the only thing you ever do, conversations might get boring real quick. Develop other interests so you have more things to talk about.

Here's a crazier idea, hire a teacher to teach you a hobby in a language you are learning.

get on LingQ and do the mimi-stories. Listen over and over.

I think it is possible, though mastering native pronunciation may never happen. I would say it takes about 10 years of full immersion. Maybe less, maybe more depending on the person and the language. May be faster if you stop using your native language to really force yourself to think in the new one. PS: I think that people often idealise average native speakers. Native speakers still make grammar mistakes and do not know every idiom and may struggle with advanced/specialised vocabulary.

NetAndyCz that is my dream and I strive for it , it makes me happy when people say that natives make mistakes, too ))

You can use the library. That's what I do

Amazon.

No, but he speaks Swedish

The library is being added to all the time in Hebrew. There is already quite a lot there and I expect we will have more. In the new year, I think you'll find it easier to find things of interest in all of our library's. We are constantly working on content for all the languages.

I am sure it's fair, but I simply cannot afford to spend that for these learning materials. I will struggle with the automatically generated transcript at $10 per audio hour.

@@Thelinguist OK that's just great too 👍🏽

I learned at LingQ. start with the mini stories. If you Google for Ukrainian grammar you will find great resources as well for reference. But focus on listening and reading and refer to the grammar from time to time.

What's your native language?

Are you never becoming tired of you own bullshit talking. Cangkem mu tai ae. Njatane kowe banci dewe.

I would have no difficulty doing that. I used to listen to 5 or more political interviews daily and then read them on LingQ when I was learning Russian but I really don't want to do what you ask. I don't think it is of interest to most people. I also learn for myself, and not to impress others. However, you can get a sense of my Russian comprehension from this interview on Ukrainian TV. I start in Ukrainian but most of the interview is in Russian, as I remember it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o7iWipac0Jy4hn0.html

@@Thelinguist Thank you at least for answering. But especially that interview makes me think that you are not that good in Russian as you think. There were none uncommon words,no idioms,no specific expressions. Simple vocabulary within 3000 words. You spoke with a great difficulties. The audience sat in tension struggling to understand your speech. You may not notice that but for us,natives,it's very noticeable. It seems your Russian is just at a level to communicate,not at a level to speak freely,putting aside fluently level. But the level of understanding news and movies(comfortably) is even higher than that one of fluency. Don't get me wrong,I don't wanna set pressure on you. You're a big guy in a language studying world and people look up to you. And I too enjoy watching your videos once in a while to pick up some useful information. I just wanted to submit to you that I'd really wish to see a clear picture of the depth in your (in my case) Russian language knowledge. So far I only saw a communication level.

@@Barsik-M I'm pretty sure he's mentioned that his Russian isn't that strong, and at no point has he claimed fluency in the language. What's so bad about his Russian being only communicative when it's one of the worst languages he speaks? His Spanish accent is good and with more input and output he'd be able to boost himself to a C1. He speaks French, Japanese, and Mandarin better than Spanish and that's believable considering his, well, life. So that's 4 languages within a B2-C1/2 level, some in between B1-B2, and others lower than a B1. You should never buy the whole "I speak 10-20 languages fluently" from any polyglot online (they're selling a product - duh), but at the same time they don't owe you anything either. If you're an experienced language learning you'll know that these claims aren't true and that language learning is a tedious process.

I am not motivated to convince you of my ability to understand Russian. I learn for myself. I understand well enough and speak with mistakes. There is where I am. There is no language where I could not improve.

@@ThelinguistAlright then. But if you change your mind and create such videos I would watch with pleasure.

If you open a dictionary of English you will see that the term "linguist" refers first of all to someone good at languages. This has been the case for hundreds of years, starting when linguistics didn't exist. Most English speakers are unfamiliar with the term polyglot and prefer the term linguist.

@@Thelinguist I did open a dictionary (several in fact) and Ive found 2 definitions. "someone who studies foreign languages or can speak them very well, or someone who teaches or studies linguistics So, the term" linguist" is quite ambiguous here. The term"polyglot" on the other hand is quite definitive my friend

@@steliostoulis1875 You have a point. If you go up to someone and say "I'm a linguist" and they ask you what an affricate is or something related to linguistics and you can't respond, they know you lied and actually meant you're (what most people refer to as) a polyglot, or at least a language learner. Because of this, the term linguist has now become lexically ambiguous.

You are both right. It's just that in my view, and other people might agree that the term polyglot is becoming more common than "linguist". If you use linguist, they might think you have or are studying linguistics when you're really not. If you use polyglot, chances are people will know what you mean. For me, I just tell people I learn languages without using the term polyglot or linguist, because polyglot sounds like I'm showing off, and I'm majoring in Linguistics but I wouldn't (yet) call myself a linguist as I have more to learn.

linguist noun lin·​guist | \ ˈliŋ-gwist \ Definition of linguist 1: a person accomplished in languages especially : one who speaks several languages 2: a person who specializes in linguistics

Not in English.

@@Thelinguist Oh guess it is a false cognate on my lamguage.

But if I enjoy chasing rabbits, then that is what I will do.

@@Thelinguist You can chase as many hares as you want, but if your hunting strategy is disastrously wrong, then it is not worthy to chase hares if you will never be able to catch them. I recommend you to stop chasing hares in vain and start asking yourself what you are: a language learner or a linguist. Language learners typically select a small group of languages to learn and acquire based on the personal motivations they have related to those languages (to be more competitive in a specific job, to travel abroad, to emigrate to another country, etc). As result, they prefer to choose a small group of languages to learn because they tend to focus on being really competent in those languages. However, linguists, the people who study languages academically, tend to choose a vast majority of languages to study since their job consists on understanding the characteristics of those languages, the synchronic and diachronic evolution of them, etc. The result of doing that is that linguists don't necessarily have a good competence in the languages they choose since they prefer to focus on study them rather than learn them. So, now that you have a brief definition of what these two concepts really mean, I recommend you to ask yourself what you are instead of mixing the terms and lying to your audience just to get likes and money. An example of this is the fact that you keep claiming that you " know " more than ten languages, even though you have confessed so many times that you have forgotten some of them. Then, why do you keep telling that you " know " all of them if you know exactly that you have no competence in some of those languages that you have studied previously? I think you take language learning just as if you were collecting them as if languages were a collection of football cards. You start learning one until you reach a specific level and then, once you start getting bored of it because you can no longer improve or due to frustration, you start learning another one while claiming that you " know " the previous language you have studied even if you have forgotten it completely.

Also it's really inefficient and stupid how it seems like some people in the community are the only ones who put any effort in getting NEW languages onto Lingq, and how there's no chance in hell that Steve will ever learn a certain language unless it's on Lingq. If that's the case, it's no wonder 1) it takes FOREVER to get new languages on Lingq cause even though I don't use it, I check periodically, and 2) it defeats the purpose of buying physical books. What's the purpose if he never uses them?

He says the term linguist is more common than polyglot. Honestly I never hear the term linguist being used in the polyglot community. Linguist, nowadays, means someone who studies linguistics which I doubt Steve has done because I don't think he even knows what an affricate is. It can also mean someone who speaks other languages but this term seems to have been replaced by polyglot. Also for the record I troll him now and then for the fun of it.

Multilingual is the word you are looking for.