Listen and read are the way we acquire, output comes through that input. Listening is initially easier, reading comes when you are ready and if you are a reader. Not everyone is a reader in their native tongue so no reason to presume they should find it easy or desireable when trying to acquire another language.

@@TheCompleteGuitarist l believe languages need to be spoken to be memorized. The best is conversation with native speakers and ask questions if you don't understand. I have been speaking with a friend on the phone in Australia for 2 hours yesterday. I'm German and l live in France.

@@shantinaturechild6385 not necessarily, there are teachers with a very high knowledge of Latin and/ or Ancient Greek without being able to practice speaking. They could say a lot in those languages. A lot of vocab is not covered in everyday conversation. You could go 50 conversations with a native and not cover 50% of the vocab you can learn via books and forth. Besides to maintain a meaningful conversation you need to have a decent enough existing vocabulary. Otherwise half of it is spent with them having to explain what words they're using mean. and one can not possibly memorise all the new words you learn in conversation without writing them and reading them later.

@@shantinaturechild6385 I agree with you; this is the most realistic and ideal way to fix and memorize things. Greetings from the underground (am maybe the real world, 🤣🤣🤣)

Each is pitching their product as the preferred way to learn. Obvious financially incentivized bias.

you should learn english again

hahah ISN'T IT GREAT!? 😄 ❤️

@@RobinMacPhersonFilms any excuse for not speaking to people suits me 😂😂😂

'Em', you are not alone...

girl same 😂

Introverted learning is the only learning I know. 😂

garruksson me too I'm learning german. I' ve bought two or three normal books ( one is an american best seller translation). But the first pages are disconforting. I don't understand anything, unless I keep looking into a dictionary. Should I start with graded reading? But they are less interesting....

@@mariaclaracipriani6008 if you don't understand anything i think its better if u improve comprehension skills and try again in a few months but thats just my opinion. I mean reading should be fun but its not that fun if u dont understand. Its true too that graded readers are kinda lame so all in all its a bit of a dilemma.

@Maria Clara Cipriani , we talk a lot about this in the next couple of videos. Basically, if you are reading below 90% comprehension, about 1 in 10 unknown words, this is called reading pain. It's slow, difficult, and demotivating. I suggest you look for something easier or level up before you try again!

@@mariaclaracipriani6008 try finding magazines with subjects you like, gossip, history, music, whatever. You wont have as much content but it won't be as overwhelming as a book and when you feel comfortable with magazines, pull out the book. I find magazines online and if I find a word I dont understand i highlight it and translate it. So easy as apposed to pulling out a dictionary and flicking through pages, not that there is anything wrong with that. Good luck, you will have it soon. Oh and I have found slow speaking KZfaq videos in French and I put on the subtitles. So I'm listening and reading and repeating at the same time. So have a look for the German ones. You will be amazed how much you will pick up.

@@mariaclaracipriani6008 I'm also a German language learner. I have a favorite author that I've read in English. I took one of his books that I had already read in English, and bought it in German (kindle) and also an audio version (audible). There are a lot of German words I don't know, but because I know the story, I can listen to it while driving and understand almost everything. That might be worth a try?

Totally ✨

Same feeling. Looking back my life when in school, I should say boy, pls read English with right sounds. I won't be so suffer when I am 30 or 40 in that case. But, at least we knew the recipe, doesn't it?

You savvy what you are talking about! Why didn't u comment long time ago, 🙆‍♂️🙆‍♂️

I'm at 4 languages at the moment. It is satisfying and I feel special when my friends see me have a new book in a different language and they are in awe.

what do you mean that at 30 you can't become bilingual anymore???

@@Demondzeta You're right, William. I exaggerated a little bit when I said, "not an age where you can come "bilingual" anymore". It's just more difficult. The older you get, the harder it is. That doesn't mean it's impossible. But when I was doing it, it took me such a long time, that it looked to me like a quixotic feat. But, hey, if I could it, anyone can do it as well! I think I contradicted myself three sentences in a row. Thanks for the observation!

@@cinevivo i totally agree with you, learning becomes harder as you become older, but ii is not a matter of capabilities as it is of method and availability or even willingness to make the effort. Its just easier when you don't really know what are you going into, you have enthusiasm and time, and you believe yourself immortal and all powerful as we all did at our youth

@@cinevivo I don't think that the older you get, the harder language learning is. It's just "different". Because, you see, when you are young you just don't know many words due to your short life, I mean you didn't have time to hear, speak, use and remember those words. And where you are learning a language, as a young person, those new words come to your head already in foreign language. That's why it seems that you are learning faster. On the other hand, when you are older you can understand more complicated concepts cause you have more experience

I think you meant "fewer" words.

cómo te fue?

Bro you’re doing both at the same time?? Rip my boy, two languages that similar. How has it gone?

Thanks so much Andrea! Extensive reading can be so powerful! Everyone would experience faster paths to proficiency if they were able to implement it in language study.

Oh, how i would love these dudes to be my neighbors so i could talk to them often.

Hi Andrea, I have a doubt... what happens if you don't know a word? What do you do or what do you recommend? Do you use a dictionary for each word that you don't know? Do you recommend to find out a novel for each level or start with any novel? Thanks in advance!!

@@marianolancellotti3855 Hello, Mariano! Well, you see, the first time I read an American novel (that was not a graded reader), I had already read the book in Spanish (my native tongue) a few weeks before, but I liked it so much that I decided to re-read in English. So that's definitely something that I recommend, starting with a book that you've already read; that way it will be easier to keep up with the story even if you don't understand every word! Another thing is that I was quite lucky because I started with a YA book (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe) that had a lot of new vocabulary for me but that was also written in a quite "simple" manner, so the level was just challenging enough for me to feel excitement over being able to read a book in English, but not hard enough to feel discouraged (and it was a book that I loved, so double the gain). From then on, it's true that I picked novels a little randomly and struggled through the ones that were especially hard for me to comprehend, but I believe that it would have been better if I had abandoned the books that proved to be too challenging for me (we learn from our mistakes, I guess xD), so my advice would be to read the first two chapters or so and see if the level seems right for you! And when it comes to words I didn't know, it depends. I usually read books in my e-reader, so I had a dictionary integrated and consulting words was really easy, but sometimes I forced myself to try and understand the meaning by its context if the word was crucial in order to understand the sentence and, sometimes, I just ignored words that were there just to "enhance the beauty of the sentences" (adjectives, mainly), the same way I sometimes do when I read novels in Spanish, actually xD Another thing I've realized through reading books in different languages is the fact that a lot of the times, the same author will tend to use similar words (especially adjectives) in their works, so maybe sticking to an author whose works you like would be great to get enough repetition to the same terms. I hope that is of help! And if you have any other questions, I'll be glad to answer them!

​@@andreastoica278 Thank you very much! Qué envidia escribir todo eso en tan poco tiempo y en inglés! Si quisiera hacerlo, estaría una semana! I'm going to look for novels to download to my kindle and try again. Have a beautiful long weekend!

I'm finishing Harari's "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" in English (after reading "Sapiens" I felt so fascinated by his insights and his narrative that I read "Homo Deus". Mind blowing). Being able to grok Harari's ideas in a foreign language skyrockets the intellectual pleasure of reading.

@Yassin Zao y

@@sergio315315 he's an antinatalist islamophobe globalist

Hola, Que libros me recomiendas?

Como leer puede mejorar tu pronunciacion si nunca has escuchado ciertas palabras que lees?

@@wlliamp4382 Mira, debes leer sobre los temas que a ti te interesen en este momento así mantienes el interés por la lectura, pero en cuanto a libros, yo te recomiendo los de crecimiento personal ya que son los que tienen el lenguaje mas sencillo. Te recomiendo. 1. Atomics Habits ( James Clear) 2. The Lenguist English. (Steve Kaufmann) 3. The mindset ( Carol Sweck).

​@@abrahamthesk948 En mi caso lo que yo he hecho es que leo el libro y voy escuchando el audio al mismo tiempo, así me doy cuenta de la pronunciación de ciertas palabras que hasta ese momento me eran desconocidas. Si quieres te puedes alternar entre leer un capitulo por tu cuenta y el siguiente los escuchas al mismo tiempo que vas siguiendo la lectura. Lo importante es que verás como el cerebro se va familiarizando a los nuevos sonidos, palabras y estructuras. Ahora, no es magia; Es simplemente que el cerebro va desarrollando nuevas redes neuronales al ir aprendiendo y por eso empieza a comprender el idioma sin necesidad de traducir mentalmente.

@@mauriciojaramillo3691 muchas gracias:D

How do you decide which language will be the next what you study? What are your preferences?

I think reading just gives you a really strong passive vocabulary which is going to give you the ability to understand a wider base of the language. To get good at speaking you have to speak. But if you have all these words in your brain, the better you get at speaking suddenly you know have access to all those words.

@@austinlang6946 That's very true, I completely agree with you.

How do understand what you read? I’ve been studying Portuguese for over 8 years now but I still can’t understand what I read without translating everything into English.

@@patfromamboy it depends on what you read about. If you read about everyday regular stuff, you can understand even after about six months of dedicated study of the language

@@rcc8347 I’ve been studying for over 8 years now and I still can’t read. I have to translate everything into English to understand.

@@rcc8347 thanks for the help. I read things for my teachers and they say my pronunciation is great and they ask me what it means and I tell them that I don’t know because I haven’t translated it yet. The words don’t mean anything to me until I translate them, even the words that I know.

@@patfromamboy it depends also on the individual. Age can also plays a major role. I was 19 when I moved to Italy

Funny I wanted to learn Portuguese

Now I have finished my english course! I'm practicing my english on KZfaq!

It really helps to read a book and watch a show in the language you want to learn.

@@raquelgonzaque5031 Yes! I 'm in love with english! It's awsome!

There are subtitles in English, I think they are automated though

@@sarau2289 Yes there are, but they are not effective for learners, contains many mistakes😓

Did you read dumbed down versions or full on?

@@Jacob011 If you mean the books, they were ones I bought on sale tables at bookstores in Germany. that was many years ago. Later I ordered online, but they were the same books germans would be buying.

Ahh.... Watch educational videos in the target language with subtitles.

Amen! Preach it brother! We need more disciples out there!

I'm native swahili (if there is such a language... haha..Will explain later) learning...(read speaking ) Chinese..Will be glad to help out on Swahili....I'm.kenyan....You can hit me up on..+254713262660.... Ooh.... Swahili is a language that Bantu and Arabic speakers formed .....So that they can ease trade.... So most probably you will find that we have other languages despite our lingua franca... But really,if you have Swahili.. you are really good to go.

My foreign language writing platform that I’ve been building for 6 years, Journaly, would be perfect for you then 😊 journaly.com ✨

Thanks LT Crock! I appreciate your support!

Yay I’m so glad that you are finding my channel to be inspiring and the information to be valuable! Thanks for the supportive and encouraging comment, @Saylor Lynn! 😊🙏🏼

It does! Comprehensible input is at the core of extensive reading!

Glad to know there are materials for Hindi learners!

IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR STUFF LIKE THIS THANK YOU

That’s what I do!!

That's my favorite method! 😁

That’s exactly what I do! But I do read it first in English so that I’m not looking up every other word in my target language (German).

That's a great idea!!!

@@tess7798 This is a really good idea!

Maci Collins I just started too, do you have any tips?

@@jazzy7958 tbh rn no, im really struggling 😔 i just try going over words and short sentences everyday

Do you know of any russian books that are easy to read? I tried with Harry potter but it was too above my level. I am reading through a beginner book of short stories. But I get frustrated with the lack of depth to the stories its hard to get invested and stay interested

Bell there is an easy trilogy by Ketil Bjornstad about a group of high school pianists. The first book is called пианисты.

@@bell1990 I have the same problem. I read Winnie the Pooh (was fun at first, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for me), read Carlson on the roof (A bit harder, but the story was just too silly for me). Ultimately, I just settled on a Star Trek book from my mother’s library. It’s tough, I have to look up about 8 words or more per page, but the story is very enjoyable. Since you are at beginner level, maybe comic books are great. I read the first two gravity falls books in Russian. It’s really easy, but then again hardly any depth.

Why would anyone on Earth learn Russian I wonder )) life is too short guys 😂 I am Russian and I know it is not an easy language to master. Успехов вам, ребята

@@fromanicfroncais1485 I think challenging languages are fun. Since I already know spanish and a little french, learning a language like portugues or italian would feel very boring. However, Arabic (started this one a few months ago) is very exciting and challenging. Also, I'm learning russian because of rachmaninoff and some of my favorite pianists. So there is actually a good reason there :)

Keep up the good work 💪 , and you will be fluent in Arabic since i'm Arabic

You can talk to me i will help you

Yeah, I've talked to those guys doing the MIA. Basically, it's the same concept of extensive reading and comprehensible input in general. The trick is getting COMPREHENSIBLE input, not just any input.

Buena suerte leyendo tu libro en español, despues nos dices cual es

@@maxaugusto1958 gracias hombre, ahora estoy a punto de terminar de leer "La Nena" por Carmen Mola, la tercera entrega en la serie

I confess I have been going on South American news websites, highlighting texts and translating them using "Deepl". It does help in seeing the patterns in the Spanish language.

This is what i did and waiting for the first set to arrive. I think the hard cover was only available along with the audio book version. How specifically do you work through it? do you just keep reading? Stop to look up and note words you dont know? do you slow down the talking speed?

So cool! What’s your native language?

Hang tight man! We've got 4 more episodes to roll through, expect some laughs to come 😁. And thanks for the review you wrote the other week!

Mandarin Companion holy macaroni! I am star strucked! 😳 you got my word, I will watch all 4! I just finished reading Just Friends and I plan to buy more Mandarin Companion books! Thanks so much, your podcasts are super duper helpful! Glad to help with the review. 😀

Dutch and English are sort of similar so shouldn't be too hard, although Dutch grammar has the reputation of being annoying. I recommend figuring out what you want from the language, like do you want to read and write correctly, or just listen and speak. What I've been doing for japanese is learning the core 2000 words. Then you know pretty much all the vocab you need, even after the 1000 core words! If you live in the country of the language you're learning then that's great for establishing regular speaking practice.

That is a nice idea! Thank you ❤️